Home Sweet Home #35

Hello and welcome to Home Sweet Home!

The creepy crawlies have come undone.  If you have arachnophobia this table may bother you a little.  I am re-posting this from last Halloween.  Some one may find some inspiration for last year's decor and again, I do this decorating with a very limited budget so maybe that will help you out too.

Both of my witch hats had spider webs on them so I put them on the table too.  The branches were spray painted black and right out of my yard.  Click to view how I created them here.

 I showed how to create the temporary web on this glass here.

I kept finding uses for the webs I found at the Dollar General Store.  I placed the web across the dinner plate but under the salad plate and the salad plate would bounce when you touched it like it was caught in a web.  The strings on the web were elastic.  

I showed how I created the spider silhouette in the lantern here.  This was actually used this fall (2011) in All Free Holiday Crafts eBook.  Click here to view.

 

The creepy crawlies have come undone,

Three more weeks left of Halloween fun.

Thanks for joining me at Home Sweet Home!

Now, I would like to feature some wonderful post from last week's Home Sweet Home.

First, Lisa of The Enchanted Oven created this fabulous spiderweb cake.  Her oven is indeed enchanted!  Click on the link to go view her creations.

Gina, of Random Thoughts remodeled her bath and got a great cottage look.  Click on the link to view.

Pamela, at From My Front Porch to Yours  made over this armoire and painted her room for a great new look.  Click the link to view.

White Whimsy had a Halloween mantel with great style.  Click on the link to view.

And last, Elizabeth at Pinecones and Acorns had a lovely kitchen remodel.  Click the link to view. 
Thank you to all who join me at Home Sweet Home!

Guidelines for Home Sweet Home Party:

Attention: To link up with inlinkz you must have a permalink back to this party in your post or they will not allow you to link. 

My button is on my sidebar for the party, if you want to use it.   If you are new here I hope you will become a follower.  No Etsy link ups or direct advertising, please.  Please visit some of the other blogs and get some great inspiration.  Thanks.:)

Now let's see your beautiful homes!

General Mills Prize Pack with a $25 Walmart Gift Card Giveaway!

General Mills Prize Pack giveaway!  Including one box each of Lucky Charms, Honey Nut Cheerios, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch that together form their own Star Wars panoramic poster.  Along with a $25 Walmart gift card.

This all in honor of the release of the Star Wars movies on a Blu-ray boxed set.  This is the first time ever the complete Star Wars saga is available in one collection of 9 disc.  

Do you have a favorite Star Wars movie moment?   

Star Wars released in 1977 and quickly became a world-wide pop culture phenomenon.  I happen to have a favorite Star Wars movie moment.  I was 12 years old the summer Star Wars was released and my Girl Scout troop was going to a movie. We had to vote on it and I forget the choices but, one of them was Star Wars.  We voted and Star Wars won.  I wasn't that thrilled, not being a very big fan of Star Trek, I thought I wouldn't like this movie either.  Well,  I sat in about the 4th row staring up at that large theater screen and right from the opening scene Star Wars had me, like no other movie I had ever seen.  I love something new and different and I can't explain how groundbreaking or different the special effects and Star Wars was.  I was very enamored with the movie.  For years I would tell you it was my favorite movie.  In 1977 for Halloween, can you imagine, there were no products merchandised from that movie.  That meant at Halloween I had no Princess Leia costume.  Well that wouldn't do.  So, I pulled out bed sheets and sewed my own Princess Leia costume, complete with cape and bun hair, thanks to my mother's wig.  

Source: jedifender.com

She toted a gun.  She sassed.  What a great role model for a 12 year girl right!  I think it still has something to do with why Netflix keeps showing me movies I might like with a strong female lead.   Anyway, that was my favorite Star Wars movie moment.  Do you have one?

Is one of the General Mills cereals a favorite of yours?  

For more information about the products referred to in this giveaway:

• Whole Grain Nation Website http://bit.ly/wholegrain
• Star Wars The Complete Saga Website http://bit.ly/starwarsinfo
• Walmart Website http://bit.ly/walmartsite

To enter the giveaway and win the prize pack:

• Leave a comment on this post about a favorite Star Wars movie moment or your favorite Big G cereal you plan to purchase.

That's it.  
Make sure you leave an email or it is available in your profile.  You do not have to blog to enter.  Just leave your email and leave comment.
The giveaway will end on October 12, 2011 at midnight.  Winner will be announced on Oct. 13th.  I will email the winner and forward their information to General Mills My Blog Spark.  I will use random.org to draw a winner.  
*Giveaway is limited to the US and Canada.

If the winner doesn't respond after 7 days a new winner will be chosen.

This giveaway is now closed.  Thank you to all who entered!

Good Luck and may the force be with you in this giveaway!

Sherry

Disclosure: The cereal, gift card, information, and giveaway have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

Thank you to General mills and My Blog Spark!
I will link this with:
Someday Crafts Giveaway Directory Thursday 

Fall Entrance

I went neutral with the front door decor this year.  It is very simple and I like it.  

This is a closer look at my wreath.

 

I went with white mums, galvanized bucket, bushel basket, and mostly white pumpkins.

How did you decorate your front entrance?  Link it up and show me on Oct. 13th here at The Charm of Home.  

 Thanks for viewing my decor!

 Sherry

 I will link this up with:
Outdoor Ideas with the Thrifty Decor Chick
Open House Party at No Minimalist Here

Butternut Bisque

This is one of my absolute favorite soups.  I never fail to make it every fall and it is a perfect appetizer or a meal with a crusty loaf of bread.  I didn't write down what cookbook I copied this from, so source unknown.

Ingredients:

6 cups of chicken stock (I use lower sodium chicken stock.)

1 large butternut squash, peeled and cubed (about 6 cups)

2 medium tart green apples, cored, peeled, and chopped

1 1/2 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt (I usually eliminate this and let individuals just salt to taste at the end.)

Pinch of dried rosemary, crumbled

Freshly ground pepper

2 tbsp. (1/4 stick) butter

2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

2 tbsp. dry sherry (I will use Port or any red wine on hand.)

1/2 cup milk with 1 tbsp. cornstarch 

1. Combine stock, squash, apples, onion, sugar, salt, rosemary, and pepper in a heavy large saucepan.  Bring to boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until squash is tender, 1 hour or less.
2. Puree squash mixture in a blender until very smooth.  Return to pan and bring to a boil.
3. Melt butter in another heavy large saucepan over med-low heat.  Whisk in flour and cook 3 minutes.  Whisk in squash puree.  Simmer 5 minutes.  
4. Mix in sherry. Beat 1/2 cup of milk with cornstarch.  Turn off soup.  Whisk 1/2 cup of milk into soup.
5. Rewarm if necessary-Do Not Boil.
6. Ladle into soup bowls and serve.

Serves: 6

Pin It

I will link this to: 

This Chick Cooked at This Chick Cooks
Friday Food at Mom Trends

Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum 

Go over and view all the wonderful recipes there.

Halloween Anatomy Illustrations

Here is a peak at a wall hanging I made for Halloween.  I have seen them at Pottery Barn and in a Better Homes & Gardens publication.  They are really easy to make and the graphics are free at The Graphic's Fairy.  Just click this link and under browse images in her sidebar, pick anatomy.  You will find a lot of images to choose from.  
 Supplies:
canvas  (mine was 24 inches x 16 inches)
pin
bamboo stick cut to 19 inches
jute string to hang it by
iron-on transfer ink jet papers (no laser printers)
Photoshop  (can down load free trial here)
hot glue gun


*Note: To get the clip art you pick reversed so it will print out correctly on your iron-on you need Photoshop or some other editing software that will flip the image.   I will show you in Photoshop.

First prepare your canvas.  Cut it to the desired size and take a pin and unravel the edges to make it frayed.
Next, picked out your clip art and downloaded it to a file and then uploaded it to Photoshop.

Here it is in Photoshop.  I will pick the Image drop down tab and then follow over on Rotate.

The next drop down menu appears and you will click flip horizontal.  That turns your image over so you can have it print correctly with an iron-on transfer.

 Here is what it looked like printed out.   It will look backwards but, when you iron it on it will be correct.

Follow the iron-on transfer instructions to get the iron-on correctly.  I got in a hurry and peeled my backing off of my iron-on too soon and it peeled the edges off.  The kids just thought that looked creepy and they liked it.  (They told me it was zombie-style.)

To finish, I glued the top of the banner around my bamboo stick and tied the jute string on to hang it by.

Have fun with it, you could make any image into a banner!
Come and join me Oct. 13th here at The Charm of Home and show off your Halloween/Fall decor!

Sherry

I will link it to: 
Brag Monday  at The Graphic's Fairy

Fall Crafts party at Centsational Girl 

Turn the Daunting Into Doable at Project Queen

Wow us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style 

Peek at the Boys' New Room & Plans

Our boys are now sharing a bedroom and so we've been doing some rearranging.  Christian moved into Justin's nursery and we reduced the closet so we could fit two beds.  I loved Justin's dark navy nursey while it lasted, but with two in the room, it needed lightening up.   Here's a pic of Justin's nursery as it it was.  Dark & cozy & perfect for sleeeeeeeping:

I had the walls & ceiling painted in a soft gray-green-blue.  (The color's called 'Contemplation' by Behr and we had it color matched in Benjamin Moore Aura paint.)

With these pretty blue walls, I want to be sure that the room doesn't get too sweet and I want to bring a bit of an earthy- curious vibe into the space.  We have a lots of cool collected artwork & Christian (my 4 year old) and I picked out a few of his favorites for above his bed.  It was so fun laying in bed afterwards, telling him stories about the pirates in the ships & the monkies that turned into men.  (yeah, I'm pretty sure he'll get a much better explanation in science class one day ;)

The black trundle bed is going to my new office so I'm having custom twin headboards made out of Filigree Chevon, one of my new fabrics, for the boys as soon as Justin's ready for a "big boy" bed:

Up-close you can see that it's a rusty red with olive green leaves:

It's one of those very "off" fabrics that isn't at all what you'd call "pretty," but for some reason I just love it.  (Especially mixed with the blue-gray-green, which shouldn't work, but does.)

  I'm doing big Euro shams on both beds with a mossy fern star placed right in the center:

And we're doing these are going over the beads in antique brass:

{Visual Comfort}

Anyway, I'm off for the day.  We're presenting a plan that I'm so excited about to a new client for her condo!!!  Will keep you posted.

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Witchy Coat Rack

You come in our house and here sits an ordinary coat rack in our home full of useful mortal things. But, using my imagination I transformed it into a more Halloween inspired coat rack.

I had the idea to do this before I saw it already done.  I saw a very similar version in Matthew Mead's Monster Book of Halloween.  

Here is a witchy invitation to Halloween.  I downloaded this at The Graphics Fairy under the Halloween tab.  I used a 70's technique of burning the edges with a match to make it look like it was blasted by a spell.  Then I Mod Podged it to a thin piece of cardboard and punched holes in it to hang it up.

The spiderweb is from the Dollar General Store.  The witches hat was from Walmart a few years ago.

The striped leggings from Walmart.  The witch robe was my son's graduation gown.  The broom was from Hobby Lobby.  The book of spells was from Hallmark a few years ago.

The lantern is old and the spider was from Walmart this year.

This coat rack looks nice in the same room with my witchy tea cupboard I created.  You can view that post here.  *This is a re-post from Halloween 2010.  I so loved these two set-ups I did in the house last year I wanted to share them again.
Fly on over to these blogs for some more very creative ideas! 

Sherry

Turn the Daunting Into Doable  at The Project Queen
Sunday Favorites at Happy to Design