Halloweening 2011: Malley

This week, I would like to unveil the Ott family Halloween costumes!

I really love Halloween, it's definitely one of my favorites. (hello candy!) But for some reason, that I can not actually explain, I insist on creating our costumes myself, rather than the simpler prepackaged Party City route. (not that there is anything wrong with that!) I guess I like the challenge of reinventing what we have around the house and I try to keep each costume under $10. In the past we have done family themes, but this year, we let the kids choose whatever they wanted.

 

Malley as Wonder Woman!

I was quite excited when she choose this costume, for two reasons: 1. it's totally rad and 2. my super star sister had made my niece, Lillian, a Wonder Woman costume last year!

Details:
We found the red shirt at Target for $5.00. For the Wonder Woman type logo on the front, I bought a piece of gold fabric and some Wonder-Under and voila! 
The cape, headband, belt, lasso and skirt were from Lillian's costume. The skirt was a little long and big, so I added elastic to the bottom to make it more of a bubble. I love the volume the elastic created.
The gold wrist protectors were made from some gold fabric and Velcro I had.
The purple boots she had from her normal wardrobe, and I added some white duct tape down the front.
Total: $8.00!

Stay tuned for more tomorrow....

I heart Borrego.

I come from a family that really seems to like each other. Which is nice. Because my family is fun and nice and generally rocks.

Saturday we drove out to the family desert house. To watch a parade and hang out with each other. The weather was nice, but pretty warm.




Borrego Days annual parade. Which is so great, and super down-home-ish. The parade kicks off with an airplane flyover. How awesome is that?

Back at the house; the kids swam, rode bikes and went on a spooky scavenger hunt that my mom planned. The grown ups got busy catching up and enjoying cocktails. And we had a couple of surprise desert house visitors. Borrego is like that. Or my parents are. Either way, I like it.

Our best attempt at a self timer family picture. (of course, Malley was not having it, Banner was distracted, Jeff's faced is blocked and Grandma and Grandpa were too busy sleeping.)

Another successful trip to the desert.

{four for Friday}: put an owl on it.

Is it just me or are owls really having their time?  I feel like everywhere I look, there's an owl on it. Good thing, too, because I think they're pretty awesome.

{one two three four}

And owls make for a great Halloween costume. This diy one, from Alpha-mom, is my favorite. Even Finn dressed up as an owl when he turned one. (One of my favorite costumes I have ever made.)

 Happy Owl-o-ween!!  And happy weekending!

getting into the Halloween spirit?

We were 'boo'ed last night.  Big ol' bucket of Halloween goodness.

Are you all familiar with this suburban tradition? It's sort of like door bell ditching a curse. A neighbor leaves some treats and Halloween goodness anonymously on another neighbor's door, and in return, they must copy the poem and 'boo!' sign, run to Target, buy a bunch of Halloween crap stuff and leave it at two other neighbors doors. Once you have been boo'ed, you are to leave the ghost in your front window so you don't get boo'ed again.

All this boo'ing and costume making (I have been busy doing that too) had me thinking, the season is really upon us.

Halloween is here, folks.

          (cake round up from top left: Country Living, Martha Stewart, Country Living, Better Homes & Garden)

The kid's school carnival is next weekend, and the cake walk is a Cardiff tradition. Guess it's time to get my bake on, I love all these tricked out cakes and cupcakes. So spooktacular.

{four for Friday} safari.ish

Really, Friday already?!? These weeks are really flying by.  I actually dreamt of decorating Christmas trees last night.

1. Life Little Gem's vintage mounted deer antlers.
2. Westward for Kate Spade's adventurer satchel.
3. Dwell Studio's giraffe papier-mache head.
4. Anthropologie's eiko cabinet.


We have very little in the weekend line up, fingers crossed that we can actually get some house projects done.
happy weekending!

sh#t from my parents garage

A while back, my collector type parents began to realize that they had accumulated too much. My dad kindly asked if I could help him with a garage sale to unload a fraction of his fine Hawaiiana collectibles. I agreed. Seriously, my dear parents had been shopping on ebay, thrift stores and estate sales for as long as I can remember, but had never thought to release any of it back into the wild.

The sale went really well (and was great fun!) but there was a bit still left. Plus, dear mom and dad were so inspired, they started to dig deeper into their garage and found ten more boxes of things...and all of this stuff is looking for new homes.

So, I present to you....

SH#T FROM MY PARENTS GARAGE! 

Amazing treasures. Vintage items. We will be adding more items daily. Or hope to anyway.

{click here to shop}

Plus, We added a mini shop to our left side bar.  Enjoy!

weekend away at the ace, palm springs.

{from top left: ace sign, lobby photo booth, banana Irish porridge, Andy & Owen in King's Highway}

After hearing about The Ace, Palm Springs for years, we finally headed east for a weekend of pool frolic and desert views. Yes, I realize we are a little late on the band wagon, but wanted to add my review and thoughts on the experience.

A dear friend of ours was celebrating his big 40, so off we went, sans children, for three days of desertness with four other families.

{from top left: room 419, cool fireplace, view from our bed, happy ep}

Here are my thoughts on the experience:

Totally loved all the white and wood interior design throughout the resort. And all the shades of neutral; the decor was unified, chic and urban outfitters-y, but in a good way.

Fist pumping music, pool side. 16 hours a day. This was mostly a positive, until your head starts to spin, then we would exit to our rooms to enjoy a little quiet moment, then back to the poolside party.

Oh my goodness, great people watching. Really supreme. But then again you are hanging with these people all day...

Every room comes with strangely attractive cult like robes....and walking sticks.

The converted Denny's turned King's Highway had acceptable food and service. Not the best food ever, but far from the worst. The Ace makes it very easy to stay on the compound. I mean, why leave?!

I had some great cocktails. Both from the Amigo Bar, with muddled cucumber?!?, and made with the booze we smuggled in. I have a new fondness for Pimm's with ginger beer, and anything with St. Germain's.

 {from top left: Polaroid fun, me + Tim, mostly all of us in the mirror at King's Highway, room key & my purse}

Definitely a weekend to remember. 

I am little sad that the whole group didn't take a group picture, that Tim and I didn't find any treasure at the Palm Springs thrift stores and that I didn't steal anything from our room. 

But all and all, desert goodness.

(happy birthday Eric and a big thank you to you & Christa for including us.)