Squash art

What is it about pumpkin carving that makes you feel like a kid? The smell of a pumpkin just brings me back to being little and the first time I remember scooping out the "guts" with my hand. The whole process is so unique and totally fun!
This year was the first time we have carved pumpkins in years. We had two of our friends over for a carving party. We have used zombiepumpkins.com for their off the chart awesome templates in the past, and this year we went back for more.

Here are Stephanie and Bear having some fun with the radish eyeball apps. I had made them last year also for our pre-haunted house party. They are really simple to make, they look great/creepy and they taste so good!
Stephanie is wearing a really cool white feather wig in this picture. That was about the extent of the costumes this year. It was the first time in years that we haven't dressed up.


Here is Bear's Zombie creation, he used a drill to quickly drill holes all over the back of the pumpkin for a really great effect.


Stephanie, who is so creative came up with her design by combining elements of two templates she liked and her own ideas, she free hand drew this right onto the pumpkin. Pretty impressive, and really cute!


Mr.B used the template for the "headless horseman", I love the flaming pumpkin head.


I have a thing for owls, they are such beautiful birds. This little cutie was irresistible, so I had to carve it.


We had apps and dinner followed by hot mulled cider and pumpkin pie. During the evening we watched scary flicks (more like listened to them in the background), as we carved.
Here we are posing by our creations in the dark.


The next night (Monday) was Halloween. Mr. B and I carved another pumpkin each.
I went with Edgar Allan Poe, I just love this one!


Mr. B went with a goofy Jack-o-Lantern face for fun.




Hope you all had a fun and treat filled Halloween this year!

San Francisco Trip

Mr. B and I finally got away for a brief vacation. We traveled up north to the Bay area to visit my brother, and site see in the city.
We really enjoyed our "new" car (the outback that we bought last year) especially for this trip. It made the road time quite easy. Heated seats, roomy and the back up camera came in handy for parallel parking on the busy streets.


We walked the whole Embarcadero to Fisherman's Wharf. We were really excited to check out in detail this WWII Submarine. The USS Pampanito.



I saw this "Rosie the Riveter" cut out and I couldn't resist. I have always loved that poster, and what it represented back then. Us DIY-er women can do anything!


I Loved these! We were walking towards a gourmet doughnut shop (more on that soon) and we walked through a very Hispanic influenced part of the city, it was so cool. They had great big murals on the sides of buildings, and tons of fab looking little restaurants in small spaces. We could have spent a day there.
These sugar skulls were set out for Dia de los Muertos, and you could decorate your own inside. Sadly they were closed that day or I would have totally gone home with one of my own.


Here I am enjoying the best doughnut I have ever had. We were in "Dynamo Donuts" in SF. The one I was holding in this picture was a Molasses Guinness Pear. OMG!


Yeah this pretty much sums it up.

Mr. B's favorite was the Bacon Maple Apple. Check out this shop if you have time and are in San Fran, its worth it.


The next morning after we came home from our trip, I headed out to my knitting class, and on the way home I went to check out the Pottery Barn for ideas. I often DIY their decor items for the holidays. Well this time I fell in love with bedding
I picked up this beautiful Duvet and Euro case from the "Alisa" line. It was on Sale!!


It's thick linen style cotton with beautiful floral embroidery.


I just love the French Knots. They have such a great texture, and the embroiderer in me appreciates the hand work to achieve them.



I really love how a change of a little bedding can transform the whole room. The colors are great in this set, they just go with everything.

Time for Halloween, decor!

Warning!! This post is going to be pretty picture heavy, as I love Halloween and I love to decorate.
I really didn't go crazy this year with decorations, but I still want to share them with blog world and maybe spread the Halloween spookiness around.
These great new dishes are from Mr. B's Mom, they were an early anniversary gift.


I like to keep our dining table decor to a minimum, because we use it everyday and too much stuff is impractical. So just a couple spooky candles and some striped place mats. I took this small bud vase and drew a skull and cross bones on it with a chalk pen and filled it with candies.





You may recognize these two? I painted this lovely couple to resemble "Dia de los Muertos" skulls in my own way. They are residing on our side table in the dining room watching over us as we eat.


The entry way inside has lots of spooky going on. I added some candles, a few Jack-be-little's, and some bottles & jars with Martha Stewart Halloween labels.


Delicious Frog Syrup canister with black roses, a bottle of Eye of Newt 2011, and a few pumpkins.


I don't know why candles are creepy to me but I love the dark yellow beeswax colored ones especially for Halloween.


I couldn't ignore the outside. The entry way got some new flowers in my hanging baskets, I had just put up the wreath last week and now I have added Halloween touches to the door.


A few hanging ghouls.


I picked up some discounted mums in yellow, white and orange for fall.




I made the "Boo" sign from supplies won in a blog giveaway a few months back. Canvas Corp gave away the burlap triangles, and tiny little black clothes pins. I printed out the letters, glued them on the black card stock and added a few spiderweb drawings.


Our front door got a makeover months ago when I added the privacy film and cut out the oak tree design. But the bats are new! I used a chalk board pen to draw a large harvest moon and other spooky elements like a graveyard to the tree, and I cut out bats and stuck them into the scene.




It's a very subtle decoration, but I love it. Not everyone would even notice it with everything else going on out front, but I think its a cute idea.





I really haven't had the time to search other blogs with great Halloween decor ideas and DIY. So if you know of any or want to share yours please leave a comment with a link, and if I find any soon I'll make sure to post links! Happy Halloween...almost!

Low Effort Fall

My very simple decor for Fall this year was pretty low effort. I mean there was some work involved when I planted a pumpkin patch with my mom over at her place back in May. We decided to grow all of our pumpkins and gourds for Fall ourselves, and they were quite easy to do.
I grew theses two beautiful Fairytale Pumpkins from the one I bought last year from Trader Joes. I just saved the seeds and stuck them in the ground with a bit of water and a few months, voila! I picked these and have 2 more small ones still growing.


I also finally decided to cut the 2 hydrangea blooms from or back yard. I just love how the white blooms changed to green, and although they are fading a bit I think it looks just fine for a Fall centerpiece. The little tattered edges to the flowers have a rustic look that's just my style.


Outside I filled one of my many garage sale wicker baskets with numerous decorative gourds. All grown from just a few plants. These things grow like crazy. I planted them for our wedding 3 years ago as well, and we were thrilled with how many each plant yields. There are also "jack be little's" and Kabocha squash.


I ran to the new craft store today with coupons in hand to pick up some knitting needles. While I was there I grabbed a couple 40% off Fall decor items and put them together for this really simple fall wreath.
It's just a grape vine wreath a cute "Welcome" sign and an adorable plush crow that is so much cuter in person. I like that the wreath is bare, it feels appropriate for Fall. I was going to add moss and a bow but I think less is more here.


The little crow had this tag around his neck that said "welcome friends" but with the other sign on the wreath that seemed redundant. So I flipped it around and wrote, "Nevermore!" instead. I have always loved Poe, and it seems too fitting.


**Updated to show a close up of the plush crow, who I named Edgar. Isn't he cute?