Seasonal Door Arrangements

After seeing my door decor, one of my close friends asked me to make several door arrangements, one for herself, and two to give as gifts. She said that I could make them however, and whatever color I wanted.
I decided to go with something that could be put up for fall, but that could carry over close to Christmas as well.

My friend hasn't seen them yet...I hope she likes them.

I was on a tight budget, so it was fortunate that all the materials were on sale at Michaels. Each one cost about $6 to make. That's a good deal, I think.

Linked up:
Sassy Sites
Thirty Handmade Days
Tatertots and Jello
Designer Garden

Frames of Fall

Here are a few more Fall touches around the house...

I've had this bead garland since last fall,
but I like it so much that I've moved it,
and given it a new purpose for every season.
This fall it's dressing up what was once a naked red candle.
Much better, I think.

The three frames of pretty paper on the mantel were not enough.

I wanted to see more of my beautiful paper...

Can you tell that I love butterflies?

And here's a gratuitous dog picture...she couldn't care less about my decorations...
Dog loves to lay in the sun.

(Try not to pay attention to the cluttery space to the left of the mantel,
I'm not done with it yet.
And that protruding wood-burning stove...
I don't like the look of it very much,
but I think we'll be thankful for it as it gets colder.)

Decor to Adore

Fall Mantel

As promised, here's my whole mantel...

Several months ago my generous SIL

sent me a box of picture frames that she no longer needed.
She knew that I would come up with a use for them.

I wasn't sure how to use them until I started thinking about my mantel. If you've followed my blog at all, you know how much I love paper. Recently I bought some pieces with fall colors, so I decided to frame them.Do you have a Wood Wick candle?

Husband and I love ours so much,
we always have one now.

And here it is, all put together.

(This is one time when I wish I was a better photographer
because this picture really doesn't do it justice)

Mommy by Day, Crafter by Night
Today's Creative Blog
Decor to Adore- Fall in Love

Fall Leaves

Today I got the hankering to decorate for fall.
In the new house, we have a small mantel,
which makes decorating even more exciting.

I'll show the whole mantel tomorrow, but for now...
Aren't those some lovely paper leaves?

I started out by picking these real leaves.
Aren't they pretty?

Then I traced them, and cut them out.
I don't have a silhouette, but honestly,
this was more fun anyway.

I love the way they turned out.
More when I show you the mantel.

Sew Stylish
Mommy by Day, Crafter by Night
Today's Creative Blog

Fall Door Decor...and More.

I finally got around to doing something creative! I made a wreath, of sorts, for the door. I didn't want a traditional wreath...but I did stick to traditional colors. It reminds me a little of a cornucopia.

It's a small help for our very "blah" porch. We're renting, so we're not sure what to do to spruce it up without spending a lot of money....but it's a start.

Our little pot of mums helps too.

This is our front yard...it goes all the way to that far fence. It doesn't have much grass. We'd like it to look better, but again...we're renting. I do love the huge trees.
This is another view of the front of the house...and that, my friends, is where they had to replace the sidewalk and part of the yard when the main sewer line collapsed three days after we moved in (there are definitely some positives to renting).

Here's where the goofy contractors painted the bushes.

And where they didn't paint the windows.

But they were sure not to miss the inside of the storm door.

There are many more strange tales of the goofy contractors, but I'll save those for another day. For now, we are very happy in our first house, blah paint job and all.
Our house is definitely the ugly duckling on a street of swans...but it's our ugly duckling, and we love it.

One Happy Pack

(She loves to lay in the grass)

Meet Maggie. She came to live with us two weeks ago, but we've been hanging out wither for over a month. She's a boxer/great dane mix (probably), she's six months old, and the happiest puppy around in spite of a hard start to life.

(We always cuddle for a couple of minutes after our walks)

When she was about two months old, her first owner kicked her in the face so hard that it fractured her jaw right through on both sides. According to the vet dentist, it wasn't a clean fracture either...lots of little pieces. She was also underfed. When her owners realized how much it was going to cost to fix her jaw, they decided to put her down.

(I love her adorable, wrinkly puppy mouth)

At that point, the animal hospital employees decided to take her into their own hands...they saved her life. After two months of staying at the hospital with her jaw wired shut, they turned her over to Hope For Animals foster care.

(Her favorite toy is a large tree branch in the back yard)

We happened to meet her on the first day that her foster mom had her home...she lived in the apartment across from us. We fell in love with Maggie pretty much right away, but we couldn't actually bring her home, until we moved into the house.

(She loves to sleep our our shoes)

We love her so much! She's a handful, but we're all learning together. Husband and I are strong believers in Cesar Millan's way of raising/handling dogs. His books, as well as watching episodes of The Dog Whisperer, have really helped us come a long way to being a happier pack.

An Explanation

No, I haven't abandoned my blog. Yes, I'm sorry for my absence. I miss it! We moved a little over a week ago, and due to some complications on our landlord's side...our garage is still full of his stuff. This means that we are unable to unpack anything that needs to be stored...which means that our den (aka, my future crafting cave) is filled with both everything that needs to go in our garage, and all my sewing/crafting supplies. It's incredibly frustrating to not be able to finish our unpacking, though I'm trying to cut the guy some slack since he has a lot going on in his life.

The day we moved, we also adopted a puppy. Her name is Maggie, and she's a 6 month old boxer/grate dane mix. Her story deserves its own post, which I promise to do soon. For now, I'll just give you this picture, and tell you that she's an absolute joy to our lives.