Autumn Home Vignette Challenge

Vignette (pronounced vin-yet). Isn't that a pretty word. It sounds gentile to me, maybe even  Victorian-esque. It conjures thoughts in my mind of all things pretty. 

While I have in my mind an understanding of the word I thought it best to see what the dictionary had to say. A vignette, as described by Webster's Dictionary: (noun) a picture (such as an engraving or photograph) that shades off gradually into the surrounding paper; a brief incident or scene. 

In literary terms, a vignette is a "short scene that captures a single moment or a defining detail about a character, idea, or other element of the story". 

Originally, it seems that a vignette was a vine or decoration around the text of a written piece, a decoration. It may or may not have been something drawn from the writing. 

When I am putting together a vignette in my home it is a small snapshot of a feeling I am trying to convey. It is a small representation of a season, event,  or moment I want to share with my visitors and family. Having dabbled in photography a bit I consider these little areas in my home as compositions and am always trying to style these little scenes/snapshots as such. 

Recently, I was on a fellow blogger's website and was thrilled to see that she had put out a challenge for others to share their Autumn vignettes! And so.... 

I'm joining Katherine from Katherines Corner and a few of her blog friends for her 

Autumn Home Vignette Challenge!

The challenge- we must include at least one pumpkin in our vignette. 

Here are a couple from around my home. If you are attempting this in your home keep in mind a few things:

 1) use lifts (books, blocks of wood, candle holders) to vary heights and use trays to corral the scene

2) layer vs straight lines work best usually 

3) try to tell a story with your items 4) it's not permanent so you can change it as you go along 5) use your phone to take photos and study them- sometimes our eye sees more in an actual photo and it's also easier to block out competing images from around the room. 

Autumn for me means nesting. There is more time to snuggle up with a soft blanket, read a book or spending indoor time playing games, and of course you need to throw some plaid in because what goes better than plaid and fall? That is the story in the next photo. 

These next two points are key: 

 4) it's not permanent so you can change it as you go along 

5) use your phone to take photos and study them- sometimes our eye sees more in an actual photo and it's also easier to block out competing images from around the room. 

Now it's your turn! Come back, leave me a message. And visit the others below for great ideas! 

Please click on each of the links below, please leave a comment. You will find beautiful vignettes filled with lots of inspiration for your home.

Katherines Corner

An Artful Mom

Eclectic Red Barn

While I Linger

Bluesky at Home

LE CHÂTEAU DE PIERRE

Autumn Home 2020, Anticipating Blessings In Uncertain Times

Summer 2020 is in the history books and it is now fall. Usually, this is a hard transition for me as I love all things summer but this year is different for me and probably for you, as well.  This is the time of year when we look forward to all things cozy and spending more time at home... but, if you're like me you're thinking, "But we have already been spending all our time at home and we're weary of it." 

Maybe you're like me and it seems an act of futility when it comes to decorating your home for autumn. The world around us is in such chaos. Maybe your world is in turmoil. I get it. I have waffled back and forth as I look at the world around me that is being filtered through ever squawking media reports. I've questioned myself, my motives and if I should even bother right now. After all, I questioned myself,  "Who cares about projects and decorating when everything is so broken" and "Is it bougie or naive to even be doing this right now?" 

But, grace enters with a dose of truth. God is not the God of chaos or turmoil. He is the God of peace and a quiet calmness in the storm. I cannot control the world. I cannot control the news or politics. They never were in my realm of influence, anyway. Truth be told, I have no significant impact on the world outside my front door. What I do have control of is my home and how I want those who enter it to feel while they are here. In here you are loved and cherished; you are welcome here. 

It is autumn and we are thankful for our family. We are grateful for visitors. We embrace the change in seasons as we witness that God is faithful to his word. 

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, 

day and night, shall not cease.  

Genesis 8:22

And so, I will celebrate this season and ready my home in expectation of using it to bless others. 

Shopping now can be a bit of a struggle. Between wearing masks, being out in public and finding many empty shelves or limited options this can be a difficult and disappointing task. I chose to use what I have for the most part. With that in mind you might see some things you may have seen here in years past but maybe in a different place or with different accessories. This is our home, dressed in her autumn best for 2020.

A yard sale purchase in January (the basket) and some sale priced flowers from Michael's means that I am foregoing the traditional wreath on the front door, this year. I love this basket and the orange and purple arrangement brings the seasons best colors to the front porch.

I used the same pillows and blanket as last year and added fake pumpkins with real ones. A few fall mums and this porch is done. This is the first "welcome" you get when coming to our home. 

Upon entering our home you are greeted by a neutral pallet. This pumpkin was a new purchase for me from a second-hand store. 

And that is where the neutral ends!

I used the Pumpkin Patch sign I made last year. (You can see how to make it here.)  Every year I want to try to be beautifully neutral like I see in some of the blogs I follow. 

But, when push comes to shove I jump into color. I can't help myself! Blues and oranges and harvest gold play so nicely together. I put the sign in same place as last year but did a little different arrangement with my fake pumpkins. 

My coffee table kept the summer tray that is usually filled with seashells and candles but now hosts pumpkins and faux fall greenery. 

And a look around the room. 

I don't want our home to feel precious or too pretty. I want it to be warm and inviting but comfortable like the romantic ideas of a Norman Rockwell picture. With that in mind, I will continue to ready my home expecting that God will bring that gift of gathering through our front door. We will not let the circumstances of the world around us keep us from anticipating and preparing for all the joys this season will bring. 

Autumn Blessings

 to you and yours. 

Link parties:

Grammy's Grid, Chic On A Shoestring, Katherine's Corner, Shabby Art Boutique, The Pin Junkie, Blue Sky At Home

How To Add Living Space For Less Than $1 A Square Foot

** Boy, math was never my thing. The truth is this was less than $.55 per square foot! 

Everyone who has ever built anything or bought property knows that it is impossible to add square footage to your living space for less than two dollars per square foot...

 until now!

15 years ago, or so we had built a deck kinda in the shape of a baseball field (at least in my mind). It's just pressure treated 2x4's sitting on stones and bricks around the perimeter and then filled in with pressure treated 2x4's for the decking. It has been pressure washed multiple times and painted with the special paint that is supposed to hold up to outdoor weather... not so much.  It's okay, but does need to be painted again. In all fairness, it was done 5 years ago, in this post.

                    

We purchased an offset umbrella and it nicely covers the patio table and chairs. It tilts so we can catch the sun/guard against it regardless of where it is positioned in the sky. I love spending mornings and evenings out there. It's nice but it's just the back deck.

Much more time than usual has been spent out there these past several months as is probably the case in many of your homes and yards. Usually, we are running off here and there to enjoy all that summer has to offer in New England but this year it is different; places are very limited in time and amount of guests, some places didn't make it and won't reopen at all. Some places we can't travel to without quarantining ourselves when we get there and when we come home.

That got me to thinking, "What exactly is it that I am missing about those places?" Places we like to visit usually are in close proximity to the ocean... Well, okay, I can't do anything about that but there is usually live music, good food and a little atmosphere... Hmmm...

This one took no time to sell to Mister on. If you ask him he would say it was all his idea to begin with. I quickly placed an order on Amazon.

The next day we were off to the Home Depot! We purchased 4 flanges and 4 plumbing pipes that are approximately 10 feet long and we headed back home.

Mister pounded the pipes into the ground with a rubber mallet until only 8 feet was sticking up. We used a level to do our best at keeping them from leaning one way or the other. This photo shows that either we were way off or I take photos at the wrong angles.

Mister then threaded the flanges on to the tops of the poles. The flanges got a coat of black spray paint so they won't rust. (Believe me they will. We had to go back and do this step after the first rain!)

We scrounged around to find some S hooks we had used for another project and attached one to each pole. Mister put some caulking at the top to cover the hole down into the pole. And right about then my package from Amazon showed up. Perfect timing!

Inside the package was led string lights. We strung the lights along the poles with a little draping and secured the ends with zip-ties.

Now we could rest from our day's labor. (It truly took about 2 hours, including the trip to Home Depot). Mister cooked us some dinner on the grill and we ate as listening to music and watching the sun go down.

As the daylight waned our music got a little louder. With a glass of wine in hand we witnessed true magic. Those little globe lights, without any provocation, whisked us away from all the scary news of this world and we just sat there, in our new room, at the back of our house! We danced to Ed Sheeran as fireflies twinkled in approval just beyond our "walls".

Now, for those who want to know how I got my figure of $2 per square foot: 

4 flanges-$31.88, 4 poles - $57.24, globe lights-$43.99,tax- $8.24 for a total of $141.35 to gain a 16'x16' room=$.55 per square foot. We had the spray paint, the s-hooks and caulking from other projects. 

No, we can't use it in the winter and yes, we do have mosquitoes in New England but right now, in these strange times, to us this new room is priceless. These little lights changed my anxious, worried and scared perspective and they brought to mind the changes light can bring.  

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:5

God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as 

he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son 

cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

1 John 1:5-9

Thanks for spending time with me today. 

Praying you are finding ways to bring peace into your own lives. 

Jolena

** originally this post was titled How To Add Living Space For Less Than $2 A Square Foot due to my reversing my numbers when doing the math. 

Linking up to parties on these blogs:

Lou Lou Girls, Stone Cottage Adventures, Ducks N'A Row, Across The Blvd, April J Harris, Farmhouse 40, Love My Little Cottage, Jenerally Informed, My Wee Abode, Mad In Crafts, My Thrift Store Addiction, Oh My Heartsie Girl, The Pin Junkie, Katherine's Corner, The Pin Junkie, Shabby Art Boutique, Imparting Grace, The Cottage Market, Pam's Party and Practical Tips, Grammy's Grid, The Zucchini Sisters

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Another Gallery Wall Tutorial

I love gallery walls. They are not just for museums. They've been popular in decorating for a while. and there are as many versions as there are decorating styles. They all appeal to me depending on the applications. I my home I have a wall in my living room that incorporates many different items rather than just photos. You can find the instructional post on that here. And the shelf allows me to add seasonal changes.



Sometimes, you don't want a lot of things sticking out from the wall. I've used a series of prints to build a much more formal grouping. Below are the same set of prints framed differently but displayed in the same manner.

(Print Source)

In a series of posts from late 2018 til mid 2019 I documented a makeover of a friend's house. In my friend's family room there is a large stairway taking up one side of the room. The ceilings soar in beautiful room and opposite the stairway is a large Palladian window. The window accentuated the vast nakedness of the opposing wall and we wanted to do something about that.

I wanted this to be a less formal grouping as it is a part of the family room. Some grid paper and a pencil helped to form an idea of what I was trying to achieve.

We purchased three photo ledges (don't pay a lot) to anchor the space. I stair-stepped the ledges to mimic the stairs. Measure the space you want to fill and divide that number in half. (I use chalk to mark the walls, easy to clean off.)

To mount my ledges I found the center point of where I wanted to collection to hang. I measured the center of my middle ledge and marked it with chalk on the ledge. Line it up with your mark on the wall, check for level and screw into place. Next measure from that center mark to edge of your space and divide by 2 again. That will be the center point for the next ledge. I did that on both sides. My ledges were 48" long and that allowed them to overlap a bit. This is subjective and really up to you. Because it is a staircase wall I wanted to be able to see the photos from the floor so I made sure to hang them high enough to be seen over the railing.

Next, I had my friend gather all her photos, most were already framed. We decided to use colored photos vs. black and white because 1) this family has some beautiful red-haired members and 2) the cost to reproduce all the photos in black and white would have made the project expensive.

Now I could start hanging photos. There were a couple of larger photos that I wanted to use as anchors and because of that I worked those onto the wall first. From there it was a matter of sitting some on the ledge, hanging others both above and below the ledges. Finding the right sized frames was trial and error.

The first attempt still looked too stuffy to me and there were sooo.... many great photos. Just keep adding until you get the look you're after. Don't be afraid to move a photo if it doesn't fit right. Notice where the military photo, top right? It won't stay there. 

Once I got the photos and placement figured out I took down the frames that were different colors. I wanted one, cohesive color. Now, you can buy matching frames like in the previous photos but this is a big project and it would take a lot of money to do that. My solution was to set up my spray tent and spray paint all the frames that were different colors. Black allows the eye/mind a place to rest and allows the photos to tell the story. I like the idea of different finishes of the frames that were already black so I left them alone.

After I was happy with the placements I went back in with some poster tack and put a little behind the frames to keep them from shifting. This is a stairway and it will get much traffic. Trying to keep photos righted would be a full time job. This is what I use:



I found a large gold B, the families surname initial. I painted it black.

My friend found some words online that she wanted to incorporate into the mix. You can find similar metal cutouts from Hobby Lobby for a few dollars each.  If you don't want to spend money on that consider something like this from another friend's house a few years ago:

I used a piece of fabric and a Sharpie and framed it. Easy right? Handwriting isn't pretty? Print it out on the computer and put it under your fabric and copy or just frame the copy.

Paint was dry, photos were reinstalled and all that was left was to take final photos.

Again, my drawing...

And the final...

You could incorporate your children's artwork or family keepsakes like marriage licenses or diplomas. This project's will cost you less than $100 depending on where you get your picture ledges and how long they are. That price includes ledges, picture hangers, poster tack and spray paint. Additional costs would be the metal word signs.

 So, what do you think? Is there a wall in your house that could use a refresh? Why not try a gallery wall? Happy decorating.

Party Time:
Finding Silver Pennies, Our Home Away From Home, B4 and Afters, The Dedicated House , My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia, Create With Joy, Lou Lou Girls, April J Harris, Ducks N'A Row, Katherine's Corner, Gingersnap Crafts, Life Beyond The Kitchen, The Pin Junkie

Seeing The Light

Mister and I took what is becoming an annual late winter trip to Texas. It is a three-fold trip. We first hit the Austin area to visit old friends from high school-and this time around we made some new friends!

High-school friend, Lady, and me in New Braunfels, TX

After a couple days we drove north to visit Chip and JoJo's wonderland! We perused Magnolia Market and picked up a healthy amount of cupcakes- like one of every flavor.

Then we headed another three hours north to visit with my dad and brother.

When we left for the trip this year we were just beginning to hear about CoVid19. Since then everything... plans, work, and life have come to a screeching halt. Everybody is home right now. We are six weeks into everybody being home. I have found myself overwhelmed by all I have seen on the news, in our country, in my state and local towns and grumbling at all the changes. Mister is home a lot now. I keep trying to distract myself-and him-with a lot of little things that have been needing to be done in our home.

One of the projects that we've talked about for years is to move a light over the stairs. Our stairs are treacherous! At least, that is how it seems to people who visit. The house is 200 years old this year-at least according to sign on the front of the house.

When the house was built 'codes' weren't a thing. The steps are short and the rise is not to today's standards but we have lived here for 17 years and we're used to them-mostly. Not gonna lie, there are sometimes when the steps just feel a little wonky, especially in the dark. Four years ago (!!!) Mister painted the stairs and walls for me. (You can see that here.)

                               

I purchased a light for the front room a few years ago and Mister has not liked it ever since. I love the light and for several years you could find it anywhere "farmhouse" decor was sold.

                                                            
                                                                                Source

Mister doesn't hate the light so much but rather the height it hangs at. Because it is over my desk area I am fine with it but since everything is feeling 'off ' in the world right now I am questioning everything and so I agreed to change it. But, I still love the light and Mister agreed to move it over the stairs! Seems like a perfect compromise to me.

Well, that is easier said than done but Mister is amazing (in my humble opinion) and did all the work for that which also meant that the attic got all straightened out! SA-WEET!

And.... since we took that light from over my "desk" (which is really a table my grandmother purchased in France after WWII) we had to get a new light for the room....

                                 
                                                                         Source

and...

a new light for over the front door!

                                       
                                                                                  Source

And it all started with the stairs being lit up. Who knew?

I've been spending some of my quarantine time watching Rebecca Robeson videos. Her lighting choices are simply    S-T-U-N-N-I-N-G!

And, this is what I have learned about myself recently... I love lighting, beautiful lighting but I'm on a budget (wah-wah). That doesn't limit me as much as I thought it would. I do have a propensity for locating the most expensive thing available- "Champagne taste on beer budget", my mom used to say. But there are options and I think I have found some reasonable ones considering our limitations.

Back to me... So, I now recognize I have a thing for fabric, pottery, and lighting.

It didn't stop with the entry, stairs and front room. I just purchased another light for what has become my dressing room.... more on that later!

                                                     

                                                                                 Source

What have you been up to? Projects, reading? Art? Teaching? Or, just trying to keep a sound mind with everyone home? My mom used to always say, "It won't always be like this." She was right.

Last week I met with my bible study group online. We had spent the time looking at Hannah's prayer in                    1 Samuel 2:1-10 as she poured her heart out in thanks to God for the gift of her son, Samuel. I could so intimately identify with Hannah's heart attitude in the previous chapter. She was well cared for and provided for by her husband, Elkanah. She lacked nothing. Elkanah abundantly provided for her because he loved her so much and yet for her it was not enough. She had her own idea of what it meant for her to be "complete"; happy and fulfilled. She wanted a child!

I know there are many women out there who can identify with Hannah. Every mom can identify with Hannah's later prayer that "for this child I have prayed". But what got me most is this... Hannah had a preconceived notion of what happiness looked like to her. All that had been provided for her was not enough-she wanted more and because she didn't have it she was visibly stricken, so much so that her husband asks her "Am I not enough?" (My paraphrase.) But God, -aren't those the MOST BEAUTIFUL words?- heard the pleas of her heart and answered her! Now, if someone said to me, "Hey, God heard your prayer and He will provide for you as you prayed", I may walk away a little encouraged but it wouldn't take long for doubt to creep back in and cause me to question and drag my feet. But not Hannah. We are told, "the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad." Oh. My. Goodness!

So, the light bulb went off in my dim brain. Have I been complaining in spite of all that God has provided for me? I'm tired of being in my house, tired of not seeing my friends, upset that I can't be at regular church meetings, painting class, and all the many other things I have been missing out on .... But, God has heard me! I am reminded that I have a home, our bills are being met, I have food (and toilet paper), I have friends and a church family to miss. God has provided for me, abundantly. Hopefully, when my heart is reacting rightly, I will look at the lighting in my house and remember this moment when I could see clearly; when I could recognize my natural bent to not be satisfied with all God has blessed me with. And reminded when the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ once again witnessed to my soul that because I am his my grumbling and discontentment can be repented of and forgiven. I too, like Hanna, can have a face that is no longer sad!

I think my mom had heard from God at some point in her life those precious words; "It won't always be like this." I believe her and more importantly, like Hannah, I believe God. Praying that you are seeing the same light; finding comfort and peace in the God of Hannah during these times.

Linking to these parties:
The Dedicated House, Our Home Away From Home, Blue Sky At Home