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!

Tara's Vintage Kitchen Giveaway!

Karla at It's The Little Things That Make A House A Home is doing a sweet giveaway for a $25 gift certificate to Tara's Vintage Kitchen shop on Etsy. If you stop by her shop, you will find beauties like this:



How pretty! And her photography is amazing. Lord knows these things would not look near as gorgeous on a dusty thrift store shelf as they do in her photos. Here's how to enter:

1. Visit Tara's Vintage Kitchen.

2. Leave a comment letting Karla know
which item you would love to call your own
if you were the winner of the $25 Gift Certificate.

There is also a way to get your name entered into the drawing a second and third time! Go here to find out how! Have fun!

A Bathing Beauty Bathroom?

Okay, I've never been a huge fan of beach-themed bathrooms. When I think of beach-themed rooms, I think of pastel peach and blue, seashell wallpaper and cheapy seashell graphics in frames, embroidered on towels, etc.



Yikes. But I saw the below picture on Pottery Barn's website and now I'm thinking that maybe beach-themes don't have to be this way. I love that old glass buoy and the pieces of driftwood below the sink!

We got most of the basics of our guest bathroom when we registered for gifts, but there still isn't much as far as decorations and personality goes. So here is what I'm thinking...

Bouys

I love the colored glass and the old frayed rope. They could hang from towel hooks, sit in bowls like orbs, or hang from the ceiling. I saw a TON at an antique mall once and I am kicking myself for not grabbing a few!

Bathing Beauties

Between eBay and Etsy, there are a ton of precious 1920/30s bathing beauty postcards. I picture a few hung in some weathered frames. How beautiful are they?!




Ah, back when beauty was pure and natural. What happened?

Other Randomness

Sprinklings of seashells and sand, seaglass, corals, seasponge...




I have hope that beachy decor can be pulled off without the room just screaming "Put on your wetsuit and explore the faux coral reef!!!" upon someone entering it. But I do wonder, can you pull off beachy elements in one room while having a house that is not beachy anywhere else? Can you have seashells in one room, peacock curtains in another and these awesome froggy drawer pulls in another? (I don't actually own them yet but I think they would be sweet as my kitchen cabinet knobs! Totally off topic, but I wanted to share them.) Is that what the art of eclectic style is? What do you think?

Fancy Faucet Giveaway!

Over at Centsational Girl, a really awesome home decor blog, Kate is doing a giveaway for a FREE Price Pfister faucet! I am debating between these two:

But there are plenty more to pick from and also kitchen faucets! Here's how to enter to win:

1. Go to CG's post. Simply leave a comment telling her which on you would want and where you would use it.
   
2. For a second chance to win, write up this giveaway on your blog, and leave a second comment with the link to your post.

The giveaway ends on Monday, October 12th at 8 PM PST. Go give it a try!

I also noticed that Price Pfister is doing their own giveaway of a full suite of their Treviso Velvet Aged Bronze products. Go here to enter. Giveaway ends December 31, 2009!

Woo-hoo! Free stuff!

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!