A Visit From the Tooth Fairy (31 Days: Day 4)

What is one of the most exciting events in the life of a 5 year old?  Losing a tooth and getting that very first visit from the Tooth Fairy!  This happened to my little guy not that long ago and he was SO excited.  So was his sister, who volunteered the use of her Tooth Fairy Tin since he didn't have one yet.  Such a sweetie!  I decided on the spot that we had enough time to whip one up for him on the spot so I sent Miss Kate in search of a suitable tin.

Wasn't she nice to volunteer a Hello Kitty one she had been holding on to?  So that's the Before photo.
And here is the After:

I had a can of red spray paint on hand, so that's the color we went with.  And while it was drying I grabbed some tooth clipart from Google and printed it onto an address label.  Ty insisted that it needed some blue (that's his favorite color) so I added the ricrac and we were ready for the Tooth Fairy!  You know she (he?  that was a debate we were having at our house that night lol) appreciates having the tooth contained in something so she doesn't have to risk not finding those teeny tiny teeth under the pillow. ;)

And look at that grin!  Toothless Kindergarteners are so precious!

Why did I add this as part of my 31 Days series, you ask?  Well, because it happened in the Fall, that's why!  I want my 31 Days to include more than just pumpkins and Halloween Costumes because there are so many other fun things that fill our days this season.  (and it's my blog - there are no rules other than the ones I make up!  hehe).  Plus the tooth loss was the result of biting into one of those lovely apples I was babbling about the other day. :) 

Witch Hat Centerpiece (31 Days: Day 3)

I love fall and I LOVE fall decorations.  And for some reason, I'm extra obsessed with the witch themed stuff.  Strange maybe, since I don't like any of the icky, scary, gory parts of Halloween but give me a diembodied witch hat or boots and I can't help squealing about how cute it is - the whimsical fun witch stuff, that is.  Even thinking about it now has me wishing I was strolling through Gardner Village right now (which totally isn't going to happen as that is now a 4 day drive from here *sigh*) to see what fun things they have added to their witch displays this year.
A couple years ago I got the bright idea to dress up a witch hat as a centerpiece for my dining table and this year when I was wanting to add a few Fall things to my collection for the craft show (and the Etsy shop, of course) I whipped up a new variation of it.

I'm in love with polka dots, and the black/white color combination - have you noticed? ;)

I've found that floral designs are kind of a free style thing, so I'm not going to do a tutorial on this one.  But I will mention that I used fishing line to sew most of the items onto the hat itself then just used hot glue to add some of the other accents.  I have a love/hate relationship with hot glue and I try to use it sparingly as it doesn't lend itself well to long term use, especially on seasonal decorative items that have to be moved in and out of boxes or ones that may be disturbed by kids or the weather.

 

I had to see what it would look like hanging too. :)  If I didn't already have my witch wreath one of these would probably end up on my front door.

So I'm curious - are there any other "witchy" ideas out there I need to add to my collection? :)

Linking to:

Apple Picking! (31 Days: Day 2)

31 Days of Fall Fun, Festivities, and Projects!  Day 2! :)  (insert big pat on the back to myself for being on the ball and getting it posted not too late in the day LOL)  Why don't we focus on one of the fun parts of fall today - family time!  The weather here has been so beautiful the last couple of weeks - blue skies and moderate to chilly temperatures.  I've been loving it and was excited to catch the tail end of apple picking season over the weekend.  Of course that was the day the weather decided to turn overcast and drizzly but we went anyway.

And what fun it was!  The orchard was beautiful and even in the rain we didn't mind the walk out to the field from the parking lot.  I was kind of hoping for big trees with ladders to climb, but these were just short ones that we could all reach easily (and I guess in the scheme of things it's better not to risk the 5 year old falling out of a tree, right?). 

 

It didn't take much time to fill the basket, even with me snapping photos and only picking about two apples myself. Then the kids happily skipped back to the barn/picnic area where they had spotted a few tire swings.

On the drive home we kept coming up with more and more fall recipes we wanted to try with our new apples and pumpkin (even though we skipped the hayride to the pumpkin patch this time - there is only so much rain one can take).  Stopping at Cracker Barrel for lunch just contributed to our enthusiasm.  They had a photo of their pumpkin musse with gingersnaps, which we didn't try there but promptly looked up recipes for on the way home.  My husband took charge of making the mousse, while I whipped up a batch of pumpkin dip for the apples and put a pot of apple cider on the stove to warm up.  What drizzly apple picking day would be complete without warm apple cider?
And the "recipe" I use is very simple - simmer apple juice/cider with little bit of orange juice, some brown sugar, and a few whole spices (cinnamon, cloves, etc - just remember to fish them out before drinking).

Such fun!  This is for sure something we will add to our fall traditions next year!

31 Days of Fall

It's that time of year again - time for 31 Days Posts!  If you're a follower of the Nesting Place blog, you'll know what I'm talking about it.  If not - well, basically I'm committing myself to write about a specific topic every day for the next 31 days.  Every Day.  Yeah - intense :)  I attempted it last year and ended up stretching my 31 posts across 2-3 months lol.  This year I feel even busier than last year, so I really was going to skip it.  Then it occurred to me that with everything going on maybe posting is exactly what I SHOULD be doing - it's not like I'll have a hard time coming up with material to babble on about, right?  And I've been meaning to be more consistant about posting here on the blog instead of letting life run away with me.  So I'm in.  31 Days here we go!

See?  I even have a button!  And a Theme:  31 Days of Fall Fun, Festivities, and Projects (I tried to come up with something that incorporates everything I know I will be dealing with in October; Birthday Month, Halloween, Fall stuff, etc etc).
And now I have an introductory post! :)  (and it's only 5:30 PM on Day 1 lol - I'm not late!)   I'll see you back here tomorrow, k?!

Master List for all 31 Days posts (I'll update with links as I go along):
Day 2:  Apple Picking
Day 3:  Witch Hat Centerpiece
Day 4:  Tooth Fairy Tin
Day 5:  Getting into the Spirit (my fall decorations)
Day 6:  Cute and Cozy (crochet hats!)

Come in and Sit a Spell

**UPDATE October 2015 - Blog had moved to a new domain and photos, details about this fun Witch Wreath project along with new photos of companion projects and great Fall/Halloween front porch decor can now be found HERE.


It's Fall!  It's Fall!  It constantly amazes me how the change of seasons really does coincide with the dates on the calendar....  

Craft Show Adventures

This is what my craft room AND my sunroom have looked liked for the last two weeks.  My husband jokingly tells me he is so glad he found me a house with TWO craft rooms :)
I have been crafting up a storm and the place has been a study in not-quite-controlled chaos and just plain messy to boot.  Why crafting and messy-ness go hand in hand, I'm never sure, but they do.  You just can't craft without a mess. And since I've been neck deep in preparations for my first foray into the craft show world...
(It wasn't just the house that got a little neglected.  I have SO many new items that I need to shoot photos of, blog about, etc.)

A friend and I have been talking about trying our hand at craft shows for months now.  We looked into what was available in our area and tried to pick a few that looked promising and I have been gradually adding to me "stock" every since.  I had hoped to avoid the whole rush to complete things at the last minute.  But in reality it's just a LOT of work and it's hard to control the creative monster until you are down to the wire and have to ruthlessly start regulating your time.  So I pretty much wore myself out the past couple of weeks trying to get things ready, on top of everything else that makes up my normal life.  And yesterday was the big day!

We rolled out of bed early and were on our way by 6.  Set up went pretty smoothly and we were happy about how things looked.  It was a beautiful day and the activities of the event pulled in a lot of people.  We talked to quite a few people, handed out plenty of cards with links to our website, and did a lot of people watching. Since we were at "Mule Days" my friend was continually amused/amazed by the number of people walking around in cowboy boots and other cowboy gear.  For me, it was a reminder of the big 4th of July Celebration back home (small town and completely Western) - something I don't feel very often in North Carolina.

Overall, a good day.  Except for the sales part of it.  Even after moving the tables to the front sides of the tent (after realizing that people would walk by but rarely venture into the tent to take a close look at anything), which did help draw more attention, we spent most of the day wondering why things weren't selling very well.  Were the items not cute enough?  No, we got plenty of compliments.  Was the audience wrong for out items?  Don't think so - there were plenty of people with strollers and most of our stuff is for babies and children, most of which were dressed adorably.  What about pricing?  Well, that is something we evaluate pretty fully and there is a line where if you don't charge a certain amount it just doesn't cover the costs and time that goes into it.  And to us it seems fairly priced.  Was the venue wrong?  Possibly - other vendors we talked to weren't making loads of sales either.  Displayed in a way that didn't show things to their best advantage?  Were people just there for a day out (or maybe just to steal ideas - we caught at least one person taking photos) and not to shop?  Were the other events too distracting?  Do we simply just not know how to talk to people in a way that will close a sale? Just the luck of the draw??....
Honestly selling on Etsy is easier in that respect, since you don't have to phyically watch how many times people look at an item before the right buyer comes along.  And it WAS our first show.  So I'm staying optimistic and still looking forward to our second show at the end of next month.  Wish us luck!  And if anyone has any suggestions or tips - please share!

Fall Beadboard Pennant Banners

School has started and the weather is starting to cool off (love that!) which means that fall isn't very far behind.  I love the feeling of fall.  The cool crisp air.  The colors.  And the excuse to make more decorative crafts! :)

I've been wanting to use up some up the extra beadboard we have laying around, so I came up with these fun beadboard pennant banners.  The first one I made is double-sided - one side says "Trick or Treat" and the other side reads "Give Thanks."  Two holidays - one decoration!  Halloween and Thanksgiving are so close together the decorations don't have a chance to be on display very long.  Plus the color scheme works really well for both holidays.

It also gave me a chance to use this great grey/teal/brown/orange argyle fabric.  I fell in love with it months ago when I picked some up to make baby gifts but haven't had a single project for myself where I could use it.  So I'm excited about that too  (yes, it's the little things) 

Side #1

Think it's too early in the year to leave the mantel like that? ;)  I had to dress it up a little bit for the photos - poor thing was very sad looking this summer.  I still haven't fully figured out what my permanent/non-holiday decor should be in that room.  Now I don't want to pack the stuff away and look at a bare mantel for another month.

Side #2

And because I was on a roll, I put together a generic fall banner too.  I think this one will end up on the decorative ledge by the stairs. 

I'm pleased enough with both of the banners that I think I will make some for the upcoming craft fairs (a friend and I are going to share a booth at a couple this fall and see how it goes - eek!  Craft fairs sound like so much work - and what if I don't sell anything?!) and of course I will list them in my etsy shop.

 

I've had so much fun with this idea that I've got a lot more ideas swirling around the brain - parties, photo prop, other holidays...stay tuned - I'm sure you'll be seeing more of these from me soon! Linking to:

Today's Creative Blog
 

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