Farewell to Summer and Autumn Decor on the cheap

 








Happy Autumn Everyone!  The equinox occurred officially last night at 8:29pm and I'm just so excited about it!  I love summer and we really did have a great summer this year


Between swim lessons, library visits and summer homeschool we squeezed in lots of walks, hikes and even some camping...









...There were lazy summer mornings...














 
 
 
 


..."Fieldtrips" to aquariums, nature preserves, and other fun locations...




...Josh and I were even able to sneak away for a romantic day at the lake!


So much good stuff.  But that being said, Autumn is far and away my favorite season!  I love the
cooler weather, the crisp air, the apple harvest and the reappearance of soups and stews.  I love my boots, sweaters, jeans and scarves.  I love the crunch of the leaves underfoot and those last ditch bonfires.  Every year I look forward to the leaf-peeping drives my sweet husband surprises me with, hayrides and cuddling under blankets... Fall is for lovers :)

I wanted to decorate my house for the season this past weekend but there wasn't much room in the 'ole budget for it so I had to get a tad creative



Enter local dollar store and Target's "one spot"!


See how well they transformed?
 I'm pretty pleased with myself!



I love pumpkins, absolutely LOVE them.  If I had the money (or the garden) my house would have piles of pumpkins and gourds of varying shapes, sizes and colors everywhere inside and out!  But I have neither a garden or an endless pumpkin fund.

But I did find some fake ones at my local dollar store and inspiration hit, they weren't terribly realistic looking, but hey, look at what some paint can do!






The wreath had some felt flowers glued on, but
I cut them off and covered up the residue mess with fabric
scraps and a larger concentration of foliage and such.
I also struck gold at the dollar store with fall garlands.  These suckers get pretty pricy at Joann's and

other craft stores, even with coupons and sales taken into consideration, but my dollar store finds were pretty nice, the leaves look fairly realistic and they even have berries, pinecones and pumpkins worked into them!  I was especially excited since I had taken time to gather some pretty leaves outside and tried a pinterest tip: ironing them between wax paper to preserve them.  Verdict: FAIL, and wasted time.

So, these bargain fall leaves, paired with grapevine wreathes found in the "one spot" at Target, and then finished off with some muslin scraps I had lying around my sewing machine yielded a pretty nice wreath!  Bonus:  The dollar store garlands don't have any wire in them, so they're much easier to cut up.





This little vignette features one of those transformed pumpkins, some dollar store leaves, a chicken wire basket from the "one spot" and a cute little owl salt shaker that I scored for $1 in the seasonal section of Target.  The squirrel is an old buddy who was kind enough to pitch in here for the season.










This picture to the left is the first thing you see when you walk in my front door, and I just love it!  The window is from my ancestral home, we replaced the windows a few years ago and I was fortunate enough to be able to hold onto a couple of the old ones. 
The wreath is another of the Target finds, I left the felt flowers on and stuck in some feathers that my mom brought home from a recent trip (they're actually waiting to be turned into quills for my girls)  The cute mini pennant banner is a pinterest find!  You can download the template at the blog thirty-one thirty-one  its one of the better templates I've found.
Another wonderful dollar store cascades down the window (don't they look great for only being $1!?) and ends at a dollar store basket with another transformed pumpkin, some old silk flowers I had lying around along with some pine cones.




This lovely green jug was my only splurge (I love Target!)  and the sweet little gold fox was another dollar salt shaker!


I'd love to hear other ideas for frugal fall décor, so leave me a comment if you have some to share!

I've also got a board dedicated to the season that you can check out here



Happy Autumn Decorating!

Comments

Popular Posts