Dinning Room

I always take inspiration from Anthropologie during the holidays.  Their gift wraps and tags, as well as, holiday decor are so happy.  But the prices, not so much.  I recently came across their holiday wooden gift tags and became completely smitten with them.  I love using nature in decor and even better that it's something that comes from your own backyard. I knew these would be ridiculously easy to make so I went looking around in the backyard for a log, preferably a dead one that was already somewhat dried out.  I found the perfect one about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and used a miter saw to slice it into 1/4 inch slices.  I used a drill bit to make a small hole in the top and threaded a piece of twine through it.  Done. I made homemade vanilla this past summer to give away as gifts for Christmas and I thought these would look cute on the little bottles.  And I can't wait to use them on my gifts. Note:  I tried making these with some logs t...

I've wanted to do a chalkboard wall in our home forever but as you will see from the photos, our walls are very heavily textured and I didn't think I would be able to write on them.  But I just couldn't stand it anymore.  I really wanted one.  So, I tested it out first with a piece of chalk and tried writing on it, and surprisingly, it was no big deal at all.  Sure it isn't perfectly smooth, but I could write on it and it still looked fine.  That was all I needed to get busy and paint a side and I couldn't be more happy with the results. Of course, this did inspire a couple of other projects.  Isn't it funny how that always happens.  When my dad died, I inherited some of his wine collection.  He was quite a wine connoisseur and even though some of it is no longer drinkable, I will never get rid of it and I wanted to display some of it proudly.  I also wanted to display it on the wall against the chalkboard wall color.  I looked for a DIY...

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that I can't get enough pumpkin during the Fall season.  I love it.  Especially in scones.  These are simple, fast and so tender and flaky.  And I may or may not have eaten them all myself at midnight last night.  ;) Pumpkin Scones 2 cups all purpose flour 7 TBS sugar 1 TBS baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice 6 TBS cold butter, cubed 1/2 cup canned pumpkin 3 TBS heavy cream 1 large egg Spiced Glaze 1 cup powdered sugar 2 TBS whole milk 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine dry ingredients in food processor and pulse to combine.  Add cold butter and pulse until butter resembles small pea size crumbs.  Set aside. In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin, heavy cream and egg.  Whisk until mixed together. Fold into wet ingredients.  Form dough into ball and pat into a 9 in x 3 in wide rectangle.  Cut into 3 equal portions.  But those 3 portions diago...

First I want to tell you how much I enjoyed reading about all of your wonderful Fall memories and traditions.  It's such a blessing to be able to take a trip down memory lane and remember special times with our loved ones.  Thank you for leaving such lovely comments.  :) Random number generator selected comment number 41 as the winner of the breadboards: Cathey Ihms Thu Oct 17, 09:03:00 AM CDT What a sweet way to remember your father! I love the pictures of him, and I assume that's you in the one! My favorite fall tradition is chili and frito pie! The very first day in fall when the temperature drops and it's actually chilly, we all proclaim that "it's chili weather!" We make up a batch of chili and turn most of it into frito pie. It's been something my family has done since I was a little girl, and something I still do to this day. And now I want frito pie... Thank you, Cathey!  Please email your contact info to ourvintagehomelove@gmail.com so I ca...

*************COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED************** Today is my dad's birthday.  He would have been 68 years old.  I miss him so.  In remembrance of him, I would like to give away a set of my mini french bread boards together with the long french bread board to one of my wonderful readers. My breadboards are my way of honoring him so I thought what better way to celebrate his birthday.  I love my readers and shop customers and appreciate you all so very much! To enter this special giveaway, all you need to do is leave a comment below telling me your favorite Fall memory or tradition.  That's it! Comments will be closed on Sunday night (October 20) and a winner will be randomly selected and announced Monday morning October 21st. Have a wonderful day! ****************COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED****************

I love fireplaces.  To me, they warm your soul, not just your body.  Since hubby and I have been married, I've dreamed of having one.  I grew up having a fireplace.  I loved helping my dad carry in wood and build a fire during the cold winter months.  He taught me all about kindling and what worked best.  Sometimes, he would even let me start it myself and I always felt so proud when I was able to get a fire going as good as he could.  To this day the scent of a fireplace burning somewhere in the air outside takes me right back to those special times with my dad.  It stops me in my tracks and I remember how much pride he seemed to take in building a fire for his family on cold evenings. Our house doesn't have one and since I can't build a functioning fireplace, I decided to do the next best thing, a faux version.  It might not be just like what I had growing up but it certainly reminds me of that and brings back wonderful memories.  And ...

I probably say this every year but I think I had the most fun this year decorating our porch for Fall.   I do love this time of year and I think it's so fun and festive to see everyone's homes decorated for the Fall season.  But more than anything, some of my most cherished family memories are during the Fall/Halloween season. I think that one of my favorite things about decorating for Fall is that most of the things we use come from nature; hay bales, corn stalks, mums and pumpkins.   It's natural and organic, which I love. If you read my front door post , I told you that I also completely changed our wood screen door.  It has also been painted many colors since we bought it years ago, so I stripped all the paint off with paint stripper, sanded it and stained it. I've had a lot of people ask me where we bought this door and the answer is Lowes.  It had a mahogany colored shellac of some sort on it when we bought it and I didn't care for it so we just ...