A thankful foyer

Hello all! Hope you had a great weekend! We are DONE with marching band season (so proud of them!!) and I now have my hubby back…for approximately two weeks. :)

I haven’t done anything crafty in a while and last week I was feeling my mojo creeping back…so I got busy on a quick Thanksgiving project for our foyer.

I’ve been admiring the cute “Thankful” banners I’ve seen over blogland lately, and figured it was high time I made one of my own. I picked up about $3 of paper from Hobby Lobby:

And warmed up my sah-weet Silhouette machine:

My original thought was to do some circles, then put leaves in pretty colors over those, with letters on the leaves to spell my thankful message:

But after I cut out the leaves, I realized they were going to be way too small for the letters. Plan B was to cut out additional circles a bit smaller than the original ones:

I love love LOVE that cardstock – I use it all the time. It’s got a simpler, lined side, and a side (the one I prefer) with a linen-like texture to it. And aren’t those scalloped edges too cute? (I purchased the design on the Silhouette site for a buck.)

When I was done cutting, I ended up with large and small circular cut outs, the leaves that I wanted to try to use, and the letters:

Normally I use spray adhesive for paper projects, but the glue stick was closer. :) It worked great!:

Using my hole puncher, I added two holes in each one, then strung the letters and little leaves on some twine. I absolutely LOVE how it turned out!:

Isn’t that so stinking cute?

I had the buffet in our foyer dressed for fall six weeks ago, but took it all down for the Halloween display. I just put everything back the way I had it, even though it’s only for a few days, week, couple of weeks till Christmas starts peeking out. :)

I plopped one of my (real) blue Cinderella pumpkins on some burlap:

Can you believe I’ve had that pumpkin for about eight weeks now? It’s still perfect! Crazy.

Back in August, I was strolling through Pier 1 and saw some beautiful faux leafy stuff, and it was gorgeous. I especially loved that it was really, really tall and full. I knew I’d need a few of them though, so I held off. (They weren’t really cheap.)

Imagine my glee when I saw something very similar at Hob Lob:

I think they were $3 each, half off? Wicked good. :)

When we were working on my father-in-law’s house a couple of months ago, I saw this beautiful amber glass piece and swooned:

Isn’t it gorgeous? Perfect for my fall display!

I filled it with little beady stuff, pine cones and acorns I’ve used through the years:

All together, with our new Give Thanks garland on the mirror, and it’s a lovely, warm welcome!:

You’ll notice my Cinderella pumpkin tower shrunk by one. I noticed the other day that the middle one had cracked and it was NASTY. Ew!

I can’t even believe the difference a year makes – this little bitty table just didn’t do it for that spot:

Thanks to Craigslist, I have a lovely new spot to decorate each season!:

Yippeeee! For that, I am thankful. ;)

I’ll show you a few more of my fall goodies soon, and then it’s all over folks – get ready for some magic!!!

Are you still working on fall decor? Has Christmas crept up around your house?

Thank you to my sponsor!:

Autumn in Indiana

Hello there! Hope your Halloween weekend is going beautifully!

A couple of weeks ago, my Sis and I took a day off from the decluttering around here to take in some of the fall beauty around us. It was her last day before heading to her new job and my last day having her around all day. :( Sniff.

I do love being with her – I don’t just use her for manual labor. ;)

I’m so proud to be a born and raised Hoosier, and this time of year I am madly in love with Indiana. It’s quite beautiful. Most think we’re just flat fields – and we do have our fair share. But there’s more than corn in Indiana -- some really gorgeous parts too. :)

My Sis, the Bub and I started our day out by driving through one of our very favorite “drive by” spots – the Meridian Kessler area of Indy. We ooohed and ahhhed over the fantastic houses, and took some hi-I’m-not-crazy-just-obsessed-with-your-house pictures along the way:

We had to be fast and stealth-like so the owners wouldn’t call the cops on the crazy women taking photos. :)

Some were decked out for Halloween, and the Bub would alert us by screaming “STOP!! HALLOWEEN STUFF!!” at the top of his lungs and freak us out every. single. time.:

Some were just plain gorgeous with some simple mums:

 

Some didn’t need much of anything – they were gorgeous all on their own:

     The addresses have been blocked to protect those who live in the gorgeous houses :)…

    

Oh my. Grey siding, white trim, red door? LURVE.

Because it was such an amazing day, we decided to head over to what has quickly become one of my favorite spots in Indianapolis – Holliday Park:

It’s a fantastic park – complete with a nature center, beautiful architecture and gardens, tons of (HUGE) playgrounds and trails that take you through some gorgeous sights, down to the White River:

You can’t help but completely breathe it in. It reminds me of the camping trips we took almost every single weekend throughout the summer and fall growing up. The smell of wet leaves is seriously intoxicating.

No cell phones. No emails. Someday I’m going to take a fold up chair, hike down to the river to sit and just get lost in nothing.

What a great reminder to just STOP MOVING. Look around. Be quiet.

It was a perfect day, spent with two of my very favorite people.

It gets me so bad when I think about how much his Aunt loves him:

It makes my heart melt that our son is so loved by so many other people other than us. He is surrounded. :)

I had some fun with Picnik with this one:

That’s a framer for sure. :)

Hope you have a HAPPY and SAFE Halloween!!

The Before and After Party will go up Monday night! 

So cheap it’s scary

Can you believe Halloween is just days away? The days are going by SO FAST! I’m so excited for Monday though – November 1st is the first day I really allow myself to start thinking about Christmas. And I have a fun holiday event I’ll be announcing on Monday that you won’t want to miss! ;)

So anyway, we’ve had Halloween all over the place for a while now, but I’ve let the Bub kind of take over. I tried putting things out just so…and that lasted about ten minutes. What can I say – he’s like his Momma and is crazy about the holiday decor! I’m not going to fight it. :)

I’m so proud!! Sniff.

I’ve had the buffet in the foyer decked out for weeks now, but today the Bub and I finished it up with a little somethin’ somethin’ on the walls.

When we started working on that spot, our bright, fun lamp (consignment find) wasn’t looking so spooky. :) I wanted to Halloween-it-up a bit without having to do anything permanent.

We found some super cute downloads from the Silhouette site and used them to dress up the lamp shade a bit:

ACK! Are you dying? I adore these little guys.

I just gave them a very light coat of spray adhesive and stuck them on the inside of the lampshade:

 

They were cut out of black card stock, and if you don’t have a craft cutter, you could easily download designs and cut them out. You may want to just find spiders with thicker legs if you are cutting them out by hand. :)

I love them so much! And how about snowmen for Christmas? Or snowflakes? DYING.

I finally made it back into Goodwill a couple of weeks ago, after a loooong time away. I found a $2 vase that was perfect for my Halloween “tree”:

I filled it with some Dollar Tree netting, then grabbed some sticks from outside, spray painted them black and just stuck them in.

I know…I think I’m the last blogger on earth to do this. :) I wanted something with lots of height and it was perfect! I added some of my Pier 1 spiders ($1.50 for ten I think?) here and there, and some foamy bat stickers we had:

The Spooky sign was from a couple of years ago and is just a $1 word mounted on Halloween paper, in an old frame:

We couldn’t resist another spidey on the platter. :)

I found some sparkly spray paint on a recent trip to True Value, and knew I had to use it somehow:

Don’t you love that name – Titanium Silver? The little skull above was from Michael's and is a cardboard texture. A little Titanium and he was ready to go!

Our other skull head friend was an ugly plastic guy from the Dollar Tree, and because he was slick plastic, he got a coat of spray primer (also thanks to True Value!) and then a couple coats of the Titanium:

I propped him up under a cloche and wrapped my cute beady stuff around it. Doesn’t he look so happy now? He’s positively beaming. ;)

The pumpkin was another cardboard-y thing from Michael's. I really wanted to use one of the Funkin pumpkins, but this little guy was only a couple of bucks – way cheaper! I sprayed it white and attached some strips of black gems in the grooves(a buck on clearance!):

Our final project today was to add the bats flying off on the wall:

I cut out the ghost (by hand) out of window film I bought forever ago for the new pantry door. (You may remember it took me about six months to get that baby up.) I didn’t like it’s texture though – too bumpy for what I wanted. But perfect for a ghost in the mirror! Buwahahaha!! I love him!

We used the Silhouette to cut out the bats, but again, these are so easy to cut out on your own! I just stuck them to the wall using tape:

I plan on keeping all of these – I think they’ll hold up another year easily!

We love our spooky foyer!:

The best part – the whole thing was less than $10!

The cut outs are my favorite part by far…I’m so excited to do even more with them next year. ;)

Are you working on any last minute Halloween decorating or crafts? We’ve got a couple more little projects to work on over the weekend. That’s what the Bub tells me anyway. :)

For more Halloween goodness, click here for past projects!

 

*I was one of the bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program as well as my writing about my experience. I have also been compensated for the materials needed for my DIY project. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.*

Spooky in the house

Well, it’s about time for some Halloween decorating up in here!

At least that’s what the Bub said – without the “up in here” lingo. OH my goodness – he is SO exited about Halloween this year! He’s been decorating all over the place. Which in his way is pulling everything out of the bins and lining it up along every. single. surface. in the house.

Adorable. :)

It feels like I just put the fall mantel together yesterday – I never know how to do the whole fall/Halloween decor. I usually pull fall out, then do Halloween, then put fall back out on November 1. Seems like so much extra work, so next year I think I’ll just start with Halloween. Decor is so confusing.

Our spooky mantel hasn’t changed much from last year when I ended up taking a few Goodwill frames:

And spray painted them black, then filled them with various graphics I printed out:

This year I added some height by adding my $3.50 (originally $20!) sparkly haunted house to the middle:

It’s stacked up on box you can’t see. Sneaky, I am.

Do you see the adorable addition Stink Eye Sis added?:

UGH! I could DIE from the cuteness!!

Then I just continued to layer the frames:

I showed you how I made these cutie little spooky votives here:

  

I absolutely love those little eyes. ;) I used my LED candles again – you can find them just about anywhere now!

They’re all nestled in black tulle and a string of lights. Just wish they made black Christmas tree lights, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

Would it be wrong if I spray painted the white cord black? Nah…even that’s a little much for me.

Maybe.

The glass jar is filled with some netting and a glittery skull – both from the Dollar Tree:

The sparkly spiders were from Pier 1 – I think eight for $1.50? Ewww…they are so grody.  But cool.

And of course, the crows are from the Dollar Tree too. That place rocks!

For a little finishing touch, I cut out some bats with my Silhouette and placed them here and there:

    

My friend Jen did it on her mantel and I just had to copy it. How fun is that?

It’s got a lot more going on than I would usually do – but Halloween is the one time of year I’m OK with that. And it’s only up for two more weeks anyway – when the fall decor comes back out. Gah! (At least I didn’t say Christmas decor – wink wink.)

I’m also working on our foyer as well – it started with a little friend on the mirror:

He’s just a cut out made of the vinyl texture stuff for windows. ;) I’ll show you the foyer when the Bub’s I’m done decorating it. ;)

** I’m linking this up to Beth’s Halloween mantel party –- uhhhh…my mantel is child’s play compared to some of these. Gorgeous!!

Thanks to this week’s sponsor!: