Let the Halloween crafting commence!

**I'm answering your questions about painting ceilings to my FAQ post -- you can find it on the right sidebar from now on!**

Can you even believe tomorrow is October 1st?? I can't. I wanted fall to get here so badly, and here it is -- temps in the 60's, a trip to the pumpkin patch scheduled for this weekend, planning Christmas decorations...errr, um, Halloween decorations. Uh huh.

I can't get enough of the fun Halloween scrapbook papers and sparkly stickers I see everywhere. I grab them up more often than I should, with the plan to make something with all of 'em. Adorable.

Tonight I did a quick project that turned out pretty cauuute and wanted to share it with you in honor of the start of the bewitching month. ;) I started with a scrap piece of wood from the garage and some fun paper. I used my spray adhesive to glue the paper to the wood, then cut around it with the x-acto knife:

I cut out some solid paper with my $1.99 scalloped scissors from Hob Lob and glued it on too:

(Sorry for the awful picture!) Ha! You can see the shadow of my hands taking the picture! Looks like a ghost. :)

Then the fun starts...I used a circle puncher to make a "moon," then added some of my cutey sparkly bats:

Then added some foam letters:

And used my new Martha Stewart glitter/glue to glam them up:

Can I tell you something? I'm not loving the Martha glitter. I thought I would love it -- I should because I spent a pretty penny on it! It just doesn't hold as well as my regular, cheapy glitter. I'm actually going to have to go over these again because the glitter just didn't stay on. Bummer!!

I added a few more foamy/sticker stuff and hung it with an orange ribbon:

For now it hangs in the laundry room, but I added felt pads to the back and may just hang it from a door knob somewhere.

It is so dang cute I just can't even stand it. :) More to come!

The fifth wall. (And another dining room reveal!)

OK peeps. I've been wanting to talk about this topic for awhile. It's something very few do, but it makes a HUGE impact in a room. (In my little bitty opinion.)

The decorating element I love to add to a room is one most people never think of doing -- painting your ceiling. Not another coat of white -- a color. EGADS! Yes, I said it! Color on your ceiling! Ahhh, I've gone and lost my mind, right?

It is by far the one addition that I think makes a HUGE difference in the way a room feels, and it costs $20 for a gallon of paint.

The owner of the decorating firm I worked with turned me onto this, and I was SUCH a nonbeliever at first. I was hooked after our first painted ceiling though. I mean, head over heels in love, hooked. There are some "rules" that you may want to follow that I don't, and I'll tell you those in a bit. Also, there are some myths about painting a ceiling I'll address too.

I had the ceiling in our family room/kitchen combo painted the same color as the walls and absolutely love it:

Reason number one I love painted ceilings -- if you have crown molding, it will make them absolutely pop off the walls when your ceilings are painted. When you have crown and a white ceiling, at least the upper half of it washes away, and for all that work and money, you should SEE it. ;)

I am chomping at the bit to get the crown installed in these rooms, because I know it will look ahhhhmazing against the Sisal colored walls and ceiling. ;)

In our chocolate colored powder room, I painted the ceiling the same color as the walls, and look how the molding pops!:

I added a thin coat of my glaze over the paint, just to give it a little bit of fun. (I think you can do whatever the heck you want and get dramatic in three rooms -- laundry rooms, powder rooms and dining rooms.)

In our son's bathroom I did the same blue as the ceiling in his room:

I didn't go the same color as the walls in these rooms because I wanted to tie in the blue that was used throughout, I wanted it to give the look of a sky, and it was just plain cute:

We don't have overhead lighting in our den (pounds head on table for that), so it's the darkest room in our house. I went with the same color of the walls to keep the cozy feeling we had going:

And I. love. it. (I'm going to install crown in here too, forgive my horrible cutting in...)

There is a common thought that painted ceilings make the room darker -- this is only true if the room is small, has low ceilings has little lighting. If I did a dark color on the ceiling in our master bathroom, with tall walls and tons of natural light, I can promise you it would not be darker in there. Swear. Bet you one meeellion bucks.

Another thought is that it make the room seem smaller. Even a small room like our den didn't shrink -- I swear it got bigger. When you remove the white ceiling, the eye just keeps going...it doesn't stop. I make the room seem more expanse and taller...YES, taller. When the ceiling is white, it stops your eye and shows exact height of your ceilings.

My first attempt at a painted ceiling was years ago. I wanted to give the illusion (there I go with illuuuuusions again!) of a tray ceiling in our dining room, so I put up molding, and took a color out of the light fixture for the inside of the molding:

I added a glaze to the top to make it glitter just a bit, and at first we loved it. It has stayed like this for years, but with the recent dining room redo, it just wasn't working anymore. I had the ceiling painted a couple weeks ago (I splurged and called my "guy" I use for ceilings when I'm feeling lazy) and had him leave the color on the inside, thinking it would look cool: Ummmm, it didn't. It looked like baby puke.

So in about an hour and a half, I finished it up and continued the chocolate brown:

And I adore it. (Oh yeah, I'm waiting on a special little somethin' for that empty area to the right of the table...patiently...waiting...)

The light, I have always loved...

But now I'm craving something more traditional...is that wrong? I spent a pretty penny on this light. I can't believe I'm considering this. Yikes. I have a spot where I may be able to put it, but I'm not sure what I'll do. Thoughts?

There are general guidelines "they" say to use when painting a ceiling. The first is, if your ceilings are eight feet or lower, go half and half with the color -- like half white, half wall color. Or at least take the wall color lighter a few shades. Also, if you are painting ceilings in small rooms, the general thought is to go lighter.

If your ceilings are nine foot and taller, you can go the same color as the walls. If they are VERY tall, I'm talking like 15-20 feet -- you can darker than the walls. This is for instances when you want to make such a tall space cozier and not as cavernous feeling. And it works!

My rules are...do whatever the heck you want! I almost always do the same exact color that's on the walls, no matter the size of the room or ceiling height. You can do a different color, you can go lighter, darker, whateva. I highly recommend flat paint though. Any other finish will be too shiny. If you want some shiny, use a glaze like I did to glam it up...but do it sparingly.

Painted ceilings are not for everyone. And you will be sceered, verrrry screered the first time you do it. (Heck, the fifth time you do it!) But I have yet to regret one of them in our home.

Next up...I'll show you my cheap-o hutch redo!

P.S. I believe I said "ceiling" 267 times. 268.

P.S.S. I am finishing up answering your questions on my Q and A post tonight! That was FUN!

Fall door decor.

Yet again, I'm going to drill into your head that you can use what you already have to create some beautiful arrangements for fall! I've put a few together in the past week that all involve items I already had, and variety of filler -- or what I like to call "things you stick in."

I already showed you how to make a beeeautiful fall wreath here:

Some of you suggested using a frame for a rectangle shape and that is BRILLIANT!

My favorite door decor is my go-to for our front door. I luuuurve my Southern Living at Home container and use it almost year round -- I love how one piece can work for most seasons, by just changing out the filler.

For the fall, I have used the same "stuff" for the past few years, but every year seem to end up adding more to it. It's going to be ginormous in a few years, seriously.

The only items I use are my container, the floral stuff and some floral foam:

I just pull the whole thing out of the container every year, put it in a baggy and store it away. When I put it out, I just pop it back in the container and fluff like mad.

Oh yeah, and stick more "things" in:

Sigh. This arrangement is everything I love about this time of year. Those colors just make my heart go pitter pat. And YES, I use fake flowers. Keeeeel me. (Our front door is protected.)

The next door idea is one I am really loving, and it took me all of ten minutes. I had another SLAH container in the basement that I haven't used for years. It was too bright white for most of my decor:

So it hit me. I just took more of my walnut stain, and dry brushed it on to highlight the raised areas. It kind of smudged onto the other areas, but I ended up loving the look and kept doing it all over:

Gorg!! I stuffed a bit of foam in (just cut it with a knife if it doesn't fit):I snipped a leaf garland apart into sections and just stuffed them in:Because, yet again, I can't leave well enough alone, I wrapped some fall ribbon around the hanger:

And got this!:

Shut the front door, I love it. (My new favorite saying by the way.) This was going to go on the black garage door but I just couldn't bear the thought of her (yes, HER) facing into the dark garage 24/7, not being appreciated.

The final arrangement I put together started with another container I already had in the basement:

Thanks to stepmom for the container! :) I wanted it not so yellow, so I did a quick coat of brown spray paint:

Then picked up some beady/grassy things:
And the most adorable pom pom looking thingys from Joann's:

I separated the grassy stuff into the sections and cut each one off (you'll need wire cutters to do this):

And just stuffed and stuffed (notice a theme here?). I found a couple feathery jobbies from Hob Lob and threw those in too:There is no rhyme or reason to it -- just stuff it (in a nice way)!

Loverly!!

To hang this, I took a cheap metal (over the door) hook, straightened it out, then hot glued the ribbon over it:

Oh yes, yes I did. Nothing is safe with me. ;)

My finishing touch is to ALWAYS add some felt pads to the back off all my containers, so they don't scratch up the door:

And now, we have something lovely to look at on the way out as well:
Do you have something you can use to create an arrangment? Stuff some leaves or pumpkins or floral pics in and you can't go wrong! You don't need to purchase new to make your home warm and cozy this time of year.

Later this week I'll show you our front porch -- it makes me smile every time we drive up. :)

P.S. Spell check does not recognize "thingys" and "jobbies." Whatev.

Exciting news!

I am so thrilled to announce I will be speaking at the Indianapolis Home Show early next year!

It's been in the works for a while, but I haven't wanted to say anything until I knew for sure it was all set. I've been dying to tell you all!

I'll be speaking a couple times a day, February 1-3. I am totally fareeeeeking out people. I am usually so comfortable talking in front of groups, but this one has me in a bit of a tizzy. :)

Soooooo...you all need to take a few days off work, leave the kids with Dad, drive or fly into Indy and put your butts in some seats. I will need you to nod your head a lot, clap at the right moments, laugh hysterically at my stupid jokes, and shout out a big "AMEN SISTER!" or "YOU ARE AWESOME SARAH!!" at key moments. Umkay?

Serious.

And I'm sure I'll need a margarita afterwards, so you can join me for one of those too. ;)

Thanks again for all of your support!!

P.S. The Q and A below has been so fun! It is still open if you have a question for me...I have a few I still need to answer, but for now -- I. must. sleep. I'll be back tomorrow!

Molding, bamboo and fabric, OH MY!

So next to the paint, the biggest change in my dining room was the windows. I swear these windows have been through more transformations than all the windows in this house put together.

The first step in the redo is something I plan to do in the whole house -- can you guess what it is???? Ah DUH -- it's molding! Our home has no trim around the windows, just window sills:

I heart thick, beautiful molding around windows, but alas, our window sill only goes beyond the window about an inch. So to get the look I really want, I'd have to tear those out, and that's just not happenin'.

The solution? The molding I've used all over this room is just the right fit to trim out the window and match up with the window sill:

I painted the trim and the drywall around the window all glossy white, giving the illusion that it's all molding:

It's all an illuuuuuuusion. I like illuuuuuusions. They are cheap and easy.

Next step: More of my beloved bamboo shades. I am on a mission to change all of our two inch blinds to these. I don't know why, but they just scream natural and warmth to me, two things that have me at hello.

Bamboo roman shades are so easy to install it's just silly. You mark where the brackets go, install them, then tighten the wing nuts and there. you. go. (Use anchors if you don't hit studs though!!):

Oh...I was already in love after these two steps. The "window casing" makes such a difference, to me anyway:

Uhhh yeah, by the way, I really can't reach out and touch our neighbors, I swear. It looks like I can in this pics, but I promise, no touching going on.

The final step: Fabric!! I just need fabric to finish off a room. Since the dark paint color adds so much drama, I wanted the drapes to be light and airy. I found a fabric I ADORE (at Joann's) and hung it like I showed you here:

It makes them look pleated, every time. ;)

I quite literally took the fabric off the roll, cut it in half and then hung them. They puddle on the floor just a bit:

I pretty much ALWAYS put lining in my drapes, but these are so lovely on their own, I don't think I'm going to. I didn't even hem them (*real* decorators all over the world are passing out right now). But I did use my hemming tape to hem up the bottom, just so they were finished there.

This take minutes peeps -- I took video to show you how easy it is:

I did the bottom of each drape in about five minutes. You can probably hear my stories on the TV in the background. And excuse the spray paint on my hands and the sweatpants. I didn't dress up for y'all. ;)

I am loving the white drapes on the chocolate brown walls:

Here's the before:
Here's the after:

And there's that cat again. ;) I'm thinking about shortening the rods just a bit, to make the drapes pleat more.

Just some paint touch ups to do, then the two biggies -- I want to recover the chairs desperately. I did the seats years ago but would love to do the whole chair. That's another post for another day. I am also DYING to extend our hard floors into this room. I mean, DY.ING. I'm hoping we can swing it soon, and have a friend help me install them. DYING.

Next up -- I'll show you the ceiling (ooooo!) and the hutch redo.