Friday Favs: Fall Foliage

About a week ago, Lover had a little bit of vacation time, so we took a few day trips to admire the fall foliage in our area. Unfortunately the sun was apparently also on vacation, so I was only able to get a few good shots. We had a lovely time, driving around, having some great conversation and drinking in all of the beautiful scenery. If you are ever in the Finger Lakes region of New York, count yourself lucky. It is truly a beautiful place.

I loved these funky red cones, and the way the contrasted with the corn rows behind them.

In front of the red cones there was some cool dried grasses and seed pods.

The sun briefly graced us with her presence, and I love the silhouetted farm buildings.

My favorite shots of the day were at this farm from the side of the road.

The light was absolute perfection, and I love how the trees, fence posts and corn fields were lit up by the radiant sunlight.

Hope you like the shots as much as I did!

Friday Favs: Fall Foliage

About a week ago, Lover had a little bit of vacation time, so we took a few day trips to admire the fall foliage in our area. Unfortunately the sun was apparently also on vacation, so I was only able to get a few good shots. We had a lovely time, driving around, having some great conversation and drinking in all of the beautiful scenery. If you are ever in the Finger Lakes region of New York, count yourself lucky. It is truly a beautiful place.

I loved these funky red cones, and the way the contrasted with the corn rows behind them.

In front of the red cones there was some cool dried grasses and seed pods.

The sun briefly graced us with her presence, and I love the silhouetted farm buildings.

My favorite shots of the day were at this farm from the side of the road.

The light was absolute perfection, and I love how the trees, fence posts and corn fields were lit up by the radiant sunlight.

Hope you like the shots as much as I did!

Decorating for Fall

Typically I go all out decorating for fall. I have an entire Rubbermaid bin devoted to my fall decorations. But this year I went for simple touches of fall in bits and pieces throughout the main rooms. We'e worked really hard on our house this summer, and accomplished a lot of projects, and I've been enjoying how the rooms have really come together. I didn't feel like covering all of our hard work up with a bunch of garlands and decorations.

In the living room, I moved some of the mantel decorations around, just a little bit. I absolutely love this painting on the middle of the mantel. I moved my clear vase of sticks and pinecones next to it, and added a little gold vase filled with fall leaves and an Indian corn. Aren't you loving my luscious jade plant that I picked up recently? I love it!

I really enjoy decorating just the corners of the mantel, leaving the rest clean and bare. I think it draws more attention to the beautiful woodwork. On the left is my pretty leaf pillar holder, with the Moroccan lantern and my amber thrift stores goblets. Under the goblets is a collection of Jane Austen's novels.

On the right is a picture of a castle in Avila, Spain with another beautiful gold vase. The books underneath the pumpkin are The Lord God Made Them All by James Herriott, and The Alhambra by Washington Irving. Both are great books. I found the pumpkin last fall at the Christmas Tree Shop.

On the piano I swapped out the summery stuff I had there and replaced it with one of my favorite picture frames of the two of us. The frame was a wedding gift, and I love the collection of pictures in it. An urn with some fall berries completed this uber simple setup.

By the window I hung my gorgeous fall wreath. I love all of the colors and elements of this wreath. It just exudes fall, in my opinion. This is the perfect spot for the wreath, as I am still searching for the perfect something to go on the wall here between the doorway and the window.

Moving on to the dining room, I did something I don't usually do, I set the table for a lovely autumn dinner. I think dining rooms look so much nicer when they are all set for dinner, don't you think?

The champagne glasses I found at the dollar store, can you believe that? The glass is such a pretty shade of green.

I made the centerpiece, although it didn't come out like I originally planned. I found the tray at Goodwill, leftover from Target's clearance. Of course it wasn't that pretty, being a neon green. Some spray paint fixed that problem. I wanted to make tea light holders out of mini pumpkins, but I couldn't find them anywhere this fall. Not sure what was up with that. So, instead I used a bunch of little candles that I already had. The filler is a bag of split peas! :-)

Don't you just love my plates? They are Spanish china, that my parents bought for me when I lived in Spain. I love that they remind me of Spain, and also of the Currier & Ives plates that we had growing up. These are just the salad plates, but I have most of the set. :-) The colors in the plates inspired the color scheme for the living room and dining room.

Then there are just a few other touches in the dining room. A little pumpkin and some baubles on the antique dresser,

some garlands all piled up in the wooden bowl on the bookcase,

and some deep red hydrangeas and pinecones on my refinished dresser. Isn't my red rose from Lover beautiful!

Hope you enjoyed my little fall tour. I'm linking this up to Tablescape Thursday, my very first tablescape! :-)

Decorating for Fall

Typically I go all out decorating for fall. I have an entire Rubbermaid bin devoted to my fall decorations. But this year I went for simple touches of fall in bits and pieces throughout the main rooms. We'e worked really hard on our house this summer, and accomplished a lot of projects, and I've been enjoying how the rooms have really come together. I didn't feel like covering all of our hard work up with a bunch of garlands and decorations.

In the living room, I moved some of the mantel decorations around, just a little bit. I absolutely love this painting on the middle of the mantel. I moved my clear vase of sticks and pinecones next to it, and added a little gold vase filled with fall leaves and an Indian corn. Aren't you loving my luscious jade plant that I picked up recently? I love it!

I really enjoy decorating just the corners of the mantel, leaving the rest clean and bare. I think it draws more attention to the beautiful woodwork. On the left is my pretty leaf pillar holder, with the Moroccan lantern and my amber thrift stores goblets. Under the goblets is a collection of Jane Austen's novels.

On the right is a picture of a castle in Avila, Spain with another beautiful gold vase. The books underneath the pumpkin are The Lord God Made Them All by James Herriott, and The Alhambra by Washington Irving. Both are great books. I found the pumpkin last fall at the Christmas Tree Shop.

On the piano I swapped out the summery stuff I had there and replaced it with one of my favorite picture frames of the two of us. The frame was a wedding gift, and I love the collection of pictures in it. An urn with some fall berries completed this uber simple setup.

By the window I hung my gorgeous fall wreath. I love all of the colors and elements of this wreath. It just exudes fall, in my opinion. This is the perfect spot for the wreath, as I am still searching for the perfect something to go on the wall here between the doorway and the window.

Moving on to the dining room, I did something I don't usually do, I set the table for a lovely autumn dinner. I think dining rooms look so much nicer when they are all set for dinner, don't you think?

The champagne glasses I found at the dollar store, can you believe that? The glass is such a pretty shade of green.

I made the centerpiece, although it didn't come out like I originally planned. I found the tray at Goodwill, leftover from Target's clearance. Of course it wasn't that pretty, being a neon green. Some spray paint fixed that problem. I wanted to make tea light holders out of mini pumpkins, but I couldn't find them anywhere this fall. Not sure what was up with that. So, instead I used a bunch of little candles that I already had. The filler is a bag of split peas! :-)

Don't you just love my plates? They are Spanish china, that my parents bought for me when I lived in Spain. I love that they remind me of Spain, and also of the Currier & Ives plates that we had growing up. These are just the salad plates, but I have most of the set. :-) The colors in the plates inspired the color scheme for the living room and dining room.

Then there are just a few other touches in the dining room. A little pumpkin and some baubles on the antique dresser,

some garlands all piled up in the wooden bowl on the bookcase,

and some deep red hydrangeas and pinecones on my refinished dresser. Isn't my red rose from Lover beautiful!

Hope you enjoyed my little fall tour. I'm linking this up to Tablescape Thursday, my very first tablescape! :-)

The View from My Window

All last week as I sat on the couch reading, blogging, watching shows or folding laundry, I enjoyed this beautiful view out my living room window. The colors on this tree just got more and more intense as each day went by.

I love fall, with its explosion of colors, the smells in the air and the crunch of leaves underfoot. After a few really chilly weeks we've enjoyed really mild temperatures and lots of sunshine, which means fall has been awesome so far. Fall is really special to me because Lover proposed in October four years ago. It's my favorite time of year and while I didn't want to risk a wedding in the unpredictable fall weather, I am so glad that he proposed during fall.

Lover and I were talking the other day about how creative God is. Only God would make something become increasingly more beautiful as it died. I love that he chose to inject so much beauty into the everyday things that surround us. I often wonder what the mind of God is like that he gave us so much beauty. Why not make every snowflake the same? Why create a rainbow with sunshine and rain? Why create a flower in every color under the sun, and then some?

The only conclusion I can come up with is this.

Because He is God, and He can.

The View from My Window

All last week as I sat on the couch reading, blogging, watching shows or folding laundry, I enjoyed this beautiful view out my living room window. The colors on this tree just got more and more intense as each day went by.

I love fall, with its explosion of colors, the smells in the air and the crunch of leaves underfoot. After a few really chilly weeks we've enjoyed really mild temperatures and lots of sunshine, which means fall has been awesome so far. Fall is really special to me because Lover proposed in October four years ago. It's my favorite time of year and while I didn't want to risk a wedding in the unpredictable fall weather, I am so glad that he proposed during fall.

Lover and I were talking the other day about how creative God is. Only God would make something become increasingly more beautiful as it died. I love that he chose to inject so much beauty into the everyday things that surround us. I often wonder what the mind of God is like that he gave us so much beauty. Why not make every snowflake the same? Why create a rainbow with sunshine and rain? Why create a flower in every color under the sun, and then some?

The only conclusion I can come up with is this.

Because He is God, and He can.