Keeping Halloween Cheap and Creepy

For Halloween this year, I wanted a "crypt" of some sort for this ghoul/ghost that I got on clearance last year at Ross for $1.99 . 

 

A sweet price, and I wanted to keep it that way! To keep things cheap, I found a large and thick cardboard box for my structure (the only thing that wasn't cheap was the tv that came in the box!). If you would like to build your own, and would like it to last longer and be more durable, I would recommend plywood or luan. 

The above photo is a two-step jump. Basically, I used a marker to make a cathedral style doorway shape that was about as wide as my ghoul's arms. I did not measure, which shows in person, but I was not worried about perfection I just wanted a large opening. I stabbed the center with scissors to get an opening, then used a jigsaw to cut the rest. Originally, I started with a serrated knife but it wasn't cutting very well so I moved onto power tools! After it was cut, I painted the front, sides, and visible insides grey. Whatever base color you use will become your "mortar" later, so keep that in mind. I also taped the open side shut at this point, to paint over it. 

 After the paint dried, I used a thumbtack and wrapped the ghoul's hanging string around it. To get it to height, I kept winding it then taped over the whole thing for good measure. You can't see it in the photo, but I also took a string of Christmas lights and taped them right inside the edge of the box, making sure to keep the lights as hidden as possible. There was a hole in the bottom right back corner of my box, so I sent the cord through there. If yours does not have one, simply cut a hole in there wherever you would light your cord to come out.

Next, I took my grey paint, along with some white and black, and dabbed it on a plate with an old kitchen sponge to create a stone color palette. Try to avoid mixing the paints on the plate, it gives better depth to use spots of color then blend them together as you paint, rather then before you paint, ya know? 

I used the size of the sponge for my stones around the "window" then free handed bigger stones everywhere else. Since my window wasn't even, I had to make some stones bigger or smaller depending on how much space I had to paint! I painted the front, top, and sides. I did not paint the back. This photo shows it about halfway painted to give you an idea of where I started painting.

Also, see that shiny gold stuff? That's a foil blanket from the camping supply store! I had it already, and thought it would reflect good color. If you don't have one, or can't find one, aluminum foil crinkled up would reflect well, or you could add colored tissue paper. Whatever you add there, be sure to tape it down! This would be a great spot for pumpkins or plastic bones, use your imagination! 

When I put it on the porch, I used duct tape and attached it to a heavy object (a planter) from behind  to keep it on my porch during the windy nights of October. To add more pizazz to my porch, I cut a clear trash bag into a half spider web and spray painted it with a light glitter to make it easier to see. It matches the other giant spiderwebs that were already on my porch :) . The lightbulb is a flicker bulb from Walmart ($1.79) and the "bootiful night" sign was from the dollar store two years ago. 

Happy hauntings, friends! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring Fever Vox Box Review

Boy, this spring season really passed by in a blur! I've had four baby showers, a bachelorette party, wedding, work weekends, helping friends welcome new children into their home, birthdays...life has really been flying by! I received this Spring Fever Vox Box weeks ago, but I've just finally gotten around to trying out the last product. If  you don't know about Influenster, they are an awesome site that connects consumers with companies, letting consumers test out products for free and having the consumers review them. I strongly urge you to check them out at Influenster.com . Below are my reviews from the first voxbox I recieved!

Sooooo Delicious!

My box was filled with all sorts of goodies! The first thing I busted into was that tastykake kandy bar kake. I've never had one and, considering this one was Reese's, I was sold. It was seriously the best snack cake I've had in a long time. Soft, moist, but not crumbly. I want a whole case of these bad boys, but they don't sell them in many stores around here. I'll keep looking though! Drool over them at the  Tastykake Website .

Applelicious Lip Balm

My favorite thing in the box was the NYC applelicious Lip balm. It wasn't a color I'd usually choose, but it was a nice bright pink that I really learned to enjoy wearing after the first few applications. Not a long term moisturizer, but it doesn't dry out my lips with time and I really appreciate that in a lip balm. I wear this when I don't want to put on all my eye makeup but I still want to look fresh and put together, just slap on some mascara and applelicious and no one knows how lazy I'm really being! You can find these at most local drugstores priced around $2.99 and you can learn more information about the brand at the NYC Website .

Next item to review was the Secret Outlast completely clean clear gel deodorant. This stuff smelled AWESOME, but the gel dried out my pits like crazy! The scent wore off pretty fast, but I loved it for that brief time when it was moist and smelling awesome! If you don't have sensitive skin, this would probably be great for you. Most Secret deoderants can also be found at many local retailers, but feel free to learn more about the product at the Secret Website .

Shown Here With Pen for Size Comparison

Osis 24 Hour "Dust It" Volume powder from Schwarzkopf was interesting. I tried the Got2b version about a week before receiving this, which is a good way to compare Schwarzkopf's salon line versus their everyday line!. It gave me great initial volume, which is hard to do since I have a lot of very healthy, heavy hair. The problem is it gives my hair an almost sticky feeling when I use while my hair is down. It makes a pretty great ponytail though! I hope to find a time to try out one of those awesome  "boho" textured styles I've seen floating online, but I need it to be a day when I don't have plans, in case it goes wrong ;). I should mention that despite the tiny size, I don't think I've put a dent in the bottle. It's VERY lightweight product, does not have much of any scent, and it's so fine it does a great job of disappearing right into your hair. Also, you hardly need any for an everyday style. For extra volume, I teased my hair a bit first, applied the powdered straight to the roots, then continued styling. I hope to try it directly after a shower soon, as I read on a tutorial, then blowdrying and styling to give that funky textured style that I can braid and play with a bit. I believe this would be much more awesome if you have thin or fine hair. You can learn more about the product line at the  Schwarzkopf website.

The last item mentioned is the very last item I got to try. These are the "imPRESS" nails from BroadwayNails. I cannot have nails painted at work, that only leaves the weekend and I've been crazy busy every weekend.I finally found time this weekend during some early 4th of July holiday celebrations to pop them on. First, I'd like to say I absolutely loved the packaging. If it's hard to get a visual in the photo, the nails were housed in an adorable plastic container shaped like a nail polish bottle. I received the "Over The Moon" style, which is this fun marbeled brown and gold color. These are peel and stick nails, and I had my doubts initially, but they proved about as solid as most glue on nails I have ever tried. Don't they look classy? You can find more information on the Broadway nails site, linked here!

So there's my spring voxbox! I hope that gives you some insight into the products so you can give them a try yourself!! 

*I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes. These opinions, however, are all my own!

Getting cheap in the garden

I had grand dreams of my garden back in February, after having such a mild winter....then it snowed in late February.... Then it snowed 14 inches on Palm Sunday....

So that put my garden back a few weeks, but at least I got a pinterest craft out of the way (this guy was inspired by one on pinterest, it took FOREVER but it was hilarious) and I got to sled, so it was okay. Now that weather is nice and rainy, though, I'm back to the yard to try and try again. I've been overhauling big time.

 
 I started by removing my disappearing and way too red pavers and putting in gray ones that I felt more reflected my style (they were $2 each at Home Depot, and I needed more stones for a backyard project so I plan to reassign the red ones there) and I raised my beds significantly to avoid the washout issue seen above. 

 

I think the new stones look great! I got bricks to replace the plastic fencing that kept getting kicked over by the sidewalk; at 58 cents a piece, they were an affordable and more permanent option. I really started thinking about budgeting in the garden at this point and I thought I'd share where I think it's good to splurge and where you can get cheap! 

Splurge on your border

Now, this depends on the kind of garden bed you're working with. If you have a nice flat or even yard, I'd absolutely encourage you to simply edge your grass nicely around the bed. In my neighborhood, all the yards are pretty harshly sloped so there's no getting around this necessity. Obviously, all the previous home owners had kept the beds super low. Actually, the bed with the bird bath didn't exist until last year, when I took the stones from around the corner and brought them there to keep all the soil from washing down the hill every time it rains. That only kept it in place about halfway, and I was tired of seeing all the exposed foundation of the house, so I added much more height with more stones. To keep from renting an expensive stone cutter, I tried to make my "stone gap" (where there should be a cute half stone) useful by planting a white flower ground cover that will spill over the edge and look real pretty. 

Go cheaper on your "filler" soil

To fill these raised beds, I added way more cheap top soil (a dollar a bag, people, my plants thrive if I give them anything but the clay we live with in Missouri, then feed it from there with a little miracle grow). This could go against most plant experts, but anything better then the terrible clay I naturally have will make the types of plants I grow thrive. 

Go FREE for weed coverage, use newspaper, but USE this!

Weeds went rampant in my beds last year because I didn't put down anything to stop them, which was just lazy on my part. Two and a half weeks ago, I put down newspaper before I laid out my mulch and its given me dreamy coverage so far. It may not be permanent, but I can't stand trying to chop through weed fabric so it's way worth it to me.

Splurge a little and get mulch

Oh, my. Mulch has made my beds look dreamy. Not only does it further protect you from weeds, it gives a solid uniform look to the garden and adds great color while you're waiting for your plants to fill in. I have purchased about six bags, at around $2.50 each at Home Depot, and I'd like to get some more. This brand says it guarantees to keep its color for 12 months, but if it can get through August I'll be a believer.

 

Above is an example of my lights, buried in terra cotta pots, after a gnarly rain had washed what little topsoil was left. Sad, eh? Below, and from a different angle, is my same walkway filled in with mulch and a few sparse plants that will fill in soon:

Much better! 

Splurge on a few show stopping plants

This year, I have purchased one well filled out asiatic lily, a Neptune rose bush, and a little clematis vine. I also got some super cheap annuals (cheap= $2 for an 8 pack). I don't....do...annuals, typically. I don't like the idea of having to replant everything each year, so I try to get hardy perennials that usually do well in my area with the droughts and high heat of the summer. I do add them through the season as they go on sale, but this year I went early and got some for a little color.  

 

 
The orange plant is the asiatic lily, the far corner is the rose bush, the purple plant is salvia from last year (see? Perennial, and it looks better this year then last year).  The pink flowers in the third photo are half of the annuals, and the little lime green plant next to those is a discount asiatic lily that was almost dead and on clearance last year, now its split into 3 promising looking little plants. Most of my garden is filled with dirt cheap plants; plants from moms garden and other friends.

Go cheap on the ground cover 

Monkey grass can be split and spreads great. On that note, ivy, primrose, lamb's ear, coreopsis, sage, and irises all spread like wildfire as well. I have a little bit of each around the yard now. You can take these from willing donor's yards (ask, offer to help take them out, etc). Most of these do not have deep roots, so even though you wont have to dig deep, be sure to get enough of the ground around them with their roots, bulb, etc. Beware when you plant these, if you're into low maintenance gardening that fills itself these are all great, but if you like a little more control keep an eye on them and try to prune them back before they spread all over the place. 

This is the place I can make my point about the photo at the top of this post:  buying seeds can be a dirt cheap way to add some wild flowers. I got two seed packets at a wedding as a favor, and then I bought more 4 for $1 at my local Deals dollar store. They take some time and experimenting, but they can add some great flair to your garden.

These shown above are all new plantings, but they should fill in nicely over the next few months. 
 This photo also shows free plants with red, and the green represents "money items" like bricks, mulch, and the French drain (which I will go into a different time). 

Spring is a great time to start splitting your plants and putting in new transplants, so seize the season before summer creeps in and starts bearing heat on everything! 

Christmas Project: Holiday Wreath

It's a little early, but to prepare for Christmas, here's a simple holiday wreath: Take a foam floral wreath, cover it in tissue paper of your choice, add silver garland, big snowflake ornaments, tissue paper white flowers, or whatever you're into. Hang it up. Cheap and easy!

In Transition

 

                   

            
            Boy, this has been a bizarre winter. It didn't snow around St. Louis until the beginning of February, which is the point I started getting pumped up about planting the garden. LAST summer, I had moved in with my boyfriend and completely overhauled the garden in the front of his house, which had been left to fend for itself for like... 4 years. We're talking tilling, digging up plants left by the previous homeowner and rearranging them to add more flowering plants, trimming back a 10 FOOT TALL SNOWBALL BUSH that had ripped the screens out of the front windows, taking paver stones from the side of the house and making another layer of garden bed, and on and on and on. I spent $200 on plants and soil, which is alot of money for me if you haven't gathered that already (since I grumble about spending money on anything, ha ha!) and my boyfriend also spent a good amount on MORE soil, only to have the hottest, dryest, drought-iest dought-y summer that I can remember. Of the sixty or so bulbs I planted, about 6 blooms came of it. I should've expected it, but I was still pretty bummed! No worries, this year I have a better canvas to start with, some great plans to personalize my garden a bit, and I won this really freakin' awesome watering system (seen above) at a trivia night yesterday. Sounds like fate to me!

        My plans include:

Spray painting my "brick red" pavers; I suspect I can't paint them light gray because the red will just show through, so I hope to blend colors and give a coppery-brown look that will be subtle and unique, and should blend with the red as it will eventually shine back through with time.

Fixing the screens (I'd show you a picture but it's hard to get through the crunchy ice and snow to take a good one. Basically, I just ripped out the destroyed screens in the fake bay window, so, you know, I'm going to put screens back in so we can enjoy a breeze without the cats climbing out the window)

Re-finishing a lovely bench that my grandpa "found in the flood of 1932" that he was proud as punch about, and then after my grandpa passed away my grandma painted it a hilarious shade of bright yellow. I plan to bring it back to its former glory!

Getting a doorbell, which is not a garden detail but it's outside and I dream big, ha ha.

Planting again, taking more care to put down some weed cover (that's the only thing that thrived in my garden, weeds and grass) and putting in my fancy schmancy new watering system.

Now, if only this inch of ice would go away, and these "Blizzard conditions" for Monday and Tuesday would hurry up and pass by....