Sunday, September 8, 2013

It's Officially Fall here in the Ozarks...

Are you ready?

Holy Peter Pumpkin Eater, I'm officially on Fall Inspiration Overload!!

The last two days have been non-stop Fall Open Houses with more to come next weekend. We're certainly blessed to have so many great vintage shops in this area, and I've been trying to hit all of them. Thank goodness, this was a better week than last week, 'cause if I would have had to sit these out I would have been one unhappy camper. 




These photos are from Leola's Home and Garden Open House in Ozark, Missouri. Their Open House is going strong, so if you get a chance go by, I'm sure the shop looks different today than these photos Thursday evening. Stuff was flying out the door, and some of it flew out with me!

So, here are some pics, I have more coming tomorrow, so be sure and come back by to see the rest. Remember, you can click on the image and then click again to get a closer look at all the goodies. There are so many great ideas here. These gals are the cream of the crop!






















Yes, that's a skeleton hanging from the chandy!
















My fave of the evening, this little goat cart filled
with pumpkins and Fall goodies.
(no, this didn't come home with me)





























 (see that white tureen? Now THAT came home with me)
thanks Kenda!


























 (Love the wallpaper paste brushes hanging inside the frames)



 (and their signature umbrellas hanging from the ceiling)

If you want to see more from Leola's Fall Open Houses,
 just type in "Leola's" on the search box on the sidebar.

P.S. Don't forget to enter Becky's Give Away



More coming tomorrow...

xoxo,

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Winners of the 4th Anniversary Give Away...and then some!

Hi Everyone,
 time to announce the two winners of my 
4th Anniversary Give Away!



First of all I just want to say a big THANK YOU for making this last 4 years such a wonderful experience. I had no idea how gratifying and fun hanging out with all of you would be! For this Give Away, I partnered with a very talented gal, Heather from Elliott-Heath Designs, hope you'll go by and check out her shop for some wonderful pillow designs.






drum roll please...


Congrats to two very talented and wonderful friends of mine.
Believe me, the Random Generator picked these gals...honest!

Angie of Knick of Time
and

thanks to each of you that entered!
and now for the "then some"...

Becky from Timewashed is having a 
Fabulous Fall Give Away
and I wanted to let you all know about it.


Becky will create a set of her beautiful pumpkins for you and she has some other wonderful things in her Give Away Gift. So head on over and enter, then go check out her wonderful Etsy Shop for some fun!



Thanks you all,
Have a perfect Fall Weekend!

xoxo,

Friday, September 6, 2013

Be Inspired #155 Hurray for September!

September is finally here and I don't have to be worried about being found out that I'm a "closet pumpkin addict" any longer...yay! I know there are a few of you out there, so no denying it. Now, we can celebrate it, instead of cropping out any accidental pumpkin shots that might unfortunately occur before September 1!! So now, let's get down to the fun of last week's party with a few great links.

Debbie from Confessions of a Plate Addict  has a way with French Inspired pillows. Here are her French Ticking Pillows with some colorful images that she recently made for her green Toile guest room. Thanks Debbie, for always sharing your creative process with a great tutorial.







This Distressed Gesso Mirror from Poppy at With a Dash of Color
started out with a "factory finish" that she wasn't thrilled with.
She's painted and tweaked it to become a focal point in her lovely entry way.




Rosemary from Villa Barnes has been sharing her projects as part of a new Painting Course from Farragoz Designs. It's a course that gives step by step instruction to create amazing paint finishes with an Old World feel. Here is her Clock Face project. You can see the aged and distressed patina is wonderful!




Sherry from No Minimalist Here is also participating in this course. Here is one of her Farragoz projects. If you're interested in finding out more about this course, just check in with either of these talented bloggers for more information.




Pat from Back Porch Musings has been decorating in preparation for Fall. This is her hurricane lamp that she uses throughout the seasons, which is setting on her coffee table. She has a sweet sentimental story about the vintage dog planter. If you haven't visited Pat lately, check out all her wonderful Fall decor ideas.


Carlene of Organized Clutter has been creating "junk pumpkins" lately and these are her latest, made from vintage Jello molds. A few weeks ago she came up with some adorable pumpkin people using Wilton Cake Pans and some hardware. These are such a cute idea for Halloween!






And here's a super easy recipe and tutorial
for "3 Ingredient Shortbread"


thanks gals for all the inspiration!


Today's Sponsor is Rosekraft who carries
Bohemian cottage decor, Victoriana gifts, vintage bird decor and old fashioned garden gifts. Original Victorian scrap, authentic Victorian die cuts, Victorian paper pictures and 1890's scrapbook cards - newly framed and ready to display.




thanks so much, Rose!

Thank you, everyone that joined in for my


(whew, what a mouthful!)
I'll announce the winners of the Pick Your Own Pillow Design
tomorrow evening.

OK, on to the party...

Be Inspired is open to all inspiration, vintage or new. We love to see your Fall Decor, DIY, recipes and inspiring ideas.  And Pretty Please With Sugar On It...remember to link back to Common Ground within your post. I came across so many great links that I want to feature, but you didn't have a link back to the party...just part of the guidelines.


Thanks so much for joining in each week!
xoxo,


Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Top Three from Be Inspired and an Invitation

Thanks so much for the great turnout last week at Be Inspired. We're all getting back into our routine after the Labor Day Weekend, and now we're ready for some Fall Fun. Here are the Top Three Visited Links from last week. You'll see why...take a peek!

Julia from Vintage With Laces has been working on some Fall creations and shared this wonderful fabric pumpkin. Don't you love the rusty bedspring pedestal?




Dru from The Country Farm Home gave us part 2 of her reveal of her wonderful Farm Kitchen in all it's vintage farmhouse glory.



And Tammy from My Flower Journal gave us an amazing watercolor she painted after her trip to the English Countryside. She also shares her review of one of our favorite artist and author's newest book, A Fine Romance, by Susan Branch.


If you haven't visited these talented ladies, please check out these links for more inspiration. Thanks so much Gals!

And if you're local here in SW Missouri,
 you won't want to miss the Fall Soiree Celebration at 


Vintage Suitcase & Veranda Tea Room 
724 S. Scenic Ave
417-224-5300
417-866-1145 for reservations
 Don't miss our Fall Soiree Celebration!
Friday, September 6th: 10am- 9pm
Saturday, September 7th: 10am-5pm
We've got tons of fabulous new Fall decor 
and Halloween merchandise to debut!

On Friday the Tea Room will be serving lunch from 
11am- 2pm and dinner on the patio from 5pm- 8pm.

On Saturday lunch will be served from 11am- 2pm. 
Reservations recommended but not required. 
































Today's the last day to enter my 4th Anniversary Celebration Give Away



see ya tomorrow for 
Be Inspired.

xoxo,

Easy as 1-2-3 Custom Look Wreath

It's September, and you know what I'm doing...

This last week I started decorating for Fall, and one thing I wanted to do was put together a new wreath for the Dining Room mirror. I love a lush twiggy grapevine wreath with lot's of naturals and florals, but I don't want to pay a "custom" price for it. So, no matter what the season, I have an easy method to get a custom look.





Here it is out on the Sunporch. I'll be showing you the Dining Room a little later, but for now it's on one of my old "Fall" quilts on a wicker chair.



As you can see it's pretty wild, and pretty big;
Fall berries, leaves and Hydrangeas.




I've been making my own wreaths for years, and I almost always use this quick method.  One of the best things about it, besides that it's quick, is that this method is easy to take apart, redo, refresh, or reuse at another time.

 Start with your basic grapevine twig wreath. 
The more crazy twigs the better...
I like a wild, natural, just picked look.




Since I'm a bad DIY blogger, I didn't even think to get pics until I had that wreath hanging up on the mirror, and at that point I wasn't going to take it apart again to show the steps.
sooo...
I just used a few other elements to show how easy it is..
please don't get confused because there are two different wreaths.
I know...I know....
bad blogger.

End of Season sales are a great time to pick up those basic garlands and candle rings. I think this one was a large candle ring that came from Michaels a few years ago. The basic garland ring is of just little Lady Apples. I added the sunflowers a while back so I could use it on my front door, which requires a "skinny" wreath.

Then start layering. I left the Sunflowers and Black-Eyed Susans on the basic apple wreath then added in some Hydrangeas. You can add any blossom mix you like for your season. A Spring wreath might have Tulips and Lilacs on a Forsythia garland. This one I used faux Hydrangea stems, but on my Dining Room wreath I used real dried Hydrangeas. With faux Hydrangeas I sometimes trim the large blooms down.



Now you can see we're adding layers and depth and a lot of interest
 with the Apples, Sunflowers and Hydrangeas.



This grapvine twig wreath is actually a little small for this garland, but I wanted to show you how it all goes together. Just use some gardener's twine or floral wire to secure the garland wreath to the twig wreath. 



Here's the finished product. I just randomly put this together because
I'll be taking it apart again, but you get the idea.

  1. A grapevine wreath for the base.
  2. A garland or large candle ring on top, just tied on with gardener's twine.
  3. Florals to tuck in for added interst and depth. Sometimes I hot glue them on, other times I just tuck them inside and through the vines.




This one is a little wonky since I didn't secure all the layers... just wanted to show you how easy it is to put a wreath together. I didn't need any special tools, and it doesn't make a big mess.
So here's my original again. It's a little more "Fall", whereas the "step by step" version is a little more "Summer".


You can put together a wreath like this in about 15 minutes.
Super quick and versatile.
If you want to change up your basic wreath each season it's easily done.
Just 1-2-3!


Now, have some fun making your own!


I'll be joining in on these great weekly parties:

Whipperberry
A Stroll Thru Life
Tuesday Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
The Scoop at Cedar Hill Ranch
Tweak it Tuesday at Cozy Little House
WOW Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

xoxo,