2010 fall decor inspiration

Finally right?! I really do apologize for being so late on this, but I figure that fall just "officially" started last week, right? So I'm not that late posting my fall decor inspiration, right? Right. ;o)

I get a lot of my decor inspiration from other bloggers, in the pages home decor catalogs or magazines & on home decor websites. This year I didn't want to overdo it or do anything too difficult or DIY-complex. Being 30+ weeks pregnant, having a new baby while all this stuff is out & having to keep it dusted & all means it MUST be simple & low maintenance. So most of this year's fall decor inspiration came from good 'ol Pottery Barn & Pottery Barn Kids. Ahhh PB, why are you so expensive? I can only convince the hubbs to buy stuff from PB/PBK every blue moon...and I think I used up my annual PB budget on the baby's room, which is just fine with me because her room is fab (hoping to share some final reveal pics sometime late next week - just waiting on window hardware from JCP, woot).

I decided to use the same front door wreath I made last fall (which held up pretty well packed away), inspired partially by this PB beaut:

 

And here's my DIY version:

I'm only planning on decorating the main level, except for maybe a few small touches in our master bedroom/bath, using some of the leftover items from last fall's decor. I love PB's textured linen button pillows:

I scored a couple chocolate brown knock offs of these last year at Burlington, so I plan to use those along with a few of my solid color burnt orange toss pillows from Target & my PB Essential Throw on the living room couches.

For our entryway table, I want to keep our family name sign out & somehow incorporate this idea from PBK:

I just love the look of those pumpkins decorated with the ribbon - so simple, yet very beautiful! I first saw this idea in the fall PBK catalog, then I found it on their site. I don't want mine to be too Halloween'ish since I plan to keep this decor up thru Thanksgiving & not removing it until I put up Christmas stuff. They also have the absolute CUTEST baby & kids costumes. I am going to have to try so hard not to buy Baby J's costume from there next year. I know it's ridiculously expensive, but it's just so stinkin' cute!

Then for our dining room, I plan to use my pretty deep, burnt almost orange World Market place mats, seen in this post last year. And the centerpiece I'm making was also inspired by this photo I happened across while browsing the PB site:

I love the look of the candles in that antique-looking wood basket/crate & think something similar will look great on my DR table.

So, how about all of you?! Have you already started decorating for the fall? Where did/do you get your inspiration? I'd love to see your fall decor, please post a link in the comments if you'd like to share!

And that's about it for my fall decor inspiration this year - all simple & low maintenance. Next week I'll show you what I came up with based on all this inspiration, lol. But stick around because I will be posting my 33-34 weeks pregnancy update, my pre-Baby J to do list update & 5QF this week! And now I must go get some food in my tummy because Baby J is kicking me HARD, which normally means she wants food, hahaha. ::wink:: 'Till next time!

Mood Board Monday - a serene guest room

I was so excited to participate in my bloggy friend, over at pewter + sage, Sarah's Mood Board Monday blog party this week! I could hardly wait to get started on my board & then Monday came & I realized I hadn't gotten started. So, I set aside a couple hours to work on this & take breaks when necessary. The hubbs was giving me the sad-you're-always-blogging-face the whole time I was working on it, so I'm sure he'll be happy when I finish up this post & cuddle him, tee hee. ;oP

This week's challenge is to design a room around one of several items from West Elm's new PATCH NYC collection. All the new items to choose from were beautiful, but I choose to design my room around these pretty throw pillows:

Now that we finally announced that we are expecting our first little one, I thought about doing a nursery, but I think a much more adult, peaceful guest room fit with this collection. So, here is what I came up with:

4/26 - MB Monday West Elm Contest by Jen J. on Polyvore.com

Items in this set:

Gourd Table Lamp | west elm, $180

Banded Hemstitch 400-Thread-Count Duvet Cover & Sham - Sandalwood |..., $29

Carved-Circles Window Panel | west elm, $44

PATCH NYC Pillow Covers | west elm, $34

PATCH NYC Pillow Covers | west elm, $34

All of the sources I used in the set can be found above & you can also click on the link to the full set for more details. So, what do you think?! Would you stay in my guest room if it was decorated this beautifully?! I know I'd be thrilled to stay in a guest room like this! I really love how this turned out...makes me want to convince hubby to let me buy all this stuff for a guest room - too bad we only have two bedrooms in our teeny townhouse & the extra is now going to the baby. Eh well, next house, right?

Anywho, head on over to this week's MBM post on  pewter+sage to check out all the other beautiful rooms everyone came up with! And cross your finger that I win the $50 West Elm gift card giveaway...I love love love winning blog giveaways & love West Elm's stuff! Okay, gotta run - my hubby is giving me the "get off your blog" side eye right now! ;o)

My DIY initial spring wreath!

Hey there ::waves hi:: to everyone reading Linda's fab blog, Craftaholics Anonymous, my name is Jen J. & I am a long time reader of Linda's blog & like to do a little crafting of my own over at the World of Dennifer.  I have a lot more crafts and D&R projects over on my blog, so if you stop over, please feel free to look through my archives for some of my past projects & follow me (even grab my button if it tickles your fancy ;o) if you'd like to keep up with my future projects. I am so excited to be participating in the Craftaholics Anonymous Reader's Tutorial Week & I hope you enjoy my wreath tutorial as much as I enjoyed making it...it was inexpensive to make & is so pretty on my door! Feel free to contact me at worldofdennifer@gmail.com if you have any questions about this or any other DIY project on my blog!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sooo I finally got a chance to sit down & do my DIY spring {but keeping it up for the summer because I love it so much} wreath for our front door. I got my inspiration for my wreath from Kari over at Rocky Bella - I loved her spring initial wreath so much that I decided to make one of my own (with a few personal touches)...Ta da:

I pretty much just followed her directions, so first I headed to Michaels to get the supplies I needed:

A grape vine wreath (14"), a mini birds nest, some speckled faux eggs, a couple cream colored butterflies & a pretty good-sized bag of green moss. You will also need wide ribbon, a wreath hanger, a glue gun & several glue sticks for this project - I already had all of these things on hand, so I didn't have to buy any of that. Oh & if you want your last initial on the wreath, you will want to grab a wooden letter from Michaels as well - I also had one of these on hand (if you want your letter white, then grab the kind they have that are already painted white - saved me a step)!

Then, I just plugged up my hot glue gun & got to work gluing on clumps of green moss to cover the wreath. You want to make sure you generously cover the wreath, otherwise it'll look a little bare.

Once the wreath is completely covered with moss to your satisfaction, position your initial letter on your wreath & figure out how you want to mount it on the wreath. I put mine up against my door to make sure that the way the letter was positioned on the wreath looked how I wanted it to. Once you figure out where you want the letter, glue it on to the wreath (use a decent amount of glue so that it holds the letter completely). After that, I just glued the faux speckled eggs into the mini nest & glued the nest on the wreath, and finished it off by sticking the butterflies into the wreath where I wanted them (they had wire backings, so they easily stuck into the wreath).

(sorry - not sure why this pic uploaded sideways, but you get the point, no?)

I hung the wreath on the door with a standard wreath hanger, then tied my ribbon so that it covered the hanger & made a bow in the back (on the other side of the door), so that it stayed put...does that make sense?? And that's it. Very, very easy wreath, although I got 2 pretty bad glue burns on my left thumb & right ring fingers - OUCH! I got small blisters & everything. ::humph::  :o/ Ah, the things we do for our DIY projects, lol. But I LOVE LOVE LOOOOVE the way it came out - exactly what I needed to dress up my front door for the spring!

Dizz likes sitting at the storm door & people watching during the day; I like keeping the door open b/c it lets natural light into our living room, so it's a win-win. Anywho, what do you think of my spring wreath?! You likes!? I hope so b/c I loves & guess what, if you do like it & wanna make your own, you can enter the World of Dennifer's 1st ever giveaway [now closed], win the $25 Michaels gift card & head over to Michaels & buy all the supplies to make it. Here is the cost break down:

Grapevine Wreath = $4

Bag 'O Green Moss = $2.25 (original $4.49, but I used a 50% coupon I had)

Mini Nest = $2

Faux Speckled Eggs = $2

Wired Butterflies = $2

Wreath Hanger; Wide Ribbon; Wooden Initial; Glue Gun & Extra Glue Sticks = FREE (I already had these items on hand)

TOTAL = $12.25

So, you could totally make this & still have a good amount left over to make anything else your heart desires!! Hurry & enter my giveaway [closed] - it ends tomorrow at 10PM (EST). And now that my front door is ready (and my allergies have calmed down at least a wee bit), I can finally say...Happy Spring!!

Mood Board Monday - March 8, 2010

Here is my contribution to Sarah at pewter+sage's blog link party:

 

 Today's challenge was to design a room around one of two beautiful & bold area rugs. I choose to do my room around this Andalusia Rug.

 

Well, I have spring fever & am ready for warm weather, so I decided to do my mood board for a beautiful & bright sun room:

3/8 Mood Board Monday by Jen J. on Polyvore.com

Items in this set:
Andalusia Rug, 5'x8', Horizon/Ivory | west elm, $230
Seagrass 3-Piece Sofa | Pottery Barn, $125
Carved Wood Serving Bowl : Target, $30
Textured Solid Pillow Covers | Pottery Barn, $25
Furniture, Home Accents, Dining, Gifts & More, $1.95

I use Polyvore to do my mood boards...it's very user friendly & simple. Only a few links to the sources are listed here - and the good news is, most items were very affordable! Any items not listed here, are listed on the main page of my "3/8 Mood Board" Polyvore set.  I love the way my room turned out - what do you think of it? Sigh. It makes me wish I had a sun room & unlimited budget to get all these cute items!! Anywho, I digress - head over to Sarah's blog link party to check out all the cute mood boards everyone made today!

Menu Planning Monday, maybe Tuesday + furloughed. :o/

So a couple of weeks ago, I won this really cool Really Crafty Studio meal planner download from Linda over at Craftaholics Anonymous!

It's so easy to stay organized & on top of the week's meals with this planner! It's only $5 in Kim's Etsy Shop & it's totally worth it! I haven't quite nailed down everything I'm going to make this week, which maybe defeats the purpose a bit, but I'm going to try & stay organized & plan this out every Sunday from now on. I usually try to make new dish each week, then a few classics that I always make - spaghetti, pork chops, baked ground turkey & ziti, stir fry, etc. We also usually have an "every man for himself night", a left overs night & usually end up eating out 1-2 days per week. The eating out thing will likely change once we have kids, but since it's just the two of us now, we can afford to still eat out a couple times a week - that & I'm not too fond of cooking on weekends, lol. I am going to attempt to take photos of the meals I make & do a re-cap at the end of the week. Hopefully this will give some of you ladies in search of new meal ideas some good ones! I'll be working on this week's plan tonight & hope to have it up by tomorrow morning.

*************

Also, IDK if any of you know about the funding stuff going on with parts of the US Department of Transportation, but some craziness has been going down in Congress. The basic gist is - several Federal DOT sub-agencies were funded by the Highway Trust Fund Legislation & it basically expired last night at Midnight. Congress attempted to pass an extension, but it was blocked by Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY), so the funding for my agency lapsed & all non-essential employees (ahem...me) are being furloughed until Congress can reach a decision (read full story here & here). This means that several important state & federal highway projects have been halted across the country; just an example of how "politicking" affects regular people every day. I have heard that in the past, when the government has furloughed employees, Congress usually passes some measure to pay employees retroactively, so I'm hoping that's what happens in this case. For now, I am going to stay optimistic & just look at this as a few extra days to sleep in, clean my house, run some errands & maybe get a St. Patrick's Day craft done...maybe one from the Craftaholics Anonymous St. Patty's Day link party!

Here are a few beauties from Linda's party:

Linda's own "Lucky" Pillow:

Unfortunately, I CAN'T sew anything that requires a sewing machine, but that's on my list of things to try this year. :oP

Traci's really cute "Lucky" Blocks:

Patricia's adorable DIY gift tags:

Michelle's c-u-t-e Lucky Clover:

Head over to the party to see all the other very creative St. Patty's Day projects - so cute! And a perfect distraction since I'm not working for the next couple of days!

Pillow talk...

Not in the traditional sense of the phrase, but literally. I have been thinking about getting some new pillow covers for my Target Solid Color Silk Toss Pillow. The ones I currently have match my old LR color scheme - the deep, warm orange & since I lightened it up a bit at least for now, I'm looking for some covers to put on the pillows I already have to add some more character to my newly re-decorated LR! I want something unique, but nothing too overboard with pattern since I already purchased some paisley print lumbar pillow from Home Goods to go along with my chocolate button pillows.

Enter Etsy. Ah Etsy, how do I love thee...let me count the ways:

 

Etsy seller pipdesigns  

Etsy seller Elegant Touch

Etsy Seller Simple Linens 

 

Etsy Seller Marie's Cosy Cusions

 

Etsy Seller Emma Dear 

All very cute right? I really like love them all, but I'm really leaning towards the rufflly white one! I love the contrast bright white brings to my choclate painted living room. Now I just need to convince the hubbs to let me buy a couple! 

Is it REALLY Dec. 1st already?!

Wowza...this year has literally FLOWN by! I guess we have had soo much going on what with the wedding preperation, the wedding itself, honeymoon, big time house D&R projects, buying me a new car, etc., etc. I can't believe there is less than 30 days till Christmas & just about a month till 2010! Can we pump the breaks please?!

Usually I would have had the house all decorated by now, but this past weekend of hosting Thanksgiving made me very very lazy! We still have yet to buy a tree - trying to convince the hubbs to go pick up one today! We originally planned to go with a fresh tree this year, but I just think we are going to purchase a nicer artificial now...it'll just be easier with Dizzle & everything. I bought a bunch of blue bulbs to make a bulb wreath, but then decided against doing it because it'll seriously impede the storm door from shutting, so I was planning on using them to decorate the tree. But, I'm doing mostly whites, reds & silvers thru out the decor for the house, so, on second thought, I may try to see if Walmart will let me exchange those blue bulbs for red or silver (I don't think I have the receipt anymore)! I did get over to Michael's this past weekend though & bought some stuff to make a DIY wreath for our front door & bought some goodies to decorate the rest of the house too!

First up on my list of things to get done around the house - finish my wreath. I really, really tried finishing it yesterday, but by the time I completely decided on what I wanted to do, I had to get dinner started, then I lounged out for an hour or so watching TV, then did a little work on the wreath, but got too tired to continue, so I plan on finishing it today after work. I got my loose inspiration for the wreath from this PB beaut:

I say "loose" inspiration b/c mine will not look much like this except the fact that it's faux pine with bulbs. It does not have a name plate, does not have as many bulbs as this one (due to the aforementioned storm door issue) & I added in a few pine cones & a big red bow. Hopefully it turns out okay!

Second on the list - my living room table. It had a nice fall-y colored candy dish with a bunch of candy left over from Halloween, but I took that off & add three of these cute Ikea lanterns:

I got them in white & added some red & silver jingle bells to two of them & the other I added little teeny pine cones & some faux pine twigs from our our Christmas tree (that is getting thrown out today). I may add some of the red tea light holders I bought from Ikea as well.

For the entryway table, which is actually between the LR & DR, I plan on doing something similar to this:

I already have the frames, paper & berry trim, so I just need to put it all together. Again, something I plan on working on/having done sometime between tonight & tomorrow.

I am going to add some faux white poinsettias to the Pier One vase that is displayed on top of our kitchen cabinets. And speaking of Pier One - I stopped in there on Black Friday & bought some cute Santa & snow man figurines & put those up on the fireplace mantle in the basement. And finally, I added some cute gingerbread man dish towels to hang from the oven in the kitchen.

So, that's about it - hopefully I will have some pictures of *completed* projects to share in the next day or two! And I still have to get pmb ALL of my Christmas shopping done! Most wonderful time of year right?!!

When BAD dogs strike...

This is what happens:

:o(

I definitely spent over an hour & a half @ Michaels & Walmart picking out the perfect tools, bases, embellishments, paint, etc. to re-create these 2 wonderful fall decor projects from two of my very talented Nestie friends:

1. Faux Mercury Pumpkins from Roeshel @ The DIY Show Off:

2. Fall Foliage Door Wreath from fellow Nestie friend xoxoll:

Unfortunately for Dizz the hubbs came home first & saw what he had done & this is what I came home to:

Hahahaha, poor dog. But in this case I think his banishment was warranted! So you know where I'll be today - at Michaels replacing the items he destroyed. Hopefully I'll make these look as good as the two talented ladies who were my inspiration for these projects! I can't wait to finish them & put them out - I heart the Fall! It's my favorite season. Oh, I also finished my DIY wall art for my MB...if I can pull my husband away from his 'effing PS 3 (NCAA Football 2010 - he's playing as I type this!) long enough to hang up the new drapes I bought for our bedroom & my DIY wall art, then I will be posting those pics & a tutorial for the art. Until then...Happy Fall Everyone!!