It's fall! My absolute favorite time of year. I love everything about fall - the weather, the outdoor activities, fall baking, and of course, the decorations. I couldn't wait until the cooler months to get to work. I usually start about mid-September, but as we were away during that time, I was about a week or so late.
My decorating process starts with me taking everything out of the boxes and spreading it all out on the floor. Sometimes you have to make a mess to get organized. So I schlepped down to the basement and grabbed the fall box and a few odds and ends I thought might work. Luckily, our fall decor is housed in one box unlike our Christmas decorations which have now spread to four. Anyway, I took everything out and laid it on the floor. I like to see what I have before deciding on where everything will go. I also like to switch things up and not just put things in the same place each year. Once this was done, I started decorating where I always do...the mantle. It's always my main focus and the one thing I spend the most time on.
I left the white mirror we repainted last year as the focal point of the mantle. It works in that space and I don't feel the need to move it, so I work around it. Last year, a neighbor was throwing out some old shutters so we picked them up. My original thought was to paint and distress them, but when I put one on the mantle to see if the size worked, I liked how the wood popped against the tan wall, so I left it as is. As for the rest of the decorations, the only new thing here was the star. It's defintely more of a Christmas decoration but the black, along with the other orange accessories, works for Halloween. I picked it up for $5 at our local consignment shop. Everything else we already had so it was just a matter of figuring out where to place everything. It took awhile, but I finally got something I was happy with.
A lot of people ask where I get my decorations and the answer is, anywhere and everywhere. Some of these things I bought, but most were given as gifts or were things others didn't want anymore. For example, we found the pears while helping a friend's mom clean out her garage. I saw them and immediately thought fall,and since she didn't want them anymore, she gave the to me. I think they work pretty well here.
Now that the mantle was done, it was onto the area in front of the fireplace. I had seen something on Pinterest a few weeks earlier that I fell in love with and realized I had most of the things in the picture. I collected everything and put it all together. I had never really focused on that area before, but it really made a difference.
I generally use that lantern around Christmas, but when you add in red details with some orange and yellow, it screams fall. Next I focused on our two coffee tables. I used a wooden serving tray to house some coasters and a bucket of Halloween candy and put a potpourri pumpkin and candle on the other table. Have I mentioned how obsessed I am with Bath and Body Works new fall line of mason jar candles? They smell amazing and are so cute!
Now that the living room was done, I used the remaining items in the kitchen and mud room. The mud room only has a small table that I wanted to keep simple, so that was pretty easy.
Then it was onto the kitchen. We have a shelf over our kitchen sink and then a dish rack/shelf in our dining area. Here's how I styled those.
This was just the leftover stuff I didn't use in the other rooms, but I think it all worked out well. The green apple plate is one of my favorite finds that we got at a winery a few years ago. I found the long brown paddle board at a yardsale over the summer for 50 cents.
With the inside done, it was time to focus on the outside. Over the summer, we had found a little table while visiting my in-laws up in New Hampshire at a discount store for only $20. It sat on our front porch for months with nothing on it, so I was excited to finally decorate that little corner. I picked up a few mums at Market Basket along with some inexpensive gourds. Then on a family trip to the pumpkin patch, I got two pumpkins for the stairs. I stole borrowed the hay from my parent's house and used it to give some height to the smaller mum.
Our front porch (if you can even call it a porch) is tiny, but I realized over time that there was room to at least do something cute. I love how this came together and now we can enjoy it all for a little while longer before it's time to decorate for Christmas!
Be well,
As opposed to a cheap date! The hubs and I had a little date night a few weeks ago. We started off where every date night does...Shaw's. A friend of mine had tipped me off on a great cereal deal. Select General Mills cereals were on sale for $1.88 which by itself is a great price. There were then either $.50 or $.60 coupons available online which, at Shaw's, will double. Before heading over, we printed a bunch out, and combining that with our SavingStar account, we ended up getting 4 boxes of Lucky Charms (my favorite!) and 4 boxes of Cheerios for under $6.
After Shaw's, we headed off to Old Navy. The store was having a 30% off your entire purchase promotion if you had a Gap Card, which I of course do. Combining that with a $25 MyCokeRewards gift card that I had just turned in my points for and a gift card the hubby got for his birthday, we spent $14 for 5 things - a pair of jeans, t-shirt, and sweater for the hubs and two shirts for myself.
We then went over to the mall where we put our name in at the Cheesecake Factory. While we waited for our table, I ran over to Payless. Sadly, my black flat dressy sandals finally bit the dust a few days earlier, so I was determined to find a new pair. Even though it was the end of the season, the pair I fell in love with wasn't on sale. Since we had done so well earlier, I felt this was ok to go ahead and purchase, and since they weren't on sale, that did allow me to use my AAA card, and I saved 15%. I also had a coupon at Yankee Candle for $15 off of $35, but the large jar candles were still too pricey for my liking so I passed on that. Sometimes, it's just deciding what not to buy that is the best option.
After a lengthy wait, our table at Cheesecake was ready. We had a gift card there as well as a thank you for helping out with a friend's wedding, so when all was said and done, we paid $10 for our meals, including tip.
All in all, we spent under $50 for a pretty good night out. The hubs and I love finding new deals and ways to save, and if we can do it together, then that's a great night.
Be well,
Since the day we moved in, I didn't like the way our tv stand fit in the room. It was too low, too wide, and too dark. We bought it at Target when we first moved into our apartment back in the day and used it in our second bedroom/office but its time was coming to an end.
When we bought our house, the previous owner had left several bookshelves in the basement. Last winter, the hubs and I spent an entire afternoon organizing and styling the bookshelves. (Yes, I do style bookshelves that are solely used for storage). I was so proud of our work and how well the basement turned out. We had an entire area for out of season decor, extra kitchen items, and knickknacks that weren't being used. It made everything so much easier.
Then, after a year and a half of looking, we had finally purchased a new rug and chairs for the living room. We set everything up and I was so excited the room was coming together...until I saw the tv stand again. I thought to myself how the perfect solution would be some sort of open shelving. The drawers in the current stand were jam packed with Wii games and various electronics. We needed space. With open shelving I could add bins and baskets. Then it dawned on me. The basement shelves might work.
Soooo....we took everything off two of my four perfectly decorated shelves and brought them upstairs to see if they even fit. They did! The shelves were unfinished, though, so over the next week or so, my hubby painted them in some leftover white paint we had lying around. A few weeks later, we finally moved them to the living room and I set to work decorating the shelves. I shopped the house and pulled baskets I had bought for another organizing project I never got around to. This was also a great time to go through everything we were storing in the tv stand and get rid of a few things. I stole the lamp from our guest bedroom and used it on top of the tv stand. I was so happy when everything came together. We gained so much more space and were able to display some photo albums and pictures. Here's how everything turned out.
The best part about this mini makeover was that I didn't buy anything for it. I used whatever we had, pulled from other rooms, and was able to spread everything out. Now I just have to figure out how to reorganize that basement!
Be well,
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