My Fall / Halloween Mantle

I am not a huge Halloween fan (gasp) I know I am so sorry! Can I still blog??? I am just not, I love this time of year more than any other, however I am just not over the moon about Halloween. So when decoration for this special holiday you wont see a lot of elaboration at all. I do tons of natural decorating with pumpkins, gourds, pine cones and mums, all that kind of stuff. However when it comes to webs, gooey eyes, witches and blood, not so much.

 But I realize that I have to at lease give a shout out to OCT 31, so here you go!

There you have it ladies and gents, my Halloween mantle A real spook!

Tutorial on banner coming soon!

Cha Cha Cha New Chairs! {Living Room Before/After}

I am excited, ecstatic thrilled, to the moon and why you may ask?! 

Well because we fiiiinally got some new chairs for our living room! Yay chairs!

Our sad little living room did look like this...note the sad empty spaces by the fireplace...wa wa wa

We had been holding out for the perfect chairs that were the perfect price...haha what a laugh. After 2 1/2 years I was beginning to thing the two did not go hand in hand. Finally last week we got a call from my mother in law who was getting rid of her chairs, she was looking for something different and just happened to remember me saying "Wow your chairs would look great in MY house..." Thank you MOM!
Perfect chairs for the perfect price ~ FREE! 

So now my living room is happy and looks like this

A few more pillows, small table, and  some kind of unique coffee table and I think we will be done! (for now...)


In case your curious about the chair fabric and pattern here is a close up, 
its a chenille fabric and I love the pattern!

do you valance or drape?

I am always curious about what other people use in their homes for window coverings. I am a tooth person and a window person, those are the first things I notice, just the way I am.

I really love valances, especially because our windows give way to a pretty view. Although I do have one set of drapes in my dining room.

Sometimes I want to be a drape person, they are so luxurious and pretty...sometimes I look at my windows and want to dress them in linen, but I love the valances I have. They add height and color to the room while allowing us to look out into the backyard we work so hard on.

Sooo, while scouring Pininterst today I found these rooms that sparked my interest and thought...

What do you do? Do you valance or drape?

What are your thoughts when you have three windows all on one wall, two of which are in the living room and one that is in the eat in kitchen?

Do you dress them all the same? Would you drape one and valance the rest?

 I would love some feedback on what all my blog friends think!

(all photos from Pininterest)

And now for what I dress my windows with!

fence panel headboard

To cheap to buy a headboard for you kid? Love DIY projects? Have an old fence panel lying around that you cant get rid of because you know the minute you do you will need it? 

Then this post is for you!

I fall under all three categories, I hate spending money when I can DIY something crafty for free.

I never thought about blogging about the fence panel headboard in my sons room because we have had it for so long, but recently some friends came over for the first time and loved it so I thought "self, why not blog about it!" If my friends love it maybe my blog friends will too!" I know pallets are all the rage right now and yes I love them too but I really love the fence headboard!  Especially since I already have it...

The only things we had to do was cut the panel vertically to the width we wanted and then attach it to the bed. My son is a die hard cowboy, and on the ranches here in Texas you will see boots on the fence posts, thus the upside down boots.

Cheap. Quick. and Different. My three favorite things!

Linked up at:

              

what is it about fall?

What is it about fall that we love so much?

 Is it....

that at 9:15am the temperature is cool and crisp?

the way the leaves are beginning to fall and decorate our porches?

the colors that we get to see....?

the natural place settings that bring the outdoors in?

or the warmth we feel when we have a place to gather with close friends and family?

 

Is it...

 the fall decorations that we love so much?

or

the friendly fall sayings that encourage us to enjoy life?

 

the feeling we get that we are so blessed...

Could it be...

watching our kids enjoy fall baseball with friends?

or Friday night football games...?

These are all the things I love about fall, how about you? What is your favorite thing about this time of year?

the oh so coveted chalkboard wall

Like so many others I have fallen in love with the look of the chalkboard wall!  I had to have one...or two...or three even. However, so far I only have one with big plans for two more! It was so pretty after I first painted it, I told my husband I am more in love with the black wall than I am the ability to write on it.

So for all you chalkboard fanatics here you go, a little before and after eye candy from my very own house!

A very ugly before...I knew it was bad but didn't know it was that bad!

Not only does he have a place for his free style art but he can also hang his

papers from the "art line" and swap them out as wanted.

For the "art line" I nailed two horseshoes to the wall and tied rope between them, a pack of small laundry clips and voila!

 

Games or drawings...whatever his heart desires.

One of the easiest projects ever, except for the waiting part...I am known to be quite impatient so waiting three whole days before I could play was almost impossible! So if you want one, must have one, cant live without one, GO PAINT YOU ONE you will not be disappointed!

I've Got Mail

I love it when the post man comes to my door! Mainly because when he does he is bringing me goodies!

As you can see, not the goodies that I get to eat, but the goodies that I, or in this case my totally awesome hubby ordered from Ebay. By the way I LOVE EBAY!

Do you remember when you were a kid and your parents BBQed and then the whole family ate outside...and do you remember the cool wicker plate holders you used? Well... I now OWN 12 of those vintage wicker plate holders!

We love to BBQ and eat outside during the summer and now the mess will be less!

WHOOP WHOOP!

I wonder if he would notice if I re purposed a few of them??? Nothing is this house is safe.....

Not only did I get that totally great present but I also got my new  Restoration Hardware {baby & child} catalogue. I have gotten so many ideas from this catalogue for the boys rooms redo I am going to do this summer.

Ideas like:

Art work on clip boards, and flash card word art

 

Framed ribbons from field days and sports, and simple, classic furniture

I have big plans coming up and its all thanks to Restoration Hardware! Yay, today!!!!

Jen

We Have a New Friend in the House!

Say hello to Bob.

 I did not name him, my son did. Its kinda creepy really.

Bob is the newest member of our home, and I love him most because he does not eat, potty, shed, need a bath, roll his eyes or require me to care for him in anyway but an occasional dusting.

We were at baseball practice over the weekend and my son Robert yells out "DEER"! Immediately we all start looking around for a live deer, and see a truck with several mounted deer heads in the bed. So we go over to take a gander (my husband imagining HE shot one of them), and get to talking to this nice complete stranger. As we are walking off he tells my son, "I will make you a deal, I will give this to you for free...but if you shoot one bigger you have to give yours to a stranger too." So of coarse my boys and husband were jumping with joy and got to take home Bob as a trophy. So cool!

But now the dilemma is, where do we put him? So this is where you blog buddies come in! I really need your help. Here are the 3 places that Bob could potentially reside, what do you think the BEST place is? I am leaning toward over the stairs, he really looks good there I think...Then I could put other rustic stuff there to and it would be AWESOME! Seriously though, what do you think, opinions welcome please...unless you are totally against killing deer and are gonna go PITA on me, then I really don't want to know what you think about my new friend.

Should he go above my stairs?

Or...above my TV?

Or...on that blank wall above the kitchen entry?

Jen