The Standard "I'm CRAFTY" NotHannah Autumn Post

I don't know what it is about Autumn, but it just touches some spark of creativity and/or workitude in me that means that I'm baking and crocheting and cross-stitching and cleaning and stuffing bits of fabric into straw wreath forms.  And redecorating.  And looking at Frodo's toenails and wondering how they'd look if I painted them a sparkly blue.

Just kidding.

He'd look better in purple, I think.

Anywho, thought I'd give you a little glimpse at the craftastic awesomeness going around the Manor these days.

First, the mantle.  Our library is pretty much everybody's favorite room:  it features a wall full of books, dark paneling, and a huge fireplace with matching mantel.  The mantel is so long, in fact, that in the past, I've had a hard time decorating it for holidays and seasons because it's just so...expansive.  But for whatever reason, I really, really, really wanted to bling my mantel up for Autumn this year.  So we gathered up a bunch of stuff around the house and then went to Hobby Lobby (or as I like to call it, "The Crack Den for Crafters") and bought a bunch of stuff on the cheap. (True story, Middle Georgians.  I was totally behind Mark Ballard "The Artist" and his wife the last time I went to Teh Lobby.  No celebrity sightings this time around, alas.)  When we got home, we looked at some pictures at the Crack Pipe for Crafters (Pinterest, y'all) and we came up with this:

In case you were wondering what we gathered versus what we bought, I scribbled incomprehensibly on the picture in Photoshop. The light blue text is old stuff. The light purple text is new stuff.  If this makes you go blind or you have any questions, let me know.

What's cool, in my mind, is that when Halloween is over, I can pretty much get rid of the books and raven and what will be dead vines and flowers and replace them with brown crockery pieces I already have and maybe some cotton plants that I'll snag from a nearby field.  (With permission, of course.)  And even after November, I can probably still use the candle holders, lanterns, and urns.  Yay!

After feediddling with the mantle, River and I sat down to work on a University of Georgia wreath to display on our front door for the party. I got the idea on Pinterest, of course, and it was super easy and pretty cheap.  I picked up a straw wreath at Hobby Lobby for a couple of bucks.  I already had a metric crap-ton of UGA fabric from various tailgates and projects, and it was simple to cut or rip the fabric into three by three inch squares.  I got River to lay the fabric pieces on the wreath and push them into it with a Phillip's head screwdriver.  It took less than an hour to do it.  I bought silver glitter and silver(ish) ribbon and cut the letters out of cardboard from an old photo order.  (Next time, I'd probably use pre-cut letters.)  Glitter glue and glitter over the letters, spray adhesive and a bit of silver glitter on the ribbon and BOOM!  We've got spirit all UP in this house:  

In addition to the crafting, I've also been doing a lot of baking, primarily with pumpkin, because of (wait for it) the INSANE amount of pumpkin recipes floating around Pinterest.  

Ugh.  Just discovered that the pumpkin muffin and cookie and cupcake pictures are on the other computer and I don't feel like getting up to go fetch them, so I think we'll shoving the recipes and their awesomeness over to some other time this week, because the couch (and a barbecue and cole slaw sandwich) is (are?) calling me.

Hope you all had good weekends, my lovies.