happy halloween.

A decent photo with Lucy couldn't happen w/o MULTIPLE takes.
Takes One and Two

spooky branch.

remember my valentine's day tree? well the tree really isn't so lovey-dovey. it's actually a SPOOKY branch I scored for cheap-cheap at the PBizzle last year.

for it's first halloween debut, i decorated it with orange lights and little skulls to amplify it's spooky effect.



it's crazy how cheap halloween stuff can be the first week of november. i got this FUN batty, table runner with the branches. u forget about it until you pull it out the following season.... it's like CHRISTMAS in October!



i also made a spooky shadow box as a tribute to last year's pumpkin carving contest. go PLAXICO.

lousy headbands.

hey gang, it's lucy here.

now don't PANIC - this is NOT my halloween costume! just a pair of random EARS my mom has been wearing around the house the last few days. now i know what you're thinking. 'how could lucy's cruel mom make her wear silly hats / headbands all the time?!' i ask myself that question a LOT! but as much as I dont like wearing SILLY things on my head - it does make me very HAPPY to see my mom so happy when I'm wearing 'em. (i mean, come 'on - we all know she is a bit of weirdo). and if all i have to do to MAKE her laugh aloud and SMILE from ear-to-ear is wear a silly hat for 5 minutes - I'm IN!! easy-peasey!

don't worry about me. I go back to smiling the minute I can take it off.

lovin the lazy life,
lucy

festive cookies.

yummmm.

crazy corn maize.

the weather didn't keep us from hitting up a CORN maize yesterday. a couple girlfriends and I went to the Zarpentine Farms corn maize. The theme of the maize was Noah's Ark. I wonder how the heck someone 'mowed' the animal shapes into the corn?! I can hardly write my initials with the lawn mower....

anyways - the objective was to find the 10 colored 'sticks' - if you answered each one correctly it gave you a clue to the next one. the maize was a LOT larger than what I expected and tough for a 'totally-bad-with-directions' girl like me. they told us some people take 3+ HOURS to get through it all. it really would be a TON of fun if you brought a large group and broke up into teams.

here are some tips for first-timers:
1. wear crappy clothes n case it is muddy outside
2a. bring a FLASHLIGHT
2b. if u forget ur flashlight, bring ur CAMERA and take a photo of the map to review when lost
2c. if u forget ur flashlight and your CAMERA runs out of batteries - ur out of luck
3. don't be shy to ask for directions from kind strangers

technically - Lanie and I lost Krista & Kimmer. somehow they emerged with all 10 sticks in less than 45 minutes. i'm pretty sure they were yawning during the rules when the race judges said 'no bartering with strangers for sticks'.

garden in transit.

maybe you've heard about the flowers that are ALL over the iconic yellow taxicab in NYC. well those flowers are the product of a project called 'garden in transit'. my girlfriend Marisa works for the Portraits of Hope who sponsored the project to showcase NYC in full BLOOM. it's a public ART project to celebrate the taxi-cab's 100 year anniversary.

in NYC I traveled in flower-power style, hailing two cabs in full BLOOM. the only one that wasn't a groovy cab was the one we hailed from the airport to the office. that cab got a flat tire which made us late when we stopped to put air in the tire. i'm convinced it's because it didn't have FLOWERS.

confused pumpkins.

cam isn't the only one getting a painted pumpkin! i decided to paint our initials on smaller pumpkins to JAZZ up our front porch. well the pumpkins were so darn small they got lost in our HEAPING pile of mums!

despite being overwhelmed with how close christmas is, i solved that by stacking them up like a SNOWMAN. lots of hearty toothpicks are holding them together pretty well.

buffalo bills.

Go Bills (more pics here)!

spooky front door.

i may not be great in the kitchen, but i found a good idea for an old frying pan. bet ya never thought that could decorate your door!

free cards.

who doesn't love something FREE?! remember when I created my own mikwright card on kodak's easyshare gallery? Well now you can try out their card service for FREE! The Kodak EasyShare Gallery is running a 5 free card promotion until early November. So get creative and send some SNAIL MAIL!! (to me, for telling you about this super deal!)

for the record - I'm not sure if it is good for every single one of their card types, but the two I've made so far have qualified. one of them was even a Martha Stewart card!

pottery barn & Junk Ladies.

i have starved myself from reading Pottery Barn catalogs ever since I gave up the habit of working there part-time. it's just too painful to see full price merchandise after having a GENEROUS discount.

this past weekend, I skimmed the catalog at Jenn's house. I may have had little Cameron climbing all over me at the time - but that didn't distract me from seeing a $39 'Wooden Photo Display' for sale.

Holy toledo!! Instantly my mind was FLOODED with unanswered questions:

• Do the Junk Ladies shop at Pottery Barn?
• Did the Pottery Barn Product Research Team read Decorating JunkMarket Style?
• Did the Pottery Barn Product Research team read my blog post about my drying rack project or see the pics on my project page?
• Do the Junk Ladies know about this? Did they sell their project concepts?t

pb's wooden display is not as authentic as my drying rack (below) which gets lots of use holding biz cards at Dirty Birdies sales. but that isn't the point. vintage must be hugely popular, because I noticed lots of 'new' vintage things for sale at Pottery Barn. They had a vintage Door, vintage ceiling tiles, and a vintage architectural display doo-hickie.

I read a rumor last year that the ladies were designing home accessory products for Target, but Pottery Barn? I need answers people. i may have to take my questions straight to the junk ladies. you may recall i'm a card-carrying member of the JUNK CLUB.

painted pumpkin.

we visited friends in liverpool this past weekend who have a little boy Cameron. as a gift - i painted CAM his name on a pumpkin i picked up at the farmer's market. painting pumpkins isn't as fun as carving them, however it is MUCH cleaner and toddler-friendly. (until they try to throw the little pumpkin ;-)

CAM loved his pumpkin oh-so-much! it had a couple bats and a trick-or-treat message on the back. here he is with it while he was trying on his dinosaur halloween costume already. it's just as cute as the costume we got him last year.

happy 200.

woo-hoo. 200 blog posts! and to think SOME thought I may not have been able to make this blogging thing work. (i have a tendency to start and stop the occasional project b4 it is 'finished'). some up-to-the-200 mark highlights:

• my first REAL post which was about miss lucy. (technically this is my first real post, but it was a short and sweet - testing, testing, 123 post)
• pick a color for our dining room drove the most comments from my readers - so THANKS! comments are my FAVE part - they make the blogging world go round.
  
• i've confessed many of my faults, like my weakness for t-shirts and in posts like hide your books - i'm on a road to recovery for ATLEAST one of them.
• projects, projects, and more projects! all my NOTmartha trials and tribulations that occur trying to achieve my goal of doing atleast one creative thing each and every day.
  
• in June - I introduced you to the Dirty Birdies which I've gotten GREAT feedback from!
  
• i'm always talking about my new year's resolution, to be a GREENER citizen. who doesn't need tips on that?!
• bits about my travels. whether they be pains, or happy times.

although i didn't bake cupcakes to celebrate 200 like my 50th anniversary - I did eat CAKE leftover from mcallister's 30th bday! yum. i'm always looking for comments/feedback from my readers - so let me know if you have improvement suggestions or just want to share your voice about what you like or don't like!

birthday boy.

someone in our house has a big, ROUND, birthday today! this pic is hanging in our hallway and has caught my eye many times this week in anticipation of his big day. hard to believe he is turning 30 when that baby face hasn't gone anywhere!

since lucy and i LOVE birthdays so much, we both wore hats this morning to celebrate and baked him a cake.

so maybe Lucy doesn't like wearing hats. she would hardly wear it long enough for me to turn my camera on. boo. it took 4 attempts and 3 broken hats to get this 10 sec video of her. sadly it's the best i can do....

glitter pumpkins.

there has been a lot of hype in the craft world over martha stewart's new GLITTER. i glittered a bunch of pumpkins PURPLE last year for decorations - but used regular 'ole glitter that i had in the craft pile.

emily recently raved about the MS glitter, so I had to give it a whirl. i bought a 3 pack with glue b/c i could use the 40% off michael's coupon. i also bought paper mache pumpkins in hopes i could keep the finished products for more than one fall season.

the project was easy-peasey and came out very nicely. now i'm looking for smaller things to glitter, preferably pumpkin or gourds shapes.

Check out the pics!

garden success.

mcallister's aunt maybeth gave us clippings from her garden to transplant last year. they all had roots except these 'sticks' that she had been keeping in a bucket of water. i was laughing when she told us just to stick 'em in the ground with a coat of rooting powder and they would grow. (she IS like the president of NOTL's horticulture club so what could I say)

it wouldn't be the first time we smuggled plants over the border - but check out these sticks now! they grew like CRAZY and bloom these beautiful WHITE daisies (just a guess) each FALL. I have no idea what the plant name is - but we like to call it white daisies on a stick.

SUMMER 2006

FALL 2007


we need more plants like these in our garden. does anyone know what they are called?

new chairs.

before i say an official goodbye to summer and welcome in my fave season of the year, i want to say thanks for all the extra SUNSHINE and nice weather we've been experiencing.

it's allowed us to enjoy the retro, metal patio chairs i scored at a recent garage sale. can you believe the price?! this pair adds to my collection - nonw i have 4 retro, metal patio chairs. (sorry, I don't know if they have a real name) you may have noticed our RED ones when Lucy was busy eating corn on the cob. i paid twice as much for that pair!

E A T.

completely unrelated to my week of food themed posts, i finished a quick-n-easy (which is how i like 'em!) craft project today that i started last week. i purchased the LETTERS at joanne's and use the remaining supplies that i had at home. i'd say they were wooden but after lightly sanding them down (per their instructions) i think they were merely some kind of wood-looking fiberboard.

i had seen the word EAT hanging on a kitchen wall in a home decorating magazine some time ago, so I was inspired for our kitchen. we still have loads of BLACK paint left over from painting our kitchen cabinets. i think painting the letters the same color provides balance against the opposite wall of black cabinets.

although i'm not the biggest fan of the letter's TYPEFACE - i do think they look GREAT up over the swing door that leads to our dining room. they add just the right touch of vintage appeal. the letters are the perfect size, not too big for that space between the trim and the ceiling and not too small that they get lost.

what do you think?!

harvest muffins.

first grape pie, now muffins - my work colleagues are GENEROUS folk who really like to share good food! (which in turn is creating a theme for this week's blog posts) today a colleague brought in these amazing muffins from the Great Harvest Bread Co to celebrate FRIDAY.

i usually only eat the muffin tops (i'm contemplating the purchase of a muffin top baking pan), but this cherry-almond muffin was so yummy - i ate the WHOLE darn thing. it was so big it was a small meal all in itself. i didn't even know great harvest was right around the corner, they took over where montana mills used to be. we'll have to be back!

lunch tote.

i know i was bent on getting a bento box to carry my lunch into work, but allison's comment really hit home once i started my new job. our fridge here is teeney-weeney and would never fit a 3 layer cake let alone a 3 layer bento box.

that's why i was STOKED to find this vera bradley knockoff lunch tote at the christmas tree shoppe. the darn thing is too cute and for only $2.99 - you can't go wrong!

grape pie.

tim, my buddy at work, went to the Naples Grape festival this past weekend with his wife. i've never been to the festival, but it looks like a lot of fun. it celebrates the harvest of the grape season with local music, crafts, food and wine!

we couldn't go b/c we were hosting some lovely guests and had a roof to put on. well Tim was so KIND he brought me back a GRAPE pie!! (i must have complained loudly about missing it ;-) it's the first time I've ever tried grape pie and boy is it YUMMMMMY. it's sweet like grape juice and of course tastes just a bit better with whipped CREAM. (what doesn't!?)

trip pics.

well i just finished our Washington DC pics from our 4th of July trip a couple months ago. i know - total SLACKER. it was actually a ton of FUN organizing them b/c it was like I experienced the trip all over again! (it pays to take LOTS of pics) I especially liked seeing how much fun we had eating CRABS at the Quarterdeck. (can anyone tell i'm HUNGRY!?)

Holy toledo was that ever a messy dinner! I'm not sure if I was totally expecting the experience we had when we arrived for dinner. our weapons of choice - wooden MALLETS. 3 HUGE piles of crabs and several pitchers of beers later - we were all FULL of crabs!

Check our my crabby pics plus a whole lot more red, white and blue fun on my Kodak Gallery Travel Page.

BEFORE.



AFTER.