Happy Halloween (a cute 'n quirky alternative)

I can't believe I'm going to say this as I sit here in my Canadian holiday cottage surrounded by pumpkins and Halloween-loving folk, but I'm not a big fan of Halloween.  I never have been.  I don't know if it's because I don't like orange - it doesn't like me either (it looks hideous on me), or because it transports me back to the '80's and memories of my bright orange Datsun 200b complete with brown vinyl roof.  Come to think of it those colours would fit right in over here at this time of the year!

Anyway, I knew I would have to come to the party and get into the Halloween spirit (did I tell you I have illuminated pumpkins around my mantelpiece right now? I am rockin' this "getting into it" thing) so when I found a pumpkin idea that was neither orange nor spooky, and from one of my favourite magazines over here, Country Living, I did a happy-Halloween dance.  This is what I found ...

A deer.  A beautiful, quirky, very white, very sweet Halloween "deer".  A dear deer, if you like.

To make this funny little fellow you will need:

A white pumpkin

(Such as Lumina, or an orange pumpkin painted white. Even though I already had a white one I gave it a coat of white spray-paint just to cover a few scratches and bruises)

Two branches

Coloured Yarn

Buttons for eyes

Felt for ears and nose

We started off by wrapping coloured yarn tightly around two branches that we found on the trail behind our cottage.  My niece and I sat together for an hour or two wrapping a branch each.  It was actually very cathartic and a relaxing way to spend some time together.  My 3 year old had a go at wrapping too (and lasted about 10 minutes) - can you guess which is her branch?  

Once my pumpkin was dry I cut out two holes for the antlers - angling down so the antlers would stick up not out.  My holes weren't the perfect size so I just stuffed some cotton wool balls around the antlers for a snug fit.  I then attached two buttons for the eyes and a piece of triangular felt for the nose with hot glue.  I cut slits into the side of the pumpkin and squished in the ears which were folded felt triangles (I rounded off the top of the triangles so the ears ended up looking more like in the magazine - leaving the triangles pointy at the top just didn't seem to work). 

And then there he was.  A sweet little Halloween woodland creature with not a hint of orange and not in the least bit spooky.  Just how I like it.

How about you - do you celebrate Halloween?  Do you stick to the traditional type of decorating and activities, or are you like me and shy away from all that is orange and spooky?

Happy Halloween!

DIY Tray Makeover

I love myself a bit of DIY and it's no secret that I have a pretty humongous big crush on all things "Martha", so when I discovered the fabulous range of Martha Stewart stencils at Michaels I knew it was time to combine my two loves.  And, coincidentally, a few weeks earlier I had bought myself a couple of vintage trays from a Habitat for Humanity store for $1.75 each, planning to DIY them in some way, shape or form.  I also wanted to try using spray-paint.  I haven't had much luck with it in the past but I constantly see it being used beautifully all over the net, to revamp anything and everything, so I decided to have one last crack.

I started off by giving both trays a light sand and cleaned them both with a damp cloth.  I then painted the trays white using an acrylic paint, not a spray-paint.  I didn't think the spray-paint would cover the dark colours very well and I probably would've had to do a whole load of coats for even, full coverage which just seemed like a waste of time and paint so I applied two coats of plain white with a brush. If I had used a primer underneath I probably would've gotten away with just one coat of paint - but I didn't have any primer so I just laid the paint on nice and thick.  

Once it was dry I got ready to stencil.  I decided on which design I wanted to use (I chose the "Arabesque" stencil set which comes with a variety of beautiful patterns to chose from), played around with the positioning and then sprayed some spray adhesive onto the back of the stencil and stuck it down.  I was having trouble getting the stencil to stick to the tray where the tray curved - no matter what I did it kept pulling away.  I tried adding more adhesive, adding tape and also just holding it down with my hand as I sprayed (dumb, dumb idea).  I didn't think it was going to end well but I grabbed my can of "Island Splash" spray-paint and sprayed away anyway, giving it a couple of coats back and forth.  Once I had the coverage I was happy with I hesitantly pulled back the stencil, hoping for the best, but kinda knowing it probably wouldn't be fabulous.  This is what I found ...

A dismal effort.  It was official - I sucked at stencilling!  I was close to throwing it in the "too hard basket" but stubbornness won over and I decided to have another go.  I sanded off the majority of the blue stencil, added another two coats of white paint, chose a different stencil - one that wouldn't be affected by those pesky curves in the tray - and opted for a different colour.  This time I went with a yellow called "Sun Yellow".  I followed the same process as before - positioned the stencils where I wanted them on the tray, added some spray adhesive to the back, stuck them down nice and firmly and then lightly sprayed over the stencils using a back and forth motion.  I felt more confident this time.  I had high hopes for success.  I peeled back the stencils hesitantly.  This is what I found ...

Hoorah-freakin'-hoorah!  I had done it.  It had worked.  No bleeds, no blurs and no blobs!  Thank goodness for that.  Now I needed a cup of tea and about a week before I even began to contemplate DIY'ing the second tray.

Here's the tray in action - serving up a nice cup of tea and a muffin to enjoy on the porch.  Doesn't she look lovely? I'm so glad I was patient with her.

For the second tray, I envisioned stripes - again, using spray-paint but tape instead of a stencil.  I also wanted to use yellow again - for some reason I just wasn't sold on the blue.  I had already painted the tray white so it was just a matter of adding some painters tape where I wanted the stripes.  I was very lazy with this and didn't do any measuring - I just whacked the tape on where I thought it looked right.  

I then sprayed on a few light coats of yellow until I had the coverage I wanted.  While the paint was still wet, I pulled off the tape - not so hesitantly this time (full of confidence now!) - and joy of joys it worked.  Hap, hap, happy days! 

I am not exactly sure how or where I will use this tray but it's such a versatile little thing and could be used in a heap of different ways.  It could be used to serve drinks.

To hold my massive jewellery collection.

Or even just to brighten up the dinner table.

It doesn't really matter - it's cute, it's bright and it's a happy little thing to have hanging around in my house.

In the end I'm glad I persisted with the makeover and gave these little gems a new lease on life but am I now a spray-paint convert?  Ummm, not necessarily.  The same effect would've been achieved with normal painting but I think for some stencilling purposes spray-painting may be much quicker and less labour intensive than having to use special stencil brushes and stencil paints, but then again you have a lot more control and no over-spray to worry about, so I'm not sure.  Spray-painting worked for me this time and I will definitely try it again but I'm divided as to which method I prefer. I guess ultimately it just depends on the project.

Anyway, for fun, here's a little "before & after"...

Have you spray-painted anything lately?  Did it work?  Were you happy with the result? 

Floral Friday ~ "Flowers in the Garden"

It is Fall now over here in Canada so the garden flowers that were in abundance only a matter of weeks ago have all but disappeared.  What is in abundance, though, and is on just about everybody's porch here is the "Fall Mum" - a huge potted mass of gorgeous, bright yellow flowers.  Summer may be gone but these beauties scream "sunshine" and are the perfect welcome to have on your doorstep.

And here's a little peak at some "Fall Mums" sitting very pretty amongst the Fall decorating on my MIL's porch.  As you can see, she's a bit more experienced than me at this seasonal decorating caper.

Happy Floral Friday everyone, and be sure to check out the other wonderful blogs in this blog hop.

Floral Fridays is a monthly photography project with different themes each month. This series is about fun and taking time out to smell the flowers. To play along, please email Trishie for next month's theme.