I’ve ventured into Youtube land.

I got brave (and bored) last night, and put up my very first Youtube video! It’s just an introduction with a few fun facts about myself, straight from my mouth hole:

I plan on posting more videos about crafty stuff, maybe some book reviews, Halloween fun, and other things relevant to my little life. If you subscribe to me, I promise to do my best to make better quality videos with thoroughly entertaining content.

Do you Youtube? Link me up in the comments so I can follow you, too!

Gentle hugs,

Chels

Shamans and Fairies, Oh My! (an update on our Scarborough Costumes)

So, we picked up our tickets for Scarborough Ren Fest last weekend, and we’re planning on making it to opening day (for the first time!) this weekend. I’ve been working hard on finishing our costumes, and, fortunately, my mom agreed to make Tom’s peasant pants, so I could concentrate on the other stuff.

Now, they’re not your typical renaissance festival costumes, exactly. Tom is going as a shaman/green man combo, and I’m going as a dragon fairy. There are nods to renaissance attire, but they’re in no way meant to be historically accurate.

I finished Tom’s “breastplate” (for lack of a better word.) It went from this:

… to this:

I embroidered Nordic designs onto a pleather-y fabric (it’s felted on the back, which I hope will be comfortable for him to wear all day.) There are runic compasses, symbols for guiding you to a specific outcome or trait, and a border design I found online. I’ve hand sewn on faux fur trim, and leather fringe and trim, and added moss and acrylic paint for a lived-in look.

I also made antlers/horns from Sculpey clay to add to his headdress. I painted the antlers with various colors of acrylic paint, and sealed with Mod Podge. Then, I attached them to their own cord to be worn underneath the band of the headdress, which I cut holes into for the antlers to “grow” out of.

I tried out some makeup looks for my dragon fairy costume yesterday:

I plan on dyeing my hair purple before Saturday, hence the purple eyebrows. I still need some practice with using fishnets to produce a “scale” effect on my skin, but I like the way the colors coordinate with the headdress.

To view more photos of our costume pieces, go to this post. You’ll find more of my fairy costume, and some other in progress and inspiration pics!

Gentle hugs,

Chelsea

Are you going to Scarborough Faire?

Click to visit SRFestival.com

Next month begins one of my favorite times of year – the time we get to go to Scarborough Renaissance Festival in Waxahachie, TX!

This year, the hubs and I are dressing up. (In past years, we’ve dressed in costume, but not every year.) My guy’s going with a green man/wild man vibe, and I’m finishing up the dragon fairy costume I started making a couple of years ago.

Here’s the hub’s inspiration:

Luckily, between my mom and I, we happen to have a plethora of furry and leather trims and fabrics to use. I’ve made a couple of “found object” necklaces with things I had lying around. Now, I’m working on creating a headdress.

I didn’t want to pay for a bird skull, so I created one from some black Sculpey and whitewashed it.

Wire wrapped beads and arrowheads on leather cord make manly, rustic jewelry.

Here’s my costume so far:

My version of a rag skirt, with silk, taffeta, tulle, lace, and other fabrics. It has a bit of a bustle in the back to allude to a “tail.”

I’m also finishing a little choli vest to wear (and secure the wings,) and a matching utility belt for the essentials. I can’t wait to test the makeup! I’m going to try to create “scales” using fishnets as a stencil.

Reversible cropped vest with lace up front and sides.

Follow our Costume List Pinterest board for more inspiration on these and other costumes we plan on creating! 

Click this makeup inspiration image to go to our Pinterest board.

Are you dressing up for a fair or festival this year? Share in the comments!

Gentle hugs,

Chels

5 Years Married – Giving Love a Good Name

My husband and I have had a rough week. It’s been a week of arguing, sadness and mourning, revelations, and heartfelt conversations. We’re both drained, but – can you believe it? – happy. Friday was our 5th wedding anniversary, and although it didn’t go as we’d planned, we made sure it ended up being a great day. That’s something we usually manage to do together – help each other end the day on a good note. Since the 5th year’s traditional gift is wood, I bought us each a pair of chopsticks and carved our initials into the ends, and ’13 with a heart on each chopstick rest. We had a delightfully greasy brunch at Waffle House, browsed some thrift stores for furniture, ate sushi and yaki udon at our favorite Japanese restaurant, and rented “Now You See Me” to finish off the day, along with some wine and movie snacks. Pretty normal and low key.

Yesterday, since Friday’s celebration started later than planned, Tom took me to do something I’ve been thinking about for years. I got my nose pierced. There were some other sweet ladies getting theirs pierced, and we showed ours off and traded piercing stories (I have 7 in my ears, and my navel is pierced.) I have to say, it was much less intense than when I had my belly button pierced, but there was more initial and residual pain, although that’s not saying much. It’s just a bit sore, like a small bruise. I chose a tiny little spike, rather than the more usual rhinestone, only because I know I can easily find a rhinestone after the piercing heals.

 

After the piercing, which took all of ten minutes, we went across the street to a cute little diner for lunch, then down the street to peruse the local apothecary shop. I’m considering going back for a piece of amber jewelry. Lots of moms of teething babies swear by the pain relieving and healing properties of amber, so I wonder if it would do anything to help with FMS pain. If nothing else, it’ll be pretty!

All in all, we’ve had a lovely weekend, despite the stresses of the world. I’m so blessed that I’ve been able to spend the last five years with my best friend, and that we’re able to help each other grow as human beings, and as husband and wife. It’s the biggest, craziest learning experience I’ve ever had, and I wouldn’t trade a second!

Gentle hugs,

Chels

I have no shame – please help me win!

If you’re a regular reader, you already know how much I love Halloween, because it’s such a creative outlet for me. You may also know that I’m practically blind as a bat, and I wear glasses or the occasional pair of contacts. So, I was super excited when I saw that Zenni Optical, my favorite site for glasses, is having a “Master of Disguise” contest! So, I entered my costume from last year, which was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. Unfortunately, I’m wearing contacts in the photo, so I didn’t get to incorporate glasses (which gives me an extra chance at winning,) but I could still win an iPad Mini, which we could really use for our small business! I could also win a gift card to Zenni Optical for a pair of glasses, which my husband needs badly.

So, please go vote for me here!

https://www.facebook.com/ZenniOptical?sk=app_519185638168922&app_data

“Like” the page, then scroll down to “vote now,” and go to page 12 to vote for Chelsea K’s mermaid costume. You can vote once a day, so don’t forget to favorite the page and go back and vote through November 11!

Gentle hugs,

Chels

My home: A Halloween Tour! + Cheap and Easy Decorating

I had planned on having a Halloween party this year at our new place, but because of recent events, I’ve decided to wait until next year. Instead, we’ll be handing out candy to the little ones with our new neighbors. I love the holiday so much, though, that I wanted to continue decorating, anyway! So, here’s a peek at our spook-i-fied place. Be sure to read the captions for inexpensive and easy last-minute ideas on decorating your home for Halloween!

Take the pictures you already have on the wall, and hang them at an angle for a haunted house look.

The centerpiece on our dining table is full of dollar store skulls and spiders, a glittery pumpkin and $2 candelabra, plaster fingers, and handmade plastic bottle lanterns.

A rat, a dragon, and a monster eye ball.

The red glow in the dark.

I added a red “safety light” to the shelf of a cabinet full of baby doll parts.

Use mirrors you already have to reflect flickering candlelight, and distort images of passers by.

The full shelf display in the bathroom. The doll on the cabinet was a splurge from Spirit Halloween. She’s motion activated, and says creepy phrases.

I wrapped mesh around this one, and used black zip ties for the wrists. Doll arms and legs are in the container in the middle.

Draw scary faces on inexpensive dolls, or stick pins through them.

Find old doll heads and parts at thrift stores, yard and estate sales. Use them as is, as lanterns, or put black electrical tape over the eyes.

I used battery operated tea lights to back light my apothecary cabinet. They give the shelves a perfect, eerie glow.

Find free printable labels online to add to your containers.

Michaels and JoAnn have their Halloween merchandise on sale. Stock up now for next year.

Check thrift stores for Halloween finds. This ceramic skull lantern was a dollar.

Display old books and books with scary or fantasy themes that you already have. Free decorations!

Plenty of candle light creates spooky shadows. I only used battery operated tea lights from the dollar store.

Add leftover spider webs to photos in your hallway.

Spooky fabric (from the dollar store) is another inexpensive but effective way to decorate. Hang over mirrors, pictures, and doors.

A fun lenticular photo set from Spirit Halloween for about $5.

Use fake spiderwebs on book shelves, and viola! Ready for Haloween.

My “apothecary.”

Use a dark scarf to pin on a lamp shade to create a spooky mood.

Save glass food jars and inexpensive vases to create an apothecary of your own.

 

Gentle hugs,

Chels

More Halloween Crafty-ness

I’m really on a creativity roll, guys! I finished my cardboard/styrofoam tombstones:

I think they’re a nice mixture of creepy and whimsical. I’m going for a bizarre, Addams Family inspired look this year.

I also tried a technique I found months ago, using a ping pong ball as the base for an eyeball. The “veins” are red embroidery thread, the iris/pupil is decoupaged onto the ball, which I cut in half, and surrounded with Sculpey III clay. I left an opening for the eye, sculpted around it inside the frame, took the eye out, and baked the clay for about 30 minutes. (That was really too long. 15-20 would have been fine.) Then I cut the edges to help the clay fit perfectly in the frame, popped the eyeball back inside the opening, and coated with one of my favorite iridescent nail polish colors. FYI: I found the cute frame at Michaels, in the “dollar” bins for $2.

 

Lastly, save any water bottles you use! When we buy bottled water (which isn’t often,) we tend to reuse the bottles, anyway, so I thought I’d make something pretty from them. This is a super simple project. Cut the top and bottom off of your bottle with a razor, making it whatever height you like. Use Mod Podge to decoupage a sheet of tissue paper onto your bottle, then add silhouette printouts on top. I strongly suggest using battery operated lights inside to avoid any danger of melting the plastic!

 

Do you see that my cameo lady (Marie Antoinette) has been beheaded? I cut a triangle from the silhouette; I like the subtlety of it.

So, I’ve been very productive these past few weeks! Still haven’t decided if we should have a Halloween party or not … maybe I can get my Etsy Fort Worth pals + friends/family together for a Halloween craft party. How are you preparing for fall?

Gentle hugs,

Chels

 

Only a few months until my favorite holiday!

Can you guess what my favorite holiday is?

Ok, really, this holiday is tied with Christmas, because I love Christmas decorations and cooking.

Halloween!

I know, Halloween’s not for everyone. I get why some people don’t celebrate it, but it’s a family tradition for me. It’s one of the few holidays that really allows for peoples’ creativity to shine through costumes and decorations, and the occasional fright is good for the metabolism! (Unless you have a heart or anxiety condition.)

Since I’m obsessed with making things by hand, saving money, and recycling what we already have, it takes me a while to prepare for such holidays. Of course, I’m not above visiting the dollar store, which is where I get quite a few of our decorations when I don’t have time to make them, and then I update them to make them our own.

I started getting excited this month when I realized that we have room for outdoor and yard decorations this Halloween, and visions of a graveyard began dancing in my head. We have a few beaten up styrofoam headstones that I bought from Dollar Tree several years back that have weathered the weather and needed some TLC. Generally speaking, I try to avoid using disposable products made from foam, because they don’t biodegrade. BUT – if you’re looking for decorations that will last years, foam lives up to your expectations. So, I started looking at grave stone silhouettes online, mixing and matching lines, and dove into our pile of moving boxes with my razor and pencil. Then I brought out the tacky and hot glue, and came up with these:

I glued the styrofoam “stones” onto my cardboard creations for dimension. Next up, they’re all getting a coat or two of grey acrylic paint mixed with that bag of sand in the photo. This is totally experimental, but I’m hoping it will give the stones a grainy, rough texture. Then I’ll paint details and glue on moss, and figure out where I want them to go. Since the cardboard will deteriorate in bad weather, I may put them on the patio come October, then move them to the yard a few nights before Halloween.

I used up all of my hot glue gun sticks putting these things together, so I stopped by Michaels a few days ago (which, by the way, really made me miss the fact that Dollar Tree didn’t have any for sale – they’re 4 times as much at craft stores!) and found an ornate wooden frame on sale for less than 3 dollars:

Immediately, I thought what a cool alternative to a wreath this pretty thing would make, so I brought it home and slathered on a couple of coats of glossy black paint. Then I remembered my stash of wooden plaques, and a cute pic I saw on Pinterest a few weeks back:

This is a funny, clever sign, worthy of our front door, don’t you think?

The frame, though, is pretty fancy, so I needed to get a little fancy with my sign. I changed the verbage a bit to reflect the fact that we’re, well, a “we,” and free handed lettering inspired by the “Fiddums Family” font, and a skull inspired by a pattern on urbanthreads.com. This is the end result:

Now all I need to do is attach ribbon so the sign can hang from our front door! The frame fits perfectly over the window on our door, and I couldn’t be happier.

Needless to say, I’ve got Halloween on the brain – do you? If you’re looking for more spooky inspiration, follow my “Every Day Is Halloween” board on Pinterest.

Gentle hugs,

Chels

The most difficult thing in life …

“The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself.” – Thales

I forgot to take my camera to the reunion, so here’s a shot thanks to my alum-mate, Heather (left.) It’s hard to believe I’ve known Gabby (right) since we were in elementary school together!

Last weekend was my ten year high school reunion, and yesterday was my 28th birthday. So much has changed throughout my life, but yesterday I was thinking that most people I know never really feel their age. Parts of themselves feel older, parts younger, and there’s a sense of never really knowing if you’re a grown up yet. Much of me is still the same as it was in high school. I still like a lot of the music I listened to then, I still love to learn, read, write, and create things. I still have many of the same friends, and even some of the same insecurities. I still love Halloween and sweets and look pretty much the same physically. Now, though, I have a better sense of what I want to do in my life, and who I want to be. I’ve experienced more, learned more, and have had the chance to mentor friends younger than me, though I forget, sometimes, that I’m not their age anymore. I’m a little more out of touch with what teenagers are doing and thinking – how quickly that happens! I’m a married woman, for goodness’ sake.

A few days ago, my friend, Rachel, answered these questions and challenged everyone to answer them to learn a little more about themselves. So, I figured that now is the perfect time to do that; to see what my favorite things are now. Here are my answers – some will never change!Color: Darker shades of purple, turquoise, and olive green 
Drink: I drink lots of water!
Food: Right now, I love gyros and sugar snap peas, but I could live on anything cheesy – pizza, macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches …  
Place: The living room in our new apartment.
Dream Travel Destinations: Europe (specifically England, Ireland, Scotland, and France,) Hawaii, and a tour of the United States.
Book/Currently Reading: Currently reading The Monster’s Corner: Stories Through Inhuman Eyes. It’s a collection of short stories by different horror authors.
Male Musician: William Fitzsimmons, Macklemore
Female Musician: Pink, Storm Large,
Band: Incubus, Pentatonix, The Black Keys, Florence + The Machine
Hobby: Singing, writing, reading, crafting, yoga
Nail Color: Toes: FuschiaRama by Wet N Wild; Fingers: Tickled Pink by Wet N Wild (Yay cheap nail polish!)
Morning or Night: Night! 
Movie: I can always watch “A Knight’s Tale,” “Serenity,” or “Stardust.”
Male Actor: I consistently enjoy most things with Johnny Depp or Bruce Willis.
Female Actor: Emma Stone, and Jennifer Lawrence (more for her real-life personality than anything.)

Also, for the record, pretty much any actor that’s worked with Joss Whedon.
Sign: Cancer
Guilty Pleasure: Cheesy romantic comedies, York Peppermint Patties, 90’s dance music
Favorite Flower: Mums (all kinds)
Dream Car: I would love to have a Mini Cooper, but that would be totally impractical.

Good Habits: Drinking water, being frugal and thrift/vintage/antique shopping, supporting local and small businesses, taking my makeup off before I go to bed, and learning to say no.

Bad Habits: Picking at my skin, causing myself anxiety by obsessing over things, eating too much sugar, and taking on more than I should.
Dream House Style: It varies as far as the architecture is concerned, but inside would be colorful and eclectic: a bit bohemian, a bit vintage, a bit dark and/or whimsical.
Move or Stay Put: Stay put. 
Need to make more time for: Working on the business with my mom, exercise, and traveling.
Currently Working on: My health, my marriage (readjusting after mission work,) and creating a better at-home work schedule.

There you (I) have it! If you decide to answer these questions for yourself, take note of what’s changed, and what took you a while to answer. I always have a hard time with “favorite” questions involving music, since my tastes differ from day to day. Food questions are easy, though, because of my undying love for anything cheesy. I look forwarding to seeing what changes within the next ten years. 

Gentle hugs,

Chels

Celebrating ends and new beginnings.

These past several weeks have been an absolute blur!

I successfully planned and helped host our yearly spring banquet here at the center, all while Tom and I were searching for our new home, and helped decorate for our end-of-semester barbecue and karaoke party, while I wasn’t packing to move into our new apartment.

Here are some fun photos of the banquet, a few taken by me, the others taken by our pro photographer friend (and karaoke expert,) Caven Marsh. I had so much fun handing out our paper plate awards again this year, and taking goofy pictures with some of the dear friends we’ve made. We were also blessed with a parting gift from the board of directors, including a beautiful, eco-friendly bamboo plaque.

So, we did it. We found our new home, and it couldn’t be any cooler. While it’s bittersweet moving out of the Tri C, I’m happy for this next chapter of our lives. My mom is also in the process of finding a house, so it’s a really exciting time for all of us! Friends of ours from church referred us to the landlady who lives a street over from them in the historic area of downtown Arlington. They told us that she was going to be listing a duplex and an above-garage apartment soon, and that we should call her a.s.a.p. to view them. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how I felt about an above-garage space. I’ve never been in one, and I’ve never known anyone, that I know of, who has lived in one. I knew that it was small, and that it was behind a beautiful turn of the century house, so it was worth looking into. I was leaning toward the duplex, but when we met with the landlady, she told us that it had already been rented.

So, we made our way up to the little apartment, and we fell in love. It’s like a tree house! The garage below used to be a barber shop, and the original sink and mirrors still remain. The kooky contractor who helped renovate the house found a – no kidding – mummified rat in the walls that was so well preserved, they decided to create a memorial to him and name him Dougie. He now rests in a plexiglass window/shadow box in the wall between the garage and laundry room. Weird, I know, but when we began talking about pets, and mentioned we’d had rats before, she was so excited to show us the little guy! Wood floors, an archway, a claw foot tub, and lots of natural light later, we decided to apply. Granted, it’s not exactly what we had in mind; we still won’t have a dishwasher, but we’ve made it the past few years without one already. The bedroom is significantly smaller than the one we have now, but we were told our queen size bed would still fit (just not much else.) Fortunately, though, we can sell our chest of drawers and get creative with our limited storage space. It’s kind of nice to downsize a bit, anyway. Less to dust.

Soon I’ll be taking pictures and measurements to see what other furniture we can keep, and what needs to go. I’ll be weeding through our other things to see what needs to be donated, stored in the garage, or displayed in the apartment. I’m currently drowning in Pinterest boards about organization, small living spaces, and DIY bohemian-style projects, seeing as that’s the direction I’ve been going with our decor for a while now. Why not give in and make things gypsy-caravan-and-vintage fabulous?

You can take a gander at the rest of my “New Apartment” board here. There’s more boho inspiration and genius decorating and organizing advice.

Gentle hugs,

Chels