Decorating for Fall

Sorry my post is coming so late, but I was out showing houses to a buyer in Queen Creek. And in the process of showing houses, I found another buyer that was walking by one of the houses I was showing. Whoohoo!! Now onto the post for today:

How are you decorating your house for Thanksgiving? I know a lot of people who only decorate for Halloween and just wait until Christmas, but I love to use any excuse to add some glitter to my house. Here's some ideas for stuff you can do to make your house a little more festive for this harvest holiday.


1) I found these adorable felted acorns on Etsy. I want some in every color.



2) I've seen these velvet pumpkins all over the place and I need some for my coffee table. My texture obsessed son will love to play with them all day long. You can buy some at Domestic Bliss, make your own kits for Posh Squash from Oive Juice & Co., or Order some from my lovely friend Jessie's new shop Little Pickle Creations.


3) Of course The Queen of Domesticity, Martha has a ton of great Harvest Decorating ideas on her site. I can already see lots of gold spray paint & glitter in my future.


4) I really want to make some throw pillows & some placemats for Thanksgiving. I'm thinking about using this digital kit and this digital kit from Two Peas In A Bucket, and making iron ons to go on simple muslin pillows. You can follow this tutorial to make the pillows.

Dear Cousin Jordy

Dude, I'm an idiot and deleted your email. I read it first though, and tried to go to your blog to send you a message, but for some reason its not working. WTH? Anyway, let me address your questions here publicly.

A) Of course you can copy my piano. Why would I care? That's why I put up my stuff on the blog anyway, to spread good (actually great) ideas. We used a custom celery green color from Sherwin Williams, but if you go through some Pottery Barn magazines from the last year, the green they use on their furniture is the same color. They use Benjamin Moore paint (which is more expensive) so if you can find a place that carries Benjamin Moore you can get the Pottery Barn color samples there, or look for the names online at Potterybarn.com

B) Braden painted it black first, so when he went through and distressed it and sanded the edges, the black as well as the wood tone shines through. The whole process goes like this:
1. Sand down all the wood parts to get rid of all the grime from the last century and give you a more even canvas to work with.
2. Wipe down, then paint all black. If you can rent a sprayer or know someone who has one, it will make your life so much easier. Old pianos tend to have a lot of intricate carving and detail & it is a bitch to try and hand paint all that.
3. After the black, spray the green. I think Braden did maybe 2 thick coats to get that rich green color & cover all the black.
4. Seal with 1 coat of satin topcoat or glossy lacquer . We used satin polyurethane.
5. Go though & pound the thing with screwdrivers, hammers, chains, ninja stars, whatever you have. Although, depending on where you got your piano, you may be able to skip this step. If its from a church, you probably need to distress. If it's from a saloon, you're good.
6. Once we finished all that, Braden sanded the edges down to get a burnished look, glazed the whole thing with some Sienna brown stain, and then did 3 or 4 topcoats to protect it from my sweet baby angels' constant state of destruction. But really, the more it gets banged up, the cooler it looks.

C) Other color ideas for furniture: I like to look on Country Living a lot for ideas. I also love the standby Pottery Barn of course, but really Pottery Barn Kids has more painted furniture. I have a lot of kids though, so their stuff is practical for me. Decor 8 always has great ideas, and the Farm Chicks vibe is lovely. Basically I just blog hop until I find a person I really like, then try to figure out what her house looks like.

D) Bridal Shower dessert: This one is a little tricky, since I don't know the theme of the shower. If you are trying to get an autumn feel at the party, try the peachy keen tart. It is soooooooooo easy and quick and people will die, it's so good. Late summer fruit is perfect for this time of year. Make a bunch, and pull out the vanilla ice cream. Cupcakes are also a great option for showers, but a little more work. Berries are on sale this time of year, so you can substitute the strawberries and make raspberry cupcakes. Also, Magnolia's vanilla cupcakes are also a big hit. But I always say, if you're gonna be a bear, be a grizzly so if you feel up to a challenge, make Nie's chocolate cake. People will ask you to divorce Cart to marry them to make them cake. Hell, just make it for Cart, and you'll get whatever it is you've been begging for. How do you think I got these last babies?

Love you & Miss you guys & can't wait to see you again. Are you coming to the reunion?

September is here!!!!!

Wohoo! Praise jesus, I'm so glad "fall" is only 21 days away! It's still scorching hot, but at least the cool weather is inching its way in. Last night there was a wicked thunderstorm to ring in the new season. Olivia started dance class today, and has little bunnies Saturday. Come by the Mesa High Football game on Friday the 11th to see her & Isabel shaking their booties with the cheerleaders.

College football starts this week and the NFL season starts next week, so I can be expecting nothing from my husband. It's been a long hard 7 months for him without football. So, in honor of being ignored, I'm going to start up my Halloween projects extra early this year!! There are so many Halloween goodies coming out, I don't know what to do.

House of 3 had the most awesome Halloween digital kits to spook up your house. Visit their blog to see some cool Halloween wall art & other fun projects. I already bought the haunted tree kit, and I can't wait to make some pillows for my couch!


Two Peas in a Bucket has some fab kits too, like these rhonna farrer kits from last halloween.


And check out these gorgeous velvet pumpkins that a local artist makes with real preserved pumpkin stems! You can buy some at Domestic Bliss in Mesa, but I think I'm going to try and make some of my own this year! Now I need to go scout out JoAnne's for some pretty velvet. I think I need black for my yellow room.

A little bit British

Sorry I haven't posted in a while y'all, I've been busy trying to gain the 40 lbs I'm supposed to, cleaning my house, preparing for my last Real Estate Exam, & designing a party package for Tori (hey! if you're reading). Anyway, there's some things I want to share that I have been loving lately, all with a British flair.

1) Happy loves Rosie is the most darling little blog I've ever seen. This lady is straight from England, I don't even understand what she's talking about half the time. Her house is exactly what my house would look like if I didn't live with the most opinionated man on the planet. He draws the line at yellow walls. But her house is oh so cute and check out her TO DIE FOR camper. The minute I find one on Craigslist I'm totally copying. It's so amazing, I want to throw up with jealousy.

Photo by Happy loves Rosie

2) To keep with the British theme, I made these strawberry scones this morning. There are really tasty & pretty on the plate with the vanilla glaze you drizzle over them. Mmmm. Perfect for gaining a buttload of weight. I've already had 3.

photo by Olive Juice & Co.

3) I've had a crush on this print since the beginning of the Keep Calm Phase, so I think it's time to order one in black for my kitchen. But then I spotted this one, and now I can't decide. Go classic or with a cheeky twist? Dah!

photo by Jenny's Bake Shop

Kitchen Flair

Remember this magnet board kit from House of 3 I showed you?

Well, I was on Heidi Swapp's blog the other day, and I saw that Scrapbook.com was having an awesome sale on the Ho3 wall vinyls that they used on the magnet board project. So, of course I had to order them, and they came in Saturday. I decided that the space above my cabinets needed a little oomph, so I put a couple chandeliers up there to coordinate with my curtains.

It adds a little something up there, without being clutterey. I also got the frames vinyls, so I think I need to start making up a magnet board for my living room. I'm also going to get a custom saying in vinyl to replace my old sign I had above the cabinets.

Dear Braden, How do I love thee? Let me count the ways

1) Thanks for painting my kitchen Lemon Sorbet. Even though you hate it, and you say that you feel like you live on the sun, I really love it and I think you'll like it once my vision is complete.

2) Thanks for letting me spend money pretty much freely this weekend in preparation of our family celebration dinner we had last night for Baby #4. I think everyone had a good time, and most people like the yellow walls and my new curtains. Those who didn't kept their mouths shut.

3) Thanks for being excited about this new baby, even though I know you really wanted to stick with 3.

4) Thanks for getting into remodeling mode and working on furniture for the kitchen (even though I know you are just hoping it will all tone down the lemon-ness of the room). And I think its funny now that its painted you want to buy new cabinets, get granite counter tops, install crown moulding at the ceiling, put in wood floors, and take out the peninsula in the kitchen to add extra space to the room.

5) And thanks for watching the kids this morning during my OB appointment so I didn't have to wrestle 3 screaming children during my pelvic exam.

200th Post

Wow, does that mean I spend WAY to much time blogging? Maybe so, but it gives me the creative outlet I need along with the recognition that I want, so it can't be all bad. :)

Anyway, on this momentus occasion, I have a doozy for you. Guess what? Braden FINALLY decided to paint my kitchen. I picked Lemon Sorbet which is the perfect golden yellow in the daytime sunlight, but is a neon lemon at night with our Energy Efficient Blinding White bulbs. Braden hates it, but I love love love it so he just keeps it to himself. I'll have to post some pictures once it's all done. Today I went out and bought some picture frames for the black & white family photos we're going to hang above the couch, searched all day for a big huge mantle shelf to hang above our tv (no luck yet.), and finally bought this curtain, cut it up, and made cafe curtains for all the windows in my kitchen. Seriously $20 for 4 window treatments? You can't beat that. And I absolutely LOVE the fabric, so bonus. Like I said, photos to come once Braden is done cursing my name and finishes painting.

Ideas for Stacey

Stacey needs some ideas for her bedroom. She wants something relaxing, but no blue.
I am loving greys in the bedroom lately.



What I love about grey is that it is a neutral, that is not white or beige(bleh). You can do any color bedding and furniture with grey walls and it will look fantastic. I especially love grey when you add a ton of white moulding- like big fat baseboards, crown moulding at your ceilings and ornate door & window frames. Add a pop of color, like the mint chair above to bring out your personality.

As far as bedding goes, I really like all white bedding (I am going to do some gorgeous, fancy all white bedding once all my kids stop sleeping in our bed).


If thats a little too romantic and frilly for your husband, the chocolate bedding is really dramatic & elegant


And if the chocolate is still too fancy, the boys love the charcoal black bedding


Ooh, and the black would look really good with a zebra accent like this footstool


And these wall vinyls


Add a chandelier, and Voila! Gorgeous Bedroom. Hope this helps!