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new here? this is the 10th post in a 31 day series:: 31 Days of Lovely Limitations

I love autumn as much as the next girl.  And when my boys were younger we went all out and decorated for every season and micro-season and day and what have you.  They loved it, I had the time and we all enjoyed it.

Now I’d rather keep things simple.  Like as simple as possible with it still looking pretty. And unless they ask for specific decorations {they’ve been known to request a creepy Halloween mantle and last year my boys installed Christmas lights on our porch all by themselves} my goal is less work, more impact. No embellishing a bunch of tiny plastic pumpkins here~not that there’s anything wrong with it, I’m just too lazy, cheap, and unorganized to do that right now.

Sometimes the easiest thing to do is to copy something. But when you are using what you have, the something may not even realize it’s getting copied. Take that photo up there.  I love it.  You can tell it’s autumn but it’s not overly done or cutesy or gimmicky or exhausting.  Here’s what it looks like when I replicate it with what I already have.

I played around with what I already had and tried to copy that picture up there.  Some gourds, a runner from the goodwill and a random bowl that stayed there long enough for me to take the picture then it drove me crazy.

Which prompted me to grab the big pumpkin out of my car {finally found some good ones} and I also took a quick 5 minute walk around the neighborhood and picked some dried leaf branches and some kind of yellow weeds.

I’ve gotten rid of all my pretend pumpkins and such and every year as early in the season as possible I buy a few pretty gourds and ‘kins at a local farmers market. I spend about $25 and keep them in my house for all of October and November so for the price of a bundle of fresh flowers, we get interesting, imperfect natural beauty for autumn and Thanksgiving.  Plus free branches and weeds.   Even though my table looks nothing like the first photo, it helped to have the inspiration photo as a jumping off point.

Here are a few more ideas from around my house.  You probably have lots more ideas.  Most of us have all kinds of seasonal decor in the form of food.  Look around.  Pile up some Honey Crisp apples and call it a display.

A little stack of autumn colored books add some warmth and texture and free seasonal color.

We had a get together at our house Friday night and my mother in law made a delicious and also beautifully fally maple pumpkin cake, there’s no way it’s gonna get hidden away in the kitchen.

I got the brown dried gourd at Michael’s craft store last year, it’s real but I can use it year after year.  And I always like to find a warty thing to set out too~the yellow whatever-it-is is perfect.

Of course, duh, candles.  We have them year ’round but they look the best in the fall.

One of the most important parts of fall decor is open windows.  Must. Open. Windows.

Don’t forget to put out your throws.  This one is all fancy and straight because we hardly ever sit in this poor neglected, useless room.  But we keep a big basket in our family room with a Queen sized super soft blanket and extra pillows.  We know how to live around here.

A dollar’s worth of fall.  They’re real and they’re spectacular.

When it comes down to it fall is about coziness and togetherness and natural beauty and warmth and change.  You don’t have to spend a lot of time or money to get that feeling in your home.

Doesn’t this pumpkin resemble a bunch of cute little baby butts lined up in a circle?

Anyhow, Fall~it doesn’t have to be perfect, overly done or take long periods of time to be beautiful.

 

just a very few of the fall themed 31 Dayers

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31 Days of Autumn Inspiration