Halloween Spookiness

I love, love, love Halloween and I love to decorate for it.  Every year I bring out all my stuff and for the most part I try to put it in a different place.  This year was no different except I did have a bit more help with Emmy and Elise getting all the stuff out and trying to decorate with it.  It was so fun and here is the end result.  Don't be scared it's only pictures.  Here goes....

Den Spookiness

My little pumpkin lady and "autumns" chalkboard.

My bay window is a little hard to see because of all the wonderful light coming in, but I think it's my favorite this year.  It has my BOO pumpkins and my spookified wreath.  Not to mention all the blood and gore on the windows.

This is Ally's favorite vignette.  She is forever kissing on all three of my "ladies and gentleman".

 This bird cage with the cat inside is part of my bay window vignette.  It is my favorite.  I love how the crows have trapped the mean cat inside. 

 It can't be spooky without an urn full of skulls and moss.

My mantel has only a few touches with a few pumpkins, my kid's countdown to Halloween chain, and the "spooky" sing.

This is just the centerpiece on the table in the den, or as we like to call it the things my kids throw at each other on a daily basis.  Moving on...

Dinning Room Spookiness

 I love the spider web on the mirror. 

 I use Emmy's old PB witches hat as part of the decorations since she can't wear it anymore.

 The centerpiece on our dining room table.  I got the orange candlestick holders and urn from PB two years ago on clearance.  I paid less than $20 for all three pieces.  Perfect for my Halloween decor.  I also got the beautiful toile tablecloth from consignment a few years ago for $20.  It's one of my favorite things.

 A little spooky on the shelf.

And a little spooky under the shelf. 

Staircase Spookiness

 The staircase is where I stick all the stuff I didn't have a place for int the rest of the house.  I love the garland on the stairs and surprisingly my husband does too.  He told me last year that it looks so much better with the decorations on the stairs.  I was surprised because he's not a Halloween freak like me.

 This pumpkin use to be a door hanger until my kids tore it up.  Now it's in my garland.  I couldn't throw it away because it was too cute.  I got it from the dollar tree one year.  I wish they would have them again, but I haven't seen them since.

The finished product.  Not such a good picture, but it really is cute.

And last but not least....

Laundry Room Spookiness

Winnine the Witch on the shelp that holds our aprons.

And our boo bat hanging from the ceiling.

I've also decorated the outside, garage, and bedrooms, but haven't gotten around to taking pictures yet.  Maybe I'll get to it before Halloween is over. 

Happy Fall Ya'll

Photo Wall Complete...

Well, almost complete. I still have one row, but I can't reach it and I'll have to get my husband to hang the pics and that may take a while. But I am happy with the progress so far.
First, I laid out my frames to see how I liked it best.

Then I realized I didn't have the patience for it and just started hanging them. Since I did a staggered arrangement it turned out well even with my unorganized method.

I love having something for my eye to look at when going up and down the stairs. That way I don't notice all the other things I dislike about the stairway when I'm having to use the stairs.

A much better view.

To Photo Wall or Not To Photo Wall?

This is probably the single most hated feature of our current house. It's definitely in the top five. It's our staircase. Our staircase is positioned right at our front door and it is kind of closed it. It's narrow and I don't like how the ceiling drops down about midway the staircase. I also hate the fact that our painter totally ignored my request to use semi-gloss paint when the painted our house and used flat instead. I'm sure you can see all the dirt and smudges that my kids and their friends leave when going up and down the stairs.

See this is the drop down ceiling. I do thing this is the biggest reason why I hate the staircase.

We did update it when we moved in. We took the carpet off the stairs, painted and stained them. We also replaced the wooden spindles with iron ones that I totally love. These changes helped a lot, but not enough.

This is a shot from the top of the stairs looking down. The woman who grew up in the house and whose dad built the house came to see what changes we had made and she loved that we chose a door with glass in it because it was way too dark with just a solid wood door that they had when she was growing up. I can't imagine. It really is a dark entry and there aren't even any outlets to plug a lamp into. As you see I have a lamp, but I have a drop cord running to the plug outside. My husband LOVES that, not.

Now this is a shot of the hated drop down. I want to do a picture wall up the stairs and I don't know if I should extend it to the drop down part of the ceiling. I had a friend who has this and she put a cute picture that her soon had done at school. It looked really good, but she didn't have anything on the side wall. What do you think? I'll have to try it and see what looks the best and maybe have a lot of my families smiling faces to look at when I'm walking up the stairs will take my mind away from how much I hate the staircase.

Bathroom Essentials

My husband's aunt that lives in California is visiting this month and Sunday she asked if I could find some pretty things to put her bathroom essentials in. She wanted ones like I have in my bathroom and I was excited to help. I love decorating projects and this is a simple one. The hardest part is going to be for Aunt Linda to fly these glass apothecary jars back to California and not get them broken. Good luck with that.

I'm going to let her pick what combination she wants. They're all so cute and I was planning on taking back the ones she doesn't want, but I may end up keeping them.

I also love white dishes and bowls, so I like to add them into the mix.

I also think putting the apothecary jars on a white platter makes it more uniform and adds much needed texture.

So pretty.

Lamp Love

I love lamps. I don't know why, but I hate overhead lighting. My husband doesn't seem to mind, which really irritates me sometimes. Anyway, when I go to a yard sale I can't resist a cheap lamp. I found this big beauty at a yard sale last month and initially I got it because it was only $2. I didn't think I needed another one and I wasn't in love with the way it looked, but I couldn't just leave it there. It sat in my garage all month and then one day I decided to paint it.

Well after I painted it I feel in love. So much so I went to Wal-Mart as soon as my husband got home from work and spent $15 for a shade to go on it.  I know, crazy..right?  It's beautiful and I found the perfect spot for the lamp I didn't need:)

Pratical Use of My Decor

I just wanted to put this up to prove to my husband that my many decorations can have a practical use to them. He often fails to see them so I need to help him along.

See these sticks from the woods cute branches that I glittered up and hung some heart ornaments from, can help dry my babies mittens after a snowball fight. I knew all along they would come in handy.

Valentines Love

I'm posting some of the Valentines projects I've made recently from stuff I have around the house. This next project was super simple, but I made a few mistakes that I'll be sure to not make the next time.

First I started with an old picture I picked up for $1 at a yardsale. I always get these when they're only $1 because I think there are so many things that can be done with them. I'm sure it was really pretty back in it's prime, but now not so much.

Then I took a burlap sack that my mom gave me. She's allergic so anytime she gets any of this she comes across any burlap she gives it to me. Lucky me! I also used Gorilla Glue, that was my first mistake. I should have used my glue gun, but I couldn't find it at the time and I was anxious.

I took the frame and spray painted it black, took out the class, stapled the burlap to the old pic. and glued these glitter words that I got at Michael's after Christmas sale. They were 80% off so I paid .40 cents for both. My second mistake was not flipping the old pic. over to the cardboard side. It only shows through because of the flash so I'm not going to redo it. Project total $1.40. Can't beat that.

Valentine's Wreath

I've been wanting to make one of the many really cool Valentine crafts I've seen all over blog land and since it's been so cold out I've had to find activities for indoors. Perfect time to go through my craft stuff and try to find the supplies for a Valentine's craft. I thought I would show my Valentines wreath since it's is the first one I completed.

It was super simple. I started with 3 rolls of garland that I got for 75% off at Target's after Christmas sale. That's what I love about Christmas and Valentines Day sharing the color read, you can use some of the same things for both holidays. Then I had this heart shaped wreath that I got at Michael's for 40% off. All I needed then was my hot glue gun and some old ribbon that I used for my girls' hair bows. It was so simple and it turned out really pretty. I have very little things that are Valentines decor so this wreath was a cute addition. Now if I can just make the cup cake liner wreath that I've seen over at Tatertots and Jello my wreath collection will be complete. Have a nice Thursday.