Merry Making

We're getting excited for the season around here, especially with a new blanket of snow on the ground. Here are a few new scenes from our house.

I love putting up our old-timey 1960s aluminum pom pom tree, called "The Sparkler" -- and this year our tot got to help, too. Until this year he's been more of an un-decorator than a decorator, but this year was great. Even though lots of the ornaments all got clustered right together on the same branch, it turned out great.

And our little village is charmingly hodge-podge and not quite right, with masses of cords hanging down. But we adore it anyway.

Fun with Paint and Canvas

The thought of my three-year-old and splattering paint originally gave me a bad case of hives. But when I replayed the story in my head again, only with a slighly rosy tone, it all worked out great. And oddly enough, in reality, it all worked out great! How often does that happen?

I realized I've lived in my "new" house almost a year now, and still have lots of bare walls. That's what prompted me to run out to Michaels and pick up some cheap artist canvas for a fun little project with the Pumpkin Boy. Not that I wouldn't LOVE to buy this or this or this from some of my favorite Etsy sellers but, well, money doesn't grow on trees and so I opted for the homemade art option.

Canvases were 40% off so this one was about $13. Then we hit Menards (like a local Home Depot or Lowes) and picked up paint samples (little jars, perfect size for this project) in three colors. Those ran about $3 each. So for under $25 we have this awesome artwork for our office. One thing I should not have done -- but I'm a control freak and can't help myself -- is I did kind of steered him toward these colors. I really should just take a deep breath sometimes. But now that I know how fun this is, I think we'll make a few more and next time he can pick the colors without steering from me.


We took our supplies home and then Pumpkin Boy and I went about dripping our paint on our canvas. We took turns, and it was really a lot of fun. I had to help him not mix the paints together (a natural instinct, I think), but otherwise he was a pro at picking up one brush at a time and watching the paint drip all over. At a few points he dripped such a huge gob on that we had to pick up the canvas and let the drip slide a little, but that made it all the cooler looking, I think.

Have you ever tried a project like this with your kids? Do share, because I'd like to do more. How about decoupage? Is it a huge mess? I was thinking it'd be fun to have him cut up paper and decoupage it on the canvas, then drip paint over the top...we'll see if we ever get there.

Celebrating the 4th of July

photo from marthastewart.com

We're strangers in a strange land, so we haven't had anyone other than family or neighbors over to visit our new house. So we're particularly excited to have a couple of friends over today to celebrate Independence Day by eating a ton of food and hopping in the kiddie pool. Did I mention the sparklers? Good fun for the under-2 set. I have been too preoccupied to do much by way of July 4th crafting, but I did scope out some cute ideas if you need them, like these great pom pom centerpieces from Martha Stewart. I probably love them because I'm just generally a sucker for anything in a mason jar. Flowers, drinks, whatever. I just love them.

Martha, in all her crafty wisdom, also has a cute project if you've got some patriotic colored ribbon around. Basically you shape it int0 a little star, glue it on a sucker stick and voila, instant cute cupcake topper or drink stick. Or, string them up and you have a neat little banner to hang in your backyard.

Most years, I also have spare tomato cages laying around, but this year all hands are on deck for our awesome garden, so I'd have to go buy one for this project. It's a really cute paper tomato cage lanterns with stars that would light up the backyard so cute for your outdoor party.

I wish I could say I whipped up a fab little BBQ party this year, but alas I did not. I whipped up Roseanne Cash's Potato Salad (which is the closest substitute I've found for my mom's recipe, for which there is no recipe) and some beer cheese dip and some chocolate cupcakes. I did go buy some little flag toothpicks to stick in the cupcakes, so at least they'll be a little festive.

Tomorrow I think we might have another wee Pumpkin first -- fireworks!

What's going on at your place this weekend?

After: New Curtains for Baby's Room

This room in our house is undergoing a very gradual transition from craft storage dumping ground to guest room to new little girl's room. First and foremost, I had a vision for curtains. I have been known to pick things up at Ikea having no idea what to do with them (Wait, you do that, too?). So several years ago I picked up this cute kid's comforter cover and pillowcase with rhinos on it. It's been sitting in my stash just waiting for this project. It fit the window perfectly and I didn't have a bunch of leftovers hanging around, so I felt like I even got a little destashing out of it -- bonus!

If you're wondering where I got the inspiration for the curtain rod, it came from a tutorial for an Eames-inspired coatrack on Craftzine.com. I loved the idea of using those big wooden balls painted in cheerful colors, so I just picked a couple of them up at Michael's and they worked perfectly as curtain rod finials.

The next thing this room will likely get is a new Adam Turman print for the walls. Pretty sure it will be the Cycle the Twin Cities print with the cute girl riding a bike in heels, applying lipstick. I also have my eye on a cute print by Katie Daisy like this ABCs one or this one she keeps selling out of called How Does Your Garden Grow?

It's a fun work-in-progress. Hard to give up a great guest room, but easy to get excited about our new addition and how to welcome her to her space. Hopefully she's okay with the "beige" walls, cuz mama's done painting for a while! Phew!

After: Crazy Purple Dining / Living Room

When we first looked at our new house, the living and dining room had purple carpet. Need I say more? Luckily, I thought, new flooring is relatively easy to make happen. Oooooh, how wrong I was.

We asked to have the guy come over to measure the day after we moved in. This was 2 1/2 months ago. Earlier this week, the work was finally done.

We decided that since the "living room" probably will never be used, I could take it over as my craft room. Now, I didn't think I could be convinced that having all my craft junk "hanging out" right when people walk in the front door would be okay. But, I guess I was convinced. And I think it'll be okay. After all, this is an AWESOME space for crafting. TONS of light.

Lucky for me there's also lots of storage all around the house, because I have accumulated lots of stuff!! Now I just have to share the space with our dining room.

Now, we just need some artwork. I'm sure there's some around here...somewhere!

After: New House Colors

Our new house used to be Barbie Tan. And Sesame. And other various shades of beige.

In the basement, a little minty green was thrown in for good measure. But generally speaking, we were not huge fans of the color scheme in our new house. Now, mind you I have seen MUCH worse. MUCH. And, it's also probably true that even if the colors were the most perfect I'd ever seen, I would find some reason to need to repaint. But, as "luck" would have it, we both agreed that this house needed a new color scheme.

A de-beiging, if you will. I'm pretty sure we're all done with the painting - for the moment. I say this even though our entryway, which is unfortunately a decent color (gray), has white splotches all over it from where nail holes were patched. But, I'm so tired of painting that some strategically place pictures will have to do.

So on to the next phase of home improvements: flooring! We tore out the purple (Yes, you read that right. Prince and the New Generation Purple. Vikings Fan purple.) carpet in favor of some click-lock bamboo set to be installed on Tuesday. So after only a month of waiting, we will finally have use of our entire house. Very exciting. The only bad news is we have no idea what to do with a second "living room."

Yeah, I know, rough times. Extra space. But it's not like I can make it a craft room or something. It's right inside my front door. And I'm not very neat with my crafts. And scissors just can't be out and about in this house! So, we'll probably build a rock climbing wall and install a slide and make it the playroom! Hahahahaha. No. Not really.

After the flooring comes the part where it eventually becomes Spring and we get to work on the yard, which is TOTALLY devoid of anything other than a tree or shrub. Not. One. Little. Perennial. Not. One. Stinkin. Hosta. Well, at least I won't be bored! I'll have a vegetable garden, wildflower garden and assorted perennials to get moving on! Want to come help?

My Yearly Ode to My Own Tree

I'm not shy about pledging and re-pledging my love of my own vintage 60's aluminum pom-pom Christmas tree. I worked hard for that tree. I craftily stalked many an Ebay seller trying to get my paws on that tree. Many auctions were bid on and lost before this little beauty came up as a buy-it-now. And each year when I put it up and get it decorating, I ooooh and aaaah over its coolness. I actually wish I had two.

Did I mention it's silver? And vintage? This year we did have to go parting ways with the revolving light that used to shine on it (itself not vintage, you'd think it'd last more than a few years...new piece of crap), but that's okay. It still shimmers in the light and looks beautiful.

Tell me, do you have a tree you love? Do you cut a fresh one and bring that yummy pine-y smell into your house? If I were a crazy rich person, I think I'd have a different tree in each year. But for now, this one is doing the trick for me.

Another Christmas Gift Done!

Spoiler Alert: If you are my sister, stop reading now. Avert your eyes! If you are her kids, why in the world are you on the internet!?

I took a whole bunch of liberties with the One Yard Wonders pattern for a bunting. Okay, essentially I was just inspired by the photo but really made the whole thing up. This bunting is going to be a gift for my nieces for their new camping land -- I thought it could use a little "sprucing up" around the tents!

This is a fairly simple project to make. If you can find some big, bold typefaces that you can print out and cut around, that's the hardest part. Rather than fabric glue these letters on, I just appliqued them. It takes longer, but I like how it looks. And for a short word or phrase, one package of double fold bias tape should work. In retrospect, I think my fabric choice is too busy and the letters aren't bold enough, but I think the kids will like it anyway. The fabric does have a "woodland" theme, so it really was too perfect to pass up. Thank you, Crafty Planet!

On Christmas Eve we're packing up a 26 foot moving truck and chasing our fortune back in our home state of Wisconsin. So...I have been trying to get the house packed up in between my crafting projects, but it's been tough to really feel like I'm accomplishing much of anything. It may be the end of my holiday crafting...unless I get really inspired in the next week or two!!

What surprises have you been making? Do share!

From Curb to Cute

Mr. Pumpkin and I, being "retired" punks, have traded in our dumpster-diving ways for thrift shopping and garage-saling. We even hit an occasional flea market if we want to really class it up. However, we went back to our roots a few months ago when driving around my hometown (a HUGE college town, and thus a hot-bed for dumpster-diving activity). When we saw this great little kid's play kitchen sitting out on the curb, I made hubby whip the car into reverse so I could throw the cabinet into the back.

When we got it home, it had little handwritten signs taped on and was pretty scratched up. Nails were sticking out in places...it needed a good cleaning and sprucing. We left it sitting in my parent's garage for a few months until they could deliver it -- it never seemed to fit in our vehicle with all the junk we typically haul around. This weekend, they brought it up and we took hammer, nails, sandpaper, and spray paint to it. We painted the front doors with chalkboard spray paint and I love how it turned out. We've already started to collect some little food containers for it (indicative of what we eat around here: popcorn, brownies, coffee, creamer...yikes).

I love things that came from the garbage. It's got character, it was free, and it's been saved from a landfill. Oh, and our kid thinks it's the greatest thing ever. So, thanks anonymous daycare for throwing out your slightly used and stickered-up cabinet. It's now a super cute addition to our boy's room!

Caught the Halloween Decorating Bug

This weekend the bug hit me. I drove by a house in our neighborhood that was so ridiculously scary that I ran home and immediately started decorating. This house is totally hidden from view -- it's got two painted facades out front, with a graveyard and all kinds of creepy tubs of legs and arms and eyeballs and stuff all around the yard.



I started with setting up the mantle over our fireplace. I cut out a house shape from a food box I had laying around and spraypainted it black. Then I found this skull we had laying around and added that. Top that with a little cheesecloth and some glow-in-the-dark zombies someone gave Little Pumpkin and it was looking pretty scary. But it was perfect until I made this cheesecloth ghost from Martha's website and we found some skeleton lights to hang above it.






Today, after a trip to the pumpkin patch, the whole family got involved in decorating the yard. It's pretty scary. Not like the neighbors, but good enough for a first try. It didn't hurt that Mr. Pumpkin had boxes of scary heads and limbs in our basement. Most of it got used.



Then, the final piece that I'm excited about is my Skeletons and Spiders wreath. I took a styrofoam wreath and hot glued these skeleton lapel clips to it. The skeletons came in a 144 piece bag and I only used about half. In Mr. Pumpkins stash I also found eyeballs, fingers and spiders, so I glued a few of the spiders on for extra creepiness. I think it turned out fabulous. I like that it looks sort of benign until you walk up to the door. Then it hits you that it's bodies on top of bodies, topped with spiders. AWESOME!

Got any more suggestions for good Halloween crafts? I'm interested, and now motivated! After all, I AM Pumpkin Girl!!