A Winner, A Few Random Tidbits, & A New Contest!

All righty roo...it is officially October 1st, so that means we can really get these Halloween festivities under way. And I won't waste any more time getting down to business and getting a winner for the ghost blocks.

First off, I had to print out ALL of the comments, yes that would be SEVENTEEN pages that came out of the printer...
Then we cut them all up and folded them nicely in a bowl...
And I asked my most handsome assistant to assist me. And he dug and he dug until he picked just the perfect one...
And then he had to read it first...
And low and behold, it's Tiffany!!! Congratulations, Tiffany! Please email me your mailing address and I'll send the blocks to you ASAP so you can have them for the majority of this month (let me know if you don't have my email address...). I hope you enjoy them!

OK, and to answer the several inquiries about where I got the blocks. I got the kits from this website called My Vinyl Designs. My sister Marilee told me about them and I checked them out and found several fun kits, but restrained myself and only ordered the ghost blocks this time around. The ghost blocks can be found in their "Seasonal Stuff" section (lots of cute stuff there). You can order them finished or unfinished. I of course ordered them unfinished because they are so easy to make and that's half the fun for me. And to order, you actually have to email them with what you want and they send you a paypal invoice, so you don't actually order directly from the site. If any of you head over to the site and have questions, let me know.

And thank you all for playing along. I loved reading every single comment, it was so fun! I had laughs thinking about two headed monsters and twin popsicles trying to get out of the car on Halloween night and I had visions of super cute kiddos running around in every costume imagineable from witches to Pippy Longstockings to an entire family of Wizard of Oz characters. And it seems that punk rockers and witches were a common costume for us all, huh? Thanks for all the ideas! I think we have Sam's costume pinned down as a cowboy. And he'll be so cute! LOL And I was hoping to be creative enough to come up with something that the boys could be together, but Tyler is being a stinker on this one. His ideas are pretty far out there. They have ranged from a boat (honestly no idea where this came from), a bird, a green lizard, Cranky the Crane (from Thomas), and the latest is an alligator. I'm thinking I can maybe find a somewhat decent alligator costume that's not too cheesy, but I'm worried about him roasting to death in it. Yes, we worry about that in Louisiana--being too hot on Halloween night, as opposed to putting our costumes on over top of our winter coats like we did in Idaho. So, we shall see!! But I'm just a little bummed that I don't think it's in the stars to match my cute farmer and his ear of corn from last year's Halloween: (seriously, look how little my babies looked a year ago!!)
And now for a few random tidbits (before getting onto the contest info):

Tidbit #1:
The Halloween ghost started coming to our house last night. Last year the ghost left our surprise in a little pumpkin, but I was so in love with this countdown calendar that I found for a steal of a deal at Kirkland's Home that I had to buy it and this is where the ghost will leave a goodie every night. It has a cute little wooden candy corn on a string to move to each new day. And it is helping me answer the question I am getting several times a day of "Is it going to be Halloween tomorrow?". And we can truly "countdown" and have it make a little bit of sense for my almost 4-year old.

And this morning it was cute...Tyler got to open his treat mid-morning and he had been patiently waiting and he finally got it open and took one single bite and said "ok, there, I'll save the rest of this for Daddy when he gets home." His daddy just happens to be out of town for work and he honestly had every intention of putting his once-bitten chocolate up on the counter to wait for Garrett to get home. It was sweet, if I do say so myself!
Tidbit #2
We officially broke out the $5 Old Navy Halloween shirts today and Tyler was SO excited. He picked his out at the store and couldn't wait to wear it.
And Sam is sporting his "skinny, scrawny, bony skeleton" look. He pulls it off pretty well, doesn't he?
Tidbit #3
I've spent the day digging out all of my decorations and it's always fun to get them put up. This treat sign was my favorite new decoration added this year. Another steal I found at Kirkland's Home. Love that place!
Tidbit #4
A few people inquired as to how this picture looked in color (since it was only posted in b&w in the last post). So, here it is in color and in b&w so you can compare and decide which one you like best.

Tidbit #5
I had a coupon from shutterfly for a free photo book. I kept saying I should just get it since it was free and all, but almost ran out of time. Then I just decided to get on there and do it. It was SO easy and I absolutely love the way it turned out. It is only an 8x8 one, but they make 12x12 ones as well. And it really is like a book, hardcover and all. Tyler loves looking at it and reads it just like a book. And since my scrapbooking time is almost non-existent these days, this was just so fun to get done. And the fact that it was free ($29.99 value), was all the better. I have had some trouble recently getting pictures to upload to their site since we got our new computer and use Windows Vista, so I just used pictures that were already uploaded, so they are all kind of random things, but I was really happy with it and could totally see ordering more in the future. I've always really liked their site for photo printing and have been intrigued by these books, and am happy to finally have one. Here are a few of the pages from it..
OK, enough tidbits...now onto the next CONTEST...
I made this little treat bucket out of a paint can (a previously un-used one, by the way) and am giving it away...I have seen a lot of altered paint cans and have always wanted to make one just for fun, but never have. Until now. I just got the urge to do a random project, and this is what I came up with. It was really fun to make and hopefully one of you will enjoy it! So, the winner of this contest will get this paint can filled to the brim with super fun and yummy Halloween goodies. Hopefully it will be something you can enjoy with your family (or hoard it and keep it to yourself if you're like me!).


So, to enter, please tell me what your FAVORITE Halloween goody is. Is there something you simply can't resist buying and munching on during the month of October because it's miniature and wrapped in cute black and orange wrapping? Please share!

So, leave your comment with your favorite treat by Sunday October 5 at noon CST. I will post a winner later that evening. Thanks for playing! Let the commenting begin!