warming things up

with nights in the mid-40's and days in the low 70's fall has finally landed in south carolina! it's my favorite time of year. i absolutely love having the windows open and waking up cold!

we are still getting settled in here at quinby cottage. i have been a painting maniac but still have a good bit left to do. my arms are petering out on me, though. every wall and every bit of trim work in this house needs freshening up so even though it's a small house it is a time consuming task, especially since i am the primary painter.

with each finished wall i am able to pull out some simple
decor and thereby empty another box. i do love an empty box!
my trash to treasure dresser is serving as a bright spot in our dining area. i pulled in a few pine cones and had the boys collect some acorns from the yard and called this space done. i love this tray, i use it year round.

i'm having to get used to lower ceilings again. in our last home the fireplace was in a room with two story ceilings so i had all sorts of room above the mantel to play with. you can see here that i don't have a ton of space between mantel and ceiling. i found the oval mirror from tjmaxx and pulled the rest from around  the house.

mr. blue bird there is constantly bouncing around the house. i found him at the dollar store, brought him home and painted him blue. he's our waldo.

sorry for the horrible picture. this little vignette really isn't as boring as it looks. i stink at photography!

i'm snubbing orange pumpkins this year in favor of white no particular reason, just a little tired of plain ole orange. (though we will be carving an orange pumpkin, and the pressure is on for pastor j to do something super fantastic because i plan to win $50 in a carving contest with it.)

i threw this together last night before our small group came over. i still have another coat

of paint to apply to this wall but i couldn't stand the random stacks of stuff accumulating on

the secretary desk anymore.

there's nothing special going on here, i just grabbed a few empty

frames, stripped a lamp of fabric, and put some twigs in one

of my blue ball jars. i am really drawn to the

industrial look but only in small doses so this naked lamp

gives me just the right amount for our small space. i'm trying to decide if i should

 paint the whole thing - base, frame, finial and all. for now this will do.



nothing special going on here, either. but i gotta tell ya, after having our house on the market for.ev.er i am excited to have family photo's out again!

they really warm a space up, don't ya think?

an almost empty bowl of candy corn is my only punch of fall in this corner.

man, my kids go through this candy fast. me? i don't touch the stuff. ahem.

nothing particularly fallish going on here. i just wanted to show off that i got some pictures on the wall. this is our hall of black and white family photos of old. see that white door thingy in the middle? kind of a pain.

it's the electrical box. i'm trying to figure out what to do with it. i may paint the trim black to look like a frame and put something fun in the center. just don't know what yet. i'm totally open to suggestions!? anyone else have something awkward like this smack in the middle of open wall space?

so, that's a little of what i've been doing around here.

like my new pillow. i love it. also from tjmaxx.