A Little Fall Decorating

Can you believe a week from today we will be gathering to celebrate Thanksgiving?  The time seems to fly these days.  Things have changed in my life over the past few years so the Thanksgiving celebration today is quite different than it was - even five years ago.  Everything changes.  Children grow up and start their own traditions.  Friends and family retire and move on to parts better suited to retirement years.  Things change.  So I will not be cooking this year.  For many years I would start cooking two days before Thanksgiving and then either entertain at home or pack up the car with everything I had prepared and celebrate elsewhere.  But that time has come and gone.  This year we bought a smoked ham from Robertson's Hams in Marietta, Oklahoma and had it delivered to my sisters house where we will spend Thanksgiving.  Robertson's has the best hams in the world.  I am adding a link here if you would like to read their story or place your own order.

We love the Whole Smoked-Ham.  Very reminiscent of ham that my mother would serve for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Of course, in addition, always a turkey for Thanksgiving and then for Christmas the ham would be the centerpiece and she would fill in with other trays of goodies for people coming and going during the day.

I am still in charge of the centerpiece for the table and I found this beautiful arrangement on teleflora.com.  If you are interested, you can visit their website at www.teleflora.com and click here to be taken directly to this centerpiece.  I ordered the premium size because it is the only one that will fit appropriately on the table.  But this arrangement, in any size, will be stunning.  Of course, if your dining room table seats more than twelve, you may consider ordering two of these for the center table decoration.

I have done a little fall decorating in the apartment to get in the spirit.  I found this bag of decorative potpourri at Marshalls.  I know, I know.  Who buys potpourri anymore.  Well, ... I guess I do.  I came up with a creative way to use this that I will share with you now.

I know you have probably seen this covered stand in previous posts that sits on my dining room table.  I thought this might be a good vessel to use to bring some fall color to the room.

So, I removed the glass top and turned it upside down.

I filled it with a few handpicked pieces from the bag of potpourri.

Then I placed the stand on top of the glass.

Then back onto the table.  Granted, you cannot enjoy the scent of the potpourri when it is displayed like this, but I don't buy it so much for the scent as I do for the color and texture.  I thought this turned out quite nicely.  It adds some nice warm fall colors to the room and a little texture and it was done with great ease and not a lot of money.  I already had the stand and the bag of potpourri was in the $12 range.

For my birthday this year, I received this beautiful crystal bowl from Tiffany.  I wanted to find the perfect use for it in my fall decor.  And I think I did.

Here, on the hall table with a selection of pieces from the same potpourri bag as we used to decorate the dining room table.  I chose these pieces specifically from what was left for an interesting and eye-catching presentation.  Not too much.  We don't want to overfill the bowl.  And I thought large pieces were the way to go with this pairing.

With what remained in the bag, I filled in this rectangular wooden bowl on the coffee table.  The round orbs were already in this bowl and sitting on top of the entertainment center.  I just filled in with the last of the pieces from the potpourri bag from Marshalls.  Not a bad look and I decorated three different areas of the apartment from a $12 bag of potpourri.  Not bad.

Finally, this little carved, porcelain pumpkin in the bathroom.  I thought this was really cute and, it too was a find.  I picked this up at CVS of all places and for just a few dollars.  It is lighted and battery operated with a small switch on the bottom.

Very cute with the light on during the daylight hours.

And equally as cute lighted in the evening if you are having a late day/early evening fall soiree.

These are just some of the things I have done this year to bring a fall vibe to the apartment.  I tried to keep it simple, tasteful; not overdone so that you are hit with it when you walk in the door but rather you find a little something here and there as you move around that makes you comfortable in that cozy fall way.