Ever Autumn

Remember the little summery pots I showed here? There are actually four, and they were 25 cents each at Target. I painted them, used my Cricut to cut numbers out of cardstock for them, and filled them with some fake boxwood greenery.

Well, after visiting Jhenna's blog, I decided they needed to change for the season!

I visited Dollar Tree and came home with three sprigs of fall leaves and some floral foam.



See how good I am at cutting the floral foam. Each piece fits perfectly! (not!)

I cut apart the leaves and divided them among the pots. I should have purchased at least one more, probably two sprigs. I gave up on filling the fourth pot! But I know where to get more leaves!
I think they turned out pretty cute!
This is definitely what my table needs. So much nicer that school papers, Harry Potter books, toys, lotions, etc. etc.!


I have mentioned before that my house is pretty much always Autumn-inspired! Here's a glimpse of what I mean!


My walls in my living room hold my favorite artwork...

...and it's all Autumn-related! The painting (above-left) was painted by my very talented older sister. I stole it out of my parents house about a dozen years ago. The preserved leaves on the right is one of my past Swiss Days purchases. (More about my love affair with Swiss Days here.)

This is my favorite set of leaves, and the first one I ever bought. The people who made these beautiful arrangements weren't at Swiss Days this year...I was so sad.

The leaf on the left is from the same people. On the right is a photograph (also a Swiss Days purchase), and the preserved leaves next to that were a Craigslist purchase that my sister-in-law re-matted and framed for me.

Hmm...now that I think about it, is my living room an Ode to Autumn?? Or an Ode to Swiss Days??

The gourds are from Swiss Days too!

Linking to the DIY Fall Festival.

Fall Vignettes

"Vignettes." Isn't that just the most marvelous word? I don't think I've ever said it out loud...but it sounds good in my head. I feel very Anne-of-Green-Gables-ish when I say it.

Vignettes. Vignettes. Vignettes!

OK, I'm done now.

I have a shocking confession to make. I don't do Halloween. I don't do spooky. My kids can dress up and go trick-or-treating and all that, but I don't choose to decorate with skeletons or shrunken heads or disembodied hands. I'm quirky like that!

But I do love Fall with a deep and abiding passion! I already showed you some of my Fall favorites here and here. Here are the rest of my Fall favorites.

My bookshelf gets a little Autumn color on the top. I think that is because I finished these shelves last Fall, and they looked a little bare--so I splurged on some garland. It was a new thing for me to decorate for anything but Christmas...and now I CAN'T STOP!!


I showed these scales in a previous post. I sold the one in the case, and just kept the two I love. And yes, I know it's not Thanksgiving yet--but "Give Thanks" are surely words to live by in any season!
I had to go to Hobby Lobby to find some flowers to fill my little urn.


The candle holders are a new addition. The one on the right used to be white--it's now ORB. The one on the left used to be two candleholders (brown). I flipped one upside down and glued it to the other one, and now I have one TALL candleholder! (Or pumpkin holder, if you want to be persnickety about things.)


Here's my little entry table again. There are pinecones and a knitted pumpkin in the basket, and one more...


...yes, I jumped on the silver pumpkin bandwagon! Oh, Pottery Barn, how we love thee! I bought a few inexpensive foam pumpkins and Hobby Lobby, and sprayed them silver. Why are they so appealing? My theory is they make us feel Cinderella-ish!

Cinderella-ish?

Anne-of-Green-Gables-ish??

OK, I'm lousy at making up my own words! I'll go back to chanting Vignettes softly to myself...

Happy Fall, everyone!!



Linking up to the DIY Fall Festival!

Dressing table to Entry table

A couple of weeks ago I hit the most marvelous garage sale--one of those I wasn't even looking for, but just happened upon. This is one of the treasures I found.


This little dressing table was dirty beyond belief; it had dark circles on the top, the pretty trimming on the left side was loose, there was veneer loose.... and on it went. It didn't matter; for $10 I was hooked! In the pictures you're seeing, it actually has been cleaned up quite a bit. This thing had spiderwebs everywhere--including behind the pulls! Ugh!!

After lots of sanding, glue, and patience, I got it in pretty decent condition. There were still spots where the veneer was kind of "flaky." My best guess it that this little table sat outside for a considerable amount of time.


I decided to go with classic black for this piece. Here on the left side is where the veneer was the worst. Rather than try to disguise it, I roughed it up a bit more than usual with sandpaper to accentuate all that "natural" distressing!



Here's the big picture. Although it's certainly not in perfect condition, it has a charm all it's own. It could serve as a desk, but one would have to have a pretty small chair to fit underneath of it. I think those old dressing tables almost always had a bench instead. I think it would make a much better entry table.

It found a new owner today...the funny thing is that I think the new owner is going to paint over it! Apparently she couldn't resist those lovely curves any more than I could!

Finally, more furniture!

I feel as if I have been having withdrawal pains...homeschooling has been VERY hard on my furniture refinishing! But I finished this cute little project this week, and that makes me feel better. This was a custom job for a sweet neighbor of mine. She wanted a cute desk to go in her daughter's bedroom, and wouldn't you know it...I happened to have one in my garage!

Of course, it wasn't that cute to begin with...

The top had definitely seen better days. And the hardware...bleeahhh.

But there was no denying it had cute details! I love the trim between the drawers, the pretty curved front, and the chunky turned legs.

Now the desk has been painted a high-gloss white. That did not turn out to be my favorite paint! It required *12 hours* between coats.

The glossier the paint, the more imperfections show up. I put two coats on it, but there were still too many flaws. I re-sanded it, re-primed it, and re-painted it. There's really nothing to do about it in the end--it's always going to be an old desk! But it looks much better now.


The hardware was all replaced to match another piece of furniture in the bedroom (you can catch a glimpse on the right, above). I love the pretty brushed silver handles. However, the holes definitely did NOT match up! Thank goodness for wood filler!


By now I'm sure it's full of crayons, coloring books, and other paraphernalia. My friend tells me her daughter loves it. She calls it her "homework!"

New treasures

I celebrated my birthday a couple of weeks ago, at the end of August. Every year my husband asks, "What do you want?" Every year I reply, "Money for Swiss Days!" It's the best kind of tradition! What is Swiss Days, you ask?? Only the biggest and best craft show/market in Utah! It happens every year on the Friday & Saturday of Labor Day weekend, in beautiful Midway Utah.

This year I got to go with my 13-year-old daughter and my sister. My sister and I both fell in love with these preserved gourds. I understand it is a long, nasty process to get them this way!

I love the warty yellow one!

I moved the platter that was on top of my bookshelves (seen here) onto my buffet to hold the gourds. Do you see the pretty "B" hanging on my old mirror? That is one of Miss Mustard Seed's creations! I fell in love with her German-glass-glittered letters from her Luckett's booth, and she was kind enough to send some to Utah for me!




Here is my whole "buffet-scape." The tall candleholder on the left used to be black. I bought it at a wonderful local consignment store, after admiring its texture and heft (seriously, it could be a weapon) for weeks. I finally decided I was going to be sad if I ever went in and found it gone. The candleholder on the right came from Savers. Both of them got a coat of Heirloom White paint, and little antiquing glaze.

I had some burlap left over from an un-photographed lampshade project. I cut a piece the size of my buffet top, and frayed the edges. I would have like it to drape over the edges, but there wasn't that much left over!

The pretty piece of curved glass with the vinyl lettering is something I won at an open house in the spring. Well, actually my 6-year-old daughter won it...but I haven't told her that yet!