Fabulous Fall

This tree is in our backyard! Spectacular!

Hello all! It's been a busy few weeks since I last posted. I'm going to combine several topics into one post. :-) We moved in, got our furniture put in the right places and I went to Florida and College Station almost immediately for a week. I've been back for a bit and we're slowly getting everything set up. We don't have decor put on the walls, books on shelves or the garage cleared out, but we're making good progress and it's really starting to feel like home.

I've even been able to put up some fall decor. Michael's had some great sales, so I was able to get some things without much investment. Here's a sampling:

I've had those pumpkins for a few years. The peacock was a recent gift. The leaf garland and wheat in the vase are my new additions.

A friend made a centerpiece like this recently and I copied the idea. The coffee beans in the bowl smell great!

I am really proud of this wreath. I was appalled at the price tags of pre-made ones, so I picked up a grapevine wreath, leaf garland, artificial flowers, pine cones and pumpkins and made my own for half the price. I love the color!

We finally got all the pieces for our new bed and set it up. It's super super comfy and I really like the colors. We're planning to use that teal throughout the house, and you can already see it here and there!

Bed is from Restoration Hardware (Originally), bedding is Barbara Barry (Bed, Bath & Beyond), the teal throw is from BB&B, purple pillow is DKNY and the teal pillows are from Ross. I made the lamps myself in welding class in college. :-)

Though I never would have thought it would work with my style, we decided to use some of my mom's furniture in our bedroom. It's all solid oak. Our bed is also oak, so they work well together. We may refinish them someday, and we'll probably get new handles, but for now, we have a really nice bedroom set up. I'll show you the rest once we get our decor up.

I've also been doing quite a bit of cooking. It's wonderful to have the kitchen all set up with all my favorite things! We recently had a gathering with our Supper Club at the house and I got to try out some new recipes.

My first time to roast a chicken. It turned out REALLY good.

I was so proud of my roasted chicken :-)

I made butternut squash soup too, and it was awesome. New favorite meal right here.

got to use my wedding gift champagne glasses!

Our first fire in the fireplace. My brother-in-law made it a roaring one.

We also made s'mores. Super yum.

beautiful!

Drew and Ellie

Pierre will only let Jason do this to him.

Our party was a sleepover before our 5K Foam Race, so we also had breakfast, courtesy of Grant and Zach.

awww

We've been doing some gardening as well. Zach has been hard at work making our yard look great. We seeded the bare spots with fescue. Can't wait to see how it sprouts up!

the bare part of the backyard after Z got it ready for grass seed

evidence of Zach's industriousness

grass will go here.

grass will go here

grow little fescue, grow!

Hard at work

We got the bougainvillea hung up too!

I'm very excited about the two trees we're planting. I really wanted something with pretty fall color. Lucky for us, one of the trees in the backyard has gorgeous yellow leaves. We just planted a "Fire Dragon" Shantung Maple in the front yard today. This is what it's supposed to look like--IN TEXAS:

"Fire Dragon" Shantung Maple (the red one)  and regular Shantung Maple

It came in a box!

I can't wait to see how it grows. I'm already in love with the leaves!

tiny tree :-)

tree in our front yard--Total To Kill a Mockingbird moment :-)

I also got some acorns from the one and only CENTURY TREE from Texas A&M. It's a huge tree on campus and the tradition goes, if you walk under it with your true love, you'll stay in love forever. It's such a special tree to Aggies. Thanks to my friend Jana, I have acorns from it... so I planted them. It'll take a while to grow, but that's ok. We'll be here for a while. :-)