Has It Sprung?

 Your area of the country may be digging out of snow, or simply waiting for those heaps and heaps of it to melt and just GO AWAY!  We, on the other hand, have not had much of it this year, and now it's been rainy days followed by sunny days and over 70 degree temperatures driving us to even eat dinner on the screened porch last night.

 My husband gave me a gift card to Home Goods for my birthday a few weeks back, and as I was about to spend it and standing in line at the check outs, I noticed some really cute cloth carrots.

SPRINGTIME I shouted under my breath!

 So I grabbed two bunches of them and placed them in a wooden, elongated bowl/container which I had bought there a month or so ago.... they fit perfect and look great on the mantle in my springtime vignette.

 I took down all of the wintry pine cone branches and all of our birthday and valentines, as well as thank you cards we had received from the grandchildren, and I totally spruced this place up into a cheerier looking family room, which is at the center of our home.

 All of the yellow silk forsythia flowers are from years past, and since I place them in large Rubbermaid tubs when not in use, they stay quite nice from year to year.

I need to look at our live forsythia bush and see if it is blooming yet. The ones in the Roanoke Valley are all yellow now!

Happy bushes!!

 I've had the little brown bunny a few years and don't recall where I purchased him, but he hops onto the mantle every spring.

 The large hare is one of two that I have... the other one which is in our bedroom, and the gold LOVE artpiece is new this year and can be purchased at a Pier One store.  Our local store had been sold out after Valentines Day, but Monday they received a new shipment.... so I headed there yesterday since it was an item I REALLY thought I needed.

I LOVE IT and can use it year round if I choose to.

So thats' it.  I am ready for spring already, and even if we get more snow, well.... I really don't care, because in my heart spring has sprung already.

C Tables

 So we discussed whether or not we wanted a coffee table for the family room.  It's really not all that big of a room, and only one way to arrange it with our current furniture, so a coffee table in front of the sofa would probably have made things a bit tight.

 I thought for a moment about heading to the furniture store, the one closest to us, with pretty good quality furniture, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time walking around a very large store.  And then there is always the matter of having to drive to their warehouse across town and pick up the item, have them load it, and scurry on home for neighbors coming this evening.

 Just drinks and a deli tray, compliments of my husband.

 Now, we could have sat at the kitchen bar/counter area, but the family room would feel so much cozier with the tree lights on and maybe even the fireplace for a bit.

 BUT, where would they set their drinks?

 I decided rather than schlepping around the furniture store that I would go see what Pier One has... because I LOVE Pier One!

I fell in love with one of the C-Table styles they had. that can sit in front of or beside the sofa, and then slide out of the way, or tucked away in another room.

Love the river rock down the middle and am totally recommending their C-Tables!

*I am not affiliated with or receiving compensation from Pier One*

Just happen to love some of their items and letting you know when items are worth the money.

Here is the link at Pier One to these great looking tables.

Velvet Pumpkins and Other Fall Decor

 Decorating our home for any change in the season is always a week or two long process for me.

This year I started out with some of the items you see above, which I had from last year at this time, and I then added to it until my eye said, "hey... that's not so bad looking".

I had purchased the fall stems in the tall green vast last year at Pier One, and considering what I spent on them I simply was NOT going to replace them.  If stems are stored well, like in a LARGE lidded Rubbermaid container, they can certainly be used from year to year imho.

So the mantle was looking a bit bland, but I'll get back to that later.

 Earlier this year I purchase the above candle lamp at Yankee Candle store, and it works well for a summer as well as an autumn decor.  The plate under the candle can be found at Pier One, providing it is not sold out.  It's very pretty with pumpkins on it in nearly pastel colors.  The silk leaves branch is also from Pier One, and I simply wrapped it around the lamp bring more of a fall look to the lamp. 

 

Since the mantle was looking a bit 'weak', I purchased a three some of Indian corn from the grocery store and lay them in front of my velvet pumpkins which I found at the A.C. Moore arts and crafts store.

I had seen some velvet pumpkins on line for an arm and a leg, but these were marked down 40%, so I purchased four of them.

Here is a better view of the mantle as it is now.... our wedding anniversary was on the 21st, so the fall decor is sharing it's space with them for a few days as we enjoy the cards.

 These are the other two velvet pumpkins I purchased, and they are on the table in the front entryway.

I really would have liked having more of the green and orange ones, but sometimes you take what you can get.

 The cloth, chevron design pumpkin is from last year, possibly from Target.  They were cheap!

 These bright colored sunflowers in orange and red are from Pier One.  I purchase four bunches of four to fill out the large vase.  AND, the sunflower canvas print is also a Pier One purchase.  I am in total LOVE with it and may keep it hanging there two or three seasons of the year.  That wall above the blue cabinet is the wall where I usually change on piece of art to match the current season.  Need something for the upcoming winter, so I'd better start planning for that too!

Now, back to that Yankee Candle lamp arrangement on the kitchen dinette table.  Remember I mentioned that plate under it was glass with sort of pastel colored pumpkins on it?  Well, we wanted to use that plate for a coconut cream layer cake which meant I needed something else to place beneath the candle lamp.

  

 So..... when I saw this pretty wooden thankful charger I needed it right away!

Another Pier One purchase..

I know this is starting to sound like a Pier One commercial, but when it comes to decorating they many times have just the item I need or envision.  

*I do not work for or receive anything from Pier One for showing their products*

 

 Thank goodness for the cute fresh gourds at the grocery store which perfectly rounded out my centerpiece.

 

 

 This dough bowl filled with large pieces of bowl filler sits at the opposite end of the entryway table.... the velvet pumpkins at the other end.

 The mantle lit up during the evening hours.

 A few photos of the blue cabinet with my sunflower painting, the sunflowers in a vase, a ceramic flying pig (from Walmart), a red candle pillar at yellow candle, and of course what would fall be without a big old healthy turkey (from last year).

That's it for my fall decor this year which may or may not be tweaked in the days ahead.

Hope your autumn is sweet and that your leaves are beginning to turn as ours are.  

They are not yet ready to be photographed, but I'll share with you if and when they are.

Happy FALL!!

It's August But It's Autumn

 I've been taking a bit of time to get the 'look' of our family room ready for fall.

 I knew I wanted to use the over-sized, LARGE vases that I already had.  They were purchased at Pier One some years ago, this brown one with the paint drippings, when we lived in Arizona.  I have had pussy willows in it for some time now on the dining room table downstairs.  This house has no formal dining room, so it sits in the basement, along with the china cabinet, but it was time this year to bring the vase upstairs for a touch of autumn.

Pier one has some gorgeous fall stems this year, especially these faux gingko leaf bundles which were 20% off.  Once I saw them I looked no further for silk fall foliage for our home.  Pier One's were hands down THE prettiest, and mixed in with the pussy willows I had, well... I just thought they were stunning inside the front doorway.

The vase alone is a bit over 22 inches in height... the stems make it VERY large, but when it comes to some things in home decor I say 'go big or go home'.  LOL

 I also have two other good sized vases, and also purchased at Pier One some years back, a Manager's Special price that day of $10 each for what were originally $50 vases I believe.  Again... 'go big or'... well...you get the idea.

 I use one of the vases in the dinette area of our home with sprays of lemon branches, but the other is on the fireplace mantel.  The brown paint drip vase was too tall for this location, but the green one worked well with it's height of 14 inches.

 It's green color with a bit of brown trim on the edges is a color I can use year round, and for springtime I had faux forsythia branches in it which remained on the mantel all spring as well as summer.

 For this vase, and getting with the autumn look, I chose three different Pier One products.

Three of their Faux Dancing Orchid Spray,

two of their Faux Mini Maple Leaves Branches,

and one of their Faux Oak Leaf Stems so that I would have just a dash of acorns in the mix.

 I must have roamed their store for an hour to find just the right mix that I wanted.

The ladies at our local Pier One store are awesome... they offer up suggestions and even let me use one of their store vases to so that I could place the stems in it to see what the final look would be.

 I purchased the silver owls at Pier One a year ago, such a happy purchase and they add a touch of playfulness since I don't like being overly serious about my decor.

The small wreath on the stand and the gold pumpkin are also from last year or the year before.

 The gathered sheaf of wheat was from a year ago also... our local Steinmart store.

 *Mantel view from the kitchen*

 

 The total cost of all of the Pier One stems and branches was more than I had planned to spend, but considering that all other items were already in my home, it did help somewhat in keeping the 'fall look' I had hoped to achieve down.

Time to move on elsewhere in our home with more fall decor.

 *this post was not done in conjunction with Pier One, nor did I receive any compensation from them*