Fall has arrived! (at least in our neck of the woods) Fall is very possibly my favorite time of year (or summer) (maybe Christmas) (ergh, idk...don't make me choose!) because I
love the beautiful explosion of colors. And of course, being a ginger, this is
my color palette! All of the greens trying to hold on as long as they can, the oranges, rusts, yellows....yeah, fall is a beautiful time of year up here in the Adirondacks. I really enjoy bringing the beauty of the outside into my home so almost all of my fall decorating is nothing more than natural (although not always real) items. Below is a picture of the fall mantle that I put together last year and I'll go over some items and why I did what I did.
The first thing to do is set out all of the decorations you have; this will help you start thinking about what you need and where you can place them. The two framed pictures were the first things I placed; the one on the left I put flat on the mantle, while the one on the right is raised up a little bit. These pictures are ones that I painted but there is no end to the things you could use here - how about a cheap piece of scrapbook paper (less than $1) with beautiful fall colors in a dollar store frame? why not google fall pictures which can be printed and framed? a simple scrapbook sheet with a fall poem or saying printed on it? (one of my very favorites is "October's Party" by George Cooper ~ if you haven't ever heard of it, you should read it) After the pictures, I gathered up some of my fake pumpkins (all from the Dollar Tree) and put three of them at different levels - this gives them a little personality and helps to hide the fact that they're all identical (this year, I'm going to try a little paint on the pumpkins to make them look a little more realistic). In front of the other picture, I placed a bouquet of gorgeous (fake) fall flowers and some cattails all in a mayonnaise jar wrapped in burlap (how's
that for cheap?). I went through my house and picked out some candles that had nice fall colors, a jug of maple syrup and a rustic candle holder that is now holding a large pinecone (far right, but you can see it better in the close up below). On the right side, I took a simple orange vase (99 cents at Sally Ann's) and filled it with pinecones (from my yard). I then took several more of the flowers (as used in the vase), leaves and pinecones and scattered them randomly across the mantle, changing and rearranging until I had it how I liked it. Of course my dancing couple, my plaque and the bears had to stay. Some people like to decorate so that everything is uniform - each side of the mantle mirroring the other. Personally, I like to make it asymmetrical and put things at varying heights (as with the pictures and pumpkins) - I just think it has more personality.
Close up of the left side (the glass pumpkin is one that I made at a glass-blowing course at Hands-On Glass in Corning, NY so much fun and reasonably priced so check it out if you're ever in the area!)
Close-up view of the right side (please, if you decide to use cattails as I have, use artificial ones...trust me, I learned this the hard way: the real ones eventually puff up and explode all over lol)
This is the perfect time of year to access your local thrift store! (who am I kidding? thrift shopping is a year-round treat for me!) Sally Ann's puts all of their glass/plastic decorative items together by color; this makes it easy for you to scoot right over to the fall colors and pick up some cheap accessories! Look for colors and shapes that you like - they don't have to be specifically fall decorations just grab things that would work well in your home.
Don't limit yourself!! Be creative and try looking at things in a different way. In fact, part of the fun of thrift stores is finding the hidden treasures ~ that neat wicker basket, the beautiful orange vase, anything that makes you think of a beautiful fall day - think warm and cozy and nature.
This is how I decorate our home at the beginning of September; as it gets closer to Halloween, it's easy to edit your mantle and other decorations to reflect a spookier look, and after that, you can take out the ghosts and ghouls and transition it into Thanksgiving with just a couple easy changes. The key is to have fun with it and make it something that
you and your family will enjoy!
Several years ago, I went grape picking with some friends along the Finger Lakes Wine Trail. As they picked grapes, I decided to pick up the grape vines that were no longer attached to the plants and weave them together into grape vine wreathes. I made several simple wreathes during that visit that I used for years. I like to take the wreathe and change it's decorations depending on the season; for fall, I would add leaves, small pumpkins orange tulle, a small scarecrow, maybe a crow for irony - most of which can all be found at your local dollar store. If you don't happen to have access to a vineyard, a thrift store is a great place to find a cheap one - even if you have to remove the decorations that are currently on it (just make sure the wreath itself is in good shape).
** Important tip: When you think you have everything where you want it, take a quick picture of it and then look the picture over closely; for some reason, this makes everything much more clear and I'm able to change things around to get a look that I like better! This is also what I do with my paintings.
Blowing glass at Hands On Glass
Final touches on my punkin
My wreath in it's Valentine's Day garb (I can't believe I couldn't find a picture of it dressed up for fall!)
My first mantle display
(I like the other one better but I was
sad that my green glass vase broke)
(which admittedly, is probably not very long, but if, by some miracle, they lasted a week, they'd still be soft and yummy). The second amazing benefit from using instant pudding? You can substitute any darned flavor of pudding you want for the vanilla and substitute any kind of chips or fruit for the chocolate chips!! Just think of the possibilities! Chocolate cookies with butterscotch chips, coconut cream with vanilla chips, pumpkin spice with chocolate chips! The combinations boggle the mind! Let me know what combinations you've come up with!
