September Acres

Well, hello there!  I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year.  It's hard to believe it is 2016, right?  Even weighing heavier on my mind is the fact that my daughter will be 14 next week. 14.  High school in 8 months. How did this happen?  Moms of younger kids: believe it when people tell you it goes fast.  So fast. Faster than you can imagine.  That, my friends, is an entire blog post. Today though,  let's talk about decorating for winter.  I finally got my Christmas decorations down. Oh, how I love that red and green and those sparkly lights.  Yes, I love it.  But after putting everything away I realized that I also  like that bare, sparse feeling and really considered not adding anything back.  I'm still thinking about it but who am I kidding? I've been perusing the web looking for inspiration for winter decorating.  You know, not quite Valentine's Day but no longer Christmas.  I love using...

I have opened a shop at Society 6 .  I am super excited to share some of these fun holiday items with you!  There are pillows and prints and canvas and travel mugs.  Even clocks!  Head over and take a look.  I'd love to hear your feedback too. I'm also open to your ideas - I have a bunch swirling around in my head but I love to hear what other people think and would like to see. I can do custom items too.  Or just switch out colors to match your decor. These items make really fun and unique gifts.  And did I mention the free shipping? I've ordered a few things from Society 6 in the past and have been happy with the quality and I'm sure you will be too. I hope you'll head on over to the shop and take a look.  Thanks!

Source Just when I was about to call Directv and tell them to take HGTV because it wasn't worth watching, 'Fixer Upper' miraculously showed up.  Oh happy day!  I just love this show!  Chip and Joanna Gaines are a hoot!  And the work they do is pretty darn fabulous. Source My favorite thing about this show is not Chip and Joanna, or Joanna's awesome style but the fact that they find homes in price ranges that are more middle America than what we see on Property Brothers or Love it or List it.  A $200,000 budget is not uncommon.  They find a house that's $120,000 or so leaving them $80,000 or so for renovations.  Pretty cool.  And pretty easy to relate to for many of us. Million dollar budgets?  Not so much. Chip and Joanna come across some really great fixer uppers.  Almost makes me want to move to Texas! Source I love Joanna's style.  She is creative and, being a mom of 4, she understands that homes need ...

Seems I'm not the only one decorating early this year.  I have never decorated this early.  I mean. we haven't even celebrated Thanksgiving yet!  But as I was going over my planner I realized that I needed to get started lickety split or I would be spending Christmas in an insane asylum. Take a look at some other bloggers who have started their decorating early this year: My Sweet Savannah Tatertots and Jello When do you usually decorate for the holidays?

Decorate your home.  It gives the illusion that  your life is more interesting than it really is. ~ Charles M. Schulz

There are so many cute advent calendars out there this year and if you're not careful you could end up spending a small fortune on one of them.  Before you do that, consider a fun DIY advent calendar.  There are many ideas and tutorials out there that are budget friendly and really fun to put together.  In no particular order here are 12 of my favorites - I'd  have them all in my home if I could! The Envelope Advent Calendar - I just love the idea of this because it's super easy and pretty inexpensive.  Most of us have envelopes on hand to make this happen.  This is the perfect type of calendar for 'experience' treats as opposed to toys or candy.  Things like: watch 'Elf' tonight, go sledding or make cookies with mom can be printed out on the computer on paper and tucked in the envelope for a fun activity.  This one from A Few Things From My Life is one of my favorites. A Few Things From My Life Muffin Tin Advent Calendar  ...

Are you spending this weekend decking the halls?  Are you thinking of spicing things up with a new color scheme?  Or do you stick with the traditional red and green? I try to do something a little different each year without breaking the bank (of course).  Last year I went with a red and blue theme in our main living areas (family room, dining and kitchen). And pink and green in LM's room. Here are some other great ideas for this year's Christmas look: Source   Blues and Greens.  I love these colors so much. Source  Turquoise and Orange.  How fun is this?  It really creates an exciting and modern feeling. Source White and Brown.   The beauty of this color scheme is that it's easy to incorporate your regular decor into a clean Christmas look.  And it's very White Christmas-y too. What non-traditional color schemes have you used? 

I found this black feather wreath at Michaels and snatched it up.  I added an orange glitter spider for Halloween (I had already taken it off when I took this photo.) but really wanted to figure out a way to keep it up until Christmas.  Knowing the orange spider wouldn't work, I started brainstorming. I came up with some fall colored leaves (cut with my Cricut) and paper acorns (using an ornament punch). I finished it up with a tan ribbon. I think it turned out pretty cute and will work Until I bring out Christmas.  Most importantly, I didn't spend any money on this transformation.  Always a good thing for me! Linking up to Frugal Friday at the Shabby Nest.

Fall starts on Saturday and despite the temps still reaching the triple digits most days I am getting into the fall mood with my decorating.  While I haven't pulled out the Halloween bins, I've spruced up the mantel  and the coffee table (to be unveiled soon) with some harvest loveliness.  In addition, I have adorned my dining table with some fall charm just in time to participate in the Autumn Linky Party over at The Lettered Cottage. We use our dining room table for homework as well as eating so I wanted to create something fun and festive that would be easy to remove quickly when the table was needed and this basket was the perfect surface on which to create the fall tablescape.  I love the shape, it's long and narrow, and the rich texture gives the entire design a rich, rustic feel which is perfect for the autumn months. On top of the basket I've added some colorful glass stones, little white ghosts and wine corks which encircle the larger items like...

If you're anything like me you are always looking for ways to add seasonal touches to your home without spending much (or any) money.   Like many of you, I have oodles of scrapbook paper.  To be honest it's probably more than I could ever use.  So when I wanted to add a little more fall to the house without a trip to the store I headed straight to the scrapbook paper. I started with three little pumpkins I cut with my Cricut, a piece of 12 X 12 scrapbook paper and a frame I had (part of my 90% off haul from Michaels a few weeks ago). If you have a Cricut, the 'Stretch your Imagination' cartridge is fantastic for seasonal die cuts - it's filled with really cute images for every holiday and season. I glued the three little pumpkins to the scrapbook paper (cut to 5X7) and put it in the frame (which ended up costing me 69 cents!)  I love the way it turned out and am deciding where to put it - it will possibly go on the mantel  or in the kitchen...

I finished my fall mantel today.  I actually started it last week but it took awhile to get the inspiration since I am not ready to do Halloween yet so I wanted something that was fall-ish but not all witches and bats.  I am happy with how it turned out and plan to keep it like this until I'm ready to put up Halloween in mid-October. If you have read my blog for any time you know that our T.V. hangs over the fireplace.  I need to work my mantel decor around the T.V. to make sure that it is not blocked by anything (heaven forbid).  Since I finished the mantel today, the first Sunday of regular season NFL games, the T.V. has been on since early this morning making it a bit of a challenge to photograph my work.  These first two photos are an overview of what I did. And here are the closeups.  I did take a few pumpkins out of the Halloween bins to add a bit of fall.  I got the black and white harlequin pumpkin last year at Hobby L...