5 Reasons I Love Fall

First I just wanted to give a huge thanks to my followers! I now have 30 followers, I know some of you have them in the hundreds or even thousands but for my little blog I think it's great!  Now on to my reasons for loving fall.  For me the first little inkling that fall is on it's way is when I see this

Apples in the farmers market! I can't say there is any apple that I dislike.

Image via oregonlive.com

And of course Mom's apple pie, my moms is the best in the world (yes I know everyone thinks their moms is)

Image via mccormick.com

High School Football!

My son Devin has been playing since he was 8 and this is his first year playing high school football!  I love the excitement of it all, I don't know what's happening all the time but I know it's a heck of a lot more fun that watching the NFL on the TV

Photo by Eddie Saltzman and Mark Rodgers

Decorating for Fall

It's so much fun to scan all my favorite blogs to see what the latest fall decorating trends are, plus who can help but love when the Pottery Barn Fall catalog comes out!

Image via potterybarn.com

and the top reason why I love fall is HALLOWEEN!!!!! 

image via thenewparentsguide.com

I'm a big kid stuck in the body of a 35 y/o stay at home mom so when halloween rolls around we always do it up, go to the pumpkin patch, decorate the house, go to the haunted lake in our neighborhood, etc.  but best of all I think is watching the little kids parade around the neighborhood in their costumes!  well that and eating left over candy:)  So what are your favorite things about fall? As always thanks for reading!

Magnolia Wall Progress!

So I got all my new magnolia pictures in the mail last week and started painting the frames I'd collected with silver leaf paint which I am officially obsessed with.  I am going to be growing the collection and hanging it all along the entire wall including over the top of the china hutch.  I took a couple of pics from my husbands Iphone camera but this was at night so they are not the best.  For some reason my camera is dying on me, probably dropped it one too many times...  Anyway here are some shots, also a couple shots of my new vintage shabby chic china hutch  (I'm so in love with this thing) which was a housewarming gift from my mother (please ignore the ugly plastic light switch plate and unfinished baseboards, these will be finished and changed soon) more to come of the completed room soon! What do you think so far?

Magnolia Love

First I want to apologize for not posting in so long, but after closing on our first home the last week of July I have been so incredibly busy trying to make our fixer upper a home!  I will have lots of before and afters coming soon but we are still in the midst of a ton of projects so things are not quite at the point where I want to share just yet.  The main projects I have been working on have been my living room and dining room and my 2 year olds room.  For the last year or so I've been collecting photo's of Magnolia trees and flowers because I plan on doing a photo and art wall of just magnolias.  Magnolia trees are near and dear to my heart because not only did I grow up with one in my back yard that I climbed daily, but my Grandmother had a huge one in her front yard in Georgia where I would have tea parties under when i went for visits in the summer.  I also think the magnolia flower is just perfect and beautiful and I love that the tree stands for southern pride and strength!   Oh and did I mention that Steele Magnolias is in my top 5 of all-time favorite movies!  I recently purchased 3 new things to hang on my magnolia wall so I now think I have enough to put it together.  Check out my new etsy purchases ( I just love Etsy!).


ACEO From etsy seller SharonFosterArt

Saucer From Etsy Seller Myclosetshelf

Photo From Etsy Seller MelissaKimberly

I am thinking of doing my magnolia wall in my dining room around my vintage white china cabinet that was a housewarming gift from my wonderful Momma!  What do you think? 

Goodwill Faux Silver Leaf Table

I've been obsessing over silver leaf furniture for a while now but never had the nerve to try to do a project.   Last week while in Goodwill I spied this table (I apologize for the grainy camera phone photo). 

Priced at $10 it was so in my budget and I love anything with a cabriole leg.  At the time I made myself leave the store and not take it home because I knew my husband would hate it (he hates anything old and I adore everything old!).  I kept thinking about that table and since we don't currently have a coffee table I decided a couple days later that I'd see if it was still there.  It was still there!!! no other goodwill shoppers could see that this table had style:)  Lucky me!!!! So anyway I decided I wanted to silver leaf if but I was still a little unsure of using the silver leaf sheets since the table had some grooves in it and curvy legs and I didn't want to mess this beauty up.  I decided to use paint on it instead.  While I was looking at the silver leafing supplies I stumbled upon this really pretty paint that I decided to use instead

I really loved that it was so soft and shimmery and at $5.99 it was a great deal.  I first gave the table a good sanding with my husbands sander, then I primed it with Krylon's Indoor/Outdoor spray primer in Gray.  I then painted on the metallic paint with a sponge brush.  The paint dries really fast and I did 3 or 4 coats because I wanted the color to be rich.  I probably should have purchased a small roller to paint it with because I did end up with some streaks and I've been told a roller is best for this but I just used what I had.  Once everything was dry I sealed it with Valspars clear satin spray (what I had on hand).  Here are some photo's of the final project.  I really love how it turned out, can't wait to move it into our new home next month!

Tablecloths Into Curtains

In my quest to find Anthropolgie style curtains on a Target budget a lightbulb went off in my head after seeing some gorgeous table cloths at World Market today. Why not use a standard oblong tablecloth for curtain panels? Just get those clip on curtain rings and voila anthro inspired curtains! While at World Market I saw this and couldn't stop staring at it...

Purple is my favorite color and turquoise is a close second choice, so when I saw this tablecloth I instantly loved it since it was mostly purple with little hints of turquoise. The tablecloth was $34.99 so I would need 4 of them for the living room and dining room windows in our new home.  I didn't want to jump to conclusions and spend $140 without knowing it could actually work so I did a little research when I got home and discovered that 1. I am not the first blogger to think of this wonderful idea and 2. this could totally work. Check out some of these examples...

From the ecklife.blogspot.com

From livinthesimplelife.com

From Apartmenttherapy.com

From theplaidpost.com

After looking in enough stores that I've lost count, the table cloth from World Market is the closest thing I've come to what I'm looking for.  I may check out tablecloths at homegoods just to make sure I'm not missing something and hey if I could possibly find an equally amazing tablecloth for way I would be even happier:)  I'll keep you posted and post pics once I make my decision.  Thanks so much for taking the time to read my ramblings:)

We Are Under Contract!

I'm so sorry that I haven't posted in forever!  I promise I have a good reason and I also promise that my blog is about to get so much better because we finally did it! we finally are under contract on our first home!!!! We met so many roadblocks through this process for sure and we still haven't closed but inspection is this Friday.    I'm a mixture of nervous excitement, and hope.   Please cross your fingers for us that our little fixer upper won't have too much wrong with it.  She needs some work for sure but we are excited to take this little house out of the 1950's into the new millenium.  She is a 4 bedroom 2 1/2 bath with a large basement and large yard that backs to a local park.  I can't wait to plant some flowers in the little flower bed in front and do something with the patchy lawn.  I'll save the inside pictures for future post but there will certainly be lots of do it yourself projects on the horizon!  Thanks so much for checking out my new post, I promise I will start posting more often. 

My Name is Kelly, and I'm a Thrift Store-Aholic...

Lately every time I pass a thrift store, I get this surge of adrenaline and feel the urge to stop and start prowling through all of their dusty treasures... It could be my new milk glass addiction, or my obessession with the lines of old furniture, or just my want and need to save money.  Whatever it is, I cannot pass a thrift store without going in!!!! Yesterday  I was on the way to pick up my son from my mothers, he had stayed overnight to help her with the mowing of her yard, weeding her flower garden, etc.  (he's such a good boy, 14 years old and loooves his Grandma).  Anywho I digress, I was on the way to my mom's house to pick up my son Devin and passed one of the many thrift stores on the way to her house and well the mission was to find an antique doily to go into my wall collage of doilies (I'll post about that later this week) but instead I found this

How could I pass this beauty up? and for $2 too.... can you say SOLD!

I didn't find any doilies so decided to take my milk glass vase/urn/goblet thingie and stop at the Goodwill that was also on the way.  They close at 6:00 PM on Sundays and it was now 5:20 PM so I had to walk the aisles fast!  No doilies to be had but I did find a wonderful glass trifle bowl for $2.99

I'd been eyeing one at Target for $12 but this one was better quality (super heavy) and $9 cheaper, Woohoo!!!!  I also came upon another little milk glass vase, this one just a little bud vase for $.39!!! Gotta be kidding me right?

I was super excited since I recently declared that I was going to start collecting milk glass and now here I have two new pieces for $2.39! Yay.  Well I guess thrifting is a pretty healthy habit, it's making my house lovely and I'm not spending large sums of money doing it.  Now if I could just find that vintage doily to complete my wall of framed doilies!  Thanks for reading:)