DIY Autumn Projects & Decorations
A round-up of Fall decorating ideas, Halloween costumes, and the best tips for hygge sleeping
It was in the 30s when we woke up this morning, and it was HARD for us to get out of bed. The house was cold, the duvet covers were warm, and none of us wanted to get up and get moving. But we did!
Despite our chilly mornings, I absolutely love fall. It is cool, crisp, and perfect here in Colorado — with the possibility for snow later this week! Eek!
I am deep into the One Room Challenge, but it is also time to decorate for Fall and Halloween and all things pumpkin! I don’t do pumpkins until October — I like to use real ones, and I want them to last until Thanksgiving, so we wait until mid-October to bring on the fall decor.
If you are still making that seasonal transition like we are, I have a few projects and ideas to help you along as well as some amazingly easy DIY Halloween costumes. I rounded it all up for you here as an easy reference!
Cozy, Hygge Beds for Fall
First, up: sleeping. This weekend I changed out our duvets from the lighter summer-weight duvets to our warmer, cozier duvets for winter. I’ll be washing those lighter ones and stowing them away this week. Why are we so cozy at night? Because we sleep Scandinavian-style. This is one of the best things I learned in my travels. Sleeping without a top sheet and blankets, cozied up in a duvet cover is the definition of hygge — and it means better sleep for all of us. Read on for more about why!
Autumn Decorations
I am pretty practical when it comes to seasonal decor — especially fall and Halloween. We don’t do scary Halloween, first of all. We do cute. And I don’t want to decorate for Halloween and then less than a month later turn it all around for Thanksgiving. So I rely on the same colors, themes, and ideas for both Halloween and Thanksgiving. Lots of pumpkins and gourds. Natural elements. Candles. Then I switch out just a few things — a table runner, jack-o-lanterns, and whatever we make to hang on the branch chandelier. Here’s an easy DIY bunting that will take your home from September through Thanksgiving. And here are some details about how to create your own branch chandelier, too.
Halloween Costumes
Part of the reason we don’t do much decorating for Halloween is because I am usually really busy making Halloween costumes. I LOVE making costumes! Here are a few of our most recent costumes. The Lumiere costume (from Beauty and the Beast) is still my favorite! And I’ll add this year’s costumes to the post once they are made… but we haven’t even nailed down what those costumes will be just yet!
Books for Fall
Finally, if you are looking for some good book suggestions for the next few weeks with the children in your life, here’s a list of what we are reading. We have a book basket by the bed which I keep filled with seasonally-appropriate books for bedtime reading. However, this week we started the Harry Potter series, so I think we will be occupied with witches and wizards for a good long while.
Happy Fall, Ya’ll! Here’s to a great week! Work continues on the One Room Challenge Workroom Makeover. You can follow along on Instagram, and I will have another weekly update on Thursday. But if you are a subscriber, you’ll get the update on Wednesday!
Cheers!
Angela
@Midmodernmama
New: The Library!
Introducing the Mid Modern Mama Library of downloads and printables!
Is there a better place to hang out than a library? I’m hard-pressed to think of one! So I’m excited to announce my own personal library of resources available to anyone! So many of the projects I post here have downloads of one kind or another — patterns, graphics, Cricut files. So I put them all in one place: the Library! Here you’ll find all of the file downloads for every project on Mid Modern Mama. And the list of files is growing all the time. So pop by and take a look! I am ready to decorate for Fall, and the files for the Autumn bunting are in the Library now. Very easy to find, and it is an easy project to make, too!
Speaking of projects, we are having a busy weekend around here getting ready for the One Room Challenge this weekend! Next week I’ll be able to tell you which room I am taking on, but let me tell you: it promises to be a BIG transformation. It’s one of those rooms that we tend to neglect in our homes, but by the end of it all, it will be so much more functional and beautiful, too. I am really excited!
And email subscribers will get a sneak-peek at the plans before anyone else, and will get to see the room’s progress before anyone else, too. So if you haven’t already, sign up!
Finally, on Instagram this week I’ve been sharing some of the Greener Living changes we have made in our house — an effort to reduce our carbon footprint. Because I know not everyone is on Instagram, I’ve collected all of those posts together to share here, too. Enjoy!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Ciao!
Angela
Greener Living Tips
a few easy ways to reduce your family’s impact on the Earth
9 Easy Tips for Greener Living
Easy and inexpensive changes we have made in our home to be more environmentally friendly.
This week on Instagram I’ve been posting about simple and inexpensive ways to reduce your carbon footprint. And I wanted to pull all of those tips together into one post — a list of a few of the things we do in our house to be more eco-conscious. Plus, not everyone is on Instagram! So here are the posts in order with tips and ideas for making small changes to your lifestyle which can add up to big differences.
Buy Vintage
Say “NO” to plastic holiday decor
Repurposing
Don’t Rake!
Buy Secondhand Kids Clothes
Freecycle
Mending & Visible Mending
Composting
Small Daily Habits Add Up to Big Changes
Pin it!
Prime Day Deals I Love!
A few of my favorites are on sale for Amazon Prime Day. Check them out!
It’s Amazon Prime Day, and I spotted a few bargains that I wanted to share with you. These are all products I love personally and can recommend highly or that are on my wish list right now. If you aren’t a member, there’s a link above for a free 30-day trial which will allow you to take advantage of all of the Prime Day bargains.
Happy Shopping!
Working
Having a good printer is a must, and I really love my Epson EcoTank printer. I have an older version of this one. Here’s what I love: the ink lasts forever. It is more expensive to buy it, but Epson has changed the printer/ink model. They charge more for the printer, and you don’t have to buy ink nearly as often. The ink also doesn’t come in cartridges. It comes in bottles which you use to fill the tanks — less plastic waste! If you are in the market for a new printer, this is a good one!
When I was traveling more than I do now, I always carried my LaCie Rugged Mini External Hard Drive. It is a great device for offloading photographs while on a long trip — or even for hauling around lots of photos or documents when going to client meetings. Now that it comes in a 4TB size, too, it is even more valuable.
Tired of your office or home never being the right temperature? We recommend a Nest. We have one, and we love it! We easily manage the temperature settings for our house, and save money and energy when we aren’t home without even thinking about it.
Making
I have the Cricut Maker, but this is a great price on the Explore Air 2! And it includes lots of goodies to get you started!
I snagged a set of these. I find I need multiple mats to be more efficient when I am doing complicated projects.
Watercolors just work best on watercolor paper. It’s hard to find it on sale, too!
Reading
As an author, I always try to buy the book instead of checking it out of the library. We have to stick together, you know! But I don’t have room in my house for all of those books! My Kindle makes me so very happy for that very reason. It helps keep our home tidy! Though I do still read A LOT on paper, too!
I can’t stop raving about Madeline Miller’s two novels, The Song of Achilles and Circe. I loved them both, and they are amongst a very few books available for Prime Day. I highly recommend them!
Mothering
There aren’t many books on the Prime Day sale list, but these caught my eye. We love all of them! I Want My Hat Back is especially funny when read almost as a play at bedtime. And the Elephant and Piggie books are fabulous for early readers. The Tale of Despereaux is a sweet chapter book that is wonderful read aloud!
Building
My sister won Aunt-of-the-Year when she gave Bambino the Star Wars Darth Vader’s Castle for his birthday. I am not sure who enjoyed putting it together more — Bambino or my husband.
Bambino also loves this tree house set, and has had hours of imaginative play with all kinds of animals and characters hanging out in the tree house.
This is a great, basic Lego set with some simple instructions for making a frog, a helicopter, and anything else you can imagine. A really good starter or add-on set!
Organizing
I know Marie Kondo says not to buy anything for drawer organizing, but I did buy a set like this which keeps ties, underwear, and tights well-organized in our drawers. You could absolutely do it with a shoe box as she recommends, but I think the dividers in these boxes are just a bit tidier.
I always have a stack of plain paper bags on hand for quick gift wrapping or dropping something off at someone’s house.
My office would be a mess without boxes like these. I keep the clothes that I am selling, unfinished projects, supplies, and those awkward things that don’t seem to fit anywhere else — all in boxes like these. Mine came from Ikea, but I know these are essentially the same. Neat and tidy!
Drinking
Ditch the plastic straws! I like paper straws and try to keep a bunch in my purse, so I can refuse plastic straws when needed. I also like these other reusable options, and just might be ordering some to try them out, too.
Homemaking
Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my Roomba? Nope? Well, it was one of the best Christmas gifts EVER! I absolutely love it, and this is a newer, fancier version which I am eyeing when mine needs to be replaced — but I’ve had it for more than 4 years, and it is still going strong. Dogs? Cats? Kids? Get a Roomba!
My last vacuum cleaner lasted for more than 20 years. I know. It was a workhorse, but when it came time to replace it, I chose one like this Dyson which I truly love. We have had it for more than 3 years, and I am happy with it every time I pull it out to vacuum.
We don’t have one yet, but we just got back from Hawaii where our hotel had Toto Washlets in the bathrooms. It was Bambino’s first bidet experience, and he is on a mission to convert the world now. So this will be on the wish list for our new bathrooms when we renovate them for sure!
Journaling
I am also stocking up on both of these. We go through a lot of glue in our house. I use Super77 when I am art journaling, and both Bambino and I use glue sticks almost daily!
Ok. I don’t have this one yet, but it is on my journaling wish list!
Traveling
Bambino has the best suitcase in the family: a hardside suitcase with spinner wheels. As we replace our luggage, we will all get hardside suitcases like this one.
I’ve written about how Marie Kondo has changed my life, but I’ve never told you about how the KonMari Method has changed my packing practices. Well, it has. And I’ll tell you more about that soon, but these packing cubes are an important part of that practice. They make packing and unpacking a suitcase so much better!
I have a box almost identical to this with which I travel, and it is one of the best little things I’ve ever purchased. I just love it!
If you found any Prime Day deals that I need to know about, leave them in the comments! Ciao!
Gardening Galore!
Learn how to make a Dinosaur Garden for children to enjoy on your patio or in the backyard. Also included: DIY Trash Can Planters and the relaunch of PiningforRome.com, Angela’s travel website.
DIY Dinosaur Garden
Bambino and I spent time this weekend working outside — not the hard work of weeding or tidying up. That still needs to be done. But one of his birthday gifts this year needed to get into the ground: a Dinosaur Garden. Now, to be clear, it isn’t just for dinosaurs. During the inaugural play several dinosaurs moved in along with some cars, a snake, a crab, an airplane, and a magic crystal. I suspect there will be other occupants as well! But I wanted to give Bambino a place in the dirt that was his own — and a fun place to play, too.
This is an easy project. If you have a bit of dirt — even on a patio — you can have a dinosaur garden. We happen to have some raised vegetable beds, so I turned one of those into the garden. But you could use a small tub, a wading pool, a corner of your yard… even an old sand box. You simply need a container that will hold a bit of earth.
I have all of the instructions plus bunches of photos on the Dinosaur Garden project page:
DIY Trash Can Planters
And I am also refilling our trash can planters this week. This is a super-easy and inexpensive project I put together last summer. You’ll find all of the details on the project page here:
Pining for Rome Relaunch
I am late getting all of the summer gardening started this year. We had so much snow well into May, and then our family took a trip to Belize for a week of snorkeling and swimming and sunburning!
Just before we left, I relaunched my travel website which has been under renovation for months! It isn’t perfect yet, but it is completely redesigned and reorganized. Did you know I have been writing about travel for more than 12 years? Yep. I started my first travel blog in 2007, and I have spent the last six months taking all of that content, updating it, and reorganizing it so that it is much easier to use — and better to look at, too. I hope you will check it out, and all kinds of details about Belize will be coming soon!
I recently shared one of my favorite tips for beachy packing on Instagram, and it really is one of those things that makes travel so much easier. I keep these in my travel toiletries kit and never leave home without them. Click the link to learn more!
Newly refreshed and completely updated!
Easy Packing Tip
for beachy or pool trips
One last note: I’m working on launching another exciting tool for my regular visitors. I’m pulling together all kinds of materials into a resource library. If you are a subscriber to my emails, you’ll get the password to the library , and you’ll have regular access to downloads and tools which I hope will make your life easier, prettier, and more fun! More coming about that soon, so if you aren’t a subscriber, sign up! I don’t want you to miss a thing!
So there is lots going on both here and on Pining for Rome! Happy almost-summer!
XOXO
Angela
Guest Room Refresh: One Room Challenge Week One
Come along as we refresh our guest room repurposing furniture including two twin beds, choosing everything from a fresh, new wall color to bedding, luggage racks, wall art, window treatments, and amenities in this makeover on a budget. Lots of DIY ideas with vintage-inspired decor.
It’s here! The 2019 One Room Challenge! We are redoing our guest room — a refresh with vintage inspiration and modern sensibilities. Check out week one with the furniture we will be reusing, an inspiration board, and the two items which inspired it all: a vintage map and my favorite bakery.
Lots to do! Aloha!
A
Easy Linen Closet Organizers
Make your linen closet a thing of beauty and joy! Create these easy DIY linen closet storage dividers which will corral your linens, and make your closet spark joy!
We are working our way through the KonMari process. Are you on this journey, too? Maybe you have done it before. It is exhausting! But it is great, too. And there is joy! This weekend my joy came in the form of my linen closets.
Yes, I know. Linen closets.
We KonMari’d the sheets and towels, but we have little, slightly awkward linen closets. Don’t get me wrong: we have more storage space than EVER before. We just needed to tweak it. So Romano and I designed this nifty DIY linen closet storage system that is cheap, easy, and doesn’t require screws or nails — so it is perfect for renters, too.
So, today my linen closets look like this…
Seriously! Did you hear the angels sing when you looked? They do — every time I open the door!
This video shows how easy these dividers are to install:
And I have all of the details about how to make them at the link below. You could use the same idea to organize clothes, towels… anything you need to corral.
Hope you are having a great day!
XOXO
Angela
KonMari and Gratitude
Thinking about joining the KonMari Craze that’s sweeping the nation? We have done it. We are doing it again. It is awesome, and we have some tips to make it all a little easier. Read on!
Hello! I hope you all are well in this new year! It is cold here which is such a pleasant change, and we had snow last weekend. So lovely!
As I have written before, my word for the year is gratitude, and I am working to practice gratitude every day. I am journaling. I am praying. I am giving thanks. I am writing thank you notes. And I am KonMari-ing my house again.
Perhaps you have heard of Marie Kondo, the Japanese guru of tidying. I first read her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying a few years ago, and I did a first effort at decluttering our home. But then we moved… so now that we are settled into our new home and lives here in Colorado, it is time to do it again.
This week I have written all about our efforts to “KonMari the shit out of our house” — as my husband so eloquently put it. I also have a few tips for tidying in case you decide to join the rest of America that has gone #konmaricrazy !
If you do decide to KonMari your life, I also have reduced the price of my ebook about selling children’s clothing. The principles in this book apply to selling any kind of collection — sneakers, purses, jewelry. And the book is only $5 right now!
In gratitude,
Angela
