Fall Link-Up...Today!

Welcome to the party and Happy Fall! Grab the button, link-up, and write about anything Fall!

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For a few weeks now, I have been tempted to break out the fall decor. Rationalizing it in my mind...I decided there is really only October and November left before Christmas...and I like to start decorating for Christmas right after Thanksgiving, so I decided it was time.  Time to break out the fall decor! (Does anyone else play mind games like these in their head or is just me?)

I was delighted to be able to walk straight to my "Fall Decorative Items" Rubbermaid tub in our basement.  It's moments like those, where I am so thankful I take the time to try to get organized (by no means is it a perfect system) as I decorate for different seasons and put decor away after each season.

I even keep items like decorative towels for each season in the designated tub so that they're out of our way during the rest of the year, but handy when we need them for the season!

Something else that I find helps me stay organized as I decorate for different seasons and times of the year, is to have a Rubbermaid container that is dedicated to home decor items that I don't have room for during a special holiday or time of year, but plan on bringing them back out once the season is over.  (Another option to this dilemma is to re-purpose items around the house.  For example, I moved a vase that usually is next to our television to another table so that there would be room for this wonderful decoration...one of my favorites that I bought at an arts and crafts fair last fall.)

On with the actual decorating...

Who doesn't love using a wreath to say "Welcome to our home"? I took a long strand of flexible berry garland and wrapped it around a grapevine wreath to create this look.  I've had it for quite a while so it's showing a little bit of wear...but I'm always a sucker for a grapevine wreath.

Another fun idea is to leave the items you normally have out...but decorate around them so that they fit in with the new season or holiday.  One example are our candles that sit on a table next to our entertainment center.  I left them...

But added a little fall color to the table.  (With help from a place mat I found on clearance at Kohl's...I have a thing for circular place mats.)

I also did this with our magazine rack in the living room.  I simply traded out fake moss around the candle....

For a gold candle holder to add an orange-y (yes, I made that word up) glow to the corner of the room.

Of course, I also had to change over the kitchen table decor.  I dispersed the lovely flowers (that I talked about here) around the house in different locations.

The materials:  large vase (from our cabinets), fake leaves (from the fall tub), candle (from another room in the house), two place mats folded in half and layered, our lazy susan, and the canvas table runner I talked about creating here.

I'm loving the layered look with the varying stripe patterns.  Plus, the orange-y (there's that made-up word again) colors are fun and add a pop with the other neutral tones.  Again, here I am using place mats.  They honestly are hardly ever used for their real purpose in our bungalow.

Since we don't have a fireplace or mantle, I tend to use our foyer table as my decorating outlet.  It gets "spruced up" with every new season and holiday.  It recently went from this...

To this...

The materials:  a fall runner, a vase we had, a pumpkin I purchased a couple years ago that I love (it says "Trick-or-Treat" on the other side...so I will turn it around closer to Halloween), some fake fall foliage, and a scarecrow that my grandma gave us (Boone barks at this little man quite frequently).

I simply stuck the fake foliage into the already existing house plant.

And turned this orange-y (I'm sensing a trend) vase upside down to elevate the pumpkin for a little more "pizazz".

Fall decorating is fun for me...and I really don't overdo it, because I feel like our bungalow nestled among so many trees, already lends itself to this time of year.  Our home decor colors are very earth-toned and include pops of yellows, reds, and oranges all year long.  Fall just seems to "fit" our home.

And as us southerners like to say....Happy Fall y'all!