After The Autumnal Equinox It's Time To Decorate For Fall

 The Autumnal equinox occurred on Sunday, September 22 this year.  The Autumnal equinox occurs on either September 22, 23, or 24 of any given year.  The term equinox is derived from latin and means "equal night."  Therefore, the equinox is a 24 hour period of nearly equal day and night.  There is the Vernal equinox in the spring and the Autumnal equinox in the fall.  The Autumnal equinox is our gateway into the fall season.  Personally, fall is my favorite season and I am decorating a little at a time.  How about you?  Do you love all things fall?  Are you decorating your home for fall?

Above is the top of the cabinet in my kitchen/dining area.  Look how beautifully my new tobacco basket lends itself to the look of fall.  It is so warm and inviting it gives me the warm fuzzies.

I am going to miss our fireplace and decorating it for all the seasons and holidays, so this cabinet has  become my new decorating center.  The warmth of the oranges and browns with little hints of yellow makes me want to make a big cup of hot chocolate and sit and watch the candles glow.  To decorate the cabinet, I used a tea light candle holder that used to sit on the mantel at the little yellow cottage.  I filled it with pumpkin scented tea light and they smell delicious.   There is an antique box our daughter restored one summer while doing summer stock theater in Arrow Rock, Missouri filled with a small grapevine wreath, a star (of course) a small pumpkin and a few fall leaves.  I made the burlap candy corn banner for something fun - do you love candy corn as much as I do?  That's one of the best things about fall as far as I am concerned.  I just cut out some small burlap triangles and painted them with white, orange, and yellow acrylic paint and hot glued them to some twine.

The column candle is sitting in a glass vase surrounded by acorns our grandsons picked up while walking back and forth to the pool in the first part of September while it was still warm enough to swim.  We would take a gallon sized zip lock bag and they would pick up acorns, pine cones, and gum balls.  They came home with lots of treasures and it was lots of fun.  Grandma appreciates their treasure hunting!

 I had a piece of the grapevine ribbon I used to make the hanging lamp next to the cabinet, so I just sort of wound it around everything for some texture and interest.  Because it is wired, it is easy to "shape."

 There are some copper votive holders that I already had, and artificial fall leaves that I have had for eons and reused a bazillion times.  The little gourds and pumpkins came from the Farmer's market.

The decorations are simple and warm and are all things I had on hand including the candles.   The only things purchased were the pumpkins and gourds.  The Farmer's Market was selling the little gourds and pumpkins 3 for $1.00.  My kind of price.  How is that for some cheap decorating?

On the kitchen island, I used a metal pumpkin candle holder that I already had and placed it on a piece of burlap ribbon with a red stripe down the center.  The candle holders were a wedding gift 44 years ago and have been used over and over and over throughout our married life.  Using candles with fall colors and more pumpkins and gourds, I was done.  Easy peasy.

I have a new marble topped bistro table for the dining area that I am eager to show you and it will be decorated too, but first I need to find some chairs to go with it.  That table along with my two new bargain wicker chairs make the dining room comfortable and cozy.  Oh, and I am on the hunt for just the right rug.  I'll know it when I see it.  As soon as I get it all together, I will share it with you.

In the meantime, we are enjoying all things fall in the kitchen.  I think I will bake some apple bread.  That would be perfect for these early days of fall don't you think?  And then maybe some pumpkin bread, and then some..........who knows.  Cool weather makes me want to bake, to nest, to get ready for the coming cold weather.  Does fall makes you feel that way?

When decorating for fall, there are many natural elements you can find literally on the ground to use and they won't cost you anything.  There are many "weeds" that are perfect for table top arrangements.  Look around your home and see what you may already have on hand that is usable with these natural elements.  You may not have to spend much of anything to make your home warm and inviting.  Nothing like some candles burning on these earlier evenings, with the smell of something wonderful baking to make the house smell heavenly.  Perhaps some mulled cider or hot chocolate.  Yes, I am ready for this season.  Are you/

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

“I guess I'm just feeling Septemberish," sighed Chester. "It's getting towards autumn now. And it's so pretty up in Connecticut. All the trees change color. The days get very clear―with a little smoke on the horizon from burning leaves. Pumpkins begin to come out.” 
― George Selden, The Cricket in Times Square

Think Fall Y'All

Do you hang some sort of seasonal decoration on your house or front door?  Perhaps a wreath or basket filled with seasonal flowers?  Well, I do and have done so for most of our 42 years of marriage.  To me, it is welcoming and adds texture and dimension wherever you place it and is also a way to celebrate the changing of the seasons.  I am a trained floral designer and have worked with flowers for 30 years.  There is a method to making a wreath and I will show you how.

Last week I made a trip to some of the craft stores and of course, to the local Dollar Tree.  September had begun and we all know that the fall season is upon us.  The aisles were filled with lots of beautiful fall leaves and flowers and it put me in the mood to make a new wreath for the front of the little yellow cottage.  It was time to take down my summer wreath and jump into the wonder of the fall season I love so much.  This is the wreath I took down.

For my summer wreath I had used reds, yellows and a beautiful tiffany blue ribbon.  It had given a cheery welcome to all guests during the summer season, but now it is time to put it away.

I was just in the nick of time with my purchases.  This weekend, our temperatures went from the high 90's nearing 100 down to the high 60's and rain.  Because of the few days of cool weather, there are already hints of red in the dogwood leaves and yellow hints in the maples.  Yes indeed, fall is on the way! Hot dog!!  If you want to make a wreath for your home, here are some suggestions for how to do it.

When purchasing decorations, make sure you do not skimp.  You don't want to be in the middle of your project and discover you do not have enough decorations to fill the wreath and have to go purchase more.   If you have decorations left over, you can always find uses for them to add to the fall flavor in your home.  I had enough left  that I will be able to make a centerpiece for my table and I still only spent $25.00.  Shopping at Hobby Lobby or Michaels when flowers are 1/2 off saves you lots of money and of course everything at Dollar Tree is - your guessed it - only $1 per item or package.  I purchased the mini pumpkins and small gourds at Dollar Tree.  The small gourds were in a package of 6 or 7 for $1.00 and the mini pumpkin were $1.00 each.  That is a big savings over prices you will pay at other stores.

The 18" grapevine wreath was $2.99 at Hobby Lobby.  I purchased one large bush of fall leaves and "weedy" things at Hobby Lobby also for 1/2 price and it was $6.00 and provided me with lots of filler for my wreath.  There were 15 stems total on the bush.

I purchased 3 large yellow sun flowers, a grapevine type garland with fall leaves, a small bush with 5 stems of thistle and two bolts of ribbon at Dollar Tree for $1 per item.   The hank of raffia came from Hobby Lobby for $2.99.  I love raffia because it adds texture and interest and there are so many uses for it!

  These are the things I purchased to make this wreath.  I did not use the packages of individual leaves on this project.  They came from Dollar Tree and I will have another project for them which I will share with you when it is completed.

The tools you need are a pair of wire cutters, a hot glue gun and glue sticks, some chenille stems for making the bow and a piece of floral wire to make the wreath hanger.  Remember, they call hot glue "hot" for a reason.  Be careful with your fingers when placing flower stems covered in hot glue in the wreath.

The first think you need to decide is where you want the flowers on your wreath.  Top, bottom, left or right side?  It's up to you.  You can make the design any way you want. I always visualize how I want the finished project to look and go from there.  Because we are taught to read left to right, we tend to look at things as more balanced when they are made that way.  Therefore, I made my wreath with the flowers on the left hand side.  You choose however you want to make yours, just use the same general method.

First, I placed the grapevine garland with the fall leaves in a reverse "S" shape on the wreath and hot glued both ends to the wreath.   Be sure and use enough glue when making an outdoor wreath so that weather and wind will not make everything fall off.

Next, I pulled the green leaves from the sunflower stems and glued them at different angles along the left side of the wreath.  This makes your "base" working area.  Place your flowers where you think you may want them before gluing them down.  I cut the sunflower stems about 6 inches long.  You want them to stand out from the wreath.  You can move them around until you get the look you want.  I glued two of the sunflowers and mini pumpkins angled up and one sunflower and mini pumpkin angled down leaving a space for filler flowers and another space where my bow would go.

Next, I took the bush with all the fall leaves and filler "weedy" things and cut it apart leaving the stems as long as they could be.  I placed the stems in different places on the wreath, moving them around until I got the look I wanted and cut each stem to the length needed.  Then, I placed lots of hot glue on the end of each stem and up about 3 inches and placed it back in the wreath.

The final step was making the bow and adding long strands of raffia to the back of the bow when I twist tied it with the chenille stem.   Twisting another chenille stem to the one tying the bow and wrapping it around the wreath snuggly keeps it in place along with some hot glue.   I added some more raffia throughout the rest of the arrangement so that there was lots of texture to represent all the dried weeds, pods and flowers of fall.  I made a hanger on the back of the wreath by putting a piece of floral wire through some of the grapevine and twisted it making a loop strong enough to hang the wreath.

Your beautiful fall wreath like the one in the first picture is now ready to hang wherever you like - on the wall, over the mantel, on the door or front of your house.  And you can say "I did that!"  This wreath would cost $50 - $75 depending on where you bought it.  You made it and saved a lot of money in the process!  I hope you try this project and enjoy it through the fall season.  This same technique can be used to make a wreath for any season or holiday!  Let me know if you try this and how it turns out.  Happy Fall Y'All.

Everyday Donna

Things to remember:

Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn.  ~Elizabeth Lawrence