Autumn Decorating - Part 1

Hi friends!  Once again I find myself absolutely behind on blogging.  I've decided no more promises, from here on out it's whatever will be will be.  I'm tired of apologizing and feeling guilty all the time. I will be the one who blogs off and on as I pretty much always have so no more apologies okay, I am what I am.  LOL!  Now one thing I will apologize for is two of my photos have my embroidery watermark on them.  I shared these pictures earlier on my Facebook page and used my watermark app on my phone.  I have two watermarks that I use, one for the decorating page and one for the embroidery page.  I got mixed up and watermarked these with the wrong one.  Mulit-media tasking not my best thing.

Well here we are in SC about to be hit by Hurricane Matthew and I am sitting here blogging.  How's that for crazy timing?  Luckily, I don't live on the coast but have family who are making their way up and have made as many preps as we can for what may come our way where we live.  We are also praying God will protect all in the path of what looks like a very terrible storm.  Please pray for all in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina!

Last week we finally started to have a bit of a cooling streak  and I was inspired to put out some more of my fall decor.  I have put a bit here and there but never did the full fall decorating until last week.  I have also decided I really like a more simple approach to fall decorating.

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I love the warmth of Fall Colors this time of year.  However, those bold oranges, reds, browns and golds can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming to to me.

In the den I only did a small splash of fall on the mantle using what I had and reworking a few older floral designs.  I am so very pleased with the simplicity and sparkle of it this year.

The bamboo floral arrangements I've had for several years now after purchasing them from resale.  I pulled all the old cattails and leaves out and add these wispy looking grasses with feathers that I've had for a few years as well.  I think I may have actually stuck them in with the older floras that were in here one year.  Anyway, I decided to just use the grasses and feathers alone with some copper berries that I had from Christmas.  I used to use these berries on my Christmas tree in the dining room but stopped using the copper a few years back.  I hung on to them and recently put them in my fall boxes.  I'm so glad I did because I think they look perfect for fall.

  I added a little more bling with my mercury glass candlesticks and a splash of autumn color came to life with these orange electric candles. You can't see it in this photo but there are tiny crystals around the edge of the candlestick by the candles.  So glam!  I love the contrast of the orange against the backdrop of my teal plates on the wall.  So pretty!

Speaking of orange and teal.  Do you remember my orange pillows I bought last year at Kirklands?  Well their back!  Perfect next to the teal pillows don't you think?  This color is so lovely but definitely not something I like year round.  It's just too bold of a color for me to use year round but I do believe it would definitely work in here year round.

The coffee table got a little bling and orange and teal as well.  I just adore pulling out my beautiful glass pumpkins every year.  They were such a wonderful find back when glass pumpkins were all the thing.  Now, it's white and gold polka dot pumpkins, you know the Kate Spade look.  I like that look too very much.  I also really love the copper pumpkin I have too that I purchased from Stein Mart of course.  I keep toying with the idea of changing out the raffia on this vase.  I've had this way for a few years now.  I really like it but I think I'm ready for something new.  We shall see!

So there you are!  That's it for my fall decor in the den.  Not much too it but when you have a large open room like this one is, it really is quite enough, at least I think so.

Thanks so much for popping in for a peek.  Hoping to get back before Christmas to show you some more fall goodies because I really have done a splash more here and there all over the house.  It feels great!

Take care everyone!    Linking up to a few Friday Parties today if I can find them @....

Foodie Friday and Everything Else

Hugs and Waves!                                                                                                                                               Mary

Window Dressings?

 If you have picked up on anything from viewing my blog, I'm sure it's no secret that I love color!  Lot's and lot's of bright bold beautiful color.  There are times when I like to go neutral but for the most part I prefer to live in color.  My neutral color of preference tends to be black.  I like black because you can bounce so many vibrant colors off of black and that's exactly what I'm going to show you.

What do you think?  Too much?  Well, not for me.  Those new drapes I put up several months ago look fantastic against the wall color, but were just a little too dark for this old summer gal.  So I decided to liven them up with a little color.

I used this beautiful fabric to make some pillows and a table runner several years ago and still had a few yards left.  If I had my druthers I would have long beautiful curtains made in this fabric.  However, I've got to be a little more thrifty these days so I decided to just dress up the drapes I have.  Since I never EVER close these drapes (it's a claustrophobia thing), I decided what would it hurt to improvise.  I simply made little mini panels to go across the top of each drapery panel.   I could do this easily since I use rings with clips and let each panel swag a little in the middle. I'm still thinking about adding some type of tassels or fringe on the edge, not sure though.

I realize this may not be ideal or even close to what some of you might consider doing, but I love it!  I even love mixing these patterns like I did.  I was really surprised how much I actually liked the mix.

It was "sew" simple and I can take them down easy enough this fall and winter when I'll be ready to move away from the tropical look.

I even made some new slipcovers for the brown pillows we keep on our club chairs.  You've seen me make slip covers for these pillows before in a blue fabric.

I only had enough fabric left to do the fronts of both pillows so I used a mini check fabric that I already had on the back.  It's a black and tan color similar to the drapes.  I like the mix!

Here's a glimpse of one of the older pillows I first made with this fabric.  I used a beautiful and fun fringe on the edge for these.  I got the bright solid pillows from work before I stopped.  These were big sellers and came in all sorts of fun bright colors.  They only cost $7.99 each too.  I chose coral and ...

...and lime green to bring out a brighter pop of color on the sofa and to coordinate with my lime green lamp shade.

The turquoise blue leopard pillows were my last splurge from work.  My final employee discount!  Oh, how I do miss that discount!  LOL!   

This runner was one that I had made for this table several years ago.  It's reversible and has the gold fabric on the back that I usually have on this table.  I finally am able to flip it now and use this side without it seeming so out of place to me.  Fun!

The sailboats are moving around now and the shells are coming back out taking center stage for the season.  I still haven't finished tweaking the small vignettes yet.  I will get to it soon enough because there's plenty of time for that now.

It's feeling much more exciting around here now to me.  I love how color just makes me come alive!  How about you?

I think I'll link this up with Marty over at A Stroll Thru Life

for; 

Inspire Me Tuesday.

Just to show you how out of touch I've been, I just realized this morning that Marty had changed the name and theme of her Tuesday party.  LOL!  I'm very happy about that though because now I get to share my, let's call it, "window dressings", shall we?

Thanks so much for stopping by and checking it out.  Let me know if you likey!  If not, you can just smile anyway, okay?  LOL!

Have a great day Y'all!