{Day 8: Decorating for Fall and Clearing Counters}

To make some "lovely little spaces" for Fall in our kitchen & dining area I had to clear out some of the everyday things that are usually there. 

Here is the centerpiece on our dining table. I added a big sunflower to a basket and covered the stem with Fall colored leaves (all silk). 
 

These antique serving dishes always remind me of harvest time. I usually bring them out for autumn, and this year I added them to one of the cabinet tops in our kitchen. Being a new construction, there are seven of these areas in our house; the majority of them in the kitchen/dining area.

The lanterns were already part of this vignette near our dining room. The glittery pumpkins are "new" for Fall this year.

This glittery purple haunted castle was a discount buy from Target on the day after Halloween two years ago. I added it to a vignette above the stove that already had crystal candlesticks and Waterford champagne flutes. 
 

To carry the purple color around the room a bit, I put these purple chrysanthemums in a vase above the refrigerator. The vintage picnic basket echoes the natural theme and color of the other baskets (sunflower, purple castle) and the corks (photo below).

This space above the pantry didn't change, and I'm thinking I need to add something to it to get in the spirit of Fall and Halloween. Perhaps I can add a string of Fall colored leaves around the lanterns or put something in the vase full of wine corks??

To make dinner time easier, I have been working to clear our counters of our small appliances. For the most part these live in our pantry. At the same time, I want kitchen prep to be easier. I recently added our long-handled kitchen tools to an antique silver pitcher on this counter next to the stove.
 

In one of the Mother's Day art projects on the wall, it says
"I love you because you make my dinner." Precious!

The image in the frame in this photo above is something I put together. The background was a card my aunt sent to me, to which I pasted a quote about peace. It says "Peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart." A great reminder when the dog is barking, the kids are fighting, and the pot is boiling over! 
 

The roast smells amazing!

On this counter, I keep my cookbooks and cooking magazines handy as well as knives and my standup mixer (too heavy to lug back & forth from the pantry). There is a cute photo of Griff and Bela in the frame behind my wine. And the crockpot made my day as it made our dinner. What a joy to remember--as I drove home with a million things on my mind this afternoon--that dinner was already taken care of for tonight!