Creed as "Max" from Where the Wild Things Are

Yes, I've been MIA. I went to Disneyland with this little guy, spent a long day working on this costume with Stephanie, and hosting dinner parties. I love how Creed's costume turned out. I think he is so adorable. I finished a Halloween quilt and took it to my friend to machine quilt yesterday. Eli, age 22, now wants me to make a "Max" costume for him by Friday night. I'm not sure how I will fit that one in.


I hope all of you are happy and well and having a good time celebrating Fall. We are supposed to have snow today.

Halloween Fun in Blog Land

Life in the Fun Lane has my same Halloween design philosophy. Check it out here.

We used to do this in our neighborhood. It is really fun to do and you can get some free downloads to Boo (door bell ditch) your neighbors here.

Check out Starshine Chic. She gives a great tutorial on framing out "Spooky" and check out her Halloween blog background. I love it.

Just a few things I found out in blogland. I hope you enjoy them.

Oh and Always Nesting is having a $25 TJ Maxx card giveaway. I love shopping TJ Maxx.

Halloween Decor and More

If you are here from Between Naps on the Porch, welcome. Please scroll down to the table scape in this post. If you aren't here from Between Naps on the Porch, go there and check out some great inspiration. Happy Haunting...

The front porch all decked out. (Click on pictures to enlarge.)

The family room mantel. I love the garland that Candice and I designed a couple of years ago. You might have seen a similar one available as a kit at Target. Candice had it posted on her blog and I think "Making Memories" submitted it to Target for production. (I have very talented daughters.)
We had lots of company today that had fun making a dent in this candy supply. This was the before level.
A close up of all the beaded garlands.

My Jeni Gochner gourds. She is a talented girl that lives in Salt Lake.
My $2 bird house I bought at a garage sale this summer. I scored! The sweet little birds are from Pottery Barn.
This was another project that Candice and I designed together. It was in the Creating Keepsakes magazine two years ago. It is our 13 day count down to Halloween. (The frame was our inspiration purchased from IKEA.)
We used some heirloom pieces. The #1 tag is made from a shoe buckle that belong to my grandmother. The gypsy box we designed around a picture I had of my grandmother. It was a dance recital picture. It makes me smile when I look at it.
I tried to photograph my dining room table. We are having dinner guests this week. (Don't worry, I'll rewash the dishes before they come.) I designed using things I already had around. I just tried to use them in a new creative way.
I used glass vases as pedestals adding orange tinsel and then turning them upside down. Adding different levels creates so much more interest. I used a mixture of candle sticks, silver beaded garlands, orange ornaments. I did buy the orange votive candles. They are the battery operated kind.



I bought these dishes a few months ago from Tai Pan Trading. I love that store. Very inexpensive. I wish I would have bought a few more. I only have 8. I ripped up cheese cloth and that is what you see hanging down from the chandelier. The spiders I purchased from Pottery Barn this year while I was in Texas. They are scattered though out my house.


See that square silver candle stick? I bought a pair of them at a garage sale this summer. I got them for a great price and just left them tarnished for Halloween. (Don't worry, I won't be lighting the real candles. My house would go up in flames with all that cheese cloth hanging down. Besides, the last time I did light that many candles on my table, it got unbelievably warm. Those candles put of a lot of heat! It was very romantic though.)


The party I having has a pirate theme so here is my pirate treasure display. We will have a photo booth, play our own version of curses at dinner, and go on a treasure hunt. Everyone is supposed to bring their own digital camera to document the treasure hunt. It sounds fun doesn't it?
See...sometimes it pays to let your silver tarnish. The polished pieces just didn't look good. I used a table cloth ($5 from a Lake Tahoe garage sale.) Lots of my grandmother's fakey pearls, and things I had around. This kind of decorating is so much more fun than buying a pumpkin and displaying it don't you think? I do. I love to use what I have hanging around to create something new.
The pumpkins and urn are new this year. Remember I showed you the urn in the last post. Candice and I picked this up at Home Goods for a good price. We didn't know how good until we saw one almost identical for sale for over $200. I was going to put black tree branches in it but this was easier. (This is the top of my piano.)
(The clocks are Lake Tahoe garage sale finds too. They have the best garage sales. I think I paid $5 for both of them.)

And then, my girlfriend surprised me with this cute little witchy quilt. (Four witches with their hats intertwined.) She made 8 of these. I'm amazed at how much she is able to accomplish in life. It was an early Christmas present. I feel so blessed. I still have more decorations...I know you are shocked right? I will post more as I finish tweaking them.

I'd love to see your decor...post your link if you have pictures to share.
(Coley...I hope you enjoyed g-ma's decorations. I miss you all!)

A Front Door Redo

I'm back. I'm not in school. By week two, I re-evaluated and thought I was nuts for trying to get a Masters. I already have a great job and would have to give a four year commitment in order to finish the Master's program in SW and get certified. Instead of school, I've been working on projects, working hard at my job, spending time with my children, and living life. I'll try and catch you up on things. I saw this when I was out shopping with the girls. Cute idea. Use your ginger bread man cookie cutter to make an easy Halloween mummy. I just might give that one a try. Yes, I did get that black urn and those Halloween socks. I'll share what I did with them later. I did want to show you the before and after of my front door. Here is the before.
Here is the during. Three hours of sanding with an electric sander. I didn't know I had so many layers of paint.
So, here's the scoop about the door. I shopped at Lowes Friday night buying 3 cans of primer, and three cans of red gloss paint, etc. Anyway, I got up early to start on the job but no one else was up to help me get the door off the hinges and I couldn't do it by myself. Eli drew the short straw since he was the next one up.

I sanded for an hour before my DH came out to lend a hand for another hour. Good thing we had two sanders. ;) We thought we had it nice and smooth until we started painting and then you could see that it wasn't nearly as smooth as we thought. It also took longer to dry than I thought it would. Come on...it's spray paint, outside, on a nice warm day. (And yes, we did use all 6 cans of paint.)

Now comes the really big problem. I bought a new handle and lock set, plus new kick plate. (The last one was in bad shape making it hard to open the door. Plus, it looked awful.) Who knew that those things aren't universal? Why does the new kick plate have holes in different places than the old one? And why don't the holes for the old handle fit the new handle? It was a nightmare! My husband was none too happy with me since we couldn't put the door back on and have it lock before the BYU football game started which we had tickets to.

I ended up staying home until my niece came to skype the football game for her dad who is living in Spain. They stayed to guard the house while we were at the game. My DH ended up going to the hardware store and buying a new drill bit, redrilling holes, and securing the house before going to bed at 1 am. I think it turned out pretty well if you don't look to close. My husband still says he loves me...but he kind of rolls his eyes when he says that.
A friend of Candices' cut some vinyl letters/number for me. It was hard to get them in the right place since they were individual and not on a transfer mechanism. I've fixed the 3 since I took these pictures.
What do you think?

So now I'm gearing up for Halloween. The Halloween bomb has gone off in my house and I think I am now finished decorating. I'm also having a Halloween party in two weeks...theme...pirates. Think "The Black Pearl" from Pirates of the Carribean. I have my treasure display and my table all set. (My husband's students are coming for dinner this week. I'm using it as a trial run for my party.) I'll try and take pictures tomorrow.

A week ago I was in Texas with Candice. She just moved from NYC. I came to help her decorate her family room. We were girls on a mission and worked hard to get everything completed in a week. I did lots of sewing. (Four drapery panels sewn into black and white stripes 19 feet long plus 2 pillows. She has a 24 foot ceiling. They do say that everything is bigger in Texas.)

She promises to give me pictures of the "befores" and "afters" but it might be awhile because she doesn't want the "after" pictures to have Halloween decorations in the pictures. We had a blast and my DH flew in later in the week so we could see Mark's first play he directed as new professor. It was a great week that went by way too quickly. I don't like being so far away from all my babies. Good thing at least Steph and family live close by.

Monday we are working on a "Max" costume from "Where The Wild Things Are." Eli says that he wants one too. I thought that was hilarious.

What else am I doing? I have picked up knitting again and am knitting a purse to felt. I'm trying to finish up a Halloween quilt...although I have no idea where I will hang it. I made a new valance for my studio space. And, who knows what else I've been doing...hmmm, this morning I watch the faculty play the students in softball. They didn't get enough faculty to play so recruited from local alumni. The faculty won. Who would have guessed that would happen? My DH even made a bunch of runs and didn't get hurt. It was fun to watch.

I went on a great motorcycle ride with my husband up the canyon this afternoon. The colors were beautiful. We stopped at Sundance on the way down and decided to have dinner in the grill. It was a great date. We decided to make it a yearly tradition.

So, life is busy but good. I feel blessed!