Fall Decor 2012

Hey there!  It's taken me a while to get in the "mood" to decorate for fall but last night I finally did it!  My excuse at first was that it wasn't cold enough and that it didn't "feel" like fall yet.  But that ended this week- I woke up this morning to frost on my car and the thermometer on my dash said 34 degrees. Brr!! It's definitely fall.
Anyway, last night I was determined to decorate!  But, after spending all of our 'blow money' this weekend on our trip to St. Louis (go Cards!!) I needed to decorate on a budget.  I've been accumulating a few new things over the past few weeks-a couple of pumpkins from Target's dollar spot and some burlap from JoAnn's- but I mostly just used what I already had.  My mother-in-law is the queen of what she likes to call "shopping in your basement" and that's exactly what I did!  It's amazing the things you can find in your own home that you forgot you had or that you had never used for decor.  It just takes a little creativity (and a little help from Pinterest) to come up with new uses for things you already have.  A few things I used (as you will see in the pictures) that wouldn't normally be considered fall decor:

* Christmas twinkle lights- the white strands can honestly be used somewhere in your home all year round
* Food from your pantry for hurricane glass and apothecary jar fillers-  I used coffee beans and popcorn kernels

And now for the pictures...

Front Porch

my mother-in-law left these on the porch as a surprise for me one day

I added a sign that I bought a couple of years ago to my front porch chair. The pillow and antique can stay there year round.

Kitchen Table

The glass contains coffee beans as a filler, decorative leaves, and a candle

I found the two grapevine pumpkins at the Target dollar spot for $2.50 each

The table runner is just cut burlap.  Check out this tutorial on how to cut burlap correctly! I saw the lady at JoAnn's use this technique and it changed my crafting life!

Over the Cabinets

I just filled some hurricane glasses with fall filler and stuck a candle in the top.

I added twinkle lights to the top of my cabinet and switched out my hydrangeas for some corn stalks.

The Den

In the den/living room I just make a simple banner for the fireplace out of burlap, string, and paint.

I also added some a wire basket (also $2.50 at Target dollar spot) filled with some crumpled up brown paper bags,fall filler, and my favorite WoodWick candle.

And that's all for now!  Hoping to add a few more things after we make it to the pumpkin patch.