I'm All Up In Your Hizzie: Mini Edition & A Baby Shower!

A little over a week ago marked the start of my baby shower marathon! I have 7 close friends who are having babies within the next 3 months. Craziness! It is baby central around here!

My friend, Lauren, is due in less than a month! And her shower was the one that kicked off all the baby-celebrating-goodness! 

Are you wondering where the "I'm All Up In Your Hizzie" post fits into this? Well, I am glad you wondered! My friend/ old boss (previous boss? she's not actually old!) hosted this baby shower in her unbelievably beautiful house. I just snapped a few quick photos with my ridiculously terrible camera and I am calling this a Hizzie Mini Edition! When I get a proper camera I will be sure to go back and capture the rest of her fancy decor!

Let's start with a photo of the glowing mama-to-be!

Gotcha- that was a Where's Waldo photo of her. She is to the very far right of the photo. 

Here she is again; this time, opening presents. Someone gave her a painting that was made from one of her ultrasound photos. Neat idea! You wouldn't have had a clue that it was an ultrasound unless someone told you. It just looked like a funky modern painting.

This photo doesn't do Lauren or the painting justice. They are both even more beautiful in person!

In case you are interested, here is the artist's contact information from the back of the painting.

Someone made a fun little baby out of fruit as part of the food/decoration.

There were even babies swimming in icing on the cupcakes.

Luckily, Christmas was barely over so we got to see Shauna's beautiful tree.

Now, onto the Hizzie Mini Tour!

Here is one side of Shauna's office. Isn't it gorgeous!?!!

This one is from her upstairs hallway.

I also took a few photos of her eight year old son's bedroom. What a neat room! I'm not sure that an eight year old can appreciate that awesome hounds tooth rug, but I certainly can!

I am sorry to disappoint and not have more photos of her fabulous house or of the happy mama to be, but I hope you enjoyed this sneak peak into the world of fun baby showers and fancy houses!

10 Neat Halloween Decorations For A Party?!?!

Is it party time? Yessssss!
NL is all decked out and ready to inspire.
First, let's take a look at a couple amazing Halloween parties from the past.

My 4th Grade Halloween Party!

The last Halloween party I threw was back in 1990! I was soooo excited about it! I had a whole notebook dedicated to it. My sister and one of my best friends, Jenny Rose, were my big assistants. We had big plans of a haunted house, a fortune teller, bobbing for apples, and all sorts of Halloween goodies. I know I took a long time making the invitations on "The Print Shop." Does anyone remember that old Apple program? The invitations were amazing (if you consider super pixelated, computer paper folded into quarters and hand colored amazing, that is).

1990s computer image from here

In the invitations we told everyone to wear shorts. I will get to why in a second. Most of the parents said no to the shorts idea. It is COLDDDD in Virginia at the end of October. 
The party ended up being lots of fun but it didn't turn out exactly as we had hoped. 75% of the people invited decided they wanted to be in on the haunted house. So, we ended up having a very well-manned haunted house with only about 1 person to be blown away by how scary it was. 

The other change was the no shorts in 30 degree weather rule. Kelly told fortunes (dressed up in a fancy fortune teller outfit). Little miss Jenny Rose was supposed to hide under the table and "slime" everyone's legs with gooey stuff. Yep, this is what 4th graders think need to happen at a Halloween party. The goo got thrown out when everyone showed up with legs covered.

Here are a few photos of the big event.

Hey Christina, XYZ your ENORMOUS zipper!

R&M's All Out Halloween Party


My friends, Rob and Morgan, used to throw some amazing Halloween parties. They went crazy changing out every thing in their house (much like my mom) to something more festive. The outside of their house looked like The Addams Family's house. All of the food and drinks were Halloween themed. A good time was had by all!

Here is a glimpse of their crazy decorations. Here is a sneak peak of one of Scott's past Halloween costumes. I have a post about some other funny ones coming up soon.

As I said here, I am not a big holiday or seasonal decorator. But I am starting to understand why some people are! There are some really neat decorations out there. If you have the time you could go wild!

Without further ado... let's take a look at some great DIY Halloween decorations.

So easy and so effective!

I love a smiley pumpkin!

Spider webs made of cheese cloth. Clever and spooooky!

This is a fun way to display favors. The cats and pumpkins are neat but sheesh they look time consuming.

bat garland! that looks fun to make!

Put faces on orange balloons. yes please!

Fancied up old school fan-type decorations. sneaky

mmmmm. I like decorations that I get to eat later!

tin cans with some colorful Halloween-themed paper to hold treats. magnificent!

Make your mini pumpkins scary!

Next week, we will take a little look-see at some neat Halloween food.


And........ The Would You Rather (WYR) of the day!

WYR... Turn into Bea Arthur once every 3 hours for 15 minutes (only looks-wise; during her golden girls era, obviously)
or Never be able to eat or drink again (all of your food and water comes in 3 huge pills per day).



Image sources: Bat mobile, Cheesecloth Spiderwebs, Treat Tree, Bat Garland, Pumpkin Balloons, Animal Faces, Candy Corn Votives, Covered Cans, Spider Pumpkin, Superhero Pumpkin