Fall Porch Inspiration

Ok, where are my fellow summer lovers out there? Can you believe it is already time to start getting ready for fall? Well, I've been collecting inspiration on Pinterest, as usual, and I have to admit, I do get kind of excited to decorate for fall, even though I'm not a fan of the cold nights that fall brings (I'm more of a warm weather girl). I've come across so many great ideas, it almost makes me want to pull out my fall/Halloween tote from the closet. Almost. :)

Two things that are Must-haves on my fall porch this year: pumpkins and mums. I skipped on the mums last year, but I am definitely picking some up this year. I love an abundant use of pumpkins, too.

from here and here

You can get faux pumpkins and mini hay bales from craft stores like Michaels or JoAnn's. I got a couple faux pumpkins last year. I loved the white ghost pumpkin and couldn't pass it up. :) Plus, the small faux pumpkins and gourds are nice to use on tables in the house.

from here

from here and here

I love the fall displays with the little signs that say things like "Welcome" and "Home sweet home." What can be more welcoming? I also love the use of old crates and have had one on my porch all year. I think I picked it up at a yard sale last fall.

from here and here

More mums...and berry wreaths are my favorite!

from here

from here

from here and here

Old rustic chairs and wheel barrows create nice fall displays. Anything rustic is kinda fall-y, right?

Not gunna lie, this makes me a little too excited to start on my fall porch.. Maybe I should wait until my summer flowers die first. Ha.

Wine and Movie Night

Finally, a night to relax! Trent and I are hanging out on the couch tonight drinking some Missouri wine and watching Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. (It's quite interesting to say the least.)

Another busy week has come and gone. Maybe next week we'll have time to work on the landscaping?? One good thing: Trent vacuumed and cleaned the floors while I was at work, then changed my oil when I got home. Gotta love when that happens.

Labor Day Weekend Antiquing Adventures

Happy Friday night! Unfortunately I'll be working tomorrow, so my weekend will be starting a little later. But I wanted to post my finds on our trip this past weekend, so here is a quick post before I call it a night.

First on our way to Missouri, we stopped at an antique store called "Yesterday's Treasures" in Good Hope, Illinois.


It was different than a lot of antique stores I've been to, because it wasn't separated into "booths" - it was more laid out like a huge yard sale in one big, open space. It was full of stuff though, and like items seemed to be grouped. I found myself spending too much time at the table in the back looking at bunch of plates...of course. :)

I ended up taking home two small plates:

The purple one was only $3.00, and the pink one was $12.50, but I loved it so much I splurged. :) Every once in a while you have to!

I love them, especially together. The pink and purple have a really vintage feel. More to add to my collection!

We also stopped at a bunch of shops in Jamesport, Missouri, which was an Amish town we hung out at for a little bit on our way home.

We spent at least a good two hours at antique stores, candle and gift shops, and even did a little wine tasting in downtown Jamesport. We ate lunch at a little family restaurant called Gingerich Dutch Pantry. It's a homestyle buffet / sit-down restaurant with a bunch of homemade goodies - it was really busy when we went! I think it might have been the only restaurant on that street! Either way, it was really good.

I snapped a few photos in the antique shops, but not too many since a lot of the people working at the shops were Amish and apparently it's against their religion to be photographed, so I was a little scared to take pictures the whole time! Haha.

One of my favorite antique shops there was called "Gas Buggy Antiques:"

I didn't buy much at these shops, but we did do a free wine tasting where Trent and I bought a couple of bottles of Missouri wine.

I also went a little crazy and bought a bunch of candles from the Jamesport Candle Co. - They had TONS of scents that smelled really yummy....like Buttered Maple Syrup. YUM. I love scents that smell like food, what can I say?

Last but not least...I had to pick up a postcard for .50 cents at one of the shops. We saw tons of those horse and buggies.

Well, that's all for our Antiquing/Missouri shopping adventure. Hope everyone else has fun sleeping in tomorrow...I won't be! Ha.

Labor Day Weekend Missouri Trip

Looks like I have some catching up to do! We've been really busy around here, as you might have noticed. The regularly scheduled home-related posts will be coming soon. In the meantime though, here's a recap of what we did over the Holiday weekend.

As you might already know, we spent the whole weekend in Missouri for Trent's family reunion. This was our second year in a row that we made it down. I'm glad we went again, because it was a lot of fun. I'll try to make my recap short and sweet since I have some things to get to around the house, like dishes and laundry (still catching up from lost time this weekend).

The town where we stayed is called Brookfield. It's a small town in central Missouri. I like to call it "the middle of nowhere." Although there are a lot of lakes and pretty wilderness areas around there.

We stayed at a motel in Brookfield called the Martin House. We couldn't really book any of the larger hotels in the area, since they were mostly full, due to the Hot air balloon festival that always takes place every Labor day weekend. It was fun though, since most of Trent's out of town family ended up staying there, too.

And speaking of hot air balloons, even though we didn't attend the Balloon Fest this year, we did catch many of them flying by us while driving around Brookfield. Some of them were this close:

Others were off in the distance (you can barely make them out in this picture, but they are all those little specks in the sky you see):

We drove around Brookfield lake the first night we were there, which was really peaceful and pretty.

The reunion on Sunday was fun, too.

It was at Pershing State Park again. We all sat around and hung out, and ate lots of food. And I watched the guys play washers (competitively), which was quite entertaining. 

On the way back to the hotel after the reunion, we stopped in Sumner, MO to see Maxie, the World's Largest Goose.

The guys all climbed on it.

Monday, we drove home and took the long way, stopping at a few places along the way, like Jamesport, Missouri - the largest Amish community in the state. There were lots of little antique shops, which I will have a post about soon.

We drove up through Iowa, where we stopped to get a view of Rathbun Lake:

And even stumbled upon the American Gothic House, from Grant Wood's painting American Gothic.

It was definitely a fun-filled trip! I picked up goodies at some antique stores and other shops in Jamesport that I'll hopefully share tomorrow night. All in all...it was fun, but we're glad to be back home. :)