~thrifty thursday~{& happy halloween}

I hope you all are ready for a night of trick or treating, or trick or treaters!
I know we are!

Todays thrifty Thursday project is a fun one.
Want to see what I started with?

I know right? I was almost embarrassed to buy it.
But I did, and when I got home I ripped everything off of it, and painted it with ASCP in cocoa.

I recently bought some antlers at a antique shop and wanted a piece of wood to mount them too.
This was the perfect shape!
But I couldn't leave it alone just yet.
Did you see the guest bathroom I just posted about with the paint by numbers?
Well, I decided to paint the plaque with a paint by number scene!
I scoured the web and found this darling one of a little house on a lake during the wintertime.

I gathered all my brushes and paints and went to work re-creating the scene on my plaque.
I didn't get it spot on, but I think it works, and definitely ties in with the other paint by numbers in
the bathroom.

The beauty of paint by numbers is that it doesn't have to look perfect.
Any imperfections or brush strokes, or globs of paint just add to the look.
After it was all dry I added the antlers and hung it up!

The only thing that's kinda a bummer is the cute little red house and barn
got covered up quite a bit when I added the antlers.
So, if you do this project, keep that in mind!

Have a wonderful Halloween!

xoxo

~ghosts of Halloweens past~

In 2010 I decorated our dining room in a neutral color scheme.

In 2012 I showed you how to paint chevron pumpkins:

I made a few spooky signs in this post:

This year I went all out with fall decorating:

It is so strange to see how our living room used to look before my gallery wall!

2010 must have been the year for fall decorating at our house. I created
a simple porch display here.

If you'd like to try your hand at a paint by number pumpkin, directions can be found right here!

Last year I made these black and white pumpkins!

This year I threw a pumpkin carving party for Cody and 7 of his friends.
It was a blast, doing it again next year for sure!

I hope this inspires you a little!

xoxo

~our guest bath~ {a before & after}

Our little guest bathroom......
well, it probably needs a major gut job.
But, no time for that right now, so I decided to
spruce it up with new paint and a few new accessories.

I bought this rug, this shower curtain, and a few paint by numbers.
I accessorized with vintage silver plate containers and trays.
The mirror is from Target and can be found here.

Don't you just love before and afters?

The paint before was Seal by Martha Stewart with some old cream on the bottom that looked dirty.
We used to have a pedestal sink in here which I liked, but opted for a cabinet for more storage.
This one is from Lowes, and you can find it here.

I decided to paint the walls in Martha Stewarts Glass Of Milk. Then I painstakingly taped off stripes.

After I made sure the tape was on there really good, I painted over the top with Graphite by Ben Moore, the same color as our bedroom.

I am really enjoying the stripes~I think it was well worth the time it took to tape off!
Hope you like!

xoxo

~FALL in love~

The woods are full of wonder; the lake is full of fish; the trees are
full of golden leaves; let's make an autumn wish.

Blessings from Crystal Lake.

xoxo

~knockoff Anthropologie wreath~{DIY}

I have wanted to make one of these wreaths for a long time.
Then my blogging buddy Tara made one and made it look so simple that I had
to try it. It cost about $33 to make and the only thing
I did different, was I used hot glue and she
used straight pins.

You can get the full instructions and supply list here!

xoxo

~thrifty thursday~ {wine bottle vases}

I saw some cute glasses in a local shop that had
been made out of wine bottles. I thought it
was such a cute idea so I went out and bought a cutter and
got to work.

You can use a variety of colors, sizes, shapes.
The first step is to get those labels off.
I found this to be such a pain!
I tried several methods and finally used the method that
worked best for me.
I soaked them in hot water, peeled the label off,
and used goof off to remove the remainder of the sticky
residue.

This is the cutter I used.
It was about $30.00 at my local craft store.
I bought it because it is made specifically for wine bottles

Basically you just score your bottle where you want to cut and then alternate between boiling water and ice cube "baths."
The bottle will break off where you scored your line. Then using sandpaper, you go over the rough edges, and you're done!

You can not only use them as glasses, but also as vases as I did here.

Have a happy day!

xoxo

~make your own pizzas~

Did you know that October is national pizza month?
So, why not make your own?
If you have little kids, they love the whole process of selecting toppings
and creating their own little masterpiece.

Classico sent me this nice little pizza party kit, along with 3 different pizza sauces.
But before the toppings come into play, we needed to make the dough!

Cody had fun kneading the dough.

It's fun to set out a lot of toppings that the kids can pick from:

I decided to go fresh and healthy on mine with fresh basil, tomatoes off the vine, and fresh mozzarella cheese~yum!

Bake it up and enjoy!

In the spirit of full-disclosure, I've partnered with Classico and received product, coupons, premium items as part of my participation. However, no payment was given except for posting about the program, and as always, all opinions given here are fully my own.

xoxo