Little Blue Pumpkins

I spotted these super cute pumpkins recently in blogland and knew I had to create my own!  I love the non-traditional color and these will work perfect for Halloween and fall.

This was my first time using crackle medium and I loved how it all turned out (although I spotted Martha Stewart Crackle paint at Home Depot and am wondering if it would have the same effect?)

The supplies are simple: $1 store pumpkins and squash (I also picked up a bag of small ones), black spray paint, crackle medium and acrylic paint. 



Spray your pumpkins with a few light coats of black spray paint (I tried it on the sparkle pumpkins but they didn't turn out so well....I might use those for another project!)

Once completely dry, apple your crackle medium (you can find it by the acrylic paints).  I let the pumpkins completely dry overnight.  I mixed up my blue paints to the perfect color and started painting away. Once dried, I sprayed them with a clear satin gloss spray paint I had on hand.

 

One thing I did that I wouldn't recommend is not painting the entire pumpkin.  I did the tops of them and then let dry so I didn't have to hold them.  Well....I ended up mixing more paint and the color wasn't the same.  According to the tutorial I followed, you can speed up the process using a hair dryer.  I'll make better note of that point next time!

Here they are on in my house.  I don't have a fun mantel to decorate each season but I do have a piano so that is their current resting spot! :)

Making a List, Checking it Twice

I'm in overwhelmed mode here at the Sparkle house.  I had so many projects I wanted to slowly work on this summer and I got through number one (paint kitchen cabinets).  A mighty big project that ended in early July. 

So I want to make a list of projects and start working through them (as long as they fit into my non-existant budget).  Maybe in order, maybe not.  That's how I roll.

• paint A's big girl room
• organize kid's closet
• organize pantry
• paint mudroom/build lockers
• add some bling and accessories to piano room
• finish organizing master closet
• paint vanity in kid's/guest bathroom
• convince husband master bedroom needs a face lift
• purge toys in playroom and organize
• figure out what to put over the couch...the wall has been sitting empty for 9 months already.
• office/craft room needs help.  lots of it. might have to save that for 2012!

EEK!

I have lots I want to do/accomplish this fall!  Hopefully I can keep my head on straight and slowly add a little TLC to our spaces!! 

Big Girl Room is Coming!!

Right now, my oldest son and daughter share a room.  It's time to move my youngest son in with his brother and let my princess have her own room.

We have been talking up this change for months (A is not ready to leave her brother....she thinks she will be sad and lonely).  Her new room will be right across the hall.  I let her browse 100's of new bedding sets and we found a super cute pink and lime one at Overstock.Com.  We looked and looked at tons of new bedroom sets for her and just couldn't find anything we liked in our price range (even the "nice stuff" at HOM and Slumberland seemed cheaply made).  So I went online and found a nice set at JCP of all places!  Here it is:

 

We The Husband put together the nightstand and chest last night and were both so happy with our purchse, it really is nice stuff!!  I still need to paint her room first which I'm hoping to start today.  I'm feeling pretty adverturous and think I'm going to attempt a picture I saw at Home Depot on her wall (although I would need to actually make the stencil for the ribbon....).

We will see if I have the patience or skill to complete it! :)

Kid's Bathroom Closet Reveal

 I have put the final touches on my kid's bathroom closet.  I'm not sure I like the storage bins I found, those might have to be relocated to another part of the house.   Plus I need to buy new towels for my kids and will eventually need to put those in here too.   I hid extra cleaning supplies behind the turquoise bins.  I also used a bucket I had in the garage to hold toilet paper for now.  There is such a large space under the last shelf, I'm not sure how to effectively utilize this space yet. :)

I painted all the shelves and put them back in.  MUCH better!

This closet had nothing on the floor so I used some cheap peel & stick tiles from Home Depot to cover the stained mess that once was here.

I found some cute buckets at IKEA to hide all of my daughter's hair accessories.  I also put extra cotton balls and q-tips in one as well.  I would like to find a few more storage options that add a little sparkle to the closet, of course! :)

                    

              BEFORE                                        AFTER                         

Kids Bathroom Closet

I decided that I needed to utilize all my closet space now that my kids are getting older and have more stuff to store.  Their bathroom closet was a complete mess and a place where I put things that didn't really have a home.

Yuck, right?

So I purged what I could, removed the 40 year old contact paper and started to see the light.  I had some left-over contact paper from Target so I started adding that to see if I liked it.

Me likey!  And so the mini-makeover begins!