Thanksgiving Decor

Hello and Happy December...wow, already!  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and long weekend.

I wanted to post the tablescape that I created for Thanksgiving.  This year I decided on a natural vibe, so browns and greens were the colors that I chose.  After all, I am a nature lover (minus the bugs), so these colors were ideal!  I also used a few natural elements such as wheat, fresh green apples (turned them into candles...found that idea on Pinterest!), a large roll of burlap ribbon turned table runner and feathers.  The napkins were actually plain white bandanas (I brilliant idea that I got from my sister) and the ribbon that was wrapped around it was a green burlap.  Enough talking, here it is...

I also decorated the coffee table to carry the theme across both rooms.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it's time to get my house together for Christmas!  We'll be having family staying over this year, so I'm going to have to figure out how to turn our "guest room" (aka the spare room where a lot of our things are stored) into a warm, cozy, comfortable, inviting space (on a budget).  Wish me luck!

By the way, if you'd like to see our previous Thanksgiving tablescapes, click here, here, and here (the last link is from my old blog).

Guest Posting on A Home in the Making today!

Hey guys!  Today I'm excited to be guest posting over at A Home in the Making.  It's all about one thing that I'm loving this autumn.  Check it out here!

A Coping Mechanism for Cold Weather

Many cozy nights outdoors are ahead thanks to this baby...

This is our first fire pit (thanks to my Grandma's hubby!), so we lit it on Sunday night for the first time and enjoyed the brisk weather along with hot apple cider (me) and rum (Simon).

Simon cheesing :)

I can't wait to have loved ones over and roast marshmallows (maybe even make s'mores), wrap up in blankets, drink hot chocolate and have wonderful chats around the fire.  Since it sits pretty low, I'm thinking about getting some floor cushions to place around.

Here's a polyvore mood board that I created showing what I'm looking forward to now that we have the fire pit!

{image credits/sources above are all available via my polyvore board}

Do any of you have fire pits?

Autumn Mantel

Hello there!  Hope you had a fun weekend.

This is my first time decorating the mantel for autumn, but I just got the urge to do it.  Maybe it's because I have a better attitude about this autumn...who knows.  Anyway, I decided to do a little craft project similar to the cupcake bunting that I made for my sister's birthday except with rectangles and my gold leafing pen.  I really love my gold leafing pen.  I have used it so much that it's about time for a new one and I've only had it for a month!

To make this bunting, I did the same thing as before, so there's really no need for a step by step in detail.  Here's the summary:

1.  Cut out shapes from cover stock (I chose rectangles) and color the paper (unless you are smart and buy a paper that is already colored!).

2. Poke two holes into each piece of paper.

3.  String the paper onto a wire/string/thread, whatever you want to use.  No picture of that, but you get the point.

This is how it turned out

And this is the mantel.  Didn't have to purchase anything, I already had everything from previous years!

I think I might make another bunting to accompany that one because it looks a little lonely up there.

Have you decorated your mantel for autumn yet or do you even do that?  If so I'd love to see!  Leave a link in the comments.

Weekend shots

Hey there!  I just wanted to post a few weekend shots for your viewing pleasure.  Simon and I were going to do a long weekend out of town but took too long to book a place, so we had a slight staycation.  It mainly consisted of watching movies, eating at a few restaurants, taking a walk on a nature trail, and enjoying our backyard while the fall weather rolled in.  Oh yeah, and coffee.

An Early Welcome

Since tomorrow is the first day of Autumn, I wanted to give it an early greeting.  Usually I'm not too enthused about it because it means that cold weather is ahead (which I do NOT like), but I'm having a change of heart.

Have a great weekend!

Amicalola Falls

As I was going through photos that I dumped onto my computer last month, I ran across a lot of things that I haven't posted yet.  That includes this day trip that Simon and I took to a Georgia state park, Amicalola Falls.  I wanted to go there because there is a huge waterfall amidst the mountains, and if you already don't know, I'm a sucker for a beautiful nature scene.  There are also various nature/hiking trails and at the very top of the falls is an Inn which overlooks everything.  We might go back there for a weekend snuggle fest.  Despite kinda getting lost on the way there and back, we had a nice time and enjoyed all of God's artwork.

We started at the top of the falls and began walking down the stairway until we realized that we would have to walk all the way back up.  Yeah, no.  So we turned around after a few pictures.

We then drove down from the top to the middle where there is a trail that leads to a bridge at the falls.  We were greeted by this lovely tree at the entrance of the trail.

A random old truck...kinda freaky if you ask me.

The closer we got to the falls, we started seeing trickling water.

Can you see the falls on the left through the trees?

Proof that we were there together.

A random huge spider...YUCK!

Talking tree is what I like to call it.

Before we left, we stopped by the visitors center.  To our surprise, there were stuffed animals (not the toy kind) and live snakes (caged).  Eek!
 

 

I can see how this could be useful.

The last thing we saw was this sign explaining that this is where the start of the Appalachian trail is, and that you can hike all the way to Maine.  There's more info than that on here obviously, but I found that most interesting.
 

If you ever come to GA you should definitely visit this place.  You will not be disappointed...unless of course you could care less about beautiful scenery, waterfalls and snakes :)