Midwest Outdoor Fall Decor

The summer growing season has come to a close (even though it's 70 degrees here today which I am LOVING) and with that it means little outdoor greenery. BUT I still wanted the outside to look "happy". SO I cut down the impatients I had in the pot, added the cute lil wagon or truck wheel, some cat tails and a metal pumpkin on a small hook (and I don't think I am ready to stop there....I might add some faux fillers!!)

In the backyard before the expanse of open field (which I do love) there are these utility boxes which I've disliked since day 1 SO over the summer I planted some tiger lillies in front (which SHOULD cover the boxes next year)
and then I added a vintage chair that I filled the missing seat with mums (please forgive me for the dead mums....I kept saying I can get the pic tomorrow and well by the time tomorrow came they were goners. RIP mums)
Notice the chair was strategically placed in front of one of the boxes! I had this iron birdbath stand on the front porch holding a pumpkin in my last post. When I threw the pumpkin away I KNEW the stand couldn't sit empty....
So I went in search of a dish to fill with water to make a lil wildlife retreat. Maya picked this fancy crystal cut bowl....
Ta-da.....
Awwww, what a sweet lil grouping. Not too shabby for a baren photo
Stay tuned! I'm to work on the window boxes next....they were looking pretty pitiful SO I went and bought some faux fillers today...I don't really like to use fake-ies BUT I also don't like a box o' dirt!

It's the GREAT PUMPKIN

Charlie Brown!! (which by the way will be on this THURSDAY night at 7:00pm - check your local listings). Every year we carve pumpkins and each year it gets a lil easier as the kids are getting older. I am fortunate my daughter LOVES to dig out the "guts" and seeds (my LEAST favorite part!) so we all do our own gut digging! This year I have found a few lil helpful hints that I thought I'd share (although I am CERTAIN y'all already have this down!).

For the first time this year I am doing the battery operated tea lights for my pumpkins (that way when the wind blows they WILL STAY LIT. In addition, I don't have to waste my good candles outside AND no worries about setting the porch in fire! We know these battery operated candles are all over the place....I got mine at the Dollar Tree...2 in a pack for $1.00 (so far, so good). I didn't want to put these "candles" directly on the pumpkin SO I used these fab lil canning / jelly jars I found at the Salvation Army the other day. When I saw them I KNEW I'd find something to do with them (and for .29 HOW can you go wrong?!?!). I bought three and what do you know?!? I have three pumpkins....fate?
For the pumpkin lids I painstakingly cut each lil notch (so they would look neat and pretty) BUT when I went to put the lid on it was a bit like a puzzle...trying to figure out which cute lil groove fit together....I KNEW I wasn't gonna go through this EVERY time I lit the pumpkins...
So I colored a lil black triangle once the pieces match up on one lil point....
and VIOLA! They fit together!

It's beginning to look a lot like....

CHRISTMAS!!!

WHAT?!?! Just kidding - kinda! My girl Paola and I wanted to make something and since Halloween is already next week, we decided to forgo a Halloween project...Thanksgiving could've been fun BUT nope, we went right ahead to Christmas! Last year in blogworld there were tons of ornament wreaths all over blogland so I thought this might be a fun project for us.

We are Happily getting our craft on! Until we realize we are short balls....big balls, small balls, green balls and gold balls! (edit: had I ACTUALLY read the blog posts I would've known you need between 60 and 80 ornaments to complete)

SO, Here we 4 days later with MORE balls!
The girls lookin' silly!
HOORAY! We finished! I did silver and lime green with a leopard accent ribbon and Paola did red and gold with red accent ribbon.
ONCE you have all the materials this project is a fun breeze! The challenge for me is that I am 25 minutes from any store that carries this type of decoration. I am SO PLEASED with how they came out! To make your own:

* simply get a wire hanger

*un-twist the top hook portion of the hanger

*shape into a circle

*gather 60-80 ornaments in varying sizes

(I used only plastic and styrafoam so I didn't have to worry about breakage. I also found it's easier to use the large 8"ish in diameter balls as the major base - I used 8 total)

*thread varying sizes and colors onto hanger until it's almost full

(leave about 3" on each side so you can twist them back together to seal the circle)

*gather ribbon and thread onto wreath and tie a big bow at the top...VIOLA!!

I have linked up at Tatertots and Jello and here

Since you've been gone...

Ok, not really YOU, more ME!! Where have I been you ask? Here's a hint....

A few girlfriends and I took off for a FUN weekend in NY! PERFECT weather, good company and lots of GREAT food!

Of course walking along, I manage to find a FAB lil shop.....

YIKES! Upper Crust is right! GREAT items but the prices gave me a lil sticker shock!! PLUS, all I brought was a carry on SO no junking for me :)
We ate sammies as big as our heads! (actually 3 of us ate off of this ENORMOUS Carnegie Deli Sammie)

We went to the CUTEST lil Bakery....maybe you've heard of it....Magnolia Bakery.....
There was a momma sized mannequin and a baby size mannequin in the window...LOVE the crinoline!
These cute lil vintage aprons were for sale....

The ambiance at Magnolia was EXACTLY what you would expect of a cupcake shop UNFORTUNATELY the baked goods weren't as good as I expected them to be. I tried a Red Velvet cupcake, a Magic Bar and something else that I can't remember right now....and my girls also said the frosting was the best part.

The BEST hot fudge sunday EVAH! can be found at Serendipity 3 (as featured in the movie Serendipity)
That's all I've got for now girlies! I am prepping for a craft show in a few weeks....I'm going with a Pink Christmas theme!

Spooktacular

I have felt challenged decorating this year for halloween (new house, so no familiar places to put stuff) SO little by little I've been getting the scaries out! This vignette is in the kitchen on the buffet....my favorite part is the "bowl of bones" (say that 5 times....it's fun and happy)
The mantle also proved challenging as I wanted to display the hissy fit sign (isn't that CUTE and so appropriate for the season...certainly not everyday...no, I don't have hissy fits)! See that hurricane at the end on the right side? Saw that at a boutique over the weekend (this place was SO CUTE!! It's in Rockford, PORCH)
So I tried my hand at it.....

Started out with these (bag of candy corn, bag and a half of black beans and a bag of white beans)
Lest you think it was as easy as just dumping them in the bag....as I did (which it would have IF I realized the shear size of my container and bought more fillers) and I KNEW I wouldn't be able to stand looking at it all a mess...SO I sorted through the three layers and separated them (and took a pic in case y'all didn't believe me)

For a hot minute I thought about running back to the store (but decided a 2o minute drive just wasn't worth it) KNEW I couldn't wait 'til morning to buy more. I started thinking....AH HA! If I find something short and cylindrical I can get the beans around it and not waste precious black beans filling the bottom.....


Remember my happy bittersweet display?

I didn't want to put it away because I SO enjoy the orange and green combo....SO I added a skully....
and my White Wednesday pumpkin stand......


Turned WICKED.....


Happy Haunting!

Pretty in Pink

Last weekend we celebrated my daughter's birthday....HER chosen theme - Pretty in Pink. I KNOW a bunch of you girls out there would have this one in THE BAG! If it were Lime green, that'd be my ace in the hole BUT pink, that was tough for me. Here's what I came up with....

These beautiful pink roses(that I couldn't find any filers for at the store and my garden at the new house was just started this summer SO that left very little for me to cut. LUCKILY I had my lime green and plum coleus and think it was a FAB combo).

Couldn't resist doing a lil' pink candy bar (the irony is there were only a few kids there). See that lil pink cake? Wal-Mart! Who knew?!?! it was a petite lil strawberry pink cake with strawberry jelly filling. I thought it would be fine on a regular cake plate - no such luck....it looked so small. Uh-oh, what to do at the last minute? No worries, I flipped a vintage dessert glass upside down and hot glued a glass plate to it and VIOLA! A mini-cake stand (I SHOULD have taken pics of this BUT wanted to be sure they would come apart before I bragged (I mean blogged) about it! It did come off ONLY after soaking in water overnight. So moral of the story, don't be afraid to try something new!!

Penants have become a party staple! What started out like this (again a STRETCH for me as pink isn't something I have on hand...I bought the pink glitter ones special for the party BUT that by itself would've been boring....
And here they are on the mantle! I LOVE the way the mantle turned out....simple, pretty and elegant (just like my girl!). I made one of the ballon wreaths I've seen all over blogland (NOTE TO FUTURE balloon wreath makers: IF you are looking to do a color theme vs. mutli Wal-Mart sells bags of one color ranging the rainbow. I learned this the HARD way after purchasing 4 bags of multi and still needing another 3 bags of pinks) the silhouette I cranked out the night before the party (never mind that I have had the materials on hand for almost a year)

I know what I did was nothing over the top OR nearly as good as some of the parties posted on blogs BUT what I wanted to let you y'all know is that with a lil creativity you can pull off a GREAT party!

Bittersweet

Since moving my decor style and theme has changed...in the last house I did the reds, golds and browns for the formal living room, BUT no more! I am going for a 'rustic elegance' look in this house....whites, creams, burlap, leather, texture and a POP of color. Granny Smith Apple Green happens to be THAT color of the moment for me!

I had this vase in the garage and was unsure why I even bothered to move it....I was ready to pitch it in the trash when I said to myself 'WAIT! Aren't you always reading on blogs how these girls spray paint everything and anything that doesn't move?!?' YES!

(edited to add the vase pic was taken with camera phone)

So I busted out my trusty can o'paint and gave it a few sweeps of color.....

PERFECT play off the orange in the bittersweet (which was purchased this past weekend @ the Flea) and the leaves in my pottery. Here's a lil tip of the day : use it all! By that I mean, these leaves fell off the "bouquet" of leaves (and were in the bottom of the cello wrap) that I have on my mantle and my first reaction was to throw them away too! BUT the wheels started turning and I knew I could do a cute lil arrangement in the pottery (I was thinking a candle in a jar initially BUT LOVE the white pumpkin). HAPPY FALL Y'All!