The latest in Dead Pirate Decor!

Front Porch- The Port

 

The entrance represented the Port cities of Louisiana that dispatched our dearly departed pirates. My friend Raymond (the skeleton) was piratized and welcomed our guests.

 



My prop maker (AKA Papa) cut up logs and lashed them with rope for my piers. He also used up some old boards for a crate and went to an auction and procured the barrels and big rope. 

 

 

Front Room- Pirate's Den 

 This was my favorite new prop this year. I antiqued a couple of very cool severed hands I found at

K-Mart and I hot glued them to my metal drapery tie backs. I scared myself a couple of times when I saw hands peeking out from behind my drapes!

 

 

 

 

Wall Photos- Great Pirates I have Known

 

These are pictures from a Gramma Camp on Pirates that I Photo Shopped and enlarged. 

 

 

 

 

 

Bejewelled and pearlized skull with a string of mini LED lights inside his mouth

 

 

Flintlock Fonda and a former flame!

 

The Dining Room- Gothic New Orleans

 

 

 

 

 

Family Room- Davey Jones Locker

 

I still had the lockers from Zombie Prom in my family room with no way

to remove them, so I converted them to Davey Jones Lockers.

  

I hot glued sea shells to magnets and applied them to the lockers along with nets and sign.

We hung blue cellophane on the ceiling for waves and glitter circles for bubbles.

 

My grandkids cut out and hung fish from fishing line in the bay window.

 

The Deck -The Swamp

We got just a wee bit behind (OK, we were completely overwhelmed and were barely getting the food out when out Putrid pirates started arriving, so the fact that we got any pictures of anything is a miracle in itself!) The deck AKA The Swamp was my very most favorite space. We hung shredded green dyed cheesecloth from the pergola for moss along with lanterns made from mason jars. I repurposed my Spooky Old Tree from Gramma Camp by hanging Spanish Moss from it and covering it with flickering lights that looked like flames. The dessert table was covered in burlap and sheet moss with wood slab serving plates and cake stands. We also hung Fairy Berries, (which i'm going to buy tons more of!) from the eaves over the food. These are little lights like they have at The Blue Bayou Restaurant in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. They flicker on and off like fireflies. We also had a sign that said,"Watch for Gators" and a soundtrack of a swamp at night with crickets, frogs and bird calls. It had a ton of atmosphere!



 

 

Check back later for more Putrid Pirate Fun & Games!

 

Gramma Luvlee

 

November 2013 Visiting Teaching Handout

I love that we can choose our visiting teaching message in November from among the many thoughts that may have touched us in the previous months General Conference. One talk I especially appreciated was the Talk:The moral force of women by Elder D. Todd Christofferson. Even though I don't still have children in my home I do have children who look to me and my example. One thing he said that really struck home was," a mother can exert an influence unequaled by any other person in any other relationship. By the power of her example and teaching, her sons learn to respect womanhood and to incorporate discipline and high moral standards in their own lives. Her daughters learn to cultivate their own virtue and to stand up for what is right, again and again, however unpopular".
For my handout I used a special photograph I took of a sweet granddaughter that exemplifies that innocence and beauty that I see in her and all my granddaughters.




November 2013 Visiting Teaching Handout

Shake yer "Booty" on the Bayou- Invites & prizes

What's better than a pirate? A DEAD pirate of course! This years' Halloween party let everyone get their secret longings to be a pirate to the forefront. We had to base our pirates in the South (because I wanted to serve Cajun Cuisine) so I had to create a storyline to get them there and to get them dead and reanimated!

The party storyline

 

 The Invitation

 

The invitation was rolled up and sent in an Oriental Trading Bottle Invitation. I added real sand, some shells, a ring and eye patch. I made my own labels then decorated the bottle with cheese cloth, twine and skull beads. I hung a sweet little dead pirate skeleton in a noose and attached it to the bottle.

 

Haunted Pirate Invitation

 

The Bottle Invite Wrapped in the Storyline

 

 

Dead Pirate Party Invitation

 

Treat Bags (AKA The Booty!)

 

Each year the kids go out into the dark and spooky graveyard (The Haunted Pumpkin Patch) and find a pumpkin with a number. They get a prize with a corresponding number. Well, since we're all dead pirates I thought it would be fun to do things a little differently. To get their treat bag (The Booty) they had to participate in the "Dead Man Decathlon", based very loosely on the famous "Iron Man Decathlon. Here, they had to prove their worthiness to be crewmen on my ship and they had to perform pirately task for gold coins. If they had enough coins in their pouches at the end they took them to the quartermaster and got a Booty" sack of treats and pirate prizes.

 

Some very brave pirates and their "Booty".

 

 I attached these seals to handled bags.

Pirate treat bag seals

 

The Loot

 

We filled up the bags with all kinds of pirate loot, including some of these in each bag.

 

  

 

Pirate Popcorn Treat

 

Chocolate covered wafer "Plank" cookies

 

 

 

 Whopper's cannon balls

 

 

Pirate's Gold Booty

   

Do-Nut Pirate Treat

 

 

Mermaid Snack Mix-gummy octopus, Swedish fish and pearl Sixlets

 

 

 

Pirate's Gold-Fish!

 

 

 

Dead man's trail mix

 

Why is the "Gum" gone?  Pirate Gum Toppers

 

I forgot to take a picture of these, but suffice it to say , "They were stinkin' cute"! I put a pearlized white and a black gumball in a pretzel sack, cut it off and stapled this to the top. 

 

Pirate Pop

 

I printed these out on label paper and attached them to IBC Root Beer.

 

Stay tuned....There's more to come!

 



                                                               Gramma Luvlee