It's September and in the 60's...Let's Decorate for Fall!

Busy times from the last post to today. I've moved, started a new job, and so much more. The place is all set up and hopefully I can get some pictures of my two favorite rooms, the library/office and the guest room. I hate the paint colors in the rest of the house, but it's a rental so I can't change them. Enough complaining, let's get to the decorating!

If you'll remember, I've been on a simple kick. I'm still on one so the decorations are simple and as natural as possible. I added a gingham ribbon to a beautiful red candle that is mulled cider scented. I love my copper pepper grinder all year long, but it does look exceptionally nice in the fall and winter. 

 

It's not the best picture, but I've placed two of the artificial bittersweet vines on the mantle and filled the bottom of the hurricanes with the mini pumpkins. I added more of the gingham ribbon with an under layer of burnt orange to the grapevine pumpkin on the hearth. The upholstery really looks great this time of year.

 

My fall wreath. My friend Abby and I had a wreath making party. Sometimes I wish I lived in the days when ladies got together for a sewing circle...It's so therapeutic to craft with friends.

My ceramic gourds look great on the new/old dining room table. This is the dining room table that I grew up with. My father recently passed away so it's bittersweet that it's now in my possession.

 

I love my little iron squirrels. I like to put them in surprising places. One is on the foyer table (also from my dad's house.) Others are on the stair treads. Don't worry, they are friendly squirrels. 

 Happy Fall!!

Happy Halloween and Welcome Back!

It's been some time since I've updated this blog, finishing grad school, starting a "real job", moving, and other life have gotten in the way. Fall is in the air though so I was in the mood to decorate and to update the blog.

The foyer has a simple, but welcoming greeting. I've been looking all summer and fall for my favorite Yankee candle flavor, Farmer's Market and finally found it at our local Hallmark yesterday. I probably should have bought them all, as they only had three.

 

The new house was built in the 1940's (the old one was built in the late 70's) so there is great detailing everywhere. The living room mantel is one example of the detailing. I spent one late summer night last year painting the fan detail with a tee-niny paint brush, but it was worth it. The good news is I can neglect dusting for a month and people will think the dust is intentional :-).

 

The neighbor's sweet cat likes our front porch because of the sun, she kindly posed for a Halloweeny picture.

Happy Halloween!

Fall is Here

It has been a busy summer so I haven't done much in the way of arranging until recently. It was time for a new arrangement for church and a wreath for the door at home.

I just created one arrangement because the stage area gets a lot of use in the fall with our fall fest and the children beginning to practice for the Christmas program. Luckily this arrangement only looks heavy. I used a mix of dried and artificial flowers in this piece. The eucalyptus, seed pods, yarrow, and cat tails are all dried. The mums, dahlias, artichokes, and leaves are artificial. The container is a barrel, which I think is fun for fall. 

Our church is hosting the area presbytery meeting this month so I was asked to make an arrangement for the foyer too. I found this great large cornucopia at the pottery several weeks ago and just had to have it. I decided this was the perfect use for it. I created some asymmetry with an arrangement containing a cream rose, a pomegranate, a seed pod, an artichoke, an ornamental cabbage, some leaves, and wheat.

I had three more pomegranates and some chinese lantern flowers that I removed from their branches. I placed these items in a glass bowl. I love these colors!

After the fun at church, I was in the mood to make something for the house. I used the rest of my wheat and some red and orange grass. I added a curled bit of bamboo for interest on the right side of the wreath. I used a greenery base. This picture was taken with my phone so it's a little fuzzy.

Happy Fall!

Church Hoedown

At the end of October, my church held its annual hoedown. The kids come dressed in their Halloween costumes and play games, while the adults have a square dance. Everybody enjoys delish BBQ and fixins all made by church members. My friend Amy and I volunteered to decorate. We had a blast and only wish we'd had more time and more lights!

 We hung overlapping burlap on the stage and had strings of lights behind it. I love the idea (it was Amy's) but unfortunately we thought of it last minute because we had extra burlap. We did not have loads of extra lights... If I could do it over, I would have had strings of lights hanging from the top. I would also line the floor of the stage in lights. These were taken with my phone which, though wonderful, is not an IPhone.

 The fall bucket arrangements with some of the most perfect pumpkins that I found at the Fresh Market (aka the greatest store ever!).

 I had these purple lights that I thought looked like fall. Again the picture doesn't do it justice. Unfortunately, the chairs could not be moved out but were stacked against the walls. We tried to improve them somewhat by running lights and leaf garlands as if they had taken over.

 Close up of the leaf/light garland with some pumpkins "growing" on the vine.

 The tables were very simple because there was not a lot of extra space due to the plentiful bounty of "fixins". No complaints there! Again we used a square of burlap with hurricanes filled with tiny pumpkins.

We used (a lot of) burlap as decoration for the fall/barn feel. Here is the view that greeted everyone. Again sorry for the picture quality. I think it turned out well for a last minute job. Thank you Amy!

Wanted to find a way to display these shimmery pumpkins in the house. I piled them in my silver shell dish and tucked some artificial hydrangea leaves for framing. Happy Autumn!

Brittany and Jody

Had a wedding at the King's Daughter's Inn in Durham this weekend. The inn is a beautiful bed and breakfast that was built in 1925 as a home for ladies. A few years ago it was renovated into a gorgeous bed and breakfast. The bride wanted flowers in varying shades of dark purple. The bride's bouquet was made of white roses, purple caspia, purple stock, matsumoto asters, thistle, and trachelium.

She wanted to acknowledge fall but didn't want a wedding screaming halloween so I used branches, thistle, asters, and white pumpkins. Below is a picture of one of the white pumpkin aisle markers. It is resting on a bed of moss.

There were two large arrangements on the back tables. They were placed in lavender ewers that the bride owned. The flowers were fuji mums, purple liatris, roses, caspia, thistle, white statice, and trachelium. 

Each table also had a small bouquet of rose, ruscus, thistle, caspia, lisanthus, and matsumoto asters. 

The front of the ceremony was marked by two tables with a candlescape. I used different sizes of glass cylinders holding candles, candles with pecans, and water dyed purple. I also had a central large cylinder with dyed water and curly willow branches. Hopefully, I will have some pictures from evening ceremony soon.

UPDATE: I was able to get some photos from the photographer Adam Wamsley. He did a much better job than I did of capturing the beautiful colors.

So happy for them! So happy everything turned out so well. Still loving the purple water!

Fall Mantlescape

I redid the mantle for fall. It had jars of shells in the summer but they didn't seem appropriate for the new colder weather.

The twig pumpkin has a ribbon the same shade as the 

drapes, the dried arrangement features several types of 

feathers, eucalyptus yarrow, and different twigs and pods.

Close up.

I love peacock feathers!

This little "bucket" is so cute.