what's a pumpkin's favorite sport?

squash.

yesterday was about bring autumn inside, today we will be moving to the great outdoors.  once again, i kept it very simple.

the hay bale was brought up from the barn by yours truly.  i'm still quite impressed with my farm girl skills, even if i did take a break or two.  and never mind that my brother-in-law decided to show up right as i made it to the house.  if there is one thing that harvest teaches me every year, it is independence {no husband you say? i'll do it myself}.  

b and i picked the corn stocks from behind our grove.  if only he could be a little more helpful and at least carry them back to the house for me.  or better yet, pull the hay bales to the house when i need them.  

unfortunately, i could not find any pumpkins around my house.  i put in a good effort, but my garden flopped and the one pumpkin that did manage to grow turned out to be a nice snack for a certain "helpful" dog.  good thing the neighbors had a bumper crop this year {free donation > $3 per pumpkin at the grocery store}.  you never can have too many pumpkins.  am i right, or am i right? 

the biggest challenge to this porchscape is definitely going to be trying to teach boston boston pumpkin eater to "be nice" to the pumpkins.  it's like a never-ending battle in his little brain.  the bright orange pumpkins just fit so nicely in his mouth.

happy and safe harvest to all!

a fall mantel

'tis the season for shorter days of sunshine and longer days of work for husband. fewer family meals at the dinner table and more family meals in field.  sunday afternoons filled with football.  cold air, knitted scarves, and warm boots.  and of course, pumpkin flavored everything.  fall seems to be everyone's favorite season.  for me, every season is my favorite once it starts and my least favorite as it is ending {goodbye summer, i don't miss you at all}.

naturally, my favorite thing about fall would have to be the decorating.  i actually have a mantel to decorate this year which happens to be more exciting to me than it should be.  especially since it isn't even "real".  we decided to move the fireplace to our basement this year instead of leaving it on our main floor like we did here.  it hasn't been too cold yet, so i hope i don't miss it this winter.  in my next house, i swear i will have a fireplace in every. single. room.

the clock also found its final resting place.  the fireplace makes it look a lot less lonely on that big ol' wall, so i think it is happy with my decision as well.

as for the decor, it's nothing too creative.  i simply looked for things around my house to incorporate and picked up a few pumpkins {and a gourd}.

dried grasses happen to make the best fall decor, in my opinion. 

the banner is new, but once again i only used stuff i already had on hand.  the letters were painted on with the help of stencils made by my silhouette.

   now that my house is decorating for fall, i can start focusing on what is really important...christmas decorations.  too soon?  i didn't think so.



linking up:
http://www.centsationalgirl.com/2012/09/autumn-mantels-link-party/

junk bonanza

this post contains a ton of pictures of the junk bonanza that i attended yesterday.  words aren't really necessary.

pretty much anything you could possibly want could be found.  of course, i came home with a few items.  allow me to introduce them.

this chair was purchased to be used at my craft table.  

this set of vintage dominoes will be used in the basement.  i have found quite a few old dominoes, but typically they were sold per piece.  i was happy to finally find an {almost} full set.

last but not least, an old fan.  another one of those items i had been searching for {under a certain price} and was finally content with what i found.  

in my opinion, the junk bonanza was well worth the trip.  if you have specific items to look for, you will most likely find them.  my friends were able to find a few perfect items as well.  there is still one day left so get your buns over there! 

memory keeping

i received a lovely package in the mail yesterday.

2010 and 2011 family yearbooks.  i really like to be on top of things.  in all fairness, the books were actually completed almost a year ago, it just took me awhile to finally print them.

i got the idea for the family yearbook over at young house love.  in high school and college it was easy to sort pictures with a simple "junior year" or the like.  after graduating, everything seems to start running together.  i loved the idea of separating it by years.  not only will it motivate me to get those pictures printed, but it is also fun to look back and see what year special memories happened in.

my favorite part was the highlights page in the beginning of the book.  i wasn't able to capture pictures of every important event, so this page just kinda sums it up for me.  it also works pretty great as table of contents of sorts to know if i'm even looking in the right year {this will probably come in much more handy after 10+ years of marriage}.

since we got married in the middle of 2010, i decided to start the yearbook with our honeymoon.  i already had books printed for our wedding and engagement pictures, so it seemed like the best place to start.  naturally, this book is a lot shorter.  

2011 is a little more exciting, at least to me, complete with many pictures of our family addition, the house, vacation, and just general every day things.  it's the little things that make up our life and i feel it is important to include those in our family picture books.  i have already started working on 2012 and i can't wait to continue adding to our collection.  can you just imagine the row of books we will acquire by our 25th anniversary?

i like to order my books through shutterfly.  i have had really great experiences with them in the past and ordered all my wedding books through them.  i plan to continue using them because of their prices and how easy they make it to put your pictures into book format.  and thanks to my friend jill, you can all get started on making your memory books as well!  she informed me that if you order by the end of the day, you can get one 8x8 photo book for free {pay only for shipping handling} with the code SUMMERBOOK.  happy memory making!  

roger and other junk

i am pleased to announce that roger has finally found his home.  our basement has come along way, from renovating, to painting, and now finally decorating.  i'll have to admit, i was not expecting this process to take so long, but i feel very excited now that things are starting to come together.

the basement happens to be cold and dark; lots of pillows and blankets were needed.  most of the pillows i had lying around the house.  the map pillow is an ikea purchase.

the plaid pillows are my favorite.  i couldn't find a plaid i was lovin' at jo-ann, so i checked the next best place; goodwill.  both pillowcases were originally men's shirts. 

pillowcases from button up shirts happen to be the easiest to make.  there is no zipper to sew in and no hand sewing that needs to be done.  simply sew all four sides, unbutton the buttons, and shove the pillow inside.  my kinda project.  

ninety percent of the time, the pillows end up the floor {men i tell ya}.  but i don't care, i still love them.

and on another note...

next week marks a very important week.  the week of the junk bonanza.

if you have never heard of the junk bonanza, please take a tiny little second to click that there button and peruse the site to your heart's content.  basically, it is three days of pure pleasure for folks like me {and my backrow girls, holla!}.  i plan on attending this event on thursday {it runs thursday-saturday}. if any of you are planning on attending that day, lemme know and i'll make it my number one priority to spot you in the crowd.   actually, i highly recommend that you don't attend this event.  more goods for me.  i have a feeling my newly purchased suv will really come in handy.  and spoiler alert, there may or may not be photos of these findings in the near future.