{Bat Garland}

Oh my goodness!  I have been MIA!  So sorry!
I've been SO busy with church responsibilities, planning and getting ready a Halloween party this weekend {I'll post pics of all the fun food and decorations my friend, Brooke, and I have been working on} and I started working part-time {on top of the voice lessons that I teach}.  So, yeah, I've been busy!

Remember that I did a Blog Swap last week with Beth @ Through the Eyes of the Mrs?

I thought I'd re-post my thrifty Halloween project that I shared, just in case you missed it.  'Cuz I'm cool like that.

Now, you all know that I am all about thrifty decorating.  My husband is in school so I have to be thrifty.  But it helps me to be creative!

I was at Joanne's the other day and saw some glittery foam bats.  They were really cute and I knew I could do something with them.  And with a 40% off coupon, they were around $1.50.  Score!

I wanted a fun garland and decided the foam bats would be perfect!

I started out by punching holes in the ends of the wings with a paper hole punch:

I got some twine and strung it through the holes:

And then hung up my bat garland!

Isn't it cute?

You could even glue some red rhinestones on for the eyes to add some extra spookiness :)

I don't have a mantle since we live in an apartment so I usually hang my garlands on this mirror I have above my piano.

So simple, easy and thrifty!!!  That is my kind of project.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Decorating Solution!

A couple of months ago, I thought it would be SO cute to put some Candy Corn in a hurricane w/ a candle!  And I thought I was SO smart coming up with that idea . . . and about a week after I "came up" with the idea, I started seeing these Candy Corn/hurricanes pop up all over blogland and Pinterest.

Guess I wasn't as original as I thought!!!  Great minds think alike, right?  And there are lots of ladies out there with great minds :)

Anyways, so I made my little Candy Cane/Hurricane display, put a plain white candle in it and decided it needed a little more "oomph".

 {See?  So plain}

So here's what I did.

I took some twine.  I LOVE twine.

And I put a little dab of hot glue on the back of the candle and stuck the end of the twine to it:

Then I wrapped to my little hearts content!

And here's what I ended up with:

SO easy!!!  I put another little dab of glue to stick the other end of the twine to the candle.

I love it when that "oomph" that you need is so easy!

And I love the color that this super easy, super cheap Fall/Halloween decoration adds to my home.

This is the "before my Halloween decorations are out" photo:

And the "after my Halloween decorations are out" photo:

PS - like the Halloween printable?  You can get yours HERE!

PPS - new here?  I'd love it if you followed along!  Don't forget to say hi, though :)

Wanna see where I link up?

Check my sidebar! --->

Black & White Pumpkin Topiary

Are you all SO excited for fall to be here?

Cuz I sure am!

I keep thinking of all the yummy soups and pumpkin recipes I'll be making soon.

It makes me a little giddy!

The project I'm sharing with you today was inspired by a black and white pumpkin project I saw last year over at Imperfectly Beautiful.  I LOVED the idea of painting the pumpkins black and white.  

And a topiary?  Yes, please!

I have a big urn planter sitting by my front door and I knew that was the perfect place for my Pumpkin Topiary!

I got the smaller pumpkins at The Dollar Tree but couldn't find one big enough for the bottom of my topiary there.  So I headed to Walmart and found the perfect one there.  I spent a total of $7 on my pumpkins.  Not too shabby!

I started spray painting when I got home!

 I forgot to take before pics of my pumpkins. Oopsy!

I broke the stem off of the pumpkin above . . . don't worry, it was on purpose!  I took the stems off of the bottom two pumpkins since they would be sitting on top of each other.

So here is my pumpkin topiary before I fancied it up:

I didn't want to spend much money on this project.

I had some sticker paper on hand and decided to use that rather than running to the craft store to buy some white vinyl.

So I used my Cricut to cut out my fancies :)

I decided to do polka dots for the small pumpkin and the fancier flower pattern for the bigger bottom pumpkin.  And since there was so much going on with the black pumpkins, I decided to keep the white one plain.

The sticker paper was definitely not as sticky as the vinyl would have been so I ended up using my glue gun to help keep the stickers on.  Great solution since I didn't want to spend much!

I love the way my Pumpkin Topiary turned out!!!

I haven't done anything yet to fasten the pumpkins together but I'll have to do it soon.  My kids keep taking the pumpkins apart to play with them :)  And I still need to add some leaves or something around the bottom pumpkin, but I was too excited to share this project to wait!

One of my favorite things about my Pumpkin Topiary is that it cost $7 - I only had to pay for the pumpkins.  I had everything else on hand!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

To see where I link up, check out my sidebar --->

Wedding Tutu and Veil

I'm baaaaaaaack!

We had the BEST time in Disneyland!

Seriously, so much fun.  Why do I like it as much as my kids?

We already can't wait to go back!

So, I've got to get some posts going on this little blog of mine.

I decided I'm going to try and do at least one post a week.  If I want to do more, awesome.  If not, that's okay, too.  Just letting you know so you know what's going on over here at Loving Every Second!

On to our fun post today!

Last year, I decided to make my niece a wedding tutu for her birthday.  She was turning four and four-year-olds love to dress up!  Am I right?  I know I am 'cause I have a four-year-old :)

I used white tulle and tied it around an elastic band for the waist.  I'm sure you can google a tutorial if you don't already know how to make them.  

 I decided to add a little bit of glitz and tied silver ribbon on it, too.  Gives it a fun little touch, dontcha think?

What is a wedding tutu without a veil?

I had some white tulle left over and decided I could totally make a play veil.

I started with a french-clasp barrette.  That way the veil could clip right into the hair and stay in.  I tied some strips of tulle on it just like I did on the tutu.  You can tie as many as you want to make it as full as you want, just make sure you can close the clasp on the barrette.

I wanted to add a little bling, so I hot-glued some rhinestones on the barrette.  I wanted a little girly touch, too, so I also hot-glued some little white flowers I had.

I think they turned out SO CUTE!  I had my daughter try them on before we gave them to my niece and she loved them!

I also added some white gloves that I found at the dollar store for the gift - a wedding tutu, veil and gloves.  That girl is ready to get married!  Or at least pretend to get married, lots and lots of times :)

I had some white tulle on-hand, but I did end up buying a little more at the dollar store.  I had everything else on hand so this project cost me a dollar!  Yes!

Easter/Spring Wreath

I'm SO excited to share this wreath with you!!!

I had my Valentine's wreath up until last week - sad, I know.  I just hadn't had the time to sit down and make another wreath until this past weekend.

And I LOVE how my wreath turned out!

At first, I was going to do a vine wreath with lots of flowers.  It would have been really pretty, I think.  But it was getting too expensive with all the flowers I wanted to get the look I was going for.  So while I was at the craft store I decided to change directions.  I had another wreath envisioned with tulle so I decided to go for it!

All of the Easter stuff at JoAnne's was 40% off.  Yay!  So I got a pretty bunch of wild flowers, some decorative eggs and a super cute vintage Easter sign.  I could have totally made the sign myself, but it was so cheap that it was worth it just to buy it and save me the time :)  Plus I had a 40 % off coupon for my most expensive item.  Aw yeah!  I used it on my sparkly tulle.  Yeah, I got sparkly tulle and LOVE IT!  It was a little pricey, even with the coupon (at least pricey for me, but I'm kind of cheap - ha ha!), but so worth it. 

On with the tutorial!

I started with a foam wreath.  I didn't want to see the white through the tulle so I wrapped ribbon around the whole thing

I picked a pink 2" ribbon that I already had (I love the ribbon from Tai Pan - super cheap and good quality) so that it would cover it fast.  I'm still worn out from wrapping all the yarn on my Valentine's wreath :)

Then I cut my tulle into strips.  I did 4" for the width and just cut the length in half.  PS - my mom got me a rotary cutter and mat for my birthday {I turn the big 3-0 in a couple of weeks - aaaaah!!!}.  It was SO easy cutting my tulle with the rotary cutter!  I love it!

After the strips were cut, I started tying them onto the wreath.  I did it just like you would tie the tulle onto a tutu.  But, I decided to do this like a "Tutu for Dummies" just in case there is someone out there who doesn't know how to do it.  Cuz I'm super nice and cool like that.

Soooooooo, you take your strip of tulle, fold it in half and put in under the wreath.  The looped end should be on the inside, like so:

Then pull the loose ends through the loop:

Next, pull up and tighten the strip of tulle:

When you are done tying, you will have this wonderful wreath that looks like a fun little tutu when you are done:

I alternated between the regular tulle and the sparkly tulle.  Since I got less of the sparkly tulle (cuz it was more expensive), I did one strip of sparkly tulle to every two strips of regular tulle.  Got it?  Good.

You'll want to trim the tulle at this point to the length you want it.

After I trimmed mine, I added a little ric-rac to give it some more oomph, color and interest:

Now it's time to embellish!  My favorite part.  Mwahahaha!

I started with my little bunch of wild flowers:

So fun and colorful!

Then I whipped out my speckled eggs (by the way, have you seen this tutorial to make your own?  Love it!  But I'm too lazy to do it, plus the ones I got were on sale . . . )

I arranged the flowers, eggs and vintage Easter sign (pictured below) onto the side of my wreath and attached them with floral wire.  

I wanted to attach the Easter sign with a little bling, so I hot-glued a pin to a clear rhinestone:

And here is my little cluster of fun:

And a close-up of my blinged out pin and Easter sign:

I love, love, love my Easter wreath!  It turned out better than I imagined.  Love it when that happens :)

The total cost was right around $20, which is a little more than I usually spend on a wreath, especially one that I'm making myself, but it was worth it.  I love coming home to something pretty on my door . . .

Especially when I know I made it and it's unique and one-of-a-kind!

PS - If I've inspired you and you decide to make a wreath like mine, I'd love to see how yours turns out!  Email me at LovingEverySecondBlog@gmail.com.

Here's where I link up: