I made a pot of chili, have the apple cider and mulling spices ready to simmer, and have a ton of Milky Ways, Twix, and Snickers to try not to eat.
Hope your Halloween is full of treats.
Speaking of tricks or treats, you can get that print in last year's Halloween mantle blog post (and see the mantle looks almost exactly the same)
Every year...every single year it will technically be fall, but it will still be ridiculously hot here.
The last week and a half have actually been delightful, but the ninety plus degree weather is back tomorrow. So I will just turn on the air conditioner again, keep cinnamon scented diffusers going and look at my fall mantle.
I re-used a felt banner I made for Thanksgiving a couple years ago, collected up a few pumpkins, framed an old calendar page with all those leaves and made a quick "fall" gingham print. Here is a PDF of it... download fall gingham print
When I took down the 4th of July mantle decorations I wanted to put something up for the rest of the summer.
I gathered a few things that have been here before, along with a fabric wreath I put together a few months ago, a PushPrint Studio card, and I spelled out "summer" in bright colors for one more big frame.
If you would like a copy of the simple summer print you can download it here. The print is 12x16 inches and fits into this Ikea frame. I printed it on 13x19 inch paper since that will fit in my printer, but you could print it as an 8x10 or take the file to an office supply store to have printed.
We actually only have a couple weeks left...well Sean does since he'll be back in school at the beginning of August. I'll still be home, but it'll be all semester preparations all the time.
Hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans, dill dip, s'more bars, brownies, rice crispy treats, little berry fruit cups, root beer floats, fireworks, music, family and friends.
We are getting ready to host one of our favorite celebrations of the year. Hope you have a wonderful holiday too!
I haven't decorated for Easter yet, even though we are hosting brunch next week. I did switch out St. Patrick's Day a couple of weeks ago now with a very, very simple spring mantle.
There's a couple flower frames that I couldn't resist in a Target sale, with an additional coupon that made both of them super cheap. Then I made a fabric wreath.
But I was scatterbrained while picking fabric colors (like turquoise). The wreath was cute, didn't really match the frames at all.
So, instead of disassembling it and starting over, I saved it for later. Then I went to the craft store to buy a new wreath and a stack of 1/8th's of a yard of fabric that did match the frames.
I crafted this second wreath up, hung it (there's a loop of ribbon pinned on the back), and realized it's smaller size than the original wreath. I cannot decide if it looks too small the way it's hung. If I use twine or ribbon to hang it lower, it might look better. As you can see, though, I haven't done it.
So better matching, smaller wreath number two remains...and there you go, happy spring.
There is an Ireland flag themed patterned bunting, a rainbow, a shamrock print (I changed it a bit) and an Irish blessing.
Now we just need some stew, some Kerrygold butter spread on buttermilk dill bread, and some Clancy Brother's music playing.
I made a smaller banner for my mom and one more to share here. Unfortunately, it won't arrive in time for this year's celebrating, but if you would like it leave a "pick me" comment and I will email a random winner on Wednesday.
There is really no point to finally decorate for Valentine's Day at the last minute, but the new year's mantle was pretty old six weeks into the year. This year I added a wood heart from the Target dollar spot that I tied with some ribbon.
Mac has class on Tuesday night, so we are not celebrating Valentine's (with our fondue dinner tradition) until Thursday. If we take the delay into account, I guess I decorated just slightly before the last minute.
The holiday decorations have come down and been packed away, but the lights stay on the mantle for a few more weeks. And I decided to do a little New Year's decorating to help make sure it wasn't completely sad and empty.
The fresh start print is actually a card from Push Print Studio, which I have been obsessed with since this past summer. I put together a few fonts to make the 2017 and then just typed out a little card for the clip frame. And I got out the candle sticks so I can get even more winter night glowy-ness going.
After two years of Halloween nights spent at high school football games, we will actually be home again this year. The front porch and mantle were decorated this weekend at pretty much the last minute.
I reused a bunch of decorations from over the years...but I added a "31" from the Target dollar spot, a skeleton print, and took all of five minutes to type "trick or treat" on an orange background.
Halloween has never been my favorite, but seeing all this makes me wish I had decorated at least a week in advance. Since all of this will only be up for about 72 hours total...then it's on to Thanksgiving since that is my total favorite.
Here's the trick or treat print in case you have any very last minute decorating to do.
Ahhhh fall. The time of year where I look longingly at the social media posts sharing beautiful fall leaves and discussing crisp weather...while enduring another heat wave. Pretty sure I keep complaining about this every single year...2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010.
And today it was ninety-six degrees, so that's all I'll say about that.
Truth be told, I get a little sad and overwhelmed when the school year starts. And by little I mean it usually includes at least one full-scale freak-out.
So, maybe it's not so little.
When Sean headed back to school last week I decided that, instead of wallowing, I would celebrate the new school year by decorating our mantle a little bit.
The prints are by Life Love Paper, Caravan Shoppe and Kiwi in the Clouds.
I also crafted up another fabric wreath (here is are two others I've made over the years: one, two). I pinned red fabric scraps around the styrofoam form. Then, to try to make it look like an apple, I roughly cut out a stem and leaves out of felt. I glued the felt pieces to card stock to help them stand up better.
So now any sadness or worry is totally cured. Woohoo the school year! Bring on the endless emails! The working all weekend! The grading, grading and more grading! The feeling of barely ever being caught up no matter how hard you try!
Okay, so maybe I am not quite cured...but the cute mantle does help.
I decorated our mantle this morning with previously crafted projects and prints I've gathered.
This year we are happy to be hosting our annual barbecue and fireworks and we are happy that we will not be spending the day before working a cheer fundraiser allllllll day long. After three years, that's going to be a big (wonderful) change.
Hope you have a great 4th of July too!
Fabric Banner...1776 print (I edited it a bit)...America the Beautiful Print (have to scroll down to find it)...Let Freedom Ring Print (I printed it out small to clip in the frame)...and the Patchwork Paper Flag I made a few years ago.
So completely and totally excited that it is Thanksgiving break. I cannot wait to go grocery shopping and decorate and set the table and cook and watch the parade and decorate for Christmas and eat leftovers and just enjoy the entire upcoming week.
Our mantle looks a lot like last year. We will also be doing the same thing as last year on Halloween...seeing Mac cheer at a home football game.
Hope you have a happy Halloween...
Thanksgiving and Christmas are the only two holidays that I am guaranteed to decorate for way in advance. Every other holiday decoration throughout the year is at great risk for not being up until the night before or something.
This is why it is kind of momentous that there are Valentine's decorations on the mantle on February 1st. Free prints from here and here helped (as did some patterned paper and a heart punch) along with a quick trip to Ikea for white frames. The heart lights also came from Ikea, but I have had them for a couple years now. Some candlesticks help it be a glow-y and romantic.
This was so simple to do and I am so happy to see the mantle all lovey-dovey...maybe I should decorate for holidays in a timely manner more often.
The craft room has been torn apart and sort of put back together, so I managed to get to this pile of fabric today and made the wonky banner I had in mind. I was thinking if the blue was one third on the left and the red was two thirds on the right, that it would kind of look like a flag. I decorated the mantle with it (along with this free print-that I edited a bit and this one-although I changed the font) just in time to host a party on the 4th of July later this week.
And, since I had a set of squares leftover, I made one smaller banner to share. I know the 4th is coming up quickly, but I already have this packaged up in an envelope and will get it in the mail to you tomorrow. Just leave a "pick me" and make sure the email address you check often is linked. I will email the random winner tomorrow around 4pm so I can hopefully get your address in time to run to the post office around the corner before their last pick-up of the day at 5pm.
Here is our mantle last year...my patchwork paper flag...and another smaller patchwork paper flag from a few years ago now.
