FALL in love

Fall is my favorite season, hands down, no doubts about it. I love the colors, the weather, Friday night high school football, pumpkins, campfires, haunted houses, changing leaves and spending time with family and friends. This fall was a little different for me. I didn't stuff my car to gills with all my belongings and make the two and a half hour drive up to Macomb. It was a truly bittersweet moment to watch my baby sister go off to college and know that I wouldn't be there.

However, the month of August did bring some good changes for me. I got a new roommate! Temporary, of course, but for the next month I have the company of my best friend Maggie everyday when I come home. I loved having Kelsey live with me during the summer and am just as tickled to have Mags. We are having a great time together while I show her around to different parts of her new home in Peoria. It is such a blessing to have good friends here with me on this journey.

Margaret and I

I also got bit by the decorating bug after spending some time in Hobby Lobby and admiring **drooling** over all the beautiful things it had to offer. I finally broke down and went on a shopping excursion with my Mommy and picked up a few new items! When I got home and started getting things set up I realized that it needed a bit more work, so I decided to get crafty! I made a few new things like this frame that I had picked up earlier this year from Goodwill for $3 and a mason jar that I had laying around. A little string, some brick red paint and some stray leaves and I had a beautiful new piece. The mason jar was as simple as hot gluing some raffia around it.

Pretty new things: picture frame and mason jar

I also got really brave and decided to put together my own fall flower arrangement. I had found some inspiration at a little primitive store in Sullivan, Illinois that my Mom had taken me to last weekend. However, everything there seemed a bit out of my price range, so I snapped a quick picture for some inspiration.

Inspiration fall flower arrangement

I picked up all the necessary supplies from Hobby Lobby and wanted to get to work right away. But, I realized that I didn't have a cool little primitive box like this black one above. Fortunately, my Mom being the brilliant woman that she is and my Dad being the farmer that he is, suggested that I do a little bit of shopping in one of my Dad's old farm sheds. So I took Mom and Clint with me and we started doing a little bit of digging and found the most PERFECT old box. It took a lot of cleaning to get the spider webs off, and even though Maggie tells me the box still smells like a dirty old barn, it is now prominently displayed in my living room. What do you think, pretty close to the inspiration piece huh?

That little box makes my heart sing...so perfect!

Here are a couple more photos of how my home is shaping up for the fall season. I also included a close up picture of the old book wreath that I FINALLY finished up. For only $2.50 I think that it turned out pretty gooooddddd!

Book Wreath

Grandma and Grandpa :)

OBSESSED with my Country Pumpkin primitive sign

Speaking of FALLing in love, I just can never get enough of Clint. There is no one in the world who makes me laugh or feel the way that he does. He is truly the best part of me. Here are some fun photos of us with the animal that he calls a Yak at this year's State Fair.

Love me some Clinty

Feeding the Yak

True and pure happiness

That's all for now!

Pull up a chair and stay awhile

A few weeks ago I went on an adventure with my parents and Clint. We traveled to Bloomington to visit the third Sunday market. It was the first time that we had been and we were blown away by all the treasures that we found. It took HOURS to walk through all the barns and sheds, and I found sooo many things that I wanted.

Love the eat more chili sign

 But my goal for the day was to find some chairs to go along with the kitchen table that I had recently purchased which I could not be more in love with. It is a farmhouse style table with a wooden top and fold-down leaves with distressed off-white legs...luuurrrrvveee! However, enough about the table and onto the chairs!

The first barn we walked into I discovered some beauties and was hooked. But, Papa Randy was not impressed. I am not sure how you couldn't be impressed with their five dollar price tag! So, like a good daughter, I listened to dad and passed them up. But I just couldn't find anything else throughout the day that made me feel like those chairs. So Clint, being the perfect man that he is, went back to pick them up for me :) (What a keeper) And $20 dollars later I was the proud owner of a set of four matching chairs that look like this baby

How can you not melt at those curves

I knew right away how much potential these had so I went right to work! I got so excited to start working on them that I forgot to take pictures of the process so all I have right now are some after shots. My kitchen is transforming into an Americana country theme, so you can see the red, navy and tan in the fabric that I used to recover the seats. This was also my first experiment with glazing, and I will just say it probablyyyy could have gone better...I didn't realize how quickly the glaze would dry, but nothing a little paint didn't fix! :) I am OBSESSED with my new chairs and can't wait to see them all finished and sitting around my new table. I hope you enjoy my latest creation!

Television Cabinet Redo

This was my first real attempt at what I like to call "up-cycling." I bought this old baker's cabinet from the antique store that I live above for about $100. They were closing, so I was able to squeeze a SUPER good deal out of them :)  I knew that it was just the perfect size for my new television that I had bought and got started working right away. After stripping off all the old yucky brown paint, I gave it a few coats of antique white paint, and then set to work on the distressing. Once I got the look I was going for, I added a yellowish-glaze to give it an old weathered look. I luuurrvvveee how it turned out! What do you think of my first project?! (P.S. pleaseeee don't mind my mess :) )