Happy Thanksgiving

My Thanksgiving and Christmas trees have been up since right around Halloween.
I know weird, I always put my trees up early because I just love them.
They stayed like this for awhile just with lights in their urns.

The Thanksgiving tree is decorated with elements from nature.

It's in the man cave.



I used owls, birds, feathers, white pumpkins, and mushrooms.

It coordinates nicely with the dark green velvet Ikea drapes.

A couple of years ago I started a tradition in our home of a Gratitude Tree.
 I made gratitude cards and had any and everyone that comes to my house write what they are thankful for on the back of the card.

Then we hang them on the Thanksgiving tree.  

We read all of them during the Thanksgiving meal.

Thanksgiving 2012

I have so much to be thankful for.

We aren't hosting Thanksgiving this year, my mom is.  

I would love to hear about your Thanksgiving traditions.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful Holiday!

Thanks for checking it out.

Fall Buffet

It was about 95 degrees here in sunny San Diego and it still feels weird getting out the pumpkins?  I know many of you welcome the cooler weather that fall brings, but I thrive in the heat.  Yesterday I played volleyball at the beach and it felt like summer.  Playing volleyball with my girl friends is my one selfish "me time" I'm holding on to right now.  I'm down to just once a week at the moment.  I'm kind of over scheduled, totally my own doing and it's only temporary.  I won't bore you with "I'm sooo busy,"  because I know all of you are just as busy too.  Do you know anyone that isn't over scheduled and busy? 

I really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day to visit my little blog.

Thank you! 

Here is my fall buffet.  I'm using more of my studded pumpkins. 

 I made these many years ago. 

I still like them.

Here I am trying to be artsy with Picnik.

I added old Fleur Di Ly's fence finials to the top of my pumpkins.  My mom picked these up for me at an architectural salvage store.  She's my personal shopper.  I didn't know what to do with them at the time, but I knew they would come in handy someday?  I took the pumpkin stem off and stuck in a few shish kabob skewers to hold the finial in place.  I used more of my feather boas around the bottoms. 

I used the left over tacks from a chair project.

 You can just see my Thanksgiving tree in the background of this picture.

Here's my Thanksgiving tree from last year.  Sorry the picture is bad it's from my old camera.

One of our family traditions is to put up a Thanksgiving Tree right after Halloween and this is one of the gratitude cards we put on the tree.  Our family, and everyone else that comes to our house writes something they are grateful for on the card and we hang them on the tree.  During the Thanksgiving meal we read them. 

The table runner is one I made from left over pillow fabric.

To see how I came up with the architectural piece above the mirror go here.

Under the cloche I have an urn filled with coral, feathers, and pumpkins.

Slowly but surely I'm getting my fall out and about the house.  The good news is that busy people like us get more done. 
I  would love to hear from you and see your fall decor.  Please leave me a comment and a link back so I can see what your up to.

Thanks for checking it out.

Other post you might enjoy

Fall Mantle

My Owl

Blue Pumpkins

Feeling Blue, It's a Good thing!

It's busy times like these that I'm drawn to things that bring peace and calmness into my life.  I made a big pot of tortilla soup last night and got out my paint and got to work.  I'm very affected by color and I've been craving the color blue lately. 

 Color theory would have you believe that color evokes emotions and feelings.

I'm a believer.

"The color blue, is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.  Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness."
 

Anyone else need some tranquility and calmness right now? 

Blue is my mom's go to decorating color. 
She keeps telling me I need to like blue so she can give me all her blue stuff someday 

I'm in.

That brings me back to my latest project. 

Blue pumpkins.   

I searched Pinterest and here's what I found.  

From Perfectly Imperfect.

I like the blue combined with the metallic.

Landee See Landee Do

Blue Velvet Pumpkins

Perfectly Imperfect

Puffy paint pumpkins from Alisa Burke, she's a local San Diego girl like me. 

I don't know her, but I like her stuff and she takes gorgeous pictures of local scenery.

Are you feeling it?

Here's my take from the blue inspiration.
I added some blue to my entry table.

This entry table and mirror were hand me downs from two different people.  I painted them a distressed white with gold accents around 12 years ago.  I remember my daughter Casey helped me paint it.  She was around two at the time and she got white paint in her hair.  It took weeks to for all the paint to finally come out.

The walls in this room are seven layers of joint compound and shades of green and blue paint.

I started with this stacked ceramic pumpkin that I picked up from Home Goods a few years back.  The top stem was cracked and it was on clearance.  Nothing a little glue couldn't fix.  It's nice the way it was but you know me, if it can't run away from me there's a chance it might get painted.

For the pumpkins, I mixed up a couple different shades of blue paint using white primer and Universal Paint Tints.  I think several of the pumpkins I showed in the above pictures were painted with chalk paint.  Tinted primer creates a similar effect as chalk paint without the high price tag.  To see other primer paint projects click here.  I already have many different paint tints and the primer so this project cost a big fat zero to do.  If you're not comfortable mixing up your own paint go for the pre made chalk paint.

I added a feather boa around the edge of the urn stand. 

I just safety pinned it in place so it can be re used on another project later. 

This is the urn that came with the ceramic stacked pumpkins. 
I gave it a fresh coat of white paint because the original color was too yellow.

I also re sprayed some plastic pumpkins white and dry brushed them with gold and blue paint.  These were originally orange.  I sprayed them black and cut out the shape with a stencil about five years ago. Now they are distressed gold and blue.

Here's another one that used to be black too with one of my Stud Pumps topping it.

I added some gold craft paint and some white paint on top of the blue. 
Then I distressed the whole thing with some sand paper.



I think I like it, for now?  Sometimes I have to live with it for awhile to see if I really like it?
I have left over blue paint and I'm looking for other places around my house to add some blue. 

How about you, are you adding some no traditional Fall color to your decor these days?

Thanks for checking it out.

My Owl

I've been wanting to change up the painting in my niche above my fireplace, but didn't have a permanent solution? 
This is what I came up with.

Here's what it looked like for summer.  Summer is over, it's time for a change.

This solution can easily be changed out for all the seasons.

I tried a mirror, but the niche is very large and the space required a really big mirror to cover the niche painting.  I tried a mirror from another room over the mantle and it over whelmed the space.  Instead I decided to hang a piece of drop cloth canvas above the mantel and paint an owl on it for fall. I used left over finials and curtain rods I already had and hung an inexpensive drop cloth from the rod.  This enabled me to create a custom size canvas.

 I couldn't just go out and buy a pre made canvas to put over the mantle because the niche was so big.  This was a cost effective solution.  I bought the drop cloth at Big Lots for $10.

First I washed and ironed the drop cloth.  Next I cut it to the right size and sewed a pocket for the top and bottom rod.  I put a rod in the bottom to to give the canvas some weight.  I taped off a border to create a painted frame.

I hung it up to see if I liked it?  The curtain rod matches the rest of the ones I used in the room.

These are drop cloth drapes.

At this point I still wasn't sure this was the look I was going for, but I had to follow it through to be sure?

I painted a black border to frame the art work I intended to paint and lived with it for awhile like this.  I didn't have time to complete it.  Coaching two volleyball teams has put a dent in my crafting and blogging time.

In the mean time I started collecting images of owls I liked. 
I like this Barn Owl but decided to paint a Great Horned Owl instead. 
Isn't his heart shaped face so cute?

This Anthropologie owl painting sells for $2000. 

Out of my budget.

I went to the library and checked out some books. 

This one became my main subject. 

I love his hooded golden eyes.

I started by sketching the owl with pencil on the canvas.  If drawing isn't your thing,  you could make an overhead copy and use a projector to trace the image onto the canvas.

Next I started painting in the color.  I used basic acrylic paint.
 I added some fall foliage to mine and a branch to perch on.

I added black with paint and a ball point pen to get the extra fine detail of the feathers.

Here's my owl hung up over the mantle.  Total cost $10.  When I get tired of the owl or want to change it out for the next season, all I have to do is fold it up and paint something new.  I still have left over drop cloth, so the next one will be free.

Now I'm ready to decorate the mantle.  That will have to wait till another day. 

More volleyball coaching and soccer mom duties await my day.

I can't help it, I have jumped in with both feet into the owl trend,  but I like him ...at least until the Christmas season rolls around. 
What will I paint for Christmas?

How do you change out your mantle for fall?
Are you jumping into a trend at the moment?

Thanks for checking it out.

To see how the mantle is decorated for Fall go here.
I'm Linking this up to Censational girl Fall Craft Party.

More projects you might like.

Family Art
My kid's Ocean