Fall Decorations, Take 8

This is the shelf over the sideboard in my very RED kitchen. I made the 2 fabric pumpkins. The scarecrow I snagged at a little shop in the town where we used to live. I look forward to seeing him every year.

The wooden bowl on the left was purchased on eBay from a woman who does lovely work. The RED walls make decorating for fall a challenge in here, but I'm muddling through! Here's a close-up of the bowl...

Thank you to those who have written that you are enjoying the "home tour". I know a lady who used to answer the door saying..."If you came to see me, come on in. If you come to see the house, make an appointment." Amen, sister.

~Joan

Fall Decorations, Take 7

This is a little wall quilt I was given by my friend, Laura. I haven't heard from Laura in years. Laura, if you're reading this, please write me!! For the past few years, I have made and sold these and also given many as gifts. None were made this year. Piecing has definitely taken a back seat to other activities in my life. This little number is about 14" x 16".

I love Log Cabin quilts and pumpkins. I consider this the best of both.

Is anyone else getting a craving for pumpkin pie squares??

~Joan

Fall Decorations, Take 6

This is a little doorhanger I found at a shop in a nearby town. I like these little 3-D touches of decorating.

Hope your day is a good one.

~Joan

Fall Decorations, Take 5

I do love "welcome" signs. I have them all over the house. This one is above the phone in the kitchen. It's a painted slate. Are those pumpkins?? Imagine that!

I think I like pumpkins because they are supposed to be round.

~Joan, who, Lord willing, will be less round as time goes on

Fall Decorations, Take 4

Ah, there is light at the end of the foyer. There's also an antique table loaded with goodies, a quilted table runner, Fall Frolic (the quilt on the wall), a plastic pumpkin, a couple cloth pumpkins, and a crock brimming with fall goodness. I added a pumpkin-scented candle on the table for some sweet aroma as well as an opened bag of potpourri down inside the crock, out of sight. I've only lit the candle a handful of times, but the smell still permeates the hall/foyer area. It's in a ceramic holder which makes it easy to use from year to year.

Again, this cost next to nothing. I made the wall quilt, runner, and crock quilt. I also made the fabric pumpkins.

I should mention that the walls in our hall, living room, and part of the kitchen are brown...Wendy's Frosty brown. And not on purpose!

My Susanna was going to buy this for her secret prayer sister a couple years ago. I literally begged her to let me buy it (it was the last one at Hobby Lobby). I thought it would be the perfect crowning touch for my decorating table. In case you can't read the small print, it is a prayer. It says...

"Thank you for the food before us.

Thank you for the friends beside us.

Thank you for the love between us."

Isn't that beautiful?

The pumpkin on the right with the gorgeous fall arrangement in it is from a different secret sister from (I think) 3 years ago, my good friend, Diane. I look forward all year to putting it out. Not only is it my favorite fall decoration, but it is a reminder of my sweet friendship.

~Joan

Fall Decorations, Take 3

This little group is to the left in the foyer, across from the mirror in the last picture. The ceramic birdhouse is from my secret sister of a few years back (hello, Jean!). I got the stars at the same store that is sadly closed now. I've always liked them, and now finally have a set of my very own (got them when everything in the store was 75% off). The oil lamp on the right is ancient. We use it from time to time. Provides nice ambiance...and light if/when the power goes off. I think I got the little basket on the peg shelf at a discount store (maybe Big Lots?) after the holiday for 90% off a few years ago. The little viney leaf thing on the shelf was another post-holiday sale. It just fills in some spaces and makes it look slightly more interesting.

Next we look AHEAD.

~*~ I'm adding this after the original post. I enjoy seeing other people's homes so much. Perhaps too much! I like to see how people decorate. I am not impressed by a museum-like home. Our home is VERY lived-in. We home school, so the children are here most of the day. We are all here most of the time (all 10 of us), except when my children are at work. My DH works from home, too.

Since there are so many of us, we use every square inch of our house. I have a few small areas (like the shelf above) that I think of as decorating areas. To be honest, now that I think about it, most of our decorations are on walls. I have one small table that you'll see in the next post that is also a decorating area.

That must be why we have so many wall quilts. They don't get knocked over, spilled on, broken, etc. Another mystery solved!

Someone commented on wishing they "had money to spend on decorating like I do". If you know me at all, you certainly know that I spend little to nothing on non-essentials. In the above picture, for example, my father made the shelf (thanks, Dad), so that was free to me. He provided the wood, talent, and time for it. The birdhouse was a gift (free). The stars were $3.50, I think. That's a lot for me to spend on a decoration!! The oil lamp was $1.00. The vine was 25 cents. The basket was $1.00 (came as is, with the flower arrangement). So don't be discouraged if you don't have a lot of money to spend. Take what you like, arrange it nicely, and be happy with it. Look for after-holiday clearances on decorations. I'll probably see you there!~*~

~Joan

Grocery Update

Today was a profitable one for our family here at home. We got down most of our fall decorations from the attic, got them in place, and put the ones that had been in their places up in the attic--amazing.

Elisabeth organized our upstairs pantry, food cabinets, dish cabinets, lazy Susan, and spice drawer. That's a lot of work. No matter how hard we try, things always tend to become disorganized after a while. But they look great TODAY.

We have two pantries. One is upstairs in the kitchen. We keep some of everything in there that we use on a regular basis. The other is downstairs. That's where we keep our stockpile. I'll take pictures of that some time. It is beautiful to behold.

We are so thankful to God for the grocery savings we have had this month in particular. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know we are serious couponers. The first month I started keeping track of our expenses for food, health and beauty items, medicines, toiletries, and consumables (paper supplies, detergents, etc.), we spent over $5 a person a day. Considering the prices of all those items, that was not hard to believe. I have to imagine that most people spend way more than that, especially if they eat out often.

I just calculated for this month so far. Our cost per person per day is right now $1.48. It has never been that low, and I praise God for that measure of success. Glory to His name!! I know some forget God in times of "wealth", but I am more thankful to Him than ever for a full freezer and pantries.

~Joan

Fall Decorations, Take 2

Now that you've admired my outdoor "welcome" sign, come on in. To the right in the foyer (did you remember to shut the door quietly and wipe your feet? thank you) you see this framed mirror. I bought the vine last year at one of my favorite stores that is sadly out of business now.

~Joan

Fall Decorations, Take 1

I hope to share some of our fall decorations with you. I don't like a lot of things, but I like what *I* have!!

Let's start outside. This is a sign given to me by my friend, Misty. I can't remember what was originally on the banner at the top, but I remember that I didn't like the font or words. So I just painted over it with several layers of cream and printed the above on the computer. I transferred it to the banner, painted it, then sanded it to match the primitive look of the rest of it. This is to the right of our front door when you come in.

See you tomorrow,

~Joan

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

I was working on my little Christmas stitchery quilt tonight. Luke wasn't feeling well, so I stayed home from church with him. This evening I was finished with my "work", so I relaxed a little working on this. I have it all quilted, and the binding is sewn on by machine. Perhaps during violin lessons tomorrow I'll get to quilt the rest of the center cream fabric. This has been a neat project. The center fabric is called Sandcastle. It is a fairly thick fabric and has a crosshatch design on it.

I am a particular quilter. I had all the hand quilting finished, but didn't like the way it poofed out in the center where it wasn't quilted at all. Notice in the picture above how nice and flat the top unpinned area in the cream is, and how poofy it is below? Trust me--it's noticeable in person.

I debated about whether to do some machine quilting there, but then I couldn't decide what color thread to use. Then I had an inspiration (picture a light bulb here!). I am doing a tiny hand stitch from the back to tack down the fabric at the intersection of each crosshatch design. The stitches are invisible from the front, but it is "quilted" at even intervals. Here is the back, which is not quite so RED in person!

I had a moment of Christmas quilt panic. I have enjoyed seeing this quilt in the kitchen. But I started wondering, "What quilt is hung there at Christmas?" None of the family could remember. So I got out my roll of Christmas quilts, and there is was...Evergreen Pines. My picture link would not load. Perhaps I'll get a picture later. How could I have forgotten that quilt? Quite easily, I'm afraid.

Good night!

~Joan