New Blinds: December 2009

My latest project has been putting up some bamboo roll up blinds into my son's room. He used to have vinyl blinds, but he had unwound it so many times the spring broke. I didn't really want to replace it with another blind that could break again. I wanted something different. The Bamboo filters the light and they are not completely private, so I got a privacy Roman cloth shade to cover the outside of the bamboo. This filters the light even more. I kept the blue curtains and curtain rod to add some style. I think it turned out pretty good and filters the light just enough for nap time. At night we close the curtains too for even more privacy. The blinds roll up really easy and we put the tie chords really high up on the wall so that my son will not be able to reach the chords until he is much older. This is an important safety feature to include if you have roll up blinds and children. Below is a picture of the finished product.



UPDATE: The Roman privacy cloth that is supposed to attach to the blinds did not work out. I would not recommend these at all. I taped them up many and finally took them off the blinds. They are attached to the bamboo with heavy duty sticky tape, but it just wasn't enough to hold things in place. I got rid of the floor length light blue curtains and picked up some short dark navy blue curtans with tab tops. These really block the light much better and my son can sleep in later then the crack of dawn and actually take naps in the room when the curtans are drawn. I like this set up much better. During the day I draw the cutains back, and roll up the bamboo shade about 1/2 up the window. This lets plenty of light into the room. I'll try to update this picture sometime.

Halloween Night and all the Delights.

We really enjoy the Fall time, even here in the Southwest. We don't really have a changing of the leaves, but the temperatures usually cool down at night, which is just lovely after a hot and dusty summer. Now if only we could get some rain. Another thing I like about the Fall is the holidays. Halloween is such a fun time and gives you the oportunity to decorate your house in unusual things. Here are some of the fun and unique things we enjoy having around this time of year.

Orange and black couch covers. Is that an eyeball sitting there? I also see a few dog toys there which are not a part of the decore.


Black throws with happy skelletons cover my living room chair while an end table with crystal ball glows an erie blue .


Spooky Village/ left side.


Spooky Village / right side.

One thing I really missed this year was a carmel apple from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Our nearest one closed down right before October. I think they have the best carmel apples in the world.

I also missed eating a slice of one of D.L. White's amazing Halloween cakes.

We also usually watch the Nightmare Before Christmas on Halloween night after trick or treating, but this year I had to work and missed seeing the show. Every year is different!

This year trick or treating was a great success and passing out candy at our door was fun. We carved two pumpkins, and ate too much candy. All in all a great time.


The smiley pumpkin. Isn't he cute? I designed his face myself. My 3 year old tried to help me carve the pumpkin with a butter knife.


The Moon Pumpkin. This was my husband's design. I wish I had thought of it. I really liked it was simple, but beautiful.

Halloween 2009

Hallween isn't the same without some home made treats. I wish I had time for carmel apples, but I made some home made cup cakes instead. These were baked with unbleached wheat flour and vanila butter cream frosting, colored in a light tinted orange. I also added some Halloween sprinkles to give them a bit of variety to each cup cake. I think they turned out well.


Halloween isn't complete without a really big candy dish.


You must have candy corn!


This is part of our spooky village that we put up each year. This year my 3 year old was big enough to help and he did all the "fallen" leaves around the black trees. This is our "Haunted Tower Tours" is next to the grave yard. I wasn't able to include all the village buildings, but here are three of them. Each building lights up, or in this case the gargoyle flies around the top of the tower counter clock wise.


The House of Oddities. It seems like some of the moster's might actually escape...lets hope not.



The Gave Yard with spooky purple lights in the mausoleum. I think we may have an infestation of vampires living in there.

What is Christmas like at your house?

What kind of tree do you have?
I have an artificial tree that is white. It is pre-lit with white lights. We also string colored lights on it. Then we hang only blue balls all over along with our regular Christmas decorations. My decorations are very unique. I collect Krinkles, which add a whimsicle touch. I also have a dragon ornament collection and hand stitched ornament collections. Next we drape silver beads as garland all around the tree from top to bottom and a star on the top. I don’t have tinsel because my two chihuahuas would probably eat it and I heard it isn’t too good for little dogs to eat that stuff.

What is your favorite Christmas themed movie? I like “A Nightmare before Christmas”, “Elf” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” I enjoy “A Muppet Christmas Carol” too. That looks like a curious combination doesn’t it?

What is your favorite Christmas time food? I like apple pie with ice cream, but I know some people don’t consider this a Christmas food, but it’s really the only time we eat apple pie in my family. I like pumpkin pie too with real whipped cream. Cool whip has hydrogenated oils in it, so I try to stay away from it, even though I do like it. I like all kinds of Christmas cookies, like sugar cookies, pumpkin butterscotch drops, which are a big favorite in my family, and orange cranberry drops, which are my specialty. Everything I just wrote down was a dessert. Is that a bad thing?

Do you use wrapping paper or gift bags? I use gift bags mostly, or when ever I can because you can use them over. Also, you don’t have to deal with cutting, and all the tape. They are simple and re-usable, and less wasteful, which just makes sense to me. Sometimes you have a gift that comes in a big box and in that case I do just wrap the box with paper, but that’s about it.

Do you have a nativity scene in your house? I do. I really like my scene. I put it on my server in my dining room and it really makes that corner of the room look festive. I like looking at it because it makes me remember what Christmas is really about and I don’t get so wrapped up in the commercial side of everything. I enjoy looking at other people’s nativity scenes in their homes because each one has such a different style. They are fun.

What is your favorite Christmas Song? I love Sleigh Ride, the instrumental version. I love the Nutcracker Ballet, and Handel’s Messiah. I love any Christmas songs sung by Pery Como, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. Give me the old crooners any day over the popular Christmas music of the day!