Just a Quick Pop-In

I had a few minutes this morning so I thought I would play around with my Halloween sign to see if I couldn't get some ravens in the picture. That way, I think it would fit better into the living room and I wouldn't have to move my Poe vignette. I got out my trusty Cricut and started with two sizes of images.

 They were close but I went on to try a larger one and then two smaller. I thought I wanted three ravens to represent my three daughters but then I found places for all five and I think I love it. Right now they are just on with a tiny piece of double sided tape so nothing is permanent. If I end up keeping it like this I will use an adhesive to glue down the whole image. The branches that the bird is sitting on really helped me out because I could put them where I wanted and as long as it was anywhere near one of the branches already in the picture, it looked OK.

Of course, if I go with this on the wall, I am going to have to cut those legs off of the sign and that gives me a bit of pause because that could go horribly wrong if I'm not really careful and my miter saw isn't co-operating when I do it. We shall see. I'm also not sure if I might want to coat the ravens with a sealer making them a bit shiny like the rest of the picture. Right now they are a bit duller and stand out-maybe that's a good thing. And, if I should happen to find something else for the wall, this cutie will go on the bottom shelf of the console in the dining room which is where I had intended all along.

That's all I've got for today but I'll be back soon. Daughter #1 is coming tomorrow to drop off my grand dog who I will be sitting while she and daughter #3 head to New Hampshire for my grandson's first football game of the season and then to NYC to see Lady Gaga. Then, daughter #1 will come back here and we will celebrate granddaughter #4's birthday while daughter #3 and her family continue on to CT for Parents' Weekend at the Academy. Looks like I will actually have three dogs for a few of those days as things overlap. Life around here never gets dull. Lol Stay safe and stay tuned.

:Sunny Day"

 Let's head into the sunroom. As always, there is pretty minimal seasonal decor in here because so much of this room gets used and it is just easier to use when there are not many things that need to be moved.

I LOVE this piece given to me by daughter #3. She used it for quite some time in her home and then it went out on the porch where it took a "hit" from something and lost a corner. I had always loved that piece...so much so that I almost ordered it from Grandin Road not knowing that she already had it but, in the end, I held off because it was not inexpensive. When she offered it to me because she was ready to toss it, I snapped it up and, quite honestly, did my jerry-rigging magic! If I remember correctly, I used wood compound and spackling to "build" a new corner and then a mix of acrylic paint colors to cover the fix as well as touch up a lot of other spots. If I do say so myself, you almost can't tell where the fix happened. I was quite reluctant to move this piece from the dining room but, when daughter #1 offered me a piece from her house that I also loved-and which would literally fit nowhere else in my house- I swapped places and I actually love it here.

That's about it for this room. I do have an autumn pillow on the couch, a vase of autumn foliage on my desk and an autumn candle and vase of orange flowers on the chest by the door to the garage...and that is it.

Not sure what our weather is going to do this afternoon so I'm off to grab some lunch and then I will decide what the rest of the day will bring. Stay safe and stay tuned.

Yiippee!

 Those of you who know me or follow this blog know that I LOVE Fri-YAYs! It is the one day of the week that I truly give myself permission to do just what I want. I know, I know. As my girls like to remind me, I am retired. I can do what I want any time I want. But, I don't!! There are always things to be done so I try to get them done...but not on Fri-YAY. 

And so I awoke today so excited about trying my Halloween cat. I will admit that I couldn't wait until today so I did start to paint the Christmas bottle brush tree I showed you yesterday-which, for those of you who might be new, was NOT the Halloween colors I needed. I didn't get a good picture of it but this will give you the idea.

I grabbed a can of black spray paint because I knew I had to get paint on not only the bristles but the trunk as well as it was definitely green. To my amazement, it worked perfectly. I simply masked off the top of the tree with wax paper and gave it a nice spray! Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture of that but, when I then discovered that I no longer had any orange spray paint, I toyed with the idea of leaving it black and white and carrying on. The only problem with that was that every time I looked at it, I saw a penguin so, on to plan B.

Plan B could involve waiting and buying a new can of orange spray paint but that stuff is costly these days and I would have had to make another trip out somewhere. Or, I could think of another way to get the top orange. And so, I went for it. I watered down some orange acrylic paint just enough that it would flow a bit better, held the tree upside down and began brushing on the color. And, much to my surprise, it worked perfectly. I do wish I hadn't painted it black up as high as I did but the orange was resistant to covering the black so I couldn't quite fix that. After I had it pretty soaked, I hung it from the kitchen faucet and let it dry overnight.

Then I started to construct some of the pieces I would need. I made a cone out of the felt for the hat.

I painted the wood base with the spray paint and used my Dremel to make a hole in the center for the trunk. The blogger I used as inspiration cut her stem all the way off and just used hot glue but she wasn't happy with the amount she had to use to get the tree to sit straight so I figured it might work better with the hole as support and it did.

I used a piece of wire to fringe the collar. Once I had as much as I thought I would need, I folded it in half on the wire and twisted it around the tree and tucked it under the cat's neck-after gluing on the cat face and adding a pompom and some eyelash yarn to the hat.

All that was left was making his arms out of black pipe cleaners and inserting them into the tree. I used used a small piece of a sparkly black pipe cleaner to make the pumpkin handle for his arm. I added two orange pompoms as buttons and I did go ahead and get the spiders that the original poster used. I liked the ones with the orange glitter. I tried to avoid hot glue as much as possible because it does leave tons of strings but, it is about the only thing you can use to get an immediate grip on the bristles. I had so many strings that I actually got out some tweezers so I could grab them out of the deepest places.

I still think he may need a tweak or two-like those arms. I just can't seem to get them right. But he is cute.

I love the way he goes with the vintage sign I grabbed yesterday.

And I am becoming obsessed with this sign. This is kind of what it would look like if I cut off the feet to use it as a painting on my wall. If I don't find anything I like better, this will happen! I wish there was a raven in this picture because I do have my Edgar Allan Poe vignette in the living room as well as a number of raven pillows and quotes but I do have a lot of witch things also so I guess it would work. Maybe I could somehow add a raven to the picture on that empty branch or perhaps move that vignette to another room this year. So many decisions! Lol

So that's it for today. I'm off for some lunch and a movie. I told you I do what I want on Fri-YAYs. Lol Stay safe and stay tuned.

Update: As soon as I hit "publish", I remembered my Cricut Halloween programs and, sure enough, each of them as a raven. I'm thinking I am going to experiment with shape and size with these first and if I like the result, I might try to paint it onto the sign. Fingers crossed.

Also, for someone who wasn't going to add any more Halloween this year, my pile is starting to grow!

Soooo....

 I was actually anxious to get going today and see if I could track down some of the things I have been seeing on reels and lives as well as that bottle brush tree that I needed. The day didn't go exactly as I had hoped but, in the end, I'm OK with how it turned out. So, with the exception of many groceries, here is my haul! I will say that stores around here are slow this year in getting out their fall and Halloween--except of course, Hobby Lobby. Usually by now even Publix has some autumn fragranced things in and always lots of pumpkin flavored things...not so this year. I'm guessing maybe another week or so.

One of the things I was most anxious to find were vintage tin Halloween character stand-up signs like the $Tree had for Christmas and Easter. I know they have them in some of their stores because everyone online is talking about them but, either we aren't going to get them or they're just not here yet-although there was lots of Halloween in both of the $Tree Plus stores that I hit. It's funny that even though they are not that far apart, each store had some different things that the other didn't.

I grabbed some inexpensive holiday pot holders because I'm always losing them somehow, a black frame just in case, some autumn paper plates and then those two vintage lawn signs. They are pressed wood and not exactly what I was looking for but, if I don't find the others I think I can use these in some way. It definitely won't be as a yard sign but we shall see. They were only $1.50 each so I'm not worried.

And then I grabbed that vintage "sandwich" board. My first thought was to use it to fill that large spot under the console in the dining room but as I was snapping a picture I realized that if I cut off the two bottom legs I might be able to use this as my wall art under the new shelf in the living room. I have been looking for something the right size and this might just do it. We shall see.

And then, do you see a "one of these things doesn't belong here" kind of thing? There was not one bottle brush tree for Halloween or autumn in either $Tree but, one of them was putting out some Christmas so I grabbed this one just in case Walmart didn't have any-and they didn't. Walmart was actually just putting out some Halloween candy and costumes-no decor yet and not one thing for autumn! And so, I am going to see if I can't change the colors on that tree so I can make my Halloween cat. I thought of dipping it in a watered down paint mixture but I'm not sure what that will do to the tree bristles so now I'm thinking of spray paint...not sure how but I'm thinking. Lol

I'm actually too tired to do it today so I will let it go until morning and maybe I will come up with a better idea. I'll be back to let you know what worked-if anything. Lol  Stay safe and stay tuned.

Never Say Never

 As usual, I have been scrolling all of my past Halloween decor photos trying to decide if I was going to change anything up this year. I really wish I could but, again as expected, I have the hardest time with change because almost all of my things have stories behind them that I am not willing to lose! And so, I made myself a promise that these two things were all I would be finding places for this year.

I really, really love that Halloween sign and it was worth every bit of the time that it took for me to jerry-rig the pumpkin man. I'm pretty proud of myself that I didn't give in to the lure to just purchase him from Amazon. Since I would have only used one of the six, it would have come out to be just a really expensive "inexpensive" craft! And, of course, I had to fill another one of my favorite frames. And that would be that!!!

Until it wasn't. Lol I was watching one of my favorite crafters (The Crafty Decorator) on a live. She does lots of vintage things and she was making a vintage cat from a Halloween candy corn bottle brush tree And, because I have so many vintage Halloween things, that cat seemed to speak to me. And then she said it wasn't her idea-she got it from Christopher Heideman. And she went on to say that anyone who loves vintage holiday decor HAS to go check him out. And so I did...and I am hooked. He is wonderful. And, just like that, I decided to add yet another something new to this year's Halloween. And from the number of videos I still have to watch of his, this might not be the last. Lol

I actually have almost everything I need-or at least things that I could use as substitutes-except the tree which I need to find at $Tree. I was actually just about ready to hop into the car and go looking but, I have a lot of outside work to do before the lawn guys come tomorrow and, also, I like to grocery shop on Thursday as well so I will wait and keep my fingers crossed that I can find one. I think I have an extra black tree left from last year that I can use-stored somewhere?-but that might be too dark. I don't think HL is going to put out any Halloween this year but if $Tree doesn't have one, maybe Walmart will save me?

He actually offered a link to the cat head and small jack-o-lantern for a bucket on his site but if he hadn't, it is easy enough to find these images everywhere and print them out yourself. I actually pulled out some of the vintage things I did years ago that creeped out my grand daughters so much. Lol I'm thinking that I may use them in some kind of complementary arrangement if I get this done. I also pulled out some glitter spiders that I have had for awhile. He used a fairly large plastic one-again, you need to buy a package with more than just the one you need-so I will see how much they are now at $Tree since the prices have gone up. If they're more than I want to spend-and have even more stuff left over-I will go with what I have. He also used beads on the hat and front of the cat which I don't have but, honestly, I wasn't a fan anyhow because they had the holes in them and the holes showed. I am going to see what small pompoms looks like.

And so, that is as far as I can get today. No sense starting if I can't find a tree but, fingers crossed I will because I love this silly thing. Wish me luck! Off to the outside. Stay safe and stay tuned!

Next Stop

 Let's move on into the dining room. I think this room is basically the same as it was last year except that I hung a new picture and, of course, had the new piece of furniture to decorate. 

I'm really so happy that daughter #3 gifted me those olive branches because I think in the past I have used autumn leaves in all of these vessels and, quite frankly, even for me, that is too many autumn leaves in one place! Lol

I love this cross stitch that I did so, so many years ago as a gift for my mother. After she passed away it came back to me. Every time I look at it I wonder why I didn't add the year. I did on almost everything else that I made but, for whatever reason, I skipped it here.

This is where I moved the winery sign that my girls got us years ago. I still love it but wanted to use the still life picture that I have had for a long time as well. It just kind of read "moody" dining room to me but, the only place I could hang it is where the barrel sign had been. With no other wall space that would work I decided to try the barrel on the bottom shelf of this piece. Because the space is so large, I think it works well and it will probably stay there until I take down the other picture.

The weather is co-operating nicely today so I am off to do some weeding and edging. It is amazing how quickly the weeds appear after a few good rains! Stay safe and stay tuned.

Just need to add a photo of grandson #1 on his first day of classes as a junior at the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut.

. The Academy photographer caught this picture of him walking to class.

Chill in the Air...

 Really, a chill in the air? Well, not quite but there has definitely been a slight change in our temperatures-for the better in my opinion! So, even though the outside doesn't quite fit my inside, I can tell that autumn really is beginning to creep in a bit!

I did wake up to some rain this morning so the things I wanted to do outside are once again on hold but, that gives me time to visit with you a bit. Let's head into the kitchen.

It appears that up to this point I pretty much kept things as they were last year. I did change up this area a bit. I moved the "Eric Carle" inspired autumn tree that my granddaughter made down to the bottom, I moved the "fingerprint" tree that daughter #3 made me years ago with my three youngest grands prints out to the sunroom where all of their photos are and I added the water colored autumn tree canvas I made last year here. It is just a bit more simple and I like it.

That's pretty much it for this year's autumn kitchen. I'm off to get some things done. Looks like I might have a quiet week ahead so I'll be back again soon. Stay safe and stay tuned.