Happy Halloween...Fall Greetings and a change to our growing site

I turned trash into treasure for this whimsical mantel.

CH CH CH CHANGES...

Happy Halloween and Autumn greetings everyone! The weather is changing. There are more coolish moments in our days now as we transition into the holiday season. Are you using your crockpot and instant pot more these days?

I got out the fall scents a week ago and now my house smells like fall leaves, spices, and apple pie.

We have just recently moved 800 miles. The website is called Californialand and Sea mainly because I have lived all over the state in my lifetime. I spent the last sixteen years living in remote forest wilderness, and now live on the central coast. The blog and website are coming along a little slowly because of that move, but I see the brightside in almost everything and you guys!!!! I have a TON to share because of the diversity that is my life.

I plan on adding the stories of moving and starting a blog, website, and YouTube Channel at the same time, I TOTALLY RECOMMEND IT (Don't wait until you are ready to do something or you never will), later... probably after the madness of what is a typical holiday season for my family is.

SO MUCH TO DO...LOADS OF OPPORTUNITY

There are seven different DIYs in the photo above I have made over the last week. Moving 800 miles neccesitated getting rid of just about everything I had collected over fifteen years. I could get overwhelmed at all I want to achieve in our new home, but I choose to see it as an opportunity to make all new things. This mantel is a great example of what it will entail to make my house my own again.

In the photo there are these fast and easy ways to make your home more inviting...I'm not including all seven of the DIYs here. To see the ones I haven't included, go check out Tara's Transformation on YouTube. I add new videos bi-weekly right now and will be adding them weekly in the near future.

Here's my link:

Tara's Transformation

Trash to treasure mantel

I bought the shelf at my favorite local thrift store for 4.94. It was light pink and I intend on changing out the pegs for some cool hooks, but for now I just threw a few coats of chalkpaint on it, applied some wax and hung it on the wall. We live in a rented condo and I do not like the regular rounded mantel so I swithched it up. What do you think?

The mantel before. Why do they make these like this???

What a great buy. It was dirty and a funky pink color.

I could not beat the price for such a long and well made shelf so I grabbed it.

Lighted Leaf Garland

The lighted leaf garland was fast and SO easy to make using an LED 25 light string, two packages of fall leaves from The Dollar Tree, and a glue gun.

Just a few supplies and an hour is all it takes to make a plain string of lights WOW for the fall.

Twinkle twinkle....the finished product.

Jack-o-Lantern

An outdated jack-o-lantern turned into a much more chic and bossy girl...

I grabbed an old, orange, glitter jack-o-lantern and painted it white. Here, I'm adding jute to the stem to give it a more natural look.

I grabbed some fall leaved leaves and flowers and gave her a nice hair treatment. All I needed was some wire cuttters and a glue gun and glue sticks to put it all on.

I added a small jute bow and had a vintage round metal tag. I used a sharpie to add the Boo! and she was all done.

Book Page "Halloween" Garland

If you have a used paper garland laying around and want to switch out a tired theme, try this craft idea. It doesn't take too much time and you can totally make it your own with any paper covering and embellishments. You can make it a garland for any holiday or occassion.

I used an old book that was falling apart but you can use any paper or maybe even fabric to cover the old garland. Just use one of the pieces as a template, draw out a pattern on whatever you choose to use, glue it to the old garland pieces...and voila! The sky is truly the limit for your imagination.

To see how I made this step-by-step, click on the link to the video on my channel.

Book Page Halloween Garland...Tara's Transformation

Your imagination is all you need to make a cozy and welcoming addition to any living room. I rent and cannot make any permanent changes so finding this thrift store shelf was just the right touch to give the look and feel of a traditional mantel.

You don't have to spend a ton of money to make a truly inviting scene. I hope you enjoyed this article. Please stay tuned for more. Thank you for visiting today!