Super Scary Pumpkin

Since we've been married, I've never really been that into decorating for Halloween.  I think it mostly has to do with my phobia of pumpkin guts.  I mean, really.  Why are they so gross inside? This year, I wasn't given a choice by my friend Jess.  We were decorating pumpkins.  And we were going to like it!

So, I said I would paint mine, due to aforementioned pumpkin gut-a-phobia.  My friends laughed at and made fun of me, but I was all "Who's laughing now?!" when Jess was digging through the slimy innards of her pumpkin yesterday.  

I wanted to use some paint I already had, so I opted to paint my pumpkin black with chalkboard paint. I drew a spiderweb on it with chalk, and I think you'll agree, it is truly scary.

 I'm usually not a fan of spiders, but this is Claude.  He's cool.

 It was really easy to draw on the spider web with chalk.  I just followed each line of the pumpkin about half way down and then drew little horizontal curved lines in between vertical lines all the way around the pumpkin.  It's not perfect, but I think it's pretty cute!

One thing I found is that the paint doesn't stick very well to the flesh of the pumpkin. If I pressed too hard with the chalk, the paint chipped. So, I just used a black sharpie where needed to "erase" any mistakes or touch up chipped paint. Worked like a charm!

Have you decorated a pumpkin for Halloween?  Or do you go all out and decorate the whole house??

Herringbonified Planter

So, you guys remember a little while ago, I posted about my crush on herringbone.  I thought I could incorporate some herringbone into our decor...for free!  It was going to be awesome!!

I decided, that I'd like to have a plant (which I will probably kill is already dying) in our room. So, I thought I would make over a boring, black plant pot that I had laying around.  Here you have it: my herringbone planter!

First, I painted it white. (I really need to start painting stuff a colour other than white.  I'll get on that soon. ;) )

 

(Everyone say "Hey!" to Murphy's butt! ha)

Then, everything went a little bit........horribly wrong.

I thought I'd use a silver sharpie to do the herringbone pattern. It didn't end well.  So, instead I used painters tape to tape off a herringbone pattern, and sprayed it with metallic silver.  That didn't go as badly, but it still wasn't great.

If I put some pretty, mini roses in it and tell everyone to squint when they look at it, maybe no one will notice the paint bleed? Maybe....

Don't judge me okay?

At least it's going in our room.  It doesn't look terrible with our temporary windowsil display, right?

By the way, we have moved back into our room now, which may have been a big mistake.  The new black out curtains keep it nice and dark.  And the bed is so warm.  And it's starting to get cold outside.

Have I mentioned my tendency to hibernate over winter?  Between that, and the fact that I'm in America on my own with a toddler this week, let's just agree not to expect a "reveal" of our bedroom until next spring! ;)

Just kidding.  I'm hoping to get our new dresser stained when I get back from America.  So hopefully sometime in October I'll finally be able to show you our room!

How do you guys avoid paint bleed when doing more detailed projects like this?  Is "Frog tape" really better than normal painter's tape? 

Autumn Wreath: 3 Different Ways

"To craft or to hibernate?" That is the question....

There is an autumn chill in the air.  I don't know what it is about this time of year, but I really just want to take naps, and bake.  {The baking probably has something to do with the need to store up fat for winter. ;) } I was day dreaming about taking a nap when I got a text from a friend about making a wreath. I knew I should immediately abandon my nap time plans and get on that bandwagon.  

So, we headed over to another friend's house, and the three of us got to work making out wreaths.  They are all different, but I really love the way all three of them turned out!

From left to right, the wreaths were made by Jess, me, and Heather.

Now, let's talk through the basics of our three wreaths.

 First up: Jess!  

Her supplies:

• foam wreath
• burlap 
•  felt & fabric flowers (which she made...she is the bomb!), 
• little pine cones
• pins
• hot glue gun

Her Method:

1. Cut the burlap into strips and wrap it around the foam wreath, securing with pins as needed.
2. Make flowers, and secure flowers using hot glue.
3. Secure pine cones with hot glue
4. Hang wreath with white fabric

Next up: Me

My supplies:

• wire wreath
• old Ikea curtain panel
• flowers (from an old headband)
• wooden W
• hot glue gun
• white fabric to hang
• 1 thumb tack

My Method:

1. Cut the curtain panel into strips about 6" wide as needed.
2. Secure the end of the strip on an inner wire, and push small "bubbles" of fabric between the wires, bunching and wrapping as you go. (I promise this is way simpler than it sounds!)
3. Wrap the fabric for hanging the wreath in the desired location, and cut a small slit in the fabric on the inside of the wreath.
4. Using another piece of fabric, push one end through the hole, over the top of the wreath, and back down through the hole.  
5. Secure both ends of the fabric to the back of the wooden letter using a thumb tack or nail.
6. Attach flower embellishments using hot glue, and hang.

Last but not least: Heather!

Heather's supplies:

• The matte from a 10"x12" picture frame (genius!)
• Burlap
• Purple/White fabric
• Purple/Pearl Embellishments
• Pine cones
• Twine
• Hot glue gun

Her Method:

1. Cut burlap into strips and wrap around the matte, securing the ends with the hot glue
2. Add flower/pine cone/pearl embellishments and secure with hot glue. 
3. In a looping pattern, secure twine around the flowers and pine cones.
4. Hang with purple fabric.

I couldn't believe how quickly we made these beautiful wreaths!  There was even a 14 month old, and a 4 month old to contend with! That could have something to do with Heather's living room looking like this when we were finished:

 Oops!  Totally worth it.  Although, I guess I'm not the one who had to vacuum. ;)

Have you made an autumn wreath yet?  Or did you like to hibernate instead of using valuable energy on crafts?

P,S. Make sure you head over to Pretty Organized for some Autumn organizing tips from me and the rest of the team!

I'm linking this post to: Get Your DIY On , Remodelaholic & Link Party Palooza via I Heart Naptime.

Painter's Remorse {Don't let it happen to you!}

So, you guys remember my navy blue wall I told you about a few weeks ago? I told you how much I loved it, right?

Lies.  All Lies.  I hope you can forgive me.

The thing is, I painstakingly painted two coats of "navy" blue on that wall.  The first tingle of excitement was real.  I loved the bold colour and my vision for our room.  Then, I wrote the post in which I revealed that lovely accent wall to all of you...

"Wow!" I thought to myself. "That wall looks SO blue in that picture.  It definitely isn't that blue in person."

More lies. It definitely was that blue in person. Royal Blue. I lied to myself for a good week or maybe even two?  Then, we got a date to have the carpet fitted. {The carpet went in TODAY! woohoo!}

It was at this point that I had to face the cold, hard truth.  The blue was too blue for me, and if I wanted to re-paint this wall I should probably do it before we had the new carpet installed.  Otherwise, I'd have to do things like move furniture and cover up carpet. Ain't nobody got time for that!

So, over the course of a couple of days, I did my research, bought some more tester pots, and made some decisions.

via

 Here's what I learned from this process:

1)Take pictures of your sample colours on the wall. If you look at a picture and think "woah!  That's not what it looks like in person!"  You might look at it again and realise that your camera "saw" something in the colour that you didn't see at first.

2) If you are using a dark/bold colour, use MATT paint.  This is especially true in a room with plenty of natural light. I originially went with a silk finish. While sitting and staring at my new blue, blue, blue wall in dismay,  my brilliant husband said  "Do you think you should get a Matt finish so that it doesn't reflect as much light?"  Duh.  Why didn't I think of that?

3) Undertones are important. This doesn't just apply to neutral shades of paint. Even a "blue" paint can have more purple or green undertones.  I wanted something with definite blue undertones.

4) Sleep on it.  Never use a paint tester, and run to the store to buy a tin of paint as soon as it dries.  Once it's dry, look at it. Then, look at it from different angles, in different lights.  Then, sleep on it.  If you still like it the next day, (or better yet...after a couple of days) go for it!

5) Don't feel that you have to stick with your "usual" brand of paint. Although, I did go with a paint from my usual brand in the end, I came across some great colours available from other brands. 

Let's take another quick look at the blue, blue, blue...
 
Here's the new colour we went for...{sorry. It's a phone picture ;)}

Now that's navy blue.

The new wall colour is a shade darker than previous colour.  That subtle colour difference combined with the matt finish,  makes a big impact in the way the room feels.  The new colour looked almost black next to the first blue. I went with my gut, and I'm so glad I did! The new navy seems more "moody" to me, which was a big part of my original vision for our new, sophisticated room.

I think that the original blue, while a nice colour, didn't fit into my original vision for our room.  This resulted in a lot of decorating confusion on my part.  Now that I'm back to where I want to be in terms of colour, I feel like the rest of the room will come together much easier. 

The next time I post about our bedroom, we will be moved in....praise the LORD! Last night, we got the curtain rail brackets hung, and we are hoping to be back "home" tomorrow.

What's your process for choosing a paint colour? Have you ever suffered from painter's remorse and had to re-paint a room?