Vintage Inspiration Friday

Today was for me.
 I went shopping at Christmas in the Country.

My sister and I have been getting together every year to go to this craft show since my oldest son was an infant.  I am usually lucky enough to find some kind of floral arrangement or a snowman to add to my collection.
  It is the perfect event to get me in the spirit of Christmas.

A beautiful floral for my wall or door, I'm not sure which right now.

I also came home with some ideas for the holidays. 

 I may not start decorating until after Thanksgiving, but I do start working on new ornament projects and decorations to create.

I am joining Debra from Common Ground for Vintage Inspiration Friday and Cindy from My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday.

After I came home from shopping, I had so many ideas that I had to see what I have at home to work with.  So I went shopping in my garage and these are a few of what I found.

I just love the iron pig, he has the perfect white and rust look, in fact, they all have that perfect distressed look I am going for. 

I am not sure what I plan for the skates, but they will fit in some how. 

The hooks, they make great wreath hooks. 

It is amazing what I can find in that garage. 

I have a feeling it is going to be a busy November.

 As much as I miss working at the shop, I do enjoy saving all that creativity for my home.

What is your inspiration for the upcoming holidays?

Fall White

I have been wandering around my home looking for a few odd pieces of Halloween that have not been put away yet.  Each time I come into the kitchen I am drawn to the frenchdoors looking out onto our back deck.

  It is very cold out right now, about 30 degrees, not so cold for winter but hey, it is still fall here. 

Although it is cold the sun is shinning so bright, and it makes it look so beautiful outside.

I saw this and had to take a picture, my last hold of being outside to enjoy the warm air.

This is my favorite place to sit and enjoy the sun.

The crib turned daybed still looks beautifull even in this weather. 

 The chandelier stays outside all year long and it is absolutely fabulous when it is lit and the snow is falling.

I hope you are enjoying a wonderful fall day too.

I am joining Kathleen from Faded Charm and all of the bloggers who love white for White Wednesday.

What A Party

This was our second Halloween party and they are just so much fun. 

 In fact, I have already picked out the theme for next year. 

It sounds kind of crazy, but if you know ahead of time you can shop the savings of after Halloween sales.

We were lucky the night was beautiful Saturday and the party spilled out onto the deck off from our kitchen.  I always make sure there is plenty of food and drinks ready so when my guests arrive they can just have fun.  I had a couple of games ready, one was a simple question answer game that involved a choice of sticking your hand into "THE BOX" of body parts, of course or they could choose to do a Bloody Brain Shot or eat some chocolate covered bugs and trust that they were not real and that was a gamble for them, because they KNOW how much I get into Halloween!

 We also vote on Best Costume, Scariest Costume and Most Unusual, while I tally up the votes my guests played a Halloween Treasure Hunt and had to find out certain facts, such as what color is the owl and how many skeletons are in the house and so forth, the winner also got a prize.

One of the reasons I love giving this party is because the guests get to participate and they DO! 

All of my guests think about and put an effort into their costumes and that SO makes it worth the work.

This year Frankenstein and Dr. Frankenstein stole the show!

They made the best entrance!  He came in first and I wish I took a picture of his boots, they were costume duck taped to make him (who is already tall) 4 inches taller.  He did not talk, only groaned and moaned and walked around the whole kitchen looking at everything and one else and just made noises while we tried to guess who he was.  This lasted about 15 minutes until Dr. Frankenstein walked in looking for her his creation.  Oh we were laughing so hard. 

 This is what makes a party so much fun to give.

Another person that made everyone laugh all night was this man:

He is Lt. Dangle from Reno 911 and he happens to be Mr. M. and he made the costume come alive with his antics and we were laughing all night.

Here we are the happy couple!

The spider lady and Lt. Dangle.

My sister the Devil Bride. 

 I happen to run out of plates and she was kind enough to stop and pick me up some. 

 She really had all of the shoppers staring with this costume on. 

Grandma and Grandpa stopped in for a few drinks. 

 My brother-in-law and sister-in-law always add life to a party.

The Phantom and my Vampire niece.

My nephew the nerd and his date the naughty teacher.

Howard Stern made an appearance but he made someone else carry his date..

My niece the Witch and her Whoopee cushion husband.

The Dog Bounty Hunter and his girlfriend the Dog's wife.

Igor and his princess bride.

As you can see we were graced with wonderful and creative guests. 

 We were so lucky that they came and made our party wonderful.

The rest of our weekend was filled with taking our children Trick or Treating in a nearby neighborhood.

This week I have to undo all of my Halloween to get ready for another celebration.  Don't worry it is not Christmas, I don't start decorating for that holiday until the day after Thanksgiving. 

No, next we celebrate that my little Astronaut turns 4 on Saturday.

Happy birthday buddy!

Happy Haunting

IT'S TIME!

The skeletons are hung, the webs are cast and most of the food is prepared.

Now we just wait for the ghosts and gobblins to arrive.

Well, actually it is early and I am taking a much needed break. 

 I do have a few last minute preparations, but they have to wait until just before the party is to begin.

I always tell my son that the DETAILS are most important. 

 They are what make the most impact.

I even make sure the bathroom reading material is a little on the spooky side.

even the lamp cherubs have their masks on.

The jars are full of yucky bits of this and that.

No corner is left unspooky.

I saw the idea of the crows in the branches on a Halloween link party and I thought it would be a great idea.

The food and drink stations are as spooky as ever.

Now just imagine seeing all of this in the dark lit only by candle light.

Well I am off to make some wonderful Bone marrow martinis.

Have a BOOtiful Halloween!

Flying Bats

 I was looking on the Internet for some Anatomy pictures to print and add to my Halloween decor and while I was looking I found some little bats.
 I came up with a way to put a little different spin on dictionary page art. 

It only took a short time to make, the longest and most amount of patience was needed to cut out the tiny bats.  I had a vintage dictionary handy, and I found the page for BATS and riped it out.  I had to glue the page to some foam board and then just pin the bats on.  Once I had the bats pinned in place, I used a little dab of hot glue to keep them at the top of the pin.  After the glue dried I used a black magic marker and colored in the top of the pin.  Then I framed my picture in an empty black frame.

SO simple, different and I like it. 

My creativity inspires my children.

They were gluing, painting and creating spooky things right along with me to share with their friends. 

I am joining The Girl Creative for Just Something I Whipped Up Monday and Cottage Instincts for Make 4 Monday.

How are you making your home SPOOKY for Halloween?

Not Doing What I Am Supposed To

WARNING:  If you are NOT into Halloween you may want to take a pass!

You see, I was supposed to be cleaning the house, doing laundry, and getting a start on dinner.

 BUT, I wasn't doing that. 

I was having fun creating a SPOOKY house for my guests.

  I ONLY have one week and it is coming faster than I expected.

I had printed toe tags from Adventures in Renovating a Brookstone Limestone and I finally figured out what to do with them. 

Those crows are just running amok in my home!

For goodness sake DON"T step on the mice.

Once I got started creating I couldn't stop. 

 So, why fight it, I filled the kitchen with all my Halloween crafting treasures and that is what I did all day yesterday.

My favorite is to put my little skeletons into good use.

These are the kinds of decorations I like making for Halloween.

I use most of what I already have in my home and enhance with a little creativity. 

 The cloche and ironstone plate I had and the skeletons were from the Dollar store, sheet moss from Michael's and dirt from the back yard.

It is all the little details that my guests love to wander around and look at.

Sometimes all it takes is a spider, a little glue blood and a bone or two.

SO, what are YOU creating to make your home more SPOOKY?

I was going to join The CSI Project for my Halloween creations but I was too LATE!

However, this is a fun Halloween link filled with bloggers into Halloween just like me so you really should stop by.

  I have already visited a few and boy do they have great ideas. 

Come on don't be afraid they are only a little

SPOOKY!