Wednesday, October 19, 2011

More Fall Decorating

Here are some additional photos of my preparations for the party recently. The first photo shows my el cheapo fake pumpkins in their "before" state.


As you can see, they were not much to look at. But, they were so cheap that I had no trouble experimenting with them. Here's an "after" picture:


I had lots of fun with metallic acrylic paint, glue and torn book pages. On a few, I broke off the stem and glued a vintage button in its place. Some of them turned out better than others, so I may have to play around a little more. I think my favorites are the ones covered with book pages.

The wire basket is new: I found it at Walmart. The tag attached to a gourd is one I made from a small shipping tag. Shipping tags are so much fun to use! They are so inexpensive and available at any office supply store. Just a little ink and some stamps completely transform them into something special.

Last, but not least, I love the way the front porch turned out. I was inspired by a friend's display on her porch. She has a bench and had placed plants, pumpkins, and gourds on and below the bench. While I don't have a bench, I knew the key would be to have a variety of colors and textures at different heights. Thrift stores to the rescue! I found a small, backless wooden bench and a metal pot stand to help out. I already had a small decorative chair that had been sitting on the porch all summer (can you guess where I got it???).

I went to my favorite local garden center (yay Gertens!) and picked up pumpkins, gourds and mums. Here are the results:




Saturday, October 15, 2011

Fall Decorating

There's nothing quite like a deadline to get me moving. Several weeks ago, I agreed to host a jewelry party in my home. This meant, of course, the obligatory cleaning of rooms nobody is going to see - just in case, you know!

It also meant that it was high time I decorated for fall. I don't have a lot of fall decorations, and they always seem a little pathetic to me. I decided that this year, I'd try to step it up a notch. If I were smart, I'd be thinking about this for a few weeks ahead, doing a little shopping here and there. But that's not the way we rock and roll around here. No, I did nothing until the week before the party, with the bulk of it left until the last couple of days.

During the week ahead, I started keeping my eyes open for things I could use. I did end up buying some things, but I was also able to utilize items from around my house. These pictures show what I did in my dining room.

I've got a metal corner stand with four shelves. One of these days I'm going to spray paint it black, but I didn't get that done this time. I left the top shelf the way it was and had fun arranging things on the other shelves. The next shelf down holds a yellow wire basket I bought a while ago at a thrift store. The cloth pumpkins were a craze I went through last fall. I added the "welcome" sign using Scrabble tiles.

The next shelf has some old and new items. The pumpkin at the back is a fake which I left as is. The pumpkin in the front is also fake; I glued torn strips from an old dictionary on it. The books are from a thrift store as is the nut grinder. The other things I've had for a while; they usually live somewhere else.


On the bottom shelf, I left the large yellow urn, but pushed it to the back. You can see more fake pumpkins and gourds in a wire basket I got at the dollar spot at Target. If you look closely, you can also see an old whisk broom peeking out - a recent thrift store find.

I've got some other pictures showing more about the fake pumpkins as well as the decorations in the kitchen and living room. For once, I'm quite happy with the way things turned out. And, best of all, now that the party is over I can enjoy these decorations for weeks to come!

Till next time...