Projects -- YAY!

I finished a few projects lately.  All these pics are from my phone, if you follow me on Instagram or are a friend of mine on Facebook, some of these will be repeats.  Sorry about that.  I'm pretty excited about how some of my latest projects have turned out.

I finally printed up and put up the prints I made.  I also hung a butt-load of bats throughout my house for Halloween.  You'll see them through several more pictures.  The bat idea wasn't mine, I got it here.  I didn't use her template though, I made my own and had my Silhouette machine cut them out for me.  It was a major time saver!  

Red shelf is now hanging in the entryway.  This will be the new seasonal shelf.  My goal is to keep it updated and decorated with the seasons/holidays.  That way, at least that part of my house will decorated accordingly, and when people stop by they'll think I totally have my house together.  Wink.

Front door.  I still need to find a doormat.  Imagine this picture with a cute welcome mat of some sort.

I painted my green mirror black.  Can you see the print reflecting in the mirror?  I also made that and had it printed out.

I made a new frame for a piece of artwork I painted earlier this year.  Yes, I ACTUALLY made this frame!  Nail gun shootin' and everything!!

I saved the best project for last.  I saw a similar frame on Pinterest and wanted one for my very own, so I came up with these.  Jim helped cut them, I did the rest.  Actually, Jim helped with some of the chevron stripes, but I got fed up with how long it was taking to measure the grid lines, so I ended up just eyeballing them towards the end.  I actually like the imperfect stripes better than the measured ones.  Since all of these frames were distressed, I liked the funky imperfect look better.  I actually love them all!

Another frame view.  I had glass cut for the frames from a local place around here.   It was totally affordable!  Love it!


That about sums it up.

Happenings

We've been busy around here. Thus the lack of blog posts. Jim's been gone a lot, so I've been rockin' the single mom lifestyle as of late. He did manage to fly in for a day and half, and take our favorite girl to Donuts with Dad at her school early Friday morn. She was SO excited to show off her school to her daddy! I was SO grateful he made it home for this!

Before leaving for Donuts with Dad

I've also been channelling my inner Martha Stewart. I not only visited an orchard with my new friend and neighbor (she's super awesome AND we trade babysitting services! Double awesome!), but I also froze, canned, and dehydrated my way through over 60 lbs of produce. I'm totally an official domestic diva now. Move on over Martha, there's a new homemaker in town - Booyah!

My produce

A pic my friend took of me at her place being all domestic-y and stuff

Hey fellow moms, do you ever get so caught up juggling through all your jobs/hobbies that sometimes you neglect your most important (and cutest) responsibilities a bit, and then feel guilty so you put on your I'm-a-fun-mom metaphoric shoes and plan a super fun/messy activity to do with your lil' pretties to appease the guilt of said semi-neglect? Then do you shamelessly post your super fun/messy mommy-and-me craft project on instagram/facebook to convince the world (and maybe yourself) that you are an awesome mom all the time. Me? I NEVER do this, but if I did, my super fun/messy activity of choice might have been painting rocks with the wee ones. And they might have turned out a bit like this:

In other news, Tralee, my social butterfly, is the "it" girl in her class, so I've been told by other moms. There have been boys fighting for her attention, yeah, I KNOW! Crazy! I don't hear I word about it from her either. I get all my info from talking to other moms in the school yard. When I ask Tralee about what I hear she just giggles or blows it off like it's no big deal. Silly girl! Stinks also joined a play group, and loves every second of it. As soon as I drop her off all the girls announce to each other, "Yay!! Tralee is here!  Tralee is here!"  She is such an outgoing, friendly, kind-hearted little girl that she makes friends fast, and always has a grand ol' time wherever there's fun to be had.  I'm so glad!

My kids and my friend's kids watching The Little Mermaid

Hunter and I have been enjoying our one-on-one time together while Tralee is at school. I have to say, it's quite nice to have a little time alone with my favorite lil' boyfriend. He's such a fun, silly, happy, sensitive little boy. Oh, and he sure LOVES his momma! He loves me so, and I feel like the luckiest lady in the world!

I really am a lucky lady! I love our new home and neighborhood. I have a hot hubby who gets me, and still loves me when I act a bit crazy. My kids are adorable, fun, smart little cutie pies! And even though I have my anxieties/stresses/bad-mommy moments on a daily bases I can still find joy in the things that matter most (most of the time).  Life is rad.

It's Halloween It's Halloween. . .

 . . .cute festive decor in my house can be seen!  Hooray!

Below are a few projects I've done either this year or last year to add a bit of Halloween flare to our house.

It took me about a billion years to roll each of these roses!  Good thing I love the outcome!  If you want a closer look, just come knock on my front door!

Here's our entertainment center with all the festive decor.

Close up of the garland.  I made the leaf garland with a few bunches of leaves I got at the dollar store.  I took them apart with my wire cutters,  then wound them back together to create a garland.  Total cost:  $3!  I made the "Happy Halloween" banner using various black and white papers.  Super cute, I think!  I'm also thinking of cutting out a mask to put (temporarily) on my kids' faces in the pictures above.

I think these two little pretties are my favorites!  The Bride of Frankenstein and the Frankster himself.  I cut them with my Silhouette, glued them onto some orange paper, then put them in some dollar store frames.  The little figurine was from the dollar store last year, and the old books are courtesy of my many trips to various thrift stores.

I love my little witch frame.  I bought a cool oval frame from the thrift store, spray painted it black, and then cut out the witch and letters with my good ol' Silhouette.  The pumpkin was a Craft Warehouse purchase.  I just decoupaged some cute paper onto it.  The old books are from a thrift store, and the vampire is a dollar store find!

I found the tutorial to make these little lovelies here.  Super cute idea!  Added bonus, I already had all the jars and lights.  I just needed to make a quick trip to the dollar store for my tissue paper!  I used my Silhouette to cut out the faces.

You've seen the pics above before.  I had them printed out (thanks Costco), put them in some dollar store frames I spray painted black, and cut out some vinyl letters for the wall.  The plate was a thrift store find, the bird and spider in the frame are vinyl I cut with Sylvia (my Silhouette).  The rest of the items are dollar store finds.

Who doesn't love a good Halloween song?  My kids love this witch one.  So, I used my handy computer to create this printable, put it in a frame I already owned, added a few dollar store and craft store finds, and WHA-LA!  Cute decor!  The printable is below, if you would like to use it:

The kids and I made these ghosties last year using cheese cloth, balloons, and starch.

All and all, I love my little decorations.  I always get overwhelmed when I look through home decor magazines and people's entire houses look like a catalog.  Then it hit me:  Just add a few new holiday decorations each year, and before you know it, you'll have a festive house in no time!  Right now just my front room looks like Halloween.  I'm sure in a few years, splashes of each season will be spread throughout my home.  If not, no worries.  It's always fun to do crafty projects that add a little flare to the home.