Category Archives: Holiday Decorating

Praise the Lord! Our house is finally decorated for the holidays! I truly thought it might never happen this year. Decorations have been scattered across our dining room floor since the day before Thanksgiving. Literally. I was so excited to decorate our new home but then quickly realized I had no idea where to put things because our house is SO different from our last house and pretty much nothing fit in the same place. Poor me, I know. I mean I love being creative and all but I just didn’t have the time this year. I need easy right now. Anyone with me? But the decorating is done. For the most part anyway. There’s still a bin of Christmas decor I haven’t even touched but it might just have to stay that way this year. There were a few mishaps along the way including a missing baby Jesus, a missing tree topper, 70% of the lights not working, a nearly-amputated finger from those wire dew drop lights cutting off my circulation, no room for this, no room for that, so on and so on. But in the end I think it all came together just fine … except for the missing tree topper which still has yet to be found.

I’m not sure why I stress myself out over decorating the inside and outside of our home, sending holiday cards, baking Christmas cookies, scheduling a Santa visit, scheduling a time to view Christmas lights, hiding the elf day after day, threatening my child on a regular basis that Santa and Dave (our elf) are watching … oh yeah, and shopping. It seems to leave pretty much no time to simply enjoy the season (which in my opinion is the absolute best season of them all). Or maybe all these things are what make up the enjoyment? Either way, I know I’ll do it all year after year because to me it just doesn’t feel like Christmas otherwise. Maybe I’ll start in September next year and be way ahead of the game.

A few of my favorite things from this holiday season thus far involve my son and his complete innocence: his Christmas list – a cow, a spinning toothbrush, a mint and a lightbulb; his singing along to all the Christmas music I play entirely too often and getting the words completely wrong; his referring to mistletoe as “missing toe”, and of course all the constant questions about Dave (the elf) – why does Dave have a big tag on him? Why does Dave always look in the same direction? Why is Dave not breathing? This elf thing might be short-lived, but be. still. my. heart.

Now on to the point of this post – to share some shots from our home all decked out. Hope you enjoy!

The Exterior –

The Entryway –

The Dining Room –

The Kitchen –

The Den –

I even added some touches to the office and a couple of the bathrooms because, well, why not?

Wishing everyone a happy holiday season! 17 DAYS TO GO!!!

Never in a million years did I think I’d be the type to decorate my house for Spring and Easter … I mean, really? Christmas for sure, that’s normal, but Spring? What would I even use to decorate? Bunnies? Eggs? Birds nests? Well according to Target, Cost Plus World Market, and every other fabulous store in between, yes, you should decorate your house for Spring using bunnies … and eggs … and even birds nests.

I think I set one rabbit out last year and hung some decoupaged eggs from the branches in the dining room, but that was pretty much it. This year’s a bit different though. I went to Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago to purchase some crafting supplies to help amp up the inventory in my newly opened Etsy shop (www.etsy.com/shop/myhouseoflove) and I walked out those doors with a cart full of Spring & Easter decor. And no crafting supplies. I totally lost my train of thought while perusing those aisles of pastel goodness. Luckily I had a gift card so no money lost. Of course I still need to purchase those crafting supplies.

Now don’t get too excited – our house looks nothing like it does for Christmas (it’ll probably take me a few years to get to that point), but we do have a little festiveness going on so I figured I’d share our Spring Decor Home Tour with you. Hope you enjoy 🙂

The Entryway

rabbit & small eggs – Hobby Lobby // bird candle holders & taper candles – Target // egg wreath – made by yours truly using styrofoam eggs, moss, & grapevine wreaths from the Dollar Tree // burlap runner, glass jar, & birds nest – no clue, I’ve had these things in my crafting closet forever

The Fireplace

Mantel: white rabbits – Cost Plus World Market // welcome sign & string lights – Target // birds nest – Hobby Lobby // blue bird – gift

Hearth: blue metal tray, vase, wire basket – Target // small grass rabbit, medium eggs & large eggs – Hobby Lobby // large grass rabbit – Cost Plus World Market // faux flowers – Old Time Pottery

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Dining Room

decoupaged eggs, rabbit candle, white ceramic egg holder – Cost Plus World Market // felt eggs, white rabbit – Target // white ceramic rabbit cake stand, carrots, green moss rabbits – Hobby Lobby

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Our Lenten Roses are in full bloom so I created a pretty display on one of the tables in our den and I may have added a little porcelain rabbit that was gifted to me in our powder room. It’s addicting once you start, you guys!

Last but not least, I’ll take you outside where I did a touch of Spring planting this past weekend (only because Home Depot didn’t have a very large selection of flowers yet). Check back after any potential frost and I’ll have lots more.

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Thanks for coming along! Hope everyone has a great week ahead!

And be sure to check out my Etsy shop if you get a minute … I’m hoping to add lots more to the shop in the next few weeks. Hope you like what you see 🙂

… but it’s really not … not for the week of Christmas at least. I’m sorry but I want some snow. I’m truly dreaming of a white Christmas but seeing as the high for the Metro ATL area is 76 on Friday (are you kidding me???), I guess I should just keep dreaming. So while I’m dreaming, I’ll bring you guys inside like I promised for a little holiday home tour.

One day I vow to decorate the entire house for Christmas. Yep, bedrooms and all. It’s been done by others and I’d like to follow in their footsteps if they don’t mind. I need to hit up lots of after-Christmas sales before that happens though, so it may be a few years. For now we’ll just focus on what I did decorate – our entryway, hall bathroom, den, kitchen, and dining room.

Welcome to our home! I love how the metal Santa greets you as you enter. Of course I’m too scared to actually light the candle he holds … can you blame me? It’s kind of at a bad level when you have a toddler and a dog. On a side note, I absolutely love the details in the garlands.

I love decorating our hall bathroom. It doesn’t take much considering you can barely do a 360 inside this little room.

Next up is our den. I love the feel of this room when it’s all decked out and all the lights are on – it gives off a vintage Christmas glow that I just can’t get enough of.

Notice the lack of bows and ribbon on the few gifts I’ve wrapped … just one of the joys of owning cats 🙂

I kept the side tables and coffee table pretty simple this year.

Rather than covering the entire bar area with garland and candles like I’ve done in the past, I decided to just add some decor to both ends and leave it open so we could actually get some use out of it, especially since we had a party this past weekend with 20 plus guests. We needed all the extra space we could get.

I purchased a few new Christmas pillows this year (at full price which I usually don’t do, but I just wanted them SO badly). I’m hoping to find a couple more after Christmas so I can completely fill the couch … because who doesn’t love a couch full of pillows?

On to the kitchen! I focused on a few different areas within the kitchen – the counter top, above the fridge, the bookshelf, and the little table that we never eat on because we prefer the couch (and the TV). Don’t judge. And apparently I need to eat those bananas.

And last but not least by any means … the dining room. I can’t decide if I like the feel of this room or the feel of the den better. Thoughts?

And that wraps up my holiday home tour … hope you enjoyed! And better yet, I hope you all have a wonderful and safe holiday! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours!

Keep your eyes out for my next post where I’ll share a fun and easy DIY project!

Remind me next year to take off the entire month of December. Actually taking off the entire time from Thanksgiving until New Years would be more helpful. This is my absolute favorite time of year, hands down, no questions asked, BUT every year I’m finding that there’s just not enough time in the day to get everything done that needs to be done. I guess that’s just what happens as you get older and take on more and more responsibilities, right? I’m not complaining here, at all. I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything, but I’m sleep-deprived this morning and it’s really for no good reason other than I was up late the past 4 nights designing Christmas cards, doing online Christmas shopping, planning a Christmas party and decorating the house for Christmas. Christmas, Christmas, Christmas … it’s just everywhere. And I love it.

Yes, the house is FINALLY decorated. Why did it take me so long you ask? Well here’s the issue, or at least one of them. I am a sucker for after-Christmas shopping. Every year my Mom and I go the day after, the day after that, and sometimes even the day after that. So when I pull out my stuff to decorate the following Christmas, I have all these new things that have no “home” … so then I spend way too much time finding homes and tweaking this and rearranging that, and really it’s just absolutely ridiculous how long it takes me to decorate sometimes. Having an almost 2-year old might have a little something to do with the speed at which I decorate as well, not to mention all the other tasks that have to get accomplished on a daily basis in this thing we call life. But I know, I know, enough excuses already!

So with all that said, here’s the start of my holiday home tour. Yay! I’ll share our outside today and we’ll move to the inside next week, so be on the lookout!

 

I kept the mailbox super simple this year with two rosemary ‘trees’ from The Home Depot. At $20 a pop, it might seem like an expensive way to decorate around the mailbox, but I plan on reusing these babies year after year – a long term Christmas decorating investment if you will.

 

I found these lighted LED branches at Target after Christmas last year. I think I paid about $3. I’m hoping to find some more this year so I can line the other side of the sidewalk, but I love the bit of light they add.

For the past couple of years we’ve decorated our Japanese Maple with various-sized ball ornaments. I used to think stuff like this was tacky but now I can’t imagine the maple without a little Christmas bling – I mean, he’d just be so bare …

Every year we line our steps with miniature Christmas trees (for lack of knowing their scientific name). We always get ours from Home Depot and I plant them in our backyard every year once Spring kicks in. So far 3 have survived. I’m thinking next year I may dig them up and use them instead of buying new ones. I’m just not sure how much stress they can handle from constant re-digging and re-planting. I guess we’ll see …

The metal angel came from my Mom (gotta love Christmas decor hand-me-downs). I spray painted her ivory this year because she never stood out enough (she was originally gold). I did a light layer using Rustoleum Ivory Silk so the gold still peeks through a little in some areas.

 

I’m happier with the way our front porch turned out this year than I’ve ever been. Most of the decor is the same as in years past, but I did mix things up just a little and it made such a difference.

I always throw a few Christmas pillows on my outdoor bench and call it a Christmas day. The burlap Merry pillow was a hand-me-down from my Mom. The small burlap pillow came from the Target Dollar Spot and the red pillow came from Kohls.

 

 

I created a little vignette with the wooden crate I used in my Fall decorating. I was going to move it back inside to the basement where it came from, but then I thought I could probably do something Christmas-y with it. I already had the ‘wish’ dish towel, the wreath, and the tree, so I just had to buy some large red ball ornaments – thanks Dollar Tree.

 

 

My snowman was Pinterest-inspired. Just take 3 grapevine wreaths of various sizes (Dollar Tree is a great place to look) and hang them in the shape of a snowman. Don’t you just love simple DIYs? I used some burlap ribbon and some jingle bells to create his scarf.

This Welcome sign was one of my very first Christmas decor purchases a very long time ago. I still love it as much as the day I bought it.

Since I have to take most of my plants and my hummingbird feeders in during the winter months, I like to hang some Christmas things from my plant hooks. It just looks too bare otherwise, you know kinda like the Japanese Maple without all his Christmas bling? All of these fun items came from Cost Plus World Market.

 

Even my metal rooster gets decked out. As well as our front door handle (and yes, all the jingling gets a lil’ annoying at times but I would have it no other way). And don’t you just love those penguins on the doormat???

 

Last but not least, I’ve always had candles IN the windows and wreaths ON the windows. I grew up with it and I just feel like there is nothing classier and more timeless. For several years I’ve had the same dark green wreaths with sparkly red bows but I stumbled across some flocking spray powder, as well as some beautiful burlap ribbon with red sparkles, for next to nothing after Christmas last year. So this year my wreaths took on a whole new look. Of course I didn’t take a close-up before the wreaths were hung because that just made too much sense. Here’s the best shot I could get without falling off the porch. I’m pretty sure my neighbors wonder about me sometimes …

 

And that wraps up the outdoor portion of my Holiday Home Tour. Hope you’ll join in next week as I bring you inside where it’s warm.

I also hope as you go through this week, which I’m sure is crazy busy and possibly crazy stressful for a lot of you, that you try to keep in mind what this time of year is really all about. It’s so easy to get caught-up in all the decorating and shopping and so on and so forth, but at the end of the day I like to remind myself that everything I already have is more than enough, and that there’s an actual meaning behind Christmas besides all this other stuff. I had to remind myself of this (several times) over the weekend so I thought I’d pass it on 🙂 Happy Monday!

Man, what a weekend! I can’t believe it’s Monday already … and I definitely have a case of them this morning. What is it with the Mondays anyway? It’s got to be totally mental, so I’d like to think I could overcome it, but I just can’t seem to. Anyone with me?

I had good intentions of getting this post up yesterday, but I had some really good shopping luck so I kept on keeping on in that area (way longer than I intended to), plus my son was behaving quite well so I took that as a sign to continue shopping since he was enjoying it so much. Then Netflix decided to release the last season of The Walking Dead yesterday (which I originally missed), so there was that. I attempted to blog during my TV watching, but quickly realized there is no working of any sort during The Walking Dead – way too intense.

Anyways, I finally got my hands on some pumpkins this past weekend which means I was able to complete my exterior Fall decorating. Yay! I feel like I kept things pretty simple on the outside, especially compared to some of those IG posts I’ve seen. Geez, maybe I’m shopping at the wrong places but those pumpkins and mums add up fast. I think I’d need a second job to mimic some of those displays.

I kind of hate to admit that we did not venture to an actual pumpkin patch this year – we did venture to Home Depot, Lowe’s and Pike Nurseries though (and then back to Home Depot again). Who knew buying pumpkins was such an ordeal? I thank God everyday for my husband’s patience.

The Front Porch

I had the most fun decorating this area and I’m quite happy with the way everything turned out. I usually don’t put pillows or any other decor on my chippy yellow bench, except at Christmas time, but I felt like it needed a little something that screamed Fall. I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with this crate display all on my own, using pumpkins, (fake) wheat and a dish towel! We had the crate in our basement storing all of our painting supplies, so I decided to use this rather than searching for one and spending more money – see how frugal I can be? Of course now all of our painting supplies are just laying on our basement floor, but that’s beside the point. My husband had to do a little spider/spider web removal because this chick here is beyond terrified of those things. Once all that was done, I just laid the crate on its side and went at it with the decorating. I kept it simple on the porch steps and just added a few pumpkins. Most of my plants are still looking good and some are even still flowering, so I couldn’t bring them inside just yet. This made it lighter on my wallet as well since I had less pumpkins to buy – always a plus 🙂

rosewood & pine cone wreath (Homegoods) / give thanks pillow (Target Dollar Spot) / black & burlap pumpkin (Target)

large psychedelic-looking heirloom pumpkin (Home Depot) / miniature pumpkins (Pike Nurseries) / fake wheat bundle (Target) / wish bone dish towel (Target)

A wreath hung by the exterior light rounded out the porch decor. I bought this wreath last year at Burlington Coat Factory after Thanksgiving and paid $10 for it. Those of you who buy wreaths know that’s a major steal!

I keep a large flower pot to the right of the porch steps year-round and change out the flowers with the seasons – it’s one of my favorite things to do because I just adore anything flower/garden related. For the Fall plantings, I did a mix of mums, kale, pansies & snapdragons. To the left of the porch steps, I added a purple mum to fall-ify the area.

The Mailbox

There’s not much to say here. I placed 2 pumpkins on the left side & a mum on the right side. I was a little more elaborate last year with a Chinese Lantern plant, several pumpkins, an enormous mum, and burlap & leaf garland around the mailbox post. Now that I planted a jasmine at the mailbox, it’s doing a pretty good job disguising as year-round garland. The Chinese Lantern plants are seriously so cool (look them up if you’re not familiar), but I decided simpler is better this year, plus I didn’t want to spend the extra $30.

The Back Patio

I kept the back patio pretty simple this year as well. I ended up with several rotting pumpkins and some dead flowers last year, so I didn’t want to get more than I could handle this time around. I’m starting to know my limits, slowly but surely.

Just like by the front porch, I keep a large flower pot on the back patio year-round and change out the flowers with each season. This pot is actually identical to the front flower pot with mums, kale, pansies & snapdragons. I added a mum and a fake pumpkin to finish off this little Fall scene.

I have another flower pot (which happens to be one of those whiskey barrel pots – so cool) out by our back patio that stays out year-round. I decided to do something different this year and surround a pumpkin with different cabbages/kales. I ended up buying 6 although I’m thinking I could have squeezed in 9, but I’m still digging the way it looks.

And that does it for our exterior Fall decor! Hope you enjoyed the mini tour of our yard and maybe even got some fun ideas for your decorating. ‘Til next time!

Yes, that’s right, it’s technically not even Fall yet and I have already redone the Fall decor inside my house. I realize that this probably isn’t normal, but I also realize that I have these two things I deal with on a daily basis called indecisiveness and perfectionism … and together they’re like a time bomb continuously ticking inside my head. I’m half kidding and I do realize there are much worse things, but I do feel like dealing with these two qualities on a constant basis is somewhat of a curse. Let’s just take a moment right now to thank God that I did not become an emergency room doctor – it’s pretty apparent that I’m not the best decision maker when time matters. Indecisive Perfection probably should have been the name of my blog rather than My House of Love. I may change it, so don’t go stealing it 🙂

I blame my “Fall Redo” on two things (besides myself) – Instagram & the Target Dollar Spot. I’ve always been a fan of the Dollar Tree for certain things, like wrapping supplies and cheap solutions to a creative dilemma, but I have not even set foot inside a Dollar Tree since the Target Dollar Spot became a thing. And I swear the stuff just keeps getting cuter and cuter and the selection keeps getting bigger and bigger. And of course it’s right at the front of the store. You can’t go into a Target for toothpaste without passing by it, so of course you’re going to stop, right? Anyways, I digress. Let’s talk about Instagram. Instagram is new for me; I’ve always been a Facebook fan, if you can call it that. I only created an Instagram account when I started this blog as a way of promoting my blog, but now I’m officially addicted. Facebook who? I follow some really creative and talented people on Instagram, and their ideas get inside my head and don’t leave until I do something about them. So I recently did, and now I’d like to share …

The Entryway Table (before) –

The Entryway Table (after) –

The changes –

I got rid of the mercury glass, my beloved Tuesday Morning wreath, and my metal bull. As much as I love mercury glass, the table wasn’t throwing off the vibe I wanted. It was a little too fancy for my liking, to be quite honest. And I was just tired of that wreath. The bull wasn’t really holiday decor to begin with, so he just got moved back to where he came from.

I replaced the mercury glass candles with a fabric pumpkin (Target) and chalkboard (Target Dollar Spot), and I replaced the wreath with an old mason jar filled with my cotton picks, my twigs, and fake leaves (Kroger). I also added the adorable felt pumpkin garland (Marshalls).

The Fireplace (before) –

The Fireplace (after) –

The changes –

The vase of dried garlic and twigs got moved from the mantle to the hearth. It was replaced by a Welcome sign (Target). Our fabric wedding birds got moved to another area in our house, and I decided to add a gold/white pumpkin (Target Dollar Spot), as well as another personal picture to the mantle.

The pumpkins that were in the Farmhouse Lotus Bowl got moved, which you’ll see later on in this post; every time I looked at that bowl, I thought I was looking at a bowl full of oranges. I opted to throw a few adorable pillows (Target Dollar Spot) in the bowl instead, because doesn’t everyone keep their pillows in a bowl? Mr. Turkey also got moved and you’ll see him later on. He was replaced by a couple more gold/white pumpkins (Target). The mason jar of twigs & cotton (which is now on my entryway table) got replaced by the vase of dried garlic & twigs.

As for the garland, I found this fun burlap banner (Target Dollar Spot) and just had to have it; of course I had no idea where I was going to put it but something told me I couldn’t live without it. It’s already fraying so I’m happy it came from the Dollar Spot and not a regular-priced Target aisle, but it’s still cute as long as you don’t look too closely. I’m kind of digging the double garland look, for now at least.

The Dining Room Table (before) –

The Dining Room Table (after) –

The changes – I added pine cones!

The Coffee Table (before) –

The Coffee Table (after) –

The changes –

I was not a fan of my Fall coffee table decor and I kept wondering why I felt the desire to even share it in my original Fall Home Tour post. I mean what was with the pine cones sticking out from the burlap? It looked like some kind of armor for the orchid. Needless to say, that exists no longer. My orchid is sitting happily on our kitchen table with no shield around it. And, better yet, I am finally happy with the coffee table centerpiece and it’s all thanks to the Target Dollar Spot. I found the burlap placemat and the little wooden crate during my last Target trip. Add a few small mason jars and some fresh-cut flowers, and there you have it. It may not be very Fall-like, but I don’t care. It took me a long time to get to this point in my life.

So that does it for the ‘changes’ I made, but now it’s time for the ‘additions’ (I’ll be quick I promise) …

The Dining Room Cabinet –

As much as I would love to Fall-ify (new word?) every single shelf in this cabinet, I will not do it. I found this adorable acorn garland (Target Dollar Spot) and thought it would add a nice Fall touch.

The Bar –

The bar felt very left out from all the Fall decorating, so I had to work a little magic to make it feel better. This is where those pumpkins originally in my Farmhouse Bowl ended up, but as you can see I decided to have a painting party and make 1/2 of them cream. I like the mix. I originally bought the wire storage basket (Target Dollar Spot) to store my scrap fabric in, but the pumpkins looked better.

Mr. Turkey got relocated to the bar as well. I found the wheat bundle at Target (yes it’s fake, which I kind of hate, but it’ll do for now). I placed the wheat in a blue mason jar which I already had, and I scoured our house until I found something else that would mix in well … a candle always works.

I’m seriously loving everything now and I’d be surprised myself if I make any more changes, but I’m not going to promise anything (I wouldn’t want to lie to you). I do promise, however, that if anything else does change, I won’t bore you with another ‘tour’ … unless it’s magazine-worthy 🙂
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the before vs. after (good or bad)!

Be sure to follow me on FB and IG to see behind-the-scenes pics of all the projects I get my hands onto throughout the week!

https://www.facebook.com/myhouseoflovely

https://instagram.com/myhouseof.love/

I’ll leave you with a sneak peak of our exterior Fall decor. I haven’t succumbed to buying pumpkins yet for fear that they’ll rot because it’s still a little hot out, but stay tuned for more!

… at least inside my house it is. With it still being in the 80’s and humid outside, and with the mosquitos still attacking and me still sweating, I can’t quite let myself pull out the boots, leggings & sweaters yet. Soon though, hopefully. Each year I always decide to wait until it actually feels like Fall outside before decorating the house, and I always regret that decision when Fall quickly comes to an end and it’s time to decorate for Christmas. Now don’t get me wrong, I love decorating for Christmas as much as the next person. I take that back; I’m pretty sure I love decorating for Christmas way more than the next person, but that’s beside the point. The point is that Fall is just way too short, at least down here in the south. So this year I’ve decided to decorate now rather than wait until it actually feels like Fall outside. I just don’t have the patience anymore. Besides, everyone I follow on Instagram is already doing it so it must be okay …

So with the day off from my real job, my husband working, and my 20-month old pretty good at entertaining himself when I need him to, I thought today would be the perfect day to get the house Fall-ready. Apparently my toddler did too. What should have taken me a little over an hour ended up taking about four hours. I’m beginning to second-guess my placement of certain items considering my toddler repeatedly rearranged some things and then had meltdowns when I messed his arrangements up. Who knows, maybe he has better taste than me. Maybe the pumpkins do look better underneath the coffee table and maybe the burlap garland does look better wrapped around the dog. Regardless, the inside of the house is finally decorated. I even learned a couple things from my morning/afternoon of decorating – (1) It’s close to, if not entirely, impossible to do anything productive with a toddler (how I don’t know this by now, I’m not really sure) and (2) I sure could use some more Fall stuff. I imagine Target might be seeing my face sometime this week. I don’t feel like I have a lot to show off, but here I go anyway – a little Fall tour if you will. The areas I’ll be showcasing are my entryway table, fireplace (mantle & hearth), and dining room table. Hope you enjoy!

The Entryway Table (Cost Plus World Market) –

I originally had the metal bull sitting on the table, but everything seemed a little too dark for my liking. I need my color so I switched out the bull for a wedding pic inside a turquoise frame. I’m hoping I made the right decision but now looking at the pictures I’m leaning back towards the bull … ugh, someone decide for me.

The decorations on this table cost next to nothing, which is always a plus.

Pine Cone Jars – I’ve saved a bunch of jars over the years, so I took two small ones and one larger one and filled them with pine cones – can’t get much simpler than that. I bought the pine cone picks at Michaels and just cut the ‘pick’ part off. Turn the jars upside down and there you have it.

Pumpkin – A Classy Flea (antiques & consignment shop). I actually found 2 of these & you’ll see the other one on the dining room table shortly.

Large Mercury Glass Candle – Kohls after Christmas a couple years ago. I believe I paid about $5 for it and it smells heavenly. I think mercury glass screams holidays in general … Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, who cares.

Small Mercury Glass Candles – Dollar Spot at Target – if you’re not familiar with this spot, you need to be. It’s the perfect place to find cute cheap decorations, wrapping supplies, etc. These were $3 each versus the ideal $1, but they smell like pumpkin butter and I’d pay a lot more than $3 for that smell any day.

Wreath – Tuesday Morning a long, long, long time ago.

Burlap – Michaels (hint – buy the really wide rolls of burlap ribbon and cut to the size you need … much easier & cheaper than trying to find actual table runners, etc)

Fireplace –

Yes we painted our brick, but trust me when I say it needed it. The previous owners had covered the beautiful brick with some sort of shiny finish and it was impossible to get off. We tried everything. So we painted it and we never looked back. Antique mantle – A Classy Flea /// Smith & Hawken fireplace screen – Target

Mercury Glass Pumpkin Candle Holders – Target

Dried Garlic Flowers – local farmers market (these make such a unique and beautiful addition to any vase)

White Porcelain Squirrel – Target

Fall-Colored Candle – Michaels

Wreath – handmade by yours truly. I simply bought a decently thick grapevine wreath, lace ribbon, & some stick-on flowers (all from Michaels). Cut lace to the length of your liking and wrap around wreath (glue as you’re wrapping). Glue on flowers. The end. I just love simple crafts.

Leaf Garland – Dollar Spot at Target ($3). Notice in the picture below how it’s actually glittery? I just flipped it around and let the backside show because I wanted the more rustic look.

Bowl O’ Pumpkins – Lotus Farmhouse Bowl from Painted Fox Treasures & 12-pack of pumpkins from Homegoods.

Turkey – probably my favorite Fall decor item ever. This delightful guy came from Urban Farmhouse in Milton, GA.

Cotton stems – Blue Ridge Cotton Company in Blue Ridge, GA.

Dining Room Table (JC Penny) –  

This is probably my favorite Fall decor vignette in our house. I just love the rustic natural feel it gives off, as well as all the different textures of the pumpkins. The vase (Pottery Barn), including the twigs, owls, and birds, stays on our table year-round except for Christmas, as do the salt/pepper shakers (Bed, Bath & Beyond) and the water pitcher (Target).

Orange Pumpkin – A Classy Flea (2nd one from the pair I found)

Bark Pumpkin / Twine Pumpkin / Owl Candle / Squirrel – Target (gosh they have cute stuff)

Pine Cone Jars – Just as simple as before. This time I left the lid off and tied some twine & eggplant ribbon around the neck of the jar, and I used actual pine cones from Michaels (versus the pine cone picks).

Wreath – handmade by yours truly. I simply bought a grapevine wreath from the Target Dollar Spot and used some of my leftover pine cones, as well as some twine. Cut twine to the length of your liking and wrap around wreath. Tie on pine cones with twine and glue for extra security.

Coffee Table –

I wasn’t even planning on including this and I’m actually pretty embarrassed to even share this with anyone at the moment, but I’ll go ahead and do it. I love and hate having a round coffee table. Such strong feelings towards a table, I know. It’s so hard, for me at least, to decorate it for any occasion and have it look good. But I love the way the table itself looks. I’ll probably be playing around with this some more because I’m pretty sure I’m not quite satisfied. All I did here was pull out my old Southern Living magazines from previous Fall months (decorating tip 101 – save your favorite magazines with seasonal covers – they make great decor. I do the same with our Garden & Gun magazines – see fireplace hearth pics above). I found this cool gold sphere thingy at Homegoods a couple weeks ago and I figured it works good for any season. Lastly I wrapped the flower pot in burlap and stuck some pine cone picks into the burlap to give it a bit of a Fall feel.

And we’re done, already (short tour I know). I’m thinking it will be a bit longer next year as I plan on hitting up the after season sales for some more Fall-inspired goodies to add to my collection. As for the outside of our house, I’m hoping I can find some real pumpkins and mums next weekend and get our outside decorated, so stay tuned 🙂