Halloween Mantle

I've been working on putting out some fall and Halloween decorations around the house, and I want to share my "Halloween mantle" with all of you.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  Festive and whimsy, but not over the top "Halloween-y."

The black feather wreath came from Target a couple years ago.  I purchased the banner from this etsy shop a couple years ago as well. 

The pumpkin with the swirls was one of my first crafty "knock-off" projects.  I saw the original in a home decor catalog (I don't remember which one) and thought they were so cute, but the $50ish price tag was not.  So one night in front of the tv, I super-glued black scrapbooking rhinestones to this one and it's larger partner.  It took forever!  I have recently seen a similar knockoff on Pinterest using craft puff-paint.  I would recommend that route over the rhinestones!  The flowered branches I picked up from World Market the other day and added them to some coffee beans.

These two cuties are recent craft projects.  The white & black pumpkin started out with free-handed chevron stripes around his middle - not cute!  So I turned it into a stripe and plan on writing "Boo!" on him just as soon as I can find my chalk marker!  I love polka dots so hence the gold spotty guy.  Love the way he turned out.  The beauty of craft pumpkins over real ones is that I don't feel bad spending time sprucing them up since I can always reuse them next year!  You can also see our new firewood basket that I picked up at Target the other day.  I had been eyeing it for a while so when I spotted it on sale, I quickly added it to my cart. ;)

So that's a taste of what I've been doing around my house to dress it up for the holidays.  What have you been up to?

Weekend at the Beach

While other bloggers are breaking out the boots & scarves to welcome fall, we took off to the beach for a quick weekend trip.  October is one of my favorite times to visit - still warm and few crowds.  This weekend was also the annual Shrimp Festival in Gulf Shores.

This was my first time at the Shrimp Festival.  It's your typical arts & crafts fair, but with LOTS of food.  Mostly your typical fair food with plenty of fried seafood.  I have to admit I expected more local restaurants showing off their shrimp specialties, but who can complain about fair food?

chicken on a stick & deep fried bread pudding

The Guy Harvey booth had a corn hole contest.  There was no way Cameron & Harry were passing up that!

This was my favorite sand sculpture contest entry -

Sunday, we hung around the dock at Harry's house on the lagoon.

Have I mentioned I love living this close to the beach??

Jam-Packed Weekend

We crammed a lot of fun in to this weekend!  We started off Friday night with Bayfest, Mobile's annual music festival.  Two of Cameron's high school friends came in town - Jeff from Denver & Matt from New Orleans.  And my college friend, Holly, came down from Nashville.  We are lucky to get VIP passes which get us in to a rooftop area overlooking the main stage where they serve dinner and have an open bar all night.  We stayed there much of the night and listened to Pat Benatar & Journey.

 According to Jeff on Facebook, I am officially his "ninth favorite person"

- Hey, I take what I can get! :)

Harry and the Gulf Seafood sign in the VIP area

 

with Holly & Elizabeth at Journey

Saturday morning we got up waaay too early and headed to Auburn for the Arkansas game.  We were supposed to be going with my parents, but they were unable to go at the last minute.  We enjoyed being back at Auburn, even if it was a pitiful loss.  Is it weird that I get teary eyed when the eagle flies and the marching band plays the fight song during pregame???

We saw the new Cam Newton statue (a reminder of happier times for Auburn football)

 and drove through downtown to see Toomer's corner.  Makes me want to cry!  For anyone who doesn't know - Toomer's Corner is an Auburn landmark, where fans roll the trees with toilet paper after a win.  After Auburn beat Alabama 2 years ago, Harvey Updyke, a trashy Bammer, poisoned the trees.  They used to look like this:

Source

Now they will most likely die and look like this:

Source

Anyway, we met up with my girl, Erin, after the game and did some true "tailgating"

Then, we made the 3.5 hour drive back to Mobile that evening.  Yes, we are crazy!

Sunday night, we headed back downtown for the last night of Bayfest.  We watched most of the Grace Potter & the Nocturnals show,

with Cameron & Holly

Then, Holly and I headed over to another stage to catch the end of the Luke Bryan show.  Perfect timing to catch him dancing to "Country Girl" :)

We had a wonderful time with wonderful friends, but it is taking me a few days to recuperate!

Civic Duty

That dreaded time in one's life has come:

How is that I'm not even 30 years old and have only lived in the city of Mobile for 2 years, and I'm already being summoned for jury duty?  Ugh.  On the one hand it could be an interesting case, but on the other hand I've heard the horror stories and I'm not looking forward to it. 

20 Things I Love About Fall

I will be the first to admit that I'm a Spring/Summer kind of girl.  I hate being cold, so to me, fall often means that winter (and cold weather) is just around the corner.  However, fall itself is actually pretty amazing, especially here in the South.  So here is my top 20 list of things I love about Fall...

1. Auburn Football

2.coats

3. boots

4. scarves

5. fires in the fireplace

6. pumpkins

7. leaves changing colors

8. pumpkin spiced latte

Source

9. pumpkin flavored anything!

10. down comforter - it gets banned during the summer by the hubby

 

11. no humidity (or at least less than normal!)

 

12. porch weather

Source

13. smell of fall candles

14. Fall decor

15. the color orange (I'm a little partial - War Eagle!)

source

16. apple cider

17.  hunting season - this one is on here for Cameron, but I do enjoy trips to the hunting camp

18. Halloween

Pottery Barn

19. Thanksgiving

Source

20.  And forgive me for jumping ahead - the anticipation of Christmas (my favorite holiday)

Source

Those are my favorite things about Fall.  What are yours?

Today I'm joining in on my first linky party.  Head over to The Inspired Room to see other bloggers' favorite things!