New Curtains Inspired by Fall

I made new curtains for the windows in our living room. I wanted something that would work well for fall. I found this fabric at Wal-Mart. Most of the stores around here have already gone through a remodel to get rid of the fabric section. There's a couple that still have fabrics. I wish we had more options for fabric stores around here. Our only choices are really only Hobby Lobby and the single Hancock's fabrics.


I really liked the colors. They work well for fall with the oranges and browns but they also work with my home accents. I use a lot of oranges and greens pretty much year around in my decorating so I think they will be perfect. I had white sheers up over these windows.



Here's a picture with the sheers up. And here's a pictures with the new curtains.

I like them. They may not be perfect but I think they look just fine. And for my first attempt that making curtains I think I did pretty good. Of course, I did learn an important lesson in the process. Always measure twice. Silly me I cut the fabric panels too short the first time around. I had to figure out something so I went and got the green to put at the top. Oh well, I still like them. And now I know, measure twice.

I'm participating in "Celebrating the Holidays party" hosted by It's So Very Cheri. Check it out.

Furniture Arrangement Troubles

Daniel and I decided to rearrange the furniture in both our living room and bedroom this weekend. We started with the living room. We don't have a lot of options on how we can arrange the furniture with the way our living room is set up. We have a gas fireplace in the corner and while it has a cubby for our television above the fireplace, we don't use it. We prefer to use a tv stand. This complicates things though because we only have one cable outlet on the walls. The other cable outlet is up in the cubby.

Here's a picture of the fireplace.



I purchased a large mirror to cover the space above the fireplace. I enjoy this better than having the tv up there. This allows me to be able to fully decorate the mantle. Like I've said before I decorate to the seasons. I finally broke down and decorated for fall a little earlier than usual. I'm not quite satisfied with the way the mantle is decorated now but I'm waiting for the fall decorating items to go on sale at Hobby Lobby. There are several things I just absolutely love there.


Anyway, back to my furniture story. So we decided to move the furniture around. The fireplace in the position it is makes this difficult as well as the fact that we only have one cable outlet. That really limits us on where we can place the TV stand. In addition to this we have a sectional sofa that takes up quite a bit of space. I really liked this sofa when we purchased it but now I'm wishing we had just went with a sofa and a couple of chairs. Daniel had a recliner he got from his parents and we have that in the living room as well.


This is the way we have it arranged currently. This is the new way. It was turned so the sofa faced the window and the recliner sit next to the window. Now its basically opposite. I'm not sure about this arrangement, but Daniel likes it. It will take some time getting used to. We aren't quite finished moving things around but for today I think we have had a enough.

I really love our house but when we decide that we will need to move into a larger home, I definitely will have a list of things that I want to be different.

Ribbon covered lamp shade

Kim over at Twice Remembered is hosting Make Your Monday and I thought I would get in on the fun.



I bought this lamp at Wal-mart for $3. Actually I purchased two of them. They didn't have a lamp shade but I loved the simplicity of them. I have to admit they sat in my closet for the longest time before I decided what to do with them.

When I started getting my craft room together I knew this lamp would be perfect. I purchased a plain shade at Home Depot for $5. I bought the ribbon 50% off at Hobby Lobby. Not too bad for a total of $11.

I wrapped the ribbon around the shade and made sure that the edges overlapped. I'm really please with how it turned out.

Weekend in Review

This weekend has been a fairly relaxing one. The weather is AMAZING. Usually this time of year is miserable with temperatures in the high 90s or low 100s and humidities around 100%. This whole week has been nice. This weekend I think we only had highs in the 80s and the lows have been in the 50s.

Daniel and I went out to the lake for a cookout with his company on Saturday. It was great fun. Today, we went to church and Sunday school. It was great. Afterwards we came home and simply relaxed.

I didn't really get much done though but sometimes you just need to sit and do nothing and rest.

Tomorrow, I plan on making up for not getting things done today. I'm starting my Halloween crafts tomorrow so they will be ready when October rolls around. I'll be sure to post on them. I'm looking forward to doing some crafts. I've not been able to the past week or so (stinking allergies).

So until tomorrow.

Photography is fun!!

I know it's kind of a cheesy title. I couldn't really think of much more than that. I'm fighting off allergies and I'm kind of hyped up on sinus medicine.

Anyway.

My sweet husband bought me a Canon Rebel for Christmas last year and this past weekend, I tried my hand at taking some senior pictures for a family member. I'm still learning how to work the camera. It's truly amazing what these cameras are capable of doing.

I was really happy with how they turned out and so was the family I photographed.

Here's a few of my favorites.












I've always been interested in photography. I took an introductory course in college and loved it. I didn't really care much for the professor who taught the class but the subject was fun. Shooting these senior pictures this past weekend was the same. I absolutely loved it. I was a little nervous about how they would turn out. I was really worried that she wouldn't like them. I found out today that the mom and daughter both really liked them.

I'm definitely going to try to take more classes when I get the chance.

Fall, could you please hurry?!

I can't begin to tell you how much I LOVE fall. I love everything about it: the smells, the tastes, the colors.

Moreover, I can't tell you how hard it has been for me to not get down the fall decorations. I am definitely one who decorates for the seasons and fall happens to be my FAVORITE season. I can't wait. I know it's still going to feel like summer for the next couple of months here in Arkansas but I don't care.

My seasonal decorating schedule usually goes something like this:

Summer- Memorial Day thru Labor Day

Fall- Labor Day thru Thanksgiving ( I decorate for harvest until October then the Halloween decorations go up. Come November the Halloween stuff gets put away and Thanksgiving comes out.)

Winter/Christmas- the day after Thanksgiving thru March (I put Christmas up after Thanksgiving and after the New Year I change everything up a bit. I put the Santas and those things away and leave up the evergreen wintry things. Come February I decorate for Valentine's Day. It uses a lot of the red things I use for Christmas just used differently.)

Spring- March thru May with Easter in there as well.

A lot and I mean a lot of my decorations are used for two or more seasons. I just use them in different ways. I love items that can be used over and over and look different every season. It makes the non-existent decorating budget go that much farther.

Now I know Labor day is only a few weeks away but I'm not sure I'm going to make it. The temperatures here have been a little below average lately and it's making me giddy. The weatherman says they will go back up and I'm sure they will. Here in Arkansas the saying goes,"If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes. It will change." Its totally true, too.

My husband probably hates this time of year because it usually means A LOT of trips up into the attic.

So today I broke down and brought out the fall scent wall plugs. I figure this may hold me off for a couple more weeks.

I'm currently using these:

source

I use this brand year round. I love switching the scents out for the seasons also. All summer I used the Lilac scent. Today I switched them out for the Spiced Cider. Love it. I stocked up on these last year and only have one box left. Looks like I'm going to have to do some scent shopping soon. I think I may change what I use though and try these:

source

I hope they come in the wall plugs.

This scent is amazing. I went into our local Yankee candle store last week and fell in love with this scent.

What is your favorite season?

Homemade Topiary

I love topiaries. I have several around the house that I purchased here and there. The other day I decided to try to make my own.

Here it is.



It's not quite finished but there was enough done to take a picture. To tell you the truth I ran out of flowers and need to go get more.

It's pretty easy to make. Here's a photo of the supplies I used.

I used a spray adhesive to attach the silk flowers to the Styrofoam ball. I recommend wearing gloves. I didn't and had a time getting the glue off my hands.

I really like how it had turned out.

In other news...

I'm horrible at gardening.

That's probably a little harsh. I did grow some very tasty squash and tomatoes. I even tried my hand at making pickles. They are not quite ready. I'll let you know.

However, I was a little surprised the other day when I was tending to the garden and found something unexpected.


A pumpkin!!

Did I plant pumpkins? No.
Did I think this was going to be a watermelon? Yes.

See, I planted watermelons. I found this growing in the same place I planted the watermelon plant. It was very dark green and I was a little confused about why it was different than the other watermelons that were growing on the vine.

Two days ago I was working in the garden and turned it over and it was orange! And it now looked like a pumpkin. I was a little boggled about where it came from.

THEN I remembered...

We carved pumpkins last Halloween and threw the scrapings from the pumpkins over into this area.

Organizing Project

I've started working on organizing my husband's office. He's been really busy with work and scout stuff and when he goes into his office, he feels really overwhelmed. So, Sunday night I decided I would work on organizing it for him.

Now it's Thursday and I'm reconsidering. It's quite a project. I'm determined though. This is why I've not been a good blogger this week.

I will post pictures of the before and after soon.

Today is the day for relaxing

Been out camping this weekend with the husband and the scouts. Lots of fun but next time I camp I'm definitely bringing one of these...
Back pain is no fun. With that said, I'll be relaxing for the rest of the weekend. Back tomorrow with more craft projects. Have a great Sunday!!