Happy Halloween!

Wishing you all a ghoulishly good day. We're having a party at work today and I am a gypsy! Chris bought me some last minute pumpkins last night, so we have one baby jack o lantern and 3 friends to greet the trick or treaters tonight!

House Crashing- Crystal's Country Home

I visited my friend Crystal's new home when I was in NB last weekend. Crystal has had a bit of a whirlwind year. She moved her and her sweet boy Lukas home to NB last summer and since then has gotten a new job, met  a wonderful guy, bought a house and gotten engaged! I wish that I could see my friends from home more often than I do, but we always make the most of it when we're down for a visit!

This is a look at Crystal's new home, I love her country style!

The master bedroom, love the colour blocking!

The living room

Living Room 

Lukas' bathroom, love that it doesn't look too much like a kids bathroom as they also use this as a guest bathroom.

I loved all of the little details in Crystal's house, we share a love for country stars!

This was my favourite piece, she bought it at the market in Fredericton and they are handmade from old doors or cabinetry. She hasn't hung it on the wall yet, but it definitely gave me DIY ideas!!!

Hope you had a great weekend!

Cute Boots & Burlap Woes

I had to be in NB for work on Tuesday, so I took advantage of the trip and visited my parents over the weekend! This is a picture of my mom and her stylish boots. They make me smile, as does her quirkly modelling pose!

This photo was taken after we finished hanging 30 meters of burlap for the wedding on the clothesline. My aunt has graciously offered to make my burlap table runners and backdrop for the wedding. I managed to find a Wholesaler in Toronto to buy my Burlap from. For anyone planning to use burlap for crafting projects...make note it SMELLS. It doesn't just smell...it STINKS. The chemicals used to produce this "natural" product have a really strong smell that anyone working with it for the first time will be blown away by.

There are tons of internet posts about what do to get rid of the smell including washing and drying the burlap, but most of the results point to airing it out for a long period of time (and using baking soda)...good thing my parents have a clothes line!

Door Love

Don't you love it when something turns out better than you expected? That's what happened to me when I sent my dad on a wild goose chase to pick up an old door I found on Kijiji. I'm visiting NB this weekend and had s chance to check out my door live in person. Saying I am in love would be an understatement. In fact I am already trying to figure out how to get it back to Ontario after the wedding!

Originally I was planning to paint the window with chalkboard paint, but now I'm thinking I will just use window markers. It is too pretty to change.

What do you think? Glass or chalkboard? Have you found anything lately that turned out better than you thought?

DIY Fall Art

As you may recall from my Fall decorating post on Monday, I mentioned I completed a little DIY art project as part of decorating my dining room. It is very simple and takes no time at all!

Materials

Frame (mine was from Michaels that I bought for another project)

Decorative scrapbook paper (burlap would also work nicely)

Leaf (mine was found last year and dried in a heavy textbook for a year)

Simply cut the scrapbook paper to fit the frame, centre your leaf in the paper and frame your work of art. It's that easy:) If you wanted to get extra fancy, you could dip the edges of your leaf (if dried) in coloured paint (gold, red, etc).

Have a great weekend everyone!

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

My friend made these cupcakes for an event we went to in the summer, and I knew I wanted to try my hand at them for fall treat. When Dixie Anne asked me to bring dessert for Thanksgiving Dinner, I was ready to go. Apples are a true sign of fall for me, and I love the apple caramel combination. Last year I brought an apple caramel cheesecake for Thanksgiving!

This recipe came from the DC Cupcakes sisters and can be found here. You can also find a recipe to their pumpkin spice cupcakes on the same page. I'm making them this week for Chris' fall potluck, so will report on them next week!

Once the cupcakes have cooled, you use an apple corer to take out the centre and fill it with yummy caramel!

Finished Product! They're a bit on the sweet side, so I may ease up on the caramel next time...

Feels Like Fall

I think this year is the latest I have ever left putting up my fall decorations. Typically as soon as October hits, I am pulling that blue bin from the garage rafters! We designated this weekend as a recovery weekend from our trip, so I took the opportunity to "fall-up" the house!

The buffet area in the dining room is always my favourite space to decorate. I should have taken a before pic to really show the transformation! The framed leaf is a DIY project i'll share later this month.

This is the kitchen and dining room table in all its harvest festive glory

This is the living room space, I totally only discovered the ledge above our front entryway today...a good place for pumpkins and old books! Side note- the word above the frame is Boo! and not Bod:) I used old play blocks that were thrifted from Aberfoyle to create a fall greeting.

Have you decorated from Fall? Found any new nooks in your house?

Beautiful California

Chris and I have been in California for the week. We capped off our trip with a magical night as Disney yesterday, but I wanted to share some of the sights from my trip to Mission San Juan Capistrano. This was a Spanish Mission in Southern California founded in 1776. It has beautiful gardens and architecture, as well as droves of 10 year olds! It is a requirement as part of 4th grade California curriculum to visit a mission (as well as build their own). We were told over 25,000 fourth graders visit this site each year:)

I also managed to find an antique store in this small town! The prices were a bit steep (likely due to the Tourism draw), but it's always fun to look around in a new city!

Deju Vu

Almost a year ago I was sitting in the buffalo airport heading to Nashville. This blog was born in that airport, and its amazing to think about everything thats changed and happened in the last year. I will post a proper anniversary blog in a few weeks.

This time I found myself delayed in Houston en route to Orange County. We had an emergency stop in Cleveland for fuel and after missing the first two flights to Orange County, I decided to make lemonade.

I always treat myself to a nice meal when I'm stuck in an airport, and yesterday was no different! I highly recommend this as a remedy to flight delayitis! Cozy socks also help!

Giving Thanks and Baking

I'm so thankful to have this little guy and his sister in my life. Mr. Boy Cat was helping me with my baking this morning acting as Foreman from the cupboard. We're going to DA's for dinner on Sunday and I'm in charge of dessert! More on the sweets next week.

Wedding Wednesday: To Pom or Not to Pom

I saw these homemade Pompoms on many DIY wedding sites, but I wasn't quite sure how to actually make them or how they'd turn out. I visited Creative Bag in North York about a month ago (sidenote: this store is INCREDIBLE) and picked up a Pom kit for $1.49. I followed the very simple instructions for the large Pom and ended up with this lovely creation. I'm still not sold on incorporating it into my wedding decor, but it sure is gun hanging from my bedroom ceiling.

As per usual I didn't mention it to Chris and it was dark when he came to bed, so it thoroughly surprised him when he woke up and saw it hanging in the corner!  I'm still planning to make two small Kraft paper poms to add to the bedroom mobile before I make my final decision on the fate of the Pom!

On another note I read a beautiful tribute to Stella on Jentine's myedit blog and it made me want to share this cute shot of the kittens from last week just moments before they tarted wrestling.