Halloween Inspiration - A Feast of Treats!

When we lived in America, my kids adored the fun of Halloween. Changing their minds every day for weeks beforehand about what they were going to dress up as. Deciding who we would trick or treat with and where to go - you can get candy anywhere but we used to love visiting friends in the historic Capitol neighbourhood of Olympia, Washington where every year we would marvel at how everyone was even more creative than last year in decorating for the annual spookfest. Our favourite was the dentist's house with an enormous and elaborate display of carved pumpkins every year (including all the American Presidents) - he of course used to put toothbrushes in all of the kid's treat bags!

Now back in Australia, we still trick or treat shamelessly - it is a tradition for the kids and it is really a great chance to have a spooky celebration, complete with the fun of dress ups and sweet treats. Of course it is not much fun on our own, so we have gradually roped in neighbours and friends since moving back 5 years ago.

This year I am loving all the Halloween happenings in blogland. The roundup below should give you a few ideas for working on a spooktacular soiree of your own. Make sure you visit each of these talented party people to see all the detail they have dreamed up!

Loving this Pottery Barn Kids styling for Halloween - even if you don't have a party you can make your living room boo-tiful!

image via Pottery Barn Kids

Then there are the amazing dessert tables, many with their own printables that are available for purchase.

The TomKat Studio has two themes this year - traditional Halloween for a get together of little ones, showcased here in this fun table created by the clever Glory of Glorious Treats

image via Glorious Treats

and then this glamorous table suitable for a grown up gathering with a more sophisticated palette including purple and green and some glittery bling.

image via TomKat Studio

Sweets Indeed have done a table inspired by a vintage gothic motif (with that gorgeous purple cake!) and they also sell the most amazing Sweet Skewers at their etsy store -they have different themes throughout the year.

images via Sweets Indeed

This clever "Pink-O-Ween" table styled by Pizzazzerie, with printable paper details from Anders Ruff, gives us a new twist on traditional colours while supporting a great cause! Very cute!

image via Pizzazzerie

Anders Ruff also have another more traditional suite of Halloween paper printables (I have bought these and can't wait to use them!)

image via Anders Ruff

I think you'll love these two amazing Halloween printables from Gwynn Wasson Designs that she is offering for free - enjoy!

This one in black and yellow - love the ghoulish ghostly cupcakes -

and this one Eerily Elegant in shades of green and pumpkin.

image via Gwynn Wasson Designs

Then there is the fabulously frightening food that haunts the foodie sites at this time of year.

My favourites are Martha Stewart's ghost cake (you could spend hours on Martha's Halloween pages),

image via Martha Stewart

vampire cake pops from Bubble and Sweet,

image via Bubble and Sweet

and Mummy Oreo pops from HowDoesShe?

image via HowDoesShe?

Of course if the thought of all that printing, cutting or punching makes your skin crawl, we have some spooky details that are ready to go!

images via Details, details!

Happy Halloween!

Sharing the Love

Wandered over to Eat Drink Chic tonight where Amy whispered in our ear about her adorable download and DIY tutorial for Message in a Bottle favours currently featured at Once Wed.

What a sweet idea for sharing the love, both a message to your lovely guests and a way for them to send their very own message of love to the happy couple. Grab all the instructions and your free download here. (No weddings on the horizon for us but these are too darn gorgeous to resist!)

They would also fit in beautifully at a baby shower, naming day or Christening with Love Letters for the newborn and their family.

(Images via eat drink chic and once wed)

Another fabulous outing for these cute little bottles too! Love it!

Free printable: Milk and Cookies

Thanks to everyone who dropped by here for a little Milk and Cookies - we are always delighted to share some warm and fuzzy and love getting some back too - your comments are so appreciated.

I hope to come back and share some recipes from the day and a few tips on recreating the look, but for now can't wait any longer to share with you a new free printable designed for Hip Hooray - and you - by the talented Sarah at Style Me Gorgeous. Take a look at these lovelies - nine sweet polka-dot labels and tags to get your cookies looking gorgeous!

In creating Zoe's Milk and Cookies party, I used the large size to create labels for the cookie buffet jars, the smaller size to label the tins and petite cookie jars as take-home gifts, and the square tags to tie to the large bottles of milk - `chocolate' and `100%'. I do confess running out of time on the day to make them fancier (neater?!) with some overprinting or hand-stamping and had to make-do with my hand-writing - I'm hoping the guests saw that as `personal' rather than `overlooked'!

Even if you are not planning a party right now, a batch of home-baked cookies makes a lovely `Hello neighbour' or `Thank You, friend' gift at any time.

Mmmm, we can smell those chocolate-chips wafting around your kitchen already. Download these pretties over here and happy baking xo

Hello Sunshine

Image via Eat. Drink. Chic

I'm with Amy. It's certainly a little dark and grey around here today. And slightly chilly.

Winter in Brisbane passes in the blink of an eye, coming and going quicker than you've had a chance to even think about getting the woolies out of storage. Up here, Summer seems to always be lurking quietly around the corner waiting for it's chance to sweep Winter away for another year.

But Summer must be sleeping in today - and letting Winter do it's thing for just a little while. So if it's a little grey where you are too, head over here and get you some summer with these sweet printable tags. You'll even love them if it's all bright and sunshine-y where you are. Happy all round, really.

FREE Printable: Celebrating Mum

Oh, how I cannot wait for a sleep-in and breakfast-in-bed this Sunday. We have already spent the week in a flurry of Mother's Day activities at school and kindergarten and the girls are excitedly hiding secret gifts around every corner. Hope they can remember where they stashed them. The cutest part is that they will likely have upcycled something (that was already mine!) or crafted something lovely with supplies they know they are not supposed to get into. I promise to act completely surprised and forgive them for using my new delivery of favourite fabric, because their heart is in exactly the right place and that simply makes me proud and, of course, besotted.

If you're getting together with family this weekend and sharing a meal in honour of the Mums, we have a sweet download for you to help style it up into something a little special. Thanks again to the talented Sarah at Style Me Gorgeous for a vintage-inspired printable suite in a colour palette of soft coral and sage green. Download your copy and create your own pretty table setting with designs to suit menus, placecards and even paper flags to dress up cupcakes or drinking straws.

And if time or inspiration for gift-buying is short, trim up a few pages of this versatile set and tie with ribbon to make a delightful package of notes, gift cards and labels.

Over at the Style Me Gorgeous blog you can also find a cute colour-in to keep the kids busy while Dad sees to the bacon and eggs - they will love dressing up the Breakfast-in-Bed tray for you.

Happy Mother's Day from Hip Hooray - we hope you like our little gift. Celebrate in style.

And enjoy the sleep-in - you deserve it!