I LOVE SESAME STREET

And now my kids do, too. They are celebrating thier 40th anniversary!
Take this quiz to find out which character you are most like!
My results:
I am Bert. I often find myself being the more mature, analytical and reasonable person in my group of friends. Some may consider me eccentric, that bottle cap collection and the fascination with pigeons ain't helping, but I'm a true friend who's always everybody's "old buddy."

Wondering which Sesame Street character you are? Click check out the Sesame Street 40th Anniversary interactive and take the personality quiz.

SMART & "SNEAKY" STORAGE

Do you live in a small space like me? Or does your "linen closet" look like this? Wall to wall stuffed to the brim with blankets, etc...

Here is a king size pillow sham. A lovely little number I got from Ballard Designs a long time ago. This thing is huge. So I decided to create some SMART STORAGE with it!

I put all our sheets and pillow cases for the bed in here. Sneaky, eh?

Just fold the sheet and it sits nicely in there.

Then zip it up.......

And no one will ever know! An added bonus: The sham is stuffed and it looks better that way!

Know what I love about November? It's still FALL...

And you can still decorate with all the lovely pumpkins from October :)

INSPIRATION: pie from Williams-Sonoma catalog....

And my lovely Pottery Barn Thanksgiving 2009 catalog. I actually let out a audible happy sigh when I got this in the mail.

My beautiful Turkey plate I got on Pottery Barn clearance. I call him "Tom."

Also in the China Hutch-- just traded out the candy for raffia and leaves- quick change! And my super cute pots from my sis in law.

Need a free and easy arrangement idea? Sticks from the backyard! (Notice the AUTHENTIC leaves left on the twig. LOL)

And for the kiddos.
Happy November everyone!

RECOVERY

After a Happy Halloween weekend...

A million pounds of candy....

And six cousins having a great time, it was time to assess the damage Monday morning...

These are the BEFORE pictures....

And here are the AFTER....

I got the itch to reorganize the girls room. I cleaned, rearranged, reorganized, and got rid of stuff. I spent a good portion of the day in thier room and it was SO satisfying :) Not to mention it was fun being side by side with my girls all day while they played. They helped alot too!

Due to lack of space and my oh-so-creative mind, I "repurposed" the play refridgerator as an extension of the bookcase for now. I just took the doors off and am saving them for later. Wouldn't this also make a cute bedside table, right side up?

Hope you had a great weekend and are recovering as well!

HALLOWEEN TREAT BAGS

(Pictures removed).
These are the treat bags I made the girls last year. I was so happy to pull them out again for another go around. I used black gingham for the outside, and some fun orange with polka dots material for the lining that you can also see for the names. Leftover material from my pumpkin quilt was used to fancy them up. I used orange ribbon scraps for the handles. For the names I used a letter stencil and cut out the letters in fabric then used a wonderful product called "Wonder Under". You iron it onto the fabric on one side, then peel it off the other side and iron it onto your project. Then I just went around the edges old-school fashion with orange puffy paint so they had a nice clean edge. My girls can't wait to fill them up!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

MY FAVORITE VIRTUAL MAKEOVER SITE

(Dont know why my lips luge huge in this picture. Ugg)

Do you remember my recent hair dilemma? Well I finally took care of it. Nothing drastic. Just a few layers to take care of the frizz and dead stuff and add a little shape and fun. Plus, I started parting my hair on the other side. Have you ever done this? It's amazing how little things can make a difference.
Before I went under the scissors, I visited my favorite virtual makeover site at Mary Kay. It's way fun and the perfect way to try on different hairstyles. You can also try different hair colors, makeup, and accessories. You can try it here. I guess it's like my own personal Hairy Fairy after all!

GUEST BLOG: WOOD PUMPKINS

These adorable wood pumpkins are from my sister-in-law, Karen. She was so nice to let me use her pictures for my blog!
She and her friends like to do a fall craft every year. They bought wood in 4x4 and 1x1 size. Then cut it into 8", 6" and 4" blocks and 1" blocks for the stems. Then they used a sander to round the edges. Then they painted the body of the pumpkins brown or black first so when you sand the edges, it shows up underneath. Then paint them orange, and the stems green. After they dry, sand around the edges to your liking. She added some jute around the stems. Then she used her 3" "whimsy" scrapbook stencil letters for the words. I think it would be cute to do fun faces on the pumpkins like on my can-tainers, or B-O-O. There are so many fun things you can do. But I love "trick or treat" as well!
I want to give props to Karen and her friends as they came up with this adorable craft all their own! And my favorite part: It cost $8 for the wood and $5 for the paint, and they made 4 sets. That equals only $3.25 per project!