Pallet Pumpkins

Happy Fall!  These great pallet pumpkins are one of my favorite fall decorations for the front porch.
As the blog has switched to a new domain, I have moved this post over there as well.  Additional photos and details (and even a quick tutorial!) can now be found HERE.
Thanks for stopping by!

Craft Fail - Almost!

It should have been an easy project.  Kaitlyn wanted a bulletin board for her room.  No big deal right?  Buy an inexpensive bulletin board, slap some spray paint on it and viola!
Hahahahaha!  Nope!
I bought the bulletin board months ago, then finally pulled it out to cutesy it up (after many promptings from Miss Kate) one day when I was in Get It Done mode.  My first idea had been to spray a chevron pattern on it.  Yeah right!  Do you know how long it takes to try to tape out a chevron pattern?  And how particular you have to be with it to get it to look clean?  Yeah that idea survived all of 5 minutes with the 'ole painters tape before I decided to give up and go with stripes instead.

So then I sprayed it.  Easy enough.  And from far away it doesn't look bad.  But you know what happens when you buy a cheap bulletin board?

 The spray paint doesn't like to stick to cheap plastic frames and chips before it even makes it in the house.

And the thin cork sticks to the tape when you pull it off and causes holes.  Even when you are super careful and use the blow dryer.
So the poor bulletin board sat there for more weeks, with the tape half-removed because I didn't even want to think about it.  But there was my 9 year old who had been patiently waiting for the craft project I had promised her.  So the last time I took a trip to Hobby Lobby (and was in the fabric section anyway for supplies for a Halloween costume) I found some cute fabric - in the chevron pattern I had wanted originally.  Yay!  And the very next day (or maybe the one afterward) I pulled out the staple gun and attached the fabric.

Woohoo!  Much better right?!  And it took me all of 5 minutes.  Why didn't I do that in the first place?!!!

 Oh and adding the "nail heads" was a suggestion from a friend.  I wanted to give it a bit more detail than just fabric stretched over the board and I think these did just the trick.  As I wanted to get the project finished RIGHT NOW, instead of running to the craft store I simply painted a box of thumb tacks with spray paint and used them instead.

Ta-Daaa!  Now I have a happy Kaitlyn.  And one less project on my To Do list.

Friends

Sometimes in life you get those little "A-ha!" moments where your brain (or your heart) gives you a little nudge and right in the middle of whatever is going on, you realize just how lucky you are.  I've had a lot of those reminders lately and I feel very blessed.

 I have a lot of fantastic friends and family in my life - always have and I am so very lucky to have them.  But I wanted to acknowledge this particular group of ladies as they mean a lot in my daily life - right here, right now.  You see, I live in what I like to refer to as a "high drama" neighborhood and it's been quite a roller coaster ride finding true friends nearby since I moved here almost three years ago.  About four months ago it suddenly gelled for all of us and it's been amazing.  These ladies are my loyal supports, my social network, my reminders that life can always be fun, my crafty partners in crime (most don't claim to be truly crafty yet, but the enthusiasm is sure there lol), my safe place when I need to vent, our family while we're away from home.  They give me things to look forward to in life and sometimes I even let them "corrupt" me a little bit (you know I can be a little to firmly rooted in the serious).  ;)
Well all too quickly our little group is being shaken up.  All of the husbands are in the military and sure enough one of us is moving across the country.  So we threw her a surprise Going Away brunch yesterday.  She thought she was coming over to craft (and we did, eventually) but we had other plans.  And I have to say I'm pretty proud of us for pulling it off - especially since I'm a horrible liar and don't do well with that kind of thing.  We spent a fun couple of hours eating and chatting (and forcing my husband to play photographer for a while) while the husbands took care of the kiddos and it was awesome.

 Of course we couldn't let her go without a little parting gift.  A couple of them actually.  It's kind of our running joke that we are Real Housewives and we've tossed out the idea more than once that we needed to have wine glasses made up and we couldn't let her leave without following through on that.

 Fun, right?  I used outdoor vinyl and my trusty Silhouette and according to Pinterest these should hold up to hand washing and even the top rack of the dishwasher.  We shall see.
I did put our names on the bottom of each, but that didn't photograph well.
And our second super-sneaky project:

We took the group photo at her daughter's 1st birthday party the day before and my husband was nice enough to run to pick up the one hour print while we got the party started yesterday.  I literally snuck into the garage to put together the finishing touches while she was here and before she realized it was a party LOL.

The quote says it all.  Love these ladies!

The Witchiest House on the Block

**UPDATE:  Blog has been moved to new domain.  More photos and information on my fun Witch themed Halloween Front Porch Decorations can now be found HERE.  Check out the custom witch wreath, Boo swags, "Home of the Wicked Witch" Wooden Sign, Wooden Pallet Pumpkins and MORE.

All Dressed Up for Halloween

Happy October!  I love this time of year - the drop in temperatures (here that means a nice 70 degrees right now), the crisp air and blue skies, pumpkin flavored everything, the birthdays (yes birthdays - in my world end of Sept and all of Oct is stuffed choc full of birthdays!  But that's another post), and oh yes - the Halloween decorations!

As you know, I started working on the new additions to my fall décor quite a few weeks ago.  In fact, I decorated the house in mid-September (while my Mom was visiting as she wanted to see how everything looked all set up).  But true to form, it has taken me a couple of weeks to sit down and post the photos.  Am I ever going to be ahead of the curve, like a good crafty blogger should? (haha)

So without further delay (and before the kids wake up and I have to start in on the day!), here's a peak at the fall fun at my house.

 I changed up the ledge by the stairs a little bit - quite a few of my decorations stayed in the box this year.  But I did keep some of my favorites, especially the footprint ghosts.  The husband jokingly told me I need to make one with the puppy's paw print...that may actually be a fun addition, right? ;)

 My window box - still one of my absolute favorite craft projects.

 And the mantle.  I kept it super simple this year.  And symmetrical - that's so unlike me!  But cute, right?
(I whipped up the trick or treat banner last year.  It is reversible for thanksgiving.  And I did take a minute to relist it in my etsy shop, along with a few of my other Fall items.)

And my new swags on the front door.

Notice a trend?  Yup, I'm a little hung up on witch hats and boots.  I have one for the centerpiece on the dining table too.  I just finished a cute new sign for the front porch (but I'm so happy with it, I'm giving it it's own blog post.  Check back tomorrow! ;) ).  And a friend just bought me a funny Wicked Witch of the West magnet for my car!