Halloween Entry Table (Budget Decorating)

It's only October 1st, and yet I've been working on this table for a couple of days already, in anticipating of sharing it with you all.  Maybe it's because Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, next to Christmas, since I was a little kid.  I can't quite pinpoint exactly why though.  I don't really think it was all of the candy, because my grandparents didn't let me have much candy even when I had a bucket full from Trick or Treating.  The only thing that I can come up with is the ambiance that the holiday brings.  I'm not so into the blood and gore, but I like the creepy kind of stuff, which is why I think I chose this years table theme to be what it is.  Plus it isn't too scary for my baby boy.  He laughed so hard at the big spider tonight, and it made me feel better about using it.

Just to let you know, just about everything you will see in these pictures were purchased from Target's dollar spot, the Dollar Store, ROSS, HomeGoods, or DIY'd by me.  Each item ranges in price from $1-$15.  I think that's a good price range for holiday décor.

I'm so glad I'm getting back in touch with my creative side!  It just took a bit of imagination to come up with this entry table scene.  I hope you enjoy the pictures.  I took them at 1:00 this morning, just to be sure I captured that "creepy" feeling, or just to make sure I was able to take pictures after dark.  Whatever sound better to you.  LOL!  So here we go!

Trying to capture this entire setup was the most challenging thing for me.  I figured this picture lent itself best to featuring the Happy Halloween banner I picked up for $3 at TJMaxx.

 

Target Dollar Spot wins again!


 

You can find the tutorial on how to make these Apothecary Jars for $1 each.  Check out this link: Cheap DIY Apothecary Jars

Spiders creep me out!  This one is growing on me though.  Only $10 at Target!

I love how I was able to incorporate my lamps from HomeGoods, just by adding cheese cloth to them.

 

Found this sign at ROSS.  Couldn't pass it up because it was perfect for this space.

Here is another look at the spider.

One of my favorite shots from the shoot.  Feels just creepy enough.

 

 

 

 

 



Thanks for stopping by to take a look! I can't wait to see all of your ideas, as you post them.  Also, please feel free to share these photos.  All I ask is that you give me, and the blog credit if you do.  Also, I've noticed that my blog has quite a bit of traffic, but never any comments. I'd love to hear what you think about this in my comments. Thanks again!

Cheap DIY Apothecary Jars for Halloween

If you are like me, you are decorating on a budget for the season.  Thankfully I've found some awesome items for Halloween at the Dollar Store, as well as the Dollar Spot at Target.  As luck would have it, I came across a jar with a cork top that I felt would work perfectly as a creepy apothecary jar, while browsing Target's Dollar Spot.  Here is a quick tutorial on how I made these.

Here is the label on the jar.

 

 

 

 

Supplies Needed

Target Jar

Printed Labels (Find on my Pinterest Board)

Double Sided Tape

Scissors

 

 

 

 You are going to take the labels, and cut them out.  This didn't take long, and honestly is the longest part of this whole process.

 

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 Flip the label over, and apply the double sided tape.

Once you are done, just paste it onto your jar.

 

That's it!  Easy peasy, and only cost me $4!  Can't beat that!  I hope you use this idea in your Halloween decorating this year.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

 

 

 

Playroom Reveal!

 

Rordan's playroom is done!  I actually hadn't planned on changing up the house layout, but once I created my first playroom mood board, I think I was hooked.  I ended up making three different mood boards (MB2 & MB3).  I drew inspiration from each to come up with the final product.  We wanted this room to double as a playroom, and a guest room, since the existing guest room is now the catch all room/exercise room.  We searched for a couch that would fold out into a bed, and luckily the one we found is not only awesome looking, but very comfortable. We don't get many guests, so the fact that it's only a twin shouldn't be a problem.  If anything, someone can sleep on the couch.  Sorry future guests!

We hit up Ikea, and Target for many of the items you see in the room, as well as our own items.  I'll probably source the items if anyone is interested in knowing what they are or where they are from, or if I find the time this weekend.  LOL!  Ultimately, I think we ended up with a nice looking, functional, and fun playroom.  My main goal was to keep in mind Rordan's interests, and have all the things he loves up here in this room.  So far, he seems to be having a blast playing in it.  It's not usually this tidy, but thankfully, it's actually very easy to clean up, thanks to all the storage!  Oh, I didn't mention it, but the couch bottom lifts up to hold items as well.  Very clever, and functional!  Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that I made all the artwork in the room.  I drew inspiration from quotes I've seen on the internet, and one Land of Nod picture in particular. I bet you can spot it!  I ended up creating the image on Photoshop, and having it blow up into a poster at our local office supplies store.  I think I saved about $80 doing it this way.  I love graphic art, so this was a fun little project for me. Okay, well here are the pictures of the room.  This room was so hard to photograph, by the way!  The lighting is wonderful, but I just couldn't find the "perfect" setting on my camera to capture things as clearly as I needed.  I hate when that happens to me.  Guess I should brush up on my camera setting skills.  :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I hope y'all enjoyed the reveal!  Rordan is our first child, and we waited so long to actually have a child so we could do things just like this for him.  I thank the good Lord that we are fortunate enough to be able to do this sort of thing for him.

 

 

 

POWDER ROOM-MINI MAKEOVER

Hello!  Thanks for stopping in today!  I'd like to share pictures of my mini update of our downstairs Powder Room.  It's the only bathroom on the first floor, so it gets plenty of use by the family, and visitors.  I've been struggling to figure out exactly how to decorate this room.  It's fairly small, but it has tall ceilings that leave me with a lot of wall to work with.  It has no built in storage.  All it has is a toilet and pedestal sink installed.  Luckily my wonderful in-laws gifted me with the funds to purchase our current bath cabinet, for my birthday.  Okay, they didn't know that's what I was going to get with the money, but it was nice of them to give it anyhow.  I had seen the cabinet at Home Goods the week before, and really fell in love with it.  It was $100, so it wasn't a consideration for me.  I have too many other things to use that money on, but like I said, the birthday gift saved the day, and I was able to go back to the store and pick it up.  I'm pretty sure the ladies in the aisle thought I was nuts, having actually picked it up and set it in my basket.  It's not really small, and the countertop makes it pretty heavy.  I think it's marble.  My newest love!  Actually, I almost dropped the beauty while trying to put it in the basket, so I'm lucky that I'm able to talk about it today.  Silly me. 

 

 

Recently I had the room decorated with coastal décor, but something was off.  It just hasn't ever felt right to me.  This was actually the second attempt at decorating the room.  Although I liked it, I just wasn't satisfied.  It didn't really give me that sense of calm that I get when I actually "complete" a room.  I haven't really been planning on doing anything to this room, but here we are today.  Sometimes inspiration sneaks up on ya!
I was browsing the mirror aisle at Target the other day, and saw a mirror that I considered using for the Entertainment Room, but passed on it because of its size.  For some reason, last night it occurred to me just how perfect it would be for the Powder Room wall.  Because the room has no windows it can feel like a closet if we don't attempt to open it up using mirrors. 
Rordan and I made a quick trip this morning, back to Target to see if they had the mirror in stock still.  They only had two the other day.  Just our luck, they still had one.  I picked it up and put it in the basket before anyone could steal it from me.  Oh yes, someone was going to do that, I'm sure.  Mmmhmm.  Can you tell I'm an aggressive buyer?  LOL!  Once the mirror was safely secured in MY basket,  I rounded the corner of the aisle, and at the end of the aisle across from us was a display of small accent rugs.  I have to admit, I had seen them before, and loved the turquoise version, but it wasn't on sale, and I didn't really need it, so I passed on it.  Well, today, I knew I wanted it, and just my luck, it was not only on sale, but I got 20% off using the Cartwheel App.  That thing is awesome by the way.  We've saved quite a bit of money using it.  Oh, did I mention that the mirror was on sale too?  It was our lucky day!

 

 

Such a refreshing sight!  I love the pop of color the rug brings to the room.

 

My beautiful cabinet.  Oh how I love thee!

 

 

We painted the room almost a year ago.  We had leftover paint from the nursery, so that's what we used.  It's Sherwin Williams Light French Gray.  Depending on it's surroundings it can have a bit of a blue hue.  It's pretty, but I plan on finding a truer gray in the future.  Actually I have all kinds of dreams for that room, but for now, it's going to stay as it is.  Maybe I'll share a post on prospective designs.  That could be fun!
When we got back from the store, I went ahead and hung the mirror and rolled  the rug out to see how it looked.  At that point I knew I had to switch out the pictures that were already hung.  I pulled up "free printables" on Pinterest, and luckily I came across the perfect images to use. 

Check out this bloggers site.  She has some awesome printables!

Fern Images

 

I had a few extra white frames that I found at various stores this year, and thought they would be perfect to use with these images. 

 

Again, the color is so refreshing.

 

We found our vanity mirror at Home Goods as well.  We actually purchased a swivel mirror but the placement of the mirror was such that we couldn't hang it without hitting water pipes, so sadly it had to go back to where it came from.  We were lucky, not too many weeks later we came across this beauty.  It's such an interesting mirror.  It's wood, painted with a silver metallic, and stained.  It really blends with this new décor.  Gives it that extra "earthy" feeling.

 

Overall, I'm pleased with the outcome.  I think it's modern, and bright, but not too bright, which I prefer for this room.  I think I've found a nice medium to stay in for while.  Below I have supplied the links to the rug and the mirror.  I see that the rug isn't marked down online, but I can tell you that I only paid $23 for it, so if you like it you might try visiting the nearest location to you. Thanks for stopping by!

  

 Threshold Indoor/Outdoor Area Rug-Turquoise

 

Threshold Mirror-Pewter