North Pole Dinner

Do you have a special Elf at your house?
We do, his name is Morty.
He has been our special visitor for 3 years now.
The kids love finding him each morning!
This year, I decided we needed to have a special North Pole Dinner to welcome Morty to our house.

It worked, and he came delivering gifts!
Gotta love that!
I made a yummy stew for dinner with garlic bread and Hot chocolate.
I found the fun table clothe at Wal-Mart for $5, and borrowed some fun Christmas dishes from my mom-in-law.
Morty brought the special extras; glaciers to put in our hot chocolate, North Pole Snow Balls, and Reindeer kisses.

Plus the nice elf brought new jammies for the kiddos and a new Christmas CD for the big kids.  Can't leave them out!
The best part is listening to the kids tell everyone that Morty came.  He gets all the credit; for everything.  Even the stew, which has been cooking all day on my counter?  Funny how that happens!
I wouldn't trade it though.  The elf is a great tradition!  (No, our elf isn't the normal Elf on the Shelf.  He is a special one sent just to us.  Any elf is great to have!)

A Twist Do

Now that Halloween is over I need to switch my mind over to Thanksgiving and Christmas!  So in the mean time lets do another hair do.

This one is a little harder than some.  But not too bad.  I just like to borrow some hands.

If you start out on the left side, or smaller side of the part, it makes it a little easier.  That way you get the hang of it before messing with more hair.

Take a small vertical section and cross them over each other creating a twist.

Then take small section from bottom to top, combine with one section of twist and cross over again.  Does that make sense?  Keep twisting and gather until you get to the middle then keep twisting your section to the ends of the hair and use a small elastic to hold.  Now borrow a hand and have them hold the section while you do the same thing to the other side.

I like to start this one higher so you can see it a little from the front.  Do all the same stuff and use an elastic on the end.

Now I like to twist the two together and join at the ends.  It doesn't stay well that way but It gives a little more texture and fun for the bun part.  I put another elastic on right where the two meet at the center part.  Then make a little bun out of it and hold with bobby pins. 

That's a lot of steps without pictures.  If you would like me to add more I would be more than happy to do so.  Just let me know!

Have fun with this one!

Spider Soup

I'm glad that my family are good sports.

They put up with me pretty well.

When I told my mom about having spiders for dinner she was all in.

Our menu for the night was

Spider Soup

Crunchy Leaves

&

Swamp Water Juice

It was fun to tear off the spider legs (crescent rolls) to eat with your soup. 

Sipping swamp water juice was very refreshing (limeade & 7 UP).

Everyone ate them. 

Which is better than years past when nobody would touch the bloody fingers I made. 

I wonder why?

Paper Bat Wreath

I can't believe it's almost Halloween!

I'm still working on my little guys Flynn Rider costume.  It is almost finished!!!

It's made me neglect posting some more Halloween things we have been doing.  You might see a lot of me the next couple of days while I get caught up!

First off, I wanted to show you a cute wreath I made this year.  I got the idea on Pinterest from here

This is my version.

Isn't it fun!

It's book pages cut with a scalloped circle punch.  It took forever longer than I imagined.  I did get to watch some shows, so that was fun!

I cut the bats with my Silhouette and hot glued them right on. 

Hot glued the ribbon on to hang and was done.  Finally!

And now because I posted about the wreath I can show my Halloween mantle!

We got Harry up again.  The window is new to our home decor this summer.  But everything else I have had for awhile.  I like the black and silver look.  Kind of classic.  At least as classy as you can call Halloween!

Here is my lamp table on the other side of the room. 

Halloween is so much fun!

Candy Corn Fun

Miss. C and I had another nail painting sessions at our house.

We decided we needed sparkles this time!

We broke out all the supplies,

China Glaze nail polish

tape

scissors

base and top coat

Then we got down to business.  And patiently waited this time for everything to dry.

I tried to fade the sparkles in.  It didn't really work exactly that way but I still like it.

Miss. C went with the full glitter.

Very age appropriate I think. 

My hands look so old!  I really need to use all the lotions I have.  And stop taking pictures right after I have done the dishes...

Anyway, these were fast. For the candy corn nail paint the orange part first.  After it's dry tape of the orange section you want to keep.  Then paint the yellow and white and take off the tape immediately.  Tada, add top coat and you are done!

We are having fun thinking up what's next for our Halloween nails!

{Along came a Spider}

Last year I started this really fast easy wreath.

I finally finished it this year.

Yeah!  And it's even hanging on my front door!

I got the idea for it somewhere on someones blog.  I'm sorry, I can't remember where.  It was before pinterest...

Everything was purchased at the dollar store and was really so simple.

I used a wreath, some spanish moss, a bag of spiders and the little wood thing.  I used my Silhouette to cut out the words.

Just bunch up a handful of moss and hot glue away.

I love when projects are fast and easy! 

That's my front porch at the moment.

The neighbor boy came over and told me it was creepy.

Made me smile.  I can handle creepy!

Hello Frank!

I think it's so fun that it is "cool" again to paint your nails.

We have been having fun at our house trying new things.  So when my mom gave me a really cute Halloween magnet, it gave me an idea.

Wouldn't Frank make the cutest nail design?

I think he turned out super cute!

After a little trial and error.  Like learning patience to wait for the polish to dry, it was pretty easy.

We used

Sally girl polish in Black, Green, and Glow in the Dark.

Tape

Scrapbook scissors

base coat and top coat

After giving a good base coat I painted the green for Franks nail and glow in the dark for all the others.  I'm pretty simple and thought green might be too much for me for all my fingers.

Let it DRY

Then do your tape mani.  This is a fun way to get different lines.  I cut the tape with the scrapbook scissors.  Which is a little difficult, at least it was for me.  Stick the tape to your hand for a sec, that way it's not as sticky.  Then put it on your nail and paint.  Take the tape off immediately.

I did this for Franks hair then on the tips of all my nails.

If you aren't trying to hurry and you press the tape down nice, you get a nice edge...

I then used craft paint for the eyes and mouth.

My tools of choice?

A pencil for whites of the eyes and toothpick for the black.  Toothpick for the smile as well.

I use what I have close by.

My fingers (man I need some lotion!) and Miss. C

And with our inspiration- Mr. Frankenstien

This was so fun to do!  And really not hard.  Just have patience...

Fall Leaves

I keep trying, I really do.

I would love to take some pictures of my kids in the colorful leaves.

I seem to try every year and we just don't time it right.

This year we didn't find much changing colors but still had a great time being outside together.



Completion!

I finally finished a project that has been a long time in waiting.  I have had this poor thing for years.  YEARS.  I only say poor thing because it has only hung on the wall for about 3 of them.

It was feeling pretty sad.

So here it is.

My Shelf.

I like it.  Even as is.

The problem I have is; where I wanted to hang it there is way to much wood the same color.  The floors, the cabinets...  just too much. 

So she had to be a different color.

But first I used some spray primer.  I didn't want anything to go wrong with this project!

Plus, priming doesn't take very long.  I like projects that move quickly!

I was already liking how it looked.  I think the white color really made the bead board show up more.

I then waited for the weather to cooperate with me and gave it a good 2 coats of my favorite, Heirloom White.

Then talked my hubby into hanging it on the wall.

But quickly realized my mistake and called his Dad.  Who, I teased could save my marriage by coming to help.  My hubby doesn't like this kind of stuff.  Plus, this shelf is big.

Here she is!  I had to throw a few things up there.  Just to show you... 

I love it!  It is so fun walking into my kitchen/dining area and seeing it there. 

I can't wait to show it to you all Halloweened up!

What do you think?  Like it white too?

"X" marks the Spot

How about another hair post?

I am so close to getting some other projects done that I can't wait to share, but until then...

This is a hair do we did this week.

She calls it X marks the spot. 

I parted the hair down the middle and sectioned off three areas on each side.

The first right behind the ear. 

Then crossed the sections over.

This was a pretty quick and painless hair do!



Hair Challenges

With my oldest starting school this year we have had lots of adjustments.

Like getting ready by 8:10 am.

With hair done and everything.

Sometimes it's been a challenge.

I feel like we get stuck on a hair style for awhile then forget about all the other cute stuff we have done.

So I have been thinking, I'm going to post something we do with her hair occasionally here.

This way it will help us remember and maybe give you a few ideas too!

Sound ok?

This one we did on a day that she has ballet after school.  It stays great all day, no matter how hard she plays.

Start by taking two flip through pony's on the front.  Then bring everything into a ponytail. 

Make a messy bun using little clips to secure in place.

Having the sides pulled back first helps it hold better.

She feels fancy and it stays.  Win/Win!

"New" Lamp

Yeah!

 I got some long.over.due projects done this weekend.

It makes me so happy!

First is this little lamp that has been around forever.

It used to be gold.  But a few years ago I sprayed it black.

That was great.  But we needed a lamp in the living room and black just didn't feel right to me.

So I took it outside and sanded it down with 220 grit sand paper.

I sanded it because when I sprayed it the first time, well, it was my very first ever spray paint project.  I used the cheap paint, and it was a little windy.  So the paint wasn't very smooth. at all.

I decided a smooth lamp would be better.  Especially when it needs to be dusted...

Then came the spray paint.

I used Rustoluem Aqua and gave it 2 good coats.

Ta-Da

It lightens every thing up.  Now, I want to go in and add some white glazing to it.  I think that will bring out some fun character!

One down, so many more projects to go!

  One of them is the table the lamp is sitting on.  I think it needs to be Heirloom white with some glass etching.  And maybe some stenciling on the bottom.

What do you think?

Simple and Classy Word Art

Yesterday I had a bridal shower to go to.  I have been thinking and thinking of a gift, wanting to do something different.  So I started looking through Pinterest.  Wow you can find all sorts of things there!

This is what I came up with

Sorry, the lighting isn't very good.  I had to hurry and take the picture before we dashed out the door.

This was such a fast project!  I think I got it all done in 40 minutes.

I want to make one for me now too. 

Things you need to make it:

canvas (mine is from Hobby Lobby 16x20)

chipboard letters- any color

hot glue

spray paint

I figured out what I wanted it to say then glued the letters on with hot glue.  I used my big clear sewing ruler to help me keep things straight.

I had my chipboard on hand.  I used some of my much neglected scrapbook supplies!

After removing any strings from the hot glue we took this baby outside and spray painted it.

I used Heirloom White in Satin.

I didn't realize how bad the after pictures were!  Sorry. 

It really looked neat when it was all finished.

Love the simpleness of it.