My parents are in town visiting and my mom brought me a fantastic gift -- dried hydrangeas from her garden!  LOVE!! Thanks, Mom!

Here's just a few I put into a ceramic pitcher:


They dry so beautifully, don't they?

Since I'll be visiting with my parents this week, I won't be blogging much, but thought I'd share just a quick, short post sharing some pumpkin carving ideas, resources and inspiration for you.  We'll be carving our pumpkins tonight with my dad's help -- should be fun!! 

Maybe we'll use one of these fun ideas.  Of course, Martha Stewart, is the queen of ideas.  I love all the mice and rats peeking out of the pumpkin.

When I revealed my living room re-do a few weeks ago I mentioned that I still needed to reupholster a pair of inexpensive cube ottomans I bought at Target.  The sticking point was the fabric -- how much yardage and the price point.   I solved both dilemmas and just finished reupholstering them today -- yay!!

Here's the before:

And, here's the after!

Today, I'm guest posting for Roeshel over at the DIY Showoff where I'm talking about three quick and super easy Halloween crafts that even your kids can do -- I'm pretty excited about it! 

Nothing says fall quite like the flavor of pumpkin.  In my family, my Banana Pumpkin Bread recipe is one of their favorites.


I found it several years ago in the church cookbook from the Lutheran church in which I grew up.  It has been a hit from our first hello.

It felt so good to get my laundry room organized that I think I'm going to keep on with the 14-week challenge and move on to the linen closet in my master bathroom. 

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across the Home Organization 101 challenge at A Bowl Full of Lemons and decided I needed to take part -- at least for the week covering laundry rooms.   





My laundry room was a mess.

Maybe it's just us, but planning a date night is hard. I'm not sure why, but it just is!

No matter what the reason, we found that we were always doing the same thing; going to a restaurant near home, shopping a few nearby stores and then going home.  Boring. 

That's why my husband and I have been trying to come up with a creative way to solve the date night dilemma.  This summer, we decided to approach it the same way I approached the kids fighting summer boredom during the long, hot summer -- I labeled popsicle sticks with ideas we brainstormed and then put them in a jar.  

My kids love it when I decorate for Halloween so I'm always looking for fun new ideas each year.

If you're looking for an easy, healthy way to eat breakfast on the go then let me introduce you to this smoothie recipe. 

Yes, I'm still on the topic of Pinterest.  I can't help myself.

Today I saw this tip about removing hairspray from the bathroom. 


What girl/woman doesn't have this struggle? 

I love Pinterest and I do a lot of pinning. 


The thing is, I pin all of these beautiful images and then I kind of forget about them. 

Today I started browsing through some of my pins and got inspired all over again.  Here's just a few of the things that caught my eye today:

Welcome to my first Fall Favorites Friday!  Each Friday this fall I'll be sharing some of my favorite fall projects, recipes, inspiration, etc.  I'm excited to get started!



Today I'm going to show you how I made this fall wreath that's on my fall mantle.

See these dining chairs?


They're about to get a whole lot cuter! 

I am finally ready to fix-up them with new, made-by-me slipcovers and today I'm going to show you my project inspiration. 

As promised, I'm back with a giveaway..a few days late, but I didn't forget.

Remember the little burlap fall sign I made last week? 


That's the giveaway! 

It's made of upholstery-grade burlap, which basically means that it is a tightly woven, very durable burlap.  It is hand stenciled by yours truly and frayed slightly at the bottom.


Just leave a comment letting me know you'd like to be entered in the giveaway and I will randomly choose a winner next week (so you have a whole week to enter!).  I will announce the winner on Wednesday October 10.  To make it a little more interesting, when you leave a comment, tell me what you love most about fall and that's it! 

Happy Fall!

Have I mentioned I like fall?  Maybe just a few times. :)


Today I'm linking up to The Inspired Room and sharing what I love about fall. 

In addition, I'm starting a fall series of posts that I will publish every Friday until Thanksgiving. I'm calling it Fall Favorites Fridays.  I will add new links to the bottom of this post as new posts are added.

Until then, here are 20 little things I love about the season: