Fall decor – A Diamond in the Stuff

Pumpkins and Pinecones Centerpiece

Courtney Carmean — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 13:00:53 +0000

What a week! The stomach flu hit out house full force . I’m hoping this isn’t an indication of how rough this cold and flu season is going to be for this house! Everyone got well just in time for the kid’s Fall break! So I had a total of one day this week with everyone well and out of the house. Here’s hoping we’re all in the clear and can we just enjoy a beautiful Fall. Speaking of Fall. I finally got my coffee table Fall centerpiece figured out and I love how it turned out.

I have had this metal tray for months on my coffee table and I can never really seem to keep it decorated. It usually seems to default into a rebel base for Star Wars Legos or something similar. I was determined to give it a Fall makeover that would really stick.

I stopped by a local shop that already had pumpkins out, so I grabbed a bunch of the little white ones. I just love them. A couple bags of pinecones and some faux greenery from Michael’s and I had my new coffee table centerpiece. I had some satin black ribbon in my stash that I used to dress up the handles of the tray. Gotta have those finishing touches!

My Fall decor is pretty neutral, I love creams and browns this time of year. My new Pumpkins and Pinecones Centerpiece fits right in. You can see more of my Fall Mantle HERE.

I know it’s a pretty simple centerpiece really, but I think that is why I love it so much. It’s simply beautiful.

I hope you enjoyed my Pumpkins and Pinecones Centerpiece and you have a great weekend!!!

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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Looking for more Fall centerpiece ideas? Come see this beautiful Hanging Fall Centerpiece from the archives.

Give Thanks Mantel {Updated}

Courtney Carmean — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 13:00:32 +0000

It’s crazy to me that I created my Give Thanks Mantel 4 years ago. I love it just as much today as I did the day I put it all together. Although it has evolved a little bit, so that is why I wanted to do a little post update on it!

Well one of the biggest and most obvious changes is my current mantel! At our last home we lived in military base housing and we literally had a shelf above an electric fireplace. I wasn’t complaining though because prior to that there was no shelf. There was no fireplace. So that little shelf was a step up for me. Since then we have moved. Again. We bought our very first home and it has a huge fireplace and mantel.

I added a large 9 pane old window to the back of all the mantel decor. Now that my mantel decor is on this larger more impressive mantel, it needed something to make the set up stand out more. It needed a larger presence!

I am kind of amazed that all these years later, I still love my Fall Mantel. Usually my attention wanes and I get board of certain decorations. My taste evolves and I refresh. This one is still perfect 4 years later!

I can’t imagine ever wanting to change my Fall Give Thanks Mantel, but I’m sure the day will come. Until then I will just enjoy it’s warm neutral colors, different shapes and textures, and just general beauty!

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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Last week I shared my tutorial for this beautiful DIY Faux Framed Chalkboard. If you too aren’t the greatest with free hand writing but you love the look of chalkboards, this is the project for you!

Thanks for stopping by!!!!

{Quick & Easy} Outdoor Pumpkin Topiaries

Courtney Carmean — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 07:00:15 +0000

We are getting settled into our new home. Maybe a little slower than I would like but we have actually made a lot of progress! It’s so nice to be able to do whatever we want to this home because, this time around, it’s all ours.

I have hesitated to decorate for Fall inside the house until it is more put together. However I was just itching to bring some Autumn into world. So I decided to work a a few outdoor projects in between unpacking boxes and organizing my butt off.

I knew I wanted to create some fun Fall topiaries for my two clearanced Michael’s urns. My only limitation was I didn’t want to spend a ton of money because I was doing plenty of that on new things for the house. So I scooped up a few $5 pumpkins and some Fall leaf garland on sale.

I found that the pumpkins needed a little…boost…to get them to sit right in the urns. It just so happened that I have a ton of packing paper lying around the house right now. A. Ton. So I crumpled some up and put it into each urn.

After I took the stem off of the larger pumpkin, I placed it into the urn on top of the crumpled paper.

Once the large pumpkin was in place I wrapped some of the garland around it. I placed the garland just under the pumpkin, resting on the top of the urn.

The smaller pumpkin was attached to the larger one using some “earthquake” putty (I wanted it all to be temporary). I swear this putty is one of my favorite decorating tools!

You can’t really get anymore simple than that. Pretty inexpensive too, I ended up spending around $25 for all of it.

I love love pulling into my driveway now and seeing these on either side of my entryway. It brings just the touch of Fall to our home that I was looking for.

I hope you enjoyed my Outdoor Pumpkin Topiaries, I am so glad to be back creating and blogging. Feels great. See y’all soon with another pumpkin project….

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

Fall Drawer Centerpiece

Courtney Carmean — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 08:00:00 +0000

I am determined to enjoy Fall for just a bit before we jump with booth feet into Christmas. Anyone with me?

So in my effort to enjoy the season I took a look around my house and decided I needed a little more Fall in my home. I grabbed some supplies and whipped up my Fall Drawer Centerpiece.

I had an old desk that was beyond repair sitting around in my garage. I finally decided to pitch the desk but I of course kept the drawers. So now I have a pile of old wood drawers hanging around looking for a purpose!

I grabbed one of these drawers and decided that it would make the perfect Fall centerpiece.

I grabbed some spanish moss and spread it across the bottom of the drawer. It added a nice fun texture and helped soften the look of the wood drawer.

Then it was time to add some small pumpkins that I found on clearance at Michael’s and some cream colored pillar candles. Something about the warm glow of candles feels so appropriate for Fall.

The drawer was missing it’s hardware, which was fine. However, the two holes on the front of the drawer were bothering me. So I tied a cream colored ribbon around the drawer and finished it off with a pretty bow.

I love how my Fall Drawer Centerpiece turned out!!! So festive and pretty!!! It would make the perfect centerpiece for Thanksgiving!!!

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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Yesterday the Time to Shine party kicked off for the week! I’d love it if you would come link up and take a look at all the links already up!!!

A Year Of Mantels

Courtney Carmean — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

One of my favorite places to decorate in my home is my mantel. I haven’t always had a mantel, in fact the “mantel” I have right now is more like a shelf above an electric fireplace. But who’s counting? We move around so much and usually live in military housing, so I take what I can get! I have now spent a full year in this house and I’ve been able to decorate my mantel for all the seasons and holidays. So I thought I would post a round up of images from all of my mantel decor from the past year.

First up is my Valentine’s Day Mantel. After all of the Christmas decorations come down the house feels very empty and sad. So it’s a perfect time to show my mantel a little….LOVE! I kept the colors simple using only black and white with touches of pink. The only thing that made it better is when Better Homes & Gardens featured my Valentine mantel!!!

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Once it was time to put the pink away it was time to put together my Spring Mantel. I crafted a few mossy items to create my earthy green Spring mantel. As always, I kept it pretty simple and tried to make a big statement with the pieces that I choose.

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The weather started to warm up and the beach was calling our names. So I wanted my Summer Mantel to reflect that. I choose to stick with the colors of the sun and sea. The addition of the camera has to be my favorite part of this mantel, not to mention the other vintage finds. It all makes me think of an old Summer cabin at the shore.

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Before we knew it, Summer was over and it was time for back to school. Which meant it was time for a mantel change and because there needed to be a gap filled between Summer and Fall. So my Back to School Mantel was born. It’s definitely the most scholarly of my mantels but there is nothing nerdy about it!

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Once Halloween came around I was itching to start doing some serious holiday decorating! I had a blast creating my Halloween Mantel! I had a lot of fun playing with lots of different textures, heights, and depths. I think my favorite part is the “31” pumpkin, I really like to experiment with using typography in my home decor.

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By the time Thanksgiving came I wasn’t sure if I had anymore great mantel ideas left in me. I felt like I was tapped out….and then some “thanks” pumpkins popped into my head. One idea led to another and my Thanksgiving Mantel was created! The minute…..no…..the second it was done I was in love with it! Part of me wanted to be able to keep it up year round! But the other part of me knew that Christmas was on the horizon.

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Lastly, but most certainly NOT least is my Christmas Mantel. I knew that my window ornament hanger from the year before would be making a return but I also knew that I wanted to improve my red and green mantel from last year. With the addition of some ruffle trees and greenery I think I have found a Christmas mantel I can love!

That’s it!

One year and seven mantels.

I hope that you enjoyed my year of mantels tour!!! Do you have a favorite? I think it would be hard for me to choose! Is decorating your mantel part of your seasonal and holiday decor routine?

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

Chunky {2×4} Pumpkin

Courtney Carmean — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Yesterday I posted about my October Craft Make & Take and today I’ll show you how we made the two projects from that night. I’m going to start with the chunky 2×4 pumpkin! It’s really a pretty simple project and it’s adorable to what’s not to love? I’ll post about the Bubblegum Machine Candy Holder later today.

I started with one of my favorite supplies……2×4. My hubby cut the wood into four blocks, two 4in long and two 5in long. I choose an orange paint that I liked for my pumpkin and painted the blocks. When the paint was dry I just used a liberal amount of hot glue in between each block and glued them all together. You could use wood glue but I wanted instant gratification. Especially for a craft class, the pumpkins needed to be done quickly so that people could take them home when they were finished.

I used some scrap wood for the stem and painted it brown, also just hot gluing it on. I grabbed some sandpaper and distressed all of the wood a bit. For the class I stocked up on different kinds of orange scrapbook papers. They all had different styles and looks, I choose a distressed polka dot paper that fit in with my distressed pumpkin.

I cut the paper to fit on the front of each block individually and decoupaged them on to the front of the pumpkin. I also used decoupage over the whole pumpkin to seal everything in and protect the paper and paint.

I used some brown ribbon to finish things off and add a little fun to the stem. That’s it! Cute and simple!

You gotta love an easy project that turns out so cute. It’s so nice sometimes to sit down to do a project and finish it in an hour. It doesn’t happen all the time. I sometimes immerse myself in projects that take days or weeks to fully complete. Plus this little pumpkin can stay out way past Halloween and you can customize it to your specific decor style!

Linking up to these great link parties!!!