Feeling Nautical

I've been working on a few nautical themed things to have on my table at our school's annual fall bazaar.  

First, some beaded ornaments:

These ornaments use 18 gauge wire and assorted beads, with a sea charm bottom.  I also make these in summer similiar to the ones in the bottom picture with a piece of wire wrapped sea glass as the charm for sale in the gift shop.  Some people use them for sun catchers as well.  

Here is the problem with this project....I have bought WAY too many beads.  Once you start buying beads you can't stop, cause they are all just so darn pretty.  I want to share two cartoon memes that represent me and my beads LOL.  And based on the fact that I got these off other people's pages this must be a common affliction.

I have also been working on coming up with and painting different designs on my wooden bouys. Here they are in progress:

This is going to be a busy week for me at school, so just a short post today.  Thanks for checking out my blog!

It Was Starting To Look A Lot Like Fall ... Then Came The WInds

Every year I end up having to get new outside Christmas decorations (and every year I swear this is the last time I am going to buy anything for outside) because we always manage to have a Nor'easter or Coastal Storm before Christmas arrives and it tears them to bits.  Living on an island you can be subject to some pretty strong winds.  So last weekend I started decorating the front of my house for Halloween / Fall.  Can you guess what happened this week?

Yep, blown to bits.  Moving on.....  On Thursday I was happy to get my door decal I had ordered in the mail.  Since things had quieted down a bit, and I was really excited to see how it would look, I came home from school and set to work fixing up once again.  If you remember from a previous post, I got the idea for a door decal from this picture.  This is from a blog I like to follow, Thrifty Decor Chick, and her door looks a very similar color to mine.

I decided to go with the saying "Blessings".  Here is a pic from me having glued things back to my wreath and trying to spruce it up, while applying the decal to my door.  We recently had to change the deadbolt too, so my door paint needs a touch up, too.  But it's been a little too chilly and rainy this week for that.

Decal going on.......and the finished product:

I bought one of those Command hooks so that I won't have to use the wreath hanger, but I haven't tried it yet.  So, from Thursday evening til Saturday afternoon my house looked like this:

But I should have know something was up when I pulled back for a long shot and saw these gray clouds gathering...

'Cause guess what it's like at my house this morning.  I haven't even gone outside yet but I think my flag has blown out again.  Other people have flags in my neighborhood but mine always takes off.  (I have had to chase this flag all over my yard, the neighbor's, and once - my neighbor Katie will swear it's true - up on my roof).  And I am not in a hurry to look at my wreath.  At least I am pretty sure my door decal has stayed put.  LOL.   Happy Sunday everyone!

Thrift Stores & Dollar Tree...Got To Love Them

Up this morning and determined to get a lot of things done today.  My husband is home from the tug after a rough flight into Philadelphia airport in a thunderstorm on Wednesday (after a two hour delay flying out of Florida and about an hour of circling Philly).  Yikes!  He sleeps most of the first day he is home, but is getting back in the swing of things now and will be grilling for us tonight and tomorrow. Go, hubby!

Got a few things to show you today, then it's back to business.  Today I want to share with you more thrift store and Dollar Tree finds.  These are from my most recent trips off the island.  I'm afraid if I lived off the island I would never have a cent to my name between thrift stores, Dollar Tree, Hobby Lobby & Michael's, Sonic and Panera.  

First, here is a cheap Fall spruce up to the crock in my living room that belonged to my Nanny.  All of the florals came from Dollar Tree and came to a grand total of about $8 including the little green foam brick I stuck them in.  I like how it turned out!  

This picture has a look at the corner of my living room. I have a lot of items that belonged to my Nanny & Dada, from their house where I grew up.

Nanny, Dada, and me

                                        


In that living room pic you can also see a wooden candle stick up on the shelf that came in one of my recent thrift store hauls.  It was either 50 cents or $1, but it looks nice up there with with a wax dipped timer battery candle I got from ebay.  I love those timer candles that turn themselves on and off at the same time each day!

I haven't had a chance to post any pictures of the things I got when we were away on our trip last weekend.  So here's a look:

my new $2.50 Nine West purse and $4 giant heavy glass bowl from Halo Ministries Thrift Store (Snow Hill Rd in Salisbury - great place!)  In the picture below is the mirror I got from Rt. 346 Emporium in Parsonsburg, and the thrift store wall pocket I fixed up for my door, but decided to keep in the kitchen.  The mirror was $15, which I think was a good deal for it's size, and it looks really nice over my buffet.

Take a look at Lucky the Cat watching me type my blog from atop the one piece of furniture (other than the table) he knows he is not supposed to get on, which of course he has claimed as his "special place".  And he knows I won't do anything to him either, cause he's my "baby".  smh

I am also trying to list a few things for sale on ebay today, and bring down some stuff from my attic to finish my Fall decorating and have a small yard sale.  It's busy, busy, busy here again today!   Cue up "The Busy Song" and let's sing once again.  Have a great weekend!

No Carve Decorated Pumpkins

Last year was my first year to try a painted pumpkin.  I tried a paisley monogrammed version patterned after a picture I saw on Google.  It turned out pretty cute - especially after I dressed it up with a big black bow on the top.

You see "no carve" pumpkin ideas popping up more and more on blogs, Pinterest, and Google.  This year there are a ton of ideas that I want to try.  Here are a few example pics I have collected.  All are from Google image search:


Lace Wrapped Pumpkins:

Spray Painted and Stencil Painted:

Push Pin, Button, and String Decorated

Hopefully a few of these ideas will soon be showing up on my front step.  What are you going to do with your pumpkin this year?    I saw this recipe while searching pumpkins and it looks delicious, so while I am sharing things to try with pumpkins, why not try this?

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread Link from Taste Of Home

New Style Stenciled Walls

Are you addicted to Houzz.com?  It's one of my favorite sites, along with Facebook, Pinterest, and Ebay.  My friend Sharon turned me on to this website, and I almost wish she hadn't, because its one of those where you can spend hours looking at other people's house layouts, paint schemes, decorations, and style.  I think Houzz is where I first developed my obsession with all white kitchens (and boy are there some pretty ones on there!).

Another thing I have seen on Houzz recently, and I also see popping up on blogs is whole wall stenciling.  These are not border stencils like the kind that were popular 18 years ago when we built our house, but total wall ones that have a wallpaper effect when painted on the wall.  At first I didn't think I liked them much, but they have grown on my considerably, and now I am ready to try one.

Here is the one I am thinking of trying.  My plan is to do one wall in my master bedroom as an accent wall.  Right now I have pale gray paint in there with one white accent wall and white trim.  I am thinking to stencil that white wall using the gray color I have on the other walls.  

It would almost be a reverse of the picture.  I like this stencil because it is not as busy as I have seen. This one is available for purchase on Etsy (another favorite website I forgot to mention).  Here is a link:  Large Wall Stencil Idea

If you would like to see a tutorial on how to use these large wall stencils, there is a good one at this blog link:  Wall Stenciling @ Southern Hospitality Blog

Here are some other pictures of stenciled walls I have grabbed off the web:

If done right I think it would look really good, but it's going to be tricky.  I think it could get out of hand and too busy in a hurry.  The good thing about paint, though, is if you really don't like it when you're done you just get your paint back out and go right over top of it.

What do you think of paint stenciled walls?

Autumn Leaf Projects For Fall

Fall is right around the corner now ( like tomorrow!) and I am making plans for catching some of the gorgeous sights to be had when the air gets crisp and the leaves begin to change. This led me to a search for fall leaves (did you know there are actual "leaf peeping" websites that predict the time of best color for certain areas?) and I found some wonderful projects I would like to share.  All images below came from either Google image or Pinterest.  I have tried to tag with the website or blog if it was listed.  

But first, let me share with you one of my favorite pictures EVER of N.  He was about three and I was taking a portrait for another family when I turned around and saw him playing in leaves on the ground.  I just fired off a couple pics, not knowing what I had until I got them developed.  Yes, my younger readers, there used to be something called film that went inside cameras to take the pictures on - and you had to wait to see them.

And now that I am sad over "where did my little boy go" let's move on to the projects.

This one caught my attention right away.  Love it!

Leaf art on a wooden panel from Just A Girl blog

These luminary jars are lovely!  There is a tutorial at this link:  Fall Mason Jars @ spark&chemistry

Images from Google image search

Love the framed leaf on plain burlap, the other would be nice on a piece of sheet music, a special verse, etc.

These leaves turned into butterflies are a great idea!  Thanks Martha Stewart.

I saw several ideas for leaf paint rubbings.  This was pretty, and would look great framed.

From bloombakecreate.com

And lastly an idea for an initial for your door.  There is a link to a tutorial at The Thrifty Abode that follows:

Leafy Initial Tutorial Link



And if you are getting married this fall, I think you should seriously consider this cake!  Gorgeous!

Do you have any fall leaf projects you'd like to share.  Please leave a pic or link in the comments and I'll share.