Hip, Hip, Hooray! Halloween was Yesterday!

I am so glad to have Halloween over with!  I once again spent a gazillion hours making costumes for the kids.  They were a ton of work, but a huge hit while trick or treating! 

Let’s start with the one costume I didn’t make!  A couple of months ago, I saw this hat on Pinterest & asked my mother-in-law if she could make something like it for me.  Here is the result…




an adorable little cabbage patch doll!

Next, our son decided to be a Port-a-Potty!  Here is the result of a lot of painting, cutting, & gluing cardboard:








Unfortunately, these pictures turned out pretty horrible, but they are the only ones I have.  It kind of makes me sad that I probably spent more than 15 hours making this costume & it was pretty much ruined by the end of the night, due to the winds & rain.

Finally, Elie wanted to be a claw machine:




It’ hard to tell in this picture, but we poked battery operated Christmas lights through the cardboard, so it actually lights up!

Well, that concludes the Halloween costume bonanza that we have had going on over here since Sunday.  (Yep, I’m kind of last minute on these things which adds to the stress & last minute malfunctions.)  Next year, I think we’ll come up with some homemade costumes that don’t require cardboard, duct tape suspenders, & that are nearly impossible to walk around in!  I’d better start looking now!

So, what did your kids dress as?

Glamorous Gold

I have been loving all the gold leaf coffee tables I’ve been seeing lately.  (You'll have to check the pictures out on my Pinterest page, since the picture links are now bad...)


Which is why I knew this coffee table I found for $59 at Garden Ridge didn't stand a chance of avoiding a makeover!  (I originally saw it in Thrifty Decor Chick's living room & stalked it at our local store until I was ready to buy it!)





I quickly removed the glass top & sprayed it with a few coats of Krylon Gold paint. 





SQUEE!!!  I love the way it looks!  It adds a touch of glamour to the living room.








Someday I’ll figure out how I want to style this!  Until then, I’m making do with a spare candle, Goodwill vase, faux flowers, & a few books.





So, are you loving the gold comeback as much as I am?

Sharing here:

Thrifty Decor Chick

Ditto DIY Link Party

I'm so excited to be sharing this project as part of the Fall Pinterest Challenge through Young House Love, Bower Power, Our Fifth House, & The Ugly Ducking House.  Be sure to check out their awesome projects & the other link ups by clicking the hyperlinks!

Halloween Costumes

I updated the pictures on my Halloween post from last year.  I think I just copied & pasted some of the images & they had magically disappeared!  Oops!  The files are now saved on my computer, so they should be around for a while!

If you are still looking for some inspiration, you can check out seven years of costumes here.

{Flower & Apple Tree from 2009}

You can check out last year's costumes here.

We're still working on this year's costumes (and by that I mean we haven't actually started them yet!). Do your kids have costumes yet?

Now You See It, Now You Don’t

As I’ve mentioned before, we skipped out on the electrical walk through to tell the contractor where we wanted our telephone jacks, power outlets, & light switches.  Due to that mistake, I have found myself having to hide many a power outlet.  Here are a few of my recent hiding spots.

Now you see it…





…now you don’t!





Now you see it…





…now you don’t!





Now you see it…





…now you don’t!





I’m really liking the way this peace lilly looks next to the couch in the living room!





Hopefully I can keep it alive & it will actually grow!

The Kitchen

One of the things I love about our house is the spacious, open kitchen floor plan.  We have plenty of cabinet space & a large island that can seat 5- 6 people comfortably.





The wall on the left has additional storage (we use it for the kid’s art stuff) & a pantry.





When we were building, the cost to upgrade the stove & dishwasher to stainless steel was an extra $1400, so we kept the black ones (that came with our house) with plans to purchase new ones in the future. 





Although this kitchen is nice & functional, it still feels a little generic.  I do believe this kitchen can easily transition into my dream kitchen…white cabinets, black granite countertops, marble subway tiled backsplash, and dark wood floors.  Matching appliances would be nice too!


 


A pretty farmhouse sink with a new faucet would be nice too!  (We didn’t realize the sink wouldn’t come with a pull-out hose.)





I’m not quite ready to get this makeover started, but once I am, it will most likely be one thing at a time.





So, have you ever attempted painting kitchen cabinets?  I’d love to hear your advice!

The Dining Room

I really need to cross some things off my summer project list (since it’s fall ya know!) so I think I’m going to call the dining room done…for now!  Eventually, I plan on adding some plates or artwork on a couple of small walls & I definitely want to add some pattern through pillows or a table runner, but I think I’ll wait until I find something that speaks to me, rather than rushing out & finding something I later don’t like, which I’ve been known to do once or twice or a gazillion times!

Here are some pictures of the space now:

















I’m hoping to find some pretty plates or other art to hang above the chair in the corner.  I found the Hudson Camelback chair originally $419 from Restoration Hardware on Craigslist for $60!





And a look back at how the space looked before:




Here are links to all the projects for the room:

Flower Photography
Styling the Buffet
Sunburst Mirror
Transforming Tab Curtains
Chair Covers
Table Accessories
Chair Rail & Wainscoting

I’m really happy with the way the room turned out & so glad to get to focus my attention on some more noticeably unfinished rooms in the house!

Sharing here:

Between Naps on the Porch, The DIY Showoff, Home Stories A to Z, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Savvy Southern Style, House of Hepworths, The 36th Avenue, DIY by Design, At the Picket Fence, Serenity Now, Tatertots & Jello, Simple Home Life, Thrifty Decor Chick

Fall Around the House

I finally got around to decorating for fall.  At first, I decided against it, since I’m trying to save my pennies for some other decorating projects, but once I realized how bad the mantel looked, I had a change of heart!

Here are a few quick pictures…










I spy some creepy hands & an opened kitchen cabinet!  Oops!







I’m loving this view out the morning room windows! 




And here is the beautiful view from the deck, down to the fire pit.




And by the kids’ play area.  (By the way, the birdhouses from Michael’s didn’t quite hold up!)



Are you decorating for fall, or just letting the great outdoors do it for you?

I'll be linking up here:

At the Picket Fence, Serenity Now, Tatertots & Jello, Simple Home Life, Remodelaholic, Miss Mustard Seed,