Autumn Goodness

I have been decorating for autumn since ... um.. the first of September I think. I don't like decorating for Halloween because I am not into the scariness of it (as well as numerous religious reasons, childhood upbringing, etc.). Plus I like that the decorations can span several months, as opposed to some holiday decorations which stay up only a few weeks.

The front of our house sports a fall leaf wreath, which I got a couple of years ago on clearance somewhere. I picked up the three-pack of mums at Sams Club this year for about $15 and they have lasted quite awhile. Love them! They make me happy whenever I drive up to the house. The small pumpkins on the porch are from Ava and Lily's preschool and the large pumpkins I picked up at a grocery store. I plan on cutting them up after Halloween for pumpkin puree.

I already showed you how I decorated the entertainment center, but I tweaked it just a bit by adding three extra little pumpkins next to the candlesticks.

I made this "Give Thanks" banner to place above the window in the dining area.

I got the banner letters over at the blog At Second Street. I had been saving the idea since last year, if you can believe it. I downloaded all of them, then separated each sheet into individual letters via Photoshop, cropped them to 4x6 prints and printed them as photos free (with a coupon) at Target. Then I cut them apart and glued them onto scrapbook paper I had on hand. I added a few red construction paper maple leaves and strung it all on jute twine.

The only other place I have to decorate is the top of the piano.

I put some real branches in a large green glass vase (from a garage sale). I love them, but they are almost dead now, which makes me sad. The printable art from last year got busted out from storage again, along with a jar of fake acorns ("fakorns", ha ha ha). The jar and acorns are from garage sales and then I put them atop a candlestick, temporarily attached via Glue Dots. The cake pedastal is full of baby butternut squash from our garden that didn't grow big enough to eat. And the cake pedastal is (gasp) homemade:

I Gorilla Glue'd a nine inch cake pan atop a glass candlestick (probably cost me a total of $.50 at a garage sale) then spray painted it.  I think next time I would probably attach the cake pan upside down and spray paint it a fun color.  But I love how it turned out!