Thursday, October 15, 2009

I WANT This Dining Room!

I'm officially jealous!


I found a new blog to follow a couple of days ago and am in awe of her dining room.  You can check her blog out HERE

I don't think I'd ever leave her dining room if she invited me over for a visit.  Not only is my fav color on the wall but the window treatments are divine!  I've been searching for a room to paint this color for a little while now.  I love the way the teal in her room looks paired with the dark furniture and neutral drapes.  Gives me great ideas for our Kitchen & Dining Room remodel coming up (soon hopefully!).

Not the usual post for me but I had a big silly grin on my face when I saw the above picture so I thought I'd share it.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

More Halloween Fun!

I added a few finishing touches to my front room shelves today.

I'm so excited with how it turned out!

LOVE the shelves but I'm not sure what I think about the crooked picture!  Might have to change it...

The frame below was super easy.  Just an empty frame, spiderweb and little spiders.  The wire behind the frame doesn't show up in person (much) so I didn't remove it.  Apparently the flash on my camera catches it just right to make it show.


Earlier this week I had the family help me make some ghosts.  Even my husband made one - yup, I got him to craft with me.  He made this little cutie with the bow.  I made the bow for him, didn't want him to feel too overwhelmed with his first craft project.  We took the easy route for the ghosts and used spray starch.  It was a quick, no mess way to make some fun Halloween decorations.


This is the ghost I made.  The thing on his chest is supposed to be a tie... no???
The spider is actually a toy I stole from my son's toybox.  It's one of those jumping spiders minus the little tube.


Here's the ghost my 10 year-old made.  He wanted fangs so fangs he made.  He's also holding a sword but you can't really see it in this angle because of the frame.  I love that he didn't want just a plain ghost.

The 'Wicked' deco is really a warning.  The woman in the picture can be quite a beasty... shhh... don't tell her I said that.

This is all I'll probably do in the house.  I don't have many places that are out of reach of the children - they are true monkeys and have already tried to get to the pumpkins on the shelves.

Up next some fun stuff in the windows and a group of ghosts for the front yard (I'm really excited about this one!)

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Bat Chandelier

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. Since buying my home a few years back it seems we are working on a major project every year right around Halloween so I don’t spend time or money decorating. This year I decided it was time to change that. My first project was inspired by a decoration I found at pottery barn kids here. It’s cute but not $60 cute (now on sale for $45 but still not that cute)

Here’s my interpretation
SO DANG CUTE!
What you'll need:
3 cross-stitch hoops (I used a 12", 9" and 6")
Stringy Yarn
Craft Foam
Black Electrical Tape
Black Paint
Bat Shape - I used the one above.

Step 1: Paint the inside portion of the cross-stitch hoops black. You can use spray paint or any other craft paint. I used craft paint because it's what I had on hand.

Step 2: Cut your yarn. I cut mine 28" long and used 9 pieces for the chandelier and another 2 for the top. So a total of 11 lengths of yarn.

Step 3: Tie the yarn to the biggest hoop first spacing them as evenly as possible.

Step 4: This one was the trickiest step for me. I ended up using 2 Prego jars to hold the 9" hoop up while I tied them the string to it. Be sure to tie the knots loosely, we'll tighten them up later.

Step 5: Flip your chandelier right side up again and tie the top 2 strings in an X across the top - this is how you will hang your chandelier.

Step 6: Hang the chandelier (with only the two tiers done) and try to get it balanced. Once it's as level as you'd like tighten the knots. I actually spent a long time trying to get the hoops even but never really accomplished the goal. I figured it's for Halloween and a little crooked would only add to the effect - so mine's uneven on purpose /wink/wink/.

Step 7: Leave the chandelier hanging and attach the third tier. Another tricky step. Make sure everything is balanced and tighten the knots. You can also place a dab of craft glue on the inside where each string is attached to each hoop to add extra strength.

It's getting close - this is when I started getting excited.

Step 8: Trace your bat shapes onto craft foam and cut them out. I used 16 bats for mine.

Step 9: Attach the bats with pieces of black electrical tape.

Step 10: Husband asks why I hung the chandelier on the hook and suggests putting it over the light. GREAT IDEA!



Gives the entry way a nice creepy vibe!