Clearence finds

Usually this time of year I cut back on my thrifty-decor spending because of the Holiday season. That of course entails a lot of $$$. Gifts, decorating, baking, and holiday cooking take priority over the thrill of the hunt. But when I saw the extremely low prices on these items, I couldn't resist. The platter was $2.98 {originally 12}, and the cups were $.98 each. What a bargain!

My plans for decorating this season are-

Living Room and Hall- Enchanted Woodland theme

Kitchen and Dining room- Retro red and white with some turquoise accents{The perfect backdrop for winter creatures like polar bears and penguins}

Guest bath - Winter Wonderland snowflake style

I will post some pics soon

Hope you all are finding lots of treasure to add some sparkle to your holiday home.

P.S. I already put my tree up

P.P.S.  I can't wait to put up more holiday decorations.

Halloween Party Post Mortem

This Halloween party is in the bag. We had such a great time. The food, the people and the costumes were all impressive. I actually had a record number of trick-or-treaters. In the four years leading up to this Halloween, I have had a total of 3 trick-or-treaters. This year I had probably 40 kids come and ask for candy. I give all the credit to the big kitty looking out the windows.  Because I was already in costume for the party, the kids all got a thrill when I answered the door in full on Medusa garb. I was so surprised by the record numbers, all the candy I had out for decoration in bowls was gone a quarter way through the party. Oh well, probably for the best anyway. I certainly did not need any more sugar after everything I devoured. But in my own defense, I was the hostess, I was duty- bound to eat some of everything that people bought. Plus, I had to taste test my own creations to make sure they were acceptable...... At least that's what I keep telling myself. ;p

Some of the goodies I gave people in their take home trick-or-treat bags

snarky gravestone sugar cookies

Pumpkin hand pies

Creepy cheese and frightening fruit tray- my time spent catering very apparent

Vegetarian gello-brain. Strawberry-lychee flavor,

Thanks to everyone who brought other food.  No pics to prove it, but it is appreciated.


Party People

Your hostess Medusa

Nikki, Mistress of the night{shift}

Cheryl, the wicked witch of the East{errr E-lectrical}

Joe-zo the clown

Julia Audubon, Bird Watcher Extrodinaire

Margaret,
Not sure if she was supposed to be a school marm, a nun or what.
 I personally believe she was channelling Julie Andrews from the sound of Music and came as Sister Mary-Margaret

Father Richard the flirtatious

Annette as a dragonfly {I still say she's actually a love bug} and Reina, as herself a lady who had to close the store that night and open it the next morning.

John as Elvis during the white jumpsuit era ....{Uh thank ya, thank ya verra much} 

The only picture I was able to catch of my mother in law {corner} the whole night, She and Joe went as a pair of clowns

Many other people came, but I didn't get any more pics of costumes.....boo

Pumpkins from the pumpkin carving festivities



Margaret's kitty and a sickle moon

Julia's kitty face

My spider "Sal"

All in all I'd say everyone had fun. Another year in the books.  

Great finds

This past week was my birthday, so I indulged myself in a Goodwill spree. Well. not a real spree as I only found 3 things, but boy, are they AWESOME!

First off these two cutey jars. One is the clasic cookie jar shape and one is in a ginger jar shape. Perfect to fill with fall odds and ends. I am thinking maybe channelling St. Mary-Martha {Stewart, that is}and cutting little shapes of spirits or devils to have floating in each jar.

Price on the cookie jar-

Price on the ginger jar-

Plus I got this little ghost candy dish. I plan on filling this with the mini bat cookies I made yesterday.

Note-

 If any of you are considering making "mini" cookies .

DO NOT SUCCUMB TO THE ALLURE OF MINI COOKIES!

They are so much stinkin' work . As if cut out cookies aren't bad enough . Lets roll out the dough and cut shapes and peel them off the counter an extra 6 times per recipe. One time was enough to cure me of my desire to use my mini cookie cutters. From now on the will only be used to cut bread or cheese or other easy things.
Anyhow, here's the last find.

price-

More Halloween to come!!!!

Halloween luminaries

Sorry no post in a week, I have been aggravated with blogger. I have been busy doing all kinds of Halloween projects. Most recently these little luminaries. My plan is to place one or two in each window in the kitchen.  These luminaries took like 10 minutes. Literally. I cut out some cute Halloween shapes, stuck them on some drinking glasses and thenwrapped the glasses in wax paper and secured.  That's it.

Sorry about the picture quality on this one. During the party the shades will be up and luminaries in place.

The paper curtains took alot more time to do than they probably look like.

Lots more has been happening this week decor wise. Also I picked up some great stuff at Goodwill that I'll be sharing in the next day or two.

Still plenty to do before the party.

But I have my costume basically figured out. I will be going as Medusa

Dress- white linen sheath

Hair- will do in a messy up do with tendrils coming down.

 I bought several toy snakes to weave through it and around my neck.

I will do some glitter green eye shadow make up on my face to simulate scales.

I still need to make a couple of arm bracelets and a big necklace....hmmmm

Will keep you all posted as things get done!

Happy Halloween

halloween in every corner

The picture quality is crap on this pic, but it was like 11 pm when I took it..... Not an ideal time for lighting.

You can't really see, but in the cheese plate is a big spooky ball of all sizes of spiders and some webbing.  The skull is one of two I own.  Glowing, and only like 5.99 last year at Party City. The Trick or Treat sign I picked up at the Dollar Store like 6 years ago for obviously 1.00. The pewter candlestick was a Goodwill find- .25. That little white dish is a Shelly candy dish .99 courtesy of Goodwill again. And the pumpkin....well I just bragged about that here.

So not to toot my own savings horn,

but BEEP BEEP

I purchased  this two years ago on target clearance. I think like 2.99

The new home for the Medusa head...
I think I will make the candles drip blood or something. The plain white is bumming me out.
Maybe hot glue some candle bling to it? I also will be filling up the tea service with candy for the party,  but candy is not allowed in the house otherwise I will  gobble it all up in one sitting.
Seriously, I have no self control when it comes to the combination of chocolate and peanut butter.
And you know that's what I'll buy. No gummy items {has gelatin, which is not vegetarian} and no boring candy either.

Speaking of candy.....

The hubby and I were talking about treats that we enjoyed as kids, and Andes chocolate and mint candies came up..... My question is, Why have they not made a Halloween version of this. There are Halloween Oreos, M&M's, Chip's Ahoy, Reeses, and everything else under the sun. Why no Andes? The green would look super cute with a bit of purple mixed in ....like the wrapper. A low cost option vs. reformulating the whole confection.

Hear me Andes makers! We want A Halloween option!

Top of the Hutch options





Option 1

Decided not to go with this based on hubbys statement that the Medusa head was one of the coolest Halloween items I had, and it wouldn't be fully appreciated up there.
BTW she has glowing red eyes. and I got her for $7.00 last year on Target Clearence

BOO-yah {I am so punny, I crack myself up}

 

Variation , no Medusa Head...

Thought this was too blah color wise

Final choice

yes the little thing on the left is a collectors Jack and Sally shot glass set.

I realize it does not go with my whole Vintage Victorian inspiration, but a little bad taste is like salt.

I will show the rest of the hutch tomorrow....



Fall Find!

I am doing my happy dance right now!!!!

I hope you all appreciate this as much as I do.

FAKE CARVEABLE PUMPKINS FOR ONLY THREE DOLLARS!!!!

THREE DOLLARS!!!!!

Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha

The name brand variety runs around $15-30 per pumpkin.

see what I'm talking about

You know I was not about to spend that much on a single item {unless I can wear it}.

My luck this fall is AWESOME.

sorry about the CAPS explosion....{I am very excited}

The variety of carving possibilities are making my head spin!

a witch flying over the moon?

a wise old owl?

a haunted house with ghoasties in the window?

Gaaah, I need more pumpkins.



Autumn tablescape

These are a few of my favorite things....

Well, my first table With a whiff of fall flavor to it at least.

The framed phrase was one of the first things I bought for our house when we moved in. ....1/2 price at Bed Bath and Beyond.The candelabra was $8 at Earthbound trading co. {one of my favorite places to shop} The rest is Goodwill and Dollar store finds... Except the books. Those are first edition Chronicles of Amber, and the broach was my granny's. I just love the sparky fall color faux gemstones. I am going to add in some mesh leaves or bittersweet berries once I find some for a good price. Maybe something like this...



I have ALOT more decorating to do for fall. I have been looking forward to this since like July! Also I have been finding sooooo many cute things for fall. More to come on that....

Meet my new friend, Farnsworth

Isn't he the cutest!

Two things led me to Farnsworth...

One, would be his obvious good looks, and the other is how little he cost me.

Honestly, I would have paid $15, but he was only a third of that... a measly $5.

 How I ask you could I leave him sitting on the shelf?  I gave his ankle a dab of glue and his rear end a brush of black paint, and he is good as new.

 And he has been placed in a starring role in the living room. Right next to my chair.

As for the name...

Hopefully someone out there watches either Futurama or Warehouse 13... But the actual person was fascinating in his own right.... see here

More fall finds later this month!



Jar-o-lanterns

Remember when I posted my list of proposed Halloween crafts back here?

Well somethings are for sure off the list but a few have held on for the duration. One of which are these little cuties. I got the idea from Ms. Martha Stewart, and they look pretty cute albeit not as professional as hers.

Here is a before pic of the jars. Actually it was just after I got started. You can see a little bit of paint on the left hand one where I jumped right in before taking the "before" pic. Not the first time that's happened ;p

These were assorted Dijon, jelly, pickle etc. jars that I saved just for this project. So that totals up like:

• 
  
  jars: free already had them leftover from condiments
• 
  
  raffia- whole bag was $3.00 but only used maybe 5 cents worth
• 
  
  paint: already had some from other projects, bout 2 for 1.00 each

total- 5.00 spent  only 1.00 worth of materials used

 I will absolutely be able to find a use for the rest.

Owl Mirror

I am in LOVE!!!! with this mirror..

The best part? Half off baby!

I am super excited to get this just in time for the fall. The colors are perfect for the seasonal decor I am going to start bringing out. Not to mention I love owls. They are a bird sacred to Athena, and one of my Granny Gran's favorite things.  This is the only thing I bought for myself in Key West, except for a book from a thift store, which  hardly counts seeing it was only a dollar.

Curtain Rod Rotation

I forgot to take a before picture...sorry.

I just got so excited to finally do this project I just started right in.

I am in a love-hate relationship with my living room windows. I honestly cannot figure out what to do with the bizzaro shape of the "eyebrow" windows. At least I think that's what they're called. The house came with your basic c shape adjustable curtain rods, plastic mini blinds, and valences. Thanks to our lovely Florida sun the mini blinds on the Living room side of the house are toast, literally and figuratively. Once they went it was all down hill, the cats wanted to play with all the now dangling strings and the valences being only 8" long were to short to conceal the damage.

At last I decided to matters into my own hands. I bought this rod at the Depot. I know, it's -GASP- polished brass. but I knew I could fix it up proper.

I couldn't figure out how to take that pic... ;~p

I gave it a good coat [well 3-4 thin coats to be precise] of SHOCKER oil rubbed bronze spray paint. I am so predictable. Here is a close up of the end detail. Not to fancy, but neither an I. Next replace the curtains that are hanging on it.

I wish I could show you how cluttered it looked before. This is SUCH a big improvement.

For those of you wondering, yes I cut out poster board and taped it up there to block the sun. With out it, it's nigh impossible to see the TV without a glare. As far as the decor up there, pay it no mind, I am still trying to find something that looks like it fits in for that spot.

New Chairs -yipee

I have been longing for new chairs for the last year. My old chairs were free, and given to us when we did not have any, but let me just say - I am sooo glad they are gone!

I have been keeping my eyes peeled looking for bargains at Goodwill, Craigslist, and the curb in my neighborhood on trash day.  All to no avail. I saw these great chairs on Craigslist last week and was instantly smitten. Why? Not only do the have a great shape to them but a thick cushy new foam seat, but were only $5 each. FIVE DOLLARS!!!!!!

 I got six. Even though I really only need four for my current table, I figured that in the future, six is a more practical number. As far as the fabric on the cushion goes - It is very good quality, and fairly neutral.

That thin burgundy striping is not enough to bring me to recover them just yet.  My house is mostly blue-green colors, but with the fall colors coming out and then the Xmas decor after that.  The soonest I think I will even notice that it doesn't really go is mid-spring.

 And who knows, I may change the paint by then ;p

I love Craigslist!

I got this big hunka hunka bookcase for just $45. Originally from Ikea $150.00 see here.

I now have a place to store all my books- yay. I cannot take all the credit though, My sweet hubby actually found this for me . I already have it jam packed....

 Originally my plan was to have my father in law help me build a whole built in bookcase wall.

 I had 4x 12w x42h camed glass cabinet doors from an old display at work, and wanted to incorporate them into the "design".  BUT if you have ever priced out materials for a 8' built in, you know it is not cheap. Materials only = $400 plus a couple of days to build it. I know that in the grand scheme of things it's really not THAT much money. But I did not want to shell that out, and then still have a ton of work ahead of me, before I could enjoy it.  So here is my lazy girl alternative-

This was my first Craigslist purchase, and I have to say, I am very pleased.

Halloween crafting

I had a sample cabinet door laying around the house leftover from a work project- so I made this little seasonal sign-

I made a template for the lettering, and free-handed the rest.

I already had the black craft paint, and the sample door, so this whole project was free!!!