Oct 26, 2011

it's Halloween time!

If you've followed my blog for awhile, you probably have a good idea that Halloween is my favorite and my best! I don't know why I find it so appealing, maybe the colors? I do like bright colors mixed with black and white! There's also the candy, the dressing up part, the overall excitement that goes hand in hand with the holiday.



and I also love how anxious my kids are about going trick-or-treating. Alaina's been practicing each evening at our own house. She always starts the same way too "Mom, let's pretend I'm a tricker-or-treater!" and then she goes on to ring our doorbell. :) While my kids are young, I think the holiday is just as exciting for me as it is for them.



Our front yard is already for the 31st! I'll take you on a walk through out it. First, while wandering the aisles of Target I found this amazing black foil chandelier (for only $5. score!) and while it wasn't meant for outside, it ended up being perfect for the front entry. It's shimmering in the sunlight and then reflects the twinkly orange/pink lights at night.



I turned our fountain off for the moment and filled it with strands of little twinkly lights. The glow at night is perfectly spooky, and then just for fun, I perched the crow atop of the fountain. For about the first week, I kept doing a double take every time I walked past the front window and glanced out. :) That crow looks surprisingly real!

and because it's my house, skeletons have to wear pink flowers in their..... hair? on their heads. :)



Chase and I were out thrifting 2 weeks ago in an older part of town and came across someones collection of Empire Plastic lawn ornaments. I picked up 2 small pumpkin figurines, but left behind some larger ones... that I ended up kicking myself over once I got home! Since the wiring for the pumpkins looked like it was still from the 60's I replaced the lights with new lighting kits from Home Depot. I never thought I would be one to own any of those vintage plastic lights, until now! They are really pretty at night!



a couple more photos of decor details




I have 5 pumpkins waiting to be carved on Sunday!



I had this candy garland in mind last year as something I wanted to make for Halloween. It's made from toilet paper rolls (I feel silly for even saying it), plastic cups and pom-pom or poof-balls as they are often referred to as in our house. For the longer candies, I rolled fabric around and used pinking shears to cut the end fabric off. The small round candies were made by cutting the end off of a plastic cup and gluing a paper circle into it, and finally I wrapped each one in black tulle and used sewing thread to tie off the ends.




I couldn't decide on a good place to hang the garland and decided to just be content with draping the entire 9ft. of candy on the courtyard gate. It's cute but I still think the gate needs a "Happy Halloween" sign to hang right in the center.



lastly I haven't added anything new to the inside decor except for a couple of new ornaments for one of the Halloween trees. :) I'll fill each of the little pumpkins with candy-corn this weekend. We have some extra kids coming to visit us this weekend!




thanks for touring my front courtyard!! It's now time to turn on all of the outside lights. :)

Oct 25, 2011

photos, photos & some more photos

the problem with an amazing vacation is the amount of photos that quickly accumulate.... but how could you go to Disneyland and not take a billion photos?




I'm hoping to have a bunch more photos edited in the next few days. I love taking and sharing photos, editing though, not so much. xo ~ T

Oct 22, 2011

it's Challenge time!

hello and happy Saturday to you! I meant to post this before I left on vacation but there was way too much to do and so, here it is, on a Saturday. :) This months Color Challenge with Crate Paper ~ the details of the challenge are posted on the blog. I knew I wanted to make a mini for the Fall season and even though this month is all about orange I was determined to create a color combination that wasn't expected. No orange for this month!



This month's colors are Peacock Green ~ Mustard Yellow and Wheat ~ I think these colors are so complimentary to Autumn photos or Fall themed projects!






I created this mini album using coaster sized chipboard, Hambly transparencies, lots of Crate Paper Chipboard accent pieces and Patterned Paper. It's called Autumn Plans - think December Daily except geared towards Fall - It measures only 4x4 inches, large enough for photos & journaling and yet small enough that it's completely manageable. I think I made this entire little book in one afternoon!














I filled the album with a combination of photos, to-do lists, quotes, ATC's (from last year) and I plan on adding more photos as I take them. I still have lots of baking to do with the kids, our annual Autumn hike in Sedona, some arts & crafts time and the kids' Fall festival at school. busy-busy!



What are your Autumn Plans this year? This month is going by entirely too fast but I am happy to say that I have the house and yard all decorated for Halloween. I just need to pick up one bag of every possible candy available at the grocery store and I think I'm all set! I'm off to finish up some laundry and then it's on to making a candy garland! Hope you're are having a lovely weekend!