autumn touches around the house

 I've been working on fall decor around my house for a couple of weeks now.

I keep playing with things and changing them around.

Here's what my house looks like today. ;-)

This is the top shelf of the china cabinet in my kitchen...

The middle shelf...

(The acorn jar on the left and the little fruit bowl pitcher in front 

are both recent Goodwill finds.)

 

And, the bottom shelf...

 

I found the vintage ladle recently at an antique shop in

my neighborhood. Thought I was going to hang it

elsewhere in my kitchen, but ended up hanging it on the china cabinet.

I like the way the red handle picks up on the red in the picture on the wall.

 

Moving on to the living room, I kept the buffet simple for now.

 

Love this autumn wreath. Was given to me by a friend years ago.

Console table...

 

I used dried corn, Chinese lanterns, and some polished stones

to fill this wooden leaf. Believe it or not, the cats

haven't gotten into the Chinese lanterns (yet)!

I thought they'd be tossed all over my living room.

 

 The ladder shelf got a fall makeover, too...

These fall boxes that I put the candlesticks in, were again a

recent Goodwill find - 25 cents each.

 

I have two round leather ottomans in front of the living room sofa.

You can flip the lids over and use them as a tray.

I left one ottoman lid as is, and the other I flipped over and added

a round glass tray, a dried berry wreath, and a bird.

Cute ~ and easy-peasy.

 I'm still working on an arrangement for the kitchen table.

There's so many great ideas on blogs and Pinterest!

wisconsin weekend getaway

Brian and I stayed overnight at a gorgeous 1800's hotel in Port Washington,

 Wisconsin this past weekend ~

a belated anniversary getaway.

Our room was huge and delightful. Loved the king-sized bed; 

so comfy and spacious!

 

Behind the doors of that lovely armoire is the TV ~ and we certainly

enjoyed the fireplace since the weather was cool and rainy.

Even the bathroom was pretty with its oak furniture

and granite counter surrounding the sink.

 

Saturday morning was cold, but sunny, so we set off on foot

for a walk around town.

There was a Farmer's Market going on right outside our hotel.

We didn't buy anything, as we didn't need any veggies or fruits at the time.

If you look closely, you can see Lake Michigan in the background of this picture.

We walked down to the lake ...

and watched some fishermen, along with their handsome dog lounging on the pier.

 We then went to the neighboring town of Cedarburg

for shopping and lunch.

How gorgeous is this house and front porch?!

And this one with the bistro table and chairs on the porch...

I'd love to have coffee out there in the morning if I lived there.

We didn't go in this store, but I like how even the front is set

up where there's lots of stuff to look through.

 

This store Distraction - http://www.my-distraction.com/index.html had the 

coolest decor on one of their walls. I asked the owner if I could take a photo

and she gave me permission, so here it is. Who would think to use pages

out of old books and simply use masking tape to randomly hang them on a wall?

And then to add black frames with vintage pictures...so unique!

My new friend...

 

The cats were very glad to see us when we got home.

I was relaxing in bed with my laptop and sweet Zippo

came and nestled himself right up alongside my leg.

 Thanks for visiting...hope you had a good weekend, too!

bird bath, wine bottle border, and naughty kitties

 I have been wanting a bird bath for years.

While looking at garden centers, I've felt like Baby Bear:

the bird baths I saw were either too expensive, cheaply built, or unattractive.

Finally...

I found one that is "just right"!  

 At a unique little home and garden shop (whew - not a "big box" store),

I found a copper sunflower bird bath. I knew it would be perfect

nestled in the middle of the round flower garden in the back yard.

Brian started a wine bottle border around the butterfly garden,

but after using some clear wine bottles, we realized the colorful

bottles look much prettier. So, the border is 1/3 of the way done

and we won't have enough colorful wine bottles to finish the project

until next spring...but that's OK. I think it's going to look so cool!

And, it's a great way to upcycle.

Speaking of the butterfly garden, the sedum blooms like mad in September

and the bees are loving it.

I was in my bedroom the other day and heard a loud CRASH

coming from the living room.

This is what I found.

Hmm...do you think it could've been one of the two naughty kitties

"investigating" in the background? Or the strong wind that had been

coming through the window?

Monkey says, "Not me! I'm mellow and innocent."

PS - Blogger is driving me nuts today. I have edited this post a gazillion times before officially posting and no matter how many times I make sure the font is on the default type, the first two paragraphs have a different font than the rest of the post. Grr!

beautiful anniversary weekend

The hubby and I celebrated 28 years of marriage on Saturday!

We had a lovely, relaxing day in Evanston together.

We ate at one of our favorite restaurants - The Lucky Platter.

Brian chose the portabella mushroom burger.

I had the BBQ chicken pizza.

We couldn't have asked for better weather ~

sunny, clear blue skies, temps in the 70's.

I loved the outside of this antique shop - so charming!

Funny enough, the inside was just "OK". Was dark

and stuffy and mostly overpriced stuff from estate sales.

However, we found another place - http://www.secrettreasures.biz/Secret_Treasures/Home.html -

which we loved. Everything was perfectly arranged, there was an

 awesome array of vintage items, and everything was well-priced.

Look at all these gorgeous dishes!

Loved this bowl and depression glass cake plate,

but nowhere to put anymore stuff like this.

Sets of dishes and glassware, perfectly arranged.

If one should need teacups and saucers, this is the place to go!

So, what did I come home with?

A small ironstone pitcher...

some vintage dice...

(Not all these were from the store; I had some at home)

three mini metal drawers...

(What I'm going to do with these, I have no idea yet. They were too 

cute to pass up - and only $1 each. The creative wheels are turning!)

an Aynsley England (Pembroke pattern) dish...

(I have a crush on pretty little English or German dishes like this.

I use them in my bedroom and bathroom to hold jewelry.)

and some vintage keys.

Two of the large ones and the three tiny, rusty ones are from this antique store.

The others were previously purchased on eBay.

After we were done dining and shopping, we took a walk around

one of the neighborhoods we were in. I saw this window box full of flowers

up high on an apartment building and admired the beauty of the flowers

against the textures of the old brick and wood.

Can't take a day trip to Evanston without relaxing by Lake Michigan!

We spread out a blanket and laid in the sun. I even fell asleep

for about half hour!

This was my view as I laid on my back.

Yes, the sky was this blue. I didn't retouch this photo at all!

Same with the beautiful shades of blue in this photo - no retouching.

The Lake was like the color of the Caribbean Sea (dreaming).

Hope you had a good weekend, too!

moving outdoor plants inside

 Mid-September and the weather is cooling down.

Mind you, it was sunny and 85 degrees yesterday and

90 degrees today...

and tomorrow is supposed to be high of 64F with rain!

That's northern IL for you.

I doubt we'll see anymore 80 and 90-degree weather for

awhile now (boo-hoo!), so I thought I'd better start bringing

my plants inside. They all did so well outside this summer.

I put the succulents by sunny windows in "my" room.

(That's what I'm calling this room for now. This is the room

that used to be Phil's bedroom. It's now my Lady Cave.)

I moved this plant stand from the patio into "my" room

and brought more plants in from outdoors.

I think this plant will do well in front of the living room window.

This beautiful little table belonged to my grandma.

Vintage suitcases stacked on top of each other, make a great plant stand.

This little plant is enjoying its new home on a stack of cookbooks

in the kitchen.

But what to do with THIS monstrosity?!