Friday Foto Fest with Random Ramblings

I caught Siesta drinking water from Shane's glass and trampling his blueprints.

Up On The Rooftop.

Shirt-sleeve weather on Dec. 1 and 2 was perfect weather
for hanging Christmas lights...

and waving to me while hanging on for dear life.

Blurry, but I like it!

End result.  The white blobs in front and center are deer.

New, thinner tree fits our room much better. 
Blob in front and center is Siesta.

Purple and gold.  We unintentionally picked our school colors.

  

Some days, all you can do is sleep...

or scowl.

Old-Fashioned Decorating

Here's a tableau I saw once in a flea market
and recreated here at home.

It's an old step-ladder adorned with kitchen utensils and other household items that are old or made to look old.  Keeping
ribbons and greenery to a minimum enhances this simple look.

Simple Decorating for Fall and Winter

I'm not a big fan of holiday-specific decorating.  I'd much rather decorate for the season than for this holiday or that.  For example, here is our kitchen table dressed up for autumn. 

A table runner or scarf, a coordinating napkin and a basket of gourds and squash is colorful, yet simple.  This type of decoration will take us through all of October and November.

For some reason, this particular photo of the hutch in our dining room makes me start thinking ahead to winter.


I'm thinking of tying some red plaid ribbon around those cream-colored canisters and maybe add a holiday-scented jar candle, some old-fashioned cookie cutters tied with red raffia and maybe a few sprigs of greenery in place of the houseplants on top.  It will have a Christmas-y feel to it, but can tastefully stay in place from December until spring rolls around again.

We'll have a tree in our living room, but for this space, I'm envisioning no Santas, no snowmen, no angels, no plastic baubles or twinkly lights.  Just simple and basic decorations that speaks less of holidays and more of winter in general.

Just tossing some ideas out to see where they go.  What do you think?  Does an understated style appeal to you?

Changing Seasons

The 2012 camping season is over for us.  You can read a couple of new posts about our last camping weekend of the year at Haphazard Homestead on the Road.

**********

With camping season over, summer is "officially" over for us, too.  As we move into fall and look ahead toward holidays and cooler weather, I've decided to take on two challenges for October.

The first is that I'm going to join in with Erica at Northwest Edible Life in an October No-Spend Month.  I think Erica is attempting an across-the-board reduction, but I've decided that I want to limit my challenge to grocery and restaurant spending.  Those of you who were readers of my old blog know that I can get a little carried away with numbers, but I promise not to do that this time.  My goal is to spend as little as possible at the grocery store and for us to not go out to eat at all in October.  I'll post my updates on Fridays and keep them simple. 

One exemptions right off the bat:  We will be paying the meat processor for pork already butchered and waiting for us to pick up as soon as the cured cuts are ready. 

If you'd like to join in, please do.  It's my understanding that this challenge is less about austerity and more about being mindful of and deliberate in your spending habits, whatever they may be.

**********

The second challenge I'm going to join is "All Done by December 1" at Happy Simple Living.  According to the Happy Simple Living blog, "The idea is to do some advance planning about the aspects of Christmas that are most important to you and your family, followed by some easy tasks and organization. The goal? To have every do-ahead task done by December 1, leaving you three glorious weeks to have the best celebration ever."

If you'd like to join in, click over and sign up for the e-mail updates.