Develop Your Accent

Start with changing your accent colors. If you’re bored with the current colors of your vase, candles, and knickknacks, wrap them up for another year. Then it’s time to choose one to three new colors. From small items, like candles, to larger ones, like throw pillows, once you choose a new theme the same old same old couches and walls won’t be the focus anymore. You can brighten up a neutral room by adding blues, greens and oranges or add depth to a light-colored room with black, red and dark green accents. If you feel the room is dreary, try colorful yellow and blue accent pieces.  Now it’s time to hit up yard sales, thrift shops, church craft sales and discount stores for your new accessories. Or search for end of season sales, discounts and close-outs to stretch your budget. If you can afford it, a new area rug or curtains can make a world of difference too.

Work With the Seasons

Many of us really go wild at the Holidays and the house just glows with color, sparkle and warmth. When all that comes down in January, it can look a little plain at home. Experiment by using colored indoor Christmas lights on an artificial trees to light up a corner of a room. Consider adding colorful bowls and collections of natural items to various tables – changing them as the seasons change. You can use feathers, nuts, twigs and pinecones in the fall and winter. Swap it out for rocks, driftwood and  shell collections in the summer months.  Fill bowls with silver and gold ornaments, jewelry and baubles to add some glimmer to a room.  Take a walk outside and cut whatever is in season-not just flowers, but leaves, and greens, and bring a bit of nature and seasonal color indoors.

Get Rearranging

This is something I did recently and it makes me feel like I have a new room. I brought the den coffee table and end tables into the living room, then I sold my old living room table on a local buy and sell group. (Selling old pieces and using the money for previously owned furniture is the way to go!) Then I took an old toy trunk that was in the playroom, put it in my den as a coffee table and draped it with a lovely black and white fabric checker board for a whimsical look.Look around bedrooms and spare rooms to see what you like that can be rotated  out and be in the main living areas for a while.

Splash Some Paint

Another change can be in simply painting the walls. Whether you opt to redo an entire room, or one wall, a new color goes a long way. If you are creative, stenciling walls or even painting and distressing pieces of furniture can make a world of difference in a room. A recently painted ottoman in my home, going from drab brown to turquoise, looks amazing.

Whatever your budget, your home is your haven and you want it to not only reflect your personal style but to be a source of happiness when you look around. So choose to make a few small decorating swaps to see some beautiful and colorful changes around the house.

To put that into perspective, half of all the paper consumed in the U.S. is used to wrap gifts or decorate packages! If you want to make a personal impact on these sad statistics, consider using some of these green wrapping alternatives instead. Not only will you save some trees and reduce some waste, but you will also have a stunning looking package to present to your loved one.

The Dishtowel

A dishtowel can be used to wrap a gift very easily and still look beautiful. The beauty of the dishtowel wrap is that it can be re-purposed after the package is open. Picking a dishtowel that matches the gift receivers decor, or perhaps a cooking-themed gift inside, is a nice added touch.

Fabric

If you have loose fabric pieces from previous projects lying around the house, you can give them new life as gift wrap. Fabric can be used over and over again to wrap gifts or be re-purposed into other crafts or useful items. Not to mention, fabric comes in so many different designs that you can make a truly custom looking package for every person on your list. These adorable gift bags look simple to make.

Old Sheets

Yes, that is correct, old sheets can be re-purposed into holiday gift wrap. If you have old white, red, green, or holiday print sheets that you no longer use, you can use these into the perfect gift wrap. White sheets can also be stamped with a variety of designs to give it a more personalized look.

Reclaimed Wood

If you have old wooden boxes, chests, or lidded cups, these can make fantastic gift containers. Wood has a timeless appeal and reclaimed wood is making a comeback in fashion. Your gift will look chic and you won’t create all the waste.

Baby Blankets

Baby gifts are perfect to wrap in a comfy baby blanket. Use the blanket as a gift wrap and also as part of the gift.

The Trimmings

Now that you have beautiful and eco-friendly wrapped gifts, don’t resort to topping those green creations with a disposable holiday bow or ribbon. Instead use twine and craft supplies to create the perfect trimmings to your package. Twine is a perfect replacement for traditional ribbon. You can also decorate with items that compliment the gift inside. For example, if you are giving a cookbook as a gift you can decorate the outside of the package with some wooden spoons or kitchen utensils.

Do you use traditional paper gift wrap, or have you considered using some of these green alternatives?

There are a variety of fairly simple craft projects you can create – including banners, wreaths, and lollies.  You may even have the basics for these projects in your home right now.

String It

A banner is a simple string of paper shapes which can be any size, shape or color you prefer. Your banner can be triangles, circles, or even pennants, with the letters of your chosen message adhered to paper shapes. Years ago, I found the words GIVE THANKS in orange sparkly letters. I backed this with autumn themed paper, and I strung this in the doorway between our living room and dining room. When this banner is hung, we are reminded daily to be thankful.

Get Glowing

Altering candles is another simple but lovely project. Take basic pillar candles, cut strips of autumn patterned paper, and adhere them around the middle of the candle like a belt. To this strip of paper, you can attach hand cut leaves, colored buttons, or even strips of matching ribbon. Make several of these candles with coordinating papers and colors, and group them for maximum effect.

Circle It

A simple craft store wreath can be embellished with paper or shapes for the season.  You could have your children use a black sharpie and put faces on pumpkin shapes and attach those to a wreath shape. I took a grapevine wreath, made some pinwheels and a mini-banner, and got my finished result.

Showcase It

Your main dining table can become center stage for a clustering of small projects. Fill a glass jar with paper lollies, have the kids make pine cone turkeys, and cut out a smattering of leaf shapes to strew around the base of your projects. Arrange all of this on a glass platter or a remnant of autumnal shaded fabric. The colors of the season become a focal point.

Be Thankful

Finally, a wonderful way to share your specific thanks is to hang up a thankful tree. Using an opened up paper grocery bag, or several large sheets of brown construction paper, create a large bare tree and hang it on a wall.  Cut leaf shapes out of red, orange, and yellow construction paper, and place in an envelope at the base of the tree. Over the course of the month, your tree will go through autumn in reverse, getting leaves added as your family records items for which they are thankful, and attaches them to the tree. On Thanksgiving day, take time to read through your leaves, and revel in the spirit of thankfulness you’ve added to your home during the month.

Leaf Alphabet

This project comes straight from one of my favorite crafting divas, Martha Stewart. I absolutely love everything about this craft and if you have little ones working on learning their alphabet or creating words, this is the perfect craft to get their minds going.

The leaf alphabet is incredibly easy and only requires that you have some index cards or stock paper and a variety of leaves of all sizes, shapes, and colors. You will be making the leaves into various pictures and writing on the corresponding letters.

For example, make some cute leaf butterflies and then right Bb in the upper corner. You now have a beautiful and simple alphabet leaf card. Making the cards A-Z will enhance your child’s understanding of the letter as they have a little crafting fun.

Leaf Friends

This idea comes from Family Fun and is an incredibly easy project for even the smallest kids – helping to open up your child’s mind and imagination. After you head outside and collect some leaves, glue one onto a sheet of paper. Your child can then decide what that leaf looks like. Is it the shell of a turtle? Or maybe butterfly wings? Then they can draw the rest of the picture around the leaves. Kids will have fun with this easy project and it will make beautiful refrigerator art.

Beautiful Bouquet

My daughter loves this project because she loves flowers. All you need are craft sticks, a collection of leaves, glue sticks, and a vase (can be a jar or can as well). Start by gluing the leaves to the end of the craft sticks any way you like. You can glue one or more, whatever your child thinks looks best. Then place the craft sticks into the vase for a beautiful leaf bouquet.

Leaf Rubbings

We all probably did this project as a child.  All you need are some leaves, paper, and crayons. Place the leaves under the piece of paper and rub the side of the crayons over the leaf area. You will end with a beautiful leaf rubbing. You can frame them or hang them on the fridge.

What is your favorite fall project that incorporates leaves? 

But what if you could include the kids in the projects? It would be a great way to spend time with them AND tackle some items around the house. The five home improvement projects below are specifically designed to be kid-friendly!

Painting

Painting is a great project for kids and can be on walls, furniture, or whatever project needs to be finished.  Mistakes are easily fixed and the kids will like feeling like they are contributing to the overall decor of the house.

Gardening

Have you been thinking about putting in a garden in your backyard but just haven’t found the time? There is no time like the present and no helper like your kid. Gardening is the perfect activity for them – it is fun, educational, and long-term. You can plant many of your family’s favorite vegetables: tomatoes, zucchini and cucumbers are all easy to grow. Your whole family will enjoy eating the literal fruits of your labor!

Build a Playhouse

If the idea of building a playhouse yourself sounds a little overwhelming, you will be happy to know that there are plenty of kits available to help you in the project. Of course this is not an activity suited for young children, but older ones taking the proper safety precautions will enjoy this project a lot. Learning to use a hammer is a basic skill and there is no better way to learn it than with your parents.

Decorate Your Mailbox

Go a little wild and let your kids have their fun with your faded mailbox. Take them shopping for fun art supplies and let them turn this improvement project into a crafty one. Just make sure there is a visible house number and that nobody paints it shut!

Install Outdoor Solar Lights

Putting solar lights in your yard is surprisingly simple. Solar walkway lights are sold online and at most home improvement stores. Your kids can place them along your walkway or around garden beds. They will enjoy seeing the lights turn on as the sun goes down. It’s good for the environment – and for about $50 for a pack of eight, they’re good for your wallet too!

Note: With all of these projects it is important to remember that safety always comes first. Take all the necessary precautions and keep an eye on your child. Also, remember to prepare for messes – use an old sheet or some newspapers to cover your floor and move as much furniture as you need for your work space. Involve your children from step one and keep them involved until the end, including clean up.

If you like to go all out and almost create a haunted house in your front yard, you’ll most likely be packing it all away early in November. But, there might be a few items you can save and use right up until it’s time to put out those Christmas lights.

Here are 3 ways to transition your Halloween décor to fall.

Take down everything that screams Halloween and see what you have left.

Go through your current décor and put away anything that relates to Halloween. For example, items such as spiders, witches, ghosts, “Happy Halloween” signs and those scary cobwebs. Save the carved Halloween pumpkins and take a look at what you have leftover. Get creative with the scarecrows, twinkling orange lights, and candles – turning them into centerpieces or decorating your mantle. You just might surprise yourself at the ideas you come up with for recycling your décor.

What to do with all those pumpkins?

If you have pumpkins left over from Halloween that you didn’t carve, it’s easy to use those for your fall décor. For the small pumpkins, put them in a cornucopia and add some gourds and fall colored leaves. This makes for a beautiful table centerpiece for your Thanksgiving table. You can even turn them maroon or gold with a bit of spray paint.

For the large pumpkins, keep those outside to line your walkway or brighten up your porch. To make sure they last through the fall, consider washing them and spraying them with a clear sealant. This will prolong their lives and save you from having to purchase more pumpkins.

What about those carved pumpkins? If they are still in good shape and haven’t started rotting yet, just turn them around and display the side that isn’t carved. To hide the carved side, you could make a beautiful front porch display with a bale of hay, fall colored leaves and a scarecrow or two. No one will ever know.

Round Up Those Containers

Did you fill a glass container with candy corn or a basket with spooky Halloween items? Repurpose them with pumpkins, gourds, fall colored leaves and branches. You can also use the glass container for yummy pumpkin pie or apple crisp scented candles.

Decorating for fall is definitely one of my favorite seasons to get creative and come up with décor ideas that makes our home feel warm.

Do you have any ideas for transitioning your home’s décor from Halloween to fall? If so, please share.

Children are naturally curious creatures and every day we are presented with teachable moments that we may not even realize exist.  Encouraging a child’s natural curiosity will ensure that they grow up wanting to understand how things work and why certain things happen the way they do.  Science does not have to be intimidating and can often be taught using everyday household items instead of a textbook!  Here is a simple science experiment to help explain the forces of gravity and air pressure.

Materials:

• Clear cup with a little water
• Playing card
• Paper towel to clean up spills

Directions:

1. Fill your cup about half full of water. Too much water will result in a mess, so don’t put in too much.
2. Pour the water from the cup into the sink and observe what happens.  The water pours quickly out of the cup, right?
3. Now, refill your cup to about half full again. Place the playing card over the cup, covering the top of the cup completely.
4. Hold the card in place and carefully turn the cup over. Keep your hand on the card for a few moments, then remove your hand.

What Should Happen:

When your finger is removed from the base of the card it will stay in place and continue to hold the water inside the cup.

Explanation:

In the first part of the experiment, the force of GRAVITY pulled the water from the cup into the sink.  Gravity will pull all things towards the earth.  The only way to prevent gravity from pulling something towards the earth is to find another force to act against it.

We are surrounded on all sides by air molecules.  We can’t see them, taste them, or feel them (unless the wind is blowing!) but those air molecules are always there.  The force that keeps the card and water INSIDE the cup is called AIR PRESSURE.  The air below the cup is actually pushing up on the card.   The upward force of air pressure against the card is enough to cancel out the effect of gravity on the water inside the cup.  This allows the water to “float” inside the cup. If you add too much water to the cup, the air pressure won’t be strong enough to cancel out the force of gravity and you will have a mess on your counter!

Take it Further:

Have fun with this!  Encourage your younger children to draw a picture of ‘Captain Gravity and his arch rival Sir Air Pressure’.  Make up a chart with your older child to see exactly how much water is needed in your cup before gravity wins and the water comes falling to the counter.  Make science fun and your children will want to keep learning.

Children are naturally curious creatures and every day we are presented with teachable moments that we may not even realize exist.  Encouraging a child’s natural curiosity will ensure that they grow up wanting to understand how things work and why certain things happen the way they do.  Science does not have to be intimidating and can often be taught using everyday household items instead of a textbook!  Here is a simple science experiment to help explain the forces of gravity and air pressure.

Materials:

• Clear cup with a little water
• Playing card
• Paper towel to clean up spills

Directions:

1. Fill your cup about half full of water. Too much water will result in a mess, so don’t put in too much.
2. Pour the water from the cup into the sink and observe what happens.  The water pours quickly out of the cup, right?
3. Now, refill your cup to about half full again. Place the playing card over the cup, covering the top of the cup completely.
4. Hold the card in place and carefully turn the cup over. Keep your hand on the card for a few moments, then remove your hand.

What Should Happen:

When your finger is removed from the base of the card it will stay in place and continue to hold the water inside the cup.

Explanation:

In the first part of the experiment, the force of GRAVITY pulled the water from the cup into the sink.  Gravity will pull all things towards the earth.  The only way to prevent gravity from pulling something towards the earth is to find another force to act against it.

We are surrounded on all sides by air molecules.  We can’t see them, taste them, or feel them (unless the wind is blowing!) but those air molecules are always there.  The force that keeps the card and water INSIDE the cup is called AIR PRESSURE.  The air below the cup is actually pushing up on the card.   The upward force of air pressure against the card is enough to cancel out the effect of gravity on the water inside the cup.  This allows the water to “float” inside the cup. If you add too much water to the cup, the air pressure won’t be strong enough to cancel out the force of gravity and you will have a mess on your counter!

Take it Further:

Have fun with this!  Encourage your younger children to draw a picture of ‘Captain Gravity and his arch rival Sir Air Pressure’.  Make up a chart with your older child to see exactly how much water is needed in your cup before gravity wins and the water comes falling to the counter.  Make science fun and your children will want to keep learning.

As I’ve been browsing online for a few ideas for my home, I’ve seen some of the most creative outdoor Halloween decor ideas that are not only simple to pull off, but they look amazing and will wow your guests.

There is something about driving by, or walking up to, a home that has their outdoor space decorated for the season. It’s very welcoming and adds nice curb appeal. So get ready to grab those brooms, pumpkins and milk jugs because it’s time to decorate your outdoor space for Halloween.

Milk Jug Jack-o-Lanterns

This idea is great for so many reasons. Not only are you recycling your milk jug containers that usually end up in the trash, but this is a fun Halloween craft for the kids to get involved in. It’s also extremely affordable. All you need are:

• Milk jugs
• A black sharpie
• A knife that will cut through the milk jug
• White lights

Here’s a fun step-by-step explanation of how to make these. You can give the jugs all different kinds of faces and they can light the path to your door.

A Witch Was Here

I am thinking about incorporating this idea on my front porch because I just love it so much. All you need are:

• A broom or two (it needs to look like a witch’s broom),
• Some pointy witch shoes
• A frog and a pumpkin
• You can even create a sign that says “A Witch Was Here” or one like the original idea I pinned here.

This is such a fun idea and will give your house guests a good laugh.

Your Very Own Bat Cave

No, I’m not talking about a bat cave like Batman’s, but this idea from Martha Stewart, queen of all things Halloween. This is a very simple idea and all it takes is her bat template, thick black paper and painter’s tape. You could add a few bats to your outdoor Halloween décor the day of Halloween. It might be a good idea to laminate the bats in case it rains and so you can use them again the next year.

Jack-o-Lanters Galore

If you love to carve pumpkins, spend a day or two carving them up with every different face and design you can imagine. Then set up a display similar to this one at Good Housekeeping. Not only did they use different faces and designs, but they also painted some pumpkins white. That adds such a classy look to your Halloween décor.

Frankenstein Your Door

This is by far one of the most fun and original ideas I’ve seen this year. Why not turn your entire door into Frankenstein’s face? Anna from  My Life and Kids used some foam and poster board, googly eyes and 3M strips to create her masterpiece. The project cost her less than $6 and she has a porch the entire neighborhood will be talking about.

Do you decorate your outdoor space for Halloween? Share some of your most favorite ideas with us from years past.

With most of these costumes a generic base layer of clothing is necessary. If possible, start with a solid color top and bottom. Any neutral color, such as black, white, or grey, is best, but other shades are fine if there are no last minute choices.

A Leaf Pile

A Halloween costume can easily made out of fallen leaves. Most yards are filled with them in October, and they can be attached to clothing with stick glue. Other times of the year, look for downed tree limbs or shrubbery clippings to find a costume that takes you back to nature. If you have the time to do a little shopping, you can also buy colorful fake leaves at most craft stores. These won’t crumble as easily, so your costume will last longer.

Conjoined Twins

If you need a pair costumes, you can easily kill two birds with one stone. Place both people in an over-sized shirt, each with an arm wrapped around the other’s back. The evening may end up being a bit close for comfort, so make sure both individuals are willing to work together!

Something Sweet

Affix as many different types of candy as possible to a white t-shirt. You could call your costume a Candy Dish, a Sweet Tooth, or, if you are willing to give away pieces of candy, a Trick-or-Treater in Reverse.

The Grandfather Clock

A brown sheet or piece of cloth can be easily turned into a cloak for an evening. To do this, fold one edge of the sheet into an eight-inch section. Place the cloth around your shoulders, lifting the folded section above your head. Then tie the cloak around your neck with a piece of string or fabric. Using makeup or washable markers, draw a clock face on your own. Affix clock hands made from construction paper or felt to your nose. You can also take this in a conceptual direction if the supplies are more readily available.

The Cleaning Supply Closet

With a roll of duct tape and a closet full of cleaning supplies, a costume is born. Small cleaning supplies, like sponges and brushes, can be adhered to clothing with tape folded over on itself. Find bottles that are mostly empty, clean them out well, and attach them to clothing in the same manner. With any open spaces, safety pin rags or paper towels to clothing. For added effect, carry a broom and dust pan. The costume will be an original and, as an added bonus, you are ready to help with cleanup after the party.

What creative costumes have you come up with?