Farmgirl Fall Flourishes

Even though by the calender it’s only officially been autumn for narely a week fall has been tugging at my inner clock since the last of the humid weather blew out to sea! Like many farmgirls I’ve spend the better part of the last 6 months OUTSIDE as much as possible, tending my backyard blossoms but the urge to fluff and primp inside Dandelion House can no longer be denied!

I love making my fall list of things that need doin’ and things I WANT to get done before the first snow flys. It’s always a race to see who wins and usually it’s the snow!

Do you have rotating To Do lists? I don’t mean the kind that go from Saturday to Saturday. I’m talking about long range lists that stretch out from season to season. That’s the list I’ve been working on lately and I’ve managed to get a couple of things checked off this week but, oh have I got a ways to go!

 Tell ya what.. I’ll share my list, then you can share yours at the end of this post!

We can cheer ‘EACH OTHER’ on!

 INSIDE~

Make curtain and valance for kitchen door ~ check

Paint kitchen and dining room ceiling ~ half -check

Paint Corbels ( made by hubby ) for kitchen cabinet~

Paint antique buffett Old White with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

Paint Living Room~ ( lighten things up )

Create a focal wall using burlap, beach and family photos and vintage ink transfers.

Finish a long over due trash to treasure project.

OUTSIDE~

Decorate the shed and hen house for fall~ check

Clean out rasied beds~

Dig up, label and store dahlia tubers~

Clean and sanitize seed trays and garden tools~

Organize Green House~

Store Seeds~

Mulch raised beds with wood chips~

Whew! Ambitious isn’t it? I don’t like to make my lists too long because it’s easy to get overwhelmed and that takes the fun out of making progress little by little. That being said, most of the painting on this years list is leftover from last year and it feels good to finally be chipping away at that! Music always makes working on a project more pleasurable. I listened to Alison Krauss and Robert Plant ( Rising Sand ) while I rolled the ceiling yesterday! I’m pretty sure the ceiling hasn’t been painted since the house was built twenty-one years ago and we’ve been here for eleven of those. Believe me, it needed it. What a difference a freshly painted ceiling makes. Everything feels and looks so much brighter and cleaner. Just what we’ll need as the days begin to get shorter.

I’m not a fan of brilliant white anything in our home. I like the welcoming comfort and softness warmer whites bring to a space so I chose Colonial White by Bejamin Moore ceiling paint.

Let’s get to those FUN Fall Flourishes shall we? Did you know that September is National Sewing Month? Ronald Regan declared September as National Sewing Month ” in recognition of the importance of home sewing. ” No wonder I’ve been in the mood to sew all month!  I’ve been trying to envision something different for our side entry kitchen door ( the main door we use to come and go ) but hadn’t been able to conjure up anything that got my creative juices stirred enough to make it happen. Finally, I just ripped down the old, dirty mini-blind and lived with a naked window for a few days.

Sometimes living with a blank canvas will spark a new idea quicker than just looking at the same old thing.

However, in this case it was a farmgirl friend who suggested that I make valance from the some leftover fabric I’d made my window panels and valances out of for our dining room. And, it just so happened that a brand new Joanne’s Fabric store recently opened up close to home! INSPIRATION at last!  I dusted off my grandmother’s sewing machine and had my new window treatments hung by the afternoon!

I’ve been wanting to make something with burlap for a while so I bought a few yards @ 3.99. and it turned out to be the perfect compliment to my new valance!

* I simply sewed a two inch rod pocket at the top of the burlap and left the sides and bottom natural. For the Valance I finished the sides with a half inch seam and sewed a two inch rod pocket at the top and a one inch hem on the bottom. Finished, it has an eleven inch drop.

I left the outer edges of the panels fringed for a farm house chic look! Our door is metal so I patched the holes left behind from the tired mini-blind then gave the inside of the door a fresh coat of paint to match the wall color. I purchases two new magnetic curtain rods to hang the valance and burlap cafe panels. The best invention since sliced bread I tell ya!

Now the kitchen has the welcoming, cozy feeling I was yearning for when we step through the door! Feeling fallish yet?

Believe it or not, I’m still cutting dahlias from the garden!

To celebrate the first day of fall I picked up a pumpkin from our local supermarket and made a chicken friendly fall floral arrangement using dahlias, faded hydrangea, pumpkin on a stick, sedum, butterfly bush, zinnia, wild sunflowers, and purple verbena and plumes of grass seed pods.

This is an easy fall arrangement to make. Simply gather what’s bloomin’ in your yard right now ( and in the coming weeks ). You can use faded blooms, dried seed pods and blossoms, shrubs, berries, bittersweet, evergreen branches or go foraging for native vegetation for a truly local and seasonal bouquet! I can imagine a pumpkin filled with sagebrush, rabbit brush and a sprig of juniper. Now that smells like fall!

Depending on the size of your pumpkin you’ll choose a vase that will not peak out over the top! A 16 oz mason jar worked perfectly for my medium sized pumpkin.

Clean out the innards and give them to your “girls” if ya got em’.

When the pumpkin begins to smell toss that out into your chicken run too! Your girls will love you back with more farm fresh eggs for your fall baking.

I grew this Heirloom Ornamental Eggplant ( pumpkins on a stick ) from seed in the greenhouse just so I could experiment with them in my fall decorating and floral arrangements. Aren’t they the cutest things? They are NOT edible but they sure add a touch of fall whimsy don’t they?

You might recognize them from the top photo where they’re tucked into the window box on the shed.

I also love to add fall touches to the Little Red Hen House every year!

I planted an heirloom morning glory called ” Something Old, Something New ”  in the spring in hopes it would clamber over the chicken run fence and it did just that.

It wasn’t a heavy bloomer though… Maybe too much shade, but those huge heart-shaped leaves are luscious! I think it’s safe to say they’ve reached ‘ jolly green giant status ‘! Wouldn’t you know soon after they began to sprout I read that morning glories can make chickens sick if they ingest them! But, I also learned that they know enough to stay away from things that make them sick! Just in case I planted a trellis away from the fence at the bottom of the run outside of the fence and I placed a board on the inside so they couldn’t get to the sprouts poking though the chicken wire…I’m happy to report that both the chickens and the morning glories are healthy and happy!

Well, sisters… You’ve seen my list! I’d better get back to work!

I’ll close this posting with an old fashioned farmgirl wish!

Remember to HAVE FUN with your to do lists and just be happy with what ever you get checked off… I will if you will! PROMISE!

Until our next shoreline visit~

The striped bass are runnin’ and I’ve got a fishing merit badge to earn!

Wish me luck!

Happy Fall and Beach Blessings to all!

Love,

Deb # 1199

P.S. I promised you a Pumpkin Spiced Latte’ didn’t I?

For more delicious farmgirl food than you can shake a stick at

check out the Farmgirl Friday Recipe Box on my Pinterest and MaryJanesFarm GirlGabBlogger Recipes! CAN YOU SAY YUM?

Before I sign off I have a prayer request regarding another kind of list all together.

Do you have room for one more on your prayer lists? If so, will you please add my Aunt Laura to yours?  She’s fresh out of a very recent surgery (which was successful thank goodness) but she still has a steep climb ahead…Like many of our loved ones, she’s fighting the good fight! Thank you!