Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Let It Fly

One of the things I love most about our neighborhood is how festive it is.  Residents take pride in the neighborhood and their homes and it shows.  Currently on every street there are orange lights, fake cemeteries strewn on lawns, cobwebs on hedges, bats hanging from tree branches and giant spiders hugging the trunks. It's spirited to say the least.


Our house is currently looking decidedly less Thriller, and that's mostly because I was a little taken by surprise at how much everyone gets into Halloween.  Next year, we'll be ready.

Shep's had a rough month though, the neighborhood has a lot of mature trees so there's already plenty of squirrels to monitor.  Add in all this Halloween nonsense and well, it's been tough.  She's been hitting the Nylabone pretty hard. You can see her little face below in the window, she had to go inside because the yard crew showed up which is always extremely upsetting.  Yet another thing she has to monitor.


Another thing people get excited for is the Oklahoma City Thunder.  With the NBA season officially starting this week, Thunder paraphernalia has come creeping out.  While we weren't on the spooky train this year, we couldn't wait to jump on board with the Thunder. 


Loud and proud.  We (Matt) put this flag pole on the side of the house. We decided to put it off to the side because it would have crowded up the front door area too much and it's more visible from the street like this.  





I like how the front door can still feel more "formal" if I want it to with the flag waving off to the side. 

I also love how you can see it in action from the kitchen window. 



A few weeks ago some of our friends came over to see the house for the first time.  When one of them saw the dining room he said "Your dining room is Thunder colors."  So before we hung it outside I put it up in the dining room and had to smile at how well it flowed.  Subconscious love I guess. 


  

Thunder Up!

Friday, October 24, 2014

We Can't Run That

In an effort to keep moving forward in the dining room, I've been on the prowl for table linens.  Don't table linens seem like such an adult thing to own? I guess I'm really growing up. I came across some earlier this week at Pottery Barn (and they were on great sale) so I snatched 'em up. I knew I wanted orange napkins, but after I paid and was on my way out I noticed a blue table runner, so that came home too. Don't worry, I went back up and paid for it.


Both the napkins and the runner are the same ikat print. To be honest, I wasn't 100% sold on either purchase, but I figured the only way to really know was to come home and style the table with them.


The neutral linen coasters are from Crate & Barrel, those are a recent purchase too, we'll use them on our new table to avoid water stain and scratches. 


All of our tableware are things we registered for at Crate & Barrel.  It's moved around quite a bit, but surprisingly nothing has broken (knock on wood).  Five years later I still love the classic white with blue accents.  We've also had those napkin rings since we got married, but this was the first time I've ever pulled them out.  It was a big day for me. 


Since I was playing around in the dining room anyway, I decided to live like there's no tomorrow and style it for fall, I just shuffled everything from the kitchen shelves into the dining room. The centerpiece on the table is a white ceramic tray filled with stemless martini glasses, candy corn, tea lights, and gourds. 



The mirror was accessorized with pumpkins, a moss wreath, and a gold lantern


The top shelf of the bar cart got a vase filled with candy corn and parchment paper, a pumpkin candle, and a bottle of champagne for a pop of orange.




And on the bottom, a pitcher filled with parchment and a bowl full of pumpkins.  The vodka book works too, because purple is kind of a Halloween color, right?




The buffet table got a Crate & Barrel vase filled with gourds on a copper tray.


When Matt got home I asked him to weigh in on our new table linens, he said "I like the napkins, not so much the runner." So as you may have surmised from the title, the runner is out.




And you know what?  Ditching the runner was like infusing fresh air into the room.  It was fun to play with, but it was too fussy and made the room feel overly formal.  The runner actually looks better in these photos than it did in person. Maybe the heaviness was because the runner was such a thick and patterned fabric, or maybe we're just not runner people.  Maybe when we're 40.  

But wait!  There's more fall fun to be had.  After I was done in the dining room I scooted everything over to the living room.  There's a certain breed in this world that finds it fun to rearrange pumpkins and gourds over and over.  I happen to walk among them. 





By this point Shep was so over it. 


  

Her walk was well overdue. I hear ya girl, although it pains me that my dogger doesn't seem to share my enthusiasm for seasonal decorating. I knew I should've bought some squirrel figurines. 

{More dining room posts here + here + here}

Friday, October 17, 2014

Kitchen Shelves: Fall Done

Is there anything more fun in this world than styling shelves?  For basic girls like me who love seasonal decorating, I don't think so.  For the rest of humanity, maybe.

As mentioned in yesterday's Kitchen Tour I'm here to show off the shelves shining in all their fall glory. I didn't want to make you wait too long, not like how Netflix releases an entire season of OITNB or HOC then makes you wait a year until the next season is released.  It's rude.

Anyway, let's take a look back at the pre-fall look...




And Hello Fall:


Let's start at the top left and work our way down. 

An easy and economic way to make anything look "fallized" is just to accessorize with something you probably already have in your kitchen, parchment paper.  The Native American glasses got some parchment and now they're feeling downright festive.  There's even chatter they're all going to dress up as Indians for Halloween.  Those guys.



You'll see I used parchment a lot on these shelves.  Have you ever seen the Portlandia "Put a Bird on it" episode?  They say to make anything instantly trendy (bags, cards, dishes) all you have to do is "Put a bird on it."  I think a similar mantra can be used with fall and parchment paper, "Stick parchment in it."

Down on the next shelf are stemless martini glasses filled with candy corn and tea lights. Simple and cheap.

 


With the exception of Christmas, I tend to like to decorate with seasonal items that are either living and/or disposable.  I don't have the storage space or desire to have my house cluttered with a bunch of seasonal knick-knacks.  I also think decor tends to feel more sophisticated when you approach it from this mindset. So for these shelves, I supplemented everyday items I already had with real pumpkins and gourds, parchment paper, candy corn, and candles.  


Moving on I added a stack of saucers to this shelf topped with a gourd in a mini-latte bowl.  




























I love these little bowls, this one came from Anthropologie a few months back (but I think they always carry them).



The bottom shelf got a subtle fall touch, I just switched out the Native American print that's usually in  that frame for one of Old Main (University of Arkansas) in the fall.  Also, I added a ceramic egg crate, not really fall-ish, I just like it. While we're on the subject, have you ever been to Fayetteville, AR in the fall?  It's incredible.  The leaves there rival Boston. 


And finally on the bottom I have a gold lantern (Homegoods) with a flameless candle and pumpkins.  That lantern usually lives in the living room, but it's been relocated until further notice.  


That completes the left side, let's shimmy on over to the right.


Starting at the top, I added a flameless candle to the vase that's usually up there and put candy corn around it.  I also added the silver charger and mini pumpkins. 




Moving down, more parchment!  All these guys were here already, I just added the fall touches.  I was out of candy corn by the time I got to the pitcher so I put a piece of orange tissue paper in the bottom instead.



The next shelf didn't get much fall love, I just added a little succulent to play off the moss wreath. Actually, there are pumpkin cupcakes in the cupcake stand so I'm going to go ahead and say those count too. Things are lookin' up for this shelf. 


The last shelf has one of my favorite touches, a little copper tray (Target) that I already had piled with gourds and a pumpkin candle.  The glass vase that lives on the floor got some parchment too, didn't want him to be left out of the parchment paper party. There's a Friday dose of alliteration for ya. 


I hung a moss wreath on the window.  I think bringing wreaths inside makes for such a dramatic yet charming look.  It's one of my favorite seasonal things to do.  


Well there you have it.


Now if this doesn't start your weekend off right I'm worried we're not speaking the same language. 
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