Paint Chip Halloween Garland

I know it may be hard to believe but my Paint Chip Halloween Garland was the first time I crafted with paint chips! Yeah, just a little behind in the trends! I'm positive it won't be the last time either!

Of course this was very easy and I did it one night after Lil' Hunkie was in bed. Didn't take long, what was time consuming was trying to decide on a shape! 

{Supplies:}

Paint chips 

Scrapbook paper

square punch

scissors/paper cutter

mini clothespins, twine

{How to:}

Using my paper cutter I cut the bottom off of each chip, just above the punch out hole. I punched out the holes, and now had dots which I saved and used. 

I then made a template. I did this because it took me several tries to get the angle just right!

Then I cut all my chips to match my template.

Then using my square punch, I punched out squares in the two scrapbook papers. After rearranging a few times settled on the below pattern. Square, dot, clothespin.  I then started in the middle of my twine and pinned on the chips, hung on the fireplace and done! So easy!

 Using the clothespins allowed me to skip gluing! Ha!

What's your favorite way to use paint chips?

Happy Thursday!

{See my Links Parties Page for the link ups!}

Soiree Day-Lovely Little Princess Baby Shower

*And a chance to win free party printable items!!*

Bringing you a lovely {just like the title says!} girly baby shower today!   Emily of ReMarkable Home has done a fabulous shower once again! I've featured her Little Man baby shower which I adored!  Emily created this shower to celebrate a new niece to the family and has most of the items she created for sale!

Lovely Little Princess Baby Shower by ReMarkable Home

I love the idea of a yogurt parfait bar! And the 'happily ever after' details are just perfect since this was an adoption.  

Love this as much as I do? Not only is Emily selling some of the items, she's giving some away too!!

"Pin it to Win it Giveaway"

One person will win all the printable items from the shower plus $40 of other items in the shower!

Simply go to the giveaway post HERE,  pin the collage with the appropriate title and leave a comment with a link to the pin! That's it! 

The giveaway will end October 8 so hurry over!

Happy Soiree Day!

Vintage Gwen Chapel-What's Your Friend Pattern?

I mentioned last Chapel that the Saturday morning of our ladies retreat a pillar in our church did the ministering.  To me, that was a great time to take notes.  And I"m so glad I did! She said something that shed new light on a fact that I already knew.  Jesus had a friend pattern.  I knew he had friends, but never thought of them in a pattern. 

Jesus always had a ton of people around him, following him, I'm sure he would call them friends. 

But then he had people like Lazarus and his sisters. He called them friends. Going a step further He had the 12 disciples. And don't we consider them an inner circle? But He did one more step and had a smaller circle of 3; Peter, John and James.  Even Jesus needed close friends.  

Then I thought about myself and my friend pattern and sure enough, basic concept! 

Is a friend pattern the way God intended? I'm sure it could be debated but it's comforting to know that I've mirrored mine after my Savior. 

I recently spoke to someone about their daughter who is in college.  She told me that her daughter didn't have any close friends, that herself was basically it. And it made me sad, everyone needs a close friend who is not their mom! If Jesus had 3 then I need 3! We need 3! 

Do you have at least 3?

What's your friend pattern?

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 {NASB}

Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?  And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.

Have a Blessed Weekend!

Fall Crawl-Scary Free Halloween Mantel

My Fall Crawl day is here!

I always enjoy the cool bloggy events Marilyn of The ArtsyGirl Connection organizes.  And I didn't want to pass this one up! So after joining I got to thinking about what today's post would be.  Lil' Hunkie has already been talking Christmas so when he does I always remind him of all the fun things we have to do before Christmas....Pumpkin day, his birthday, Turkey day then Christmas.  Well my husband caught me saying this and said I was forgetting one...Halloween. I was calling Halloween Pumpkin day! Because we take it as a day to celebrate fall not all the spooky, scary stuff.  So I thought why not make a scary free Halloween mantel? The result is perfect for my taste and how I want my family to celebrate October 31!

And guess how much money I spent?
About $5!!
2 pieces of scrapbook paper, a fabric remnant and a bag of candy was all I bought, the rest I had already!!
What I made:
Paint chip garland {tutorial coming soon!}
Scrapbook papered plaques
'October' embroidery hoop art {tutorial coming soon!}
'31' tray
'T is for Treat' sign

Tips for decorating for Halloween without the scary/spooky stuff:
{These might be obvious! But this was totally my thought process!}
*Use color. Pick a simple color scheme and stick to it.*
I did orange and black but green and black or purple and black would be great too!
I didn't want brown or yellow mixed in.
*Use pattern.*
  Again, I only have a few patterns going...damask and chevron.
*Think outside the box.*
Using '31', 'October' art and  'T is for Treat' is a little different from the norm of witches, skulls, etc.
But they still represent the holiday.

Hope those tips help!
I must say for my first Halloween mantel I'm pretty happy!

Make sure and visit the other gals in the Fall Crawl and join the fun and link up your fall projects to the Fall Crawl Link Party below!!

Happy Fall! Happy Friday!

{See my Link Parties Page for the link ups.}

September Birchbox

Doing things a little different this week since tomorrow I'm joining Marilyn of The ArtsyGirl Connection for her Fall Crawl. I'll be showing how I decorated my mantel for Halloween without all the spooky, scary stuff, you don't want to miss my first ever Halloween mantel!

  So today I wanted to show off my September Birchbox that I just got on Tuesday.  

Lots of goodies this month!

What's inside:

BVLGARI Mon Jasmin Noir

{It smells oh so lovely!}

Color Club Birchbox Polish

{Pretty taupeish, metallic color!}

twistband Birchbox Custom Lace Hair Tie

{Like this better than the yellow one I got previously!}

Vasanti Brighten Up! Enzymatic Face Rejuvenator

WEI to Go Sleep Over Kit

Extras:

The Brush Guard Variety Kit

Birchbox Digital Download-Tristan Prettyman

Madewell coupon

And a nice mini-mag filled with fall beauty trends.  I'm really liking the pamphlet/min-mag thing they're doing! Fun way to present good info!

What was in your Birchbox?

To find out more about Birchbox go HERE. 

And next Friday will be another Chic Couture link party where you can link up anything beauty or fashion related! Hope you'll join me!  And don't forget about tomorrow!

Happy Thursday!

Soiree Day-The Wedding Carnival

Oh my stars! You just might flip over today's feature like I did! 

How fun to have a Wedding Carnival?  All of the details are just amazing!

The Wedding Carnival by Your Homebased Mom

Photos taken by Megan Elle Photography.

Leigh Anne of Your Homebased Mom created this fun party for her son and bride with the help of family & friends.  All her attention to detail and hard work paid off! What a day full of awesome memories!

I have just scratched the surface with these photos! Leigh Anne has all the details broken up into several posts.  To see more pictures and all of the posts get started here..

The Wedding Carnival

....links are at the bottom! 

Enjoy!

Happy Soiree Day!

Vintage Gwen Chapel-Retreat Recap

Last weekend was our Ladies on Location annual Fall Retreat.  We've been doing this for many, many years and I gotta say, here lately they just keep getting better and better.  This was, as far as I know, the largest one yet with 29 ladies attending!  Almost a year ago {last November} our church merged with another church in Collinsville.  Total God thing. We updated our name and began having a 9 am & an 11 am service since we had 2 locations.  Then earlier this year the Collinsville school system approached us about buying our main location which happens to be by the football field.  Again, total God thing.  It's been a long process and looks like we'll finally be closing this next week! 

So I said all that to say...thus the reason for 29 ladies and thus the reason we had such a tremendous time!

We spent the weekend at Grand Lake in Grove and took Saturday to drive to Carthage, Mo to the Precious Moments museum.  The rest of them time was spent in fellowship, ministry and of course eating!

If you've never been to the museum you need to go at least once.  This was my 2nd time which it had been a long time, probably about 10 years or more since I had been.  The story of the artist, Sam Butcher, is very inspiring and the museum is in the country and so very peaceful.

 Gardens/fountain on way to chapel...

 Entering the chapel...

 Inside...

What's so very cool is that the artist has added to the paintings.  The very top row of paintings on the sides are fairly recent!

It is free admission so it's worth it!

The theme for our trip was 'relationship'.  Not only with God but with each other.  Friday evening was spent getting to know each other and I truly felt like if there was a 'line' still dividing 2 churches that it is completely gone now.  As I'm writing this I'm realizing that out of the 6 ladies in my condo 5 of them were from the church we merged with and I loved rooming with every single one of them and truly feel like we've been attending church together for a long time! Saturday morning a pillar in our church spoke about the importance of feeding our relationships not just spiritually but physically which is just as important. And she sang a beautiful song!  Then Saturday night we did a nail polish swap as another fun way to get to know each other.  It was also unload night.  2 of our pastors ministered on perception and having God's view of things and not our own which led into a great, much needed time of personal ministry.  To say God moved might be understated. He was very present and ladies were able to lay down junk they'd been carrying for far too long and become new.
As I went to bed that night I kept thinking about the nail polish swap.  God used such a simple thing for our benefit! I had used the fruits of the spirit plus some other good spiritual words to make up how we did the swap.  I  had 15 words, 2 of each.  My sister was suppose to attend but at the last minute had to stay home, I really felt like she was with us in spirit and through the nail polish swap God gave me a word to bring home to her! So we would have had 30. ☺ I had each lady draw a word and the 2 ladies who got the same word then swapped nail polish.  And I'm not kidding...they were all God connections!  The first word was love and my pastor and  her daughter were paired up! My word was joy and I was paired with Joyce...she got her namesake! I mean how did that happen other than God?!  So Sunday morning after an awesome time of worship we paired back up and prayed for each other, finalizing the solidifying of relationships.
We're completely family now!
I'm very thankful for all of what God did!  I shouldn't be surprised at His goodness....I did prepare my heart for what ever He wanted accomplished.  And accomplish He did.
Praying the Lord is good to you today!

Happy Weekend!

{Home} DIY Closet With Sheets From The Ceiling

Today's post is not pretty.  There's nothing glamorous about what I'm going to share.  

It's just my solution to lack of closet space.  Our house was built in 1975 and even though it's been totally upgraded on fixtures, flooring, etc. it still lacks closet space in the master bedroom.  

{My dream some day would be to add a master suite complete with a spacious closet and true master bath! Someday....}

I'm used to not sharing a closet with my husband and while there is a 3rd bedroom's closet I could use I still need more space!  So with the help of one of my best friends and my good ole' dad I gave myself some breathing room!

See that sheet? There's 3 of them that extend to the opposite wall!

This room is our den/office/music room and now closet/storage space!

It's not all the way done, I still need more shelving....

Here's a before...actually right before we hung the hardware from the ceiling!

 Ahem...can you tell that someone was playing with easter eggs? And boxes? And cords?

What I used:

2 10 ft electrical conduit poles 

{can't remember the specific price but they were less than $1.50 a piece!}

5 Universal Brackets

1 coupler

3 Queen size sheets

About 4 packs of drapery rings

{had some already}

Estimate of cost:  $125

Then added a $90 Closetmaid closet kit and a $80 dresser! 

My dad did all the hanging of hardware....yes he used a pencil!  He did have to trim the poles but only by a few inches. We put a bracket in the middle of the ceiling.  Then measured each side, found the middle and added another on each side making 3 total. Then finished by putting a bracket at each end...basically by each wall for 5 total.  Then my friend came and helped me hang the sheets.  Again starting with the center of each sheet she was able to evenly space the drapery rings, using 9 per sheet.  

Dresser holds my socks, scarves and comfy, lounge clothes.  I have all my sweaters in a grey tote.  I still need to make room for shoes and purses on the right side after adding more shelving.

See? It isn't pretty but look at the space!  

It gives me the space I need without spending a wad or involving lots of construction!

This room still needs work besides finishing off the closet...I have plans for a comfy chair and side table.  And the love seat needs a slipcover!  I've kinda taken a break on general home decorating right now though, since the holidays are coming...Lil' Hunkie has already been talking about a Christmas tree!

And I have no idea where to put one!

Happy Thursday!

See my Links Parties Page for where I'll be at!