I saw two cute pumpkins on social media and I just had to do them both.

For each project, you need to get yourself a nice big pumpkin.

Cut out the tops.

And pull out all those seeds.

Once they’re all cleaned out, you’re ready to go.

The first is the Lazy Man’s Jack-O-Lantern. My friend, Bridget, posted it on Facebook and it is right up my alley!

I always struggle with deciding what sort of face I want to make. With this, there’s no thinking involved. Just use a skewer to poke out two little eyes.

Use the same skewer to score out a mouth…

…going deeper and deeper until you’re cutting it out. And that’s all there is to it. I think it’s adorable.

You gotta admit – he’s pretty cute when he’s lit up.

I found cool pumpkin #2 on the HGTV Instagram page. You’ll need your cleaned-out pumpkin, a box of wine, and some permanent markers for this one.

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Today I have the links for the Spring Reunion Dinner in one place for easy access and ideas for repurposing shutters, including the super simple Spring Shutter sign I made.

Spring Reunion Menu

• Fresh Fruit  – Smoked Salmon Spread
• Pumped Up Hummus
• Lori’s Honey Paloma Cocktail
• Jonathan’s Bourbon Lemonade
• Layered Fruit and Mozzarella Salad
• Grilled Chicken and Asparagus with Creamy Goat Cheese
• Grilled Shrimp, Vegetable, and Farro Salad

There are so many fabulous projects and crafts that can be done with old discarded shutters. I’ve pinned dozens of ideas on Pinterest. Here is a direct LINK to my “Shutters” board.

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All y’all sure know how to make a girl feel good!   *I can use that fabulous Texas phrase because I have a daughter who lives in Austin, y’all.

Between the lovely and welcoming comments left here on the blog, the comments and “likes” on Facebook, the personal texts, phone calls, and emails – well, I feel the love and it makes me, even more, energized to be back. Thank you!

So … Thanksgiving is less than a week away and …

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As soon as I received the invitation to Zak & Zoey’s First Birthday Party, I began thinking about a unique gift for them.

I knew they didn’t need more toys, as you can see! This space used to be Steve & Tram’s beautiful formal living room now turned into a huge playpen. Or as Tram calls, it Romper Room! Kids change your life!

I turned to Etsy. If you don’t already know about Etsy …” Etsy is a website where you can buy and sell handmade or vintage items, art, supplies and so much more. Etsy is the world’s most vibrant handmade marketplace.” You can literally buy anything crafty from this site, literally anything!

I typed “1st birthday gifts” into the search bar and began strolling through all the possibilities.

The first thing that caught my eye was this personalized chalkboard sign. I immediately sent an email to Tram asking for the twins’ favorite toys and foods and their first words, heights, weights, etc.

She replied, “Aww, you are SO SWEET!!!! We think alike! I’m actually having Steve work on this chalkboard 1-year mark too. I’m sure it’s similar to what you were thinking! I’m sorry to have spoiled your idea if that’s what it was.”

Darn, back to the drawing board.

Next, I spotted the party hats! I could not pass those up and absolutely had to order one for each, but that wasn’t a gift they would be able to open, so I needed something more.

Finally, I found this! The best part? I can make this myself! I have a boxful of scrabble letters, I have blue and pink craft paper leftover from Tram’s baby shower and I have glue. All I needed were the shadow boxes.

If you don’t happen to have extra scrabble tiles lying about and you don’t want to break into your Scrabble game to poach them, they can be easily found online, including on Etsy. Just type “Scrabble tiles” in the search bar and you’ll be amazed by all the options.

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This post is part “throwback Thursday” since Christmas 2014 was on a Thursday and part craft project for Christmas 2015.

I meant to share this back in mid-December… but… I forgot. Even so, it’s still an easy and fun craft for next Christmas.

I made a few of them as gifts this year and I’m planning to make many more for next year.

Here is the back story:

I was in serious “purge mode” last Thursday. I had finally owned up to the fact that I wasn’t wearing at least 80% of the clothes in my closet and about 90% of the shoes.

So I went through it, with a very critical eye, and this is what I gathered up to give away.

That mess on my bed consists of:

• 26 skirts
• 22 dresses
• 11 pairs of dress pants
• 7 jackets and sweaters

and

• Over 13 DOZEN (that’s more than 156!!!) tops and blouses

plus…

… 53 pairs of shoes!

It is so freeing!

The dresser is my next target!

I did hold on to two really nice sweaters. One green and one cream for crafting purposes.

Here is what I’m going to make with them.

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Wow, this week went fast! I can’t believe it’s Friday already.

Once again, I shall be answering one of Lori’s questions. Lori put forth several when I asked you to pose questions to me. This is one that I didn’t expect to be getting to quite so soon. But the week flew by so fast, that I wasn’t ready to answer the tougher questions she asked… here we go:

Are you going to unveil your plan for your “playroom” when you figure it out?!?

Yes, Lori, it’s not only figured out.. it’s all done. Well, not completely done… but done for now.

I desperately needed a space to store and organize all my craft supplies in one central location. I have so many crafting supplies, it felt like they were coming out my ears! Everywhere I turned, there was some sort of craft. From the rolls of washi tapes to paints and stickers, it was everywhere. It’s been stuffed in several places throughout the house; the garage, my closet, in the buffets in the dining room, the master bedroom sitting room, in the kids’ rooms (under their beds – without their knowledge), and even in the backyard patio area.

As I mentioned in a post earlier this month, I’ve reclaimed a portion of a large room upstairs that we’ve always called “the playroom.” The playroom has always had a television, couch, and computer desk. In the early years, it had a dozen shelves along with two of the walls. Those shelves housed Marissa’s extensive collections of Disney figurines and Connor’s huge collection of Star Wars action figures. The shelves came down and the toys went up into the attic, years ago. There were also about a half-dozen tall white cupboards, in the early days, that held school craft and art materials, games, videos, and toys… those too are long gone.

More recently the room has been an extra bedroom, with a trundle daybed, and also sadly became sort of a junk room. When your kids are college age, they accumulate dorm/apartment furniture and when they finish college, that stuff has to get dumped somewhere… this room became our “somewhere.”

Currently, the room is divided into three distinct areas – the television lounge area … also known as Connor’s lair.

… Connor’s computer desk area …

… and my craft area, which still has the daybed included in it. Here are some of the details and close-ups.

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Happy October! 

I am so happy that it is finally October!

I love October!!!

Now that I got that off my chest, allow me to invite you to the …

2013 Fall Craft Party

I’ve been so into wrapping gifts creatively this past few weeks. I think it all began with the vintage French ephemera I purchased at Sweet Salvage and turned into wrapping paper.

I was so happy with the end result, that I’ve gone crazy for wrapping everything with just about anything except store-bought wrapping paper.

From there, I began searching out pretty wraps on Pinterest and ended up creating a new board dedicated to it, called That’s a Wrap.

Marissa’s birthday was a week ago, today. Here are a few of the gifts I wrapped for her.

A hard-to-wrap canvas shoulder bag was enclosed in a burlap sack wound with twine and accented with fragrant fresh herbs of rosemary and bay leaves.

More of the vintage French ephemera paper, this time simply tied with French wired ribbon.

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Here is the second pumpkin craft I found on Pinterest. This is the one that took several hours and a steady hand to create. It wasn’t that it was all that difficult, there was just a lot of drying and waiting time involved.  I believe that the original pumpkin I saw on Pinterest was made with a real pumpkin, I used a faux pumpkin because I wanted to have it year after year instead of throwing it away in a few weeks after it rotted out.

Initially I purchased a $24.99 white pumpkin from Hobby Lobby – using a 40% off coupon – paying $14.00 for it. Before I could get to the project, I found an $8.00 white pumpkin at Target and decided to use that one instead.

The creases that run from stem to bottom were much more defined on the $14.00 pumpkin and I may still use it to make another, I think it would turn out a bit prettier and be easier to figure out exactly where to draw the vertical lines. I also wasn’t thrilled with the tan spray paint I picked out. It turned out to be quite metallic, more gold than tan, and also dripped profusely, so I’ll be buying a different paint when I make that second one. We’ll call this one the trial run…Live and learn.

Pumpkin a la Burberry

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There are so many cool fall crafts being posted on Pinterest every minute that it’s getting hard to keep up!  Two distinctively different pumpkin-themed ideas really caught my fancy.  This first one took about 10 minutes to pull together, and oddly enough, out of the two different pumpkin projects I made – Dave liked this one best. The second one, which I’ll put up tomorrow, took quite a bit longer. When I say “quite a bit” – I’m talking several hours longer.  Yeah, ten minutes vs. about four hours… and he likes the 10-minute craft best… Go figure!

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