Getting Cozy & A Bit of Halloween

We're heading into the cozy season of the year, ready or not. Every year, I seem to fight the fact that the days are getting shorter and colder and then before I know it, I'm embracing the cozy feel. And just in time, because we are expecting a lot of heavy rain later today and tonight here in NJ.

We had our first few fires of the season and those are always the best! The table in our family room is ready for meals by the fire and puzzle/project/card-playing season.

Let's head up the kitchen but stop off in the foyer on the way.

I added a few colorful fall items to our front door.

Up in our kitchen, I added a few Halloween touches to our windows and sink. I'm not big on spooky Halloween stuff, but I love the cute orange and black things! I picked up the Trick or Treat banner at the Target Dollar Spot and the polka dot pumpkin at Walmart. I already had the black and white sink skirt and curtains from this past winter.

Finally, I added some Halloween items to our living room. There's nothing like a big basket of Halloween candy to get the teenagers to gather here.

I think my favorite part of this space is the warm light illuminating the fall leaves outside the big front window.

Do you change up your decor as the season goes on too? It seems I am constantly tweaking things here and there to keep it fresh.

Fall at the Cabin

Hello friends! I'm on a roll with updating this blog. Today, I thought I'd share a few pictures of our home away from home, or family's shared cabin in the Adirondacks.

Fall Living Room Decor

I knew I wanted to keep our fall decor both colorful and cheerful in our living room this year. This room is flooded with light from the large window at the front of our house, as well as the windows in our kitchen. I started with this pop of rust with a sign from Dandelion Wishes Home on Etsy. I love the saying!

I usually use more muted colors for fall but I am enjoying the brightness of these this year. It reminds me of the trees at their prettiest during peak foliage in the mountains.

The leaves outside our front window are already changing color and beginning to fall. Their color isn't very pretty this year but that's probably because we haven't had much rain.

It's always fun to add some seasonal touches to our gallery wall.

This is the view from our living room down into our front entryway.

I switched out the turquoise console table for this red cabinet in our foyer to warm things up a little bit for fall. I also added this shelf full of cubbies from Target years ago to display a few fall items. You guys know the small details are my favorite and I am always looking for ways to organize them.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Season of Change

I have always wanted to spend a chunk of time in the Adirondacks just as the leaves are changing. To really appreciate and photograph the beauty of this season and devote some uninterrupted time to writing. Most years during foliage season, we plan a weekend trip around the busy school schedules that coincide with the arrival of fall and cross our fingers, hoping for some pretty fall color - but, often times, not getting the timing quite right. It seems Mother Nature has her own timetable and we can only predict so much. 

But, this year, as I was looking at the calendar, I realized our youngest son (we're down to just one kid that's not in college yet) had a 4 day weekend that coincided with the late September/early October timeline that is often the prettiest time of year in "our" part of the mountains. And so I thought, what if I stayed the week at the cabin, sandwiched between the long weekend and the next?

I've stayed a night alone up here quite often but usually I'll ask a girlfriend or family to join me. There is almost always a kid or two around. Would my family even survive back home in NJ without me? No doubt! How would I feel if it were just me with all that quiet? Now, THAT was the real question. My husband encouraged me to stay. After all, he often spends days up here alone getting work done around the cabin. He could easily hold down the fort at home for a few days before he came back up on the weekend.

I've mainly been a mom for over 21(!) years, since a few days after my 24th birthday. I am grateful to have been home with them - I've (almost) always very fulfilled in my roles as a wife and mother. And thankful for this little blog of mine that has brought so many opportunities into my life. So I could feel like I was also growing along side of them as they grew. And grow they did! They aren't done quite yet and, although I know parenting is the work of a lifetime, they don't need me quite as much as they once did. As all moms know, if we've done a decent job, we are supposed to move from their main view into their periphery.

And so, I can't help but notice as I am surrounded by such glorious color, the season of Autumn is literally showing me, preparing me really, for how beautiful it is to let go and move onto a new season in life. I'm not quite there yet - but I can see it in the not so distant future. It's beautiful and a bit frightening too. Bittersweet. Just like the fleeting moment that is Fall.

I'll be back with our Fall decor in our living room tomorrow.  Although posts like this are a little outside my comfort zone, I think it's important to share a little bit about the seasons of life along with the changing seasons in my home decor because we all go through them and I believe they inspire so much of what we all do.

Fall Kitchen

Happy October and welcome to our Autumn kitchen. I think my favorite added element in this space at this time of the year is the warm light that floods the room in the afternoon. I especially love how it reflects on the copper pots that hang on our DIY pot rack. Our pot rack holds a combination of useful and decorative things. I hang our often-used colanders, cheese grater, measuring cups/spoons and tea pot on here and it's super convenient to have them right over the island.

Our Fall Family Room

I love decorating for fall and this year our fall home is one of several homes featured in the Autumn issue of Country Sampler Farmhouse Style magazine. I have to admit it is a bit difficult to see my home styled and photographed by someone else, it just doesn't have the same "feel" to it, but it's exciting nonetheless. 

Going Up the Country

Do you have a road trip playlist? The one we created on Spotify and listen to most often is titled, Going Up the Country. We are, in fact, usually headed upstate when we hit the road, also lovingly referred to as up the country. That's also the title of the first song on my playlist, followed by Rocky Mountain High by John Denver. I just have to listen to both of those songs on the 3.5 hour trip to the Adirondacks. It's required listening! :)