Natural Autumnal Porch

This year I decided to make our front porch decorations stand out more than last year. I used the same vintage wood box, but did this instead:

Set the box on a large bale of straw and used it as a "pot" for a large chrysanthemum. I need to be better about remembering to water my flowers because the color has changed over a few weeks time since I'm a bit forgetful.

When my friend Emily was in town we added some gords and cut dried hydrangea from our bushes on the side of the house.

We also picked up our three pumpkins, two white and one green, to the steps. But, when I found this antique wash stand on the side of the road, I made the most of it and used it to add height to the other side of the front door. Now it is home to William's monogrammed pumpkin, two other pumpkins and some hydrangea.

I love it!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!

Since William is only 7 months old (today actually!) we are not doing any real trick-or-treating this year. But, that does not mean we haven't gotten dressed up in costume a few times with some friends!!

Check out some of our costumed playdates:

Monogrammed Pumpkin

While trolling the pumpkin patch, I fell in love with this deep green beauty. Maybe because we have a baby boy or maybe because I thought it looked more elegant than orange, I picked it off the vine. Everyone was telling me, "you picked a green one" which I realized since I'm not color blind, but I liked it.

To make it more personal without carving it (because what is safe about carving a pumpkin with a baby?) I monogrammed it with gold paint. Very easy steps: create template from computer, cut out stencil, trace and paint.

Come back in a few days to see where the pumpkin "lives" at our house.

Halloween Footprint Ghosts

This is one of my favorite projects and it was William's first real craft. Here he is with the finished product:

To kick-off our Halloween decor, I decided to make ghosts out of William's footprints. I saw a similar idea in a magazine a while ago, but I made some modifications and made it even easier.

Materials you need:
baby or child
wood
saw
paints: black, white, yellow
paintbrush
Sharpie
numerical stickers

I started off at Lowe's and purchased one piece of wood and cut it at home into a few different size pieces. (I did different sizes because I made these for William's grandparents too, but I used one footprint instead of two.) I also picked up a can of $1 black spray paint. I covered the basement floor in newspaper and gave each piece of wood two coats of spray paint on each side and all edges.

Then, I put William in his highchair and painted the bottom of his bare foot white and stamped it on the wood. Now, the first time I did this, I dipped his foot into the paint and then stood him up on the wood, but this resulted in a messy ghost that wasn't hardly recognizable as a footprint. By painting his foot, I had more control over the amount of paint used and could also spread out his toes if that makes any sense.

While the paint was drying, I added some additional details: a yellow full moon and the year 2011 in 3D white sparkle stickers so I didn't have to worry about neatly painting numbers. Then, I drew faces on each ghost with a Sharpie.

I love how this project came out and want to do it annually. Once William has a sibling, I can use one foot from each of them to have a big ghost and little ghost. One of the best parts is, since it is wood, I don't have to worry about it getting ripped in a box, paper fading, etc. I can just sit it anywhere in our house until Halloween!

Glass Fall Centerpiece

Last week the temperature in Maryland dropped which meant Fall really has arrived. So, while the baby was playing in the living room, I decided to switch up my table decor in the dining room (our main eating area). I went with something very simple, at least for the time being, because I already had all of the elements at home.

These five multi-level votives are meant for candles, but since we don't have many dinners by candlelight in our house, although I wouldn't mind if we did ;), I filled them with....

...orange glass beads. I used these beads last year too, but in a different way.

I also chose to use the same placemats as last year, but bought plum colored napkins at World Market. 

Now once I get out to the farm this year, I'm sure some pumpkins will be added!!

Fall is Here and So Are My Pumpkins

I know it is already mid-October but this post has been on the back burner until I finished sharing details of our Hawaii trip. When I typed the title above, I automatically thought how next fall we will have a little pumpkin at our house and how I hope he/she will fit into the cute Halloween sleeper I preemptively purchased at a consignment sale a few weeks ago :).

Back to my fall table...This past summer we had a collection of various height cracked glass candle holders as the centerpiece in our dining room. We eat all of our meals in the dining room or at the bar which is between the kitchen and dining room so it is not a "formal" eat-in area, we didn't want that. Well, one day I got home from work earlier than expected and headed up the road to Lewis Orchards for some inspiration. I felt guilty not buying pumpkins from Brad's cousins up at the Gaver Tree Farm, but I didn't have time to drive an hour that day and unfortunately still haven't.

At Lewis I found dozens of sizes and varieties of pumpkins, I was blown away. I kept saying "tabletop" over and over in my head so I didn't come home with some huge 25 pound pumpkin that I can't lift anyway. I started filling my cart with a selection of pumpkins, including a green one, and a few gords. I spent only $10. When I got home, I started placing everything.

I changed out the placemats to more of a fall color and then decided to fold some two-tone brown napkins to make a modified runner for all of the decor. But than I remembered I also had orange and clear glass beads/marbles from my Thanksgiving table last year. Once I added those in, it looked great!

After arranging and rearranging and adding in a wine chiller for height and a candle base for additional texture, I was happy with the way the pumpkins looked.

Linking up at Today's Creative Blog, Just a Girl, and Making the World Cuter