Welcome to Fall Ya'll

We are in the middle of landscaping the front yard - most of the 18 year old overgrown shrubs were ripped out on Father's Day, and will be replaced next week - finally! But at least I can pretty up the front porch a little for fall, right?

I used these urns and topiaries all summer, however the Mandevilla that I planted in them did not work out.  The sweet potato vine grew like gangbusters!

The pots for the mums were left by our home's previous owner - they were terra cotta pots that I sprayed with oil rubbed bronze spray paint to coordinate with the porch decor.

I placed a fall wreath flat on top of the urn and then put the topiary on top, through the wreath.  I started with two berry and pumpkin garlands per topiary and that wasn't enough.  Then I added one mini leaf garland and one more berry and pumpkin garland. I added feathers to the wreath, then topped it with a fun fall colored velvet leopard ribbon.  I hope it all stands up to the elements!

I got this wreath last fall at Hobby Lobby and added some feathers and the gold "L".  Is it possible to have too many feathers?

All that's left to add is pumpkins!

Happy Fall!


Linking to:

 


Centsational Girl Fall Linky Party

What Does Your Mailbox Say About You?

Is your mailbox a direct reflection of what is inside your home? Is it a peek of what one might see when they walk in your front door? Or merely a vessel to bring you ads upon ads upon ads and the occasional birthday card?

Here was the mailbox as it came with our house:

Sad, decaying, droopy little mailbox.

As I was looking to replace our mailbox, I took a tour around the neighborhood to see what kind of mailboxes are in fashion. What do these mailboxes say?

Ok - so now, well on the way to finding the mailbox I like, and of course Home Depot had the post, but not the actual box that matches. So after a parade to all hardware stores in a 10 mile area, I bought it online and talked them into free shipping.

Ryan was putting off our little mailbox renovation because he didn't want to deal with concrete, so I went out to see if I could get things going myself - low and behold - the post we bought could just slip over the existing post with a little modification. So I got him to come out with a mallet and whack the post arm off - and then out came a swarm of bees!!! That had apparently nested in the post. (They came back for a quite while to look for their home.....)

Here was my mailbox inspiration:

I love the vinyl name and address, but with the style of box I chose, all of that information would not fit. So I went with just the address. When Crafty Why Buy It When You Can Make It Whitney was here visiting, she tried and tried to help me cut out the vinyl on my Cricut machine - but it's blade does not have the finesse that her Silhouette machine has - so she had to cut it out at home and mail me the vinyl - hoping I can do it right without her guidance. But she did send me some nice directions - don't you love a good friend who knows that you always need a little assistance...

So I put on the transfer tape all by myself (even though I was really nervous to mess it up!), then took it out to the mailbox to rub it on...

And Voila!

What does my mailbox say about me?

Linking to:

DIY Project Parade at The DIY Showoff

Amaze Me Monday at Dittle Dattle

Newbie Party at Debbie Doos

Metamorphasis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Still In The Living Room, This Time With Ikea End Tables...

So we set off for Ikea without the list, thinking, surely when I see it, I will remember which end table to get....not necessarily so...

Here is the table I bought:

Got home, pressured Ryan to put together the table immediately, and wham - it was huge! 5 1/2 inches above the arm of the sofa...wow, so did not look great.

We had to make an unexpected trip to the in-laws so we took the legs of the tables with us so my miracle worker FIL and MIL could advise us to cut or not to cut.... As I am showing my MIL the design board so she can see what the whole table looks like and make an informed decision, I notice that I BOUGHT THE WRONG TABLES!! And the tables I was supposed to get, were shorter, more narrow, and just the perfect size! So - take the table apart, back to Ikea, and back home to put the new table together.

Here is the table I was supposed to get:

Ahhh much better.....

What do you think?

I am loving this Edland collection from Ikea - I could use these pieces in every room. And every time I walk downstairs, the smell is so good! Like lemony new wood...

This desk is so pretty, for $199. I could use this in my guest room, but some people don't like not having drawers for their drawers...

This dresser is $299, not bad after looking at Ethan Allen dressers for over $2,000! What? Does a maid come to dust it every week for 5 years?

Linking to:

Shower Curtain

In this post I talked about deciding what to do about a shower curtain in my downstairs guest bathroom, I loved this one from Ballard Designs:



but doesn't the monogram look tee-inescee?

Then I found this one from Target:

And it is similar, so I went with it, took it in hand to find a monogrammer that could give me a substantial sized letter!

And much to my dismay, no one could embroider a letter much bigger than 6-10 inches.

After seeing this post by Trisha at Sweet Survival:




Where she made a monogram out of felt for her pillows, I was hopeful that one creative sewer in my life (insert Whitney here) could help me figure it out/do it for me. Only one problem...she lives over 1,000 miles away in a land of rock and heat. Ah-ha, but she was coming my way!

When I explained the project to Whitney she let me in on the closely held secret that they sell felt by the yard, not just the cheap felt squares in the craft area - whew! That makes it a lot easier. (Did everyone else know that they sell nice felt by the yard?)

So...

• I picked out a letter in the font I liked, Renaissance, and printed it out on several pieces of paper - the letter is about 19 inches tall.
• Then I taped them all together, so they made a complete "L" template. It was much easier to tape them together exactly with Whitney's suggestion of taping them up over the window, which made the paper transparent and easy to overlap where the design lines matched up.
• I taped it onto the curtain to make sure it didn't look ridiculously large:

(Notice the drywall patching where I ripped the towel bar off the wall? Nice.)
• After taping the dickens out of the paper layers, I cut out the letter pattern.
• (We tried using Wonder Under to adhere the letter to the curtain to make it easier to sew - but the weave of the curtain prohibited stickage and did not work for us.)
• We/Whitney pinned the letter to the curtain, and she sewed and turned, and sewed and turned, and sewed and turned, and asked, "Are you sure YOU don't want to try this?". No thank you.

I LOVE how it turned out!

I really should get that iron back out, I know...

And now still trying to decide if I will paint these stripes onto the wall...

The DIY Showoff

What do you think?

Linking to:

Under the Table and Dreaming - Sunday Showcase Party
I Heart Naptime - Sundae Scoop
Petite Hermine - Sunday Linky Party
The DIY Showoff - Project Parade
Tatertots and Jello - Weekend Wrap Up Party
Dittle Dattle - Amaze Me Monday
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia - Tuesday's Treasures
DIY by Design - Sizzle into Summer
The Blackberry Vine - Tuesday To Do

Artsy Schmartsy...

Well, only two of us liked my artwork, so I took it back for fear of having buyers remorse as soon as the returnable time period was up. And I must say that when I got home from the return and sat in the room, it was much calmer. I think "Beat Box" was just too much of a slap in the face for my little room.

So I have been looking for something to replace it.

Here is what Emily suggested:

Palomino

I found these on overstock:

Jane Bellows 'Submit' Oversized Canvas Art Set

Caroline Ashton 'Bird & Cage' Oversized Canvas Art Set

 

Any favorites?  Of course my mother recommends letting the kids go crazy with paint on a canvas....

Or should I change focus and go towards a grided gallery wall like this:

Decorpad

Decorpad

What do you think?

A Little Girl and a Window Seat...

Here is the Girly Girl's room when we looked at the house:

At first glance I thought no way would this periwinkle blue color work, but after we moved her things in, the pink bedding made the walls look lavender - and that can work with pink, right? Very princessy. But after living with it for a while, it just isn't working. And the wood trim just really has to go.

But before we do all the painting (or beg and plead to hire someone to do more painting), we want to make her the window seat she has been wanting for a long time. She has the perfect little inset window, just begging for place to snuggle up with a blanket and a good book and watch it rain outside.

Are you wondering if the first thing I did in this room was to rip down the balloon vallances stuffed wtih paper? Yes! It was!

But the question is, what to do with the rest of the wall after the window seat? Should we make built-in bookshelves? Or a built-in bookcase/desk combo? Will she use a desk in her room? I have heard lots of people say that their kids don't do homework alone in their room. She really needs to storage for books, trophies and other things she likes to have out - but I would save space by putting a desk here rather than on another wall in her room.

What do you think?

Here are some of my inspiration pictures for the wall-to-be...

Desk/Bookshelves:

Desk 1

I think this one is my favorite, with a combination of covered storage and open. And this is about the amount of space we have to work with.

Desk 2

Houseography

This one is so pretty with the arches.

Desk 3

Perfect plan with the window seat already in place.

Desk 4

Desk 5

This is really pretty.

Desk 6

Window Seat:

Seat 1

Love these drawers for additional storage, but how hard would this be!? And I love all that molding with the chair rail...

Seat 2

This is different with the bookshelves inside the window seat...

Seat 3

Simple and easy.

Seat 4

Plenty of room for books, but maybe not with my 8 foot ceilings...

Seat 5

More simple and easy.

Any favorites?