September! And All the Fall Things

I love September!  It's when I give myself permission to finally pull out all the fall decor I love to use each year.  I'm always ready to do this almost as soon as school starts back here, but I make myself wait until September, when the promise of fall is right around the corner.  I had plans to do this on Tuesday, but I needed to grocery shop as well, so I wasn't sure I'd be in the mood after a trip to Kroger.  (Anyone else lose their marbles after shopping there, or at least the one here in The Ville?)  But then, sweet Noah was craving flavored coffee cream for his coffee today, and he offered to go for me.  I asked him to grab some things I needed for dinner last night, too, and then he asked me to make that chicken casserole that they love with poppy seeds and Ritz crackers.

I love it when my sons ask me for a particular meal.  I had no idea what I would make before he asked for that.

So, I went up to the attic and handed them down things for them to help me carry downstairs.  I can never do this without cleaning, so I thoroughly dusted everything and then started setting things out as I went.  (For this task, I love to use that Mrs. Meyer's all purpose cleaner, and my current favorite is the honeysuckle scent.  Thanks to my friend Andrea, my mom, and sister Trish, for turning me on to that stuff.  I like their soap too, and I always buy two bottles of the cleaner, one for the downstairs and one for up.  I use it for all my cleaning needs, in every room, so I buy more when they put out their new seasonal scents.  At Christmas time, the best scent is the peppermint.  YUM!  I love cleaning products that smell good.)

Anyway, here is a little of what I did all day Tuesday.

That stand is supposed to hold a wire pumpkin that holds a votive candle, but I like the green on the dining room table, so I set it on top instead, and put the wire pumpkin in the left corner of that hutch you see in the background.  I added three pumpkins, as well.

In the kitchen, after a good top-of-the-fridge cleaning, I placed a sunflower arrangement my mom made for me years ago.  I hope that by that being up high, the dang cat will not bother it.  She destroys everything that has artificial flowers.

I also redid my favorite three tiered kitchen stand.

I got four little felt pumpkins from the Target dollar spot aisle Saturday.  One brown, an orange, and two buffalo check.  The gold pumpkin is from last year at HomeGoods, and I think I may have paid $5 for it.  I don't mind buying things like that every once in a while, if it's inexpensive and something I'll use for years.  All of these decorations are YEARS old.  And by years, I mean like ten.

I hang onto things forever, when I love them.

This pumpkin is a usable soup bowl with a ladle inside that I love.  My mom-in-love bought this for me more than ten years ago.  I chipped a piece of the lid last year when I was putting this up (it stays in my closet, high on a shelf for safe keeping), but I just turned it around to where it's not noticeable.

I like to keep a jack o'lantern on the stairs.  (Side note: these stairs are what made me fall in love with this house when we looked at it, sixteen years ago, almost.  I still love them every bit as much as I did the day we first knew this was going to be our home.)  Also, I just told my husband this story, and he argued with me that these stairs are navy blue and not black, like I just told him.  They're black.  Trust me.

I'm about to redo these shelves again, but you get the gist, with the pumpkin on top.  I don't even want to guess the age of that guy, but I'm fairly certain he either came from my sister Trish, or my sister Lisa.  I always used to take the things they were going to give away, because they both have great taste.  So does my other sister Debi, by the way, but she lives in Denver and I don't get to see her house in person that often.

I threw these little fall berries into a Mason jar with a piece of greenery, and then added my little Halloween people that creep out my whole family.  Seriously, they all never fail to tell me that.  I think they're adorable.  My mom gave me those years ago, after she caught me admiring them at her house!  I always look forward to getting them back out every year. 

And then, finally, I added a few other things around the living room and on the hearth.  All of this (minus the Halloween stuff) will stay put until Thanksgiving night, when we always come home and start putting Christmas out.  I love this time of year!  I go all out every year from September to March, then I just keep things clean and simple until it all starts over again.  I like to decorate for winter in January, and Valentine's in February, and then there's usually birthday stuff up in March.  The only things missing are the candles I like to leave out that smell so good.  I'll probably to go HomeGoods on Saturday (ahem, Mom & Trish) for a couple of new ones.  After the season last year, I threw away all that I had, because I had used them all. 

 I love having a clean house!  It's all pretty clean right now.  It won't last, because we're getting a major plumbing overhaul next week, most likely, so everything will be covered in Sheetrock dust, but for now, it's all nice and clean and orderly, and my heart is happy.  Check back here next week, and that may not be the case. 

Thanks for reading!  I love a good home tour, and would love to see yours, so if we're friends on social media, feel free to share!  Just today, my stepdad's sister shared some pictures of the stuff she and her cute little grands put out for Halloween, and I loved getting to see it all.  It's nice to see that kind of thing, when our families are spread out all over the place.  Love to all. 

P.S.  By the way, we just took a poll with the boys, and they all agree with me that the stairs are black, NOT NAVY BLUE like my hubby thought.  Silly Toddley, decorating things and colors are for girls.