Year: 2010

Double Whammy!

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Today, Our Humble A{Bowed}d is featured on not one, but two blogs.  A tour of the transformation of our house can be viewed at Fresh Home Blog.  Fresh Home also has a great magazine, so be sure to check it out. 

We are also lucky enough to be guest bloggers over at Kara Paslay Designs, too.  If you not familiar with Kara yet, you should be.  She has tons of thrifty DIY projects. 

We’re also getting a little love at a few other places, like Bring Up Burns, The Inspired Room, and Black and White {Side by Side}. 

Thanks, everyone for the support!

Turkey Day

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Now that Halloween is over, I am officially in Thanksgiving decorating mode.  To kick things off, I created cute turkey place cards. 

If you would like to make some for yourself, you’ll need:

One bag of mixed nuts, in the shells.  Pull out the walnuts and hazelnuts.

Hot glue gun

Dried, pressed leaves.  If you don’t have pretty leaves to dry, fake leaves or paper would work, too. 

A black pen

Oogly eyes or cardstock circles with black dots drawn in

Colored cardstock for beak and feet.  I used an old cereal box for the feet. 

To start, glue the hazelnut, pretty, slightly pointed side forward, to the top front of the walnut.  Again, the walnut should have the slightly pointed area to the front.  Then, write each guest’s name on one leaf.  Find similar sized leaves (4 more) for each turkey.  Glue the name leaf to the back at the center of the walnut.  Glue the remaining leaves and cover the glue from the previous leaves.

Cut ‘feet’ out of cardstock or thin cardboard.  First, make a slightly rounded ‘V’ shape about 1 inch long.

Cut toes by making another rounded ‘V’ in the center.  Then cut two more ‘V’s, totaling four toes.  Add a dollop of glue to the back of the V and place the walnut on top, making the turkey stand.

To make the face, use an all purpose glue to attach the eyes.  For the beak, cut a small piece of cardstock, fold in half, and cut again into a triangle.  Add glue to the V of the triangle and glue to the hazelnut.  Then, you’re done!

Top each place setting with a turkey and get ready to feast. 

Isn’t he cute?  And, when you’re done, you can eat him.  Sort of like eating the chocolate Easter bunnies.

Oh, here’s another cute idea.  Well, I think it’s cute.  Remember these felt leaf bowls I made?  Well, why not create a few more and use them as individual bread baskets?  We always have so much food on the table and so little room for each person.  This can limit the large platters on the table, and it’s something cute for guests to take home. 

If you don’t want to take the time to use tweed, you could just cut out several felt leaves, stitch the darts together and use a felt only bowl.  The leaf bowl above used a 6 inch, from top to bottom, excluding the stem, template. 

 

Post Halloween Fun

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Usually, I don’t get very into Halloween, but this year, Vincent really did.  You’ve seen the decorating we’ve done, including a feather wreath, spooky tree, a stump side table, and carved pumpkins.  Although this isn’t home related, I just had to share our boys’ costumes.  Vincent requested to be a credit card.  Seriously, I did not suggest it.  What three-year-old wants to be a credit card?  Mine, I guess, so I went with it. 

I bought one piece of foam core from Hobby Lobby for $1.99 and cut it in half.  Then I measured and taped off lines to mimic a VISA card logo.  I mixed up my paint and filled in the areas and letters.  To create the letters, I printed off a set of 16 numbers, cut them out, painted and glued each number on the card.  To create the back, I simply measured and taped off a magnetic strip area on the back, painted it black, made a border for the signature and filled it in with a Sharpie.  To make this wearable, I hot glued two strips of ribbon over the shoulders. 

Total cost for a credit card costume: $1.99.  The look on Vincent’s face: Priceless.

I decided that Everett would make the perfect baby Hulk Hogan, so we used a pair of red sweatpants, red socks, and a plain white, long sleeve shirt from his wardrobe. 

I sewed a ‘tank top’ out of yellow felt, left over from this pillow, using a shirt of his as my size guide.  Gaudy gold fabric for $2.00 made the perfect wrestling belt, which I sewed to the yellow felt.  I bought a small piece of red cotton for $1.99 to make the ‘Hulkamamia’ logo.  To create the logo, I used left over fusible webbing from my tweed leaf bowl project and followed the same directions, only drawing the logo backward on the paper.  I ironed the logo to the front of the shirt, added three buttons to the back and we had a Hulk shirt.  A $.99 red bandana completed the look.

Total cost for Hulk Hogan:  $4.98

Grand total for Halloween costumes:  $6.97

Vincent’s costume was a big hit.  Everett’s didn’t get as much attention, but he wasn’t standing at the door asking for candy, either.  What are your favorite costumes?

Almost 2011?

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That’s right, folks.  We’re only two months away from a new year.  What does that mean?  You’ll need a new calendar, of course!  Look no further because Our Humble A{Bowe}d’s 2011 calendar has been released.

This 5 inch wide by 7.75 inch tall 2011 desk calendar features a light grey faux bois background with seasonal word formed in the grain.  Days of the week, numbers and months are charcoal grey.  Each month features a different color border.


This calendar can be customized with new colors and words, so please ask!

Calendars are printed on 110 pound smooth white cover stock.  Also includes one small binder clip for binding and hanging.

The border for January is Pool Blue with Resolution in the grain.

                       February is Rose Red with Love in the grain.

                       March is Spring Green with Spring in the grain.

                       April is Petal Pink with Showers in the grain.

                       May is Mustard Yellow with Flowers in the grain.

                       June is Grass Green with Summer in the grain.

                       July is Bold Blue with Freedom in the grain.

                       August is Lilac with Relax in the grain.

                       September is Leaf Red with Remember in the grain.

                       October is Pumpkin Orange with Fright in the grain.

                       November is Eggplant with Thankful in the grain.

                       December is Icicle Blue with Merry in the grain.

If you’re interested in this new 2011 calendar, head on over to my Etsy shop and pick one up.

Winner, Winner!

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The CSI Project is a cool blog that hosts weekly link party contests.  This week’s challenge was Before and After: Your Favorite Room, so I entered our dining room.

 

Well, guess what?  It placed in the top ten out of 108 entries!  Woo to the hoo!  I’ve never really won anything, so I’m pretty excited.  Go over and check it out.  There are a ton of cool rooms and ideas posted each week; you won’t be disappointed.