Fall Decor

Our little house has very few places to decorate. Since living here I have become much more of a minimalist than I used to be. The motto has been if you aren't using it or it doesn't serve a purpose, DONATE IT. Otherwise I end up dusting little things that sit around and take up space, making my 700 square foot living space look incredibly crowded. Don't get me wrong, I do like to decorate. I actually have boxes of things I haven't even unpacked because I don't have space for them but imagine someday I will, in another house. I have had to figure out how to make our space tasteful, festive, cute, and uncluttered/unbusy. Here are some shots of how I decorated for fall.

Above our some black cardstock bats. I originally saw them here and you can link to the original country living template too.

Above is what we experimented with in our garden this year, a variety of eggplant that looks like a mini pumpkin. I didn't get many since we had a pretty good freeze before a lot of them got ripe. I should have started them earlier or live somewhere with a longer growing season. At least I got enough to decorate the Halloween tree.

I've started collecting pheasant tail feathers as well. Someday I might so something with them like make a wreath (if we shoot enough pheasants) but for now I stick them in a garage sale tobacco tin. It looks a little empty though. Guess we need to go hunting more.

A lot of my decorations are cheapies. I have collected the over the past few years from Michaels, Tai Pan trading, Real Deals, and garage sales. I am not big on glittery, sparkly, cutesy decorations. Instead I like a more rustic simple neutral approach. I think if I could decorate with all fall harvest items I would. I just can't bring myself to but a 5 dollar pumpkin. Call me crazy, but I think it's too much. I tried to grow some of my own decorations, garage sale the others, and collect along the way.

Battle....EGG! A la cuisine!

Each year Eric and I battle it out (Iron Chef Style) to see who can dye the best easter eggs. I won last year and Eric was determined to emerge victorious. He has developed a new technique called "fire" which involves rubbing the bad colors off the egg that turned brown before putting it into another new color. It appears this technique made an appearance during last year's competition as well. This year it has a name..."fire." As in "Hold on, let me fire this one." We have also developed "the black hole." Take a large cottage cheese container and pour all the dye colors in it to see what color it turns. Please feel free to post your vote for the winner below.



contestant 1



contestant 2



Happy Easter

Hi Everyone,

Hope your Easter was great. Today Eric and I went to the church close by. I made potato pancakes and rhubarb cake and we dyed eggs. I won last year's egg dying festivities and we thought that this year we could let the readers decide. The pictures may clue you in to who we think the winner is. Eric decided to put his hand into the picture. I had to add in a picture of Mr. Chops when we try to keep him away from his "outside bell" in the kitchen. He has figured out how to make puppy eyes. Eric is heading to CO tomorrow with the dog for some R&R before he starts his job. Needless to say I am extremely jealous, but will be going down in May for Ty and Mere's graduation. Greenhouse is getting up to 80 and working well. Will put up some new plant pics soon.

Home for the Holidays

GREAT NEWS! We have officially moved into our house. It turned out that instead of "Live in by Thankgivin" it was "Live in by Dec. 18th at two in the morning in frigid weather." As a result we are both sick. I am blamed for sharing the sickness, but I am maintaining it wasn't my fault and was due to moving. The house is turning out very cute, We have our new front door, new bedroom door, paint, carpet, and will be starting trim when we get home. As soon as we get internet I will post new cute pictures since it has come a long way in the last month or so. When we get home we are looking forward to unpacking, hanging some pictures, feeling like our life has some organization, stability, and actually belongs to us, and getting ready for our new puppy. I check the kennel website everyday for updated pictures. If you want to check it out at http://kevin56601.tripod.com/ our puppies are from the Bristol and Haas parents and we are getting a male. So far we like number one but think they are all cute. We're still looking for name suggestions so please feel free to contribute. Wish you all a Merry Christmas.