Kind of like Autumn

What with the warm temperatures and humidity, it's really not feeling like autumn here. Sort of like autumn in Charleston perhaps, but without the general awesomeness that is the Low Country. So I'm trying to get in the mood a little, so I dragged out my Fall and Halloween decorations. I even pinned a bunch of cute ideas on Pinterest, but it's hard to get all worked up about hot cider and sweaters when you get all sweaty walking out to your car. Also, I would like to note that getting photos of the outside of my house has been almost impossible what with the constant rain....SINCE AUGUST. Oh well, maybe conditions will improve soon.

For now, I'm keeping it low key on the front porch. I plan to add a few more pumpkins when it gets a little cooler. I was afraid they'd rot away to nothing in two weeks if I bought them now. The moisture and the heat would for sure reduce them to a shriveled mess.

Looks kind of dreary. Oh and apparently we need to cut the grass....AGAIN.

I love my vintage flower stand. I've painted it a million different colors and I love to use it to hold those tiny pumpkins in the Fall. 

I like to throw some Spanish moss into the mix in the Fall. My spanish moss is looking a little wet and wilted from the rain, but that's an easily remedied situation (hello Spanish moss in bags at the Dollar Tree!). I usually add it to all my pots on the front porch.

I've had this wreath for a few years. I think it's from Michael's or Target. It's kind of like having a turkey or maybe a rooster on your door....deconstructed and what-not. I'm glad you have that visual now. You can thank me later.

Inside, I just tossed out a few things here and there into my existing decor.

This year I put my Halloween chick in the kitchen with a few blinged out pumpkins, because he's hip like that. I found Sir Hot Mess at Tinsel Trading Company in NYC a few years ago (the pumpkins are from Michaels).

This is the feather wreath I used to put on my front door before I painted it a charcoal grey. I still love this wreath, so now I just hang it on the inside of the kitchen door.

In the living room, I just added a few pumpkins to the bookcase and a really cool retro letterpress card I found at Tinsel Trading, and then framed.

Maybe I should have named this post, Things I Bought at Tinsel Trading Company. Yep, that little glittered leaf is from there too.

In my apothecary jars, I switched out the sand and shells for some bleached moss (Pottery Barn) and a few little glittery spiders from Michael's.

Nothing is scarier than a glittery spider.

 Since I don't have a fireplace, and thus no mantle to decorate, the top of my entertainment cabinet serves that purpose. It looks all mantle-y, yes? That's a technical decorating term, I'm sure. I found that really cool honeycomb-looking mercury glass vase at HomeGoods and filled it with tiny red leafed branches I found at.....not Tinsel Trading...but Michael's.

So there you go. I hope you feel all inspired to run out and buy some glittery spiders, maybe some moss, and if you're lucky perhaps you'll find a Halloween chick with a top hat.

They're creepy and they're kooky...

...mysterious and spooky. You know you want to bring a little Adams' family decor into the mix around your house. Sure you do!

It all started with the new Ballard Designs catalog. I was just flipping through it when, for some strange reason, these chandelier accessories caught my eye. And then the price caught my eye....$39 for three of them. Yeah, they're glass. Yeah, they're handcrafted. Really? $39 + tax + shipping?

So for no other reason, than to attempt to see if I could make them for less than $39, I decided I needed a craft challenge. They're not something I would necessarily buy on purpose, but now that I have them I would definitely use them if I had a party. They're cute and understated and I'm down with both of those things.

At Michaels, I bought these extremely strong magnets and a pack of vase filler. Using the store coupon I had, you're looking at about $5 in materials.

Here are the contents of the bag of vase filler. Ghosts and bats. They're plastic not hand-blown glass, but then again they were $3.

I took the bats and the ghosts and just hot glued a jump ring on the top of each. I had those jump rings in with my jewelry making supplies, but you can get a pack of a zillion for a few dollars at the craft store in the jewelry section.

After that (and I need to get better with this whole photo documentation thing), I determined I needed 6 for my dining room light. I just made clear bead strands for the bats and ghosts to hang from, just like in the Ballard Designs photo. That's just a beading pin that has one loop at the bottom (they come that way in the box), then you add the bead, and then you make another loop at the top. Then you link them together. You don't even have to glue the magnet to the top of the strand of beads. Just stick the magnet to the place on the chandelier where you want them to hang, and then hold the end of the strand of beads near the magnet and it will snap it right into place.

So for less than $5 (maybe up to $7 if you don't have a pack of clear beads and some jewelry pins and rings), you can have what would cost you $80 ($39 for THREE x 2 for three ghosts and three bats) from Ballard Designs. Ha! I win! I win!

New things

I'm going to be adding some new things to the blog for autumn/winter/holidays. Here's a first look:

Baby Crafts--Cute Clippies

Howl-o-ween!

Summer's really over, isn't it? I mean, it's still warm outside, but the spirit of summer is gone. Deflated. Boo-hoo. In the spirit of autumn, I finally got around to playing with this paper-mache house I bought back in July. It was a very fun diversion from my usual crafty projects.

Poor, poor, Roan. He probably shouldn't be left alone with his daddy anymore. I work on craft projects and Roan just lays in the floor. Kirk takes him outside while he's working on something, and next thing you know.....Roan has a yellow jacket on his head! Roan howled and tried to get it off before it stung him, but he wasn't fast enough. Poor little swollen eye (his left eye). Kirk promised to make Roan bacon for breakfast in the morning to make up for it.