At The Picket Fence

Where Ideas for your Home Meet Inspiration for your Heart

Paper Bag Pumpkins

A few years ago, in a blog post about fall decor, I casually mentioned that every October I set out a pair of paper bag pumpkins (say that five times fast!) crafted by my children when they were each in kindergarten, respectively.

In one of the comments left for me, a curious member of our community here told me that she would love to actually see those paper bag pumpkins. I think she might have felt, like so many of us do, that while we enjoy all of the photos of beautiful home decor, there tends to be a lack of reality. In fact, I had this confirmed to me when I shared my fall tour with you recently and everyone overwhelmingly declared that they would welcome a little less staging and a lot more real-life.

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Fall Home Tour 2018

Confession…most, if not all, of the years I have shared my fall home tour here with you, there has been quite a bit of ‘staging’ done prior to taking the photos.

Vintage suitcases trying to look casual all stacked on top of each other with pumpkins spilling out. Extra throw blankets and pillows tossed onto chairs which makes it more than evident that no one is actually supposed to sit there.

There would be tables set for parties that were never going to happen or freshly baked bread with just a few pieces sliced up to look like they were waiting for someone to walk by and grab one.

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Fall Mantel with Traditional Colors

A couple of weeks ago I began to notice how the light was changing in my house throughout the day, shifting and moving from room to room in a way that was different than it had been even just the week before. It was subtle, but it signaled the very end of one season and the very beginning of another.

I realized in that moment that while I absolutely love all of the bold, dramatic elements of Autumn, perhaps my most favorite aspects are those that are a bit less obvious.

The ones that creep up on you.

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Fun Fall Giveaway!

*THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED*

When we first toured our home with our realtor, one of my most favorite discoveries was that it had an attic. A real, attic. It’s accessed through a little door in the closet of the game room and while you can’t stand completely upright throughout the entire space, there are areas where you are able to move around without getting a crick in your neck.

In the summer it is like a sauna so I avoid it at all costs, but as the days have begun to cool and the leaves have begun to change I find myself in the attic again, opening bins and pulling out decor that hasn’t seen the light of day since this time last year.

And this leads to an annual tradition I call my “Why do I have so much stuff?!” moment. Every year I try to sort through my seasonal decor and yet I have found myself wanting to pair down even more as each new holiday or season rolls around.

So, to help us in our efforts to minimize, my Thrifty Style teammates and I decided it would be so fun if we could pass along some of those seasonal goodies to YOU!

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7 Homemade Pie Recipes

*We’re so thrilled to have our contributor Julie with us today sharing this amazing collection of homemade pie recipes!*

Good morning from, Michigan! Autumn is peaking here at redheadcandecorate.com headquarters and the Fall foliage is so breath taking, I thought you might like a snap shot (below) I took yesterday when I arrived home. These are the side steps leading down into our back yard and this is one of my favorite views on our property. You can spot the “burning bush” to the left that begins to “burn” right around our oldest’s birthday which sure enough is coming up this Friday.

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Never Going Back

This is my rally cry friends!

I’m never.going.back to stressful, time-consuming seasonal decorating. When I think back on the years where I would feel all of the pressure to come up with something fresh and creative and more likely to get pinned a bajillion times, I’m seriously embarrassed. Truly. Because it was such a waste.

A waste of my time, my energy, my resources.

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Six Gorgeous Fall Tours

Hey guys! It is so boiling hot over here at redheadcandecorate.com (88 degrees) that I am wearing flip flops today, and my air conditioning bill is higher than it was in July. Isn’t that crazy? I guess I’m not really complaining, but it does feel odd when I do a little Fall decorating. Our porch this year is all about “being cozy” and boy we are definitely cozy up here in Michigan this year 😯 . So, to cool us off, and hopefully put us all in the mood for Fall, I ventured out in beautiful blog land and collected “6 Gorgeous Fall Tours (you will love)”…

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Fall Decorating Home Tour with Shaw Floors

I have a confession to make…

sometimes I talk to inanimate objects.

Case in point, over the weekend I began packing away the last remnants of my summer decor to make way for all of the fall-ness to come, and as I placed a bag of seashells in the plastic summer decorating bin I whispered to them, “See you next year guys!”

And, I know that when it comes time to open the lid of the box of Christmas ornaments I will gaze down at them and quietly say, “Hello, old friends!”

This is totally normal, right? Right? Because, I’m not sure I really have any control over it. It just comes over me.

This need to bid farewell or say hello to my seasonal decor.

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Fall in the South with Shaw Floors

Hi everyone! I’m blowing into At the Picket Fence on the tail end of Hurricane Irma! As we watched this storm increase in size and force our prayers were with our friends and family down in Florida.  Little did we realize this “not so Southern lady” would make her way her to the Atlanta area!  While we have some yard and debris clean up to do around our home we are so thankful that we didn’t experience anything worse.  We did have many friends near us that lost cars to trees falling and had damage to their homes.  Those things can be replaced but THEY cannot be, so we are grateful everyone made it through safely!

While Hurricane Irma blew through here I was busy photographing our home for a fun FALL HOME TOUR sponsored by our friends over at Shaw Floors! Welcome to our Southern Fall Home!

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