Painted Pumpkins

Who has carved or painted their pumpkins already for Halloween this year? Most years we carve them, but a couple of years ago, we drilled designs in them for a little change. Here's a look back at our pumpkins throughout the years to jog your memory. This year, I decided to just paint a couple. Trent hasn't done anything with his. Party pooper. :p

Here are my lovely little painted pumpkins:

A realistic looking tree and of course an owl, just because who doesn't like orange colored leaves on trees, or cartoon owls?

I had to be cheesy and take a picture with my pumpkins. And I'm all by my lonesome. Maybe Trent will get into the Halloween spirit and carve one tomorrow night. We'll see!

And here are a couple of close-ups of each. I can't seem to move them back outside and out of the house. I think they'll be staying in the living room for a while. :)

Can't believe it's Halloween on Saturday! Trent and I watched the entire Scream movie franchise in 2 nights to commemorate the holiday. All 4 Scream movies. Good times!

We're headed up to Chicagoland to visit Haley and Dan this weekend. It will be nice for a break from the usual day-in, day-out! 

Happy Halloween, folks! :)

Most Recent Antique Store Finds

Hello lovelies. It's really starting to look and feel like fall out there. Still have mixed feelings. It gets dark at an ungodly hour these days, and today it rained nonstop all day and was a chilly 60 degrees most of the day. It shall be winter soon...Lord help us.

Anywho, wedding planning has been in full swing and is going smoothly, although nobody really likes to play the waiting game....but we all know how that goes. So I've mostly been on the hunt for milk glass vases, which we will be using for our centerpieces. Our wedding "theme" is "Vintage garden elegance," so I'm going to be collecting assorted vintage milk glass vases for the tables to hold tons of pretty flowers.

The Knox County / Spoon River Scenic Drive was last weekend (an awesome event with tons of flea markets and yard sales), and that was quite successful for finding milk glass, as well as some pretty cool vintage pieces for the wedding, including an old faded green, paint-chippy shutter which I thought would make some pretty cool decor and a way to display photos of us. And an old wooden box I think would be great for holding cards.

I also checked out a couple of antique stores this weekend we had never been to, including Skeleton Key Art & Antiques in Rock Island, and Living Vintage in Eldridge, Iowa. Both stores were really great, and I found a ton of milk glass at Skeleton Key. I only found one vase at Living Vintage, but they had some awesome restored vintage furniture there.

Here's my total loot from the Scenic Drive, and my recent Antique store trip:



You can see the card box and the shutter behind ALL of my new milk glass vases! All that stuff was well under $100 thanks to some awesome deals. The old shutter was $10, the wooden box was $12, and the vases were anywhere from .25 to $7 for a couple of the larger ones. Most were $1-$2. Not too shabby.

This next find isn't wedding related but at Skeleton Key, I saw this unique owl necklace and had to have it! It truly looks one of a kind, and may very well be. I love the gold/mint green combo, and this owl is so flippin adorable!

It was $16.99 but I decided to get it, because I would probably never see anything like it again, and I was already smitten with my new owl friend.

So those were my recent antique/flea market/sale finds. What have you found lately that's super unique?

Glossy Ceramic Owl Makeover

Ok, first off - you know I love ceramic animals, right? I think we've already covered this subject, and there's no need to revisit it. But in case you are unaware, I invite you to check out this post and this post. That should prove my point. Moving on, though..after I received the ultimate owl figurine collection from my aunt, I immediately thought about painting them a solid glossy color. If not all, just some of them. However, I was a little torn between painting and leaving them alone for fear the little guys would lose their character. Thus, I decided to just paint one and see how it turned out.

I have to say, I love the result. Here's the Before and After:


It looks a lot more modern now - we had actually started painting him when I painted my wine bottles and jars a while back:

Except it got rainy later that day and we never got to do a second coat. So he sat inside until this weekend, when we finally finished him up!

He looks so handsome on top of the washing machine in the laundry room. So handsome in fact, that he makes doing laundry much more fun just by being there. :)

OK, maybe that last part isn't exactly true - when is doing laundry fun, really?

Still though, he is a pretty cute addition. I still haven't decided if I want to paint any more of these guys though...what do you think?

Do all owl figurines look better with a glossy coat of paint, or just the bigger ones, like the one I painted? Some of these guys are teeny tiny. For now, the jury is still out!

 (images from here and here)

Linked up to: Liz Marie Blog, Tatertots & Jello

It's a Hoot

This weekend, I received the ultimate. owl. figurine. collection. Haha. No, really. Most of you know I love owls and sort of collect them (mostly those of the ceramic and adorable variety). Here's some of those little guys I have laying around.

Well, my aunt must have found out I have a thing for owls, and very generously gave me a collection of vintage-y owl figurines:

I know- motherload, right?? I have to say, these guys are pretty darn charming. Probably don't have a place for them...but I might be able to make them work! I haven't decided whether to leave them all au-natural, or spray them with some glossy paint for a more modern look. Kinda like these:

(from here)

(from here)

(from here)

What do you think?  I'd hate to lose all that character and old, vintagey feeling that they have already. But I don't want them to look too tacky. Any outside opinions out there?

Either way, these owl figurines are pretty darn awesome. I took them home and set them all up on one of the end tables in the living room, and Trent walked in and just said something like, "ummm.....No." Haha.

We'll see what the fate of these guys will be....

Animal Inspired Decor

I love me some animal decor. Especially of the white, ceramic variety. But I'm sure you all know this by now. If it's not my owls, it's my beloved Target dog or my pig with wings...

I don't know about you, but I tend to feel that a random cheeky animal here and there brings an ounce of fun personalization and whimsy to a space. I love when I'm browsing on Pinterest and see a room I love with a little ceramic animal on the shelf or the wall. It just makes the space look 10 times happier. So I've compiled a few spaces hanging around on the web that I love, with one thing in common....They all have a touch of animal-related decor! (sources at bottom of post).

Sources:

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8

Now, are those spaces fun or what? I think these photos prove that animals are sooo perfect for kids' rooms and nurseries, but they can also look cute and stylish in adult spaces, too!

For the Birds

I kind of have a thing for bird decor. Birds are on my living room pillows. Owls are scattered throughout my kitchen. And lately I've been seeing a lot of cute bird-related finds in the stores. So I thought I'd compile some of these items right here. All cute. All very birdy.

Owl bookends from Z Gallerie - Set of 2 for $29.95. Not too shabby!

Love Anthropologie pillows. Too bad most are way out of my price range! Check out these birdy pillows here and here.

Bird Serving bowls from West Elm - Love the one with the bright yellow feathers.

Owl hook from Anthropologie. THIS would be so fun to have! *cough*Anniversary present*cough* Trent, were you listening? Ha.

These paper maché bird mountings from West Elm are possibly the most interesting home decor item I've come across in a while...I haven't decided whether or not they would be borderline creepy in person. However, I quite possibly would still TOTALLY get one.

Society6 has THE best pillows ever. The artwork on the site is so unique and so awesome. Check out this robin pillow here.

Lastly, I leave you with this amazing parrot figurine from Target which I have been obsessing over for the past few months and is no longer available online or in store. Tear.

Owl Nooks

Tuesday, during my Snow Day, I did a little painting in the kitchen. 

What did I paint? Well, Trent gave me these owls for my birthday (From here):

And after some thinking about where to put the little guys, I didn't have too many options so I decided on the kitchen nooks:

The only thing is, they were white and didn't "pop" against the cabinets at all. So I decided to paint the backs of them to make my owls stand out a little more. I just cleared off the shelves and wiped them down...

I wanted to use paint we already had, and decided to mix the dark gray and white again, like I did with my skeleton key frame, to create a nice medium shade of gray. Trent and I mixed the color, and I dubbed it "Snow Day Gray." Every paint color needs a name, right?

After taping off most of the edges to make my job a little easier, I painted on three coats of my Snow Day Gray.

Once it was dry, I removed the tape, and put my owls back in their places! Suddenly, the little guys popped! I think it looks pretty cute and fun.

Plus it's a nice little surprise to look over and see the unexpected gray color in there. And it only took a few hours. Nice little afternoon painting project :) Of course we have a long road ahead of us for this room and our Phase 1 makeover is only temporary, but it's a nice little change!

Especially when you consider how far we've come so far. Just look at where we started from...

In other news...I'm a little under the weather. All the birthday celebrating this week was too much for me, I guess. Feeling sickly. Going to try to forget it this weekend so I can have some fun! Wish me luck...