It's Fall Y'All!

Ok, first, let me say a BIG THANK YOU to all my friends who reached out to me following my last blog post. I cannot even begin to tell you all how much it meant to me. This really is a hard, scary, heart-breaking, tragic, confusing, crappy time in my life, not to mention my girls. We all are struggling with the process. I am still crying everyday (except for one day the beginning of the month - not sure what happened there), eating (way too much!), and downright struggling with the reality and finality of everything. I have decided, the best way to get my new, little family through all this, is to try to keep to traditions and routines we all know and love.

That being said, Fall came to Seabreeze Dr a couple of weeks ago. Now, since our house is on the market, I chose to hold back (I know, hard for me, right??) and just put up a few touches here and there.

I love these glittery leaves I picked up at Hobby Lobby
in Ocala a couple of years ago.
I think they add a little something special to
 the chandelier. 

The girls and I are going to Asheville (with some other family members) the end of October, a trip we used to make as a family. It will be bittersweet but we are really looking forward to getting away for a few days, breathing in some cold air, looking at the gorgeous leaves, getting lost in a corn maze, and just taking our mind off of all the chaos in our lives (plus, Brevard, NC, has a restaurant that makes wicked good Grilled Pimento Cheese sandwiches and Asheville is known for their craft beers - win, win!). 

So I hope you like my little touch of Fall in the South. Switching to Halloween real soon but that will be for another post!

DIY Fall Leaf Candle Holders . .

 

Ok, so last year (or maybe it was two years ago), I came across a craft I thought my Girl Scouts would love and it would be easy - these beautiful fall leaf candle holders.  I did this before I really blogged so I don't have step-by-step photos (see, I am not good with the tutorials) but it's super easy.

First, take a lump of clay. I used Amaco Mexican Pottery Self-Hardening Clay. At the time, I couldn't find the clay I wanted in my local stores but my mom found it in her neck-of-the-woods at Hobby Lobby. Thanks Mom. So the girls rolled the clay out to about a half-inch thick. Before the meeting, I printed out outlines of maple leaves on regular paper. The girls cut the leaves out. Then they laid the cut out leaf on top of the flattened clay. They used a plastic knife to cut around the outside edges of the paper leaf and removed any excess clay. Then, before removing the leaf, the girls traced the veins of the paper leaf with a dull pencil so the impression would leave marks on the clay.

See the lines?
It makes it a little more realistic.

When that was all done, we put a candle on it to make sure the main part would be flat and hold a candle nicely. Next, the girls folded up the sides anyway they wanted it. Some girls did not want to use it as a candle holder, they wanted to hang it or just use as decoration, which was perfectly fine. For those who wanted to hang theirs, we put a hole through the top with the pencil (don't forget to sign your name and date it).

Then you let it dry, and dry, and dry. I can't really remember how long it takes to dry because our GS troop meets every week, but I want to say 24-48 hours.

Then comes more fun - painting! The key is to smear the colors together before they dry and make it look natural.

We made sure to paint all the edges but my daughter didn't want to paint the backside of the leaf so that's ok.

Don't they look great?

Another great Girl Scout project! Thanks girls!!

Needing Some Fall . . .

Ok, so fall starts this Saturday and while it doesn't fell like fall yet here in Florida, there is a nice cool A/C breeze in my house and the scent and look of fall all around.

To continue the fall tour, I just wanted to share a few more shots with you -

Here's our mantle. The pumpkins are from falls past and I glittered the heck out of them last year (or maybe it was two years ago). Since there is a big, beautiful wreath hanging above (which I have added some embellishments to over the past couple of years) I didn't want to use real candles so I thought I would see how these new flameless candles work. I found this set at Michaels (on sale and with an additional coupon) and I think they add the right color. I don't think the glow is as nice as with real candles but I don't have to worry about them burning down the house!

Here is just a fall leaf garland attached to my beautiful Parisian pediment. I love the way this garland looks and it I ever see more of them in a store, I will buy lots of them to hang everywhere!

This is the sideboard in our dining room. I hung a leaf wreath over the mirror, added some small pumpkins and leaves to the hurricane and put out a few fall photos from our trips.

This is not the best shot of a photo in a frame, but I wanted to share this photo with you. It is one of my ALL-TIME FAVES! I took this in Virginia while we were hiking a trail in the Shenodoah National Park. The girls were holding hands with my husband and I let them get a little ahead of me. They were on a quest to find more chipmunks and I just love that my oldest is wearing her Forest Ranger hat! I also really like all the colors and the way the trees line up. Unfortunately, the original photo is currently on some disk somewhere (or at least I hope it is) so I had to take a picture of the picture!

The floral arrangement in this photo is from Wal-Mart years ago. They had two left and were on a big clearance! Technically, I think they are some kind of orchid but I just love having them out for fall. I think they give off great color.

So that's it for the major rooms. I do have some fall decor in the guest bath, in the craft room and miscellaneous pumpkins stuck here and there, but this is the bulk of it.

I do still want to share some fall vacation photos and a great fall craft my Girl Scouts made a couple of years ago, but that is for another post!

Feeling Like Fall . . .

Ok, so a couple of weeks ago (yes, two weeks), I decided (with urging from my hubby) to put up our fall decorations. I know, it's early, but as I mentioned before I have a retail background so we always rush the holidays!

So I have decided to give you a little tour of what I did:

This is an old mold I bought at a local store several months ago. I love it!!
I added leaves (store bought because I do live in Florida),
small candles and even smaller pumpkins.

Notice my pretty leaves hanging from the chandelier?
I bought them at Hobby Lobby last year.
I would love to add some more for a bigger impact but remember -
no excess spending!

I might paint the pumpkins, the jury is still out on them.

I just L.O.V.E. these Pottery Barn cabinets. They hold so much stuff and are so fun to decorate. I still need to build the trough to go on the top and since I don't have the wood in my garage (I did clean the garage and didn't find what I need) so I plan on taking myself to Home Depot on Tuesday to buy the wood required.

This is a large lantern I bought at Home Goods at the beginning of the year.
I want to find a trunk or cool crate for it to sit on,
but haven't come across the right piece yet.

I just filled it with a few fall-colored candles and some small pumpkins
and leaves I already had. I would like more but since I don't really NEED them,
not gonna happen!

So this is one room. I will share the living room later but that is for another post!

What Do I Smell - Fall??

Ok, let's be honest. I live in Florida and it is freaking hot right now. I know it is hot around the rest of the country but remember, in Florida, it's the humidity that will get ya!!

So in order for me to survive what I deem - THE most annoying month of the year (my apologies to those born this month, Presley, I mean you!) - I have to think ahead to beautiful red, orange and yellow leaves (not palm fronds), crisp, cool air (not your clothes sticking to you the minute you walk out the door), and pumpkin picking (not mosquito swatting). The best way for this Florida girl to do that is to turn her house in a beautiful Fall setting. Please bear in mind, I have a retail background so getting an early jump on the holidays is something that is in my blood.

That's why, this Sunday, August 19, the day before school starts, my husband will be bringing all the Fall boxes out of storage and I will begin decorating!! Can't wait! Can't wait! Can't wait!! (TMI Note: I would totally be jumping up and down if I was wearing a workout bra right now!) I would actually start sooner but we are having company this Saturday and I didn't want to look too silly!!

In addition to all my gorgeous decorations (at least I think they are), I also plan to make a couple of items that have been on my radar for sometime. Again, I defer to Pinterest (all original posts can be found on my Pinterest account):

1. I plan on reworking my front doors (lucky me, I have 2) and making some great wreaths. Usually I use these beaded-wreathy things I bought at Home Goods years ago and the wooden beads keep falling off and it has a funny odor. Real pleasant when you knock on my door. I also have a falling down chalkboard. It's a real eyesore and needs a total revamping.

2. Back to the front door area, I think something like this would be nice. Of course living in Florida, we can't carve our pumpkins until the night before Halloween or they will be filled with mildew (eeewww!). However, wouldn't a fake pumpkin be great? You would probably have to remove the mum to water it or maybe drill holes in the pumpkin but I am going to give it a shot. Stay tuned on this!

3. I have just bought a set of these bad boys, they light up with batteries!! They are due to arrive later this week. Not sure how they will look but hoping they will look as good in person, as they do in my head!

4. You have seen this picture before and it IS going to happen. I was going to have my Go To Guy do it for me but then I had to have a bunch of wood siding on my house replaced by him and that took care of any budget I had! I can do this myself, but it is just a matter of me getting the wood because I don't think I have much laying around my house. Maybe if I cleaned out the garage, I might find some. Needless to say, one way or another, this is happening!!!

Don't even get me started on Fall foods. I have a whole board on Pinterest just for that!! So I am off to finish organizing my craft room so I feel crafty enough to get my craft on but that is for another post!

Fall Is In The Air . . .

Ok, so it might still be 90 outside but I have set the air down real low (don't tell Al Gore!), have my fall candle burning, and have pulled out the fake leaves, fake acorns and all the accoutrements! Now, you need to know I live in Florida and love it from November through June. July and August are so hot we don't see the outdoors much and are busy praying our A/C doesn't break. September and October, I PINE, and I really mean PINE, away for the fall colors happening in those Northern states.

Above is my mantle. Our living room has really high ceilings which I don't really like but it did allow me room to make some changes (and so did my hubby!). When we moved into the house, the fireplace had a generic tile around it and the all over the hearth. It had a large mirror that went all the way to the ceiling and was trimmed by a light oak frame - yes, so '80s. Didn't make me yearn for my big hair and neon colors though. Made me want to redo it - so I did! We pulled off the tile and replaced it with a nice white tile with a braided tile trim. Since I am so seasonal, I wanted a place to hang wreaths, mirrors and other seasonal decor. Then I found this beautiful antique stained glass. It was from the turn of the century (the last one) and is from a church (all I need to do is pass around an offering plate to help make money to pay off my high A/C bill!). The contractor and I went through several different ways to figure out how to light it from behind, light boxes, build out a frame, you name it. Finally, wanting to JUST GET IT DONE, I said just cut a hole in the drywall and stick in the light boxes, so that's what we did. I love it, I will let you know it looks great at night! But now I have gone on a tangent so back to fall!

Love my Pottery Barn ledges. Use them for all kinds of decorating ideas!

I love to put photos on those shelves. The couch for the family room is opposite them so I can very easily look at all those smiling faces looking out at me!

My sweet babies!

I love the look of this copper-trimmed frame. I wanted to put both these sweet faces in it. I didn't like the look of the two photos next to each other so I added a ribbon between to the two.

Last year, my girls put on an art show for the family. They did color drawings, pencil sketches, and some clay artwork. I loved the leaf and tree so I felt the need to use them somewhere in my house. I found a dark wood shadowbox, printed a picture from one of our fall trips, labeled the picture (I do this on a lot of the pictures with mats) and attached the art with a few drops of glue. Faboosh!

Not so fab!

Many years ago, I splurged on a beautiful wreath shown above. About 8 years ago it cost be around $80 - lots of moola then! It was so gorgeous, it had beautiful leaves, berries and apples, pomegranates and pears - until THEY entered the picture - roaches. Over the course of the years, they have eaten my berries, apples, pomegranates and pears! So I chopped off the sad remains of the remnants and then realized it looked even sadder. It needed some major love. Now I may shock you with this but there is not a Hobby Lobby near me. So now, every time I go to see my parents in Ocala, I need my HL fix. Last time I was there, I came across these papier mache, mercury glassesque (not a real word but I like the sound of it!) pumpkins. So I decided to add them to my wreath and here's the new and improved wreath:

Much better thank you!

This still needs some tweaking. We actually use the plates, bowls and platters in here a
lot so I wanted to keep them accessible.

That's all to show for now. I have some more work to do so stay posted!