Fall Ideas

Fall starts on Saturday.  And while it's not terribly cool here in the Lone Star State, it's almost 20 degrees cooler than it was two weeks ago.  Sometimes you just have to be thankful for the little things!

So I've been contemplating my fall decorating, which I plan to do this weekend.  Here's a quick recap of how it looked here.  I've made SO many changes to this room.  The sofa's been moved.  We added a media cabinet.  And some color.  All good changes.  But I'm thinking about to work these in with my existing decor.  Because admittedly, after spending the last month buying new Christmas ornaments (more on that in another post!), I'm feeling more than a little thrifty at the thought of having to invest a significant amount more  in fall decor.  Particularly since some of my ooh's and ahh's are way more than what I spend even if I had the money.  Case in point, take a look at this (and forgive the overly wide photo, but I wanted you to actually be able to see the runner!):

Source: horchow.com via Elona on Pinterest

So pretty, right?!  So are the prices.  The 17x72 table runner is $190.  The place mats are $170 each!  So I was surfing some of my favorite blogs (that you can always scroll through as well, just click on the links on the right side of the page) and came across this post

Source: honeybearlane.com via Elona on Pinterest

The ruffle on this runner really reminds me of the one on the Horchow site.  And while I would want mine finished and not colorful, lol, it was a great inspiration for me to do what I do best sometimes - copy!!  So that's what my goal is this weekend.  I know I can make this table runner for a fraction of the cost.  But I'll be skipping the place mats.  Totally impractical for my family.  I think this is going to look great in my dining room!

Here's a peak at pumpkin I found that I had to have.  I did purchase it, but it was on sale at Hobby Lobby, and it really matches my living room well!  This is a glass pumpkin, and more than likely, it's going to go in my new media cabinet (and looking at this fireplace really makes me want to paint the mantle the same white I used on my media cabinet...since it's a rental though, I guess I'll refrain...)  You can also see the white cord keeper in the background.  Ahem.  Another project that's not quite done.  The Builder has promised to have it painted the same color as the wall by Christmas so that it will blend into the wall.  While I'm sure you'll still technically be able to see it, it's still way better than all the chords that were dangling down from behind the TV.  So I'll take the lesser of the two evils.

Here are a couple of other pictures I've pinned on Pinterest that I'm using for inspiration:

Source: tatertotsandjello.com via Elona on Pinterest

Source: theletteredcottage.net via Elona on Pinterest

I'm really looking forward to setting up my living and dining room for Fall!

Weekend Crafting

These apothecary jars sit in the corner of my kitchen.  You may remember seeing them at Christmas time with my black nutcrackers.  They're a fun way to update my kitchen for whatever holiday it is, without having to re-vamp the entire look of the kitchen for the holiday.  I found the pink, red, and white candy corn a couple of years ago, and so I just reuse it each year (and my kids are very aware that it is no longer edible candy!).  I don't remember what I had in the large apothecary jar when we still lived in CA, the last year I decorated my kitchen - the last house we lived in, the kitchen was way to small to have my jars out, so I'm enjoying having them out again!  I was at Michael's this week, and they had some red and pink hearts that I think were meant to go on a valentine's tree.  I really don't have a place to put a tree but I thought they would make great fillers for my apothecary jar.  Now I just need to find the lid to that jar.  It's still in a packing box somewhere - which is not terribly surprising when you consider I still haven't opened all the boxes from when we moved from CA.  And not because I don't really "need" my things.  It's been an issue of space, since we downsized from 2800 sq ft. to 1800 sq ft...but it's all good!

This is the wreath I made for my front door.  I'm sure you've seen this many times on other blogs.  I followed the tutorial on Remodelaholic and I really like how it turned out!  My husband wasn't sure about the bright colors ("It's for Valentine's Day - shouldn't it be, oh I don't know, pink and red?!") but I wanted something a little outside the box.  Which is actually surprising because red is usually one of my favorite colors to decorate with.  I don't know, this color combo just called my name, and so I went with it!  And it could work for Easter, but I won't do that.  I'm enjoying changing things out for each holiday.

I have one more item I worked on this weekend, but it needs a coat of lacquer so I'm going to hold off until later this week when it's actually done!