fall around the house and my mantel 2.0

Fall is my very favorite season. I always feel shortchanged here in Utah though, because it seems like we go from summer to winter pretty fast. For example, we're still in the mid 80's around here. I'm hoping it doesn't go from 80 to snowing too quick, I love the crisp cool air and the pretty fall leaves. I'm always in a hurry for fall to arrive and always wishing it would stay just a little longer. I'm a little behind putting my stuff out this year, but I did manage to get the first wave of it this week, and I'll be adding to it as the month goes on.

I've added the first of fall to the front door and porch. A new fall wreath and the first of many pumpkins.

Because I'm a crazy person I've already changed the mantel stuff that I just put up a week ago. It still needs a few things, like some twigs or branches or something... I'm working on it, but here it is for now.
I found another lantern-like candle holder, took the clock down, it was driving me crazy there. I felt like it was just dominating every thing else on the mantel.
This candle reminds me of candy corns, Nothing says fall like candy corns, although I don't like to eat them, they make me kind of sick, but they're fun to look at!
Probably my most favorite fall decoration right now though, is this little picture my 3 year old painted at preschool and brought home for me. He was so excited to hang it on the fridge!

I'm linking up:
Hooked on Houses fall decor party
Nesting Place fall mantel party

salvaging a mirror

We did a bathroom renovation in our last house, and removing this sheet mirror was a task. It got all chipped and broken in the corners, but was in good shape everywhere else. Because of it's size I really wanted to see if I could salvage it. And it kind of made me sick to think of tossing it into a landfill.

So I found some chunky MDF molding that I really love and gave it a try.



My hubby cut a piece of plywood that was just smaller than the mirror and we used epoxy to stick them together (for the purpose of having a good stable surface for mounting it to the wall). We then made measured and made miter cuts to frame the mirror with the trims. Once they were all matching up just right, we used gorilla glue to stick them to the mirror. I used heavy cans of tomatoes and other home canned veggies to hold it all in place on our picnic table while it dried overnight.

The next day I masked it off and spray painted it a nice soft white.


The last step was hanging it. We used D rings and hooks rated at 40 pounds each, just to be on the safe side.


I'm happy to say it actually worked, and the total cost to us was about $15! I don't know if I could have found a deal like that anyway, but it makes me happy that we gave something broken a new life.

thinking about painting?

Be sure to check out the sherwin williams 40% off paint sale! I know where I'll be headed tomorrow! And maybe we'll get the 12 squares of different paint colors off the family room and entry way walls... if I can hurry up and make a decision!

happy fall!

I've been hard at work, plugging away with my house projects and my business, and of course enjoying lots of fun family time, so blogging kind of gets pushed aside, but it was a nice little break, and now I'm back and ready to show some of the thing's I've been up to over the last few weeks!

And now that today is officially the first day of fall....

A new fall mantle is in order!
The stars this time are an image I took of my boys last fall:
an Ikea lantern I picked up for $9.99
FALL blocks that I bought on clearance a few years ago, but lost in our move last fall and finally found again thanks to basement finishing, aka box shuffling going on downstairs!


And as always, the Kodak Brownie from my Grandpa has to find a place in the line up, I would be sad if it wasn't somewhere visible, and it doesn't get much more visible than on the ol' mantle.

Fall is my very most favoritest season of all, so I say "Welcome back, Fall, Welcome back."

In honor of the occasion, I present to you, my most favorite pumpkin ideas I've collected over the past year or so from the web.

Ahh!! I LOVE ME SOME PUMPKINS!! I can't wait to get fall-ifying!

I'm sorry, I have no credits, these images mostly came from Good Housekeeping and Better Homes and Gardens, by the way, did anyone get a load of the October cover???
Um, you betcha I'll be trying that one!

I wish fall would last longer! You barely get to enjoy it and then BAM! There comes the cold and snow to ruin all the fun!

all over the globe(s)

I literally skipped from the mailbox the other day. I was giddy when I opened it to find that POTTERY BARN had finally come! The fall PB kids and PB teen catalogs had been delivered! I immediately started thumbing through. A few pages jumped right out at me:



How perfect is that?? I love this room! I think I want to add some hanging globes to the big boys room now, and what kid wouldn't love a playroom all filled with fun colorful globes hanging from the ceiling. But what I love most is the color. Look at all of that color, and with the warm wood tones and subtle pops of red. LOVE!

I guess I have a thing for globes...

I've had a lot of email requests for my color advice lately. So I've really had to think about how to describe my color style and what I'm going for in our home. The best way I can describe it is lots of white woodwork and trims, with blues, greens, grays and earth tones in broad strokes with pops of bold colors like reds, yellows, browns, oranges. We had a red wall in our first house and I felt like it suffocated me. I LOVE red, I just like well placed small amounts of it. It's just a personal preference thing, but I've noticed I can handle just about any amount of blue or green and it makes me feel calm and serene, and it's just what soothes me, but it definitely benefits from red, yellow and orange to wake it up a bit and make it fun. What I tell people is to collect pictures of rooms and ideas you love, and look at them all together and decide if they contain any similar colors and styles. You'll see what you gravitate toward and quickly get a good idea of what your style is. When it's time to paint or make furniture purchases, you'll already have an idea of where you should start.

I guess my color preferences are a lot like a globe or a map, blues, greens, grays, earthtones in broad strokes, pops of brighter, bolder colors... maybe that's why I like them so much.

A globe or map can look great in any room. How about a kitchen?


Yep! I love this creative placement of globes. I never would have thought to put them in the kitchen, but they look so good there!
(image via the pleated poppy.)

All of this thinking about maps and globes reminded me of something I saw a while back.
(image via censational girl)

And I decided our basement is going to look great with a HUGE map like that one. Of course I'll put my own spin on the whole thing, but I am so inspired by this room. We're moving our brown leather couches down there as well... tell me you can see it!

Speaking of the basement, something really great has happened down there over the past two weeks...

DRYWALL is now DONE!!!

We are so excited about the progress down there! I'm starting to see it in my head and it's going to be great! We wondered if we would ever make it, we're kind of tired of being in construction mode forever... we just finished our last basement a little over a year ago, just to sell the home and start over, but oh well. We learned a lot the first time around, so this one will be even better.
(see our last basement here)

I think one of the best decisions we made was to open up the stairs, here they are in the framing phase, before the wall came down:
Huge difference, I say.

We still need to do some work on the stairs, the balusters for one, but paint, trims and doors are up next! I can't wait to add an extra family room, 2 bedrooms, an office, a storage room, a play house, and several closets! It's going to be like a whole new house! And I can't wait to put a little of the world down there via map mural, because we're all over the globes (and maps)!