Halloween Visitors

I spy with my little eye.....Alice in Wonderland!!
I was so glad that Halloween fell on a Sunday this year. Every year since we moved here to Texas to be near the kids, they have come to "surprise" us at lunch time on Halloween. I love hearing them in the front yard getting their costumes on and trying to be quiet.

This year was going to be different I thought, because Elizabeth is in all day kindergarten. {and I didn't think Laura would take her out of school to come trick or treat at our house!} Thankfully I was spared for one more year and was visited by these adorable children.

Alice is very excited about her candy.
Ben aka Buzz is always excited about everything.
And yes, we have another Buzz. Cooper was a firefighter at his neighborhood party with his trusty Dalmatian Jackson. But if Ben is Buzz, so is Cooper, so he was a lucky boy and got 2 costumes.
Isn't this the cutest puppy ever?
A thankful grandma to have them all here one more year. I won't think about next year.

The Dining Room

I am joining Kim at Savvy Southern Style for her before and after party once again. I like the new look it is giving me of my rooms, and I am loving finding more fun blogs and ideas! I have been in a decorating slump and would like to get out of it. Checking out some of the redos has given me some ideas. I don't anticipate any big doings around here until after the holidays, because Christmas is coming quickly and I don't like unfinished messes at that time. But I think we may have a project or 2 to tackle after that!

The dining room when we purchased our house looked like this. The same beige trim and paneling and dark red purplish walls.

Little beaded shades on the light and 2" blinds on the windows.
It has not been a dramatic change, but I do like it better now. Here you can see that the dining room is directly to your right when you come in the front door. We painted the ceiling, trim and paneling white, and the walls a bright gold.
We have had our dining room set forever...and I am not so in love with it anymore, but I will not be getting a new one in this house. We want to build a house in a few years, and I will be doing away with a formal dining room at that time. So, it doesn't make sense to do anything drastic at this time. This still works beautifully for our holiday meals! {Otherwise we don't use it much which is why I won't have one anymore}
I bought this inexpensive little server for this corner and really like the extra space it gives me for my ever growing dish obsession. I collect tole trays and love this red one I found. It's the only red one I have and I think it's my favorite!
I included this picture to show you the windows. It was the change I loved the most and it's hard to get a good picture looking into the window. We added plantation shutters and I really like the difference they made. So crisp and really played up the pretty shape of the window.
There are a few things I would still like to do in there, for example a little bigger shades on the light would be better I think. That light is the only thing we kept in the room and I did change out the shades, but every time I see a picture of the shades I think they need to be bigger. What do you think?

I would also like to have some slipcovers made for the chairs. Maybe something with buttons on the back. We'll see.

Thanks for stopping by and please stop by Kim's for more before and afters.

{you can click on any picture to enlarge}

Our Home ~ Staircase

Welcome to our home. I have decided to join Kim at Savvy Southern Style for her before and after party and of course will be showing pictures of our home. We bought this house 3 years ago, and did quite a bit of work in the beginning...but lately have hit a little slump in getting projects finished! When you take some pictures of rooms or areas in your house that you thought looked pretty good it's amazing to see how many things need a little tweaking! Every now and then you are surprised and things are just as you would like, but you know what I mean.Come on in!!

We don't have an entry hall in our home. When you come in the front door, the stairs are right in front of you. The before pictures today are of the home as we saw it when we made our offer. I am using them so you can see the wall and carpet colors. These are not in any way meant to critique the previous owner's "stuff".

All of the trim in the home was painted this taupey color. The walls AND ceilings were painted a lighter shade of the same color. I am not a beige person. I know some are, and I can enjoy it in their homes, but I need color.

And so the transformation began.
The stairs lead up to our pool table room. The little arch next to the clock leads to the family room.
We did keep this lantern. It fits in well with our stuff!
Now for the "after". All of the trim was painted white, semi gloss. The walls are butter yellow, and ceilings, which you can't see are almost white, with just a little yellow. It was really hard to figure out what to do with the curved wall. These pictures do work, although the one does stick out from the wall a bit.
We had the black and yellow carpet installed and had them make a rug for the front door of the same carpet.

The next transformation that the staircase gets is its annual Christmas decorating. But that's for another Wednesday!

Thanks for stopping by.

Please join Kim for more before and afters.

A Touch of Fall

Finally, a touch of fall in the air, and a touch of decor around the outside of our house. I have had a hard time getting anything done this fall, that's for sure.

This is it for the front, my old door arrangement that I redid a little. I have had it for years, and the flowers were a little tired. So I bought 3 sunflowers at Michaels and some sticks and cattails and just fluffed it up a bit. I don't have a before pic, but it does look better and I can get a few more years out of it. Yay! I didn't do any pumpkins around my front door as my pink knock out roses are still lovely and they just don't work with pumpkins. So this is my little touch of fall for the front.

Our side entrance, with the same look as last year. I think I will look for a sitting scarecrow for the bench. I think after seeing this picture that that would be a nice touch.
Our little playhouse with a little bit of fall decor.


And the majority of the decorations went into this outdoor room we built this summer. {or had built, we didn't do any of the work:-) } We love this space, although we don't know what to call it - outdoor kitchen - outdoor living room - cabana - the thing in the yard - what do you think? Whatever it is, we love it and spend most of our evenings out here.



We sat here and had dinner with our good friends from Kansas last night. They came down on Saturday and we had a wonderful dinner out at a new to us restaurant, very nice and close to our house. On Sunday Bob and Jim went golfing and Robin and I just sat out here with our coffee until lunch time, and went to a shop or 2 and then headed home to have dinner and sit out at the fire. Very relaxing and so good to catch up. Back to reality tomorrow!

Linking to Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for Met Monday

Pumpkin Patch Fun

What is a beautiful fall day without a trip to the Pumpkin Patch? It was hot, just like last year but the kids think it is so fun. And the grownups think it is a great opportunity for some pictures of our cute pumpkins. {couldn't resist}

Here are B and E. Ben is sporting his new haircut. Grandma and Mommy are still adjusting.
Pretty pumpkin princess.
Sporty spider?
Another scary spider and the sweetest candy corn ever. I could just eat him up!!
I think perhaps he is more like a butterball!
4 little pumpkins sitting on a bench...
And for the grand finale - the corn maze. We have not done this before, and the kids wanted to try it. So, why not? When we first started I thought we should go down each little path, to make it last longer. HA I mean how hard could it be, it was just a little patch of corn. Well, it was hard, and it was hot. There was a nice breeze that day, but not in the rows of tightly packed corn. It was HOT. Grandma doesn't like hot. But thankfully a nice farmer was in there and directed us to the way out. Next time Grandpa is coming in too.

Book Club

What if you gave a party and no one came? That was me this morning. Our October book club meeting was today and I was ready!! We were even going to sit outside and have a fire and everything.

I knew the group would be small this month as 2 of our regulars were going to be out of town. Then someone had something at a child's school and dropped out earlier this week. But there were still going to be 4 of us and that would be a cozy group. Well, one's child got sick last night and the other had to run into work today so that left Shelley and me. When she called to say she would be a little late I told her to enjoy her day and not to worry!

So instead, I will sit out by the fire by myself and read a book. Not a bad way to spend the day after all.
{and bring back all of the piles of junk that I ran around and hid last night:-) }

Collecting at the Cabin

We have closed up the cabin for the season, but I had a few pictures I still wanted to share.

When we were up for a quick visit over Labor Day we met some friends for lunch. We used to live next door to Tom and Kate when our girls were just 1 year old. Now they are all married and we each have 4 grandchildren!! They still live in Minnesota, but have place in Wisconsin about an hour or so from us. We met them for lunch at a really nice place on a lake {that narrows it down!} I didn't take any pictures, and I don't remember the name. I guess that is one good reason to take pictures of the outside of restaurants. I felt kind of silly the first time I did that, but now I can see that comes in very handy.

After our lunch they suggested that we go tour a nearby winery. They hadn't been there before either and it sounded fun to us. It is new and the people that built it wanted it to look European. They do grow grapes there and make their own wine, but they import the grapes for the wine. I think the ones they grow are for jelly. I didn't think northern Wisconsin had the climate for wine!!
Bob and Kate and Tom.
And the obligatory cask shot. It was fun to visit and try their wines. They were good and of course we bought a couple of bottles. But it was more fun to catch up with good friends. We'll see them in the spring, unless they decide to make a winter trip to Texas. HINT
The rest of the picture are of some of my shopping at the cabin. There are a few "antique" shops around and it is fun if you are actually looking for something. Our cabin is fairly well furnished, but I have nothing for the walls. So the hunt began.

Of course these aren't for the walls, but the color scheme at the cabin is black and red so these had to come home with me. I love the holder - I remember these from back in the day.
This next collection began with a church plate of my grandma's church. I thought it would be fun to see if I could find some more in black and red for the downstairs bedroom. They aren't real easy to find, but I did find several this visit at one shop.
And aren't these fun BBQ trays? Of course they are in black and red and I think they are very vintage. I have 3 so far, but I just found 2 more on E*ay. Fun!

I do like the old metal trays, I have several black tole trays at home and I just couldn't resist this one of Wisconsin. My sister collects them, and I am going to try hard not to also, but I can see where it would be fun to have ones of the states that we have lived in.
Another plate collection in the upstairs bedroom of states. Only 3 so far ~ I just want 2 more I think. Kansas and Texas.
And last but not least, I found the little red and black truck at a shop that had lots of goodies. Someone made this truck and it is so cute with my little bear board books in it. You can glimpse my little red chair collection {I have a couple more...and vintage picnic basket on the TV cabinet.} Hmm maybe I'd better stop. When I see it all together here in one post it looks like I might have a problem! It has been fun though and I think it is making the cabin just a little more interesting.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!
{Click on any picture to enlarge it}