Pumpkin Blocks Decor

It's pumpkin time! I love pumpkins! They make such great Fall decor! 

 

Here's a fun project I did to prepare for my favorite season, .. which is here now! My hubby's parents had a huge pile of scrap wood in the basement that they were going to use for firewood, but I thought I'd rummage through first and pick out a few pieces I thought worth saving!

I decided these plain squared pieces of wood could be cute transformed into pumpkins!

So I sanded every inch and corner of the pieces really well. To get the pumpkin lines in the wood I used a small knife from my kitchen and slowly made slice marks, then used the skinny edge of a folded piece of sand paper to make the slices more defined. 

I mixed a few of my acrylic craft paints together to get a somewhat orange color. It turned out a bit more coral than I was going for, but after they were all painted I thought it was actually a perfect shade!

 I took skinny pieces of wood I got from their pile and cut them to size to use for the stems, painted them, and hot glued them down. 

To get my wire to look swirly-like, I twisted wire tightly around a pen, then played around bending them how I wanted them to hang, then hot glued the piece to the top of the block around the stem. Fabric bows seems like the perfect finishing touches!

I LOVE THEM!

They turned out so cute! I am so super impressed with my sweet little pumpkins! 

Happy Fall Decorating!

Happy Birthday To Me!

28 Years Today!

Thank you Jesus, for 28 wonderful years of life! 

What a great day today has been! First of all, it was my day off! Whoo-hoo!

No matter how old you get, your birthday is always special and you always feel like a princess : ) I hope it's not just me, but I want to be super cute on my birthday and feel it too! And today I felt it for sure. It helps when you have a cute husband who spoils you on your birthday too! Last night he was acting sneaky and kicked me out of my craft room and said I wasn't allowed to go in there until tomorrow. INSANE MAN! You can't kick a girl out of her craft room, even if it is because of her birthday!!!!! ... but I managed to survive the night : )

 This morning he made me a yummy breakfast

Then had me open his gifts... 

Does my man know me or what?! .. he loves a happy woman! 

He picked me these pretty flowers from a random bush across the street. I've been saying how I want to go out one night and pick some, because I see them from my living room. 

His ever-so-sweet birthday card

Inside he wrote "..and again and again and again, if I had the chance." 

Then I unwrapped these! 

Now how many girls can say their husbands have done a Pinterest inspired project??? I've mentioned a few times how I wanted to do this, and he beat me to it : ) I'm proud of him! I burned them for about 20 minutes, but our whole apartment smelled like bacon so I blew them out to save the candles for later!  

And the last thing I unwrapped was this precious acorn necklace! I found it on Etsy a few weeks ago and fell in love with it! He created an Etsy account just to buy this for me! I had created a treasury list of all my favorite Fall necklaces on Etsy. You can see that treasury list here. 

Can't wait to wear it in the Fall! I love it! 

Birthday cards from people that love me

I didn't want to stay home all day since Hubby was working.. so I thought I would go to Michael's craft store since I hadn't been there in awhile and I thought they might have lots of Fall things out now. ... well, ehem.. I never actually made it to Michael's. I was driving by my favorite thrift store and had to stop! I texted Hubby just before leaving the thrift store, "I never made it to Michael's.. evil spirits lured me into Value Village!" 

These are sweet things I found today while there! .. plus a few shirts. Look at those itty bitty baby shoes! I'm a sucker for teeny baby shoes. And my tiny colander! I'm going to get a small plastic pot and a put a little house plant in it. It'll be so cute! And I just couldn't pass up the "Mr. and Mrs" mugs. 

I made a cookie for myself! Isn't it the cutest thing ever?! I purchased this cupcake cookie cutter from ebay and got it in the mail a couple days ago. I was dying to use it! It's so cute, I still haven't eaten it yet!

Of course I made Hubby one too!

Last night at church my sweet Sunday school student gave me this cake she made for me!!! Isn't she so sweet??? She is the only teen at our church and we have fun in our Sunday school class : )

And my sister in-law gave me this pretty little cupcake thing. 

I'm really not quite sure what exactly the inside stuff was, but it was very interesting and VERY pretty!

Oh happy day! .. does it have to end already??

DIY Polka Dot Shirt

I like clothes. .. okay, I love clothes. I love looking through "my style" boards on Pinterest and finding inspiration for cute outfits. The other day I bumped into this pin on how to make your own polka dot shirt. COOL! So I went searching for a cheap white shirt! I found one at my favorite thrift store for $2.99- perfect price AND perfect fit!

I put cardboard inside the shirt so paint wouldn't bleed through to the back. And of course a plastic trash bag under the shirt as well.. just in case.

I used Martha Stewart's craft paints, since it says it's good for fabric too.

The lid to one of our pill bottles was the perfect size for dots. I just dabbed it in the paint, and with my sponge brush, I took off the excess glob of paint. After a couple of dots, I ended up just using my sponge brush the whole time for painting the lid then applying it to the shirt. It kept my fingers a little cleaner too.

After I had all my dots on where I wanted them, I took my little paint brush and painted in the spots that were missing paint.
 {Oh, and I only put polka dots on the front of the shirt}

After the dots were dry, I ironed over all the whole shirt, leaving the iron on each dot for like 2 seconds at a time. At first I wasn't sure if I should put the iron completely down touching the shirt, or hold it super close, letting the heat and steam hit the dots. Well, I did it both ways haha.

I LOVE IT!
It seriously looks like I just bought it somewhere like this. 

I went outside for a few photos.

WOW, today is a GORGEOUS day here!
I thought summer had left me for good.. but that sun was so bright and warm I could barely open my eyes

I really really like my new shirt! Hubby thought it was super cool too.

I haven't washed it since I've painted the spots. I know the Martha Stewart paints say they are for fabric as well, but I'm still nervous to wash it! Does anyone know anything about Martha's craft paints when it comes to painting on fabric/clothing?? I would really appreciate any info you know! Thanks!

Sharing at this linky party

DIY Acorn Necklace

Call me a nut, but I'm in love with acorns! 

I've been collecting them from my husband's grandparent's yard every Sunday and I plan to use them in my Fall decorating. They are just so cute! I also saw some beautiful handmade necklaces on Etsy that I completely fell in love with! {here, here, and here.} Then I was thinking about making my own.. I was looking around for some cheap supplies, then I bumped into this post on how to make your own necklace from a real acorn! So I jumped off the couch and picked out the cutest acorn in my collection!

I started by gently removing the cap

Next I wanted to gut my little acorn, so I took my corn on the cob prongy holder thing and poked holes around the circle on the top of the acorn. Then I used my knife to cut out the circle, and then used one side of my scissors to dig the nutty stuff out and hollow out my nut.. that's alot of nutty goodness inside one little acorn!

After the acorn was hollowed out I pulled apart a cotton ball into a bunch of tiny shreds, squirt a drop of hot glue inside the acorn, then squished in a couple pieces of the cotton with my prong-y cob holder. I did this a couple of times till I got the hollowness filled. I'm not really sure why I did this part.. Maybe it will keep it from getting gross inside.. haha.. don't know.

Now I wanted to paint my acorn! 

I thought a pretty bronze-y shimmer would be pretty, and I have this glittery shimmer eyeshadow I found at the dollar store. I never use it because the color doesn't look good on me. At first I dry brushed on the eyeshadow, but when I brushed on mod podge after that, the shimmer kind of wiped away and disappeared. So I did it again and tried spraying Krylon's clear spray instead of brushing, but it kind of blew all the shimmer off! ... Needed another plan!

I mixed the shimmer eyeshadow with some clear nail polish and used my little paint brush to apply it to the acorn. Had to work quickly because the polish was drying fast!

It worked! 

And I just clear coated the top with a brush on clear paint I had.

Then I glued a jump ring to the acorn cap. I used a dab of E6000 and a dab of hot glue.. The hot glue to hold up while the E6000 dried. I thought E6000 would be stronger. I plan on painting the glue spot brown to match the cap so it's not very visible.

And now I have my own handmade Fall time acorn necklace! 

We took a walk last night and bumped into a couple with a wagon full of puppies, and they were the SWEETEST puppies ever! They were a mix of Shihtzu and Poodle, making them Shihpoodles! I held a couple of them and one tried to eat my acorn necklace! haha!{I'm definitely getting a Shihpoodle puppy when we're able to have a pet!}

Such a fun little craft and would be perfect for gifts! And how cool that I had everything I needed on hand! Love when I find those kinds of projects!!

Happy Almost Fall Time!!!!