House-O-Lantern

Want to make the biggest Jack O Lantern ever this Halloween? House O Lanterns are an easy, low-cost decoration that makes a big impact. You only need black poster board, tissue paper and packing tape.

 

A Monsterous Entry

We have been growing this archway for years and its finally big enough to have a little fun with. Trick or treaters may be nervous approaching our front door this Halloween. We decorated the bushes to our entryway into a scary green monster.

Disney "Cars" Halloween Costumes

If you have a 2 year old son, you know the obsession with the movie 'Cars'. So of course that's what we're dressing up as for Halloween this year. My son is Lighting McQueen, I am Sally and my husband is Tow-mater.

The general design for the costumes is a car made out of cardboard, without a roof, and held up with suspenders. I used Elmers tri-fold display boards I bought from Staples. You could use old card board boxes, but I didn't want to fuss with creases that I could never get out, or painting over dirt and grime from shipping. Each costume varied in size, but I think for all three Halloween costumes I ended up buying 7 backer boards. The ones I choose had a traditional brown cardboard side, but the other side was white. The white side was perfect for the outside of the costume because it took paint well. I used 3 different spray paints, but outdoor rated spray paint worked the best. To hold these things together, I used masking tape and hot glue. After they were assembled, I spray painted them. That's a brief overview, there was more to it than that, so let me explain what I did for each one.

Disney Cars Halloween Costumes

Signs of fall

School is in session, nights are getting cooler and days are getting shorter. Signs that fall is on its way are everywhere. With the cooler weather, we've been busy in the yard cleaning it up and getting it ready for winter. One project we did recently was creating a miniature dry river bed. This one was hubby's idea to correct an erosion issue we have in one our our flower beds. This was very simple to do. We bought pond pebbles from Lowe's ($6), and dug out a shallow crevice from the splash block to where we wanted to water to flow. Then we added the stones. I am thrilled at the results. The light colored stones highlight the flower bed and adds character. I can't wait to see it with a dusting of snow this winter.

Made for shade

In the heat of the summer, I'm always trying to find ways to stay cool. I love spending time on my patio, but in the summertime the patio just got too hot. My patio gets full afternoon sun and was like an oven. So, we decided to install shade sails. We got the idea a few years back when visiting family in Arizona. Shade sails were everywhere. They even use them over cars in parking lots. The contrasting color of the sails against the blazing scenery of Arizona was breathtaking.

Our shade sails were made by Tenshon www.tenshon.com and are very high quality. The sails are several years old and have not shown any signs of wear, fading or tearing. The fabric is very durable and well stitched. I chose triangles, but they come in a variety of shapes and colors.

Seeing stars

Are you taking a pie to your 4th of July get together this year? Here's an easy way to make it festive. Before putting on the top crust, use a cookie cutter to cut out star shapes in the dough, then place it on your pie. Be careful though, once the dough has the shapes cut out, it can easily stretch and tear. Then, use the cut out dough stars to layer over the holes and bake. So pretty. I hope my pie tastes as good as it looks.

Lemonade anyone?

There's nothing better than a cold lemonade on a hot summer day. It brings to mind warm nights on the front porch swing chasing lightning bugs. So, to remind me of my childhood summers, I created this chalk art.

To make this I enlarged the image of an antique lemonade stand sign to the size of my blackboard and printed it. Next, I rubbed the back of the printout with chalk. Then I taped the copy to my board and traced over it. Now that the image is transferred to the blackboard, all I had  to do is fill in the letters and erase stray marks.

I placed my finished sign over my cabinets in my kitchen.