Spooky

It may be one of my favorite holidays...well besides, Christmas...and Easter...

No matter. 

I think I love Halloween because of the decorations. But also because of the costumes, and the candy, and the weather...

Anyways.

The decorations are up at our house. 

I got these new doll heads this year. I like them because they are creepy.

I really like them because the kids don't know that they are creepy. 

They just keep asking why there are so many "babies" on the mirror.

These bottles are new this year too. 

I found them at an estate sale. 

I was going to clean them and then I realized that dirt is good.

For Halloween at least.

So I got bottles plus dust, it was a good purchase.

I also thought it would be fun to have a skeleton hang out in our fireplace this year.

Ya know...drinking himself to death.

I would also like to point out that the dollar store is a good place to find Halloween gems. 

I found the black gauze that is hanging above our mantle there. I also found these little tombstones that are surprisingly heavy. 

Thanks dollar store. 

One thing I thought I would never say.

Jackie fixed up this picture for me that I found on Pinterest. So one trip to Costco and a little black spray paint later and it is happily...er...eerily hanging on our wall.

Wanna know what else I made?

Eeep. 

I love it so.

Sure it is a little odd.

It is kind of like a cat with no hair.

Creepy but mesmerizing all at once. 

It is like you can't look away.

OK. You can look away. 

But just so you know...

the plant will be looking at you.

*anyone that can name what movie a plant like this was in will be my best friend. Game on.

Newbies

Blake and I have been married for 10 years.

Whoo hoo, you say? We should be applauded. Well, thank you. 

But that is not the point. 

When we got married we bought a vacuum. I am pretty sure it was expensive for it's time. Looking back I am not sure what it had to offer that other vacuums didn't but I am sure it was good. Perhaps, extra vacuum bags?

Also, not the point.

The point is our vacuum died. 

Moment of silence.

I have been hesitating to buy a new one. I am not sure if it is the fact that I know we like our vacuum...or that others are expensive..and quite frankly I can think of A LOT of other things I would rather spend our money on....or that I want a Dyson...which cost mucho dinero...and our carpet is not that fab...and it is only in the downstairs...

Anyway, it has been dead/dying for close to a month. 

Plus I have been making stuff for my Etsy site, so our carpet in the office/craft room was a disaster. I even went so far as to borrow my friends vacuum at one point. Truly a low point. 

Then Blake gave me a little push. Woot.com had a vacuum for cheap, and we bought it.

It is no Dyson, but it works really good. It also has a retractable cord that is oh so fancy, and the lazy person in me loves that feature.

One more addition to our downstairs that is not the little girl in the skirt and pajama top?

A new rug.

Which kind of negates some of the reasons I bought a new vacuum because it covers up the not so pretty carpet. 

But now I can vacuum my carpet with a vacuum that actually works, and it was cheap for such a big rug, and I got free shipping. 

Which means both were a necessity. They compliment each other...and other such nonsense to justify my purchases...


I am thinking about painting the outside of my frames navy blue, or should I just leave them white? Thoughts?

Things They are a Changing

I really like our house.

Granted it does not belong to us, but that shouldn't matter...right?
I have a theory. I think that if you don't enjoy where you are you won't really enjoy anything else either.
As we have lived in the house a few things have changed. Most of them I have just done on my own, without asking. Perhaps not the best approach, but I figure that you can't get mad at someone for making things better.
Maybe you can.
I haven't had any complaints yet.
Lately I have been feeling a little sorry for myself. I didn't like our decorations anymore, we don't own a house that I could redo, a lot of my friends are changing things and I was feeling stuck. So what quicker way to redo something?
Paint.
It might be my BFF.
I am not even kidding.
Before.Baseboards before.After.Although the living room paint really looks like the color in this picture with Canon.This is the color of the dining room. Basically the same color just a lighter shade. I repainted all of the baseboards and around the windows. I also took down the old lady valences that were above the windows. I changed out our green lamps for white ones that were in our room and moved the pictures that were on the wall down stairs to upstairs.
When I was done I just sighed.
It feels better.
It feels clean.
Our kids are pretty used to me painting things. Penny had the hardest time. She just continuously said
"Mom! wook." "Mom! me." "Mom! head."

The living room color is this if you wanna know.

Crap I Plan To Make At Which I Will Probably Fail

For Gavin's party on Saturday:

For our bathroom or hallway or office...I can't decide:
But I love me some school supplies.

For our living room:

To carry around to feel smart: To wear around to look smart:

To meld into one, or not:
I may make a love child of this cardigan

care of Grosgrain.
and this dress. Or I may just make the dress and the cardigan separate. Decisions. To go to the prom in or to wear whilst cleaning the house:This dress seriously makes me swoon. I wanna be a southern belle and eat cucumber sandwiches when I look at it. Look at all that lace.Currently in the works:I'll let you know how it goes.

It's Begining To Look A Lot Like Something

I had good intentions of posting prior to Christmas. It didn't happen so now I am playing catch up. Such is life.

On our tree some of my favorite decorations are the old vintage ones. Every time I look at them I smile. Nothing says Merry Christmas like Kermit the Frog a la 1980. Last year my Mom gave us a bunch of Santas that she had collected over the years. I like seeing them all lined up on the shelf. They bring back good memories. The kids decorated their own tree this year. They did pretty good although, the ornaments have migrated as the month went along.

In The Living Room

Halloween came down last weekend. Laney asked if we could just set up the Christmas decorations but I told her we would have to wait. We are not going anywhere for Thanksgiving so I figured it would be nice to not skip over the decorations in lieu of Christmas ones. Then I realized that I don't really have very many Thanksgiving decorations. I am sure that is on purpose. So when faced with little to no decorations: Make some.

I bought these leaves years ago with the purpose of putting them on my Christmas Tree. It never really happened so...voila! Fall decorations. I also started making a banner years ago when we lived in Vegas and never finished it. No time like the present. And because that previous picture shows you actually nothing but looks impressive, let me show you a picture that shows you everything but is seriously lacking in impressiveness. Finally, no decorations would be complete without pine cones our kids collected while in Vegas. With a couple of Utah pine cones thrown in for good measure.