Vintage Fall Mantle

Well, this is my first ever 'mantle post.'

We don't have a fireplace and I have always been jealous of all the bloggers with their mantles decorated for the seasons ;)  Especially at Christmas, I always long for a mantle to decorate for the holidays.  I'm not so much interested in the actual fireplace since we have a 2 year old and one on the way (although I'm sure it would be nice to cuddle up by the fire once in a while when the kids are in bed...)  Anyway, I decided that since I gained some new wall space with the addition that I would add a mantle to the room.  The main purpose of our addition is a 'playroom' for overflow of toys and other kid/baby 'things' that take up a lot of space but I didn't just want the room to be a toy pit.  I wanted it to have some style at least especially since it opens to the living room and is also in direct view of the kitchen.  So, I thought the room would be a perfect place to put my much desired faux fireplace or mantle.  Well, I searched and searched on craigslist and was getting nowhere.  I had a pretty strict budget for my mantle and none of what I was seeing was in my price range.  Finally, I decided to call around some local thrift and antique stores and I finally found one! 

It was perfect! ...or so I thought...  You see, the mantle is very distressed and old.  It is painted white and it is hard to tell in these photos but the paint is all crackled and coming off. 

It looks very charming and has tons of character which is why I fell in love with it!

But after we got it home, I realized that the shabby style of the mantle wasn't really the style of the rest of our home.  I'm not really sure how to describe our style but I have always considered it to be more of a sophisticated casual.  I like to keep it nice but not too nice.  I want it to be comfortable but stylish.  Anyway, our home is casual yes but shabby and rustic...not so much.  SO as much as I adore the finish on this old mantle, I think I will be painting it.  It will still be cute and old but not as shabby.  Although I couldn't resist decorating it with a little vintage vignette before I paint it :)  It definitely has character....but maybe just a little too much for our home. 

Anyhoo, back to my Fall mantle...

I 'borrowed' the old window I got for Ava's room and hung my homemade acorn wreath on it.

Wrapped it in some leftover burlap (don't ya just love burlap??)

Ahhhh, I love the stripes we hubby painted in there.  They look so great, can't wait to see how it looks when the floors aren't concrete....

So, our room is almost finished!  We are having the carpet installed this week!  Then I can 'move in.'  I'm excited to show off the room when we are done.  I am loving how it's coming together so far!  Remember my Ballard Knock-Off Drapes?  They will be in there (along with some matching throw pillows, maybe???)  Ahh, can't wait!

All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

My (frugal!) Fall Front Porch

Welcome to our front porch all decorated for the Fall season!  I am sad to say, this is about the only decorating for Fall that I have done this year since we have projects going on around the house (including a room addition that is nearing completion....I hope!!)  I can't wait to show it off to you guys when it's finished.  I'm calling it the 'playroom' but it will be a mulitpurpose room for the kids to play, watch movies, extra seating/elbow room for when guests are over, etc... 
Anyway, enough of that!  On to the front porch :)

I did something similar to last year with putting pumpkins in my planters.  I had high hopes of making these cute pumpkin topiaries I saw on Pinterest, but alas, it would have been a little too pricey to make them with buying all the pumpkins needed to make them.  So, instead I found these fun giant gourds for $6 and then just placed a small pie pumpkin on top.  They were cheap too, I think $4 each.  The garland is leftover from last year so I consider that 'free.'  ;)

The wreaths on the windows are from last year as well.  I just hing them right back up for this year!

So, there you have it!  Nothing spectacular, I would have loved to do so much more but this year we are putting all of our money towards projects (and baby rooms ;) 

p.s. I'm linking up to Rhoda's Fall Door Party!

All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

It's Halloween time!

So, I have been in the Halloween spirit lately :)

And, here is a sneak peak of Hayden's costumes this year!

(Yes, I said costumes with an 's'--he has 2 this year since I could not decide on just one. He can wear one to Boo at the Zoo and one for trick-or-treating.)

Pumpkin Patch

First of all, it has been too long since I posted last! I have a little catching up to do ;)

I was so excited for Fall this year mostly because of activities I could do with Hayden. One of the ones I was looking forward to the most was the pumpkin patch! I am planning to go with friends for a playdate later in the month, but I decided to go with the school that my mother-in-law teaches at this past wednesday. They go to a big farm in Maryville and his little cousins were going, so I thought it would be fun for him (and me.) We had perfect Fall weather and it was a great time! Hayden did so well and was such a big boy. We had a long hayride, picked out a pumpkin and ate lunch. I stopped to take a few pictures, but mostly I was just enjoying my time with my little boy and watching him react to seeing all the animals and pumpkins. He is just discovering so many new things and it's so fun to experience it all with him! That little boy makes every day fun. :)

These cows were so cute out there...look at that little baby in the front! Awe!!!

Got himself a pumpkin :)

And of course he had to wear the pumpkin hat to the pumpkin patch!!! :p

Pumpkin flower...did not really know these existed. Learn something new every day I guess!

Eating lunch (a tasty soy p.b. sammich since he's not quite old enough for the real stuff.) :p

It's Official!

Ok, so now that Fall has been official for about a week, are you enjoying it as much as I am? ;) {I hope I didn't fool anyone with the title of this post...some of you were probably thinking I had exciting news or something *wink*} No guys, I'm not pregnant or anything, just excited about the autumn season being here! I'm excited to take my little man to the pumpkin patch, trick-or-treating, trunk-or-treating, boo at the zoo-ing, playdating...(we have lots of plans for this season!)

And this week, we are actually even having more fallish weather, so that is even more exciting! (It's hard to get into the Fall spirit when it's 90 degrees out...)

Here's a few things I have been up to so far this Fall season:

Cluttering my house with tons of fall decor...

Trying new recipies...

{Curried Chicken with Couscous}

Taking pictures of my sweet little man ;)

Fall tablescape for around 10 bucks

I hosted a dinner party (mommy night) for my friends tonight & did this little fall tablescape. Let me just start off with a little disclaimer...first, this 'looked' better in my head than it turned out in reality. Second, I got the supplies and even did a trial run on our dining table which is a small square shape. Well, I made a sort of last minute decision to put one of the leaves in the table to make it bigger (even though there was only going to be 4 of us) so that we would have plenty of room & not feel cramped. Well, once I got everything on the 'bigger' table, I noticed the scale was a little off & the candlesticks/candles looked a little small for the table. Of course, I wasn't going to go buy all new stuff, so I just left it but I was sad that my table didn't look as good as I hoped. :( Anyway, its perfect for a small table, though. And I got most of the stuff from the Dollar Tree (love that place!) I already had the fall dishes and cloth napkins, but I bought the faux leaves (3 packs), candlesticks & candles at the dollar tree and the little pumpkins were 2/$1 at the grocery store.

I wanted to 'dress up' my plain old dollar candles, so I used a little raffia and some faux leaves to give them a little fall touch :)

Is this not the cutest little white pumpkin you have even seen? I love the twisty little vine :)

My table might not have been what I wanted, but my party went great and I had a blast with my friends! I made a yummy, easy taco soup. I think I am going to post the recipe since it is a wonderful fall dish and did I mention it was easy?

Linking up to this awesome party!

"Fall" around our house part 2

So, I went out last night and got some more fall supplies! I think I am making up for not really doing much in the way of decorating last year. I guess I wasn't very motivated since I had a new baby occupying my time ;) Here are a couple pics of the new additions...

I found some pumpkins!!! I was waaaay too excited when I spotted them at the grocery store ;)

Added some wreaths to the outside of the front windows...

Too much? ;)

The inspiration from the two previous images came from this photo. My hubby called it 'intense.' Ha!

Another exciting thing that happened today was I received the new lens that I ordered last week. I am beyond excited!

My new glass!

"Fall" around our house (so far...)

So, I have been inspired by our cool weather (in the 50's!) that we have been having in the evenings and I decided to start getting out the fall decor. ;) I still have things I want to do, like decorate the outside and there are a couple projects that I can't do without real pumpkins which it is still a little early for. I took a few shots of what I have done so far. Maybe it will inspire those of you who haven't been bitten by the fall bug to get busy making your home all cozy for the season! I especially love the smells of fall. I currently have 3 reed diffusers with fall scents scattered around, a plug in freshener with some sort of spiced apple scent and a mulled cider candle on the warmer. Smells amazing. My house may smell like a candle shop, but I love it. :)

I had a small wreath I decided to add to the chandelier in the dining room & I love how it turned out! I think it looks very Pottery Barn-ish ;)

L.O.V.E.

A container filled with random fall items...

A little fall rug for in front of the sink in the kitchen...

Cornucopia a.k.a. Horn of Plenty for some more fall flair in the kitchen ;)

Getting Ready for Fall!

So, I have been daydreaming about fall lately. Mostly about how I will decorate for the season. I love to decorate for Fall but money is a little tight this year so I will have to be creative. ;) And I can still dream, right? Here are a few great ideas I found online. I get a lot of inspiration from Pottery Barn (which is about all I get from them since they are a little out of my budget.) I just love looking through their catalog and getting ideas or drooling over things that I want.

Don't you just love this front entrance decor? So beautiful!

I thought this was a cute display for a harvest party...

I just love these pumkins!

Love this too :)

Well, I could probably post a million pictures of beautiful fall decor, but I think these will do for now ;) I am trying to wait a couple weeks to put anything up since fall doesn't officially start till the 22nd (I think.) And since it is still very much summer here and burning hot outside. Maybe that is why I am looking forward to fall so much?

P.S. This is a little off the subject, but I got a little plaque to go above my dresser mirror yesterday. I think it looks great in the room & I love the saying (even though it's cliche and everyone has it.) I had planned to do a vinyl cling wall saying (I am in love with those) but I ended up seeing this & decided to go with it instead. Anyhoo, here are a couple pics...

Well folks, that's it for now. Hope you're enjoying your last few days of summer!