Be Still My Heart!!

 Oh goodness! It seems like forever since I have been here. I have been SUPER busy and only in the very best of ways. My weekend was busy. I had my two grand dogs here and one of them wasn't feeling all that well. She is an "eater" and has already had THREE obstruction surgeries and it looked like we might be heading to another for a bit so I was pretty much on "guard" duty all of Saturday. In the end, everything worked out and she was able to get up what she had swallowed-two months ago! It's hard to believe but when my grand daughter saw it, she remembered when it went missing. And then there were some lost keys adding to the "chaos-fun" and I ended up with an unexpected house full of people on Saturday night but it was actually wonderful because by then all of the drama had been settled. Lol

We all had a wonderful breakfast out and then a fun shopping day on Sunday. Everyone finally headed home to their respective cities and states later in the afternoon and then I sat down and called it a day.

Of course I woke up on Monday morning raring to go! It was finally time and once I started I couldn't be stopped. It only took me two days to do the swap even though I did move a lot of things and change up some others. That is just the decorating. I still have ALL of the sunflowers and urns, jugs, vases, dishes, etc. to put away but I had to put that on hold for a hair appointment and errands yesterday. I'm thinking once I leave you today I will be doing some clean-up.

I did get to the nursery yesterday and found some mums. They are loaded with buds but no blooms yet so let's skip the porch for now. We will come back to that when everything is in bloom.

Welcome to autumn 2025.

I didn't receive the raven until October last year so this year I knew I wanted to find a special place for him in the my autumn decor. I did make the raven picture last November and I like it with him so I created a little autumn nest in a dough bowl and I love him there. It's hard to see here but he holds a light bulb in his beak. Daughter #3 got him for me for my Halloween Edgar Allan Poe vignette but I love him in many of my decor themes August through November. If I could find a way to fit him in in December too, I would. Lol

Here are a few of the velvet pumpkins that I recently coffee stained. The difference from the bright orange is subtle but I think it is more my style. I do think I will go back and add a bit of ripped paper fill to the scale.

I love the velvet pumpkin stems that I found at HL and added to this arrangement. And I still totally LOVE that mercury glass jug that I found at one of my favorite shops down in Indian Rocks Beach a number of years back. 

And here are some wood tags that I made back when everyone was adding tags to everything.

I kind of thought about toning down my autumn decor this year and going for a bit less of the bright leaves and more of just the neutral branch effect but I couldn't find anything locally that I liked and I am just not that fond of online ordering...you can never really be sure what something might look like in person and faux "greenery" can look really cheap if you're not careful. And so, you're still looking at a lot of orange-sorry.

I actually love how the new pillow from HL totally matches the pumpkins that are on the throw and I still love the pillow my cousin stitched for me so many years ago!

The colors of the pillows on that couch make me so happy.

Of course, doing this wall each month is new for me because I only added the shelf last December so I still have a few months to find new decor. There used to be a very large, round mirror there that I loved but, all of a sudden I just felt the need to get rid of it and try something new. It's been a bit of a challenge each month and I truly don't think I've found my "groove" just yet and once December hits and I will be going around for the second time, I'm hoping I will get some new ideas. Right now I seem to be stuck with the peat pot crafts in the cubbies on either side. I definitely think they could use a bit more and I'm thinking of maybe a book or two but for now, it stands as is. I was just ready to be done and enjoy! Lol

I still love the faux tile pumpkin that I made a few years ago. When you look closely you can see that it has all of the same colors as the candle holders. They're all chippy and rusty and I love it all!

Not feeling those side cubbies...I'll let you know what happens here because I'm pretty sure something will! Lol

I just realized that I forgot to take a picture of the coffee table so when I went to do that, I did this. This is definitely not the answer but I like the addition of green and I might be getting closer! Lol Wish I had more green books. I will keep playing and you will be the first to know what I come up with.

I like this wooden pumpkin candle holder I made last year from a HL pumpkin. They added a different shaped one this year but I decided to pass on it. I actually may grab it the next time I'm in there and just use it as is...we shall see.

If you are very observant, you might notice that I changed out the small bowl in this vignette-it is visible in other pictures but I wasn't up to retaking them all. The bowl I used to use just "read" as too Halloweeny since I added more rusty things to this area. I like it better now. Lol

 And my "new eyes" just realized how much I still like the sign hanging on the mirror. I got that SO many years ago at Stein Mart. It was all gray tone when I got it and I just used colored pencils to add some color to the pumpkins-thought it made them pop a bit more.

So that is the living room for now. I am definitely off to do some putting away and I have a couple of busy days ahead so I'm not sure when I'll be back. Stay safe and stay tuned.