Avast, ye mateys! The pirates are back in town...and a cowboy firefighter pumpkin witch

Well, Halloween officially happened. I tried to kick it into high gear at the last minute. I think the kids had a great day. Maya wore maybe ten different costumes all day long. Every five minutes I'd hear her say, "It's Halloween!" She LOVED it. Next to Disneyland, I haven't seen her so happy about a single event.

And Finn? He was more than ready. Get this kid an agent!

My last minute decorations, helped by Wes's lighting skills:

 

Hope everyone had a blast! Until next year...

Free iPhone Wallpaper from my design stash

Ladies and Gentlemen. I have a new phone—the iPhone 4s, to be exact. I am not telling you to flaunt my fanciness. I am just so relieved to have a working phone (sure, it's still fancy, and I don't mind a bit). My old one died a slow death. It had symptoms for a while, then the vitals started to fail, and finally it flatlined. A new one showed up on my doorstep via courier just in time, much to my relief. So of course I needed some wallpaper, stat. I had a bunch of my own designs hanging out doing nothing on my computer. So I gave them new life as iPhone wallpaper. And you can have them, too, if you fancy a change on your phone. Here you go!

How to apply: 
(Hop on your iPhone and visit this blog post to grab the images to save directly to your phone)

• select the image for your phone (iPhone 3 or iPhone 4) — you may need to click to enlarge
• hold your finger on the image you want
• save the image to your photo library
• find the image in your camera roll
• select > use as wallpaper
• move and scale to where you like it > set
• choose either your home screen, lock screen, or both!

 iPhone 3 is the smaller image, iPhone 4 the larger

(Thanks to Lindsay over at Run Lucas Run for her directions, which I practically borrowed verbatim. Check out her super stylish iPhone wallpaper design HERE.)

Halloween Printable Freebies!

Last year I teamed up with Stephanie Nielson of The Nie Nie Dialogues to sell printable items in order to raise money for a great cause. This year, I am offering some of these printables to you, for FREE! I thought it would be fun to share the all-inclusive Halloween kit. There are too many to list here, but believe me—you'll want them all! To download, click HERE. Happy Haunting!

Cousins!!!

That's what Finn was screaming all day long in anticipation on the day the Johnson cousins arrived. And the day did not disappoint! Those kids played like best friends all afternoon and evening. We finished up the visit with a little jak-o-lantern fun.

Check out Maya trying to escape 

(which she did repeatedly, and eventually successfully, resulting in an intervention and tears)

Aunt Kimmy. Always happy. Always patient. Even brought me gluten-and-dairy-free cupcakes!!! I loved them, but 5th grader Maggie thought they tasted like frosted bran muffins. HA!

Laney Bop

Maggie the taste tester.

This one went through more outfit changes in one day than I've seen her do since she was 3 months old! :) 

Lighting up the jack-o-lantern and calling it a night!

A Surprise Baby Shower—Retro Picnic Style

I recently threw a surprise baby shower for a dear friend. And she was genuinely surprised. :) It was great. She loves retro, and is having a girl. And I have a very dominate color scheme in my modernist dining room—mostly red and green with these crazy leaf print curtains from Ikea. What to do? I decided to go with red, pink, and green and make it a Retro Picnic theme. Pennant bunting, cupcake wrapper garlands, picnic table cloth, lots of treats, and vintage root beer (which had to stay in the case lest my children filch them). Because Finn and Maya were present (and BOY were they present)  I don't remember much of anything past "Surprise!" But I think everyone had a great time—including Maya who ate no less than 6 cupcakes (well, the frosting, at least). Hooray for baby girls!

Where's Waldo

Can you find:

• Maya under a blanket?

• My crazy earthquake proofing methods?

• A Danish subway poster?

• A sewing basket doubling nicely as a picnic basket?