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Friday Favorites

Christmas cabinet ◊ Finally weekend ◊ form collection ◊ Brown Transferware bowl

Pretty, neutral Halloween decor. I've always loved Harlow James' soothing, relaxed decorating style
I think I've shared TheresaGromski's Instagram feed before. Here's a look at her gorgeous home on Rock My Style
Well I thought this was interesting. Natural air odor eliminators for both the fridge and for the house. I've ordered both and will let you know how we get on
A beautiful duet with Andrea Bocellli and his son Matteo. The look on Andrea's face at :22 seconds in…

It is Friday, right? With not working I don't have anything to anchor my days and I'm forever stopping and asking myself what day it actually is. I wish I could just relax and enjoy the time off but it's hard not knowing if it will be for a month, two months, longer…

I have spent the last two weeks since my last official day working looking for and applying for jobs online. I have had a few recruiters reach out (one guy super persistently for a job in Arizona) and I had a great informal interview for a position that wouldn't start until January which would be ideal. I could take a few months off and then start work in the new year. The person I spoke with liked me and thought I would be perfect for the job but she isn't the hiring manager. She did refer me though so let's hope it goes somewhere.

Next week I am actually heading down to LA for most of the week. I have a friend, gosh I've known her since the 7th grade, who is undergoing chemo for breast cancer and I am going to take her to her appointment and then stay with her for a few days afterwards until she feels okay to be on her own. Her family and most of her friends are in Northern California so we are taking turns helping her out. Her name is Barbara if you would be so kind as to throw some healing, healthy energy her way.

Oh! I'm also doing a garage sale with my mother in law on Saturday. I've been super organized for the last year or so and have been setting aside a "garage sale" pile and have been pricing and tagging the items. So I just need to show up early at her house on Saturday and set up. Any leftovers are going to the a local charity shop in her town.

I hope you have a splendid weekend!

Halloween Party Invitations

(Links to all products, images and font listed at the bottom)

I'm in charge of sending out the annual Halloween Party Invitations, a task I took upon myself years ago. Each year I try to do something a little different. Some years I rely on the creativity of others and order the design from Etsy but this year I created my own.

Whenever I do a project like this I hop over to the Graphics Fairy and search for images to use. I found a skull image I liked and resized and cropped it to fit my 5" x 6 1/2" card. I also found the banner image. It was a little bit wide so I edited in Photoshop Elements using the transform tool. I also pulled in the skull image and, using the color picker, made the banner the same color as the skull. I added the word "Beware" using the font Wretched.

I inserted the updated images in a Word document and printed them out on Epson Ultra Premium Presentation Paper Matte. Cutting out the elements actually didn't take that long.

I hand address the envelopes using white ink and generally do the return address too but this year I decided to make it easier on myself and printed up address labels using a witch silhouette. Again I cropped and edited the image to suit my need.

For the party details on the inside of the card I used a beautiful frame graphic with the addition of a few carefully placed bats.

My favorite element is the glittery frame around the image. I used my Sizzix Big Shot with a Spellbinders label die. The glittery paper I used is Solid Glitter – Titanium by the Paper Studio. It is the perfect warm silver color, like old German glass glitter. I got three frames out of each 12" x 12" sheet. I saved the cut out from each frame and will use them in another project. Christmas cards, perhaps…

A couple of tips for cutting out glitter paper using a die. First tape the die to the back side of the paper, cutting side down. The tape keeps the die from shifting when you run it through the Big Shot. I folded over one edge of the tape so it was easy to pull off. I used the same piece of tape for each frame. Secondly, when you run the paper and die through the Big Shot make two passes to ensure the die cuts through the thicker paper and glitter.

I added eyelets to each corner of the card using a tool called a Crop-a-Dile. It's pricey but when I bought it, it was 50% off. It both punches the hole and smooshes the eyelet. And it does both 1/8" eyelets (like I used) and a larger 3/16" size.

The final step is to attach the cut out images to the front and the invitation details on the inside of the card. Its perfectly represents my love of glitter and spooky Halloween imagery.

Here are the links to all the images and products listed above:

Skull image – The Graphics Fairy
Banner image – The Graphics Fairy
Witch silhouette – The Graphics Fairy
Ornate frame – The Graphics Fairy
Wretched Font
Glitter card-stock in Titanium
Epson Ultra Premium Presentation Paper Matte
Best scissors for cutting out fiddly bits
Sizzix Big Shot
Spellbinders label die
Crop-a-Dile
Eyelets
Tombow dots adhesive
Black cards and envelopes
Avery round labels
White pen

Pumpkin Cake

Happy 1st day of October! The countdown to Halloween officially starts. I thought I would kick it off with pumpkin cake topped with deliciously light whipped cream cheese frosting.

As I was taking pictures I realized that this is very close to the apple spice cake I made last month. The difference is I found a much better cream cheese frosting. The previous recipe had four cups of powdered sugar where this one only has one. Much less cloying and oh so much fluffier.

The cake recipe I used is the One-Bowl Pumpkin Sheet Cake from A Cozy Kitchen. I followed the cake recipe exactly but used a different recipe for the frosting. The frosting recipe I used comes from Natasha's Kitchen and it is so fluffy and light and just the right amount of sweetness.

Here's something that happens behind the scenes…Since I don't eat cake (or any sweets) it is a little ridiculous to make an entire cake just for Rick so I tend to bake on Sundays so I can take it to Sunday dinner at my Dad's. But I also want to take glamour shots of whatever I make. I first take pictures of the whole cake then I cut a piece to get pictures of the inside of the cake. Afterwards I carefully put the piece back and smear the frosting along the cut lines to hide them. Ha! No one is the wiser.

A Cozy Kitchen decorated her cake with pretty pastel jimmies that she made herself. Not having the patience or the wherewithal to do that I settled for a mix of white and orange. But I love the idea of less garish colors when decorating cakes and found this shop that sells a huge variety of different colored jimmies. I would have done a mix of peach and ivory.

On Wednesday I'll share the Halloween Party invitations. They have been all sent off on Saturday so the recipients should have received them and it won't ruin the surprise.

Friday Favorites

Sweet Salty Paradise ◊ 140/365 Screen Door ◊ Song Cycle. ◊ B U B B L E S

Pretty flower and crystal earrings. I’ve been following Tamar from Nest Pretty Things for as long as I can remember and have shared a few of her pieces here
Another lovely Instagram feed I just started following: @lavenderflowerstudio
Isn’t My Shabby Whites a pretty Etsy shop? I want everything
I may actually go to a movie theater to see Mary Poppins Returns

Happy Friday! We actually don’t have any plans for this weekend which is rather lovely. I am meeting up with my boss (former) today to talk about a small project he wants my help with. Other than that there isn’t a single thing scheduled. Except for a large pile of laundry…

I’m working on the Halloween party invitations and hope to have them mailed out this afternoon. Then I can share them with you next week. I am super pleased with how they are turning out.

We are finally getting some cooler weather. It has been in the 90s all week and today it’s supposed to stay in the 70s. Maybe I can actually wear a sweater.

I hope your weekend is cozy!

Too soon for Halloween decor? Nah….

I've started working on the Halloween invitations and it has me in the mood for some Halloween decorations. Just a few subtle touches.

Isn't that skull fabulous? I got it at Joanns. I went back a week later to get another one but they had sold out. It says "hinc itur ad astra" across the bridge of the nose. From here the way leads to the stars. I was afraid it was some sort of latin curse so I'm relieved that it is much more poetic.

After Halloween I remove the obviously spooky decorations but leave the mercury glass pumpkins and jars. They transition nicely into my Christmas decor.

I'll share the Halloween party invitations after I send them out. I like them to be a surprise to the recipients so I don't want to post them on here just yet. When I showed them to Rick he said they were perfectly me. That should give people a clue as to the direction I went this year. Wink.

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