Spreading the Fall Love Around

TGIF! Seriously. This week needed to come to a close.

Fall continues to be spread around the house. I have to admit though, 90 degree temps lately has NOT helped with my endeavors.

My favorite pumpkins. A find at Michaels years ago.

Another pumpkin shape. In its former life it was orange and held a candle. A little spray paint, a foam ball in the middle and the sagebrush that contributed to my name made for a nice makeover.

I can't seem to put these guys away. Dollar Store finds. Who new?

Sushi Party tonight. I'll have pics for you over the weekend.

Happy Friday everybody!

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A Stroll Thru Life

Shakespeare or Ray Bradbury?

The weekend is nearly here. I cannot wait. How about you? I'm done with this week. Friday cannot come soon enough. We are throwing a bit of a soiree...35 or so people for Sushi Night. Something fun for everybody from the adults to the kids. I'll try to take pics throughout the night. Sake and cameras may not mix. Promises to entertaining no matter what! House work and prep have been the priorities the last couple of days, but I did manage to continue my literature themed fall/Halloween decor out to the front door. Nothing fancy here, but it helps to set the stage.

I will be adding more to the front porch through put the weekend to continue the theme.

I wonder if I will be able to find a cauldron?

Linking up

Southern Hospitality

WICKED Mantel

I love Fall and Halloween decorating. Halloween leaves so much room for unbridled creativity. Its one of the few times when its okay to have a theme...or not. Its up to you. Usually I go for the skulls and pumpkins. 

This year I decided different would be good. 

Thank you blog world for inspiring me to jump out of the box!

My inspiration this year is literature. I just finished reading Wicked and Son of a Witch. They were so much fun to read. Totally different take on a classic story. I can't wait until we get to see the Broadway production of Wicked in January.

Mr. Shawn is working on the Harry Potter series, FINALLY. I have another vignette in the works for that, as well as a little classic Edgar Allen Poe and maybe a few others. We shall see.

The drawing in Edgar's book of works fit this too well. Totally reminded me of  the castle at Kiamo Ko.

Did you notice in the first picture that I don't have candles on these candle sticks? I REALLY need to go shopping. Candles are scarce at the moment. What can I say? Orange was not what I had in mind. And that's all I had. Sad, lonely, empty candle sticks...

The stick bundle are from my over grow side yard. I love when a project gets me out to care of something I've been neglecting all summer. Win/Win!

BTW, you can see how I did the banner here.

Here is our mantle that transitioned us from summer to fall...

Joining:

The Lettered Cottage

A Stroll Thru Life

Between Naps on the Porch

Are you feeling WICKED?

Well, are you? I certainly am!

October is nearly here! Yay! WooHoo! 

I love Halloween decorating. Fall is fun and its a nice warm up, but Halloween is where the real fun is.

This year I decided to do something a little different. I am using a literature theme for my vignettes this year. 

Will you allow me to bloviate a bit and give you a little insight into my household?

Everyone in my family loves to read. We finally got Mr. Shawn on board too. It only took me nearly 20 years of hounding him. I knew he would enjoy reading for pleasure if he would...just...pick...up...a...darned...book...and...give...it...a...shot...

Tedious, I KNOW. Finally, he decided he was tired of hearing all of us girls complain about compare and contrast the differences between the books and the movies in the Wizarding World. 

Yes, Harry Potter is what finally brought my husband over to the dark side. He's contemplating Tolkien next. Quite the leap for the guy that told the girls for years that he couldn't read. Just kidding of coarse, sorta.

Back to the subject at hand...

The Halloween mantle is gonna be Wicked! 

And it all starts with that bad boy(girl? green thing? lol) up above.

I recycled some fabric that had been chair covers way back when.

Cut into rough 6 by 4 inch rectangles.

Printed letters get traced onto the fabric. Note: I usually use pencil for my signs, but pencil would not leave a dark enough mark. I didn't have a fabric marker, so I used what I had. CRAYOLA to the rescue! Compliments of the art drawer. Thanks girls.

A little black paint and my second favorite brush. My favorite disappeared over the weekend :(. 

(BTW, yes I will follow up with Heaven Cottage. When I get my act together...)

Back to the method...

I hand painted each of the letters. Perfection is NOT a requirement. Thank goodness. Sigh

I then went back and frayed the bottom and sides of each and attached the top to simple twine. A little fold over and the glue gun and there you are. A little sneak peak.

See you tomorrow...

From 666 to Heaven

Heaven Cottage, that's what we'll call it. 

My baby brother is in the process of moving into a new house this weekend. The landlord didn't bother to really have it cleaned and its in desperate need of paint... Guess what I'm doing this weekend?! You don't know? Ah, come on. Its obvious. I'm going on vacation. Just kidding. We are helping. Of coarse

JJ and I started today. Did a little scrubbing and started on the trim. Tomorrow we will have a crew on hand to, hopefully, get it all done. Then move their things in on Sunday in between Red Zone drives. Gotta have the football.

JJ and his girl friend don't know it yet, but I'm gonna feature the transformation here for the whole wide world to see. Well, my little world any way.

Pictures coming tomorrow. And the name?  Well, its on Heaven Street, Drive, Avenue, something or other. And the funniest part?  The apartment they are moving from is number 666. Yes, you read that right 666. Weird, I know.

More Book Crafting

When I cleaned out the cluster room, I came across a number of older books that were no longer in use. I don't like throwing things out that still have a use left in them. Sometimes that means a trip to the local charity, other times the seemingly useless item will sit in my master closet until I come up with something. 

Last week I posted about one of the uses I found for those poor books. I began with one that was still in pretty good shape and made my little pumpkin. If you missed how I did it, you can see it here.

I've also been working with a couple of books that are falling apart, as in the pages are falling out! It was so sad. I just HAD to find a new life for them, especially the dictionary that I am pretty sure followed me through my school days. Lockers, backpacks, and dusty ol' book cases can be hard on a dictionary. Not to mention the umpteen moves from state to state, city to city, and house to house. That dictionary has stories to tell. I couldn't send it to its grave. 

No tutorial this time, sorry. Its pretty straight forward though...

First I have to tell you where I found the graphics. I'm sure you all know her already, but her blog was new to me. A special THANK YOU to The Graphic Fairy. Her site is amazing and the inspiration is never ending. Seriously, if you haven't checked her out, please do so. My mind is spinning with endless possibilities.

Okay, back to my dictionary artwork...

Basically I pasted the dictionary pages onto a regular piece of printer paper with a normal every day glue stick and ran it through my printer, printing these images directly onto the pages.  I found it helpful to first print the images onto regular paper so that I knew where to place the dictionary pages. Then, I cut around the edges of the dictionary page and mounted them into a mat ad frame I had sitting in that very same closet. I should take a picture, you would probably enjoy laughing at the messiest room in my house. 

Its something like this. I'll let your imagination take it from there. 

Despite the sorry state of my closet, I am quite happy with this little project. I'll have pictures of it in its home  just as soon as I figure out what to do in that last empty frame...

It's always something

Just Another Manic Monday...

Do you remember that song? No?! Well, I just dated myself, didn't I? Ah well.

No matter how old I am , I still don't manage Mondays well. Not my thing. Anyway...

I spent most of my Monday working on a volunteer committee I have just recently become involved with. Mr. Shawn, my dear, darling hubby, decided I should help with one of his projects. Isn't that nice of him? 

There is a group of local business executives, and one lonely blogger, that are working towards bring the Winter Games back to the Reno Tahoe area. We last hosted the Games in Squaw Valley before I was born.

Huh, now I feel a little better. 

Not quite so old that I was here for that. 

In our campaign to do just that we have been working with a local business that is well on its way to making it BIG. When I say big people, I mean big. Its not every day that a little homegrown ski manufacturer gets the distinguished honor of their skis being on the medal podium. That is usually left for the big guys.

If you are a skier then you have to check these guys out.

http://www.momentskis.com/

I own a pair of their Stillettos and I love skiing these boards. And so does Miss K. She steals them every chance she gets. Little bugger.

BTW, I'm not paid to say this. I really do love 'em. So instead of skiing them, I got to see the who, what, where, why and how of their manufacture. We toured the facility this morning and Mr. Shawn was kind enough to take a few pics for us. I put them together in a little presentation for our meeting tomorrow night and I thought you guys might like a glimpse yourselves. 

If not...well, sorry. I will be back to my normal programming soon. Promise :)

I want to get back to my fall decorating.

Jared skis on Moments too. He's doing a promo film to document to partnership. 

This is the CEO of Moment. The most laid back chief executive officer you will probably ever find. 

A little machinery for your viewing pleasure.

This is where he magic happens :) 

The pressing room

Stacked and racked.

This really was a fun experience and I know the custom skis they are making for the Coalition will be amazing. You can't go wrong when its handmade in the USA. 

What have you been doing with your Monday? 

Tragedy

I'm sure most of you know about the tragedy at the National Championship Air Races in Reno yesterday. We lost an amazing pilot and a yet to be announced number of spectators. Reno's first responders and emergency personnel were first class, as always. Our hearts and prayers go to the families of the victims as well as those who have had their lives profoundly changed. Please keep them in your prayers as well.

For my girls

I've been loving the look of subway art. I thought my girls might too. These are now their's. I hope they receive as much joy from them as I did making them :)

Yes, I changed a few things from the actual pieces that will be framed. I will probably update these periodically for them as they add new interests and experiences. I'm thinking I should leave each one, as a memento behind the next. A kind of history. Something they can add to their baby books and share with the next generation.

Hope everyone is having a fantastic Tuesday!

A Little Fall Crafting

We have guests coming later this week. You all know what that means?! You guessed it! I've been cleaning and sprucing up. And bring little touches of fall in along the way. I was feeling a little crafty yesterday and decided to play with an idea I have seen floating around.

This is how it began...a big mess. I drew a rough shape on the book after ripping off the cover. Cut, trace, cut, trace. Pretty basic. The one, only, solitary, all by their lonesome pair of scissors that I could find in the ENTIRE house were anything but sharp. I'm sure when Miss H and Miss K get home they will know precisely where the good scissors (yes plural) are. They both tend to hoard them for projects. At any rate, the dull scissors I was left with would only cut a few pages at a time. Because of this I had to keep adjusting the size a little. My pumpkin kept getting bigger. I then took the glue gun and attached the front and back sides of the book to one another. 

It looks like a pumpkin...kinda. But I still needed a stem. Most of the pics I have seen included a sawed off branch as the stem. I wanted to put my own flair on it.

Enter the wire cutters.

I had this coil of wire left over from the sofa table transformation in the girls' school/tv room.

 Beware! Wire cutters like to take little nibbles of flesh now and then...

I cut a half dozen three inch long pieces of wire and bound them together with 

some narrower craft wire. I used the same smaller wire for a couple of curly ques.

Pencils have so many uses, don't they?

There's my stem :)

I twisted more wire around the end that I planned on attaching to my little pumpkin.

WAIT! I don't want a silver stem...

Time to break out the spray paint. I wanted bronze, but we don't always get what we want. 

I had white or black to choose from. Black it is!

A little help from the glue gun and we have a completed book pumpkin.

All told it took a couple of hours to do, but I was reading blogs and doing laundry too.

I like it. Especially the curly ques.

Don't you like the chewed up dog brush on the floor? That's what I get for ignoring my puppy.

He entertained himself.

What are you crafting to bring fall indoors?

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