Thursday, October 29, 2015

Kate Spade Home Furniture and Lighting


You all know how much of a big KATE SPADE fan I am.
I've written about Kate Spade Home in the past HERE

But now, Kate Spade has expanded their home line and I AM IN LOVE EVEN MORE!



Here are some of my faves...

Drake Tufted Sofa
My sofa crush, who wouldn't love a pale aqua linen tufted sofa?! 


Drake Slipper Chair
Yup, goes with pale aqua I believe. ;-)

Worthington Chair
Of course this 'signature' Kate Spade color fits this beautiful chair to a tee!


Georgia Bench
LOVE the LEGS!!!!

Downing Desk
Hello?! Kate Spade = Dotted!!! Perfect



Dickinson Table Lamp
A bejeweled lamp is always a necessity - at least for me! ;-)

Ellery Sconce
Ribbons and lamps? YES WAY!

So, what do you think?
Fabulous right?! Only one big, caveat - cost .
But then again, with Kate Spade, you get what you pay for, great design with excellent quality!



On a quick note, I came to work today (10/30) dressed like this..

Dr. Tiger Lily reporting for duty!

Have a Great  Halloween Weekend!



VEL

 Would love to hear your thoughts! Please share away...

Sunday, October 25, 2015

My Top 10 tips to Affordable Halloween Decorating


Ok, now that you've seen my Halloween-Gaga-of-a-home,  and Halloween is just a couple of days away , and if you still want to try and catch-up with your Halloween decorating,  then you MUST read these tips!


1) Go over what you already have first.
      No brainer here, before you go on a shopping spree, always, always look at stuff you have first. Not just your Halloween stuff but other stuff you have that may pass for Halloween, such as....

Anything Black or orange..
Black lamp shade, black vase, B & W art, orange pillows
Glass Jars - and fill 'em up with creepy stuff
Some food color and spiders and weeds - viola!
Make non-eerie stuff feel eerie
It's all in the mix

2) Shop at the Dollar store
       This is no secret, with the right styling, you can make Dollar Store items look so much more than their actually worth!

Cafe Sign, Web placemats, purple flowers

3) Use Table Runners... other than AS table runners!

I've used them on my doors, windows and draped my chairs with them!


4) Printer and some scissors your halfway done.
       Just go to Pinterest and search out all the FREE PRINTABLES out there and print your heart out and change some of the pictures in your home.



Label, label, label - a big plus, FREE!
source

5) Crows and spiders go a long way. 
     After you shopping spree at the Dollar Store, hope you grabbed these critters since you can just place them anywhere and viola - instant Halloween!




6) Webbings (Gauzy fabric) are a must.



       Aside from the above examples, you can use them to as a table runner, cover chairs or tables cover your bushes outdoors... the big plus is there's no need for great upkeep, the more tattered and town, the better.

7) Change you light bulb.
      Quick, easy, cheap and instant Halloween ambience.


8) Buy a real pumpkin or two.
     If your not into carving them like I am, I only buy a couple of them for display. So easy and so perfect for both Fall and Halloween!



9) Spray or not,  some twigs from outside


Fool-proof and FREE!

10) Buy your Halloween stuff AFTER HALLOWEEN


     Most important tip of all, since everything is 50% off and eventually 75% off, buy them at this time but ALWAYS, ONLY buy stuff YOU REALLY LIKE. This is the key, or else by next Halloween you'll be run over with stuff you're not even sure why you got in the first place!
 I think the main reason why I have not changed any of my decor and kept reusing them is because 
I love them then and I love them still!


There you have it folks, I hope this will come in handy.
Remember, it's all in the spirit of fun and the great thing about Halloween is that, imperfection is perfectly acceptable and even needed!

If you want to see all of my Halloween decorations Past and Present, click HERE.
So enjoy and have a BOO-TIFUL HALLOWEEN NIGHT!


VEL 

Thursday, October 22, 2015

DIY Skeleton Hand wreath and Halloween Pillow


Ok, you all know I'm not a big-time crafter, but you all know how much inspiration one can get from blogging right? And this is just the post to showcase that. 

This wreath I made for Halloween....





 was inspired by this...


Skeleton Hands Wreath from Vanessa Brady of Tried and True Blog

Thank you very much for the inspiration Vanessa, you can check out her tutorial HERE!

This is what the hand looks like

I wanted my wreath to be bigger so I spray-painted an old charger black, wrote the "Happy Halloween" sign using gold Sharpie paint, then hot-glued the hands all around!

Ta-da!

Our Girly Halloween Entry

The other DIY I/we did for Halloween are these gorgeous pillows.



I had these grey Gurli Pillow covers from IKEA and these 2 beautiful table napkins I scored from Williams and Sonoma last year.



And since I can't sew to save my life, I sought the help of my mother-in law to sew the table napkin on top of the pillow cover .  And, VIOLA - perfect Halloween pillow! No cutting was even done!

Gingersnap Crafts



There you have it, my easy Halloween crafts. Please check out my post on Monday as I do my last post for  Halloween (actually, almost last, since I often share our Halloween costume photos here on the blog too) on my TOP 10 AFFORDABLE WAYS OF DECORATING FOR HALLOWEEN.

HAPPY DECORATING!


VEL 

Monday, October 19, 2015

Halloween in our Living Room

Hello friends!

How was your weekend? I hope your enjoying the glory of Fall in your neck of the woods, as for us here in Southern Illinois, it's been touch and go so far - one  minute we have the cool crisp fall air, the next minute, it feels like summer again?! Crazy!

Anyhow, we had a small celebration for my hubs birthday last, last Saturday and of course, that kept me busy in a very good way, since I do love to celebrate for the most important man in my life, and believe me, he deserves this kind of celebration and even more. So again,
 Belated happy birthday to my best friend and one true love!

Ok, now back to regular programming, as promised, today I will be sharing with you our Halloween Decorations in our Living room!

Don't mind the pink chair behind - that's where Sophia's stuff are at. :-)
I used my Ikat pillows and Disney Mary Poppins pillow again along with some new orange pillow covers I scored from IKEA.

Simple coffee table/ottoman vignette

Switched out my lamps and added these super cute pillows on my chairs

I shared this on IG, can you guess how we made this pillow covers?
I'll share with you this quick DIY Pillow project on Thursday!

More simple than last year for sure

Mix of non-halloween and Halloween  stuff. I added webbing on the bottom part of the rails - super easy but adds a "crawly-feel" to the space!


Cut out mice comes back - they always do, year after year. I've had them since we moved
to this house in 2010, so you can say they are my "Halloween Pets"!!!!! ;-)

Spiders are also oldie "pets" of mine.

My console is all simple too 

Spray-painted a huge branch from a dead-tree black and just placed it inside my brass
bucket and filled it with gauzy fabric. Pumpkins and witches hat plate complete this simple set-up.


Simple Fall Mantel with faux pumpkins and  brass candlesticks


Had to remove the lampshades besides the sofa to avoid any possible mishaps for our little walker ;-)

I'm almost done sharing with you all the Halloween goodness in our home. 
On Thursday I will share with you very Simple DIY projects for Halloween then come Monday, my Top 10 tips for Affordable Halloween Decorating!




Have a Great Week!


VEL 


Friday, October 16, 2015

Our Girly Halloween Front Porch


Hello Friends!

Today I'd like to share with you our "Girly Halloween" Front Porch!

I know, PINK is not a Halloween Color!
 The Pink mums truly made this entry very "girly" right? But I could not get rid of them just yet since they are so pretty and just bursting with flowers!

I originally got them for Sophia's Birthday, see...


Perfect for the Flamingle Party right?!
But now with Halloween around the corner, I just couldn't get myself to buy more mums, not with these healthy pretty ones I already had!


Used my usual old Threshold pumpkins and bought new real white ones for the simple vignette

I also made this Gold Skeletal hand wreath!
I'll share with you the inspiration & how I made this super easy wreath next week!



Old Dollar Tree signs hand underneath our lights


And I used these Decal Bats I scored From Target last year ( saw them again this year) for an eerie effect inside...


...and outside
Sorry for my bad night time pics, but you can see how Girly our Halloween still is even at night!
I used Purple Lights, but I guess with the mums, it all looks so PINK!!!!!




Remind me to buy orange or green lights for next year!
At least I thought, the kids won't be scared dropping by our house for some treats come Halloween!

Have a Great Weekend!


VEL