Halloween Decor

I feel like Autumn, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are all thrown at me at once and I'm changing up my decor a lot over 3-4 months time.  Then there is a huge dead-spot for decor on the calendar that stretches from Easter to Autumn.  It seems that things could have been spaced out a little better. Haha.

I like to add new things to my decor and switch things up so that there is some variety from year to year.  This year's addition is the canvas print.  I designed a similar sign last year and framed it.  And I really liked it... except, I kept thinking about how much more I'd like it if it was a canvas.

The original sign was created with my Silhouette Studio software, so I needed to recreate it in Photoshop for printing and sizing.  I ordered here and waited forever. I was anxious to see it and they also had a computer glitch on their end - the combo made it seem like forever.

I added some potion jars I created last year and some decorative pumpkins from a few years back.  I also suspended a spider from a little web that I stuck to the ceiling with clear thumbtacks.  He's on clear, elastic thread, but the photo caught the shadow, so it looks like it's dark thread.

Unfortunately, I was waiting on the canvas to decorate for Halloween so I won't get to enjoy this decor for very long. Soon enough, I'll be switching things up for Thanksgiving.  I'm also kind of obsessed with canvas prints now and want to order all the signs I've created on raised canvas!  They're more than I'd pay at the store, but I somehow justify it in my mind because I did the design work and made exactly what I wanted.  Haha!

Pinspiration: Gravestone

I posted this on my old blog, but I have long since neglected that one and I'm going to close it down, so I thought I'd post it here now.

I saw this idea on Pinterest and loved it. So clever. Also, I knew I could make it with stuff I already had on hand, so it wouldn't cost me anything.  Awesome! I love projects that don't cost any additional money.  

The wood is a 1x8 scrap. I traced the shape of a headstone on the board and then went after it with my jig saw. I also cut a piece 1 3/4 x 8 1/4 for the base and glued them together. 

I sanded any rough spots along the cut areas and painted with some grey acrylic paint I had on hand. Once the paint was dry, I sanded it again to distress the finish and used an ink pad to darken and further distress it.    

I cut Vacancy and the arrow from black vinyl with my Silhouette. This was a simple project. Very quick to throw together. And I smile every time I walk past it. 

I decorated the pumpkins a couple years ago. The bigger one has tissue paper mod podged on it (inspiration found here) and the smaller one has simple rhinestones placed along the grooves.

Good Intentions

I had great intentions for my evening.  The plan was to come home from work, fix dinner, clean the house, and post on the blog.

But then I got sidetracked.

I was trying to do some things in Photoshop Elements for the blog and all my text was capitalized.  Caps lock was the first thing I checked and it was already off.  Next, I checked the Help section in Elements and that would be better named WASTEofTIME.  Then I checked Preferences and a couple other things to see if there was an option selected somewhere for Caps.  Nothing.

So, Google to the... what's the opposite of rescue?  I found a couple people with the same issue and their solutions did not work for me.  I tried with the text active - nope.  I tried without text active - nope.  I found tutorials that said they were for my version of Elements, but they didn't look anything like my program and nothing they said helped.  I reset my text tools.  Nada.  I came thisclose to uninstalling the whole program.

And then I tried one of the suggestions for the 4th time and it worked!  I still have no idea what was wrong or why it's better now.  And I haven't found a character palette that many people online said I should have.

Also, I didn't make dinner or clean the house.

Only Nine

Our mom's family holds a reunion every Summer.  In addition to talking, playing, eating, and debating, we also have a family auction.  Every item auctioned is donated by a member of the family and the proceeds pay for future reunions and family history work.  We usually have an eclectic mix of afghans, quilts, fresh-baked bread, homemade jam, etc.  It's honestly one of my favorite traditions.

A few years ago we also started including service in our auctions - things ranging from handyman hours, to web/computer services, to cleaning and organizing help, to cooking lessons.  It was seriously so much fun and added a greater dimension to the things offered in the auction.

Last Summer, Steph and I didn't take anything to donate to the auction.  We hadn't really thought about it until it was too late to realistically get something made in time.  It's not a requirement to donate, but we enjoy it and we felt bad that we didn't have something to contribute.  

In a moment of craziness, I turned to Steph and said "Let's offer to make a quilt!  The buyer can choose the fabric and pattern and we'll make it for them."  She loved that idea, so we slipped a note to the auctioneer (one of my uncles) and waited.

The winning bid was from my aunt, Georgie, and she was so excited.  After the reunion, she emailed a few quilt pictures that she liked.  There was one similarity in all of them.... curves! We also asked her to pick out a main fabric that she wanted us to use.  She chose: Patricia Bravo for Art Gallery, Paradise Double Bloom in Taupe.  

We considered several different ideas and browsed lots of different quilt patterns for inspiration.  We both really liked one called Only Nine.  We bought the pattern and the templates and went shopping for fabric (our very favorite part!)  Georgie wanted us to focus on blue, pink, and purple, but didn't mind if we used other colors as well. We bought most of the fabric locally and then didn't touch it for a couple months. To be honest, her fabric choice did not inspire me at all.  I mean, I didn't dislike the fabric, I just struggled to get excited about it. 

We finally got around to it, pulled out the fabric, and realized that the quilt store had cut all the fabric incorrectly (shorted us 1-3 inches per piece).  I was mad.  We did our best to track down the needed fabrics and swore to not go back to that fabric store ever again (which we didn't stick to, but have recommitted ourselves to avoid because they are just lousy).

Steph did most of the work on this one.  If I'm not inspired by a project, I just can't get into it.  She wasn't inspired either, but she soldiered on anyway.  Finally, when the top of the quilt was coming together, we both started to actually like the quilt.  A lot.

The colors and patterns worked so well together (the green reads MUCH more lime in these photos) and Steph quilted it using a multi-stitch zig zag.  I actually did help... particularly with the binding.  I like preparing the binding and hand sewing it to the quilt.

Most importantly, Georgie loved it.