Front Door Halloween Decorations

Jack Skellington

Here are my outside decorations for Halloween.  I love my Jack Skellington carved pumpkin and I had fun painting the black stripes on the other two pumpkins.
Above the door is a Boo Banner which I made from orange burlap. All it is, is stenciled letters on the cut out triangles, then sew the triangles onto jute twine. There is black guaze hung to cover the huge window above the door, orange lights and black garland over that.
I went down into the wooded area of our property and found a dead branch for the spooky tree. I painted it black and hung purple skulls and purple lights. I found a cute wire lighted scary Halloween cat at "Big Lots". Love, Love, Love "Big Lots" for decorations. I bought a black wreath pre made because I ran out of steam and just did not feel like making a wreath.
This is all I did for the outside, unlike a lot of my neighbors who went crazy with orange lights on trees bushes and animated scary figures. That's fine and it looks good, but I like to be a little more creative. I know I have a lot of store bought stuff as well but to me making and creating is most of the fun.

Chicago

I'm so glad I went to Chicago this past week. It's a beautiful city. I had so much fun with my girlfriend. Neither of us had ever been there before. We decided to take a mini vacation, a much need vacation together. We are checking off our bucket list one city at a time. What an awesome town to visit. I love architecture... as one can see by the photos. As always I took way too many pictures....close to 200 photos,  I'd love to share them all but that would be ridiculous.
We chose this place because our husbands have been there numerous times without us. They both raved about it and said we needed to go. I can see why they like it so much. It's really more of a guy town, lots of sports, dark woody sports bars and it's cold. But the magnificent mile is a definite girl nirvana. Oh my... we had a ball shopping. We stayed right in the middle of it. We were in heaven. We did do some other cultural things, like the museums and so on, but the shopping was the best.
Now with all this said both of us agree we still like New York better. I'm sorry Chicago, but I think it's because New York is more girly. But that does not mean I wont want to come back, most likely with my hubby next time.

♥

hALLoWeeN wItChY cHiCkS

Witchy Chicks

 I don't know what it is about Halloween that inspires me to draw, but it does. Maybe it's the silly spiders hanging from their hats, or the whimsical color combinations, or probably the stripes and polka dots. But anyhoo I needed some art therapy. It's from my art journal and it's plain funness. I love it. I've been kinda of weird these past few days. I'm letting things bother me that I shouldn't. I hate when I let these things get under my skin. A little hurt or slight that I let fester too long. Then it takes me too much time to it let go. Art makes me feel better. I'm so inspired again that I think I'd like to take another workshop. Yea!!! 

♥♥♥♥

Halloween Decorations

Halloween is coming. I know I'm early with the decorating, but you gotta buy early or everything is picked over. I had to go through my old decorations to see what I needed. The stuff was all over my house, so why not decorate. You will be happy to know I have not decorated my front door or outside yet. That can wait. 

I have to give a status update on my hubby. He had a pet scan a couple of weeks ago and everything is clear, so no cancer for now. I'm so happy. He will get a pet scan every six months, I guess for the rest of his life. We can rest easy now and pray it does not come back. Hopefully the treatments he took got rid of it all for good. I hate cancer. It hangs over your head even if it is gone. There is always the fear of it coming back. Having gone through this for the second time is so sobering. The first time he got it, he had the surgery. We thought it was gone for good. Now that it came back 2 1/2 years later even though they say it's all gone does not mean the same thing. I can not imagine how I would be acting if it was me. It's hard enough that it's my husband. But enough of this sad stuff. I'm just happy for now. I'm so glad the weather has changed. The holiday season has begun and I have a new house to decorate. Life is good. 

Happy October!

♥

Dress Art Mixed Media

 "Emma"

 "Isabelle"

"Audrey"

These are some of the paintings I made to put in my friends cafe. 

Faux Mercury Glass Look

Here are more bottles using the Krylon Looking Glass Mirror Like Paint. This time with a can bought at Hobby Lobby not from the clearance section at Michaels. And all I have to say is OMG! What a difference! It sprayed like a dream. No clogging! My previous post was about my first attempt using this product but with a defective can of paint. I did not know this at the time. That's what I get for using something from the clearance section. :(
This time I had to distress them by using a mixture of 1/2 vinegar and 1/2 water. I did not have to do this before because the paint came out all distressed to begin with. I used the Stayzon ink like before and really like the effect. So happy with the results I want to spray everything.

♥

Halloween Wine Bottle Tutorial Faux Mercury Glass Witches Potions

Today I'm doing a fun Halloween craft. I love to decorate for Halloween. I'm so excited this year and can't wait to have a party. I've been on pinterest looking for ideas and this tutorial was perfect. 

~~~The Faux Mercury Glass Look~~~

Start by saving bottles of all sizes. I only have wine bottles at this time. lol! 

I'm using a product by Krylon called "Looking Glass Mirror like Paint"  to get a tarnished mercury glass look.

I have to say I'm a little mixed about this product. The product needs to improve. I'm not sure if I can totally recommend it. 

I was told to get it at Michaels. The first Michaels I went to was out and they said it was discontinued.

I went to another Michaels and found the last one in the clearance section. I got the can for $1.87.

I'm glad I did not pay more for it. ( At Hobby Lobby they run for $11.00)

It was not easy to work. The nozzle kept clogging up! I had to clean it after spraying for only a few seconds each time. The instructions say to spray multiple layers. I guess because it's very runny.  I had to constantly turn the bottle as I sprayed so it would not run off. 

On the neck top part of the bottle the product would not stick at all so it was left clear. Needless to say I was not impressed. And there is paint in the can that I can not get out. 

With all this said and at the end of the day, I felt not all was lost. They really did not look bad and I started to like them more and more. That was when I had a brain storm and decided to use "StazOn Ink in the Timber Brown" to add another dimension and cover where this paint missed.

So I think they turned out really good. 

You can see in this picture where I rubbed the ink pad. I dabbed the neck area and rolled the bottom of the bottle on the pad itself.

 On pinterest I found this great site for these wonderful witches potions labels.

Click here to get these labels

Fantasy Jr.

I like the Harry Potter labels.

One other tip is to make sure you use clear bottles with this spay paint. These were clear and not the amber or green ones. I'm not sure how the paint would work on colored glass. 

For the colored glass wine bottles I'm going to spray paint them solid black. 

In conclusion I really like this look and will probably bite the bullet and buy another can at Hobby Lobby with a 40 off coupon. I hope the can I used was old or something like that. 

Once I figured out how to roll the bottle as I was spraying it worked better. I just do not like the fact that it clogged up so quickly. 

Enjoy!

♥

My Art

This is what I've been working on. I love them all and will have a hard time parting with them. (Oh well that's the way it goes.) I want them hanging and ready to sell in my friends cafe by Labor day weekend which is also market days in old town Helotes.
My husband said I should list them in my Etsy shop as well as selling in M's cafe but I think that would be playing with fire. I can image the same one selling at both places and then I'd be screwed. But that's me the worrier.
I can not believe it's Labor Day already. Where did my summer go? I have only one more day to wear white. I think that's a stupid rule especially for the south. It's so hot and will be until the end of September and probably well into October. Summer really does not end until the 21st of September anyway.
Hope you all had a great summer..... I'm ready for fall.


                                                                                 ♥

mY mEssY dEsK

Messy desk means creativity is flourishing! I have not been posting much because I've been working, creating, painting, basically having fun in my studio.
My hubby has been traveling a lot. He's been catching up on travel since he was off work most of May and part of June. He is in New York City this week. I'm so jealous. Wish I could have gone with him but not a good time to take wifey on business trip. Oh well. It gives me a chance to work non stop, all day or all night. Whatever my muse decides.
So here is a sneak peek...
I've made five mixed media paintings so far....I'll show them eventually. They are going into my friends new cafe. She wants to hang my art in her restaurant. I'm so excited! So obviously I wont be listing them in my Etsy shop.
I have decided I really don't care if I sell my art. I love making it. I get so attached to each piece it's really hard to give up. This year I stopped selling my art on Etsy and hung up all my pieces in my house. Now I'll decorate my friends cafe. As long as I'm inspired and having fun making things, I'll continue on.

My Summer so far

I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted something here. I guess my summer has been busier than I thought. We did not have a vacation planned for this summer but we did manage to take a few day trips and a couple of overnight trips. 

One overnight trip was to our capital city Austin to see the capitol. It's been years since we visited.

It's such a lovely building and I love downtown Austin. 

We also did a little bit of antiquing. Austin has a few weird places to visit. You know the saying "Keep Austin Weird".

Uncommon Objects is a fun, fun antique store on South Congress. All of South Congress is neat. There are a butt load of vintage clothing stores there too. Now I know where to go if I need a Mad Men style 60's dress. I wish I had a reason to buy one. Maybe for Halloween??? I'll be back Austin.

We also went to a few winery's and visited Wimberley Texas. I did not take any pictures of either place, but here is a fat cat that lives at one of winery's. Isn't she sweet?? I sure miss my cat. 

Mamma Kitty

My niece had her wedding reception this weekend near Houston. What a great time for all of us!

I danced my little patootie off. 

This is a video of one of the line dances. 

"Copperhead Road"

I love our family weddings: dinner...dancing all night long and of course lots of drinking. It's what I call a good ole Texas Czech wedding. We evan did our bohemian grand march at the beginning. 

Sorry it's so dark and small but the video was shot with my I phone. Oh well...I think you get the idea.

Hope your summer is going well.

Have fun!

C