Just one more Halloween project!

Only 3 days left and I'm wrapping up one last project!

I love this picture from Pottery Barn that I've been seeing everywhere. I love how bright and inviting it is. If a porch in my neighborhood looked that nice on Halloween I would be dragging my boys to that house to trick and treat just to get a glimpse at how the house looks on the inside! As for the door, as terrific as it is, I can't imagine being able to pull off having a bright orange door the other 364 days of the year.
It was the inspiration for my pillows. I also love those trees in the planters.

I decided to try and make my own.
I ended up finding these orange plastic trash cans for only .59 each!

Stuck a few of these on.

Well more than just a few. You can never have to many polka dots!

Then spray painted it all black and pulled off all the stickers to get orange polka dots.

Brought in the same crew that helped me paint my sewing room, to help mix up some quick drying concrete.
Since I was out of cookies, they accepted a piece of gum for payment this time.

Stuck a few birch branches into the wet mix and let it dry overnight.

On Saturday I will move them out to our front porch. On Sunday I will be trying to figure out where I can store them until next year.

Visit the linky party at She's Crafty for more Halloween and Fall decorating ideas!

Halloween is coming!

Halloween is sneaking up on us quickly. Only a week left! I thought I'd better share a few of the projects I've been working on before its too late.

The bench all dressed up in polka dots and stripes for Halloween.

The scraps from the pillows and banner became a rag garland for the kitchen chandelier.

A cute little something for the laundry room peg rack.


I still have a few Halloween projects in the works for outdoors. I'll be sharing those soon.
The biggest project of all? The front porch!
We are racing to get the front porch steps and railings finished in time for all the trick or treaters. I'm looking forward to sitting on our new porch and handing out candy!

The Dining Room walls

Time is up and I managed to do what I said I would! I should mention that my husband saved the day by helping me a ton. (Thank you Adrian, for doing all the plaster work and for helping me with the painting!)

The room is painted. The wallpaper is gone. The plaster has been patched, smoothed and sanded. I even surprised myself and got the trim painted! And in true procrastinator form I waited until the second week before I even began!

This is not the color I had initially wanted. I was planning on going with a shade of blue. However, we already had two gallons of Sherwin Williams Crisp Linen left from the mudroom and sewing room. So I opted to save some $ and just use what we already had. It really is a nice light color in a room that gets very little natural light.

There is no way we would have gotten those walls dealt with so quickly without the Procrastinator Party deadline set by Melissa at The Inspired Room . It was just the kick in the butt I needed!

What's next for this dining room of mine?

Some crown molding and I think we need a different light fixture. Or do you like this one?

(These are what the electricians left us with last winter when we had the whole house rewired)

A built in china hutch will go in this nook. It will replace one that we took out. That's why we didn't bother painting it. I'm excited to reuse some of the cabinets we saved from our kitchen remodel for this project.

Of course a table will eventually make its way in and perhaps even some drapes but for now I'm loving the unobstructed view of autumn.

90 years ago

Progress is being made in the dining room. I have 3 walls scraped and I was oh so happy to discover that it was only one small section of the room that had 2 layers. I have scraped paper off of the walls in 5 rooms of this house and this is by far the easiest room I've done. For that I am soooo thankful.

In each room that I've scraped I have been able to uncover a little bit of history. Under the paper in each room I've found little handwritten signatures and dates to mark the occasion when someone spent their day measuring and pasting all of this paper up onto the walls. In this room the date reads, July 15, 1919. These plaster walls haven't seen the light of day in 90 years.



As I moved on to scrape another section of wall, I started thinking about that day and what it might have been like to stand in this same room 90 years ago. Who was this person who had hung that paper in the middle of July? Did he live here? Was he paid? Had he stopped to wonder about the day when someone else would come along and tear it all down? (I assume he did since he took the time to leave a note) Could he have imagined that the walls would go untouched for 90 years?

It makes me wonder about the things that we are doing in this house today. Will any of it still remain 90 years from now? I am sure someone will one day come along and change everything that we have done but I would like to think that something will forever mark the time that we will spend here. Something for someone else to discover as they try to make their mark on this house years from now. A reminder of a time when this house was our home. Even if that something is as simple as a name and date hidden somewhere along a wall.

No more procrastinating!

I've decided to join the Procrastinator's party at The Inspired Room. It is such a clever party idea! You share a project that you can no longer procrastinate over, you then have two weeks to finish the project, and two weeks from today everyone will share what they were able to accomplish. Easy right? No. I am scared. But I am going to do it anyway!

I have so many procrastinated projects around here, it was a struggle just choosing which project to include! I could have gone with that chair I've been meaning to slipcover, the miles and miles of moldings that need painting, the doors that need painting, the closet under the stairs that needs finishing, the basement that needs a good cleaning and organizing, the upstairs bathroom that needs some attention.....the list goes on and on.

The project that I have decided to include is removing the dining room wall paper and painting the walls. This room has sat completely untouched since we moved in. We haven't used it at all, unless you count the pile of odds and ends that I've let accumulate in the corner.

I am excited to get this project started because I am sick of looking at that really old, really dirty wall paper! Max is just a few weeks away from turning 3 and it would be nice to sing happy birthday and serve cake in our dining room. So I am not only committing to working on this project, I have the best kind of motivation to finish it!

So goodbye little ships,

goodbye carriages,

and goodbye little water mills!

In two weeks they all will be gone. As well as the layer of pink geometric floral paper that is underneath.

I am only committing to having the wallpaper stripped, plaster patched, primed and painted. The dining room will be far from complete but it will be looking much, much better!

Two easy to make wreaths!

I'm having so much fun working on Halloween and autumn crafts. As soon as I finish one project I think up ten more that I want to do!

I love wreaths. This week I managed to make two wreaths using items that I already had. I didn't have to go out and spend a dime! I love that even more than I love wreaths!

For my autumn wreath I ended up shaping one strand of fake leaf garland into a circle, adding a few pine cones from the yard with some hot glue, and some gauzy brown ribbon for a bow. The garland holds the shape well enough that I didn't have to use any other support.

The colors are so pretty on our back door!

I came up with a Halloween wreath too.

I found some black tulle on a spool in a clearance bin months ago. I remember picking it up, putting it in my cart, taking it back out, picking it up again, etc. It was a battle between my practical, frugal, "what on earth are you ever going to do with 12 yards of black tulle?!" self, and my creative, can never own too many craft supplies, "of course you'll think of something neat to make with 12 yards of black tulle!" self.

In the end both sides won. I bought the tulle but it only cost $1.

I started cutting that tulle and tying it around an old metal embroidery hoop I had. I also added some orange satin ribbon.

I hung it on the door that goes into our den.


This was such a simple project! I am so glad I talked myself into buying that tulle!