Fall Shelves and Accordion Picture Display

 

I came down with a cold over the weekend, taught without a voice on Monday, and planned to do the same on Tuesday.  After a drama-free bedtime (that's happened the last three nights!), both stuffy-nosed kids woke up unhappy in the middle of the night and joined Mike and me in bed.  

 

Thanks to toddler feet in my ribs, hands flung unconsiously in my face, occasional shouts of "Tee-ko!" (Sophie pleading for arm tickles), and my own coughing and congestion, I did not get the rest my body desperately needed on Monday night.  I knew a sick day was really in order, but sometimes the work of preparing for a sub and dealing the all that piles up while you're out is a big deterrent.

 

I had an epiphany in the shower the next morning: If I whip up some sub plans and send the kids to the child care center, I could cover the big B.

 

Sold.

 

 

At the end of the summer I got the itch to gather up some fall decorations and crafts, including supplies to spell out "Boo" on our living room shelves. That big B had been sitting on our basement craft table for over a month as I considered my options. Ultimately I covered it in dark brown burlap ribbon.  That's what I did while watching the Obamas on The View on Tuesday.  With the exception of the round mirror that I picked up for $5 long ago at a thrift store, all the supplies for the "Boo" came from Hobby Lobby.

 

 

The grapevine pumpkins are from JoAnn Etc, and I embellished them with regular burlap ribbon and a couple of flowers that have been sneaking into my home decor since my wedding shower (they were part of some gift wrapping).  I tied some of that burlap ribbon in a knot around an old vace and am using that as a candle holder.

 

I picked up several 1/2 bushel baskets at Hobby Lobby as well, thinking I would fill them with apples or something and line them up on my kitchen table, but I'm enjoying them tipped over with pinecones spilling out on the living room shelves.

 

 

My favorite part of the arrangement is the accordion photo display I made out of our Ikea coasters.  I wanted a way to decorate with pictures from the kids' first two Halloweens that could be made with materials around the house.  I followed most of the steps in this tutorial from The How-To Gal with the addition of scrapbook paper backing the photos and...electrical tape holding the whole thing together instead of actual hinges. 

 

 

Spending my sick day being creative and crafty and completely on my own was just what I needed. I'm still coughing a bit and don't sound like myself, but in other ways I do feel revived.