Autumn Nesting

 The temperatures are falling, the leaves are gone, the geese are flying south, and I am in the nesting mode.  What is it about this time of year that just makes you want to cozy up the place?  Hmmm, maybe the fact that I actually saw snowflakes last week?  I have been fussing around the house a bit lately, trying to find new places for things I love and sadly, trying to get rid of some of my more vintagey pieces.  Seems everyone in my house breathes better when old musty things are not in our environment, sigh..... so I am trying to unload a few pieces on Craigslist (not yet, but soon),  but I am keeping a few of my favorite pieces like this huge tobacco basket that I recently relocated to our dining room.  I have a desire (once again) to simplify and reduce, so I am slowly going through the house and making some changes and moving things around.  Nesting is what I call it. 

 I snapped a few photos the other night (before daylight savings) while the gorgeous autumn sun was streaming through the house, it gave everything such a golden hue.  I have changed the foyer a bit by grouping mirrors from around the house.  It is kind of a small area, I love how the mirrors reflect the light. 

 I added Myah's little toy box that Uncle Charlie made and set the pillows that Mel made for me on top of it, giving us a space to sit and put our shoes on. 

 I love this sweet little cedar topiary, I snatched it up at a garage sale this summer for $2.  I put a little spanish moss on top ( I use that stuff all the time!)

 I also repurposed a frame and found a free printable on line of the vintage starfish. I am really trying to stick with very neutral colors lately, whites, blacks and taupes, so soothing.   The smaller picture came from the ladies at Violets Blue, it went perfectly with my starfish picture in the kitchen.  Am I the only one who hangs larger pictures above smaller ones, I just like that look, maybe I am weird or something!

 My summer of great garage sales landed me these gorgeous white pitchers,  decorating on a dime for sure!  I lined them up tallest to shortest on top of my kitchen cabinets.

 And I cleaned out my kitchen cupboards, seems like everything just got shoved in here over the summer, it was time for a good scrubbing and relocating.  This is the before:

 And the after: Much better, now I even have room for my cookbooks.  I love that I inherited the same cookbook from both of my grandmothers.  See the hot cocoa,. part of my warming up plan around here, from the inside out!!!

 I love having a sparkling kitchen, I am obsessed with keeping things clean and organized in there, it is a small space with not alot of storage at all so keeping it tidy is key.  Last year when my Grandmother passed away she left each of us grandkids a little $$, we just so happened to need a new sink, faucet and disposal so that is where our money went.  Grandma always did the dishes or had a sink full of water soaking them, it so reminds me of her whenever I use it. I had a hard time keeping it sparkling, it is cast iron and I was afraid it was getting ruined.  And then I discovered (scroll down)

 This, and it brought my sink back to her pretty young self again!  I had to find it online but it is so worth it!

 And I am determined to broaden my menu around her, my sweetie bought this for me the other day, maybe he is sick of the menu too!  I love her books and this one is awesome, I can't wait to try her recipes!

I have been so crazy busy lately, taking photos, editing photos, shift changes for hubby, dr appts for the family etc. etc.  that I forgot to post a photo of my little Tinkerbell on Halloween, she was so stinkin cute in her little platinum blonde wig!   We had so much fun around here!!  I am so not ready for the holidays to be here, I am trying to get motivated, I am keeping things very simple this year, we are focusing on our many blessings and just taking in all the wonder of the season.  It has been an exhausting, dramatic year, I am hoping that these last few months of 2010 will give us the opportunity to spend some special time with great family and friends. 

The Old Country Church

Ever since I can remember I have had  a love of old churches and cemetaries. The other day I was driving to a photo shoot for a very special family and I took the back roads.  On the way there I passed this church, I have seen it several times and each time I think I need to stop and take a few photos but I am usually in the car with my family who is anxious to get back home.  Not this day though, I was alone.  I had just left my friends home when I passed this church again, this time I stopped. No one was around.  The sun was so warm and bright, it just lit up the gorgeous oak trees like someone had turned on a switch. 

On the church grounds there is a small old cemetary.  My grandparents lived across the street from a cemetary and I grew up riding bikes and taking walks through there (they now rest there themselves), so I have never been afraid of cemetaries, I find them peaceful actually. 

I took this photo through the window, the sun was shining so pretty through the curtains, making them almost transparent. 

When I was a little girl my Dad used to turn on "The Old Country Church " and sing it with us, it was one of his favorite gospel songs.  This little church brought back so many warm memories, I am so thankful that I finally took the time to stop. 

Expect the Unexpected

Unexpected:  Coming without warning; unforeseen  definition from American Heritage Dictionary

Unexpected.  Another word for surprise, I really dislike surprises. However I do like things that are unexpected. Most of the time.  I especially like them when it is something like a gorgeous sunflower field in full bloom on your way to a birthday party and your little girl is dressed in her cute little house on the prairie dress.  And she is a willing participant.  I just let her be as the cars were whizzing by us.  I LOVE sunflowers, I wish I could have them in my home every day, I was so excited when we just drove up on this beautiful field of sunshine on a gloomy day.  They all had their own personality, some were droopy like they were pouting, it was kind of comical. 

What a treasure to find alongside a busy road.  Somewhere that I would have never expected it to be.

Of course my little one loved running in the fields, she also loved the mint in her mouth!

What a sight,  sunflowers as far as I could see, it was like they were bowing their heads down to me as to say "hello your majesty!"

Sweet sweet child, skipping in the sunflowers

I took this one from inside my car window, I just happened to look behind me and there was this barn.  Unexpectedly.

So many things are coming at me so fast lately, I am trying to stay organized and prepared, just to keep up in case anything unexpected comes up.  And it did.  And right around that time, when I was dealing with something I prayed I never had to, I found this in my garden.  Several of them.  I knew I had not planted them there, how did they get there?  What are they???  Then one day Myah happened to be standing nearby when I was admiring the new growth, she said, "oh,momma, I planted them, me and Annabelle, she dug the dirt and planted the seed and I watered them."  How precious!!! It really caught me speechless.  She was so proud.  And would you believe the other day we finally got a glimpse of what type of crop she was growing. 

Get this......

My favorite tiny white gourd pumpkins!  God has a way of sending the unexpected our way just when we need it the most. 
As I type this I am listening to the Mr. talk to a nurse, she is on the phone getting the information she needs for Dayton's surgery tomorrow morning.  Unexpectedly, we went to the surgeons  office on Friday and she wants the plate and screws out, something is causing an infection of some sort and he has a golf ball sized lump on the lower part of his scar.  So here we go again.  I would appreciate any prayers you can send his way.  If there is anything I know for certain it is to expect the unexpected.

Warming Up To Fall

I put my sweet velvet pumpkin inside a tiny little birds nest that I found in one of my ferns on the porch! Thank you little birdie!!!

I am just not ready to hang up my flip flops just yet, I am going to squeeze as much as I can out of our crummy summer.  However, today is the first day that my kiddos are both in school full time and I am feeling the nesting instinct coming on again.  Maybe it is the cooler nights that are making me feel the need to warm things up a bit.  Can I just say I love my Ikea furniture, many of you have asked how I like it and so far so good.  I still want to purchase an ottoman but that will come when I get some more $$.  I am not about to put away all of my shells and beachy stuff, that is just who we are so I have to work around it, besides, staring at those things is what gets me through our long upcoming winter months, yuk!!!  I have picked up a few pieces at late season yard sales and decided to put them in the family room to make it a bit warmer and fall-ish.  I used to go all out decorating for fall, I just have not had the extra time or energy over the past few seasons so I put out just bits and pieces here and there.  I ordered the cutest, tiniest little velvet pumkin, boy are those hard to find, it is just so sweet and the perfect little accent piece. 

I wish you had smell-o-internet because my house smells so wonderful right now, my hubby is making a batch of home-made chocolate chip cookies for the kiddos when they get home!  I know the kids will be hungry and tired when they get home today, I hope they find comfort in the small changes that I made, warm candles, cozy throws and fresh cookies, I can't wait to hear about their day!  P.S. If you are stopping by from The Lettered Cottage, feel free to look in my archives, most of my home is furnished by purchases from yard sales!!!

I took the nasty blinds down and left just a light cotton panel from Ikea filter the light for us. We really don't need the privacy on this side of the house anyhow.  I still love my $5 dresser that is now our entertainment center!

A few yard sale items that were just too cheap to pass up, the cute little matching tables are made of metal and rattan, they were a dollar a piece at a barn sale!  And the cool large door was $5, I brought up my little walnut colored table to bring some warmth into the space as well, and I added a rug that I stole from my bathroom.

This sale had llamas staring at me while I shopped!  Too funny! I could not let them distract me from my $2 tables!

I wish this magazine was still in print, I saved every copy that I had. It has provided me with some great inspiration, it is much easier to organize when the kiddoes are not around the house!

I love the warmth that this rug gave the room. It has been moved all around my house!

Such a cool old door, Ijust propped it up for some height in the room.

I even changed the top of my hutch in the kitchen, I used my green dollar screen, I just flipped it around to show the brown side.  I was able to fill my little white cupboard with all kinds of yard sale finds this year, lots of ironstone to love!

It won't be long and the view out of my window will be gorgeous red and orange maple leaves!

Another view, I love not having the blinds on the windows! The cute little bench/footstool was a $3 find along with the pail! 

I am still not giving up on summer!!!

Pumpkin Facelift

If you are a reader of my family blog at Myah's Days you already know that I had a bad week last week. Long story short, my hubby's car broke down just out of the blue, it needs a new engine of all things! So I was without wheels for a few days and let me tell you, I get a little stir crazy when I know I can't go anywhere. I am perfectly fine staying home all day in my sweats when I know I have a car in the garage and I know I can jump in a go someplace anytime I want. But just knowing that I didn't even have that option kind of freaked me out! Believe me I have plenty to do around here to keep me busy, but I decided to tackle a few projects that have been in the back of my mind for a while. Nothing major just little things that add up. First of all I made myself a ragamuffin garland like the Nester makes. I had extra scraps of material and ribbon laying around and at my sister's garage sale a few weeks ago she had lots of scrap material for sale so I snatched up the pieces that would go in my garland. It is not finished yet, I need to get some drapery clips and hang some cute doo dads from it, but I love it!

I also had some pumpkins in the basement that I had bought for a dollar at a garage sale earlier in the year. They were the fake kind that you find at the craft stores. I really wanted some white/creamy pumpkins to put above my kitchen cupboards, I remembered that these were downstairs so I got out my craftpaints made a "custom" color, and painted them. I love how they turned out! It was a 15 mintue project! Even better! I also cleaned out my craft cupboard and sorted all of my scrapbook papers, embellishments, and supplies, I got rid of anything and everything that I will never use.

I also went to the new HG's yesterday. Wow, what a beautiful store. It is brand new, building and all, I have been to quite a few HG's in my day and this is my favorite by far, and it is so close! I went with my neighbor and we could not believe the crowd. It was insane! I was amazed at how many men were there with their ladies. Brave souls! I bought Mark a new spice rack, he has been eyeing them for a while, he loved it and put it to use last night with some steaks on the grill. The new HG's gets 2 thumbs up from me!!