Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the
Southern Fried Household!

Starring...

Junior O'Lantern

Jill O'Lantern

& Jacked-up O'Lantern!
(DH says this is either a knight or super hero...)

Hope you are creating lots of fun family memories this year! Have a safe and fun one!

Monster Carvings

Aren't these the cutest things you have ever seen? A friend of mine, Joanna, did these with her family and posted on facebook. She was kind enough to let me share here. Love them!

We are planning to carve pumpkins Friday night since it is supposed to rain (again). My MIL is coming in to take BBC to Boo at the Zoo on Saturday. Our church has its annual Fall Festival on Saturday night. What are your plans to celebrate the fun this weekend?

New Spook

BBC came home from school today and informed me that I needed more spook on the door (he's 5, remember) . He said there were lots of cheery things but not as many spooky. So while he was at AWANAS tonight I threw together this spook as a surprise for him.

I can't leave it out there because it is supposed to rain again tomorrow but it made him really happy when he came home to find it. Another fun memory!

The construction was super easy. I grabbed a wire topiary cage from my gardening closet. Threw a string of halogen lights around it. Popped a white sheet over the top and draped it just so. Then added two eyes with mascara - didn't want to ruin the sheet and I know that stuff comes out. I'm lazy about taking off makeup at night sometimes!

I'm linking up with Cheri and her holiday party. If you missed my REAL Halloween decor you can check it out here. We have had a lot of fun this year! Hope we have inspired you to create some memories of your own! Happy Halloween, y'all!

A Little Spook Here...

BBC and I have had fun adding a little spook around the house. We tried to keep our brand of "cheerfully spooky" going. I think we did a nice job...check it out!

Here's our updated door...

We retired the black birds for the season. We almost baked them in a pie but decided they could come back out and play next year!

And we added a few friendly ghosts.

We made them with stuff from around the house...cheese cloth, ribbon, glue, and of course googly eyes! I never painted anything on the bucket. We hung this sign for now. Not my favorite but gets the message across and it will work for now...

As you walk into the foyer...in the dark.

And shedding a little light...

(Southern Living at HOME Sedona Sconce)

This is our family if we were jack o'lanterns...
aren't we cute?

We are having lots of fun with my new Galveston Memo Board and Stand (from Southern Living at HOME). I will draw/write something on it and BBC will erase it when he is ready for a new message!

Fun with jars...

I love the shrunken heads. And I will be glad when all the witch hazel (aka Hershey Kisses) are gone because I can't stay out of them. However, I am probably one of the few that hates the taste of candy corn. I love to decorate with it, though!

A few tweaks to the mantle...

I couldn't resist this little gal...

And of course dusting off BBC's art work from last year puts a big old smile on my face. We had such fun crafting these...great memories for years to come!

DH thinks we have lost our mind but we are having fun. And again we are creating memories that will last a lifetime! Hope you enjoyed our cheerfully spooky updates!

Fall Activities

We were super busy last weekend with fun fall activities...

Y'all know about the classroom silent auction projects that I helped with. Last Friday I spent the day divided between helping set up for the silent auction at BBC's Fall Carnival and cleaning my house because my mother-in-law was coming to town. I can't edit out the junk in person - ha!

Speaking of my MIL - did I tell you she can be a witch sometimes - ha ha. DH thought this would make a funny post. She dressed up like a witch and escorted our little cowboy to the carnival.

BBC's teacher dressed up like the Cat in the Hat. Her room was face-painting-central. I wish I had a picture of another teacher that dressed up like the Swine Flew...she had on pink tights, shorts and t-shirt with fairy wings and a pig snout. Her shirt had Swine Flew on the front - too cute!

I was totally exhausted after the carnival. We got up on Saturday and headed up to NW Arkansas. My BFF's family has an annual bonfire and hayride and she wanted us to bring BBC this year. We met in Alma and drove up while listening to the HOGS almost take Florida. Go HOGS!!!

BBC was lethal with his stick. He almost took out a couple of folks with his stick. And he caught several marshmallows on fire. I had visions of Dennis the Menace with the flaming marshmallow.

Once it got dark our chariot came to pick us up for the hayride.

BBC was a little nervous at first but finally laid back and enjoyed the ride. Toward the end he was star gazing and singing songs - so sweet!

This is me and BFF - why are these pics so much cuter on the small camera screen?

The woods were a little spooky...and we almost got taken out by a hummer but that is a story for another day!

I was super-duper tired on Sunday. I have slept most of this week. I don't know if it is my body making up for me running it ragged while I was so sick or the new allergy meds or both. My doctor told me to take it easy this week and see how I feel next week. I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things. I've added a little spook to my fall decor and I plan to share that in the next post. I still have a fall lantern post, an un-diy project to reveal, and many others. Thanks for hanging with me even during the down times!!!

Elementary Kid Projects Revealed

I didn't really set out to take over a week hiatus from blogging. Nor did I tend to tease you all that long. Y'all had some really neat ideas as to what we were doing with the hand prints. The person with the closest guess was Ruby Red Slippers! She guessed preschool art.

While suffering one nasty case of sinusitis and with the help of a few wonderful moms we collected over 350 little {grubby} hand prints, quite a few thumb and finger prints, and some individual pieces of art. We collaborated with an awesomely creative local artist, Micki, to create 20 masterpieces! I have picked my 10 favorites (and that was hard enough). These will be auctioned off tonight at our fall carnival.

(NOTE: I have blurred the school and teacher names for security)

This is BBC's favorite...too cute!

I wish I was here right about now...

This one has BBC's precious little hand and thumb prints...

Total work of art!

Go Hogs!!!

Give Thanks!

Space Camp or BUST!

We did a few individual contribution projects. We have some talented kids at our school!

Individual Ornaments

Peace, y'all!

I'm not much on skulls and cross bones but even I think this one turned out way too cool! Those kids (girls included) were fighting over decorating the skulls over the hearts. I was totally shocked! We ended up picking numbers to make it fair.

I hope we do well with our auction and raise a lot of money for the school. This project was very time consuming with a lot of moving parts. I'm glad I was able to be part of it. I wish I could take creative credit for everything but I cannot.

The projects would be nothing without Micki's special touches. Don't y'all agree that she has talent?

Until next post...~Southern Fried Gal

What's going on...

Here's a little insight as to what's going on in the my little corner of the universe...

Does this give you an idea?

Or how about this?

Red hot mess?
You'll have to wait to see!

And I've got about 17 more where these came from!!! I have a partner in crime (or two) and I can't wait to share the end results. I won't be able to share until next week sometime. Have any guesses as to what I'm up to??

That's Just Crazy...

This is how this card arrived in my mail box. That's just crazy! Have you ever had anything like this happen to you?

On a side note, this card was from a bloggy buddy, Gina over at Moneywise Moms. She hosted a couple of blog parties for me over the summer and it was fun to partner with her. She has the sweetest blog where she shares ideas for living, decorating, eating, etc. on a budget. You can really see her heart shine through. Be sure to check her out and don't forget to tell her SFG sent you her way!!!

And speaking of crazy...

Poor Cheri has had a couple of hiccups with her blog and the giveaway. For some reason not all comments were captured. She thinks she has all the kinks (and links, heh) lined out, so you want to head over there and make sure you are entered to win. She has extended the entry deadline and given you even more chances to get your name in the drawing. There are some FABULOUS prizes! Be sure to let her know SFG sent you her way!!!

Hope y'all have a wonderful week!!

October Door Decor

Well, it's not totally finished but if I waited until everything was exactly as I wanted it I would never have anything to post! That's why I love Nester's mantra - she really has helped me overcome in this area. I will continue to tweak over the next week or so as I always do. I still get totally giddy when I see my door!!!

Here it is with flash!

And without flash so you can get the full idea.

And here's a closeup of the door hanging. It's a reinvention (or knock-off, if you prefer) of what Susie Harris did last year inside her home. Roeshel did two awesome interpretations in her home this year, too! I wanted the look but you know me - always thinking about my door!

It rained here again this weekend so I didn't quite finish up, yet. I added black ribbon with orange polka dots to keep it cheery spooky! I still have a few more ribbons and moss to add. I got the last two smaller birds I could find - wish I could find one more little guy. As we get about two weeks out from Halloween I will add another fun dimension and will post in time for a fall porch party I ran across today. I'll update with details when I find it again in my notes!

The bucket is a re-purpose of the back of my flower market door bucket. I painted just the back orange so I can still use as is (or paint another color) for spring door decor! Now I have 2 buckets for the price of one!!!

I'm contemplating adding a message in black to the bucket...welcome or boo! or something??? Or should I just leave well enough alone? What do you think? I love your feedback!

I'm linking up with several parties this week. I wish we could party IRL - wouldn't that be COOL? Welcome to everyone visiting from these parties! If you like what you see, why not follow me!? Please stop over and check out all these fabulous parties for lots of inspiration! Happy week! ~Southern Fried Gal

Roeshel's DIY Show Off

Susan @ Between Naps on the Porch

Kimba's DIY Day

Cheri's KOKO

p.s. Don't forget to visit Cheri and get your name in the hat for all those FABULOUS giveaways!!!

It's Fall, Y'all!!!

Update: I'm dusting off this post for Thrifty Decor Chic's impromptu fall party!

I LOVE fall. I love the weather. I love the decor. I love hot cider. I love hayrides. I love football. I love all there is to love about fall, y'all!!! Here's how I celebrated fall in my home in 2009. I'm going to take you around some of my favorite spots in my home...

Nesting Lanterns in the Powder Room

Candy Corn Hurricane

Need more hurricane inspiration?

My favorite sign...

Love the mantle in our family room this year...

Fall cheer in the living room, too!

Another favorite

More Fall Cloche and Pedestal ideas.

Here's the cheerfully spooky door I came up with for this year.
Update: Check out my update of this door for Halloween!

And plenty more fall inspired doors from the past...

That is what was cooking in the fall department here in Southern Fried Dreamland in 2009. Some ideas will carry over to 2010 and some will be newly inspired. Hope you have been inspired on your visit!

~Southern Fried Gal

-----------------Originally Linked----------------------

I can't believe I almost missed Rhoda's It's Fall Y'all party!

Don't forget to snoop around other folks' homes over at Rhoda's. It is so fun to be able to do that! Thanks, Rhoda, for hosting another great party! Happy Fall, Y'all!!!