Creative Fall Decor - DIY

Fall is my favorite season; the combination of pumpkin beer, crisp cool air, and fall colors, it really makes this time of year all that much more special. I knew that I wanted to build my fall decor collection and thought it would be fun to hand make something. So I scoured Pinterest one night, and I came across a cute idea for Pumpkin Decor. So naturally, I decided that was my next project!

What you'll need to do this project:

Screws
Drill
Wood Glue (optional)
Stain (optional)
2"x4"s or smaller size wood - available at any Home Depot or Lowes
saw (jigsaw preferably)
partner in crime? in my case, my husband

To keep costs down, I recommend sticking to 2"x4"s for all the pumpkins, as each board runs between $1-$2 (with 4-6 boards per pumpkin).  However, for this project I decided to do 3 different styles of pumpkins with all different types of wood, which made the cost of the project jump from about $30 to around $70+. This is completely optional, but having a variety of pumpkin shapes add a bit more dimension. Not to mention, it makes it a bit more interesting to look at.

For today, I'm going to focus on the cheaper of the options, which is the 2"x4" wood slats - at about 70 inches long. The wood I bought was pre-cut fencing wood from The Home Depot that had a red color intertwined throughout.

I measured and cut two 32"  pieces from each board (I purchased 6 boards at $1.90/ea) then laid them all out:

With some  extra pieces of wood, I laid two boards perpendicular and drilled each of the bottom boards to those two extra pieces:

Next, it's time to get your pumpkin on! I took a pencil and drew out a pumpkin shape on the back side of the boards. I drew it a little bigger than I thought I wanted, that way there was plenty of room to make it smaller or change the shape a bit. You can always make things smaller, but you can't make them bigger:

Next, time to cut out the pumpkin!! I don't have a jigsaw-which I recommend for this project- so I had to use a band saw (the husband actually did this job). This took two people to do, one to help support the boards/pumpkin (it was quite heavy!) and the second to guide the boards along the blade following the pencil line:

Once the shape is cut out, sand down all the sides to give it a smooth surface on all edges. 

Then, with some scrap wood, cut out the shape of a stem (get that saw back out!). Or if you have a tree that needs trimming in your yard, it would be cute to use a thick branch as a replica for the stem of the pumpkin. Then, simply drill the stem into the back of the pumpkin. It's important to use screws that are short enough that they wont poke all the way through the wood to the front. 

*The picture below is one of the other two pumpkins made, but is the exact same as the big red pumpkin. 

To add a little bit of dimension to the pumpkin, we distressed the stem and the edges of the pumpkin with some fire (used a portable propane bottle):

Last, the stand. This part was way easier than I thought it would be. I measured and cut a piece of wood the length of the bottom of the pumpkin plus 1 inch on each side, squared the corners and drilled two-three screws into the bottom. It sat perfect!

And there you have it! 

A fun, unique way of decorating for this lovely time of year :) Until next time!

Going out of town? Effective Way to Monitor your Dog's Diet!

This post says it all in the title. I have three dogs, all of which are different breeds, sizes and have different diets. A few months ago, my husband and I went out of town for a week and boarded our dogs at a very homie boarding facility, that we love. Little did we know, that although we disclosed each dogs diet to the boarding facility, the dogs were VERY much overfed at the end of their visit. We had supplied the facility enough food to last two weeks and when we picked them up, we were told the dogs ate ALL the food?! That was the last time that was going to happen!

The next time the hubs and I left town, I made sure that we had a fool proof plan to keep our dogs on their diet! There is nothing worse than being gone a week without your pups, and finally getting them back in your arms to cuddle, and all they're doing is farting!

Solution:

Individual baggies, with the day and time of the meal, and a dashing picture of each dog as to avoid confusion.

I thought it wiser to state the dog breed on the bag rather than the dog's names. A stranger isn't going to know the difference between Arnie and Buddy, but they will know the difference between a Beagle and an Italian Greyhound.

It's pretty simply really, I created each label with Microsoft Word, including the days that we were going to be gone. Then cut them all out and taped them to the inside of a sandwich bag.

Then, I just portioned the food and poured it the bag.... (with some help from the pups)

And there you go! Put them in a box, organized by date and time! Simple, easy, and happy, fart free pups!

That's all for now! Byee!

About Me

Welcome!

My name is Heather and I'm here to share my life... my boring life that I absolutely adore!

Welcome aboard, and enjoy the ride!

DIY - Photo Mounting

First time mounting a picture on a piece of wood? Me too! Let's do this!

I found a tutorial on Pinterest on how to mount your own picture on wood. I've seen it available on Shutterfly and at Walmart's Photo Center, but the cost to have your pictures printed on these is a small fortune. I'm cheap so I thought I'd give this a go!

Supplies:
Plywood     - $2.50
Mod Podge - $7
Pictures       - $1
Sand Paper - ~$5
Spray Paint - $4

I bought a piece of scrap plywood at The Home Depot, something big enough to cut 3 pieces of 8"x 8" (or whatever size you desire).

Step 1:
Cut the plywood into the desired size, I had my husband help cut the wood into three 8"x 8" (I would just mess it up if I did it)

Step 2:
Sand down the sides of the wood. Once the wood is cut, it'll be jagged. I rounded the corners slightly to give it a softer look (that's the hubs hands, but I did the sanding!)

Step 3:
Spray Paint the top and sides of the wood pieces. Make sure all the excess dust is completely off the pieces. - let it dry completely. The wood absorbed a lot of the paint, so I had to spray several coats on the wood. You may want to consider painting the wood with regular paint with a paint brush..... just sayin'...

Step 4:
Trim your picture to fit the wood piece. I printed them so they would be 8"x 8", but of course, they were slightly too big, so I trimmed the edges of all the pictures.

Step 5:
Apply a generous amount of Mod Podge to the top of the wood

Step 6:
Place the picture on top of the Mod Podge and wipe off any excess glue around the corners -- this is to avoid the goopy glue balls

Step 7:
Let the glue dry completely, I let it sit for about 2 hours and watched some Netflix and drank a beer!

Step 8:
After it's dry, sand down the sides of the photo a bit to give it a distressed look. I used two different grits of sand paper. Fine and super fine (or as my husband tells me, 800 grit and 1000 grit). The super fine was to blend out any hard scratches the fine sand paper made. Now, I'm no pro (obviously) so it doesn't look that great...but it was my first time

Step 9:
Apply a thin layer of Mod Podge over the top the photos and the sides of the wood. This is to seal the photo and the paint to prolong the life of the project.

And once the top coat of Mod Podge is dry, all done!! I haven't figured how I am going to present these yet, but for now, standing them up on one side works great for now. It would be easy enough to mount a small picture hook on the back so they can be hung on the wall.

That's all for now!! Byyyye!