Fall Porch

Today, I'm sharing our fall porch. Fall is definitely my favorite time of the year. With that, I love to add autumn touches to our decor to highlight the season.

I wish I could say I made the wreath -- it's beautiful -- but it's a pre-made one. Love it.

I still love my shabby blue chair. It goes with everything -- which I never would have guessed when I chose this color.

And my $5 garage sale bench is always a staple on our porch...

Nothing else new on my porch this year, but it looks perfect for fall for our neck of the woods.

Have you decorated for fall yet? Please share it here...I would love to see your projects.

Fall Home Tour

Today, I'm so happy to be sharing some fall decor ideas. I was somewhat on the ball this year and got my fall decor put up before it was time for Halloween. It gives us some time to enjoy the changing of the season, even if it is still so hot here in Colorado.

In the foyer, I put up my favorite fall wreath and few cute fall decorative items, including a framed stitching piece I made.

In the living room, I have a beautiful new ruffled burlap table runner that I just love (with a matching mini one in foyer).

In the family room, I added fall decor to the sofa table, along with a new chevron table runner and the Give Thanks plaque I made a few years ago.

And finally, I decorated our mantel and above the entertainment center. It's a little different than last year, because I found that a garland didn't work so great when we actually wanted to use the fireplace. So I have to sacrifice style a bit for safety.

 

So that's our home decorated for fall. It's amazing how it puts me in the mood for cooler weather. Hoping it will be coming soon...

Fall Mantel and Decor

Today, I wanted to share my fall mantel and a few other fall decor pieces.

Again, I'm still trying to get used to this different fireplace in this house - it's much more narrow than the one in our last house - but it's growing on me. I hung our mirror, which thankfully covers a lot of that crazy salmon paint color (still need to paint that). I do enjoy the overall look though...

I also put a few other fall decor items up around the house - like on the sofa table...

And in the foyer...

And the coffee table...

I'm all ready for Thanksgiving at our house - and I'm actually making my very first pumpkin pie. Crazy that I've never made one before - but this is the year...

Please share your fall decor too - I'd love see what you've been up to.

Fall Porch

Today, I want to share my porch, all decorated up for fall. It was a pretty easy switch from Halloween to plain ol' fall. I just love the colors and leaves and pretty stuff...no new projects for the porch - just a few new garage sale finds...but still pretty, if I do say so myself.

What does your fall front porch look like? Please share...

   

Quilted Fall Runner

I'm so, so happy to finally finish this project. This is one of the UFOs (unfinished objects) that has been sitting in my to-finish pile for more than a year - two quilted fall runners.

I started these lovely little runners last year - but ran out of time to get them done before Christmas was upon us. So I put them away for this year. And they're finally done...

Finishing it wasn't without its challenges. I think that's the reason I quit on it last year (besides running out of time between holidays) - it was too small as just a plain set of quilted squares. This year, I solved the problem by adding on the dark polka-dot fabric edges to give it a better width and length. Much better...

But in doing projects like this, where I don't have a pattern (which is why I have problems in the first place), I ran into a super-dumb problem...

Can you tell what the issue here is? It's that I sewed my little front-batting-back sandwich together incorrectly. Sigh. I never get that right the first time around. Luckily, I used a piece of brown fleece for the batting liner, so when I turned everything right-side out, the back was just a piece of brown fleece. So I left it. I'm impatient, remember? Tearing it apart to sew together correctly really didn't factor in for me.

It still turned out just fine, luckily. And I was able to correct the issue for the second runner. Both are pretty and cute and holding up my fall decor stuff.

And in sewing this project, I remembered how much I like to sew again. I'll have to do this more often...

Give Thanks Plaque

This is a quick little project I made a few years ago, and I forgot how lovely it was and that I hadn't shared it before until I was putting up my fall decor this past week.

This is a pretty quick project if you have an electronic cutter. I used my Silhouette to cut the vinyl design to fit my wood plaque. The wood is just a decorative piece from Hobby Lobby's unfinished wood section. Before putting the vinyl down, I brushed on brown paint, then quickly rubbed it offer with a rag. This paint technique gives it a worn look. Then, I sanded the edges just a bit. Finally, I applied the vinyl.

A lovely, quick little project...

These would make great gifts too.

More fall decor to come soon... :)

Fall Wreath

Well, it feels like I jumped right from Halloween into Christmas. Before we get into the Christmas projects, I did want to share the one fall project I did - a new wreath for my foyer. I'm kind of wreath-obsessed right now, I guess. I love how this one turned out.

I was inspired by this wreath - I loved that monogram letter. I found my letter at Jo-Ann's and painted it black and then bronze over top. Very fall-ish.

The wreath itself is a grapevine wreath from Hobby Lobby. I got a couple of fall leaf garlands from Hobby Lobby too, the very cheapest ones, since I only wanted them to fill in the background. I then hot-glued the gourds and flowers in place. There are a few fall picks in there too. Love it!

Okay, I think that's it for fall. Next up, I'll be sharing Christmas projects...

Sharing at these great parties...

Wood Word Blocks

Last month, I picked up this *adorable* wood block word kit from Thoughts in Vinyl and finally got a chance to make it up. Love how it turned out! The kit came with wood blocks and vinyl letters - I used my own papers and paints for the backgrounds. Summer-themed on one side - patriotic-themed on other.

I was further inspired by the Halloween and Fall word blocks and decided to make my own. Again, I used paints for the backgrounds, but grunged it up a bit with some distressing ink from my scrapbooking stash. Then I cut the vinyl letters out with my Silhouette using Howser for the Halloween words and Wish I Was Taller for the fall words. Both fonts are wonderful frees fonts from Amanda's Free Scrapbooking Fonts. I also used a few shapes from the Silhouette site: Echo Park Halloween Shapes (echo_park_halloween_shapes_C00245_48353) and Leaf Silhouettes (leaf_silhouettes_C00060_30551). I think the blocks turned out great - love how they look!

One quick tip - if I was doing these again, I would keep to having words on just 2 sides of the blocks. The blocks are up on my mantel, so you can't tell - but when they are lower - like on a table - you can see the other words on the other sides. Doh! I didn't think about that until it was too late. Oh well. They still look great to me...