DIY Sugar Skull (Day of the Dead) Milk Jug Luminaries

Currently my college friend Kim is visiting us for the week.  It's been really nice having someone else here while hubby is away.  Time just passes by much quicker when you're having fun with a friend.

And just how have we been having fun?  Well, we've been playing with Chuck... and eating... and watching tv... and crafting... a lot... a whole lot...  Halloween and Dia De Los Muertos are right around the corner, so all of our crafts have been centered around those two holidays. 

I'm currently on a sugar skull kick.  I just love the way they look.  So when I was staring at an old milk jug the other day, an idea dawned on me.  Ding!  Why not use them to make some sugar skull luminaries?  So tada, here's what I came up with:

I'd seen tons of posts for ghost milk jug luminaries for awhile, so I figured this was a nice twist on that craft.  It uses skulls and colorful lights instead of ghost faces and white lights.   I just love how this little guy turned out.  He's so cute and smiley... and gosh darn it, I've just got a big ol' soft soft for any craft that involves twinkly, colorful lights.

Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire

And finally, our trip to Lancaster was made fully complete with a visit to the nearby Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire.    

That's right... I finally got a chance to wear my flower crown!

All hail the Queen!

The amazing Gandolf the White

This little guy was locked up in pirate's prison.  The crime?  Being too darn cute.

Two little kids (in full protective gear), trying to pop the balloons attached to the other

Headless knight

Not sure why, but Chuck was infatuated with this giant Pumpkin man

Here he is standing at the foot of the giant pumpkin statue

 Happy Tuesday!

Trip to Lancaster

We just got back yesterday from our trip to visit hubby in Pennsylvania. He's been down there for work so we thought we'd hang out with him and enjoy the scenery.  

Here are some photos from downtown Lancaster:

Lancaster's Central Market was hustling, bustling, and full of yummy foods!

Then, we visited Cherry Crest Adventure Farm.  It was amazing because there were tons of fun activities to do and lots of yummy baked goods and apple cider to sample. (I wish we lived closer so that we could go back....)

Chuck loved riding the "choo choo" wagon ride!

Yummy freshly roasted corn

My first whoopie pie (Apparently these sweet treats originated from Lancaster county.  Legend has it that children yelled "Whoopie!" when they found these baked treats in their lunch pails.)

Day at the farm from Pink Stripey Socks on Vimeo.

I had to stop and admire the beautiful view.  It's so different from the one at home.

We ended the night by warming ourselves around the bonfire.   It felt like a perfect Fall day.

What's up, Chuck?

Yay!  It's finally Friday.  I've been counting down the days to the weekend since Monday.  Hooray! We made it. 

*Collapses*

The week really crawled by and honestly, by Wednesday I was ready to throw in the towel. (Do you ever feel like this too?  Too bad we can't just build ourselves a time machine and fast forward to Fridays and cool holidays.)  Thank God we made it.  Now it's finally Friday we're going to visit hubby in Pennsylvania.  I'm really looking forward to seeing him and hanging out together as a family.  Cross your fingers that the weather stays sunny for us, ok? 

Hopefully this weekend will be as nice as the last.  We had lots of adventures with family and friends.  Hubby came back from work, we celebrated a cousin's birthday, and I met up with my college roommates in the city.   Here are some photos from our adventures: 

Here's Chuck hanging out with Auntie Grace at the birthday party.  (This kid loves balls, gluten free pizza, rice kripsy treats, and balloon animals.  Luckily for him, the party included all of the above, so we had a blast!)

Me, my sister, and my cousin

I loved seeing this little cutie utterly enchanted by a puffy yellow yarn ball. 

It was so nice just hanging out with old college friends that I didn't remember to whip out my camera.  All I have to remember our time spent together are these sparkly nails.  One of the gals brought some cool nail stickers for us to try out.  It felt like we were back in college, laying on someone's bed, chatting and laughing.  (Can you see Chuck's hand in the background?  He wanted some sparkly nails too.)

This last photo is kind of unrelated but I wanted to include it anyway.  Nana gave Chuck a whole bunch of car socks.  He loves wearing them, but kept slipping and sliding on our wood floors.   I added some black puff paint to the bottom of his socks and now he's got some traction.  No more slipping!  (Thanks Pinterest!)

That's it!  I hope you have a wonderfully relaxing and refreshing weekend friends.  See you next week!

Guest Post: DIY Sugar Skull Shoes

Earlier this week I shared that Allison from Dream A Little Bigger and I were doing post swaps.  On Monday I visited her blog and showed how I made these cute and colorful perler bead bracelets.  Surprise!  Today Allison's over here, presenting this super cool sugar skull shoe tutorial.  With Halloween and Dia de los Muertos coming up, this craft is a great one to do.   It'll certainly get you into the spooky spirit!




 Hello! My name is Allison and I'm a crafty cat lady that blogs over at Dream a Little Bigger. Crafting and creating is what I love to do and I'm so happy that I'm able to share that with all the sweet readers at Pink Stripey Socks! I'm a huge fan of Leslie and I'm so excited to be guesting here today! I've kind of sort of got this huge thing for shoes. Not fancy or designer shoes or anything but shoes I've made up and crafted on. It's a pretty big deal and so far I've made almost 60 DIY shoe tutorials. Don't believe me? Check this gallery 
out.