scattering inspiration: fall decor

  

Photos via here, here , and here.

:: we had a gathering...

We had a dessert-and-wine gathering with several other couples, which I was SO happy to hostess! Moving around the way we do, I don't end up hostessing a lot of gatherings with more than 2-6 people, but for some reason we have just really "clicked" with many wonderful people here. Which is one reason you haven't "seen" me in a week. The other reasons are:

-My Atlas Shrugged essay scholarship submission is due today. Ready or not, turn it in!

-I won a recipe contest I entered :) I'll be posting a link as soon as it's published.

-School has started full-force.

-I'm still volunteering with children and one of them has become a mystery I'm struggling to decode and thus help.

-I'm getting ready to re-launch (and officially this time) my Literacy blog.

Back to the subject of gatherings, isn't it funny what people end up raving over? I spent two days deciding on dessert wines. I finally went with a Moscato, and most people just wanted to drink the Hazelnut coffee Husband decided to brew 5 minutes before the first couple arrived. Go figure. I kept saying, "Most people aren't going to want caffeine this late, you know..." He won.

Something else Husband decided to do (earlier in the day, but right before our friends from Jacksonville stopped by to say hello as they were passing through Greenville) was rearrange our furniture. I was fuming, but I have to admit, he did a good job. In the process he decided to officially COVER the slipcover I've been working on for months and will (according to him) not be finishing any time soon. In case you can't tell, it's the blue chair. He used a bed sheet to disguise it.

What do you think? I was rather impressed with his skills, and I might get HIM to finish the real slipcover! I wonder if he would consider sewing lessons for home decor...

Last but not least, do you ever receive something from the hands of friends that you just can't stop looking at? Something about these amber and golden jars of honey with the little wooden spoon sitting in the windowsill is so charming and cozy. We're planning on enjoying the Orange Blossom with our breakfast this weekend. Any ideas? I'm thinking about drizzling it over toasted English muffins... (thank you, Kate!).

A P.S. for you: The Savannah Honey Shop has a website where they offer lots of honey recipes, which I will be perusing this weekend and I thought you might enjoy as well.

save those coffee tins!

And by Fall you can fill your porch with these beauties! That is, if you drink as much coffee as we do. If you have more restraint and less caffeine dependence than the two humans living in my house, aim for spring. Or ask your neighbors to send over their empty coffee tins! Or fill your winter nights with them if you live somewhere that doesn't freeze all winter... ah, the possibilities are vast and endless, yes?

I am thinking they would serve an aesthetic as well as practical purpose with citronella candles.

Find the tutuorial here and the author here.

frugal elegance

I found this blue and white classic beauty for a few dollars.

It was all a total accident; I was in a thrift store looking for a Dr. Seuss book but, as usual, had to wander idly through the housewares... just to see.

I think I like what it brings to the mantel. And I like the vast emptiness beyond...

such a slacker sometimes...

That's what I feel like when I do these link-to posts, but I just gotta share this one because it looks so easy...

They're fabric-covered roller blinds!

There's also a fun recipe post for EASY, SWEET SUMMER PICKLES here.

And a lady playing violin solos in her garden at dusk here.

trendy

I saw Thomas Paul's fabrics featured in Domino Magazine before it went under. I don't normally store designers in my long-term memory space. I need that space for other things... remembering his name was a total accident.

Then, I accidentally stumbled across a fabric (you'll see it at the bottom of this post) that he designed and I loved.

(The fabric on the chairs is on sale here and here.)

I love that his designs can be super-chic and modern,

or casual and classic with just a little punch of festivity.

He doesn't only design fabric.

Just look at all the options:

Pillows in linen, silk, cotton, and jute,

Fun melamine plates,

tea towels

and scarves, lamps, rugs, light fixtures, stationary, totes, boxes, throws, and trinkets.

But remember,

There are ThomasPaul Fabrics

and then there are Discounted ThomasPaul Fabrics:

I have this fabric, which I made into pillows you can see in this post.

I bought it from a fabric discount source.

(They have more ThomasPaul fabrics here at regular price.)

His website is here.

be careful what you wish for...

Do you ever beg and plead for something for a really long time,

then finally get it,

look at it sitting on the floor of your very own home,

and say,

"Darnit! Now I actually have to figure out how to do something with this!"

(I often wonder if men experience this when they finally get the fancy power tools they've been pining over. Not that they would ever admit it if they did, just like I will never admit to Husband that I have not the slightest notion where I should make the first cut or stitch on this lovely new cloth.)

So, now that I have 9 yards of this fabric, which I love, I have to figure out how to:

a.) sew a nicely fitting slipcover for this chair and ottoman or

b.) reupholster this chair and ottoman or

c.) perform a hybrid reupholster/tailored slipcover operation on this chair and ottoman

I'll be letting you know how this little project is going soon...

(Any suggestions, books, videos, tools, inspiration or seamstresses are welcome.)

my favorite thing about this dwelling place...

I just finished reading The Giver. If you haven't read it or if it's been awhile, they call their houses "dwelling places."

In terms of my latest "dwelling place,"I am so sad that I am merely renting this floor-to-ceiling built-in pristine white bookcase next to this just-as-pristine white mantel with a wonderfully large empty space above. I wish I could box up this whole wall and take it with me on our next move. It looks like it would break down into parts or maybe fold over tortilla style... what do you think? Maybe?

I love the asymmetry of the whole set-up. Plus, we've been able to pull out many things that have remained in boxes the last two "dwelling places" and put them on display.

For example, this martini glass that I found at a beach yard sale.

There was only one.

And I don't drink martinis.

And I thought, What will I ever do with it? as I handed over the two-quarter price.

And now I can display it, filled with shells from that same beach we loved so much.

And the wine corks. I can display my wine corks. Husband and I write memories on them as we finish (or as often happens, as we pour out the remaining red-wine vinegar from) each bottle.

I got the wine cork memories idea from a friend. Husband and I plan to architecturally incorporate our collection somehow if we ever build a permanent home. I got that idea from her, too.

And my "Swiss Alp Bird" collage. I call it that because I made it from snippets of an advertisement for skiing in the Swiss Alps. It was the result of a rainy day when I needed to release some creative energy and wanted to try something different.

Moving on, any guesses what this is:

POLLEN.

Do you have pollen falling so heavily your camera flash catches it in nighttime photos?

This thrilled and pained me simultaneously. How amazing that it falls in drifts like this and no wonder I'm taking Zyrtec everyday for the first time in my life! (I was able to spell check that the old-fashioned way. A brand new bottle of 45 is sitting right beside my computer.)

our weekend and the dining room

I like to write little stories for children in my spare time. Most of them are for my student lessons, but some are stories that I "plan" to illustrate and send to publishers (one day, like most things). One story in particular I have been working on intermittently for almost two years. I've begun the pencil sketches, and Husband has been playing with watercolors on my copies of my sketches.

He's quite good.

It's a strange but fun spousal activity. Just call us Jan and Stan Berenstain! We plan to spend quite a few weekends this summer collaborating on this little project, so you'll be seeing more on the progress in future posts.

In other news, for the first time ever we've hung curtains. I've talked about hanging curtains in every house we've rented and this time we actually did it.

Don't they make a big difference in the room? And I love the white and wood tones together. It seems so rustically formal, and thus so casually elegant. (Though a professional interior designer might cringe at the simplicity!)

So, this is the dining room of our latest house. I do wish the curtains completely touched the floor, but ah well (a professional interior designer would certainly cringe at that little blip!). I'll get them perfect when they're not so irritatingly temporary.