We made it through the spooky month! I admit, I’m not the biggest fan of spooky decor. (There are worse faults a person could have!) But, now what? Done with the Halloween stuff but not quite ready to tear into all the Christmas decor? Here are a few ways to keep your home nice and cozy, just by adding a few touches of winter to your decor—and you don’t have to pack up your pumpkins.
Mirror Nature
I know this is one of my popular refrains but it’s so true! Take a look outside—what do you see? Granted, this may be a little more difficult to see if you live in the south, but for those of us who live in the north, we are starting to see that most of the trees have lost their leaves, frost is appearing on branches and you may even see little red winter berries starting to appear on bushes. Try tucking a few frosted branches in amongst your pumpkins. Stick large branches in a vase. Try mixing real branches from trees with faux frosted branches for a more dimensional look. Stick a spray of faux, real, or dried berries into a vase.
Curate Your Colors
If you do more of a traditional decor color palette for fall that consists of yellow, orange, and red, try editing down your colors. I would take out anything yellow and anything that is a super bright, fall color. By the time Thanksgiving rolls around, the colors in nature have started to fade considerably.
Leave the Pumpkins
Keep your pumpkins. I think nothing is more gorgeous than sticking a spray of red berries into a vignette with your pumpkins. Tuck frosted greenery in with white pumpkins, if you have a more neutral look.
Refresh
Do one last sweep for any scarecrows or overtly early fall decor. Pack up those things and then stand back and examine. Have things gotten a little rough around the edges? Rather than waiting until after Thanksgiving, reset things and do a little tidying up now, so it will be less overwhelming later.
Next Add a Few Touches of Winter
Faux Fur
Scandinavian decor has cornered the market on cozy. One of the things that I love about Scandinavian decor is the use of faux furs. Bring in a faux fur throw blanket, throw pillows, or (my favorite) a faux animal pelt and drape it over a chair, or use as a small floor mat.
Chunky Knits
If you haven’t yet, and especially if you live in a four-seasons climate, pull out the chunky knit throws and blankets.
Winter Decor
I briefly touched on this earlier but try adding frosted greenery, a spray of frosted berries, or a spray of non-frosted berries to your decor. Play with adding these to your centerpiece, or a fall vignette.
Candles, Candles, Candles
This is the perfect time to pull out your white candles—be they pillar candles, votive candles, or a traditional candle stick. Remember, all of these come in battery options too, if you aren’t crazy about an open flame in your home. If you want to dress it up even more, you can place votive candles in mercury glass votive holders and thereby add some sparkle.
I hope this helps inspire you to play with your decor this Thanksgiving and helps you to create a cozy home that you and your family can curl up in and enjoy this holiday season!
Other Posts You May Enjoy:
Alternative Christmas Color Palettes
How to Decorate Your Home for Winter
How to Create A Vignette for Any Room in Your Home
I have always been a soup-and-salad-type of girl. I love soup, as in I could (and do) eat it all year round! I realize that while not everyone may enjoy soup all year long, most of us can enjoy a good bowl of soup in these colder months. Here are several of my favorite soup recipes. These have been big hits, not just in my family, but also to most everyone I have served them too. Since soup is so easy to throw in a pot and let simmer, it is often my fall back-up option when entertaining—and these recipes have been real crowd pleasers!
Hot Sausage Soup
18 oz. (1 pkg.) hot sausage links (I like Uncle Charley’s)
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
1-32 oz. can crushed tomatoes
2 cans great northern beans
1 pkg. of spinach
Dash of hot sauce
1 green pepper
Water
Oil
Salt and pepper
You can make this either on a stovetop or in a crockpot. If you decide to make it in a crockpot, you do not have to brown the meat, onions and pepper beforehand, but be sure to cook for about 6-8 hours if this is what you choose. Also, beware the onions and green pepper will have a slightly softer taste, however I hardly ever take the time to cook my onion and pepper ahead of time and I have had no complaints.
Slice sausages links and brown in a pan over medium/low heat. While the meat is browning, slice onions and green pepper and once sausage is mostly brown, add in the onion, green pepper, and garlic. Cook until onion and pepper are soft and sausage is thoroughly browned. Add the crushed tomatoes and 32 ounces of water to your cooking pot of choice. Rinse and add one can of beans. Rinse the other can of beans and the purée(?) before adding. This will thicken your soup. Add sausage, onions, green pepper, and garlic from pan. Add a touch of salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Cook for 1.5 hours on stove top or longer if using a crockpot. Stir occasionally. After 1.5 hours add the spinach and cook another 15-20 minutes until spinach is wilted. Then, dish up and enjoy!
Garlic bread, croutons, and shredded cheddar cheese go great with this!
Broccoli Cheese Soup
2 Tbs. butter
1 medium onion
6 cups water
6 chicken bouillon cubes
8 oz. of rice
2-10 oz. pkgs. of chopped broccoli
½ tsp garlic powder
6 cups milk
1 lb. Velveeta cheese
Sauté onion for 3 minutes, until tender. Add water and bouillon cubes and bring to a boil. Add broccoli and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes, or until broccoli pierces easily with a fork. Cube cheese. Reduce heat and add milk and cheese and stir until dissolved.
This is soup—grandma always said cook low and slow so the flavor can really come to strength and this is so true! You can cook for a short amount of time or several hours. The important thing is about 20-30 minutes before you finish cooking the soup, add the rice and the salt. You want to cook it long enough that the rice will soften, but not so long that it will become mushy.
Considerations and Alternatives:
Instead of using rice, you can use a small noodle such as Acini de Pepe. I prefer rice because it is gluten free but either will do.
Be sure the water and bullion are simmering and not boiling when you add your milk and cheese; otherwise, rather than becoming creamy your milk will separate which, although it will still taste good, it will not look pretty!
Tomato Pepper Jack Cheese Soup
2 cans (or one family-size can) of tomato soup
14.5 oz. (1 can) of diced tomatoes
1.5 cups of milk
1 block of pepper jack cheese
4 oz. of cream cheese
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. basil
½ tsp. garlic powder
Dash of hot sauce
Shake of crushed red peppers, if you like spice!
Use a food processor to shred the block of pepper jack cheese into tiny pieces. Then add the diced tomatoes* and process in a food processor until creamed. Cube cream cheese. Add all ingredients to a crockpot and cook on high for 3-3.5 hours, or longer on low. Stir occasionally.
Garnish with croutons, cheese, or serve with garlic bread.
*You do not have to process the tomatoes but I prefer the more creamy texture
There you are! These are three of my favorite cold weather recipes. I hope you enjoy them as much as my family and friends do! I’d love to hear what are some of your favorite soups and cold weather recipes.
The seasons are starting to change—are you itching to change some of your seasonal decor? At this time of year, I always get the bug to switch things up. I enjoy the summer months so much and am focused on being outside that I let the decor in my house rest. But after a few months, I am ready for a change!
The beauty of seasonal decor is that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel and totally switch everything for the upcoming season—we can simply switch out a few elements or maybe just a few minor pieces. Take your table centerpiece for example: do you totally strip it down and redo it, or do you just switch out some of the elements? I used to try to make major decor changes just about every season and then I realized that (1) I definitely had a favorite way of doing things, and (2) it was silly to keep reinventing the wheel. Yes, it can be fun to do a total overhaul and switch everything but other times it is just as good of an option to switch out seasonal elements.
I have had the same centerpiece for about a year now. While I do different variations of it, it is the same base each time. For me this includes: the base which is a shallow wooden box, my candlesticks, and my twine balls. Then I switch out the seasonal elements.
Last fall I added little pumpkins and twinkle lights to my centerpiece. I also added the pinecones as they give my centerpieces a little more woodsy, fall-like feel.
This is a picture of my centerpiece at Christmas. I love sprinkling in the mini ornaments to add some sparkle and shine to my centerpiece. Again, the pinecones make it feel more like winter.
After the holidays, I usually just strip down my centerpiece to just the twinkle lights, pinecones, and twine balls. It’s simple and it reflects the world outside my windows. And I let it remain like that until spring.
This is a picture of my Easter-style centerpiece. By adding the faux Easter eggs, it gives it just enough of a touch of spring.
And that takes you through a year in the life of my centerpieces!
That is what I do for my centerpieces, but the same principle applies to other decor in your home. Instead of feeling like you need to replace everything, can you swap a candle on a pillar for a pumpkin in the fall, or insert a garland of sparkling greenery at Christmas?
Here are some seasonal accent items to keep in mind:
In the winter, think about the world outside—nature is dormant and there is much more brown than in other seasons. You can add a touch of evergreen or even a sparkly branch or two, but also think: pinecones, twine balls, bar candles, plain branches, and even deer sheds (antlers).
In the spring, keep a base of twine balls and pinecones and consider adding some faux eggs prior to Easter, some dried flowers, or accent balls that correlate with the color you have in your home.
In the summer, you can still have your base of twine balls and even pinecones, but also add some flowers—faux, dried, or real, sea shells, greenery from outside, plants and even fresh cut branches!
For fall, keep your twine ball base along with the pinecones and consider adding: acorns, baby pumpkins, strands of wheat, and twinkle lights.
Christmas offers a lot of options! You can add ornaments, holly branches, glitter greenery, angels, or even a manger scene and, of course, the twinkle lights.
I hope this gives you some inspiration for how you can switch up your decor without the headache of redoing everything! A few little touches can completely change the feel of your decor. If you want to totally redo your decor, go for it! But if you just want to add a seasonal touch and change the feel, you don’t have to go crazy! Look at your decor and see where you could add a few seasonal elements. Just have fun playing!
I haven’t talked about vignettes in a while—but that doesn’t mean I’ve given up using them! I talked about how to make a vignette in my post, Vignettes: Tell Me A Story, and that’s great for getting you started, but are you overlooking great places to use a vignette? Are there certain things cluttering up your area that could look cute and be functional by making them into a vignette? I bet there is! Here are a few ideas for how to create `a vignette in any room of your home to help elevate your everyday!
A few reminders:
When making a vignette, keep these few simple rules of thumb in mind:
· Use an odd number of items;
· Vary height;
· Vary texture;
· Use something with hard lines, something with soft lines, something with organic lines; and
· Add one item that is a little bigger and more of a wow piece to anchor your vignette.
Kitchen
There are things just about all of us have in our kitchens—I am going to take a gamble that you have these things too: a paper towel holder, hand soap (and probably lotion too), dish soap, salt and pepper, and a trivet. You may have more items, perhaps you have a few less. Regardless, how do you have them displayed? Instead of having your soaps just sitting on the counter, you could arrange them on a pretty tray near the sink; your most used spices and kitchen gadgets can be gathered on a tray; you can hide unsightly necessities like twist ties, rubber bands and matches in a cute pitcher.
Here are a few more ideas of things to include in a kitchen vignette:
· An herb plant;
· A bowl of fruit or veggies;
· A wooden cutting board;
· Spices or tea in a unique jar or tin; and
· Pour-over-coffee or French press coffee maker.
Bathrooms
I always say everyone is blessed with at least one really good idea in their life. Here is mine: add a cloth napkin to where you keep your hand soap and lotion so that you can tidy up any water spots around the sink. This looks cute and keep your bathroom sink tidy too!
For a bathroom vignette try adding:
· A candle;
· A small plant; and
· A diffuser, if you have room.
Bedroom
We all have nightstands. How you style that nightstand can be a vignette as well! You can use a tray to coral everything, or if you are always overflowing with books that you will read next, you can use the books themselves as a vignette.
I used to have a large picture on my nightstand, but then my stack of soon-to-be-read books got so high I couldn’t see the picture anymore! I decided to flip things and use my stack of books as I would use a picture to give my nightstand some height and interest, and let’s be honest—that stack of books is ever rotating and will never completely disappear!
Some other ideas for nightstand vignettes:
· A lamp;
· A small box or dish to keep little necessities in;
· An alarm clock;
· A picture; and
· Flowers or a small plant.
Living Rooms
Anything and everything works great for a vignette in living rooms! If you have a coffee table, books are great—and typically the bigger the better for coffee table styling! There are many options for where to create a vignette in this room; you may have a TV on or above a console table; the console table is a great place for short, linear vignette styling—think of a small tray on a short stack of books and maybe just one tall vase off to the side with a few feathers, decorative twigs or greenery—dried or fresh! (Click here to see my post on How to use dried flowers in decor)
For these, keep the follow items in mind when creating a vignette:
· A lamp;
· Books;
· A large candle or lantern;
· Something natural or quirky such as driftwood, or deer sheds (antlers);
· A random but interesting antique item;
· A family photo to add a personal touch;
· A vase with flowers—real, dried or faux; and
· A box to keep odds and ends in or to hide the TV remote. (You might leave a sticky note so your husband can find the remote, unless that his punishment for skipping chores last weekend—up to you!
Dining Room
The centerpiece is usually the vignette we think of when it comes to the dining room. I don’t know about you but I tend to find that making a centerpiece is one of the tougher vignettes that I create. My table is narrow so there isn’t a whole lot of room for a big centerpiece. My standby centerpiece is seven candlesticks displayed in a shallow wood box that acts as a platform. Then I switch out these items seasonally.
What are some of my favorite elements to incorporate into my centerpiece?
· Candles/candlesticks;
· Dried flowers;
· Twine balls;
· Pinecones; and
· Moss Balls
Seasonally I love to add:
· Faux eggs at spring;
· Dried flowers in summer;
· Pumpkins in fall; and
· Ornaments and evergreens for Christmas.
I hope this helps inspire you to get vignette-ing! Vignettes are one of the easiest ways to add style and up-level your décor. Happy decorating!
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I love decorating for fall and one of my favorite things is to create a fall centerpiece for my table. In fact, I think the centerpiece was what made me really fall in love with fall decorating. There are so many options when it comes to creating a fall centerpiece! There is something to be said about not reinventing the wheel but rather to simply tweak existing decor by adding seasonal touches (post on that coming soon). It is also true that many times we get, well . . . a little lazy. Now I’m not judging—I’ve done it too! We take one look at our fall decor and think either: (a) I have nothing good, or (b) I have nothing and I need to go shopping! (My closet has that same problem.) Just as we are told to cure our closet woes by getting creative and trying to see how many outfits we can come up with just a handful of clothing items, so too can we apply this principle to our decor! (See my post about how to create a decor capsule here)
This is my fall centerpiece from last year. If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you will no doubt have seen pictures of my centerpiece before and may recognize that the bones of my centerpiece are the same. That’s great! However, there are many other centerpiece options that I could utilize to keep things fresh and exciting with decor I already own.
Play With What You Already Own
I have a bunch of amber bottles (flea market anyone?) and I have several plain white candles. This is where the power of a collection comes in. Group your collection together for maximum impact. Or, if you are like me and your collection is small, group two collections together to create repetition which in turn creates cohesiveness and impact.
Try Going Simple
Here’s a centerpiece idea if I want to go super simple with my decor. Frequently we over complicate things: in life, at work, and in our decorating. But it doesn’t have to be! Combine a few of your favorite elements, in this case, the green pumpkins and the greenery sticking out from beneath are a few of my favorite elements. You create a little vignette out of them, and then walk away. Come back 15 minutes later and pay attention to your first reaction—you just might love it!
Vary Heights
In this centerpiece, I created a base using a charger; then I added the little bird on the candle stand as the tallest element; next, the lantern as a medium level, and the pumpkin as the lowest level. Lastly, I added some filler (in this case the pinecones) to round out the centerpiece and that brings the decor together!
Incorporate a Trend
I’m not a huge trend follower for the primarily reason that I want my decor to be pretty timeless. I don’t want to spend a lot of money and time buying things that will be outdated in a few years. However, incorporating trends in small ways can be inexpensive and still fun! This year we are seeing a lot of blue and green pumpkins (see my post 2021 fall decorating inspiration here for more of this year’s trends), so if you like those color and already have them in your home, play with this trend. Purchasing a few small pumpkins and adding them to your centerpiece is a great way to dip your toes in the waters of what is trending and if you end up getting sick of them at the end of this year—there is always spray paint!
Go Big
I tend to keep my decor pretty minimal in spring and summer, which means by the time fall comes around, I am absolutely itching to pull out all the decorations! Instead of keeping your centerpiece confined to a tray or charger, try splaying it over a table runner so it has a cascading effect. In this photo, I decided to repeat the wheat element that is sticking out of the top of the bottles and around the bottom edges. Repeating an element like this brings cohesiveness to your design and is a way to create a perimeter in a free flowing centerpiece like this one.
So, here you go! Here are six different fall centerpiece ideas where I was able to use elements that I already own. While you may not have as many decor elements (my dad would refer to these decor elements as “junk”), I am willing to bet that you have more options than you think! So pull it all out, forget how you’ve used the items in the past, and just play! Happy decorating!
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I love summer but fall is just about here and the fun of fall decorating does lessen the sting of summer’s passing! There is such cute, fun decor out there this year. Honestly though, I love every season. I love fall. I love the colors in nature. I love the crisp evenings; they are perfect for having campfires. And most of all, I love the coziness associated with this season—give me a cup of hot Chai tea, pass the blanket and let me curl up with my book!
Here are decor trends that are hot this season!
· Colors: Greens, blues, creams, and rusts are all popular colors this season, especially sage and emerald greens. Also popular this year are navy, deep teal, and sky blue, along with rust, dusty rose, and dark peach.
· Neutrals: Tans, creams, whites, as well as sage greens and deep navy pumpkins are trending this fall.
· Greenery: Bring in the colors I mentioned above with dried or fresh eucalyptus or other greens. Drape them along mantles, in baskets, to fill out vignettes, or use greenery in your centerpieces.
· Texture: Lots and lots of texture! Wheat, braided jute pumpkins, concrete pumpkins—you name it, it is in!
· Golds: Gold, rose gold, brass and rust. These are the tones we will be seeing pop up over and over again this fall season!
Try Making a Fall Vignette
I just mentioned some popular decor items and hopefully that got your wheels turning thinking of how you could play with some fun fall décor, but in case you’re stuck—try making a vignette!
You can make a vignette for the centerpiece on your dining room table, squeeze a pumpkin into your kitchen decor, or create a vignette on an entryway table. Don’t forget to add some fall touches to your mantle, and if you have a piano, to your piano too!
Fall Flowers
We usually start to get a few frosts here in Pennsylvania by the time October rolls around. In my mind, that means it’s safe to get rid of any flowers I’ve had in pots on my porch or patio. To help things not feel as stark, I like to get a few mums or pumpkins. I especially love using dried flowers for my indoor decorating at this time of year. If you don’t want to invest annually, a cute fall sign can help to warm up an empty entryway or porch. Speaking of warming things up, try incorporating an outdoor throw blanket into your porch decor!
Candles
The first thing I think of when I think of fall is cozy, warm lighting; fires in the fireplaces; candles … candles in lanterns, and, of course, jack-o-lanterns! I personally love a big lantern. I think they look great almost anywhere—beside a fireplace, next to an accent chair, a medium-sized lantern as a focal point in a vignette, and they are very welcoming outside a front door, or on an outdoor coffee table. If you already have a lantern, try adding some leaves, or a sprig or two of artificial flowers to add an additional fall touch.
Scents
Speaking of candles—the scents of fall cannot be beat! There are delicious sweet smells: pumpkin latte, apple tart, and cinnamon roll. If you are not someone who likes sweet smells filling your home (no judgement!), there are candles and essential oils that invoke scents of campfires and falling leaves.
One of my favorite candle companies is the Chestnut Hill Candle Co. They have a variety of scents—all of them delicious—and the scent really permeates your home. I dislike when a candle smells good burning but can only be smelled if you are within six inches of it. Some of our favorite candle scents for fall from this company are: White Pumpkin, Farmstead, and Coffee.
Cozy Up!
Time to pull out the softer throws—flannel, knit, or even some plush blankets! This is also one of my favorite ways to work some fall color into my decor. There are really cute fall plaids in a variety of color combinations. Just adding colors in a plaid, even if they aren’t traditional fall colors, is enough to add a touch of fall.
The other comfy, cozy touch is to switch out decorative pillows, for cute fall pillows! If you don’t want to store a bunch of bulky pillows you can get pillow covers (look on Etsy or Overstock), and that way you just have a slim cover to pack away instead of a pillow.
Music
At Christmas time we play Christmas music to get us in the mood. In the summer I hear a lot more country being played. So why not play fall music for fall? This is very subjective, I like some Michael Buble, or Sinatra, but other people like banjo or bluegrass music. Regardless of what kind of music you like, I would like to challenge you to find something that feels special to you, and to the season, and embrace it as your own special playlist to get you in the fall spirit!
Lights
Little twinkle lights are often saved for Christmas but as the days shorten I like to add a little additional brightness to my life. You can sometimes find these lights with orange bulbs. I’ll insert a strip of lights in my fall centerpiece, intertwine a strand with fall twine woven throughout my mantle or the top of my piano. Many of these have a timer setting that will come on automatically every day. I get all warm and fuzzy inside when I come home after dark and, having forgot to leave any lights on, see my little lights lighting my way. It feels like my house is welcoming me home!
Create A Cozy Nook
Do you think of curling up with some hot apple cider and a good book in the fall? Make a spot specifically dedicated to relaxing. So often we spend time creating these beautiful homes and then never make time to use them. Change that this year! Create a spot that’s so inviting you just can’t wait to curl up with your favorite things and enjoy the season. Add pillows, throws, a cute sign, or whatever else speaks comfort to you and try to take a little time for yourself to relax and enjoy the beautiful home you’ve created this autumn.
