Boo-tiful

Alas! I am back with yet another easy craft that is sure to get you in the holiday spirit. When decorating for Halloween, I try not to go the spooky route. There are some houses in my neighborhood that has zombies running through their yard, tomb stones, skeletons and some even go as far as having fog machines. That's just not my jam. I, quite frankly, am not a fan of getting the dickens scared out of me. Sign me up for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. Thanks.

I didn't go all out for Halloween. But I did make a super cute door hang that I love. Here are the materials:

I bought some letters from Michaels that are about 5-6" tall. I also bought some orange craft paint and a spool of black and white polka-dot ribbon. You'll also need a staple gun, paint brush and some scissors.

Step one:

Paint the letters. I used foil to paint on top of because it doesn't stick and it makes for easy clean up.

Step two:

Let dry.......

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OK! Step three:

Cut some ribbon to make a loop on the top letter, B. Attach it using the staple gun.

Step Four:

Cut more ribbon to separate the rest of the letters. I cut a piece about 6" long. Although, looking at the finished product, I may go back and cut them shorter. Anyhoo, here it is:

Do it for the remaining O, and once that's all done, hang it up! Please excuse the crappy phone picture...

Ta-Da! The only thing left to do is plug in that jack-o-lantern and lay down some orange lights that I have to go in the bushes. I tried to hook them up last week but something is wrong with the plug outside... womp womp. Put that on the hubby's list of things-to-do! 

Speaking of the hubby, check out the pumpkin that we he carved!

It's a VW Bus! He's always wanted one (the actual car), but it seems as though this pumpkin is as close as he's going to get for now. Which is pretty unfortunate since it got moldy and the roof collapsed within a mere three days. It's since been thrown out. Oh well. It was cute while it lasted!

Just one more thing left to do before Halloween: watch Hocus Pocus!

-C Doc

Pinterest Party - Fall Edition

A couple of weeks ago I got all my girls together for a Pinterest Party! It's a night that we can all get together to drink wine, eat some scrumptious food and do a craft! I had one last year and it was a hit, so I decided to have one again. I send out the invite a few weeks in advance and ask that every girl bring a dish that they've been wanting to try (via Pinterest) and I buy all of the materials for the craft that I choose. Something that's been popping up (pinning up?) on Pinterest lately are the wreaths that you can make out of pool noodles! Now you all know I'm a big fan of festive wreaths, so I was all over this idea. Being that it's fall and there aren't too many summer items found in stores any more, I had to come up with something to use other than a noodle. Luckily, I work for a construction supply company and there are plenty of materials around work that can be used for different uses, so I used something called backer-rod. It's a foam material that is used to shove in between a concrete joint, or in this case, make festive wreaths :)

All I did was cut the foam into three foot sections and duct tape the ends together to make a hoop!

The cool part about this material is if it looks a little wonky, you can form it to make a better looking circle. After that was done, all we did was wrap strips of burlap around it a bunch of times and secure the ends with hot glue. Whenever Michaels had a sale, I would go stock up on flowers and ribbon to decorate them. Here is my completed wreath!

I kept it simple with one sunflower and some leaves. I got to the ribbon a little too late and all that was left was a little sliver, so I snuck in a little piece behind the flower for a small pop of color. I also made a little banner out of felt and twine. I cut the triangles and hot glued the twine to the back and wrote on it with a Sharpie. Ya know, just in case I forget what season it is.

I hung mine on my old window in the living room. Normally I have a twig wreath up there that has some flowers that match our house colors, but I like the little bit of seasonal decor up there. It works out perfectly too because there is a hook up there that was used to latch the window closed, but now it works perfectly as a wreath holder!

It was a great time and everyone made an adorable piece of fall decor for their homes. I am already planning the next Pinterest Party, it'll have a Christmas theme since the holidays are upon us! Where has this year gone?!

-C Doc

Supposedly it's Fall....

According to the time of year, it's fall. According to the weather outside, it's still summer. But, I live in Florida and it comes with the territory. That doesn't mean that my house isn't all set for the impending weather change, though! I've set out all of my fall decor. I think some is missing, I'm just not sure where it is in the house... Oh well. The stuff I have out now will suffice.

One of my favorite things to do is decorate the entryway of our house. I love the front door we chose and if I have the chance to draw your eyes to it, I'm going to do my best to do just that.

As you can tell, I'm still using my wreath that I've used in the past. It's the best way to save money, just switch out the flowers depending on the holiday or time of year. I also hung the scarecrow from our mailbox; I made a hook out of a metal clothes hanger so it really stays on there in case we get any crazy winds. I also planted cute little orange flowers in with my topiary! I love the vibrant color that they add :)

As you enter the house, there are sunflowers throughout. I put "das boot" on the little table as you walk through the door, as well as some other flowers scattered on the table.

Behind our couch we have this.... Now you all know that I'm a firm believer in "using what you have", and one thing is for certain, there are plenty of beer bottles at my house. Sean made his own brew at home and had a bottling kit so, I used four of the left over bottles. All I did was hot glue some craft letters to it, shoved some orange twig branches in there and wham, bam, thank you ma'am, we've got ourselves some fall decor! I wrapped some fall themed garland around it and stuck some sunflowers in between the bottles. All in all, it cost me about $3 to accomplish that little bit. Not too shabby!

Last, but not least, the tablescape. I had some bandanna scrapbook paper left over from a Bridal Shower that I threw for a friend last weekend, so I used that as my base. Then I just wrapped some jute twine around somethings, threw some flowers and some candles around and added a little sign and a scarecrow (both bought at Target for a dollar) and that was done!

I'll be back with another fall craft that I did with my girls at a Pinterest Party that I had during my hiatus! They're so much fun.... I have everyone bring a dish that they've been meaning to try on their Pinterest Board and I supply all of the materials for the craft that I've also found on Pinterest. What did we do in the days before virtual pin boards?! Happy fall y'all! sorta...

-C Doc

Boo!

Ahh!!!

Don't be alarmed, it's just me :)

I know, I know.... I've been gone for a while. Life happens. And let me tell you, life was dishin' it.

At work, we went through a system conversion. We went from a DOS based program (suuuuper old school) to a Windows based program. I like it.... but there are so many glitches and problems with it that it makes me want to throw my computer on the ground and stomp on it like a three year old would crush a Cheerio during a tantrum. Needless to say, it's freaking aggrevating.

So, I've been working nine to ten hour days ensuring that everything goes accordingly because they only sent a trainer to our branch for a total of nine days. You may think that sounds like a long time, but when everything changes and you have to teach four people how to literally know every aspect of day-to-day activities that happen within the branch, it is, in fact, not a long time at all. Especially when other branches got a total of two months of training to learn just two or three responsibilities. But, the guys and I are getting the hang of it and, so far, we've managed to stay off the radar of branches with "problems". And for that, I am proud. And a little less stressed out. Sorta.

Anyhoo, on top of that, we've been having some troubles with the house... I shall start by saying that before Sean and I moved in, we replaced and updated most of the house, and after we moved in, we continued the updates. The floors, the paint, the bathroom, we finished the kitchen, a new air conditioning unit, landscaping, outdoor lighting, a new hot water heater and many other things that I can't even think of. But it seemed like everything came to a screeching hault. The landscape lighting wouldn't turn on for some reason, the water coming out of the faucet was cold and the air coming out of the vents was hot. I don't know about you, but we don't celebrate opposite day in our house! Let alone, opposite weeks! During this time, our electric panel broke and became a serious fire hazard. fantastic. add that to the list.

We thought that some of the problems were stemming from the broken electric panel. I mean, it made sense... but in fact, none of them had to do with that. which meant we had to find the problem with each appliance. cool.

Hundreds of dollars later and a bunch of trial and error fixes and everything is a-okay. We now have a new electric panel, we slapped the crap out of the air conditioning unit out of frustration and miraculously the damn thing turned on and we have new heating elements in the hot water heater. We drained the tank three times and replaced the elements three times and it finally works. Thank goodness. I guess that saying "the third time is the charm" is actually true because I now take scolding hot showers to make up for lost time. I took a cold shower everyday for about three weeks. I was not pleasant to be around after stepping out of the tub. Our house is a much happier place now :)

In other news, today is the first day of October. Holy cats this year is going by fast!!! This is mine and Sean's favorite time of year, and I'm pretty sure it's everyone else's favorite time of year, too. Consider us bandwagoners. He loves it for the delicious Pumpkin beer (typical) and I love it for all of the decor (also typical). But, our most favorite thing about this time of year is the fact that we can open up our house! While it's way too hot for that now, we love having all of the windows and doors open. One of our favorite features of the house is that the whole back side of it opens up, thanks to the sliding glass doors that open up and slide into the wall. It reminds us of a house in the islands how everything flows into the great outdoors. We get to view our beautiful backyard, the dogs enjoy the brisk air and it puts us in a better mood. I love it. I'm ready for it. bring. it. on.

That's all for now, though. Big thanks to my five relentless fans for checking in to make sure I was alive. I am, thankfully. I am also taking hot showers, relaxing in cool air and no longer live in a house that could catch on fire at any given moment. Life is good. I'll be back later on this week to show you how much fall has invaded our house. I'm loving all of the colors and flowers. I'm also loving the Caramel Apple Spice drinks from Starbucks (my new addiction), I just wish I didn't sweat my rear end off while drinking it. C'mon mother nature, bring on the cooler temps!!! I'm ready for boots and scarves :)

-C Doc