Buffet Table Decor Idea - Fall Decor

I was obsessed with getting a Buffet Table for our dinning room. I basically dislike our actual dinning table (revamp project soon to come), so I wanted to compensate by getting a Buffet Table to decorate and love.

Luckily I ran into this table when a lady I knew was moving out of her house. She didn't have any room for it in her TMO move, so she asked if I would be interested. When she told me it was only $35 I thought I had heard wrong! I grabbed hubby and told him we had to go get it the next day. Of course, hubby was convinced that it would fit in the Jeep, he was wrong. It was a huge ordeal to just get it over to our house. And it finally arrived. I of course went immediately to putting stuff on it! 

As you can see, the color is pretty BLAH. But it really is a nice piece of furniture. Well anyways, I haven't gotten around to painting it or figuring out what I want to do with it. I really would like to have it match my poor sad little dinning table and chairs. 

Well here it is getting ready for fall! I really like it much more this way. Too bad I can't keep it like this year round! 

Everything that I've decorated my buffet table has been an absolute bargain. Both candle holders I bought at the goodwill last year. The two brown candles are from target, both on clearance for $1.50. The Happy Harvest sign is from Michael's I bought after the holiday season last year, I think I paid less than $1 for it. The wine bottle, was a gift, now empty, covered in burlap and a ribbon from the Dollar Tree. 

Here the red plate is also from Michael's for less than a $1. The pumpkins were both bought at thrift stores. The white vase I bought at Ross and then spray painted white. The fall flower arrangement was all bought at a thrift store. My small chalk board was a mirror I bought from the Dollar Tree and painted with Martha Stewart Chalk Paint. 

Here is my dinning table and my buffet table. My table has a table cloth that Mother gave me and a simple centerpiece. 

Here is the centerpiece. The candle holders were bought from Ross for less than $10. The candles were bought at ross for less than $3 for a 6 pack. The fall leaves were bought at Hobby Lobby and the plate at Michaels. 

Fall decor is super easy. I think the best way is to shop year round. Take everything out and decide where it goes best. Make it fun, enjoy it, and don't be afraid to change things up. 

Hurray for the FALL! 

~Follow my Fall Board on Pinterest~

Preparing your Garden for Fall

I must admit that I am a newbie at Gardening. But I think that I did a pretty good job for an amateur. It's not that I don't like gardening, but I've never really had the chance to build my own. Mother's garden is so beautiful, that I would really like mine to start to look that way too. 

Now that summer has passed, I have decided to liven up my garden with some fall favorites. MUMS. Everyone loves them, I hope, well at least I do. 

Living in Military housing I unfortunately do not have a huge amount of space to garden. I've turned to container gardening, which seems to be all the craze on Pinterest anyway. 

~~ Follow my Gardening Board on Pinterest! ~~

With a mixture of Pinterest-inspired and Creative Thinking, I came up with a couple containers myself. 

First Up: re-vamped old grille

Hubby had purchased this grille about 2 years ago (so it really wasn't that old) but it had quickly started to become wobbly and dirty. When he got his new grille he asked if he should just throw it away, selling it or giving it away would be a waste. It was on its way to the garbage, when I saw THIS BEAUTY on Pinterest and I was ecstatic. I painted it green and I immediately fell in love <3 

My first use of it was during the summer.

These little flowers have since passed on and now it is standing mighty and proud with beautiful yellow mums! 

I even added a couple solar lights to make it stand out at night. This little guy is still located off my porch, but I plan on moving it once I begin my porch decorations with pumpkins and such! 

When I decided to plant the Mums - the soil had been dried up and the roots remained from my summer flowers. I dug up as many of the dried roots and leaves and threw them away. The soil had bulged up so I took my hose and completely dampened the soil. I added fresh "potting mix" soil and began planting the mums. I planted them about 3 1/2"  away from the edge of my container so that the roots would still have room to spread. Once I had finished I again added water. One mistake I did throughout the summer was that I left the holes at the bottom of the grille completely open. That caused too much water drainage, which is why I think my flowers died so quickly. I closed the vent completely this time around and found that the water will still drain but not as much as before. Well there you have it, my beautiful mums.

Second-Up: scrap wood garden container

This was another project that had been sitting in the garage for days. Honey had come across some scrap wood that someone was giving away. He had no use for it, but I jokingly once told him he should make me a flower bed. And he finally did. It came out wonderful, the perfect size to sit right on my porch. It took him about 40 minutes to do. All it took was 4 pieces of scrap wood for the side, 3 for the bottom, and some screws. Luckily the bottom wood had a couple holes here and there which worked out perfectly for water drainage (otherwise I would have had him screw small holes).

For these guys I used "potting mix" soil as well. I left about 3" from the sides of the container for roots and about 1" from the top edge.

 Mother told me to pick the flowers with as many closed buds as possible, so that they would bloom at home. I in the past had picked those that were already in full bloom so that they would look pretty as soon as I planted them at home - again a rookie mistake. Live and learn, right? 

I'm pretty happy with my garden at the moment. Pretty subtle, but once pumpkin season rolls around I think they will complement each other nicely. 

Love my mason jars turned solar lights? Here ya go! 

Want to know what else I'm up to for Fall?

Visit my Holiday Crafts page. 

Coffee Filter Wreath - Fall Decor

Wreaths? Who doesn't love them? I sure do. 

This is one of the easiest crafts that I have done. My inspiration came from here-The 
Little Brown House - I however improvised with an idea from a previous project. 

It was a couple days works, ya know full time job and what not.. But also because like I said 
in another post, I'm really trying to enjoy the luxuries of creating my own home decor, 
rather than rushing through them for a sloppy end result. 

Anyways I've linked her tutorial above.. however here's what I came up with including my 
alternatives. 

The best part of this project is that I did not have to buy coffee filters. Thanks to our new 

Keurig, I had white coffee filters that I had no need for anymore. 

So let's begin:

White Coffee Filters (on hand - I believe you can get a packet for .89)

Styrofoam Circle (Dollar Tree)
Wired Thanksgiving Ribbon (Dollar Tree)

Hot Glue Gun (on hand)

Brewed Coffee (on hand - I LOOOOVEE COFFEE)

I began by brewing some coffee - I've also heard that tea does the trick - and warming it up in a large pot. I separated all the coffee filters and started to stick them in there. (Don't forget to turn off the burner) I left them in there for about 20 minutes and then took them all out. I threw them on my counter, over some paper towels to let them dry. While I was taking them out, I made sure to start to form them a little. It took a little over a day for them to be completely dry. 

Once they were all dry, I just got at it. I started on the inside of the wreath and worked my way around. I made sure that the coffee filters were shaped the way and in the direction that I wanted them. The nice part is that they are really east to work with. I made sure to stick in a coffee filter here and there if it didn't look "full" enough. 

I am using these wreaths for a window. So I wanted both sides to be decorated. Therefore I had to do the same on the front and back and on the sides. 

TADA - End product. 

I think it works, it was simple, cheap, and I can move them around the house!
Interested in more easy Idea for Fall Decor? Check out simple and cheap ways to garden! 

Canvas Art - Easy Decor - Perfection comes with Patience

Who doesn't love making their home, whether its a closet space dorm, or a small apartment, or a huge house look wonderful for their own pleasure? Well I know I sure do.

When we decided to move into housing on base, I immediately knew that I was going to have to do a lot of decorating to make that huge house look like a nice, warm, inviting home -- and boy was I excited!

 

So I began to gather ideas that I've seen on the net of different things that I could do -- but seeing as how anything decor related is uber expensive, I really wanted to keep it as thrifty as possible.

 

One of the things that I am most proud of - and that really anyone can do - was a little canvas I created: Pinterest inspired.. I saw this post via my endless hours of whoring pinterest >> Pretty Bird Wall Art. Being a definite rookie.. I definitely hit a FAIL moment on the first canvas that I did. But with the help of some super artsy folk, I was able to fix up my entire project.

I had an idea in my head of what I wanted.. something pretty :)

Based off of that glorious idea, I went ahead and got myself to work.

The hardest part was picking the design for my canvas.. geez does B have a lot of paper!!

I had no clue how I wanted to do it.. so I figured I'd go with my favorite colors.. blue, pink, black and white (now don't get all worked up about me naming "white" a "color").

I basically followed the same instructions that were suggested in the above mentioned blog, and it definitely was not difficult. See: PRETTY

 

There were a couple "oops" moments while I was making this -- hence why the middle one looks crooked -- Oh well.

 

Continuing on, I have luckily gathered a lot of nick knacks from mother, who loves bargain shopping, which in turn made me a faithful garage sale lover, and more recently an avid thrifty store goer. And btw, the hubs loves to bargain shop too, so it makes it all more perfect :). And it really does help. Who cares where you got it or who gave it to you, if you love it, use it!

 

A couple of things that I've learned is that stores like Ross, Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Big Lots, etc. are the best places to get cute different things that you do not necessarily come across regularly. For example:

 

Venice Canvas - Ross about $30

 

Frames - Ross, Goodwill, Big Lots anywhere from $2- $5

Oh and btw -- picture printing is expensive, I take advantage of Walgreens coupons that get emailed to me - best idea ever!

End tables - Garage sale $10 - then we sanded and stained them

 

This is one of my favs: although the hubs isn't a fan.

Completely restored rocking chair: I took off all the old cushions, padding, and nails, spray painted it, added new cushions from Ross $8 each.

 

Paris Canvas - Bday gift from mother - Wall Wording - Dollar Store $1

 

Vases - Random Warehouse $7 each. Wood sticks - Dollar Store $1 each. Lights - Big Lots $3 each

 

So ya see .. really easy to give a bare living space some color and life.

Regardless how little or big your budget may be there are always things one can find to enjoy the little things in life. By no means did I go out and buy all of this stuff in one day, it's taken me well over 2 years to gather things here and there. There is still a lot of white bare walls in my house, but one day soon it'll all look adorned and beautiful.

Be patient and don't be afraid to make a bargain, there's no shame in being smart with your money and your taste :)

P.S. we've been living in our new house for about a month now.. and I absolutely love it :) and it looks amazing dont cha think!?

Fall Decorating on a Budget

I've been waiting all summer for fall to arrive.. and as me and the hubs were driving down the street.. I realized that Autumn is most definitely here. Just look at this beauty!! 

Giant Springs Park, Great Falls, MT

Despite the fact that it's not as chilly as one would hope.. and I haven't been able to dress up in scarves and boots... I could not wait to get my decorating started in order to make my house feel like this season's holidays are just around the corner!  Sometimes I wish I had not only a huge house, but a huge budget ;) regardless... I definitely didn't want to spend a huge chunk of cash going to Michaels, Ross, Pier1, ETC. on buying all the really cute stuff that they have. So I decided that with the help of creativity and Pinterest I would get my imagination going. Biggest advice -- Don't be scared to become your own Martha Stewart -- seriously your biggest critic is yourself, think outside the box, and just do it! 

So here it goes --

Best places to shop for me were Dollar Store, Michaels (looking out for clearance and coupons), Hobby Lobby (same - clearance and coupons), GoodWill, Yard Sales. 

FALL - bottles 
 Crush Bottles - $3.00 6 pack (disposed 2) @Grocery store {LOVE orange soda :)}
Krylon Metallic paint - $3.25 bottle (clearance - now I have a pretty full spray can) @Hobby Lobby
Adhesive letters - $1.25 each @Hobby Lobby
Individual shrubs - $1 each @Dollar Store
Total ~ $11

Pumpkin Centerpiece
8 small pumpkins - $1 each @Dollar Store
Large round glass plate - $.69 @GoodWill
hot glue 
Total ~ $9 

Table cloth - gift from Mother :) 

Front Door Wreath 
Wooden wreath - $1 @DollarStore
2 Fall leaves garland - $1 each @DollarStore
Small broom - $2 @GoodWill
Bow - .50@GoodWill
Total ~ $4.50

Candle Holders 
this one took a little hunting and looking around for
2 Steel candle holder - $.75 each @GoodWill
2 Glass vases - $.99 each @GoodWill
Pinecones - 3 large bags @ Yardsale for $1 (this was a total score- one bag had store pricing of 4.99)
Small pumpkins - $.50 each @HobbyLobby
Fall leaves - $1 a bag @Dollar Store
Total ~ $6.75

Candle Centerpiece

When me and my girlfriends were walking out of Michaels we saw pretty much the same thing for about $24!!! 

3 small vanilla scented candles - $1 each @DollarStore

4 stems of Berries - $.70 each @Michaels 

small wooden wreath - $1 @DollarStore

Orange plate - $1 @Michaels 

cinnamon stick 

Total ~ $7

Salt & Pepper shakers - $2.99 @ Michaels

Fall Bouquet & Candle
Glass Vase - $.75 Yard sale (I went ahead and spray painted it white - milkglass effect)
Stem of fall leaves - $1.25 @JoAnn
Stem of Berries - $1.25 @JoAnn
Total ~ 2.25
Pumpkin Spice candle - $3.99 @ Ross (these are always cheaper @Ross - so keep an eye out)
I removed label and added a Bow - $.50 @Dollar Store
Total ~ $4.50
Also, notice on the bottom I used the rest of the pine cones from my previous project and dumped them in a clear glass vase (on hand)


These are a few of my projects that I'm definitely proud of.
So I hope you get the idea, there are so many possibilities to decorating your home and making it feel special. It is definitely rewarding to sit on your couch and look up to see your home pretty and clean because you took the extra effort to make something special all by yourself!
Hope you're inspired! October is here - so start decorating! :)

XOXO