East Texas Fall Vignettes For 2023

Hi, Friends,

How are you? I hope this finds you doing well. 

I haven't disappeared and I promise to let you know if that ever happens.  

Our long hot summer is over and we are finally enjoying some cooler temperatures. 

It was long overdue as the heat continued into September.

I couldn't do a lot of fall decorating until we had a dip in temps. Buying pumpkins and mums when it was almost 100° seemed like an enormous waste of money and I needed to be somewhat in the mood to decorate. 

We are in East Texas this week, so I'll show you what is going on at this house. 

I love the mantel this year. 

Two candlesticks that were turned by my husband's grandfather pair with a vintage chunkier candlestick. 

This vintage item was white but I stripped it back down to the wood. It matches so well. 

My husband ordered the beeswax candles as few years ago. Since I didn't have a green pillar candle in green, I wrapped a faux pillar with cotton duck and some twine. It's a battery operated candle so its completely safe. I typically don't burn our candles anyway. 

The green leaf garland came from Hobby Lobby. Faux bittersweet berries were tucked in here and there.

I ordered the bittersweet from Craft Outlet.com . The berries are very realistic. The stems are not but they are okay since I wove them in the garland. 

I love the butterfly print! I stuck it there because I didn't know where else to put it. It was a very happy accident. 

It's fun with the twiggy-ness of the the garland. 

Oops, I forgot to remove the cardboard cat scratch board. I set them next to chairs that she likes to scratch. I slipcovered the wing back and it was very difficult. Little pulls with her claws are not in the plan. 

We picked up another rug to match the one across the room. 

It looks like we will be moving here in two years and I need both rugs to match. 

We bought the house three years ago during Covid. The big green loveseat was about all we could find for seating. An 82 inch sofa to match the little off white sleeper will be delivered tomorrow. 

The behemoth couch is pretty comfortable but I never really liked how overstuffed it is. 

Additionally, I'm a neutral sofa type gal and this one was not the look that I want long term. 

I'm not sure what we will do with it, which is unfortunate, but I'm writing it off as a Covid misstep.  

Have you had any of those? 

I'm looking forward to a nap on a full size sofa instead of being all scrunched up on a loveseat. 

I wanted to get the sofa now in the off chance that it's discontinued in two years. At that point I'd be trying to match the loveseat which may have been a challenge. I hope the coffee table looks okay with the new sofa. We will see. 

The buffet which hopefully give the illusion of an entry way received the brown bottles that were collected over the course of the last few years. 

I grouped them on a wood slice tray. 

A sweet Victorian lamp table received a new to me brown transferware pitcher. We found a new little shop on our way to the Home Depot. This pitcher was only $9.00. Dried branches from Hobby Lobby flounce out toward a bird print. 

The dry sink got one of my homemade scarecrows, a pumpkin and a little crow needlework. 

This piece belonged to my parents. My dad used it as a bar. 

When we picked up the garage sale table for the front porch, we also picked up a hanging cabinet. 

I spent a week or so refinishing it. There were four layers of paint. White, black, gray and finally a pretty cream color. 

It was so hard to strip that I decided to leave it natural. Bill hung it in the laundry room for me. 

It was only $10.00. The hardware was more than the piece! After a new beadboard back and some white paint, it houses some of my vast pitcher collection and a few chicken collectables. 

I love the traces of the old paint. 

I did a autumn clean up of the screened porch the other day. I found two dead scorpions. That brings us to a total of 14 dead and two live for the season. That's 16 too many for my liking but I am getting used to them. I only scream at the live ones.  

I moved the furniture around a bit and we are enjoying the new arrangement. 

It's been three years since we closed on the house in East Texas.  We always said that this was our five year plan because Bill was five years from retirement at the time. We wanted to see if we would like country living before we sold the city house. Bill and I both grew up in suburban locations that leaned a little rural. It's only been since the growth of the Dallas/ Fort Worth area, that things aren't even suburban anymore. It's all one big city and the traffic is unbelievable. We like the country but this house needs a bit more room if it is going to be our home for the next 15 years. I like my pretty heirlooms and they all need a spot. We are willing to downsize but there are some things that I don't want to part with so we are in the midst of getting some plans drawn up so that we can add a little square footage on to this house. 

We discovered that the screened porch was not designed correctly. Bill doesn't think that there is any insulation in the ceiling and so hot air is just trapped in the space. Even in the early morning it was too hot to use this summer. In the winter it is too cold on most days. With a small house, we need to maximize every square inch. I need a four season room, not a two and half season room. 

 We think that we will enclose the porch and the carport for additional living a large living dining area.  

We will add on the south side of the house for another closet and a bigger bathroom. We may possibly move the laundry room and use that space as a butler's pantry. 

The idea of continuing to work on this house doesn't thrill me but if we move here in two years, it would be nice to be finished before that time. 

That is all for now. I will show off the new sofa when it gets here. 

Katie