2010 Fall Decor!

So this year I wanted to keep our fall decor relatively simple being that I am over 30 weeks pregnant & I'll be having this little one during the mid to later part of the fall. If you remember from my inspiration post, most of the things I wanted to do are pretty simple DIY-wise & low maintenance. I showed you my DIY wreath from last year, which is up again, but now I want to show off everything else I did to decorate for my favorite season of the year!

Here's our living room:

From front entry door:

From powder room:

 

For this room, I just switched out the throw pillows with the burnt orange ones I already owned & the brown button pillows were already there. Then, I added my new PB Essential Throw (which is quite comfy ;o) & a new shag area rug ($75 from Walmart..I LOVE this rug, it's so soft on my toes). I am lovin' how simple, but pretty it is! I forgot to take a photo of the wall with the entertainment center, but it's decorate with fall colored candles, which I'll switch out for Christmas colors in the winter.

And for the entryway table:

Please excuse the dog bowls, lol...this is the entry between the LR & DR/kitchen area since we don't have a formal front entryway.

Some close ups...

family name sign

...and my little pumpkins inspired by this PBK treat basket.

We already owned all of the candles & the faux fall leaves, I just arranged them around our family name sign. I got the large glass vase from HomeGoods & added some more of the faux leaves & my DIY ribbon pumpkins. They were so easy to make that I didn't even do a tutorial! Just grab some small faux pumpkins form your local craft store & some fall colored ribbon. Then, just hot glue the ribbon on to the pumpkins & wha-lah...pretty fall pumpkins! These are, by far, my favorite fall decor for this year - thanks to Pottery Barn for the inspiration!

And the final area I decorated, the dining room table, which was also kept very simple:

Close ups...

I got all the supplies for the centerpiece from Save On Crafts, which I discovered during my wedding planning...they have really cool, unique stuff & great prices. The little guys I used as filling for the vintage wood box are called dried puka pods - they are so cute, they look just like mini pumpkins, don't they?! So perfect.

And that's my fall decor! I wanted to do some mums out on the font porch & I still may, but I just haven't found a nice enough planter to put them in. We'll also carve a couple pumpkins closer to Halloween & that'll be it for this year. Simple & low maintenance - just how I wanted it. :)

Sorry this took so long to get up - I have been so busy lately - either that or tired, so I have been slacking on cleaning up my house & taking these pics. How are all of you doing on your fall decor this year? Did you do something simple like me or did you go all out?! Please share your links, I'd love to check it out. 'Till next time!

Spring Cleaning - Part Deux

Finally right?! OMG, life has been so busy the last few weeks & I have been procrastinating on actually putting this list in writing. Don't ask me why, but I feel like if I blog it, I must DO IT, lol. But, I got a lot done at work today, so I'm taking my last 30'sih minutes at the office to put up this list...finally. This list will be for the main & upper levels of our townhouse (Parts II & III if you are following along form my first Spring Cleaning post). I'll do the basement list separately, but I need input from the hubbs on that b/c that's his "man cave" & I'm not to make plans for down there unless he approves them first, hahaha. That's so changing when Baby J gets here! After I get all the lists up, then I'll post updates on how we are doing on everything.

As I mentioned before, these have turned more into spring/summer/getting-ready-for-Baby-J lists, so everything won't be done before the spring is over (in just a bout a month...eeek!).  Anywho, here goes....

Main Level To Do's:

Living Room

Powder Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

We actually don't have too much to do on this level for the time being, or at least anything we anticipate having done before Baby J gets here. We are absolutely going to be either painting or replacing our cabinets (you can see how sun damaged some of the sides are in the above photos - boo to the sun for that one) & getting new counter tops in the kitchen at some point & we'd also like to add a back splash. I'm looking at a few options, but our main D&R priority right now is the baby's room. Eventually we will also replace our old @ss fridge & oven with new appliances that are a bit more energy efficient (read: not original to the house - like our fridge is & the oven is just crappy). I'm also trying to beg persuade my husband into some DIY crown molding, which I think will make our little joint kitchen/dining room look 10 million times better. Oh & I'd also like to replace ALL of the white, aluminum horizontal blind in the house with the shades we got for our bedroom, which are these fabricky {I realize that's not a word, lol}, light-blocking, honeycomb shades - I LOVE them!  So the list for this level will be short, but here goes:

• Replace all remaining brass/old light fixtures in all three areas - there are a total of 4 left, including the powder room light fixture.
• Get ceiling painted in all 3 rooms, but especially the living room.
• Buy new rug for living room.
• Mop hardwoods in all areas; I usually do only a few good moppings a year - I spot clean with our steam mop in between time.
• Replace powder room brass fixtures - everything in this house was brass when we bought it, so we are slowly, but surely switching out everything for brushed nickle fixtures.
• Find & install valance over sliding glass door.

Upper Level To Do's:

Master Bedroom

Master/Upstairs Bath

Guest Room...being turned into Nursery!!

This level has already gone thru many many changes this year between our Master Bedroom re-do & the Master Bathroom re-do & now the currently in progress Guest Room/Nursery re-do! Because of our newest edition, we have lots of things to do on this level:

• Remove all the furniture & other misc. stuff from the guest room, go thru it, get rid of what we don't need, recycle anything that can be recycled, sell/give away furniture, pack up our personal items that we are keeping for storage in the attic.
• Clean out guest room closet; buy additional storage drawers for extra storage (something like this).
• Paint, buy furniture for, replace all outlet covers, replace blinds & decorate nursery.
• Find fillers for master bedroom apothecary jars/vase.
• Purchase lightweight bedding for the master bed for use during the hotter months.
• Go thru clothes & pull out items to donate.
• Buy same type of storage drawers for extra clothing space in my closet.
• Decorate master bath over toilet storage nook.
• Go thru boxes in attic & get rid of anything we don't need any more.
• Get carpets steam cleaned.
• Replace any remaining brass light fixtures in hallway.

I think that's it. The list for the upper level doesn't look that big, but it's a lot of work. The first item, which is done (yaaay!), took us like two weeks to complete. But all the stuff (minus the stuff in the closet) is gone or put in a new location. :)

Stay tuned for the lower level of the house portion of this list & updates on how far we've come since starting spring/summer/getting ready for Baby J cleaning! Tomorrow is my 27th Birthday, woot! And we are having a big summer BBQ @ my casa {complete with my fav mocktails}, so I'm not sure I'll be participating in 5QF this week, but I'll post some pics from the BBQ on Saturday or Sunday. 'Till next time!

Conclusion of the table runner saga...

So, IDK if you remember the saga of my monogrammed table runner?! Well, I ended up canceling my order with SD Gifts & they issued me a full refund. The lady even said I will still receive my order, but yeah...still.have.not.received.it. I digress. I got over the fact that they have horrible customer service & just ordered the Linden Street Hemstitch Table Runner in white from JCP. And guess what? They monogrammed it & shipped it two days later (ahem, SD Gifts) & it was on sale & I had a $10 off coupon, so I got it for HALF the price of the other table runner, including shipping!

I am sooo happy we finally got the runner (sorry it's still wrinkled in these pics - I just wanted to see how it looked on the table...I promise I will iron it ASAP), b/c now I can debut my DIY Centerpiece:

 

 

(please excuse the disorder of my kitchen in the background - EMBARRASSING! :o/)

This was my inspiration from BHG:

I followed these directions on the BHG website & it was pretty easy! I got the ribbon ($3.99 on sale), boxes  (about $1.99-$3.99) depending on the size & the scrapbook paper from Michaels, and got the cake platter from HomeGoods for $16! Making the bow stay how I wanted it was the hardest part of this project, but it was worth the effort - I think it makes my table look so festive & pretty!

I also added somegingerbread men towels (also from HomeGoods) for just a touch more Christmas int he room!

 

What do you think of my DIY  centerpiece? Does it even look remotely close to the BHG version?! Hope you like it & try it out - it's really easy!

Linking Up to the DIY Show Off Holiday Highlights blog party & Somewhat Simple's Strut Your Stuff Thursday!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!! LOTS of pics!

Woot! My favorite holiday of the year is in less than 3 weeks & lay an eye on what we had today:

Snow, snow, snow & lots of it! Woo hoo...Dizz loves snow, lol. He even likes to dig his nose in it & try to bite the snow & catch it in his mouth. He's my fat baby! :o)

We ended up getting more than 5 inches (good thing I went grocery shopping yesterday)! Unfortunately, it made the cancellation of my dinner plans with my BFF, who recently gave birth, sorta out of the question, although I know Stella (my SUV) coulda made it! The hubbs wasn't having it & my friend wasn't really feeling it either. :o(  But the good news is, I got sooo much Christmas decorating & present wrapping done, yay! Here are a few photos of all my hard work from today - this all goes to show that being snowed in is sometimes a GOOD thing!

Front exterior - there are candle lights in each of the windows in the front of the house, but I couldn't get them all in this pic & I was freezin' my booty off!

My DIY wreath...I very happy with the way it came out! And the pine cones are cinnamon scented, so they make right outside the front door smell amazing!

We had to rearrange our furniture to fit the tree - I had reservations @ 1st, but now I'm lovin' the new set up! Oh & I'll be changing out the orange pillows & curtains soon - got the okay from the hubbs yesterday!

Our TREE!! Yipee...we bought a new one this year (it's artificial, but a nice one versus our old cheapo Walmart one from the previous few years)

And all lit up (sorry for the blurriness...I still need to figure out my camera)! We went with a red, green & silver color scheme with clear lights & a white tree skirt with silver detail. I LOVE the way it turned out.

 

 

My coffee table centerpiece lanterns (along with close ups), also inspired by this PB beaut! The center one I filled with pine cones & faux pine tree trimmings & the other two are filled with Pier One red & silver jingle bells.

Entryway table decor! Hubby even thought of the idea with clear lights being draped on the frames, which gave the table that little something extra - I love that man! :o)

Was that enough pics for you?! I told you we (meaning me) got a lot done today. I won't show you the dining room & kitchen just yet, they are not quite done.  Mainly because I ordered this lovely linen hemstitch table runner embroidered with our last initial from Simply Done Gifts on NOVEMBER 14th & it's STILL.NOT.HERE!!! And, I'm sorry, I have to put them out there b/c I am beyond flustered annoyed with them. I sent several messages, which were finally answered this past Wednesday, giving me some BS excuse about having problems with the embroidery & promising that they would be shipping out my table runner that night & that I would receive shipping information later that day. Well, I never did & I was trying to be patient with them, so I didn't email the lady again that day. Well, after finishing up my DR table centerpiece today, it really angered me that my table wasn't completely done b/c of this hang up with my order. So today I sent another email...it was not very nice. I basically told them that I would never order from them again & I would tell everyone I know not to order from the either & that I was very dissatisfied with their company. I told them that this was unprofessional & if I did not receive word that my order was shipped via FedEx overnight delivery at no charge to me by Moday, then I would order my table runner from a more reputable company. I also told them that I would like a full, or at a minimum, a partial refund of my money. I was professional in my message & used a polite tone, but I got the idea across that I was not happy & far from impressed! Whew. So, in getting to my point...I will post these two rooms when my DR table is complete with my table runner. So here is my PSA - never order from this company - they are horrible with order processing & customer service. Who LIES to their customers?!  Ugh.

Sorry for the rant, but REALLYpeople?! Stay tuned for a post soon about my DIY gift tags on hubby's gifts & our Master Bath reveal - it's finally done!!! Just needs a quick cleaning for the big reveal. Hopefully, I will be able to post it tomorrow!  

Linking Up to the DIY Show Off Holiday Highlights blog party!

My DIY Fall Wreath!

A few posts ago I blogged about a fall foliage wreath I wanted to do for my front door. It was super easy to do - I just went to Michaels & bought the plain wreath form, 2 strands of fall leaf garland, and some of the fall embellishments that had berries, pine cones, mini pumpkins, etc. Then I took gold floral wire & wrapped the leaf garland around the form securing it with the wire. Finally, I stuck the little embellishment picks in where I thought they'd fit. What do you think?

I love how it turned out! We had a fight party this past weekend & everyone gave me such nice comments on it...they thought it was store bought! It makes the outside of the house so much more fall ready! I also changed out the centerpieces (Michaels) & place mats (World Market) on my DR table for the fall:

Now my home is officially ready for fall & just in time - fall officially starts tomorrow! Happy Fall everyone!

Dining Room/Kitchen Makeover

It's finally done!! Woo hoo, well the preliminary stuff is anyways...I still want to get new vertical blinds for the sliding glass door & a valance or other window treatment. We also plan on re-staining the parts of the cabinets that are sun damaged & replace the two remaining light fixtures & all the brass hardware throughout. Anywho, I am very excited this is finally done..here are some before & afters:

*Before (w/ previous owner's stuff) & During*

And...ta-da -- here are the afters! Paint color is Duron "Orange Burst", balloon shade from JCP, *new* matching microwave is GE from Best Buy, DR art is from art.com (framed at Michaels), wall sconces from Kohls, DR hanging pendant from World Market with some DIY mods by yours truly, DR table pillar holders from both World Market & Pier One. Please excuse the mess on top of our fridge. Hope you guys like it!

We also finished the outside front of the house makeover, pics coming sometime this weekend....it looks AMAZ-ing!