Fall Decor 2011

This year I decided to decorate for fall because Christmas is going to be less crafty with a new baby arriving. In fact I have already decided to do the barely 6 foot Charlie Brown Christmas Tree instead of our bigger one. Kind of sad to think that we won't be having any parties at the house this year like usual. I love having an open house, cookie exchange, and decorate your own cookie party for Bailey...this year we will be going to those instead of hosting :) So for fall I decided to do a little yard work at 9 months pregnant with a husband 1,578 miles away (yeah...I googled). So to kick off the fall I hosted a baby shower and a falltastic pumpkin party for Bailey.

I turned my plane vases into fall ones by adding orange and brown glass stones to my clear ones and whipped up a few vinyl pieces in fall colors.

I made a rag wreath for the front door using scraps of orange, brown, and crimson fabric left over from previous projects.

This makes me laugh because I pulled up a dead bush my husband tried very hard to save. It took hardly any effort to pull it up and drag it across the yard...but it left a nice space that needed to be filled so I went and searched for a bail of hay and a cute pumpkin that wouldn't die and could be rained on. I call it "my decoration spot" until he is able to plant another bush. At Christmas I will put my wooden cross in this spot.

Meiko chilling in his hot dog costume :)

My mom and sister came over the night before the baby shower and helped me plant new orange flowers in my pots...these are the only flowers you will ever see me grow. I don't do gardening or flower beds, but I like my two pots. That morning I spread the pine straw in the area in front of the house.

And there it is...my little groomed house ready for fall. I trimmed the bushes, pulled up a bush, spread pine straw, made a "decorating spot", and hung a wreath.


Party Here: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyCQvZ4gVf5Sqe4pjgITZkJoC0rAkKgMPvAdN6gGPE4vAXpKb0i9hIJLO8R0KQjtBc9hvS-GGzAad5d2CvEQCUMjS984EC2V-s10D2jTiRUYUSUhr9dEybqndrMFEGki6ZBwYj190OPbI/s1600/wgw+button.jpg

Craft Space

A few blogs I have seen post where they do their creating and since I made a post before about the "extra bedroom" and how it isn't exactly defined (office, workout room, spare bedroom, craft room, golf room/craft corner) I figured I would show you a few pictures. I finally got a filing cabinet from work and modpodged the front of it. Then after looking at it I ripped off the crimson paper that was on two of the cabinets because the white/black damask looked so much prettier so I am just going to do all four in the same pattern. Then I loaded up the drawers and I am in love with how organized it is! The top drawer is current projects, the second drawer is  all my fabrics folded in different piles for easy access, the third drawer is for actual files and the bottom drawer is for extra tools and office stuff. 

 You would never know walking in that there was a craft space...this is Blake's side of the room

This is my craft corner. It is super organized in every area. I can fold out the table more for cutting out bigger patterns but for the most part I don't need the whole table. Underneath I have a suitcase filled with t-shirts for my t-shirt quilt I am working on. There is also another tote filled with Bailey's shirts that need to be monogrammed for our Disney World Trip coming in....44 days!

 This is the magical closet! It has everything crafty in it. I have my paints, scrapbooking section, glass etching stuff, my laminator, The Cricket, wood pieces for door hangers, 2 boxes full of stationary, wrapping paper, bags, and tissue paper, boxes of miscelaneous things, a few cake decorating items (most are in the pantry), pictures, pictures, and more pictures, ribbons... oh and my precious neglected turquoise guitar that is desparate for some loven!

My work station with my fabulous Alabama stool :) It never looks this organized but there was so much chaos that I finally organized it all and put everything in the filing cabinet. My degree sits on my table along with pictures of my family.

Playhouse and Pillows

I finally got around to making Bailey this table top playhouse. I had over 3 yards of felt leftover from resurfacing her balance beam and could not figure out what to make besides a couple of flowers to go on headbands so when I saw a few of these pop up over blog world I decided to give it a whirl. It was actually super easy to make the basic model. I think I made the door too wide and may change it, but I wanted to get it down for Bailey to play with it. I want to add windows to the sides with curtains and maybe add a few other things. There are endless possibilities with these cute houses. I looked on an etsy site and she charges $250 for these! Yes they have flowers and lots of cute additions to the sides and the door is more fancier, but it literally took me an hour to do this and probably 5 more to finish with the extras but I was pleased with my project and Bailey was to!



I made these pillows for my boss out of the bed skirt that came with the bedding his wife purchased. They needed more pillows but couldn't find any to match and were not using the bed skirt so I made 3 large pillows and still had enough fabric left over to make 2 more if needed. I bought a simplicity pattern for $1 to make the roll pillow since I had not made one before...good thing I did because the circles are huge and I would have low balled the sides without a pattern. They turned out good and hopefully his wife will be pleased.

Bailey's Gymnastics Room

Well we finally had the carpet installed and the room is completed! It turned out really cute. We decided to put a TV in her room since she loves to watch her "mobies" or have it on in the background while playing. It has a dvd player attached to it and it was just sitting in the office so we figured it would get more use in her room and she practically knows how to operate it. I feel so blessed to be able to give her a room she truly loves - it was a lot of work on Blake's part and mine but to see her face light up when she saw all the details and things she loves in one room was worth it. Although when we asked her what her favorite part of the room was she said, "my toys!" Not the new bedding, new pillows, the TV, the cute knobs on her dresser, her toy bucket, her ballet barre, balance beam, her name on the wall, the ballet dancer on the wall, the hanging flowers...nope, she liked her toys the best and she didn't get any new toys so she liked what she already had the best. Oh well!

I was trying to think of ways to make it more about gymnastics than a dance theme. I found a few really cute rugs or thought about the puzzle tiles but since her room is carpet I knew they would come apart so after much looking I found a reasonable priced gymnastics mat! She loves it and now I have a great spot to do my ab workouts :)

These are the flowers I worked forever on. I found the idea from a blogger who posted the Martha Stuart pom pom kits and how easy they are to make. The balance beam was a yard sale find from a friend. I didn't know what we would do with it but I figured it would come handy in the future :) It was a maroon color so I covered it in pink felt and Blake pained the wood black to match the furniture.

She loves it!

I put the flowers in the two opposite corners of the room. We put the TV on her toy bench instead of the dresser since she likes it more eye level.

Bailey helped me paint these knobs. They are her favorite colors: pink and purple. We did them in 2 shades of each and did a flower pattern and polka dots on them.

I saw these done at craft fairs last year but people are charging $30 for these! I made this for about $5. Yes it took some time but it turned out so cute and matches her room perfectly. It was suppose to be a hair bow holder but it is so cute that I didn't want to clutter it with hair bows.

This is her new bedding that I found at BB&B. It has pink and purple flowers and it looks great with her black furniture. It is a bit "grown up" looking but it is so pretty! The picture above was actually my idea...didn't steal this one :) I wanted to do a gymnastics picture and could not find anything that would work for her room...oops I did steal the saying "Gymnast in Training". I also wanted to add a little Zeta in the mix so I put the fabulous 5 point crown on the tu-tu.

So I had envisioned the room to look just like this but with a free standing ballet barre made out of PVC pipe when my fabulous husband said he could mount the bar from her crib on the wall! Isn't he the best daddy! It looks so good with the bar mounted! We did end up destroying her "baby to toddler to adult" crib because he sawed down the headboard to fit a twin and then used the foot board pole to make the ballet barre...oh well I probably would have wanted a different crib for the next child anyway...that is if there will ever be another one.

July 4th weekend

It feels like the past two weeks have flown by. July 4th weekend was a three day weekend. I could have had plans but decided to make it very low key. To start it off on the perfect note I went to the library and grabbed a couple of FREE movies for the weekend then we went with Blake's little sister to see Toy Story 3. Now what I did not know is that it was going to cost $12 a ticket because it was in 3D. I would have waited for the 4:00 showing to watch it the regular way but since we were already there with my purse crammed with 2 Share & Tear bags of M&M's (peanut and regular) along with 3 bottled drinks: diet coke, mountain dew, and sprite (don't judge me...so I like to save money. I still bought their buttered $7 large popcorn!) there was no turning around. It was such a good movie but I do not prefer the 3D because Bailey didn't like wearing the glasses and it made the movie have a dark tint and the 3D effect wasn't enough to pay $5 extra a ticket. Also kitty cat came with us (see picture) and they did not charge for her to enter...thank goodness! And Yes we did take home the bottom two inches of that popcorn bucket - I spent $7 on that thing we were not going to waste that high cholesterol goodness.

The rest of the day we stayed at home in play clothes playing with legos, dolls, and markers while I finished sewing Bailey's new dress! I had a hard time deciding on the color to accent the hot pink but the paisley turquoise pattern turned out great. I also made Bailey a zebra pillow to match her curtains with the left over material - pillows are like the easiest things to make in the sewing world.

On Saturday we took a mini-trip to see Blake's family down in Brewton for a pool party. On Sunday I met up with my shopping gal Robyn to hit the 4th of July sales where I bought some princess fabric that was already smocked at the top. I thought it was on sale but it wasn't! Thank goodness I had a coupon. I didn't realize it was .50 cents an inch (total was $17 but I had a 40% coupon)! I said "make it a yard" without looking...that would have cut the cost by $4.00...oh well. At Dillard's they ALWAYS have a fabulous 4th of July shoe sale. While other people are at cookouts - I am at Dillard's finding my beloved shoes. I was beginning to think I wouldn't find my "special" shoes but then on the top rack in box marked size 9 I opened it and there they were...if only they were my size instead of a 9 AND THEY WERE! (who's getting chills!!) They were size 8's in the wrong box - the heavens opened up and the angles were singing "hallelujah, hallelujah...." I put them on and felt like the "hot" girl (this doesn't happen often). I looked in the mirror and it was like they were destined to be mine! They were Nina's with a 5 point crown marked down from $60 to $40 with 30% off making my total $32.00! Mission Accomplished!

On Monday I made Bailey her princess dress with the fabric I purchased - wow! It took all of 3 minutes to make the actual dress and maybe 20 minutes total to do the straps. What's perfect about this material is that it is stretchy and I can adjust the straps or take them off and she could wear it as a skirt. I still have to make my sister-in-law her scrubs that I started on in January...they are coming! Sometimes I get an itch for sewing and this weekend was perfect for it.

My Pantry Checklist

I finally got everything listed in my pantry and freezer written down to make out meals - I knew I had enough things to make a few meals but after seeing it all written down and matched up I had 10 meals with a few being large enough to have left overs (spaghetti, pizza, chicken casserole) so it will be close to 15 meals total without needing to go to the grocery store except for milk, bread, fruit, and maybe one or two things. Some of the meals are simple like soup and sandwiches or chicken fingers with applesauce, but Bailey loves those meals and they are perfect for us two. It is hard to not pull in for fast food on the way doing errands but I've been good about going strait home. It has been especially hard these past two weeks with swim lessons being at night - we haven't been getting home until 6:30 every night (Tues-Friday) so making dinner is a rush.

I have been trying to cut back for a while now, but I get the urge for retail therapy! I am co-hosting a Wine & Appetizer Event at my house this weekend and wanted to spruce up my decorating so last week I went to TJMaxx to look for shams for our new quilt I bought for my birthday but instead walked out with 2 shams, 2 down decorative pillows, and the fanciest pillow I have ever owned. It is so perfect! I wasn't sure of my choices but when I asked a girl (who looked cute) what she thought she informed me she was in interior design school and that she loved it. So I walked out spending way more than I wanted to but the end result was perfection and it looked expensive (meaning I spent 1/3 of what it would have costs at a department store...I love TJMaxx).

Also, my personal photographer, B.O.S., finished our family/Bailey's 3 year old pictures and I am so pleased! I have been looking for art or something to put on my kitchen walls and the colors in the pictures were so bright and fun that they looked great in my newly bright green kitchen. I attached my favorite picture - not to "toot my own horn" but it was my idea and it turned out so good. Thanks again Brittney for doing our pictures - she has done Bailey's pictures every year since she was born and always does a great job.

I still need to re-do the kitchen chairs because they are too "matchy" with the new wall color. I am wanting to do stripes with blues and greens or something like that. Last night I started cleaning at 7:45 PM and did not finish until 11:00 PM - way past my bedtime. My house is so clean! I wish it would stay that way but of course Meiko and his hair will ruin it in 3 days....but I love him :) The good news is I have a very clean house and have the weekend to not do any chores :) :) Double smiles!