The Halloween Theme Took Over Our Mantel

I wrote about my first experience decorating for fall in this blog. I will quote what I said about the mantel decor, "I wanted to give it a bit of a fall look, but not overly theme it."  So what happened 3 weeks later?  This happened...

Yea, I don't think you can get more themed than that!  The pumpkins multiplied from 4 to 13 and the 'Happy Halloween' banner officially made our mantel overly themed.  Again, Alex built the mantel last year, here is the blog showing how he built it (still so thankful we have a mantel, otherwise I would have nothing to decorate!).  With Halloween a week away now, I think we can enjoy the festive decor, then tone it back down. But it turned out pretty cute and fun! 

Now, time to light the candles and watch some scary movies!

Annual Pumpkin Carving Challenge! Alex vs. Carla

In preparation for Halloween, Alex and I always carve pumpkins together.  Last year, we started making it a contest as to who carves the better or scarier pumpkin.  We research designs and hide them from each other so once we are done carving it is a surprise.  Yep, kind of dorky, but we have a good time doing it!  We had the pumpkins out on our porch before carving for decorative appeal.  Unfortunately, squirrels seemed to nibble the back of Alex's pumpkin, at least they didn't make a hole!  So, once we covered our table and got the knives ready, we started the carving! 

We had the 'On Gaurd' with our Sharpies, and started tracing out our designs.

Alex snapped a picture of his...

And I took one of mine before carving...

After some intense carving, we got these guys!

Alex lost part of his eye and a tooth, thankfully he didn't have an 'Alex cursing fit'.  So, since this is technically my blog, I declare myself the winner of the challenge.  My Boogeyman pumpkin wins!

Chair Cover Project: Adding Designs to the Chair Backs!

I have been working on this chair cover project for quite some time now.  I got started on them in this blog then wrote the tutorial about sewing them in this blog.  I finally got the guts to cut out stencils and paint the designs onto the chair backs.  I have been putting it off for a while now, just a little nervous about how they would turn out.  After all the hard work I put into sewing them I got worried if they didn't turn out right after painting the design then I would just have to get rid of the covers.  Luckily, the first one turned out great!  So I am getting in gear to finish up all six chair covers!

This is the chair cover I saw in Rachel Ashwell's Shabby Chic shop in NYC that inspired me to make my own:

It took us a while to determine what we wanted designed on the backs.  We agreed to use numbers because we have number decorative pillows in our living room from Pottery Barn, so it makes a perfect match!  Here is a picture of the pillows:

Here are the steps I took to add the design to the back of the chair cover:

  I started by printing out the design we wanted from my computer and then I copied it to poster board. The font I used for the "No." part was Ewardian Script ITC and for the "1" (or whatever #) I used Garamond.  Once on the poster board I used a craft razor to cut out the text to make a stencil.

Here is a picture of cutting out the number from the poster board.

Once I had my stencils, I laid them down to be painted.  I decided to use spray paint because it was a technique I was familiar with from my younger days when I would make t-shirts and tanks for my friends. However, I'm considering painting the next ones by hand. 

Here it is after spray painting. It turned out fine but I got so nervous about the paint running off the poster board and back into the fabric. It did a little on the 'No.' stencil but luckily it gave it a more vintage and distorted look, so I didn't get mad and have an 'Alex cursing fit'. It is however a reason that I'll be doing it by hand on the next few.

Here it is once I fit it onto the chair.  I love it!  I can't wait to have the full set finished.  I might make another 'No.' stencil in a different font so some will be slightly different instead of too matchy-matchy.

I think the fabric and the dark gray paint looks great together.  Kind of reminds me of the Vintage French Linen pillows at Restoration Hardware:

By the way, I am in love with those pillows, maybe I need them?  Or maybe that is the next project, however stenciling that would not be fun!

A High Heels Moment!

Should be no surprise, we spend most of our free time fixing our house, but we got to take a break this weekend (hence no update on the bathroom or chair covers) to attend our friend's wedding!  I love going to weddings, and I love any opportunity to get all gussied up since it doesn't seem like we get to a lot anymore.  I spent time doing an updo on my hair, borrowed a dress from a friend (helped to save me some cash), and put on some killer 4.75" heels!

The best part? I got to wear my Grandma's vintage mink (passed down from my Great Great Aunt Lucille). It was a beautiful, but brisk fall day, so I kept warm wearing the fur. I have to add a disclaimer of course, I would never buy fur or wear it otherwise, the fact that it is a family heirloom means a lot to me so I wore it proudly and tried to channel my Pierson side!

Here is a picture of the newlyweds. Their wedding was totally fabulous, I loved their vintage Rolls Royce.  We snapped this picture as their photographer was taking more photos of them.  The brides dress was totally amazing and dreamy as well! Sigh, I love weddings, seeing all the different styles is so fun!

Circuit Overload! Adding Basic Electrical Skills to Our Renovation Resume

Surprise, surprise, something bad and inconvenient happened in our old house... electrical issues.  Alex and I are total DIY-ers, but there are two things that bring us slight fear when working with- Plumbing and Electrical.  Basic plumbing and electrical installation is no problem (like a sink, toilet, or light fixture).  But troubleshooting a mystery electrical problem is pretty scary.

We found this super helpful site called The Circuit Detective and after a little research, Alex was able to determine that the problem was a tripped GFCI outlet due to circuit overload. Who knew that running a sawzall through a kitchen outlet would be a bad idea? Turns out that when a circuit runs with a heavy load for too long the GFCI will trip because it can't determine if the power surge is being caused by a short or water hazard. It's a great safety feature, but it put three power outlets, two recessed lights and a dishwasher out of order (when the dishwasher is down in our house, it becomes top priority to get it fixed!)

NOTE: Even though the outlets weren't working, they were still hot! After Alex got a few good jolts and a tingle coursing through his hand and arm, we decided it was time to kill the power......I'd suggest you do the same if you tackle any electrical work.

Alex removed the faceplate and exposed the wires. He paid close attention to the schematics of the wiring and carefully removed the old tripped outlet

He made sure to check all of the load connections that will be running from the new GFCI and made any necessary connection improvements (a few were loose). 

With the connections re-established he was then ready to wire in the new outlet

Once the wires were properly attached and the power restored, the tell-tale light in the corner let us know that the system/GFCI was installed correctly and once again protecting our kithen outlets.

Once the power got started again, Alex moved on to fixing the dishwasher.  We had to pull out the dishwasher to disconnect the power when Alex fixed the electricity.  While pulling it out, the water supply line kinked near one of the fittings which resulted in a leak (of course). So then we had to get a new one and install it.  Good times.

I Hate Our Front Door, But It Just Got a Little Cuter!

Well, this is kind of dumb, but I am going to blog about it.  I got our first front door wreath!  We haven't had any wreaths before for our house (or apartment or condo), so I was really excited about it.  I knew I wanted to get a wreath for Christmas this year since we didn't have one last year, but while visiting Joanne's to get more fabric for my Chair Cover Project I found all the fall wreaths on sale for half off!  I couldn't resist, and oddly, it took me almost a half hour to pick out a wreath!  Pretty stupid, but I couldn't help but compare them all trying desperately to picture how they might enhance our curb appeal and spruce up the look of our house.  Anyway, here is the one I picked, I think it is super cute and makes the outside of our house look far more cheery.  Once we carve pumpkins; I think the whole front porch will look seasonal and cute. 

So why do we hate the front door? Well, we aren't totally sure if the door is the original door to the house, but it is pretty darn old.  We think it is cute, but when it comes to being functional and energy efficient it is a big problem.  Here is a look at the cute little mail slot that says 'Letters'. 
We actually do get our mail in this slot since we don't have driveways in our neighborhood or mailboxes along the street.  It is pretty small (our Netflix won't fit through) ha!  It is darling, but we are pretty anxious to get a fancy new door (and I'm hoping we can paint it red to add some color and character, it would pop against the white trim, right?).  If we do ditch the door completely, I plan to salvage the 'Letters' slot somehow.  I think it would look great with the paint in our kitchen and dining room.

The Morning Glory Story

It dawned on me when I created our House Tour page that I never showed any after pictures of the left side of our Ugly Yard Overhaul.  The biggest change was planting morning glories back in June to grow into the ugly (but convenient when you have 2 dogs) chain link fence.

Here is the before picture of the left side of the yard.  We had to remove 5 large bushes along with several plants and a lilac tree.  We laid grass patch down where the plants were removed.  All we wanted was a grass yard so the doggies could run around, who knew that would be so hard?  Since we live within the city in an old neighborhood, that is the alley you see behind our yard.  We planted the morning glories so they could grow into the fence and make it look pretty along with hiding the alley from view.

I'm kicking myself for not taking afters in the summer when the yard was lush and green, but here is the after (with some fall leaves).  It took about 3 or 4 months of growing, but those morning glories took off!!!  We now don't have to look at the concrete alleyway or the chain link fence, so much better!

The little flowers that bloom along the fence are so pretty. There are tons in the morning (hence the name) but a few will last throughout the day.