Trick or Treat & All that Fun Stuff

Hola! I'm back.  I went MIA last week because our whole family got to serve in an AMAZING ministry at church called Judgement House.  It's a walk through drama that takes the participants through scenes depicting the gift that God gave us all through His Son Jesus and the consequences of rejecting that gift.  In two weeks over 6,000 people walked through Judgement House and over 2,000 made decisions to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior!  To say that our family was blessed to serve this way is an understatement. 

Between all the time we spent at church last weekend we were able to squeeze in a little more pumpkin fun.  Abby wanted to do something crafty Saturday so we broke out some spray paint, craft paint and did up a couple more pumpkins.

Cute right?  Abby made the polka dots all by herself and used spray paint for the first time....makes a mother proud!

This one we just spray painted and pinned a trick or treat ribbon around.  Simple but fun.

We even broke out some chalk paint....okay I was using it for another project but who says you can't chalk paint a pumpkin.

Aidan didn't get in on any of the pumpkin fun because he was busy saving us from all kinds of bad guys out to get us.  Every home needs a GOOD ninja!

Hope you all had a Great Halloween and are eating just as much of your kiddos candy as I am!!

Pirate Map Art?

Once in awhile Bob and I take a little idea and run with it.  That's exactly what happened at Aidan's 5th Birthday Pirate Party.  It started out as a sports theme then morphed into all things pirate when I stumbled across lots of pirate dress-up, swords etc in the dollar bins at Target.  Aidan loved it so we picked up a treasure chest piñata, borrowed a balance beam for a "walk the plank" game and had plans for a treasure hunt. 

Enter Bob and his last minute creativeness.  The night before he spent around an hour making this...

Great, right?  He used some markers to draw it out on a piece of painter's canvas we had in the garage then burned the edges and a few holes in it with a lighter.  He also used this technique on "costumes" for us.

(I only put my picture up out of fairness to Bob...if he can wear a gold hoop, and rag hat I can suffer along with him. Yes, we are the parents who dress up for the kids' birthday parties and even other people's kids parties)

Throughout the day the map got used for the treasure hunt.

And a backdrop for photos of each kid in their pirate gear.  The photos then got sent to them in a thank you note.

(Isn't she the cutest pirate you've ever seen?!?)

Finally, the map became wall art for Aidan's room.  It was just too good to throw away so after he played with it for a few weeks I framed it for above his dresser. 

(the amount of Legos, army men and Pokemon cards I removed from the top of Aidan's dresser to take this photo is crazy!!)

Cheap, fun and extra special because his dad made it for him.

Garage Sale Junk Creation

If you have ever read this blog before you know I obsess over home design blogs and junk.  The two go so beautifully together like chocolate and peanut butter or ice cream and root beer oh now I'm hungry....okay back on task.  Several months ago I saw on one of my favorite blogs Funky Junk Interiors an idea for a headboard revamped into a towel rack.  It was brilliant.  Repurposed, creative and just enough funk factor.  You can see Donna @ Funky Junk Interiors version here.

I have been needing a place for the kids to put their backpacks, coats etc somewhere other than on the bench by the front door.  This became a new project.  The space I wanted to put the hook rack was too small for anything other than a twin bed headboard so I started looking and put my mom (who loves to garage sale as much as me) on the task of finding the headboard.  Within a week she called and said she had found what I was looking for, not a twin headboardbut a large piece of wood that was curvy, heavy and ready to paint.  She wasn't joking this thing is a brute and easily weighs 20 pounds!

However I still needed a bar of hooks and other accessories to pretty it up.  Jackpot last Friday when I found the hooks for a dollar at one yard sale and the numbers at another for $.50 a piece.

I'm not into the shiny brass but that's easy to change with spray paint.

I used a creamy white on the backboard and wood of hooks.  Distressed both pieces and then my favorite part, used Ebony stain in the distressing to age it a little more and it gives it so much character!

Here's where it gets really good.....I used the drill myself for the first time without any "help" from Bob.  He was at work.  I was impatient to put it all together so.....I figured it out.  May seem kind of like a small unimportant detail to most but I felt like I could do anything, at least for a brief moment, when I powered up the drill :)

I wasn't going to post about this until it's hung in the hallway ready for backpacks but because it's so heavy it's going to take special anchors to hang it.  Bob is on it and promises it will be hung this weekend but once again I'm impatient so here's the picture of it all finished sitting below where it will hang.

The only thing I purchased for this project somewhere other than a garage sale were the two outside hooks so here's my project cost breakdown:

Backboard Wood $5.00 (although mom bought it for me and was a sweet momma and just gave it to me!)
Bar of Hooks        $1.00  (garage sale)
Outside Hooks      $5.50  (Menards for $2.58 a piece)
Numbers               $1.50  (garage sale)
All paint and stain I had on hand
GRAND TOTAL  $13.00

So much more fun than an ordinary bar of hooks and no the numbers don't have any significance but if you want to make something up and share it I'll  go with it.