HaPpY hAlLoWeEn!!!!!

Happy happy Halloween everyone!!!!!! We carved our Jack-o-lanterns last night and are ready to rock and roll. Have a fun, safe, and candy filled Halloween everyone!!!!

"BOO!"  "eek!!!!!!!" "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!"

Randomness...

Hello everyone, happy Friday eve. I have been MIA on the blog for...no good reason. Lol. Lots of things in the works over here but not much is ready to be shared. I was lucky enough to sneak out and head to the flea market this past Sunday (thanks to my MIL for babysitting). I was planning a solo mission, but my friend Ashley decided to join me at the last minute and we had a blast. It's so relaxing to wander the flea market with a friend!

I checked one major "want" item off my long long list. I have been wanting to replace this Ikea table in my living room for a long long time. Here is the before (sorry for the bad cell phone pics):

 

The surface is a bit too small, it's sort of lop-sided and I was just plain bored with it. Wanna see the new one from the flea market??

 



I loove that it has a little shelf for the magazines. Not a super fan of the bottom triangular shelf, but hey - it's close enough to my dream table to work. The best part you ask??! It was already painted cream and distressed. I'll take it! I have not been in the furniture painting mood lately so this is a major plus! Here's a side by side comparison for you...

In other news, this evening I am attending a pre-holiday soiree for some friends of mine that have a stationary business. They are debuting all of their new holiday cards, stationary, and wedding invitations and decided to throw a par-tay. AND - they invited little ol' me to do a diy craft with their fabulous guests. We will be making pom pom mistletoe and pom pom snowballs :) FUN! I am pre-making all the tags so all they have to do is make a pom pom (while sipping cocktails) and I'll take care of the rest :)

 

It should be a FUN night :)
I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week! Talk soon!

Christmas in....October??

Happy Tuesday everyone! Let me start off by saying that I love Fall. I really really do. It doesn't quite feel like Fall here in SoCal yet (still a bit Summer-ish), but still. When it feels all Fall-y up in here, I'm a happy girl. BUT - for some reason, earlier than usual, I have Christmas on the brain. Perfect example - last weekend I had some "me" time at our local flea market and came home with oodles of vintage Christmas ornaments and a tiny Santa Mug. See....

Well, after I spookified my house a bit, I have nothing left to do but get crafty making Christmas stuff for my Etsy shop, and plan out what my holiday house will look like this year. Like, non stop thinking about it. Lol. I may need an intervention.

Why am I telling you this? Well, Last year I pinned this and I knew I wanted to make something like it. Since my crazy brain is in Xmas mode, I decided to get to work on it.

I wanted to keep it as cheap as possible and giant wood boards can cost a pretty penny. So I went to home depot and got 3 fence posts (that were approximately $2.50 each) and one skinnier one (around $1.50) and made a large planked board. Here's the backside.

(my husband was wondering why it needed to be so HUGE. Lol. Because, it has to!!!)

I wanted my sign to fit in with my holiday color scheme which is fundamentally Red, white, and aqua (with a bunch of other happy colors thrown in).

First - I did a patchy paint job of aqua left over from our front door:

I wanted to get that old chippy look so I tried the "vaseline" technique that I have spotted on other blogs such as Red Hen Home. I even consulted my guru Cassie for advice too (I'm a total rookie when it comes to "techniques.")

I plopped on some vaseline in the areas where I wanted the aqua to show through. Then I painted over it in cream paint that I had in my stash (Vermont cream by Behr).

I just gently rolled right over the vaseline with my roller.

Once the cream paint was dry, I wiped away the vaseline to reveal the aqua chippy-ness.

Next, it was time for the lettering. I basically free-handed the lettering (although I used a wooden wreath form to make the "O." I just drew it on with pencil, and then went over it with red Martha Stewart craft paint.

Here is a shot of the lettering pre-distressing.

I used my palm sander to heavily distress the edges and the lettering, and then I rubbed some minwax dark walnut stain on the exposed to wood to age it a bit.

Ready for the "JOYful" reveal??!!

Look at all of that chippy goodness.......

It will most likely go to the right of my front door, but at the moment it's pumpkin mania over there.

I will most definitely be posting about this again when I decorate for Christmas in December but I was just sooooo excited to show it off!! I love love love it!!!! It is exactly what I had in mind and makes me smile :)

We are headed to Disneyland after school today to check out the Halloween decor and ride some rides (yes, we are lucky lucky people).

I hope you are having a great week!!

SALE - SALE - SALE

Happy happy Monday everyone!!! I hope you had a lovely weekend! I just wanted to let you know that I am having a Fall/Halloween sale in my Etsy shop!! All of the items in the Halloween/Fall section are on SALE - 20% off!!!!!! Just enter the coupon code "Spooky" at checkout to receive your discount! Here are some pics to wet your whistle. I need to make room for Christmas mania so GET YOUR SHOP ON PEOPLE!!!! Haha!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a super week everyone!!!!



Spookified-ish

Holy Moly - is it HOT here in SoCal. Like, in the 90's at the beach. Seriously!!? What the!!? I am soooo ready for Fall and cool weather and yet here I sit, dripping sweat in tank tops, shorts, and flip flops. Come on Mother Nature!! U R Killing me!!

Moving on.
I want to thank you all again for the input on my painted pumpkins. After giving it some thought, I made a decision and went for it. Here's a reminder of the "before" picture...

Ready for the after??!

Here's a few close-ups...

I guess I just wasn't feelin' the orange and went for a black/white/aqua scheme instead. U like!?? I like :) Here are a few more pics of our "spooky" Halloween decor...

I picked up this sign at the dollar tree and thought it could be easily made into something more "me."

This is what it looks like now :)

I flipped it over and sprayed it with chalkboard paint. I had some fun doodling too. It's hangin' on the mantle with my chalkboard vases :)

 

 

Here's the big picture for ya :)



Kinda subtle, I know. It tends to get pretty cluttered in here during holidays so I'm liking the clean look this year.

And in the kitchen/dining area...

So, there you have it. All gussied up for Halloween! I have some fun "fall" decor to put out once Halloween is over. Maybe then I'll feel like bringing the orange back into my life ;)

Stay cool people!! Stay cool!