Okio B Designs

Raise your hand if you've started some Christmas projects. I know I have. First one of the season is this Santa paddle fan. Easy peasy when you have one of these...

We got a few of these at a local fall festival and I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it. All I did was print out my image on sticker paper, cut to size and then peel and stick. I finished up by adding the little noel and snowflake embellishments. I also made one for Halloween:

This is one side and here is the other.

I have one fan left and that will also get a Christmas makeover.

I love that this project only cost me a little time and effort! And I'm super excited to be starting some Christmas projects.

Jeanine

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Halloween is just a couple of weeks away and I've put the finishing touches on a few last minute projects. This one is my favorite! I found this little velvet-y address book at our local thrift store. Once I picked it up, I knew it would make for a great mini book of spells. I found the image on Pinterest and added it to the front of the book using sticker paper.

Here's how I have our staircase for Halloween. I found some creepy books (Dracula, Frankenstein, etc.) on eBay for pennies and I used them to line the steps. I'm secretly hoping my boys will crack open one of them and read some of these classics.

I'm pretty much done decorating for Halloween and have even started a few, gasp!, Christmas projects. I hear there is something like only 10 more Fridays until Christmas...

Jeanine

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I had a couple of girlfriends over for lunch the other day and wanted to set a pretty table for them - and play around with some ideas for Halloween.

Each setting included a white pumpkin plate from Target's DollarSpot, an orange or black plate from the Dollar Store, a gold charger plate and these great napkins.

If you look closely you can see some creepy books I bought from eBay and skull shot glasses. I tucked those away before the girls came over, but I will definitely be putting them back out for Halloween.

Jeanine

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If you're like me, you've probably seen a bunch of candy tin makeovers on Pinterest. What I didn't know is that you can't really paint over them unless you burn them. Yup, you need to burn off the existing paint to have a cleaner surface for glue and paint to stick to.

So I asked Mr. Okio to break out his blow torch. After he got done laughing at me (!), he simply used tongs and burned them over our stove burner. Gee, why didn't I think of that? Anywho, my first upcycle is above.

No blow torch was needed for this next project. This is a thrift store makeover. I picked up the little faux slate sign a few weeks ago. I gave it a few coats of black chalk paint and then simply wrote my creepy message. Yes, I have the handwriting of a 6 year old. Sigh!

This welcome mat is from Pottery Barn (last year). My spiffy shoes are from Target.

These were super easy: Mason jars specimen jars. The images are courtesy of the Graphics Fairy. I'm making a bunch more just to add in random spots about the house.

How are your Halloween decorations coming along?!

Jeanine

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My husband was about to throw this broken shovel away a couple of weeks ago. Guess who grabbed it and made this super simple Jack o' Lantern?

I gave it a few coats of orange spray paint and then drew the face on using a Sharpie. My 11 year old thinks I should have painted the handle green, but I'm pretty happy with how it looks.

Jeanine

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After months of ~~nagging~~ asking my husband nicely, he finally got around to helping clean up my tea room/she-shed. Here's the before:

I was sad to see the black and white flooring go, but the tiles were so old, dirty and peeling. This time we opted for a marble-looking peel and stick tile from Armstrong.

They were very easy to use. You basically peel and stick after cutting to fit your space. Luckily, my hubby only had to cut a few pieces to fit in random areas.

He did an amazing job! Once the floor was done, we got busy laying some pea gravel.

The grass never seems to grow in this area and pea gravel seemed like a good solution.

I'm really loving the look!

We finally replaced the thatch roof that blew off during Hurricane Sandy(!).

All that's left is to paint the doors. They will be white. I'll also be adding our annual Halloween touches this weekend. We spent about $350 for the tile, pea gravel and thatch roofing. Stay tuned for more updates!

Jeanine