Utter Devastation

I was going to post pictures of my Halloween party today, but it just seems so trivial compared to what all of my family and friends back in NJ are going through today.  You may have seen my hometown, Tuckerton, or neighboring town, Long Beach Island, on the news over the past couple days.  Sandy completely destroyed everything in her sight.  Thank God my family and their homes were spared, but so many of my friends lost everything.  Sandy completely leveled sections of my town - it makes me want to cry looking at all of the images I have been seeing on Facebook.

These are some of the images I have seen of Tuckerton:

This is a link to a video that the reporters mistakenly thought was Long Beach Island, it was actually a section of my hometown, Tuckerton Beach.

My thoughts and prayers are with everyone back home in NJ.  Thank God everyone made it safely through the storm.  I pray that recovery will be swift.

All I can say is please donate to the Red Cross or other recovery funds.  These wonderful people need any help you can provide.

Friday I'm In Love with Spooky Projects

Tomorrow night is our big 4th annual Hayes Halloween Party.  This year, we're doing a Haunted 80s Prom theme.  In honor of our party, I wanted to share some of the spookiest halloween projects I found out there in blogland this week.

This Haunted Ghost Walk from Gail at Gail's Decorative Touch is probably the coolest thing I have ever seen!  I may be stealing this for next year's Halloween Bash!!

 I LOVE Lucy's Halloween Mantle over at Craftberry Bush - it's actually the first one she has ever done!  It looks like something out of a Martha Stewart magazine.  Head over to check it out.

Jill's Nevermore Wreath from Create. Craft. Love. is so awesome.  From the fabric to the black roses, I love every bit of it!! 

I thought this Boo sign was so cute!  Love the newspaper as the backdrop for the letters.   Cheryl shares the tutorial for this project over at her blog Tidy Mom.

 And last but not least, this this super spooky Arachnophobia wreath from Eclectically Vintage.  I love how Kelly spray painted the whole thing to make it extra creepy!

Hope you enjoyed my picks this week!  I have a lot of work to do before tomorrow to transform my house into a Haunted 80s Prom!!

Happy Haunting!

Getting Dressed for Fall

I think the thing I love most about fall is dressing for the newly crisp air.  There's just something about warm sweaters and boots that makes me giddy. Now that I'm finally losing my baby weight (only 4 lbs to go till I hit my pre-preggo weight!), I'm all about the skinny jeans. 

I decided to put together some fun, versatile fall looks.  Most of these pieces are way out of my budget, but I definitely think you can find the look for less on any of these items.

I like this first look for pretty much anything.  Wear it to work, out to dinner, running weekend errands, anything really.  How cozy does that sweater look?

This second look is what I call "Rainy Day Chic".  See those Wellies?  I have my eye on them right now.  I need a pair of rain boots in a big bad way and those are the ones I have been lusting over since last spring.  This outfit would also be great to wear to the Pumpkin Patch on a chilly fall day. 

 

Finally, my going out look.  In case you haven't guessed - I love jeans.  This could go as a daytime outfit as well, but it's totally something I would rock out to dinner or drinks with the girls.  LOVE that scarf!

 

Happy shopping!!

XOXO

Pinterest Challenge #3 - Macrame Bracelets

I fell in love when i saw these  Macrame Bracelets from Honestly...WTF on Pinterest. So pretty, right?  So I used her tutorial and made a few for myself.

I couldn't find the exact cording she used in Hobby Lobby, nor a large color selection, so I ended up going with a neutral colored hemp.  I also searched high and low for some little gold charms.  Nope, couldn't find any of those either.  I ended up finding the gold rings (blue bracelet), and improvising with the rest.  The other three were joined together with a fourth ring, and hubby had to use pliers to get them apart for me.

In the end, I liked the way they turned out, but I like the original better.  Maybe next time I will order the supplies from online as recommended.

XOXO

Friday I'm In Love with Fall Decor

Friday I'm In Love is back this week with some pretty amazing Fall Decor.  Friday I'm In Love is the place where I like to feature different bloggers who really caught my eye that week while surfing around the blogosphere.  Each of these fall vignettes is absolutely gorgeous!!

This Faux Mantle from Ashley at Cherished Bliss is awesome!  I love everything about it - from the aqua and orange color scheme to the corn wreath she made.  And those shutters?  A perfect natural addition!

Maria at the Rusty Hinge added subtle but beautiful touches of fall to her already beautiful home.  You have to head over there to check out everything she did.  I want to go stay there for a weekend - so pretty!

I'm just loving all of the different, out of the box fall ideas this year.  Kimberly's fall mantle at A Night Owl is no exception.  I love the gold accents mixed with the natural twine.  And that artwork?  Head over there for the FREE printable!

I seriously love this next summer to fall transition at Meeha Meeha.  Her home is just amazing!  It seriously looks like something out of the pages of a magazine or catalog.  LOVE that rug!

And finally, I have said it before and I'll say it again, Aimee from It's Overflowing never ceases to amaze me.  How stinkin' creative is that wood deer cutout on her mantle?  LOVE.  A girl that loves a good deer head just as much as me!  (I do admit that hubby kind of persuaded me into it, but I'm there nonetheless).  So cute Aimee! 

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed my picks!  Have a fabulous Friday!!

XOXO

Free Halloween Printable!

Hey everyone!  I'm starting to get the itch for Halloween, and was trying to figure out what kind of class treat to send to school with Addison.  I ended up designing a bag topper that can be stapled to any ziploc snack sized bag.  You can fill the bag with anything, kisses, candycorn, mini candy bars - you name it!

So, in he name of my FAVORITE holiday - here is a free PDF.  Feel free to download it for your personal use.

Just print, cut, score in the center and staple to your pre-filled snak bag!  Easy peasy!  Hope you enjoy!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Linking Up To:

Pity Party @ Thirty Handmade Days

Been Working Hard - New Shop Items!

I have been pulling some late nights lately trying to give my Etsy Shop a little update.  Not only did I need to get some new, fresh designs in there, but I also really needed to give the shop itself a little facelift.  My header was just an truncated adaptation of my blog header, and my photos were kind of all over the place.  I needed a more uniform look.  I have found it to be extremely difficult to get good product shots of my stationery.  I'm sure there is some manual setting I can use on my camera, but until I figure it all out, I am choosing to display my shop items digitally.  That way, my customers can get a good idea on true color. 

Hubby took Addie with him to the hunt camp a few weekends ago, so I actually had a mini-vacation (i.e. One child, whom does not speak, and goes to bed at 7:30pm).  I decided to use that time wisely, and had a blast coming up with some new items for my shop!

Here are some of my favorite new personalized notecards:

Can't go wrong with some Woodland Creatures:

I was inspired by all of the Chartreuse dresses at the Emmy's a few weeks back:

I've been wanting to add a butterfly design for like, forever:

There's more to see, and I plan to keep adding.  Pop over when you get a chance.  I'm busy working on some new Holiday card designs as we speak!

Pretty soon I need to tackle my blog design - that scares me a bit but it needs to be done!

XOXO

Fall Mantle 2012

As I was looking through Pinterest, I came across this image.  I absolutely loved the color scheme so I grabbed the handy dandy Chip It function and used this photo as my mantle inspiration.

As I mentioned yesterday, I knew I wanted to incorporate a bunch of mums into my display.  I just had to collect some things that rolled into the color scheme and go from there. 

Remember my paint chip pumpkin garland from last year?  I draped that over the mirror for my pop of orange.

Here's a close up of the coffee filter mums I made.

I think I ended up achieving the look and feel of that inspiration image.  I'm loving the simplicity of this display this year!

Here's a collection of fall'ish items in my built-ins.  I picked up the wood display case, loaf pans and wooden spools from a local antique mall.  Love my fab finds!!

Happy Fall Y'all!

XOXO

Linking Up To:

Weekend Bloggy Reading @ Serenity Now

Pity Party @ Thirty Handmade Days

The 36th Avenue




Tuesdays Treasures

Coffee Filter Mums

I love fall.  It is by far my favorite season - from the pumpkins, to the crunchy leaves, to the crisp air.  One vivid childhood memory I have of fall is the huge gold spider mums that we used to wear on our sweaters during Pop Warner cheerleading.  We would sell them on game day as a fundraiser, and wear them pinned to our sweaters throughout the game.  Those memories come back through one glance at that bright gold color, almost as if I opened up a bottle of nostalgia.

I wanted to recapture that feeling in my mantle this fall.  I originally had the idea to do a large display of homemade paper mums using tissue paper.  I had a change of plans, however, after a trip to the dollar store.

I had read some different instructions online on how to make similar flowers, howeer all of them called for crepe paper.  I didn't have any crepe paper, though as I waled through the dollar store I decided that the tissue paper would be too thin and would tear easily.  I decided that coffee filters would have a similar feel to crepe paper.  I picked up a package of those and some food coloring.  Then, I picked up some floral tape and scoured the store for some dowel rods.  I came up empty, until I hit the kitchen aisle.  I found a pack of wooden chopsticks - the perfect stem.

I started by pouring about half of the yellow food coloring into 1/2 cup warm water.  I then just soaked the filters, wrung them out and hung them to drip dry.

Once they were dry, I layered and folded three at a time.

I then just atarted cutting pointed strips (almost the shape of a picket fence) until I had cut the whole "triangle" section.

Finally, I just twisted the base of the flower until it kind of fluffed out and then wrapped floral tape all the way down the chopstick.

That's it!  I made about 19 of them and put them in a basket on my mantle.  I'll share that with you soon!

XOXO

Linking Up To:

Pity Party @ Thirty Handmade Days

The 36th Avenue

Tip Me Tuesday @ Tip Junkie

The Inspiration Board Link Party @ Homework

The Cowgirl Up! Link Party! 

Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays

Too Cute Tuesdays