Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Finally Fall

I was so excited to see that The Nester was having a fall mantel party.  Julia at Hooked on Houses is having a fall decorating party also so I thought I would join in on all the fun.  I love to decorate for all the seasons, but especially fall.   My fall decorations go up on Labor Day weekend.     That may be early for some, but not for me.     I like to be surrounded by fall especially after the brutally hot summer we have experienced here in Mississippi.    We have finally cooled down and I am so happy.

As you can see, my mantel is all lit up.  

Candy corn lights and gold lights run through the garland and mesh fabric on the mantel.

This cute glittery pumpkin was purchased at Home Goods last year.  I added the bow.

Here is a picture of the hearth.    Sorry for the flash.    I didn’t have it on but my camera has a mind of its own and sometimes automatically turns it on.

The stained glass pumpkin was purchased at Cracker Barrel a couple of years ago at the after Thanksgiving clearance.

Moving on to my dining room.    I inherited the sideboard and mirror from my Aunt Lela and decorate it each season.     The sideboard is in bad condition.     It is not solid wood so I can’t strip it.    I am thinking of painting it.     I have seen several folks in blogland paint furniture black.     What do you think?     Should I paint it black?    Leave it alone?     Or do you have a better suggestion?     The walls are painted terra cotta.

Here’s a close up.    I wrapped a glittery copper ribbon around fall garland and ran candy corn lights through it.    I also placed my fall runner on the sideboard.

Here is another sideboard in my dining room.     I inherited this one from my mom.    It is covered with a gold mesh fabric lined with gold lights.      The small pumpkins standing up are tea light holders that I got at Kirklands a couple of years ago.    The glass pumpkin came from Kirklands also.

The dining table is decorated with 3 Valerie Parr Hill beaded pumpkins sitting on a Valerie Parr Hill three piece mirror set.    If you watch QVC, you probably know who Valerie is.     I bought the garland on clearance at Crate and Barrel a couple of years ago.

Thanks so much for stopping by.    I hope you have enjoyed the glimpses of my fall decor.

Marlee 

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Hotty Toddy

Hi everyone…hope you had a fantastic weekend.    Mine was fabulous!    I spent the weekend in Oxford, MS….home of the University of Mississippi or as we affectionately refer to them….the Ole Miss Rebels.    Hotty Toddy is their signature school cheer.

Oxford is a quaint, small town that just oozes with charm.    The Square is a happening place full of great restaurants and shops.   If the Rebels are playing football, tailgating in the Grove is the place to be.     It literally becomes a tent city in the Grove on football weekends.     Some tents are decorated, some tents have live music, all tents have food and drink but the overall vibe is that of a good time!   And a good time we had.     Contributing to our good time was a victory over Fresno State.

Since the game didn’t start until 6:30 p.m. I started out my day by sitting on my sister in law’s balcony drinking my tea, reading magazines and watching people walk by.     At lunchtime we walked to the Square, had a wonderful lunch in one of the many locally owned restaurants, and then shopped.      I came home with a new pair of boots!  {big smile on my face}

Love how this shoe shop had their shoes displayed on old Readers Digest books.    See the shoes hanging from the tree?   How cute is that?     I didn’t take a picture but they also had shoes displayed on the tops of old suitcases.

After a couple of hours of shopping we headed to the Grove for tailgating.    Along the way we passed many beautiful homes.    Oxford has an abundance of them.

Love the architecture on this home.    I can just see myself sitting on those rocking chairs on the porch.   You can get a closer look by clicking on the picture.

Here is another beauty with a wrap around porch and beautiful knock out roses in full bloom.    This house was surrounded by a wrought iron fence.    Once again, I can sit myself sitting on this porch with a mint julep cup of hot tea in my hand.

I don’t know what this cute little building is but it has a tin roof and gorgeous stained glass windows.     It is on the same property as the house with the wrap around porch.

In Oxford you can catch a ride on one of these double decker buses.

Or in a Rock Star Taxi.

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My wonderful weekend has ended and I am back home to reality which at the moment means washing several loads of clothes.    If you are ever traveling through North Mississippi, I highly recommend visiting Oxford.    I think you will be as captivated by its charm as I am.

Thanks for stopping by.   Have a great week!

Marlee

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Pimp My Pumpkins

Tis the season for pumpkins and I love me some pumpkins!    I also love animal prints and when I saw these adorable pumpkins on Tracy’s blog, Tracy's Trinkets and Treasures, I knew I had to put my big girl crafting panties on and attempt my version of them.     Tracy used tissue paper but I searched all over town and could not find any animal print tissue paper.    I did find some animal print napkins at Party City so that is what I used.     (A fun note about the napkins…when I opened the package I discovered the animal print was only printed on one of the six panels of the napkin….we are using the left over napkins with one section cut out…looks funny but at least I am not wasting paper.)   This was my first project with Mod Podge and it won’t be my last.    Love that stuff.       Where have you been all my life Mod Podge?      Thanks to all you talented bloggers out there for introducing me to it.

Here is the before shot of the two smaller pumpkins.   I forgot to take a picture of the largest pumpkin before I started mod podging it.

As you can see, all I did was cut the napkins into small pieces, applied the mod podge to the pumpkin and affixed the napkin pieces onto the pumpkins.      I let them sit overnight and then put a top coat of Mod Podge on to seal them.

This was a thrifty project because I had most of the supplies on hand.    I purchased the pumpkins at Dollar Tree and other than the purchase of the napkins for $2.00 and the Mod Podge, that was all I spent.     I surrounded the pumpkins with autumn themed scatters that I bought at Home Goods last year and placed them on an amber plate that I bought for $1.00 at Old Time Pottery in Gulf Shores.    I love how they turned out.

You can see how excited my dog is about the pumpkins.

At first I placed them on my coffee table, but then moved them to my glass topped table on the sun porch.

 

Thanks for stopping by and looking at my pimped out pumpkins.

Marlee

I am linking to these fun filled inspirational parties:

Rhoda at Southern Hospitality’s Thrifty Treasures

Frou Frou Decor’s Fabulous Friday Finds

The Tablescaper’s Seasonal Sundays

Bargain Hunting with Laurie’s Favorite Things

Susan at Between Naps on the Porch’s Met Monday

Linda at Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays

Monday, September 13, 2010

Harvest Blessings

Hi y’all.

Hope you had a great weekend.    My son came home for a visit from college so you know it was a good one for me.

I managed to go to three garage sales Saturday morning before the boys woke up.     The lady at the first garage sale was an absolute witch (keeping it clean here).     She was not “dealing” with anyone.    She kept saying in an icy tone “It’s early, I am not lowering any prices til later”.     This lady clearly did not take Garage Sale 101.  I kept my mouth shut but in my head I was informing her  that 9 a.m. was not early in garage sale time.    Wanting to avoid any drama, I left and went to another sale that an older couple was having.    They were real nice and funny, the exact opposite of where I had just been.     I asked the cost of a small crystal vase and the man told me it was $3,000.00.    His wife laughed and said I could have it for 25 cents.    I said sold!    I also got a cute little chippy green easel there and a couple of books that I plan to read.     All for 25 cents each!     The final sale I went to just had baby items so of course nothing was purchased there.

Here is the cute little crystal vase that was originally $3,000.00 but I paid  25 cents for it after a fierce negotiation.    

Love this chippy green easel with gold highlights.    I always need easels.    I have a cute little hand painted canvas that has trees with autumn leaves painted on it that would be perfect for this  but of course I can’t find it.    Must be packed away.

My son headed out later in the day to visit his friends so my sister and I headed out for some retail therapy.     First stop Michaels.    I was looking for a gift for my great-niece who just turned five.     She is a crafter in the making so I wanted to get her a project she could work on.    I found this precious decorate your own princess mirror.     She is going through a princess phase, so I knew this was the perfect gift for her.

I also found a couple of cute Princess items in the kid’s one dollar bins.    One was a pink princess sign and the other was shimmering lip gloss in the cutest little bottle with a pink crown top.     It is so much fun buying for little girls especially since I never had one….just boys.

After taking care of gifts for the little princess, I then went to the $1.00 bins on the other side of the store and found these cute glass magnets for the big princess a/k/a Marlee. 

 

Loved the words on this one….write your own story…and loved that precious old timey typewriter.     Wish the picture would have turned out better so you could have seen the detail.   I will place these magnets on my refrigerator which I have an excellent view of when blogging.    Maybe they will inspire me to keep on telling my story.

This one was cute also.     As you can see, the largest one says fly and one of them has a bird cage on it and the other has a bird house with a smaller fly.

Next stop  Belk Department Store.    I found this cute animal print shirt on the clearance rack for $3.00.

Here is a close up of the fabric….it is animal print flowers.

My final stop was Walgreens.    I ran in there to pick up some pictures I had printed and saw these cute harvest blessings signs.    They were $1.99 each so I splurged and bought them.

 

That’s it for me today friends!     I hope you have a great week full  of Harvest Blessings!

Marlee

I am linking to these awesome parties:

Thrifty Treasures at Southern Hospitality and Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays at Coastal Charm.

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Friday, September 10, 2010

One Shell of A Memory

Hi y’all.    Hope everyone has had a good week.     TGIF.    I am so ready for the weekend.

I have started decorating my home for fall and I wanted to share one item that has sweet memories for me.     I have placed a mixture of fake faux pumpkins, gourds, leaves, and sunflowers in a white scalloped bowl that belonged to my mother.    I don’t know the history of the bowl, how old it is, where she got it, who she got it from or anything about it.     All I know is that pretty white scalloped bowl which is shell like in appearance sat on top of her refrigerator and is at least 50 years old.      She always had bananas in it and I continued the tradition until my banana eater went off to college.

The bowl has now found a home on a shelf in my kitchen.   I love it’s scalloped and textured look.

In this pic I removed the sunflower that was blocking the back piece of the bowl so you can see how a piece on the back overlaps.

I have placed small ceramic pumpkins on each side of the bowl.      I love to decorate for fall and am happy that I can do so with a special memory of my childhood.

To conclude this post, I am going to show you a picture of a visitor we had this week who made himself at home right by the rake on our carport.    (Too bad he couldn’t pick it up and use it.)  He may be a whipporwill, but I am not sure.    I don’t think he is native to the area….must be passing through.    He is welcome to stop by anytime because we love birds here.

Have a great weekend!

Marlee

I am linking to Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home.    Check it out….lots of good links this week.

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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

A Touch of Fall

Hi y’all!    Hope you had a fabulous Labor Day weekend.     The temps dropped here over the weekend and the humidity was low.     My attitude has already improved!    All that heat was making me grumpy.

In my mind, fall has arrived so I decorated my house accordingly this weekend.   I am just going to highlight my den and foyer area today. 

Let’s start our tour in the foyer.    

My lamp looks like it has pumpkins on it.    I fell in love with and bought that lamp at Pier One a few years ago.    The garland has a string of flickering lights in it.

I couldn’t get the whole foyer in this pic.     The dresser in the pic above this one is to the left of my front door.

I bought these ceramic pumpkins at Garden Ridge in Houston, TX a couple of years ago for 50 cents each.     My husband was temporarily assigned to Houston at the time and I would go out there to shop  see him.

Another purchase at Garden Ridge was these Harvest Village pieces by Lemax.     I haven’t been able to find any more of that collection since then.

If you click on the picture, you can see a close up of the Country Roads  gift shop and the produce stand.     There is also a man and his son raking and burning leaves. 

You can see the village in a better perspective with this shot of the bookcase.     The garland is lit with candy corn lights that I bought at Big Lots for $3.50.    I love those little candy corn lights almost as much as I love candy corn.

When I finished decorating, I went shopping.     I went to Kohls to buy a picture frame and instead bought a beige (goldish) color sofa cover that was on sale.   The original price of the cover was $79.99.   I had a 15% off coupon and ended up paying $34.00.

Ignore the wrinkles.     They will “fall” out (no pun intended) after a few days.    I am going to keep telling myself that and maybe it will happen.    My dog, who spends more time on the sofa than anyone else in the family, loves the new sofa cover, wrinkles and all.

I bought the sofa cover because my sofa was a wine red color and it was too dark for the room.     There is not a lot of natural light in there.     My sunroom is behind the windows that are behind the sofa so not much light makes it way into the room.  I regretted buying that sofa before I even got home with it.     To make a long story short, I bought that sofa under the influence of anesthesia.    I had a minor surgical procedure the day before I bought it and apparently I was still in la la land.      The discharge instructions tell you not to make any big decisions for 24 hours after anesthesia and they are right.    So the next time you have anesthesia do not go out and buy a sofa.     You may find as I did that it matches absolutely nothing in your home and you then have to go out and buy a wrinkled up sofa cover.

I hope there is a touch of Fall where you live!     Happy Labor Day and have a great week!

Marlee

I am linking this post to these wonderful blogs:

Melissa’s Fall Nesting Party at The Inspired Room

Rhoda’s Thrifty Treasures at Southern Hospitality

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Susan’s Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

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and last but not least Linda’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays at Coastal Charm

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