Happy Fall Ya'll! Autumn decor inspiration and some how-tos

 Hello everyone! As I was organizing and cleaning until 3am this morning as expected guests are now coming tomorrow instead of Sunday I realized I haven't been keeping up here, you know how those semi conscious thoughts come flowing in the exhausted wee hours. Soooo,  I'm officially working on some things! Last year mom stuck this little witch hat on Mr. Crow as a joke but I love it! So he's always up to no good. As is Lil Bit, below. Nothing but adorable trouble. My tablescape has changed since then but he thought he made a nice ornamentation. The orange pumpkins, above, I got on major sale a few years ago. They were metallic gold and I almost gave them away this year because I started to hate them but inspiration hit me when I realized I had some orange paint in my paint stash so I gave them a quickie glaze and voila! Orange pumpkins that I didn't have to rebuy!
                          

 

 With and without cat.

 

 

I've got a thing for vintage Halloween, anything really. Here is my kitchen shelf with some of my vintage collection. I found the Red Devil box mixed amongst some old nails and tools left from the original homeowner. The vintage Milky Way ad is from the 1950s by Ludwig Bemelmans, author and illustrator most famously for Madeline. So perfect!

Someday I would love to visit Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle in NYC. He negotiated that he would do their murals for free in exchange for free rooms anytime he wanted. Check out some pictures here. So beautiful!

Turkey Pie anyone?

 

 I found this wonderful vintage repro deco poster at the thrift. I'm incredibly lucky!
 

I got these adorable little hooty owls from Magpie Ethel! I love all of her things, so much inspiration.

 

Trick or Treat. Adorable sign from Target.

 

                                      
I've been crafting away the last few weeks making holiday vignettes. I made this absolutely adorable haunted house. I was sad to see it go but I know they will love it! Spooooky!

So I wanted to share a little DIY project inspiration. This one is very easy if you have the nack. I found this vintage Menaboni print of two Evening Grosbeaks. I thought it was sweet and would look cute out during the holidays with the piney branch. The frame was worse for wear and unfortunately the print has water damage but for a few dollars worth it in my opinion. So home it went!

 

So first off I sanded the entire frame. There were some big gouges and overall scruffiness going on but since I was going to be painting I just wanted to smooth it out some. Nothing perfect. I had some green paint in my paint stash and made a chalkpaint mixture. Here is the thing about chalkpaint. It's not a perfect science in my opinion. There are many, many, many premade varieties on the market but I, personally, refuse to pay $30+ for a quart of paint that I could potentially make myself. Not everyone is that adventurous but I'm cheap baby. So here is the blend I generally start with:

1 cup latex paint

1.5 tablespoons tap water

2.5 tablespoons plaster of paris

 

Mix the water and POP well, we don't want lumps. Then add the paint. I generally use at least 3 or 4 tablespoons of POP. You'll need to test out your blend and see how it's looking, depending on how much of a chalky finish you want you'll want to add more than the 2.5 tbsp in the starter recipe.

 

So after I sanded my frame I painted it with my chalk paint. Chalk paint tends to dry pretty quickly and this was such a small project I waited maybe 30 minutes then I lightly sanded to distress and finished with some Restor-A-Finish in Walnut I had handy. This darkened it a bit, I wasn't crazy about how pastel it turned out, and it sealed in the paint finish. I found out about Restor-A-Finish when I redid my mid-century buffet earlier this year.

 

 And Voila! Finished product. I did actually end up completely taking the picture apart to look more closely at the matte and picture. There was still moisture under the glass!! :O So I cleaned it really well and put back together. I'll be tablescaping with this soon, winter is coming!

I enjoy seeing what everyone is doing with their own holiday décor. If you have suggestions for other great blogs or IG users please share. I'm heading to the Country Living Fair this weekend, anyone else attending? I love it!

Have a bright day!
Chelsea

Hello World

So I feel like I need to start over here a bit. I started my blog a few years ago and wrote a lot of fun things about travel, cooking, decorating, local events, etc. And then 2 years ago I went on this journey called, “Buying my first house.” It was a turbulent time and after the stress of closing, which I’ve blocked out of my memory for the most part, I spent several months fixing up my new/old house. I was here every night after work for weeks patching, scraping, painting every inch… myself. Seven months later I got a stove. A year and a half later I upgraded my electricity so I could have heat in the winter. Long story short I’ve been preoccupied. There has always been some project to do that used up my free time and I feel bad that I’ve neglected my little blog for so long. But I’m ready to get back to work!

So a bit of reintroduction: Hi! My name is Chelsea. Despite the hard work I really love working on my house and am an avid gardener.  Gardening is therapy, you don’t have to over think things too much. If something doesn’t work, find a place that it will. I’m looking forward to my collards and onions this fall. I thrift. A lot. Being a first time homeowner means I’m on a buudg—et! But I love vintage things and enjoy the projects that require some tlc to return life to things of the past. You’ll find lots of my projects on my Instagram feed, which is on the side bar to the right. I’m a certified cat-lady. If you like cats you’ll lot my Instagram feed. I love to travel, I haven’t gotten to do a lot lately but I’ve got some great trips to share soon. I’m also planning to do a series about my visit to England a few years ago when I visited many properties used to film Jane Austen films and the homes where Jane was born, lived, and died. Stay tuned on that on. We’ll figure the rest out as we go. If you have any suggestions on things you’d like to write about, projects you’d like to hear more about, recipes you’d like me to try (possibly so you can taste test) let me know!

Much love,

Chelsea

In my garden today: Floss flower Ageratum