Updated dining room table decor!

*Disclaimer*- I am not a great picture taker, and even though I tried to tweak them, I don't think the pictures do justice to my decor here, but you get the idea! I promise the blue colors really do match better than they show up!

I've been tweaking my fall decor a bit!

I already knew I wasn't perfectly happy with this........

I really only incorprated the red candles because they are my favorite fall scent- apple cinnamon! But they aren't that pretty, nor do they really "match." I threw in the fall goblets that have a bit of the same deep red, to make me feel like it was working......It wasn't!

I was thrilled with my buffet, but not the table or the china hutch!

So I was browsing around on some linky party posts and found this.....

Simcoe Street

Painted white pumpkins with blue candles?? Looooooove! Why didn't I think of using the box of leftover candles from my wedding before now??

I thought I would go find some more pumpkins to paint white.....but I already did that!

Then as I was reading through Jenny's Simcoe Street blog, I found this post where she set her dining room table for a dinner party with her pretty white china and glassware!

*LOVE*

So again I thought, "I have pretty white china! With blue edging!" I'd never considered using it for fall! (Again, I'm sooooo loving this *new to me* concept that fall doesn't have to be about traditional fall colors!!)

So I dusted off some of my hardly used wedding china, added some often used (hehe!) wine glasses (although not as pretty as Jenny's- I wish I'd registered for pretty goblets for my wedding!!), and moved over the pumpkins from the TV stand. (See how I made them here!)

On my TV stand in the living room, they were cute but kinda blah.

But here on the table, they are Taaahh-daaaaaahhh.........
(sorry for the lame rhyming!)

I love my china! I do use it some, but not as much as I should! (Doesn't everyone say that?) I know lots of people don't even register for china anymore, but I knew I wanted some. And I knew exactly what I wanted!

Wedgewood by Vera Wang

I fell in love with this Wedgewood by Vera Wang in Dutchesse Blue immediately! It also matches these adorable Waterford Ballet plates! I'd be displaying those, but I only have 3 :( Can't really blame people for wanting to buy me a whole set of the Blue Dutchesse for $65 versus $35 for one Ballet plate! I must get at least one more!

Waterford Ballet on top of Wedgewood by Vera Wang

View of the entire dining room (click on any pic for a closer view!)..........

Rearranged the buffet just a teeny bit.......

Moved the candle lamp and leaf plate I painted to the hutch, and added some more candles surrounded by Spanish moss.........

Still not sure I'm loving the hutch, but fall might be over before I'm happy with it! :o)

I also have plans to makeover some of the dining room furniture! The buffet (really an island) was purchased for our last home that had cherry cabinets, and it matched perfectly! Now, it doesn't really match and doesn't fit in our current kitchen! I think I'd like to paint it white, but that would be quite an undertaking!

I am also planning to do something to the dining room table! It is my parent's old set that I grew up eating on! It's still pretty good and solid, but I don't love the shade of the wood. I'd love to sand it down and stain it a lighter color to match the china hutch and buffet. I also plan to recover the seats as the cushions are uuuucckkk!

I think this is it for my fall decorating! I may do one more post summarizing it all! Then I have to WAIT until after Thanksgiving to decorate for Christmas!! Accckkk!! I think I may at least have the hubby pull down the boxes soon from the attic so I can at least start on some Christmas projects! We have LOTS of family coming into town this year, and it's Baby Girl's first Christmas, so I want it to be beeeeaaauuuutiiiful!

I am linking up at the following link parties! Check them out for more great inspiration!

Shanty Pumpkins!

This was one of the first projects I found in blog-land that I decided to re-create!

Ashley of Shanty2Chic made these adorable pumpkins!

As soon as I saw these, I knew that I was in trouble- the crafty bug had bitten me!

I immediately started searching for other ways to decorate with non-traditional fall colors and came up with some of the other decor you have already seen!

For this project, I already had smaller pumpkins and gourds on hand that I had used before, but never really liked.

Here's a before picture of the little ones- I forgot to take a pic of the big one that I got from the Dollar Tree. It wasn't nearly as ugly, but I'm not an orange fan!

Ewwwwy!
So. Ugly.

I pretty much exactly followed Ashley's Tutorial, so check out her post if you want to know how to do these!

I used exactly what she suggests- Rustoleum's Heirloom White Spray Paint and Ralph Lauren Faux Technique Glaze (that I got tinted in "smoke") from Home Depot, and jute twine from Hobby Lobby.

This project would have been pretty cheap, except that the Ralph cost me at least $15! But I used such a teeeeny amount, that it will be good for many, many, many projects to come! The jute twine was $2.99, then I used a 40% off coupon. I've already used it on another project and have tons left. The spray paint was just under $4, and I already used it up plus more on the many other things I've painted Heirloom White. And the pumpkins cost $1 since I already had the small ones!

Here's how they turned out!

I totally forgot to bookmark the blog where I saw someone else wrap the jute around the middle of the pear-ish shaped gourds! I'd intended to just wrap the stem of those until I saw someone else wrap the centers like I did above. If I come across the blog again, I'll link it up- or if it was you- let me know!!

I thought the big one looked cute with the little "tail," kind of like some of the vine was still attached, so I just left it there!

At first I had them on my TV stand in the living room but then I got inspiration from another blog I've just started reading. The above pictures I just took in a random spot near my computer so that I don't give my next post away yet!

More to come on where they ended up!