Cute Rings and Stockings!

Do you love cute decorations and rings? Head on over to Little Miss Momma's Etsy Shop and check out her stuff. Also, Tatertots and Jello is hosting a giveaway from Little Miss Momma and I can't wait.

I LOVE these stockings and will make some of my own if I don't order them from Little Miss Momma:

Gussy Giveaway

One of this week's giveaways at Along for the Ride is from Gussy's Amazing Site! Go take a look!

Anniversary Giveaways at Along for the Ride

Hi guys. I wish I could have anniversary giveaways like so many other blogs out there. To see many of the giveaways offered by Along for the Ride go check out her blog. You won't be disappointed!

IKR Giveaway

I am a LOVER of giveaways and some day will provide giveaways of my own when I start my dream business. For now, I just enter as many as I can and appreciate so many creative people offering their projects to others. If anyone else out there loves giveaways...head on over to Tatertots and Jello and enter to with the IKR Designs Giveaway. You could win a CUTE flameless candle or even some ADORABLE coasters like these:

Head on over and enter! :] You may be the lucky winner.

Fun with Monograms

Monograms are "hot" right now and since I've been married I've thought of two cute ways to incorporate your initials into your home. 

I have a really cute idea that just hasn't been finished yet but it starts with this framed monogram:

A few months ago I bought some cute scrapbook paper from Joann's, and printed out a letter "L". After tracing the L on red paper, I cut it out, glued it on to the detailed paper, and framed it. Simple yet cute. Eventually this will be a ceiling to floor picture wall with black frames, but for now we just are showcasing our last initial. :]

The next idea I had involved a bulletin board. I love the idea of bulletin boards but am not a fan of the cork board look. I painted the frame of the bulletin board black to match our house, then with the help of my amazing hubby had the cork board covered with cute fabric. THEN to add a little spice to the board I took a letter I bought from Hobby Lobby and modge-podged some paper on it. After placing the letter on the board it all came together.

Now we have a spot for bills we need to pay, cards people send us, invitations and the like. Who wouldn't want to display papers on this bulletin board? Haha. 

If you were wondering what is next to the bulletin board, it is chore charts. I made up both a daily chore chart and a weekly chart and framed it. We just mark off the chores as we do them and wipe them off when a new time period comes.

I love having my house come together and look forward to finishing up each room.

Do you have any organizational or monogram ideas?

Halloween Decor...FINALLY

This Halloween was my first Halloween as a married woman. This meant that I was responsible for ALL of the decorations...and if you know me...you know I LOVE decorating. Sure I was able to decorate when I spent a year at USU but this year it was different being able to decorate my OWN house. I was mesmerized by all of the amazing crafts people have posted about and of course made a wish list much too large for this Halloween. Luckily, I WAS able to get a few crafts in with working 5 hours shy of full time AND going to school full time. I have quite a few more crafts I look forward to making but those will either have to wait or will be be posted about later if I find the time to do them. :]

When I did find the time, I made some really cute decorations that I had been eying on different sites. The first Halloween craft I made was the spooky Halloween candy display seen HERE on one of my FAVORITE blogs.

After I saw her original post I KNEW I had to make a similar display. At the time I was on a thrift store spree so I made a trip to DI and found cute glass vases that I thought would work. I don't think I spent more than $2 or $3 on any one vase...some were even $.50. PERFECT for a newly married couple's budget. I found the tray at Goodwill for a couple of dollars and had the hubby spray paint it black and had the filler already from a previous craft. After finding different candies, I thought of "creepy" names, typed them up, and burned the edges. Then with some black construction paper, adhesive tape, and some jute I was able to finish up the labels. I couldn't be happier with the display and am so grateful that Shelley shared her original idea.

Another craft I was able to do came from THIS BLOG. I thought the idea was SO cute and had to make some luminaries myself. I found some different sized mason jars at DI and used paint I already had. I painted the color and let it dry, painted the face and let it dry, then finally painted it with glossy spray to finish them off.  And WALAH:

I didn't think these would look good in my front yard so they are located on top of my microwave. They look SUPER cute lit up and I am SO glad I found Amanda's blog.

After seeing painted mason jars and tons of pumpkin crafts I got the idea to make my own pumpkins out of glass. I found three interesting "vases" I guess you would call them (even though I believe one is a pasta holder) at the DI (can you see a trend?). I painted them the same day I made the luminaries, then thought it would be cute to tie some jute around the top. They STILL didn't look finished though so I went outside and found some sticks for stems. After putting them all together I fell in LOVE with my pumpkins:

Cute huh? I love that I can keep them out until Thanksgiving!

These next few pictures are just other decorations around my house. My front room is currently in the process of being painted so I'll have to take a picture of that room later. However, that doesn't mean I can't show you the rest of my house! :]

Andrew and I had friends over for Family Home Evening and we decorated Haunted Houses. Cute huh? Also notice the spider web infested picture frames ;]

More spider web. Painted tree branches placed in free vases I got from my friends wedding. I found those cute tree ornaments at Joann's, and the crows were at the Dollar Tree. These combined make for a cute display in my opinion.

The next few projects I made at a craft night which was SUPER fun.

I LOVE both these crafts and look forward to future craft nights offered by Melinda. You can find out more about her work HERE. She sells TONS of cute vinyl. I also made another sign, but that goes in the front room I mentioned previously.

Here's my knick knack shelf with a few Halloween trinkets.

This is the door to our bedroom. :]

This is one of my front windows. Sorry about the poor quality but I drew some ghosts and hung them by string. 

Here's a close up of one of the ghosts. :] 

 And here is my front door. :] With some spider web, caution tape, and pumpkin stands from CURRENT I pulled this off. Oh and the mat was from Goodwill.

I absolutely love decorating and hope you enjoyed looking at some of my Halloween decor. Maybe you'll be inspired by some of my decor like other blogs inspired me.

Do you have any favorite Halloween decorations or traditions?

ANOTHER GIVEAWAY

There is another AMAZING giveaway going on. And if you ask me, WHO DOESN'T LOVE A GREAT GIVEAWAY?

Go HERE to find out more.

Our house...in the Middle of the Street

I absolutely love decorating our house and making it into a home. I am stoked to finally be able to say that we just need to touch up the rooms and we will be done painting the interior of the house for awhile. I always dream of how to make my house cute and start project after project...I just need to finish them! Because of this and the fact that I need to not spend any more money, I promised Andrew that I won't buy anything else for the house until we get everything we have put up or away and have all the rooms finished. This promise came after going to Hobby Lobby today though. :] I am so glad they were having a ton of their home stuff 50% off because I found these beauties for my kitchen:

Unfortunately my camera is dead and won't charge so the quality of this picture isn't very good. I can't wait for Andrew to build me some shelfs for the kitchen and to be able to put them up. I absolutely love them and think they have a  great look to them.

Now I'll just have to clean the house, organize the office, hang a ton of frames, buy mirrors, and fill a ton of picture frames and we should be good to go.

Here's to getting organized, decorating, and some day inviting people over to a finished home. :]

Fun Costume Ideas

I have always loved the idea of couples costumes for Halloween. However, I never was able to pull it off without a companion to dress up with. LUCKILY I met my amazing husband in December of 2008 and we started dating in March of 2009. After being engaged in September we were able to dress up as a couple last Halloween. Because my husband loves all things cowboy and country, I let him decide what we dressed up as last year. As a result we were a cowboy and an indian. I didn't mind however because I have wanted to be an indian for awhile now. Here we are:

It was so fun to dress up together and even though it was a simple idea I think it turned out great. Also, just for fun here is a picture with me and "our little monster":

Now that we are married, I would love to dress up together again. I have a few ideas but can't decide. Luckily I am planning on searching this post by the Dating Divas for some more ideas.

What are YOU going to dress up as for Halloween?

Wonderfully Wordy Giveaway

There is an AWESOME giveaway from Wonderfully Wordy over at Sweet November. Go here if you are interested! :] I recently ordered some sale vinyl from Wonderfully Wordy and absolutely love it. I hope I win this giveaway!