The Holidays!! : Halloween Decorations Edition!

I am so happy it is OCTOBER and no one can judge me for having out Halloween decorations.  The kick off of holiday season is pretty much what I needed to get my bum moving to get the house much cleaner and better organized.  I'm still not quite done with unpacking a few boxes but I am LEAPS and BOUNDS from where I started. 

Last week I began rummaging through cabinets, closets and cubboards ( i just wanted to keep the alliteration going) to find all of our Halloween and Fall decorations my mom collected through the years.  Once I got all of that stuff put out... I may have gathered some more things from my neighbors Michael's & Garden Ridge.  Don't judge me.  Shopping is how I deal with things. 

I'm pretty excited with how everything looks.  I have all the major decoratable zones of the house covered.  I mostly stayed inside... meaning I hung two hangy things on the outside of the house because I could... but then went a little nutty inside. BUT I LOVE IT.

And, as I know you are just DYING to see how it all looks... I present to you: Halloween, Johnston Style.



Let us begin with the kitchen table... Mostly all old stuff.  I picked up the little pumpkin and the far left today at Garden ridge for $2.99... why is he so special? GLAD YOU ASKED ! Mostly because he has an OWL carved in him.   DONE !

 Next week move through the kitchen to the pantry(ish) area.  Yes ! those are apothocary jars.  Yes! They are awesome! YES! I love them so much! and YES ! the orange one does say "crystalline smelling salts" which made me feel the need to fill it with tiny clear beads that NO ! I did not spill all over the floor while filling it up!   (I'm lying... I did spill them...everywhere)

Ah! Yes.  Our next stop is the formal dining room.  My mom made the pumpkinS a long, lonnng time ago out of dryer duct that you staple together then spray paint orange.  Totally. Brill.

Stuffed animals on the staircase.  Classic Johnston decorating move.

 Now we have arrived at our third and final room, the Den.   This is the card table.  It is lovely.  Check out the sweet family picture in the back.  I'm rocking bangs if you can't tell.  OWN IT .

The Mantle... Mr. Scarecrow was $5.99... but don't call him cheap! He's a classy man.  Again, sweet family photo.

Ready for his close up....

And a full room shot.... take it all in.

Also, my new BFF is flameless candles.  You would think I discovered the moon.  They are everywhere... i got a set of 24 tea lights and then all the candles on the mantle are flameless also.  Some are even on timers.  I thought it was Halloween, but they sure make me feel likes Christmas!


SO.  I hope the ever anticipated Halloween house tour has filled you every desire.  I know it has mine!

P.S.  I won't even be here for Halloween because I will be in China on a business trip. Yes, yes... A business trip.   And you all thought I was a bum !

A (not-so) Wise Choice: Garage Door Edition

I'm going to make this post pretty straight forward. 

Don't take offense to it.

Don't think that I'm talking down to you.

Its just that... sometimes... people need little reminders about the mundane things in life...

SO...

Next time you're driving into a garage and you think you can start closing the door when your car is only halfway in and still make it in... you might be sorely mistaken. 

You might end up hurting the roof of your car a bit.  It might not cause any serious damage, but it might end up worse than when you started pulling into the garage.  And worse, you might break the garage door. It might not be able to close.  This might happen in the middle of the night when there is no hope of getting it fixed.  You might stand in the garage for twenty minutes determined to figure out time travel.  You might have to leave your roommate a note stating that you broke the garage and it is temporarily out of commision. You might let yourself sleep in an extra hour because you don't want to have to call your dad first thing in the morning and ask him what to do... or explain that you shut the garage on your car.  You might spend your sunday morning looking up garage door repair companies.  You might give them a ring.  They might come out to fix it.  You might have to explain the story again of how you closed the garage on your car...while you were still driving.  THEN... you might have to write them a hefty check. 

And you might feel kind of dumb.

Naturally, this is just a hypothetical story of something that might happen if you don't think things through.   


sorry there are no pictures.....of this completely hypothetical story.