Halloween Boo-tique This Weekend!

For any of my friends local to the Boise area, the fabulous Holiday House Boo-tique is this weekend! 

I am selling my handmade, vintage inspired Halloween decorations. I have been a busy bee working on them! 

I will try to take some pictures to share with those of you who don't live in the area. 

I hope you are having a great week! 

My Halloween Tree

I know I have said this so many times already, but I
 love, love, love decorating for holidays! 

Halloween is certainly no exception!  

I decorated my tinsel tree with a mix of handmade, DIY, vintage, thrifted, and store bought ornaments. 

I had a lot of fun putting it together. And, Ella has done a really good job of staying away from it, too. We look at the pretty lights, and we talk about it {in her cute little gibberish} but she has caught on pretty quickly that she is not supposed to touch it. 

I wanted my tree to have a vintage feel so I made some of the ornaments out of vintage images found on the Graphics Fairy site. 

I stole the idea for using a witch hat as the tree topper from my friend Blair. She put together a tree last year for Halloween that was so.stinking.adorable! I can't wait to see it again this year. I will see if I can get a hold of a picture to share with you. 

I think I will add/change a few things next year. You know that feeling when you look at something too long, and then it starts to look funny to you? I have looked at this waaaaaay too long!

But, now as I am writing this post while sitting in front of it, it sure looks fun! So festive. I think I will go play with Ella next to it so we can talk, giggle, and look at the pretty lights. 

:)

Free DIY Halloween Chalkboard Template {tutorial} and Fun Vignette

 

I finally snapped a few pictures of my entryway, a fun DIY Halloween tree vignette and my Halloween chalkboard!

The fires are so bad here in Idaho that we can barely see an orange circle in the sky where the sun should be. The smoke is thick and it constantly looks like an badly overcast day, except with an orangey-yellow hue.

 I have been putting off taking these pictures until we had more light, but the forecast isn't good. Sadly, we will have horribly smoky air for a while. Ugh. I feel so bad for all of the people who are right in harm's way, and so thankful for the fire crews who have been battling to keep us all safe.

Here in my entry way, I set up a little Halloween vignette. I love, love, LOVE decorating for holidays, and I think Halloween decor is so fun.

I found this old typewriter for our office {after Halloween} in a local thrift store and just had to include it since it has a fun, kind of creepy feel.

I also put together this little Halloween tree {This isn't the Halloween tree I have been talking about... that is on my tinsel tree, and I will share soon}. I stole the tree branches from my parents' yard and used some ornaments I bought on clearance after Halloween last year at Hobby Lobby {a whopping 29 cents total for all of them}. I also got the crows from the dollar store last year, and the spider webs from there this year.

As you already know, I love to draw on my chalkboard, so of course I had to come up with a Halloween design. I think this Halloween quote is cute:

When witches go riding

and black cats are seen

the moon laughs and whispers

'tis near Halloween

If you would like to see how to easily do chalkboard drawings, visit my tutorial {here}.

This one was super fun! I think it was easier than the last one I did, and it was fun because of the graphics. It isn't perfect, and I probqbly could have made it better if I spent more time on it, but I'm not going to. I had a sweet baby to giggle with instead.

If you would like to make one of your own, follow my tutorial {here} and use this template below. In my tutorial, I show step by step how to transfer images easily to a chalkboard.

In my template below, you will notice that it is missing the witch hat. That's because I free-handed it in after the fact.... sorry about that :).

For this template, all you have to do is click on it to open, then right click, copy, and paste it into a document, make sure it is centered, and print.

Let me know if you use it! I love to see people's fun chalkboards. I have a whole Pinterest board {here} dedicated to chalkboard inspiration!

I hope you are having fun decorating for Fall and Halloween!

I LOVE Fall!

linking up at Funky Junk Interiors!

The Best Invention for Sick Babies EVER & A Couple of Pinterest Successes

Hi, my name is Kristen, and I am a Pinterest-aholic.
Yes, It is true.

 

Over the last week, I have been knee deep in Ella's snot. Poor little sweetie pie has been sick and I have spent lots of time snuggling her, singing to her, giving her lavender baths, and trying to keep her occupied and keep her mind off of the fact that she couldn't breathe.

 

The only other thing I have managed to keep up on was Pinterest. Sad, but true. You see, I have the app on my phone which makes it all too easy to get on when she finally settles down for her naps, or when I crawl in to bed at night. What can I say? Some people are Facebookers, some people are TV watchers. To wind down, I am a Pinterest-er... Not the thousands of pins a day kind of girl, but a few here and there for sure.

 

Well, I try new things from Pinterest all of the time and I never remember to tell anyone about the things that are really great! So here are a two things that I tried today and I highly recommend:

 

Making hard boiled eggs in the oven from The Burlap Bag:

 

See Pin {here}

 

Reeeeeeeeallly yummy, not healthy at all, homemade brownies from AllRecipes.com:

 

see pin {here}

 

 I actually doubled the recipe, omitted one egg {so they were fudgy} and omitted the frosting. I am not a frosting on brownies kind of girl. These were a tad greasy, but oh so fudgy and yummy! They were also so easy to make.

 

This is not something I found on Pinterest, but I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone with babies and small kids. I am not being compensated for saying this. I don't know how I would have survived the week without this genius product. A friend of mine recommended it to me when I was pregnant with Ella and no other aspirator can even compare to it.

 

It is the NoseFrida: The Snotsucker Nasal Aspirator.

 

Seriously. Genius. Life Saver. Worth every penny.

 

It looks kind of gross, but there is a filter so you only suck all of the snot into the little tube thing. It is so easy to clean as well.

 

It is kind of hard to find them in stores, but they are easy to get online. example {here}

I am going to start giving these to everyone at baby showers from now on.

 

Well, I have a couple of fun things planned for the week. I am anxious to work on some projects now that Ella is feeling better. I hope to photograph my Halloween tree this week as well!

 

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

See my Pinterest boards {HERE}



Giveaway and a Sick Little Girl!

 

You could win all of these fun things!

 

Head on over to Reclaimed Bliss to enter.

I am sorry I haven't done anything too exciting to show on the blog so far this week. Ella has been one sick little girl, and I have been covered in her boogers! Poor little sweetie pie. We have been taking lots of lavendar baths and playing with the doggie, and anything else I can think of to keep her from being so frustrated that she can't breathe.

 

For those who asked, I can't wait to finish my halloween tree to show you!

 

I hope you are having a wonderful week!

Remembering 9/11

 

Today, my heart aches for the families of the victims of 9/11. 

 

I will squeeze my sweet girl a litle tighter today,

and thank God for every moment I get to spend with my precious family.

DIY Halloween Decor

 

 

Hello!

 

I wanted to share a little peak of what I have been working on.

 

 

I have been busy making some vintage inspired Halloween decorations.

I LOVE any excuse to decorate!

 

And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE decorating for holidays!

 

 

 

These are not just any decorations, because they are for my Halloween tree!

Yes, you read that right... It is like a Christmas tree, but with Halloween decorations.

I have a vintage looking silvery tinsel tree that I like to decorate for different holidays.

 

 

Don't you just love the combination of the black and white and orange with the old book pages and glitter? 

 

 

I also love all of the different patterns of paper and the textures with all of the fun ribbons.

 

 

I didn't realize that I had dropped a bunch of black glitter on the ground. Then, Ella came over and was crawling around my feet for a bit before I noticed she was covered, head to toe, in black sparkly glitter!! Oh my. What a cutie pie. Good thing it was non-toxic!

 

 

Needless to say, she got a nice long bath after that, which, of course, she loved.

 

 

I can't wait to share my Halloween tree, and the rest of my Halloween decor!

 

Do you know anyone else who puts up a Halloween tree?

Reclaimed Bliss is Live~ Come on Over for a Visit!

I am so excited to announce that our new blog, Reclaimed Bliss is up and ready for all of you lovely visitors!


 Kristin, Simply Klassic Home, and Kate, Salvage Dior, thought up this wonderful idea to have an entire blog dedicated to the reclaimed fabulousness around the web! And I am so excited that they are letting me be a part of it as well!

Come over and visit us, and tell us what you think!

We would love to have you.

50 DIY Party Bags Under $4~ Tutorial

 

Hello friends! And, welcome Fun Craft Lightening Friends!

 

Do you want to make your own fun DIY paper party treat bags without paying crazy prices for them? Well you are in luck, because today I am going to show you how to make 50 of them for under $4! And, it only took me about 15 minutes to make them.

 

In this tutorial, I will show you how to make 2 different kinds of bags. The first one is the traditional size, like the paper bags you can buy online or in party supply stores. The second one is a shorter, wider bag which is the kind I used for Ella's Shabby Chic first birthday party which I posted {here}.

 

 

To make these bags, all you will need is a package of standard paper place mats{approx. 10"x14"}and a sewing machine.

{I found these cute scalloped-edged place mats at Zurchers-- a package of 50 for under $4}

 

 

For your first bag, take a paper place mat and lay it flat in front of you.

 

 

Fold it in half.

 

 

Fold the bottom up about an inch.

 

 

Then just use a sewing machine to sew up the side, and folded edge! You're done! So easy.

 

For the second bag, take a paper place mat and lay it flat in front of you.

 

 

Fold it in half.

 

 

Rotate your  place mat so the folded edge is facing toward you. Fold over the left and right sides by about an inch.

 

 

Then just use a sewing machine to sew the folded edges!

 

These are so quick and easy and add a sweet touch to any party.

I made 50 of these in about 15 minutes.

 

There are so many fun possibilities with a wide array of different patterns and colors. I am so excited to make these for other parties in the future. Not only are they easy to make, they are super inexpensive. I used them to hold chips in the little "lunch boxes," but they would be so fun for cookies, candy... anything!

 

 

Thank you for visiting!

 

Thank you Angie from The Country Chic Cottage and

Cara from Moore Craft Time for hosting!