As of today, August 31st, 2011 there are TWO months until Halloween.

For most of us, this means we will wait 1.98 more months until we start thinking about Halloween décor. We end up going to Dollar Tree on October 27th only to find all the Halloween stuff is gone, and Valentine’s merchandise is in full swing. We convince ourselves if we squint hard enough Cupid does kinda look like Dracula. If he ate too much candy.

Kinda.

Ok, so maybe not Valentine’s day merchandise in October, but if it were Hobby Lobby I was talking about, that actually might be the case. Eek.

My brilliant plan this year is to not let the holidays sneak up on me. I am going to be proactive, not reactive. Hence why I was the crazy lady squee-ing over Halloween stuff at Dollar Tree while lovely citizens were still trying to finish their school supply shopping.

Poor souls.

My first Halloween/holiday project this year took me a total of 15 minutes and involves my handy dandy Silhouette SD. I absolutely LOVE my Silhouette SD, but if you’ve been here awhile, you know this by now. If you don’t have one, you can totally adapt this to use with a Cricut, Pazzle, etc. or even an X-acto knife if you’re brave. I’d end up in the ER trying something like that, but I am accident prone. Naturally.

We’re going to make a SPOOK-tacular Halloween vase/candle cover sleeve (seen above) using very few items that cost little-to-nothing. You may already have them on hand.

What You Need:

-Vase from Dollar Tree or a similar cylinder vase that’s 7-8 inches tall

-Sheet of 8.5x11 cardstock sheet (I used black)

-Some rhinestones/jewels (totally optional)

-Mini Glue Dots & Glue Dots roller (if you don’t have these on hand, double-sided tape will work)

-Votive candle (not a tealight)

Step 1 is to open up your Silhouette SD software. For this project I used a shape from the Silhouette SD store that was 99-cents. The file name is spider_in_web_C20091027204244_18816 (or it’s on the 2nd page if you search “spider” in the Silhouette SD store). For the text, I used Frankenstein which can be downloaded free over here.

I laid out my first spider…

Then I flipped it horizontally & vertically and added another one below it. In the center I simply typed out “spooky”. Send to my Silhouette SD to cut.

Voila! My design is now on my lovely cardstock, and I am ready to roll.

I got my vase and my rhinestones ready. The rhinestones are the self-adhesive ones from the Michael’s dollar-bins. I buy them all the time. They come in handy for random projects or to embellish cards, gifts, etc. Great buy for just a buck.

I wrap my cardstock around the vase and I secure the ends with my Glue Dots roller. Then you’ll notice some parts of the design don’t lay flat on your vase:

This is where the mini Glue Dots (seen below) will be a HUGE lifesaver!

Image Credit: Glue Dots

Once you get all the design to lay flat with your mini glue dots in place, feel free to embellish with rhinestones/etc. I used tiny blue dots for the spider eyes and orange circles to accent the O’s in “spooky”.

Plop in a votive candle (I found the tealight didn’t give sufficient/tall enough flame) and marvel at your awesome creation.

 

I love the spider web effect it had on my countertops/wall.

I plan on making more Halloween candle/vase sleeves. Perhaps mini-tombstones or vampires? They are a great way to make décor for mantles or even tablescapes & centerpieces. Best of all, when the holiday is over, you can simply remove the sleeve and reuse the vase for another time. Low cost, low commitment. Oh and remember to keep the spiders that are left over (from the cardstock being cut)- you can use them on cards or for another project.

Hope you enjoyed my quick, easy tutorial. Let me know if you have any questions or if you try out this tutorial, remember to link it up in the comments section. All props used in my photo shoot can be found at Dollar Tree. Happy crafting!

Today I am going to give you all a quick, easy tutorial for how to revamp an old chair and give it a new life. I bought this chair in August 2009 for about $20 at Goodwill. That may seem a bit steep for an old chair, but I thought the chair was unique enough that it’d be worth the $20.

So, it has sat around for 2 years and finally got it’s big makeover this weekend, and boy am I thrilled with the results.

Some supplies you’ll need to reupholster the chair (staple gun, pliers, screwdriver, hammer and scissors):

And you’ll also need the following:

-2 cans of FLAT white spray paint (96-cents each at Wal-Mart…this is essentially your primer)

-2 cans of Krylon spray paint (this is always my go-to spray paint)

-Sand paper

-Dust rag

-2 yards of fabric (depending on size/type of chair)

First step is to clean and dust the chair THOROUGHLY. Any dust/dirt left on the chair will become part of your finish. CLEAN IT WELL. Sand any imperfections/rough spot. Remove sanding dust with a tack cloth/rag. Then remove any cushions, etc. that you want to reupholster.

As to not kill the grass any further, I set my chair on a plastic sheet from Dollar Tree. Then I lightly applied a coat of primer, waited 30 minutes and then applied another coat:

It’s ok if the coverage is splotchy. Really. Don’t worry, it’ll all be ok. I promise. While that is drying, it’s the perfect time to start recovering your cushions with your new fabric. I used a vinyl-ish, damask/jacquard print I got at a garage sale for $5. It’s Pee Wee proof, I think. Mostly I got it because the color is a gorgeous pearly, neutral and it’s damask. OK…mostly because it’s damask-ish, not going to lie.

I’ve never done a chair revamp before, so I kinda wung it. I ripped off the fabric and used it as a template for how much material to cut out:

And I also had to remove a billion staples:

I found it easiest to use the pliers and grab onto the BOTTOM half of the staple and with a swift motion yank it out. If you yank the top of the staple, you spend 30 seconds trying to wiggle it out, which leads to hand cramps and DIY fatigue. Just trust me on this one. Now, if you don’t want to remove 1.2 billion staples, you could hammer them in with a hammer and move on. I do recommend taking them out though.

The back cushion was easy to reupholster, but the seat cushion…omg. It was difficult because of the corners. I am still not 100% happy with the way they turned out, but for now it’ll have to do. Basically, until my husband can help me manhandle that seat cushion, this is as good as it’s going to get. I don’t want to claim to be perfect, so I’m just keeping it real with you all that sometimes you have to be OK with the imperfections and/or hide them with a pillow/crop it out of the photo. 

I did one side at a time, tightening and checking the front of the seat cushion for alignment/tautness:

Until I was done and ended up with this (FYI: I did trim away excess fabric):

See? The corners aren’t perfect. Sigh. Oh well. I’m going to say my inspiration was a vintage chair and vintage stuff ain’t perfect.

Then I went outside and spray painted 2 light coats of classic gray Krylon glossy spray paint onto the chair frame:

I love the neat accents on the chair. I feel it makes it more unique. As do all the random dents.

Let it dry at LEAST an hour. I let my chair frame dry overnight. While it was drying, I watched the VMAs and was thoroughly disappointed with the Britney Spears tribute and Lady Gaga’s decision to look like Ray Romano:

 

Credit: MTV.com & Google Images

Next, it’s time to screw your cushions back into place and admire your pretty new chair.

I took a break to check Twitter and came back to find this little boy making himself comfy (he threw my pretty peacock pillow on the floor! Boys…):

And then he decided he did indeed want the pillow:

Well, whether you call it a chair or a dog bed, you can totally tackle this easy, beginner DIY project. Mine came in at about $35-$40 total, but if you find or have a chair on hand, this could cost you under $10 for only about 2 hours worth of time/effort. I think it’ll serve as a lovely accent piece in our dining room makeover, and it saves me from dropping mucho money on a new accent chair.

Have you worked on anything lately? Have tips for DIY chair makeovers?

 

While at BlogHer 11, I had the immense privilege of meeting some awesome bloggers and some awesome representatives from companies. One of these representatives happened to be one of my roommates, Heather. She works on behalf of EMEALZ, and let me tell ya…from the moment she told me about EMEALZ, I was hooked on the idea and concept.

What is it? Well, essentially a money-saving, meal planning service that rocks.

EMEALZ essentially looks at the weekly circulars from the popular grocery store chains and compiles a shopping list for you AND includes recipes on how to use those items to create fabulous meals for you. Yup, for YOU. A family of two? They have a plan for that. A family of four? That too. Oh and if you’re doing low carb or vegetarian? Yup, they offer those plans as well.

I was given the opportunity to try EMEALZ out, and since it’s just Daniel and I, I went with the plan for 2 people at Wal-Mart since that’s a grocery store that’s about 3 miles away. We are there ALL THE TIME. It’s sick really. Usually when my husband and I go to Wal-Mart, we end up spending over $50 and it’s mostly junk. Seriously, because it never fails that we come home after a long day at work and ask ourselves, “What are we going to make for dinner?”

Um. Well. We have lots of ice cream…ok, we’ll eat out. And…There goes $20. If we’re lucky, it’s only $20.

Never fails. This scenario happens a lot. Not good for the waist nor the bank account, that is for sure.

With EMEALZ, we get 5 dinners/meals a week that serve both of us that cost little money AND time. I hate recipes that call for $30 worth of ingredients for a meal. Here’s an example of a recipe we tried out and loved:

How easy is that? And if that doesn’t have you convinced that anyone can benefit from EMEALZ, check out how much 1-week’s worth of dinners costs at Wal-Mart using their grocery list:

That’s cheap. My husband and I had dinner with friends last Tuesday. The bill? $70. Just for he and I. That’s almost twice as much as a weeks worth of dinners.

I cannot stress enough that EMEALZ can truly be used by anyone regardless of dietary restrictions. They do have low carb, gluten free, portion control, low fat, vegetarian, etc. It’s great for couples OR families.

At only $5.00 a month, EMEALZ really pays for itself quickly by keeping you organized and saving you time/money (even Dave Ramsey recommends it). The meal plans are posted weekly, you have a shopping list that tells you exactly what you need to buy and approximately how much it’ll cost, and the meals take 30 minutes or less. What more could you ask for?

A free 3 month subscription? Ok, ok. I’m giving one of those away to one of you lovely readers out there. How can you win a FREE 3-month subscription to this fabulous website? Here’s how!

5 ways to enter:

-Mandatory Entry: Subscribe to my blog. Already do? Let me know!

-Follow @EMEALZ on Twitter

-Like/Fan EMEALZ on Facebook and post on their wall that Monica sent ya over!

-Check out their sample weekly menu (for 2) or sample menu for 4 and let me know which recipe you’d make.

-Tell me why/how the 3-month subscription would benefit you.

Please leave a comment for each method of entry (up to 5 comments total) AND a way for me to contact if you win.

If you don’t win and want to try this awesome service, use the discount code BLOGHER for 10% off of new subscriptions.

Contest is open from now until next Friday, September 2nd, 2011 at noon CST. Winner will be announced by 5 pm CST on September 2nd, 2011.

Disclosure: I was provided with a free subscription to EMEALZ in exchange for this review. Any consequent obsession with the recipes I’ve made or how much I adore Heather from EMEALZ had no bearing on this glowing review. Neither did my extreme elation at saving money/time/sanity. All opinions are my own as are the leftovers from the dinners I’ve made. Word.

Yes, my title is exactly the same as my blog name. Why? Well, because the lovely Christa (who I had the pleasure of meeting at BlogHer) tagged me in a fun post last week. It’s basically going to involve me answering 7 questions with 7 links to my blog posts. Well, it’s time to look through my 2 years of blogging archives and get these questions answered. I usually don’t participate in tag posts, but I do truly like this one because I have some new followers and visitors over here ever since I returned home from BlogHer, so I hope this will show off some of my best/favorite posts. I welcome you all, and I hope you enjoy this post!

1.) My Most Beautiful Blog Post

My wedding ceremony recap in pictures. I think my wedding was so beautiful, and the fact it was a truly budget/DIY wedding really makes me happy because I don’t think our pictures show it.

2.) My Most Popular Blog Post

My Skinny Girl Margarita review. It gets thousands of hits somedays. And? Most people agree that it truly does suck.

3.) My Most Controversial Post

My Pussycat Dolls DVD workout review. I say it’s controversial only because the company asked me to take it down. Oh and it’s also a popular review on Amazon, too. (If you need/want a good laugh…read the review post stat.)

4.) My Most Helpful Post

How to paint wood paneling. Young House Love has a tutorial on this subject as well, but mine is a lot more detailed. Which is why I think it’s helpful, and it’s the 2nd link to pop-up in google searches for this type of tutorial. Yay.

5.) A Post Whose Success Surprised Me

The tacky gold shelf makeover. It was featured on Living With Lindsay, Centsational Girl, The DIY Show-Off and on Better After. Woo! I was quite excited because at the time I published this post, I had only been blogging a couple of months. Oh, and I had never used a drill before, so I felt all powerful and stuff.

6.) A Post I Think Didn't Get the Attention it Deserved

My metallic furniture DIY tutorial. It got ONE comment (someone go comment, puh-lease!) I know it’s not a revolutionary idea, but it’s a SUPER CHEAP way to create the SUPER EXPENSIVE metallic furniture pieces that are oh-so-popular right now. I really thought people would be more excited. Sigh.

7.) The Post I am Most Proud of

My living room reveal is probably tops on my list because it was a ton of hardwork, and it was truly the first major DIY project I took on in our home. SO PROUD! And it still looks great/hasn’t fallen apart/I will never do that again. Ever.

Now I am going to tag some of my fellow bloggie friends so you all can get to know their blogs better as well!

1.) Laurel of Go Against The Grain

2.) Emily of Just the Two of Us…and a Cat

3.) Brittany of Less Britt, More Life

4.) Carolyn of This Talk Ain’t Cheap

5.) Suz of Suz Rocks

I am taking a break from what seems to have become my 24/7 job of being a slave to financial aid processing to write to you all- the people I adore.

However, I have a quick tip: do your FAFSA early, not a week before classes start. For real. Thanks.

This way us slaves, peons, student services staff do not hate you and take to drinking lots of whipped cream vodka during #wineparty to cope.

So. This post is to serve as a reminder that tomorrow the holidays will be here, and you don’t want it to sneak up on you and end up getting all the crappy stuff from Hobby Lobby. Nor do you want to have ambitious DIY décor plans that you let fall to the wayside while watching all the other bloggers out there put together tres magnifique projects that make you green with envy and cause you to type run on sentences.

Yeah. You don’t want to be ME.

This year, I am going to make Martha Stewart look bad. I’m going to get glue gun burns, glitter in my fingernails, adoring blog followers and worldwide recognition for my craftiness.

It. Is. On.

Here is my list of Fall DIY Décor items that are on my “must make and blog about it incessantly” list.

1.) A fall wreath for my door. Probably in this exact color scheme because it could be used year round if I am too lazy to make another one or take this one down.

via Pinterest/ Teach Craft Love

via Etsy

via Pinterest

2.) I want to have a ton of pretty candles. I want to use my many, many glass vases to create a stunning tablescape/candle holders such as these. In other words, I should use my Silhouette SD some more. Yup.

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

3.) I need to make some cute pumpkins. Here’s some inspiration I have found. (side note: are pumpkins expensive? do they rot quickly?)

via BHG

via BHG

via Google Images

4.) Create a stunning fall-mantle for our living room for Fall and for Halloween.

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

5.) Throw a fabulous, fun and themed Halloween dinner/cocktail party. For grown-ups. Perhaps themed after Harry Potter. I’m so serious.

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

via Hostess Blog

via Hostess Blog

via Pinterest

There ya have it. The top 5 things I hope to make/create/design to make my home a little more put together and decorated during my most favorite season- fall. If you’d like to see all those ideas above and many more, feel free to follow my Pinterest boards. And if you don’t subscribe to my blog and are here visiting (hello there!), won’t you consider subscribing? You can do so over on the right-hand side of my blog. Be back later this week with a fun assignment given to me by Christa, a dining room update (yes, another one…oh joy) and a crash course on how not-to-train for a 1/2 marathon.

What’s your must do craft/décor during the fall? Please share with me in the comments section!