Rocks, Paper, Scissors - Happy Halloween

We had our annual Halloween party at work this year, which included a pumpkin carving contest, fun Halloween treats, and of course, getting dressed up in our Halloween costumes.  This year a few coworkers and I decided that we wanted to do something different and be a little bit more creative than we usually are with our Halloween costumes. Between the three of us, we came up with a really funny and work-appropriate idea.

 ROCK PAPER SCISSORS!

We dressed up as Rock, Paper, Scissors! All in all, the costumes turned out great! They were extremely inexpensive as well! The scissors were made with poster board, red paint for the handles, metallic spray paint for the blades, and black ribbon for suspenders. The paper costume was made with two giant pieces of poster board, markers, and ribbon for suspenders. The rock was made with a small moving box, tissue paper, and a thick metallic ribbon for suspenders. We all wore black underneath our costumes, and voila!


What kind of creative costumes did you decide on this year? 


Happy Halloween!

♥ Natalie

DIY Velvet Pumpkins

Hi Friends!

I would consider this past weekend to be both pleasant and productive! I was able to hike Squaw Peak (or I guess it's Piestewa Peak now) twice, spend some quality time with the most amazing woman in the world, my grandma (a.k.a. Nannie), and just catch up on life!

Although I kept pretty busy this weekend, I was still determined to squeeze in at least one quick and easy project. I originally got the idea for this project when I stumbled across a tutorial for 5-Minute Pumpkins. Since I didn't have much time, I decided this would be the perfect simple project for my busy weekend!

This is what we are making:

•  Things you will need for this project:

• Velvet fabric in fall colors
• Polyster Fiberfill
• Beans
• Pumpkin Stems (You don't actually need the pumpkins in the picture, just the stems. I took the picture before my husband came home to cut the stems off. Those suckers are hard to cut off!)
• Rubberbands
• Sewing machine

Step 1: Cut fabric into square. For medium sized pumpkins, each side should be about 2 feet in length. Fold fabric in half so that the velvet material is on the inside. Sew the fabric closed on one side.

 

Step 2: Insert pumpkin stem into one end of the opening in fabric. Tie rubberband around fabric and base of pumpkin stem. Get this as far as you can to the base of the stem and make sure the rubberband secures all openings in that end of the fabric. 

 

Step 3: Hold base of stem and pull fabric over so that velvet part and top of stem is exposed.

Step 4: Stuff other end of fabric with polyester fiberfill.

 

Step 5: Once stuffing is pushed all the way to the top, pour a handful of beans on top. This will add weight to the bottom of the pumpkin to help the pumpkin sit nicely when completed.

Step 6: Push stuffing all the way up and tie end with rubberband.

 

Step 7: Cut remaining fabric so there is a tiny bunny tail at the end (or at least that is what I call it).

Step 8: Tuck "bunny tail" in as far as you can, turn pumpkin upside down, and you've got your velvet pumpkins!

These velvet pumpkins are a great addition to the fall decor in our home. These were so fast and easy that I may replace the orange pumpkins with jeweled colored pumpkins once Halloween is over. 

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo!

 

♥ Natalie

Surprise!! New Door Hardware!!

So, looks like someone guessed it right!! The surprise package we received was full of new door hardware! I know it sounds lame, like who gets this excited about door handles? Well, wait till I show you the pictures of the door handles we had for the last 5 years.

This is what ALL of our door handles looked like. Everything about these are WRONG!! They are bronze, chipped, paint splattered, crooked, and that Aztec looking design is just creepy.

This is what the new handles look like:

Before: Seriously creepy

After: Subtle but HUGE difference!

Yes, that's right my friends, we have lived in this house for 5 years and I am just updating these now! WHY?!?!? Well, I hope that's what you are asking yourself. My hubs and I moved into this house thinking we would only be here for about a year...2 years max! Well, it's 5 years later and we are still here and will most likely be here for a little while longer. We debated moving for a while, did the whole home searching thing, and decided to stay in Chandler until the time is right! I am a true believer that all things happen for a reason, so when the time is right, it will happen. In the meantime, I decided that I want to LOVE the house I live in, so why not show it some TLC!

I love, love, love the round crystal door knobs and definitely would have put those on all of the doors, but since we are going to move eventually, we decided to hold off on those until we move into our next home. Even though these handles are just the basic brushed nickel levers, they look nice and updated and are a heck of a lot better than what we had before! We had to replace a total of 9 door handles, so we went to Home Depot to scope out the handles we wanted and then did an online search for something a little less expensive. We found these handles on eBay and for all 9 sets we spent a total of $130. That comes out to about $14 a set! Super Cheap!

We have done some major projects recently like refinishing the cabinets in our master bathroom, guest bathroom, and hall linen closet (hopefully I can dig up some before pictures so you can see the transformation) We also have some major projects in the pipeline that we are getting ready to tackle (i.e. kitchen and dreaded popcorn ceilings). So, I figure in the meantime, easy updates like this will keep us motivated and on track to turning our house into a HOME we LOVE!

  Bye Bye Creepy Door Handles!

Have a lovely day!

 

♥ Natalie