~autumn in my home~

Growing up in Africa we had two seasons : summer and winter, with maybe a rainy season thrown in! So one of the things I really appreciate about living in North America are the colors and fragrances of fall, or autumn as I prefer to call it {it just sounds so much more descriptive, don't you think?}

Decorating with pumpkins was definitely a novel idea our first autumn in Canada! We might occasionally have eaten roasted pumpkin in Africa, but we certainly never got to display them in our homes!

Canadian Thanksgiving kinda snuck up fast this year {it was this past weekend} and so my autumn decorating is fairly minimal. I had my eye on white pumpkins this year, but they're not that easy to find around here...

This one is actually fake {shhhh}, but it's a great size, I got it to use in my booth at Fieldstone Market, now it has a home on my little chippy vintage chair in the front hallway.

I kept my mantel pretty simple, I love these white pumpkins with orange stripes, they're just the right size for a mantel, I'm thinking a mini garland strung on the mirror perhaps?

I did find a couple tiny whiteish pumpkins which I've tucked in here and there...

Outside on the porch I put up my {rather sad} fall wreath,

definitely due for a wreath makeover, the challenge is when it rains {often} this door gets very, very wet

a couple of gourds and a sugar pie pumpkin, which was promptly given some or other name by the kids. Why do they insist on naming their pumpkins, it makes it so much harder to actually carve them up!

One year I got minature pumpkins for all the cousins and we decorated them with googly eyes and hair and so on, it was a lot of fun. We definitely didn't carve them up, it's like they became part of the family!

Anyway, I digress, the porch : the boys asked when we were getting pumpkins for the stairs, like we always do etc.etc. So off we went and picked out more fat orange pumpkins.

I chose this guy, I like things that are a little different from the norm:-) Isn't he/she (nameless) a wonderful shape? I don't name my pumpkin.

The boys each picked out a big fat round pumpkin, my only criteria being they had to have a stalk and actually sit on the ground. It took a while, we inspected oh, maybe three hundred pumpkins before making our final choices!

We'd barely got them home when my youngest came rushing out the door clutching a sharpie and various knives all set to carve his pumpkin...

WHOA!!! slow down, let's just enjoy the pumpkins for a while (we're not into the halloween thing but they do like to carve their pumpkins)

I was given a bag of apples that weren't good to eat, so they made it to the front porch too. What is more "autumnish" than an enamelware bowl full of apples, especially when they have a leaf or two still attached.

So that's it for my autumn decorating so far, I like to think it's minimal but meaningful! Hope you're having fun with your decorating too! For a summer gal I find I'm quite enjoying the fall this year ~ all the gorgeous colors of the leaves and yummy fall goodies that get cooked up in my kitchen. But that's another post all by itself!

Happy autumn!

Tracey

~fieldstone vintage market~

if you live anywhere near Vancouver don't miss out on the

Fieldstone Vintage Market

 coming up in just two short weeks

if you made it out to the Old School Market, this market is being organised by the same dynamic duo, Rachel and Lily of Birch and Bird...

they have teamed up with Bakersview EcoDairy to host a large outdoor market

with 50 vintage vendors and local artisans, including moi

~raggygirlvintage~

i went and checked out the venue and it is fab, horses grazing in the field behind, gorgeous view of Mt Baker, nicely laid out "field" with walkways and grassy patches

~and of course the sun will shine all day~

click on the link above (click the bottom half of the poster - blogger gremlin), or click the link on my sidebar for more details

it's a family friendly venue, but you'll also find information there on local hotel deals and shopping spots if you're making it a girl's weekend:-)

 it will definitely be worth it peeps, see you there!!

Tracey

PS. For the Washington gals, the market venue is just north of the Sumas border crossing

~christmas decorating on the porch 101 - decorating with greenery~

i have this old mailbox that lives on my porch year round, i simply adore it

you might think i'm strange but we don't have these mailboxes where i live

so this year i opened it up and have greenery and holly spilling out

see the cute red flag

and my vintage tin picnic hamper peeking in the background

it has black numbers on the other side

now this wasn't my own idea, saw it somewhere else (can't remember where...)

anyway, decorating with greenery 101:

~ i always carry garden clippers in my car, i carry them year round, you never know when or where inspiration will strike

~bring garden gloves - for the cold and it can be prickly

~ cut more than you think you will need, i always think i have tons and use it all!

~ ask permisson if you plan to cut from someone else's property - i'm usually too chicken to do this so i just find random trees on open land, which is getting harder each year as the area i live in is being rapidly developed

~ take a moment to smell the crisp air, notice the birds and squirrels and yes, even the sticky sap on your hands! this year a little robin sat watching me the whole time i cut holly, so cute

~ a small stepladder is handy, sometimes I see a great tree but by the time i've navigated ditches etc. i just can't reach the good stuff. i usually drag someone along for the ladder part, like i said, i'm chicken!

~don't cut from the lower branches, you know, like at dog's level....

~ my outside greenery lasts the whole season, inside i have to refresh a couple of times

~finally, smile sweetly when your family roll their eyes at you!!

Tracey

PS. see my previous posts for the full series of ~christmas decorating on the porch 101~