Vintage Junky - Creating Character: Fall Decorating

We have had a nearly constant cloud cover in Tennessee for what feels like weeks now. Today is sunny... very cool, but sunny. So, we spent the day taking some photos and playing with Baby Hughes outside. We went to pick up the table for the Studio (nice ring, eh?) You should see this beauty... Miss Linda at Carter's Creek almost didn't let me have it! I will post photos soon. And, I started getting inspired about the space... here is where I am at so far:

I bought this lonely little lamp base ages ago for just a couple of dollars. It has been on a bookshelf forever. Then, when I realized that my favorite Amy Butler fabric is also a discontinued pattern, I ordered some more on etsy. I don't have much here... enough to do a little lampshade. But, it is enough to give it a punch. Plus, my mother and the Margarita Sisters are making me a throw with it and I think there will be a little more left over from what they have.

Here are the colors of paint I am considering. I will most likely do the grayish white on the walls... I am not scared of color by any means, but I need a light color because that room is so small and we will be taking photos for my etsy shop in there. And, I am not sure exactly what I will use the other colors on... furniture, frames, etc. I am pretty certain that I can sweet talk Mr. Hughes into getting a chandelier for the room at the flea market next weekend...and then it will need a vintage ceiling medalion... and that blue would be perfect for that!

And, since it is sunny, I took some photos of some of the outside fall flowers, just for fun!

This was a $5 wood box that we bought for Baby Hughes' pirate party... it supposed to be a treasure map box. I don't think it made it to that point though. But, it is perfect for pansies!

And, here is the centerpiece spread on our giant table on the deck. Unfortunately, it went from blazing hot with mosquitoes to rainy for 2 months to cold! So, we haven't been able to enjoy our deck much this fall. But, don't you just love hedge apples? I would love to bring some inside, but after reading Kasey's post about the acorn worms, I have a phobia!!

Oh, and if you are wondering which lap top case I chose, here it is:

It was one of Mr. Hughes' favorites out of the spread. I can't wait to get it! My Mac needs a cozy!

Alright, I'll leave you with just one more thing.... get your wish lists ready for this Wednesday. I will put up the McKlinky up Tuesday evening... I can't wait to see what you ladies are lusting over!

I really wanted to try out some of Martha's beautiful pumpkins, especially the glitter ones. We went to a pumpkin farm on Saturday and I picked up a few pumpkins. I didn't buy the magazine because I figured it can't be that hard to glitter some pumpkins...right? So, here are my finished pumpkins and I will tell you what I did wrong. First, let me tell you, this is a project that is best accomplished outside. As I write this, Baby Hughes has glitter all over his head and I am having flashbacks from a glitter incident in the 9th grade. Let's just say it took me a month to get all the glitter off of me.

This is the first pumpkin I tried. I used regular Elmer's glue. Big mistake. It took forever to dry and It ran a little as you can see in the picture. I probably got it on too thick. I bought Martha's glitter glue, but it was difficult to squeeze and I wanted these completed (have I ever said that I am impatient?) And, I didn't paint these pumpkins before...depending on the look you are going for, you may want to paint yours.

I started to use spray adhesive on this one (thought that may be better than the Elmer's)... it stuck to the paper plate that I was using to sprinkle the glitter on. When it stuck, the adhesive peeled off in sheets. So, I got the tacky glue. My applicator of choice ended up being my finger, it gave me the thinnest coat. The coverage was good and the dry time was much faster with no runs.

This is another one that I did, only with black glitter, these both turned out fine with the tacky glue. I really like the black glitter. It I would have been more patient, I would have painted the pumpkin black first. In a couple of places where the pumpkins got bumped, the glitter rubbed off.

This one was by far the easiest one. I used a rub on wax product. It comes in a tube and it is called Rub and Buff. This color is the silver leaf, but they have a few other colors too. I simply rubbed a little on and then buffed it with a paper towel. It let a little of the orange to shine through. The one really nice thing about this technique is that it doesn't rub off.

Then, I wanted to try silver leaf. It also worked out good. The sizing has to cover every part though or the leaf won't stick. I tried to cover it again in those places and it still didn't want to stick. I just added some of the silver wax to those parts.

So then I just piled them all up into a bowl on my mercury glass table.

You can see where the glitter rubbed off a little. I added a little of the silver wax to the stems. I really like the look of all of them...Mr. Hughes' favorite was the silver glitter.

It rained here all day, so I was unable to finish up my pumpkin projects

I need one more pumpkin for the bowl and a few more for around the house.

So, are there any of you that have attempted Martha's fabulous pumpkins?