This originally posted last week at Lil Luna, but in case you missed it… it’s here as well:

Hi again, Lil Luna Friends!  And Welcome Autumn!  What a fun time of year: the colors in the trees, the cute boots and sweaters, the smell of apples, cinnamon and pumpkin.  And Halloween!  I really do enjoy Fall and I’m usually not too sad to see summer fade out.  Besides, cooler temperatures are always welcome in the hot desert heat.  Unfortunately, the weather here is just teasing me.  We’ve had a few cooler days; but, for the most part, it’s still nice and sunny.  But, never fear, I didn’t let that distract me from designing some fun Halloween goodies. Got a Halloween party coming up?  Check these cuties out:

Enjoy your party with a little help in the preparation department.  These are all designed as print-at-home files.  There are four styles of water bottle or soda can wrappers, 24 different cupcake toppers, and a “Happy Halloween” bunting.  Bright and cheery, with a touch of the spooky.

To Use:  Download the zip file HERE.  {You will need to have a 4shared account in order to download.  Don’t worry, they are free and easy to use.  I like the support from 4shared and they are reliable and user-friendly.  I feel that is worth registering for an account and using their service.}

After you have the file saved to your computer, right click and choose “Extract Here”.  Your files will unzip and you can select multiple files to print at one time.  Print out the images.  I suggest using a thick cardstock.

To construct the bunting, you can use several methods.  First begin by cutting the pennants apart.  You can  then use a sewing machine and stitch the pennants together in the right order.  Or use a couple dots of hot glue on each pennant and attach each one to a fancy ribbon.  Or use a small piece of tape or sticky tack to individually tack each pennant to the wall or any other surface.

Making the cupcake toppers is an easy task.  Use a 2-inch round hole punch and punch out each topper.  Or use scissors and trim out each topper.  Use two toppers, back to back, for each cupcake.  Place a small skewer or a craft stick between the two topper punch outs.  Secure with glue or a piece of double stick tape.  When you print your cupcake toppers, the two sheets will make enough toppers for one dozen cupcakes.

The beverage wrappers are a simple print, cut and paste.  Print out however many labels you need for your project.  Cut out the labels and secure each around a beverage with a strip of hot glue or a small piece of tape.

That’s it.  Piece of cake (or pumpkin bread!) and you’re three little details closer to an awesome party.  Enjoy!

So, I’m only a mere ten days late with this one… but that’s my life.  A dollar short (or lots of dollars) and a day late (or ten days)…  So, if you don’t mind starting off a little late – better late than never, right? – then here is a printable countdown for you. Otherwise, save it for next year.

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN PRINTABLE CALENDAR

I printed ours out on cardstock and then cut three sides of each of the numbered date boxes with a craft knife so they lift up like tabs.  I had to line up the pages and use a little tape to keep them that way, but you can’t see it, so no big deal.  I put it in a cheap dollar store frame, removed the glass and it’s hanging in our work-in-progress family command center.

Little Monkey thinks it’s the best thing ever.  He has been totally obsessed with the calendar and counts how many more days til Halloween every day.  Every single one.  At least once.  Ah, well… at least he’s excited.  And it has been giving me ideas for things to do with him.  Some times that is the very hardest part.

We remember.  September 11, 2001.  We remember the cataclysmic and horrifying events of 11 years ago.  We remember the shock of such tragedy.  Such loss of life.  Such a blatant attack on the country.  We remember these things.  But mostly, we remember the heroic men and women who died that day.  We remember the family, friends and even the strangers their lives touched.  We remember a patriotism in this country that was so strong and so prevalent you could feel it.  We remember the sacrifices.  We remember the brave.  We remember and we have found the strength to keep on going forward.

This post was written by Krista and originally appeared on While He Was Napping.
If you’d like to get more While He Was Napping, you can find me here: