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Simple Elegance

By on November 15, 2011 in Centerpieces, Fall Projects, Thanksgiving

Ahhh, the chaos of the holiday season is finally upon us!  We all play into it (maybe I am listening to Christmas music as I am writing this post) even the big man himself, he’s taken up residence at the mall before the Halloween clearance items have left the stores. But before you hop on the Holiday Crazy Train, do yourself a favor and take a break this Thanksgiving.

It’s so easy to go over the top when you are hosting a formal Thanksgiving…and trust me I HAVE…

but here it is…PERMISSION to go easy on yourself (and your wallet).  You can have a beautiful (and inexpensive) centerpiece without going overboard.

You can simply use votives and gourds to make it festive!  Of course, I’m using one of my fall favorites again, a burlap tablecloth.  It’s inexpensive and adds another layer of texture!

For the flower arrangements, I used decorative kale and dahlias (local peeps: You can pick up everything used here from Idylwilde) in an galvanized pail from Ikea.

So simple yet so elegant!

Enjoy your time with family and friends this year, because really, isn’t that what it’s all about?!?

 

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Trick or Treat at This Old House

By on November 1, 2011 in Halloween, Window Treatments

With all the trees down and power outages, Trick or Treating was cancelled in our town last night.  But that didn’t stop me and my boys from heading out and getting some yummy loot!  We ventured back to our old neighborhood to trick or treat with our new baby cousin (who, by the way, is not yet a fan of Halloween).

One of our first stops was the house we lived in over five years ago.  We have so many great memories in that beautiful home, but one of my favorite decorative memories were the curtains I made in the kitchen.  Just the other day I was describing them to a client and wishing I had close up photos of them (I made them over ten years ago…long before I was reading design blogs.  Back then, I never dreamed I’d one day be getting paid to do what I love).  The new owners invited us in, and guess what…MY CURTAINS WERE STILL UP AND LOOKING GREAT!  (Yes, my husband was very embarrassed that I was standing in our old kitchen taking pictures) Without any further ado,  drumroll please, meet my fabulous super inexpensive curtain solutions!

This is a sheer toile panel on a tension rod that was pulled up on the sides with rubber bands and then tied with napkins!  (Total Cost about $7)

 For each window I safety pinned two toile placemats over a basic curtain rod and covered the “seam” with a napkin.  (Total Cost about $11)

Halloween was a real TREAT for MK Design this year!

 

 

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Spooky Tabletoppin’

By on October 31, 2011 in Fall Projects, Halloween

Happy Halloween blog friends!  I don’t think that Halloween can get any spookier than snow, no power, and no school…just sayin’

OK back to business, since there were so many elements of the Halloween Bash that I wanted to share with you, I’m breakin it down. Let me start by saying, I’ll be prepared this time  when I see some bloody lanterns hanging around, since last week I almost crashed my car into a pole when I spotted a humongous porch spider web on someone’s house that I don’t even know! (true story)

In this post I wanted to share some of the fun tablescapes I created for this spooky shindig!  First the food table:  simple, slightly spooky, and just a little bit country.  I used 4 yards of burlap fabric for an in expensive table cloth and repurposed the humongous wreath she bought that was way too big for her front door.

The mantel was covered in moss, straw, and loaded up with a spider web and tons of teeny spiders (with their spider momma of course)  I layered the scene with some cardboard fence cut outs to make it feel graveyardy (yup…real word)  And finally added black and orange glitter skulls to the tops of crystal candle sticks and a pair of bloody candles.

For the dessert table, I stuck with a black and silver motif.  Look to the right and you’ll see the flowers my client received for her 10 year anniversary the week before.  Well, they were looking like they were on the way out, so I decided to Halloween them. (black spray paint is pretty much my bff all month)

That’s right…I risked THIS scene when she came home…

for this halloween amazingness!  Luckily she loved it!  (for the record I did have her husband’s OK)

Moving right along…

We needed a table outside for the booze (seriously…I did not drink ANY!)  Again, I love a no sew table cloth…2.5 yards of a creepy fabric from Joanne’s.  (MK PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: GET OUT SHOPPING TODAY…they are practically giving the stuff away now…next year comes quick)

I fell in love with these glitter flying bats and had to use them in my flower arrangement!  Although they flopped more than flew, so I spray painted some twigs to help them along.   Please note that I’m still using the moss…seriously, I’m putting it everywhere!

I don’t like to follow the rules, so I’m always trying to think of different ways to use decorative items.  I bought this fabric and glitter spider web and pulled it then tied it across their patio table…how fun…right?!?

(PS: don’t you just love cheesecloth draped anywhere on halloween?  Especially when it’s tea soaked, all torn up, and draped across little white christmas lights!)

So to finish off the tablescapes I created for this spooky shindig, I want to share with you this simple and elegant coffee table (totally Better Homes and Gardens…right?).  Love the pumpkin sitting in the moss, love the little silver lanterns, love the white candles, and loved that I thought it would be a good idea to put moss INSIDE the lanterns.  (Well the package didn’t say flammable)  Right, remember how I said I loved to put the moss everywhere, um, it’s a bad call!  (One of the lanterns may have exploded)  Note to self:  For those of you that love word math…

Moss + Candles =  Explosion

No one was injured in the decorating of this party!

Happy Halloween and get out shopping for deals today! (especially all of you black friday people)  You’ll thank me next fall.

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Light the Night

By on October 26, 2011 in Fall Projects, Halloween, Mason Jars

This weekend  I had the opportunity to decorate for a Halloween party.  This being a night time (i.e. no kids) event, my clients really wanted to use as much candlelight as possible.  I heart mason jars!   They are such a simple and inexpensive way to create a warm glow by dropping a tea light inside.

I attached some wire under the mouth of the jar then added a handle to the top.  (Needle nose pliers were my bff for this job)  Lets face it, ideas for mason jars are all over the internet, so in this post I want to show you how I pushed the gross factor for this party!

First, I had to concoct the right shade of blood, and although I’m guessing you could find just the right shade at the paint store, but I just happened to be raiding my kids craft room  for this project (which, by the way,  seems to be 3 parts red, 1 part black and a splash of water)

Now, it was a little trial and error to get just the right look for dripping blood (do serial killers think about this?!?) but I determined that the honey dripper’s flat top really did the best job!

And of course I had to do this to two dozen jars  to really get the full extent of the gross factor!

 

We hung them all over the bushes during the day…

and I couldn’t wait to see how they sparkled at night!

And it looked even better against the luminaries that

light the walkway to the back yard!

Stay tuned this week for some more fun ideas from my other Halloween ventures (one might have even spontaneously combusted…just sayin’!)

 

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A Tangled Web

By on October 18, 2011 in Fall Projects, Front Porch, Halloween

My neighbors and friends keep stopping by to ask about our new pet…Charlotte.  To be honest, I sort of winged the construction of this web when I stared it on my porch last weekend.  The whole time I was thinking, I should be taking pictures because I might want to blog about this…but I wasn’t even sure how it would turn out.  Well, needless to say, we all LOVE her!

And needless to say, I didn’t take any “how to” pics.  Which really worked out for my friend, since her daughter begged her to make one at their house too.  Back to the hardware store…and this time it was documented…step by step!

So here’s what you need.  For my web I ended up using 200ft of clothes line, but here I only used 100ft.  I also needed some ceiling hooks for this porch, but you may already have one for your hanging baskets.

STEP 1: String one length of rope vertically, tying knots at both ends.

Before you tie the knots, you’ll need to burn the rope 

once it’s cut to prevent fraying!

STEP 2: Tie another length of rope horizontally tying a knot at the center point.

STEP 3: With the remaining rope, tie another knot in the center and begin to tie tight knots as you circle around the horizontal and vertical ropes.

STEP4: Keep going and going and going!

Don’t worry if it’s not prefect…spiders don’t seem to mind.

WHAT A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE

You might want to be a little more organized with the rope, just sayin’

STEP 5: Make it as BIG as you can covering as much of the horizontal and vertical rope as possible.

STEP 6: Now onto the vertical ropes.  Starting from the center loop the rope around the connections you have already made and pull tightly.  Repeat on all sides!

Check out the difference between the knots on the horizontal and vertical connections vs. the looping on the diagonal connection.  It helps give you a little wiggle room to straighten things out when you are done!

And here is the finished product!  This spider is named SofandSam and if you look closely you’ll see he even has a little lunch on his web!

Now start your weaving…and remember

“You are never more than three feet away from a spider”

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