Ghostly White

There is something about white pumpkins that I am loving this year which is funny since orange is my favorite color. I bought a few for my apartment and used them to decorate for the party last weekend. The smaller ones are especially cute and will look nice displayed until Thanksgiving. I wish I was as ambitious as Martha Stewart and could carve lacy designs into them but I don't see that ever happening. Bon Weekend!

42,000 hits. A Diny. And more.

First of all, y'all who make their beds every day...seriously. You make all us slackers look soooo bad!! (50 percent of you said you make your bed every day on my poll. Gag.) I only make fun because I am seriously jealous. I tried to do this for about three days straight...and was way too lazy to keep it going. I love how I feel when I walk in our bedroom and the bed is made though. You may have inspired me. (Not really, just saying that.)


Also, I have to give out a big Whoot Whoot to all you who have checked out my blog in the past month. I went from 2,000 hits to 44 thousand plus hits in just the month of October. I know, hits don't really tell you much about how many visits you really have, blah blah blah, but I'm happy, OK? I love hits and I love comments!! Yay!! I have to give a shout out to all my friends who got me to 2,000 -- Jenny, AnNicole, Cheryl, the BC girls, the Rocks ladies, and all my girlfriends who supported me from the start. Love you.


Beware if you see this tonight:



It's a ferocious Diny -- a Triceratops to be exact. Thing is, this Diny doesn't like to wear his head, which is the best part of the costume. Really. But we trick-or-treated around Daddy's school today and he at least wore most of it. And he won't take a nap today, which is going to make for a real fun night. Roar.



OK, my next poll is about the music thingys people put on their blogs. I have a love/hate relationship with these. Love them because I love to hear what music people listen to. Hate them because I'll forget to turn my sound down and will wake sleeping Hubby or scare the beejeebies out of the cats. You tell me if you want it on here. I don't care either way. Just so you know, I swear, promise, cross my heart, assure you that I won't play all NKOTB music on mine. (I'm totally lying.)

OH, and

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Have fun with your goblins!!

P.S. It's ON tomorrow ladies...get to the Christmasy crafting!!

P.S.S.S.S. I got my necklace from Glitter and Bliss yesterday and it is GORG! Go check her out!

Extra large low coffee table

This is from Ran, who wanted a big, low coffee table, but couldn't find one that fitted the two requirements. So he hacks one from Lack shelves. I love the size and the white strip. It would work great with Capita legs too.

He says, "I thought about using a desk surface and adjustable feet, but finally I had the idea of using the Lack shelves - they are cheaper and come in better colors.

I made this from the Lack shelving. I used five shelves as the surface and the wall mounts were used as legs. The small white foamy things at the bottom are also from Ikea - I don't remember their name though.

It isn't a very clean hack - I could have done a better job with putting the surface together, but I just used two pieces of scrap wood I found in the trash outside my apartment and some wood glue, and used about three different kinds of screws for the mounts cause I didn't have enough of any one kind. It's short enough that you can never see the bottom unless you crawl under it, so it doesn't matter.

The final result is quite nice though - it's fairly stable and quite cheap considering how big it is. While it's not as wide as some coffee tables I saw, it's much deeper and that's harder to come by. Since the Lack shelves come in many colors (at least in Israel they do), there are a lot of variations you can make with this setup."

Witch or Sexy Kitten?

I didn't really love the Sex and the City movie but I did love it when Miranda declared that they only costumes for women were witch or sexy kitten. I'm not dressing up this year. Mostly because I don't feel like going out to a bar and competing for attention with 21 year olds wearing little to no clothing. So tell me what you're dressing up as this year. Maybe it will inspire me for next year! Happy Halloween!

Antifoni microphone stand

A neat mic stand from Sam. It retains all the manoeuvrability and makes you feel like you're in a studio. The mic is just super glued onto the Antifoni work lamp.

before

after 

See more of Sam's mic stand.

Last minute Halloween.

First of all, drop everything and get to Target!! ALL their Halloween scrapbooking stuff is on clearance! They have some caaute stuff!

Second of all, Good LORD, when did candy get so expensive?? I dropped $25 on candy and I still doubt we'll have enough for all the kiddos. (Need to keep a few for me. Shhh!)

Third, here we go with a few last minute Halloween stuff I've put together in the past week or so. I had some leftover wood from my laundry room table, so I made an itty bitty Eek sign. Price: free!!


I actually have a ton of extra wood I'm going to try making some fun Christmas stuff with. :) I saw these labels here a couple weeks ago, and have been looking for bottles since. I finally found bud vases at WalMart the other day. (I HATE Walmart!! I just took a quick trip in and was so happy I found them.) I had the cork stoppers, and used green food coloring with water. So fun:



Cheap glitteries (made that word up, thanks) from Joann Etc. stuck in my fake foliage. Yes, I like fake foliage. Sheesh, that bottom greenery looks so bad close up though! Ack!!





I find the BEST stuff at thrift stores and consignment shops!! I told you about my love of them here. The thrift shops I frequent are various Goodwill stores. Consignment shops are a bit different -- they sell items that people like YOU bring in. It's a great set up -- take advantage of it if you have one nearby!! When I decluttered this year I took a TON of stuff to a local shop. I have received many checks in the mail, but the best part is if you catch them before they send out checks, you have a credit in their computer. So credit = free fun things for you!! I also took a ton of our clothes to a couple shops and we've made $60 so far. Try it out. I found this fun Halloween garland for $3:

These were Goodwill finds. The thingy on the left was a cheese platter -- I painted the wood platter black and added a pedestal to the bottom. Now it's kinda like a cloche. Love it. The little cloche on the right is one of my all time finds just because it's so fun! I think it was a candle holder that sat in a holder. But turned upside down, on a $.35 wooden pedestal I painted black, it's a teeny tiny cloche!

This was the find of the season...the easel part on the back was broken off, so I got 70 percent off...the SALE price!! It was $20 and I got it for $3.50. I was going to string cobwebs all over it but I'm pooping out...Christmas is on the brain you know...

Finally, my little pumpkin/candle my stepmom got me for my birthday. So fun! I threw some little ceramic pumpkins in there:

I made a promise to myself I would NOT work on anything Christmas-related till November 1. I've been pretty good. The projects are lined up, ready to go...but I've been good. We're busy all day Saturday though, so I may have to start around 11 p.m. on the 31st. Shhh!! Don't tell!!

P.S. I said "fun" about 20 times.

P.P.S. Our son is doing great!! Still sore, with a nasty bruise over the fracture, but doing so well. Thanks again for your well wishes. We really do appreciate it. :)

P.P.S.S. (??) OK, I played a kid's Christmas CD in the car for my son last week. Shut it.

P.P.P.P.S.S. I just ate a whole bag of popcorn by myself.

HORSE

Leave it to the chicest woman to put together the chicest book and hold the launch party at the chicest store. Last week, Kelly Klein launched her new book Horse from Rizzoli at the Hermes store and it is seriously the most fabulous book of the season. Even if you haven't ridden a horse in your life, you'll drool over the photos by Bruce Weber, Helmut Newton, Annie Leibovitz, Robert Mapplethorpe and even Kelly Klein herself who took the beautiful photo above. Enjoy!

Cover photo: Equus Caballus by Wolfgang Ludes

Photographer unknown

Photo by Reinhard Hunger, styling by Chris Himmel

Photo by Yann-Arthus Bertrand

Photo by Peter Llewellyn/PMG Pictures

Photo by Loomis Dean/Time Life Pictures

Photo by Fabio Chizzola

Photog by Fabio Chizzola

Please note: No images may be reproduced in any way, published, or transmitted digitally, without written permission from the publisher.

XL cutting table

A husband is a good thing, I'm gathering from these recent hacks. Handy hubby Larry whips up this mega-sized cutting table for his wife's fabric and sewing business.

He says, "My wife runs an internet-based fabric and sewing business and recently took some office space. She wanted a new cutting table for the space with a couple of requirements: 

• It had to be big. Really big.
• It had to be smooth so as not to catch fabric on it when laying out and cutting patterns
• It had to be high - higher than the normal 35" countertops

Our solution? A 4' x 8' sheet of laminated particle board (from Loews), trimmed with oak, on a couple Ikea Galant bases and legs. The Galant legs extend the table top up to 40" high, making for a very comfortable working area.

Cool stuff, ideally suited to the task at hand without blowing a bundle (whole thing came in under $350)."

The inaugural stitching-n-bitching round the new table. 

See more of mega-sized cutting table.

United We Stand

I have always wanted to go on a tour of the United Nations but have just never gotten around to it so when I discovered a book entitled The U.N. Building in my office last Thursday, I was beyond excited. Then I found out that October 24th of every year is United Nations Day. Talk about funny timing! The United Nations looks like a beautifully preserved time capsule of mid-century modernism! I love the fact that no one has ruined it by trying to update it since it looks so perfect just as it is. Now, I am even more determined than ever to go and see it for myself in person but until that happens, I will make due with pouring over the photographs in the book. Enjoy!

Make a Halloween lantern sans pumpkin

Some humor for the spooky season.

A Halloween lantern
Ben shares his Halloween lantern, made with one 8ml tube of cadmium orange Cotman water colour, one 17¾" Regolit paper lampshade and one Hemma lamp cord. Just an hour or two and out came Jack.

What do you think? Should he draw a Jack o'Lantern face onto it or just leave it as a harvest moon?

See more on Regolit Jack o'Lantern

Halloween must have: the Pumpor
Well, the next one, I won't call it a hack, more like a spoof. It's a flat-packed Ikea Halloween pumpkin, complete with Ikea name, nuts, bolts and confusing illustrated assembly instructions. Conrad, you made my day.

See more of Conrad's flat-packed pumpkin.

Related posts:
- Ikeaslyvania!

Third time is a charm?

I'm on drapery No. 3 in our dining room. And I think I'm finally happy...but not done yet! More about that later. First, another short TOOT on drapery-making on the cheap:

Let's review. Hemming tape: (Have you gotten some yet?? I mean, reallllllly...)


Put your good side of the fabric against the lining and hem. Do I have to remind you how easy this is??




If you are just doing simple drapes, just leave a little hole at the bottom, and turn the drape inside out. Then iron the hem like this, and use the tape to iron the hole shut:




If this is all your doing...you're DONE!!! Done, I tell you! EASY!!! But I like to add a little somethin' somethin' to mine so I kept going. First, I must show the transition of these drapes so you get the full effect. This is another Before and After that I kind of cringe at...I shouldn't, but I just don't like them now. These are the drapes I made when we moved in...



I shouldn't hate on myself like this, I mean, they were pretty. They were a gold and cream stripe. But I was trying to be thrifty so I cut the width of fabric in half, so they were too skimpy. And the color was completely lost against the wall.

So I moved onto to this -- got a deal on the fabric and LOVED. IT. Gorg!! But again, was being cheap thrifty, and did a half panel on each side. And they STILL melted right into the wall. Did I learn the first time? NO:



But you'll notice I did replace the itty bitty teeny tiny candle on that huge massive long table with more appropriately sized candles. I'm getting there, I swear.

So let's continue the Toot. I ended up using some of the flowery fabric in combination with the red fabric, but because I'm lazy, I just hemmed the old drapes onto the new and this left the lining hanging out (yes, I know you can barely see it. I was bothered by it, OK??):



So what's a lazy, thrifty girl to do? Trim!!



Isn't it perfect?? And it was less than $7!!

And this is what I ended up with:

I think I love them. I really think I do. Now, I'm going to work on a new method of hanging them and I have an idea I think will work great...I'll let you know if it works. I'm sure some cussing will be involved, but you'll be spared that. I also have some fun ideas in store for the cabinet...again, that looks fantastic in my mind...but we'll see how it turns out. :) The ceiling is going to get a new treatment too -- but I can just feel the crick in my neck just thinking about it, so that may be awhile. I am trying to get this little redo done before the holidays so it is spiffy for the lavish dinners we make for all our dinner parties. HA!!! Not.

Thanks SO MUCH for your sweet thoughts and prayers for our sweet Bub. He is doing SO much better!! The resilience of children simply amazes me. He had a great night's sleep and was playing like normal most of the day. Every once and a while he moves the wrong way and makes the cutest scrunched up owwie face. And sometimes he still gets upset, but he's doing fantastic. I can't thank you enough for your kind thoughts and words.

P.S. Annoying!! I loaded my pics first and they still won't enlarge! Argggh!

P.P.S. Don't look too close...the trim on the left panel is about half an inch lower than the one on the right. Seriously. Don't look. I only wish you could see the back of these!! Scary.