Autumn has arrived!

I love fall. It overtakes me with swells of creativity. If only the days were packed with limitless hours of craft time. *sigh*  But I’ll take what I can get, jotting down ideas in the journal I affectionately titled “Someday.”

I’m really inspired by decorating this season. Maybe it’s because of Design Sponge’s amazing posts as of late. Seriously, check them out.  And we can’t neglect the food.  I think summer produce may be the only thing that competes with the happiness that the autumn bounty brings to our table.  It’s the perfect primer for all that holiday food, making way for the kitchen to be the festive epicenter of the season.

I’m also a big lover of indie fashion, and a few big houses as well.  I just love fall clothes – the layers and textures are such creative impetus, yet we’re not burdened by the need to bundle against the elements yet.  Idee Geniale, ModCloth, …love, Meagan, Pretty Ditty, and Happy Together are some of my favorite places to go for inspiration.  Style’s runway coverage is always fun to peruse for ideas, too.

In Charleston, the fall weather can’t be usurped as the best of the year. The mosquitoes ride the humidity on outta here and warm, dry breezes roll in, painting mammoth red suns to fill the evening skies. October and November are simply perfect at the beach.  Honestly, even if the weather were less than desirable, how could you not love the beach when you go with such sweet souls as these?

 

another first

Since Baby S has been wobbling around on her “hind legs” for about 3 weeks now, I thought we’d better get our little love bug up to speed with table manners.   Her first attempt at spoon-feeding fell a mere two weeks before her 1st birthday.  Think she’ll be ready to eat cake with a utencil?

front door love

I wanted to hang something on our front door that I wouldn’t have to change with the seasons.  I also wanted it to be unique and representative of our family.  This is what I came up with…

I have a huge little “thing” for peacocks.  I even did our wedding in feathers rather than flowers, so the pristine plumes have sentimental value for D and me.  In fact, these feathers were the ones that were strewn over the centers of the table at our wedding reception.  And the initial… well, for the Wolfepack!  It was super easy.  Try making one for your front door with feathers that appeal to you.  Guinea hen feathers (faux, of course) would be awesome for fall.  Here’s how I did it:

Materials:

1 circular wreath frame

hot glue gun and glue sticks

feathers of your choice (mine were leftover from the tables at our wedding reception)

wooden initial and paint color of your choice

paint brush

1)  Lay the feathers, stem side facing out, around the wreath frame.  Make sure to play with it a bit to get them in the right spots so that none of the frame will show when everything is glued on.

2)  Glue them down by dabbing a pea-sized spot of glue and pressing the stem into the glue.  (Careful – it’s hot.)

3)  Dot the spaces left on the frame between the feathers with some hot glue.  Only do 2 or 3 at a time so that it doesn’t dry before you get the feather down.

4)  Lay the next layer of feathers stem-side facing in, pressing the stem onto the waiting glue dots.  Continue around the frame until it’s covered completely.

6)  Now decide where you want to position your initial.

7)  Paint it a coordinating color and let it dry completely.

8)  Glue it on to your finished wreath and go give your front door some love.

Let me know if you try your own… send me the link to your pics!

Do you think Knit Picks would want to use this for their next catalog???

fair and square

I haven’t told my mom that I borrowed this permanently from the bookshelf in my parents’ basement.  Oh, what a find!!  1980s German needlepoint pattern goodness.

Don’t hate me.  I stole it fair and square.

Perspective

Thank you, Notes From the Frugal Trenches.  I hadn’t realized how much I had gotten off track, how much I had started to forget the things that mattered to me, how much I was letting the world tell me what I needed and what I “deserved.”  I could be really ashamed or I could live in the fresh mercies of the morning and snap back to reality.

I’ve seen this photo, but never knew the story behind it.  This child was allegedly crawling to a United Nations food camp.  Apparently no one knows what happened to the child after the photograph was taken by Kevin Carter, who committed suicide shortly after his trip to the Sudan.

Please read this.  Please watch the video.  And don’t get caught up in the statistics and over analyze why this happens and what that means and how we as Americans shouldn’t feel guilty for being the “haves.”  It is what it is – this happens every day.  Real people live and die like this as we go to work, play with our kids, and read our blogs.

One blessed woman.

Could my family get any cuter???  Break-your-heart adorable.

Blueberry Baby Muffins

Wholewheat flour, oats, no eggs, no butter, and minimal sugar… a great treat for Baby S.  They’re good for adults, too, so don’t cheat yourself out of these healthy and wholesome snacks.  Just make sure to increase the amount of blueberries the recipe calls for… I did and the decision did not disappoint.

Go make yourself some.  They’ll put a smile on that sweet mug of yours.

“This is how you do the Watermelon Crawl.”

1. Get your Nana to buy you the appropriate attire.

2. Be ridiculously cute.

3. Crawl.

Attitude

I definitely have one; sometimes a good one, sometimes a rotten one.  So, I’ve decided to change how I view THE MESS.

Inspired by one of Simple Mom’s posts last week, I hung a few gentle reminders for myself in the places around the house I find myself grumbling most often.  Above the sink that is usually full of dishes for the lack of a dishwasher and right next to our infuriating 1-square-foot of counter space I hung this:

If the dishes weren’t piled up and the laundry wasn’t mounded for three days on the living room chair, if the carpet wasn’t dusted with dog hair 5 minutes after being vacuumed, if the kitchen floor was sparkly, if I got to complete every craft project I started and cross everything off my to-do list every day… that would mean one thing.  There would not be any of those dearest to me in my life.   It would mean no family meals to litter the kitchen, no boxers or baseball uniforms or cute baby girl clothes to fold up and put away, no zealously affectionate dogs to shush when the baby is sleeping, no family beach excursions to return from and traipse sand onto the kitchen floor.  This mess is their footprints.

This mess is evidence of a house well-eaten in, celebrated in, laughed in, cried in, slept in, woken-up early  in, relaxed in, worked in, loved in… evidence of a life full of precious people whose hearts were entrusted to me by the Creator of the universe.

Above the stove that I am usually hunched over at 5:00pm, hurried to prepare dinner for a tired, shriek-y 9-month old and a husband who insists on undressing in front of the open living room windows the instant he walks in the door yet, curiously, immediately goes into the bedroom to put on mesh shorts and a t-shirt, leaving his work clothes strewn across the couch I posed these questions to myself:

Seriously.  What am I communicating to my husband everyday as I bustle about managing the household?  What am I modeling to my daughter about the attitude with which a mother does her job?  Sometimes those are scary thoughts.  What memories am I making for my family?  What will they remember about how I portrayed the responsibility of taking care of everyone?

For the living room, I’ve got an idea for a painting – that if I ever actually get around to painting, I will be pleasantly surprised – to remind me to think of all the material chaos as “footprints” and to remember that my Jesus tells me, “You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed” (Luke 10:41-42).  The Lord promises me that my plans will succeed if I commit whatever I do to Him (Proverbs 16:3).  Well, phew!  That’s a load off.

However, I know my flesh and I know it won’t be long before I forget this.  Hence, the visible reminders.  And all this is not to say that I will stop taking my job as a SAHM and household manager seriously.  Of course I will, I know what the Lord says about that (Proverbs 31) and I genuinely love my job.  I will always strive for excellence in what I do.  It isn’t my work ethic that needs bolstering, it’s my attitude that needs changing.

I want to remember what it means that I have THE MESS to deal with in the first place.  When I fall short of my goals and ideals, I want to remember that most often it is because I’m not the only person in my life that depends on me.  Hallelujah, what a gift!