5 in Five update

The update is a few days overdue, but I finished my 5 in five!

1. Here's my fall banner...

I said I was only going to use stuff I already had to make these projects, and it turned out that I just enough burlap and fall-ish ribbon to make this.

I hung it in the office just for the photo because afternoon light is tough for pictures at my house.  But actually, if you picture the twine with clothes pins on it instead of pennants, that's #4 from my list - my inspiration "wire." :)

2. Halloween silhouettes

Easy!  I've had these frames laying around that my parents were getting rid of, and they were perfect for this project.  I originally wanted to use newspaper for the background.  I tried a couple different things to get it to look old and yellowed.  First I used coffee grounds, but that looked like someone stepped on it with muddy shoes.  Then I tried staining it with tea, but that hardly did anything at all.  So instead, I printed out some old handwritten letters I found here.  I found the silhouettes online and cut them out of black card stock.  And the cool thing about making these was that I figured out I really can use those little five and ten minute pockets of time; I made these while dinner was cooking Monday night.

3. A yummy, autumn inspired treat...

Ginger pumpkin bread, another Martha Stewart winner.  I'm such a Martha junkie.  The recipe was for two loaves, so I got to bring one to work and share the love.  This was so good!  And an awesome side benefit of #5, organizing my food mags.  I didn't get through them all - I was too distracted by all the delicious looking recipes.  But I did make a small dent, and I found a fresh batch of new recipes for dinners last week.


Most of the time, when life seems so busy and work leaves you feeling tapped for resources, the last thing you'd think you'd want is to add more to the to-do list.  But this little challenge of simple, bite sized projects totally took the focus off of looming deadlines and time pressures, and instead was a fun way to get recharged, be creative and celebrate the season.  Mission accomplished.

Fall is here!

Today, I'm decorating for fall.  I'm probably way behind as far as the retail stores and most of the blogosphere is concerned, but that's okay.  I appreciate the jump-start they take; it gives me time to warm up to the transition of the coming season, and usually I'm all about fall starting the minute Labor Day weekend comes.  But I've been working on other things, so I'm all good with being a little late to the party.  It is only the 18th day of autumn after all, and to be fair, this past week was the first time temperatures have dropped below 90 in my corner of the world.  But today, I'm decorating for fall!  I'm ready for cinnamon scents and caramel covered treats and sweaters at night.

Last night I had a buzz of ideas happening - nothing huge really, but things I knew I wanted to do today - hang the twine for my inspiration wire, bring some order back to my office so it can feel like my sanctuary again; clear out a nice big drawer for my paper supplies so I can get to them whenever I want without digging through closets... and decorate for fall.  So today, the usual list of Saturday morning chores is taking a back seat.  I actually changed back into pajamas after washing dishes and walking the dog, and decided this morning I'm going to indulge myself.  I spent the morning enjoying a bowl of Rice Krispies and discovering some new inspiring bloggers, and now I'm going to put on some Rodrigo y Gabriela, unpack all my fall goodies and start celebrating my favorite season. Happy fall!

Fall Decor

I started unpacking my fall decorations pretty much at Labor Day (yes, I'm only now taking pictures of it, shhh). It seemed early to me then, but I have to say, I'm glad I was ready to start celebrating fall while it was still summer, because by October 2nd most of the fall stuff was already gone from the stores to make room for Christmas! Yikes! Seriously? I have to be honest, I'm not feelin' the holly jollies yet! Is it just me? I know the older I get, the faster time seems to fly by. It SO doesn't help when Christmas comes three months early. If you're trying to "live in the present," probably don't go into HomeGoods. :) Okay, that's enough of my soap boxing.

Without further ado, before everyone starts whistling Christmas carols, here are a few little things I did to start dressing up the house for autumn. Remember this cutie thing?

Look at him now! I just added some tiny pumpkins and Indian corn. I love it! (Are we still calling it Indian corn, or do I have to say criss-cross-apple...corn?)

Since I don't have a mantel, my dining room table is basically standing in. I would have set it up like a dining room table, with decorations down the middle, but usually the table looks like this:

Woah, how'd that get in there?  What I meant to say was, we use this table for everything—homework, folding laundry, making crafts—we'd forever be shoving the decor out of the way. I wish I had a better idea, but for now it's sort of arranged as if it were a mantel. Silly, I know, but it still looks like fall.

I love the look of a simple, leafy branch in a vase. If I still lived up north, my house would be filled with pretty branches, and acorns, and pine cones I collected outside. {sniff} Florida doesn't have a lot of natural bounty in the fall leaves department, so we have to improvise. I used a preserved oak branch. From the grocery store. Also from the grocery store, an infamous wheat bundle. (Yes, it is real!) The pumpkins aren't. But I'm loving white pumpkins and had to have some.

A bowl full of gourds and some stray leaves. The little bird was on sale at Michaels; when I got to the register, it rang up even less than I thought. $1.19? I'll take two!

Someday I need to learn the secrets professional floral designers use to get that perfect combination of color, texture and shape to their arrangements. For now, I decided to try to copy the style of the pre-made arrangements at Michaels, and I wanted to do it without spending a ton of money. I found stems in the natural elements section that had nice variety and texture already combined, and they were 40% off. I picked a couple of tall ones and a couple floral and literally just popped them in this vase I already had. Not bad!

I'm also digging copper, a lot. I found this mercury glass-looking acorn at HomeGoods for $6. The small copper pumpkin came from Ross for a sweet $1.99! Love it! And the birdie twin. I wasn't kidding, I did take two.

Here's a side table in the living room.  I think having a lot of one type of flower looks so dramatic.  Probably could use a little height under the candles.  I'll have to see what I can do about that.

Before I show the kitchen, there's a warning: The following image contains a graphic depiction of vertical blinds and may not be suitable for those with a sensitive decorating palate. They're ghastly. And broken. And the more broken they get, the happier I am because the closer they are to being replaced. Unless we want to suffer Florida afternoon sun beaming straight through the kitchen door. Which is unbearable, really, so that's not an option. Anyway, at least these cozy decorations have a place to live!

It's a much better view without those horrendous verticals.  No wonder they call them blinds.

Ahh, that's better. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm a sucker for holiday lights.  They're like instant festive!  I love their warm glow.  Note to self to do a better job hiding that extension cord.  I was standing on a chair to take these pics, and even though you can't see it from the ground, it bugs me now.

These are the shelves over our little coffee bar.  I just tucked in some glass bead garland, more tiny pumpkins, some pine cones and leaves.  Easy!

 

That's all for now, I'm off to start planning Easter! Just kidding....

Mantel Envy

The frenzied decorating season is right around the corner and I'm starting to have mild anxiety about not having a mantel to dress up. See, when we got our new TV last year, it wouldn't fit in our old entertainment center, which used to serve as my faux mantle. We needed someplace to put the TV, so we bought just the TV stand part of an expandable wall system and planned to purchase the side towers and bridge for the top later on. I'll spare the boring technicalities and just say that we have yet to purchase the side towers and bridge for the top.

Meanwhile, enter Ballard Designs and this beauty:

It was love at first sight. I want it so badly I can't honestly judge whether it even goes with the rest of my furniture. It's perfect for me. Plenty of storage, not bulky, built in room to decorate...and it might even go with my stuff? Perfect. But um, it's $1800. On sale. Plus shipping, plus...err...delivery fee? I would hope that when I pay for shipping, yes, the delivery guy will... DELIVER it. But regardless, there's no way I can spend that much on one piece of furniture.

So until I solve my mantel-less-ness, I'll have to live vicariously through other people's pretty Autumn mantel displays. {sigh}

This is from an old issue of Southern Living's Cooking School magazine. I LOVE grape vine. And twinkle lights.

Mmmm leaves...

{Photo: stormybayou}

{Photo: saucydragonfly}

I've always had a thing for gourds. I could never have enough of these.

{Photo: melsky}

Not too early for a little taste of Halloween, is it?

Classy and festive. Love all that mercury glass.

{Photo: providencehandmade}

How sweet are these signs, and that banner is adorable.

{Photo: jeanetta darley}

Classic black, simple and bold.  And I'm thinking it may be my turn to steal borrow the B-O-O idea. :)

{Photo: melissann}

This is so pretty for thanksgiving. I love the wheat bundles.

{Photo: thefeltmouse}

Last year we bought a wheat bundle at Publix and the poor cashier girls were stumped. They didn't know what it was or where it came from. While they were trying to determine how much to charge for it, they said "It's not real, is it?" I wasn't quite sure how to respond to that.  Real as in, am I going home to make bread out of it??

Now, tell me this baby isn't ready to get all dressed up with pretty pumpkins and leaves.  If only it would come home to me.

Flecks of Fall

I have a post mostly written about a project that's mostly done, but not quite. It's not for lack of effort, that's for sure. It's just that I hit this literal rough patch, so it's taking longer than I anticipated to finish. It was going to be a back to school project, but it's the second week of school now, so hopefully (hope hope) this week.

I guess with all the back-to-school-ness, it's inevitable to start feeling the first tickles of Fall, right? Say right. But with school starting in August, and with Florida's monoseason in full 96 degree swing, it somehow feels a little off thinking of Halloween.

I remember Fall air. It's been a long time, but I do. The cool snap of it, that sweet smell of turning leaves... and then come pumpkins and Indian corn (do they still call it Indian corn?), Fall fairs...candy apples...cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice...sorry, what was I saying? Right, Autumn in August.

Well, happily, I figured out I'm not the only one starting to catch the Autumn bug when I stumbled upon these recipes for pumpkin butter. Look at this pic and tell me this isn't Fall in a jar!


I've never had anything besides apple butter either (hi D!) but I cannot wait to try this.



Here's another thing that winked Fall to me.


This little guy was sitting all proud-like on a clearance shelf at Marshall's. Love! "Take me home with you!" Okay, how much? $2.00. Two! Um, yes.

I have no idea what I'm going to put in its four holes, but I'm seeing tiny white pumpkins. Or a strand of bittersweet tucked in. Oh, bittersweet... how I wish bittersweet would find a fence to grow on here.


I have seen bittersweet here; it was $16. I can't do that. Not in good conscience.

Anyway, I think I'd like to put a stencil on the side of my crate, uhh basket thing, but I don't know what it should say yet. I sometimes suffer from decorating commitment phobia so I don't know if I want to destine it permanently to Halloween. Although it would be mighty cute holding eerie old bottles of witches brew or eye of newt...so, maybe Halloween-y. But I'd be happy if I could repurpose it for other occasions. Any ideas?

Okay, I'm off to dig through my Autumn inspiration file to indulge my inner cozy. And I think I'll use my Labor Day to pack up all my seashells.