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Oct 31, 2013

Sweet November 2013

It's that time again for Sweet November! Jessica and I are going to be hosting another edition of Sweet November here on our blogs tomorrow, but we've changed things up a bit. Now, instead of Sweet November being a week long as in the past 2 years, we're going to make it last for the entire month and we've made it into a Photo Challenge of sorts!


Just like our previous Sweet Novembers, we still have lots of crafty tutorials, sweet recipes and pretty photos to share, but we'll be tying those projects with a photo prompt for that coordinating day. Think of it as a scavenger photo hunt for the month of November. 

Check back tomorrow for our first post! 

xo ~ Tara

Oct 29, 2013

The best of Oregon

I've had such a hard time getting these photos posted and not in any technical sense (although, I would have loved being able to blame it on a technical glitch) sadly enough, I just haven't been interested in editing any more of them. It gets to the point where I literally feel as though I'm going to blow a gasket if I have to edit one more photo. Editing photos is just not my forte. 
But, the kids and I had a great time in Oregon! I had invited these friends to come up and meet us at the house for a long weekend. Got to say, vacationing with friends is alot of fun! Everything is more fun with friends, getting to explore the beaches at low tide, wandering through antique shops, painting drift wood, even making dinner - all better with friends by your side! 

Jessica did a much better job at taking & posting photos of our time together, you can see them herehere and here. (I bet she has more photos posted somewhere, I'll have to ask where they're hiding). Oh and I should also mention that my kids completely forget about me in favor of Jessica and Jeff when we are all together, which explains my lack of photos of them and how they pop up often in Jessica's photos. 

(all photos taken in & around Florence, OR)


I'm getting ready for another quick post on Thursday! Sweet November will be back, revamped and hopefully a tad more interactive than our previous editions. See you Thursday!

Oct 28, 2013

trick-or-treat

Halloween this year was off to a great start! We collectively decided on the theme 'witches' this year, and so I set out creating a theme for the decor. The colors would be rich glittery black, deep purple, silver and a little orange. Spell books would be made, I needed bottles of potions, brooms would be rested against tables and chairs, black witches hats would be placed on top of vintage plastic pumpkins and black cats would hang out by the front door. But then the inevitable happened: the kids had about 12 other costume ideas, and they abandoned the witch idea in favor of Day of the Dead, leaving me and the house, well a bit witchy. That's ok though! The house is decorated, we all have completed costumes and I think we'll ready for the big night!  


Alaina really wanted to go as a Monster High doll, Skelita, a Day of the Dead monster, but the costume at the store was truly atrocious, both in how it was constructed and the price. I convinced her to let me make her costume this year, I'm glad she trusts me enough to agree to go along with my ideas. We went to Savers, a large thrift store in the area, purchased 2 skirts, 1 black tulle skirt and one crinkle skirt, a black shawl, wooden beaded necklaces and bright gold and pink bangles. Since I knew I would have to re-sew and alter both skirts I wasn't worried about them fitting, just threw them into the wash and then got to work cutting and sewing!  


I found this great veil headband and just clipped a few of Alaina's hair clip flowers to it. The only flower that had to be hot-glued was the teal scrapbook flower. I wanted to tie in the teal of her eye makeup to the headband. 




Chase's costume, (or costumes rather, as he's had about 10 since we started talking about Halloween last month) started as a black cat, but then after seeing his sister's makeup decided he also wanted to have a Day of the Dead skull, but to still be a cat. It was an easy adjustment, just some extra makeup. 

  



I wish I had known the kids wanted to do Day of the Dead, I could have easily worked that theme into home decor! (I imagined colorful Mexican blankets, guitars, sugar skulls, beaded garlands, banners, big tissue flowers all in traditional Halloween colors. I'll save those ideas for later!) 

Instead, our decor will only match my witch costume. (Not really a costume so much, just an Ann Taylor black dress, boots and a big witch hat with a bit of black tulle and a large black feather flower.) A quick search of chalkboard ideas lead to this one but since I don't have an entire wall, it had to be scaled down to fit my chalk board (which was a painting from Z gallery that I couldn't give away, so I covered it with chalkboard spray paint).


 The best part of the table, I think, is this flaming cauldron. The kids love that we have a 'fire' inside the house, it's very realistic once the lights are out and we plug it in. 


I took a few older books, painted them black and then scuffed up the edges with a fine sand paper. It lets the original book color come through, and makes them appear to be well used. A package of gold foil stickers were used to spell out 'potions' and 'spells.' I even found a purple moth to use, with the help of a glue dot, it's now resting on the edge of the book. I love how random scrapbook embellishments are can useful when decorating! 


I carried our witch theme out to the front yard as well! Come Thursday evening, our porch will glow with warm candle light and flickering lighted pumpkins! 




Thanks so much for stopping by today and Happy Monday to you!
xo ~ Tara 

Oct 23, 2013

family nature day



(Long time, no time for blogging... I have a good explanation but that's a whole other long post and today is just for photos!)

 You know what's really pretty this time of year? Sedona, AZ, especially along Oak Creek Canyon. Yah, I know, I say that every year but it's one of a few places that I never grow tired of seeing. Fall though, is still the prettiest up there.  When Peter's plans on Monday fell through  leaving us the whole day free to do what we like, it didn't take much coaxing to convince every one that a day out in the woods was exactly what we needed. 

One warm October afternoon, fresh pine scented air, a winding woodland trail and my little family out exploring together. 

This time of year on the trail, the cool wind blows along the canyon's winding creek, sending the orange and yellow leaves above to float through the air. Chase said it was raining leaves. The West Fork trail is always on my Fall to-do list, and with lot's of new photos I'm thinking that a little Fall-mini scrapbook could be in order! 




















Happy Wednesday to you all! 


xo ~ Tara