Pumpkin Carving Party

Hey hey! I’m so glad you Squeezies are happy to see the mice again.

Well. Most of you. ;)

We hosted a little Halloween-themed shindig this weekend I wanted to tell you about in case you want to throw one together yourself this weekend!

I’ve wanted to have a Pumpkin Carving Party for years and always put it off because of the huge mess I imagined it would be. I didn’t really want to do it inside, and our back yard wasn’t really set up for it.

But with the addition of our our patio this summer we have such great entertaining space, so I wanted to take advantage of it! It was PERFECT for this little party!

I planned for this for months – I think I bought most of the stuff back in August. (Thank you, retailers, for bringing out the Halloween goodies so early!) I know myself and know I wanted to be as non-stressed as possible when it came to putting this together. I wanted it to be fun for the kids and the moms – including this one. ;)

So I planned early and made it VERY low-key.

The drinks were soda and water for the moms and Ghooooul-Aid for the kids. (How fun is that?) I added some Halloween ice cubes from Crate and Barrel:

I just served it as a punch in a bowl from Target:

The kids LOVED the black drink. OH so spooky. :)

The food was crazy easy – on purpose. I made my little cookie sandwiches with Halloween icing and ready to bake cookies:

You just sandwich two together with icing, then roll the sides in sprinkles:

They are SO yummy. I especially love these with the sugar sprinkles (for a little crunch), but I was using what I had.

The rest of the food was Halloween-themed snacks in individual bags:

I got two big boxes of these at Target and Walmart – I think they were $5 each? One box had cookie bags and one had chips and Cheetos.

This was not a healthy Halloween party. :)

The bowls, plates, napkins and cups were all from the Dollar Tree – can’t beat that!

It was all set up on the DIY potting bench Dad and I made this summer:

The table cover was a few yards of fabric from Hobby Lobby, on sale back in August. Score! (I even threw it in the wash after and it held up great!)

I didn’t plan any games or activities for the kids (other than the pumpkins). I was a little worried they would be bored.

But what am I, crazy?? They just…uh…played and had a blast!:

Imagine that. :)

We set up the pumpkin carving on the deck. I picked up carving tools here and there on sale over the past couple of months, but asked people to bring some if they had them:

Other than that, the only thing I had guests bring were their pumpkins.

I plan to do this again next year and may have smaller pumpkins for the kids to paint and decorate on their own, because of course the Mommas did most of the carving work:

Eww. :)

The hit of the party was this “gutter” I got at Walmart:

It attaches to the drill and makes quick work of getting the goo out of the pumpkin – it rocked! (Click the photo above to see it at Amazon.)

The party was low stress and BIG fun. :) We ended up with some cuties:

(Some of the pumpkins didn’t make it into the pic, but they were all super cute!)

We had such a great time and I can’t wait to do it again next year! I only invited a few close friends this year, but when we do it again I hope to invite even more and put up additional tables so everyone can spread out.

The best part was that I wasn’t running around like a crazy woman beforehand – I was (mostly) chill. ;)

Do you host a Halloween-themed party? Is it for the big kids or the little ones? What do you do to keep it low key and easy going (for YOU)?

 

**Don’t forget I am answering any and all DIY questions over at the True Value Facebook page this week!

Closet turned book nook

Hello all!! I’m SO EXCITED to show you the fun little project I’ve been working on over the past week or so. Well, the space is little, the work was not. ;)

The idea for this project came to me over time…the first idea was to just replace the wire shelving in a closet off the playroom with wood shelves and then paint the inside a fun color. I picked out the paint forever ago to do just that....and it sat. And sat. 

As time went on (and I avoided building those shelves week after week), another idea came to me that I liked SO much better. I mentioned before that we weren’t using this closet anymore (thank you decrapification!) – so it was just calling out for something FUN.

And fun it is. :)

I have this thing about nooks – I just think they are the coolest. I think kids are drawn to small spaces too. I know I was growing up – a space to read, play, dream, whatever. We don’t have many nooks in this open floor plan house, so when I got this idea I was in luuurve with it before I even started.  ;)

I began with the help of an electrician – which we were going to do anyway because we have no lights in our closets. (I’m hoping to add them here and there over time.)

I saw the end result in my head, and in my head there was an adorable lantern/outdoor-type light. When I found the light that was in my head at Menards a couple of months ago, well…it was meant to be:

The fact that it was only $12 made it even better. ;) WHOO!

(I did some research and asked a few electricians to make sure the outdoor light would be OK installed inside – all said it was fine.)

Once the lighting was taken care of, I started the building process. I wasn’t sure where to start, so I did what any good DIY gal does –  I called Dad.  ;)

He talked me through it and then left me to try it. All by my lonesome. Did I mention I’ve never built anything like this (on my own)?

I wasn’t sure it was going to work, but I went for it! I started with a bottom shelf:

And once that one was done, I did the next one, which was the actual bench:

I was totally winging it, but it was working! And I was using only scrap wood from other projects. About half way in, I was challenging myself to keep it up and see if I could do the whole bench without buying anything for it. And I did. :)

The top was a bunch of scrap pieces:

Which was OK, because I was going to cover it with a cushion, which I threw together with scrap particle board and foam:

And finally, I created some shelves:

And when I was done, the cutie patoot book nook was born!:

Shut the front door – I LOVE IT. I think it may be my new favorite room in the house!

Well, favorite nook in the house:

I had planned on closing off the bottom part, and making it look like a built-in bench, but then I realized it could be great extra storage. And it works perfectly for those big honkin’ books.

I considered a curtain of some sort, but I’m leaving it be. I love having it open…for now. We’ll see how if it stays this organized. ;)

And originally I planned on making the board go vertically, but because I’m lazy inventive OK, lazy…I made them horizontal to hide most of the holes from the wire shelves:

I covered most of the holes with those boards. SCORE!

The bookshelves fit perfectly in the little recess inside the closet:

It was that little recess that started my mind rolling on this project. ;) (The door used to open out to that side, and I’m guessing that’s why there’s extra space there.)

You might notice the light changes a bit throughout the pictures – I had the electrician install a dimmer (first one in this house I haven’t put in myself!) so we could keep it low as a nightlight (since the door is staying off) or up high for reading.

I painted the walls and ceiling above the molding with a beautiful deep blue/green color I found at Lowe’s:

I picked this color out months ago to work with the new drapes in the playroom, and it’s so so SO pretty.

I wanted to create a little space for the Bub to get away and dream, and I think I accomplished it:

The fact that it’s new storage for half of his books is just a bonus. :)

And I’ll admit it…I’m dreamin’ in it too:

BIG FAT SMILEY FACE.

:)

I’ll share the whole process of how I did everything in the closet later this week – the bench, shelves, paint, cushion, costs -- all of it. There were little things that tripped me up here and there and I’ll show you how I dealt with them.

We all love this little space so much. :) Hope you enjoyed the tour of our new favorite nook!

A few of my favorite things…

Hello! Hope you had a wonderful weekend! We are almost done shopping…but still not one gift wrapped. We LOVE the thrill of last minute. I guess. :)

Tis the season for FUN stuff – I don’t know about you, but I’m a total and complete sucker for anything Christmas-themed or related. If it has snowflakes, I’m hooked. Peppermint swirls, forgetaboutit. Glitter? Gah. I give up.

It’s the one time of the year I give into the stuff – because I have NO self control. And yes, I know STUFF has zero to do with the real meaning of the season, so it’s important to keep it in check.

But I love it, and it’s my blog, so I’m going to share some of my very favorites of this season with YOU. Or more specifically, I’m going to GIVE some of my favorites to one of you. :)

It’s my way of saying Merry Christmas, thank you, I don’t know what I’d do without you, paying it forward, smooches…all that.

So let’s get on to the good stuff, shall we?

If you saw my dining room post, you know I’m quite enamored with Walmart’s ornaments this year. I can’t stand it, they are so stinking cute. So I picked up a couple of the pretty trees:

Glittery goodness!

Pretty much every single night this time of year, I enjoy a big, fat mug of hot chocolate. So I got a (cute!) big, fat mug for you to enjoy some hot chocolate as well:

And while I was at it, I remember that I’m a bit obsessed with the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate from Starbucks. If you have not had it, please, I beg of you…GO NOW. Or as soon as humanly possible. Starbucks is not paying me to say this, but I wish they were.

OH my. It’s so stinkin’ good. So I got a $5 gift card so you can enjoy one and a half of your own Salted Caramel Hot Chocolates:

And then I remembered another hot chocolate I love, and that’s when I add a candy cane Hershey’s kiss to it and let it melt inside. Uhhh…YUM. I told you about these kisses here and I still love them now. And I’m not even a peppermint kind of girl really – but they are YUM:

This has turned into a hot chocolate post. Moving on…

The folks at Waverly sent me some of their beeeeautiful new holiday party-ware to try out. They have some really pretty plates, napkins and even cups, and I’m IN LOVE with all of it:

We haven’t hosted any holiday parties this year, so I’m going have hubby pry them out of my hands and so I can give them to you. Yes, I know it may be a bit late for you to use them this season too, but maybe next year? Honestly, I kind of think they could be used any time of the year – aren’t they beautiful?

And finally, my very favorite part. I know this one won’t be a big deal to some of you, but I LOVE THIS THING. I found a gift wrap storage thingamabob at True Value a couple of weeks ago:

And for all that is good…I finally found something that WORKS. For years I’ve had a few rolls in a long, thin storage bin, but it’s too short to hold most of our wrapping. Then last year I got one of those storage jobbies that stands up, but the wrapping was still too long.

I swear to you, I even considered taking my miter saw to them, to make them fit. I kid you not.

But they don’t have to be sacrificed now! This thing is the BOMB. It’s long enough, and holds a bunch of rolls. And instead of the wrapping rolling off our tower of Christmas bins every. time. I walk by – now they are all contained, and that makes me SO happy!

So I went back and got one for you too, because I can’t be the only one with this problem. Am I? Crickets.

It really is the little things. Candy cane kisses and a tall gift wrap tube, and I’m a happy Chick.  :)

Soooo, I’m giving all of these goodies away to one of you! I wish I could give something to every single one of you, I really, really do. I just hope you know how much I’ve appreciated your sweet comments, emails and support throughout this year.

To enter, leave a comment here. Tell us your favorite part/thing/food of the season. I’ll only have this giveaway open through Monday at midnight, so I can get this all mailed off to the lucky one on Tuesday.

For now, I’m off to write 75 Christmas cards:

I’m just hoping everyone gets them before Christmas. :)

Have a wonderful Monday!!

 

*I was one of the bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program as well as my writing about my experience. I have also been compensated for the materials needed for my DIY project. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.*

Thank you to my sponsor!:

Winners and a video

Hello all! I wanted to announce the winners of the Accessory Steals and Decor Steals giveaways before I forgot. :)

The winner of Accessory Steals $50 gift card is:

Melissa at Honey Bee Hive

The winner of the Decor Steals $50 gift card is:

Callie at Babbling with the Bowers

Congrats ladies! Email me at thriftydecorchick (at) gmail (dot) com so I can get you hooked up.

I finally got video of the Thrifty Decor Chick segment taped -- this is the third try. :) I gave up on shushing the cats, so there’s a point when you’ll hear our (pee) cat doing her totally weird meow. It’s a little freaky sounding, so sorry about that. :)

Oh, and she’s rubbing against the volume control about half way in, so it gets a teensy bit loud for a few seconds. GAH.

But anyway…here you go!:

 

I’ll be back later with a HUGE decrapification project! WHOO!

Thank you to my sponsor!:

Get ready (cause here it comes!!)

Well hellooo! Hope you had a great weekend! We did a whole lot of marching band and not much else. :)

I just finally got all of the Halloween decor down a couple of days ago. (Well, except for the orange lights out front. And the stuff I forgot in the garage. And the trinkets in the car. And the nightlight in the Bub’s room.) But other than all that…it’s all put away.  :)

And now I’m really starting to think about the upcoming holidays – and getting really excited! Our season last year was full of all kinds of bad news – my father-in-law was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and then weeks later we lost my mother-in-law.

Needless to say, we just couldn’t get to everything -- it was the first year I can remember that I didn’t send out Christmas cards. I know it’s no big deal in the scheme of things, but that in particular really got me thinking about preparing for the holidays this year. So for the past few weeks, I’ve been making a list of the things I want to get done well before the end of the month!

First up…address our Christmas cards and get them ready to mail:

(Click on photos for sources.)

Guess how many boxes of cards I found in the basement last year? That would be THREE. I think we’ll have plenty. ;) Now, getting all four of us together for a decent Christmas photo – that’s the hard part.

I still hand address our Christmas cards – I actually quite enjoy it! I find it relaxing, and add in some Christmas music and hot chocolate and it makes for a lovely little tradition of my own. :)

Next up – going through the pile of toys:

OK, I may be exaggerating. Just a smidge. A skosh. Really, not much. Not at all. :)

The Bub’s birthday and of course Christmas are both in December – so we get the influx of new toys for the year within a span of a few weeks.

I. must. prepare.

I. must. prepare. when the Bub isn’t home.  ;)

Third on my list is to make a list and check it twice (wink). A few weeks ago I started a list of folks I don’t want to forget at the holidays -- there’s the mailman, the Bub’s teachers, friends and family of course. But also some folks we haven’t given to before – like the day care staff at our Financial Peace class, the waitresses at our favorite restaurant (if it tells you anything, they know us by name), and some of the great contacts I’ve made through blogging.

A few will get some of my yummy strawberry jam I made back in the summer:

It sure is good!! I know…I’ve already eaten a couple of the “gifts” myself.

And finally, because our kiddo is almost four and getting more fun with each passing day, I want to create new traditions that he’ll remember year to year.

I’ve heard the Elf on the Shelf can be quite labor intensive (on you-know-who’s part), but oh my goodness they are too stinkin’ cauuuute!:

Just look at that face!!

I guess he “watches” over the kids for Santa, yes? And he moves around the house every night, finding a different spot to hide. ACK! Adorable. Right up my alley baby.

And I kind of have a thing for advent calendars. Last year we got this cute Lego calendar:

My friend Richella told me about it, and even though the Bub was still a bit small, I couldn’t resist! He LOVED it.

I have a couple advent versions I’ve made and I highlighted them last year here. The little cardboard boxes are my favorite:

I love finding advent calendars you can make on your own – on a recent browsing trip through Pottery Barn Kids, we found both of these:

 

The tree is especially adorable just because it’s more than five feet tall and HUGE…but at $70, my mind immediately went into gear thinking how (relatively) easy it would be to make this one on the cheap! A huge piece of green felt, scraps of holiday fabrics and little embellishments and you could totally do this one on your own!

And Pottery Barn has a couple of advent calendars in stock, but this is the one that absolutely kills me:

Yes, because it’s pretty and adorable and a really cute idea. But it really kills me because it’s priced at $299. Gah, excuse me while I choke a little. What the what??

I know it would take some time, but some branches from a tree, (you don’t really have to use branches – how about some dowel rods?), some twine and 25 little spray painted buckets…you’ve got yourself an equally adorable advent calendar…for about $250 cheaper? Maybe?

I’d like to get my prep for the holidays done this week, so I can focus on Thanksgiving and then the Christmas decorating!! Whoooohoo!

How do you prepare for the holidays? Do you have any fun family traditions? Have you made your own advent calendar? Be sure to tell us about them or if you’ve blogged about one – link it up in the comments! We all could use a little help making the magic happen.  :)

Christmas is only SEVEN weeks away! Can you even believe it??

**You can enter the Makia Creations and HomeGoods Mom Cave giveaways until Monday at noon. And there’s still a bit more time to link up your before and after project for this month here!

Weekend fun: Famous folk

Hey there! I hope you’re having a fantastic weekend! I’m getting ready for another trip to NYC next week (pinch me!). I mentioned last week that, thanks so my friend Rhoda at Southern Hospitality, I am off to a taping of the Nate Berkus show, along with a whole slew of decorating/design bloggers.

I can’t WAIT!

So, I’m in the midst of laundry and trying to find SOMETHING to wear that is worthy. (And not having much luck.)  ;)

It will be a thrill, to say the least, to be within feet of Nate! Isn’t he the cutest? It’s had me thinking of some of the famous people I’ve come close to in my life – it’s not a really long list, but a few trips to NYC sure has helped. :)

I LOVE hearing stories from people who have met actors and musicians – the good and the bad. ;) So I thought I’d share some of mine, although most are just “walk bys,” not so much interaction!

Years and years ago, my BFF and I were at the Indy airport picking up my (then) boyfriend, now hubby. We were waiting on him at the baggage claim when my friend gasped and grabbed onto my arm like a vise.

SARAHSHUTUPIT’SDAVEMATTHEWSSHUTUP.

OHMYGAWD.SARAH.

ISTHATDAVEMATTHEWS?

SHUTUPTHAT’SDAVEMATTHEWS.

Shut. up. It was Dave! Walking right towards us, guitar case in hand:

We FROZE.

(I should have explained first that we were BIG, early Dave fans – like we bought his first album, rocked out freshman year of college, went to every concert every summer, FANS.)

He was within feet of us, and then he saw us. The two girls clutching each other, googley eyed, mouths hanging open, staring at him, ready to pounce.

We saw the fear in his eyes. I don’t know how else to explain it – it was dear God, get me away from these freaky fans as soon as humanly possible, fear. :)

He turned on his heel and quickly walked out the nearest door. My friend, with zero pride,  RAN after him, pushing through the doors. I saw her look both ways and walk back and forth outside -- but he was gone.

Seriously, to this day, we think he literally took off running when he got outside. There was no way otherwise he would have gotten away that fast.

C’mon Dave!! We weren’t that scary!! :)

We found out later that he had come into town, by himself, to sing to a local girl who was sick in the hospital with cancer. No wonder he didn’t want to deal with us crazies, now we don’t blame him one bit.

I may or may not have mentioned my slight obsession with New Kids on the Block for roughly the past 20 years of my life. Roughly.

When they were on the tail end of their early careers, they came to town on their last tour and did a meet and greet at a local store. We stood in line for hours and finally got to get our autographs. My favorite, Jon, had quit, but the fans didn’t know that. They made up some story about an injury, and when I got to Jordan and asked him about Jon, he was not happy about it.

I’m thinking it was probably the 593th time in the past ten minutes he had been asked, so I guess I don’t blame him. ;)

Joe and Danny were complete and total sweethearts – so friendly and funny and nice. Jordan and Donnie, notsomuch.

But that was then, and I know it was just a bad day and they are all just the nicest, sweetest people in real life. I’m sure of it, OK? Don’t tell me otherwise. I’m not listening, nananananaaaaa! I don’t hear you!

Last February, I had the pleasure of meeting the amazing Harry Connick Jr. at the Blissdom conference in Nashville:

My friend AnNicole and I were so busy chatting it up with Kevin and Layla from The Lettered Cottage, we totally missed his performance! But we snuck up to the very end of the meet and greet line and were the last two to get a picture with him.

Heavenly. :)

And of course, on just about every New York trip, we see someone famous. Usually it’s while were out shopping or just walking on the street.

On one of our first trips there, I was shopping right next to Christine Elise at Macy’s:

Remember her from 90210?

When I was in NYC earlier this summer, we walked by Melanie Lapatin, one of the choreographers from So You Think You Can Dance:

She was so beautiful in real life – pictures don’t do her justice!

On the way by the back door of the Promises Promises theater one night, we saw Sean Hayes and Tony Goldwyn signing autographs:

We didn’t have time to wait to get one, but it was a thrill to be that close. Hubby and I saw the show earlier this year and LOVED it – he’s a huge Kristin Chenoweth fan and I’m a huge Sean Hayes fan. :) Remember Tony Goldwyn from Ghost?:

The January after 9-11 we took hubby’s band students to NYC.  (An overseas trip was originally scheduled and that was canceled because of obvious reasons.) We had dinner at Tavern on the Green one evening with all of the kids and it was stunning.

At one point we walked by the restroom and the one and only Liza Minnelli was heading in:

That was pretty cool! 

I think my favorite brush with famousness is from a trip about seven years ago. We were heading back to our hotel (the Marriott Marquis – before it was $400 a night :) ), and we noticed a HUGE crowd gathered outside the hotel.

It was Jennifer Garner, shooting the limo scene for 13 Going on 30:

It was SO COOL! We watched forever, as they wound around the Marquis over and over and OVER. She was about ten feet away from us at times.

When the movie came out, my stepdaughter and I waited for that scene and watched like hawks, but we were just cut out of it:

Still, so fun and what fun experience!!

So those are my famous sightings. I’m sure there’s been a few more over the years, but it’s late on a Saturday night and my brain is MUSH.

Have you met anyone famous? Were they lovely or not so nice? SPILL it! (In a really nice way.) Any good sightings or stories? I’d love to hear!

And we’ll see if I see anyone fun next week! I’ll be sure to let you know. ;)