Fall Is In the Air

I rarely decorate for fall in September, but the month began with cool days and I decided to go crazy with fall decor.

Faux flowers in the bag on the Dutch door got a fall treatment by simply adding a pumpkin.

I had fun going out of my comfort zone with my color palette.

First came navy and white pillows made in the summer, I added in orange and white check pillows made from napkins and then I found the colorful throw.

All it took was orange candles and a little embellishment on Mr. Goose to give the dining room a fall feel.

The colors of the fall mantel work quite well with this painting of a boat washed up on our beach.

 I am loving decorating this part of the living room since I painted the fireplace white.

I painted a new sign to hide the tv - it will be painted over for each season to fit with the decor.

 The painting of an old Mercedes Benz in the jungle fits right in with the fall colors.

 I asked Steve to change the painting on this wall too - sunflowers worked better than houseboats.

 I needed to paint a few pumpkins to get just the right colors

and added faux foliage to embellish each vignette.

My favorite vignette so far is my old typewriter -

I cut up a paper bag, tore the edges and added stickers left over from stenciling the new sign hiding the television.

I know I went a bit crazy with the pumpkins, but I don't care -

and this different color palette makes me smile.

Happiness is . . .

I spotted this message on Instagram this morning 

and it pretty much sums up my philosophy of life.

Happiness is the lavender trim and tidy

 because the bees let me work alongside them.

Happiness is fall decor in the dining room,

living room and even in the garden.

And, it is the angle of the sun in the fall - the pumpkins look like they have been lit up.

Happiness is making new friends on Instagram who challenge you to post for a hashtag like #plumplaidpickins, 

finding enough fall flowers to fill a drawer

and creating a new look in the entry.

Happiness is crying tonight from the beginning to the end of an uplifting true story

that evoked wonderful memories of our life in Jamaica.

I hope you had a happy day.

It Makes Me Smile

If you are on Instagram, you know about the variety of daily hashtags you can join.

This morning, the tags #makesmesmilethursday and #myowndrumdecor , got me thinking about how I decorate and what about my decor makes me smile.

You might wonder what it is about this shot of my bathroom door that

makes me smile - our painter is finished, our walls are a pristine white and I love the original 1920's glass knobs on our doors.

The mantel makes me smile, not just because Steve hung a recent painting, 

but because Cindy of Consider It All Joy came to visit in August and she brought me the cute ceramic pumpkins that are finally on display.

People have asked where my primary colors are and I told Cindy I blame her.

The windows in this photo are what make me smile - they were custom made to exactly match the 1928 windows (that are now a headboard) and we love them.

The vignette doesn't just make me smile, it makes me laugh, because who has this many 2's? - definitely decorating to "my own drum".

In August I posted this picture on Instagram and it didn't just make me smile, 

Steve loved the photograph and just finished his rendition of my photo.

Last week I bought a bouquet of orange flowers at the grocery store and I'm still smiling because 1 little $5 bouquet filled not one,

not two,

not three,

but four containers of flowers.

While setting our bedroom back to rights after painting, I came up with a silly night stand for my side of the bed - a striped wooden box turned upside down holds a bunch of my favorite books and it definitely falls into the "my own drum" and "makes me smile" category.

What is making you smile these days?

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Poofing the Pillows for Thoughts of Home

New Season . . . New Colors

Spending 4 days sitting on a trial as a juror left me little time to take pictures this past week, but I created a collage for the Instagram hashtag - #mysummer2016.

As I scrolled through my IG gallery looking for photos, I noticed that blues, aquas and whites filled my sumner.

But as fall slowly awakens in southern California, I am seeing new colors around the house.

Baby pumpkins in white and orange on my little green table are a departure from my usual palette.

While I was on jury duty, our painter was working his magic on our walls - my green pie safe looks crisp and clear against a white background.

Bouquets of colorful flowers are my usual centerpiece in the dining room, but pumpkins in a green box are a nice seasonal change.

Even the garden is sporting flowers in fall colors

and those fall flowers look lovely in vignettes.

Steve changed the painting over the mantel so I am trying out different ideas on the mantel that will compliment the colors of the sky and ocean.

The colors in the living room are softer - especially with the cute pillow I won on an Instagram giveaway from Bianca of  With Lavender and Grace.

The house is decked out in whites and pastels this season,

but you can see from the bench on our porch and the accents in the entryway

that my seasonal colors are all across the spectrum.

What are your seasonal colors this year?

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