Outdoor Living

 I was just thinking that I have quite a few pals that have been with me for sometime now and that they have already seen our dining room on several occasions. I know yawn. Thus seeing as I worked on some sewing and then came outside to freshen things up after a trip to Lowes I thought that I would share our patio transformation to keep my long time bloggy pals from being bored.

This is the view of the back of our home when we purchased it last summer. That lil' porch was just not going to do. The first thing we did after we moved in was extend the patio. 

 We loved it! This is a pic taken back in January. 

It was our most expensive purchase after we moved in but well worth it in our book.

This was our patio set that I was in the process of revamping.

Here it is after a fresh coat ...okay several fresh coats...of oil rubbed bronze. You may be wondering why it is sitting over here in the grass. Well it was waiting for it's new owner to come and pick it up. I ended up selling it on the local yard sale site. Why you may be wondering??

Because a few months back we wondered thru the garden section at WM and found this set at 65% off! It was love at first site! I also fell in love with that solar lantern there that we purchased at Costco. I loved it so much we bought two!;)

The glass is just divine.

I love how bright it shines at night. I had my doubts and almost put them back till a lady in line next to us was reading my mind and knew my doubt. She said that she had some and that they were just wonderful and bright. 

This is our patio today after I freshened things up a bit. I was able to purchase the umbrella with the money from our old patio set with some extra left over. I love it when things work out that way!;)

This was the view from the breakfast room door back in January. 

This is the view today! I found this rug today at Lowes.  It was outside on clearance for $30 and is an inside rug. The gal out there guarding all the sidewalk sale items saw me eyeing it and said if I wanted it I could have it for $20. SOLD! I had no idea what I would do with it. Thought maybe I would use it in the living room but it was too large of a print for in there. The Hubster said to use to in the movie room but I said it was too feminine. I then decided that it would look lovely back here even though it is an inside only rug since it cost just $20. It is amazing what just a little punch of color can do. Now I can just change out the rugs whenever I want!

Pic from January after my first dumpster dive! You can read abt that here!;)

The view today!

 I finally hung up our lantern. I can not wait to see what it looks like this evening. Where I have it hanging you can see it all the way at the front door when coming in the house. All we need now is a fan. I know if I wait long enough I will score a great deal. It is all about being patient and not settling. Patience being the key word!;)

This is the view from our love seat. Pure bliss! Well it will be once we tackle some landscaping. Still looking for that money tree.

What were the boys doing while I was freshening up and taken pics? They were making a movie with my phone!:)
Hope you enjoyed the tour and feel free to come by and chill on the back porch with us anytime! When I started my blog we had an absolute wonderful front porch with a lil' bistro set and everything thus the name of my blog. I just loved it and missed it terribly. Now I am in love with our back porch but no worries my name will stay the same. One day I hope we are lucky enough to have a front and back porch to enjoy life on.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend! It is just lovely here!

Linking up to Metamorphosis Mondays over at BNOTP!:)

High Hopes

High hopes, yep that is what I had. I had hoped to be able to show y'all  our  dining room all decked out for fall and with the newly revamped curtains just in time for Show Us Where You Live Friday over at Kelly's Korner. That so did not happen. After being sick for over a week I fell  behind on things. I have been trying to catch up on my orders as well as getting some of my many many projects around the house further along. 

With that being said here is my reality right now. So sad I know. Pretend you do not see that curtain treatment in the corner back there. That is for another post hopefully next week sometime. 

Lets rewind a bit shall we. This is what our dining room looked like when we moved in last year.

This is what our dining room looked like about two weeks ago before I decided to bust out the fall decor and try to figure out the curtains.

Before shot looking in from the hallway from our kitchen. 

A few weeks ago. I was trying to figure out how I wanted to hang our curtains and well I did not like how it turned out so much.

This is what they will be hanging from now. I just purchased some regular length rods at HobLob which which the gal gave me at half off because she considered them wall decor. The Papa chopped um down for me while he was out here last month. So much better I think.
Thanx for stopping by for a visit! I hope to have the dining room back to normal next week and decorated as well as having the newly revamped curtains both up so stop back by if ya get a chance! If ya want to check out my post on the complete dining room redo click here. 

P.s Hello new bloggy friends! I am thrilled you have decided to follow along!

A Bit More Fall

I have been working on this to share with y'all but it is taking quite a bit longer seeing as I am a fly by the seat of my pants can't read a pattern to save my life kinda gal. I knew exactly how I wanted it to look so it has taken some ingenious sewing on my part to achieve the look but I think I have arrived at a final process and hope to be able to share the final result by the end of the week. Till then I thought I would share some more of my fall lovelies with y'all. Enjoy!:)

I am pretty much keeping it simple this year. 

More simplicity.

These sit on the ledge into the kitchen. All I did was add a candle ring to the bottom of the lamp to add instant fall charm.

This is the top of our t.v. armoire. I usually keep it shut when not in use but since I added the cute autumn sign I have been able to scale back on my OCD issues and leave it open.

This is our landing on the way to upstairs. Sorry the lighting is so terrible! Again if I would just read the directions for my camera which I have owned a year almost I could probably figure out how to solve this lighting dilemma but I digress. 

This is one of my fave spots to decorate and the only place that I am adding true Halloween decor. I am not big on official Halloween but for my boys I needed to add a few touches. I think I need some spider webs and a spider or two and maybe an owl to sit on the lantern.

Until then this will have to do. The boys love it!

Before I go look  what I won!! I am sooo truly excited! I won this beautiful sign last week from Paula over at Castle and Cottage! I have two spots in mind for it but need to finish up a few things before I decide. Thanx again Paula for such a wonderful give away! Head on over to her blog! She has an Etsy shop full of lovelies! And on another WhooHoo Stephanie Lynn over at Under The Table And Dreaming featured my fall mantel post! So exciting! Thanx Stephanie Lynn! 

P.s. Joining in on the fun over at Cottage & Vine for Falling Up! Come on over and join in if ya can! Also joining in on Fall Open House over at Hooked On Houses!

The Fall Fairy

I woke up this morning and found out that the fall fairy finally decided to stop by our house! 

She was very thoughtful and was sure to take a before pic. Thanx fall fairy!;)

This is the magic she was able to pull off with only items I already had around the house. 

I am glad that she decided to leave the rooster roof tile. I think he still goes nicely mixed in with fall.

She pulled out my fave candle sticks that I purchased a few years back from Illuminations. I loved that store and hated to see it close. The entire store was lite only by candle light. 

The fall fairy was also able to keep my HomeGoods frenchy vase and sticks. I think I need to get an initial pumpkin from HobLob to sit down there as well. 

The fall fairy was using her trusty book of fall inspirations I guess to guide her!;) She did a great job replicating it!

No, really I found this site called PhotoFunia a few weeks back and love playing around with the vintage effects. I thought I would share it with y'all as well! This is our house in Baton Rouge that I did with a vintage feel. I want to find pics of all three of our homes and make a display with them. You can spend hours on this site but not to worry, I only spent abt 30 minutes.
Thanx for stopping by to view a sneak peek at what I have been up to in the wee hours on the night while my men were sleeping. Hopefully by the end of the week I will be done and take ya on a tour of all my autumn glory.
For now though I am linking up to Funky Junk Interiors SNS, Sunday Showcase Party, and Metamorphosis Mondays once it is up and running. Off to check out what HobLob has one sale this week and well some of the everyday mundane boring stuff too. Have a good one y'all!

P.s Just found out that The Nester is hosting a Fall Mantel Party so I am linking up too!:)