Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #299

Messy Messy Fail - Let's just call it the Great Christmas Tree Fail of 2019 - we purchased and brought home a 9 foot concolor fir tree and it REFUSED to stay upright.  It fell over 3 TIMES until we found another older tree stand and managed to get it stable.  The tree stand I purchased from Walmart last year that was supposed to be for 7-9 foot tree proved faulty - the little spikes that sit inside the cup of the base completely ripped out and there was nothing to keep the base of the tree steady.  I'll be emailing Walmart shortly.......

Tidy Victory - Our one real tree is up in the library room along with two tiny trees I purchased last year for the kids' rooms.  Just three more to go :D

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #298

Messy Messy Fail - In my attempt to get a stain out of my sweater, I burned a hole in the sweater with bleach.  Had I checked the label I would have noted that only color-safe bleach should have been used.  Now to find a duplicate.  

Tidy Victory - The amount of random chores I have gotten done around this house is INCREDIBLE.  I'm not sure why, or even how, but MAN it feels good checking things off the list.  My favorite activity? Chucking gushy pumpkins out onto the hill for the deer to eat - heave HO!

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #297

Messy Messy Fail -  I do enjoy being an independent person who can take care of things as necessary.  These including going to the dump with garbage and the recycling.  In my desire to be independent, I took the boys to the dump and had great success with the garbage.  The recycled paper, however, did end up flying all over the parking lot.  

Tidy Victory - I am soooooooo ready to get Christmas up but I am STAYING STRONG and holding out.  I just bought a couple new Christmas items from TJMaxx today to add to the decor for this year.  But I try to be smart and make decor purchases AFTER the holiday when they are discounted and to be used for the following year.  Why pay full price when you can get a discount?

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #296

Messy Messy Fail - Up until today we have had some sunny, not-so-cold fall weather.  Warm weather is not so good for pumpkins.  I guess we'll see how many random pumpkin vines we have growing around the house from the rotting pumpkins.  

Tidy Victory - All of the outside garden foolishness (a gargoyle, a bunny, several LED lights, etc.) have all been cleaned up and brought inside for the winter.  I didn't leave any elephant ears or cana lillies outside by accident like I did last year - now that's a first!

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #295

Messy Messy Fail - I do not have a problem doing laundry nor do I have a problem folding laundry.  It's the putting away of the laundry that I find difficult.  No joke there are sometimes 4-5 laundry baskets of folded clothes that just sit because I don't put them away.  I feel saddened by this, yet I still do not put them away.  I've got problems.  

Tidy Victory - The camper (Bullet Betty!) has been completely emptied and is ready for the winter.  ALL fabric and food items must be removed and we put dryer sheets and Irish Spring soap EVERYWHERE to keep any visitors out during the winter.  Wish us luck!

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #294

Messy Messy Fail - I am posting this party nearly a WEEK late.  You can still click on all of the link ups to see lots of great ideas though :D

Tidy Victory - We had a super successful Halloween over here at Starry Acres with decorations, pumpkin carving, and of course - trick-or-treating.  The boys scored BIG in the loot department so they were pretty stoked.  AND they were the best ever about manners - yay!

Happiness is Homemade 294

Happiness is Halloween - a special Halloween edition! I mean HELLO is there anything better than planning a few ghoulish surprises? The link ups from last week have not made the selection easy. Honestly so much spooky goodness to choose from.

Halloween Decor

Let's start off with a few Last Minute decor ideas from Hippie at Home. Easy and super thrifty last minute Halloween decorations can be ready in a flash but will look like they took all day to create.Such a cute display if you are looking for some last minute ideas.

 

Halloween Tablescape

Could we have a linkup with an awesome tablescape featured? I adore this Happy Halloween Vintage inspired table from Follow the Yellow Brick Home. She stated how much she enjoyed creating this vintage inspired “Happy Halloween” tablescape instead of a dark and scary one by using just a few Halloween decorations, some fall treats, and vintage treasures that work well for a Halloween-themed table.

Halloween Cocktail

Near and dear to my heart an awesome cocktail celebrating the All Hallow's Eve celebrations. With its deep dark red color from black cherry juice and grenadine, this Dracula's Blood Cocktail is simply perfect for Halloween sipping. Drop in some plastic vampire teeth to add to the Halloween cocktail fun!

Halloween Treats

Happy Halloween Cupcakes, Claire Justine has created the cutest Halloween Treat. She didn't stop with the Ghosts pictures here, she has created 9 fun Cupcakes that the children can help you with.

Puppy Power

I had to add a special treat in for this week. How cute is this Spooky Loofah Puppy Costume from Love my Little Cottage. One of the cutest internet dog costumes (in my opinion) is the dog loofa. I bought orange loofas and added a skeleton to make Hercules’ costume a Spooky Loofa Dog Halloween Costume.

Would you like to be a part of Happiness Is Homemade? We are looking for hostesses to join our team. If you are interested, please email any one of the Happiness Is Homemade hostesses and let them know. We would love to have you join our party.

Here are all of our hostesses at Happiness Is Homemade - be sure to give them a visit!

Linda @ A Labour Of Life Viktoria @ Awesome Alice Lisa @ Blogghetti Carol @ Bluesky At Home Cynthia @ Create with Cynthia Sinea @ Ducks ‘n a Row Beverly @ Eclectic Red Barn Katie @ Love My Messy Messy Mess Audrey @ Munofore Audrey @ That Recipe Let's get on with the party!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Click here to see where I like to par-tay!

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #293

Messy Messy Fail - Ugh that dreaded pink eye has hit our home and I am so grossed out.  I feel so bad for my little kindergartener - he is so itchy and uncomfortable.  I pray it doesn't spread!!!

Tidy Victory - We had a very productive weekend here at Starry Acres - camper cleaned out and ready to get buttoned up for winter, went to a Fall Festival at a local kiddie amusement park and the Mini Makers Faire at SUNY Fredonia.  I rather assume that's where the pink eye came from but it was still a great event to attend and FREE!

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #292

Messy Messy Fail - I was so lazy over the weekend that I just didn't get around to posting this party.  Pure laziness!  100%.  No excuses, just lazy.

Tidy Victory - I've gotten so many random things done around the house on my long 4-day weekend.  Lots of laundry, some gardening, switching out winter clothes, hanging up decor in the living room, emails and reviews, some good meals, etc.  The last thing I wanted to do was finish cleaning out the food and clothes in the camper but it was too rainy to do today.  

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #291

Messy Messy Fail - I have had some key pieces to hang and decorate on the naked while behind our TV.  We are talking MONTHS, I've been meaning to decorate for MONTHS.  Yet there they still sit, lying on the dining room table.  Maybe this week....

Tidy Victory - My spaghetti sauce is FINISHED!  I ended up pulling different ingredients from a few different recipes but I think it turned out good.  So ACTUALLY I think it can be very difficult to mess up spaghetti sauce - it probably tastes good no matter what, well of course unless you put something crazy in it - but I'm still quite pleased with how it turned out.  Yay!

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #290

Messy Messy Fail - One of our 9 chrysalis' that we hatched in our home this fall didn't make it.  To be sure there was no chance of survival (the chrysalis was partially black for over a week) we took it outside and performed an autopsy.  We promptly said a little prayer and buried it's remains in our side garden next to the butterfly bush.

Tidy Victory - Our other 8 chrysalis' that did hatch were such an absolute joy to care for!  We've never done this before and were given great advice from a few friends who do this all summer.   It is extremely easy and very rewarding - we highly recommend it if you have monarch's in your area and have access to milkweed (what they eat!).  We may even try looking for some other species of caterpillars next summer!

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #289

Messy Messy Fail - Even thought this was just a quick trip to Buffalo with the boys this weekend, I forgot SO MANY THINGS!  Their toothbrushes, a 2nd day of clothes for Ethan, the baby shower card I had ready to go, and the list goes on.  I NEVER forget this many things!

Tidy Victory - I found the coolest old crate in our creepy basement a few weeks ago.  I knew I could bring it upstairs and use it somewhere, I just didn't know where.  Then I had an idea to use it on our side porch to display some of our fall mums and pumpkins - perfect!  

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #288

Messy Messy Fail - After we got back from Disney, I managed to get all of the dirty clothes off the top of the suitcases directly into the washing machine.  Do you think I ever unpacked the rest of the clean clothes in the suitcases?  Heck no!  

Tidy Victory - I love decorating the outside of our home for the different seasons and holidays.  I managed to get my hay bale, mums and fall decor out last weekend.  Halloween decor goes out at the beginning of October.