Sad Phillies fan

He's still not over it ...

Snakes!

I had plans to do some cool Halloween decor this year but the big day is a week away and so far I've only made 1 thing so I think I will have to reschedule the cool decor for next year!

I saw this awesome snake wreath in my Martha Stewart Living magazine and had to make one for our front door. It was super easy and cheap to make.

All you need is a grape vine wreath (usually around $4 at Michaels), snakes (found them at the dollar store), black spray paint, black craft paint and a hot glue gun.



Spray paint your wreath and hand paint the snakes with craft paint. (The first time around I spray painted the snakes - the large ones dried but the small ones got super sticky and never dried so I had to go back to the dollar store for more snakes - oops.)

Hand painting the small snakes doesn't take too long because you're just slapping a coat of paint on them - no need to be meticulous.

Once everything is dry hot glue the snakes to the wreath and you're done!



It looks grey-brown in some of the pictures but its actually black.





I painted the eyes and tongues red for a more creepy effect.

Of course we had a heat wave the week I put it up and the heat melted the glue so I came home from work one day and found half the snakes on the ground. Not awesome. So I added a little florist wire around the loose ones and since then they haven't moved.



Pretty cool huh?

Finally!

With the 90 degree weather we've been having lately I was starting to think Fall would never come. The tree in our back yard has started dropping its leaves and although its a little annoying to rake them, seeing them on the ground means we've made it through the hot summer and cooler weather is on its way.





Today really felt like fall - we woke up to overcast skies and this afternoon it rained! The last time it rained here was the beginning of May so it was a nice change from blue sunny skies.

One good thing about the prolonged summer heat is the extended growing season. The Farmers' Market still has tomatoes and zucchini so I decided to make ratatouille. We are so lucky to be able to buy delicious locally grown produce for cheaper than you can get it in the grocery store.



The ratatouille recipe I followed took 2 hours and 45 minutes to make and it was absolutely delicious! If it wasn't so time consuming I would make it more often.



These are my current favorite shoes - I got them for $4 on clearance at Target. They are just plain cotton with a rope sole - perfect for transitioning from flip flops to winter shoes. I wore them to work the other day and one person asked me if I was going yachting and someone else thought they reminded them of "where's Waldo?" - I suppose they do both have a point.

And finally, since the dogs appear in just about every post I thought I would post this photo from a few weeks ago. I had a bad cold and was taking a nap on the couch ... and apparently the pets were tired too.

Dogs!

I took these photos back in August and forgot to post them. Josh seldom lets me take photos of him so I was amazed that he agreed to be in a few with the dogs.


Smiley girl!


Handsome boys!






Sometimes Zeke likes to be a lap dog which slightly obscures my view ...


Zoey never wants to sit on our laps but whenever Zeke climbs up all of a sudden she wants to come up too. She's a brat!


She couldn't figure out how to get up so instead she just panted her stinky dog breath in my face. Lucky me! Seriously though - how adorable is that little face???

Guest Room chair

The only other project I completed in the guest room before my brother arrived was making over an ugly little chair I found at a thrift store. The bed takes up most of the room but I wanted to squeeze in a small chair for clothes or other things that guests might not want to just chuck on the floor.

I liked the chair's size and style but it was a bit old and smelly.





I wont bore you with all the steps but basically I unscrewed the seat, wiped down the wood frame and spray painted it, and then recovered the seat and screwed it back on. Originally I had planned on doing a more structured seat with piping (like the original) but at the last minute I got lazy and just did one solid piece of fabric. Now that I think about it I doubt I would have been able to make the piping look good so its probably a good thing I got lazy!

I wanted to incorporate some blue and green into the room to bring some pizazz to the dark brown duvet cover so I chose a fabric first and then picked a spray paint to match.



How cute is that?





Its a bit loud and bright but I think it will blend in just fine when there's some art on the walls.

I even had enough fabric left over to make a pillow for the bed!



(How many pillows on a bed is too many?!)



Zeke approves!