Happy All Hallow's Eve

legos, legos everywhere

It's late.  I'm tired.  And you know what I am up so late working on?  Preparations for a lego party for my boy.  Tomorrow.  *yawn*

I should have some awesome pics to share with you after the weekend is over.  But for now, a teaser... the invitations!

I picked up this idea here, only I found a true to life lego font for the lego emblem on each stud. 

Drew is beside himself with excitement, especially after we went trunk or treating tonight, and his lego man costume was such a big hit with the crowd (pics of that soon to come, as well).

Up next are the lego plate notebooks, then I can go to bed.  Intrigued?  

Children's Legoman and Peacock Halloween costumes

I've been working tirelessly on 2 of my kids' halloween costumes.  We've been sick so it's worked out well... can't leave the house much.  Here's my progress so far.

For my 6 year old son, a construction legoman costume.  The head took some figuring out.  I've seen yellow buckets but I really wanted the round shape.  So I went with a hat box and covered it with yellow wrapping paper.  My husband still has to drill through the eyes I drew.  I've got a box for him to wear over the top half of his body, but it still needs to be spray painted blue.  He'll also wear a construction man's vest, yellow gloves, and hold a big hammer. He's going to wear regular old blue jeans on bottom because the thought of him wearing square cardboard legs conjures up visions of multiple injuries. ;)

My 4 year old daughter wanted to be a peacock this year.  I was so excited to put this one together.  I found the dress in the clearance section of Target... perfect color and perfectly frilly.  I added feathers for the tail, and a couple the the bodice, and a row to peek out under the ruffles.  I may add another layer of feathers on bottom, too.

She is so excited about this mask.  It was fun to embellish!  Final touch (not pictured) is a wand.  I found a stem with a peacock feathered ball on the end.

Are you making costumes this year?  What are you making and how's it coming?

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From dining room to design room, a makeover!

Woot!  This post made the top 10 at The CSI Project!

I am really excited about this week's CSI challenge (winner gets 4 gallons of paint, holla!).  I've already posted these pictures on my blog, but they were spread out over several posts, and it was quite a while ago.  So I've condensed them into 1 post to enter into the CSI contest.  Humor me, those of you who've already seen the transformation, (or just tell me again how much you love it, lol). 

When we built this house 2 years ago, I was pretty excited to have a dining room.  Never had one before.  And it was probably the first room I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. I'd had the color scheme picked out for months : Tiffany-blue walls and black/gray and cream to accessorize.

And here is what it looked like.

I liked it.  I really did.  But I never fully decorated it, and it didn't get used as much as I thought it would... and before long it began to feel like wasted space.  My husband suggested I turn it into a craft room... it was something I had always wanted and I'd currently been using the kitchen table for all my crazy projects.  So I renamed it a design room (because I have issues with the word craft...  many of you know this about me) and got to work.

The new purpose for the room would be not only a place where I could create, but also edit photography.  So it actually became somewhat of a design room/office.  I also wanted to do things in this room that I couldn't do in the rest of the house... design things that just didn't quite fit in with the rest of my decor, or weren't practical with kids around, and that I thought were too feminine for the spaces I share with my husband. 

I didn't want to repaint.  I LOVE paint but I hate to repaint.  (It's a one time deal!)  Also, I loved this color - I'd been so excited to use it for so long.  It didn't exactly say "design room" to me, but I worked with it. 

I also couldn't afford to buy any new furniture for the room.  So it took a little swapping for other pieces in my home, and some DIY creativity to put together a functional yet pretty room (which was important, as it is at the front of the house, with full view from entry into the house, and no doors on it).

Here's the afters, and then I'll highlight a few areas.

The first fun thing I made for the room were the letters for my words "Inspire" and "Create".  I'd seen them in the Ballard Designs catalog and thought the words fit me so well.

I used chalk to draw little fleurishes around the word CREATE.

I wanted to display my ribbon in a fun way, so I made these holders out of dowel rods and doorknobs:

Course, my kids sometimes go in there and unwind my ribbon, and then I don't realize it until I've taken a picture.

This sewing table was made from 2 drawers and table legs I picked up from Home Depot.  I reenforced the side with my sewing machine on it with a piece of plywood, and I flipped the other drawer over to use as storage.

I keep jars inside to organize my thread, needles and buttons.

{I can't tell you how long it's been on my "list" to make some cute labels for the tops of those jars.}

I stashed my wrapping paper in a trashcan.  I LOVE to wrap presents.  So I have stacks of gift boxes on top of my armoire, and stacks of gift bags below my computer screen as well. 

My armoire, which used to house my china, became my desk.  This armoire is actually meant for a tv, so the space I've stashed my gift bags was meant to be for a VCR, etc. Now it contains my mess 'o bags.

I pieced 2 5x7 rugs (that I found for 50% off at Hobby Lobby) together to make an area rug.

I hung an idea board on the wall.

And I switched the round breakfast table (previously in the kitchen) with the dining room table.  The round table is now where I lay out my projects and I was pleasantly surprised to find that my dining table fit in kitchen!!!

I have had a lot of people ask me, it's so pretty, do you really feel like you can make a mess in there?  I mean, creative people can be messy, for sure.  I'm still one of them.  It doesn't have to be perfect all the time... in fact looking at the picture above I can see that my tablecloth is all off center (I have to wash it a lot and don't always take the time to repress it and put it back on perfectly).  But I love my new room.  I put a lot of thought into all my decor, but it was nice to not have to take anyone or anything into consideration except for myself in *this* room.  It's a positively indulgent space, just for me... beautiful and functional... the perfect place to get the juices flowing and get inspired about the things I love to do and am good at. 

{And I don't miss my dining room at all!!!}

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Happy 101 Blogging Award

Erin Terry was kind enough to grant me the Happy 101 Blogging Award.  I'm supposed to write 10 things I love, and then send the award onto 10 other people.

So without further ado, 10 things that I love.........

1. my family

2. spending time with my friends

3. exercise

4. fresh bread

5. baking

6. reading

7. creating - interior design, art, photography

8. diet coke

9. peanut butter

10. scary movies

And now for 10 happy bloggers that I love - for their wittiness, friendship, creativity, example...

Nie Nie
Overstuffed
Crap I've Made
Crazy Bloggin' Canuck
Tatertots and Jello
Outnumbered
Slightly Crunchy Mama
One Fish, Two Fish
Give Me Sunshine
A Drop in the Bucket

Feel free to pass this award along!

Ghosts in the garden!

I'm not much into the "cutesy" holiday decorations, but my kids have been asking for more Halloween decor (outdoors), and I've grown tired of my usual headstones and candleabras and gauzy material of years past.  They also just don't seem to fit in with the flowers and such that are still in bloom (seriously, die already, I am tired of watering you!).  But we've got a while yet before cooler weather officially arrives here in TX, so I whipped these guys up to keep my colorful gourds and pumpkins company, and to prove to the neighbors that yes, Mormons do celebrate Halloween. (One of them asked me that the other day.)

So, without further ado, the easiest halloween craft you'll make all year.  Ghosts in your garden!

Materials:
garden stakes (bamboo skewers would also work)
shopping sacks or white tissue paper
white fabric (i.e., muslin or something gauzy)
ribbon
buttons
hot glue

First, make the head of your ghost using whatever stuffing material you prefer... something white since it is likely to show through your fabric.

I stuffed white shopping sacks into the head of these tulip garden stakes from the $1 aisle at Target.

Since the tulips are yellow, I had to wrap them a bit as well to keep the yellow from showing through my fabric.

{Note: If you are using a skewer, stuff a sandwich bag with your wad of stuffing, secure the bag over the end of your skewer with a small rubber band, and trim the excess plastic off around the bottom.}

Next wrap your ghost head in white fabric.  I used a flour sack towel that came in a pack of 3 from IKEA for like $1.  So cheap.  It had red ticking down the sides that I just trimmed off.  After your white fabric is over the head, tied a ribbon at the base to look like a bow tie.  Glue on some buttons for eyes and you're done!

eNJoY!!!

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Check out this fantastic giveaway!

My friend Kierste from Brown Paper Packages is having a wonderful giveaway right now... a mutual friend of ours, artist Leslie Graff, is offering a set of cards which feature her domestic art series.  Leslie's one of the most talented and amazing people I know.  I have a couple of her paintings up in my home.  So be sure to go enter this fantastic one-of-a-kind giveaway, right now right HERE.

Monogram Door Sign, Halloween Style

I've walked by the cutest magnetic boards in Hobby Lobby a few times now, just waiting for them to go on sale.  When they got black and white polka dot ones in the store, I was giddy.  And I grabbed one practically as soon as they put up the 50% off sign.

My Halloween wreath has seen better days, so I thought this would be a fun substitute this year.  And I kind of like it hanging on the INSIDE of my door for a change!

I left the board as is, it came with the fun green ribbon and everything.  But I glued on the first letter of our last name to personalize it.

The letter is made of chipboard.  Unfinished, it looks like this:

Only $1, .50 if you get lucky and they go on sale.  Chipboard was perfect for this project, especially since it is lightweight.  

I covered my letter in orange contruction paper first ...  orange because I was going to use orange glitter on top.  If you cover your letter in whatever color glitter you are using, it's not as big a deal if the glitter gets rubbed off in a few spots.

Trace your letter {BACKWARDS} onto your paper, cut, flip, and mod podge onto the surface of the chipboard. Let dry for about 15 minutes.  Apply Triple Thick over that.  This is what Triple Thick looks like, so you don't spend forever searching for it the first time, like I didn't. ;)

The Triple Thick gives this project a more finished look, which is nice since we used cheap chipboard and cheap construction paper in our first 2 steps.  It dries shiny, which is fun with the glitter.  Apply your glitter generously over the surface of the Triple Thick.  Pat it down a bit and let dry overnight.

In the a.m. you can apply your letter to your board however you like.  I used hot glue because it is what I had but I am sure something like Gorilla Glue would work better. :)

At last, enjoy!!!

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More Halloween Madness

I told you guys I had a problem.  Here is the evidence:

I'll share tutorials throughout the week.  Today I'm going to tell you about the broom stick.

Materials you'll need:

crooked branch 

broom head

twine

hot glue

ribbon o'plenty

My son found this crooked stick on the way home from school one day.  He was using it as a walking stick.  I told him to go find another. ;)  Because I instantly thought - how perfect for a wicked looking broomstick!  Everyone thinks this way, right?!?!  Anyway, fashioning the darn thing wasn't easy.  So don't laugh at my tutorial. 

I found a broom head at WalMart.  There were two sizes, small and large.  This is the small one.  It all made sense in my head, how to put this thing together.  But as I began I realized this wasn't going to be my fastest project.  The broom head has a metal ring on it.  So I sawed a slit on one end of my stick to wedge the broom head into.  Then I wrapped it very tightly with twine.  Fine twine, like this:

I used so much twine, I got twine burn.  After I wrapped until my fingers were numb I hot glued around the twine, around the top of the twine, around the bottom of the twine.  Then I held it while the hot glue dried.  Burned myself in a few places.  But it held so that is all that matters, right?  It wasn't pretty to look at, though.  However, you can cover just about anything up with ribbon!  Right?!

SEE?!?!

After I tied on a few or twenty scraps of ribbon, I stuck in a little chalk board sign I picked up from Tai Pan Trading (forever ago), and wrote "Bewitched" on it.

Throw in a pair of pointy-toed black boots and you've got one wicked little set-up.  Perfect for your doorway - since that, I'm assuming, is where a witch would park her broomstick ;).

Now go, go, go brew up some witch's brooms of your own!!!

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