If you decorate, it will come.

A friend of mine uses the motto, "if you decorate, it will come". So I decorated for fall because I want the fall weather to get here already. I'm a pregnant lady who doesn't like the heat when I'm not pregnant, so I'm especially not fond of it right now. It's supposed to be in the low 80's here, but instead it's in the high flippin' 90's!

A friend of mine has a fabulous blog, http://smallsimplethingswithlove.blogspot.com, and it is my FAVORITE blog, so check it out. Nicole, is talented and creative and on a budget!! (my 3 favorite things) Anyway, she had some really cute ideas on her blog that I stole and it got me in the mood for decorating!

This picture is of our entry way, by our front door. My favorite part is the autumn picture which I made with my handy-dandy Cricut machine. My husband even helped, hehe. I've had the frame for at least 10 years and I just took out the old ugly picture of the flower that was in it and created my own fall masterpiece.



Next is our entertainment center in the living room. Notice again my crafty Cricut design. I found this old frame in the shed out back and Jim helped me create this little guy. Now, the hurricane candle holder next too it is my friend Nicole's magical Dollar Tree find! All the supplies were found at the Dollar Tree, totaling a whopping $3!! Thank you Nicole!!! I even found some gold bases and different sized hurricane holders to make a fantastic Christmas centerpiece costing me a whole $6. Nicole you're a genius!



My last stitch effort to invite cooler weather by decorating was also an idea I got from Nicole, in a round-about way. She loves to go garage saleing and shop at the dollar store, so I made this whole swag out of Dollar Tree finds. The whole thing cost me $7 and change. Unbelievable!



So that's my measly attempt at bringing cooler weather to our house. We also visited the annual Apple Butter Festival with Jackson. Mostly, he was excited by the millions and billions of rocks on the ground. Our whole visit was about the, "ocks!" that were everywhere. Of course, apples are one of his 3 favorite foods right now, accompanied by bananas and hot dogs. Mmmm hmmm!!! So he would occasionally scream, "bapple!!", in the midst of all the "ocks!".

Among all the cool rocks and the apples galore, there was also a petting zoo. Jackson LOVES animals in books and on TV, but put him anywhere near the real thing and he flips out!! This is Jackson checking out a goat from as far away as he could get.


Notice that the tiny baby next to him is eagerly feeding the tiny pig through the fence and big boy Jackson is only watching from afar.


We finally found the perfect "bapple" for Jackson as we paused for a photo opp with mom.


This last picture is my favorite. He had a really good time and I can not put into words the excitement he had for all the rocks that where everywhere, but this is the best face/smile I could get out of him. That's my boy!!


There better be some cooler temperatures by the time the pumpkin festival gets here, that's all I have to say!!!