Autumn inspiration

It's October! The air is crisp, the sky is blue, the sun shines in a friendly way. Autumn has officially started. Dear Rhoda at Southern Hospitality is hosting a Fall Inspiration party today. I've been looking forward to this!

Here's a glimpse into a few spaces at my house that are sporting a fallish look. As you walk up the front walk:

And a closer look at each side of the door.

See that terra cotta jack-o-lantern? It was the first of my collection of pumpkins. My husband and I got married in 1985. Almost immediately, we moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, for my husband to go to graduate school at the University of Virginia. We lived in a tiny little apartment in married students' housing, just getting by on my income. Those were wonderful times, but they were lean times. My parents came to visit us in October that year, and they bought me this jack-o-lantern. I never could have afforded a pumpkin to carve into a jack-o-lantern, so I proudly lit this on Hallowe'en night as I gave out inexpensive candy to our trick-or-treaters. This year will be the 25th year that I've lit this little guy.

If you come to my house, you'll be greeted by Snickers (our beagle) and Cocoa (our pound puppy). Did you spot them in their guard dog positions? You wouldn't believe how often I have to wash nose prints off those windows.

The side door in from the front porch sports a wreath as well as the front door. This one is a pine cone wreath made for me by a friend many years ago. I wired this fun little sign to the wreath for fall.

And now inside. A simple autumn arrangement on the dining table. . . a burlap runner (okay, a piece of burlap from the fabric store), a few of my beloved pumpkins, and a couple of topiaries I made. I do so love topiaries, but I struggled to find a pair that were the right size and the right price. So I finally made a couple with materials from Michael's: clearance-sale urns, foam spheres, florist moss, and foam spheres. They're not fancy, but I like them--and they cost me less than $10 each to make.

A fallish look for the coffee table in the living room. I'll bet some of you have these same pumpkins--the two smaller ones were Dollar Tree finds.

I showed you my prized dough cabinet here. Now it's proudly holding many of my pumpkins.

Isn't it fun to cozy things up for Fall? Visit Rhoda and be inspired!