Fall is in the air (and my house!)

Fall is officially here, and it makes this girl VERY happy!! I love being able to throw on some jeans and sweatshirt and enjoy all the fun outdoor activities. (Pumpkin pickin is my favorite!) Sweet pea is also at the age now where she has become more aware of the outdoors and likes to run around the backyard. I have vowed to be better at getting outside with her now that the weather has cooled off. I see some wagon rides and trips to the zoo in our future!

Not only is it Fall outside, but it has taken residence in my home as well. I think I have finally put out most of what I am going to this year, but it stills needs a tiny bit of tweaking. Since I only work part time, I spend a lot of time at home, and this means I analyze things WAY to much!! I decided to not put out my Halloween decor this year, and stuck with general Fall items. Who knows I may change my mind when the holiday gets closer, but for now I am sticking with what I have.

Thought I would share a few pics of what I have done so far.

Those little pumpkins are from the Dollar Tree. I painted one white and left the other its original color.

LOVE this fun metallic pumpkin I found at Hobby Lobby! You would think I was getting paid by them for as much as I talk about them in my blog :)

Not really sure I am sold on this vignette quite yet. What do you all think?

Had to add a little Fall in the kitchen as well. You can't really see it that well, but I purchased a little pumpkin spice candle at the Dollar store as well, and I burn it almost every night. I just love the way it smells!

Here are a few picture of my outside decor. I got that cute little ladder this summer at a local Peddlers Mall, and I absolutely adore it. It was decorated a little different for the summertime.

Made this wreath with some ribbon and drop cloth material. I had fun making the little rosettes.

This is my grapevine wreath that resides at the front door, and gets a makeover every season/holiday. I have definitely gotten my money's worth out if it!

Love my little scarecrow family. I am going to get a few mums and pumpkins to place around them.

Well that's all for now. Like I said I have a little more tweaking to do, but for the most part I am pretty happy with what I have done.

On a side not, I made my first batch of chicken and dumplings of the season this past Monday, and they were awesome. YUM!!

Happy Fall to everyone!!

Linking to Wow us Wednesdays over at Savvy Southern Style

Pumpkin Topiary Tutorial

So even though I don't have a front porch, I have always wanted a pumpkin topiary for the Fall. When I saw how expensive they were, I decided to tackle the job of making my own. And when I received a gift card from a little store called Hobby Lobby for my birthday (Thanks Frank & Suzie), it made my dream more possible.

After a trip to Hob Lob and the Dollar Tree I was all set to go. Here is what I started with:

3 Funkins in different sizes

super glue

leaves

berries

clay flower pot (pictured later)

I started by stacking the pumpkins and gluing them together. I had to hold them in place for a little bit, because the super glue wasn't as fast drying as it said it was.

Here it is all stacked together.

I then started layering the leaves around the bottom of the top pumpkin and the middle one. I liked incorporating all the different colors of Fall.

Here is a close up of one of the layers.

When all the leaves were in place, I decided to add the berries for a little more texture. After everything was glued, I placed the topiary in the pot to see how it looked, and it sat down a little much for my liking (sorry I didn't get a picture of this). In order to remedy this, I placed a smaller pot upside down in the bottom of the topiary pot, so the pumpkins would sit up a little higher. This created a little gap around the pumpkin, so I needed to add something to cover up this problem. In comes the Spanish moss. I decided to hot glue it around the place of the largest pumpkin to fill in the gap.

Here is how it looked after I added the moss.

Since I don't have a front porch, I put the topiary on my side porch. Here's how it looks. What do you think?

I know it looks kinda lonely right now, but after I add a couple mums and a few more gourds and pumpkins, it will look like Fall just plopped down on my porch! I LOVE the way it turned out, and I think it is my favorite Fall decoration by far. Do you have a favorite Fall decoration, if so, what is it?

Linking to Wow us Wednesdays
At The Picket Pence

Gallery Wall

I have a really weird wall in my living room that the couch is on that I have never known what to do with since we moved in. Instead of there being one window on either side of the wall so that the couch could be in the center, there are 2 windows side by side at the end of one side of the wall, which makes for ALOT of wall space at the other end. No matter what I have try there nothing has really looked right. I am a very symmetrical person and I hate that I can't have something centered right above the couch. The wall had been bare for a while because I kept racking my brain and searching all over blog land for some inspiration. Until one day our print it on canvas arrived in the mail, that my father in law had given to sweet pea and hubby for their birthdays. It is one of my favorite family pictures of us (even though you can't see hubby or my face). I knew it had to go on the wall over the couch but it was too small to hang by itself, so I needed to come up with something to put with it.

Here is the wall with nothing on it. You can see the 2 windows to the right on the picture. See how off center the wall is??

I had always wanted a gallery wall in my home somewhere, but was never sure of the right place for one. I felt that this finally might be the perfect place for one. After googling gallery walls for inspiration, I knew that I wanted the canvas to be the main focal point of the wall. I searched my house for other things I could use, and luckily found everything I needed. This of course meant that I was going to make another wall bare for a brief moment, but that's OK it will get fixed soon too.

I arranged everything on the floor several times before I came up with the combination that I liked the most. All I had to do now was replicate it on the wall. Easier said than done! (It's not an easy task trying to hold an object, hammer, nail, and a level at the same time) I first started with the canvas and then moved out from there working on one side at a time. Once I was finished I was very pleased with the way the wall finally looked. Some things might not be there permanently, but for now they will be fine. How do you think it looks? Now I have to work on the wall that I took everything from!!

TA-DA!

The left side of the wall. The white frame is from sweet peas room, and I just framed a piece of fabric that matched the fabric on the ottoman in the living room. The family picture is one of our first professional ones as a family, taken at Thanksgiving last year.

LOVE this picture so much! Taken by my friend Hannah.

Right side. The photo was taken on our honeymoon in Jamaica at Dunnes River Falls. I made the canvas with some burlap and my Fleur de lis stencil. Not sure like it that much.

Hope you have a blessed day!

Linking to WoW Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style

Playing Catch Up and Learning to Sew

Not sure about you all, but this past week was a terrible one for my family. I got the dreaded stomach bug on Tuesday, hubby got it on Wednesday, and then I got it again on Thursday night, Bleh! We are finally starting to feel better, but on top of all that our cable and Internet went out for 2 days, so I was not able to post for a few days, so today I am playing catch up.

The weather here has been wonderful and fall and football is in full swing at my house. Hubby and I finally had the chance to go out for our Anniversary last Saturday, so we chose to go to Stony River Steakhouse and it was DELICIOUS! I highly recommend it to anyone that has not been there. I usually can't finish my dinner when we go out, but this time I finished everything and even had a little dessert.

The next day I went over to my mother in laws (MIL) for my first sewing lesson. I have decided that I would like to know how to sew, to be able to make things for around the house and for sweet pea, so she was willing to teach me some basics. I wanted to make a pillow case dress for sweet pea with some OU fabric that MIL had on hand , and she said that would be a good thing to learn on since it is basically just a rectangle. She let me do pretty much everything myself, and helped when needed. I even got to use her surger to make the edges more professional looking. I'm not gonna lie I am pretty proud of the way it turned out, and plan on making a few more. Hopefully I will still remember everything that I learned!

(Sorry for the dark pictures, I forgot my camera, so these are from MILS IPhone)

I am hoping and praying that this week will be 100 times better than last. Guess we will find out tomorrow. Until next time, BYE!

Happy Anniversary

So yesterday was hubby and I's 4th wedding anniversary. Whew! Can't believe that it has been 4 years already. Time has definitely flown by like crazy! Anniversaries are definitely ALOT different around here now that sweet pea has come along, but that's ok with me. We didn't do much to celebrate yesterday, just got some take out and watched a movie. But, we are both self proclaimed "old" 28 years olds, so we didn't think twice about it. We will however be celebrating this weekend, while sweet pea has a sleep over at maw maw's house. (Thanks Belinda!)

I don't think there are enough words to describe the LOVE that I have for my husband, but I try to show him with my actions each and every day. He has made my life so complete and I can't thank him enough for that. Can't wait to see what the LORD has in store for us for the future.

Love you babe, Happy Anniversary!!

It's that time of year.............

Ladies and gentleman, it's that time of year again and I have officially lost my husband AND my TV!! You may still be wondering, "what in the world is this girl talking about?" Well folks, football season is officially upon us! Don't get me wrong, I don't hate football and enjoy watching some games, especially Oklahoma (GO SOONERS!) but when nothing but football is shown on my TV for 4 or 5 months it can get a little old!

I am very grateful that hubby purchased a new TV for the bedroom a few years back, because at least I can go down there and watch some of my shows every once in a while. I like spending times with the hubs in all, but listening to him yell things at the people on TV like they can hear him gets annoying. (Sorry babe!)

I will admit that I am a little excited tonight because the Sooners will be playing their opening game against Tulsa. Not sure if it will be a good game, but I will be watching along side the hubs and sweet pea while we snack on wings, fries/onion rings and a few beers. Who do you root for? Are you excited for their season to start? Until next time I will leave you with these pics from football season last year. BYE!

Sweet pea during the Bowl game. BOOMER SOONER!

Our little family on the eve of the 1st game last year. sweet pea was so little :(