Sharing Shadymont, My Mountain Cottage

I think it was last year when I bought this pre-loved arrangement.  I brought it home and cleaned off several years of dust, and added some more flowers and berries to it.  It had very little color when I bought it, but I could see the potential.  After all, it had feathers!!   For a few days it shared a spot with my shutters on the table that I painted grain sack stripes to.   Of course it didn't stay there long at all, it has had three different locations!  Y'all know how that is.  Right now it's in the living room. I originally thought I might decorate more minimally this year.  Hmmm! That didn't happen. Anyway, I just love this arrangement, and wanted to show it to you again.  To me, the feathers just make this arrangement.   Today I went to HL and bought up plenty of ribbon and deco mesh.  I've made a couple of wreaths already that I'm trying not to show you until I decorate for Christmas. ...

I don't think I've shown the side table in the dining room with its Fall decorations.  This table/cabinet is only about a foot in depth, so it is best to use narrow items on the top.  With that in mind, I brought out this old homemade wood box that I refurbished a good while back.  I painted it with ASCP, distressed it and mod podged some French labels on it.  It is filled with some plates I found at a consignment shop, a small urn with a stick pumpkin, a pear, and some greenery and paper leaves. Here you can see how narrow this piece is.  These napkins ar favorites.  They were a consignment find, and are well worn, the way I like them. This old yellow wood box sits on the other end of the table, and holds other fall items, including a fabric pumpkin I made last year.  I found this little crate/box at an antique mall for about $4.00 some time ago. The colorful pitcher holding the flatware, was a Good Will find several years ago...

Here is an idea I had for using my apothecary jar.  I have had it stored for some time now, and wanted to work it back into my decor.   I tore some pages from an old dictionary and a very old encyclopedia and ran them thru the shredder to get the filler for the apothecary, then added the pears I bought this weekend at the consignment shop. I love how the paper has aged, especially the darker color.  I only shredded a few pages, but got a huge amount of filler, so I used some of it in my little sewing drawer. These two vintage silhouettes (reverse painted on convex glass)  were given to me when I was a very young girl, probably 6 or 7, by one of my great aunts.  Her name was Marzee, and we called her Aunt Mard.  These have been tucked away in my office.  They are so interesting to me with their lightly colored backdrops.  I like having them in this old vintage drawer along with the shredded paper from vi...

Yesterday, my daughter and I had a whole day, just the two of us, so we went shopping.  She would really like to do some painting in her home, but is so busy with her new job, that she knows it's just too much to think about right now.  So during her time off for the Christmas holidays, she decided if she can't do a major update, she would at least re-arrange things for easier organization and at the same time give her home a facelift.   She took everything off her walls, moved some large pieces of furniture around, added some cubbies for Rheagan's arts and crafts things, and placed her sofa facing the fireplace and now her family room looks like a totally new room.  She moved a small armoire into the dining area to use for storage, and to give her a new place to decorate. The pictures were all moved to different spots, and those with lots of color were brought into the family room.   So of course, she needed to go buy some "new to her" items.  We had a won...