7 days to go!

Just 7 more days until Halloween! Wow, I'm so excited! We absolutely love having all the little trick or treat-ers come to the house on Halloween!!

Have you ever tried the PF Chang's home menu from the grocery store? Tonight was my first time trying it. I was a little skeptical; I didn't think it would taste like the real stuff that you get at the restaurant. But I was on a time crunch and needed a quick dinner. So I bought the Orange Chicken:

The entire dinner took about 15 minutes from start to finish. First I put some rice in my rice cooker then threw this stuff in the skillet. It looked like this right out of the package:

But ended up like this:

It was delicious!!

Have a great week!

Grievie

It was about 80 degrees this evening. I love this time of year. The evenings are so nice and cool. Just a month ago it was too warm in the evenings to sit outside and just enjoy the outdoors.

When we sit outside, Grievous always grabs one of his toys and drops it at my Sweetheart's feet and stares at him. He wants to play fetch!


So my Sweetheart throws his 'shark' and Grievous retrieves it. When he was younger, he could do this over and over and over.....


These days, he goes about 10 runs and he's done. Grievous that is, not my Sweetheart. :)

He rolled around in the grass awhile and then came over to the patio and plopped down! He was done!!

What a sweet dog our Grievous is. He brings so much joy to us....we are so lucky to have him!

Halloween, outdoors

This past weekend my Sweetheart worked on the outdoor Halloween decorations ~~ at my request of course! I drive the man crazy at times. I can't help it, it's what I do. :)

He put up a mini cemetery: with some scary skeleton boarder, some headstones and two 'dead' folk trying to escape their graves! Okay, it's more cute than scary but it's still very cool! Great job Sweetheart!

It's not easy to get a good picture that really shows how stunning the lights look at night. Marcus the Carcass and the Pirate really seem to be clawing their way out of the grave at night because of the lights! Here's a look at what took him about 2 hours to put together on Sunday afternoon:

Thank you for indulging me Sweetheart, I love it!!

18 more days till Halloween!!!

Halloween, part 2

I waited until nightfall before taking pictures again. I think the pictures would probably look better in the daytime but I wanted to get pictures with the candles lit. Also, I am a bit of a night owl so that's when I do my best work! These are pictures of the living room Halloween decor.

I love this "Beware" sign that I picked up at Big Lots last year! I never get tired of my ghost and pumpkin tea light holders:

This Grim Reaper tea light holder is one of my favorites:

I got this skeleton bust on clearance at Michael's last year. I wasn't sure if I would like it but when I got it home My Sweetheart thought it was awesome:

I have six of these little witch hat tea light holders that I place all around the house:

The black cat is new. I couldn't resist buying him during a recent trip to Michael's. I had him on the floor but Grievous kept knocking him over with his big nose each time he would go to sniff it. So I moved Black Cat to the end table and I like him much better here. The witch and and the "the Queen of Halloween" sign I got at Kirkland's last year:

Also from Kirkland's, my "trick or treat" pumpkins. I love the bright colors of these pumpkins! The "boo" is from Hobby Lobby. The tea light spider candle was lit when I started taking pictures and went out just as I took this shot....you can see the smoke coming out of the center of the spider:

This Jack-O-Lantern has been around forever; I bought it at Cracker Barrel about 10 years ago! I placed him on top of a black cake plate and added some beads:

Another fun and very old Cracker Barrel find:




A view of all of them. By the way, you will notice there is a Dallas Cowboys mini helmet on one of the shelves in the entertainment center. My Sweetheart insisted that we display it during football season. Insisted. What's a girl to do? I had to include it ;)

Enjoy your weekend!

The Hall Bathroom....complete!

It took me about 5 weeks to complete a 3 day project! Lately it seems that all my projects are taking longer than I project. I think it's because my Sweetheart is a bad influence. I can start a project and he can say "let's watch a movie". I always drop what I'm doing and say "okay!" It feels better to blame him than admit I tend to lack motivation at times....ha!


Here's somewhat of a before (I am the worst at before photos because I get too excited to start a project and forget to take pictures):



I painted the room Agave by Behr Premium Plus. It's a very pretty color. It's a blue/gray/green...depending on the time of day. I wanted the bathroom to have an almost 'spa-like' feel to it. The soothing blue/green with white and brown accessories makes the room very warm and comforting.


I love candles but I don't like to burn candles while unattended so this tea light holder was perfect in here. I think it's adorable:



The liquid soap dispenser and soap dish are from Target. I bought some lavender soap from Tuesday Morning and it gives the room a nice fragrance. The twigs are from Hobby Lobby and the vase is from Ikea:

I bought these wall sconces at Joanne's Fabrics. They were 40% off. I love them!

The sunburst mirror I bought at Marshall's. I really like it in here.

Oh, I made the shower curtain from a sheet. I chickened out of making button holes and decided to just run the rod through the curtain. It looks good enough. I really like how simple yet inviting the room looks:

Now, on to my next project. It's a big one. I'm painting the guest bedroom which will double as my craft room. I am very excited about this one!

"The Aerial Assault"

Meet "The Aerial Assault"! He is the newest member of our family. He is a male Betta fish. He lives in the hall in his own little bowl with rocks and a tiny tree. He is very happy here!

He is named after Kurt Warner...#13.....the Aerial Assault!

I've never had a fish before but I'm really loving having him here. :)

Halloween, part 1

Wow, I have A LOT of pictures to post! Well let's start with the entrance way and the kitchen/dining area. Did I mention I HEART this holiday???

My front door wreath; I took the wreath I made last year and tweaked it a bit:




Just inside the front door. I got the chrome ghost at Hobby Lobby. I got the unfinished frame at Hobby Lobby too. I painted it with white paint and used supplies that I already had: scrap book paper for the matting and glittered letters for each window:



Here's the entrance way table. Funny story about this one. I had my table somewhat set up but wasn't happy with it. So I asked my Sweetheart what he thought. He proceeded to move things around and grabbed stuff out of my bins --(pretty good for someone who nearly never plays attention to detail....or does he???). He came up with this:

The is one of my favorites. The skeleton bones in the cake stand with some leaves, some of his other parts in the candle jar with some webbing and the chalkboard project I made from an unfinished frame and chalk board paint that I got at Hobby Lobby. It's my countdown to Halloween board!:

My witch shoes plate :)

This piece is about 15 years old. Still alive and kicking. Sits on top of the fridge:

My cute witch shoe candle holders that I got on clearance at Michael's a couple years ago:



Even Grievous' bisquit jar got "halloweened"...

Shelf in the kitchen:

My Halloween village. Darth Vader is in there somewhere...courtesy of my Sweetheart:

The tablescape complete with cobwebs:

I'll post the living room next. Did I mention I HEART Halloween???

Have a great week!

Halloween, sneak peek

I'm finished! I started last night and I finished this afternoon! Whew!!! I don't really think anyone should put so much effort into decorating for a holiday but I always do! I think I may have OCD.....

I'm posting a few pre-view shots because I just am super excited! I think I'll retake all my pictures tomorrow; natural light might work better. For now, here's a sneak peek:

The entrance way table (oh, my Sweetheart totally helped with getting this one arranged):

The kitchen has been 'spookified' too:

The dining area is looking awesomely creepy:

And the living room has been hexed:

I also have updated last years wreath. It looks great! I'll re post tomorrow, in the meantime, here's last year's decor.

Have a great night~!