Let the Halloween crafting commence!

**I'm answering your questions about painting ceilings to my FAQ post -- you can find it on the right sidebar from now on!**

Can you even believe tomorrow is October 1st?? I can't. I wanted fall to get here so badly, and here it is -- temps in the 60's, a trip to the pumpkin patch scheduled for this weekend, planning Christmas decorations...errr, um, Halloween decorations. Uh huh.

I can't get enough of the fun Halloween scrapbook papers and sparkly stickers I see everywhere. I grab them up more often than I should, with the plan to make something with all of 'em. Adorable.

Tonight I did a quick project that turned out pretty cauuute and wanted to share it with you in honor of the start of the bewitching month. ;) I started with a scrap piece of wood from the garage and some fun paper. I used my spray adhesive to glue the paper to the wood, then cut around it with the x-acto knife:

I cut out some solid paper with my $1.99 scalloped scissors from Hob Lob and glued it on too:

(Sorry for the awful picture!) Ha! You can see the shadow of my hands taking the picture! Looks like a ghost. :)

Then the fun starts...I used a circle puncher to make a "moon," then added some of my cutey sparkly bats:

Then added some foam letters:

And used my new Martha Stewart glitter/glue to glam them up:

Can I tell you something? I'm not loving the Martha glitter. I thought I would love it -- I should because I spent a pretty penny on it! It just doesn't hold as well as my regular, cheapy glitter. I'm actually going to have to go over these again because the glitter just didn't stay on. Bummer!!

I added a few more foamy/sticker stuff and hung it with an orange ribbon:

For now it hangs in the laundry room, but I added felt pads to the back and may just hang it from a door knob somewhere.

It is so dang cute I just can't even stand it. :) More to come!

The fifth wall. (And another dining room reveal!)

OK peeps. I've been wanting to talk about this topic for awhile. It's something very few do, but it makes a HUGE impact in a room. (In my little bitty opinion.)

The decorating element I love to add to a room is one most people never think of doing -- painting your ceiling. Not another coat of white -- a color. EGADS! Yes, I said it! Color on your ceiling! Ahhh, I've gone and lost my mind, right?

It is by far the one addition that I think makes a HUGE difference in the way a room feels, and it costs $20 for a gallon of paint.

The owner of the decorating firm I worked with turned me onto this, and I was SUCH a nonbeliever at first. I was hooked after our first painted ceiling though. I mean, head over heels in love, hooked. There are some "rules" that you may want to follow that I don't, and I'll tell you those in a bit. Also, there are some myths about painting a ceiling I'll address too.

I had the ceiling in our family room/kitchen combo painted the same color as the walls and absolutely love it:

Reason number one I love painted ceilings -- if you have crown molding, it will make them absolutely pop off the walls when your ceilings are painted. When you have crown and a white ceiling, at least the upper half of it washes away, and for all that work and money, you should SEE it. ;)

I am chomping at the bit to get the crown installed in these rooms, because I know it will look ahhhhmazing against the Sisal colored walls and ceiling. ;)

In our chocolate colored powder room, I painted the ceiling the same color as the walls, and look how the molding pops!:

I added a thin coat of my glaze over the paint, just to give it a little bit of fun. (I think you can do whatever the heck you want and get dramatic in three rooms -- laundry rooms, powder rooms and dining rooms.)

In our son's bathroom I did the same blue as the ceiling in his room:

I didn't go the same color as the walls in these rooms because I wanted to tie in the blue that was used throughout, I wanted it to give the look of a sky, and it was just plain cute:

We don't have overhead lighting in our den (pounds head on table for that), so it's the darkest room in our house. I went with the same color of the walls to keep the cozy feeling we had going:

And I. love. it. (I'm going to install crown in here too, forgive my horrible cutting in...)

There is a common thought that painted ceilings make the room darker -- this is only true if the room is small, has low ceilings has little lighting. If I did a dark color on the ceiling in our master bathroom, with tall walls and tons of natural light, I can promise you it would not be darker in there. Swear. Bet you one meeellion bucks.

Another thought is that it make the room seem smaller. Even a small room like our den didn't shrink -- I swear it got bigger. When you remove the white ceiling, the eye just keeps going...it doesn't stop. I make the room seem more expanse and taller...YES, taller. When the ceiling is white, it stops your eye and shows exact height of your ceilings.

My first attempt at a painted ceiling was years ago. I wanted to give the illusion (there I go with illuuuuusions again!) of a tray ceiling in our dining room, so I put up molding, and took a color out of the light fixture for the inside of the molding:

I added a glaze to the top to make it glitter just a bit, and at first we loved it. It has stayed like this for years, but with the recent dining room redo, it just wasn't working anymore. I had the ceiling painted a couple weeks ago (I splurged and called my "guy" I use for ceilings when I'm feeling lazy) and had him leave the color on the inside, thinking it would look cool: Ummmm, it didn't. It looked like baby puke.

So in about an hour and a half, I finished it up and continued the chocolate brown:

And I adore it. (Oh yeah, I'm waiting on a special little somethin' for that empty area to the right of the table...patiently...waiting...)

The light, I have always loved...

But now I'm craving something more traditional...is that wrong? I spent a pretty penny on this light. I can't believe I'm considering this. Yikes. I have a spot where I may be able to put it, but I'm not sure what I'll do. Thoughts?

There are general guidelines "they" say to use when painting a ceiling. The first is, if your ceilings are eight feet or lower, go half and half with the color -- like half white, half wall color. Or at least take the wall color lighter a few shades. Also, if you are painting ceilings in small rooms, the general thought is to go lighter.

If your ceilings are nine foot and taller, you can go the same color as the walls. If they are VERY tall, I'm talking like 15-20 feet -- you can darker than the walls. This is for instances when you want to make such a tall space cozier and not as cavernous feeling. And it works!

My rules are...do whatever the heck you want! I almost always do the same exact color that's on the walls, no matter the size of the room or ceiling height. You can do a different color, you can go lighter, darker, whateva. I highly recommend flat paint though. Any other finish will be too shiny. If you want some shiny, use a glaze like I did to glam it up...but do it sparingly.

Painted ceilings are not for everyone. And you will be sceered, verrrry screered the first time you do it. (Heck, the fifth time you do it!) But I have yet to regret one of them in our home.

Next up...I'll show you my cheap-o hutch redo!

P.S. I believe I said "ceiling" 267 times. 268.

P.S.S. I am finishing up answering your questions on my Q and A post tonight! That was FUN!

Fall door decor.

Yet again, I'm going to drill into your head that you can use what you already have to create some beautiful arrangements for fall! I've put a few together in the past week that all involve items I already had, and variety of filler -- or what I like to call "things you stick in."

I already showed you how to make a beeeautiful fall wreath here:

Some of you suggested using a frame for a rectangle shape and that is BRILLIANT!

My favorite door decor is my go-to for our front door. I luuuurve my Southern Living at Home container and use it almost year round -- I love how one piece can work for most seasons, by just changing out the filler.

For the fall, I have used the same "stuff" for the past few years, but every year seem to end up adding more to it. It's going to be ginormous in a few years, seriously.

The only items I use are my container, the floral stuff and some floral foam:

I just pull the whole thing out of the container every year, put it in a baggy and store it away. When I put it out, I just pop it back in the container and fluff like mad.

Oh yeah, and stick more "things" in:

Sigh. This arrangement is everything I love about this time of year. Those colors just make my heart go pitter pat. And YES, I use fake flowers. Keeeeel me. (Our front door is protected.)

The next door idea is one I am really loving, and it took me all of ten minutes. I had another SLAH container in the basement that I haven't used for years. It was too bright white for most of my decor:

So it hit me. I just took more of my walnut stain, and dry brushed it on to highlight the raised areas. It kind of smudged onto the other areas, but I ended up loving the look and kept doing it all over:

Gorg!! I stuffed a bit of foam in (just cut it with a knife if it doesn't fit):I snipped a leaf garland apart into sections and just stuffed them in:Because, yet again, I can't leave well enough alone, I wrapped some fall ribbon around the hanger:

And got this!:

Shut the front door, I love it. (My new favorite saying by the way.) This was going to go on the black garage door but I just couldn't bare the thought of her (yes, HER) facing into the dark garage 24/7, not being appreciated.

The final arrangement I put together started with another container I already had in the basement:

Thanks to stepmom for the container! :) I wanted it not so yellow, so I did a quick coat of brown spray paint:

Then picked up some beady/grassy things:
And the most adorable pom pom looking thingys from Joann's:

I separated the grassy stuff into the sections and cut each one off (you'll need wire cutters to do this):

And just stuffed and stuffed (notice a theme here?). I found a couple feathery jobbies from Hob Lob and threw those in too:There is no rhyme or reason to it -- just stuff it (in a nice way)!

Loverly!!

To hang this, I took a cheap metal (over the door) hook, straightened it out, then hot glued the ribbon over it:

Oh yes, yes I did. Nothing is safe with me. ;)

My finishing touch is to ALWAYS add some felt pads to the back off all my containers, so they don't scratch up the door:

And now, we have something lovely to look at on the way out as well:
Do you have something you can use to create an arrangment? Stuff some leaves or pumpkins or floral pics in and you can't go wrong! You don't need to purchase new to make your home warm and cozy this time of year.

Later this week I'll show you our front porch -- it makes me smile every time we drive up. :)

P.S. Spell check does not recognize "thingys" and "jobbies." Whatev.

Exciting news!

I am so thrilled to announce I will be speaking at the Indianapolis Home Show early next year!

It's been in the works for a while, but I haven't wanted to say anything until I knew for sure it was all set. I've been dying to tell you all!

I'll be speaking a couple times a day, February 1-3. I am totally fareeeeeking out people. I am usually so comfortable talking in front of groups, but this one has me in a bit of a tizzy. :)

Soooooo...you all need to take a few days off work, leave the kids with Dad, drive or fly into Indy and put your butts in some seats. I will need you to nod your head a lot, clap at the right moments, laugh hysterically at my stupid jokes, and shout out a big "AMEN SISTER!" or "YOU ARE AWESOME SARAH!!" at key moments. Umkay?

Serious.

And I'm sure I'll need a margarita afterwards, so you can join me for one of those too. ;)

Thanks again for all of your support!!

P.S. The Q and A below has been so fun! It is still open if you have a question for me...I have a few I still need to answer, but for now -- I. must. sleep. I'll be back tomorrow!

I thought it was high time I put all of my most commonly asked questions in one spot for you Squeezies! I know many of you have similiar questions about our home and the projects I do, so this may help.


QUESTION: Can I paint my popcorn ceilings?
Answer: Our ceilings are that smooshy kind of texture, but have very little actual texture to them. So with the flat paint the texture disappears even more. I'm guessing that painting popcorn ceilings would do the same! If you do it, you'll want to use a roller with a thick nap -- probably about half an inch, so it can get into all of the crevices.

I don't know how much of the "popcorn" will crumble off, so I suggest you try it in a spot like a closet or a laundry room first to see how it works. :)

QUESTION: What is the brand and color of your floors?

Answer: Our floors are Pergo and the color is Santos Cherry. We got them from Home Depot and are completely pleased with them -- they hold up great!

QUESTION: What are the paint colors in your home?

Answer: Our whole foyer, living room, stairway and loft are all Beechwood Gray from Porter Paints. I used the darker tone on this paint chip, Vermont Brown, for the accent areas in these spaces:

The bummer is Porter changed their paint and paint colors a couple years ago, and they don't have this color name on the chip any more. There is almost an exact match now, but you'll have to ask the folks at Porter what will work best. (If they can't help, let me know.)

Our den is Fired Brick from Sherwin Williams (which I had colored matched to Behr):

I LOVE this color -- it is impossible to photograph because it usually looks orangey in pics. It's really a nice rusty red color. Lurve.

Our kitchen and family room is one of my favorites, Sisal from Ralph Lauren. Yet again, I had it matched in Behr paint. (Have you noticed a trend?):

I firmly believe this color would look good in just about any room, in any house.

The nursery wall color is Pale Sand 1 and the stripes are Pale Apple 2, Apple 3 and Apple 4. All are Laura Ashley paint from Lowe's. All are adorable:

Our bedroom is a grayish green called Tornado Watch from Valspar at Lowe's. The fireplace wall is slightly darker tone called Mossy Aura:
I also used these colors in our master bathroom.

Our sunny laundry room is Manila Tint from Behr:

Speaking of the laundry room...

QUESTION: How tall is the beadboard in your laundry room?

Answer: With the chair rail at the top, it is a total of 62 inches tall.

QUESTION: Do you sleep? :)
Answer: YES, and often. I am a sleeper people!! I usually get at least eight hours a night (Good God, thank you for a son who sleeps in!), if not nine (or TEN!) hours. And I take naps often. I lurve me some naps.

QUESTION: Where do you purchase your bamboo roman shades?

Answer: Everywhere! The shades in our den (above) were from Home Depot. Our dining room shades (in a yummy reddish tone) were from Lowe's:

The shades in the family room were from Target:

I also have these in our master bedroom and the loft. I don't remember where I got these but I'm sure it was one of the three places I mentioned.

QUESTION: How private are the bamboo shades?

Answer: It depends on the shades. The bamboo in our playroom/loft (above) is wide apart, so they offer very little privacy.

In our bedroom, they are really tight, so they are fantastic for privacy:Even so, I purchased privacy liners for these windows, as well as our family room windows, at Lowe's. They are pretty pricey (I believe mine were about $23 each), but worth it. I still swear the bamboo shades offer better sunlight control then our two inch blinds, but maybe not as much privacy, without the liners.

QUESTION: Will you ever try out for Design Star on HGTV?

Answer: You all are the sweetest peeps ever for asking this. My friends ask me this a lot too, and I have to tell you -- I have zero interest in doing it. As much as I love traveling, there is truly no place like home for me. I would not move to do a show for a million bucks. (Well...hmmm...) No really. (Seriously, like I would ever win anyway. I'm not dramatic enough for those judges!) And, the thought of leaving my family for even a few weeks just makes me so depressed I can't stand it. :) If it was something I really wanted to do, I would make that sacrifice, but it's not.

Now...if HGTV wants to come to my house, during the Bub's naptime, and will let me keep my yoga pants and my headband on, I'm SO IN!!

QUESTION: What paint and finish do you use on your furniture redos?

I am LOVING a black paint from Behr (shock) called Black Suede. It is a great black -- not greyish at all.

I always use an eggshell finish on my projects:

I usually don't do a coat of poly, but I have on a couple pieces -- the Goodwill coffee table above (the Hot Wheels were leaving marks all over it) and the laminate TV cabinet in the playroom:
QUESTION: What is included with your consultation?

Answer: Good question! First of all, I'm sending a shout out to past clients, and asking if you want me to highlight your redos, I'd love to share them! As far as the consults -- I'm thrifty, so everything I suggest is with that in mind. I work with your budget (if you have one) to suggest changes. That includes paint colors, furniture (re)arrangement, accessory ideas, ways to incorporate molding or beadboard, fun additions for kid's spaces, fabric ideas (pillows/drapes/etc.), artwork suggestions, etc. I'll also answer any questions you have about your space or help with any problem areas. The pricing is $30 for each room. If you have questions on different projects or rooms, e-mail me and we can figure out a price based on what you need.

QUESTION: Please tell me how you do everything -- the blog, projects, family life!

Answer: I have to say, I have it EASY. Many of you know I took a break from my part time decorating gig a couple months ago to give this blog more of my attention. And I am loving it! (!!!!) There are so many bloggers who have kids, work full time, then come home and do a blog all week. I am in awe of these women, I'm not even kidding.

That being said, this following my dream thing is WAY busier than I ever imagined. I swear I have more "work" now than I did at my full time job, but I just work smarter. I only do computer work when my son is at preschool or asleep -- which means a couple mornings, nap time and bedtime. This is why I appreciate your patience with me when it comes to consultations -- I only have a few hours a day that I do them.

The other night, I was laying in bed, my mind positively swimming with everything I needed to do this week. I have submitted content for three upcoming features I can't wait to tell you about, as well as getting my Etsy site up, getting consults done and getting back to your e-mails! (Which I love!)

While I was laying there, thinking about all I had to do, I realized I was smiling. I could just cry telling you that. This is the best stressed I've ever felt, and I have all of you to thank for that. You are helping to make my dreams come true, and I wanted to thank you all again.

So if any of you are still reading, let's continue the questions through this weekend -- go ahead and ask me anything!!

WAIT...let's change it up a bit -- ask anything BUT decorating questions. No decorating questions allowed! (Well, unless you e-mail me, then they are allowed). But here, I'll answer as many as possible this weekend in the comments section. (Almost) anything goes! My favorite color? Yes. Number of siblings? Yes. Anything concerning politics? No. I don't want to think too hard this weekend, ummmmkay?

If you don't want to know anything, that's OK too...

Crickets.

Chirp.

Chirp.