Who knew....

...that junior high would be so much fun! Keep in mind, it's only been one day of the 6:40am school bus and there wasn't any homework.

I hinted over Labor day weekend that I had been busy dreaming up Halloween crafts. Who knew that a $2 dollar candle stick from my favorite mission thrift store...

...could be turned into an elegant owl perch!!

You can find instructions for making my Halloween party hats on this post. Last year I also posted instructions for embellishing Halloween birds on this post. Here's a sneak peek at the rest of my feathered friends.

You can find all sorts of owls and black birds at all the major craft stores right now. My Halloween birds will be taking up residence on my special "tree" in my sunroom in a few weeks.
Get READY for the Halloween madness!!

A Labor of Love...

I have to say "Happy Birthday" to my husband who spent his special day laboring on very tall ladders to install the octagon window in the tree house.

My father even joined him (EEEEKKKK). It was very hard to watch them on 20 foot extended ladders!!!

This tree house has literally taken on a life of it's own. I had Chris take the camera into the tree house to snap some interior shots. The view from inside is much different. Stay tuned.

I also have to give a shout-out to my mom who makes the "best" homemade pumpkin pie. Chris requested pie instead of birthday cake. Thanks, Mom. Yes. We even broke out the Halloween dishware for his special birthday dessert.

Happy Birthday, sweetie!!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

I hope you are having a wonderful holiday weekend. Fall is definitely in the air with our mild temperatures and the official start to school on Tuesday.

Friday afternoon I left work early, and we visited Emma's junior high in preparation for her big day. I can't believe how BIG her junior high is. Shhhhh...don't tell her that. I'm so proud of how well she's handling the idea of going to a new school.

I have had a splendid 24 hours crafting and dreaming up some more Halloween ideas to share. While Emma has been soaking up time with her best friend, Penny and Josie joined me in some crafting fun.

I managed to sneak over to Michael's and my favorite thrift store (a pictorial store tour and my latest projects will follow later this week. I'll just say that Michael's has a new Peanuts line this year and I'm really excited.

We're still taking advantage of our fresh vegetables and we made homemade pizza with ingredients from our garden.

The tree house roof is coming together...despite the horrible height and extra long ladders needed to reach the top. I seriously avoid looking outside when Chris is on the ladder. It freaks me out to watch him and our neighbor draped across the ladder and roof. Yikes!!

This cool fall weather certainly puts me in the mood to decorate inside and out!!


Hope you're having a happy Labor Day weekend!

PS. Don't forget about the wonderful fundraiser going on at Karin's blog for Morning Star Orphanage. They are close to their goal of selling handmade doll blankets/pillows to raise funds for baby Joy's corrective heart surgery.

Simply fantastic!!

One of my favorite adoptive blogs has taken on an amazing fundraiser for Morning Star Ministry. Her girls are sewing doll pillows and blankets to raise money for baby Joy (an orphan) to get her corrective heart surgery.

The pillow/blanket sets are only $11.

Christmas isn't that far off!!
You can order your set on her blog.
I love your girls' big hearts, Karin.

Preschool & Thrifty Autumn Garland

Josie switched rooms this week and is officially in preschool. So far, it's going well.

Although she did inform me when I put her to bed last night that she "wasted" her lunch because she was too busy talking. Yep. That sounds about right. She's my little social butterfly.

Remember the original garland that I brought home from the Dollar Tree?

I enhanced it with coffee stained book pages and it now looks like this.

One of my favorite thrift stores sells books for a quarter and I took the book apart, brushed coffee on the pages and let them dry in the sun.

I then traced one of the leaves onto cardboard to make a stencil and cut out several leaves from the coffee stained paper.

I then hot glued them to the leaves on the garland to give it some dimension.

Super easy and super cheap.

Happy crafting!
My craft room is going to get a work-out this long holiday weekend!!