December Love Note-He is the GIFT

 I wanted to round out the year with sharing one last monthly Love Note.  I'm not sure what next year has in store for this little old blog.  I have lots of ideas with recipes, parties, kid activities and so on...so let's see how they all turn out.  Instead of monthly I might do Seasonal/Quarterly Love Notes.  We'll see!  They just take a really long time to create and post.  If you use my Love Notes let me know and I'll be more motivated to keep going!

This month I'm sharing an oldie but a goodie!  I made these for my Singles Ward Relief Society when I was in the RS Presidency for Christmas gifts for each of the women.  It was simple but reminded them of the true meaning of Christmas which I love!  

I got some Peppermint Joe Joe's at Trader Joe's and dipped them in milk or white chocolate, then topped them with different toppings, crushed peppermint, drizzled chocolate, etc. BE WARE of the Gluten Free Peppermint Joe Joe's!  We accidentally got a box a year ago and they are nasty! If you're not near a TJ"s obviously use Oreo's!  I used THESE bags to package each individual cookie.  then just tape the top down in the back.  I separated the picture from the cookies so if people had aversions or allergies they could choose to take one or not.

Along with one dipped cookie I gave them a small 3X4 picture of Christ, I found a set from Seagull Book, I found some online HERE, or I've been able to find them in store near the pictures.  Just get a small variety pack and it will make it super easyI probably got 2 packs of pictures for under $5, which covered the main cost of the whole gift.  Then wrapped it with a small ribbon to look like a gift.  They could put the picture anywhere from their journal, car, room, fridge, the list could go on and on.

You can find the "He is the GIFT!" tag-HERE!

Thanksgiving Home Decor

Love the more simple, clean break from Halloween.  One of my favorite things to do on Halloween night is to watch the last somewhat scary movie (usually the last Harry Potter movie), and take down all my Halloween decorations.  Call me crazy but that stuff needs to come down ASAP!  I'm all for the warmer, cozy, happier holidays.

I love that I can reuse all the pumpkins and fall decor and just switch out a few things.  For this small shelf I added a wood pumpkin, a small floral arrangement and small pilgrim decorations to the small cake stand and fabric pumpkin I had up for Halloween already.

I love the pops of orange, cream and brown.  

And I love to create height and dimension with cake stands and layering.  How cute is THIS little cupcake stand and this larger one and this large cake stand too!?

I loved the pumpkin collage so much I just switched out a few pumpkins and kept it for another month!  Here are some pumpkins I love!  Pumpkins-1, 2, 3.  I used pumpkins I already had on hand but I love to add new ones each year.  I also used leaf picks and burlap flower picks from Dollar Tree to create a garland effect.  One day hope to have something like THIS to make it easier!  Here are links for everything else I could find, or similar:  small turkeys, wood candle sticks, cornucopia and filler.

I replaced the chevron placemats and jack-o-lantern runner with a simple burlap runner.

Swapped some ribbon on my small picture of Christ in my favorite IKEA frame (Please tell me it's just a lie that they don't have them anymore! I'm crying inside.  But I linked where you can still find them.)  Love this classic pumpkin jar.

My flowers had seen better days but you've got to take pictures when you can! haha I loved how I could bunch a few random small items and make it in to a cohesive, fun, and eye catching decor piece.  Love this tiered tray my mom gave me!  A cute little print and small decorations found in the Target Dollar Spot and made by me to pull it all together.  Oh and a cute gold tray to collect all the things! I love this vase full of flowers to add life and a pop of unexpected color too.  Here's the links or similar that I could find:  black tiered tray, small pumpkins, gold charger.

I love the layered look that I created with this tray!  Like with the cute little leaf tray!  Here's a look at the other side, seriously love that turkey I think I got from my Mom, perfect little spot for candy.

Another month, another saying on my chalkboard.  Keeping my wreaths simple with only a couple ribbons in cute little bows and a saying that fits so perfectly for this month.  My chalkboard can be found HERE, and I LOVE THESE markers.  Seriously total game changer for my chalk art!

Hoping this will be the last month with this cute little TV stand we've had for 5 year!  It's from IKEA and we got it when we first got married. We've loved it but I've always wanted something that I can keep the darn doors shut. haha

Still love this little block decor I made.  Such an easy decor item to just turn to another side!  

I thought it would be fun to start sharing more decor items I love for this season!  

Here are some of my favorites in different sections!

Home-THIS, THIS ONE, oh and THIS one!

Lawn decor-I love THIS pumpkin!

Party-How cute is THIS or THIS party pack!

Kid Activities-Turkey Stickers 

Miscellaneous-pumpkin garland, pie garland, love this felt garland that's a great price.

This post may contain affiliate links but all opinions are my own.

Boo Basket and Halloween Books

I'm all about creating and keeping new traditions and a new tradition to us is the Boo Basket!  Full of fun Halloween trinkets, activities, books and treats this basket is so fun!  I found most of the stuff in the Target Dollar Bins too!  You can make it as expensive or as affordable as you'd like.

Let's take a look in this cute little basket!  

Everything is from Target except the Where's My Mummy Book! 

I also like to give things Livy needs, like her little boots!  It makes it more fun to receive and helps fill up the basket.

Livy has some fun Halloween books and I wanted to share her favorites incase you're looking for fun Halloween books!  I'm always looking for more! haha

Here are her favorites!  I'll link what I can.  The Spooky Fashion and Trick or Treat! books were a gift.  I got the Olivia Big at Dollar Tree.  Where's My Mummy, Room on the Broom, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat, Trick or Treat Little Pumpkin, and Pippa the Pumpkin Fair.  And we can't forget:  I Love You, Little Pumpkin!, Where's The Witch?, and The Best Halloween of All.   Liv memorized the Trick or Treat book!  haha It's not small.  The girl loves her books!

This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own.

Halloween Decor

I can't believe that October is almost over.  I am loving my Halloween decor this month.  It's so fun switching up decor each month.  

I love switching up these open shelves I got from Etsy, they're no longer available but I love THIS set too.  Also love the look of a pumpkin collage.  I used some of my favorite Target Dollar Spot cake stands, pumpkins from Target Dollar Spot and Dollar Tree, and fake leaves and flowers from Dollar Spot.  I think the thing that pulls that bottom shelf all together is Handwritten Harper's hello pumpkin sign.  It's honestly my favorite piece of decor for Halloween.  The adorable witches are from Walmart.  I stacked random books that I already had to look like spell books on top of a cute gold cake stand (linked similar, this one is totally on my wish list) and added small wooden decor I previously painted to pull it all together.  

My simple table setting is all from Target Dollar Spot with some little pumpkins from Dollar Tree!  I love cute things even though I'm on a budget.  

I love that this section on our main floor.  I have a large open room that's my kitchen, family room and dining room all in one.  It's been interesting to try to figure out this space, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. 

Love the little pops of Halloween on this little shelf too (shelf is from etsy, here's another one I love too)!  Blocks made by me, rest from you guessed it Dollar Tree or Target Dollar Spot.  I LOVE fake flowers from Dollar Tree.  I honestly think they are so great for events and home decor and SO great for your wallet too!

My older sister is so good at finding cute Dollar Tree DIYs and this was one of them!  Can you believe this was made from things from Dollar Tree?  Each side is for another holiday/month!

I love to decorate our little entertainment stand too.  The HOME blocks are another Dollar Tree DIY and that wire pumpkins are from Target Dollar Spot a few years ago.  Real life right here.  Cords, doors open, DVDs a mess this is honestly how it always is. haha

I love to switch out the ribbon on this IKEA frame (can't find them at IKEA anymore but linked the same ones I found on Amazon!) and keep that picture of Christ in our front room/general area all the time.  The cute little house is another Dollar Store DIY and the ceramic pumpkin and runner are from Target Dollar Spot.

This is probably one of the areas that I didn't love this month.  So many random little things but wanted to show them all.  Next year I'll try something different!

Wish you could see these little Jack-o-lanterns at night.  They have the cutest little flickering tea lights in them that actually look like candles!

Another favorite area is my chalkboard and wreaths.  Bless my mom's heart for always letting me take ribbon from her!  Thanks Mom!  And how cute is that Halloween banner Brittany made me for my birthday years ago.  It's one of my favorite decorations!

I do switch things up throughout the month if I don't like certain areas.  The moving island never got the way I wanted and I don't know if I love this shelf but I do love this cute little witch my mom got me this year at Walmart!

My Mom has the cutest home decor and today on Instagram stories I'm showing you a little glimpse in her house this Halloween!  What's your favorite part of our house this year?

This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own.

Shark Week

 I know Shark Week was technically last week, but when you have a shark loving toddler, shark week/day can be any time!  In my hopes to be more of a "fun mom"  I'm trying to celebrate all the moments, little, big and in between.  So when I knew it was Shark Week I knew I had to do something.  

I will be posting mine and Liv's adventures on being a "fun mom" on my original instagram HERE, but I've also decided to create a new account "It's all in the details!", where I will be sharing all the details!  I thought it would be a fun specific place for parties, kid activities, holidays, traditions and more.  I've learned if you focus on the details you elevate any experience or celebration, so that's just what I'm going to do.  

Treats

I had a few extra cupcakes leftover from a baking order (psst did you know I take baking orders?  Check out RuthAnne's Bake Shop HERE and HERE) and decided to jazz them up for the occasion.  Shark gummies, adding my favorite blue food coloring gel to my white chocolate drizzle and, white pearl sprinkles (perfect "bubbles") dressed them up in no time!

I asked Liv if she could look at me with her cupcake and she said "Sorry Mom, I'm just trying to unwrap it."  Haha for a 2 1/2 year old she surprises me all the time with what she says.

Let's keep going with the treats of the day!  The great thing about themed days is that you can think outside the box.  Don't get focus on just one thing, like sharks for example.  I like to think of where you can find sharks, colors, and other things you think of when you think shark.  

Adding on simple things you already make, makes celebrating super easy!

Shark Cupcakes-I had my favorite Bake Shop recipe for my Funfetti Cupcakes.

Shark Pudding Cups-Liv and I made a white chocolate pudding mix (but next time I'll do vanilla), tinted it blue then topped it with a gummy shark and graham cracker crumbs.

Shark Bait-white chocolate popcorn with pretzel sticks, rainbow mini marshmallows, and shark gummies.  Here's how I do my white chocolate popcorn! Blue M&M's and shark sprinkles would've been so cute and delicious in this, but use what you have!!

Ocean water-mixed drinks!  We tried to do the layered look, but I must have gotten it wrong. haha Regardless it was still ocean water, blue and delicious for the girls so that's all that matters! I just got a variety of individual drinks at the grocery store that were blue, clear and white.  I'll post what was our favorites below.

You could even just get one of these drinks and call it ocean water with no mixing.  OR if you want to not worry about that Fizz had a Shark Drink last week.  Whoops hopefully I'll be more on top of it next holiday and give you a better notice.

The girls insisted on taking these pictures. haha

They loved the ocean water!  You can see the different drinks from these two pictures.  Olivia's is brighter and more ocean like.  I added a lot of Sobe to Evie's which was probably completely delicious, but left a murky ocean water look.  Whatever way both girls still loved it!

Activities

There are several FREE printable online.  I love that they can be adapted for any age.  Even though the younger girls went through them fast they still found it fun and different!  We loved the Shark I Spy, Shark Week Fun! Packet and Feeding the Shark.  Find the rest of my inspiration pins HERE.  My printer broke completely in the middle of printing these.  Waaaa :'( There definitely would have been those cute shark headbands too!

Loved that you can use Goldfish to feed the shark, and the girls did too!

You know we had to play Baby Shark several times of course!! Livy has loved this song for a long time.  

The girls screamed, danced and ran around while this song was playing, they were so happy!

OH i forgot two "treats"  I had a sweet friend tell me about the Sharks & Whales Fruit Snacks found at Harmon's here in Utah.  The little toy shark Livy loving calls Sharkie has kept her busy for quite a while.  she loves to play "Shark Attack" with it and one day Sharkie even helped me fold a whole load of laundry! haha  It's a sucker too but don't tell Liv!

We still needed to run off all that sugar so we played Sharks and Minnows.  I would turn around with Shark and say "Fishies, Fishies come out and play!"  The girls would always yell back "OK!" haha then I would randomly yell "SHARK ATTACK"  and chase them while Sharkie was snapping.  They would laugh and scream so loudly, it was adorable.  One time when I said shark attack Evie ran over to Livy and did this! 

They were scared and just needed eachother the little cuties.

We finished the night by watching Little Mermaid.  There's a shark in that you know?  It was such a low key fun night.  I'm already looking forward to the next celebrations I can add some cute details too!

This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own.