In His Grip

Burlap Table Runner for Fall

One of the things I really love to do is to change the look of my home for the seasons.  I don't really decorate for Halloween any more as I don't have little ones at home, but more of a fall harvest theme.  That way my decorations can stay up clear through Thanksgiving.  Last year I made these great birch bark pumpkins and wanted to display them with a more natural look so I decided to make a burlap table runner for the dinning room table.  Burlap is cheap, cheap, cheap, but kind of icky to work with.  It is so scratchy and makes me sneeze. 

I cut my table runner the width and length that I wanted.  In this case it is about 17" wide by 72" long.  Next I stitched a row of stitching all the way around about 1" in.  This will stop the fraying once I start making the fringe along the sides.  I used masking tape to outline a stripe a couple of inches in and about 1/2" wide.  Then using a stencil brush I painted the stripe a soft black with acrylic paint.  

Once the stripe was dry, I cut the words "fall harvest" out with my Cricut machine using the adhesive vinyl and place it about 1/2" above the line and painted it as well.

Once the lettering was dry, I began pulling the threads of the burlap to create a fringe all the way around the edge. (Don't look at the mis-matched chairs, one of my chairs broke beyond repair so until I find a replacement this little old thing will have to do.)

I love the way this turned out and how it works so nicely with my birch bark pumpkins.

I am participating in the following link ups: Between Naps on the Proch. Dittle Dattle, Sew Can Do, Its so Very Cheri, The DIY Showoff, Skip to My Lou, Coastal Charm, Today Creative Blog, Fabric Bows and More, My Girlish Whims, Goodbye city, Hello suburbs, Blue Cricket Design, Sugar and Dots, Sew Much Ado, The Thrifty Home, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Gluesticks, Momnivore's Dilemma, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Sew Woodsy, Its So Stinkin Cute, Primp

 

Pumpkin Topiary Redo

Autumn is just around the corner and I have been planning what I would do to update my porch for the change of the season.  I have been admiring the ghost pumpkins that have been out the past couple of seasons.  So I decided to update my pumpkin topiaries.  You can see what they used to look like here. I thought that a neutral theme for the front porch with a splash of orange would be different and give me a chance to give my topiaries redo in the process.  These topiaries have been on our front porch for over ten years and they have had several make overs.  So I figured a little spray paint might just give them a fresh new look. 

If you look closely, you will notice that the pumpkins are slightly different color.  I used Krylon khaki (for the bottom), pebble (for the middle), and almond (for the top) all had a satin finish.  I used spanish moss to cover up the wire of the garland that has all the little berries on it as well as between each pumpkin.  Besides, spanish moss will cover up a myriad of imperfections not only from the age of the pumpkins but my amateur floral skills.

 I have more ideas for the rest of my porch and as soon as it is complete I will share what I come up with.  Go out enjoy the beautiful weather.  I love autumn.

I am participating in the following link ups:  Between Naps on the Porch, Boogieboard Cottage, Dittle Dattle, Pinkopotomus, Its So Very Cheri, DIY Showoff, Skip to My Lou, Coastal Charm, Today's creative Blog, Truly Lovely, Simply Sweet Home, Its a Blog Party, Its Fun to Craft, The Shabby Nest

Repurpose Light Bulbs

Over the weekend I had some time to catch up on inspirational blogs as well as Pinterest.  I just needed to do something creative that would give me immediate gratification.  After looking at some sites of hanging canning jars with candles in them I decided that I wanted to do something like that too.  But as I was changing a light bulb in my studio I had an idea to use the light bulb for a small bud vase, similar yet different than the canning jar idea, but that's just how my mind works.  One idea leads to another and another, and so on.  I did a Google search on how to make a light bulb into a vase I found this great tutorial.  Needless to say, I found a total of three burnt out light bulbs in the house.  It was not that hard to do and I love the results for the amount of effort involved.

I immediately went out to my garden and cut a bunch of Zinnias to put in my new light bulb vases.  Normally, every Spring I plant a huge patch of Zinnias so that I can have cut flowers all Summer and well into the Fall.  With the Spring being so wet every weekend and then the temperatures zoomed up into the 100s I never was able to get my Zinnias planted.  Happy day, I had a bunch of volunteers show up unexpectedly.

Here I just used clear water in them, but I'm thinking you could add a drop of food color to the water and make a whole new look.  Matching the water to the flower for a monochrome design.

So, so cute.  I tried a flood lamp light bulb, but it broke in the process.  You need to be super careful as the light bulb glass is so stinking sharp.  But the next time one burns out I will have that shape as well. I also think that adding wire to the top and hanging them like my original plan will be awesome too. 

I am participating in the following link ups: Coastal Charm, Domestically Speaking, Today's Creative Blog, Momma Hen, Blue Cricket Design, My Girlish Whims, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees, Goodbye City, Hello Suburbs, Handy Man, Crafty Woman, Woman who Do It All, Seven Thirty-three, Someday Crafts, Tea Rose Home, Lil' Luna, Sugar & Dots, Somewhat Simple, Alchemy Fine Living, Paisley Passions, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Momnivore's Dilemma, Tales From Bloggeritaville, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Simply Sweet Home, Its a Blog Party, Its Fun to Craft, The Shabby Nest, Tidy Mom, Chic on a Shoestring 

Pinterest -- My New Addiction

Over the weekend I joined a new creative social network.  And boy doggies, I am totally addicted.  The website is Pinterest.  You can browse around without joining, but once you join, that's when the fun begins.  All you do is basically bookmark or "pin" things that you see on the internet that you like and then others respond by "like" or "repin" your "pin".  I knew something was up somewhere on the internet as there were several of my older posts like Bed to Front Porch Bench, Pink Christmas Ball Wreath, and Homemade Peppermint Bath Salts that were coming up with a tons of hits.  Now, I know that someone had "pinned" them on Pinterest.  I am just warning you now DO NOT even get started because you will not be able to stop looking at Pinterest.  I just think of it as a little vacation throughout the day. But BEWARE your time will fly away on Pinterest.  Happy pinning :o)

Peanut Marshmallow Bars

One of the things that I look forward to when visiting my Mom up North is attending her church on Sunday.  This is a small country church with forward thinking folks that want to attract the younger families in the area and minister to the seasonal people in the both Summer and Winter.  One of the ways that they get to know the visitors in the Summer is their hospitality tent where they serve coffee and treats after the service.  As I was checking out the treats, I spied these great looking peanut and marshmallow bars and just had to try one.  I am usually a chocolate kind of a gal but these have to be the best non-chocolate bars around.  Mom knew the gal that made them so of course we called her for the recipe.

It only takes these few ingredients.  I love recipes with  just a few things in them, they are easy to remember when you forgot you need to whip something up and are already at the grocery store.

Peanut Marshmallow Bars

16 oz. peanuts

3 tablespoons butter

1 bag peanut butter chips

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2 cup mini marshmallows

Grease a 9 x 13 pan and then pour half of your peanuts in the bottom.  Melt butter and chips in the microwave, when smooth, add sweetened condensed milk and stir until well blended.  Add the marshmallow and stir (marshmallows do not melt).  Pour mixture over the peanuts in the bottom of your pan and pat down.  Put remaining peanuts on top and pat down.  Chill and cut into squares and serve.  Yummy!

Participating in the following link ups:  Its a Keeper

Thrifty Photo Blocks

I am finally getting back into my crafty self.  Not that I haven't been doing anything creative, I just have not taken the time to take pictures and blog about them.  But this one idea has got to be one of the easiest and most functional things I have made in a long time.  I am the Live Out (outreach) director at Indian Creek Community Church in Gardner.  I wanted a way to display the way our people were living out the love of Jesus and decided to do it through pictures and came up with these blocks.

 
I cut 2 x 4's into squares and then painted them with white satin spray paint.  Easy so far right?

 
I then sanded some of the paint back off and rubbed it with a little watered down brown acrylic paint to give it just a bit of a worn look.  I drilled a hole in the top of each block.  Using my handy Cricut machine I cut out the letters that I needed.  I made them 2 1/2 inches high.

 
Using some of those fancy Christmas ornament hangers, I straighten one end and glued one into the hole on the top of each block.

 
Tah-dah, thrifty photo blocks that I can change out to highlight the Live Out opportunities and events that our people at Indian Creek Community Church, Gardner serve in.  This particular display shows our folks serving our community at our Easter egg hunt we organized, serving over 400 Gardner folks.  Turned out to be the largest event for Easter in our community.  Yeah!

I am participating in the followng linkys:  Today's Creative Blog, Ladybug Blessings, Costal Charm, A Silly Little Sparrow, All Things Heart & Home, Blue Cricket Design, The Thrifty Home

Spring Banner With Digital Scrapbooking

Update:  I was able to offer a free download of this as a PDF file click here. 

 Late last Fall I wanted to try my hand at this digital scrapbooking craze I keep seeing all over blog-ville.  I began to research digital scrapbooking software.  I wanted something easy to use with not only lots of style options, but I also did not want to invest much money in case I was not able to figure it out.  As you know, I am self taught in most of what I do creatively and there are times I am just not a good enough teacher to continue with a particular skill.  The program I decided to use is Scrapbook Max.  I have found it very simple to use and there are hundreds if not thousands of different kinds of elements that you can download.  Now that I have some knowledge of the ins and outs of this program I decided to try my hand at a spring banner for the hearth.

 
I chose the Cotton Tail Kit to make the elements that would make up my banner and then printed them on card stock.

 
 
After cutting out each tag and backgrounds, I used foam pop ups to adhere the tags to the backgrounds to give them some dimension.  Then using brads and millinery flowers embellished each.

 
Using an exacto knife I cut a slit 1 1/4" down from the top large enough to allow the ribbon to thread through it.

 
 
Next, with several different colors of pastel ribbon, I tied bows and then hot glued them between each letter and added just a tag to the beginning, end and between each word.

 
There you have my first digital scrapbooking project.  If I can figure out how to upload the pdf files of this, I will share it with.  If you have any ideas of how to do this or can direct me to a website, let me know.

I am participating in the following link ups: The DIY Showoff, Boggieboard Cottage, Its So Very Cheri, The Girl Creative, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Between Naps on the Porch, Skip to My Lou, Coastal Charm, Ladybug Blessings, Today's Creative Blog, All Things Heart & Home, Blue Cricket Design, Fireflies and Jellybeans

The Blizzard of 2011 @ My House

This is as far as we got this morning shoveling out of our big snow from yesterday.  I don't know how those people do it who live in places where they get this kind of snow on a regular basis.  These piles of snow on either side of the driveway are about 3 to 4 feet high.  Jeff and I started at 6:00 am and worked for over an hour and we still have another 1/3 of the driveway yet to do.  We got enough shoveled for Jeff to get out this morning, but I am not going anywhere as the center of the culdesac has at least 18" to 20" as the snow blows from the burm and stays in the middle of our street.  Until we get a plow in here, we are stuck.  During the last snow a week or so ago, it took until around 3:00 pm for the plow to make it to us.  I am not hopeful for today.  However, the sun is shinning and there is nothing better or brighter than snow shinning on a new blanket of snow.  My yard looks like it is filled with diamonds.

 
This was the front porch yesterday afternoon.  This moring the gorilla (yeah, Pittsburg State) and the snowman were covered in snow.  All I could see was the head of the snowman and poor Gus was totally buried.

 
 
At the height of the blizzard, we could barely see across the back yard.

 
My Mom and I had a bet going, she thought the snow would cover the wagon and only the handle would be seen.  I have to admit she was on the way to winning, as at one point the snow was up to the writing on the side, but with the wind blowing through, you can even see more of it today.  Sorry, Mom I win :o)

 
Because I work at home, this is what I call snowed in, too bad it just does not keep me from working.  Now I cannot see out, I cannot drive out, I am feeling a bit claustrophobic, I may need recusing by the end of the day.  If I start feeling sweaty and my legs start twitching I'll call for help.  Does 911 come for a self-employed gal going stir crazy?

Valentine Sweater Pillows

During the holidays I kept seeing pillows made of sweaters out there in "blog-o-land" and just loved them so I decided to make some for Valentines.  Off to the thrift stores to find some pink and red sweaters just for my project.  One thing I like about our local Salvation Army store is that all of the clothes are arranged by color so it is very easy to find exactly what I was looking for in a short amount of time. I spent $2.99 per sweater and it was also 30% off all women's clothing day.  You've got to love a sale at a thrift store, right?

 
These are the two sweaters I purchased and I had the solid red one left over from my mom's project of making a red dickie for herself.  Dose anyone else even know what dickies are?  We used to have them as kids so we could wear a turtleneck collar under some thing without wearing the whole sweater.  It is just the turtleneck collar with shoulders on it.  Well, needless to say, Mom cannot find them anywhere so she makes her own. 

 

I cut the heart shaped pillow out of the front and the back of the sweater body and then the edge and cording of the pillow out of the solid sleeves.

 
Because the sweater was so soft  and I though the cotton cording would be too stiff, I used a heavy yarn for the cording instead.

 
On the solid red sweater I used fusible webbing and added a bright pink heart and then began sewing white buttons to it and filled in the whole heart.

 
I especially like the way that this one turned out.  The buttons just seem to make it.

 

I am participating in the following link ups: Its So Very Cheri, Mad Skills Monday, The Girl Creative, Between Naps on the Porch, The DIY Showoff, Dittle Dattle, Skip to My Lou, Coastal Charm, Today's Creative Blog, Blue Cricket Design, Sew Woodsy, It's so Stinkin Cute, Life as Lori, Simple Sweet Home, Tales from Bloggeritaville, All Things Heart and Home

Its a "Deer" Christmas Tour

Helping our daughter, Lindsey, decorate for Christmas for the first time in her own home was such a hoot.  Lindsey has always been that daughter who has made fun of all the Christmas decorations that I have.  Well, after our afternoon of decorating her home for the first time, she has no room to talk.  Seriously, what gal starts off with her first Christmas on her own, not only with a coordinated Christmas, but so much to decorate with? Boy, was she happy with all of the leftovers from my house that I have been saving for just such a time that she would need them in her own home.  Of course, she had to start with her "deer" friend and get her spruced up for the season. 

 
This is the Christmas tree that has been in Lindsey's room since she was a girl.  It has been in the window of her room at home, as well as adorned her dorm rooms at college as well.

 
Lindsey has been accumulating pink Christmas things since I brought the pink tree home to her years ago.

 
Nothing better than the glow of pink lights.

 
Her hearth looks so cozy. We painted the garland silver along with my painted Christmas trees. I love the way it turned out.  It looks so vintage.

 
Digging through my linens, Lindsey found a bunch of these quilt squares that I had picked up at an auction a long time ago.  She sewed the corners together and made a garland and added it to the painted garland.

 
Her vintage and pink deer collection sure came in handy to add to all of the Christmas things going on the mantel.

 

Again, digging through my old Christmas things, Lindsey found these very old Christmas light bulbs that were given to me by my Mom and they were given to her by her Dad.  My Grandpa had them hanging on their mobile home when I was a kid, so that dates them back to at least the 70's.  Now I am not sure why I still have them, as I am sure they no longer meet the safety standards of today, but don't they look great just sitting in this bowl.  Grandpa Nelson would be proud.

 
Now we get to the tree.  This was a tree I purchased about 20 years ago at Wal-Mart for $19.99.  It was the first "second" tree I ever had.  Not being satisfied with the green color, Lindsey took my lead and painted it a very nice ballet pink.  Didn't it turn out fabulous?

 
To wrap up our "deer" Christmas home tour is her peace wreath that she made out of Target dollar spot balls. Wow, what a great Christmas home for a young gal.

Linking up to the following Christmas Home Tour link ups:  Between Naps on the Porch, Centsational Girl, Home for the Holidays, Its Fun to Craft

Easy Peasy Christmas Treats

A couple of weeks ago I found this great recipe to make these fun, Christmasy treats.  I made a batch at Thanksgiving and have made a 2nd batch and sent to Anna and all her K-State Pi Phi sisters.  I found the how-to's over at My Computer is My Canvas .  I had never seen the peppermint kisses before, but found them at Target and have since seen them at Price Chopper as well.  Actually, the hardest part of the entire process is taking the candy kisses out of their little foil wraps. 

 

Colette at My Computer is My Canvas not only gives you a how-to but a free download of a great Christmas poem using the "M" on the M&M's.  She is a great graphic artist and has some wonderful Christmas downloads for sale at her etsy shop.  You really need to try these, the little salty with the little pepperminty sweet is like Christmas in your mouth.

Meet Our New Tree

For the last month or so I have been anxiously awaiting the delivery of our new baby tree.  If you remember last summer, our beautiful Bradford Pear blew over in a storm and our yard has been very empty without its loveliness and shade.  Wow, we were amazed at how much we missed the shade that our beloved Bradford provided to our front porch as well as the large window over the front door. In fact, my front porch flowers suffered as they were a more shady variety and then the shade was taken away halfway through the season. 

 
I knew right a way that just any little bitty tree would not do and I would not be happy with your typical, pitiful, stick with leaves on it that I had seen in my price range at the local nursery. However, as luck would have it, I found out that a local nursery was going out of business and needed to get rid of their "mature" trees for free.  Thats right you heard me FREE.  Well, not totally free you still needed to pay for them to harvest it and deliver it, but for $90 this lovely tree, was a bargin.  My friend, Sheri, need some trees for her place as well so being the super kind of gal that she is, she picked mine out and they were all delivered to her house.

 
Not being a hortaculture kind of gal, I wasn't really particular about what kind of tree I got as long as the only thing that my new tree dropped were leaves and not acorns, pods balls or those bean thingys.  Another friend of ours, Chad, owner of Adki Group, was kind enough to go pick up my tree from Sheri's and arrange to have it installed.  At this point the consesus is that my tree is some kind of Ash.  I cannot wait to see what it looks like this Spring and then again in the Fall. So I guess we really don't have a baby tree, more like a toddler as she is already over 12' tall.  Yipee!

My Fall Home Tour

I have always loved the changing seasons of the Midwest.  Since growing up on the West Coast I did not experience a real season change until I was a senior in high school when our family moved to rural Kansas.  Having come from the Portland, Oregon metro area, my sister and I not only had the culture shock of small town life in rural Kansas, but the added surprise of living in a climate that had real seasons.  My favorite seasonal change has to be from Summer to Fall.  The colors of the changing trees and brisk Autumn morning air is something that I cannot get enough of.  So is it any wonder that I want to bring the beauty of the season right into our home where our family can enjoy it from September through Thanksgiving.

 
This is the entryway of our home and the first thing you see as you come in.  The gold vines and leaves with beaded acorns on them came from Big Lots several years ago for next to nothing.  Yeah, their great right?

 
This is a little grouping that sits behind "my" chair.  See the computer cord in the background.  I hate how these kinds of mordern conveniences (electricity) have to be so obvious.

 
Our hearth is always a fun thing to decorate.  I love the family picture of the kids taken years ago when they were still kiddos.  Maybe its time to update it? Nah, I like to remember them just like this.  Notice my new lighted sticks, aren't they cool?

 
Here you can see both my sweater pumkins and birch pumpkins, that I made. You guessed it I really like pumpkins and have a bunch of different kinds.

This little cement angle hangs out on our hearth year round.  She is always holding something of the season.  Here she has a little pumpkin, but can be seen holding a christmas ball, easter egg, or flower depending on the time of year.

 
My apothecary jar, filled with gourds and pine cones, idea came from the current Eddie Bauer Home fall catalog.  You can be assured mine was much cheaper then you see there.

 
This little black and white scene is on the sofa table behind, you guessed it, our sofa.  I have admired the black and white fall decor for sometime and only have a few things.  Check out the great black birds, $1 at the dollar store.

 
Our coffee table is a bit worn, as you can see, but if you just cover it up with a runner no one will ever know.  But notice how there is a wide open space in the middle, for resting ones feet, no wonder my table is getting worn people.  This is why we cannot have nice things!  Believe it or not there is more, but I will keep that for another time, until then have a great Fall day!

Pumpkins From Up North

With the days as beautiful as they were when we were up north, I was inspired to do some crafts that required things from the good old outdoors.  There are lots of birch trees around in the woods and beings as it is Autumn how about some birch pumpkins?  Now this was something that I had thought up in my head and really wasn't sure how it was going to work out.  So the first course of action was to peel some birch bark from the trees around my Mom's property. 

 
Birch bark peels easily right off the trees and it is a light orange on the inside and an ashy white on the outside.  It will peel off in strips that can range from the thickness of tissue paper to hearvy cardboard.

 
I soaked the bark in hot water to help make it pliable and bend the way I wanted it to bend.  I found that this also loosened up the layers of the bark and I was able to make the pieces that were too thick much thinner by stripping away some of the layers.

 

Using handy dandy hot glue, I just started covering the artificial pumpkin with the strips of bark, overlapping as I went to make sure I had good coverage. 

 
Once the pumpkin was covered all of the pieces came together on the bottom and did not look very good so I cut a round piece of bark and glued it down.

 
Next, I drilled a hole in the top and glued in a birch branch.  Taking some thin bark, I cut some leaves and made some curls for vines and glued them next to the the stem.  

 
These turned out way better than I ever expected.  I love them.  Now my mind is going crazy as to what I can cover with birch bark next time I am in the north woods.

 

 I am participating in the following link ups: Its So Very Creative, The DIY Showoff, Between Naps on the Porch, The Halloween Scene, The Girl Creative, Today's Creative Blog, Coastal Charm, New Nostalgia, Life as Lori, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Paisley Passions, Tales from Bloggeritaville, Its a Blog Party, Its a Hodgepodge Life, Its Fun to Craft, The Shabby Nest

Winterizing In Minnesota

We have spent the last couple of days in Northern Minnesota helping my Mom winterize her house as well as getting the boats ready for their long winters nap.  Our plan is to do the work for her, but she is no "old" helpless lady.  She gets right in there and works just as hard if not harder than the rest of us and if we are not careful, she just might not "need" us at all.  Jeff has been in training for this winterizing process for the last couple of years under the supervision of my Dad, and this being the first year of getting it done as he supervises from his heavenly home. 

 
When working with Mom, you have to be careful because she is liable to leave you behind when your not looking.  She has her little work chart and when she loads is up you had better be ready to follow or the work will be done before you get there.

 
Our trek up north also included delivering Mom's new car.  What fun to drive a new car and knowing we were delivering the car my Dad chose for her.  During my Dad's final day he talked to us kids about getting Mom a new car and after searching on the internet from his hospital bed, he thought the Buick Enclave would be the car for her. He liked that it had all wheel drive and heated seats for those cold Minnesota winters.  We were finally able to make good on Dad's wish and Mom is now driving the car of his choosing.  Yeah!

 
With the work all done, we get to enjoy the next two days in this Northern Minneasota indian summer.  It has been in the high 70's with no wind, and we even saw some crazy person water skiing this evening.  You just never know what to expect from northerners?

Felted Acorns

I found some great felted acorns on a blog a couple weeks ago and thought "I can do that".  I began a search for some acorns so that I could use the little caps, I put a post out on Facebook for anyone with acorns in their yard and I would come by a pick them up.  My friend Nancy responded that she had recently found a giant acorn while on a walk and brought it by to me.  This nice big acorn was awesome, now just any acorns would not do, I needed the BIG ones.  While at K-State for family weekend, we were visiting Anna at the Pi Phi house and what did I see but giant acorns all over their front yard.  Score!  I had all the BIG acorns I wanted.

I began by taking the nuts out of the caps and cleaning them up a bit.  Some still had their leaves attached so I decided to just keep them and see how they will fair over time.

Because I am just a sparkly kind of gal, I decided to spray paint the caps with a metallic gold spray paint.  What nature makes, can always be made a little more sparkly with some gold paint,right?

I chose to use wool roving to make the felted nuts, thinking the roving would be easier than Kristi used over at The Speckled Dog.  Using roving would also give me the ability to make my acorns mutli colored by mixing the colors together.  To add a little more colors I found some 100% wool yarn that I added in as well.

 

Taking a wooden bead and a hunk of roving large enough to covering the bead, you dunk the whole thing into the hottest water that your hands can stand, working the roving into a ball around the bead.

 

Then you add a drop of liquid soap and continue to work the ball of wool.  I am not sure why you need soap, but just trust me you do. Lightly roll the ball around in your hands dunking it down into the water again and again, putting it a side for awhile and starting another will allow the water and soap to soak in and help the felting process.  This takes a lot longer that I anticipated, but as you work it into ball it will continue to get smaller and smaller and will dry even smaller than that.  This being said, be sure to start with a little bit bigger ball of wool than you think you are going to need. 

 Once the felted balls are dry, just hot glue them into the caps and you have some fun acorns for your enjoyment.  I am not sure what it is about acorns but I love the way they look.  Maybe, its because they are the only nuts around that come with their own accessory, hats.  Love it!

I am participating in the these link ups: Its So Very Creative, The Halloween Scene, Between Naps on the Porch, Keeping It Simple, The DIY Showoff, Skip to my Lou, Coastal Charm, A Silly Little Sparrow, Today's Creative Blog, Blue Cricket Design, Me and My Bucket, Paisley Passions, Tales From Bloggeritaville, Frieflies and Jellybeans, Finding Fabulous, Its A Blog Party, Its a Hodgepodge Life, Its Fun to Craft, Life as Lori, The Shabby Nest, Vintage Suitcase, Tidy Mom

A Sparkly Start to Fall Decorating

When I began my Fall decorating this year, I realized that there was no sparkle in my fall decor.  I knew that I needed to change that because who wants anything without a little sparkle to make it that much better.  Searching through my craft supplies I found an large jar of gold glitter and my creative, sparkly, ideas started flowing.

Here is a bowl of some artificial pumpkins and gourds that I found in my fall decoration tubs.

Using some Elmer's glue that I watered down a little, I painted the top of the pumpkins and gourds allowing some of the glue to run down the sides.

This is the part that I love, sprinkling the glitter over the glue. I put a plastic container under where I am working to catch the excess glitter so that I can collect it and use it again.

 
Then I found some large leaves that had started to look bad, as they were tearing and probably 15 years old, but I figured a little glitter couldn't hurt them.

There were also a couple of these sad pumpkins, also very old and starting to crack.  See the  large dent in the side. I figured they could use a makeover as well.

Because this pumpkin was so bad, I decided to cover the entire thing with glitter and wow, it turned out smashing.

As you can see, I also had some grapevine pumpkins that I added a little sparkle to as well.  I found some other old, very sad looking things, like some ears of corn, and other gourds that were not worth keeping until I totally covered them in gold glitter and now they too can proudly take their place amongst the other fall decor in my home.  I will post more of my finished fall decorations later this week.

I am participating in these link up parties:  The DIY Show Off, Its So Very Cheri, Between Naps on the Porch, Keeping It Simple, Mad Skills Monday, Skip to My Lou, Today's Creative Blog, Fireflies and Jellybeans , Finding Fabulous, Its a Blog Party, Its a Hodgepodge Life, It's Fun to Craft,  The Shabby Nest, Thrifty Tickle

Working, Working, Working

With this being a short week, I have been so busy not only at work but planning an event for small group leaders at Indian Creek Community Church (this will be a post for later).  But who can complain when you get to work with such great fabric and design.  The girl that gets to have this in her bedroom is one lucky girl.  The colors and wonderful touch of retro is out of this world.  I can image, a mirror ball sparkling and teenage girls in mini skirts and go go boots dancing around with the songs from the 70's playing on a record player. 

 Linking up to: Paisley Passions, Finding Fabulous, It's A Blog Party, Its Fun to Craft, A Visision to Remeber 

Featured Friday

Once again, In His Grip is being featured on another blog.  Go on over and check it out at Five Sixteenths.  I love it when people show my stuff off on their blog.  I have to say it kind of gives me a little boost and I think in my head, "Wow, people out there in blog land like the things that I do!"  Okay, now that is not only in my head I have said it out loud on the world wide web.  It makes me wonder if there is something more I can do with this little blog that I started there years ago.  Hmmmmm......

$3 Pink Hall Table

With the girls moving out and the fact that this empty nest is need of some sprucing up, I have been haunting garage sales and estate sales.  I spent one weekend just sweeping out all of the "feathers" left behind by our little chicks.  But now I am motivated to make this new space somewhere that our kids want to come "home" to.  Here is my first project for the empty nest sprucing.  

I purchased this little table at an estate sale near our home for $3.  I thought that it would look great at the top of the stairs between Lindsey and Anna's rooms.  With both rooms having pink in the color schemes I wanted to bring something out into the hallway that would bring the rooms together.

 
Picking up my handy dandy pink spray paint, I covered the table paying more attention to the grooves and details so the the paint would settle into them.

Taking my electric sander, I worked on taking off most of the paint leaving the paint in the details behind.

 
To have this worn pink table at the top of the stairs between the girls' rooms will be just the right touch to bring the pink and brown from Lindsey's room together with the pink, silver and black of the room that is Anna's.  Now I cannot wait to start on the new rooms.

Link up parties I am participating in: Between Naps On the Porch, Its So Very Creative Very Creative, DIY Showoff, Mad Skills Monday, The Girl Creative, Keeping It Simple, Skip to my Lou, Making the World Cutier, Coastal Charm, Today's Creative Blog, Blue Cricket Design, Me and My Bucket, Nikki's Nifty, Knacks, The Thrifty Home, Its a Hodpodge Life, Its a Blog Party, Finding Fabulous, Its Fun to Craft, The Shabby Nest, Paisley Passions, Alchemy Living Fine