Our Story: October 2009

October 27, 2009

Like Mother, Like Daughter =)

When we first bought our house, one of the first things on my "to buy" list was ceiling fans for all three bedrooms. After looking through my "lighting" folder, Reagon decided she wanted to keep her fixture and fix it up. This was to be "her project"...not mine. She kept reminding me of that, I think she knew that I wanted to do it! LOL

Here is what it looked like before....

I picked up a full bag of these little lamp shades at a recent yard sale for 10cents each. Probably close to 30 lampshades in cream, black and burgundy. I will now be taking back my black shades I purchased from Lowes for 5.97 each!

Reagon and I had so much fun in Hobby Lobby. She said "Mom, I think I could stay all day in this store and TJ Maxx"...truly my child! =)

As hard as it was for me, I let this be 100% her project. I gathered all her supplies and the craft glue, poured some $3 mistint paint into a small yogurt cup and gave her a little paintbrush to get started.

I think she did a great job!

Looks so cute in her room, even in this bad picture.

She left her paint cup sitting in her room while the first coat of paint dried. Bad idea. Little brother found it and before we knew it, he had painted some really pretty turquoise designs all down the hallway and in Reagon's room. Normally, I would have ran for my camera but in this case, I ran for the towels and 409 spray! The girls and I scrubbed and scrubbed and FINALLY got all the paint off...except for a couple faint drip marks in Reagon's carpet! Jed said "I sorry I paint you wall for you, Reagon" =)

October 26, 2009

My favorite time of the year

When we were looking for a place to buy, I was floored at the real estate prices in this area. The realtor kept telling us it was due to the Ouchita River and the Ouchita Mountains. Still didn't mean a thing to me. I just wanted a home that we could afford near our church. Last week while walking with my walking group at sunset it hit me......THIS is the big deal with the Ouchita Mountains. Oh my goodness, I can't even begin to describe the beauty of this area during the time when the colors change. I'm going to take my camera with me this week and get some pictures. God really kicked it up a knotch when he painted the leaves in this area.

More random house junk to follow...if you are getting tired of it, I apologize. Can't say that it will slow down any though. lol

I was a little disappointed that I really couldn't decorate my front porch area this fall since we won't be moving the hedges for another month or two. I had so many ideas from magazines and blogs in my Halloween folder and I was really wanting to try some of them before the trick-or-treaters dropped by on Saturday night. I have a few things I will finish to line the driveway but had to settle for just a few little pumpkins to line the window on the porch.

Added a few more pumpkins to my office fireplace. (April, love the picture holder! I'm using it now to hold little pics of past Halloween outfits!)

My assistant modeling another Goodwill vest.

This is probably the cheapest and easiest way to add a touch of holiday to your home.

Cute little 25cent cross-stitch-thingy from Goodwill. I wanted to frame this too but didn't have a frame in my stash that would work so just tied a little black ribbon to the top.

I bought this little wig to decorate a pumpkin and Jed loved it! He wore it around the house for several minutes and we couldn't quit laughing at him!

This little throw was only one dollar! I can't imagine anyone wanting to get rid of it. I came home, threw it in a pillowcase and into the washer and it came out looking so nice and the colors are perfect for Oct/Nov decorating.

I found my rubbermaid tote of Thanksgiving pilgrims and turkeys from Hobby Lobby sales. I cleaned them off and stored them in my china hutch for another week. Then they will be ready to make their appearance for a month before the Griswolds take over this place for Christmas.

October 23, 2009

Aly Fall Fest

Pictures from our Aly Fall Fun night last weekend

Teens enjoying a game of basketball

Jed and his little buddy Karston...they spent most of the night wrestling and playing tackle football. This pic is from Karston's grandma telling them to hug and make up! =)

Love how Jed is biting his lip in this pic! lol

Harper family singers

little band member

Aubri with her hot chocolate and chili =)

We had hoped to break our 200+ record attendance from our fall night a couple years ago but that didn't happen. I think it was the cold weather and the Razorback football game. Two different times before the singing started, I had a church member come to me and say "We can't find Bro Josh and we need to ask him something...do you know where he is?". Why yes, I do know where the pastor is. Check behind the church in the little red truck. I'm sure you will find him there with the radio on listening to the game!! LOL

October 20, 2009

Fall Pictures

October 19, 2009

Jed's first trip to the pumpkin patch

My plans for Saturday included spending almost the entire day in Plainview for their annual "yards and yards of yard sales" day. My plans quickly changed when Josh was called to go into work. I thought for a moment that I would just load Jed up to go with me but changed my mind when he woke up saying "is today pumpkin patch day?" So we loaded up and bundled up and made our way to the pumpkin patch. Josh works only a few minutes away so he was able to surprise us! Jed was so excited. Misti and Sophie showed up with their church group as we were leaving so I was able to get some cute pics of them together.

Going on a nature hike with my Daddy! =)

Feeding the chickens

Jed loved these three little pigs! Especially since that is his favorite bedtime story. He said "hey look Daddy..it's Bill, Tom and Ralph!" (Josh has a wild imagination when it comes to bedtime stories!).lol

Jed had so much fun! He picked out his own special pumpkin and then we picked out a family pumpkin to carve before Halloween.

October 13, 2009

Holiday vest no more

Last Friday afternoon on my way to deposit my check at the bank, I stopped to drop off 2 bags at the local Goodwill store. Of course, I had to make my way around the store. I picked up a few items including this 50 cent holiday vest.

Poor little pumpkin...so sad looking. It was almost as if he knew what I was about to do to him.

Dug out some old pics from my project tote

Sprayed the frames black and then took a pair of scissors to the vest. 5 minutes later, a couple of cute holiday frames for my bathroom.

I love the beading and all the little details. Cute, easy and inexpensive holiday decorating.

Oh yeah...you're next buddy!!! =)

October 8, 2009

Fall Decorating in overdrive

Yes, I still have lots and lots of unpacking to do at our new house but when the calendar rolls over to October, my decorating goes into overdrive!

I keep a set of labeled folders filled with different holidays ideas, birthday party planning tips, furniture redos, wish list items, etc. When I'm reading a magazine or browsing blogs and see an idea I like, I rip it out (or print off) and stuff it in the appropriate folder.

This year when I dumped out my fall/Halloween folder, I couldn't wait to get started on some of the cute and easy ideas I had pulled from the past years.

Remember my dollar tree shopping trip........when I noticed the white tall candles and bag of black rocks for $1 each, I knew instantly what I was going to do with them.

Came home, started digging though my project bins in the garage and found this long skinny mirror from Goodwill. It was bright gold, so I sprayed it black, didn't even tape it off since I really didn't care if the paint got on the mirror or not. (had to laugh after looking at this pic...Josh was mowing when I came outside to spray this mirror. Too impatient to wait till he was finished so there is grass all over it! lol)

Brought it inside and realized that I should have also painted the sides of the mirror. Too lazy to take it back out again, so grabbed by big thick black permanent maker and colored in the sides to match.

Not perfect, but fine for this simple project

Filled the mirror with black decorative rocks and simply wrote on the candles with a black wipe-off marker and attempted to draw spider webs. As soon as I make a trip back out to the garage, I'm going to find my black scrapbooking letters and add the B O O decals to make it look much better.

I have always wanted a fireplace mantel and this new house has two! I have an entire folder designated to mantles! LOL I can hardly wait to hang stockings! Sneak peak at my lvg room mantle..more to come in a later post.

My office mantle in progress....still have several things to add. It makes me so happy to be able to decorate my office. In our rent house, my office was next to the washer and dryer.

Foyer table with yummy Yankee fall candles burning

I had a few fall leaves and black rocks left over from some other projects so I threw together something simple for the guest bathroom vanity. I bought some wonderful smelling votive candles at the Hot Springs arts and crafts fair last weekend. Wish you could scratch and sniff this picture. The butternut cream candle smells soooo good!

Not long after snapping this pic, (and yes, I do need to hang the mirror on the wall) I started to work on another super simple project from my folders.

I'm sure you also have several of these little bottles of hand sanitizer stashed all around your house...especially with all the flu reports lately. I loved this idea after seeing it on another blog several months ago. Super easy and looks cute. (love how the pump matches my bathroom containers...the containers I bought at a biker bar yard sale in Hot Springs....the containers I hurriedly paid $5 for and ran to my vehicle hoping no one recognized me coming out of "whiskers bar" on a Saturday afternoon...lol"

Simply peal off the label, clean with goo-gone, and add stickers and ribbons.

In my kitchen at the sink...

For my sunday school class

Ended up making 12 bottles in all. Hey, I like to be compulsive, ok?

Even the little corner in our carport gets decorated. Found this gold three tiered plant stand at a yard sale for $2. Looks much better after a coat of black spray paint.

Front door. After looking at this picture, I dug through my ribbon stash to find a huge burnt orange ribbon to tie around the mum pot. Looks much better now.

Still have lots more pictures to show, lots more projects to do. If you think this is all a bit overboard, just wait till November 1st rolls around and all my Hobby Lobby 90% off pilgrims and craft show turkeys join in on the fun! Then it gets crazy!!!LOL

Hope you have enjoyed the tour. Sure having fun making this place our home.