Southern Scraps

I hope everyone in the area of Sandy is safe and recovering. I've been a little quiet since Halloween, but Halloween is very busy for us, so not much else got accomplished last week and then we had to recover! I finally got a chance to move on to some fall projects this weekend, and I've packed up Halloween and replaced it with fall/thanksgiving items. I'll be sharing some of that later. I replaced the summer back porch items with fall items, and once again, I made pillows from placemats. I found these placemats at Tuesday Morning and knew they would be perfect for fall. These are the easiest pillows ever- just pick out a small section of the seam on a double thickness placemat and stuff with polyfill. Sew your section back up and you are good to go. I also found this fun striped dish towel at Tuesday Morning and loved that it coordinated with my green pillows and still has a fall feel. I was going to make a pillow like these   with two dish towels but the...

    I rarely decorate for fall. Around here, it's all Halloween ! And trust me, Halloween will take over my porch soon- the hubby is just running  a little late with some of his projects. In the meantime, I added a few fall and Halloween touches to my porch.   As you can see from above, I replaced the hydrangeas from the summer porch with some mums. Below you see I still have the same flowers on the side table, but I covered the blue planter with some Halloween paper so the bright blue wouldn't be so distracting. I replaced the lantern with a black one and added a dollar tree ceramic pumpkin. I just put out a placemat on the table to add some color.       I had to replace the plants in the corner planter because the summer ones passed away. There is a little of the sweet potato vine left and I hope it rejuvenates and survives. I added a couple of pumpkins over there. Next time, I'll look for a larger pumpkin. I just happened t...

I've kept you in suspense too long. I said I'd be sharing my back porch makeover, so here it is. I started with a blank pallette, with the exception of the furniture we've had for a few years. All we had was the furniture. No plants, no personality. We did have a light up palm tree, but that was it. You can tell from the top picture that the first thing I did was go to Lowe's and get some plants to create some container gardens. It was already late in the season, so there wasn't much to choose from but I got some container garden fill-ins for 50% off. Just plop them in a pot and you are done. I got some other plants as well to create my own mix. ( Bella was also helping me lay everything out.) Here's another before shot. Now here's those plants: I picked up the cute little chair plant stand at Wal-Mart. The flip flop candle holder and butterfly lantern came from Pier One. I bought them when I was shopping for the front porch makeover...

I'm so excited to share that I finally made over my front porch, or really I should say I decorated it for the first time. I've been in this house almost six years, and never really decorated the front porch. It gets some attention at Halloween and Christmas , but other than that it's been pretty bare. Here's a little peak: (Stick with me, lots of pictures, but totally worth it.)

My front and back porches are in need of some cleaning and attention. The back one stays either covered in pollen in the spring and fall or dirt in the summer, so I don't think it's worth putting a lot of extra stuff out there. It would just be more to clean. Hopefully one day we will replace the screen with glass and it will be a nice room to enjoy. In the meantime, I can focus on the front door and porch. It's not a big porch but there is room for a couple of chairs and a few things. Here are some front doors and porches that inspire me. Look what some paint and bright pretty flowers can do: 320 Sycamore The Frugal Homemaker Design, Dining and Diapers Pillows and plants add a lot of color and visual interest too. bhg.com diy Design Fanatic