A Success at Last

As I told you earlier, the bat project I set out to do was kind of a catastrophe. (See my bright idea here, and my subsequent epic fail here.) But I worked out a Plan B and ta-dah! The bats aren't going anywhere!


All I did was make a big stitch with black thread in the middle of the bats, sewing the duck tape to the bat. And just so I didn't have to knot the thread on each bat, I just taped the ends of the thread together. Yay!



I also got a few yard of gauze to hang up in the entryway. It was really easy to rip holes in and tatter. I'd love to have more next year to drape over bushes and trees.


Oh, the gauze was also fun to play in. :o) Am I cute, or am I cute? You like it.

Today, I added my last Halloween touch for the year, the scaredy-cat:


Hmm... a mosaic would really add some "oomph" to the front porch. All in good time...


It's not a lot, but pretty good and budget-friendly for our first Halloween here. Only a few days till Halloween! What are YOU going to dress up as?

I linked this post of to A Soft Place to Land's DIY day and at Posh Pieces. Check it out!

Epic Fail

Let me just say: **sigh**

My bat project did not go as planned. And things rarely do around here. I got up today and carried all my supplies to the front yard. I taped all the bats and arranged them in an aesthetically pleasing fashion across the garage door. But today, as Winnie the Pooh would call it, is a very blustery day. The wind was whipping the bats' wings all around and I could faintly hear the felt and tape separating. This was not good. So on the bigger bats that I cut, I put some more tape on the wings to minimize the flapping. In a matter of minutes bats were flying off of my garage door and into the driveway or bushes. Ugh. So I threw a little fit and took the bats off the door and went inside to pout. It DID look like this:



But now it is blank again. I'm not sure what to do. The problem is that the garage door is so exposed to the elements. The project would do fabulously in an entry way that was somewhat enclosed, and ours is, but it's too small for something like this. Hmph. The gears are grinding and I'm trying to come up with a Plan B, but I don't know how much work the project is worth just one week before Halloween. :o(

I may be being a baby, but I was really discouraged with how this went. Do you ever feel like everything you attempt goes wrong? I have all these big plans for our home, but if everything I try ends up falling apart...

It's just felt bats, Olivia. Just felt bats.

Just Plain Batty!

Well, I have been working my tush off to get this Halloween project done so that I can at least enjoy it for a little over a week before Halloween bids us farewell. I am afraid though since it is raining today that I may not be able to put it up for display just yet. I'm so excited about it anyway that I just can't wait to show it to you!


I saw this picture on Country Living's website and loved it! Then I saw Karla do it for her home and was comforted that someone could actually pull this off-- it's not just magazine photo magic. So I decided to try my hand at it.


All you need is heavy, stiffened felt, and duct tape (if you are doing it outdoors like me). This project would have cost me about $8 if I had had duct tape beforehand. Most people have duct tape in their toolbox already; I however did not.


Country Living has a bat template available to print on their site so that you can use a photocopier to size it up or down. I'm lazy artistic so I just looked at it and drew three different sized bats freehand. They recommended using chalk to trace the template onto the felt. I don't have chalk so I planned on using my silver Sharpie. Well, it wouldn't be a day if I couldn't find something I needed, so naturally my Sharpie was MIA. I just used pencil and looked closely for the faint pencil lines.

After that, I just started cutting and didn't stop till I was out of felt! It was so easy, I'm pretty sure a child could do it.

So there is a swarm of bats folded in half with their wings popping up, just waiting to take flight! Hopefully the weather will calm down and my garage door will be dry long enough for me to introduce them to the neighborhood!

Halloween Door Decoration

I made an attempt at my own Halloween door decoration. I don't know if I like it though. **grumblegrumblegrumble** I've been in some kind of funk lately. Normally, I can't get enough of myself and the wondrous things I do, but lately I've felt yucky. Anyway, enough of my baggage! Here it is:

I took a Dollar Tree broom decoration and spray painted it glossy black. My finger hurt BAD afterward. :o(

Then I took my mix of Halloween decorations. Most of it was Dollar Tree, but the ribbon was from Hobby Lobby. By the way, only buy from Hobby Lobby when it's 50% off. It gets expensive! Most of this stuff was cheap looking orange and gross so I painted everything metallic since I was so in love with the guilded pumpkin look.

My hot glue gun is hiding in my disaster area of a room, so everything was either floral wired or craft glued on. This is the product:

Did you notice my little peacock feather? I guess I just can't make anything without one! I like how spindly and creepy it looked after I painted it silver.

I was hoping to accomplish a slightly spooky look. Not anything campy like googly-eyed spiders and jack-o-lanterns, but not anything really morbid or bloody either. How did I do?

That entry could seriously use some fake spiderwebbage. And the door is begging me to painted...

So Maybe I can Embrace White Somewhere...

I don't know what spurred it, but as I was watching Millie play outside through the window I thought, how cute would our back fences look painted white? I know, I know, I said I wasn't a fan of white, but how "American Dream" and picturesque is bright white fence? White fences also remind me of how much I used to watch this cartoon video of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

I picture vines crawling up the fence, hanging baskets of flowers every few feet and party lights strung across it.

Green grass would look so lush next to it. We should go Brady Bunch on neighborhood and get Astroturf. Don't think I wouldn't do it!

I don't know when this project will begin, but the weather is perfect for it. Maybe I will buy myself fence paint as a reward for finishing a paper for school that I've needed to complete for - um- months now. I think I might be able to score some cheap outdoor paint from the Goodwill ReStore. Here is a look at our backyard in its current state:

Is this a white trash seating area? Or a Millie-Mudpit blockade? Hmmm...

The extent of our lawn decor. Hello David!

I have some big ideas for this space. Of course I would like a deck or patio with a dining area and a living area. I'd like to have four posts up around one of those areas to hang a fabric canopy from to make it more intimate and enclosed.

I LOVE how window boxes and shutters look. These are a must!

And I'd like to find some random flea-market type decor for flowerbeds, like using an antique headboard or wire dress form as a trellis. I love how this furniture-turned-planter looks like an art installation:

I love this one. It looks almost enchanted, like it came out of a fairy tale:

And who would have thought of taking an out of commission piano and creating a waterfall?!

I know these ideas are not suitable for everyone's likings and I do tend to gravitate towards all things tacky (I prefer "unconventional") but brace yourself my friend. You haven't seen tacky till you have seen these:

So, on that note... Any thoughts? How often do you spend time in your backyard?


P.S. I added this blog to Hooked on Fridays! See what everyone else is hooked on!