2012 – Page 3 – Casa de Berry

2012, decor, halloween, holiday, husband

Final touches to our Insane Asylum

October 26, 2012October 26, 2012by casadeberry8 Comments

Thanks for the kind comments on our front yard Insane Asylum – we’ve been getting awesome feedback from the neighbors as well 😀

Steve added some final touches before starting his next project, our oldest’s Halloween costume (more on that in a couple of days).

Side fence is done, my contribution was to hold the wood pieces in place so that he could secure the fence itself 😀

A creepy touch near our front door is this dropcloth full of nice, welcoming sentiments, including Red Rum, which had to be explained to me since I haven’t seen that movie, and which are dotted with paint that will show up under black light.

You must pass under this sweet smiley face to get candy:

I noticed the shadows on my car and had to get a pic 😀

Finally, the windows seem to be getting angrier and angrier. Hmmm . . .

So, this is what awaits trick-or-treaters on Halloween night. We’re already thinking of what we (and by we, I mean Steve) will do for next year’s Halloween. It just never ends. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

2012, craft, halloween, husband

Thufferin’ Thuccotash!

October 22, 2012by casadeberry4 Comments

I am sick as a dog.

Let me rephrase that. I am sick as a cat. My poor cat, Willie-Boo, had the most miserable look about him yesterday. He was just sitting in the middle of the living room, nose almost touching the floor. Very unlike him, usually he’s scampering around, picking fights with Bernie or seeing who can pet him next. He sneezed about 80 times on Saturday, poor thing.

I spent the weekend “coming down with something” and the something is here. It’s a cold, and my youngest and I have been sniffling for hours. Thank you, Willie-Boo, for sharing.

I have no post for y’all today as I have barely any brain left from all the coughing and sneezing. Bleargh. I suffer from allergies and got really bad headaches this summer but I rarely get sick, as in a cold or anything else, so I am more mad than miserable, because people, I HAVE THINGS TO DO!!!

So I’m just going to cheer y’all up with this picture. It’s my husband’s work table in the garage. This is what happens when he gets creative.

Love ya, honey! 😀

2012, bloggy friends, cosmetics, nails

Bond, James Bond

October 17, 2012October 17, 2012by casadeberry6 Comments

Are you going to see Skyfall this November? I think it’s so nice of the studio to release the movie just before my birthday. Between Skyfall and the Young House Love book, which also comes out just before my birthday, I tell ya, it’s going to be a good start to my 41st year of life. Oh god.

My dear college friend Carina and I went to our little nail polish place a couple of days ago and I fell in love with some of the OPI Skyfall collection. Here is a picture, from the OPI website, of the Skyfall collection

The shades I liked the most were The World is not Enough, a beautiful shimmery taupe, and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, a purple-gray also with some shimmer. For a very glam holiday look, try the Bond Manicure as described on the OPI site. I also got a cobalt blue (very in color this season) from the OPI Germany collection, called Un-for-greta-bly blue:

Thanks, Carina, for a great time hanging out and for my beautiful nail polishes, I am wearing a Skyfall shade on each hand right now and will probably wear the cobalt blue for my date with my husband ;D

2012, decor, halloween, husband

It’s scary out there!

October 15, 2012October 19, 2012by casadeberry18 Comments

My husband Steve has been working hard on bringing up the scary factor in our front yard – this year we are going with an Insane Asylum theme, so he created a Tim Burton-esque fence. Would you believe an integral part of this fence was oatmeal?

It turns out my youngest’s favorite food makes for the perfect, rusted out texture on the pipes.

Here are two of our tall and spindly friends, Rusty and Crusty 😀

The PVC pipes were bent with the help of a heat gun, thinner pipe will, obviously, be easier to bend. The fleur de lis tops are made out of workout mat foam and then attached to the pipes. Once the pipes have been primed a mixture of sand and oatmeal go on for texture.

Once dry, Steve dappled orange craft paint on with a sea sponge. While the orange is still wet, he sprayed it with watered down brown paint to give it some dimension. The final layer was red mahogany wood stain, dripped over everything.

A few days ago I posted some details on the Insane Asylum sign on the column Steve built, it’s pretty awesome ;D BTW, 2003 is the year we got married. That’s right, we’re coming up on ten years next June!

Fake Ivy and Spanish moss were added to complete the creepy atmosphere, and some wood planks were added to our house windows. I guess we knew we had done that right when a sweet girl who lives down the block said “it looks like your house is mad at me!” .

That’s our very scary front yard ready for trick-or-treaters, or anyone who wants to know what kind of stuff we do on our spare time. This has been all Steve, though, I take no credit for any of it other than keeping him company at times and keeping him fed and hydrated while he builds it 😀

2012, autumn, bronze, brown, burgundy, clothing, cosmetics, fall, fashion, makeup, maroon, neutrals, orange

Fashion Friday: Fall Cravings

October 12, 2012October 12, 2012by casadeberryLeave a Comment

I am loving all the rich colors in stores everywhere – be it home decor or apparel, deep greens, browns, burgundies, and golds are everywhere. Let me share a few pretties that have caught my eye recently:

1. Wool blend coat from Old Navy

2. Cotton peplum shell by LOFT

3. Polka dot top by Merona @ Target

4. Rose bouquet print skirt by LOFT

5. Leopard print cropped pant by Merona @ Target

6. Hooded anorak from Old Navy

7. Celtic riding boot by Etienne Aigner at DSW

8. Wedge pump by Adrienne Vittadini at DSW

9. Stargazer bangles at Nordstrom

10. Lost in Paradise Earrings at Francesca’s Collections

11. Rustic Wear Scarf at Francesca’s Collections

12. Bellini Lip & Eye Palette by Bobbi Brown

What has caught your eye from among the fall season offerings out there?

2012, bedroom, blue, boys, paint

A bedroom for Alex

October 8, 2012October 8, 2012by casadeberry4 Comments

While my oldest boy’s bedroom boasted a pirate theme and then got some superhero goodness as our boy’s tastes changed, our youngest, Alex, had a Mickey Mouse wallpaper border and a couple of Disney paintings. Meh.

Last week I went through Alex’s closet, which had become a dumping ground for old TVs and VCRs, and even his little bookcase was loaded with old shoes he’d outgrown.

Definitely not cool.

The project started when I decided to paint his dresser – Alex chose blue and when I showed him various pictures of blue items, he chose the rug in Emily Clark’s living room. I’m telling you, the kid has good taste. Inspired by the navy-and-off-white rug, I painted his dresser in Valspar’s Night Sky and Keystone.

Alex was so happy to see his dresser in the color he chose, he kept coming up to me as I painted the drawers and saying “that’s my blue!”.

I had some sailboat fabric that went very well with the grayish blue of the dresser, so I made a new cover for his body pillow:

Alex’s bookcase was loaded with some of his favorite books:

And his shelves were decluttered and only a few friends made it back on 😀 along with one of my all-time favorite pictures of my sweet boy.

Considering that Eric Carle books (and Bill Martin books illustrated by Eric Carle) are some of Alex’s favorites, I purchased a set of prints to liven up his walls. By the way, Alex also chose the color on his walls, Valspar’s Woodsmoke.

A new set of favorite books are the David books by David Shannon. These are hilarious stories about a little boy who gets in so much trouble but everything is well in the end. Alex read one at school and loved it, so I bought him two books from the series.

Here is Alex’s all-time favorite page in the No, David! book – David running nekkid down the street. Hmmm, must remind him of someone, huh?

The final touch, for all those creative moments, was a table I had, which I painted with chalkboard paint.

My boy was very happy with his room and as soon as he saw his David books asked me to read them with him, so we hopped in his bed, with his new pillows, and read them a few times.

I made just a few subtle changes to Alex’s room but now it reflects his preferences, which was the goal, to have a room that has things he likes and colors he chose. Also, the Eric Carle prints can be changed as Alexander’s tastes change, which I am sure they will.

Hope you enjoyed a peek into my sweetie’s room!

2012

Lisa Leonard has a show!

October 3, 2012October 2, 2012by casadeberry1 Comment

If you’ve spent any time on the blogosphere, you’ve surely come across Lisa Leonard and her fabulous designs.

If you follow her on Facebook as I do, you’ve seen pictures of her lovely family and all their adventures, and guess what? They are going to have their own reality show! Wanna check out the trailer?

Lisa’s sweet spirit comes across her posts, and I for one can’t wait to see the new show!

2012, craft, decor, fall, husband, october, paint

Insane Asylum sign

October 1, 2012October 3, 2012by casadeberry9 Comments

This past weekend, my husband made an awesome sign for Halloween.

Although, considering how crazy we tend to get around the holidays, I might be keeping that sign up for a while 😀

The backing is an old puzzle tray we had, pieces had gone missing long ago but the tray itself was perfect for this project. Steve added plain thumbtacks, then cut out the letters from foam – yes, by hand, I keep entering those Silhouette giveaways but haven’t won one yet – and then glued them to the frame. The first coat of spray was a metallic copper, then he did a wash with black paint so the pigment would settle into the crevices, and finally he added some greenish paint for a rusted, patina look.

I think he did such a great job!!! He has a lot more planned for our front yard but we wanted to share this bit for now.

So creepy!!!

2012, craft, glam, gold, paper, ribbon

Glitter and Ribbon Matting

September 28, 2012September 26, 2012by casadeberry2 Comments

Matting, not mating. Not that I wrote mating the first time around or anything.

I found a great hemisphere map at my favorite paper goods store – in my favorite blues and greens – and needed a frame large enough for it. My husband volunteered a frame he had, which was the perfect size, except the mat color didn’t really go with my map.

I had also purchased gold glitter wrap paper and decided to tape it over the existing map. This frame does not have glass so it’s just the backing, the map, and the mat over it.

The strips were cut wide enough to go a little beyond the original mat:

As a finishing touch, I added teal ribbon from my sewing stash:

The finished product:

The wedding picture you see above is also matted with lovely wrapping paper, in a music note pattern.

I hope you like this craft, it was an inexpensive way to use something we have and give it the exact look I wanted. Now the frame coordinates with the map print and has a bit of glam, which my office can always use ;D

2012, canning, fruits, gardening, husband

I’m a convert!

September 26, 2012September 25, 2012by casadeberry2 Comments

Okay, so the subject of grape jelly is one that has been hotly debated in our household for the past decade. Steve, my husband, LOVES it. I think it’s bleh. So when he came up with the idea of using our Concord grapes to make jelly instead of just eating them fresh off the vine, I was all “what the . . . ?” Seriously, you can get grape jelly at WalMart for under two bucks, why go through the whole production of making grape jelly?

I watched him harvest about half of the grapes on the vine. The rest were still greenish and have been maturing these last few days. He came back into the kitchen with this:

which I looked at kind of like this:

Undeterred, Steve found a recipe (or three, he scanned a few, got the idea and then did his own thing) and began cooking it down – and oh my goodness it smelled SO GOOD!!!
I kept looking over and over, and finally he gave me a taste of super hot jammy goodness.

I told him that even though it looked like the remains of a vamp on True Blood, it was Oh. So. Fricking. Delicious!

So, yes, I now love grape jelly. But not the store-bought kind. So I guess we’re going to plant some more Concords next year ;D