Friday Favorites Linky Party - Week 345

Oh friends, I have a confession. I have a new obsession.

Antique crystal glasses.

It started innocently enough. I bought these sweet and versatile Bubble Champagne Coupe glasses  (aff link) as a wedding present last spring and I've been going back and forth about how useful owning coupe glasses would be ever since.   Which is somewhat silly yet somewhat practical given my lack of extra storage space in our condo.

The coupe hunger got worse after seeing a friend's recent antique mid century modern chair purchase followed by seeing cut glass coupes while thrift shopping for Halloween costume pieces. The clouds parted from the sky, a rainbow appeared, a unicorn slide down it and encouraged me to poke around one of my favorite thrift stores instead of just turning around in their parking lot.

And this happened.

Cocktails anyone? Vintage crystal glassware is my new obsession! Can you believes I scored 4 of these cut crystal gems for 2 bucks? #thriftshop #thriftstorefinds #vintage #crystal #glassware #antique #antiques #cocktails #coupe #greatgatsby #downtonabbey

A photo posted by Lisa (@condoblues) on Nov 2, 2016 at 1:10pm PDT

If you follow me @condoblues on Instagram you might have seen this in real time! 

I love them and already tested them out. Swoon!

I showed you mine, now you show me yours!

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Pumpkin Spice Pumpkin Juice Recipe

Halloween is almost here!!!

Husband and I have a tradition with our next door neighbors to sit on our front porches and chat, candy bowls and food allergy treats at the ready for the neighborhood trick or treaters.

It's nice to have a festive drink with us to fill the lull in between Beggar's Night groups and there is no better option than a big glass of Harry Potter inspired Pumpkin Juice!

As all Harry Potter fans know, pumpkin juice is a non alcoholic treat served hot or cold in the wizarding world.

It was one of many things Husband and I couldn't wait to try in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter section of both Universal Studios Florida parks.  Universal set up a test kitchen in England so JK Rowling could select what she imagined when she created pumpkin juice and all of the other fantastic wizard food and drinks that appear in the series.

When I read the Harry Potter books I imagined pumpkin juice to taste like pumpkin spice. Unfortuantely, JK Rowling's recipe is full of apricot juice adn waaaaaay too sweet.

So I decided to create a pumpkin spice pumpkin juice recipe myself! Pop on over to my food blog Lazy Budget Chef to read the recipe:

Spicy Harry Potter Inspired Pumpkin Juice Recipe

Your taste buds will be glad you did! 

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Friday Favorites Linky Party - Week 344

 We had so many fantastic projects and recipes added to our Linky Party last Friday, it was hard to pick a favorite to feature!

So let's just dive in, shall we?

Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Christine at Light and Savvy - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Jen at Creatively Homemade - Twitter | G+ | Pin

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Maisy at Becoming Alice - FB | G+ | Pin

Sheree at Stage Presents - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst | Inst

Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Amy at A Day of Small Things - Pin

Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Kelly at Under a Texas Sky - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL

If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!

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New Orleans French Quarter Fall Porch Decor

Decorating the outside of a duplex for holidays is usually more miss than hit since neither side coordinates with the other (at least in my experience.)

What can I say? I like symmetry in my outdoor holiday décor.

That’s why I stopped in my tracks when Husband and I passed this sweet yellow duplex in New Orleans last November and took it all in.

Pin this Fall outdoor porch decorating idea for later!

First of all, even undecorated, it is a lovely double shotgun style home. One of many that fills the French Quarter with architectural charm.

Fall Wine Cork Porch Decoration Ideas

I have this visually dead corner on my front porch. Trying to find something either practical or pretty to fill it gives me fits.

Storage space for new autumn decorations is practically nonexistent in our condo. So I did a little summer and fall decoration shuffle from backyard fall patio decorations (take the fall patio decorating tour here on Condo Blues) to the front porch now that it is too chilly to eat dinner outside on the regular.

Killing one of the mums I bought for the backyard actually worked in my favor. I used the pot of dirt in the metal planter to anchor the wood flagpole I used to hang the quilted scarecrow I made forever ago and haven’t found a good use for until now.
 
I traced the metal container and cut a circle to fit inside the metal planter with a hole in it for the scarecrow pole to keep it centered in the planter. The flower pot isn’t as deep as the metal planter so I chucked a couple of Husband’s empty protein powder containers in the pot to keep the cardboard from sinking into the planter so I can cover it with decorations and hide the cardboard lid.

Keep reading for more decorating ideas and pin this post for later!

Friday Favorites Linky Party - Week 343

Halloween is almost here and as much as I hate to rush holidays, it is time to start thinking about Thanksgiving.

Dinner is the star of the Thanksgiving show and with a house full of hungry relatives with clashing opinions sometimes things can get slightly less thankful. Or is that only some of the nameless Thanksgiving dinners I've attended? Am I alone in this?

I have the answer to ensuring your holiday guests behave themselves from the tiniest toddler to the grandest grandparent.  I just added to my shop LNW Creative Gifts the Don't Make Me Poison Your Dinner Apron. Buy it for someone you love! (That includes yourself!)

It looks sweet and innocent until you get up close and realize 

it is a warning not to antagonize the cook!

 

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DIY Victorian Skeleton Halloween Decoration

I have a thing for gazebos. Like a deep down serious love.  I’m not sure why, maybe it is wrapped up in some romantic notion in the books I devoured as a kid about Victorian England. The history is fascinating and so are the clothes!  Fantastic gigantic hats, dangerous and deadly small waists, dresses with flowing trains – it is perfect Halloween attire!

Or in this case, the perfect Halloween decoration.

I can't tell you how much I love this Victorian skeleton couple enjoying the holiday in an iron gazebo

I met this dashing couple in Hotel Breakers when I went to this year’s Bloggy Conference at Cedar Point (you can read about how I spend last year at Cedar Point Halloweekends looking for park Easter eggs on Condo Blues here.)

Friday Favorites Linky Party - Week 342

I have a round rod I want to paint black and use to organize painter and duct tape in my garage workshop because paint is the great visual equalizer of mismatched things.

I'm too impatient to paint and flip the dowel rod for the multiple paint sessions spray painting a round object will take. I don't have a tree branch I can hang the rod from so I rigged up a 360 degree spray paint booth from two tomato cages and tying an old spindle to them with twine.

 Pin this idea for later!

 I showed my quick paint project hack, now show me yours!

12 Amazing Ghost Decorating Ideas for Halloween

I like to make our Halloween decorations spooky cute instead of scary gory because we have a bunch of little kids in our neighborhood. The last thing we want is to scare the Trick or Treaters so much that they are afraid to come to our door on Begger’s Night. Giving out candy and going gaga over the kid’s costumes (house rule) is one of Husband’s favorite things about Halloween.

The other thing Husband likes is decorating with Halloween decorations that move. I’m all about Halloween lights and décor that lights up.

We like to poke our heads in home décor and pop up Halloween stores this time of year to do some hard core Halloween trend and décor idea shopping.

 Pin these Halloween decorating idea for later!

It looks like ghost decorations are popular this year because everywhere we look we’re surrounded by ghosts. Boooooooooo!

13 Halloween Ghosts

Fall Wreath Alternative: DIY Birch Sunflower Basket

After I decorated the backyard patio for Fall, I figure I better turn my attention to the front of the house. My plan is to transition the front porch from summer decorations to a Fall outdoor décor theme that I can transition to Halloween if time permits (life happens!) and back to Fall for Thanksgiving (wishful thinking because of that time thing, ya know) until it is time to pack it all up and decorate for Christmas.
 

 Pin this wreath idea for later!

Instead of decorating with something like the DIY Fall wreath I made for the back patio, I decorate with a half wall birch basket.

Friday Favorites Linky Party - Week 341

My thoughts are with everyone in the path of Hurricane Matthew. Stock up on hurricane supplies for yourself and your pets and please don't be a hero and ride it out if you get the order to evacuate.

Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Christine at Light and Savvy - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Jen at Creatively Homemade - Twitter | G+ | Pin

Dawn at LeroyLime - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL

Maisy at Becoming Alice - FB | G+ | Pin

Sheree at Stage Presents - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst | Inst

Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Amy at A Day of Small Things - Pin

Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Kelly at Under a Texas Sky - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL

If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!

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You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!

And if you love all of this week's favorites, please pin, share, and invite your friends to this week's link party!

How to Sew Cartridge Pleats the Easy Way!

I’ve made many curtains for past homes but it wasn’t until I started building Elizabethan Renaissance costumes that I learned how to sew cartridge pleats for curtains by using the same technique to make cartridge (also called gauge or gauging) pleat skirts!

Back in merry old Elizabethan England - way before they had central heating - nobility used heavy fabrics similar to our modern upholstery weight fabrics to make clothing. Dresses had voluminous skirts, small waistbands, and the illusion of large child bearing hips were all the rage.

 Pin this sewing tutorial for later!

Cartridge pleats solved the problem because they allow you to attach large amounts of heavy fabric to a small waist band than typical gathering. Gauge pleats also allow the skirt to stand out from the body a bit to create large hips and a booty (with the help of padded bum or hip roll of course.)

How to Make a Reusable Light Up Teal Pumpkin for Halloween

Handing out Halloween candy and ooh-ing and ah-ing over every costumed person who comes to our door is one of things Husband enjoys most on Beggar's Night.

That and testing our Halloween candy for Quality Assurance while waiting for the Trick or Treaters to come to our porch. That was one of my favorite parts of Halloween until I because a card carrying member of the Food Allergy Club. Sad face.

It is a bummer to find almost everything in the candy aisle at the store is something I shouldn’t eat but has to worse for a kid on Halloween.  The minute I found out about the Halloween Teal Pumpkin Project I added allergy free treats for the food allergy kids to what we give out on Halloween.

The only thing missing is a teal pumpkin to let food allergy kids and their parents that we have their back this Halloween.

 Pin this Halloween craft idea for later!

A Quick and Easy LED Teal Jack o Lantern Tutorial

Friday Favorites Linky Party - Week 340

I have an exciting project I want to tell you about. I opened a funny t shirt and gift Zazzle store LNW Creative Gifts!

Even better, you can customize my products to suit your fancy!

Pin my store for easy shopping!

Want a purple Queen of Everything Crown No Slip Headband instead of the pink shown here? Done!

Renaissance Noble Dress Part 1: The Design

I need to replace my current Elizabethan noble costume with a new one.

Unfortunately I am my own worst client because the only thing I know that I want in my new princess type dress is this list of vague demands:

1. Make it different than what other women will most likely we wearing.
2. Use massive amounts of embroidery to help with Number 1 and give me a Sofa Time With Lacey project.
3. Use as much of my beading, trim, and costuming stash as possible. It should also help with number 1 but really I just want to put some of the weird amounts of stuff in my studio to good use.
4. Bling that sucker out to be a pretty, pretty princess of more is more epic proportions – as one does as an Elizabethan noblewoman. I realize this is not in line with being a simplistic budget minded green DIY blogger. But it is totally in line with being a person who spends most of her workdays covered in paint and sawdust while wearing yoga pants and a ratty t-shirt.

Pin this post for reference later!

I let the fabric I found decide my costume’s color scheme since many of the accessories I have will work with almost any color. The color specific items I have  need to be replaced anyway.  I was hoped I could find a green brocade or damask because I look smashing in green.

Friday Favorites Linky Party - Week 339

Last weekend, I did a Last Blast of Summer Tour by skipping up the road a bit to attend Bloggy Conference 2016 at Cedar Point. 

Tiff knocked it out of the park organizing and planning the conference this year! I learned quite a bit and paid it forward by being the Squad Leader for DIY bloggers during our community breakout sessions.  What's also nice about BloggyCon is being able to spend the evening in Cedar Point after our sessions finished for the day.

Sponsor Lake Eries Shores and Islands gave me the excuse to wiggle my toes in the sand of Cedar Point Beach (how I miss it!)

 I hugged a big cow named Big Cow and tagged it #Big #Cow for a very meta experience courtesy of Ohio made sponsor Udderly Smooth (if you follow me @condoblues on Instagram you would have seen it in real time!)

Not to mention, I named my new Rexy friend Snuggles and asked Husband if I could bring him home with me because we have the same smile. Husband and Lacey vetoed adding Snuggles to our family. Sad face.

Let's party!

How to Make a Quick and Easy Wine Cork and Mason Jar Centerpiece

After I decorated my outdoor patio for Fall, I took a step back and realized something was missing from my DIY chalkboard patio table and DIY bottle cap mosaic chairs.

I need an Autumn table centerpiece!

 Click here to take my Fall patio decor tour on Condo Blues!

My Fall centerpiece idea was heavily influenced by the growing number of empty mason jars drying in the dish rack (not to mention Husband’s do something with these will ya? look when he empties the dishwasher) and the wine corks in our kitchen wine cork basket waiting for a craft project (and more Husband’s do something with these will ya? look when he sees them taking up counter space.)

Friday Favorites Linky Party - Week 338

  Happy Almost Weekend everyone!

I am loving the unseasonably warm weather! I decorated my patio for fall and plan to eat as many dinners outside until the snow flies. 

I love, love, love when thrifting and shopping the house comes together in a new to me design!

Ready to party? Show me what you got!

How to Decorate a Small Patio for Fall

This post is sponsored by Enbrighten Café Lights by Jasco. All thoughts and opinions are my own #EnbrightenLights


I want to make our small patio more inviting for evening entertaining this fall.

Pin these Fall outdoor decorating ideas for later!

The planter box I built for Husband’s container kitchen garden adds a little privacy since our condo homeowners association will not allow us to install a fence.

And we get fresh herbs and peppers, yay!

How to Make a DIY Fall Flower Wreath

I used to design a door wreath by buying all of the cute flower picks I like and then figuring out what to do with them after I got home.  That almost always lead to me making something I wasn't happy with because it often looked like a Hodge Podge of unsymmetrical stuff that didn’t always coordinate in color, size or texture.

Because I bought a Hodge Podge of unsymmetrical stuff that didn’t always coordinate in color, size or texture for the project and didn't think about them beyond, "How pretty! I'm buying it!"

I knew I had to change my ways after reorganized my craft room and finding more wreath making supplies than my small house can hold.

 

How to Make a Wreath

 

Pin this post for later!

Friday Favorites Linky Party - Week 337

I am taking an online Bead Embroidery (w/Myra Wood) craft class from Craftsy  (I am including affiliate links for your convenience) to learn how to add a little bling with beaded flowers and designs to my hand embroidery projects.  This is something I've wanted to to for awhile.

Funny thing buying the class lead to another craft organizing hack I've been wanting to do for awhile. After spilling beads out of my plastic bead organizer box similar to this one on Amazon while removing it from the storage drawer - again - I told myself I couldn't start the beading class until I  reorganized the  my bead stash.

A big chunk of my beads came from my Grandmother. I've done big beading costume projects with them ever since.

I spent a rip roaring party time evening streaming  movies on Amazon Prime Instant Video and  organizing my craft beads into empty prescription pill bottles I've randomly tossing into my bead drawer along with baby food jars, and film canisters. Remember those?

Under Lacey's watchful gaze of course. Or maybe she just likes to binge watch The Sarah Jane Chronicles too.

I have more loose beads than I realize. Is is rude to ask your family to get sick enough to require prescription medicine so you can repurpose the bottle? I'm asking for a friend.

 

Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Christine at Light and Savvy - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Jen at Creatively Homemade - Twitter | G+ | Pin

Dawn at LeroyLime - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL

Maisy at Becoming Alice - FB | G+ | Pin

Sheree at Stage Presents - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst | Inst

Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Amy at A Day of Small Things - Pin

Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Kelly at Under a Texas Sky - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL

If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!

You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!

And if you love all of this week's favorites, please pin, share, and invite your friends to this week's linky party!

How to Make a Renaissance Festival Costume

I need a new 16th century English noble costume when Husband and perform at renaissance festivals. Thank goodness I know how to sew. It’s not like I can hop in the car and pick up a new dress at Nobles R Us!

Besides, it allows me to get my inner history geek, costumer, and creative seamstress on.

 

 Pin this post for later!

First you should decide if you want to make a historically accurate renaissance clothing (or as close as to historically accurate as we can get in the 21st century,) a fantasy type costume, or a little bit of all of the above. There are buckets of different opinions on what you should or should not do, all of which are valid because everyone’s purpose, desire, and budget differs.

Friday Favorites Link Party - Week 336

How can it be Labor Day weekend already? Do you have plans? One last BBQ blast? Watching fireworks?  Football, football, and even more football?

I have some DIY projects planned and time set aside to to watch my favorite guilty pleasure and Labor Day tradition streaming the movie Serial Mom on Amazon Prime.  (This is an affiliate link for your convenience)

If you aren't familiar with the movie Serial Mom, Kathleen Turner plays a soccer mom who tries to make the world a better place by murdering people over such trivial  
vile and heinous crimes as wearing white shoes after Labor Day.

Basically it's like if Martha Stewart had a dark side that included bludgeoning the neighbors with a leg of lamb for not sorting their recycling and she got rid of the evidence and murder weapon by having a dinner party featuring an award winning leg of lamb recipe while all of the guests rave over the impressive recipe and think she is kind and wonderful to invite them to impromptu dinner parties.

It is also the reason why I am afraid to where white after Labor Day.

Let's party!

 

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If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!

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You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!

And if you love all of this week's favorites, please pin, share, and invite your friends to this week's linky party!

Friday Favorites Linky Party - Week 335

I started sewing when I was 5 years old. I never owned a new sewing machine. I have a 1978 Kenmore that was very fancy pants in its day. It has a monogrammer and dozens of decorative stitch cams. Sure, new machines can now do those things at the touch of a button, but Bessie the sewing machine is as solid as a rock with her all metal parts. She will sew through just about anything. Every time I think her day is done, my sewing machine repair person makes her run like a top again.

Or mostly. At this point, the buttonhole, cams, and monogrammer are DOA. The  things I need to sew a big sewing project.

Meet Eleanor. My first new sewing machine! She is a Brother SE400 Sewing and Embroidery Machine I bought from Amazon (affiliate link for your convenience.)  The upside is it was significantly cheaper to buy the sewing machine from Amazon than from a local store. The downside was waiting three long and agonizing days for it to be delivered!
 

So this just happened. I've been sewing since I was 5 years old and this is my first new sewing machine! I named her Elenor. She embroiders. 😊 #sewing #diyblogger #sew #crafts #blogcreate #brothersewingmachine #happy #embroidery #HappyMail @brothersews

A photo posted by Lisa (@condoblues) on Aug 13, 2016 at 10:30am PDT

Eleanor will be a fantastic addition to my sewing and serger machine fleet. Bessie will stay in service sewing the construction work - especially when I work with upholstery fabrics. Eleanore will do the detail work. The two sergers will pitch in as needed to do things that only sergers can do.

Let's celebrate with a party!

How to Clean and Replace a Roomba Battery

I like technology. I like a clean house, especially when all the exertion it takes is to push a button. Being the early adopter than I am, I have a Discovery Series Roomba robot vacuum sweeper. Being the 400 series (they are now up to the 900 series), it isn’t the most powerful robot sweeper out there. I still like to use it to sweep our bedroom because I don’t have Superman strength to lift the furniture over my head to vacuum under it.

Until the rechargeable battery died.

As revolutionary as iRobot is to give us the first robot cleaners, the company’s customer service is as backward as you can get. The iRobot people at Blissdom were surprised my Roomba Red lasted so long because they don’t service or replace defective products. If you have issues with your Roomba they tell you to buy a new $800 robot to fix the problem.

Seriously? To fix a dead battery?

How to Repair a Dead Roomba That Won’t Suck

   

Pin this tutorial for later! Share it with your friends!

Friday Favorites Linky Party - Week 334

Monday, I was invited to a National College Move In Week blogger event by BSM Media and At Home stores. Maria Bailey showed us examples of this year's dorm room and small space decorating trends as we toured this store.  While the focus of the event is college decor, most of what I saw was appropriate for tween and teens too.

They said social media quote pillows are popular for the dorm but I can totally see the Do More What Makes You Awesome pillow in my studio.

Of course, you can use these tips to update and a little zing to adult and family spaces too.

How to Make Wine Cork and Bungee Cord Ties

Messy extension cords are taking over my workshop, power tool cords in particular. I think I wrap them well when I put my tools away only to find the cords are a tangled mess the next time I need to use them. Ugh!

To go along with my upcycled workshop scheme and more importantly I always have a stash of wine corks I use to clean sandpaper (read the tutorial on Condo Blues here) in my workbench I stopped what I was doing and whipped up a set of homemade power cord organizers.

Pin this organization tutorial for later!

This idea isn’t a new one but there are a few tips and hacks I haven’t seen written down and want to share.

Tips for Making Wine Cork and Bungee Cord Organizers: Everything You Need to Know!

Introducing My Friday Favorites Linky Party - Week 333!

I see so many fantastic DIY, home decor and green living projects on the Internet I want to share with you. I do that mostly with the Condo Blues Pinterest, Facebook page, and Twitter accounts (give me a follow, pretty please?) but oh my goodness friends, you have so much awesome going on I could be sharing your projects 24/7 on those channels and barely make a dent in all of the wonderfulness I admire and want to feature.

Not to mention, there are just as many fantastic and creative projects and recipes out there that I haven't found that I would share if I knew about them.So let's have some fun adn fix that, shall we?

We shall!

I'm joining Jerri at Simply Sweet Home   in co-hosting her Friday Favorites Linky Party! Every week you will have the chance to share your favorite DIY, craft, recipe, and creative projects using the Linky Tools at the bottom of this post. The best part of the party is not only are you sharing your creative genius with the Condo Blues blog community but also on the nine other blogs of party co-hosts!