A Bit of Fall Decor

You can't visit Blogland too often without getting gently bumped in the face with some serious Fall-Love.  Everywhere I turn there are fall mantels and tables, with achingly beautiful displays that celebrate my most favorite season in the whole year!!

All this mantel-dressing and table-decoring forced me to look at my own mantel and table.  Hmmmmm.  Hadn't taken a look in quite a while---make that since the Christmas greens and pine cones and lights had been removed, bundled up, and packed away.

So . . . the mantel.  There sat 2 dusty candles---never lit, a bird house with part of the roof askew, a giant bronze bird looking strangely disproportionate next to the hummingbird-sized house, and a large gold "M," should I ever forget the last initial I acquired upon the day of my marriage.

The table was worse . . . an empty tired pottery vase, trying very hard to look enticing in its red glaze, a stack of math books and calculator, and an array of papers to be signed or disposed of.

Yawn!!  The mantel and tables said "Mom too distracted to look any further than the current crisis,." They did NOT say, "Welcome Fall!!!"

This week I welcomed fall, in my own simple way . . . with lots of natural materials and a few acquired vintage finds from my "picking with Youngest Son."

My favorite thing is the table with the old milk crate full of hydrangeas and some grapevine pumpkins and white pumpkin gourds.

It's amazing what taking a little time to dress up the house can do for your spirits and for the general attitude of the whole house!!

It's a throw your head back, spread your arms wide, stand out in the cool morning air feeling . . . "Welcome, Fall!!"

Winter Table

Here's what my winter table is looking like.  Christmas colors, but not Christmas-y enough to need to remove with the reindeer, ornaments and nativity.

Collected bottles, a wrapping of burlap, tied with twine.  Mixture of daisies and mums.  Various fresh greenery laying on the burlap runner.

Simple, common, beautiful nature.  Just the way I like my table!

Summery Table

Wow!  If you take a look at this blog, you would assume that I graduated my Oldest Daughter and then drowned my sorrows in a large crock of pickles and fell off the end of the earth.

Not completely true.  Actually, my brain and body stopped after all the busy-ness of the year and once stopped, refused to be prodded once again to action. 

I do also confess to some emotional breakdowns and a few pickles.

But all seems to once again be moving and alive and straightening out.

I can tell by the state of my dining room table.

Until this weekend, it was covered with a droopy cloth leftover from company use weeks ago.  There were stacks of "to do," "to mail," and "to put away" piles here and there.  Someone had cut up paper and left shreds scattered across the length.  An odd stapler was lying haphazardly on its side.  Several vases stood empty, having weeks ago been emptied of their faded contents.

But no more.

This weekend the table was stripped of its mess.  Polished.  And set to rights.  And I love how everything in the middle of my summer table reminds me of some of my favorite summer things.

Cool crisp cotton in a buttery yellow.

Punched tin lanterns with light glowing through.

IBC Root Beer bottles.

Filmy, fluttery flowers of the crepe myrtle.

Yep, I'm back.  The table is cleared and organized.  And that table is a pretty clear window into the state of my mind.

Flowers in Bottles

I just love these beautiful green bottles in which my very favorite salad dressing comes.

So, I was delighted when I had enough to put some large, bold Gerber daisies in.

A bit of simple twine around the neck and a few baubles and beads and it's complete.

 

Sweet and simple way to decorate a spring table.

I'm No Bird!

Nests have been everywhere this spring . . . and I don't just mean in the trees. I mean in home decor shops and little boutiques and accessorizing the plate glass window displays of clothing stores. And I just couldn't get enough of them!! Maybe it's because my mom is such a bird lover, and the sight of a nest touches a soft place in my heart.

I wanted to use them on my spring table, but, no, I did not want to pay $30 for one. So, I set off for the woods. How hard could it be to put together a nest? A few twigs, a bit of moss, and a sturdy hot glue gun . . . piece of cake!

I quickly found out . . . I'm no bird!! And glue guns don't lend themselves to nest-making. I could've watched the birds to find out that!

What did finally work was to cut a rather pliable vine from out of a tree and wind it around, weaving it in and out of itself and hoping that by some miracle it would catch on itself and stay in a circular shape.

I did see a small cluster of female robins giggling hysterically at me. It was embarrassing.

The resulting "nest" wouldn't have held an egg or protected a small cluster of bird babies for anything in the world. But it worked for my purposes.

I nestled a little Spanish moss in my nest frame and called it a day.

The real treasure is these beautiful ceramic eggs that I found at TJ Maxx months before Easter. I love them! They match my house perfectly! They are the size of a good-sized chicken egg. I made three of my un-bird-like nests and "nestled" two of the eggs in each.

Bees and stylistic sunflowers:





A little American calico print teamed up with something Moroccan!

Beautiful chocolate flowers on a green and blue polka-dot background, and butterflies on mottled orange:

Another trick I swiped from my local cute gift-y store was to display the nests up on pillar candle holders. These candle holders were then set on burlap with swoop-y pieces of the vine laying here and there.

I loved how these turned out for Easter dinner, and so, they are also now my table for spring.

I may not be a bird, but this spring I've got my nests!

The Two Sides of Winter

With Christmas long gone, there was now a need to layout something on the dining room table to cover the bare expanse of the wood.

Christmas took all my decorating energy . . . and let's just say there's precious little of that in the first place. So, I "shopped the house," as The Nester says and found something to put together.

Something that still gives me the softness and glow and reflection that winter needs. And it's simple . . . has to be simple!

First I laid 3 octagon mirrors in the middle of the table . . .

. . . and onto the mirrors went 3 silver candlesticks with their beaded shades.

To soften up the coldness of the silver, I found a nice length of tassel trim that was left over from my curtains.

Yummmmm, I love tassels!!

And then, to tie together the warm colors of the tassels with the cool silvers, I tossed around some red mosaic votives that have a bit of a silvery sheen.

Cool and shimmery . . . warm and textured . . . love the contrasts.

Just like the two sides of winter . . . outside my windows . . . and inside, next to the fire.

The Fall Table

As if there weren't enough signals to the change of season to be observed all around me, my dining room table always provides yet another reminder.

Remember this soothing beach scene played out in the center of the table? It kept me smiling all summer. No, we never made it to the beach, but I could touch sand and shells and smile at the seagull any time I wanted.

By the end of summer, however, things were beginning to disintegrate a little! Little fingers had played in the sand, and it had spilled everywhere . . . even on the gorgeous wood of the table!!

The pelican who had been so jaunty standing on his driftwood perch in the early days now cowered tentatively behind one of the beach chairs. I know, little fellow, a few months in this household can reduce you to a mumbling ball of neuroses; can't it?! I feel your pain.

The table shouted out loud, "Enough of summer!! Bring on fall!"

I first became inspired for my fall table by this fabulous picture in a Lowe's magazine. I loved all the different looks of the various pumpkins and the elegant touches of gold.

So, I got some different pumpkins, squash, gourds and brought them home. I fully intended to add the gold touches, but when I saw the different pieces in all their beauty, I couldn't bear to cover any of it up with gold!

How could I spray over this beautiful mottled acorn?

Or these fascinating Hubbards?

Or these sweet, creamy mini pumpkins?

No, these needed to just be piled onto the table, accented with some crepe myrtle seed pods,

and a few tiny terracotta pots spread around with votives inside.

Spray the seed pods gold? Paint the tiny pots gold inside or outside? No, gold was just not working for me this fall. I wanted the real colors of the vegetables, the imperfect oval seed pods, the rough terracotta of the little pots.

Perfect. Fall has arrived on my table top. And, oooooh, just look how warmly it glows at night!