For The Home

10.04.

Don’t “Be Afraid” of Halloween Decorating

It’s that Ghostly, Ghoulish, Wonderful time of the year again and I can hardly contain myself. I absolutely love Halloween!

Who doesn’t? I mean, it’s like the launch party for a new Album!

Halloween is the kickoff party to the Holiday Season!

I always do a few things around the house. A little here and a little there. Last year, I did a similar post that showed a few of the decorations I did. If you missed that one, you can check it out here.

I reused most of my decorations from last year and added just a few new ones.

It occurred to me after I decorated, that I must REALLY be into skulls.

I contribute that to the 2 weeks that I sat in a room by myself and did nothing else but watch Sons of Anarchy.

skull

(*Enough Said)

Hey! Who is up for a little game? Let’s see how many skulls I used in my decorating…… (ANSWER AT THE END OF THIS POST!)

I love this in the front entry way. This is the “kid’s center” with all their craft supplies and books that they like to read (when I make them).

The cute “Be Afraid” vinyl stickers with bats, I picked up at all places, Kroger’s, for only $4.99 for the entire set.

I already had the other decorations. I picked them all up at Walmart last year.

The Entertainment center has a few surprises too! Again……. more Skulls…..

(Further Away Look)

(Left Side)

Can’t forget the legs of whatever my house “fell” on. Would it be creepy to put some ruby red slippers on the feet? Pretty sure my children would forever be scarred and never be able to watch The Wizard of OZ again. 😉 *I might do it!

My coffee center never looked so festive.

Bats, Spiders and All!

However, I do have to admit that I have been a little slack on the housecleaning as of lately.

I’ll have to work on that.

😉

*By the way, if you guessed 5 Skulls, you got it right!*

Did you miss the one on the tombstone in the entertainment center? I almost did!

XOXO!

Esther

Tags: Bats, Be Afraid, Coffee Center, Decorations, Festive, Halloween, Kroger's, Skulls, Sons of Anarchy, Spiders, Walmart

08.17.

Getting Organized: Baby Steps

Every year, I say I am going to get organized. I’m not one of those who has to have the Spring Cleaning bug to get me going.

It could be anything. Something I saw online that inspired me or the simple fact that I have too much clutter in my house and I have procrastinated too long about taking care of it.

This was a combination of things this time.

I finally got the entertainment center of my dreams after looking and looking for one. I have this very awkward space in my family room where it needed to go. Everything I liked was either too large or severely too small to fit the space. The one I had there previously was really small and I have always wanted a wall unit, but never had a home with a space for one.

Behold!

Is it not Glorious?????

The coolest part about it is it expands. I mean, WHAT!

That is the only way I was able to find something to fit the space. If you look closely at the middle console, you can tell.

Now that I had my wall unit, I had to figure out what to do with the previous entertainment center. I didn’t in anyway want to sell it or get rid of it. I wanted to reuse it somewhere else in my house.

I decided to put it in the foyer and use it for a “kid center”. Before, my little ones would go upstairs to the bonus room and “do crafts”. By “doing crafts”, I mean tearing up the whole entire upstairs and leaving all the mess for me. This usually goes unseen for a week because I do not frequently visit the upstairs. Have you ever seen a mess from kids that has accumulated over a week? Let me just tell you………. It ain’t pretty!

So, I decided that the “kid center” would house their art supplies or should I say, “doing crafts” supplies. ………. AND it would be DOWNSTAIRS…….. where I could keep an eye on it.

I haven’t finished yet, but

here is what I have done so far:

I took a simple wash basin bucket, which was just a plain white……. which I didn’t really like.

Took some spray paint. I had bought this spray paint a while ago and forgot I had it in my storage closet. It is a gray spray paint that goes well on plastic.

I made sure to keep it back about a foot and spray in a back and forward motion so that it wouldn’t puddle and run. (*according to the painter’s directions. the painter also known as the “hubster” or “the Zman”.)

Then, I made some labels on my laptop, printed them off, and laminated them. (*I always knew that thing would come in handy at some point!)

I made one for Paper………

One for scissors, glue, and tape……….

And one for crayons, markers, and colored pencils. Then, I remembered that I had this really handy little cutting tool from my scrapbooking days that rounds the corners of pointed edges, so I used that for the labels.

Then, I just stuck them on the front with tape.

I’m still not done with the “kid center”. I know it is a process.

I have a space for their reading books and all the buckets for their crafts.

Hopefully, I will come up with some really cool ideas that I can share with you and update soon! 🙂

Baby Steps……. Baby Steps……… I’ll get there!

Do you have something like this in your home? What kinds of things do you keep there?

XOXO,

Esther

08.15.

Why, it’s GREASE lightning!

grease

One of my favorite movies of all time is GREASE!

I remember when I first saw it. How, right before my cousin let me watch it, she had asked me if I had ever seen it. I remember I kept thinking how dumb a movie would be that was called Grease? I just couldn’t wrap my head around it.

Now, I know the entire movie, word for word, song for song, and dance move for dance move!

Now, let me just say that I have this incredibly crafty friend. She always does these themed Family Nights with the coolest ideas and I am just so jealous of how she pulls these things together.

I have been wanting to do something like that for the longest time but just couldn’t get it together and come up with anything……. UNTIL a light bulb finally went off. “DRIVE-IN MOVIE THEATER NIGHT”!!!! This “theater” would be showing Grease!

So, I got to work!

I went to Lowe’s and bought 3 Large sized moving boxes that we would later turn into their “cars”. I let the kids pick their colors, so I left with 2 cans of spray paint and then just used some left over paint we had around the house for the 3rd one.

Here is the one for my Purple Girl.

Little man had to have black.

And there would be no other color for Em than blue…… light blue. 😉

I ran by the grocery store and picked up some white paper plates that I spray painted black. These would be the wheels.

Next, we cut little white circles from drawing paper for the center of the wheels.

We found this great post from Parenting.com that shows you step by step how to cut a card board box into a car! What are the odds?

You can check the same post out here.

I hot glued red plastic plates to the front for head lights and hot glued the wheels on as well. You can’t see it, but I also cut out rectangles from the red plastic plates and hot glued them onto the back for brake lights.

(At the Drive In, waiting for the food they “ordered”.)

(Hot dogs, French Fries, and the one and only Glass Bottled Cokes.)

I was really surprised at how spacious the boxes were. They were able to sit their food down in front of them and still be comfortable.

Which proved to be VERY disappointing for Buster, who was hoping someone would drop something…… anything!

We even had room for pillows. 🙂

The BEST thing about this “Drive-In” was

that it only cost me $25 !!!!

The Breakdown:

Cars: $10.00

Movie: $5.00

Food: $10.00

I can’t remember ever having a fun family night that only cost me $25. That was the cost for our entire family.

Granted, we stayed at home. However, being able to do this and have something the kids could play with even after Family Night was worth it for me. It took me the afternoon to make the cars, but the longest part was allowing time for things to dry.

Plus, this “Drive-In” was extremely FUN!……….. Rain or Shine!

XOXO,

Esther

Tags: Black, Cardboard Box, Cheap, Coke, Drive-In, Family Night, French Fries, Fun, Grease, Hot Dogs, Light Blue, Lowe's, Movie, Paper Plates, Purple, Spray Paint, Theater

07.13.

Office Makeover

You know those days when you fly away to an exotic destination and forget the mess that you call an office?

Or better yet…… Snap your fingers and it’s clean, organized, and redecorated?????

Then you ACTUALLY WAKE UP and realize that it was all one mean dream? That you aren’t actually about to board a plane to your dream vacation. That you don’t possess magical powers that allow you to snap your fingers and things just fix themselves. No! The reality is that you have to go through every cluttered box you own and piece by piece, organize it!

BLAH!

Well, luckily……… that’s not how I role.

I love looking at organized stuff and my things may have some rhyme or reason to why they are all grouped in one general location, but I am definitely NOT a self professed organizer.

Oh yes, I have very ambitious thoughts from time to time, but then I get distracted by more important things…… like ice cream and chocolate.

I am, however, VERY happy with the way it turned out!

The lighting was hideous the day I tried to take these pics, thanks to all the rain we have gotten.

It’s not completely finished yet. I still have a few things left to do, but for the most part it’s complete.

I wanted more of an open concept than the one I had before. Before, the desk on the right was in the middle of the office, which really cut off the room visually.

I’m still brainstorming with ideas for that open wall above the desk, but nothing concrete yet. I’ll update once I’ve decided.

Also, as you will notice, my lovely hubby still needs to go and finish painting the baseboards. (I’ll do a post soon on how to build up your baseboards for practically nothing!)

I am notorious for painting my ceilings. It gives the room such a custom look. Plus, when you have high ceilings, the height can make your room seem too empty. Painting your ceilings can either give you the illusion of higher ceilings or lower, depending on the color you choose. Painting the ceiling a neutral tan color in this room, really “cozied” it up for me.

Paint colors:

Benjamin Moore’s At Sea – Walls

Benjamin Moore’s Bleeker Beige – Ceiling

High Gloss White – Trim

On the left side of the room is where all the organizational stuff is. I decided to not have any closed storage. This kept things open for me to just grab when I needed. Instead, I chose to go to Target and Homegoods for all my containers and idea boards.

I found the 3 shelf bookcases at Walmart for only $17 each. When it came to the idea boards on top, I almost splurged on Pottery Barn. The thought of spending over $700 on boards that I was going to hang on the wall, made me sick to my stomach, so instead, I went to my trusty ole’ Homegoods store to see what I could find first. I’m so happy I did! Not only did I find something, in my opinion, prettier……… They were far CHEAPER! I only spent $40 on the big one in the middle, and $20 each for the ones on the sides! Woot! Woot!

I felt like the colors were perfect. Lighter is what I was going for. So, when I start to put my ideas on the board, they will really POP!

I am so happy that most stores in general are really starting to amp up their office storage. All the designs are so nice these days. You can find cute stuff everywhere! AND CHEAP!

I got the brown storage boxes and multi colored file box from Target.

The cream colored baskets (set of 3), grey woven boxes (set of 2) from Homegoods.

The black boxes from Walmart.

Pattern file folders from Office Max.

This table was a MUST have! I could see in my mind what I wanted and how I wanted the office to turn out. I just couldn’t find a white pedestal table to go in the middle…….. that I could ACTUALLY afford!

I found plenty online! But they were all a small fortune and I just didn’t want to spend it.

Then, one night when I was searching Target’s website, I found it! Their new line Threshold, had the perfect one. It was so late and I was literally about to go to bed. So, when I saw that it was only $120, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me! It happened to be on sale because I think it is normally around $150. Plus, if you use your Target red card, which is the Debit card, you get free shipping even if it isn’t supposed to be. Not to mention you get the 5% discount.

I’m in love with it! The great thing is that it is a dining table, so it can double duty as extra eating space if you ever have people over! 🙂

This chandelier was originally meant for the girl’s room at our previous house. I had just bought it when we decided that we were going to sell our home. So, I held onto it hoping that I could find a nice spot for it here. So happy that it worked out for the office. I think it gives it an unexpected chic feel.