In Transition

I can't get life to slow down!  Some days, I really really feel like it needs to, and others, I look back and am glad it all went by so quickly.  October was one of those - plenty of highlights, but also full of stress and hard work as we finished packing up our lives in North Carolina and moved across country.  Intense.  I think that was the hardest, most labor intensive move to date.  So so many details and To Dos this time around.

We packed up the entire house into two shipping containers and one Uhaul trailer, rented out the house, bid goodbye to good friends, and set out with the kids and the dog on the four day drive across country.  The drive went pretty smoothly - thank goodness! - and with all the fall leaves out, the drive scenery was gorgeous.

We arrived at my parents house on a Friday, stopping just long enough for a potty break then running to the school to get the kids enrolled before they closed the doors for the weekend.

It's been a little over a week since we arrived.  The kids have started school, we took over half of my dad's shop and set up the tools to start working on drying rack orders, helped with some pre-winter farm prep and "fixin' fence,"

celebrated Halloween by watching the elementary school's costume parade and Trick or Treating in our old neighborhood (fun fun!), experienced our first snow of the season (not the first storm here, but we weren't here for that)

 and have been steadily chipping away at the million-and-one things we need to do to get settled in.

We aren't done yet!  Not by a long shot.  The shipping containers will be dropped off today and I'm excited to get our stuff here and put away.  Most of it will need to go into storage.  Did I mention we are living in my parents' house while we build a house on our family land?  Yeah.  Lots of hard work ahead.  Thus the title of this post, "In Transition" - because life is just one giant Work In Progress right now.

Halloween/Thanksgiving 2x4 Craft - Double Sided!

If it weren't for other people, I don't know if I'd manage to work in time for "fun" crafting very often - especially right now when I seem to spend most of my days in the garage working on drying racks or sorting through yet another closet or stack of boxes in an effort to pare down all the STUFF before we move.  However, I get pretty cranky when all I do is "work" so a couple months ago when I was asked to put together a craft for the women's group at a local church I was pretty quick to agree.  I love introducing people to one of my favorite hobbies!

It didn't take us long to decide on an easy (and hopefully quick!) 2x4 craft for Halloween and Thanksgiving - yes, it's double sided!    The easier it is to change out holiday decor and the less space it takes up in storage, the better, right?  The front side reads "BEWARE of little Monsters" and the back side says "THANKS for little Blessings."

We ended up with almost 30 people signed up for the craft - Yay!  I'm told most of them have never done anything crafty so I've been thinking extra hard about how to have it all go as smoothly as possible.  Over the last week or so I've pulled together a kit for everyone and while I was at it I figured, hey, why not pull together a quick How To for the blog.  I haven't done one of those in a while.

In the kit they will find the wooden blocks, vinyl lettering, patterned paper cut to size, a couple pieces of ribbon (which I forgot to put in the photo!) and even a nice little reference sheet.  I took the extra time to type up the reference sheet because 1) a few of the people won't be able to make it tomorrow but still wanted to make the craft and 2) with that many people they may not be able to have the example blocks right in front of them and I wanted them to at least have photos for reference and 3) some people learn better/retain things better if they can read it instead of just listening to a quick explanation.

*For those of you that are going to ask (and I know someone is going to ask!) here is a quick run through of the sizes for the wood pieces.  You can use a 2x4 for all pieces (I got 2-3 sets out of one 2x4).  Cut out two pieces 7 1/4" high, two pieces 4 1/8" high, and two pieces 3 1/2" high.  For the base block I cut it 14" long then ran it through the table saw (or rather, my awsome husband did) so that it was 2" high.

The rest of the process is pretty easy:
-paint all sides of all wooden pieces.  (Actually I would have preferred to stain them, but the stain has to dry overnight and it really messy so I figured paint was a much better option for craft day)  It will probably take two coats.
-cut your patterned paper slightly smaller than the size of the blocks.  Adhere patterned paper with Modge Podge or similar adhesive
-apply vinyl lettering
-apply another coat of Modge Podge over the top of everything, including the sides that are only painted (this keeps the finish consistantly glossy on all sides)
-when dry, attach ribbon embellishments using wood glue or a hot glue gun.

Told you it was easy! ;)  Now for the beauty shots.

The big craft day is tomorrow!  I've already been over to help set everything up - can't wait!  I'll let you know how it goes... ;)

Linking to:
Link Party Palooza
BFF Open House Link Party

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!

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!

Ahead of the calendar

...at least for now!  Seems like I'm often behind on getting around to all the holiday crafts I want to create.  However, it's easier to make sure I fit crafting into the schedule when I have someone to craft along with me - and lucky me, I have quite a few craft buddies lately.  After my last crafting day with friends I ran across a great website for unique wreath frames and after consulting my friends, I ordered up a whole stack of them.  And today was the day we had scheduled for putting them together.  As luck would have it, the majority of my crafty friends couldn't make it at the last minute but we went ahead with our smaller crew.  It was, of course, tons of fun.

Here is one of my candy canes (I did two).  I had to go ahead and hang it outside just so I could see how it looked before packing it away for Christmas.

Then I got carried away and put out all my new wreaths haha.  Gave the house a bit of an identity crisis, didn't I?  I wonder what the neighbors think.  Had to be done though - how are we to stage photos for blogging if we don't hang the projects up?

The side window swags are new.  I started one of them at the last crafting day then finished them up on my own later.  They've been sitting in the sun room ever since just waiting for me to make sure they fit ok and take photos.  The witch wreath isn't new, but I had to put it up just to check the whole look, right? ;)

 I've decided that witch hats and boots are my "thing" when it comes to Halloween.  And I've also decided that I'm going to go a bit over the top with decorating the porch this year.  More on that later - I have a few more projects to finish first :)  I'm in quite the fall mood right now and getting a little sick of the 90 degree temps here still.  I restrained myself from making up a batch of spiced cider while we crafted, though I did put together a batch of pumpkin dip for snacking.

So there we have it - crafty decorations done and photos taken and blogged enough time ahead of the holiday itself that I can share it with all of you.  I can't wait until October hits and I can truly put out the decorations for Halloween!

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Halloween! (31 Days: Day 30)

Happy Halloween!  It's almost time for some Trick or Treating!  (yeah, that sounds so much more fun when you're 6 than when you're 30, right?)  We will be headed out for that shortly, but I wanted to take a quick minute to document some of the fun we've been having with the holiday.

Last night before carving up the pumpkins we had a fun Halloween theme dinner with mummy wrapped hot dogs and spiced apple cider.  It was the perfect thing to set the stage for the main event - the pumpkins.

I suprised the kids with some fun things in their lunchboxes today - mummy wrapped drinks, Halloween jokes, single serve mandarin oranges with pumpkin faces drawn on them, and spider rings in their sandwiches.

And there you see my little cowboy and rodeo queen.  In order to be able to dress up for school they had to pick something that went with the school's dress up day theme for Red Ribbon Week, which was What I Want to Be When I Grow Up.  I was pretty happy when Tyler suggested the cowboy because we already had everything we needed.  And don't they both look adorable in their hats?

Again - Happy Halloween!  Here's hoping they get some good candy for me to steal ;)

Pumpkin Carving (31 Days: Day 30)

(no I didn't forget to write anything - I just figured the photos spoke for themselves.  Happy Halloween Eve!)

Trick or Treat Glass Block (31 Days: Day 27)

Ready for one more candy corn Halloween decoration variation?  Yup, me too! :)  The original inspiration from this one came from here via Pinterest.  Looks pretty simple, right?  Well, you'd be right.  They carry these great glass blocks at most of the big craft stores, complete with a nice little opening in the bottom.  I think mine was $12 before the 40% off coupon.

I used that handy hole in the bottom to stuff some lights and colored tissue paper inside.  I didn't worry too much about the back, but you could cover it up if you wanted to.

I added some vinyl lettering (that Silhouette machine is really earning its keep this month!) and some black tulle.  That it!  Another 5 minute, under $10 project.  I was on such a roll yesterday :)

 

Candy Corn Shadow Box (31 Days: Day 26)

I was on such a roll with this 31 Days thing - until this week!  It's just been go, go, go one day after another.  The blogging had to take a bit of a back seat and I completely ruined the posting streak I had going on.  *sigh*  Oh well.
That isn't to say that I haven't been crafting.  In fact, today I got in a little unexpected craft time.  You see a friend and I were supposed to be doing a craft show tomorrow so a lot of my day was going to be devoted to last minute things for that.  But it looks like some bad weather is headed our way, and with NC being extra catious about that sort of thing they called everyone and rescheduled it.  Kind of a mess actually, as I had other plans for my Saturday next week and will now have to miss the wedding I was going to, plus the husband will be working so I was stressing a bit until a friend stepped in and offered to watch the kids for me.  Once I had my head wrapped around the new plan, (if you know me at all, you'll know that I hate having my plans changed) I was able to then enjoy the fact that I had the rest of the afternoon that didn't have to be spent tagging items and loading up the car.  Woohoo!  I watched or show or two that had been waiting for me on the DVR, then decided to finish up some of the small holiday decorations I hadn't gotten around to yet.  Like this fun little shadow box.

I have two or three holiday shadow box variations, so of course I had intended to add a Halloween one to the collection at some point.  I think the vinyl haunted house is a fun touch.  I love that there are so many great dingbat fonts out there that I don't even have to buy special designs to use for stuff like this.  And since I seem to have found a bit of a candy corn groove lately, why not put them in the shadow box? 

Not bad for a 5 minute, under $10 project.

 

2x4 Pumpkin Tutorial (31 Days: Day 11)

These little beauties are so popular I didn't want to leave them behind when I changed blog domains.  The full tutorial can now be found on my new blog HERE.  Happy Fall!  And Happy Crafting!

Fall Hair Pretties (31 Days: Day 9)

Quick show and tell today.  Just in case you need a few quick and easy ideas to dress up your girly girl for fall.

I love the look of this style of fabric rosette.  I've been experimenting with all different types of fabric from satin to denim.  These particular ones are made out of knit - you know, the stuff your Tshirts are made from.  Cool, right?