Purple Spider Web Pillows

Lately I’ve been highlighting the spooky purple and black decor for our Halloween party.  I revealed my fancy haunted mantel and also the raven’s feathery banister.  Well, today I whipped up a couple of spider web pillows to go with the color scheme in the front room and I’m back to share them with you!

This lovely pillow design at BHG inspired the project.  These pillows are made with black leather and silver paint.  So cool! 

Since I didn’t have any black leather, I decided to use some purple wool felt that we saved when we refelted a pool table.  I already had some pillow forms just longing to be used, so I pulled them out of the closet and cut out my pillow fronts and backs to the size of the form.  I made the backs with an envelope closure, so after Halloween I can slip these covers off and make regular ones for my Mama’s living room.  Or maybe some Christmas-themed ones!  Yeah, I just said the C-word.  :)

I found that my paint pen wasn’t wholly successful on the felt, so I opted to do a simple design of lines rather than filled-in areas.  I decided to do two spider web pillows like the one in the inspiration picture.  I drew the main lines of my design in chalk first, then went over it with a white paint pen.  Then I filled in the rest of the lines trying to make it look a bit wonky for fun.  Nobody likes a perfect spider web, right?  After my web painting was dry, I sewed up the covers and stuffed them with my pillow forms.  Here’s how they turned out:

Spider’s web 1:

Spider’s web 2:

I can’t wait to see how they look in the living room with all the purple and black!  Now I’m thinking we need a couple of silver vinyl ones to coordinate... or some black satin ones?

I’ll keep you posted…

Decorate with Feathers… Halloween style!

I wanted to call this post “New Ways to Use a Feather Boa” but I figured that might get some strange inquiries from googlers. :) 

So as you might have imagined, I used a feather boa to dress up the banister for our Halloween party…  In keeping with the purple and black theme, I had to look beyond our traditional railing decor… harvest tinsel, orange and black lights, leaf garland, etc. and find something new and creative to use…

Then I had a “flash of an idea” as my mother likes to say.  Only it wasn’t just a flash, but the whole idea!  Wrap a black feather boa around the banister railing to punch up the wow factor and also coordinate with the black and purple color scheme!

And of course, I didn’t stop there.  Mama bought black and purple tinsel and two strands of purple LED lights!  And I raided the Halloween boxes and discovered some purple beads that I repurposed as a swag garland beneath the boa.  The tinsel and lights were woven in front of the boa to add fullness and glitter to the display.  And to finish off the spooky scene, I carved out a hole in the bottom of one of my spray painted dollar store pumpkins and stuck it on top of the banister finial!  Genius!  :)  A raven perched on top of the pumpkin echoes the feathers in the boa. 

What do you think??  Isn’t the pumpkin finial super clever?

Perhaps I shall make fill-in-the-blank comments just to make it easy for you:  “I think your Halloween banister looks _________.  I especially love the ___________.   Way to go, Sarah!  You are so _________.   XOX, Your Name Here.”

Aww, thanks! :)

P.S. Only 26 days until our big soiree!  Check back soon for more Halloween decor as we continue haunting the halls at Fort Guthrie!

P.P.S. If you are coming to our Halloween party, you must still act surprised/awestruck/amazed by all the decor when you see it in person! It’s all gonna look so much better at night! :)

My little pumpkin

Yeah, this post is not about a child of mine *which I do not have*.  That is usually what people are talking about when they say something about a little pumpkin.  Seriously, I’m not crazy… not much, anyway.

This is post is about my new little tiny velvet pumpkin that I got for my birthday!!

Yeah I’m writing an entire post about it, that’s how special it is…

Here is what I’m talking about:

Adorable. 

And no, I’m not referring to that pretty girl in the frame… but thanks!  The frame is another gift from my good friends in Columbus, Ohio.  Thanks Andi and Nick for my birthday gifts!!

The pumpkin is a Hot Skwash and you can tell a Hot Skwash because it has a little gold signature on the stem… mine’s the real deal, I know…I just checked!  They are made with a big circle of velvet gathered at the top and filled with plastic beans or some kind of weighted filler.  Then a real pumpkin stem is inserted in the opening and the whole thing is tied off to keep it together.  I imagine some glue is also used to keep the stem from coming out.  Someday when I find a deal on velvet, I’m gonna DIY some of these pumpkins!  And then little pumpkin will have some friends!

But for now, the frame and it’s little buddy, little pumpkin, are hanging out on the end table in the living room.  It’s a cute little display space that is safe from puppy drooling/licking/sniffing/knocking in the floor.  However, it’s not safe from kittens.  But so far Bandit hasn’t tried to chew on the pumpkin stem.  He did sniff it though, which could be a sign of future chewing-ness.  Hopefully he makes the smart decision to avoid my little pumpkin.  Or else one of them will have to go… and it’s not going to be the pumpkin!

Just kidding… sort of.

Love my new little pumpkin and the feeling of Fall around the house!

A sPooKy PuRpLe & BlAcK HaLLoWeeN mAnTeL!

So, while my own mantel is seriously lacking in Autumn character, I recently decorated my parents’ mantel for Halloween!  Last year we did a haunted mansion theme for our annual costume party and the mantel was the centerpiece!  This year I wanted to switch things up just a bit and do a new color scheme.  The purple Happy Haunting garland was the jumping off point.  I’m really excited about what we came up with this year!  Have a look!

A couple of old brown jugs hold a few sprays of dried purple statice flowers, a reminder of time long past.  A purple candle lights a set of silver glitter pumpkins perched on a candelabra.  The rotted mantel scarf trails along the edge where a glittery garland wishes us “Happy Haunting”.  Overhead, purple and black bats are circling, and a giant spider creeps along the wall of family portraits.

A black skull finds eternal rest atop a pile of old books, undisturbed by the purple glitter spider crawling along the spines.

A crow has taken up residence on a miniature “staircase to nowhere”.  Black and purple tapers light the scene from crystal candlesticks and beside, a silver glitter skull stares open-mouthed into the candle flames.

I had a lot of fun putting together this haunted collection of items.  The brown jugs are antiques that my family has collected over the years.  The silver pumpkins were dollar store lighted pumpkins that I spray painted and glittered then placed on the candelabra in lieu of candles.   The crow and creepy cloth are also from the Dollar Tree.  The glitter spider is from Walmart.  The staircase belongs in a dollhouse that we started but never completed building.  It adds a creepy vibe, don’t you think?  The skulls are from Marshalls and Pier 1.  The purple grapevine pumpkin is from Home Goods and the garland I cut out of purple paper and glittered. 

So far so good?  How do you like our haunted mantel? 

Come back soon for more spooky decorations as we continue haunting Fort Guthrie for our Halloween party!

P.S.  I’m linking up to Layla’s Fall Mantel Party over at The Lettered Cottage.  Swing by and check it out!

Falling for Autumn

It’s that time of year again… September is drawing to a close… leaves are gathering on the yard and driveway… there is a chill in the air!  Yay, fall is here!  Time to break out the fall decor and spruce the house!

Here’s a look around at some of my updates, starting with the living room console.  I just added a wonky pumpkin (my favorite kind!) and a bunch of leaves to bring it some harvest charm.  Notice anything new here?

That’s right, [people who have memorized my decor] it’s a new lamp!!  I have lamp envy for all those people in blogland who seemingly replace their lamps every year.  But I have more important things to spend money on, like wonky pumpkins!  So I wasn’t in the market for a new lamp.  I didn’t really need another lamp (or so I thought) but when I spotted this cutie at the Habitat Restore, I snatched it up quicker than you can say “fifteen dollars!”  Mama was trying to filch it from me the entire day with her longing looks and talk of how it would match her picture frames in the guest room.  I was about to cave, too, thinking she could just use it until I needed it back someday.  But once we got it home, I ran around the house trying it out in several different spots.  Then, I placed it right here on the console table.  And it was love at first sight.  Cue the Hallelujah chorus… LOOOOOOOOVE!

I never thought a lamp would work here since the outlet is situated right behind the cabinet and you have to pull it away from the wall to accommodate for the plug.  Then you have that annoying gap between the wall and the furniture mocking you all the time.  But after seeing it, I figured I could live with the gap, since the little lamp is so pretty and cute and matches perfectly!!  Then I remembered this extension cord I had that has a flat plug.  Hooray engineers!  It worked perfectly.  Wasted a perfectly good extension cord where no extension cord was needed, but I was able to push the cabinet almost all the way back to the wall.  Happy ending for me and my new lamp.

Ah, where was I?  Oh yes, fall decor tour.  Ahem… moving on. 

Here is the dining room in all its harvest finery, as usual:

I set the table with Mama’s lovely harvest dinnerware and chargers.  Don’t worry, she’ll get them back (and my table will be naked!) after Halloween.  Right now her house is getting decked for our annual Halloween party, so I’m just keeping the dinnerware company until they are needed. ;)

I wanted to switch things up this year with my table decor, but when I put the cornucopia on the silver tray, I just had to leave it on the table.  It looks like dinner is served!  That is if you want metallic gourds, Indian corn, leaves, and mini pumpkins for dinner.  :)

I decked the chandelier with it’s usual metallic fruit ornaments and added a leaf garland to the grapevine.

I did add one new thing to the dining room this year.  The iron urn with fall floral and my new DIY lanterns found a home on the flatware cabinet in the corner.

And I had some fun decorating my little white shelf in the kitchen with a harvest plate and my pumpkin votive holders.  Cute, cute!

Now that my house is ready for fall, I can concentrate on getting my parents’ house ready for our annual Halloween party!  Come back soon for some spooky Halloween decor!

P.S.  The House Tour page is up-to-date with all new fresh photos.  Click over for some never-before-seen updates in the living room, kitchen, and office!

The Earth laughs in flowers…

After showing you my new potting bench a couple weeks ago, I realized that while the table is nice, the rest of the area is a little sad and lonely looking.  I thought it needed some outdoor art to liven things up!  I put on my thinking cap and came up with a cute idea for a garden sign to hang over the potting bench.

Lucky for me, I found an old shelf in the garage leftover after my little office closet update.  Hooray for not throwing things away!  It was the perfect size for my needs.  So I set to work in Publisher and designed this lovely garden quote sign. 

It was unfinished wood on one side (thank you previous owners for not painting both sides of your office shelves… serendipity, no?) so I thought a nice gray stain with some “antiquing” would look cool and natural.  I used acrylic paint watered down to wash the gray color.  Then I added the quote with a paint pen, and drew on some flowers and vines.  The cute font is from dafont.com; it’s called Leaf1.  Once it was all dry, I added some distressing to make it look not so new.  I sanded off the edges and some of the paint from the letters just to rough it up a bit.  <—Really need to get an orbital sander to help with jobs like this!  Lastly, I sealed it with three coats of polyurethane to help it stand up to the elements out on the deck.  Here’s how it looks hanging over my potting bench:

It gives the area some presence now, instead of just being a random table in the corner. :)  Can’t wait till Spring comes again so I can get some use out of this thing!!

I love my new sign and I am planning to make another one for my mother’s nearly-completed greenhouse!  There’s still another old shelf to be used, after all!  The next one will be cherry stained with white lettering, I think.  Simple. 

What do you think of my new outdoor art?

Oooh La La Light Fixture!

Remember when I told you how I was pining for these lovely light fixtures for my den?  Well, my sweet Mama bought them for me as an early birthday present!  Yay!!!!  And my Papa was here today and installed them for me!  Double Yay!!!  And here I am to show them to you in their new home…. can you say it with me?  Triple Yay!!!

Here’s how the sitting room side of the den looks now with its new light:

And here’s how the sewing room side looks with its new light:

I can already tell the difference over my sewing table.  The new lights are a few inches lower than the old ones which lets more light bounce off the ceiling.  Plus the size of the shade is way bigger than before so more light can escape.  And of course, they are lovely to look upon, unlike their predecessors:

 

The base of the fixture is a dark bronze, almost black color.  The shade is cream with a linen texture.

Lights off…

Lights on!

Thanks Mama for my birthday present!! :)

What do you think of my new lovely lights?