Drop Cloth Ghost

Happy Halloween everyone!

I'm dropping by to share a quick last minute Halloween decoration that my kids and I whipped up this morning.

DROP CLOTH GHOST! 

 Oh how I love the many uses of drop cloth, don't you? I had this bleached drop cloth left over from making a slipcover for our ugly red chair (one of these days I'll get around to sharing that!) so I turned it into ghost! 

I used styrofoam balls for the heads, tied some twine around the necks and hung it with red and white bakers twine, because that is what I had on hand! ha!

 BOO!

Pretty spooky, huh?

I think we are all set for our friends to come trick-or-treating with us tonight! It is middle of the day and broad day light and the kids already have their costumes on...except the baby and the bigger baby, who would rather go naked if it were up to her. Love 2 year olds!

Have a wonderful night!

Fall Inspiration

 Texas weather is unpredictable. Especially in the Fall and Winter seasons. One day it is warm and the next it is 30 degrees colder and we are pulling coats out and bundling up.

 For example yesterday it was 86 degrees and today it is 54 degrees. That is quite the drop in temps over night if you ask me. We love it though. We love when a cold front blows in. Especially when it literally blows in. Sometimes it is a gradual drop over night and other times the wind picks up and then temps change within minutes. It was always exciting as a child when that happened and still it as an adult. And I see it in my own kids now, that they are just as excited when the weather changes so quickly. 

It is magical!

And speaking of weather changes. It is fall and I haven't shared any of my Fall vignettes yet so here I am doing that now! I love finding inspiration on the web so i hope to inspire you today, too!

The bowl and woven "ball" vase filler are both from Ikea. The other filler surrounding the candle was stuff I already had on hand. It is BHG from Walmart. I got it a couple of years back but I imagine you can still find something similar if not the same thing. 

And as for that lovely green candle? It was a sale item at Pottery Barn. It smells like lavender and cinnimon and evergreen all mixed together. It is AMAZING.

This little collection is on the end table by the couch. I just filled a cracker jar with faux cinnamon sticks, both items that I had on hand from Target. The pumpkin is from Hobby Lobby and the vintage-looking pumpkin post card is something I came across on the web. I can't even remember where now, sorry! I stuck it in a flower frog and called it good! And those coasters? I made those. They are in my shop and in fact, the reason I opened an etsy shop in the first place. That is a story in its own!

One last close up of that sweet pumpkin.

Happy Friday, y'all! Stay warm!

Week Long Summary

This week has been a busy but good week. It was that good kind of busy, ya know? I love the good kind of busy. The kind where you get a lot of thing accomplished and have fun, too. Another successful week of school completed AND a great first quarter. I never got a post in about how we do school. I had great intentions  to do so but it didn't happen. Anywho, since I got all of our papers run off for the whole year (!!!) I also divided the year up to make it easier to organize. Our first grader has a binder with all of her work for a quarter in it so no running off to make copies while school is going on because I realize something was forgotten. SO, as I was saying, we finished a quarter and school is going great. Lots of learning going on.

I also had a couple of custom orders this week from my shop. I love custom orders. I love making something special for someone. With custom orders, there is usually a reason that the person wants the item and I love hearing the story. I get a lot of wedding orders and one of them this week was just that! My client wanted a Bar Menu chalkboard for her daughters wedding next summer. So off to work I went painting and cutting and gluing and photographing to make this custom chalkboard for this very special event. Turns out, the theme of the wedding is Rustic Italian and I think if fits the bill perfectly. I only wish I could be a fly on the wall (or maybe over at the cake table?) and see my creation in action! I loved how it turned out so much I decided to add it to my shop!

I also have been working on another custom order for someone. Sorry, no story behind this one- they just LOVED the LOVE chalkboard and wanted it bigger. Sure thing, so off to painting and cutting and gluing and photographing I went. I love my word chalkboards so much! I've never talked about them before but I'm in love with them. And each and every time I come up with a new word to go on one, I fall in love all over again with them.  Funny thing? I don't have one hanging in my own house! I want one- just trying to decide which one and where to hang it. We have a lot of windows in our kitchen/dining room and not a lot of wall space. That is probably the biggest thing holding me back. But I have been scoping out a spot and hope to get one up soon.

And the most exciting news? This past Wednesday while I was making lunch for my kids I saw an email come through for an order. (YAY!) I opened it up to see what it was and where it was going (always a thrill in our house, finding out where something is going) and noticed that it was going to Meredith Corporation for a photo shoot! What?! Of course I emailed to find out the scoop and what magazine and all the info so I can make sure I get my hands on a copy when it comes out. All I can say is I got the scoop. I'm extremely excited. And they are going to mail me a copy come April when it is published. I high fived these girlies good bye and told them to "make mama proud" as I packed the up to get them in the mail for their very important photo shoot! 

 

 Stay tuned for more details next spring! Yep, I'm gonna make ya wait since I have to wait! I do love these chalkboard tags! I dreamed up the idea a year ago December and this past summer went to work on the design I had in mind and made that dream come true!

 
They are perfect for a name card place setting, to hang from a basket, label a container, hang from a gift basket or turn into a reusable To/From tag... the list goes on! Be sure to check them out in my shop. I just restocked!

And now, after a long night with a fussy baby (teething!) I am ready for bed! Hope everyone had a restful blessed Sunday and a wonderful week!

Bye!

Texas Size it!

We love Ikea, no doubt. We love Ikea even more on Tuesday's when Kids eat free. When we were walking out the door that little voice in my head said "take the camera" but did I listen? No! I told that little voice I wouldn't need it. Man, did I wish I had my camera.

My husband and I split the Sweedish Meatballs. You know how they put the little flag in one of the meatballs? Well, here in Texas, they put a Texas flag if you Texas size it. TOO CUTE! We had never had the meatballs- yum! Who doesn't like sweedish meatballs with gravy, mashed potatoes, corn bread and cranberry sauce!

On our way into the store and through their show rooms I started noticing all sorts of new seasonal things. Again, I WISH I HAD MY CAMERA. Since I couldn't take pictures of my favorites, I'll have to use their website pictures which are far less inspiring than their show room displays.

 

I love these festive tins. They are neutral in color and would look great stacked as a decoration or used for cookies! 

 

Music Note Plates- Yes, Please. I already have Christmas plates but these would mix and match nicely with my pattern. OR you could use them as candle holders or set on on a plate stand just to look pretty!

 

I love these metal vases. In the store they had the cream colored ones with a green lantern on an end table. It was the perfect trio. I'm thinking the same trio but on our coffee table. I'm always looking for kid friendly coffee table decor.

 

This is the lantern that they had with the metal vases. I can't find it on their website but in the store there was a fun vintage green color. I love love love aqua- I'm southern, it's in my blood but I also have a soft spot for vintage green so that is the one we have our eye on for our coffee table trio. 

 

Take a look at these table cloths. My favorite is the top striped one. I haven't measured but I'm hoping it will actually fall short on the long sides so I can have the wood of our table exposed on the ends and just have it hanging over the sides. In the displays they had the table filled with lots of tall vases and other festive decorations. I'd be here all night if I posted it all- and this would be a very long post!

 

Aren't these muffin tins perfect? 1.99 for 200 of them! I think so! I like to use muffin tins for more than just muffins or cupcakes. I sometimes put our kids snack in them for a perfect serving size. I'm also thinking they'd be perfect flattened out to embellish a wrapped gift.

These throw pillow cases are the best. I love the Santa's and the stripes. I hope to add a couple to our living room come December.

 

And I'm over the moon with their wrapping paper this year. I bought a roll discounted at Target last year after Christmas and now have my eye on the music note kraft color paper to mix and match with this year. (Sorry the picture isn't great- they only have the thumb nail on their website.)

Now you can see why I'm kicking myself for leaving the camera behind!

We were very good and didn't by a single thing! I could have been oh so bad but we are on a tight budget and need to stick to it. But, we do have plans to go back and buy a few things. It is actually nice to wait and come home and process all of that goodness first. I hate clutter or even having too much stuff so this way I can give it all some though and plan how many of those adorable throw pillow covers I need, measure for the table cloth, give the coffee table arrangement I have in mind time to digest and basically set a budget for some of these fun items before just buying. Lucky for us our Ikea is only 10-15 minutes away so stopping back by once we decide what we can get isn't a biggie!

I can't wait to take pictures next time in the store and can't wait to share pictures of what we get and how it looks in our own home! Wait for it, I know it will be good!

Even though it is early to think about Christmas, I still hope I inspired you! (and hey, a few of the things we want to get will work all year round! Gotta love that!)

Give Thanks

Hello Everyone! Hope you had a wonderful weekend. We had a busy one full of yard work and cleaning on Saturday and then very low key on Sunday, just the way we like to keep it! It finally cooled down here in our part of the country and was a chilly 58 degrees on Sunday. We broke out the mittens and hats because that is what you do here in Texas when it gets that cold. (We lived in MA for 5 years so we know cold but 58 in Texas is chilly!)

Sunday evening once the kids were in bed I was able to get in some much needed stamping time. I love rubber stamping and lately feel like there is no time to do it. I'm trying to change that and use my time more wisely so I can stamp more often. How's that plan sound? I'm on board!

Here are two Fallish cards I made. My inspiration came from here. 

They were both simple to make using what I had on hand. Sometimes I come up with my own designs but most of the time I use other people's work for inspiration. I usually don't have the exact things they used in their cards so it makes mine unique in their own.

 I don't have a leaf stamp so I used a die cut leaf and sponged the leaf to the card. A few simple layers of paper, lattice embossing  die used on the left edge, bakers twine finished with a "Thanks" stamp.

 I love how neutral this one is. Again, some lattice embossing, a leaf die, doily die cut out of dictionary paper, rustic twine and a "Give Thanks" stamp.

Now I have two Fall thank you cards to send out! (I'm a little behind on thank you's for the boys' birthday back in August! So I can now check that off the list!)

Have a wonderful Monday!

Celabrating 90 Years!

While I finish up my coffee and before educating the kids today, I thought I'd share a fun little DIY cake topper that I made. This past Saturday all 7 of us and an Auntie loaded up in our Suburban and headed to Houston to give my Grandfather one heck of a surprise party. About a week ago he turned 90! What a milestone birthday that is. Food was pretty much covered with everyone bringing sides and appetizers so being the crafty one in the family I asked if I could bring a special cake topper for the hummingbird cake my mom was baking. (I'll have to get the recipe to share sometime, it was amazing- I now weigh 400 lbs and don't even care!)

 I started searching pinterest and found a couple of ideas but nothing that really spoke to me. So then I started browsing Martha Stewart's website and inspiration struck!

 So between this:

 

and this:

 I CAME UP WITH THIS:

card stock, die cut machine, photos and bamboo skewers hot glued on the back

 I loved the idea of the pictures, thinking I could use some old childhood pictures of him but I also loved the pinwheels all at multiply heights- so why not do a little combo?

Happy 90th Grandaddy!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and made some fun memories!