Autumn Touches

As promised, today I have pictures of my fall decorating for y’all.

My goal this year was to keep things simple.  I’m starting to realize that I really appreciate clean, simple, uncluttered décor (although you’d probably never guess it by looking around my house), so a bunch of Halloween doodads are not for me.  Just give me a few dried leaves, some acorns, and a white pumpkin or two and I’m happy.

I’ve been inspired lately by a blog I recently discovered called Farmhouse 5540.  I love everything about this lady’s style.  Everything!  I wish I could bring her home with me and let her work her magic in my house.  There’s something about her simple, farmhouse style that makes me happy.  So as I was adding autumn touches to my house this year, I was trying to keep her rustic style mind.

It is going to take some practice before I’m able to replicate this style, and I find myself changing and rearranging things every day.  So what you see in these photos today may not be the way things look in my home tomorrow.

First I’ll show you our breakfast room.  I guess a more accurate name for this area would be school room, since we always do school here and never eat breakfast here.  But that’s another story.

I’m a big fan of the nontraditional pumpkins, particularly the white ones.  Like I mentioned the other day, orange is not my favorite color, and orange pumpkins just scream Halloween to me (which is not the look I was going for).

I love to decorate with pieces that can easily be used year round – like this lantern. I can pop it open and fill it with whatever seasonal item I want.  Right now it’s filled with green raffia and a ceramic pumpkin that I bought at the dollar store.  I also added a brown, silk ribbon to warm it up a bit.  In a few, short weeks I’m sure I will be stuffing this lantern with some shiny glass ornaments.

I’ve had this metal watering can for more than a decade.  It’s lived in various places over the years, mostly on my back porch, but I decided to move it to the breakfast room for now and fill it with dried cornhusks and artificial wheat stems.

Ah, mantel!  I always have such a hard time deciding what to do with you.  Since the mantel is the focal point of the living room, and quite possibly of the whole house, I always feel a lot of pressure to get it right.  Honestly, I was not entirely satisfied with the way the mantel looked in this picture.  This area always feels too dark to me.  To help brighten up the space, I recently commissioned Lucy to find a few sticks in our yard and paint them white.  Then I laid the sticks, somewhat haphazardly, across the top of the mantel, and they do help brighten up the dark wood.

This wooden sign was a clearance item from Hobby Lobby.  Originally it was reddish, pink and said something about “lake living.” Not my style, per se, but at less than $5, I couldn’t pass it up.  I painted the sign white as soon as I got it home, but I never could decide what to write on it.  It’s been stuck in a drawer for about 5 years (no exaggeration) until last week, when I finally pulled it out and added the word, “Gather.”

These white pumpkins and Indian corn are certainly my favorite part of the mantel scape.

Behind the living room couch, I replaced a vase of flowers with these preserved leaves.  Oh, how I wish I had some lovely, natural fall foliage in my backyard that I could cut and bring inside, but alas!  What few leaves in my yard aren’t brown and crunchy with drought are still bright green.   (By the way, maybe the 8” of rain we got yesterday will solve the drought problem!)

The bright fall colors are lovely, but I do find them a little too intense for my taste.

The last stop for the day is our console table.  Here lies a beautiful, two-toned pumpkin, and even though it’s not white, I absolutely love it!

At the other end of the console I stuffed a metal crown with a few pinecones, and I also added another natural element with the tree slice.

And here’s my only official Halloween decoration.  It’s a jack-o-lantern I made probably 10 years ago from an old paperback book.  I know I said I wasn’t into using Halloween decorations this year, but this one is so subtle I’m ok with it.  (If you’re observant, you may have noticed that I actually have one more of these book pumpkins on my mantel.)

That’s all the photos I have today.  I’m going to try get a picture of our backdoor all dressed for fall and maybe a few of our dining room table.  Hope y’all enjoyed the little tour!

Fall Blessings,

Lindsey

Terrific to be Two

Two weeks ago our little pumpkin, Tacy Mae, turned two years old.  My, how the time flies!

Due to conflicting schedules, I came pretty close to not throwing a birthday party this time around.  After all, Tacy did get an all-expense-paid trip to Canton’s First Monday Trade Days and Great Wolf Lodge on her birthday.  What more could a girl ask for, right?  But due to the whining and nagging from Tacy’s grandmothers, I threw together a very impromptu dinner to appease my mother and mother-in-law celebrate Tacy’s second birthday.

The great thing about October birthdays, is that pumpkins and other autumnal decor can easily double as party decorations.  Just paint a glittery “2’' on a pumpkin and you’re good to go.

I also added touches of tulle and a little gold ribbon here and there for some extra special, celebratory sparkle.

I was pleased with the outcome of this tulle-wrapped pumpkin because the sheer covering helped tone down the intensity of the orange.  I realize orange is a fall staple, but I’m not fan of the color.  I would love to fill this bowl with tiny white pumpkins, but I haven’t been able to locate any yet.

Since my children don’t really care for traditional cake I decided to bake Tacy a cookie cake instead.

Tacy was a little unsure of what to do with her birthday candles.  It was only her second birthday, you know.  Mostly Tacy just wanted to touch the flames.  Luckily, the Tool Man was standing close by to grab her hand before she got too close to the fire.

While Dad was trying to coach Tacy on blowing out candles, Lucy “accidentally” puffed them out for her.  When all of the party guests instinctively gasped, Lucy ran out of the room red-faced and crying.  It was no biggie, really.  We just relit the candles and Tacy gave it another go.  But Lucy was totally embarrassed by the whole ordeal, and it took some coaxing to get her to rejoin the festivities.

So much for making a birthday cake my kids would actually eat.  As you can see Tacy was content to feed her piece to the Tool Man, who was more than willing to gobble it up.

A few gifts Tacy received were two, snazzy, fall outfits, her very first Barbie, some princess shoes and accessories, a tiny tricycle, a small slide with a jumbo bag of balls for diving into, some shape matching manipulatives (y’all know I have to give at least one educational toy), and this puppy pal.

I guess that does it for birthday parties around here for the next eight months.  Now it’s time to get serious about holiday decorating.  I’ve just about got my autumn touches in place, but I’m still on the look out for those mini, white pumpkins.  It’s hard to believe than in six weeks I will be putting up a Christmas tree.

I.  Can’t.  Wait.

I’ve already decided we are going back to a real tree this year.  You just can’t beat the look, feel, and smell of fresh cut tree.  But enough about Christmas.  I think now I will go take a few pictures of my autumn décor to share with y’all. 

Lindsey

One’s Upon a Time ~ Tacy’s First Birthday

October 1 was Miss Tacy Mae’s first birthday, and this weekend our family gathered to celebrate her special day.

How I would have loved to have given Tacy a magnificent, birthday blowout, but I don’t have the time or the money to afford such an affair.  Instead we celebrated with a simple, Sunday lunch at home with our closest family.

Even though my goal was to keep things simple, I still wanted a theme for Tacy’s party.  Inspired by the book parties I’d seen on Pinterest, I decided on a storybook theme which I called “One’s upon a Time.”

I designed the invitations to look like an old library card.

For the decorations I set around some old vintage books belonging to me, the Tool Man, and my mom.  Vintage sounds so much more pleasant than old or antique, doesn’t it?

My favorite book was this Little Red Riding Hood.  Y’all might remember that this book is normally on display in Tacy’s Little Red inspired nursery.

In fact, Tacy’s nursery sparked the color theme for the party – red and aqua.  I even used leftover fabric from her room to make Tacy’s party dress.

Another fun detail I made for the party was this chalkboard summary of Tacy’s first year milestones.  I finally broke down and ordered myself a chalk pen, and let me tell you, it works soooo much better than traditional chalk.

For lunch, we dined on delicious lasagna, green beans, fresh salad, and breadsticks.  Yum!  I was surprised at how much Tacy liked the lasagna.  Although she was down on the floor running around, she kept making her way over to me with her mouth gaped open, ready for a bite.

Before cake and ice cream time, Tacy got some loving from her grand-ma-ma’s.

For the birthday cake, I made a red velvet with cream cheese icing.  I left the sides un-iced to highlight the layers.  To spruce it up a bit, I added a banner made from scraps of fabric.  Simple but sweet!

Time for presents!  Tacy would rather have eaten them than opened them.

Tacy got more than enough help from Lucy while opening her presents.

Of course, Tacy got lots of books for her birthday, but she also got a Little People car, a beautiful, pearl bracelet, a snazzy pair of red shoes, and pint-sized chair for reading.  Here she is sitting in her chair, reading a book, and admiring her new shoes.

After she was done opening gifts, Tacy got to try some birthday cake.

She loved it, as you might can tell by looking at this face.

Then she tried a bite of ice cream.  I don’t know why, but for some reason, Tacy wasn’t into the ice cream at all.  Every time I’d try to give her a bite, she’d spit it back out.

So, we just stuck to birthday cake instead!

Happy birthday, Tacy Mae.  We love you!

Lindsey

Happy, Happy, Happy Birthday, Ty!

It’s birthday party season here at the Allen household.  As I mentioned earlier, Ty chose Duck Dynasty for his party theme.  Y’all know me.  I loooove to plan my monkeys’ birthday parties, but it seems the more monkeys I have, the harder it is to get everything done.  So this year I tried really hard to scale back…somewhat. 

The fun started at the back door with a rustic sign to welcome party guests.

Although I completely forgot about them once the party started, I prepared some photo props for goofy pictures.  Oh, well, at least I got one picture of Lucy.  Can she rock a beard or what?

I always tell my kiddos they can have a killer cake or a killer party, but they can’t have both.  I’m not super mom.  Personally, I’d rather spend my time on party planning rather than cake decorating.  Luckily, they agree.  Initially, I baked this small cake for Ty and colored the batter so that it would look camouflage when cut open.  After the cake was all baked, Ty decided he’d rather have a cookie cake.  OK by me.

Let them eat two (simply decorated) cakes!

Would you like to take a stroll around the food table?  Here we go…

Duck Bills:  Pringles and dip

Sausage and Quackers:  Homemade summer sausage and Ritz

Duck Calls:  Pirouette Cookies

Yuppie Food:  Fresh fruit and veggies

I set the cakes on the buffet and made a garland to string across the mirror.  I included images of the Duck Commanders and some funny quotes from their show.

Ty had a talking Jase doll figure that was perfect for the occasion, and I found the gator head at Dollar Tree.  Of course, I had to include a picture of our family with Phil and family from the time they shot the commercial at our restaurant.  (More about that here.)

For party favors, I bagged up some fishing bait, or gummy worms, and I packaged marshmallow ammo for the marshmallow guns we made. 

I also bought the kiddos flag bandanas like Willie wears.

The Tool Man worked really hard and finished our swimming pool and deck in time for the big party.  The kids had a blast swimming!  They spent most of their time practicing their cannonballs and belly busters.

When we finally dragged the kids out of the pool, we all had cake and ice cream while Ty opened his gifts.  Then the Tool Man led the kids in building marshmallow guns using PVC pipe.  Once the guns were assembled the kids really got into decorating them with assorted colored duct tape.  Redneck craftiness at its finest! 

Happy, happy, happy birthday, Ty!  You’re the sweetest kid a mom could ask for.  I love you!

Now it’s time to start planning the next party.  It’s less than a month until Lucy’s big day.  She has requested a cupcake decorating/ swimming party.  I don’t know how we’ll be able to squeeze so much fun into just a couple of hours, but I’m sure we’ll manage.  I’m also sure that whatever we do will involve a TON of sprinkles!

Lindsey