That's A Nice Front Porch You Got There, Honey (wink wink)

Sun!
Real sunshine today in northern New Jersey.

And the people rejoice.

At least, this people is rejoicing.

I was beginning to grow moss up my north side.

Which is not my best side, you know what I mean?

I have gotten no further in outdoor Fall fluffing than a wreath on the front door, a few pumpkins and mums

scattered hither and yon, and the artfully disheveled sprinkling of fallen leaves, courtesy of my partner

Mother Nature.

Who, by the way, is terribly bossy.  Insists on getting her own way, and always does.

I have to admit that decorating That Old House for a holiday is not a chore.

She's pretty cute all on her own, so any fluff we add is just that -- fluff.

The first summer we owned this house, our daughters went Dollar Tree decorating crazy on Memorial Day:

Ah, yes, such dignified patriotic decor for a venerable early American house.

I'm sure they do something similar in Colonial Williamsburg on such days.

When we bought That Old House, she was yellow, with green shutters.

And she had lots of boo-boos needing attention; her complexion was a disaster.

(Translation: don't look too closely at her lattice, shutters, trim and other delicate areas.)

Our second Christmas, in 2009, our daughters and I decorated the front door.

In the snow.

I think we'll do a similar door decoration this year,

but no more yellow house with white trim; That Old House got a paint job back in June.

Crisp white on the old cedar clapboards and woodwork, and all her boo-boos fixed.

Blue porch ceiling, gray porch floor.

Dark, dark, dark green on the shutters and around the front door.

Sadly, most of the old shutters were shot; they will be replaced someday when the Shutter Fairy shows up.

In August, we discovered that the proper state for a front porch anticipating a hurricane is nekkid.

But now it's Fall, and our old farmhouse-in-the-suburbs

is getting its gold on, along with its oranges and russets and

plums and dark greens ... all those autumn colors.

That's a fake Jack O Lantern on that teeny wicker chair.

I love electric Jack O Lanterns; plug 'em in and let 'em shine.

No worries that you'll fry a squirrel or burn the house down.

Our front porch won't get much attention from us this weekend.

We are heading out east to Long Island, to the family beach house.  Big plans -- some painting,

some slipcover-wrestling (soon to be an Olympic sport), just enough wallpapering to avoid divorce,

a few meals of local fish and veggies, much staring at the watery views, 

and the sit-down-and-take-an-unplanned-naps that salt air force upon you.  Have a lovely weekend!  -- Cass

Link Parties!

LaurieAnna's Vintage Home is the place for Farmhouse Friday.  Click here!

At My Romantic Home, it's Show And Tell Friday.  Click here!

Feathered Nest Friday makes its home at French Country Cottage.  Click here!

The Charm of Home features Home Sweet Home on Fridays.  Click here!

It's Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground.  Click here!

Bring On The Fluff

 

Who inspires your seasonal decorating?
This year, believe it or not, it was my husband
who got me motivated.

On Sunday he hauled home potted mums and pumpkins,

resurrected a couple of scarecrows from the shed,

and began Fall Fluffing the landscape here at That Old House.

Bless his little pea-pickin' heart.

What Howard did was a good start,

but that door needs a little shot of Fall Fluff.

 Yeah.  This porch needs work.

By the way, I swept that porch yesterday, but the leaves just keep on coming.

I went to A. C. Moore last evening, minutes before they closed, and buzzed through the store

looking for something I could turn into a gorgeous Fall wreath.

I had Inspiration Photos in my head, from the Better Homes and Gardens website:

 I like casual, natural looking wreaths.

 Full ones, or . . .

 . . . lopsided asymmetrical designs.

Love those feathers, too.

 This one, below, is gorgeous -- brilliant and breezy looking,

as if someone just flung it together, and hung it up.

Yeah, I'm sure that's what really happened.

 

 The one, below, really appeals to me -- it looks as if it is made

up of spare parts from other wreaths.  I can relate to that.

Love the stuff sticking out each side, too.

I love goofy, crazy, messy, casual wreaths.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find what I needed at A. C. Moore to make such a wreath.

And you know when you just can't wait?

When you have to have that project done, right away, even though

the only time limit is in your own fevered little mind?

So, I found a wreath of silk autumn-colored maple leaves,

half-price, and mounted on a black twig base.

It put me in mind of this wreath, below, from the BH&G website:

I bought some bittersweet berry picks and tucked them in,

but my daughter Anne said that they made it look too much like a wreath from a store.

I pulled them out; turns out she was right.

So, I just fluffed the maple leaves, and tied a big raffia bow on the purchased wreath.

Lopsided.  Here it is:

 

I had to bang a new nail in the old storm door -- gingerly, as much of the glass in this front entryway

is more than 150 years old -- you can see the wiggly wavy panes in some of the pictures.

But I had to put the nail up high on the door,

and didn't have any nice ribbon to make a hanging loop for the wreath.

So it looked kinda goofy, up so high.

Then I remembered that I had an Autumn-look wreath hanger thingy, so up it went, and on went the wreath.

I will replace it with ribbon eventually, as now the wreath is too low!

 See?  Too low.

But nothing some beautiful Fall ribbon won't cure.

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 Please take a look at the picture below, on the left.

I have studied this picture, a lot, and can't figure out

what the white, sort of ghostly image is, behind the old glass.

Can you?

We've had a few unusual experiences here at That Old House, and our painter is convinced

the house is haunted (that's a whole 'nother post!), but there must be an explanation for this.

Right?

Well, I'm just rambling on and on this afternoon, and am late -- as usual -- to a few Link Parties.

A moment of truth!

See this lovely mum in the equally lovely cement basket?

Doesn't it look full, lush and big?

 I'm officially a knucklehead.

I tried to fit the mum into this basket, which has a handle; I thought I could split the plant,

with the handle between two sides of the blooms . . . and it didn't work.

And now it's stuck.

 As long as I only show it from the front, it looks fine.  Oops.  Too late!

Happy Fall, my friends!  -- Cass

I have a feeling this wreath will be getting a few additions as the weeks of Autumn wear on.  Yeah, it will.

Linky Parties.

Mosaic Monday at Little Red House.  Click here.

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps On The Porch.  Click here.

 Show Off Your Cottage Monday at The House In The Roses.  Click here!

Funday Monday

So today is Monday,

and I am putting on my Cinderella duds

and taking care of business.

My Mom loved housework -- not just the end results, but the process.

She loved to clean.

I really envy that.

Out of all the crazies I inherited from her, why not that one?

But needs must.  Get a load of this:

This copper rooster weathervane hangs from our conservatory ceiling.

Years ago I slung a green beaded necklace on his arrow, and it's still there.

But there's a new decoration.

Can you see the line of cobwebby stuff from his wing to his wattle?

Trust me, it's there.  Looks like a shadow.  Enlarge the picture at your peril.

This Norwegian treenware bowl has lovely rosemaling.

And not such lovely dust.

Our dear dog Dion had a bath yesterday, and for 24 hours

afterward he sheds like a son of a -- well, what he is.

 Dion reminds us that there is a solution to this -- no baths!

Too late!

Our dog does professional-level fuzz distribution post-bath.

Oh well.   Time to stop whinging and put my Big Girl pants on.

It ain't getting done while I'm planted here at the computer.

Maybe later, I'll take this empty parlor fireplace mantel

and play with decorating it.  After I dust it, of course!

In 2009, this was our September mantel:

2010's Fall decorating was much simpler, below, as we were busy painting and fixing the kitchen

and sunroom, and my Dad was in and out of the hospital

last Fall -- too busy to fuss overmuch.

Okay, full disclosure:  I'd misplaced some of the Fall decor last year.  I have since found it.  Life's good.

This year, I think we should go a little over the top, don't you?

Meanwhile, if one of you has a spare one of these:

Fairy Godmother.  This image and Cinderella courtesy of  The Graphics Fairy, a most generous lady!

. . . please send her to That Old House, where she can wave her magic wand and Poof! my dust shall vanish.

Because as a friend of mine (who had 6 children) once said,

"Housework is like stringing beads on a cord with no knot on the end."

What is your least favorite chore?  -- Cass

Autumn Arrives at That Old House -- Mosaics and A Metmorphosis

It is the last day of Summer.

I'd like to hang onto it, but. . . the grapes are ripe, the leaves are beginning to yellow, the tomatoes are staying green, and last night I was appalled when it was dark by 7:30.

Even I can't fight it. I'm tossing in the beach towel and welcoming Fall.


Some weeks back, I posted about not having done any decorating in the parlor; the mantel was usually bare, sometimes sporting a simple vase of garden or supermarket flowers. Or, all too often, the empty vase of flower water and a few fallen blossoms:

Pretty pathetic, huh? Yeah, you can say it.

So with the onset of the new season, I fished around in my
"Fall Decor"storage boxes to see what I could find.

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It's Metamorphosis Monday; thank you, Susan, for your hosting (hostessing?) of this terrific blog party at the equally terrific Between Naps On The Porch blog.

Click on any highlighted words or the icon to visit Susan's blog and see other entries.

I hope you stick around -- I would like your opinion on something!

For Mary at the lovely and elegant Little Red House, who hosts Mosaic Monday, I've put the parlor mantel into two collages. Mary's own mosaic today is particularly nice; I want to walk into it.

One of my mosaics is supposed to look very casual, as if you've just recklessly tossed the photos
and voila! they landed in perfect artless grace. Yeah, that's what I did. . . .

The other is more regimented.

The pictures stop clowning around and behave themselves.

Well, it ain't perfect, but it is an improvement over smelly flower water and dead petals.

Oh dear . . . another of my reality moments; the dust cloths are casually draped over the
arm of the wing chair, exhausted after their unaccustomed labor. Oops.

Closer looks:
My old hurricanes, with chunky candles perched on pewter candlesticks.
A pottery pumpkin -- can't remember where I got it.
The glass pumpkin at the other end -- a gift from my brother Lindy and his wife Carol.
A runner of old lace, from my Mom.

A swag of faux magnolia leaves (I think) and fruits and berries, to which I added some random glass-glittered fruit.
I've had this swag since 2002 and it's the first time I used it.

And now. . . this:

It's cute, but, well, kitschy -- a long string of tiny fake pumpkins and squashes; not any attempt to make it seem real. I draped it around the decorations, but ... I can't make up my mind.

Here's both ways --

With the phake pumpkin garland

Without the phake pumpkin garland

And there you have it.

I will leave you with a visit from a tiny friend,
who is inspecting our conservatory roof. . . and mooning us!
I'm not sure what he's finding up there, but he and his buddies are visiting every day.

Have a lovely last day of Summer. Sigh. Till June, then -- Cass