Happy Halloween!

Check back on Monday for my first blog GIVEAWAY! Happy Haunting :)

Nutter Butter Ghosts

We are in FULL Halloween mode at our house. We carved pumpkins last night, made pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and are putting the final touches on Halloween costumes.

We also made these cute little ghost cookies.

This picture makes me totally laugh cause these ghosts have obviously seen better nights. We made them up (Thanks Amy!) for me to take to book club last night, and they got a little beat up. But they were still good! And super easy. Got the directions over at Our Best Bites. They used mini chocolate chips for the eyes, but I used chocolate frosting instead. Made for fun faces :)

Yum!

My First Blog Award!

I’ve been sick, sick, sick for the past 10 days with . . .

(wait for it, wait for it . . .)


SWINE FLU!!


I know. I know. How can it be? I don’t know either.

I should say I wasn’t ever officially tested for it. But I did have every.single.symptom. And I was hit harder than ever before. My husband had to take off 2 days of work cause of it.

About a week into it, I thought about going to the doctor. But what if they told me that I didn’t have it? Then what would I think? That I was just a sick wimp for 10 days?

No, I prefer to go big. And in the mean time, I need a shirt that says, “I survived the swine flu.” Wouldn’t that be awesome? I totally need to patent that or something.

Anyway, I am feeling much better and so humbled to announce my first blog award!:

Given to me by my lovely friend at The Northern Cottage. Thank you! You are too kind.

Now with the award I’m suppose to pay it forward to seven other Kreativ bloggers.

Here are the rules for PASSING ON THE AWARDS:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award in your blog post.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people may not know.
5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each.


I decided that for this I would link YOU to my most requested blog links. By that I mean, I often get asked how I do this, or how I do that?

It’s easy. I read other people’s blogs :)


So here are 7 other fantastically creative bloggers that I’ve been inspired by:

1- I've talked about Joy before. She inspired me to spray paint.

2 - Kate at Centsational Girl gives a great tutorial on how to do a french antique paint treatment.

3 - Wanna a more distressed and beat up look? Joy (again, I love her) shows you how.

4 - Melissa at 320 Sycamore shows you how to make the cutest baby gifts EVER!

5 - I've showed you this tutorial before, but I've gotten more requests for it. Jen at Sanctuary Arts of Home shows you how to glaze. I love this technique! Use it all the time.

6 - Want to make your own hand-painted signs? Karla at It's the Little Things shows you how.

7 - And last but not least, Kim features a new creative blog nearly everyday. So you can just go straight to the source and see tons and tons of other creative blogs!


Okay, now 7 things you might not know about me (and probably wish you never did):

1 - I speak Spanish. I graduated from college with a degree in Spanish Teaching, and I worked my rear end off to finish on the Dean's List. But you know what's harder than learning a new language? Trying to communicate with a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old all day. So these days I mostly just speak gibberish and disconnected nonsense sentences . . . *sigh*

2 - I am a runner. And I'm currently co-captaining a 12-person relay team to run this race.

3 - I'm afraid of the dark. Really. The happiest day of my life was the day I got married so I wouldn't have to sleep by myself anymore.

4 - I really don't consider myself a crafty or creative person. I read blogs all the time about women who've been creating and crafting since they could hold a crayon. Not me! It's something I've gotten into recently and enjoy. Moral of the story: YOU CAN DO IT TOO!

5 - I say freaking, whatever, like, no way, what the heck, and sweet ALL.THE.TIME. Really, it's embarrassing. But I can't stop. Help?

6 - I don't like chocolate. I just don't. Go ahead and hate me.

7 - You might have guessed this last one by my blog title. I love sunny days! I do. I live for the sun. Cloudy, rainy, or snowy days make me feel depressed and closed-in. Sunny days make me happy. I lived in the Utah mountains for most of my life and then finally convinced my husband to move me to the Arizona desert. I'll take 335 days of sun any year!

A little bit more Halloween . . .

BEFORE

AFTER

(found this idea here)

Copycat: Black Bats

If you haven't put anything outside yet for Halloween, this is the project for you! I always have a hard time decorating outside for Halloween. With two little kids, I don't like anything too grotesque or gory. This was so easy and the perfect touch for Halloween!

I found it over at Karla's blog. Just head on over there and follow her instructions and her link to the Country Living template.







The ones in front of the window are especially fun at night time. They create a "spooky" sillouette across the front.

FYI, I DID use heavy black card stock for mine (you can get a pack of 50 at Wal-Mart for $4) and I haven't had any problem with fading or curling. And I also used duct tape and it's held up just great.

Now go batty! :)

Front Porch Chair

The chair I bought thriftying the other day was bought with a purpose. I should say right now though that that's not always the case. I often buy things that I have no idea what I'm going to do with (much to the chagrin of my husband).

But not this chair. Ever since I saw this picture, I've wanted a little chair just like it.

Fall's Front Entry

I knew it would be perfect for my front porch. You see, my front porch . . . actually you can't even call it that . . . the space in front of my front door (that's better) is teeny tiny. And the door is off-centered, so there's just a little space to left that needed filling . . .

So when I came across it at the Goodwill last week (at 50% off no less) I bought it without a second thought. I brought her home and piled her up with seasonal pumpkins, gourds, and indian corn. And now the teenytinyspaceinfrontofmyfrontdoor isn't so lonely anymore!

What do you think?

Copycat: Glitter clothespins

I don't feel like I have a creative bone in my body . . . Really.

No really.

If anybody tries to get me to come up with any sort of original idea, I usually fall flat on my face. It's bad. Real bad.

*Enter Blogland*

Blogland is packed full of creativity. It's amazing! Amazing I tell you. There are so many ingenious and resourceful women are out there. And with the plethora of pictures, tutorials, and step-by-step instructions, it makes it easy for a non-creative person like me to still have fun crafting and creating new things.

So if I ever come across an idea that I just love, I'll post it here under "copycat" and you can be inspired too. Besides, isn't imitation that best form of flattery?

I saw this idea over at My Sweet Savannah, hanging vintage Halloween cards with glittery clothespins.

I was thrilled with how they turned out. And now my kitchen is ready for Halloween!

Have I mentioned that I love Halloween?

Thrifting . . . again :)

Why when I should be finishing preparations for my little girl's birthday halloween party am I thrifting at the Goodwill?

Cause I needed to find the most perfectest witch's hat OF COURSE!!

(At least that's what we'll tell my dear husband ;)

Trash to Treasure: Windowpane Chalkboard

I first saw the idea of decorating with windows on Christy's blog, and fell in love right away! Something about her old chippy windows just made me swoon. And after that, I was a woman on a mission . . .

FIND.OLD.WINDOWS.

But where the heck do you get old windows? I didn't know either. Then just a couple of weeks later, my heart jumped when I came across two vintage windows at an antique sale. I didn't know where I was going to put them, but I bought them right away. I've since put them up in my living room. And after that I was officially addicted!

So when I came across this windowpane mirror at the Goodwill, I snatched it up right away.


But this is one of those "to-do" projects that sat in my "stuff room" for a really long time. I didn't have any inspiration for it at all. Then one night when I was laying in bed, it just came to me. A CHALKBOARD.

And here it is! I'm so glad I waited for the inspiration before doing anything with it. Because now I love it!

My husband's reaction?: "Another chalkboard?"

Oh well :)

Halloween Mantle

My mantle is ready for Halloween!

I made this sign using some clearance vinyl from Hobby Lobby. It turned out just how I wanted . . .

Although, my little girl's not quite so sure about the black birds and spider up there :)

More Fall Nesting

It's the 1st of October! And Rhoda from Southern Hospitality is having a fall party, so I'm linking up to show the rest of my fall decor.

If you look closely in the picture of my fall grapevine tree from yesterday, you'll notice we have a really long display shelf flanked with HUGE mirrors in our living room. Ummm . . . I hate it. Like really hate it. It's my arch enemy in decorating this home! You can't hang anything above because of the mirrors, and it's so long that it's really hard to get stuff to look coordinated at all up there. Blast!


And, unfortunately, we rent this quaint little home, and there's nothin' I can do about it. So I just try my darndest to dress it up and make it look nice. So here is some other fall decor I've added along "the shelf" . . .


I got a lot of my fall decor last year at Hobby Lobby and Michaels for 80% and 90% off.


I collected these nuts that look like buckeyes last year from my mother-in-law's yard :)


See the windowpane chalkboard behind my fall banner? I'll have to show you what it use to look like . . .


Remember my love for this blue? Well I'm loving it even more with all the fall colors! (aren't blue and orange coordinating colors or something?)


Here's our Fall mantle (also flanked with another huge mirror, whoever first lived in this house sure liked looking at themselves!) . . .



I hand-painted this sign using some scrap wood I had. What do you think?


And finally our fall centerpiece using a basket from Savers, a white pumpkin from Michaels at 80% off, and a cut up fall garland from Hobby Lobby at 90% off.

Have you started decorating for Fall?