HaLlOwEeN NiGhT, Part 2...and a Chalk Painted Witch

Welcome back for the evening tour!

Everything seems a little spookier when the 

candles are lit, and shadows are dancing on the walls!

Come on in and take a peek.

I am not a fan of scary, gory or evil, rather

I collect witches, crows and bats, staying along that theme.

Working with what I have collected over time, I change it up every year.

This little witch got some work done...at the bottom of the post you can

see her transformation.  Amazing what a little chalk paint 

and sparkle will do!

And what would Halloween be without candles?

You can see  

Halloween Cottage Part 1

HERE

***

CHALK PAINTED WITCH

This little lady was a Value Village deal.

Costing me all of $3.99, in the middle of summer.  

All of the paint and sparkles I already had

 in my craft room.

The Chalk Paint was applied very heavily.

I wanted it to look a little more like paper mache, so

I should have added a few more layers
of chalk paint than I did.

I then did a very gentle sanding to pull out the colors

 from underneath.

The patina is brown acrylic paint mixed with sparkly finishing paint.

I really worked it into the creases and crevices and then rubbed

 the excess off right away. Creating the aged look I like. 

Voila! 

Chalk Paint to the rescue again!

Hope you have a spooktacularly safe Halloween!!

Thanks for visiting!

Halloween Cottage Tour Part 1

Welcome!

My daughter and I spent a few hours pulling out all of
the Halloween decorations. We had some fun dressing up the house.
I think she wanted a little more blood and gore,
but not me, I like more of a magical approach.
My theme has always been Witch`s Cottage.
Every year a few more items get added to the stash.
It`s always so much fun to pull it all out and spread it around.
Anyways, I took quite a few pictures to share so I thought I should
probably make this into two parts for Halloween.

So grab a hot chocolate and come take a boo
at our Witch`s Cottage!

***

This is our Baker`s Cupboard,
its seen from all angles.

At the front entrance our little witch sits and waits.
She fits perfectly in this corner.

If you don`t use ladders to decorate... you should give one a try!
 They give you the visual height and you can do so much
 with them.  My husband built this out of scrap wood a VERY long time ago.
It is always displaying something.

The jars were much too tippy to just rest on the ladder,

so I wrapped burlap around the jars and tied them to 

the ladder...that also added a little texture

to the mix.

In the above picture is my most loved banner, I bought

it at   French Vanilla.

Go HERE to check out a tour 

of this sweet store!

Our living room.
(I`m loving our new wall color!)

I`m not sure if you can tell, but the dining room
got a new wall color too!
More of both in a future post.

I love to display these tea towels...they are not for using.. just for show.

Above our kitchen cupboards I put all the hydrangeas,from our
fall decorating, more or less to get them out of the way.
I added a crow and a few spider rings into the flowers.
The loop of the ring holds them in place nicely.

Hope you enjoyed this tour.
If you want to see more you can check out
Halloween Night and a Chalk Painted Witch
HERE

I am sharing @
The Essence of Home
Huckleberry Love
A Blossoming Life
Made In A Day
Rhythms of Play
Handy Man, Crafty Women

Fall Nesting

I love this time of year.
 The colors are so vibrant.
The leaves are slowly falling off the trees,
just hanging on for that last show
before the temperature really dips.

I get mesmerized by the leaves dancing on
the   Osakazuki Maple in our yard.
It is so much bolder then last year.

I am amazed at how long the leaves on the Japanese Maple are holding on for.
The Amur Cherry lost her leaves about 3 weeks ago,
the tree to the left.

When I look around the garden, and see those lovely
fall shades presenting themselves it is very satisfying.
And I think to myself...
WHERE CAN I PUT ANOTHER JAPANESE MAPLE??

Below is a picture of our garden from last summer.

There has been a little bit of growth from all the plants and trees, but

look at how the color have changed through the seasons!

 In the summer I like the greens of the

 foliage with white and purple flowers. Come fall,

I love to see the yellows, oranges, reds and burgundies.

Then the skeletons of the garden appear in the winter.

This is a Waterfall Maple.
I am trying to train it to be a tiny bit taller.
Not for privacy, but so we can enjoy it from inside as well.
(Our windows are a bit higher so I am
working on the views from inside.)

You can visit more of our garden if you click HERE

There is more of the back garden if you click HERE as well.

  Inside it's time for some fall nesting.

In an effort to extent the gardening season,
I've been clipping my hydrangea bushes and bringing
the blossoms in. I've also saved some lavender
to spread through the house, in hopes of extending the season.

I love mixing hydrangea with lavender and raffia.  

Together they look very fall-ish.

I only have a few Thanksgiving decorations,
its Halloween that I go a little crazy with.

Thank you for visiting!

Pots of Ivy

It's early monday morning and I get to spend the day doing exactly what I like...

NESTING!

The weather is changing quickly, it's getting quite cold up here, so I have been winterizing

our home and garden. Cleaning up the patio planters and outside furniture. I have

 decided to try bring in my ivy plants.

I bought these plants in the spring and they have done very well out on our shady patio.

They were interspersed with other annuals in big planters but

I'm hoping if I pamper them through the winter they will be able to go

back out on the patio, hopefully even fuller.  I may even keep them in these containers.

All of the pots that I've transplanted them into have been collected over 

the last few months.  I think they work in my

'collected over time' vibe I am going for.

I have always been a real neutral girl, whites, creams...

which I still love, 

but lately I have been adding some color.

Blues, greens, some lavender...I am spotting different shades

 of them everywhere in here!

Isn't that what we do though...evolve.

:)

Fingers crossed, come spring and warmer weather,

I will be able to set these planted ivy, pots and all,

on the patio. Thanks for visiting!