Bringing Fall Indoors

I received a few emails asking about how we decorate for fall. Honestly we don't do a whole lot. I think my fall decorating philosophy would be keep it simple, keep it cozy. I don't really want to bring in fake garlands of leaves, and plastic pumpkins, we like to keep it low key and warm!
With that being said there are some things that we change, and add to make our rooms feel more "Fall".

We add fur! I love a good faux fur throw! We usually place a large throw at the bottom of the chaise

and drape a smaller faux sheep skin over one of the chairs.

Nothing too crazy, you want it to look cozy not like the inside of a hunters lodge!

 

Something about Fall puts me in a reading mood. I know people talk about lounging by the pool in the summer with the latest best seller, but for me Fall is the season for reading.

 Roaring Fire, Hot cup of Tea, Great Book, I'm set! 

I wrote all about out new flannel bed in our Fit for Fall post last week! But for me Fall and Flannel go together like peanut butter and jelly, like spaghetti and Meatballs, like Oprah and making people cry!

 And a little plaid is always welcome in fall! 

 Fall is the time to get into the kitchen! After of summer of cooking outside and chopping up salads, Fall is the time to get back into the kitchen and whip up some good old fashioned comfort food!

This is our Vegetarian Chili Recipe (YUM) you can find the recipe here!

There is something so homey about a chess board! I don't have any fond childhood memories of Chess! I think the first time I played chess was on the computer! But I love a game of chess, Lee always beats me but I still love to play! 

 Having a chess set out makes it much more likely you'll play it, and just looks cozy and welcoming to me! 

Wood! Thick wood candle pillars, wood bowls, woven baskets! Anything in a wood tone! Even a jute rug seems to have a fall feel to it! 

So take the tablecloth off your wood table and let it go naked! Wood is in for Fall! ;) 

Flowers are a must any season, but make sure that they're fall flowers because nothing looks weirder than tulips in a vase, in October! 

These were my pick me up flowers from Lee last Friday! For those who were wondering the vase is from a local second hand store! It's actually a cookie jar!

Apples are hands down my favorite/go-to fall decor item! I have always used bowls of apples as fall decoration! Apples come in the perfect shades of red, yellow and orange for fall! 

 or

You could also use pears or some other fall fruit! A bowl of nuts also looks very seasonal! I like the idea of using something you would already have or use (like food) as decoration, then you can admire it for a few days, and when you're done looking at it you can eat it! Winner Winner Chicken Dinner (or apple dinner as it were)! 

Like I said, nothing too crazy! We like to decorate for Halloween so our "Fall Decorating" usually involves a dismembered body or two! ;) 

If you're looking for some more fall action . . . Check out some of our older posts on Fall from our Archive!!!

Fall Flowers

We're gearing up for our Fall Decor post on Monday. Today I just have a very lovely bunch of fall flowers Lee brought home from work earlier this week. We've been looking for a second car for a few months now and we have had NO LUCK. I was getting a bit frustrated, anything over 300,000km is not what I consider "low mileage", and if your car smells like you've been hot boxing cigarette smoke for the last 5 years it's not in Immaculate condition. And last, the sentence "No Accidents . . . claimed" is just plain worrisome! Phew I'm glad I got all of that off of my chest! So if you have an abundance of car hunting luck, send a little my way!
Lee could sense my frustration, I've been more than a little grumpy being stuck at home with no car. He brought home some Beautiful Yellow Sunflowers to cheer me up!

We're suspending our car  hunting this weekend for Canadian THANKSGIVING! Gobble Gobble! This year it's my sister's turn, so we'll be heading over there for dinner! But in case you're looking for some thanksgiving ideas check out our posts under Holiday!!

More Fall Touches

After our Bedroom post on Monday, I received a few emails asking about what we do to make the rest of the house feel like fall. I thought I would write a whole post on it, pulling photos and inspiration from some of our archives. That post will be ready first thing Monday morning but I thought I'd serve up a couple teasers! My number #1 Fall decorating tip is LAYER!

 Layer Pillows:

Layer Throws:

Layer Everything . . .  Layer your hair, make a lasagna so you can layer ingredients.
Heck, I want another Yorkie just so I can layer it on top of Max just for Fall! ;) just kidding.
Lee brought home some fabulous fall flowers today, I can't wait to share them tomorrow!

A bedroom fit for Fall

 We might be on Flannel overload! My favorite season is Fall. The cooler weather, the crisp air . . . the pumpkin spice lattes :). I especially love fall colors and textures. Adding all the layering and cozy fabrics is my idea of "home".

I started in the bedroom! I love flannel! It might not be the most luxurious of fabrics but I love it!
We've always switched over to flannel sheets for the fall or winter months, but we've never had a bed FULL of flannel before. By full of flannel I mean, sheets, pillow cases, duvet cover, euro shams the whole she-bang.

This idea was easier said than done. Finding a reasonably priced flannel duvet cover was next to impossible. I didn't say a flannel duvet cover . . . I said a reasonably priced flannel duvet cover! And just to be clear I don't consider anything over $150 in flannel to be reasonable! :)

I ended up finding $25 flannel sheets at target (that's $25 for any size, so with our king sized bed I felt like I was getting an extra good deal). They were a little more . . . let's say "MANLY" then I thought I would like.

But somehow the Big Bold Plaid appealed to the Fall Lover in myself . . . and you know Lee loves it! So we went with PLAID!

Since target didn't sell it in a duvet cover I had an idea. What is a duvet cover but two flat sheets sewn together? So I picked up two sets of sheets, at $25 each that would total $50 for a flannel duvet cover, 4 pillow cases, a spare fitted sheet and enough fabric to make 3 euro shams! All for $50! And seriously, if you can sew a moderately straight line, you can make a duvet cover!

 And an envelope slip cover for your chair ;).

I'm not going to lie . . . it is seriously cozy up in here!! ;) 

Natural Lawn Care

We're a bit behind on our fall chores. Fall is the perfect time to re-seed your lawn, I always thought that you only seeded your lawn once and then it was a lawn and you wouldn't have to do it again . . . ever. I was wrong.
Since we are trying to keep our lawn 100% natural and organic, weed control can be a bit of a problem. The best way to naturally keep weeds at bay is to make a lush full lawn. If there is tons of grass growing then the weeds have less room to grow.
So here's the process:

1.   De-thatch your lawn. I didn't know what thatch was but the best way to describe it would be the dead layer of grass between your blades of grass. You might not have any thatch, but we had a fair amount. A good way to tell is, if you walk on the grass and it's very soggy, kind of like carpet would be if you soaked it, then you probably have some thatch. You'll want to remove it before you seed so that your seeds can hit the soil and grow, otherwise a lot of your seeds would just sit on top of dead grass and not grow.
- To de-thatch your lawn you'll need a thatch rake,

and tons of muscles (mainly back and butt muscles): (p.s. check out my sweet yoga pants tucked into argyle rubber boots . . . hold on Vogue is calling)

2.    Dispense seed over lawn. Our lawn gives new meaning to the word postage stamp, seriously if a small yard is a postage stamp then our yard is Elvis's hair on an Elvis postage stamp (otherwise known as a really really small yard) so we didn't need a special seed dispenser, Lee just did it by hand. If you had a large area to do, it might make more sense you use a dispenser for a more even coating.

3.    Grab some beautiful compost (from your compost bin) or from the store :) and spread it around your lawn, it helps the seeds get started, it's also like a mini feeding of fertilizer for you lawn.

4.     Sit back and admire what a mess you just made of your lawn and how it looked so much better before you started the process!
It's true it will look a little thin (kind of like your husband looked in his late 20's (or at least my husband :) you know, still has most of his hair, but it's becoming clear that won't be the case forever . . . that level of thin )
And yes, a thin layer of dirt on your lawn kind of makes it look like you have large burrowing animals. But the compost eventually disintegrates into the earth and the seeds start to sprout and come Spring you'll have fewer weeds to pull and you'll have more time to contemplate your husbands hair line :) hehe Just kidding!

In Summary:
De-thatch your lawn with a thatch rake Less than $30 at Home Depot
Seed your lawn
Sprinkle compost on lawn
Think about husbands hair (optional)
Pull fewer weeds in Spring.
DONE!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

I'll be organizing kitchen cupboards and whipping up a How To: Slipcover a round ottoman post.

Lee will be making some progress on the barn door for the dining room, and doing something to the engine of his car, only one of which will be making it into next week's post . . . Let's hope he makes some good progress on the door, or we'll all get to learn where spark plugs live :) haha

Halloween Baking!

A Halloween classic around our house would be Witch Finger Cookies, they're super easy to make and a holiday favorite of Lee's.

Here's the Recipe:

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup icing sugar
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla cubububdkdjfgoe
2 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup whole blanched almonds
1 1tube (19 g) tube (19 g)red decorator gel, (blood for fingers)

In bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla; beat in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. (I'm not going to lie I totally didn't refrigerate the dough :)

Press almond firmly into end for nail. Squeeze in centre to create knuckle shape; using paring knife, make slashes in several places to form knuckle.

Place on lightly greased baking sheets; bake in 325°F (160°C) oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until pale golden. Let cool for 3 minutes. Apply nail blood with  red decorator gel. Remove from baking sheets; let cool on racks. Repeat with remaining dough.

And it wouldn't be a holiday around here without cupcakes!
Devils food cupcakes with vanilla icing, and chocolate sprinkles!!

Have a great weekend!!!! We'll be working on the Barn Door, around here, hopefully it will get completed and we can move on to the hardware part of the project, with any luck . . . and no more illness . . . we could have a new door this November!!!

PUMPKINS

It seems like everyone in my family has artistic talent except for me, my sister is an amazing oil painter, my mom is a great water color artist, and my husband is a fabulous pumpkin carver. If it were up to me the pumpkin would have two triangle eyes and a triangle nose :)

Here's this years pumpkin during the day:

and at NIGHT!!!

and here's his MAX pumpkin:

Halloween Part 3 of 3 Outside

Thanks to a terrible cold Lee caught this weekend, our front yard might escape the addition of fake blood and guts. Lee was suppose to add his "special" touches to the Halloween decor but came down with a HUGE fever this weekend. He's still feeling under the weather, so the cut up bodies might have to wait until next year (Darn :) But before he got sick he did manage to add a bunch of skeletons:
There's skeletons on the posts:

There are skeletons in the grass

Is it just me or does this one look like it's having a baby??

A couple of severed appendages,

and a random sprinkling of skulls (yup . . . I just said "a random sprinkling of skulls!" and they say T.V. is getting too gruesome ? ? ? pfffff . . . )

Lee added Green lights at night. Along with a smog machine for Halloween night. It's turning out to be quite the party on our street there's going to be a DJ and two haunted houses, Tim Horton's in coming to hand out hot chocolate and we've been told to expect around 1000 kids (seriously . . . . 1000) So if you come by the house and our lights are out, it means we've run out of Candy :).

Make sure to check back this afternoon for our pumpkin photos! I thought this post had enough pictures in it!! :)

Halloween Part 2 of 3

We're almost done with the Outside Decorations for Halloween, but I thought Max would like to get in on the Halloween Action too.
I'm far too nice of a puppy mommy to dress him up as a hot dog or giant pumpkin, so I pulled out his little Halloween sweater. And maybe it's a case of my kid's the cutest but I think he's adorable!!

I also grabbed a shot of Max out front by the mums.

And maybe just one more for the road!