Family room

Another rainy dreary day here in the Carolinas...much needed though so I am really not complaining too much.
I have finished most of my indoor Halloween/Fall decorating and thought I would share some changes. Nothing remarkable, just fun. The boys love it, and get a kick out of some of the things I do around here.

I have to warn you now, I took lots of pics. I have been playing around with my camera settings, so the pictures are set to a more warm setting via candle light.

I will start with the Fireplace Mantel....nothing major, I added the moss, as I seen that done in the pottery barn catalog and thought it is such an easy touch.

Looks a little Gothic and spooky right? Well to me it does!
Now onto the the coffee table....

Little mice running around here.

Spiders and skeleton bones too!

Ok these three rats are a hoot, I bought them from Pottery Barn. I had a 25.00 gift certificate, of course I had to spend 50.00 to use it, however that was easy to do....

Just playing with my camera trying to get some cool shots.

I placed this cloth on Lucy's dog bed, she is staying clear of it...although she rarely sits or lays on it anyhow, she is a lap dog every chance she gets.

Joining the Mantel party over at the Nester

Hooked on houses Fall tour 

Cindy from My romantic home

Southern Hospitality

The Stories of A to Z 

My Garage salen/thrift party link will be up tomorrow FRIDAY! Hope to see you then.

Before and After, PARTAY STARTED!

Happy 40th Birthday to my sweet sister. I love you Ang...and I can't believe you are 40....Lordy, Lordy where does time go?

A poem for you......

A sister’s love is special
in oh so many ways
Now miles stretch between us
and minutes turn to days.
We’ve shared so much as children
the tears, the joys, the pain
A lifetime spent together
those memories remain.
In times gone by we’ve pondered
the paths our lives have taken
Knowing that in spite of this
our sister love unshaken.
A sister’s love is special
in ways that are unspoken
Still that binding force exists
our sister love unbroken.
This poem was written/submitted by Cute Fairy.

Have a great day Sissie...wish I was there to celebrate with you.

GALS I am using this link for my Before and After party...as you can see my sis and I before we got OLD! HA!

Sometime's it's the little things!

When Mike and I were married back in 95, a very nice gift that was given to us, was our wedding invitation framed. Although at the time it went with our decor, it no longer has in many years. As you can see it was more of a shabby chic style, which at one time we did have, in our bedroom and guest bedroom. I dug this out a couple of weeks ago and decided I would do something with the frame so I can enjoy it again. It really was an easy fix, come see for yourself.

This is a closeup of what the frame looked like before. The other pics I took, turned out blurry, so this is the best I have.

This is what I had on hand. First I used the darker color, let it dry, then put the gold glaze on it, and lightly sanded after it dried.

Here it is all finished on our bedroom dresser. Now I get to enjoy it again.

Tomorrow is my BEFORE and After party! Hope to see you then.
Joining my uncommon slice of suburbia

Rainy days and Mondays...always....

Make me happy!!~ I dug out my Halloween box today, on this ever so rainy day. I have too much junk! Some I am not even going to use this year.  I am trying to be more of a minimalist these days COUgh COUgh!!~
I have decided some of my Fall decor in general is going to stay in the mix of the Halloween.
Here is just a little sampling of stuff I have done today....
Liver anyone?

I bought this skelton this year at TJ maxx, I love it!

Of course had to rembellish my lamp

 

More to come soon!

 Thanks for stopping by and all your gracious comments, I sure do appreciate it. And if I have missed visiting you lately, please let me know to stop by....I know I have missed a few lately.

Joining Marty this week, to show my snippet of table tops

It's a great pumpkin Charlie brown!

 Special announcement!!~ There will be a bad craft party early next week. I am thinking I will have the link up Sunday. I had another craft I did probably about a month ago. It was BAD! Almost as bad as the pumpkins. So in other words, it never made the blog cut.

COME ON I know you have a few bad one's too!. Don't be a chicken, let's have a few laughs. And hey if your not a crafter, try your hand at it. Go to the Dollar tree and spend a couple of bucks and let's see what you come up with. Now this can be something silly too, not necessarily BAD, something that makes us smile too.  However, let us know this is a SMILE one...so we don't hurt your feelings and say OH yes" bad one, bad one"!!~ But when I say makes you smile...it really needs to be something fun, and funky, totally out of your comfort zone to make, in other words you in a million years would not make this otherwise.
Sound fun? Ok hope to see you starting a week from today!
If you missed my first post about my Craft gone bad HERE it is
Oh and HERE is our latest and greatest GOOD project, I do not want that to go unnoticed, my husband would be sad HAHAHAHA!!~

Easy Peasy Before and After

This one is pretty self explanatory....

I have had this Letter B in my BOYS Bathroom and thought I would change the color....It was black

Now wasn't that easy and fun? YES, SAY YES!!~
Well it does not stop there.  One thing I hate about some of the newer bathrooms is the large builder grade mirrors.  Now you can rip them down, which in turn will cause wall damage, then you have to drywall and paint all over again.  The boys bathroom was the last to have the mirrors not finished with molding. This weekend hubs was OFF and he actually said he would do this project for me. YAY! I love it when I do not have to beg. So here is how it went down.

First we measured the mirror. THen a trip to Home depot to buy the already primed molding. We also bought medallions to go in each corner...for one thing it makes cutting easier, you just do a straight cut.  A quick coat of white spray paint. We USED two sided tape. it was industrial type, and AWESOME! We have used the glue in the past, and not an easy quick dry I might add. The cost of both mirrors was $50.00 total there are TWO mirrors this size. I am so happy to be done with builders mirrors.  You too can do this project, even you gals on your own, it really was that easy. You can acutally cut the wood at Home depot, or Lowes.

Just a reminder this Wedenesday is my Before and After party. Also are any of you gals up for a bad craft party?
Come on I know you have one...IF NOT go ahead and make one. I think it would be fun to share our disasters. Marla and I sure got lots of laughs over our hilarious pumpkins, in fact her husband even got in on the laughter.
Let me know what you think, and I will set it up for next week sometime.
Joining Susan from Between naps on the Porch

What NOT to do with your pumpkins

 OK, I totally suck at crafting. I really do! Somethings are better than others I must admit. However, this is not one of my better projects. Some you have not even seen the disasters, as I am appalled to put that out to you. You know, I have an image to withstand, and have you all brainwashed!  After seeing my brave friend Marla post her hilarious pumpkin, I thought I would be brave enough to show you my disaster, that I in fact did the day before Marla!
I tried, but to be honest, I am sticking with my traditional ORANGE plain ole pumpkins.
Enjoy the laughter...and have a wonderful weekend.

 Please do not laugh at me too hard....although, I can take it, and it is seriously worthy of a good laugh!

So Marla, if you think your pom poms, and fringe skirt were something to laugh about....I seriously think we should have a PATHETIC PUMPKIN party!

Hey and don't forget about my GARAGE SALEN PARTY GOING ON NOW

Shake, rattle and let's roll! LINK UP!

These weeks just go by too darn fast! I have had NO time for thrifting, garage salen, ebaying, Notta!
Since my boys are back to school, I also like to spend time over at the Elementary school helping the teachers.
No worries though, I always have something around the house that I can drum up, that is worthy of posting for my party.  I apologize for no features these days, again, time constraints....they are all so good besides and I always have a hard time who I will feature. I am sure I will again someday.

WHEN Mike and I purchased our very first home back in 1997, we were very decorating confused.  We always had good taste, but really did not know what we liked. Our first home was a small one story, light pink contemporary Florida home.
We decided we would go with the retro look.  Well we sure were unique at the time, as no one had that look (nor did they want it).

We would have fun scouring the antique stores for lights, vases, bar accessories, cannisters, you name it.  We wound up having nice collections.
We have since as you see changed our style.  However, some things have stayed with us.  I would like to share some 1950's fun stuff. Glasses, drink tray, and a cool drink whistle. My Mom and sister had fun finding some things for us as well.  In fact, the tray may be from my Mom.

This whistle type of stirrer  must have been popular in the 50's, I suppose when you needed another drink. You would get the bartenders attention.

Turqoiuse and pink were the hot colors.  I love these glasses, and we do use them on occasion.

Just a little snippet of a retro cocktail book. I think the 50's must have been a real fun time!

Love the tray! And do you notice the Deco ice cooler...we use that still.

Now all these bar accessories certainly do not go with our current style. They are fun to have though and to use on occasion. I am glad we have them. They are collectibles.

I am linking this post to CINDY for show and tell 

and

Southern Hospitality

 Link will be up tomorrow morning...see you then!

Thinking out loud here!

Today I want to touch on Linkie parties.  Are you a link and run type of gal? Or do you STOP and take the time to visit some others as well?
A lot of the larger linkie parties, the gals link and run. Which means, hey if you want to come visit me great, I may visit you back.
I try to at least visit a couple of the participants.  What I am finding though, is I get very little comments from these parties. Which tells me, who cares you joined anyhow.  Now I ask, should I waste my time on some? Some parties are more intimate, like Marty's, Jenny Matlocks, those are just a few great examples of a REAL linkie love party. ( Oh and did I mention me?)
You can always count on a wonderful support system of visitors and comments.
And you can always count on those lovely ladies visiting you.

In fact I have not even participated in Jenny's now in a week or so, just because I can't go visit all the participants and I feel bad if they come over to my blog and I do not return the favor, as most of those participants are not my regular following, so I normally do not even see them, except for that special day of participating with Miss Jenny. So Miss Jenny that is why you have not seen me. Time is a factor these days.

Now don't get me started on a few  hostesses, as I already know how you gals feel about that one.
Some I have never even seen at my blog or comment once, in 9 months.
I know, I know, they get hundreds of participants, so it may be impossible.

The majority of my comments, are all from you lovely loyal followers....which I DO LOVE YA!
It was like a light bulb went off, and I said to myself, do I really need to link to so many parties?  It takes so much more time to do so.

WE ALL love comments, that seems to be a motivating factor for posting right? wrong?  We look for feedback, advise, praise, showing off something special,  a tip a trick, etc. etc.etc.
Nothing breaks my heart more than going over to a gal who linked to 5 parties and she may have very few comments if any sometimes. She may be a new blogger and looking for some activity, more of a following, etc.
How I got a following? I commented on many other blogs, many, many other blogs, this in turn may have brought the gal to me.Now I just about have time to visit all you lovely cool cats. And again, I do visit a few participants when I link up to a party.

I did however,  early on join those follow me, follow you blogs, and  that was nothing but a numbers game. I rarely ever saw those girls again. I will say I did receive a few, lovely loyal gals  from just that. So it is QUALITY over QUANTITY in my ever so humble opinion.

My topic is LINKIE PARTIES. And gals none of this post is an  actually  fact, I am only speaking based on my experiences. You may have other feelings and experiences, and that is what I want to know and get some feedback.

Now for me it is time to shorten my list of parties to participate in. I love the parties that I feel a connection with the gals, I respect your time and what you have posted, and I truly want to take my time to make that visit. I do not like to feel like a little fish in a big pond sorta speak....no one CARES that Debbiedoo's joined your party!  Therefore you won't miss me anyhow!