I love the holidays.  We start decorating just after celebrating the kids birthday’s on Labor Day weekend.  No kidding.  It has become  a ritual around here.  The fall and Halloween decorations are up for, oh say, around two months.  The first week of November is spent taking down all of the Fall decorations in favor of Christmas decorations.  Believe it or not, this cycle continues through Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and Easter.  After all, there isn’t much else to do besides stare at fine crystalline snow during that time of year in Michigan, so we make the best of it indoors.

Now, I love to decorate, but I don’t like spending a lot of time giving mine a more unique spin.  I do, however, somewhat detest having my tablescape look like I picked it up at the dollar store.  Thank goodness it’s really easy to punch things up a notch or two with a bit of creativity and minimal effort and cost.

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To kick things off, I love a classically carved pumpkin face as much as the next person.  But the next time you stop by your local Dollar Tree, take a look in their Halloween section for bags of mice to make a unique Mouse Motel pumpkin.  My Dollar Tree has bags of 10 mice, but they’re a bit too small for a large pumpkin.  They’re perfect for two small pumpkins though.  They also have bags of 5 larger mice that are ideal for a larger one.

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Who doesn’t love a decoration and keepsake in one?  I never miss a chance to preserve little footprints or handprints ~ even on my windows.  A couple of days ago, I looked out the big family room window and saw a tiny handprint in the corner.  For a moment I thought, “I should clean that.”  But I was having one of those “Melancholy Mitchell” days, as I call them, and talked myself out of it.  After all, my days of handprints on the windows are numbered.  I’ve decided that I’m just going to leave it there for a few more days, so I can enjoy it.  I plan to hurry and get these little footprint ghosts done this week, so it won’t crush me too much when I do finally clean them away.  Oh, and in case you were wondering, handprints make cute spiders.  We use black paint on orange construction paper for those.

I rarely use the word “perfection.”  Whenever I hear it used to describe something, I’m instantly throttled back in time to an episode of Friends.  If you’re familiar, it’s the one with Chandler and Jill Goodacre in the ‘vestibule.’  ”Gum would be perfection”, Chandler said.  Love Chandler.  Love these candle holders.  Mason Jar + Dried Leaves + Mod Podge = Perfect…ion.

I have leaves pressed and drying now that they’re starting to change and fall, so I can do this in the next couple of weeks.  My son decided he didn’t want to wait, so we went to Dollar Tree and picked up a tall vase and a package of 100 silk leaves.  They’re very thin, so they work well with the Mod Podge.

This is his vase:

As you know, he’s 8, so this is a completely kid friendly project.  He only needed a little bit of help smoothing out the leaves.  Beyond that, he did this entirely by himself.

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And if this isn’t the easiest, cutest, kid, nut allergy, and class friendly snack, I don’t know what is!  Pretzel sticks, marshmallows and vanilla candy coating make the best *Bones*.  We usually use Hershey’s White Chocolate chips because they’re nut allergy friendly.