Halloween Silhouettes

OK, so I'm a little late.  This should have been LAST Friday's post, but I threw a Halloween party for my kids last Saturday night, so Friday I was a little busy.  SO, here it is today!

I was looking through Halloween magazines at Lowes and came across this picture in one (Sorry, I don't remember which one it was).

I remembered I had 4 frames tucked away in my craft room which I had had FOREVER.  They were gold, and in desperate need of a paint job.  So I put my daughters to work with a can of spray paint, and we painted them glossy black.

While they were drying in the garage, I drew the patterns of the silhouettes I wanted on a plain piece of paper.

Then I cut out the pattern and traced it on to a piece of black paper.

I cut out the final picture, glued it to white cardstock, and inserted it in the frame.

Ta da!

I think they turned out pretty cute!

Happy belated Halloween!

Summer Cardboard Box Forts

If you're like me, kids spending too much un-entertained time together can get dangerous.  The fighting and bickering never seems to end!  I am constantly looking for things to keep them busy, so this week we made a trip to the Appliance Recycle store.  We loaded the back of the pick-up with about 6 giant cardboard boxes and brought them home to make a fort.  I handed my kids packing tape (to put the boxes back together again), spray paint (to paint flowers, write their name, whatever they wanted to design their fort with) and whipped up some curtains for their mansion in the yard.

Everything was going well until it came time to paint.  After a while I looked out back and saw them spray painting EACH OTHER.  Oh, for cryin' out loud. 

I quickly re-directed them and helped cut some windows and doors.  This was a WONDERFUL fort... for about 20 minutes.  Shortly after it was complete, my oldest noticed a small spider in one of the rooms.  Of course, they all ran screaming down to the house, abandoning the fort forever.

It's been 4 days now and the fort is beginning to crumble.  I'm thinking next I will send them out with matches and let them have at it. (Kidding, of course).

What fun things are you doing with your kids this summer?

Wine Barrel Table

My husband recently went up to his dad's barn and brought home some treasures.  This barn is every rusty junk-lover's dream.  It's 5,000sf packed full of 40 years of collecting.  A lot of it is truly junk, but there are some treasures to be found if you dig deep enough.  On this trip, my hubby found 2 wine barrels.  One was full size, and the other was half size.  I'm currently using the half size one for holding wood used in our outdoor firepit, and the full size one got a makeover yesterday!

Here is the before;

And here is the after!

I don't quite know where I'm putting my wine barrel table yet.  I'm happy with how it turned out!  You've gotta love Krylon.  Spray paint is my bff.

My next goal with this table is to decopauge wine labels under the glass on the top.  I guess I'd better get busy drinking wine so I can peel the labels off.  It's good to have goals :)

Cheers!

Magazine Holder Makeover!

I have a confession.  I think I am a closet hoarder.  I have unusual obsessions with things I just can't part with, and if it weren't for my other obsession to organize things, you just might find me on the show "Hoarders".  My addiction?     Magazines.  Especially home decorating or organizing magazines.  I just can't seem to get rid of them, (and don't even get me started with the holiday editions of Better Homes and Gardens!)  Even when I go through old magazines page by page, when I get to the end and realize there was nothing of interest to me in the magazine, I still can't seem to part with it.  I hang on to them for YEARS. 

My sister recently posted a blog about Martha Stewart magazines and it got me thinking about my old collection (and I do mean OLD).  I just went through my old stack and realized they were from
 1995!!.  I decided I needed to go through the magazines and tear out any recipe or crafty idea that looked interesting and THROW THE REST OF THE MAGAZINE AWAY.  So I did.  This, of course, brought on a new little project.  How can I organize my magazines to make them look prettier in my craft room??  Low and behold, I found some wrapping paper at Michaels which perfectly matched my curtains.  I decided to wrap the holders and love the way it's turning out!

 Much like wrapping a present, I cut the paper to size and started taping.

When all is said and done... ta da!! Pretty Magazine Holders!!

I found that 1 roll wrapped 4 holders, so I will need to go back to Michaels and get a couple more rolls.

I have seen similar magazine holders in the store for about $7 each - but considering my obsession with magazines, that could send me to the poor-house.  I will GLADLY wrap my old ones for the same general look at the cheaper price. 

 I'm so excited about this new project.  I have even begun to throw out the 16 year old magazines to make room for the more recent issues.  Baby steps!

Hanging a hammock!

I was inspired the other day by my second cousin.  She is a photographer, and in one of her photos she shows a beatiful hammock with pillows, kids giggling, and a candle chandelier overhead.  I remembered a hammock that we had tucked away in storage at our cabin which was never used.  I recently brought it home and was excited to hang it quickly before summer ended.

Here is the hammock - ready to hang!

I drilled a starter hole in the tree

Then I screwed in a hook.  Hindsight, I should have put in an eye, not a hook.  I'm going to have to swap it out as the hook is widening.  Live and learn!

I did the same on both sides and connected it with some chain.

Ta da!!

The hammock is hung!

Here is what you see when you are laying on the hammock!

Ahhhh

I hung it on the same tree as our tire swing.

Not sure if you can see it behind the tree, but it's there.

I love the tire swing and the hammock.  They both just scream summer!

I had a tire swing as a kid and spent MANY hours on that swing.

I'm glad my girls get the same joy out of theirs.