Simplify Fall

I had a garage sale a couple weeks ago and sold all my plastic fall foliage. It was hard seeing it go but at  the same time I felt so relieved. For the past seven years, right about this time, I would always get bins and bins of fall stuff out of storage. I really enjoyed decorating for the fall season, as it is my favorite time of the year. Our mantle would display plastic leaves in orange, yellow, and red. As well as other little trinkets I would find from Goodwill or garage sales, all autumn related. But this year, I'm done. Not done with decorating, just done with bins and bins of stuff. To give you an idea of the amount of bins I had, here's a picture...

In my own defense, the pink bins contained girls clothes that were also sold. So that leaves about six bins full of plastic foliage and other little stuff. 

My hubby is so happy with me, actually more like, "When is the next garage sale?" He was so happy that he sat with me during the entire garage sale. Probably to make sure I didn't sneak anything back in the garage. :) Not that I would ever do that, of course. 

So, with all my stuff gone I have to get more creative in the decorating department. One of the items sold was my fall wreath I had on the front door. There was nothing wrong with it, I just wanted something different. I kept back an old grapevine wreath that I didn't want to sell in the garage sale. I simply wrapped an old sweater around the wreath, sewed some burlap leaves and pennant together, and tied an "S" on it. Boom done. 

My mantle was usually the showcase for all my fall stuff. It was fun putting all the stuff together but this fall I wanted to simplify. I just shopped around the house and found things that I thought would look good together.

I've been seeing a bunch of fabric garlands around blog land, so I wanted to try one of mine own. It was very simply to make and I used fabric that I had. Dustin and Allison are not in love with it, and the more I look at it, it just seems like I need to add something orangish? to the mantle to tie it in. I was thinking of adding orange leaves to the branches in my mason jars. Or I could just take it down for the hubby's sake. Not sure yet.
That is about all I have completed this year for fall. I have a few projects that I want the kids to do and that's it. The best part is when it is 30 degrees outside, come November, and I am not hauling bins out of my house!!

To switch topics totally, I just have to share this awesome find. I was at my mom's house last week and I walked past her room and saw her night stand. I stopped in my tracks and just stared. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen! Really! I asked my mom who, what, when, and WHERE she got it from. It was from a garage sale and she had a friend fix it up for her. And since my mom is the most unselfish person you will ever meet and because she loves me so much, she told me to take it! I was, am, and forever, will be so happy! Here's a pic. Can you guess what it is?

It is a little hard to tell in this horrible picture, but it is a bingo cage. What? Yeah, a bingo cage. There is a little door on the side where they would pull out the letter/number. Cool, right? Anyway, Dustin isn't  a huge fan of my awesomely, amazing bingo cage as an accent table. Not until, I put lights in it and plugged them in. Take a look.

It makes the coolest shapes on the walls. I am in love with it!

Needless to say, it doesn't take much to make me happy!

Summer Projects

After working all winter on indoor projects, we couldn't wait to get started on the outdoor stuff. The first issue we wanted to address was a sidewalk/step to the front door. After we put the new siding on the house last summer we actually sided over the "front door" (a service door that lead right into our kitchen), so that meant the real front door to our house was going to be used. The real front door was  a screened in porch that the previous owners put in. We tore that down and for the first time in years, we were using the actual front door. So here is a visual aid to get a better understanding...

We marked off what we wanted the sidewalk to look like.

It is still wet here, but you get the idea. ;)

This photo cracks me up! They stood there for hours watching the workers.

The next project was a deck. There was an existing one there but, once again, we sided over the door that it was meant for. (The door was never used, and we added sliding glass doors to the dining room when we first moved in.) So we removed the old deck and went a year with just cinder blocks as steps to the sliding glass doors. This drove me nuts but we wanted to pay cash for this project, and have a solid plan before we started anything. The first pic I remembered to take was in the framing stage.

Before we put the final boards on, the hubs added a gas line to the deck. Which means, no more propane grills, which means, no more tank refills. Yay!!!

This is the only shot I have of what the deck looks like now. We are going to stain and put railing up next spring.

Another project we did was install dry wells for drainage from our gutters. The reason we needed this system was because every time it rained we had pools of water around the foundation of our home. Even with gutters the rain water would always move toward the house. The grade around our house is very low so I understand why the rain water does this, but we had to stop it. The hubby found a great solution in using dry wells, and it was all DIY. We bought all the supplies and got to work.
This is what the dry well looked like before we covered it up with dirt. It is a big garbage can with holes in it. Pretty simple. We wrapped it with landscape fabric to help keep too much dirt from getting inside.

There was a TON of digging in this project, as you can see. We did rent a trencher (not sure what you call them) to dig the sides of the house.
We installed two dry wells in our backyard to catch all the rain water from our gutters. Since we have installed them, the only problem we have had is when there are down pours. They simply can't drain the water fast enough so a puddle will usually form at the top of the well. It isn't a huge problem and we only get those kind of rain showers a few times in the summer.

After the dry wells were in, we decided to add landscaping all around our house. We did get one quote from a landscaping business to get an idea of the cost. It was more than what we wanted to pay so we started to dig, again! Let me tell you what. This was labor intensive! It was a lot of work, which is why landscaping businesses deserve every penny they earn. ;) I understand why it costs so much. Do I ever want to do landscaping again? No way!
We dug around the entire house and brought in more dirt to fill in the really low spots. We liked the look of landscaping that sits higher than the ground.

 We wrapped the dirt with landscaping fabric around the house. Then we added black mulch. Sorry this is the only picture I have.

We haven't added any plants yet. We can't decide what we want and where to put it. So we will wait until we make up our minds.

The last project we did this summer was cut down a huge tree. Well, we didn't do it. Even though the hubs would have loved to remove this tree himself, we hired a professional tree trimmer to come and do it. This was something that needed to get done. Our electrical provider and two other tree trimming businesses told us to get it removed. It was hollow at the top of the tree and there were several large branches hanging over our house.

It was a tulip poplar tree. It had beautiful flowers in the spring/summer but it was a mess in the fall.  

The tree trimmer stayed up in that tree for six hours! 

Timmmberrrrrrrr....

The one thing I miss about this tree was the amount of shade it provided us. And that is about it. When we examined the top of the tree it looked as though some furry creatures had made it there home.
Sorry Mr. and Mrs. Squirrel and/or Raccoon, you are evicted!


As you can see, it was a busy summer! I haven't picked up a shovel since the landscaping was done! Not to complain, but I needed a break from dirt and all things related to the shovel. Thankfully I am fully recovered, ready for colder weather, and some neglected indoor projects. ;)

Lord bless you!