YES it is...

Aren't you glad?! Me too.
* Tonight is the huge Kids Halloween party at school. But we also have a little Pre-party at a friends house for us parents..so we can make it thru the next 2 hrs of craziness. And it is, trust me.
* This weekend there is a Nor-Easter coming...if you can even believe that. I woke up and heard the news guy talking about it, and thought I was still dreaming. Snow before Halloween..weird. And I'm so not ready for that mess yet.
* Sat night, my little one is supposed to have a sleepover at her Aunty's house. Hopefully weather permitting. She wants to see their decorations.... they go all out, but scary. So she only wants to see it in the Day...no joke, she means it.
* Sometime this weekend- Momma has got to spend her Bday cash!!! That's right, guilt free shopping. That's the best kind. I have to remind myself to not buy home goods. I can't help it.

Enjoy!!!!

Pumpkin LOVE!

I spotted this photo on Gabrielle's site, ofcourse the place to find all good things.

And I had to bookmark it. I love the idea of painting pumpkins vibrant fun colors...so great!!!Note to self...must do this next year!

Window Monsters...

I have never decorated for Halloween. Not sure why, just never really got into it. Of course, with an 8 year old who has opinions and a voice of her own now. I have to hear 'why don't we do this'...or 'we need to put something up..come on MOM'! So I sort of gave in...and we tried some of these WINDOW MONSTERS!!! I used a combination of black construction paper and the black contact paper..which I recommend, since it sticks and its removable.

I love how you can see them from the inside during the daylight.. and then at night when you close the shade and have the light on, everyone can see them OUTSIDE.

I think I found my new way to decorate for Halloween!!!

Monday Miscellany

Tea cup makes a beautiful Chalk holder..
Planter makes a great Pencil holder. Don't you think?

Hello Fall!

I suppose I have to give in and say goodbye to summer! Especially when your wearing boots and a scarf, you can't stay in denial for too long. We made a quick stop to pick up a couple pumpkins and get a little face painting and balloon animals. Geez my pumpkin was really expensive..wth!

But you have to have at least one to carve, right?

Happy Friday!

Happy happy Friday! Yes, the weekend is here!!! So happy.

• Tonight is Taco night! Easy...yes all of a sudden my 8 yrs old REQUESTED tacos, this has never happened. She always complained when I made them. I think some TV show influenced her. Weird right?
• Saturday, trip to NYC for In-laws 60th wedding Anniversary. I know, 60 yrs married..wowser! We are heading to see a Broadway show and then for dinner. Yum.
• Sunday will involve a whole lot of nothing. Well maybe a visit to see my family if I don't get too lazy. ; ) My little girl wants to see her Aunty, really bad.

So, what's on your schedule? Oh there's also a block party Saturday night that we might stop by and meet some new neighbors. Fun.

After the weekend...

(above: messing around with Adobe elements, trying to turn a photo into a sketch... still needs work...hmmm)

Hope your extended weekend was awesome and relaxing. We had a 5th bday party to go to. It was great for the kids AND the adults, which is most important. ; ) have to keep the adults entertained or keep our cups filled. I'm joking, ....mostly.

I also picked up a thrifty find...that I will show you later.

J.CREW... back to the chalkboard

so relaxing and fun...I could do this all night long.

J.CREW...old favorites

Some of my favorite J.Crew bags...classic, beautiful and useful!

Currently Loving..........

It's a new week....

My Kitchen: 'Making it Livable'

I mentioned that I made some quick and really inexpensive changes to my kitchen that I wanted to share. This is by no means a makeover. But I like to call it 'MAKING IT LIVABLE'. My before kitchen was not so livable to me... yes I am strictly talking about aesthetics..but hey that's important too. I just couldn't stand looking at it. And we are not going to be able to remodel any time soon. So these small changes were just making my kitchen livable to me!!!!!

(Before from NJMLS)
Things to notice in the BEFORE shots:
*** FAUX laminate wood cabinets.... they don't look anything close to real, trust me
** Flower Stained glass panels at the end cabinets..(yikes)
** Country border around ceiling..(le sigh*)
** Country switch plates
** Notice NO backsplash....(WTH)
** Ugly ceiling fan (oh no)
** Hospital- like blinds on sliding doors...($%^*&)
OMG!!

(we took out the wall you see below on right, between dining and kitchen to open it up)

When we moved in...I should mention the only thing we did... which was kinda big was knock out this wall between dining room and kitchen to open it up!!! Then I painted the kitchen a neutral color and REMOVED the country border. And it stayed that way for over a year. (also note, husband didn't want me to paint the cabinets)....

So now here we are today..

I made 5 small changes-
1. Black Faux leather contact paper for Backsplash
2. Cork board to cover stained glass
3. Black switch plates to replace country ones
4. More Black Contact paper on Upper cabinets
5. Curtains to replace, hospital blinds

I had some Black Faux leather contact paper lying around and one Sunday I thought about covering that backwall where the Backsplash was....just to have some contrast with that SEA of BEIGE. So I tried it since the paper is completely removable, And I really liked it!!!! Loved it actually. Cost: a roll is $6.74.

Next I needed to cover those Stained Glass Panels ASAP...there were only 2...so I thought CORK would be great and they could be used to pin notes,pictures or grocery list, etc (probably not the one near the stove, but the other end, YES) . I just bought that 4 pack of cork squares and cut them to size...(cost around $6.99 on sale).

Next I added the black contact paper to the upper cabinets only.... just to see.. And I liked the results. Already it just feels more modern and less 60ish.

Next to go were those Hospital blinds....pretty ugly. And they were missing half of them. I thought why not curtains? ...for now I reused the same track and just replaced the slats with curtains I already had. LOVE IT!!!! (cost = zero)

The last little thing I did was replace all those Country outlet plates with black ones..they are under 1 each... I had no idea they were so cheap. ($3.00)

That's it! For me it makes a big difference and will help hold me over a little bit longer. There are a few things I still want to do, such as paint the Hardware on the cabinets. Get rid of ceiling fan.
and maybe DIY some kind of island from our of old kitchen table.

But for under $25 bucks, I'm pretty happy until then!

OK this last one is not part of update, but I had to share my Missoni serving tray!