DIY Chalk Painted Chargers Featured at {Hi Sugarplum}

Cassie at Hi Sugarplum has a great series each month called "About an Hour" where bloggers link up projects that can be completed in about an hour. I have really enjoyed this series and have many hours of DIY ideas in the back of my mind just from looking through all of these fabulous projects.

This week Cassie featured a few of her favorites which also included my DIY Chalk Painted Chargers.

Check out the past About an Hour Projects here, here and here. And...be sure to stop by Cassie's amazing blog and say hello!

Thanks Cassie for the feature! I am honored!

What I love about Fall & Giveaway Announcement!

Happy Friday All! Are you all into cooler weather, slower schedules & drinking hot cider while wrapped in a blanket!? Yeah...me neither! HA!

I do love a cool Fall evening walk around our neighborhood and some hot cocoa around a camp fire, but life hasn't quite slowed down for all of that yet. I am looking forward to this month. It is one of my favorites and so I share a few reasons why I love the Fall season.

#1 Oh the color!!

#2- Jeans, scarves & BOOTS!!

#3- Apple Picking, Apple Pie & Apple Cider!

#4- Mums & Pumpkins

#5- Crunching Leaves 

#6- Warm Bubble Baths

#7- Candles

#8- Warm Colors & Textures

#9- Creative Table Settings

#10- Cozy Blankets

Don't you just love this season?

On another note, this past week I hit over 500,000 page views! Thank you to all of you for following my craziness each day! I am very blessed to be able to share my dreams, talents, struggles, strengths and my love for decorating. So as a celebration, I have a fun giveaway on Monday. Come on back and find out what it is!

Have a fabulous weekend my friends!

Elegant Halloween Table Setting

Yesterday I gave you a little glimpse of my Halloween Table setting with my DIY Chalk Painted Chargers. I had so many great responses. Thank you to all of you who take the time to comment! I love comments! One of yesterday's comments even suggested making your own chalk paint and painting them in any color to match your home decor! I thought that was brilliant and might have to try!

Some might think that Halloween can't be elegant, but I disagree. Halloween can be full of goblins, ghosts, bats and lots of tacky Halloween decor, but if you pair it with the right fabrics and metals you can make your home elegant for Halloween.

As you can see in the picture above I gave my dining room a little spook, but also added lots of textures and metals to create some fabulous dinner party decor.

I used Golds, silvers and sparkling glass to add that little sophistication.

I also added some texture with burlap and black mesh fabric which gives the setting a little Fall feel as well as added some Spanish moss for that extra spook factor!

The beautiful Gold candle holders are from Target's new decor line. I just love the way the gold looks against the black mesh and white candles!

I tied the ends of the burlap runner with some twine to give it a more polished look. 

I love the black, white and gold look in our dining room. I might just have to keep it like this for a while.

Does anyone want to come over for a spooktacular dinner party!??

Have a wonderful weekend all!

Linked up at: DIY Showoff & The Inspired Room

A Fast and Fabulous DIY {Chalk Painted Chargers}

Good Morning All! I have been busy decorating my home for Fall and most of you got a glimpse of a little Halloween Decor on Tuesday.
Today I am here to show you a quick and easy DIY for your dining or kitchen table settings.

While decorating for Halloween, I decided I wanted something a little different to punch up my dining room table. I had some great ideas for the centerpiece, but didn't quite know how to give it a pop around the plates. Last year I decorated my Thanksgiving table and used some gold chargers under my china plates. That gave me a fabulous idea. I wanted to add some more black to my Halloween table setting and found this amazing stuff at Home Depot.

I found some silver chargers at Michael's on sale 2 for $3.00!! I gave them a good spray with the Chalk Spray Paint. I waited an hour and then came back for a second quick spray.

I let them dry over night and started back the next morning rubbing chalk all over them in order for them to be ready for use. (I just followed the directions on the back of the can.)

I wiped off the chalk with a wet rag and then started writing some Halloween words at the top. I then

 placed them under my china in the dining room. You can see a couple of sneak peeks below!

Aren't they adorable!? You could use these for any party or holiday dinner. I might even use these this Thanksgiving and write each person's name on them instead of a place card holder. This was a simple and quick project that really adds that little sumthin sumthin to our Halloween tablescape. 

Are you into chalk paint!? I just might have to rummage up a few more projects, just so I can use this fabulous paint again!

Come on back tomorrow for the full Halloween Tablescape reveal!

Linked up at: Hi Sugarplum-In about an Hour , Thrifty Decor Chick & Artsy Girl

Spooktacular Halloween Mantel

Well I finally got on the band wagon and started decorating for Fall! First up is my Halloween Mantel.

I reused my black and white pumpkins from last year as well as a little Spanish moss that picked up from Kiawah Island last Fall. I wrapped some books in newspaper to go with the black and white theme as well as picked up some of Martha Stewart's flying bats from Michaels.

The birch branches are from Crate and Barrel. Don't they work perfectly?!

I am happy with how it turned out. I can't wait to continue in the dining room and onto the porch!

Stay tuned.....

Linked up at: Centsational Girl & Thrifty Decor Chick & DIY Showoff & The Inspired Room

A Little Crate & Barrel Pillow Hacking

A few weeks ago, my mother in law came to visit and we did a little damage at a nearby mall.

One of my favorite stores is Crate & Barrel and I fell in love with this floor pillow as soon as I saw it:

It fit perfect into the fabric and pattern scheme in the family room.
The only problem....it was $69.95 !!!!


I just couldn't justify spending that kind of money on a floor pillow that my husband is going to lay on and rest his dirty feet! hehe

Then we came across this beauty:

2x3 Olin Gold Rug $19.95!!

And within a few seconds we both looked at each other and decided we could totally make our own pillow out of the striped rug! It was $50 cheaper!!

So we bought the rug and then were off to JoAnn Fabrics. We bought some thick Canvas for the backing for $7.00 and a 24x24 pillow insert for $10.00. So the grand total was only $37.00! Still an amazing savings!!

We cut the canvas to the 24x24 size pillow and over-lapped the back to create a pocket, so it would be easy to clean.

Then we stitched around the outside, sewing the rug and canvas together. We had to use a pretty heavy needle because it was going through three layers of fabric. We doubled up on the canvas since it was going to be thrown on the floor.....hoping it would last a bit longer

And the Finished Product!

Not to shabby huh? I think it will be used a lot in this home!

See what I mean!?

Happy Monday All!

Linked up at: ArtsyGirl Connection & Thrifty Decor Chick

Featured at {IHeart Organizing}

Today I am over at Iheart Organizing: 

I am sharing my organizational tips for a small laundry room as well as media storage. Pop on over to Jen's blog and show her some bloggy love! Once you see what she can do, you won't be able to stop reading her posts. She is full of unbelievable organizational tips and tricks!


Thanks for the Fabulous Feature Jen!