Entering Into the World of James Bond for Halloween This Year, Happy Halloween!

Welcome to the 718th Metamorphosis Monday! Happy Halloween! Did you go to any great Halloween parties this year? Jackie, a lovely BNOTP reader who has become a friend over the years, hosts an amazing Halloween party each year! She always chooses a theme for the party, then completely transforms her home around that theme. You may remember last year's theme which was Star Trek.     If … [Read more...]




Taking All the Stress Out of Halloween Night

If you live where you have a lot of Trick-or-Treaters stopping by on Halloween night, you know how hectic it can sometimes be. I'm like a Jack-in-Box on Halloween evening, popping up every minute or two to answer the door. I love seeing the little ones in their costumes. Halloween and Trick-or-Treating with friends is one of my fondest childhood memories. Back then, we didn't buy fancy costumes, we wore … [Read more...]




Halloween Table Craft Featuring Edgar Allan Poe’s Poem, The Raven

Several years ago I shared this wonderfully creative Halloween table craft by Stephanie at the blog, Brooklyn Limestone. After seeing this idea on her blog, I really wanted to do this for a Halloween table setting. I even went as far as buying the plain white plates to create it. Unfortunately, I never got around to making this clever Halloween design featuring Edgar Allan Poe's poem, The Raven, because … [Read more...]




Decorate for a Spooky Halloween Dinner Party: Cobwebs, Catacombs and a Model Train Village

Welcome to the 611th Metamorphosis Monday, a blog party sharing fabulous Before and Afters! For this past week's Tablescape Thursday, Jackie welcomed us into her beautiful home. There was a big surprise waiting just inside the front door!   Yikes! Jackie will be having a small Halloween dinner party this year instead of the big Halloween party she normally hosts. I love how she has … [Read more...]




A Few of My Favorite Halloween Decorating Ideas & Detailed Tutorials for Creating Them

Happy weekend to you! Are you busy decorating for fall or Halloween? I'm not doing any decorating right now because I'm having the whole house and both porches pressure washed early next week, hopefully on Tuesday if it doesn't rain. After that, the front porch will be getting a fresh coat of paint. So the most I've done so far is hang a wreath on the front door, but I thought it would be fun to share a … [Read more...]




10 Halloween Crafts for the Home and Table

Welcome to the 507th Metamorphosis Monday! I'm leaving for Egypt today. I plan to post a good bit while I'm away. Hopefully, I'll have some fast WiFi in the hotels where we'll be staying. I'll also be posting a lot to Instagram while I'm away. Instagram is the easiest and quickest way to share in real time, so be sure to look for updates there each day. If you would like to follow my adventures … [Read more...]




3 Halloween Table Settings & A Halloween Craft

Welcome to the 473rd Tablescape Thursday! Things are still a bit crazy around here with furniture still piled into the breakfast room and the deck furniture piled onto the porch. Fortunately, they are coming today to put everything back onto the deck now that it's dry. Looking forward to getting everything back to normal! Update: Sorry this post is going up a bit late...painters arrived while I was … [Read more...]




Halloween Craft: Mummy Candle Holders

Halloween is almost here and I have a super fun, easy craft to share. I've been itching to make some Mummy Candle Holders for Halloween for a while now. They always make me laugh when I see them in magazines around this time of year.   I didn't have a tutorial to go by, just gathered together the items that I thought I'd need: pint size mason jars from True Value, gauze, glue gun and some … [Read more...]




Eye of Newt and Toe of Frog, Wool of Bat…

Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog... Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble. Macbeth (Act IV, Scene I) ~William Shakespeare Eeek! It's like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's movie, The Birds! Only, in this case it's The Bats! I've had this image saved on my computer for a year or two. I've always wanted to duplicate the look on my front porch for … [Read more...]




Broomstick Place Cards for Your Halloween Tablescape

Welcome to the 267th Tablescape Thursday! A couple of weeks ago I shared this picture from Country Living online. I thought it would be fun to make some of these broomstick place card holders. I didn't see a tutorial for them at CL but they looked pretty easy to make, and they are!   To make broomstick place card holders, you'll need raffia, yarn or jute thread in any color you prefer, … [Read more...]




Denim Pumpkin: 5 Creative Ways to Decorate a Pumpkin

It's October and you know what that means! It's pumpkin time! Remember back in the day when the only kind of pumpkins you could find were orange. Now you can find them in so many different colors: blue, gray, green, even white.  And if you're really feeling creative, you can make your own. Recently, I was invited to participate in a pumpkin party with four talented Bloggers. Our only instruction was to … [Read more...]




Make a Crow Tree Centerpiece for Halloween

Welcome to the 194th Metamorphosis Monday!  So, tell me!  How was your weekend?  It was really pretty here in Georgia, perfect fall weather.  I've been finishing up some last-minute decorating on my porch...I'll be sharing that soon. A few days ago for Tablescape Thursday, I shared a fun Halloween inspired table setting with a crow tree centerpiece.   For Metamorphosis Monday I'm sharing … [Read more...]




DIY Frosted Candlelit Lantern for Halloween

  I know Halloween is still a good distance off, but if I share this too close to Halloween, you may not be able to find one of the "ingredients" I used.  So, bear with me if I share some things with you a bit in advance. I've been itching to try my hand at making a frosted lantern with Krylon's Glass Frosting.  Have you ever used it? To make a Halloween lantern, you'll need a few basic … [Read more...]




Make Your Own Beverage Tags: A Ballard Designs Knock-Off

Recently, I received an "End of Season" Ballard Designs catalog in the mail.  Excuse me, but would someone please tell Ballard Designs to not rush my summer.  It's just mid July and here in the south summer lasts at least until the end of September, sometimes well into October. Max and I curled up in the green and white chair here in the office and had fun oohing and ahhing from one page to the next.  So … [Read more...]




Decoupage a Blue and White Pumpkin

  A couple of weeks ago I posted about these wonderful découpaged pumpkins I found in the October issue of Country Living.   That previous post contained a detailed tutorial I created showing how you could découpage a "craft" pumpkin.  You find the full tutorial in this post: Country Living Inspired: Découpage a Pumpkin   You may remember the pattern I chose for my pumpkin … [Read more...]




Découpage a Pumpkin

There is sooo much inspiration to be found in Blogland these days, the cover of a magazine has to REALLY grab me to convince me to buy the magazine.   The October issue of Country Living did just that. I loved the toile covered pumpkin on the cover. I glanced inside and saw there were directions with the "how to."  I couldn't wait to give it a try.   Another pumpkin inside was decorated using … [Read more...]




Decorate Your Pumpkin with Ribbon for Halloween

Welcome to the  142nd Metamorphosis Monday! How was your weekend? I've had a busy one. Saturday, I drove down to Macon, Georgia and attended a class for "extreme couponing" with my sister and niece. I watch so little TV, I didn't even know what extreme couponing was. It was really interesting. If you have a good size family, I can see how the savings could really add up. I'll share some of what I learned … [Read more...]




Pumpkin Carving Tips and Templates

Do you ever see intricately carved pumpkins and wonder how they did that? Well, it turns out, the trick is using a tool like you see on the left and not like you see on the right... So, where do you get those teeny little saw cutting tools? I found mine many years ago at Williams-Sonoma. I think this kit was around $20, which seemed like a lot at the time...but it was totally worth it. You can … [Read more...]




Decorating for Halloween, Mice on a Staircase

Welcome to the 91st Metamorphosis Monday! I don't know if you've noticed, but there seems to be a mice/rat infestation going on around Blogland.   I bought these a few weeks ago but just had a chance this weekend to open them up and play today. My staircase has gone through an interesting metamorphosis.   With the light in the entry on...   Here's how the … [Read more...]




Create Your Own Plant Stand

Welcome to the 38th Metamorphosis Monday! I have a little query for you. What would you do if one day at your workplace, you discovered the items shown below were being tossed out...thrown into the trash? I know some of you are so creative and talented, you'd probably snag them and take them home. Me? I would have probably looked at them, thought they were interesting, but wouldn't have had a clue … [Read more...]