Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Fall Dining

No matter the season,  I love decorating my dining room.  It’s the first room you see when you enter my home whether it’s through the front door or kitchen door. 

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The dining room table is set for fall and ready for all to see.

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At each place setting, I used white dishes.  I layered each white plate with a red charger and a red dessert plate.   I placed a  white linen monogrammed napkin between the white and red dessert plate.     

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My parents’ buffet is completely transformed and if I must say so,  I think it  looks nice in my dining room.   To see the before you can go here.

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I have a few fall accessories on the buffet.  The cloche  has white pumpkins and a fall floral pick. 

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Another little pumpkin topiary I made. 

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Now that you’ve seen my dining room by day, take a look at night.

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I purchased the candle goblets last year at Tuesday Mornings.        

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I love having my parents’ buffet.  Now that it is  part of my dining room I love it even more.    

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Now my dining room has the feel of autumn and that feeling is working its way through my home.

Gail

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

My Mom’s Buffet

One of the things that I inherited from my parents was their  buffet.  It had been in their dining room for about 25 years.   This buffet served all of us well.   Mom always had goodies on it such as fruit, nuts and candy.  

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This buffet would have matched my dining room furniture perfectly before it underwent a facelift.  You can read about my dining room transformation here.   Now that my dining room furniture is painted black, I needed  to transform the buffet to match. 

I used the same paint that I used on my dining room furniture and transformed the buffet to match.   

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Now that the painting is done, all I have to do is install the drawers, add new hardware and place it in the dining room.   Hopefully this will all happen today so that I can finish my fall decorating. 

I sure hope my Mom approves.  On second thought, I’m sure she would have because she was my biggest fan when it came to me transforming anything! 

Gail

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Crackled Pumpkin Topiaries

My family room mantel shelf is decorated for autumn and I’m lovin’  my pumpkin topiaries!    

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I made the pumpkin topiaries.   This topiary was nothing more than painting and crackling the pumpkin, adding greens to an urn and inserting a dowel rod through the pumpkin and placing it into the urn.

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And  these little pumpkin topiaries I made using a pair of candle holders.  I used floral foam,  greens, left an opening in the middle and sat the pumpkins  on top.

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I really like the layered look to the mantle.   

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As evening approaches (or a cloudy day like today),  I light the candles.   

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I love to light my candles.      

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I have been busy working on many different projects now all I have to do is get them posted!

Have a blessed autumn week. 

Gail

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Inspirational Acorns

I love the change of all seasons, but as I get older I think Fall is starting to become my favorite time of year.  I just love the warm days, cool evenings and all the warm colors that Fall brings.  

I have, as well as a  lot of you, been busy decorating my home for Fall.  I wanted to share with you my kitchen tablescape. 

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I layered each place setting with a red leaf placemat, a  wicker charger, a leaf plate which I bought at Dollar Tree last year, a gold napkin and an inspiration acorn that I made. 

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I made my acorns using my Cricut and the Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) program.  The SCAL provided the design for the acorn and I cut them out using my Cricut.   I  typed four different inspiring verses in Word , printed them on vellum, added trim and metallic natural leaves, tied raffia on each tag and attached it to the acorns.  

The acorn verses are:  “A happy family is but an earlier heaven.”

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“Love is like the sun coming out of the clouds and warming the soul.”

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“The love of a family is life’s greatest blessing.”

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And last but not least this one says “So thankful for a house full of people we love.” 

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My centerpiece for the table is a small wicker basket filled with potpourri, a candle and a pumpkin.  I love the texture of this pumpkin! 

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I also added one of my thrift store bottles to the centerpiece.  I filled it with coffee beans and added a floral stem. 

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Hope you enjoyed my kitchen tablescape. I love having the inspirational acorns a part of my fall tablescaping  and the best part of all is when my grandsons ask me to read  what’s on the acorns.   It makes for a meaningful tablescape. 

Happy Autumn Day! 

Gail

P.S.  I’m linking to the following party today:  Plant a Punkin Seed Party @ Punkinseed Productions.

Monday, September 20, 2010

My Little Kitchen Stool

How many times have you seen these little stools in thrift stores and yard sales?    I purchased two of them recently.  I got this one at a yard sale.   

 

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And  I got this one at a local thrift store in my area.    

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The top lifts up for storage on this one.   I’m thinking of re-doing it for the bathroom to hold magazines.…everyone needs a little something to read in there.

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I wanted a cute little stool for my kitchen where I wouldn’t have to store away all the time.  This stool was the right height so that I could reach the top of my cabinets.   I took the top off and sprayed painted the legs and sides.

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I sprayed painted it Espresso Brown. 

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I  covered the top of the stool with fabric I had on hand. 

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I wanted to put a pleated trim on the stool.  I cut strips of fabric and sewed them together.  I hemmed it by using my sewing machine but you could use the iron on tape to hem it if you don’t have a sewing machine. 

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I used my hot glue gun and glued the fabric all the way around making my pleats as I went along. 

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Once I finished with the pleated trim, I screwed the top of the stool back on. 

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I love how it turned out! 

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Now I don’t need to get the ugly little plastic step stool out or sit on the counter tops to reach the top of the cabinets.  

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And now Charlie can use his favorite bowl for his nighttime popcorn because me and my little stool can reach the top of the cabinets to put it away.

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I wanted a cute little stool for my kitchen and I have to say that I think I have one.  And to think all total it probably cost me a little over four dollars….love that even more!   

Gail

Friday, September 17, 2010

The Search Is Over!

We have this one corner in our kitchen that no matter what I put there or bought, nothing seemed to look right.   When we renovated our kitchen one year ago, I bought this cabinet from the Habitat for Humanity.  I thought I could make it work.   Well I didn’t like it so out to the garage it went.   

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Then I bought this corner cabinet and put it there.   I lived with it but I didn’t really like it. 

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Then two weeks ago, Charlie and I went to an auction and this beautiful table was there.  It was love at first sight.  I pulled my tape measure out and the dimensions were a perfect fit.  Charlie and I waited patiently for the bidding to almost stop and then he jumped in and we got it for $110.  I was in seventh heaven! 

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The table was in perfect condition.  I love the open space in the bottom. 

With liquid sander deglosser, cabinet paint and new hardware, I transformed it to this.

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I didn’t paint the top or bottom of the table.  I left the stain.  I put baskets on the bottom shelve to hold Duncan’s dog good and my cookbooks. 

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Charlie and I made the shelves.  We purchased the corbels from Home Depot. 

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I have searched and experimented for almost a year for the right piece of furniture to go into our kitchen.  And now I am content. 

Gail

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Fall Cloches

It’s been a while since I’ve participated in one of Marty’s Cloche parties and what better time to join in on the fun than fall. 

I love this wire bird cage cloche.  I just added fall floral picks and a candle.  How easy is that?

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It’s sitting on a shelf in my kitchen.  I placed it in front of a wreath.  I think the wreath is a nice back drop for my bird cage cloche. 

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This cloche is in my dining room sitting on the side board.   I made a mini pumpkin topiary and again added a fall floral pick.   For some strange reason, I’m loving white pumpkins this year.

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My dining room is almost ready for fall show and tell.  I’ll be sure to post about it.

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Last but not least, my  lantern cloche…..is there such a thing….oh well Marty said anything goes. 

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To read about how I made my lantern cloche you can go here

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Well I hope you all enjoyed my display of Fall Cloches.  I don’t have many but I sure do love the endless possibilities of creating displays of what I do have. 

Thanks Marty for hosting and just to let you know, you were the one that inspired me to buy my very first cloche.  I so LOVE all of yours.  Now  I can’t wait to see what creative ideas others have come up with. 

Gail

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