Fall Mantle (a little late)

I feel like this week I am finally getting into a groove...a little. I keep waiting to get less busy but I don't think that is going to happen so I need to get organized and go with it. My son got his splint off (from his broken elbow) which is awesome, but he can't fall on it. And he really likes to play... hard. He is 9 and getting him to slow down is not easy. I might be more nervous now, at least before he had the splint. Poor kids just wants to play football and soccer but we can't risk him falling. He also still can't straighten or bend his elbow so we are adding PT to our schedule.  He is such a trooper though and I get to spend alone time with him waiting in Drs offices, which I kind of love. Shows me I need to make more of a point to hang out with my boy just the two of us.

Well my fall mantle has been up for a few weeks and I have just been slow to share, sorry. I like to change up my mantle for the seasons, but not completely. I keep the base and just change up the extras. It takes too much effort to switch everything out. I have found this is what works best for me. Do you change your mantle with the seasons or more often or not at all? Just a few tweaks really changes the look but doesn't take me all day to do it.

I am really pleased with my fall mantle this year, I feel like I am getting better at styling with more practice. I am getting better at figuring out what I like and what works with the house. And it is fun to look at my mantle and see that I DIY'ed almost everything.

The wheat bundles I found a few years ago on clearance, I just added some brown ribbon to them. The chalkboard is the back of a picture I painted with chalkboard paint. I can always turn the picture around again when I am done with the chalkboard. I painted the chevron pattern onto an old canvas. The fall banner is available in my etsy shop, but is would be easy to duplicate. I used craft paper, book pages and letters cut out of blue paper and strung them together with twine. You can find big letters at a craft store and you can hand cut everything else.

My favorite thing about this mantle are the DIY arrows! As soon as I saw them I knew I had to make them.  Jenn over at My Fabulous Life made them. Aren't they awesome? So easy and fun. Just need some sticks, DMC thread, and clay ( I used gold oven baked clay so I could skip the spray painting).

I still love my little pumpkins, here is a tutorial. You can pick any colors you want to match our decor.

I added a few Goodwill books to the hearth, just make sure to check the books without the paper covers. Their are some pretty books behind those ugly paper jackets.

Aren't those little pumpkins cute? Seriously you should make some.

Hard to believe October is here, I might need to start thinking about a Halloween mantle. I kind of like this one though, we will see.

Have a great day!



Sharing over at: Nancherrow, Tatertots and Jello, Natasha in OZ, Remodelaholic

November in Review

It is so fun to look back and see what I accomplished last month. It always makes me feel more productive. Sometimes I feel like I run around in circles doing laundry and cleaning and driving kids around so it is nice to see I did a few other things too.

I started out with the Thankful Notes, which was hard to remember to do every night. I would like to do it again maybe in February when it is cold and gray and we will need some things to be thankful for.
I added a little more gold to my house with the Gold flower pot. My girls just love having their own winter wreath hanging on their doors. My yarn wreath was just the color I was looking for. I added a little vintage Christmas to my kitchen. And can you believe it, it is my most viewed post, WOW. Something so simple but works for everyone. I started my Christmas mantle with a little glitter and gold. I love reindeers! And finally I finished my Christmas Mantle with silver and gold all around.

I am ready for December and all the fun family events and activities. I love all the Christmas lights too, it is the only nice thing about having the sun go down at 4:30, at least we get to see everyones Christmas lights all evening.

Have a wonderful day!

Linkup at: Cherished Bliss, The Shabby Nest

Fall Front Porch

We have had such perfect fall weather this week, I feel like every nice day is our last. We are supposed to get rain this weekend, I just hope it is isn't accompanied by wind to blow all the the pretty leaves off already. Every year I say I am going to get fall pictures with the kids and every year I seem to miss peak color. This year I am determined not to miss it, I hope.

I love decorating the front porch for each season and fall is no exception. The pumpkins are so fun and I love the Kale in the pots.

Here is my front porch:

Since we have a small front porch we created a small area with Adirondack chairs in the front gardens. We sit here often, it is a great place to watch the kids playing in the front yard and visit with neighbors as they walk by. 

Do you decorate your front porch for fall? I love the mums I just wish they lasted longer. It does not help that balls keep landing in the pots, poor mums, they don't stand a chance.

Have a wonderful weekend!


Linked up over at: Lovely Craft Home

Velvet Pumpkins

I love the velvet pumpkins I see online, they just aren't in my budget. So I thought I could make my own. I found velvet in more neutral fall colors and went to town. I just loved making these cute little things. They were very easy and fast.

Here's what you will need:

First you will need to go hunt down some sticks or leftover pumpkins stem if you can find them. I really wanted to make sure the pumpkin stems were really dried out before I used them. 

Velvet - in whatever colors you like

Beans - or something else to give the pumpkins weight (optional)

Stuffing

Needle and Thread

Hot Glue Gun

I found the biggest bowl I could find, it was about 13" across. I put the velvet face down and used a pencil to mark around the bowl.

I cut the circle out, just remember it does not have to be perfect. It will be gathered together at the top so you won't be able to tell.

I used white thread to match the velvet and stitched around the perimeter about 1/4" from the edge.

I gently pulled the thread to gather it all around the edge.

1) I put beans in the bottom to give it some weight. 2) I filled it with stuffing. 3) then I pulled the strings tighter to gather the fabric at the top. 4) I saved a pumpkin stem from last year to use as my stem, you could also use a stick, that is what most of mine have. I pulled out the hot glue gun and put glue on the stuffing to help hold the stem in place.

5) I pulled the strings tight around the base of the stem 6) and stitched through the folds multiply times to lock the string in place.

Here it is all stitched together. I just love how it is kind of oval looking just like a lot of the real white pumpkins I see. I might add some more colors this year.  I even like the pink pumpkins I have seen around. The girls would love to have pink velvet pumpkins in their rooms. 

I just love them all grouped together. As you can see I went a little crazy making them. For the smallest pumpkins I used a cereal bowl as the outline and they are pretty small. You need a surprisingly large bowl to get a decent size pumpkin.

Happy Fall everyone! 

Linked up over at: Balancing Home, Tatertots and Jello, The Lettered Cottage, 30 Handmade Days, Happy Hour Projects, Young and Crafty, The Charm of Home, It's Overflowing, Be Different Act Normal, A Vision to Remember, Or So She Says, Uncommon Designs, Skip to my Lou, Craft O Maniac, Keeping it Simple, I should be mopping the floor, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Handy man crafty woman, DIY by Design, Cherished Bliss, Someday Crafts, Lamberts Lately, 36th Avenue, A Glimpse Inside, Shabby Creek Cottage, Lovely Crafty Home, Thirfty Decor Chick, Yesterday on Tuesday, A Stroll Thru Life, Liz Marie Blog

It's Fall Y'all

It was another perfect fall weekend. We went apple picking, which is always a favorite. My four year old has been begging to go. We now have an over abundance of apples, so it is time for apple pie and apple crisp and applesauce. I also love that the kids can just grab an apple from the bowl and if they don't finish it, which is most of the time, I don't even care. Plus a bunch of the apples are smaller, just perfect for the kids.  I love fall, it just needs to last longer.

I have been tweaking my fall mantle, I just wasn't happy with it. Actually I am just sick of the picture hanging over the mantle. It is too dark and is going against my plans of lightening things up around here. So for now it goes into the basement.

Here is my updated fall mantle:

Much better and brighter. Here is how I made the chevron picture and I will show you what I used to make the chalkboard this week. It was something I had on hand because I was too lazy busy to go to the store.

Here is a before and after shot. Just switching out the artwork make a huge difference. Of course now I have a empty shelf on the the other side of the room, but I will worry about that later.

I made these little velvet pumpkins last year, pre blogging. I loved them and got a little carried away, I made a bunch of them. Maybe this year I will make some bigger ones.

I love wheat bundles, perfect fall decor.

Happy Fall Y'all!!!

Linked up at: Skip to my Lou, I should be mopping the floor, Thrifty Decor Chick, Cherished Bliss, Imparting Grace, The 36th Avenue, Shabby Creek Cottage, The frugal girls, A glimpse inside, Balancing Home, Tatertots and Jello, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Lovely Crafty Home, One Project Closer

Fall Decorating

We have had the most glorious fall weekend! Beautiful sunny cool day on Saturday, great for watching my sons football game. Then cooler and rainy to start on Sunday then sunny in the afternoon. I just love fall! It is about time for a carmel apple spice from Starbucks, maybe this week if it gets cool enough.

Usually I am ready to decorate for Fall as soon as the kids start school, but for some reason this year I have been slower. I always wait as long as I can to plant mums in the pots so they last longer but this year I am needing a little push. Decorating for fall is always a little funny to me, because I decorate for fall in September then Halloween in October then back to fall in November.  Seems like a lot of work. I guess that is why I don't have a lot of fall decorations and up until last year I didn't have any Halloween decorations. So this is a new problem for me I guess. What do you do in the fall with decorating?

Here are a few ways I have decorated around my house for fall, I hope you find some inspiration.

Here is my mantle with bundles of wheat from Steins. I got them last year on clearance. I made the leaf garland from yarn and felt and the small pumpkins I made last year also (pre-blogging) from velvet and sticks. On a side note I covet all the white mantles and trim I see out there but our house came with wood, which my husband loves. So it is not going anywhere anytime soon. Now it seems my main goal in our house is to lighten everything up because the wood makes everything dark. And the stain is a little orangey so that doesn't help.  Now back to fall decorations.

I love these little velvet pumpkins. I went a little crazy last year and made a whole bunch, they are all over the house. I used a bowl as a template to draw circles on the velvet, then cut them out. I stitched around the perimeter of the velvet then pulled them a little tight. I added some beans in the bottom to give them some weight then filled them with stuffing. I collected sticks from the park and squirted hot glue in before the sticks to really hold them in place. Finally I pulled the strings tight and tied them up. Pretty easy, I may need to make some bigger ones this year.

For the wooden box I have under the TV I pulled out my Hydrangeas and put in pumpkins and pine cones.

The box is a little deep so I used some packing paper to raise the pumpkins and pine cones up to the right level. You can only see it if you are standing right over top of it though.

Sometimes just the simplest touch is all you need. I loved adding just this one small pumpkin to the curio cabinet.

And for one more little pumpkin, I just love them.

How do you decorate for fall? Do you go all out or do you get messed up by Halloween also?
I am off to buy my mums for the front pots, then it will feel more like fall.