It's Happening!

It is really finally happening. Autumn and Halloween decorations are popping up in stores little by little. I have had a super busy week helping daughter #2 get her classroom ready for the start of a new year and planning for a back-to school party for the 3 youngest grandchildren. We are going to have grandson #1 spend the night one day next week and then all of the following day he and I are going to make back-to-school goodies. I will be sure and take lots of pictures and show you our creations.

Then, that evening, Mom, Dad and the other 2 munchkins will come over for dinner and our little party. Should be fun and a nice way to help 3 little people head off to new schools in a new city where the only people they really know are their grandparents!!

But, in amongst all of the real business I have managed to get into a few of my favorite spots for Halloween. One of those is Yankee Candle. They usually have at least one line that I love and this year is no exception. As a matter of fact, they simply added more to the line they had last year. I loved it then and couldn't get enough of it. So, when I saw they were having their launch last week, I made it a point to get there.

They still have some of the things I already have so that helped the budget a bit, but I had to have the new bottle candleabra and that skeleton hand. Can't wait to figure out where they will go. Of course I had to add the black candle jar and that small skeleton hand that can hang off the edge of just about anything. I think I may actually go back and buy more of them. Wouldn't they look cute hanging off glasses at a Halloween table?

Also stopped by the Dollar Tree and picked up some "creepy cloth", a couple more crows and even some MS knockoff mice silhouettes. I bought her crows last year and wanted to get the mice this year. These are probably not as sturdy as hers, but they are all only paper right? And at $1, I think they're a good deal! I also always buy 1 or 2 of their small headstones so I can tuck them in any little open spot-which, believe me, are few and far between in my house this time of year. As we speak (write) I am fighting the urge to decorate for autumn right now! If I didn't have so many promised things on my plate (back-to-school- and 50th anniversary scrapbooking for our church due next month!!!!!!), I would be all over it!

In any case, it calms my soul to know it is all at least within a few weeks' grasp. I had lunch with some old friends yesterday and they said our next get-together has to be at my house because they can't wait to see what this year looks like. Oh no! Now I've got to really put my brain to work and see what different things I can come up with. Stay tuned! It won't be long-I promise!

It's BAACCCCKKK!

Or at least telltale signs of the beginnings are back. I see black, white and orange. I see witches and ghosts and pumpkins - oh my!

Yes, I have just begun to start my Halloween crafts for 2011. It always puts a smile on my face and a bit of a spring in my step. I love all things autumnal and Halloween! I start way too early but it makes me happy and it IS my house after all.

Of course, there is still much to do before the summer is officially over but I see an end in sight. From here on out, be looking for many things spooky. I am scouring Pinterest and already have way too many ideas for one year. We'll see what happens. And, what these things on my desk are destined to turn into. Stay tuned.

The Princess is in the Building

Presley officially turned 2 this week and as if by magic, she has fallen for all things princess, Barbie, baby doll...in other words, all things girly girl.

Whoever said raising girls was the same as raising boys didn't really have a clue. I don't think we have done anything to foster the love for all things pink. After all, she has two older brothers so many of the things she has played with the last two years have had wheels, arrows, noise makers, etc. But, suddenly she has become all girl.

I know the above picture doesn't really show her diva side, but it had been a long, hot day and even princesses are prone to kick off their shoes, rip out their barrettes and grab their pacies now and then.

Here is a picture of Presley's cozy quilt. It was a gift from Uncle Joel and Aunt Cyndi and truly a labor of love!

Most of the presents involved girl fun - dress-up clothes, a new baby and cradle, a grocery cart and food, a stroller, puppy dog and carrying case, Clifford and his book, etc.

The party also served as kind of a house warming at the Hollands new home. It was very low key and family oriented as the host and hostess were pretty tired from almost 2 solid weeks of moving, unpacking, and decorating with a whole garage still full of boxes to tackle! Jen went with the theme of watermelons and used it in her food and decorating. She and the kids made watermelon cupcakes which were just the right size for the little princess.


And, they had just the right amount of frosting to still have fun with the messy face!


A peek at the wonderful new yard and a picture of the oldest and youngest. In the end, a super fun day was had by the princess and all of her loyal subjects. When I look at these two together, I can really see how fast time goes and why I work so hard at finding so many of these moments and holding on to so many of these memories.

Today I actually started on my Halloween crafting. Several of the things I am making involved some computer printing and with my meager computer skills, I need to get an early start. I don't know the easy way to do much on the computer so I have to take many more steps than necessary but I now know enough that I can usually accomplish what I want. For the times I can't, I call a kid. I am a true believer of "where there is a will, there is a way". Hope to have more to report soon. Stay tuned.

A quick P.S. If you are reading my blog out of a reader format, I have now added a "Pinterest" button. It gives you a direct link to my boards so you can see where so much of my time is going these days!

Dog Days of Summer

Just when I finally have a bit of time to myself, and hours upon hours of garden chores waiting, it is so hot outside, it literally takes your breath away. I have devised a routine where I go into the pool to get wet, hop out and do a few minutes of work and then right back into the pool. At this rate, I'm not getting as much done as I'm used to but I'm enjoying my pool and I am moving forward-even if it is at a snail's pace.

I really don't like the summer-especially the end. I am excited for the beginning of school and all of the fun stuff that brings even though I no longer have any school aged children. I get to help daughter #2 decorate her classroom, take grand daughters back-to-school shopping and even visit some of their classes and meet some of their teachers. And this year, I will have grand children in school right here. I will be able to attend all of their special days and pick them up for visits with Nana whenever I want! The first day of school always holds so much promise-everything new. A clean slate so to speak. Crisp new pencils, sharp pointed crayons, new composition books with crisp binders and the chance to make a fresh start. I love all that the new school year has to offer to my grand children.

And for me, back-to-school means starting over as well. A new decorating year. New seasons and holidays soon to follow. I am gearing up and looking forward to crafting, sewing, decorating and yes, even cooking and baking! See, I told you new years offered new hopes for everyone.

Stay with me as I get in gear for what promises to be a VERY busy holiday season-if my pins on Pinterest are any indicator of how much I want to accomplish. Of course, that means I have to get off of Pinterest long enough to accomplish something and that may be my dilemma! Today I am off to youngest grand daughter's 2nd birthday party but I will return and I will show you what I have up my sleeve. Stay tuned.

Oh, Where To Begin?!

This has been a hectic summer and I really can't put my finger on just one reason why-lots of little, wonderful things that just happen to fill the hours of the days in a blink of the eye.

Finally I have a bit of time to look around and see my house for what it really is. Now, don't get wrong. I love my house but sometimes you look at something so long that you no longer see it the way a stranger viewing it for the first time might ( like the old front door that totally embarrassed my girls when they were still living at home. I had tried to scrape off I don't know how many layers of paint that were on what must have been a recycled door that the contractor used on my brand new house. I assumed there would only be one color to remove when I started that project and got too far into it to stop but just finally gave up and called it "distressed"-in the weakest definition of the word. Anyhow, I convinced myself that it was "in" and their objections fell on totally deaf ears until one day I approached that door and saw the truth! It was horrible and embarrassing and right after that I was on my way to Lowes to order a new one).

Well, as I was moving my things back into the room that my son-in-law has lived in the past year, I was greeted by this! Wow!!!! When I first had these bookcases built, they really didn't look like this. What had happened. Elton had occasionally made reference about sending out a search party for him if the books ever decided to topple off of those shelves, but his words fell the same ways the girls' did - on deaf ears. And then I saw the light!

It didn't hurt that I had been perusing the blogs and saw one on decorating shelves to be eye pleasing while still being functional. That is what I need from these shelves as both my husband and I are pretty avid readers and we have lots of books! I do pass on all of my paperbacks, but hold on to the hard covers. I really don't know why, because I will NOT re-read a book unless it is a classic.

These shelves not only serve as our book storage, but all of my children's books are stored here as well. They take up all the the bottom 2 shelves so the kids can get to them easily. They are supposed to be stored by theme or author, but by the looks of things, that is no longer happening.

In any case, I think this will be my next project. Of course, it will have to wait until at least next week as this week is already "spoken for". Or, the week after that if another, better offer comes along next week. And so it goes! We'll see. Stay tuned.

Don't Look Now.....

if you are on my Halloween gift list that is! I am beginning to look for my craft ideas for this Halloween. I like to have my handmade gifts and new craft decor done before I get anywhere near October. That way, I can decorate early and have my days free (well, as free as they ever can be) to shop for and sew costumes. And attend fall festivals. And make a trip to Tennessee this year.....and all of the other wonderful things my favorite season has to offer. Have I mentioned that autumn is my favorite season here before?!!

This is how the process usually begins for me. I see something somewhere and start to think how it was made and how I can reproduce said item. Even when there might be a "tutorial" attached to the item, I can very seldom find all of the supplies exactly as listed, so the craft becomes unique just by the fact that I am adding my own spin.

I love this picture (which I pinned on Pinterest but which came originally from lark and lola I believe) and think I can easily make it by downloading the words to a spooky poem or simply using a page from a book or a dictionary ( I have bought several of these at the $ Tree, so I have no guilt in cutting them up). You can also find pages of script you can download for free in many places. Then download of a coven of witches, decoupage onto a piece of chipboard or luan and embellish. I love it and wouldn't it look fabulous hung on the hook below! So spooky!

I love these! They could be made so simply after a quick trip to Lowes. I'm sure I could find some kind of molding or wooden embellishment that would work. Paint, distress and add the lock and knob findings (available either at Lowes or HL I'm pretty sure!). The Halloween picture would look great hanging here but then the hook could be used all year for keys, leashes, bags, etc. A gift that truly "keeps on giving"!

This frame caught my eye because of its simplicity. Look for an inexpensive frame at HL (remember, they're ALWAYS 50% off) or $ Tree or WalMart-I have found some nice frames there as well. I will go with either black or orange, use a Halloween themed scrapbook paper for the background and fill with either a downloaded Halloween greeting or photo of Halloween past. I don't know about you, but I NEVER have enough frames to display all of the family pictures that I have!

I have recently taken to making embellished clothespins with magnets to use on my frig for overflow seasonal pictures. I thought these might be cute if I turned the wings the other way so the magnet was on the back and the wings would sit correctly on the bat. So simple made from spring type clothespins and probably fun foam. Thought I could make 4-5 per gift and then clip them onto a piece of decorated cardstock for presentation. There are TONS of Halloween tag downloads available that would have just the message I wanted or even I could rig up something on my word program and print it off. I can see it now. Something like "I'm BATTY for you". Well, maybe I'll work on that a bit longer-ha-ha.


Any time I see ANYTHING orange or black, my brain automatically takes me to Halloween...yes, sometimes it IS scary being me. But, I digress. This frame could be made with an unpainted wide wood frame from Michaels for about $1. Paint it orange or black or cover with a themed piece of scrapbook paper and use Halloween embellishments. This might even be a good one to save for the kids for their Halloween crafting weekend with Nana & Papa. I usually give them privy to all of my crafting supplies and it is AMAZING to see what they come up with and how different each one is!!!

And last - at least for right now - are these chocolate covered candy corn pretzels. We've done the pretzel rods many times before so I thought this might be a nice change. I love how the colors "read" candy corn right away. Maybe the kids could do this as well. I know the Dads would like it more than a frame. We'll see. I will be making some decisions soon while I continue to search Pinterest for new ideas as well. Stay tuned. Maybe one of these goodies will be coming in a lovely decorated bag or box to your address soon!

There's a Change In the Air

No, not in the temperature - that is still registering pretty high around here but the summertime "monsoons" are cooling it down a bit! Oh the joys of a Florida summer!!! The change is happening in the aisles of my local craft stores. That is always where you see it first because we crafters must get busy way before the rest of the world.

I have picked up a few things in HL and Michaels recently - not anything awesome, but I am always looking for fillers - like I really need anything else to fill my house...but, I digress.

The above pedestal and votive holder were on sale for 50% off at Michaels. I can see the pedestal nestled in a grouping with maybe a pumpkin or perhaps a crow on it. We'll see. The votive holder is tiny and I think it would look cute with a battery candle on a shelf in one of the bathrooms. And yes, I decorate the bathrooms - down to a Halloween shower curtain. Was there ever any question that I would? The good thing about that is that there really must not be many people who go that far, so I can always pick up that kind of thing for a song the day after a holiday!

I also picked up some ravens on pedestals at HL for 50% off. Does anyone else ever have trouble with HL's check out? They do not use SKUs on their registers so the cashiers have to know the sales EVERY week! When the store first opened, this was a nightmare! Then, as the cashiers (and the customers) became used to the system, things fell into place for awhile. Recently, my store has had tons of new cashiers. The last 3 times I have been there, I have had an issue at check-out. No offense to young people who don't do crafts, but what are you doing working in a craft store??? Their table top frames - including novelty - are always 50% off. Actually, why don't they just cut the prices in half and give the cashiers one less thing to remember? But again, I digress.

In any case, I have had 2 cashiers insist my frames were full price - haven't EVER paid full price for a frame in HL since the days the doors first opened. Also, I was buying resin ravens which someone insisted was carved wood and not on sale. Now, I am a SHOPPER. And I am a crafter. I know my stuff and almost never buy anything that isn't on sale...especially at HL where everything is almost on sale every other week. Any way, I found one of the "older" workers and things got straightened out in each case, but it took my time and effort as they were not even willing to call someone to be sure they WEREN'T WRONG! Don't know why I'm off on this tangent when I should be happy with my glimpse of Halloween, but somehow these kind of things are beginning to get to me because they are happening more and more frequently. Could it be because there aren't many people older than me left in the world - seems like everyone is younger! In any case, I won't leave HL because of their massive inventory so I should just "go with the flow" and be happy.

I am still waiting for the specialty shops and boutiques to bring out their Halloween Then I will know it is really on it's way. I am checking frequently in Micanopy and will hit The Barn soon, so I will let you know Stay tuned!

The Best Laid Plans

So what do you think? The last time we "talked", I was going to fill this frame with chicken wire and use it in my dining room on the now blank wall. My plan was to fill it with whatever I was in the mood for at the moment - seasonal downloads, photos, words of wisdom, small trinkets, etc. Whatever a decorated clothespin could hold would have been fair game.

So yesterday I finally got to my local Lowes. I wanted 1" octagonal grid chicken wire in a small roll as I am not actually building a chicken coop - which I guess is the obvious use for this stuff (as well as fencing, etc.) - I didn't need nor want a 100' roll. My Lowes only had the 2" grid in small lengths which I thought looked too open. I left thinking I would have to make a trip to Home Depot - and since that is way on the other side of town, I put it off.

Do you ever love it when something that started out to be an annoyance turns into an "ah-ha" moment? As I was passing through the DR this morning and getting annoyed that I haven't actually completed one thing this week - except for getting my teeth cleaned, babysitting my 2 youngest grandchildren while Mom and Harrison got some errands run and managing to once again get a horrible, itchy rash all over my arms and hands (and this time neck and face as well) while pulling some vines out and cutting down some "weed trees" that hang over my fence and drop their big, old ugly leaves into my yard. Now mind you, I have lived in this house for 38 years and I get this rash every time I pull one of the weeds but I have still not been able to isolate which weed is the exact culprit. This happens even though I am wearing gloves. I have recently been told I have Irish skin which apparently is very sensitive - who knew? But, I digress...boy am I good at that!

In any case, I remembered that my first instinct was to simply hang this frame around the sconce but for some reason, I dismissed it. Then, when I asked my girls' opinions, they also came up with this idea and for some reason, I dismissed that as well. Then, this morning, I realized that if I fill this frame with all sorts of little stuff hanging from wire, it might feel just as busy as it did when I had the 2 pictures and sconce there.

Long story short (is it ever really that way in my world?), I think I like this.

Not the best picture but the only angle from which I could fit in both sides of the wall. I like that there is gold and black on both sides of the opening grounded by the black side board in between. What do you think? I think it will work until something else "just perfect" strikes my fancy. Stay tuned.

No Interest in Pinterest....

...or so I thought. The mention of Pinterest has been floating around the blogs for awhile. I have seen it but I think I just thought of it as another photo program or something. Just kind of skipped over any detailed messaging about it.

Then, a week or so ago, my oldest daughter called and asked if I knew about it. She filled me in a bit and said she was addicted! Still, I really wasn't interested but I thought I would see about joining and find out what all of the scuttlebutt was about. Still not excited.

I soon received my invitation to join-yes, they are fancy, schmancy and require that you be invited. You have to join through either facebook or twitter and I am truly not interested in either, so once again it went by the wayside.

I think I mentioned that all of the girls would be through town at one point or another this weekend. Well, Kris convinced me that she could set me up a facebook page that I would never need to use again once I had signed up so I said O.K.

She got me up and running and I am afraid she has now created a monster. At first I still wasn't too excited but the more I played with it, the more enamored I became. I soon discovered that instead of "starring" a blog, and going back to them periodically to print ideas as I used to do, I could simply "pin it" to begin with. I can't pull myself away from Pinterest-hence this feeble attempt at a post today. And which of my files do you think is already overflowing and I'm just beginning? Right you are-Halloween!

Hopefully you will reap the benefits of all of this pinning as I come away with many new and exciting ideas. Stay tuned -and start PINNING!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!!!

O.K. I must be out of practice! Things have been so hectic in my life the last year or so that I haven't really done any major redecorating that I could get my chops into. My brain is beginning to perk, but I'm having second thoughts about tackling really big projects as I'm having the worst time just re-doing one wall! Where has my inner decorator gone? Of course, it doesn't help that I am trying to do this on a budget so I can save the "big bucks" for things still perking in my brain...but, I digress.

I showed you where I moved the picture that used to hang here. I thought I would look for a framed poster-perhaps a vineyard feel. But then, I had second thoughts. Too many hard edged-rectangular frames already in this room. So, I started to think about just hanging some unframed canvases with the same feel. I hit 3-4 different stores yesterday and couldn't find what I wanted. I settled for these smaller canvases at Kohls -buy one get one for $1 and then another 20% off, so the price was right. Came home and hung them with the "olive branch" sconce and am trying to convince myself that I love it. And up close. it's not bad.

But in reality, I just think the proportion is off for this wall. I think one larger piece would make a bigger statement. What do you think? Am I right or am I over thinking the whole thing?

I just searched the house and found an old, large, oval frame under a bed. It is burnished gold which would complement the large gold letters sitting on the shelf on the opposite wall. I'm thinking about leaving it empty but stapling some chicken wire on the back. I've seen this around blogland. The idea is to use decorative clothespins and pin on seasonal downloads, photographs or even just sentiments for the occasion. I think I might like this-still deciding.

While I was in Kohls, I grabbed up a few other things from their Indian Summer collection. These tri-colored candles are perfect with the citrus colors, so I had to grab more.

And I love these dish towels! I grabbed 2 more sets as well. A different sunflower pattern and a beautiful, graphic pumpkin design for September decorating! Need I say that I can't wait to use that one!


A few more peeks around the house and that is it. I have since added 2 more large sunflowers to the red vase. I had one from last year and it was fine but when I found the same ones again this year at HL and 50% off, I thought 2 more would add to it's presence as it is a pretty tall vase.

So that's how things are going around here. May be MIA for a few days. Daughter # 2 and grand daughter #1 are coming down and we're heading to Jen's new house for the afternoon. Then, tomorrow, oldest daughter and her 2 girls will be here to visit the new house and spend the night with Nana and Papa. My middle daughter and I spent yesterday in Gainesville visiting with my mom and then she and I got to go out for a nice, long quiet lunch-a rare occasion as she is a teacher and almost always tied up at school-even during the summer. Any way, it has been a super fun and super busy week for us. Hope I can spend some time in the yard this weekend, but if a better offer comes along.... Stay tuned.