Q&A Wednesday - Getting Ready for Fall

Dawn asked, "Can you post any photos of your fall decor and any crafts/costume ideas soon as I'm getting ready to decorate my house this weekend. Thanks."

After seeing this comment, I came to the realization that I wasn't in love with my fall decorations. I went around the house, taking pictures of this and that, unimpressed with most of it. The next day, I took Kaylin and Jason out to search for some new fall decor that is more my style.

Unfortunately, the only items that were in my budget that day were these little pumpkin place card holders from Hobby Lobby. A 40% coupon sweetened the deal even more. Aren't they adorable?


They had pears too, but I decided on the pumpkins and am using them as picture holders.


I have lots of fall pictures around my house right now, mostly to break up the monotony of the photos that have been displayed all year. I rotate in fall pictures until December, then Christmas and snow pictures through January, then I put out my standard, year-round pictures until fall again.

(This pictures was a friend's pumpkin carving party when Ryan was 3 1/2. It's one of my favorite Halloween memories...he was grabbing handfuls of pumpkin guts and throwing them into a nearby trash can as fast as he could. It makes me smile every time I see it.)


(This is a goofy picture of Mike and me at a church hoe-down a while back. Bandanas, braids in my hair and corn hanging out of Mike's mouth. It says, "fall" to me for some reason...)

I still wanted a few more touches of fall in my front room, so last weekend, I called a friend on a whim and begged her to drop everything and go shopping with me for an hour. Together, we came up with these fun pieces. They're versatile and can be exchanged with seasonal wreaths, candles and filler throughout the year, so I don't feel as guilty for the splurge.

(on my dining room table - the hurricane is from Home Goods, the wreath is from Holland Boone, I had the pillar candle already...I buy clearance candles at the end of each season for the next year.)


(currently on my kitchen counter, may be relocated if it gets in my way every day - both the candle holder and the filler are from Holland Boone)

I also found some fall leaves at Pier 1 that I interchanged with the little white flowers that I've had in this floor vase for years. I'd like to get some berries for Christmas, use the flowers through spring and summer, and I love the way the leaves look for fall. The flowers and swizzle sticks were also from Pier 1.

(in my front hall)

I split a 36 lb. case of Washington apples with a friend (from my produce co-op) and had to find places for more than 50 apples, so I decided to decorate with them.

(on my kitchen island - I picked up the cool canister from my mom's garage sale recently)

I got the below idea from Becky Higgins. (see her fall decorating ideas in this post) I happened to have three pumpkins to stick on the three empty candle holders on my fireplace. I like how they turned out.

The photo below isn't fall decor, but I finally updated the frames above the desk hutch in my office with current pictures of the kids. (Ahem...please excuse the piles of papers in the cubbies. I still haven't figured out a good system for paperwork in my office, unless you count loosely-labeled cubbies that get papers crammed inside.) I usually have sepia toned pictures here, but decided to print them in color this time. I think they turned out cute!

The second part of Dawn's question had to do with costumes. I had an AMAZING family idea, but no amount of bribery is working to get Ryan to cooperate.

Last year on November 2nd, Kaylin announced that she wanted to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz this year. Thank goodness that's what she still wants to be, because I borrowed a beautiful Dorothy costume from a friend and found sparkly ruby red slippers at Target. I decided to make this a family affair when I saw a 12-18 month lion costume for $5 at a consignment sale. I gave Ryan the option to be either the scarecrow or the tin man and was going to ask Mike to be the other, while dressing up as the good witch myself. But Ryan's not in. At all. He wants to be Darth Vader.

How sad, right?

As it turns out, a friend called last week offering a hand-me-down "Squirt the Turtle" costume for Jason from the Finding Nemo movie. I think it's even cuter than the lion and no one else seems to want to participates in my awesome Wizard of Oz theme, so Jason might be a turtle named Squirt.

Anyone else have fall on the brain? For me, it's wishful thinking; it was 100 degrees yesterday...