Fall Decorating and Entertaining

I've been trying to write this post for weeks, but it seems like every time I went to do it, something came up and I haven't been able to finish it.  Life feels very busy right now and it's only going to get worse with the holidays quickly approaching.  We've really been enjoying the fall season, and I'm doing my best to ignore the Christmas stuff in the stores and enjoy November.

A few weeks ago, we started to make some changes in the backyard.

This summer, Rob and I talked a lot about moving the picnic table closer to the house.  We liked it under the big tree, but we thought we might use it more if it were closer to the house.  We also thought it would be better for entertaining to have it be part of the deck area.  

Rob extended the pea gravel area next to the deck.  He also cut the benches off the table, thinking it would fit better without attached benches.  We're still working on a good solution for seating around the table.  Leg chairs are a little tricky with the gravel, but we don't really like the look of having slate or pavers down on top of the gravel.

We also bought some new deck chairs.  We have had our eye on these for a couple of years and when they went on sale at Target.com, where I also get free shipping and 5% off with my Target Red Card, it was hard to pass them up.  

We've already spent some time out in this area entertaining in October.  We got to use the wood stove twice too, which was great.  

Back in the beginning of October, we had Rob's family over to celebrate Gwyn's birthday.  For the past 4 and a half years, Gwyn has lived in Uganda and hasn't been home to celebrate her birthday.  So, we were excited to all be together this year.  

I love entertaining.  I love setting the table, and doing little things here and there to make things feel special.  

This wide windowsill in our dining room is one of my favorite pieces of character in our home.  It's the perfect place to set up drinks.

I also made this runner for the table out of a yard of fabric that I've had for years and never used.  Isn't it just perfect for fall?!  We're hosting Thanksgiving dinner here for about 8 people with my family and I am really excited to use this again.  

I've never done a great job of decorating for other seasons/holidays besides Christmas.  This year I have been trying to do a little more for fall.  I am definitely not one to decorate for Halloween, but can get into the pumpkins and coziness that fall brings.  

I took some pictures around the house the other day and thought I would share with you, Instagram-style.  

I made this little garland on the mirror out of fabric scraps.  I also go that little owl a couple weeks ago on clearance from the Patch NYC line at the Shops at Target.  

I actually made this wreath back in September, but never shared it.  I see stuff like this all over pinterest and it was surprisingly easy.  I just wrapped a foam wreath in burlap and to make the flowers I just kind of twisted and glued scraps of fabric.

I do have 2 mercury glass pumpkins that I've had for a couple of years and other than that I just kind of scattered little pumpkins around.  

I also did some rearranging in the dining room.  I swapped out the 2 lamps on the buffet for the one that has been up in the guest room.  Sometimes ya just need a little change.  

So there it is, the post that I've been trying to finish for weeks.  Hope everyone is enjoying the fall season.  Hopefully I'll be back soon!

4th of July

I realize that the 4th of July was almost a week ago, but I thought I'd share some pictures from the day and how we celebrated our country's independence!

We started out the day with a trip to Valley Forge Park.  We live about 10 mins from the park, and I think we often take for granted how close we are to such an awesome place.  Growing up, I spent a lot of time at VF park- sledding in the winter, picnics, riding bikes in the summer.  I have very fond memories of spending time there.  So, I like that we are starting some of the same traditions with our kids.  

Last year, they started a free event on the 4th with games and activities for kids.  All of it is free, and they give great prizes to kids, it's very fun.  The only thing that cost money is the food, which is very reasonable).  Definitely worth checking it out if you live in the area.  

Aiden's favorite part was the dunk tank, which unfortunately I have no pictures of.  He got really good at dunking the girl in the tank.  It was so hot that day, I wished I had her job!

Aiden also joined in the Continental Army and learned all about the disccipline of being a soldier, which of coures also included a wooden rifle.  I was impressed that he stuck with the 30 minute activity of marching and lots of standing and listening.  

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Later in the day, we had some friends over for a picnic.  I'm so glad that our backyard and picnic table is getting lots of use this year!  

I had won a giveaway over at one of my favorite blogs- Jolly Goode Gal, which helped me decorate for the occastion.  When I received my little package in the mail a couple weeks ago, I immediately hung up this little flag banner- isn't it great?!

I moved the banner outside for the picnic- do you see it strung between the fence and the tree?

I also made a special dessert from a pinterest recipe.  I was very nervous about how they would turn out, but they were a huge hit!  The only thing I did differently in the recipe was added more flour.

I hope you all had a fun filled 4th and are enjoying your summer!

The Backyard

This past weekend we had family over and got to spend lots of time in our backyard, which is something we really want to do a lot of this summer.  Rob has put a lot of hard work into our yard, and it's come a long way since we moved in.  I thought I would share some pictures of all we've (mostly Rob) done.

One of the (many) reasons we love our home is because of the large space we have for an in-town twin home.  When we looked at our house for the first time, Rob fell in love with the yard.  He saw all the potential it had and realized how much space we have out there.  It was basically a blank slate, which he thought was perfect.  Here are a couple pics of the first time we saw the house, 5 years ago.  Please excuse my ridiculous expressions.

Here's a picture that makes it look really pathetic, the first winter we lived here.  

I believe one of the first things Rob did that next summer was put in the garden in the back of the yard.  Rob spends a lot of time in his vegetable garden, and now, Aiden is old enough to help and gets super into it.  I can take absolutely no credit for this garden.  It is 100% Rob, and it is pretty great.  

The picture below is from a couple of years ago inside the garden.  You can see in the picture above that we also got a shed that summer. 

Rob started breaking up the sidewalk that runs down the middle of the yard and used it to edge around the left side of the yard where we have hostas and other ground covering plants.  He also filled it in with mulch.

A major project a couple years ago was the deck.  The patio off the back of the house is not in great shape, but, it would be out of our budget to get that all broken up and rebuild something else.  The other negative about the patio was that it was a few different levels, not giving a large space for any furniture.  So, Rob had the idea to build a deck off the existing patio, making one large space.  Here are a few pics of the process.  Rob did an awesome job.  I love the built in bench.

Another huge project was the fence on the right side of the yard.  Our yard backs up to a firehouse parking lot in the back and we wanted to add more privacy.  Rob built the "gate" door when we first moved in so that we could let Bailey out in the yard.  It wasn't until a couple years later that we extended the fence from that, but that was Rob's plan all along.  ( I took the rest of these pics this past weekend, when the yard was at it's best since we had company)

Of course, the newest addition is the "tree house".  Rob had the idea to build it into the fence and like I said, he found this slide in the trash along the side of the road.  I got it cleaned up and it was ready to go!  Here is a closer look:

Some other projects over the years was the picnic table, which Rob built, and some areas with pea gravel.  I love pea gravel.  It's an inexpensive way to make things look nice.  Rob dug out this area next to the patio and put down pea gravel after he built the deck.  We would like to expand it to make it even larger and we have plans to do pea gravel under the picnic table since grass doesn't grow under there and it can get to be a mess.

  

The fireplace came from Rob's family's cabin up in Maine.  A previous owner was a potter and actually made that!  It is extremely heavy but Rob and his dad were able to bring it home from a trip they took up to the cabin one fall.  It is my favorite thing on our patio.  

This past winter we hired someone to put the back covered entry off the back door.  We mainly use the back entrance to go in and out.  So, we decided we needed something with a landing and that was covered to make it easier to get the kids in and out, carry groceries, etc.  It has made a huge difference.  We'll stain it later this summer.  

(it cracks me up how Bailey is posing in this pictures.  He's so weird)

There are lots of little touches, like the potted plants, the sun shade (which we got years ago from Ikea for $20!!), pillows, and a few projects I just finished for this weekend. 

I made a tablecloth for the picnic table.  The picnic table is really long, so I decided to use this old duvet cover from Ikea.  I love how it turned out!

I also covered seat cushions that I found at Target.  I would like to get a couple more for the bench.  

I put these paper lanterns up for the party on Sunday.  I picked them up at Marshalls a couple years ago for a couple dollars.  If we were having a party at night, I could string up lights and put them inside.  

Doing this post has made me realize how much we've really done out back.  It has happened over a span of 5 years, so I didn't realize how much it really was.  It's good to look back and see all our (Rob's) hard work!  We're looking forward to many more great memories out there!