Pink giveaway winner & Need advice on a lamp

I'm a wee bit late posting the winner of my In the Pink giveaway. Yesterday we pulled out the Goblet of Fire...
And my trusty assistant helped me choose the winner She even wore pink for the occasion! And the winner is:
Commenter #7 shoeboxofphotographs, who happens to be none other than my dear college roommate and friend Shonda! Looks like little Miss B now has decorations for her pinky party. :) Thank you all for visiting and entering!

So the second part of my post title...
is this lamp. (Man, that's a lousy picture--it's hard to take a picture of a clear glass object!) I bought this lamp during a pre-Halloween thrift run for $1.99. It stayed in a bag under my desk for a few days until I realized in my Halloween party house-cleaning frenzy that I needed more light in a particular room, and remembered my "new" lamp. I plopped it on a table, swiped a shade from another lamp and turned it on--I confess I didn't even clean the dust off first!

In the weeks since Halloween my little two-dollar lamp has really grown on me! It reminds me of these from the Simply Shabby Chic line at Target:

This one is $29.99

And this one is $44.99

except for one thing: The previous owner got crazy with the spray paint and changed the metal fittings on the lamp to a baby blue color. I don't hate the color, it just doesn't work with my decor. I know how to wield a can of spray paint myself and thus the metal pieces are going to get a color change but I'm not sure what to choose, so I'm looking for your advice, esteemed readers!

Here are the guidelines: The walls in the room where the lamp will live are a deep red. There are accents of brown and my favorite aqua blue in the room. There isn't really any other metal in the room. There are two pieces of furniture with their original white chippy paint and two pieces of furniture in a warm oak. Because the job will only require a small amount of paint, I want to use a color I already have so here are the options:

• silver
• chrome (a bit more dull than the silver, which is a shiny metallic)
  
• black
• antique white (blogland's favorite Rustoleum Heirloom White, to be precise)
  
• aqua blue
  

What would you choose? I don't have a shade in mind just yet so I'm open to anything!

Posh Squash and a furry visitor

Oh, how I love my Posh Squash!
Last November on our girls' weekend trip to Phoenix, I purchased the wee pink squash on the left. It's teeny and made of the most beautiful rose-colored velvet. I loved it so much that even though it's a pumpkin it has stayed on my desk for the past year, where I could admire it's soft pink sweetness. When I found out that Kim from Olive Juice & Company was selling kits on her blog for her "Posh Squash" you better believe that I hopped over there in a hurry and ordered! I received the kit back before Halloween but just haven't had the time to get them made until now.

The pattern and construction itself is ridiculously simple--in fact, you can probably find instructions for free on the internet by Googling. What makes these so beautiful is the scrumptious velvet in the loveliest fall colors that Kim hand-dyed and included in the kit. I did use a thrifted skirt to make the brown pumpkin, an idea I got from Amy. I'm afraid the kits are all sold out for this year but bookmark Olive Juice & Co, because hopefully Kim will do them again next fall.

In other news, we had an unexpected guest the past few days:

Awwwwww! Isn't that a sweet little furry face? We played foster parents to a little ferret for the past few days. On Tuesday afternoon we discovered him hiding beneath the steps in our garage. We put food & water out but he disappeared that night, only to reappear in our neighbor's arms the next morning--seems he bunked with them on Tuesday night. He was out wandering again yesterday around noon so we let him back in the garage, where he stayed until about 30 minutes ago.

Maren was obsessed with him, as you might imagine. He's really friendly and ferrets don't exactly roam wild around our subdivision, so we knew he was somebody's lost pet. I was all set to make "FOUND" posters this afternoon but the neighbors spotted a "LOST" sign one street over, so they called the ferret's owner and made a joyful reunion. Turns out they are our back-fence neighbors, so little Westley (his mate is Buttercup! CUTE.) probably did a prison break out the dog door and hopped the back fence into our yard. It was a fun little diversion and I have to say that he's pretty darn cute for a weasel!

In the Pink--a giveaway

I don't think they call it nesting after you've given birth, but it feels like ever since Porter was born 8 weeks ago that I've been nesting like crazy! I've been so driven to clean out closets and organize and finish projects that have lain forgotten and half-completed for months. I think perhaps it has something to do with being so happy to NOT be pregnant anymore--just enjoying the ability to move around and bend and not feel so awkward and ponderous anymore. Even though I'm sleep deprived it feels like I've had such a surge of energy and I'm really enjoying it! My productivity level has gone way up and for a Type-A personality like me, that's a great thing.

In all of my cleaning and organizing I found several items that I had stashed away and I noticed that they have a similar PINK theme. I know there are plenty of you out there that love pink too so I put together a little package of fun pink goodness to give away!
There's a Martha Stewart pink tissue paper pom-pom kit, a cute little metallic pink bag with two bottles of OPI nail polish, a wee pink office set with a stapler and other office tools, a pack of fun pink playing cards and a pink felt chandelier.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post sometime between now and Friday at noon MST! I'll pull out the Goblet of Fire and have Maren help me choose a name and post the winner later that afternoon.

New swap!

There's a new swap open!Head over to Sweet Goodness Swaps to check it out and get info on how to sign up!

Two of my most favorite local antique/vintage stores had their holiday shopping kick-off events this weekend, so even though I still have a bin of Halloween stuff sitting in the middle of the front room I went to check things out--it's never too early for vintage Christmas, in my opinion! I bought a few small treasures, but mostly I just looked at the spectacular displays and drank in all the yummy vintage Christmas goodness.

And speaking of vintage Christmas goodness, do yourself a favor and hop over to J. Nichelle Holiday! What this girl does with vintage ceramics, bottle brush trees and glass ornaments will make you drool. See what I mean? Seriously. That's some vintage Christmas goodness, right there. And she's having a giveaway, so go enter!

Tuesday thrift find: aqua duckie planter

Not technically thrifted (found at a little artsy/vintage store instead) but it was thrift-store priced so it had to come home with me!

Halloween roundup

I love Halloween, but every year I'm glad when it's over. Whew! On Friday night we had our annual Halloween party. This year's theme was the Haunted Library and we asked our guests to come in costume as someone from a book. They complied and came up with the most clever costumes! We had:

the Princess and the Pea (two of these actually--one princess and her baby as the pea, and one princess and her husband wearing a big green letter P),

Little Red Riding Hood & Robert E. Lee, Curious George & the Man in the Yellow Hat, Hester Prynne & Dimmesdale from The Scarlet Letter, the Evil Queen from Snow White & her poisoned apple, Where's Waldo & Wanda, Arthur Dent from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy & Mother Goose, two characters from a Terry Pratchett series, and not pictured is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Here's The Mister and me:The Mister is dressed as Greg Mortenson from Three Cups of Tea (he's missing his tea cup), and I'm Waldo. With all the books out there, what are the chances that we'd have two Waldos? My first idea was to be Nancy Drew, but I didn't come up with that plan until Tuesday morning and I knew with the impending snowstorm that I wouldn't be able to put together a costume in time, so I went with Waldo instead--I already had the striped shirt in my closet. The party was fun and I'm so glad everyone came and dressed up!

It was so nice to have Halloween on a Saturday this year. Somehow it felt less rushed--that is, up until 4:00 pm, where we rushed around like maniacs for 90 minutes trying to put together costumes before heading out the door to our church's Trunk or Treat party!
I will fully admit that dressing up as the characters from Alice in Wonderland is something I've wanted to do for years, but I'm brunette and I never could convince anyone to be Alice to my Queen of Hearts. I think this may have been the last year that I could suggest to Maren what she was going to dress as, so I had to take advantage of it and make her be my Alice! Originally I purchased a pattern at a thrift and was going to sew her an Alice dress myself. That brilliant idea lasted about five minutes, until I remembered that I don't sew, especially when putting in gathered sleeves and a zipper are involved. Thank goodness for eBay and the Disney store.I couldn't decide if I wanted Porter to be the White Rabbit or the Cheshire Cat. It would likely have been easier to find him a ready-made bunny costume, but I have a thing for the Cheshire Cat so that won. I had to get creative for this one, as they don't sell a ready-made C.C. costume for infants. Instead I bought a pink kitty cat costume (thanks again, eBay) and a roll of purple duct tape from the craft store and I made my own stripes!Okay, so it's not perfect but you get the idea, right? And at least he was warm!The Mister and I whipped our costumes together pretty much at the last minute. I had planned to be the Queen of Hearts and borrowed the foofy red dress from a friend. I used a tiara from Maren's 2008 costume and a red sequined heart from my craft stash for the crown and made a heart scepter with Maren's fairy princess wand, red cardstock and red glass glitter. I wore a black wig and made the white collar out of white posterboard that The Mister taped to the inside of my shirt collar as we were walking out the door.

I love The Mister's costume--it was an idea we had that morning and he was able to construct using only what we had in the house. He MacGyver-ed together his card guard suit using a cardboard box, and old sheet, coat hangers, a stapler and duct tape and I think he looks pretty darn good! He was nice and warm too, which is good because he took Maren out trick-or-treating in the snow while I stayed warm with Porter at a neighbor's house.

Now to get it all cleaned up and on to the next big project!

The best idea. Ever.

"The first time you hear the concept of Halloween when you're a kid, your brain cannot even process the idea.
You're like, 'What is this?
What did you say?
Someone's giving out candy?
Who's giving out candy?
EVERYONE WE KNOW is just giving out candy?
I gotta be a part of this!"

--Jerry Seinfeld, Halloween

Hope there's lots of the good stuff in your bag tonight!

Snow-drifted jack-o-lanterns are just sad

SNOW DAY!!

While snow on Halloween is not unheard of in Colorado, I can't say that I've ever experienced a two-day blizzard just prior to the holiday. As of early this morning we had about 10" and it's still snowing steadily, but the wind is blowing so hard it will be hard to get an accurate measurement. School was canceled but The Mister had to go into work, which I'm still cranky about. We're staying inside where it's warm and getting a start on the treats for tomorrow night's big party.

On my happy list today (besides not having to take the kids out into the snow):My cute new ballet flats that I purchased on clearance at Wal-Mart (of all places) for $7.00, worn with the top that I just got on clearance at Ann Taylor LOFT for $4.88. Woo-hoo!

Halloween feather wreath, defined

One of my favorite and most versatile Halloween decorations is my black feather wreath. I bought it several years ago on post-Halloween clearance at Target after wanting one for several years but being too cheap to pay full price. You can make your own feather wreath a la Eddie Ross--but mine was cheaper and I didn't have to clean up feathers afterward!
This year I hung it on the back of my door and to dress it up I used tiny orange clothespins to attach some appropriately spooky flash cards that I found in a huge box at the thrift store a while ago.
The cards I used are apparition, ominous, ghoul, cadaverous, grotesque and macabre. It was an easy project--took all of about 2 minutes, including rummaging in my craft room for the clothespins, and neither wreath nor cards are permanently altered so I can use them in a different way next year. I think it's an especially appropriate decoration for my Haunted Library-themed Halloween party this year!

How to fix a mirror that has come out of its frame

Garage sale season is just about over here until next spring, but there have been a few stragglers the last few weekends. I had a little bit of time without Maren last Saturday so I headed to the new Dollar Tree to look for the crows that Shara found. No luck on those, but there was a garage sale on the next block so I did a quick drive-by to see if it was worth stopping.

The sale barely filled the driveway of the single-car garage and the items that the owners were still putting out didn't look like anything special, but one thing caught my eye and I stopped. Over to the side, leaning against the garbage can was an old mirror. Nothing was marked with a price, which is my #1 garage sale pet peeve and usually results in me walking back to the car empty-handed However, I wanted that mirror BAD, so I asked and was thrilled when the owner said it was $2.00. In fact, she said, she didn't think she'd be able to sell it because it had fallen out of the frame and the glass was so heavy and the frame so old it looked like junk. Well, lucky for both of us that's precisely the kind of junk I'm looking for, so I handed over $2, picked up the pieces of the mirror, frame and backing and tried not to skip all the way to the car!

The woman was right, it was in rough shape. The mirror is very old and very heavy--so heavy that someone had twisted a thick piece of rubber-coated wire cable on the back to use as a hanger. The weight of the mirror was such that it had overwhelmed the old nails, causing the entire backing board to fall off so nothing was left to hold the mirror into the frame.

However, I happen know how to fix an old mirror that has fallen out of its frame because I've done it before with this one:
It's ridiculously easy, all you need are these little guys:These are called glazier points and you can find them in the hardware store. There are even instructions on the back of the package to show you how to use them. They're pointy on one end and with the mirror face down in the frame, you just push the points into the sides of the frame. The back of my package shows a special tool for this purpose but I just used a wooden block! I tossed the backing board for this mirror because it was an old, dirty piece of wood and I didn't feel like it needed a backing, but if you wanted you could use a piece of matboard or thick cardboard cut to size and secured with tacks.
It's so hard to get good photos of mirrors but the silver backing is perfectly mottled and spotted with age. It makes a great spooky addition to my Halloween decor!

Glamour Gourds

Make your own 'mercury glass' pumpkins? Oh. My. GOSH. Guess what I'll be doing this weekend?

Sweet & Sinister swap--sent and received

When I told The Mister that I had signed up for a Halloween swap with an Oct. 1 mail-out deadline, he thought I was nuts given my due date (and eventual delivery date) of Sept. 17. I thought I might be crazy too but I had such fun with last year's swap that I just couldn't pass up the opportunity, impending birth or not!

The color guidelines for the Sweet & Sinister swap are black and white with just a touch of orange. I already showed you the blingy black pumpkin I sent to my partner Julie, but I made a few other items for her as well:

--This black and white witch silhouette in the perfect, already-distressed thrifted frame:Want to make a Halloween silhouette of your own? Go here.

--A bouquet of black, white and blingy vintage button flowers:
that I loved so much I had a hard time giving away!

--And a beeswax collage canvas with another cute silhouette:I've been meaning to make another beeswax collage ever since I learned how last November in Phoenix. I bought all the supplies and they've sat in my craft closet ever since! This was a good opportunity to finally dust off my mini-iron and wax pellets and get to work. I had such fun creating things for my partner and I hope she liked them.

My partner Julie sent me a fabulous package. She knew that I am planning a Haunted Library-themed Halloween party this year and that I love crows, so she tailored her package to suit me perfectly!
She included Halloween cupcake mix and the most delightful box of fancy sprinkles & cupcake toppers, a big vintage-style black and orange lollipop decorated with festooning and a sparkly chipboard H, a package of darling party parasols, a very old copy of Poe's "The Raven" (I'd been looking for one of these but had given up!), and the beautiful sparkly table runner that everything is sitting on.

As wonderful as all of those things are, my very favorite thing in the box was this awesome decoration that Julie made for me! She used a box that looks like an old book and decorated it with a crow who is wearing a string of pearls and a sparkly party hat! I absolutely ADORE it and it will be the centerpiece of my party decorations!
Check out the neat detail on the black roses: She took apart the flowers, traced the petals onto the book pages, cut them out, curled the edges and punched a hole in the center. Then she reassembled the flower, layering the book petals with the silk petals. I love the look--perfect for a Haunted Library!

I'm so glad that I signed up for this swap and plan to do it again next year!

Estate sale finds: Dennison seals and ironstone

It is a source of much frustration to me that I don't often get to visit estate sales around here very often (especially when I see the goodies that Laurie finds at estate sales every week). I don't go because 1) four-year-olds and newborns don't make for very good estate sale shoppers and 2) I live on the edge of town in a very new area, and 90% of the estate sales I see listed are at least a 30-minute drive from me.

Last weekend I needed a junk fix and The Mister was home to watch the littles, so I headed across town to an estate sale that sounded interesting (the ad said something about three generations of collectors...enough to set any junker to drooling). It was a good 40-minute drive into the heart of downtown Denver but when I found these on the floor in the attic, I knew it was all worth it!
LOVE them. And serendipitous because I had been watching some of the turkey seals on eBay that very week! There are more that I didn't show, mostly duplicates and a few Christmas designs.

I also found this lonely china plate in the back of a basement closet:
Crazed and stained, just the way I like 'em!

The seals, the plate and about 10 packages of 1980s Muppet & Snoopy stickers for Maren set me back exactly one dollar. Now that was worth driving across town for!

Tuesday thrift finds

Some thrift finds from August that I never got around to blogging...

Silver baby cups (someday I'll have enough to do this)
Three little half-pint milk bottlesA delightfully crazed yellow planter with a sweet little bird on a branch

A turquoise Krispy Kan to match my red one. (I had no idea they came in this color; they were made in yellow too).

Halloween craft: Swirly crystal pumpkins

When I saw the cover of the 2009 Better Homes & Gardens Halloween magazine I bought it immediately, purely because of the image of that pumpkin on the left with the swirly designs. If you look closely, the swirls are made of little gems, and since I'm all about adding a little bit of *bling* to Halloween I knew right away that I wanted to make one of my own. My mom saw it and loved it too, so we decided to make the pumpkins when she came here to help me before Porter was born. Because he took his sweet time in getting here, we had time to get our pumpkins completely done before I went to the hospital! I even made one to send to my Sweet & Sinister swap partner and now that the package has been sent and received I can finally post about it. This was such a fun, easy and satisfying craft project and I've been dying to share it with all of you! Here are some of the particulars:The pumpkins:
We used the fake pumpkins that you can purchase at Michael's as they were slightly less expensive than the Funkins brand from JoAnn's. We used both the large size and the smaller size. We wanted our pumpkins to be black and white rather than orange like on the magazine cover, so we used a can of black spray paint to spray some of the white pumpkins black (fortunately the painting went better than last year's attempt). We didn't initially paint the stems but after we were all finished we realized that black stems would look better, so we used black acrylic craft paint and a small sponge brush to touch them up.

The crystals:
The most difficult part of this project was finding enough crystals to use for our pumpkins, since we knew we each wanted to make more than one. The crystals we used are from Prima Marketing. They are self-adhesive and they come already placed in the swirl patterns, so all you have to do is stick them onto the pumpkins. The ones we used come on a sheet that looks like this:Each sheet is slightly larger than a sheet of paper and contains 4 large swirls, and will cost you approximately $7. The colors we used were black and clear (they also come in black diamond, which is really more of a smoky gray or charcoal). We bought out the stock at Archiver's and two separate Hobby Lobby stores to find enough packages of each color. Here is a link to buy the large black swirls on Amazon, and here is one for Ritz Camera (it doesn't appear they have the same swirls we used in clear, though they have a different design).
We found that it took approximately 6-7 of the crystal swirls for the smaller size pumpkin: 5 swirls to go around the top and then an additional swirl or two to cut apart and add in here and there to make the design balanced. Because the swirls are self-adhesive it's as easy as peeling them off the backing and placing them carefully on the pumpkin. On the painted pumpkins we had to be careful in our placement because the adhesive lifted off the paint if we tried to adjust the swirls once they were adhered. We also used larger single gems in both black and clear to accent the swirl designs. We purchased those at the Hobby Lobby as well and attached them with Glue Dots. I can't recall how many swirls the large pumpkin used, but I know I used more because I wanted them to come further down the sides of the pumpkin.

The leaves:
The pumpkins shown in the magazine didn't have any leaves, but I remembered that I found some awesome vintage silver foil leaves at a garage sale earlier this summer that would be just perfect for our blingy pumpkins! For the black pumpkins with clear crystals we left the leaves silver but for the white pumpkin with black gems we spray painted them black with a bit of the leftover spray paint. Then we simply hot glued them to the top of the pumpkins (this is when we realized we should have painted the stems. Alternately, you could cover the stems with coordinating glitter).

I love how the pumpkins turned out! My photos don't do them justice. They sat on the table for a few days after we finished them and every time I walked past them I think I mentioned how much I loved them...I think The Mister got sick of my declarations of affection for my silly pumpkins!

I'm linking this post to Kimba's DIY day!