Style Lush

Fall Wishlist: Setting the Table

By Tara

Last year, I found an awesome set of winter-ish dishes at Home Goods that I knew would look fantastic sitting on my dining room table all of December and January. And they did!

Now, I want to do something similar for fall (and by fall, I mean Halloween, of course...). August isn't too early to work on my wishlist, right?

Table runner:

{photo credit: potterybarn.com}

Silver charger:

{photo credit: amazon.com}

Appetizer plates:

{photo credit: potterybarn.com}

Black wine glasses:

{photo credit: amazon.com}

Candle holders:

{photo credit: amazon.com}

Centerpiece (Although, I'd go with red flowers instead of black. And I'd try to find one that wasn't quite $109, too...)

{photo credit: potterybarn.com}

Now, if only wishlists came for free, I'd be all set.

Northern Virginia: Air and Scare at the Air and Space Museum

By Beth

If you have ever been to Washington D.C., there is a good chance you visited the Air and Space museum on the mall.  But you probably missed the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, which is another branch of the Air and Space Museum that opened several years ago in Chantilly, Virginia, which considering that my hometown is "the Northern Virginia suburbs" is in my hometown.

The museum itself is great, full of fascinating things like a space shuttle and a stealth bomber and the Enola Gay and ultra-lights and helicopters and on and on and on.  But every year around Halloween, they have an event called Air and Scare.  And if you are ever near Washington D.C. near Halloween and travelling with children and/or Star Wars fans, you should check it out.  

They basically turn the entire museum over to the kids, with trick or treating and face painting and crafts and lots and lots and lots of Star Wars fans decked out in costumes.  The place is always packed, but it is also always incredibly well staffed so there isn't much waiting for anything other than pictures with the most popular Star Wars characters.

Definitely one of the best events in my hometown.

(Lousy cell phone photo credit: me)

Moldy Pumpkins No More!

This little tip has been all over Pinterest lately but I am so excited about it that I had to pass it along in case you missed it.  I am excited because those little packages of silica gel I find in shoeboxes have always baffled me somewhat.  I've opened them up before, expecting, I don't know, something resembling NyQuil gelcaps?  But no.  They are just hard, opaque little spheres that seemed too substantial to throw away.  But what else was I to do with them?

Well!  Here's my answer!  I shall stick the packet inside my jack-o-lantern, so instead of turning into this:

{photo credit:The Fun Times Guide - Stop Pumpkin Rot}

I will have a cheerful jack-o-lantern for a week or more.  Now I must locate some silica gel.  I'm thinking this might actually be a good excuse to buy a new pair of shoes.

(By the way, if you try this, make sure you leave the packet intact, especially if you have small children or pets.  Those little pellets are tiny and, apparently, look delicious to small beings.)

Halloween Costumes For the Dress Up Bin

by Elizabeth

We've already got our Halloween costumes all lined up (my mother-in-law made my 4 year old a black widow costume, per his request, and the baby is wearing her brother's bee costume from last year), but now that Halloween is almost here, I'm wondering if maybe I should buy a few sale costumes for dress up clothes during the year. 

I thought this dinosaur costume from Pottery Barn Kids was too bulky and hot to wear to the preschool hallloween party, but we are going through a dinosaur phase big time over here and I bet this is well-made enough to be a regular dress-up item. And at $29.99 (plus free shipping) it's marked way down. 

Here's a fireman costume for only $10.49 at Crazy 8! My kids would love that hat.  

And this gorilla costume from Gymboree is pretty awesome and is only $11.99, although you have to buy the hands (paws?) separately. 

I haven't even looked at Target, although I think the quality of their costumes can be hit or miss and I'm not sure they'd be a great choice for something that I want to last longer than one trick-or-treat session.

Has anyone seen any good sales on costumes that could be used for dress up all year long?

{Photo credits: pbk.com, crazy8.com, gymboree.com}

Viva La Vida Fest

By Jessica

Saturday night, as I was driving 3 Lush writers to The Blathering dinner at Z'Tejas, I noticed a person with Day of The Dead make-up. Then I noticed another, and another. There were women (some in dresses and corsets, some in regular clothing), men with their entire heads painted and even a giant papier mache skull tetering precariously a top some dude's head as he was walking across the crosswalk. If I didn't already have a commitment to that dinner? I so would've pulled my car immediately over, figured out what was going on and joined. I wanted some of that face paint SO BAD. Contain your shock, if you can.

So what was going on? It was The 28th Annual Vival La Vida Fest which is put on by the Mexic Arte Museum and in addition to all the Day of the Dead things themed things that were happening, they were even looking to have 100 free-tailed bat costumes for the parade. Seriously, so cool! (Do you know about the bats under the Congress St bridge?)

Next year, I will definitely be there and have my face painted. I may even pop into Tesoro's to grab one of their Day of The Dead themed items or maybe I'll make my own sugar skulls!

{Photo via Pinterest}

Halloween: Why should pets be left out?

by Jonna

I have a tiny dog, and I . . . should be over this by now, seeing as I have a kid, but every single Halloween, I am overcome with the urge to dress her up, and every Halloween, she gives me the finger. But you know, I keep trying. 

And besides, how cute are these? 

Bat Dog!

 

{Photo credit: CharlieHeartsDiesel}

 

Rasta Dog!

{Photo credit: LilYorkieFruFru on Etsy}

 

A CRAYON!

{Photo credit: ShaggyChic}

Vampire cape! For the lazy dogs!

{Photo credit: DaniDoggieStuff}

 

Will you dress your pet this Halloween season? Because I'm going to try this year. Again.

Have you been BOO'd?

By Elisabeth

I spent my Monday night with a group of gals making Halloween cookies in a jar. It's basically the same principle as all cookies in a mason jar, like the ones I talked about last year, but these are Halloween themed! My husband and the kids made these last night and they were GOOD. (The recipe we used substituted Reece's Pieces for the M & M's and gave the standard cookie jar cookie a bit of a delicious peanut butter kick.)

It got me thinking about being Boo'd. Have you heard of being Boo'd? Well, we moved into our neighborhood 6 years ago, our first house. Halloween came around and someone left a Halloween surprise on our doorstep. Rules are, once you've been Boo'd, you hang the "We've been Boo'd" sign provided on your door, then turn around and leave gifts/instructions you put together for two other neighbors in your neighborhood as a surprise! By the end of October, most of the neighborhood has been Boo'd!

My first gift was definitely cute, but I was a little bit overwhelmed wondering what the heck I was going to do for my gifts. I wanted them to be fun, but didn't want to just give another family a bucket full of junk! So, while putting these cookie jars together, I thought why not leave these on the doorsteps and call it a day?

Not a lot of fuss, not a lot of hassle on my part and to top it all off, SUPER CUTE. What a great gift to give to another family, an activity they can all do together. Perfect.

There are plenty of signs and instructions like this one below to print off and use to start a Boo chain in your neighborhood.

Happy Booing!

 

 

{photo credit: vanessascraftynest.blogspot.com, christmas.organizedhome.com}

The Historic Oakland Cemetery

By Tara

On one of my parents' visits to see me a couple of years ago, my husband suggested that I take my mom, a huge fan of anything old and fancy, to the Oakland Cemetery in downtown Atlanta. He mentioned the old mausoleums. He mentioned the Atlanta mayors that were buried there. He mentioned Bobby Jones.

Then he mentioned Margaret Mitchell, and I was sold.

The cemetery itself is gorgeously maintained, and the general architecture of the place is amazing. There are enormous magnolias all around, and little gardens tucked in here and there. There's a historical marker denoting the hill where General Hood watched the battle of Atlanta unfold, and a field dedicated to the burial of Civil War soldiers who died during that battle.

It's peaceful. It's beautiful. It's a little piece of history.

I fell in love with the place on that trip, and since then, we've made it a point to go back every year on the first Sunday of October, when the cemetery hosts its Sunday in the Park fundraiser. There's food, a Victorian era costume contest, music, and free tours. They also open up many of the mausoleums to visitors, which is pretty impressive.

While I think it's a beautiful place to visit at any point in the year, there are also Halloween themed twilight tours in the month of October, which I'd love to participate in at some point, and a Run Like Hell 5K at the end of the month.

Obviously, you have to love a cemetery with a sense of humor, right?

{photo credit: me}

DIY: Arachnophobia

By Jessica

 

I'm not sure when I first saw these spider egg sacs from Grandin Road, but whenever it was, it was love at first site. I absolutely have been coveting them but sadly have never clicked the trigger to make them my own (something else always grabs my Halloween fun money first).

Garden Ridge Pottery has their own version but honestly they don't look nearly as well made as these do. Of course, the Garden Ridge version cost $5.99 (for one) not $29.00 (for three on sale) but you get what you pay for I suspect.

I decided that I could probably make my own with crap I had lying around the house and I'm really pleased with my outcome!

So on the left you can see the first one finished and hanging on my front porch. I've added a fairly large spider hanging from the top as well as a small spider hanging on the outside. Top right is all the materials laid out.

Materials:

One old sheet (or any other fabric, light in color, you have laying around)

Plastic bags (you could use pillow stuffing, batting, more fabric whatever)

Twine or rope

Scissors

Spider webbing

Spiders

As you can see in the "in process" shot, I just gathered the fabric up around the plastic bags like a sack and then tied it off with the twine. I essentially did the same thing with the spider webbing and just stretched it out when and where it was needed. Once I hung the whole thing from the twine, I spun another strip of webbing around the twine to hide it and give something for my spider to hook onto but ultimately I ended up just bending his wire leg onto the hook in the ceiling of my porch. I am going to make at least one more but I couldn't wait to show y'all what I did FOR FREE! I am so excited to see it lit up at night.

{Photo credit top: Grandin Road}

 

'Nightmare' Themed Birthday: An Update

By Tara

Last week, I posted about what I wanted to do for my daughter's Nightmare Before Christmas themed birthday. This week, I'll show you the results...

  








  

The cake and the hot dog bar were my husband's idea (the inspiration for the cake was this...), the decorations were all mine. And really, the best part is that I don't have to take anything down for the next couple of weeks, because it fits with the rest of my Halloween theme.

I am a fan of anything that makes my life easier at any point...

(Of course, the second best thing would be that we made an enormous cake and two dozen cupcakes for all of about 10 people, so even after we sent people home with stuff, we still had a ton of sugar left over at the end of the night. I am a fan of sugar, as well...)

{photo credit: all me}