Our pumpkins...

I was inspired this year by the Design*Sponge DIY project, but I'm notoriously impatient and just free-handed my pumpkin with a spoon and steak knife. Maybe next year, I will take more time on it. :) Matt's is the bigger of the two. I like how you can see Indy in the background.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone! We hope you are having a fun weekend.


Today we want to share a halloween wall hanging idea from one of our design team members, Audrey Yeager. This is how she did it...

"I made this wall hanging by take a 8x10" canvas board and covering it with pages from an old dictionary using Mod Podge. I then painted the edges black and added some glitter while the paint was still tacky. I used a piece of paper from the 6x6" Spooks pack and cut out some elements from the border strips. A ribbon on the bottom and another stapled to the back for hanging complete this simple project!"


We hope this will get you excited for next month. November we will begin featuring the projects our new design team has been busy creating for you.

It's Big - It's Orange...

People's creativity constantly amazes - and sometimes scares me.  Take the humble pumpkin for example. 

Halloween pumpkins can be a thing of wonder, or just plain funny.  Enjoy.

Flowers on the Roadside

I am often so tempted to pull-over the car and whip out the pair of scissors I keep in my glove box and cut flowers from bushes on the roadside. Today I did just that. I was driving over to pick up Harry from sailing and I saw these big bright beautiful pink flowers on a huge bush on the side of the road. I did a u-turn, stopped and cut a few. They have very prickly stems so I had to use the paper bag in the door pocket which was left-over from Harry's sausage roll this morning to handle them. Although they have dropped a little bit since arriving home, I do think they look pretty in the aqua vase I put them in on our fireplace mantel. It's amazing what beauty you can discover without even spending a cent.

Some Favourites From My Halloween File

Suzani Chair at Jenny's House

I love seeing where bits and pieces from our shop end up. Here's a picture above of one of our vintage French chairs, which we covered in a suzani, in the kitchen of a lovely customer and blogger, Jenny from My Pink Door...I think it looks great in her kitchen/dining area with the fantastic black and white floor and the other mismatched chairs.

Party Time

We hope you have been creating some SEI projects to link up this month. If you didn't, be sure to create something for next month.

1. Add a link to your SEI project on our blog by clicking on the button at the bottom of this post. Your project must use at least one SEI product to participate.
2. Link back to us by adding this button to the bottom of your blog post.

<a href="http://seilifestyle.blogspot.com"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlR7quLjN9iN8OC8w8B8tTFu5yU1GUhAdCmViVbK2Xkspb-edZPBn16GYl06KdCd11DDU17iOXiYNPSykJ7LCINz-BuowuZqO5-_eBOEKgrNJBXeSE3o09EVw_CJHO03F01M-G5qQfwOA/s1600/link.jpg" /></a>3. Check each other's projects out and be sure to leave lot's of comments.

You have until October 31 at 11:59 pm MST. So, let the party begin!

Surfari

How fabulous is the colour of this car!!  It belings to a friend of mine and I sooo badly want it sitting in my driveway.  Hmmmm..... I must buy a Big M and go on a surf trip!

A New Window

Today we worked on a new display in our front window at Black & Spiro. We wanted it to be fresh and colourful and eye catching. This is our last window before our very exciting Christmas window which will be installed in a few weeks time. We wrapped bits of remnant fabric around birdcages and hung them in front of a gorgeous bright pink and white and black floral fabric. It always makes me feel so happy when we have installed a fresh new window at the shop...

Paper Straws

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I think that this summer it is all going to be about paper straws at our place.  They remind me of soda shops and bobby socks and an era where life was simpler. 

Hot days, cool drinks, sun kissed skin.....

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I think these Ada And Darcy Straws will be my first purchase.

Wednesday Wedding - Home On the Range

Cherries and hay bales - just perfect.

Styling -  Duet Weddings
Photography - Jose Villa

More Layout Ideas

We hope you're ready for some more Spooks layouts! First up, since Halloween is right around the corner, we thought we'd show you a layout that is perfect for this time of year. Doesn't that house look like one where you would like to go trick-or-treating? We love how Pia cut around the top of the headstone to tuck in the picture. This works great when you don't want your picture to completely cover up a pretty design.


Next up we have another Spooks layout. Yes, we said Spooks! You may already know but we really love to think of different ways of using our paper collections. Those sweet little sheep baby is counting are actually beadazzleds. They iron-on to different surfaces and have a great texture and shine because of the layer of beads on the top.

Our next linky party is coming up soon. We hope you have been creating some fun layouts and projects of your own to share!

LOVE This Cake

Seriously.... who cooks stuff like this?  Brilliant.

Time For A Nana Nap

Amy's maternity photos

My big sis asked if I would take some maternity photos for her this past weekend and here are a few favorites. We were planning on more photos, outside, but the weather was really nasty, so we ended up doing a mini set indoors and hopefully, we'll have a chance to take more later.

Amy on the left, me on the right.

Black & Spiro Today

Here's a little shapshot of some things in the shop which I am loving right now. Our new purple inlay chest of drawers is like a breath of fresh air...it's so pretty! I really am having a purple moment! One of my favourite quotes {by Virginia Woolf} which I had hand written and framed in an old white-painted frame - "Arrange whatever pieces come your way". This quote really is wonderful. I love it!