HOW I'M DECORATING FOR FALL AND SAVING MY ENERGY FOR CHRISTMAS

A simple harvest table...just some apples and pumpkins from the grocery store.  I'm trying to do things in a more simple and thoughtful way, embracing the natural beauty of autumn.  I may soon be scattering damp leaves and twigs all over the house if I keep this up.  

We are only just feeling 'autumn~like' today with the temps dropping and continuous rain.  Sort of makes me want to make a fire but tomorrow will be sunny again, albeit a little brisk.  Today was the absolute last day in my memory that I had no where to go or be.  No appointments, errands or excuses to "Go bummin'" as my mom used to say (her expression for shopping).  So I stayed in my PJ's until about 2:00 and did some serious laundry, bill paying, catching up on emails and had maybe a fleeting idea to bake something.  Or not.  

I did a minimal amount of fall decorating on The Monster Mantel.  I put away a few summery things like starfish and lanterns and dried flowers, but I still like the blue vibe so I'm glad I have that going by just adding the little Cinderella (or baby boo?) pumpkins.  I found the cotton boll wreath at Antique Farmhouse (I really have to stop opening those emails!).  It came from Georgia and I must say, even The Husband was impressed with my purchase.  

So the truth is I have not so much as ventured into the storage room downstairs to pull anything Fallish out.  Very strange behavior for me.  I feel a little bad that I have collected so much over the years and its just staying packed up this year.  We all talk about downsizing, most times at Christmas.  Just go a bit more simple than the year before.  But we see something in a shop and we just have to have it.  And the collections grow as the years go by and there you are the day after Thanksgiving surrounded by boxes and bins and strands of lights wrapped around your neck.  I'm feeling pretty good about realizing that the less I fuss, the less I try, the better everything looks and feels.  

I know a bit of what I'm feeling has something to do with trying to put the lakehouse back together.  As I unpack boxes I look at things and wonder, "What was I thinking?"  In the kitchen I found three turkey basters.  I've never made a turkey at the lake EVER!  Multiple cork screws, too many linens and pot holders and pleeeeease, a set of china?  Okay, I got a really great deal at an antique mall but really, china at the lakehouse?  I'm really starting to feel uncomfortable even admitting this to you guys.  Maybe we can have a virtual yard sale.  

Can you tell we just love scarecrows in Illinois?  If you've been hanging out with me over the past seven years, you have to be familiar with my fave garden center.  I was holding off on getting any pumpkins as they are so much cheaper at the lake, but I'm sorry, the sun was shining yesterday and my porch was looking bare.  I simply love going to this place, especially for the memories.  I remember being twenty-eight years old with Emily in the cart and the boys running ahead.  I'd give them 50 cents to get a can of Sprite from the vending machine and that made the trip worth it for them.  Later it was Abigail in the cart and Emily jumping up and down for her quarters and in true form, picking out flowers for the pots.  Em and I were there with Elsie this past spring.  Amazing how life circles around.  Going there alone as I did yesterday didn't bother me, I've shopped for our Christmas tree alone.  I thought about it for a second and then truly knew this is the way it is now, or at least for this little jaunt.  Just as I've grown accustomed to a more quiet house, the rhythm of The Husband and I sharing dinner with just each other and going about our evenings in our acceptable sort of retreats (he likes CNN and MSNBC in the living room, I'm all about HGTV and Chicago P.D. in the den)...we seem to ease into the changes.  I have gone all melancholy (baby) on you here so I'll stop.  Could it be something in the water?

I removed the flower boxes with their faded blooms off the ledge of my bay window (gosh how I hate the way my cafe curtains look from outside but this is a hard window to dress).  The pots hold pansies  which are just starting to open blooms and I'll get a better shot later.  

A little vignette on the top step.  The ivy on my house spreads right over onto anything it can leach on to.  The Husband hates it, I hate to tell him it's a little too late to kill it off.  And you simply don't want to know what the wisteria vines are doing to the lakehouse.  :(

I have an urn here that holds my main porch planting (MPP).  I was so tempted to buy some gorgeous purple asters to plant and then I knew I'd probably put off planting them and they'd die.  Just me, I guess.  The easy thing to do was make a little vignette of pumpkins and stick in a generic scarecrow (do you love them like we do here in Illinois?  Maybe we have more fields than you).  I'm hoping Elsie gets a kick out of this when she visits.  I think no one else will.  ;-D

Have I ever told you how much I love to shop with my daughters?  We really compliment each other as far as what we like to look at, buy, where we eat or get coffee.  Emily and Abigail are like day and night.  Emily is bossy, steers me toward clothes and home items that I never would have thought to look at.  She knows how to sell.  Abigail is like a little ghost behind me that sort of sweeps me into unknown territory.  She is my barometer of fashion.  The girl could look fantastic in a paper bag.  I am not the sort of woman who is trying to relive her younger days but I do love style.  I had seen Abby with these shoes on only in blue.  I casually remarked on them in a store and she was super helpful.  I never let her in on wanting what she had or she would have said I was 'copying' her.  Ha. But we share shoes and boots and jewelry quite a bit.  Now if I weighed 115 pounds.... 

The days seem to be flying by.  It's hard to believe that Em will be having her little baby in four weeks.  I am so excited to meet this little girl.  I feel Emily's tummy, it's rock hard.  Madelyn's little bum is facing forward, you can almost feel the rounded cheeks.  And then little turkey legs that Emily feels moving on each side.  It's absolutely amazing.  I loved being pregnant.  I remember taking a bath when I was about eight months pregnant with Abby.  She decided to completely roll over, I saw and felt my stomach do something similar to watching a whale jump in the ocean. And it felt awesome...no pain, just life.  Incredible.  I would do it all again in a heartbeat, even the pain.  

So this is son Kevin strolling through the park with Elsie.  They both have tennis rackets.  I never thought I'd see my son with a doll in his hand. lol! And the pictures I received on my phone are of he and Elsie on the tennis court and I simply have no idea what this was about!  As you may know, Kevin is a golf pro and he has promised he will begin to give Elsie lessons when she turns three.  Understandable (I wonder if he'll have her fitted for clubs...).  But tennis.  At twenty months?  And the girl insists on carrying her racket!  Definitely determined.  

Son Jeff and Deirdre are getting ready for their baby, too.  We are getting bombarded with babies!  I want to make it easy for everyone at the lake so I'm looking for inexpensive baby 'equipment' so none  of them have to haul a bunch of things up.  

Progress at the lake is going well although I have to say we aren't up there as much as I thought we'd be once the house was almost done.  The drywall dust is a huge factor.  You can mop this stuff up and ten minutes later its back.  We usually drive up after The Husband gets off work and arrive late...Michigan is an hour ahead of us in time.  So it's really nuts that we get there at 10:00 when it's really 9:00 for us.  And we walk into drywall dust.  Oh yeah...let's just go upstairs and lie on our dust bed and get some shut eye.  Doesn't work.  We have succumbed to commercialism and invested in Swiffers.  His and hers.  

I've been having some fun, although not so much in a financial sort of way, picking out the things we need.  Bedding, curtains, linens...everything is coming out of our pocket until we can 'convince' our insurance people that we actually lost things that weren't documented before they were tossed in the dumpster.  I have been buying bed linens and comforters and towels...its a lot of stuff.   I try to get the best deals yet quality as we all do...it's a challenge and I like it.  No matter, we chip away, buying what we can over time, hoping we will get reimbursed at some point.  Okay...no more complaining!!

As I said, it was a rainy day and this is where Layla loves to do her early morning action watching  the neighborhood.  Spotting squirrels, dogs being being walked, people being walked...anything moving.  I'm by myself all day so I truly understand how little bits and pieces of moving life keeps us awake. 

So let's hear how all of you guys are decorating for fall this year.  Any new ideas or changes?  I think of all the years I've been blogging, seeing the changes and trends, the best is individuality.  How we choose to do things.  I'm so happy I no longer feel I have to dig through boxes to get my spirit for a season.  

See ya soon!

Jane x