Make a tissue poof ball (that's the technical name)

 

You may have noticed that I use these a lot.  These tissue paper whatchamacallits.  They are an easy, festive, lotta-bang-for-your-buck party decoration.  I made some for a Halloween party, and thought I'd show you how in case you have a little extra time, tissue paper, and space for a party-on-a-string.

 

 

Start by layering 8 sheets of tissue paper.

 

 

 

Fold it in too-hot-in-church fan style, starting from the short side.  Make the pleats 1-1.5 inches wide.

 

 

Use a length of floral wire to secure the center (you will use the extra length to hang it).

 

 

 

Trim the end in a point to make it spikey (above) or rounded to make it look like a flower (top picture).  I had to trim in layers, since it gets pretty thick.

 

 

One by one, peel the layers back until you've got a big poof ball!

 

 

 

Bend the end of the wire over, and use it to hang.

 

 

Voila!  You're ready to party!

Fall {in love}

 

It took awhile, but I've accepted that fall is here.  I love, truly love, fall.  It's just hard to accept that summer (=sun) is over.  I didn't post anything all summer, because I was busy having the Best. Summer. Of. My. Life. But now, I am embracing fall, with all its cripsness, smells of cinnamon and apples, crunchy beautiful leaves, warm colors and clothing.  It's good.  It's very good. And, it's also time for a new mantel.  I went with simplicity as my aim.  Just enough, not too much--I hope.

 

Some other fall favorites?

 

Pull aparts.  Oh. so. yummy.  Perfect for a brunch, breakfast, dessert, or really any time you need something to eat.  They are an overnight affair.  Get the easy recipe HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

Check out my new favorite kitchen towels.  Simple and perfect!  Thank you, World Market. Check them out HERE.

 

Mantel

 

 

Hearth

 

 

 

French books, in case any of my French-speaking friends wants to come over to my house and read.  I want them to feel welcome.

 

 

Berry garland attached with white artists tape.

 

 

 

This is the hallway to my powder room.  I thought it deserved a little sprucing up too.

 

 

 

What do YOU love about Fall?

Why limit yourself to only one costume?

 

We really sucked the blood out of this Halloween. Bad pun intended.  We also wore more than our share of costumes this year.

 

For the church trunk or treat, we were a team of moustached Target employees.  Not sure why Girlie is throwing down the gansta signs and Sammy looks like an amputee.

 

 

My lova.

 

 

Aisle 8, if you please.

 

 

Halloween day shirts.  This was the most normal picture I could get out of them.

 

 

 

Preschool party fireman.

 

 

Laura Ingalls Wilder (she just read "Little House of the Prairie") jumping for a donut at the 4th grade party.

 

 

Obi Wan Kenobi, kickin' it with a storm trooper buddy at the 1st grade party.

 

 

Cinderella, fireman, Obi Wan,  and Super Girl chillin' with Daddy at Microsoft (party and trick or treating).

 

Crazy little Cinderella.

 

 

We're all enchanted with her.

 

 

One dashing vampire,

 

 

who loves his little sister.

 

Such fun, but by the end of the day, I had no Halloween spirit left. :)

We went to the farm, to the farm, to the farm

In case you didn't know this about me, I'm one of those crazy moms that signs up for everything having to do with her kiddos.  Which is why I went on three field trips to the same place within 2 weeks.

 

The Farm in Snohomish! 

 

 

...with a cute 4th grader...

 

 

 

and her gal pals...

 

 

 

 

...and a dashing 1st grader

 

 

(and a class full of little girls that adore him)

 

...and a spunky little preschooler with his {cute-crazy} little sis

 

 

...in the freezing rain

 

After all that, I didn't have any farm energy left to haul us all to a pumpkin patch for family pics.  I'll just photostitch a bunch of these together. :)

 

I love being one of those crazy moms.

 

 

A Bad Choice

 

"Mess, Mommy!" said the tiny girl.

"Horrible mess." I said "Horrible."

"Howwible. Yeah.  Mmm-hmm.  Bad choice."

"Very." I said soberly. "Please don't do this again,"

"Okay, Mommy.  I weew."

Creepy, Creepy

 

Welcome to our Haunted House!  I went a little creepier than usual this year.  What with a bunch of skulls and all. At least I'm not to bloody zombie level yet, right?

 

Most of it is black, white and grey.   I threw just a couple shots of color in with the orange wreath, and the bottle of vampire blood.

 

I thought it fit appropriately between a couple 'Twilight' books.

 

All kinds of free printable labes HERE.

 

Buddy found this branch on a walk and I spray painted it black, even though it doesn't look like it in the picture.  Black paper bats hang from it now, but I took these pics a couple weeks ago.  We're actually tons creepier now. ;)

 

LOVE the creepy cloth from Dollar Tree.  I pretty much draped it over my whole house.

 

Happy Halloween!!

EAT. Like I need reminding.

So with all my spare time, I thought I'd do a little kitchen project. In case you don't know, I am weird and have a 'winter kitchen' and a 'summer kitchen'. My winter kitchen is lots of black and white and it a little more fancy~schmancy; summer kitchen is colorful and vintage-y. I thought the perfect addition to Summer Kitchen would be an EAT above my pantry, in case anyone needed instructions.

 

 

 

My favorite look is 'torn from an old building'.  Didn't have time to look for old buildings to tear down, didn't want to pay for chunky wooden letters.  So....I did a little 'reverse distressing' technique on some paper mache letters from Joann Fabrics.

 

 

 

I didn't think that paper mache would hold up to a lot of painting and sanding, so I used a sponge brush with black paint, and DIDN'T paint where I would normally sand.  I had to be careful to make it look properly 'worn', by leaving streaks of bare paper mache.

 

Like this.

 

 

The picture isn't very good, but it really does look like old wood. 

Now, let's eat!