"Give Thanks" Pumpkins

Hello hello! I hope all of you had a fabulous weekend! 

I spent all day Saturday in Athens, tailgating and watching the Dawgs kick Auburn's butt.

Yesterday, I did some things around the house and started prepping for next week when David and I are hosting our very first Thanksgiving! 

I decided to take the traditional route and use pumpkins as our centerpiece on the table next week, but I wanted to spruce them up a little. I bought whole cinnamon cloves and wrote a little Thanksgiving message by sticking them in the pumpkins.

 After tracing the letters on the pumpkins with a pencil, I used a meat thermometer to poke the holes in the pumpkins before adding the cloves (of course David walked in and asked me if the pumpkins were medium or medium rare, ha). And that's it... really a simple project!

The pumpkins smell incredible. Fresh cinnamon is one of the best fall smells! Until the rest of the dining room table is ready, these guys are hanging out on my mantle in the living room. I am praying that they don't go bad between now and next week! And if they do, my local produce store has the mini pumpkins for 2/$1, so it won't be too hard to recreate for the big turkey day. 

Have you done any turkey day prep yet?

Sharing with:
Serenity Now

Fall Has Fallen At Ten June

I might be a little late jumping on the fall decor bandwagon this year, but fall has officially arrived at the Ten June household! David and I have challenged ourselves with a no-spend October (meaning we're not spending on anything that's not already budgeted for, like household items, utilities and the occasional purchase we've been saving for) but we decided to bend the rules by $20 for our fall decor. So that was my budget, folks. Hey, I like a challenge.

Sit back, pretend you're on a hayride with a hot pumpkin latte in your hand
and welcome to the fall tour of my casa!

 

I dressed up my front door with my DIY wreath from last season. I also added $6.66 worth of yellow mums and a $3.00 pumpkin to the front porch.

 

I simply tweaked a few things on our regular mantle to make it feel more fallish. 

The owl was a $4 HomeGoods purchase (which I was pretty excited about, considering I've seen them at West Elm for $20!). By the way, how fabulous is that bright white trim paint looking! Love it.

I did a free switcharoo by replacing the framed botanical print post cards from our regular mantle with beautiful leaves we found on our mountain trip last weekend. Cute and sentimental- I'm sold.

 

I added a few fall leaves to my DIY paintchip garland, just to step it up a notch.

 

Fresh picked apples from Elijay, Georgia- yumm!

I spent $5 on an assortment of mini pumpkins and gourds to scatter throughout the house. 

 

There you have it, fall around my house for under $20! I really like all of the natural elements that I used this year- makes it feel like fall without going Clark Griswold with the holiday decor.

Have you decorated for fall?

Sharing with:
The CSI Project

Fall Paintchip Garland

This little project is easy, peasy folks! And, if you're a klepto bold like me, it's free!

I, ahem, collected a few paint chip samples from my local hardware store. I chose gorgeous fall colors- burnt orange, creamy white and chocolate brown- and mixed them with a pop of an unexpected pink. I think the pink brings in a touch of modern sass to the decor. 

 (the shame! a crappy iPhone pic... I was too lazy to get out my new camera)

I used my handy Fiskars circle punch (I've got two sizes) to cut out the circles from the chips.

[Psst! I noticed in my local ad that these are 30% off at JoAnns right now!]

Grab some clear fishing wire + Scotch tape and BOOM. You've got yourself a fun fall garland. I decided to hang mine in the breakfast are of my kitchen. The game plan is to spruce up the table with a pretty fall centerpiece to complement the garland. And hopefully, once the leaves begin to change outside, they'll peek through the windows and add even more fall beautimousness.

 

Up close and personal. 

This could actually be a fun project for a kids room or party decor.

I'm really loving the random splash of hot pink I threw in there, mixed with the traditional fall colors.

Whatcha think? Will you be running to the paint department with a large purse anytime soon?!

Sharing with:
The Inspired Room
The Shabby Nest
Serenity Now
Under the Table & Dreaming 
The DIY Showoff 
Between Naps on the Porch 
The Girl Creative 
Blue Cricket Design 
Tatertots and Jello
The CSI Project

Everything Fall

Hi friends! I've got my first fall project ready to share with all of you, but unfortunately I didn't have a chance to upload the pictures yet! The project is adorable, though... not to mention free. Can't beat that! I promise to get pictures up at some point today, so stay tuned : )

Until then, you can check out my view on all things fall all over blog land today!

First up, you'll find me at sweet Nicole's blog, Busy Girl, sharing my favorite fall fashions.

via

 I'm also stopping over at the blog of my real-life friend Natasha. I'm at Schue Love today sharing my favorite fall things in her Fall Five series. If you've got a fall inspired post you'd like to share, be sure to head over to her blog and link up!

And, finally, I'm over at the fabulous Kate's blog today with my latest contributing writer article for Centsational Girl. Don't worry, it's got a fall theme as well! Do you find it tough to make the transition with your home decor from summer to fall? I've gathered some great tips and advice on how to bring fall to your home in the most simple of ways!

via

Head on over to these fabulous blogs and say hi!

I Heart Fall. Like, A Lot.

Oh, hello September!!

That's right, folks. It is officially September 1! And while that might mean sad faces for some of you who will miss the summer, I'm thrilled. Fall is my favvvvvorite time of year, for sure. And no, it's not just because September is my birthday month. It's for a million reasons. The crisp air... the tailgating... the excitement of the holidays around the corner... I could go on and on!

Here are a few of my top favorite fall things.

1- I love fall shoes. From boots to ballet flats, the coziness of cool weather shoes makes me smile. This season, I'm absolutely loving the leather loafer wedge trend! Gorgeous dahhling.

2- As much as I'm loving summer color on my nails (today's color? peach!), I looove dark nail polish. My favorite is Essie's Wicked.

3- Pumpkin spice everything. Lattes. Muffins. Beer. My world famous (ok, maybe Paula Deen's world famous) Oooey Gooey Cake. If it's pumpkin and it's edible, I'm in love.

4- Scarves. Unlike you west coasters out there who get to wear scarves year-round, us Georgia kids only have a few months of scarf-worthy weather. So you bet I take full advantage!

5- Gap's Corduroy Skinny pants. My. Favorite. Pants. Ever. I just about wore out my gray pair last season. Comfortable, chic and perfect for fall.

6- Autumn weather is just right for camping and hiking. From September to November, me, David and the pups are BFF with the north Georgia mountains. In fact, David even proposed to me at the end of a hike on top of a mountain (like I told ya'll here)! We heart nature.

7- Who's that coming down the track? A mean machine in red and black! Goooooo DAWGS! Sic 'em! I hope I've got a lot of SEC fans out there- that will make this college season (WHICH STARTS SATURDAY-YESSSS!) a lot of fun! Just as long as you're not a Gator fan, and then we might not be able to be friends... I'm not saying, but I'm saying ; )

What do you love the most about fall?

Happy Halloween!

image via

Every single year, I force myself to wait until the day before Halloween to buy candy for the trick-or-treaters. Why is that? It has nothing to do with procrastination, just with the fact that I eat it all  I can't exactly say no to a gigantic bag of candy sitting in my house.

But that usually means that we get stuck with passing out the leftover candy  that is still sitting on the shelf the day before Halloween, and so I thought I'd be a little bit smarter this year. Yesterday, I hit up the "buy one, get one free" candy sale at Publix on my lunch break. Big mistake. I ate four pieces in the half mile drive back to my office. And two more at my desk. And three more while sitting in traffic on my way home. Let's be honest, I have no self control when it comes to mini Kit Kat and Butterfinger bars. Ahh! Attack of the Halloween candy.

I have to share my Halloween costume from last year. The big VMA scandal had just occured and so the hubby and I had to monopolize on the opportunity to argue over a Moon Man all night (did I say Moon Man? I mean an old soccer trophy!). Remember this?

image via

Well here we are, our own Kanye West and Taylor Swift.

Cue laughing and lots of blackmail for actually sharing this picture! :)

The picture's a little blurry and you can't quite see our awesome Taylor cowboy boots and hot pink Kanye tennis shoes, but you get the drift. Remind me to never dye my hair blonde- that wig is horrendous on me!

This year, we'll simply be dressing up in red and black as two University of Georgia fans at the UGA v. Florida football game in Jacksonville, Florida. I am so excited for a fun little weekend away. Go Dawgs! The hubby will definitely be wearing his game day shoes. Hilarious, right?!

And we'll be back on Sunday, just in time to pass out candy to the little neighborhood kiddos... if there's any left by then :)

What are ya'll dressing up as for Halloween?

PS. A major thanks to the fabulous Courtney over at A Thoughtful Place for featuring my blog today! What an honor! If you haven't stopped by her blog yet, you should definitely do so. It's one of my daily reads :)

Get Out the Rake

Thanks to all of you for your sweet comments about step one of our kitchen/breakfast room/dining room makeover. One of my favorite parts about blogging is how kind and supportive (not to mention inspirational!) all of you are. You guys rock.

So, I actually got home from work while it was still daylight yesterday and I noticed a little something in the front of our house... those beautiful fall leaves that have graced our treetops over the last few weeks are starting to pile up on the ground. Ladies and gents- I think it's time to get out the rake blower and do a little fall lawn maintenance!

Here's my view of the yard yesterday.

I am loving how our house looks in all of its autumn glory. And while it means a lot of leaves, I am certainly grateful for all of our beautiful hardwood trees.

Can you believe it's already time to pull out the old rake?! Have any of you rolled around in the leaf piles yet?

My Weekend: Fall in the South

How much do you love a beautiful fall weekend? It makes starting the week (especially on a rainy, dreary Monday!) a little bit easier. This weekend, I did so many fun things- spent some amazing quality time with my nieces, watched UGA win against Kentucky (Go Dawgs!), walked away from church Sunday morning filled with joy-- we sang "How Great Is Our God", which is one of my favorites!, and got a lot of things done around the house.

On Saturday, David and I, along with my brother-in-law, Greggory and his girlfriend, Brooke, took our nieces to Jaemor Farms.  The farm has a corn maze, pumpkin patch, tractor hayrides, a food market, and lots of fun games for the kiddos.

Of course, I took a ton of pictures. Here are the twins celebrating a victorious turn in the middle of the corn maze (we let them lead the way, which actually got us through in less than an hour!).



The pumpkin patch.

And here are the sweet little pumpkins we picked out, already out on our front porch steps.

The farmers market part of the farm was definitely my personal favorite.

The market had lots of fun fall gourds.

And, of course, lots of pumpkins of all shapes and sizes.

They had some absolutely beautiful mums.

And ohhhh, the Southern food.

Boiled peanuts.

Fried peach pies.

And yes, the fried peach pie tasted as good as it looks :) We also got some homemade apple butter, which is just perfection on top of a fresh, homemade biscuit.

On the home front, I'm excited to say that I'll have our big reveal pictures of Operation Paint Project: Part One ready tomorrow! I'm so excited to share- our work is finally paying off and we're more than happy with the results so far.

What kind of fun did you get into this weekend?