Autumn has Arrived

Fall arrived early.

Don't remember summer ever saying good-bye.
                       - David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

Well, the welcome reprieve from the dog days of summer came early.

There is still lots and lots of green to be seen with small pockets of red and yellow peeping through the landscape.

But despite the green, I began extracting my fall decor from the hollows of our home. Especially, now that autumn has officially begun.

I finished my table several weeks ago; but only now have found the time to take a picture.

A $20 table from Hobby Lobby gets a face lift.

The original hardware were antique brass knobs. I found
 these knobs on clearance at Hobby Lobby for about $3.
Paint is SW6510 Loyal Blue by Sherwin-Williams

Truthfully, I don't love it.

But it is growing on me.

My chalkboard mirror project, you ask?

I plan to start that this week during Claire's nap time. And while the weather is still beautiful.

I am anxious to finish our dining room (really) as I am about to start on a new endeavor (more on that later) and it may mean hosting in our home. Something I, of course, love.

But I have all sorts of ideas for our dining room and I really desire to finally (after two years, almost three) pull it all together!

What ideas for fall decor do you have?

Unbirthday

My birthday is this next week.

It isn't a super significant birthday, but I guess it is my birthday. But aside from the fact I traditionally love birthdays, I'd really rather not think too much about it. Especially, since each year I get progressively closer to 40. And then it will be 50. And so on.

A terrible attitude to have, I know.

So I celebrated my unbirthday tonight.

Hit Village Point for a little shopping with one of my oldest and dearest friends and then off to Taste for a lovely dinner, some much needed wine to drown my aging sorrows away, and an entire slice of Chocolate Lava Cake to help my waist line.

Absolutely. Fabulous.

SO . . .

We hit all the usual suspects. LOFT, Ann Taylor, White House Black Market.

Lots and lots of beautiful clothes.

I even had a gift card burning in my pocket, but could not find anything I absolutely had to have.

The truth is I had received one of those silly catalogs in the mail from LOFT with a 20% coupon for me and one for a friend and I put it in the recycling bin because I thought "surely I will not be shopping there any time soon" only to receive a much appreciated gift card a couple of weeks later. And yes, I am one of those people who wants to maximize every dollar I can because I want to get the most bang for my buck, or in this case the gift card.

So I stopped in at Pier 1 and lo and behold do they have some beautiful things. As if I really need anything else for my house (I am running low on storage space in my little corner of our basement).

But I just had to point out a few of my favorite things there:

It was love at first site when I saw this Etched Metal Round Tray.

This Silver Lace Glass Charger had me at hello!

As for the charger, which is $25 bucks a pop, I wondered if it might be possible to turn something like that into a DIY project using clear glass charger size plates (do they exist???) or even a regular glass plate, adhering a stencil of some sort to the backside, and then spray painting looking glass spray paint to achieve this same look. Design on a dime? I hope so cause I love these puppies, but not even I am willing to spend $25 on a single charger.

I also love, love, love this table setting there.

Unbirthdays can be so much fun.

So thankful for a dear, dear friend to share it with, too!