Going Nuts for Acorns

I tried uploading this post several days ago to no avail - apparently my computer is rejecting my photos that I have touched up in Picasa and they are coming up as invalid images. Blogger won't recognize them as well. Still trying to figure it out.

So...I apologize for not more photos but this is one of my latest fall creations - when I was up in Oak Glen for apple season I took my boys to a nearby park and there were literally boatloads of acorns. They were gorgeous - a reddish brown too! I decided to fill up my hurricane vase with these lovely acorns. I then took a few fabric leaves that I had laying around from a small box of decorative pumpkins that I got at Walmart for only $6. I'm not always the biggest fan of Walmart but I must admit they had a great selection of fall decor this year! I really do enjoy their Better Homes and Gardens and Canopy line of products. I punched some small holes in those leaves and then wrapped some jute twine around the vase. (The twine can be found in the housewares?? section by the lightbulbs and tape measures, ect)

Now if you have a queasy stomach....please stop reading. Since acorns are a natural product of nature......lets just say it would be a good idea to boil them in water when you bring acorns home....as the ones that I brought home....a week or two later....we found maggots aka baby worms not turned into flies yet at the bottom. We couldn't figure out why we had a few flies around the house. Ummmm....yeah. (Ew ew ewwwww!!!!) So we boiled the acorns. A rolling boil. They lost some of that beautiful reddish color.....but now we're maggot free. And I'll take the latter.

Contentment

There are some fabulous girls who have been doing a "31 days" series for the month of October. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading their thoughts. I wanted to share a few of my favorite things they have said and you can click on the links to go to their blogs.

Emily runs a blog called Remodeling this Life. Her focus for the 31 days series is on living simply. This upcoming quote has really stuck with me.

"Whenever I think I have to have something or that I've found a deal I can't pass up, I remind myself that there will always be something else. Something newer and shinier. The newest best things today are tomorrow's Goodwill donations. Target will always have a clearance rack, Goodwill will always have $5 jeans, yard sales will always have household stuff for $1, and there will always be catalogs with nice things in them making what I have now look like old news." -Emily, Remodeling this Life.

She has some excellent thoughts on gift giving and simplifying Christmas as well. You can read the whole post here. One thing that really stuck out to me is how they do Christmas presents for their children. Their kids receive 4 gifts from them. They receive something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read.

We are doing that this year for our 3 boys. Brian and I had them write out their wish lists for the 4 categories, and as I have thought of things as well for them I have added to the lists they gave me. This will be so much more meaningful gift giving, and I want my kids to remember the real reason we celebrate Christmas - the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Not just all about Santa and the over-commercialism that Christmas has become. I could write a whole post just about that. My goal is to be completely done with getting gifts by mid November so that I can ENJOY the whole month of December!

I could write so much more that Emily has said. You should really check out her blog, its fantastic. I think I'll wrap up this post and talk some more about some of the other bloggers in another post.

Spray Painted End Table

Before photo: I bought this table along with a lamp for 20 bucks at a garage sale. I bought it when we first moved into our current house because it was a good deal, not because I loved it. But it was nice. The silver/pewter frame wasn't really my thing....and eventually I decided I would spray paint it to something I liked better.

Hello....Rustoleum's Oil Rubbed Bronze! Since the frame is metal it was a breeze, didn't need much spraying at all, not even 1/2 of the can was used. I didn't prime it either. Easy peasy.

I'm liking the darker color, although you can't see it, the color matches the 2 ceiling fans in the room. The new color is much warmer than the previous silver. Less than 1 hour for a new end table!

Autumn Bliss

As I find photos that I love I right click "save picture as" into "my pictures" file. Wish I wrote down the link to where I got it so I can give proper credit. Next week the weather here is supposed to be in the 70's...looking forward to some "real" autumn weather down the road...hopefully soon! Love Emily Bronte's quotes! And the jute wrapped candles pictured ... hoping to do some of those soon!

Free Autumn Decor from Nature

On Wednesday I went on my run...got rained on....and on the way back found lots of branches strewn across the path. I figured I already looked crazy running in the rain, so why not just carry a bunch of branches too?

These are all the branches and some small ornamental pinecones that I found along the way. I had a glass vase to put them in, but when I went to check my pantry I had no lentils to fill the jar with. Bummer. So I dug around and then I thought of the wheat berries.

Wheat berries: FREE

Branches: FREE

Vase from kitchen: FREE!

Super simple, easy, quick....and did I mention free?

DIY Mossy Wreath

I am loving all sorts of earthy and organic things lately, and I found a great tutorial on Miss Mustard Seed's blog on how to make a DIY Mossy Wreath for about 5 dollars. You can read her step by step tutorial here. She also covers making mossy topiaries in the same post.

All you need is a hot glue gun, a foam wreath from the dollar store, and 2-3 packages of floral (sheet) moss from Walmart (2 bucks each). I ended up only needing 2 packages.

You might want to put some newspaper down as its a pretty messy project- be prepared with a broom and dustpan for afterwards! Totally worth it though! Love Love Love....although I used a navy blue ribbon I had in my stash, I want to change it to a chocolate brown ribbon when I get a chance - but I did not want to delay putting it up on my wall!