Key In Hand...

And I'm headed over to the "Old House Tale" home! Stay tuned....

- Posted by Carla using BlogPress from my iPad!

Head Over Heels Friday: Fall Shopping Finds From Bachman's

It's my last shopping themed Friday post for the month and this time I paid a visit to Bachman's Floral and Gift Garden.  I know you might be familiar with their Idea House that I have featured photos of (click here to see their 2012 Fall House), but this post is about the actual store next to the Idea House. 

I always end up finding something that I like when I visit the store, but this time I took home three somethings that sparked my interest!  Before I show you what I got, let's take a look around the store...

A couple of my favorites were these galvanized metal ribbons, just interesting and fun!

 But, of all the goodies I just had to take one of these mirrors with some matching wall hooks home.  Seeing them gave me a fantastic idea for....

... our vegetable vestibule!  Since finishing up our back entryway update, I've been eager to get started on adding something to this entryway.

 Still not sure exactly where my Bachman's purchases will go, but I'm excited to figure it out!  The wall hooks were $6.99 each and the mirror with hanging chain was $21.99.

Where you Head Over Heels for all the goodies at Bachman's?

How would you set them up in our vestibule?

Click here to see more Head Over Heel's Friday Finds!



No projects for me this weekend, my mom and a good friend from back home in Michigan are coming for a visit to Minneapolis!  It will be my friends first trip to Minneapolis and to our home!  I am so excited, it's going to be a girl's weekend and I am sure we will get into some kind of fun trouble :)

Hope everyone else has a great weekend too!

DIY Halloween Themed Gravestone Dining Room Chair Covers!

Now this is sophisticated and fun Halloween decor!  Check out my latest DIY creation- Gravestone themed dining room chair covers!

I sewed the chair back cover the same way I made my numbered chair covers (click here for that full tutorial).  The only different step is hemming the bottom edge (shown in the bottom left photo) since I didn't attach the seat part of the cover.

 Once I was done sewing the cover it was time to stencil in my faux gravestone!  I used large and small stencils, fabric paint, and a painters pen.

 To make the tombstone shape I used a ruler and then grabbed a strainer to trace the rounded top.

 Then I stenciled on the letters using a pencil and filled them in with fabric paint.  I alternated using a paint brush and my painters pen for the smaller font.

 Here's how it turned out!  I kind of love how the edges of the gravestone look rough and imperfect.  Maybe if I make another I won't use the small stencil and let it look more rough and authentic? 

 In case you didn't pick up on it, this chair cover -errr- I mean gravestone is mine.  My hubby came up with the brilliant little phrase as a play on my blog title :) 

I still have to make a chair cover gravestone for him. If you have a fun suggestion for what Alex's should say let me know! I thought about "RIP-Here Lies AZ- All the house projects finally got to him". Haha! 

Do you have a funny faux gravestone phrase for Alex?

What do you think of the chair covers for Halloween decor?

Would you use some for a Halloween party?

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If you love the chair covers check out my authentically spook mantel decor (with distressed mirror tutorial) and Fall-over worthy Dining Room decor!

My *Grave* Fall Mantel Decor & Distressed Mirror Tutorial

I'm getting in the spooky spirit with my uber creepy mantel decor that features something straight out of a graveyard...

 Yep, those are actual grave markers along with an antique iron widow's peak.  I imagine you might be thinking "Say what?!?" and no we didn't go grave robbing, we actually got these two years ago at Junk Bonanza. 

The booth vendor informed us that they were from Iowa and the markers were used temporarily until an actual headstone could be placed permanently- hope that was true.  So yes, they are creepy but Alex and I like that kind of authentic creepy-ness. 

Before we get into all the decor details, I have to share a quick tutorial with you! 

When I started planning out my decor I thought distressed antique looking mirrors behind the grave markers would look perfect. But sadly, I didn't have any or know where I could find them so I started to think of how I could replicate the look DIY style. 

I started with some old mirror squares from Ikea in our basement along with black and gold cans of spray paint.  I thought it'd be easy and I would slowly spray paint near the bottom so it would have a kind of ombre look.... that didn't work out on the first try :) I ended up ruining one of the mirror squares (thankfully had more in the basement) or I guess you could call it my practice round? Whoops!

Anyway, I learned to spray from a distance of two feet and to barely press the spray paint trigger so that the paint will kind of splatter out.  The splatters are what will give it that faux antique/oxidized look.

  Once the mirrors dried I got the mantel set up!  I placed both mirrors behind each grave marker. 

 On the ends I added white pumpkins, gourds, and skulls inside antique light bulb covers.

 In the center I placed our antique widow's peak with white pumpkins, gourds, and moss (which tied back to our dining room decor too!).

 Perfectly spook-tacular mantel decor!

Lastly, in case you are a bit more curious about the grave markers (like I was when I began writing this post), here's some more information I found online-  the markers belonged to a 17th century organization called the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, also known as "The Three Link Fraternity."  FLT stands for Friendship, Love, Truth.  Back then, it was odd to find people organized for the purpose of giving aid to those in need and of pursuing projects for the benefit of all mankind, thus going by "Odd Fellows".

Interesting huh?  I love learning the story behind my antiques :)

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What do you think of our spooky mantel decor?

Do you like the DIY distressed mirrors?

I have one more DIY Halloween decor project and our sunroom pics coming up!  Love having lots of fun things to share in the next few days and weeks!

Joining Kate's Linky Party over at Centsational Girl!

Sights From Junk Bonanza and My Vintage Find With a Fresh Spin

Last weekend Alex and I made the annual trek out to Junk Bonanza.  It's been a tradition for us ever since our first visit with Layla & Kevin from The Lettered Cottage when we shopped for Guest Room decor.

I always love going to these local events because I know I can count on seeing some buddies from the blog world out and about.  We got to snap a quick picture with Elisa & Kevin from McBrides On the Go.

 After chatting it up with friends, we got our shop on and began zooming through all those booths filled with one-of-a-kind finds...

One of the booths has a lot of creep little doll heads, either sitting by themselves or connected to random old objects.

My favorite booth this time was Uber Chic Home.  I was drawn in by all the beautiful over dyed vintage flour and grain sacks. 

I loved that it was a new spin on the grain sacks you usually find at Junk Bonanza.  After chatting a little bit with the gentleman working in the booth, I found out that this vendor sells to One Kings Lane.  I sifted through the sacks and found a beautiful one that I just had to have (thankfully at a lower price than One Kings Lane).

Here's the beauty I brought home for $40.  I just loved the rich turquoise color with peach and navy stripes.  The booth vendor also reminded me how the unique stripe patterns were hand woven into the sacks so that farmers could identify their bags at the mills. Gotta love that special bit of history!

I'm not sure what I am going to do with it yet.  I guess I've been getting away from the burlap and grain sacks in our home decor, so I'm trying to think of another way to use it?  Perhaps making it a farmers market tote bag?  Hmmmm....

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Elisa blogged about their Junk Bonanza trip today too and she has a little (personal) history story about her purchase too!  If you are curious about what she took home check out her post here, she also got a TON of pretty photos!

Alright, gotta get back to some projects!  Stop back to see our Fall Mantel tomorrow!

September Head Over Heels Friday: Shopping for Fall Ideas at Honeyshine

Don't you love it when you randomly stumble upon a fantastic home decor boutique?!?  I know I do and it happened to me last week when I was leaving a local coffee shop and saw a store called Honeyshine.  The bottom of their sign said, "Curiosity Required," so I figured that I must take a look inside and I am so glad I did!  This store is located in the heart of Bryn Mawr, basically a 2 minute drive or 10 minute bike ride from our house. It was right under my nose and I can't believe I haven't seen it before. 

The shop was filled with all kinds of home decor and cute gift items that were traditional, modern, repurposed, humorous, and even strange- I totally loved it!  And it was all curated in such a clever way that made my quick stop turn into a long visit.... and a mini photo shoot (sadly I only had my phone, sorry the pics are going to be a little blurry).  But I hope you are curious too now!  Take a look at some of these home decor ideas from Honeyshine...





A totally cute and curious little boutique right? 

A couple of my favorites were the black studded trays, birch wrapped candle holders, and those silly squirrel figurals!

BUT!

Overall I think the best idea is all of the strange random objects covered in glitter.  I took one look at that glittered covered tire and thought "boy, that'd be the perfect girly addition I've been looking for on Alex's Zombie Jeep" haha!  

I'm sure if I did that Alex would be just as surprised as I was when I came home to our Zombie-fied Jeep :) Ha!

Which decor ideas were your favorites?!?!

Click to see week #1 or week #2's shopping trip ideas!

I've got a few fun projects to work on this weekend and I'll get some pictures of our sunroom that a few of you asked about in our back entryway post!  See you soon!

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PS- Stylelist Home did a feature on our House Tour before and afters!  Check it out here...

Totally awesome right?!?!