Vintage Shopping and the Trunk Makeover

Last Friday my sister and I finally got around to heading out for a little vintage shopping. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed being out and about for some Vintage Fall Fun. "Fun" has been pretty much off the table this last Summer because I would just poop out after about an hour. But I was ready for some Fall Inspiration and the Shop Hops were in full swing. We headed to our favorite vintage market, "The Vintage Peddler" in Springfield and wandered the aisles for an hour or so, while sipping some bubbly cider.

Rustic French Fall Decor

I'm in the middle of messy packing mode, but I'm still looking for Fall Inspiration. Nothing over-the-top, but some subtle color changes and natural vignettes. I thought I'd share some classic French Country Autumn seasonal decor with you today from previous Septembers. I like to look back through the archives and see what I was doing "this time of year" from years ago. 

If a Lamp Falls in the Forest...

In my "real world" time I would be giddy that the calender has changed over to September, but I now seem to be living in the alternate universe of packing up my house for a move. The daytime temps are cooling down and the evenings are wonderful. Even the trees on my street are beginning to show some beautiful shades of Autumn color.

What will go where?

The last week in August is normally when I'm bringing out some Fall goodies, trying to subtly ease into the Fall scene. Creeping in would be just a few little dried leaves and grasses; I might even sneak in a nonchalant small pumpkin or two. Big BUT here, instead of decorating, I'm surrounded by packing boxes and my house looks like the inside of a U-Haul store.

Autumn Transitions Home Tour

Hello Everyone, and welcome to our

 Autumn Transition Home Tour 

I'm so excited to be joining this wonderful group of creative and talented gals who love Fall and enjoy decorating for the Seasons. We're going to be sharing our ideas and inspiration on welcoming the beauty of Autumn into our homes and decor. If you're coming from Our Southern Home, then welcome and I hope you'll stay with the Tour by visiting Decor to Adore a bit later. You'll find the complete list at the end of the post. A big thankyou to Amber of Follow the Yellow Brick Home for putting this fun tour together.

This time of year blogland is filled with posts about transitioning our decor from Late Summer into Early Fall. Our individual methods may be similar, but each person has their own unique style and ideas to make this a fun and easy change-over. The fact that bringing out the Autumn decor is one of my favorite things to look forward to, makes this a special time to savor and enjoy for me. Since I'm in the beginning stages of packing for our move this Fall, I'm sharing several photos that show how I have taken Summer to Fall in easy steps.

New House Journal: Dining Room Chandy

We're making progress through the process of buying this house. This last week we've negotiated the inspection results; nothing major or deal breaking, just little things that need to be taken care of. This is an older home, built in the 60's, and even though it's been partially renovated there are still lots of updates we need to finish. Looks like it needs a small amount of roof repair, some tree limbs hanging on electrical lines... the things I never wanted to worry about again. We realized a while back that to get the usable space on one level we need, we have to go with an older home. We've researched the new custom home route and that's not something we want to go through now. We don't want to be further out of town, and that's what we'd be getting with a subdivision of new builds. I talked some about our decision making process in my last post. I'm excited about all that's ahead with this big project, but I still feel I need to explain our decision. Maybe I'm still trying to convince myself, haha. I know that sometimes our big life choices are not so easy to make. But then again, that IS life isn't it? Stepping out in Faith to do what we feel God is directing us to do.

Something New on the Home Front

Hi Guys, I'm going to preface this post by saying it probably needs to head up a blog category entitled ..."Say What?". Because some, if not most of you will be wondering if we've lost our ever lovin' marbles, so to speak. Let me explain.

All photos are from the online listing.

(newly renovated kitchen at the soon-to-be new house)
shucks, I gave the secret away!

French Country Styling on the Baker's Rack

As we head towards August the color scheme sees some subtle changes around here. I like to bring in the deeper colors of golds and greens; more neutral tones. Sort of "harvest-y" colors. In the Spring and Summer the kitchen sitting area is all about bright fresh color and a garden feel; now I'm ready for something different.

Small Summer Changes

Hard to imagine that Summer is at it's mid-point. It's been hot, hot, and hot here in the lower Midwest. I think we're all having abnormally warm temperatures. It's been record setting here since the beginning of June. At least we've been fortunate and had a few good rains; more than a lot of people in our area. 

Easy and Instant Patriotic Decor

Today I realized if I didn't make a little effort to put together some decor for the 4th, it would really be too late. I've been enjoying decorating with a Patriotic theme for my whole life, and I didn't want this to be the year to not continue. The 4th of July holiday epitomizes the feel for summer fun... trips to the lake, cookouts, family get-togethers. When I was a kid that meant that there were always family gatherings with fireworks, a grill, and several buckets of homemade ice cream. 

Life can change in an instant...

Sometimes life can change within a matter of minutes... that's what happened to me last Friday at 5:00 in the afternoon. I had just published a post here on the blog about the heart procedure that I had had earlier in the week. Things had gone pretty well and I was home and feeling better. I had a few minutes to reply to a few of you that had left a comment.  If you haven't read that post from Friday afternoon, you can find it here.

Summertime Views

(Sharing some photos from last Summer's Home Tour.)

Low Thyroid: Sharing a post on Hair Loss and Thinning

I'm working on my post about the breadcrumb trail with Autoimmune Disease linking to Heart Disease that I've been following this last few months, and I've been checking back on some web articles and research. Today, I was looking back through the Blog Links List I have in my blog Footer toward the end with links to Autoimmune Illness and Gluten-Free Recipes. You'll see it on the left-hand side after the post.

Still here...

Hi Friends...
still here.
still waiting.

This afternoon I was updating my Series on "Regaining Your Health". I've had a lot of moving parts to rearrange and add, but unbeknownst to me, one part updated on today's date. Sorry for the confusion, BUT that does give me a chance to let you know what I'm doing and where I am in all the latest.

Happy Mother's Day and a note

Just wanted to say Happy Mother's Day to everyone, and I hope you're having a beautiful day. April was a record cold month, but now all of a sudden when May got here it's turned into a heavy muggy 85, seemingly over night.