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Our Fall Mantels 2013 | Home Decor Ideas

October 29, 2013 By Laura 4 Comments

Today, I wanted to share with you our mantels, decorated for Fall! Alright, so I realize Fall is a month in here, and many are maybe so over it. But you know….there is two months more of the Fall season to go, you know! (Can you even believe it is the Fall season until December 20th?) Yes, in the bloggers’/crafters’ world, I could be a little late with this. But that’s OK! I figure, you can pin it for some ideas on Pinterest for next year! Or find a little inspiration in it for your Thanksgiving mantels. Regardless, I am really enjoying the mantels I put together for our home decor and for my family, and I hope you enjoy seeing them as well.

By the way, I actually did ‘Back-to-School’ mantels, you never got to see. YET. That’s a season shorter lived than Fall! BUT….take heart, I did take photos to share with you next year, in a timely manner, that would allow time to be inspired. But let’s get back to our mantels decorate for Fall here, shall well?

Here’s an overview of our Fall double mantels.

Can’t tell you how much I love having double-mantels.
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A closer look at the first mantel….

Now for some details . . . . . . (I so love details . . . .) . . . .
By the way, I made four of the objects on this mantel. I’ll discuss a little about them along the way here. Pay attention if you care to. 😉
A simple basket of apples. Which wasn’t quite as simple as you think. You see, my Fall mantels have been done for some time, except for one project I was working on. So while I wanted this basket of apples to be part of my decor, I also wasn’t going to make it off limits for my kids to eat. Because….they just seem to always be hungry, always looking for food, and always eating. So I told them, “Hey, go ahead and grab an apple off the mantel whenever you want. I don’t want them on the mantel going bad.” Well, I think I had to buy more apples and resupply this basket four times already. And the cycle will continue until, well, I guess December!

This sign; I did make it. I’ll do a separate short and simple post about it, such as what inspired it and how I made it, at some point soon.
I can tell you now, that I love it. It’s not quite as elaborately simple as I had intended….more simply simple in the end….but I love it nonetheless.
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I also made this set of greeting blocks, which were so fun to make! And…..there is much more than meets the eyes with these! I can’t wait to show you how versatile they are! I took photos along the way, and will have a whole tutorial for you on this project as well.

I did not grow the pumpkin, because, well, if you follow me on our Facebook Page (please come ‘LIKE’ us if you’re on Facebook!) you may know that our pumpkin patch bit the dust hard and early this year!
(Vine borers…..I despise them oh so much!)
BUT, I did indeed make the candle a bit behind the pumpkin, with real leaves embedded. I made two, and gave one to my sister.
You can find the post with directions about how I made them HERE.

This rustic Autumn wreath is the fourth homemade item I made last year, as of the date of this post Simple, simple, simple. It’s more….assembled, than homemade.
You can see just how I did that, what I used, and from where, in this post on this wreath HERE.

And that concludes the details of the first mantel.
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On to the second mantel….

for which I made nothing for, with my own hands. But I can share some ‘where to get’ info, for this year anyway.

The overview, of mantel #2.

I spotted this pumpkin, adored it, and purchased it at the Home Goods dept of TJ Maxx.
I think it has a really high cute-factor, and I love the rustic qualities of it.
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Now, you all may know custom lettering is at the snap of my finger! As my husband, Michael is a professional truck letterer / sign maker. But, I saw this wall adhesive at Michael’s Arts and Crafts, and fell right for it! It not only expresses one of the many things I love about Fall, but I really loved the leaves accents. So while I could have asked Michael to whip this up for me, why, when this was $1.99! And ready to go!

Here’s what’s even greater about it: I had imagined I would stick it on one of our painted walls. But when I got it home, I just though the best placement for it, was within the theme of our mantels. I wasn’t sure how well it would work on the bead board though, with all of the grooves. So I was very pleased to discover it worked beautifully! And I was really impressed with how discreet the fact that it’s a one-piece adhesive, is. People come into our home and when they see it, they get right up close to try and figure out…how did we do that? LOL. It’s a cool thing, and a very nice accent for the walls behind mantels! I always try to have some accents on the walls, behind the mantels, somewhere. Such as the wreath as well. It really just extend all of the beauty, and adds dimension with the various levels. It’s more pleasing to the eye.

Lastly, I simply placed a pot of warm orange colored mums in an old cranberry crate Michael brought me home one day. (Actually, he brought me home two.) I love these crates, and I love that he found them in shed he was hired to clean out at the parish he was working for, and thought of me.

And that’s the end of our Fall mantels tour.

I may mix things up just a little for Thanksgiving, but I haven’t decided yet. I do know that I am enjoying my mantels as much as I dreamed, from putting them together through these various seasons, to the holidays we celebrate. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing them as well, and have found any bits of inspiration in them, for any areas or even shelves in your own home. PIN away!

I plan to share the tutorials or details of some of the projects on mantel one, soon. So please share your thoughts, hopes, or questions of what you would like to know in those posts coming up, in our comments below! You are automatically notified by email if I reply to you, or if more fitting, I will address those questions in the posts coming up.

Hope you are relishing in all of the gifts of Fall, as much as we are!

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Decorating with Autumn Leaves; Door Garland and Candle Jars

November 10, 2012 By Laura 26 Comments

I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone on God’s green earth, who appreciates the foliage that Autumn brings, more than I do. I am mesmerized by the leaves, from beginning to end. Ask my kids. They are often amused at how taken I am, with the beauty of this season. And they’ve certainly come to understand that I don’t want them to miss one bit of it, any more than I do. I get especially excited when we are driving here and there, which with 4 kids I can tell you, we do a whole lot of. “Oh!! There’s a tree starting to change right there! Do you see it guys?” And as fall progresses., each week is more full of awe than the last. As we go along, I’ll burst out “LOOK!….at that GORGEOUS tree guys!! LOOK AT THE COLORS ON THAT THING!!” I’ve startled them. And they’ll be like, “We know Mama! Watch where you’re going!” It’s true. I probably shouldn’t be driving at all in the Fall. Certainly not during peak foliage week. There is just a span of weeks in this season, where the trees are all I can talk about, everywhere we go. Sometimes, I feel God made Autumn, just for me. Perhaps not. But gosh, it sure feels like such a gift of love.

The peak beauty of the season, is really all too fleeting for me. I want it to stay just as it is in those weeks, forever. At least, I want to save as many beautiful leaves as I can. But I’ve never found a great way to preserve them for a while, until this year. Oh yes, there was the waxed paper trick but, I heard that never worked all that well. And besides…..Confession of Domestic Shame: I really hate ironing. So when I learned that using Glossy Modge Podge really worked well, I was so excited to try it. And I immediately started dreaming up a very simple, very rustic leaf garland for my home.

The kids helped me Modge Podge countless leaves they had collected for me, over the weeks. We had them drying and being pressed between the pages of newspapers and magazines all over the house. I’m willing to bet we’ll be finding several we missed finding again, well into spring. But I found you can actually Modge Podge a fresh leaf right away, anyway. I do recommend the Glossy medium. I tried the Matte finish just as a test, and it seemed to strip the color, and not look very impressive once it was dry either. Something about the Glossy really does enhance the color of the leaf, and add lustre. To Modge Podge (MP) the leaves, we just poured some MP in a non-pourous bowl, and used foam brushes to apply it to our leaves, doing the back of the leaves first. Then you can lay them on newspaper or whatever, until they dry. They don’t really stick anywhere as drying, because they are not flat or heavy. MP is so easy to clean up anyway.

I wanted my garland extremely simple and rustic. Jute was just the kind of string for the job. I love this stuff.

I took 4 pieces of equal lengths of the jute, knotted the ends, and twisted the quadruple strand quite a bit before push-pinning it over the frame of our sun room french doors.

Then, I just stuck my leaves in between the twisted jute string, arranging as I wanted to, all the way across.

There it is. Done in like, . . .a couple of minutes.
And I didn’t fall off while standing on the chair I had to keep moving, even once.
(Although I think I had my husband and kids nervous, because they kept reminding me to be careful. That might have to do with the many happenstances I have had. But not this time!)

Look how pretty! Honesty….my heart is racing a little bit right now, just looking at them.
No two alike….such beautiful shapes and colors.

Do you see that long pointy leaf? After being out and about collecting leaves, the kids came running in, so excited to give me that one. They call it my giraffe leaf. I love giraffes, and they saw a giraffe skin pattern in it. I do too now. I felt the love, and that leaf makes me smile even more than all the rest now.

I also used the glossy Modge Podge to apply more leaves to jars. I love that you can just slap that MP all over the jar with a foam (or flat bristle) brush, and everywhere it dries where there is not a leaf, it looks like frosted glass.

Isn’t it beautful?
I’ll warn you that this project took a little more patience than I had anticipated. Certainly not as easy as my garland! It’s worth the little bit of trouble I think though! It’s just that the leaves, which I had MP’d the back of, as well as the jar, don’t want to lay down flat right away. It’s all kind of slippery. It’s only once the MP glue starts setting a little, that is starts sticking as you need it to. You need to MP over the leaves too anyway, so I kept kind of poking the leaves down where they were sticking up. Once the whole jar was dry, I did one more final coat. Oh and I just let stems hang free off the glued down leaf. I liked them that way anyway, if they didn’t want to stick.

They give such a warm glow of radiance.

I can see myself doing these same projects with leaves every year, from now on. And other preserved leaf projects I’ll think of I’m sure now too.
I so enjoyed every minute of working with the leaves, and I am so very happy I found a way to preserve them, and let the beauty live on in my home, as the world around us outdoors drains colorless.

Thanks for coming by, and listening to me go on and on about my love for the colors of Autumn.
It sure was an amazing Fall season this year, and I thanked God for it every day.
Do you get a colorful foliage season where you live, in the Fall? And if so, have you done anything with the leaves?

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An Autumn Decor Peek & a Wicked Little Bit of Halloween.

October 18, 2010 By Laura 4 Comments

We’re sharing our current Autumn decor with you today! We’re so glad you’re here. Come on in!

I’ve been taking a couple of photos here and there, of our homestead autumn decor, simply because it is FUN for me, and I know many of you love to see this kind of stuff. So, I’m sharing, just as I did last year. It’s just a small collection of shots, and most all of the decor I’ve done is indoors. Not much has been done with the outdoors at this point in time, although we did rip out all of the tomato plants and cosmos. It seems we still have some jalapeno and bell peppers growing though, so we’ve left those for the time being. Marigold plants remain for now as well, adding some color to the near empty gardens now. The strawberry beds need to be ‘put to bed’ before the first frost! Which feels like it may be soon! It’s gotten pretty chilly around here. Especially at night! We’ve even built a fire or 2 in our wood stove, and it’s given us that nice cozy atmosphere we love through the cold season.

autumn-home-decor
But one thing I do have outdoors, is this new flag that I picked up for next to nothing. It was one of maybe 50 designs, and apparently the last one. It was the one and only I wanted. I made the staff of the store go through quite a bit to get this display one down for me. I really wanted it! And I got it. And it makes me smile every day.
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I made this wreath, but don’t be too impressed. It was already vine like, and I made it into a circle, and hung it.

Come on in and take a little look around, to see a few other seasonal touches around the homestead.

Some faux fall flowers, dropped into an antique milk jug.
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Our wall table, and some family photos in a big frame, that I just stuck some faux leaves in. Above on the wall is a new sign I had to have, for the Halloween season. I got it on sale too.
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It’s so suitable for the Halloween season. But I love it because it’s a slang word I have used all of my life. I’m originally from western MA, and it’s common language out there. When I came out to the Boston area to art school, I quickly found the whole world does not actually use the word like I do. Or at all. But I still use it. I cherish it. I find the word wicked useful.
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Great craft and treat ideas in this special Halloween edition magazine of Matthew Mead’s, from last year.
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These are the kid’s. And….these are the kids. LOL (They know which one is them.) But here they are sticking in the weave of a basket in the kitchen. Until they grab them again. Come to think of it, I don’t even know if they are still there. But I’m not going to look now. I got my photo.
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An Autumn ribbon that hangs our Prayer List Chalkboard. I’ve mentioned that I love the idea of changing out the ribbon on our chalkboards, to go with current season and holiday home decor.
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A hedgehog ornament. Cute, huh? She’s hanging on our season tree (branch).
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Apple cinnamon tea, in a beautiful ceramic mug, that seems perfect for Autumn.
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It’s been a happy Autumn indeed. May the coming winter be as good to us.

Have you happened to do any autumn decorating at all this year? We’d love to hear a little bit about what you’ve done, no matter how simple. And, if you’ve taken photos and blogged it, leave us a link! We’ll swing by your place!

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Here’s an overview of our Fall double mantels.

A closer look at the first mantel….

On to the second mantel….

And that’s the end of our Fall mantels tour.

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