Fall Decor

So you probably saw most of this in yesterday’s post, but here’s a couple extra shots of the simple fall décor I put up around the house.

The fireplace—you saw this picture in yesterday’s post.   I made the sweater pumpkins last year and I still love them.

  The Entertainment Center

I love this centerpiece.  It’s simple, and easily removable from the table when we need more space to play games with friends and whatnot :)

This leaf pillow was actually a placemat I got from walmart! I just unpicked the seam, stuffed it and then sewed it back up!

The painted tree in the entry got a Fall update with scrapbook paper leaves

And the porch outside which I didn’t do a whole lot with—we just kept the pumpkins from Halloween, and then I put the acorn wreath that I made last year back on the door.  I made some leaf garland to hand down the windows (actually, I got lazy and only ever did one side!)

That was our fall décor—probably should have posted these pictures earlier, but time gets away from me sometimes!  Now it’s onto Christmas Décor!! 

The New Paint!

After months of staring at my walls, contemplating what to do with them, I’m so happy to say that they are DONE!

So my kitchen and one wall of my dining room used to be green, but I didn’t want to carry the green into the living room, so I was just kind of stuck. One day I decide I’d just have to paint over the green, and after that it went pretty quickly! I was able to land on a color I liked and I got a sample can of it. I painted sample swatches pretty much everywhere downstairs and decided to go for it! Our neighbor friends came over to help us and we got the living room, dining room and kitchen painted in just 4 hours! A third of the time it would have taken me to do myself.

Ok, so here it what it looked like before:

The line between the dining room area and the living room bugged me every.single.day.

And here’s is some of the chaos we lived in for a few days after it was painted (turned out to be a busy week and we had a hard time getting it put back together.

And here is how it looks now! I got new curtains that go better with the color, but there’s still a few more things that need to be addressed—like the fireplace and redoing the frame gallery behind the couch.

Yeah, I pretty much love it! Everything looks brighter and better, I find that it’s easier to coordinate my decor. I didn’t realize how much it was stressing me out until it was all finished and I could feel the burden of it disappear. What do you think? It’s a nice soft aqua green (the pics make it look more blue) —I will update this post when I get home with the real color name.

*So the paint color is called April Mist 450E-2 (by Behr) and I used Olympic ONE paint (Lowe's)*

Ornament #5 Pom-Poms

Now, I actually had a really cool ornament tutorial to show you, but they were taking forever to dry and we had to leave for Florida for the holiday so I couldn’t get that tutorial finished before I left!  So when I get back later next week, I will finish the tutorial and then put it up as a kind of a late bonus tutorial!  They are pretty stunning thus far…here is a sneak peak:

But since time was not on my side this week, I came up with another quick and easy ornament.  If you’ve been making or will be making some of these ornaments that I’ve posted this week, you will probably have leftover yarn to use for these pom-poms.  I like these for ornaments because they are most definitely kid-friendly!

{PS excuse my crappy pictures, I was tired and was doing these late at night while we watched TV}

All you do is grab a fork. I used a really big fork to get bigger pom-poms

Cut a piece of yarn about 6-8 inches or so long and drape it evenly on both sides like this:

Then start wrapping yarn around the fork

When you feel like you are done wrapping (I didn’t really count how many times I went around-just play around with it) pull really tight and tie a knot.  Then take it off the fork and pull it really tight again and tie another knot.  You should have some string left for a loop to hang the ornament.

Cut the loops

Trim to look like a ball!

Done!

The one on the left I did with a regular fork, and the two on the right I did with the jumbo fork.

You can find really cool sparkly yarn too—I found this at Hobby Lobby—it will bring a little bling to your poms

That’s it!  And that concludes my Handmade Ornament Party Week!

*********************

Like I said we are in Florida right now celebrating the holiday with my hubby’s family (and enjoying the nice warm weather!) I will probably be finishing up posting some pictures of my fall décor and such that I never got around to but then it’s going to be ALL Christmas!  I love Christmas!  Happy Holiday Weekend!

Ornament #4: Snowman

Day 4! This is one I just sat down one day and started doing and he turned out pretty cute!

SUPPLIES:

*White Felt (for the head) *colored/pattern felt (Hat) *Orange & black felt (nose & mouth) *white sparkly felt or white fur trim (to trim the bottom edge of your hat) *googly eyes *yarn or ribbon (to tie around the hat & to hang your ornament from)

1. Download this Snowman Pattern PDF and cut it out for your template.

2. Cut 2 circles of white felt and 2 hat pieces of any color/pattern felt you want

3. Sew the circles- leave an opening to turn right side out and then stuff

4. Sew or hot glue your opening closed

5. Sew your hat pieces down each side. Leave the bottom and the top part open so that you can flip it right side out.

6. Cut out and glue on your hat trimming. I used a piece of white sparkly felt

7. Fit your hat onto your snowman head, and then glue it down inside.

8.Tie a ribbon or yarn around the top of the hat.

Loop and tie your ornament hanging loop onto the back like this:

9. Cut the top felt into fringes

10. Glue on the face! I chose to just do the eyes and nose on this one, but you can add little black felt circles for the mouth if you want to.

This is another snowman I tried to do with a real sweater. You can experiment using different fabric & sweaters too if you’re feeling creative! I actually made this one before the felt version I’ve shown you above. It’s kind of like the rough draft for this craft, but I thought I’d show you anyway.

That’s it! Cute little snowman heads to add some fun to your Christmas tree!

***

Linking:

Today's Creative Blog-Get Your Craft On,

Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap-UP-Friday

Somewhat Simple-Thursdays

Blue Cricket Wednesdays

Positively Splendid Saturdays

Ornament #3 Felt Mitten Ornaments

Day 3 brings us to another really cute one I saw on BHG.com

I just had to make some for our tree! Felt mittens!

This ornament tutorial uses a blanket stitch, which is pretty easy and makes your edges look super cute. I found a tutorial for hand sewing felt using a blanket stitch on Future Girl’s blog, which makes it easy to learn how to do it. So pop over there when you are ready to sew up your edges!

Supplies:

* Felt sheets in the colors you want your mittens (hobby lobby has some cute patterns and sparkly felt that you can use too!) *Sheet of white sparkly felt or white fur trim *contrasting thread/embroidery floss * needle *glue gun *stuffing (polyester fiberfill if you want the technical term!) *ribbon/yarn (for the loop)

1. print out the mitten template on BHG or draw your own. I used their template, but I made it a bit bigger, so my mittens are about 3x4”

2. cut out two layers

3. Use your contrasting thread to sew a blanket stitch (go here to learn how) around your mitten. Leave the top open for stuffing.

4. Stuff your mitten

4. Then continue your blanket stitch to close it up.

5. Cut a piece of your sparkly felt, or your white fur trim and attach it onto your mitten

6. Attach your ribbon or yarn on the back for the loop and you are DONE.

I love these!

I’m now addicted to the blanket stitch too! My sewing machine has this stitch as an option, but it’s a lot cuter if you do it by hand!

***

Linking:

Today's Creative Blog-Get Your Craft On,

Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap-UP-Friday

Somewhat Simple-Thursdays

Blue Cricket Wednesdays

Positively Splendid Saturdays