Halloween Pumpkin Mantel
Generally speaking when it comes to Halloween decorations, I lean more towards the actual scary than the cute. On the other hand, I love pumpkins and I knew for our mantel I wanted a ton of pumpkins.
I bought a handful of fake pumpkins from the craft store (they never go rotten!) and went to town. I thought I’d stick with a black and white theme and at first I was tempted to make them pretty with patterned stencils, but was inspired to paint cute faces on them when we found a light up pumpkin at a Halloween store. We turned that one into a makeshift light putting it on an antique tripod.
Of course with the black and white theme, I was able to incorporate the ghosties I made.
Look at that happy pumpkin face! They were all painted with acrylic paint we had laying around the house. Pretty simple and pretty fast.
This is the just the beginnings of our decor. We have some more creepy awesome stuff that I’ll share over the next weeks. Not to mention that next weekend is our horror movie marathon and all the treats and decorations that go along with it. Can’t wait!
Dining Room
The fact that our apartment actually has a dining room still amazes me. I think back to our old apartment and how cramped it was despite our best efforts, and I feel like our new home is a huge breath of fresh air. Being able to cook for other people and actually have the space to entertain is such a dream come true. I feel so lucky that we found this apartment. Anyway….
We searched and searched for a dining room table and Shawn finally found this whole set on craigslist. It was in beautiful condition and surprisingly more affordable than many of the other tables out there. It came with chairs as well, which we’re not in such good shape. I just realized that we only have 3 chairs at the table in this photo. I swear we have more! I probably should have taken the table cloth off too, but I am so glad that I finally have a tablecloth.
Obviously the highlight of room is finally being able to display our Victrola. You know you’ve found a winner for a husband when you meet a guy who collects all these fantastic vintage things. This lovely thing had been in our dreaded storage unit forever. For the record (no pun intended) it still plays and sounds beautiful. It does need a little dusting though.
That’s it for our home tour at the moment. There are still 3 rooms and one terribly long hallway to share, but that will come all in good time dear readers.
In case you missed it, we started with the bedroom.
cats and rainbows
When taking photos of our bedroom this weekend, I became a little distracted by the rainbows that filled our room. Since I’m not often home during the day, I didn’t know how many tiny rainbows permeate the space. It felt like magic swirling around the room. I tried to catch all the colors.
The cats seemed to like them too, although I suspect they were mostly just pleased that I was making the bed.
bedroom
I said I would begin sharing a little bit more of our home starting today and I decided to start with our bedroom. It’s a fairly simple room and I feel like there is room to grow in terms of decor, but I’m also very happy with it. Our kitchen for instance, will not be seen on the blog for quite some time as over the past few weeks I’ve concluded it must be painted white (it’s light yellow now) which will be quite the undertaking.
Our bedroom unintentionally ended up with a blue, white and grey theme. We picked up the bedside table and dresser (and another matching one in a different room) at a thrift store for a steal, but the blue stripes were covered with a country plaid fabric. Lucky for us, when we got them home and removed the fabric, the stripes underneath were a nearly matching light blue to a quilt we already used. It was all tied together with the blue and white bunting from our rehearsal dinner.
My favorite thing in the room is the star chart which I found after being introduced to a similar moon chart by the ever so stylish Honey Kennedy. Shawn and I were particularly pleased that the time frame captured covered both of our birthdays.
I intended to start a small collection of owl and bird art but once I started framing and hanging the pieces I had, it all seemed pretty cramped. I stuck with my three favorite pieces, two vintage book plates and a print I purchased at the last Renegade.
I let this post bleed out a little into our hallway as I think these two sections are the best. As a side note, it’s really difficult to photograph a 40 foot long hallway let alone the things in it. The painting outside our bedroom door as well as the masks are all made by Shawn and have been used in various films that he’s made. I’m glad that these are out on display in our home rather than hidden away in a closet as they once were.
The pink bike was the first road bike I bought for myself, an adorable, very little Schwinn prelude. At some point I converted it to fixed gear making it light and fun to ride around the neighborhood (although she hasn’t been out in awhile to be honest).
I hope to have a few more pieces of our home to share this week, not to mention some of the delicious things I concocted for the dinner party I held this past weekend. If there is anything you would like to know more about in these apartment posts, please do let me know (although I more than likely cover too much detail for the average person).
collections
Not quite ready to show a full tour of our home yet, but I couldn’t help but share just a little. It seems we’ve become quite the collectors. Or rather, so many of the little creatures and knick knacks hiding in our closets have come out into the light.
Busy busy days ahead. More to come.
