Fall Days with our furry friend

As fall colors start to fade, having fun with our pup outside is not an activity to be taken for granted. Check out some pictures from earlier in the month!

Volunteer Fair!

One of Chelle's great passions, besides the whole DIY/creating sector of her life, is community. Chelle is extremely active in the community as both a volunteer and board-member of diversity and inclusion networks within the "Corporate America" aspect of our lives. Here she is with her mentor in that arena, Christy! Christy, we wanted to give you a shout-out, because without you, Chelle's true passion for all things community-centered would never have been sparked in such a way. Thank you for the impact you've had!

Photo of the weekend

Its back!!!!

Photo of the weekend! How often do you get to see something like this: Fiance fast asleep, while the dog watches TV, human-style. Priceless!

Vinyl Decals.

One of about 5 total throughout the house, this newest addition in the downstairs entryway is Chelle's favorite. Check it out here:

Fall Decorating (and a Bears game)

Chelle got some fall decorating done just in time for a gathering in the basement for the Bears game a few weeks back. Check it out here!

More pinecones from the Mama's put to good use in a embossed tin planter from on of

Chelle's thrifting journeys for .75 cents. This now sits on the downstairs bathroom toilet. :)

Inspired by one of Chelle's pinterest posts, this candle laced with a light gold overlay (found at Salvation Army for .25 cents, never burned) was wrapped in some fabric fall leaves from dollar tree and some burnt orange crafting ribbon, then placed in a narrow candle tumbler. Who says you cant craft on the cheap!!!??

Here is a broad view of the mantle, and please excuse the TV cords; we havent gotten brave enough yet to start drilling into the mantle where we need to run them. :) Since we havent posted full pictures of the downstairs living room, we'll give a brief overview here.

This is our absolute favorite room of the house. The entire floor is covered in heavily textured heated slate tile, run by a hidden thermostat in one of the downstairs closets. (TOASTY!!!) The same tiles that lay on the floor have also been hand-cut into smaller squares to make the fireplace, as well as the bathroom floor. They are so easy to keep clean, too, which is not to go ignored, as cleaning is no fun for anybody! :)

The stacking boxes in the right corner of the fireplace stoop were a craigslist purchase for $8, and neatly store misc aux cords, extra remotes and extension cords, ect. For information on the bouquet directly to the left of the boxes, check out our post prior to this one on one of Chelle's latest obsessions.

The candle spread, front and center of the mantle, is also a craigslist find. Weighing 15 pounds easy, and matching our slate perfectly, we were overjoyed when we stumbled upon this on Craigslist for just $6. The lantern on the left corner of the stoop is an antique looking "earth-green", found on clearance at Homemakers for $13. The door of the lantern doesnt shut all the way, therefore, they put it in the land of misfit home decor and Chelle immediately snatched it up. We about threw up when we saw what they originally priced it at....

In the bookcase shelves on the far left, there are some faux books providing additional hidden storage(originally 19.99 a piece at Pier one-- Chelle got all 4 for $12 on Craigslist). Sitting on top of one of the books is a glass liquor decanter Kevin was given as a groomsmen gift for a wedding he was in. Above that are the electronics that Chelle is dying for a better way to store, and a canvas tote basket with some coffee-table books from long ago.

Above that as the newly decorated mantle. Four candlesticks (another Craigslist find: $8 total) hold 4 decorative pumpkins (from Dollar Tree) with fabric leaves that Chelle hot glued to their middles, and beside them sit a big metal "Memories" sign (Craigslist-10.00). Along the mantle runs a series of 4 fall garlands purchased from dollar tree for .50 cents a piece, finished off by the fall printable Chelle mentioned in our prior post.

Moral of the story? We love our mantle decor (Chelle a little more than Kevin, we're sure), and we did not come CLOSE to giving an arm and a leg for the things we purchased to decorate it. Where there's a will there's a way, and you can ABSOLUTELY create a classy space without breaking the bank to do so! Get out there and search!

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Close-ups at some of the above-mentioned mantle decor:

Dont be intimated by "cozying up" your space this season in fear of throwing away your hard earned money. Put your creativity to work in a cheap way!

Also, some of our favorites came over that day to watch our favorite NFL team hold a clinic on thier recent opponent!

Stella's Greenhouse

Stella's greenhouse is run by two fabulous men from Waterloo, Iowa. They own a bed and breakfast by day, and grow and create stunning bouquets by hobby. They have been regulars at this year's farmers market, which in turn, has drawn Chelle in every other week to pick up a new bouquet. These bouquet's are some of the most unique and dimensional bouquets Chelle has seen in a long time and for $7.00 a pop, SO worth it. They are the perfect accent piece to the newly "fall-inspired" mantle in the downstairs living room. Here is a peek at the first one Chelle bought. Once again, apologies for the grainy picture! Chelle has been snapping away with her Iphone 3G for the longest time, whose camera is in SERIOUS need of an upgrade! We just purchased the new Iphone 4S's (Merry early Xmas to us!), so cross your fingers for better picture quality going forward!

The second bouquet Chelle got was a little collaboration from both the men at Stella's, as well as a few blooms from Chelle's favorite dahlia booth at the farmers market. They have the most perfect stark white dinnerplate dahlias and Chelle has been brainstorming how to put something this stunning to good use somewhere in the home. At $8 a stem, she doesnt want to just throw them somewhere that wont truly give them the decorative justice they deserve.

We like how this one incorporates the Chinese lanterns (LOOK THESE UP!!), green and mauve hydrangea's, dahlia's, and the dramatic greenery spidering up in all directions. Chelle always gets disappointed when the bouquet's die, but they make such great dried flowers, that we've just been leaving them on the mantle in their more muted hues until Chelle make's it to her two favorite green thumbs for a fresh bouquet.

While we wait...

Chelle has big DIY plans for the wedding next May (weird). Therefore, we have been spending a lot of time in our area thrift stores scoping out deals. What does this mean for us? We have a spare bedroom full of old ornate candlesticks and picture frames that will be spray painted and used for wedding decor. Only 8 short months from now, Chelle's favorite post will reveal all that we "DIY'd" for our big day, in hopes of inspiring other DIY brides. Budget or no budget, there is something to be said about looking around on your big deal thinking of all the memories you've made over the past year as you scavenged and refurbished old into new. We're really looking forward to the final projects! In the meantime, we have a lot of things taking up a lot of space! So, in the spirit of the upcoming Holidays and decorating the house with the big orange door for its maiden voyage with us in it, Chelle decided to put some of these frames to good use before spraypainting them.

We simply found free printables from http://www.pinterest.com/, printed them out on regular copy paper, (we're fancy, huh!) and stuck them in frames that will soon be part of the wedding decor! Check out our designs below and if you like what you see, feel free to check out Chelle's "DIY & Upcycling" boards on Pinterest to nab the images yourself.

This guy sits in our upstairs living room on a lonely side table.Chelle LOVED this printable because she is in love with subway art. Anything subway art, we have to have it. And we think this is a cute variation!

Not the greatest shot,but we LOVE this picture, soon to be hung on the "gallery wall" behind the couch in our downstairs living room. Inspired by a Pinterest post, Chelle created an "eye chart art" template with a very special song lyric, and a very simple "sketched heart" grapic at the bottom. We spray painted the matting of this frame (why dont we as humans do more of that, it seems like such an obvious solution!! :)) a soft yellow to add a burst of color to a room with a lot of earthy coppers, browns, and light blues. Hopefully the gallery wall is up sometime within this century so we can showcase all of the sentimental "art" we've been working on! But for now, one more wedding frame as found a temporary home!

This picture speaks 1000 words. We wish we had a camera to show off the items in this picture better, but this will have to do. On the bottom shelf, we have a frame to be used for the wedding (thrift find: 29 cents), wiht a brown Thanksgiving subway art graphic printed from Pinterest. Beside that, we have a very cool old bottle with a large cork that we are using as a change jar in our entry way. Chelle plans to chalkboard paint a 4X2inch section and write "spare change", but for now, its good enough. We like to joke that this is our Honeymoon fund! If that's the case, we're going to the nearest town for our getaway, or we wont be Honeymooning until we're 50!

On the top shelf is the monogram "A" that Chelle created in a separate post, made with green craft burlap to match the color scheme in the upstairs living room. Beside that is a photo of Kevin and Chelle from high school , in the original frame Chelle put it in when we were 17...everyone together now: "Awwwwwwww". Yeah, we know, it's cheesy, but we're big cheese'sters at heart. :)

This is Chelle's FAVORITE use of our old frames waiting to be made new. This fall pinterest printable is our favorite and perfect for inspiring that fall mood: A life without love is like a year without fall.
Think on that!!
This picture sits on our downstairs mantle with the rest of the fall decor. Note the pinecones in the left of the picture, coutesy of mom and mom-in-law, who searched their yards for pinecones for Chelle to use this fall (as they are) and this winter (spray-painted and displayed in hurricane vases).

Stay tuned for our fall decorating reveal! This year, its small, but effective! Just right for our first fall in the house with the big read door.

Kevin's pride and joy

It's been a long time coming (and even longer that we've needed to post it), but the bar is finally put in it's place, the tools and supplies have been cleared off, and it's actually a functional part of the basement now. Chelle has taken an oath to never put girly decorations on it, as this is a "man's" bar. It has become the home of the Scentsy, but so far Kevin has let that one slide. :) We are so thankful we found this piece of furniture, it matches our slate floors and fireplace perfectly! Please note the Jack Daniels bar mat that Kevin found for practically free at a private garage-sale. He was real proud of that one... "Do you know how hard it is to find these!??!"

We Heart Burlap!

Yes, oh yes, we do! Chelle managed to sneak a 10 yd roll of it into a wedding supply order from http://www.save-on-crafts.com/ and had time this past weekend to finally use some of it. We (she) has many more plans with this stuff, but for the time being, she used it to cover a photo frame insert. It really cant be considered a project at all, because it took literally 5 seconds, but there was about 5 minutes of instant gratification that quickly followed. Chelle snagged this ornate photo frame at a garage sale for .25! It's surprisingly heavy-duty, and it was already painted bright pink, taking all of the work out of it for Chelle! She plans to stamp a monogram "A" onto the center, but for now, we'll call it "complete".

Cake Topper!

This weekend, Chelle made the cake topper that will sit on top of our wedding cake! Chelle was able to help custom design our 3 tier cake, and we cant wait to see it, less than 8 months from now! Time is sure flying, and wedding planning is in full swing. In fact, with all of the work travel, and wedding details to be figured out, it's left very little time for Chelle to "DIY", and even less to blog about it. However, there was some free time this weekend, which yeilded the final product of our cake-to-be! Check it out:

*Dont mind the messy table. Chelle has had this beast since the dawn of time, and it's a little rough around the edges. Not to mention that it only seats 4...It works for now, but we're definitely in the market. :)

After some hot glue, silk button mums, a 4.5inch styrofoam ball, and pearls: