Autumn Is Calling and I've Embraced It With Arms Wide Open - Fall House Tour

 

We said goodbye to spring with Covid, and now we've said goodbye to summer with Covid, all the while hoping and praying this will be the season that we finally say goodbye to Covid for good.  I don't know about you, but some days feel harder than others, harder to embrace life as we're living it.  I know I should be used to it by now, used to the masks, the restrictions, the worry, the changes that Covid has caused, but some days I find it impossible to look forward without feeling the weight and disappointment that these changes have forced into my life.  

Labor Day weekend is always a symbolic end to summer and while I'm always ready for fall, this year I found closing the book on summer to be a painful and melancholy process.  Summer 2020 was sort of a bust for most of us.  There were no memory-making trips to Huck Finn's Playland with the grandkids, no field trips, no vacation, not even our occasional one or two night stay at the ocean.  There were only two family gatherings, both in late August with immediate family for granddaughters' birthdays.  So many of the things that make summer fun were absent this year due to the presence of Covid.  I know there'll be other summers and I know, God willing, we'll have more opportunities to experience these things again, but for a moment - or several - I had a hard time embracing the next chapter, the next season of life in 2020.  Amidst the regret, there was fear, fear of the kids going back to school. But......as always happens, eventually I lifted myself up, prayed a little prayer of gratitude for my many blessings and reminded myself how much I have to be thankful for and forged ahead to prepare for the next season.  This is the season almost everyone embraces with its cooler temperatures, pumpkins and mums, and all the glorious colors of fall.  I love decorating for fall almost as much as Christmas, and after 42 years, I've collected (and am still collecting) tons of fall decor.  Decorating for this fresh new season was therapeutic for me, so today I'm sharing a glimpse into my new season, not because it's anything special, but simply in hopes that it might lift your spirits too!

Mr. Scarecrow here was made by a dear friend of mine back in the mid-1990's, along with Tom Turkey, when she and I were doing craft shows together.  I just sent her Tom Turkey to her daughter so she can enjoy him in her own home, but Mr. Scarecrow needs to stay right here for a few more years.  I haven't been shopping since Covid, but I have visited my favorite Speckled Hen a couple times, and done some online shopping, so I'll do a little sourcing info for those of you interested.  

The felted pumpkins above are from an Etsy shop - Brownieman.  I'd ordered the plain one first and later, when available, the fancier version.  The little gourd pumpkin head man is from Meadowbrook Gourds, but Lakeside Farm Gift Shoppe has a huge collection of them for sale.  

The candle above is from Speckled Hen....it's scented (Vanilla) and has a timer.  One of my favorite Charming Tale figurines....also the grandkid's favorite (the pumpkin lid is ascew from little detectives looking for the hidden mouse inside).

The little witch is one of my oldie but goodies creations from back in my crafting days, along with the little pumpkin stump, complete with his spider friend.  Also made by yours truly is Mr. Scarecrow by the fence on the left end of the shelf.  All of the teeny tiny ceramic figurines on the shelf were painted in the 1990's by a talented Round Lake crafter has passed.  She was a master ceramicist.

Art print by James Browne (Brownieman on Etsy).  The foliage and galvanized container - Speckled Hen.

My outdoor display is from a variety of sources: Hanging mum and ornamental cabbage from Sokolowski's Greenhouse, pumpkins from Tiashoke Farm Stand except for yellow pumpkin which we purchased from an Amish roadside stand along with our Indian corn in earlier photo.  Fence from Crow Hill Crafts in Stillwater.  Candle rings, battery candles, faux foliage, lantern with bird - all from the Speckled Hen.

The reality of the world around me is unchanged, but my immediate view makes me forget for a moment that we are living in chaos and uncertainty.  I don't know about you, but I need that distraction and if you do too, I hope today's post served to shine a little joy into your world.  

Thanks for stopping by.  Come back soon for more Life As I See It.