Cozy And Collected Fall Vignettes

Hi, Friends, 

How are you? I hope this finds you well and encouraged. 

If you have been following, you may remember that I spent a lot of lockdown in the garden. 

I wanted an abundance of flowers for cutting and drying. I've been purposeful and methodical about creating beauty around us during these turbulent times. Since it's crazy out there, I want our home and my blog to be a respite from the storm. 

In that vein, growing flowers, drying stems, and collecting seeds has been a tranquil habit this past spring and summer. Collected naturals has played a big part in our 2020 fall vignettes. 

Pumpkins in alternative mediums and materials have also found their way into the displays. 

Dried roses and hydrangeas surround a new needlepoint pumpkin from sm Wollman Designs  

Vintage needlepoint is one of my fun collections. This piece is gorgeous with bright flowers on a black ground. 

A cute houndstooth acorn sits near by. 

A dough bowl filled with velvet jewel toned pumpkins and acorns rests on the French commode. 

It took several years of thrifting to collect these gorgeous velvets. One acorn and one pumpkin came from Tom Thumb several years ago but the rest are all hand made. 

Copper tones in the kitchen echo the rich burnished hues of autumn. 

No pumpkin needed in these fall displays. 

Toasty brown accents dot our space this season.  

The needlepoint pillow with a brown ground is one of my favorite needlepoints. 

The yellow and brown throw was thrifted. I pick up vintage throws every time I see them even if it is 105° outside. 

The wild grapevine in the Woodland Realm was clipped back in June. It is persistent stuff but was clipped again and again until there was enough to craft some pumpkins. 

It took about three weeks to get enough to wind up them up slinky style. 

These are so fun and remind me of my time in the woods this summer. 

The scarecrow looks handcrafted but he was made in a factory somewhere. 

More dried florals and a white faux pumpkin. 

A Dollar Tree pumpkin was decoupaged with a napkin from Michel Design Works. 

 

The holiday cupboard in the garden room has some collected majolica. The brown floral pitcher was a recent eBay purchase. The aqua platter was a garage sale find for just a few dollars. 

The pumpkin is older Hobby Lobby. 

The squirrel planter was thrifted and is a favorite to pull out for the season. The picture frame with the printed vintage botanical repeats the rusty color. 

The brass bird cage was a $1.00 at a thrift store. It is a favorite too. I feel sorry for the birds that got such a small cage. A vintage Boy Scout mug from Bill's dad sits inside. It isn't majolica but it has the same feel. The yellow and green leaf plate was thrifted. It was only $1.99. 

A green vegetable bowl from Portugal is filled with another leaf plate, shards of broken pottery from a trash pile, and vintage flower frogs. It's such a weird collection of little items but I like it. It all rests on a stunning old gardening book. 

A Hobby Lobby red truck got a new green paint job. I love the orange and white pumpkin. 

I adore my new to me candelabra on the mantel.  

The golden brass is perfect for this time of year. 

The leaves below were found on a morning walk in August. 

They look flash dried if that is even possible.  

They are so pretty with the purchased lavender and the dried grocery store roses. 

That is about all for now. I appreciate each and every one of you. 

Thanks so much for having a look at our warm and cozy fall decor. 

Katie 

Keep In Touch #129

Hi, Friends, 

I hope you are well.

Thank you so much for stopping by. 

I had a busy week. 

The inspection went well on the new house so I went through the house looking at what will go. 

I also hit the jackpot while out thrifting. 

I don't want to ignore fall decor so a post touring our vignettes will be up tomorrow. 

I will also have a post up about why we put an offer in on the new weekend place. I'm still working on that post. 

I've been waiting for a glimpse into Amber's new kitchen @ Follow The Yellow Brick Home. 

I'm so excited for her. 

I love this big front porch from the House On Silverado. 

I love both of these posts. 

Now for the linkup. 

Have a good week, Friends. 

Katie 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thrifting For The New House

Hi, Friends, 

The inspection went well on our future weekend home. There were only a few minor repairs but no deal breakers!

I have a story about how we chose this house but that will have to wait as I am still writing that post. 

Since the house passed with almost flying colors, I hit the ground thrifting on Friday. 

The first estate sale was a misnomer. I think it was a moving sale. I found a French cheese mold and one of my Christmas dessert plates. I spent $3.00. (I hope I still have the Christmas dessert plates. I won't know until I can get in the Christmas closet.) 

$145.00

An elderly woman, who had antique sales out of her garage was moving to assisted living. The best estate sale company in town was given the contract to sell what she was not taking to her new place. 

I arrived about seven minutes after the sale opened. I spied a crockery butter churn in the listing but it had already sold by the time I got there. I didn't need it but it was cute. 

I have a cute crock for the front porch of the cottage so no big deal.   

Bill and I are leaning towards green accents for the house. I looked on eBay for green and white hotel china but it wasn't love, so I grabbed a small stack of white plates and a white pitcher. 

This little medicine cabinet was $45.00. It just spoke to me and it screams Texas cottage. I'll probably give it an update of some kind.

She had several nice oak washstands. One was already sold but there were three others to choose from. 

I bought the cutie pictured above. 

The burly temperature taker and door man helped me load the dresser in the truck. As I was closing the lift gate, I realized that I didn't remember the four drawers he'd loaded. I remembered doors. I checked the dresser in my truck. It didn't have doors. He'd loaded the wrong one.

We unloaded and reloaded the correct dresser. 

I was about to head to the Methodist's thrift store but instead I had an inkling that I needed to go back to my favorite thrift store even though I'd just been there on Wednesday. 

I am so glad I did because they had just gotten a few new furniture pieces. They hadn't even been priced yet. I spotted the green wing back chair on the way to talk to Grace about the furniture out front. 

(Grace was one of my kids during my stint as a Children's Minister.)

The manager and I walked passed the wing back and I said that I wanted it. 

Out front, she priced a cute green chair with a ruffled skirt but it was $150.00. 

I asked about a loveseat. "I'll give it to you for $19.00." What? 

The loveseat is a classic shape. It's similar to our current set so it will be easy to slipcover. It is from 2005 but it is in pristine condition. Remember the other day when I said that I needed to find something from a little used formal living area? This is it! 

The neighbor who helped me unload it has the exact fabric on their formal set. 

I went to housewares and found more white dishes. They haven't had stacks of good white dishes in a couple of years. I have enough for the cottage after one day of thrifting. I spent $60.00 total. 

There were some great pots that were never used. Bill said they look 80's. 

 

Without the lid, I think, they look current. 

I'd like to find new knobs.  I was please with $20.00 for all three pots and lids. 

I walked through the store again and called Bill. We had a phone consultation about a dining table. 

With some pictures and some vision casting, he gave me the green light to get this table and two "captains" chairs. It was $129.00. It comes with two leaves or is it leafs? Let me know. 

It will fold up for the two of us but it should seat eight comfortably. I've already sanded the top for it's new scheme. 

The manager threw in four more chairs for free. 

How cute will these look painted black? West Elm has some like them.

Now for some other free stuff. 

Last Saturday, Bill and I were coming home from the pharmacy. I saw some park benches on the side of the road. He did a couple of turns to get back to them and when he did, one was already being loaded up. We decided to take the one that was left. 

The other one was white but smaller. This one is a better scale for Bill. 

We just finished a bench restoration on the 4th of July. This one will be restored but I'm not sure of the color yet. It will go on the front porch of the new house.   

There were two large plastic flower containers. 

They also had the green wrought iron piece pictured below. 

It was the side to an old glider.  The seat was gone according to the guy who was unloading a back yard full of stuff. (I think the house is about to be flipped.) 

There were two sides like this but one of the sides was still attached to a big pole. 

A lady drove up behind us to pick. She asked me if I was going to take the green sides. 

I said that I was thinking about it. In a split second, I said, "You take the one side (without the pole) since it will fit in your car. I'll take the other side (with the pole) because it will fit in the bed of the truck."

"Really?" 

Bill helped her load her new fun find. She said to Bill, "We ladies need to have our junk." 

We both cracked up. Meanwhile cars are backing up behind her while we loaded her cute green find. 

In part, Bill would love to hit the shops to furnish the house. Nope. This is just too much fun. 

Katie 

Linking with, 

Common Ground and Follow The Yellow Brick Home 

Farmhouse Friday

Furnishing A Second Home

Hello, Friends, 

How are you doing today?

I hope this finds you encouraged and healthy. 

If you have been following for a while, you will know that we are trying to get a little piece of property in the country. We have looked on and off for about five years. Last year, we diverted from that plan. Sometimes to figure out what God wants you to do, you have to explore other paths. We did that by trying to get a house in town with a bigger lot. When that fell through, we re-did our floors and decided to stay in this house for the time being. 

We were supposed to be traveling during this season of life, but with the virus, that is on hold for now. Since we are staying close to home, Bill decided to go for it and find us a weekend house in East Texas. 

We found the 1932 farmhouse but we pulled out of that because it needed so much work. 

We have our inspection tomorrow on a little ranch style house in the woods. I'll share more pictures and details after we get the inspection report. 

In the meantime, I'm planning and pinning styles and furnishings. This house isn't crying out for Farmhouse decor like the 1932 farmhouse. It doesn't seem Midcentury, Boho, or a mix of the two. It isn't Modern Lodge either. I sort of feel like European Cottage Style might suit it best but it's hard to tell because there is a lot currently on display. I can usually visualize but I've struggled with this house. 

A cozy English cottage look seems appropriate but it's hard to tell until it is empty. 

I went on a streak painting most of our furniture after I started blogging. 

If you are a long time reader, you may remember that my husband was very sick for a few years up until he was properly diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes instead of Type 2. It was awful because I felt that he was dying right before my eyes. He was doing everything that he could to just get through the day. He either didn't notice or he didn't care that I was painting all of our furniture. Now that he is on insulin and his medication is regulating his blood sugar, he's let it be known that he doesn't really like white furniture. 

Oops. 

We are slowly adding in more wood tones. 

I inherited three pieces of furniture from my parents last year when my step mother died. 

The corner cupboard pictured above, a wash stand which was in my childhood bedroom,  

and a commode that belonged to my great grandparents when they got married in the late 1800s. 

I almost left the commode at my stepmother's house. However, my grandmother wrote on the back that it came from her parents. I told Bill to load that up with the rest of the stuff. 

It didn't match the rest of our furniture but I love it anyway. 

When the farmhouse fell through, I realized that I wanted to upgrade some of our furniture to be more in keeping with the pieces we inherited. We picked up the new hutch and a French commode. 

(It doesn't go with anything either but I just adore it.) Eventually, it will probably end up in a guest room. 

Rather than purge anything, I've been cramming stuff in closets, the laundry room and even the shed. 

I've been keeping some headboards, end tables, lamps, and art. The lamps and art are rotated on display to fit the season or my mood. The headboards are in the attic.

Here are a few pieces that are going to the new house.

The dish shelf will go on the dining room wall or in the kitchen after we take down a bank of upper cabinets. 

The secretary will probably go in the she shed or in a guest room. The glass doors are already off and it's in the garage ready to move. 

The little dresser below was my first piece of furniture. 

I paid $45.00 for it at a flea market. I squeezed it into my Volkswagen Beetle. I'm very sentimental about it. It's been all over this house. 

We have two "make do" cabinets. 

I have a few mix matched chairs to fit around a dining table but we need the table. 

I've heard that there is a furniture shortage due to supply chain issues as a result of Covid 19. 

Typically, we like new upholstered seating but if we can't find new, I'll get gently used and slipcover it. 

The pieces I've pictured above are a good start but there is a lot to get. 

I want to take our time, enjoy the process and create a peaceful retreat for family and friends. 

I'll have more once we hear about the inspection but we don't anticipate any deal breakers this time. 

Thanks for following along. 

I think there will be a lot of projects! 

Katie 

Linking with, 

Common Ground