Bewitching Garage Halloween Party!

 

OK- one cluttered garage, one hard working husband and wife team, their crafty friend, and 7 hours on Halloween day.   Mike cleaned out the bikes and boxes,  and went to get the food and candy.  In between all that, he pulled out his 4 wheeler, hooked up his trailer, put bales of hay on it and tricked it out with a serious collection of spooky Halloween lights.  In the meantime, Ellen got busy cleaning up the house for the party and I got busy in the garage.  I covered up all of the storage shelves by draping them with plastic tablecloths over them and swagging  lights and balloons. 

 

 

The food tables are set and ready to go with creepy spider webbing, skulls, chains and pumpkins.

The appetizer table is wickedly adorned with skull trees, spider webs and candy.

Mike’s gun safe becomes a focal point for a witch and the ghost is actually a couple of boxes of  fireworks that I disguised as a ghost.  Ellen came up with the basketball head!

Mike and Ellen have a huge collection of Halloween lights and we used it everywhere…all but on the turkey feathers!

 

The big spider web takes center ceiling.

The mantle in the living room…

 

And the mantle in the den…cool trees Ellen found at Hobby Lobby.

  

And lastly, the bar in the garage complete with bleeding candles and cockroaches. 

A Wonderful Wake for a Fine Fellow

Jack Shields was a heck of a man and lived his life to the fullest.  His life was rich in faith, family and friends.  He passed away last  week and the family asked to plan his wake.  Jack was a well loved man and extremely active in our church.  This was going to be a party to celebrate a wonderful man and his life.

At each table,  I placed a few pictures of Jack from different stages of his life and was sure to sneak in a few of the funny photos.

The family gathered up lots of his memorabilia  wanted to be sure it could be shared for others to see.    My friend Jennifer and I had to get in on the action…

Jack was crazy about pineapple upside down cake, Cheetos, jelly beans and popcorn so you know it was going to have to make an appearance.  Amazingly, the Cheetos disappeared almost as quickly as the shrimp!  Here’s the table with decorations before the food was placed.

 

Guests dined on shrimp, brisket and ham sandwiches,  caprese skewers, crudites, cheeses and spinach dip. 

It was a fitting and fun farewell.  I took videos and pictures of all the action which I later make into a dvd for Jack’s wife of 53 years, Jean. 

Angie’s Restyled Kitchen

What was recently a dated and dark 1950’s style kitchen is now bright and cheery. I spent a long weekend with my sister-in-law to start and complete this project and we were busy every single minute. Angie did a lot of prep work before I arrived by taking off cabinet doors, handles and hinges, etc. She has wonderful friends (Tresa and Ronnie) who helped her with these chores and also bought her a new stove! I did my homework and got busy stitching up new window treatments, covers for the washer and dryer, and a “curtain” to hide the water hook ups for the washing machine that were visible. Day one we got busy priming all the doors and the cabinets. This took many hours to dry sufficiently because the weather was humid…that’s ok…we had lots to do in the mean time.It’s looking like a mess but good things are happening. Notice the new paint color on the wall behind the washer and dryer. Befores and Afters…

Notice the new lighting fixtures over the sink, ceiling and on the counters. A new and larger shelf hangs over the stove. Why aren’t the cabinets doors up? We had ordered the wrong type of hinge and are waiting for the right ones to arrive.We added new baskets to hid all of the animal’s food and Angie added the black mats on top of the machines for easier clean up. The washer and dryer skirts were hung with velcro. A cluttered sink counter below.

Angie and I debated on removing the lonely cupboard in this corner. We decided to use it for display

I lined the back of the cupboard with scrapbook paper to make Angie’s seldom seen china “pop.”

Before I arrived, Angie spent many long hours sorting through the contents of her cupboards and ended up sending 10 boxes of things she wasn’t using to charity.

I can’t wait to see pictures of the room WITH the cabinet doors on! When Angie gets some time, she is determined to lay these new tiles over the old lino! Won’t that pull it all together?!