Halloween Mantle

It's the second most wonderful time of the year! Pumpkins, gourds, acorns, yellows, reds, oranges, and... CANDY CORN! I am ready for fall, ya'll! Even though it was a high of 90 today in my little nook of the desert, it didn't dampen my desire to decorate my mantle. Eeek!

I took it easy last Halloween and had very "kid-friendly" decorations here and there. This year, my 10-year-old is a bit braver and my 2-year-old... is... such a nut. Nothing scares her. She actually called the skulls I pulled out from storage "pretty." Yes, that's my silly willy.

I used all of last year's decorations and threw them together with projects I've done throughout the year. I only spent $4 for this mantle display. Vases are my favorite thing to use during ANY holiday because you can fill them with practically anything. For the sake of keeping costs down, I filled one with a candle I already had, but stuck some fall leaves in there to jazz it up a bit.

I have found many of my vases at GW and enjoy finding clever fillers for them. Take a look at this fun idea:

Those are black river rocks found at the dollar store. I've seen blogs where people paint these with chalkboard paint, then write things on them with a chalk pen. I was going to do that until I found out that was going to cost me almost $10. Instead, I bought a bag of black rocks ($1) and wrote on them with white-out (FREE). Yeah, buddy!

Remember my brassy, GW lantern I fixed up here? Well, it was quite lovely in our guest bath when I was aiming for a coastal feel. Now, it is holding spot for a scary skull...

Throwing in some more of my GW finds over the year, here is my finished Halloween mantle:

The only thing I purchased was the black crow, headstone, rocks, and the gray, torn material (each only $1). Not exactly "child friendly" but my weird kiddos love it. ;) This week, I'll be working on TWO Halloween wreaths. LOVE!

Linking up with: Amaze Me Mondays, Debbie Doo's, Keeping It Simple, Made By You Monday, Nifty Thrifty Tuesday, Good Life Wednesdays, Twice Owned Tuesdays, 20 Below Thursday, A Creative Princess, Freshman Friday

Happy Anniversary, Home!

Ello poppets!

Well, it's been ONE YEAR since we moved into our first home! I have to admit, there were times when I desperately missed having a landlord (because fixing an AC on your own is tough), but I'm incredibly thankful we had the opportunity to buy. This home has seen its share of birthdays, holidays, movie nights, game nights, and karaoke nights. It has watched us as we played in the front yard, teaching our oldest how to catch a football and spike a volleyball. It has provided us with a fireplace, where our toddler loves to dive off of, sit at, and color with crayons. Happy Anniversary, home. You've been so good to us! Looking forward to many more memories.

This year also saw its share of home improvements. ALL DIY (very proud to say that). Looking around the house, there is still so much we would like to do, but for the sake of satisfaction, I wanted to look back and see how far we've come.

Garage Before:

Now:

 Guest Bath Before:

Now:

Nursery Before:

"Nursery" After:

Backyard Doors Before:

Now: 

This was one of my favorite DIY projects and I loved that it only cost us around $5!!!

Entryway Before:

Now:

 Tween Bedroom Before:

Now:

 Front porch Before:

Now:

I would love to end this post with a list of things I would like to accomplish for this next year, but that would defeat the whole "I need motivation" reflection. Instead, I bid you all a wonderful Wednesday. I'm going to curl up on the couch and enjoy a movie in our home.

Ten years later...

When I was pregnant with my first child, I couldn't imagine what the age of ten would be like for her, even in my wildest dreams. What would she be like? Look like? What would be her interests? I couldn't wrap my head around the idea of being a Mom to a ten-year-old girl one day. Then again, I never imagined she would be born on a day like 9/12/01.

Like almost all of America, I saw the terrorist attacks being replayed multiple times on 9/11. Replayed on every channel, over and over, like a nightmare you couldn't wake up from.

The following day, as I lay in my hospital bed, preparing to deliver my precious, innocent, baby girl into this world, I had fear. Deep fear running through me. What kind of world was I bringing her into? If this level of hate was happening now, what kind of hate would she be witnessing growing up?

At the time, I was unaware of the magnitude of God's gifts. He blessed my daughter with an enormous gift of love and forgiveness. She forgives. Truly forgives. She forgives kids in school who bully her and make her cry. She loves everyone she meets. She wants to travel to China to tell others about Christ. The girl doesn't have an ounce of fear or anger in her body. Her two favorite things: Taylor Swift and peace symbols.

Tonight, as we were remembering those whose lives were taken on 9/11, we unfolded a newspaper that we saved on the day of her birth. As a family, we reread and relived the events that unfolded on that day. We prayed for the families who are still angry. We prayed for peace. We prayed for people to love people.

My daughter is the best thing that's ever been mine.

Although I can't raise her in a world of peace and love, I know that she is going to show the world PEACE and LOVE. Happy 10th Birthday, my little ladybug. You are something amazing! I love you!

*~*~* Dedicated to the lives that were lost on 9/11*~*~*

DIY Twine Balls

Yoo hoo, bloggers! ;) How are ya'll?! We were hit with some minor setbacks these last two weeks, but we are slowly picking ourselves back up and brushing it off. Adoption hasn't happened yet... was postponed until Monday. We were notified 2 hours before it was to happen, so naturally we had this huge cake we had to eat. Couldn't throw it away right? Hahaha.

Anyway, to ease my frustration, I was finally able to work on some crafts! I've seen these done before and can't remember who did it first, so if you know, please tell me so that I can give credit where credit is due. ;) It all started with an inspiration that I found at GW. A dirty lonely platter seeking a table:

For $4, it was mine. Now, I had someone awhile back leave a rather... rude... comment about how my thrift stores finds seemed pricey. I recently discovered a thrift store on the opposite side of town that priced their items significantly lower. However, since I don't want to be making that 30 minute drive there and back, I will take my over-priced items instead. Thankyouverymuch! To me, the price STILL beats new, store-bought prices.

Anyway, after a couple of coats of some brown spray paint, it looked better:

Remembering the post I read ages ago about creating twine balls, I wrapped some jute and twine around balloons and coated them with my tacky glue spray can.

Once they were dry, I popped the balloon and removed it. The twine looked great and held strong, but the jute turned white and easily lost shape. I purchased that particular twine months ago at the dollar store.

LOVE the crazy looking twine ball, not so much the jute. Throw in some dollar store moss balls, jute wrapped around styrofoam balls I made here, bada bing, bada boom, and you have yourself a cute table centerpiece:

Remember that burlap table runner? I promised I would wait until fall to use it, but I couldn't resist! I blame it on the BHG magazine that was delivered to me today. Did anyone else see it? The fall leaves on the cover? *sigh* Be still my heart...

I had nearly all of these supplies on hand, except for the platter. Total project cost: $4! Yeaaa buddy!

Regrets, I have a few...

Hubby and I are approaching our 1 year anniversary from the day we bought our house. I can remember how envious we were when friends would talk about working on their yard during the summer. We longed for the day we could work on our own yard. Ah, to be young and dumb.

Back in May, we decided that our "major summer redo" would be our front yard. It has an odd layout, pathetic dead grass, and these tiny "lava rocks" that we would kick up whenever we stepped in them. After receiving numerous quotes on what it would cost to get the yard we wanted, we decided to roll up our sleeves, and do the work ourselves. Easy right? Did I mention we live in the desert where temps reach 100 plus in June, July, and August? Did I mention our particular city reached a record drought period? Here is the yard: I can't believe I'm friggin showing this to you

Oh! Did I mention the lone rosemary plant? See those stepping stones? They lead to a corner. A rosemary corner. ???

"Where's the rosemary," you ask? It died when we had a record breaking freeze. Yes, this is the city I live in... record breaking freezes AND droughts in the same year.

Working in the yard has SUCKED! There. I said it. Here is where we are at, and it ain't much:

First, where there is grass, we don't want grass. We wanted to create a divide, where one side would have broken concrete pieces (made to mimic flagstone steps) and the other side would be our desert landscaping.

Using our garden hose (technical work here, people), I laid out the design I wanted for our "wall." Once we were happy with the design, we started digging. We dug about 4 inches deep, and flattened the ground as best we could. Then we started laying in our rocks (reused from the rosemary section of the yard) and making sure it was all level. Lastly, we filled in the gaps with dirt.

Is this how to properly build a wall? Probably not. It works for us and cost nothing. THAT makes me happy. I don't have a photo of what it looks like now. We added a second layer of rocks and planted a Japanese Boxwood at the end of the wall. The plant is nearly dead and I am annoyed.

Any suggestions from readers? Photoshop would be awesome if anyone cares to play around with our yard. Anyone know of some desert plants/trees to save me from a project fail?