Finally Some Fall Decorations

I am so behind! If anyone has tips on how to manage blogging, work, commuting, home caring, family, friends, crafting, thrifting, decorating, errands, etc please PLEASE comment! I have no idea how some of the bloggers manage to do it all... They must be Wonder Woman! I am not, so here it is October 31st and I'm finally sharing some pictures of my decorations.

Before picture of mantel in dining room...

After a few changes...

Definitely more "fall-ish" don't you think?

A little corner with my scarecrow...New fall garland I got at a huge discount last year. I've been so anxious to put it up!

I love this detail about our home, having this whatever you call it opening to decorate.

A closer view of the garland, there's even feathers in it! I love those feathers!

On this wall I used to have some old OLD family portraits but decided I needed a change so they are safely tucked under my bed and I hung up this painting instead. Not really my taste but I sort of thought the fields and house fit my harvest theme I had in mind.

Remember in the before mantel picture - my faux P.O.O.P.I.E. or anti-P.O.O.P.I.E. greenery basket? I can never remember if P.O.O.P.I.E. is good or bad - any who, I stuck a black glittered crow on a stake in it and stuck it on top of a trunk along a short wall in our dining room. I probably should have just stored the greenery for the season and found something else to stick the stake into ....

My dining table... I love dressing this table up! If I have my table all set pretty then my guys are discouraged from using it as a dumping ground...
I should find some candles for those candlesticks. They were purchased in a Charleston yard sale for a buck. The green handled flatware is from Bi-lo grocery store, fifty cents a piece, the apple ramekins are from WM's Better Homes & Garden Collection and were about $4 each. The leaf plates were found on an end cap at WM for $3 each and of course my black wicker chargers were from my beloved Hobby Lobby Garden 2008 clearance... You don't want to know how much I paid for them!
I have these black wicker book cases in my dining room that I hot glued some fabric to the backs of so I would have a way to display a few things in there since I don't have a china cabinet. Then I made my dining room curtains and the fabric totally doesn't match, this is more of a muted burgandy and my curtains are a rich deep brick-ish red burgandy so I've been debating what to change it to. Any suggestions on color or pattern?
Another shelf with a metal basket weave bowl from Cracker Barrel, I love this bowl and have candle cup holders to match but I haven't found them yet in my attic! Pumpkin on candlestick in hallway... I had no idea where to put this since I had my dining table all done up with my pumpkin soup tureen so I stuck it here.

Remember the before shot of my mantel? This is where all that stuff ended up!
Normally I do a very fussy mantel with lights, loads of garlands, the village tucked in and ribbon galore but this year I went a simplier route due to a severe lack of decorating time.

Now y'all know how these apothocary jars challenge me! I don't have beautiful and bountiful collections of bits to fill it with, I swear I'm drinking wine as fast as I can to get enough corks *smiles* just kidding... but my Girl said she loved the pinecones in it so ....
All you talented tassel makers look away! Look away! My pathetic attempt... Usually I put a little pumpkin up here on the seat but I couldn't find it, I swear every year there's a box or two of decorations that go missing till I root around for the next holiday's decorations and then I find them too late to use!
And that's it, my pitiful attempts this year but there's always Thanksgiving to redeem myself, and maybe this year I'll manage to find my light up pilgrims before the big day instead of after...

Sad Friday

I had a horrible Friday, simply awful and tragic. While pulling out of my driveway to go to work I discovered sweet Slyvester laying in the road. He'd been hit and killed just moments before. I quickly pulled over and picked him up to carry him home, where he would be safe until we could bury him. You can well imagine how devestating this was. I stroked him and spoke to him even though he was no longer in this world then my son and I prayed over him.

I tried to go to work, crying the whole way there and my assistant manager sent me home. She's an animal lover as well and knew the pain I was in. At home my son and I talked about how much we loved Slyvester and how best to break the news to Caroline. Early afternoon I went to pick my husband up from work and we stopped at Lowe's to purchase some lumber in order to build a nice box for Slyvester.

Early evening found my two guys building in the garage. And awhile later Caroline's Mom and her Mom's friend Robert arrived. My husband, son, Caroline and me all wrote special messages of love to Slyvester in his box and placed items that were special to him in it. His cushion Caroline made, his food dish my son had bought him, a rose from our yard, ribbon from his favorite toy... My guys dug a hole under our big tree outside my kitchen window, the tree Slyvester loved to climb. And we all held a memorial service for him in the gently falling rain. My son said a few words, followed by me and then my husband. Caroline threw the first spadeful of dirt into his grave. What a brave girl!

Perhaps some would think this was alot to do for a pet but in our home, our pets are an important part of our family. Slyvester meant the world to Caroline and Caroline means the world to us. I put a metal cross on his grave to mark it and will make a wooden plaque soon with his name. This was our Friday, very sad and tearful.

Slyvester

Beloved Kitty

October 24, 2004

~

October 24, 2008

Home Away from Home

I stayed at a very nice, new hotel while on my Lobby Adventure. We were paired up with roommates and my first one snored... My second one was a young 20-something who grinded her teeth while sleeping, and my third roommate...

Was neatness challenged... !!!
There's no place like home!

The Lobby Part Two

Can y'all stand a few more Lobby pictures? I'm going to spare y'all the other depts and just share my side of the store ~ Fabric and Needlework...

Look at all that yummy ribbon, so pretty and neat...

Total eye candy of ribbon-licious!
You can just imagine how long all of this took to sort out...
The crate is filled with boxes full of glass dividers.
I went thru an entire crate just in Needlework alone.

Needlework up next! A whole lot of nothing... Yarn that I know almost nothing about...

More yarn but I learned quick let me assure you! Oh this pole was a huge problem for me!

Next post ~ My hotel room!

Adventures in the land of Hobby Lobby

Hello...Remember me? I used to blog once then I went on a

grand Hobby Lobby adventure to Statesboro Georgia...

Let me tell you a little about it or better yet, I'll show you!

This is what a new store looks like before it's fit for the customers to see...

Loads of boxes piled almost to the ceiling! In the middle right you see a man in a red shirt, that's store manager Bob, Hi Bob! This view is from the aisle behind the registers looking towards the lobby doors...Scary huh?More boxes, can you believe it? Where on earth are we going to put all this stuff?!?!

This is the view of what we affectionately refer to as the "Pit", it's the area behind the registers where all the lovely Home Accents items live on those glass tables. Doesn't look so lovely now does it? This shot below is taken from Seasonal looking towards Floral cause I know there are some of you girls who know their Lobby Floor Layouts very well and if dropped in a store blindfolded could easily find their way to any section! Now here we have a view of a Seasonal aisle...What made this particular store set up so rough according to those who have been on more than one is the fact we were setting three seasons vs just one like say Garden. This is the Fall Aisle, one of several...This is a view of a Christmas Aisle but as I would learn in days to come there is actually Wave One of Christmas and Wave Two... Wowser!

More Christmas! Looks like the North Pole threw up in here!
This view below is the scene from the side wall in Seasonal, again looking towards Floral... Now the next picture down will surely scare you!

This is what made me extremely nervous working... See all those boxes? How would a person get thru those? Over the top of 'em? Who knows! But fortunately they didn't remain like this for very long...
I have a few more pictures to share in my next post. I'm just so dog-gone happy to be home again! While this was a great learning experience for me it also was tough to be away from my family for so many long work filled hours. Sometimes those hours were filled with other people's drama too which only added to me missing my family and friends, people who live relatively drama-free lives by comparison *smiles* Isn't it funny how different people handle their stress? I learned things about the people I was around that I really didn't need to know *smiles* When you get that many women together, well, let's just say it ain't always pretty how they behave if you know what I mean...
My method of dealing with the less than nice people I was stuck with was to return to my room and watch HGTV on the flat screen tv! What a treat since I don't have cable at home! *smiles* OK dear blogging friends, this concludes today's tour of Adventures in the Land of Hobby Lobby! Big Hugs to each of you as I've missed you so SO much!

au revoir

Sadly another post without pictures, where has my time gone? I meant to upload some but time has escaped me. It's been wonderful to be home these few days and I'm certainly dreading my departure this afternoon. I'll never agree to such an assignment again! What should have been a week and a half turned out to be two and a half weeks plus another 5 days on this go-around. On the upside, I learned a lot, met some great people... On the downside I got to know some people better and I missed my family horribly.

My plans when I return:
Never leave again!
Unpack once and for all.
Make a trip up to the attic for my fall decorations.
Start my Christmas gifts to make list.
Do something about my big honkin' furniture rehab.
Upload some pictures.
Prepare my home for cooler months (pantry, bedrooms, etc).
Blog, blog, and more blogging whether it's reading, commenting, or posting!

OK friends, my deepest apologies for once again posting without pictures. I hope ya'll can forgive me and now I'd much rather be here with ya'll then off on this never ending adventure. Take care everyone and have a wonderfully blessed week. I'll check in when I can... until then "au revoir"

Am I home ?

The ordeal of travel is temporarily over, I got home late Tuesday evening. It was like a scene from the tv show "Wife Swap" my reunion with my sweet Mister Darcy. Then the next morning I got up and drove my 45 minute commute to my store and worked, all day long! And I'm going to do the same again today, I don't feel like I've had a day off in forever and I'm really just wanting to hang out all day in front of the computer catching up with my friends who live inside and staying in my pj's... Maybe tomorrow....a day off for me? Let's hope so!