9th Annual Pumpkin Dinner Party

This has become one of my favorite fall traditions. I love thinking of new ways to decorate with pumpkins and thinking of new recipes to try that have pumpkin in them AND of course I love keeping my tradition of eating soup out of pumpkin bowls. I also love that this is the 3rd year that I have taken the pumpkin dinner outside. Adds to the ambiance and just lets me embrace the autumn season that much more.

This year Rachel wanted in on the dinner party... well, the dinner ended up just being the two of us. I don't have too many friends these days. ha ha. Having Rachel involved in these dinner parties makes them magazine worthy. Please note that this was also put together last minute. Amazing what she and I can through together quickly. We make a great team.

This year we went up Hobble Creek canyon and just drove until we found a nice little spot that we liked. I think we found a great spot.

The Patio

It took me a while to get it together this year since it was so rainy all of May... but I'm so happy the Patio is back! I love having the patio full of plants and decorated... it feels like another room extended from the house. It's nice to come home to and walk through everyday.

Redecorating the Living Room

My living room in the basement has been decorated the same for the last 5 years or so. It was inspired by my trip to India. I loved it... especially loved how unique it was... but I was ready for a change. Side note, while searching for my old images of my living room online... expecting to just come across my blog in the image search I found that pictures of my living room are posted on a  few different websites and I had no idea until just now. I guess people don't need your permission to do that? One of them sited my blog but the others didn't. Whatever. Here is what the living room used to look like.

Now I'm not doing a FULL makeover to the room, a lot of the main stuff is staying the same, but I have been switching things out here and there. I'm not going to give you a picture of the entire room because it isn't done, but I wanted to show you bits and pieces so far.  I have obviously changed the look by going more neutral and taking out a lot of the colors. Question now is... do I get a new couch? I was looking at a charcoal grey one. Do I take the decals off of the wall? Do I get any additional seating? Or will that look too crowded? When I feel like the room is complete, I will post a final picture... so far I like the changes I have made but I do feel a little bit stuck of how I want to complete the look.

Got rid of my old book shelf and got this one. I love the look of this one even though it doesn't hold as much as my old bookshelf did.

Did away with the colored pillows (well, they are all still there, just covered with these new cases... except for the fur one) and went neutral.

Got a coffee table. Not 100% sure on the table runner... just testing it out, might just like the plain wood better. Oh and a new rug... which I am in love with. Thank you RugsUSA for my 80% discount on Cyber Monday.

Kitchen Addition

I have added a couple of things to my kitchen that I am pretty excited about.

The kitchen has always been kind of a European cafe inspired kind of look and feel to it (even though when I started that I had never been to Europe). When Allison and I decided to go to Italy and Greece, I knew I wanted to get a cool picture of an outdoor cafe to blow up on canvas and hang in the kitchen. The entire trip I had this in mine and took many pictures of many cafe's. I never got one of exactly what I was expecting or looking for. However... I was happy enough with how one of them turned out to blow up and hang in the kitchen. I also feel like it happens to match the colors of the kitchen well. So... I'm happy with it.

The other thing I added to the kitchen.... I have been wanting to add to the kitchen for a while. I just put it off because I kept having roommates that had one and they are kind of expensive... but when Penny moved out I decided I was finally going to do it. I bought a Kitchen Aid! It's beautiful and I love it. I almost got a red one because it matches my kitchen... however, I may not always have a red decorated kitchen, but I know I am always going to have my Kitchen Aid, so I went with silver. I love it and I know I will get so much use out of it over the years. I love my kitchen. I think the only thing that would make me love it more is if I could stain or paint the cabinets a different color and I could get a new light fixture for the dining room. Ok... maybe I would change a few things, but decoration wise... I love it.

Project Patio

I love having  an outdoor space to hang out. Especially during summer nights. I have always had a cute patio... or at least I try to. I feel like every year it gets better though. I keep finding ways to improve my little patio space. This year I feel like it is finally perfect.

A couple of years ago I added a couple of things to the patio that I thought were really cute. Still love them. One idea I got from Pinterest... planting in stacked cinder blocks. I didn't plan it this way, but I chose plants that not only look good in the cinder blocks but also come back every year.

The other idea I got from a girl I visit taught. She hung lattice on her fence (white) and hung plants on the lattice. I did the same thing except I didn't get white lattice on the white fence. I chose to get the wood lattice to match the steps up to the back door. Kind of have a wood, cement and cinder block theme going on. I also added a little side table and extra chair with a cute cushion I got from Pier 1. I also painted a couple of pots teal to bring some pops of color.

For the past couple of years, those changes to the patio satisfied me. However, this year... my bench swing got super trashed in the with some harsh wind. Plus going through all the weather changes for the past 5 years. It was now making my patio look trashy instead of cute like it used to. It was time ti get rid of it, as sad as that made me. My dad was a champ and came over and took it apart and took it away. With the help of Pinterest, I made some changes to the patio that I just love and completed my little patio. Not sure what I would do without Pinterest. Unlike many people... I actually do a lot of things that I pin on Pinterest. My dad of course helped me with cutting and putting together the wood. First idea I had was to cover the ugly AC unit. I bought some more lattice and had my dad cut it and make it into a box around the AC unit to match the lattice on the back fence. THEN we took away the big BBQ that didn't work and was just becoming a hornets nest and built the cutest patio bar (idea from Pinterest) out of pallets and stepping stones.

Then I needed another seating idea since I got rid of the bench swing. Plus I need to cover the ugly window well. If the patio is going to be a hang out place, it needs to have seating right?  So I got another awesome idea off of Pinterest that would match my patio perfectly (cinder blocks and wood) AND be able to endure the weather.

Doesn't look that cute. Until you add the cushions and the rug. I just loved these fun colors. This is what really completed the patio.

Then of course I had to buy more plants. Some come back and some don't. I did an herb box this year. I also can't have enough succulents. I LOVE succulents.

And there you have it! Project Patio is complete and I couldn't love it more. I love all of the color. I love that I didn't have to buy any expensive and fancy patio furniture to put together a cute and functional space to hang out in. AH! I really love it. Every time I come home and walk through the back... or at night when I'm watering my plants, I just think of how much I love my patio. Thanks to my parents for helping me. Anyone that wants to come hang out in it is welcome to.

Music Wall

So I decided I wanted a little something more on the music wall... besides the canvas art. I decided to do a little photoshoot of each of my roommates (tried to be artsy) and printed one of the best of each girl and turned it black and white and hung it on the wall. Obviously I wanted it to match... so I have the same type vintage sheet music as matting for all of the pictures I took of my roommates.

I had a vision of what I wanted it to look like... but I LOVE the way it turned out... which is always a nice feeling. I think all of my roommates are happy with it as well. I think they loved that I wanted to do a photoshoot of each of them as well.

Canvas Craft

My sisters and I are all crafty. We love to be creative and make stuff. While we were all together over Christmas break, we decided we wanted to have a craft night. I should have documented it... but because of children... we were not all together a lot of the time, nor did we all finish at the same time. Anyway, we all took a trip to Hobby Lobby together and we bought canvas and supplies. I already had canvas... but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it yet. Actually... none of us did. By night, when we were going to do our canvas art, we had each come up with an idea. I wish I had a picture of all my sisters canvas art... because everyone's was different, but cute. I do have a picture of mine though, so I will share that.

Remember when I made this quick craft to hang above my piano? Well, it was cute... and it has been hanging there ever since I made it, but I thought of something else I could hang there instead. I had 4 small canvases, and I wanted them to all go together to make a bigger piece of art. I still wanted it to involve sheet music... because it was still going to hang above my piano.

I painted each canvas a neutral color. I then found some old sheet music online that I printed out and cut. Then I used some mod podge to glue the paper to the canvas. After that dried, I printed out a picture of a tree that I liked and tried to copy it as best as I could as I painted it across the 4 canvases. I added a couple of birds... went over the whole thing with mod podge again and then glued on some flowers that my sister had bought.

I was unsure about it at first. I mean... I loved my idea, but I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. I really loved how it turned out though. I think it goes a little better than the last craft did. I love my little music area of the living room, and I love having art that goes with the area.

Close up... so you can see the flowers and details.

Finished project. It feels good to be crafty.

Decorating with Love

As you know, Rachel and I like to decorate. We also love being festive. Valentines Day is a fun Holiday to decorate for.

I only contributed a small bit to the Valentines Decor in our house. I blogged about my craft already. This should look familiar.

Well... it was a cute addition to what Rachel had already put up. Here is what the rest of our place looks like. I even got a shot at night with the candles lit.

Personally I love it. I love coming home to our cute house.

Z Bathroom

Remember when my roommate Rachel moved in and I said I would give you a tour of our place now that it was re-decorated? Well... sorry that has not happened yet. We keep making improvements. Like the half bath that is in between the kitchen and the Family Room.

It used to look like this... (this was in my other Deer Haven house, but it was decorated the same here)

The Sunflowers were cute, but I had been decorating with sunflowers since I was in Jr. High. It was time for a change. A modern change. Rachel had this bright green trash can and bought a little Zebra towel and little bright green towl to put on top of that. This was our inspiration and we were going with it. When I went to South Africa, I was told by Rachel that I needed to get an awesome picture of a Zebra so that we could blow it up and put it in the bathroom with our new theme. Pressure was on! I ended up not disappointing. I got this picture. Which I turned black and white.

Then I blew that picture up poster size and I found a cool frame that I painted green. I then moved the shelves from my room to the bathroom (which I think look better there and I am redoing my room anyway) and I got some candles and plants and BAM! The bathroom is done... and I LOVE it. This is how you decorate with Zebra print in a modern way.

* It was hard to get a good picture of the whole bathroom, so here are a few. You can't see, but there is also a black rug in there too. *