Eyeball Halloween Wreath

Oh, we had a lot of fun with this one.  Making something so creepy...yet pretty! I was heading out to the store the other day and my kids asked me what I needed to get.  "I need to pick up some eyeballs."  What?  I have seen tons of eyeball decor in the stores.  At Target you can get bags of eyeballs and even eyeball lights. 

The Target eyeball were a little small for our wreath, so Nicole and I thought of another idea. 

Ping pong balls! We found several packages at the Dollar Store.

They are just the right size for a wreath, although the eyeball lights would be fun too. A couple of years ago, the little boy next door told me that I have "green eyes"...like a witch.  What does that mean......huh? :)  He also told me that my red gardening clogs look like the ruby red shoes the witch wears in The Wizard of Oz.  Maybe he's been watching too much T.V.?  I sure hope so. Anyway, we painted our eyeballs with green paint and glitter...like witch's eyes.

I picked up this spring wreath from Walmart for 7.00 dollars and gave it a couple coats of black spray paint.  So easy!

We picked up three yards of netting and wired it on the back.  We then fluffed and pulled until it gave the wreath some body.

Here's the fur yarn we use on many of our Halloween decorations. We wrapped the wreath with yarn to add some cobwebs for the glittery spiders. We also tucked some white tulle circles in between the flowers.

What fun...it's a little creepy for my Halloween taste- but making those eyeballs was oh so fun! 

I have a black door, so I might add some lights so I can make sure to give the trick or treaters a scare......

Pennant Banners

  

Thanks for all the sweet comments about Nicole's squirrels.  My sister has one of the biggest hearts I know.  Gracie the squirrel is something else, you would have to see her to understand.  She responds to Nicole's voice, climbs on her shoulder as she works, and even hangs upside down on trees trying to get her attention when she's distracted talking to visitors in her driveway. It's unbelievable how aware that squirrel is.  I see a joy brought to my sister watching her feed and care for the baby squirrel Izzie, it is so sweet to see.

 

We had a really busy week! We were so busy creating for boutiques and craft groups that we didn't snap many pictures. Nicole made so many cute things, I'll have to get her to make some more so we can picture them.

I "assisted" her on a couple of pennant banners.  I'm not so good at mass producing.  Nicole has been running her business for a couple of years now and is highly efficient.  I'm as slow as molasses! :)

We made each pennant with wood.  Nicole chopped thin mdf and drilled holes for the ribbon.

I picked up this very cute pack of papers from Michaels to paper our pennants.  I think I completely adore each paper in this pack.  Hmmmm, what else can I use this on?

We made some candy corn pennants.  I have seen several of these around blog land and they are too cute.  The triangle shape is just crying out to be made into a candy corn.

We glued on some of the stringy spider web yarn.  We love using this stuff on all of our Halloween projects!  I first saw this on a craft project my friend Angela did for our craft group and knew as soon as I saw this on the blog Urban Comfort in one of Suzonne Sterling's Halloween creations that it was a must have for our banner! :) 

How cute is the yarn with the spider paper?

We'll be back to share some more tomorrow!

An Izzie Update!

I'm finally getting around to letting you guys know

how our sweet little Izzie is doing.

Here's a few pictures I snapped today.

Izzie is growing so fast and

she's now entering the "fun" stage of baby squirrelhood as we call it.

Her eyes opened last Tuesday which was such a magical moment!

Although she sleeps most of the time,

when she does wake up she is curious and wanting to climb on everything. 

My favorite part of this is when she nuzzles into my neck to keep warm.

Her little squeaks are so cute and

her little nose smelling everything is like little butterfly kisses against my neck and cheek.

Can you tell we are just loving this moment in time?

We had a super scare last night though!!!

As I was headed out to meet Candace and my Mom

to collect our stuff from our first of the season boutique

I noticed a squished squirrel on the road next to our house under the acorn tree

which is the hub of activity of all of our squirrel neighbors. 

(Last Saturday my little girl and I collected 2 buckets of acorns for our Gracie!)

My heart seriously sunk and almost broke out of my chest. 

 I got out and tried to look as close as I could and noticed

the squirrel had a missing top of it's tail,

which our first squirrel Gracie has (that's a whole other post....)

I hopped back in the car and made a mad rush to my hubby and little girl

who had headed down to bird watch. 

Sooooooo,

 a whole lot of crying later and

my hubby going and feeling the "victim's" tail 3 times to convince me it wasn't her,

we were all still upset because of course Gracie wasn't in our yard or in her nest box. 

Ya know I may tease about my hubby not being trusted with my tools

 but in moments like these it's clear the reasons why I love him so much. 

He even went out at midnight with a flash light to

feel the squirrel tail again to calm my ever growing fears.

I headed out this morning to see if Gracie

had come back to her box but it was empty and cold.

Completely broken hearted I was crying in the shower

 hurrying to be on time to church when my hubby

came into the bathroom with guess who on his shoulder.

I have never been so happy in my life! 

Well, yeah I have but ya know......

So both sweet squirrel girls are safe, healthy and happy! 

 My little girl is so glad to know her "little sisters" are okay and

someday I'll actually get a picture with the squirrels

where I don't have on a hat and I'm wearing make up.:)

Stephanie's Bed Featured

My good friend Stephanie built a bed for her daughter and Ana White featured her today.

 Just last night I had several ladies from my craft group over building shelves and all of our countersink bits broke.  I called up Stephanie to see if she had an extra.  All of hers were broken so she offered to run to the hardware store and pick me up a couple.  Did I mention she's in a wheelchair?  Within thirty minutes Stephanie scooped up and delivered  two countersink bits to finish the job. I often forget that her body doesn't work the same as mine because she's constantly challenging herself to try harder. Stephanie inspires me daily to have a better attitude when life sends trials your way.  She is super crafty, wickedly funny, and one determined woman. 

 To see more of Stephanie, visit her new blog here.

Trick....or Treat Topiaries

Here's the project that Nicole received many hot glue burns from. We had so much fun last spring making the Jellybean topiaries and thought it would be fun to make some more for Halloween.

  We gathered candy corn, gum drops, and jelly beans, and gummy worms for these spooky topiaries.  The bulk food section in the grocery store is a great place to find supplies. Candy corn is great too, because who really likes the taste of candy corn? After I eat a few, I tend to get a sick-overly sweet feeling.

I just love the spikes the candy corn produce when you glue them to a ball. The unfortunate thing is -when you open the bag at least half of the tips are missing. 

So, the candy corn ball is fragile. :(

Ours have held up if you are careful, and after a while they get stale.

We put the topiaries into canning jars, old glass jars and metal cans. The clear jars work perfectly to show off all the scary stuffing.

We made up some labels on the computer, backed them with scrapbook paper and attached them to the jars. Nicole went to work decorating the topiaries with ribbons and spiders.

Here's Nicole gluing away with the candy corn.  We used 3 inch foam balls, first painting them yellow. It goes pretty fast once you get the hang of it.  Nicole started by putting big globs of glue on and then quickly sticking on the candy.

Nicole painted some dowels orange and white.  I think it adds a bit of whimsy to the topiaries.

 

I drilled holes in the metal lids and thought about how I really should be learning how to can food with my mom's canning jars instead of crafting with them... :) One day, Mom...one day.

We hot glued a chunk of floral foam at the bottom of the glue so the dowel would be anchored.  Make sure to leave enough room to stuff the jar.  You could also weight the jars with glass pebbles or whatever you prefer, if you are worried about it tipping.

And, there you go...our "Trick....or Treat Topiaries."

There are so many possibilities of what you could fill the jars with to make them a little more fun or spooky. 

We have a few more Halloween ideas to share, so stay tuned! :)

&

I (heart) naptime's weekend wrapup

Sunflowers

Nicole and I got carried away with Halloween crafts yesterday.  We have so much fun working together.  My hands are stained with black spray paint and Nicole has several blisters from the glue gun! We have some cute ideas but need to finish completing them. Before the Halloween projects start, I wanted to craft something with sunflowers.  I see them popping up all over town, and I love sunflowers. 

I made these using the burning technique that is so popular.  I used a mix of satin and organza.  

 

I cut circles in different sizes and clipped all the edges.

 Some sides were singed more than others but I think I kinda like the look of it.

Next I used ribbon and twisted it in a circle adhering with hot glue.  The proper way should have been to hand stitch it all.  I was feeling too impatient to hand stitch, but hot glue can be disastrous!  I gooped it in a couple of places. (Liquid Stitch is a much better to use than a hot glue gun!)

 

I don't have little girls to make barrettes or headbands and I might look silly wearing one of these, so I made magnets.  I love magnets.  They look so pretty and festive in my kitchen on the magnet board.

I made two more with an organza polka dot ribbon.

Cute.  Now, back to the Halloween crafting! :)

Hot Air Balloon (mini) Ride

We had a surprise visitor in our neighborhood this morning.  We see quite a few hot air balloons pass over our house so we are use to the (whoosh) noise that comes with them.  Well, this one sounded awfully loud.  My husband was out running and my kids were still in bed.  I peeked out the door to see my husband with wide eyes and this hot air balloon barely clearing the pitch of our house by a foot! They landed the balloon just down the street.  I guess the balloons are carried by the wind current and the pilot had either the choice to go up and out of control or down.  (at least that's how one of the crew explained it?)

We gathered the kiddies out of bed and headed down the street for an up close look at the balloon. The nice lady pilot started giving mini rides to the kids in their pajamas. Two of my boys eagerly climbed in, freezing and barefoot! My oldest son is scared of heights and ran straight back to the house.

I guess that was the end of the hot air balloon trip.

We watched as they packed it all up, they even let the neighbors participate.

I had to catch a picture of the basket.  Pretty cool. 

My three year old loved the "fire."

All the boys are watching the flag folding.

I don't know if they are usually this friendly to the neighbors when they drop in like this?

  Maybe they thought they should butter up the people whose homes they almost took out! 

It was an exciting morning!

Hope you having a great weekend! :)