Front Porch Fall Decor

 It's Friday!!! 

Yay for 3-day-weekends, and yay for football season kicking off. 

We have a busy weekend ahead of us with lots of food, friends and football. But before all of my guests arrive, I have a long list of to-do's. 

I can check the front porch off the list though. It's done. For now at least. 

We have a tiny front porch...I'm not even sure you could really call it a front porch. It's more of a pass through. 

It's not big enough to have big beautiful displays like the front porches below:

 source unknown

source unknown

However, it looks barren when nothing is there. 

Everything has to be small in scale when decorating this porch because I want my guests to feel welcome at the front door, not claustrophobic.  

I couldn't really get a good full scale picture of the porch. The brick wall kind of takes up the picture, but in person it's much more inviting...I promise:o)

And, yes, I did just water the plants before taking the shot. It looks like my pumpkins got a little excited;o) Guess this photo won't make it to Pinterest;o)

The mums really make the bench pop, and keep it from blending in with the massive boring brick wall behind it.

To try to keep things symmetrical, I brought a small teak chair from the backyard, and used it as a plant holder. The old granite ware pitcher has holes in the bottom of it, so it makes a perfect planter now.

I will most likely be adding more pumpkins and a possible mini hay bale, but that's where I will have to be patient. The pumpkins aren't quite ready, and we'll have plenty of pumpkin farm field trips to collect those:o)

Partying Here:

Ideas to Make Life Easier

Here is an email I received today. Thought I would share this tips with you all!

Enjoy!

Hull strawberries easily using a straw.

Rubbing a walnut over scratches in your furniture

will disguise dings and scrapes.  Rubbing a walnut

over scratches in your furniture will disguise dings

and scrapes.

Remove crayon masterpieces from your TV or

computer screen with WD40.

Stop cut apples browning in your child’s lunch box

by securing with a rubber band.

Overhaul your linen cupboard, store bed linen sets

inside one of their own pillowcases and there will

be no more hunting through piles for a match.

Pump up the volume by placing your iPhone & iPod

in a bowl.  The concave shape amplifies the music.

Re-use a wet-wipes container to store plastic bags.

Add this item to your beach bag.  Baby powder

gets sand off your skin easily, who knew?!

Attach a Velcro strip to the wall to store soft toys.

Use wire to make a space to store gift wrap rolls

against the ceiling, rather than cluttering up the

floor.

Find tiny lost items like earrings by putting a

stocking over the vacuum hose.

Make an instant cupcake carrier by cutting

crosses into a box lid.

For those who can’t stand the scrunching and

bunching: how to perfectly fold a fitted sheet.

Forever losing your bathroom essentials?  Use

magnetic strips to store bobby pins, tweezers

and clippers, behind a vanity door

Store shoes inside shower caps to stop dirty

soles rubbing on your clothes.  And you can

find them in just about every hotel.

A muffin pan becomes a craft caddy.  Magnets

hold the plastic cups down to make them

tip-resistant.

Bread tags make the perfect cord labels.

Bake cupcakes directly in ice-cream cones, so

much more fun and easier for kids to eat.

Microwave your own popcorn in a plain brown paper

bag.  Much healthier and cheaper than the packet

stuff.

Install a tension rod to hang your spray bottles.

Turn your muffin pan upside down, bake cookie-dough

over the top and voila, you have cookie bowls for fruit

or ice-cream.

Freeze Aloe Vera in ice-cube trays for soothing

sunburn relief.

Create a window-box veggie patch using guttering.

Use egg cartons to separate and store your

Christmas decorations.

Pretty cool, huh?

Fall Color

Fall is approaching, and I have the Mum Bug:o)

Are you digging these gorgeous flowers?

I went on a planting spree yesterday. I purchased some mums from Lowes.

Here's where they found their new home...

Slightly unimpressive right now, but give them a few years, and they will be really something. That is one of the things I love about flowers. They surprise you every season. Sometimes not for the better, but usually the surprises are wonderful:o) 

There were 4 hosta plants that I planted in the front bed that didn't quite do so well b/c of too much sun, so I moved them to the back bed.

Can you see them? They are there:o)

Our hose reel broke the other day, so that will be another purchase from Lowes:o) 

The two dead looking plants can be explained. At the bottom left is a mum...was a mum. It was at my parents' house, and they dug it up. I think some of the roots were damaged, but it is still showing some life. Going to let it stay thru the winter and see what happens. The stuff in the back is what I call the "Mozzie Bush". We called my great-grandmother, Mozzie. I have no idea where that name came from. She was one of the most precious women that I have ever encountered. Very meek and patient. She lived to be 94 years old. This dead looking thing is a cutting of one of her bushes from her garden. I hope that I didn't wait too long to plant it. I think that it's an aster, and it has cute purple star like blooms in the fall. Now, there won't be any blooms this year, but maybe, just maybe we'll get lucky next year:o)

The other 2 hosta made it in this empty space behind the azalea bushes. Yes, I'm sure they are there:o) I told you that they didn't do so great in the front flower bed.

The playhouse has tiger lilies planted in front of it. Those came from my parents' as well.

To the left of the playhouse, I have planted the iris'. So hopefully come spring time, there will be beautiful purple and orange blooms around the playhouse.

I am waiting for pansies to start showing up in stores. I will put some in the front flower boxes on the playhouse.

Look what the hubby put together a few weeks ago. He's awesome! The kids LOVE it....I LOVE it b/c now  I can send them outside while cooking dinner, and they actually have something to do:o)

I rearranged the furniture yesterday on our back patio too. Notice that there are several empty planters??? They are patiently awaiting pansies:o)

I also put this together

Thus the reason for the new furniture arrangement. Lowes had these pups marked down, so I scooped it up:o) I had to put it up against the house b/c there are gale force winds that sweep across our back yard. Last winter we still had the playhouse on the patio. The wind would blow so hard that it would move the playhouse a few inches. It takes two grown men, struggling, to move that thing....yeah it gets windy:o)

So I was super busy yesterday, but I am happy with the results. Now to just get some color back there:o)

 I hope you all have a great weekend!!