I like Fall.  It's my favorite time of the year.  Now that we have a house of our own, I finally feel like I can start investing in some decorations.  I have all these idea (and all these pinterest boards) so I just jumped right in this month.

I have to admit the kids are the perfect age to start enjoying this kinda thing.  Which makes it even more fun. I wasn't sure how much they would care.  The first thing I bought were two garlands to go over the door outside.  I found them for 70% of at Michael's.  (If I still had an employee discount there, I could have bought so much more.)  You would believe just how excited Ruth was with the bright red and orange leaves and glitter on them around the door and how excited Britt was with the pine cones on the door.

While I was there I looked at wreaths, but I had already decided that I'd probably just make my own.  It's so much cheaper that way.  Finding nothing that jumped out at me, just confirmed that.  So, a few days later I went down to the dollar store right next to us, and picked up a couple of bags of leaves that looked alot like the leaves on my garland and a spool of wired bronze glitter ribbon.  Gary grabbed me a grapevine wreath from Walmart that night, and so with the help of a hot glue gun, and a reminder video online about how to make a bow, I put together a wreath for the door.  I thought it turned out well, since I really can't tie bows well.  I was one of the few at Michael who wouldn't tie them at Christmas time for customers.  I had planned to put a C on the wreath, but didn't find anything I really thought was in the right font or a cheap enough price, so maybe another time.  It was a $6 project, and might have been even cheaper if I had tried out the pinterest link on saving real leaves by coating them with clear wax.  Britt went on and on about the wreath the next morning when he saw it.

I had so many leaves left over that I used them to decorate the dining room table as well.  Gary picked up some fruit when he went grocery shopping, so I just piled it all up in a pretty glass bowl in the middle and scattered leaves on both sides, and it makes the room look so much warmer and happier.  I have some more ideas for the leaves, if I get time.
And of course no porch is complete this time of year without some carved Pumpkins.  Britt picked out a spider in a spider web for his.  His pumpkin was so big I went back and added two bats next to it.  Then Ruth picked out a cat in a boot for hers.  I went ahead and carved mine, because almost half of the neighbors on our street had, and I figured they knew when was ok to do them.  I wish I had waited a little longer now, because I'm not sure if they will last until Halloween.  I still have plans to try something called pumpkin etching with mine, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

The final yard decoration, I added this past weekend.  They are some neat lighted ghost.  The original idea seems to have started over on Lowe's website, but I've seen several versions adapted on Pinterest.  I went with a pattern that I can just take the sheets off and then use them for Christmas yard decorations.  Just take some tomato cages and wrap them in Christmas lights.  Throw an old sheet over the top and color faces and waa-laa!  Ruth was very interested in watching me make them, but she still hasn't seen them lit up at night.  Britt just loved standing with them.  I ended up using our tent stakes to hold them down, and using straight pins to secure the sheets to themselves and in a few places to the tomato cages so that they wouldn't blow away.  So far so good.  One thing I would say is to be sure that you have steady glow lights.  Ours our currently blinking.  They take a few minutes to warm up and start blinking, so when I checked them, I thought I had the steady glow, but I didn't.  Mother says it looks fine that they look like they are flickering, but I think it would have looked better with a steady glow.