A Webby Welcome

Halloween is going to be here soon!!! WOO! I’m sooooo excited!! I LOVE Halloween! Costumes, candy, pumpkins, spooky decorations…

So let’s talk about decorations. I don’t go “all-out” when it comes to decorating for any holiday. I wish I could, I just don’t have the stuff. But I like things to at least look festive so I work with what I have.

I saw some really cute ideas on Pinterest with ways to decorate your front door like this one:

Or this one:

So I came up with a little something of my own.

What you’ll need:

a door
black vinyl electrical tape
scissors
a spider (I got mine from the dollar section at Target)

I started with 5 support lines. I made mine off center.Then I made the web by cutting smaller pieces of tape, starting in the middle and working my way around in a circle.Basically I kept working until I ran out of tape. I ended up having to cut that bottom support line shorter.Then I just taped the spider I got to his web. I just laid the pieces of tape right over the tape that was already there. I also made sure to keep the peep hole uncovered. (One time I got reprimanded by our contractor for covering it with a wreath.)Finished product:View from outside:It was so simple and I love it. (minus the dated storm door)

And it kind of matches the spider web on our mailbox.Yes. That is a real spider web. Gross, I know, but we figured it fits the whole Halloween theme so we don’t have to clean it off until November, right?!?!

**I used the electrical tape because it’s black but also because it won’t chip the paint off the door when I take it down. If you have a black or dark colored door, frog tape would probably look really cool.

Now I need to get our costumes together. Clark’s first Halloween!!!! Did I mention I’m excited?!?!?!

Oct 8

Outside the Box

Saturday I went to a bridal shower for a really good friend from college. When I was wrapping her gift, I wanted to do something different. Something…cute!

Here’s what I came up with:

And here’s how I did it…
First, I wrapped the gift in brown paper. I had a whole bunch of packing paper from our Amazon Subscribe and Save shipment this month. (I always save it to use for stuff like this) You could also use paper bags from the grocery store turned inside out.

I knew I wanted to spell out “Happily Ever After”, so I cut out triangles from my bag of paint swatches for the little flags. I cut from a whole bunch of colors and laid them out in the order I liked before writing the letters on them.

Before glueing them to the box, I laid down the yarn and taped the ends to the sides of the box.

To cover the taped ends, I wrapped the box with ribbon.M+J for Mariana and Jeff

…Or as we lovingly refer to them: Spanish and Redbeard!

Cute, right?!?!

Love you guys! Can’t wait for the big day in November!!

Jul 31

Front Door Accessory

Like the rest of our house, the front door is a work in progress. When we moved in it was plain jane white. I have always wanted a cheery yellow front door so last fall we painted it. Well…I got the paint and my mother in law painted it for us while we were at work. I like that it’s yellow…but I’m not sold on it.

I do like that it basically advertises us as Steelers fans in this Ravens community! It is just brighter than I was picturing. I also want to switch out the hardware for something darker like oil rubbed bronze or something. And a more substantial doorknob and lock. Something like this maybe.

Or even better, this.

With a knocker like this.

Maybe with darker hardware the door won’t look so crazy bright.

We also need a new storm door. But we’ll wait to get that after we win the lottery. (Apparently our door frame requires a custom fit storm door which means $$$.)

In the meantime, I wanted to add a little interest. The front door is, after all, the first impression of a home, right?

So I made a wreath.

It was cheap and easy. Actually it was free and easy! I had a bunch of cardboard boxes so I cut two circles from it and taped them together. Why two? Just to make it a little bit thicker. Then I wrapped it in yarn.Then I made some fabric flowers.