September Acres

Day 1: Inviting Others to Join your Holiday Celebration Day 2: The Lost Art of Hospitality Day 3:  Hospitality Basket Day 4:  Something to Share Day 5:  Hospitality vs. Entertain Day 6:  Overnight Guests Day 7: No Guest Room? No Problem Day 8:  Compassionate Hospitality Day 9: A Welcoming Entry Day 10: Come on in Day 11: Quotes Day 12: Favorites Day 13:  Southern Hospitality Day 14:  Pumpkin Cake Day 15:  Symbol of Hospitality Day 16:  Hostess Gifts Day 17: Accidents Happen Day 18:  Who Invited You? Day 19: Breakfast for your Guests Day 20:  Thank You Notes Day 21: Signature Drinks Day 22:  Books Day 23:  No Children Day 24:  Traditions Day 25:  Invitations Day 26:  When you're too tired to cook Day 27:  Relaxing Day 28: Quiet Inspiration Day 29:  The Party's in the Kitchen Day 30:  Getting Ready for the Holidays I am joining The Nester this year for the 31 Days series.  A challenge to write a post a day for the month of October on the same topic.  Definitely a challenge, rig

 My post title is 'fall-ISH mantel' because I'm not quite ready to make the mantel too Halloween-y, which is what I like to do but I needed to 'de-summer' it.  Maybe it will help cool things off around here. HA.  I put my funny shaped paper pumpkins in my apothecary jars and I like them much better that way!  The orange pumpkin is just fine out on it's own.  The far end of the mantel - the black urn holds my blue glittery pumpkin.  It also is tall enough to cover all the cords from the tv.  I love things that do double duty!  Another angle.  Here you can see my initial place I got for my birthday (it came from Hobby Lobby) and the cute orange pumpkin. Here's the whole thing - tv and all!  It's a bit sparse but I think I am okay with that because in a few weeks it will be totally busy and all Halloween-y. I am linking up to Sherry's Open House Thursday - Always a fabulous collection of links.  Plus she showcases one really lovely home each we

LM had her sleepover on Saturday night.  It went off without a hitch.  Noisy but otherwise fine.  The girls even decided they wanted to go swimming after dinner.  That lasted about 15 minutes as the water was freezing!  Two of the girls left at 10am and one stayed a while later.  The girls were pretty tired as they stayed up late (I got several answers to what time they went to bed: from midnight to 1:30 to 'we stayed up all night').  I wanted to work on some paper pumpkins I had seen in Scrapbooks, etc. magazine so I thought the girls could craft as well.  I pulled out the beads for them to make bracelets. I picked out some orange paper and ribbon from my stash and started cutting 1" strips for the pumpkins.  I cut 16 1" X 8" strips out of 2 different orange papers.  The instructions for these pumpkins are here . They are super easy and quick (my kind of project!)  I also made some out of some scrapbook paper I have that looks like pages from a book.  I li

A few weeks ago LM decided she wanted to have a sleepover this weekend.  Not just one friend, but 3.  I didn't think much of it until she presented me the invitations she made on the computer.  She was serious.  My husband asked the other night, 'is she really doing this,?'  As it turns out, yes.  I am fine with it and he really is too.  He even loaded the Barbie All Dolled Up Nail printer software into his new computer so the girls can decorate their nails! LM wanted to know if we should have goody bags.  I reminded her that this wasn't a birthday party, just a sleepover and goody bags definitely would not be necessary. She's quite the party planner, I tell you!  I told her we'll order pizza (no cooking for me!), get the movie 'Spooky Buddies' and even buy some soda - as long as what she picks out is caffeine free!!  She found an idea online of a 'popcorn bar' - pop some corn and set out bowls with toppings - m&m's, Parmesan cheese,

With the weather cooling down we are entering what I like to call 'painting season'.  It happens to coincide with football season so I am usually on my own.  But it's getting cool enough to open doors and windows for the day making it good weather to paint a whole room as opposed to a small piece of furniture or an accessory. I am thinking about painting the guest bath next.  We never painted the walls when we did the remodel .  I am really liking gray right now and I think that bath is the perfect place for the perfect shade of gray.  In the coming weeks I hope to carve out some time to look at some grays and see if I can find one for that room. I liked the grayish color Melissa used in her hallway. You can see it here .  She is actually having a giveaway for a $150 giftcard from Walmart so you can get your next painting project started.  Now there's some motivation!

I bought this candle holder years ago, right after we moved to Arizona.  To be honest, I never really cared for it.  So I stuck it on our pot shelf, way up and out of the way.  I bought it because it was that rustic, southwest-y look that was so popular 10 or 11 years ago.  Even though it was not my style.  When I was redoing my pot shelf a week or so ago I took down that candle holder with the intention of donating it to the Goodwill.  But it's a great size; tall and kind of chunky.  I figured I would keep it but I still didn't like it.  Enter my friend, Krylon Blue Ocean Breeze spray paint.  I figured I'd give it a shot and see how I liked it after a couple of coats of this beauty.  I kind of like it.  Alot.  I should have done this years ago!  I stuck the red and white candle on top because the colors work but I am not wild about it.  I'll look around for something that I like better but for now it's so much better than before. I think it looks like a new candle

There's no guarantee when I'll have time to post a really fun, relevant, exciting post.  Right now we're getting ready for Labor Day weekend.  The unofficial end of summer, right? So I am washing and cleaning and shopping so we'll be ready on Friday afternoon for swimming and playing and eating. Hope you all have a safe, happy Labor Day weekend. See you after all that fun is had...