Little Fall Changes

Like so many of you, we're still getting temps in the 90s, with little or no rain, but I'm starting to think about Fall.
Here are a few changes I made last week.

There are almost no flowers left in the yard, so I filled my SL pitcher with Autumn Fern, a bit of Sedum Matrona and fried
Oakleaf Hydrangea.

One of my favorite decor books is Scottish Country, with lovely rust colors on the cover photo.


I rarely show the mantel, because it isn't the most handsome mantel in the world. It's '80s style and almost 6 ft. high.  The wall and hearth are brick from wall to wall. 
Lately, I've been saying I'm going to call our carpenter, and see what he can do with it. Actually, I've been saying that for years.  Somehow, I feel it's going to be messy and expensive to change it.
I'll show you that challenge another time. I'd love some suggestions.
Here's just a glimpse of what's on there now. It's usually neglected. The only time it's "decorated" is at Christmas.

When I do put something on it, it's usually light or bright things because of the dark brick.
The champagne bucket, bowl and PB wine cooler are all thrift store finds.

That's about it for the living room, now let's go downstairs to the family room...

...right now, I'm kicking myself because we got rid of so many vintage things at our yard sale last year.

Now, I'm "borrowing from Peter to pay Paul", and moving things around just to fill the shelves. I'm not really unhappy that I got rid of so much, since that gives me an excuse to go shopping.

On the first shelf, I made a wine theme with an old wine box, a bottle from Target and a small pottery bowl.
In the middle, I turned the books back around, since they have a bit of orange/rust on the covers.
I love the simple alabaster book ends which I showed in an earlier post. They have a wonderful patina which, unfortunately, doesn't show well in the photos.

The last shelf has a bundle of old dried plant material that I've had forever. That's only temporary, as it's starting to shed after so many years.

The very bottom shelves hold storage baskets.  The large one, with a lid, holds Christmas books.

This is the right side, which really needs more work.

 The bottom shelves on this side, hold books, dominoes and game boards for checkers and chess. I've thought about putting something else there, but the center section, under the tv, is stuffed with dishes, so there's no place to put the games.

On the top shelf on the right side, a Johnson Brothers  teapot holds the faux hydranges that I used before, and of course, my green birds. I like the way they bring out the little bit of green in the teapot and hydrangea.

I really need to tweak a couple of the shelves, but I wanted you to see what I'd done so far.
I'm still working on changes for the secretary in the living room, but I'll show you them later.

That's all for now. I'll see you at these parties:

Marty@AStrollThruLife for
Kim@SavvySouthernStyle