WHAT A BARGAIN...

Heya! How's everybody doing?  I'm great.  I'm lovin' the cool crisp air we are having here in Missouri.  Fall is truly my favorite season.  Makes me feel alive!  I love it!

Anyway, now onto something more exciting, like my newest thrifty find...

Last week my husband had some free time and decided to stop by the office and take me out to lunch....so sweet isn't he?...Anyway, while we were passing by the thrift store here in town this...

was sitting on the sidewalk right outside the door.  I said, "STOP...that is sooooo cute I gotta find out how much they want for it".  He said, "what do you need with another headboard.  We have all the beds we need." I said, "I don't know but I love it.  Surely I can find SOMETHING to use it for."  He just rolled his eyes.  He said, "Okay, but only if it's cheap enough."  And it was....it was only $1.00.  WHAT A BARGAIN!!

I think the hubs was secretly hoping it was expensive so he didn't have to drag it home for me.  Hahaha.  I had to go back to work but I can just imagine what he must have looked like trying to stuff that full size headboard into my little PT Cruiser.  Wish I could've been a fly on the wall about that time.  LOL

Anyway, I now have a beautiful full size headboard at home, that I don't need but that I love, and am trying to figure out something to do with it.   Do you all have any ideas?  What could I make from it?  Or what could I use it for, besides a headboard that is?

IS IT FROSTED GLASS?

Okay, I know it's been a long time coming....like ohhhh say 3 MONTHS...but remember when I painted my back door black (and the front door too) with my left over paint? I said then that I got rid of the old cafe curtains that were hanging there and that I had a special window treatment up my sleeve that I would be showing to you SOON...soon was not exactly the right word to use as, wellllllll...I AM A PROCRASTINATOR...okay not really.  I finished this cute window treatment the very weekend after painting the door...

So why haven't you seen it before now....cough, cough....Uhhh, it has taken me this long to get a decent picture of it....and this is not even a good one...the dumb thing just don't want it's picture taken I guess.

This was a super fun project (though somewhat time consuming) and turned out really cute.  I simply used good ol' clear contact paper purchased from Wal-Mart for around $4.00 for a huge roll.  I measured my windows and cut a piece of contact paper just the right size for each window.  I then used different size lids to make circles on my pieces of contact paper.  I cut the circles out which left the pieces of contact paper looking much like swiss cheese.  I then placed one piece on each window.  (The trick to getting the contact paper in place right since it is "sticky", is to spray the entire window with Windex and then place the paper.  The Windex makes it "slippery" so that you can get the paper in place before it sticks.  Then you simply wipe the excess Windex away with paper towels).  Once I had the "swiss cheese" in place, I filled in the "holes" with a little bit smaller circles, slightly off centered, to make the appearance of bubbles.  Why bubbles?  Well, since the door leads to the laundry room (the basement), I thought "bubbles" on the glass would be fitting.

So you might be asking, "What about privacy?".  That's easy!  Even though the contact paper says it's "clear" it has somewhat of an opaqueness to it which makes it look remarkably like frosted glass and gives me the privacy I need. Believe me, you CANNOT see through this stuff.  Thank God because I definitely don't want any strangers (or friends) peeking into my horrid laundry room.  It's a scary place right now!  

So what do you think, do you like my "bubbles" window treatment?  Cute huh?

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At The Picket Fence

I'M FALLING ALL OVER YA...

HAPPY FALL TO Y'ALL!!

How's it goin?  Did you think I forgot that fall has arrived?  After all I haven't shared any of my fall decorations yet.  Truly, I did get a late start at my fall decorating this year because of all the painting going on around here, but I have finally managed to get my fall buffet put together along with a few other things.

First let's take a look at last year's buffet....

Very simple and I loved it but there were no treats.  What's that, a buffet should have treats, right?  Well, this year WE.HAVE.TREATS!!!...

Yummy.....CANDY CORN with PEANUTS, CHOCOLATE COVERED PRETZELS and...

Reeses PEANUT BUTTER CUPS...of course everything is tastier when it's served up in glass apothecary jars!!

What do you think of my new homemade table runner?  Perfect fall colors don't you think?

Fall has happened over on my vintage china closet too...

HAY RIDES, PUMPKIN PATCH, CORN MAZE...I love this cute sign I found a few years back at a consignment shop.  I normally hang it out on one of my trees in the yard along with some other outdoor decorations, but she's starting to show signs of wear so I decided to keep her indoors for the season.

I plunked down a few metal pumpkins and tucked in some fall leaves by her for a super cute fall display.

Now onto the mantle....which is not exactly finished yet...It needs some pumpkins.  I am still looking for just the right ones.

This year's mantle sports my new DIY Sunburst Mirror.  This mirror was made from plain white cardstock and was very simple and inexpensive to make.  You can find out how I did it HERE...

The leaf  garland is real.  Some of the leafy branches came from my next door neighbors maple tree and the others came from the trees in my yard.  The cost...FREE!!  Sadly though, they will not last long so I will be replacing them with faux garland soon.

The tall branches flanking either side of the mantel are from the shrubs and bushes in my yard.  Once again those were FREE.  A very simple yet elegant mantle.  I love it!!!

Well there you have it...Fall 2012 at Beyond the Portico.  You can check out last year's fall decor HERE and HERE.

~HAPPY FALL Y'ALL~

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