Autumn Decor to last September through November

Autumn is one of my favorite times of the year. The smells, the colors, and the excitement of the holidays. But rather then decorate over and over during such a busy season sometimes it is nice to be able to make Fall/Autumn touches to your home and have them last for 3 full months rather than a few weeks. So a few ideas to help get you through the Autumn season. Of course you can add in Halloween decor for the month of October but take it down and you are still left with fall colors that will work for November.

• I bought I small sprig of leaves from a local craft store for $1.50. However, it did not look like this when I bought it. It was much smaller and a little sad looking. I found some fake leaves and added a few more to the ones already there. I also found a few pinecones from the local park and glued them on to add more visual interest to it. Finally I added a burlap ribbon from my scrap box and stepped back to a finished product. I chose to hang it in my kitchen but it could be placed on a mantel, in a wreath, or anywhere you choose.

• A leaf garland from the Dollar Store adds color and interest. Two face pumpkins from Walmart were 1.00 each and also add color and a festive touch.

• Pinecones, another 1.00 garland, a glass jar, and a candle holder complete the mantel. A thank you note adds a personal touch.

DIY Halloween Felt Ornaments

I wanted a Halloween decoration that my toddler could play with that would not get ruined and that did not cost me money. So to the closet of random goods I went. I found some felt and embroidery floss and decided to make some ornaments for this "Halloween Tree." It is actually supposed to be for tea cups but I use it for a variety of things during the year. I did not have cookie cutters or anything to trace my ornaments so I just did them by hand as I went with some scissors. 

If you can't tell from the photo the two white ornaments are a moon and a ghost, and the black ornaments are a witch hat and a bat.

Fairly simple instructions: (I did them by hand but you could use a sewing machine if you wanted.) (Little girls love this project that are just learning to sew. )

Cut two matching pieces. 

Use thread to stitch them up.

Leave a small hole to fill with poly fill or other stuffing.

Add ribbon at the top.

You could easily bring in some old branches or twigs from your yard or park and put them in a container of some kind to make a Halloween Tree. Let the kids decorate and play. 

Trick or Treat Decor

I want to say I feel bad about this but I don't. I keep EVERYTHING well almost everything for a few months even if I don't like it or know what to do with it. I have a large box with random items in it. Why you ask? You never know when you will be able to use something for another purpose. This is the perfect example. 

I was given two of these as a gift a few years back. It had the name of our family on it and our wedding date. What do I need two for? So I kept this one and recently decided to paint over it and turn it into a Halloween decoration. A little black paint covered the letters and I was then able to use a gold sharpie marker to write Trick or Treat on it. The images ... those took me a day or two to figure out. I used the gold sharpie to color a stamp and then stamped it onto the wood. I'm thinking I'll change the leaf in that top right corner on Trick. It did not turn out as I'd have liked. But all in all I'm happy with it. I'm thinking about writing something on the back for Thanksgiving so I have another piece of decor for the cost of oh NOTHING. Can't beat that. 

So see what you can find and see in a new light. You might be surprised at what can be changed into something else.

Halloween and Fall Wreath's

I know everyone is busy. I realize it more and more everyday as I find myself with more to do's then I know what to do with and no time. But there is something about making your home festive for the Holidays. It helps create memories for your family and especially your little ones. 

As I've been thinking about a lack of time and how to handle it I've  decided there are  few ways to go about it. Either do things sloppily, which would drive me insane because I like things done right. Or drive myself crazy trying to find time among a million other things that need done to do large elaborate projects that look amazing. Or last and my chosen method, find ways to simplify so I can do a bit of everything. 

So rather than show you a long winded project I have more of a challenge for you. 

Look around your house and see what you already have that you can add to quickly or buy something small to add. In the picture below I bought this wreath almost 4 years ago. It is just a basic twig wreath from Michaels Craft but I love it because I can add small things to it each season and make it different. One of my Halloween decorations a half moon got a makeover with some ribbon and then I tied it to the side of the wreath so it looks like it belonged there all along.

This wreath below is similar. Basic white berries can have other berries, pinecones, small pumpkins, flowers, or any number of things added depending on the season. If you need berries or flowers you can usually find them at a craft store for just a few dollars for a stem of them. Easy, Easy. So adding that moon to my wreath was my accomplishment for the day and finished up my outdoor Halloween decor. Don't worry that is my only decor this year. With a new little one its lucky I have any at all. So no judging. :)

DIY Fall Pillows

After looking at so many really cute decorative pillows in the stores I talked myself into needing one but they are so expensive. Especially when you are only going to use them for a month or two. So here is my solution.... Make your own but do it the easy way. I'm not a seamstress by any means though I wish I was. Instead I looked for placemats. Seasonal placemats. Placemats that were good and sturdy. Placemats that could work for the whole fall season rather than just Halloween. I found this cream leaf embroidered one and a pumpkin. Got them home, found my seam ripper and went to work. 

After making a small opening in the base of each pillow I stuffed it with poly fill and hand stitched it closed again. Done. From placemats to pillows. Each placemat was $3.99 and a bag of fill was around $5. But I still have quite a bit left for other projects. I'm thinking each pillow cost me about $5 each which definitely beats the $30 plus pillows I was admiring and I LOVE how mine turned out. May try it again for Christmas! We ll see. Good luck if you try it. Very simple. Don't worry if you cannot sew. With this project it's easy to hide mistakes on such a small hole. 

HAPPY FALL!

DIY Framed Corkboard

A few years ago I was given a mirror for Christmas that I loved. However, we were painting our house at the time so it sat propped against a wall in my bedroom waiting to be hung. One fateful day it got knocked over and broke. I thought I would just get a new piece of glass cut so I put it in storage and there it has sat for almost 3 years. I saw it sitting there, priced a new piece of mirror and decided to make something else out of it that would cost close to nothing. 

I just have a hard time throwing things away that could possibly be used for something else.

I hammered the rest of the mirror out and vacuumed up the loose pieces. Then found some cork board pieces to fit inside the frame. To get them to fit I had to place some tissue paper underneath as the frame was a little deeper than the pieces I found. At some craft stores you can find rolled cork board that you can cut to the size you prefer. After making sure the cork fit I was done. At the moment I'm using it for pictures/snapshots of fun things my family has done in the current year. I may move it to another room though and use it for a bedroom. We'll see. So here is my project in steps, you could do it with any type of frame. Once you have the supplies this is a very quick and easy project. Good luck if you try something similar.

Broken Mirror

Mirror pieces out and cork pieces placed inside.

Finished project with photos inside.

Boy Room Ideas

There are so many things that you can do with boys bedrooms. For the moment I'm more into more relaxed colors then bright reds, blues, and yellows so I loved this nursery decor. I also really like that it can grow with the boy and be changed a little bit to fit as he grows older rather than redoing the entire room. 

A sanded oar placed on the wall above the bulletin adds interest.

The bulletin board can be used to display baby shower letters, or anything you'd like for a young child and later be used to display art projects.

Baby feet were stamped in an ink pad and then placed in a frame to show how small little feet can be. First baby booties placed over the frame add visual interest and let you display them until little hands start to touch and destroy. :)

View from a child's eyes. Neutral colored walls and furniture allow you to do what you want to with other colors and accessories in the room as your child grows.

DIY Glass Painting

A girl in my neighborhood made her own plates a few months ago. Drew designs on them with colored sharpies. You couldn't tell they were white plates that had been drawn upon. Then I saw on pinterest glasses with dots on them of all different shades and I thought I would try to make Christmas designs. Here is my attempt. 

Using red acrylic paint and the end of a paint brush I made three small dots next to each other in the hopes that they would be holly berries. I tried about a dozen different variations of green leaves and ended up wiping them off every time deciding I liked the plain red berries best. 

I wanted something green to go with the red so I tried Christmas trees using the end of a paint brush. I loaded it up with paint and started out small and then moved to a thicker base until it resembled a tree. I tried adding white dots for snow, didn't like it. Then tried a gold dot on the tree top for a star. Didn't like it. So just kept the trees by themselves. 

Once painted I put them in the oven. Turned it on to 350 degrees for 30 minutes and let them heat up, cook, and cool. I haven't tried to wash them yet but supposedly this will make them permanent??? I don't know. I'll let you know about the paint. Maybe that only works with Sharpies. Good luck if you tried it. It was kind of fun to experiment with different designs on the glasses to see which worked best.