Confession, ya'll...while I love the fall and winter holidays, I've never been a huge fan of seasonal decorating. It has always just seemed too fussy- too much work to get out and put up, and all the while pieces are breaking off and getting lost (#kids). I did a major purge of our Christmas decor a few years ago and condensed it down to two Rubbermaid bins. Some of you may be laughing, but that is "minimal" for our family.
But just like always, October makes its entrance and that crispness fills the air...and all of a sudden I. NEED. PUMPKINS!!!
Yes, I AM that lady that forgets about the pumpkins I spent so much time carving and leaves them to rot on the porch. GUILTY. Sorry everyone who comes to our home in the month of November. You will be greeted by the saddest bunch of post-Halloween carved pumpkins you will ever see.
This year, though, I have yet to visit the pumpkin patch (which is a MUST)- but I've already made peace with some very minimal autumn-izing at home.
Because I know my kids will, inevitably, play with whatever decor I put out, it HAS to be durable. It also needs to be not too special- as in, it need to be cheap. But on the other side, I don't like to buy new things every year, so it also needs to last.
So, this is what I've decided to do this year- I'm keeping our fall decor limited to one table- which my kids are calling "pumpkin city" (haha, love them!). On it, I pulled a few orange-y things from around our house (it's one of my favorite accent colors, though I've never been super crazy about Halloween).
I knitted several pumpkins a few years ago that have been lightweight and durable, and mixed them with these velvet pumpkins my mom gave me. She found them at the local TJMaxx but here are similar. And to realllllllly personalize, we added in the crazy decorated fake pumpkins that the kids decorated with my mom (bless her for busting out the glitter! Of course Liv's pumpkin is coovvvvverrrrreeddd in it).
I threw one of my favorite Mexican blankets down on the bottom just to add a bit of warmth and interest, and pulled a few vintage Reader's Digest books (these are so handy for decorating and there are so many colors of them!) to create some levels. I was so happy with the result.
This table is viewable from nearly every spot in our kitchen, office, living and dining area so it really is enough to remind us that it's autumn (even when the Texas heat wants us to believe otherwise).
And that is literally ALL I'm going to do (with the exception of maybe a few real ones on our porch after our pumpkin patch visit). I do get a little crazier for Christmas, but that post is for another day. :)
I'd love to hear how you keep seasonal decorating simple!