Too Soon Gone!

 Am I the only one who thinks the weekends just go way too quickly? It seems as if I was just reveling in Fri-YAY and here it is Monday...and the weekend is over! I hope you had a good one. Mine was meant to be uneventful but that isn't how things ever stay around here.

Saturday was rainy and dreary so I started this ridiculously easy craft which I will share in a minute because I knew my grandson's college football game would be on at noon and I needed to be ready...and I was just not quite ready for another total nail biter and finally a "WIN" in overtime once again. I told him last week that his Nana was getting too old for that kind of a game and he assured me this week would be different. They were playing the team that they beat by 69 points last year. I guess that team remembered that game and was just NOT going to let that happen again. They came out full steam and it truly wasn't over until the absolute last play in overtime! Go Bears!!!

The rains had settled by the time the game was over but it was like a sauna outside so I decided to call it a day...until my phone rang and it was grandson #2 asking if he could come over and do some fence repairs for me. Since what was left was pretty much things I couldn't do alone, the answer was easy. And so, out we went. And, while he was doing things that didn't need a second hand, I was pulling vines out of the fence growing in from the back field and picking up small branches that came down with our recent rains.

He got so much done for me but we called it a day as the next few things will need some supplies and it was too late to hit the store on a Saturday night.

All seemed right with the world until I woke up at about 2 a.m. with my fingers itching and I immediately knew what that meant. Somewhere out there I had once a again come into contact with whatever it is the I am allergic to. I know it wasn't poison ivy this time as there was none of that but one of the vines did have some scratchy kind of leaves so I figured that must be it, put some anti-itch cream on it and went back to bed.

Yesterday it was still itchy but doing my best to ignore it, I headed out to the yard on the other side of the pool to do some trimming and weeding. It was SO HOT out there and I kept wiping my face with a towel...until I realized that my cheek near my nose was itchy. For some reason, bells didn't go off. I just thought it was because I was perspiring so much. Imagine my surprise when I got up this morning and found that my nose and cheek-right up to my eye-were now all bumpy and blistery as well and I am scary looking-well, scarier looking than usual. I am having the worst time NOT rubbing my face but I am trying so hard because I really don't want whatever this is to get into my eye. Hence, once again my errands are not happening so I finished my little craft and thought I would show you.

This is the Mason jar I picked up at $Tree. I don't have all that much Thanksgiving decor so I thought this might look cute with a make-over and nestled in the carpenter's box or somewhere else in the kitchen.

I've taken things like this apart before and I usually have to use the hot tip of the glue gun to snap the metal and cords but this time it all literally just "fell" off.

Then I peeled off the image and gave it a light sanding.

 

I used the water method and ripped down the image to fit the jar.

Then I gave the jar and the metal leaf a quick coat of Waverly antique wax. When that was dry I ModPodged on the image. I also gave the "jar lid" a light coating of ModPodge sprinkled with cinnamon and when that was dry a quick shot of matte sealer to keep the cinnamon in place.

At this point I forgot to take any more pictures but I snipped some foliage off of things around the house and glued that onto the jar. Then I took some red, yellow and orange paint and just kind of "blobbed" them onto the leaf. When the paint was dry I came back with a bit of antique wax and then a top coat of ModPodge before adding the leaf to the jar and then tying it all up with some new twine.

And here it is...almost too easy to share but cute never-the-less.

Not sure what the rest of the day holds. I am out of ideas for my next craft so I guess I'll be hitting up Pinterest before too long. Stay safe and stay tuned.

They're Coming Too Quickly!

 It seems like every time I turn around it is Fri-YAY again. Not that I'm complaining mind you but boy does it remind me of just how quickly the weeks fly by these days! In any case, today is a wet, dreary day so the errands I was going to run will just have to wait. That sent me around the house looking for something to do-believe it or not, I got most of my household chores already done this week! I moved a few things around and when there was no more to move, I resorted to Pinterest hoping to spur a new idea.

And, as usually happens, Pinterest did not disappoint. I came upon this picture in my feed.

I am always drawn to pictures with script not to mention the ornate frame and autumn colors. And, of course, the raven. I quickly made a copy and then, thanks to grand daughter Hannah, I was actually able to figure out how to resize it on my new computer to exactly what the size I wanted. That feat used to be so easy on my old program but it is a lot more complicated now. I NEVER would have figured it out without her help...it takes a village to raise this Nana. Lol

I won't even pretend to insult your intelligence by going through the steps again. I wish I had anything else to put it on but an 8X10 canvas was all I had in my stash. I did the usual and ended up with something I liked but after putting it where I wanted, I just felt like to was too small.

The image was exactly what I wanted but the size was just not cutting it! I suppose if I actually hung it higher it may have been acceptable but I don't want yet another nail hole in that wall!

Of course then I was back running around the house and garage trying to come up with an acceptable solution. I happened upon an old 8X10 frame I had that had some "weight" so I adhered the canvas to the frame and propped it up on some wood blocks. I think I'm OK with it so now I guess I'll have to stain that wood block that I can see glaring out from behind the dough bowl.

And then since I had everything out I made another canvas to use in the family room for Halloween where I have all of the other "Black Hat Society" things. This time the original print was a very odd size so no amount resizing helped and there was just a lot of "edge" left after I ModPodged the print onto the canvas. It was black paint and it was OK but I just wasn't feeling it so I rusted it up. Now it looks like an old, rusty metal sign and will fit right in the the other "witchy:" stuff in the family room.

And while I was tweaking, I got back to the "moon" wreath I zhuzhed up a bit the other day. It still wasn't moving me but not really knowing where it would go wasn't helping...until I saw a plain black twig wreath in Target. I thought the moon might look better backed by the black wreath and then I decided to try adding some fairy lights. I love the way these look-and they're on a timer-but I really dislike working with them. They are so hard to keep untangled and don't want to stay where you put them but seem to catch on everything-especially this twig wreath-so they end up where you DON'T want them. In any case, once I figure out where this will hang I will know better what will stay and what might not but, for now, I'm liking this configuration the best so far!

That's it for today. Have a wonderful weekend! Stay safe and stay tuned.

 

Another Snip & Snail Day

 Unless there is something special on my calendar, most days I wake up not really having a plan. What I do that day will probably depend on my mood, my energy level, what the weather may or may not do or any number of other things. And that was just how today started. I do have a few errands needing doing this week but, since today is Monday, I decided to stay home and get some things done around the house...vacuuming and changing sheets and washing duvets being the priorities on the list.

And that was what I was doing but somewhere in there, I found my way to my office and I glanced at the little vintage Halloween cauldron I made the other day and, once again, something just bothered me about it. I hadn't ever really been in love with it but I wasn't sure why. Today I think I figured it out. I think the bats on the tree are too "heavy".

Everything else in the vignette is two dimensional-except the pumpkin which I have no issue with-and the bats have three dimensions. And so, while the washer was on, I decided to try something. I cut out some bats from black cardstock and gave them a layer of the fine black glitter from Martha Stewart. You can probably tell that I did these right at my desk...lighting is horrible but it is what it is.

Then I snipped off the old ones and added the new and, VOILA! It is really ridiculous how something so silly can make me so happy. For some reason the bats now look like they belong. Lol

And then while still waiting for the wash to finish I noticed that when I put the beards on my Santa ornaments I must have grabbed the iridescent crystal glitter instead of the plain.

 You really can't see it here when they were first done but for whatever reason, by this morning the glitter on the hat was reading "pink". It looked like the red paint had bled but since there was no red paint in that area, it was just the iridescence and I didn't like it...so, this happened also.

And, since the glue gun was hot I decided it was time to get the holly on the Santas. Of course, when I went to HL the other day to buy said holly, this year's crop was different. The leaves were larger and edged in gold-which I didn't like at all. But, being my only option, I grabbed a package and besides cutting those very small little bats, I ended up cutting the gold off of the edges of the holly! Am I the only one who does things like this? Lol

I bought several choices of cording for the hangers so once the glue and glitter are good and dry I will get these finished up. 

So I guess that's all of my excitement for today...doesn't take a lot! Lol I'm off to get the rest of my chores done. Can't wait to see what transpires tomorrow! Stay safe and stay tuned.

 

Rainy Days

 It looks like the rain is starting earlier than the usual afternoon pattern today and it is probably going to be like this most of the day. I did have a few things I thought I could get to outside but now that I'm having to do a pivot, I realized that I haven't actually finished our autumn tour. I have the two bathrooms left and the porch-which, still don't have new mums yet as the least time I was at the garden center, there were still none to be had! I do have my older mums from last year and they are blooming and looking OK which is probably why I haven't thought to go searching again. But I will...I promise because there is NOTHING like a beautiful FULL basket of blooming mums this time of year-and, hopefully then they will last throughout November!

All of that being said, the porch looks just like it did in 2022 so I'll give you a peek at that. And, while I was perusing those photos, I found the pictures of even more beautiful mums in the house so that will be my next outing! Hopefully they've made it to the stores by now!

Oh yeah, this sign has since been repainted. Lol

Let's check out the guest bath.

And then, of course, the slight nod to the season in the master bath.

As I look at these pictures I am reminded of the mixed feelings that I always have this time of year. I really love Halloween-and orange and black-but I think my absolute favorites are the colors of autumn and I am always somewhat sad to see them go. Luckily, a lot of them will return in November for Thanksgiving but there is just something SPECIAL about September!

I was looking at the rest of my craft supplies and trying to decide what I am going to do with the vintage moon I found at Target awhile back........and we interrupt this blog to bring you the U.S. Coast Guard Academy football game. Lol

When I looked at the clock I realized that it was almost time for my grandson's first game of the year to begin and, since this year they had some new fangled way to subscribe to watch the games, I knew I would need a bit if time to get signed up and good to go. Thanks to my daughter (his mom) and her hubby, I was up and running pretty quickly and I am so glad I was! This was a nail biter game down to the very last play. It went back and forth so many times but the Bears won in overtime! Yay! I will say that I realized how old I really am when the other team's kicker missed a field goal that would have given them the win right there and I was feeling all sorry for him. I could be his Nana and I know he was so upset with himself...but, I digress!

Daughters #1 & 3 were there and got to see it all first hand! Harrison was looking pretty tired as they were waiting to go into overtime.

Feeling much better now that there was a WIN in their column!

That game truly wore me out but once I had recouped, I went back to the moon. I had picked that up weeks ago in the Target $ Spot. I loved its vintage feel and I had a few ideas of what I might try but each one of them would have seen the moon added to a larger base and I guess I'm doing myself a disservice but, since I have absolutely no idea where this will end up and how large a space it will have, I decided to just amp up the florals so the wire ring was a bit more covered for now. I found some florals at the $Tree that were close to the original color of the flower on the wreath and then stuck in some pip berry spirals as well. I figure if it needs more presence when I'm ready to use it, I can amp it up a bit more.

This is close to how it came. I did add some walnut and mustard colored distress wax to it to tone down the "white" before I started. It actually didn't look all that bad. I just wanted to make sure that all of the wire was covered.

So that ended my day. Not sure what will come next. Stay safe and stay tuned.

Fun Fri-YAY

 I'm always happy when I have some craft supplies on hand even if I don't really know what I am doing with them...and, after yesterday's haul, I have a lot. And so, I awoke today looking forward to making something. 

Of course, the first thing that I did was to stain the dough bowl. I wanted to do it the easiest way possible which meant using my Waverly antique wax instead of pulling out the Minwax stain. I prefer the antique wax because it is water soluble and, in this case, it is a good thing it was!

The dough bowl has a very rough finish to it so I anticipated it slurping up the wax very quickly...and it did! Even more quickly than I had thought. And, the bowl got VERY dark...actually much more dark than even I liked. Luckily I had decided to do this in the kitchen so I was able to immediately get it under running water and I was able to knock down the darkness quite a bit. I guess I was also lucky that I was trying to stain something that could be put under water. In any case, it came out just as I wanted.

Then, of course, I had to decide where I wanted the bowl and the raven. I really think I am going to want it in the living room for Halloween and it needs to be near an electrical outlet so I decided to put it in the front entry. I will say that if I was just starting to decorate for fall, I would have put a lot more thought into this but, because the decor is already done-and probably not going to be up that much longer-I didn't have it in me to start rearranging everything.

And so, I moved the wood pumpkin that was once here and took apart the urn...and came up with this. Again, if I was just starting this there would probably be something different in the dough bowl for the raven to sit on but I used what I had.

Of course then that big blank spot drove me crazy so I found a piece of an old spindle out in the garage and found a short orange candle to put on it. It is definitely not the total answer but I was good with it for today because I wanted to get going on my little Halloween craft. And, the wall does look a bit more balanced.

I had seen some cute little vintage Halloween shelf sitters that people did with images they ordered from Amazon. As much as I liked their images, I just couldn't justify spending that much unless I was going to use most of the images-to just use one or two seemed silly. And so, I hit my "Halloween" file and found a cute little witch that I have used before. I printed her on cardstock and cut her out. Then, I gave her a coat of ModPodge to give her a bit of a finish and put a coat of the same on the shiny plastic cauldron to give it some "tooth" before painting it with black chalk paint. I did that for two reasons-I didn't want the shiny finish and I didn't wanted the "Happy Halloween" sentiment on the sides.

Then I backed the image with a piece of black card stock to give her more rigidity and then just started to build. I had a lot of Halloween embellishments from so many projects over the years so I just started playing. I ended up putting some floral foam in the cauldron and gluing on the tree. Then I covered the foam with some Halloween garland. I added pieces of chop stick to the girl, the pumpkin and the haunted house and inserted them into the foam and then added the web and the bats-which were rings that I cut apart. It isn't exactly what I was going for but it's cute and will fill in an empty spot somewhere-if there is and empty spot somewhere. Lol

So that's it for today. I've got to clean up and then get potted plant watered before I can sit down and put my feet up. I'm not sure what the weekend holds but I'll be back soon. Until then, stay safe and stay tuned.

My Shopping Haul

 I have always loved shopping but these days I really don't enjoy it as much as I used to. What with traffic, crowds, eye and back issues and the heat, I am usually just as happy to stay home as I am to head out. But, every now and then it is necessary. And, of course, with this being my favorite season and leading in to a number of other favorite holidays, I will admit that my curiosity gets the most of me and every now and then I just have to get out to see what is on the shelves.

Here is my haul for today-and only two stops. It looks like a lot-and I guess it is, but it all either came from the $Tree or HL and was on sale for 40-50% off.

I actually only have plans for one craft from all of that stuff but I have seen things done in the past with some of these items and I have learned that if you don't buy it when you see it, it will probably not be there when you go back. That is the case with the two black Halloween trees. I would never just use them as is but I have seen them used in other ways so I have them if I need them.

That is kind of the same thing with the wood Mason jar. I'm thinking I can do something cute with that for Thanksgiving.

I always grab candle holders when I see them as well as seasonal pot holders.

And, I found almost everything I needed in HL to finish my Santa ornaments and "ribbon candy" tree holder. Not sure how I will finish this but I think it will be cute in the kitchen for the holidays.

If you look carefully you will see a few more "dropping" greenery sprays that I will add to the mantle and some autumn flowers and pumpkins to add to some craft ideas I'm just developing. The bottle brush trees and small cauldrons are part of that idea as well. I think with some downloaded vintage images added this could be cute. We'll see how it works out.

And then, one can never have too many candle rings. I don't know why but I have become obsessed with them. I added the autumn one to the candle in the dining room and then moved what was there to the kitchen. And the green one ended up in the family room.

And, I can't stop thinking about my new "raven". For some reason I see him in a dough bowl but the one that I have is too big for where he will probably go so I grabbed this cutie on sale...but, of course you know that that wood is too light for me so as soon as I get some old clothes on, the stain will come out and this should work out just fine for my idea. Again, we shall see.

So that's it for today. I think I might need to run out a few more places tomorrow but I'll be back to show you how my ideas turn out---if they turn out. Lol Stay safe and stay tuned.