Recent Design Work: Oktoberfest 2014 Poster for OK Mozart

Catching up on old design work (well, sorta, cause that could take decades and nobody really wants to see all that crap from my beginner years, anyway).  This was from October of 2014 so it’s fair game to post.

 

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What I Designed Today: Boo Juice – FREE Download – Halloween Ghost Stickers for Capri Sun & Pouch Drinks

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FREE DOWNLOAD. So easy and cute. I was making 20 for Ben’s class party but we had two extra packages of Capri Sun drinks and I knew I might run short at the church trunk-or-treat tonight so I fixed them up! Good thing, too, as we ran out of goodies and all the Boo Juice went first! They were a hit! If you click on the pic of the file, you can download the file from Flickr.

Quick & Easy Outdoor Halloween Decorations

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So we finally had some time to add some of the projects we had been hoping to for Halloween. Our front yard has such an expanse (corner lot) that it can be hard to capture the whole thing in one picture, so I tried to take closer shots so you could see some of the details. I especially love the shot where you can see my reflection in the glass on the front door…not. Oh well, I never claimed to be a professional photographer!! We put up garbage bag spider webs in one front window and on the side fence. We put up a huge rope spider web and a trash-bag-spider with glowing LED eyes crawling down off the roof. We also put up a milk jug skeleton, lots of white spiderwebs, a cheesecloth ghost, and a couple of bats. There’s also a window silhouette of a huge black ghost (four poster boards worth!) but he won’t show up until after dark. Lastly, the boys had a great time making their pumpkins — Ben got to learn to use a power drill for the first time and nobody bled!!! I call that a successful day at our house. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Halloween!

We quickly made up some fabric ghosts today and put them up in the yard! The boys love it. We did this many years ago in Nebraska but they were up for ONE night and somebody stole them from the front yard — sticks and all! This time, we hope they stay for awhile. I think I’m going to insert some lights on the ground like they’re gathered around a fire. I love this because it’s cute, cheap ($1.50 / yard fabric — about $15 total in supplies!), and most of all…easy!

I love this pic from our entryway toward the ghosts. You can see the inexpensive spiderweb rug we made last year and I posted about it here. If that rugs lasts through this season (which I’m sure it will!), it will have paid for itself, it was such a cute, cheap project and I love a wide oval shaped rug on the porch.

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Lastly, this pic is of my FAVORITE ghost ever. I love his shape and his black felt eyes on white corduroy fabric. He has ragged edges and covers my vacuum. He was originally the smallest in a set of three that I sewed to cover upside-down tomato cages covered in lights. They blew away in a storm and this one was the only one I could save. I hope to resurrect the other two and put out the three lit-up ghosts this year, too. I’ll be sure to post pictures if I get that project done, too!

A Small Thanksgiving

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So while I was sick (and clearly not in my right mind), I volunteered to cook turkey and make gravy for the Kindergarten classes. It was worth it to see all those pilgrims and Indians enjoying their meal.

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The kitchen looks so nice when it’s clean. I quickly sewed a couple of muslin slipcovers to go over our blue chairs since only two of the new kitchen chairs that I ordered had arrived by Thanksgiving! Gotta make do, right…they have unfinished hems but I have a fantastic idea for hemming them. Info and pics to come. Also, I need to share the tape method Cole helped me with to make the custom pattern for them – it helped so much when it came to sewing them from scratch. And if the resident sewing newbie (me) can do it, anybody can!

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Our island could fit 6 to 8 places comfortably but since we already had one bench and one stool from another home we lived in, I gave up my idea for new seating completely and just ordered another small stool to flank the bench. I think it looks pretty good for using what we’ve got!

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I never thought I’d say this but I love that stupid freezer on the bottom that I resisted for so long. Now if I could just remember to not kick and shove it to close the thing!

While we were grateful for a small Thanksgiving gathering this year with new friends, we did miss being with family. We are kind of travel-ed out so I think for the holidays this year we will be staying put. Never fear, though, we ate like kings. Today (the day AFTER Thanksgiving), we all had pie for breakfast. What more could signify a successful holiday? We are thankful for many things: the gospel of Jesus Christ, jobs, home, family and friends…and technology.

Door Ditchin’ Halloween Style

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So we got “poo-ed” by a couple of skittish ghosts running from our front porch. So cute! The bag included all sorts of poo: vampire poo (hot tamales), skeleton poo (skeleton bones: mini marshmallows on pretzel sticks dipped in white bark), bat poo (chocolate covered raisins), spider poo (cotton candy), and clown poo (skittles). Very clever! A fun idea to pass along a church group and/or neighborhood.

Trunk-or-Treat Decoration for Halloween

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We created a cute vampire-fang-monster-mouth car decoration for the open back of a car at our trunk or treat. This was in 2009 – weren’t those boys so cute? They look so small to me when looking back just two years later. We had just moved to Houston in this picture and it was HOT for Halloween. The fangs were easy to create – a quick tip to make it even easier: we used an old, giant sticky note presentation board so they just stuck and we didn’t even have to tape them on anywhere to the car! Easy! Cute!

Making a Halloween Spider Rug (Cheap & Easy Craft!)

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I saw this idea in a magazine and didn’t have access to the supplies they suggested so when I hit Lowe’s for some fence stain, I grabbed a 6′ x 8′ indoor/outdoor rug for $17 in black and cut it into two halves. One half I made into a round spider web and the other half I made into a very large oval spider web. We painted the lines on the round one with all-weather silicone caulking. I am afraid it isn’t going to stick very well or could be pulled off, so I’m going to get some white fabric paint and do the second rug (and re-do the white lines on the first one). It turned out really cute and it was cheap and easy! It’s a great way to fill a large porch with a custom sized rug and my Kindergartner enjoyed helping me draw the lines as we marked them out with a white crayon (we didn’t have any chalk on hand!) and it worked perfectly. He could easily help and follow the ruler — it was a fun, cheap, and quick family activity! Highly recommend!

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Here is one of Ben — at first he held the yardstick while I drew the lines with a white crayon. Then, he begged and begged so I held the yardstick and he drew the lines perfectly fine! He’s a kindergartner, so if he can do it — anyone can! It truly is a cheap, easy family project for Halloween.

UPDATE Halloween 2012: This rug is still in silicone only and has held up really, really well! I did NOT go back over it with paint or anything else. Yay!

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Just for fun, here is my all-time favorite Halloween decoration. At our house, the witch is ALWAYS in!!!

Addicted to Pinterest

It’s almost better than reading books and much more instantly gratifying:  Pinterest.  I love this site.  It’s the new method of flipping through magazines for ideas and putting them all in one place:  quotes, decor, motivation, design ideas, garden ideas, etc.  Now if I could only get OFF pinterest and start working on my own abode…I’m still planning, okay?! This is everything I love all mixed in one.

Fall is Here!

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I planted some mums in this cute planter and Don put them up near the front door for me – so cute! His honey-do list is shrinking.

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I found the sign above on our trip to Omaha over Labor Day weekend and had to bring it home. Love it and it hangs in our living room now.

Halloween 2010

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I gave birth to an entire crew of stormtroopers. The kids know their own names but I have no idea who these costumes are supposed to be. I just shelled out the money.

Link Love & Giveaways for a Rainy Wednesday

It’s a wonderfully rainy day in Houston today and I have lots on my plate. Mainly getting my office straightened up – still – so I thought I’d just share with you some wonderful links including great ideas and giveaways. Hope you enjoy them! They’re from some of my favorite sites to visit when the need for inspiration strikes.

Grosgrain Fabulous always offers the most beautiful creations. Now she’s offering a poppy boutonniere, but even if you don’t win, there’s always the tutorial on how to make the beautiful things. Click on her link and be sure to check out the blue one attached to the pillow – gorgeous!

Dudecraft made a bookshelf from an old ladder – I don’t know how practical this would be with children shaking walls and all but it looks fantastic, doesn’t it? And oh so clever. I love repurposed things.

So I’ve been searching for what to put in my kids’ lunch boxes other than the usual fare and I ran across this idea from Bakerella (isn’t that site wonderful?!): pancake muffins. With chocolate chips. Sounds like something my kids would eat and it’s not quite as sinful as a full-on brownie for lunch. Sometimes you do whatever you can to get calories in a child or they would not eat at all.


If you have thousands of extra dollars, be sure to check out Get Back‘s website full of beautiful vintage chairs, tables, you-name-it. It’s a fun reminiscent kind of thing and the restoration of the items has been just lovely. It would be kind of nice to step back in time…but we probably wouldn’t appreciate it like we don’t appreciate our current design trends. Anyway – it is surely fun to look around the site!

The Long Thread has this adorable little house pouch. I just love this cute design.

Design Sponge has the cutest lunchbox creation. And it actually looks like something I could do! But I’m not sure if it’s something any of my B-O-Y-S would carry to school or use. Maybe if I made a camo lunch box out of other repurposed fabric. But I do love this notebook version.

Wool & Hoop make the cutest crewel-work kits. The only crewel thing about it (ha! I crack myself up!) is that I don’t do crewel work. But the work is just gorgeous, no?

Artist Jeni B. Gochnour makes adorable festive fall and Christmas holiday items, doesn’t she? What great faces these characters have!

Cathe Holden of Something I Just Made created these items from pictures of a cherished quilt. What a great way to remember the quilt in a more permanent fashion.

There. I think that’s enough browsing for today. Hope you enjoyed some of the links!

Thanksgiving Sappy Post

It’s been two days without a post (who knew pre-Thanksgiving would be so busy?) and I have some fun posts lined up for next week but I wanted to take a few minutes and write a post about what I am grateful for (in no particular order, really!).

1. My husband, who is willing to do many things most husband’s aren’t. Plus, he’s a “real” man and comfortable in his own skin. Except he gets nervous at any drive-thru which still cracks me up after 17 years of marriage. He likes to weigh his options!

2. My children, of course. Although today I said something like, “Really. I do not want any more children.” Even though yesterday I was SURE I wanted another baby. Or two. Meanwhile, Bennie is crying for me from his bed. Better go check it out… [Next morning] I love boys who have crawled in bed with you Thanksgiving morning – their cold toes don’t bother me a bit.

3. Food. Yes, I’m really thankful for food. I could get specific: avocados, bacon, artichokes…but the list would be too long. I once taught a gospel doctrine lesson for the New Testament in which the biggest thing I was grateful for was that after he was resurrected, Christ ate with his disciples! I was so relieved that in the next life we’ll get to continue eating if we want to!!! I’m not really sure on that but the passage gives me hope that we can if we want to! Plus, I’m thinkin’ the preparations will be a whole lot easier.

4. Extended family and Thanksgiving at my house. Yes, sometimes I would rather go somewhere else and have them prepare everything (we thought about dropping in on the Halls this year…where are you today, Annette?) but I love the ease of having it here for my kids. When we move to Texas, I’m guessing I’ll get to do the whole thing myself but I love having family come and bring items to share. This year for me: turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, rolls, homemade bread, cream puffs. My mom is bringing: salads, pumpkin pies, green bean casserole and a relish tray. My cousin and Aunt are bringing chips and drinks. Another set of cousins are bringing themselves. Love, love, love feasts with family. My only concern is how to protect the new carpet. We are still trying to sell our house, after all!

5. Missionary work and temple work. Wow – I’d have never thought missionary work would make a personal gratitude list in my lifetime, but I do love it. I get so much joy from sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with anybody and everybody. I’m sad that I never served a mission but I thoroughly enjoy going with the sister missionaries in our branch now. They have taught me so much and I look forward to the time when Don and I can serve a mission (or two) later in our life. Temple work is great – it’s like missionary work without the slamming doors. I have had a wonderful time getting to know relatives young and old, alive and no longer living, near and far away (thank you, email!) while doing family history. I’ve come to know that my ancestors were very hard working, loving and interesting people and I look forward to meeting them someday!

I’ve got many more things to list but it’s pretty sappy and it’s time for me to go rearrange furniture now for our feast. Happy Thanksgiving! xoxo, Lizabeth

Beautiful Acorn Jars



Found on etsy here. Beautiful jars – handmade and oven, microwave, freezer safe. Gotta love’ em. I like all of the sizes. There’s just something cute about acorns, isn’t there?

Cafe Press: Greeting Card Innovations





Love the Human Fund card (yes, we’re Seinfeld rerun fans).  Some of the designs are fabulous.  Some of the designs are really not my taste. There’s a huge variety at Cafe Press – and it’s because this site allows you to sell your own cards, calendars and other items and prints on demand – fabulous.  It’s like nouveau Ebay or Etsy but for print!  Me likey!  Check the selection out here and click here if you’re interested in selling designs.  I especially enjoyed browsing the political bumper stickers – wow – eye openers!