A Mrs Among Magnolias: October 2014

Fall Craziness + Barrington Totes

Well, I have been absent from this space for over a week now. Every time I sit down to post, I loose my inspiration. I even had a schedule of posts planned out, but I failed to get them posted! So here is an overview of the past couple weeks of my life through my iPhone screen.

Even though it isn't quite cool here yet, I decided to start pulling out my cable knits and transitioning my closet from summer to fall.

I have been in a rut overall lately, so I am trying overcoming it by making a schedule and drinking more water and less Diet Coke.

The green tea cancels out the cinnamon rolls, right?

The past few days have been beautiful, so I had most of windows open in the house to let in the cool air. It was divine!

Plus it has been cool enough to break out some vests! This Vineyard Vines vest is one of my favorites! {Vest- Similar}

KJR and I decided to rearrange the furniture in our living room again. We really like this set up and we have actually been spending more time in here.

I was looking through these photos, and there is one thing that seems to be in a lot of them. That is my Barrington Tote. I got it as a gift from KJR for our anniversary in July, and I am in love. It is a perfect size for whatever you may need it for.

The tote is made with exceptional quality and you can customize the colors and patterns that you want. You can also add your monogram for only $5 more.

I have my eye on a St. Anne Tote in Black Watch Plaid for my next purchase. It is perfect for fall.

I highly recommend this tote for anyone who is in the market for a nice tote that you can use for everything you do. It has 4 interior pockets, including one that has a zipper.

Fall Must Haves For Home

With the fall season in full swing, I wanted to share with y'all my fall must haves for home. These are my favorite items for the fall season and my home just wouldn't feel like fall with out them!

Candles

This is my top must have for every season, and especially for fall is candles! I love candles of all kinds, but these candles from target are some of my favorite ones!

Pumpkins

What would fall be without pumpkins? I love how many sizes, shapes and colors that pumpkins come in. Each one is unique, and no two are completely the same.

Natural Decor

Fall is one of the best seasons to bring outside elements in. Go outside and look around your yard. Grab some limbs/sticks, pinecones, or leaves and incorporate it into your decor.

Fall Scented Cleaning Products

Yes, yes, yes! I love to look to cleaning products that are scented for each new season. I think it makes cleaning easier. Method always comes out with special edition scents for each new season, and I must say, I am loving the apple scent for this fall.

Warm Blankets

Fall is the season of snuggling, and what is snuggling without a bunch of warm blankets! I like to keep this all stashed in this galvanized bucket that we used for drinks at our wedding. The galvanized makes it feel more rustic and fall-like.

What are your favorite must haves for your home this season?

Meaningful Clutter

Ok, ok. I know that you are probably thinking that this post title is an oxymoron, but stop and think about it for a minute. Look around you and see the clutter that is there. What stories does it tell? What does it say about your family and your life? What meaning does it hold?

I would love to tell you that my house is perfect all the time, but lets be real, clutter is a part of my daily view. The idea for this post came one evening as I thinking of post ideas and looking around my home to draw inspiration. As, I was looking around I saw some of the clutter that was around me. Even though it drives me nuts sometimes, it all has meaning and it all tells something about this season of my life.

Well, lets take a look at the clutter in my home, and see what it says about me.

My husbands work boots.

Oddly, I love seeing these around the house. He usually only wears them when he's doing yard work, unless its cold outside then he wears them more. But, they remind me of how hard my husband works, and how much pride he takes in our home and keeping it pretty outside.

A mess of pillows and blankets.

This used to drive me crazy! I hated having pillows all smashed up with a blanket, but then I thought about it. These unfluffed pillows and wadded up blankets represents the family time we spent together on the couch watching TV, talking or playing on our phones/laptops/tablets. This time is precious and I love every moment I spend with my little family.

Coffe Table Clutter.
On any given day, my coffee table is bombarded by diet coke cans, remotes, computers, dishes and so much more. My coffee table gets good use and I love it! Whoever owned this table before also gave it a good beating, so I am not worried about adding a ding or a scratch to it. Our coffee table is like our gathering place.

Office Catch All.

The bench in my office, is literally a catch all for most anything that comes into my office. I mainly use it for my purse and shoes, but on crafting days it can start to look like this! But from this clutter comes my creativity.

Unfinished Laundry.

Normally Saturdays are laundry days in our home, but during football season laundry can sometimes be forgotten in the dryer. I strive to get all the laundry done in one day, but depending on how crazy College Football is it might not get done. This past weekend was a prime example!

So, look around your home, what does your clutter say? What stories does it tell? Clutter may not be desirable but don't push it aside until you look for its meaning.

Rolled Book Page Wreath

Yesterday I shared how to make one of the book page wreathes from my Fall Home Tour, so today I thought I would share the other.

This wreath is originally why I tore up a book, then when I had left over pages, I made the pom pom wreath, covered some mini pumpkins and wrapped some letters in the remaining pages.

Here is what you will need to make the rolled book page wreath:

-Book Pages

-A Paper Plate

-Hot Glue

-Twine

Yes, you read that right, you will need a paper plate. You can't tell huh?

Start rolling up the pages (I rolled them length wise) and glueing them to the outside of the plate.

Since this plate has a large lip on it, I glue the first set of book pages to the lip and the rest to the inside of the plate.

Keep adding pages around the rim, and also go back and fill in the gaps by layering a page in between 2 pages

Then start adding another layer in the plate and add pages around the whole plate, filling in gaps as needed. Keep doing this until you get all the way to the middle filled in. ( I made the pages shorter as I got closer to the middle )

In the middle of the wreath, I added poms from my pom pom wreath. Then I hot glued a cluster of them to the middle to fill in hole.

See the full tutorial here.

Once you are done and all the glue is good and dry, flip it over. I glued both ends of a piece of twine to the back so that I had a place to hang the wreath.

Hang it up, and your done!

If you decide to make one, please share it with me!!

Pom Pom Book Page Wreath

After I made the first wreath made from book pages, I still had plenty of left over pages, and I didn't want them to go to waste. From that came the pom pom wreath. It took much longer than the first wreath, but in the end it was well worth it. I love it! Im thinking of making a silver one for christmas.

Here is the first wreath that I made, I'll share a tutorial on that soon!

The book that I used was roughly 350 pages long, and I used every single page through all my crafting projects.

What you need to make the pom pom wreath:

1. A Book

2. Hot Glue Gun

3. Scissors

4. Double sided tape

5. Metal wreath frame

** I used the double sided tape to keep the pom poms curled up, you can also use hot glue or regular tape **

Ready? Lets GO!

Step 1: Fold the paper length wise. At first I only did one page at a time then I added a few more as I got more comfortable

Step 2: Use your scissors to cut strips, do not cut all the way through

Step 3. Add a small piece of double sided tape to each end

Step 4: Roll the page up into a pom pom

Now repeat about another 75 times!

Before I started adding the glue I would put them on so make sure they filled it in enough. Each section of the wreath has about 13 pom poms.

Then I started hot glueing the pom poms to the metal wreath. I would place a strip of hot glue all around the pom pom right where the cuts I made stopped. Then put in through the openings and let the hot glue adhere to the page.

My hand would get tired, so I would rotate between hot gluing and cutting, so I had a basket for all the pom poms.

I used it on my desk for a while until I found some ribbon to hang it up with. Now it is hanging in my office on my chalkboard.

Once I found the deer head, I thought it would be a prefect addition for fall!

To see how to make this chalkboard, head here.

Now, go grab a book and your hot glue gun and get your pom pom on!!

Sources:

Ribbon and Dear Head- Michael's

Coffee Table Craziness

There are times that I feel like I change up our coffee table decor as often as I do laundry. I cannot seem to settle on how I want to style it. I'll have this super cute idea, and then once I'm done and I sit down, I realize that I can no longer see the entire TV and that I have to raise the remote 3 feet in the air so that the signal reaches the box. This actually happened to my most current styling of our coffee table. About 2 days after I had it decorated, my husband tells me that he can't see the TV, so it begins again, what to do next?

I love this coffee table! It was a $10 thrift find, made by Ethan Allen. You can tell by the top of it that is has been well loved by its previous owner. I considered trying to make the top smooth again, but then I decided against it, so its true beauty can shine through.

So the main culprit of blocking the TV it my beautiful green pumpkin. Before I went any further with a new design decor, I cleared everything off of the table and let it sit empty for a few days.