honey we’re home via pinterest

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

***

31 Days Inspired for the Holidays

31 Days of Fall Nesting

31 Days of Autumn Inspiration

31 Days of Autumn Goodness

31 Days of Autumn Inspiration

31 Days of Fall Fun

31 Days of Simple Thanksgiving

31 Days of Autumnal Inspiration

31 Days of Orange

31 Days of Autumn Inspiration

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

I don’t put up the tree or hang stockings, I wait a little while for that but, I do start getting out some greenery, snowflake stuff, red berries, white lights and I keep some of my fall stuff out too because I feel like that season goes too fast and you know, Thanksgiving can be fally.

Why can’t each season’s holiday be at the END of the season?

Also, to celebrate the end of our longest running series ever, the 31 Days, we’ve got a giveaway. And for those of you asking, yes, the 31 Days to a Better Dressed Nest will be available in ebook form in the future. The future where I get stuff done right away.

Oh yeah, a giveaway…

How about a cutie patootie Aniston Necklace offered up by Her Southern Charm.

Yeah, I know how you cannot dare not want something as darling as a personalized necklace like this. Neither can Courtney Cox, Carol Hannah Whit, Mrs. Jack Black, and other celebs. All you have to do to be in the running to win a sweet Aniston Necklace is leave a comment telling me what initial {or 2} you would have on your necklace or, you can tell me when you start putting your Christmas decor up.

There are lots of beauties to be had at Her Southern Charm, you’ll find some great stuff like my personal favorite, the Austin Framed Disk Necklace. Now leave a comment and good luck! Contest closes Tuesday at midnight.

You don’t have to have a blog to win BUT, you must have a way for me to contact you–don’t do what the second commenter did and be annon and leave no email~enter again mysterious anonymous person!

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

I am the only girl in my house. I’ve got 3 boys and a manly husband and they all own guns of various types, shapes and sizes. They are manly. And I am girly.

For the first 10 years of our marriage our house was quite plain and masculine. Leather sofa, canvas drapes and neutral colors. I loved it.

Then we slowly changed over and added more color and pattern. Before I knew it our house was full of toile and pillows and painted pieces. A few months ago I started thinking about our home–ok, so I’m always thinking about our home. It’s quite pretty to me. And I’m afraid it leans a little too girly. See that lovely bunny, the one with wings? Two years ago it hung in our bedroom. I know. My poor husband. One day I realized how feminine it was and asked my husband if it bothered him and he said ‘not at all’. He’s nice like that. Or nonobservant.

I still love all my pretties but I blame some of my girly decor leaking out every where on the fact that I do not have a daughter.

And look at our current bedding. I adore it, but I feel it’s entirely too ladyish. For now I took off the duvet and I’m using the chocolate brown comforter underneath. I think our room needs to change from cutesy to sexy. And I have no idea how I’m gonna pull that off for virtually no money but I’ll keep you informed.

It doesn’t take much to let the guys in on the fun. I’m trying to be more aware of making sure the stuff in our home represents all who live here. Does that mean no toile sofa and not pretty painted armoire? No way. But, there are a few ways I’ve found to help man up some of our rooms.

Here’s some ways I’ve made our rooms a little more manly, or at least things I’m planning to implement

• Plaid and houndstooth fabrics
• Black furniture
• Wood finishes
• I’d LOVE to find a big nice leather chair for my husband
• Display the guitar
• Mount the 100 year old beautiful shotgun on the wall

Make room for their stuff: I love a pair of dirty man boots outside the front door on the porch.

Does your house lean more masculine or feminine?

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

This summer, I got to meet the famously hilarious BooMama and we were chit chatting about stuff. Bloggy stuff. She mentioned the Tour and mistakenly voiced that she wasn’t sure she was gonna continue it forever. I pounced and after somewhat foggy memories of me having her in a headlock and a few weeks time, she passed the Christmas Tour to me. I was all about myself that day, trust me. This is the biggest day of my blog’s life. And this is my acceptance speech.

So, for all of you who hold your breath all year, waiting patiently for this tour, we have a date. Monday, December 14th. Start decking the halls. I even found a vintage white Christmas tree for the occasion. I hope you don’t mind starting here instead of at Boo’s place. I’ll try to be a little funny but I’m not making any promises. Thanks Sophie, I’ll take good care of your Tour!

If you are here looking for the 31 Days to a Better Dressed Nest Series you can scroll down or click here for today’s post, paint something.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

Today, let’s paint something. Anything. With any kind of paint that you have.

This yard sale table was painted with spray paint. No, I didn’t prime it or sand it. You don’t have to email me to ask me for sure if I sanded it or primed it. I promise, I just found a pretty color, took it outside on plastic bag and hit it with a few coats. Within an hour I loved it all over again. It was an inexpensive table, I don’t spend time trying to perfect inexpensive items. My time is valuable. And so is yours.

You can’t paint everything with spray paint but you can use it for lots of things. I use spray paint for small tables, rocking chairs and wood chairs, empty frames, lamps, chandeliers. Don’t use spray paint for the top of your dining room table. It probably won’t turn out the way you want it and you will want to hurt me.

I painted this chandy with red spray paint.

You can also use those little bottles of acrylic paint. They are less than a dollar and you can use them to update photo frames, mix them together to paint that door you hang on the wall. They have a super flat finish unless you spray the finished item with polyurethane so I like to use them on things that look good with a rough finish.

This red frame was painted with acrylic paint.

I was sick of these flimsy “wood” cabinets in our guest bath. So I got out whatever paint I had laying around {from the armoire project} and in an hour I had a new looking bathroom. No, I did not prime or sand. I used BEHR paint plus primer in one. Two coats. Here’s my lazy girls guide to painting cabinets.


If you’ve been putting a big project off like I did, take my advice, you’ll be glad you did it once it’s done. I waited 4 years or so to finally paint this armoire. My only regret, not painting it the day we got it. I was dreading all the “time” it would take. It cost less than $40 to paint and was done in a few hours that was spread out over 24 hours time.

Same with the table. It’s funny how we put off painting something that we can’t stand for fear that we will ruin said thing that we already hate how it looks. Why are we all such ridiculous perfectionists? Save your worry for things that actually matter.

Some of you are paintaholics. You are professionals at painting your walls, experimenting with new colors and not afraid to change it up with paint. For you, your assignment is to finish that paint project or tackle the one you have been hoping to start.

For those of you that when you hear me talk about painting something, start telling yourself that you will not be doing that because you “don’t know how to paint” or your husband is too busy to paint for you or, you aren’t rich so you can’t paint or, you might ruin that frame that’s cracked and in your garage with cocoons all over it if you paint it–I’m talking to you.

Paint something. Anything. You can do it! It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.

If you want to paint a wall and you never have, here’s a little video

PS:

I never use a fresh roller pad for the second coat–if I even paint a second coat
If the color is light and I do a good job with the first coat, sometimes I skip a second coat
It rarely takes me more than a gallon to paint a room–unless it’s a big room

Now be gone, and paint!

If you missed the previous 31 Days posts:

Day 1: Give something away
Day 2: Move something
Day 3: Utilize plants
Day 4: Add an element of surprise

And check back later today, I’ve got an announcement.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?