Pumpkin Punchbowl Centerpiece

 The first day of fall has arrived in New England, and so we say goodbye to our short lovely summer.

 The nights have been cooler and the days have been pleasant, but these nice fall days are

fleeting as well, and winter weather will be next.  But until then, lets dive into decorating for

fall.  I am not a big fan of too much fall decor around the house, but one thing I do

love are the pretty fabric pumpkins that are everywhere!  Over the last several years

I have either purchased them or made my own using all kinds of materials.

 For a nice and easy centerpiece I assembled them all in my silver punch bowl that I found at the Brimfield Antique Fair.  This punchbowl has been so much fun to use for centerpieces for the various

holidays.  Everything looks good in it!  This year I picked up some pink velvet pumpkins and a tiny blue floral pumpkin, both from contacts I have online on Facebook and Instagram.  My blogging and Instagram friend, Larissa Jenkins, has a cute Etsy shop and she sold her pink velvet pumpkins there.  Her blog, Welch House 1900, is on my sidebar if you want to visit her incredible old house 
and see the masterful decorating in the style of  Glamorous French Vintage style.  

The blue pumpkin I noticed on a Facebook post was being sold by the beautiful shop called Vignettes in San Diego.  I reached out and left a note that I wanted it...the shop owner quickly contacted me with her phone number and the next thing you know, 
here it is in my punch bowl like the cherry on top of a sundae! 

This was last year's thanksgiving centerpiece using many of the pumpkins I made myself,

and some velvet pumpkins I found at Homegoods. 

 We are having a party for my mother in law to celebrate her 90th birthday,

so I made a grand buffet tablecloth for our dining room out of a pale grey and cream toile.

The centerpiece looked really nice on the cloth, and I plan to use some of my vintage silver

trays for the party to give it that fancy vintage look I love.

Making my own pumpkins is a lot of fun, as I get to use leftover home decor fabrics or

I upcycle velvets from old clothing like jogging suits and fashion them into cute pumpkins.

Enjoy the links below for either making your own or visiting independent shops and blogs

that I find very inspiring! 

Tutorial for my designer velvet pumpkins here

Larissa Jenkins Etsy shop for pink pumpkins here

Larissa Jenkins blog, Welch House 1900 here

Vignettes Decor, San Diego, FB page for blue floral pumpkin here

Country Home Magazine Shoot on Cape Cod

 Life is sooo glamorous these days!
During the week, sandwiched between babysitting

for my 2 year old monkey Reeve (which entails peanut butter sandwiches and diaper changes), 
I was invited to be a model and play a "guest" at a photo shoot for Country Home magazine
 by my friend Matthew Mead, the multitalented superstar in the magazine and book industry.  Matthew was producing this segment for CH and the location was 
my friend Sandra's beautiful home on Cape Cod.

 Sandra's home is quite famous now.

It has appeared in several magazines and has a devoted following on

Instagram at her account called Old Silver Shed. 

Even I wrote a blog post about it with lots of pics when I first visited it after 

both of our homes were featured in Matthew Mead's DECORATING magazine together.

(You can read that post here.)

 This house overlooks Old Silver Beach and its simply spectacular inside and out!

The CH shoot was about a summer Pie Party on Cape Cod.  

Just like a little movie, the magazine shoot has a script and Matthew Mead was the producer. 

 He advised me to come in a blue and white gingham shirt and to arrive at noon.

This side porch was to be the setting for the "Pie Party", and it is a porch I know well,

as I have slumbered in the dreamy room that leads out onto the stone pillared porch.

Yup, this is MY ROOM when I stay at Sandra's!! Yummy!!

There are French doors to the right that lead to the side porch.

So when I arrived I walked through my bedroom (lol)

and this was the scene, with the ocean as a backdrop.

While Matthew was getting the props together for the shoot, I grabbed

a pic of him with our hostess.  Matthew was going to have one of the pies

cut up and placed on the antique blue and white plates that all the "guests"

were to gobble up while being photographed. Ha! Have you ever seen 

pictures of people actually eating?  I myself cannot wait to see how we all

look at this Pie Party, eating and laughing at the same time!

Sandra Cavallo, Amy Chalmers, Ellen McHale

One of the other guests is also one of my favorite people, artist Ellen McHale.

I met both Sandra and Ellen through Matthew 

when he was doing his own magazines on decorating several years ago. 

 Flashback to 2015.

This is the night we all met up at a party I threw for Matthew Mead 

for the magazine launch at my old shop Maison Decor.  

Read about that party here.

We had so much fun that night, laughing our heads off.

We have remained good friends and our point of connection is style guru Matthew.

 We aren't supposed to share too much of the actual shoot, but I wanted

to show you part of the styling Matthew did.
 Those antique silver glasses were scooped up by Sandra 
at an antique place and they have quite a story to them. 
 They are sailing trophy glasses from the Beverly Yacht Club.

Her kids are into sailing and she loves anything that has a meaningful story behind it, like I do.

Which is why we both are drawn to using vintage in home decor, its so much more interesting!

 He also used a fabric by the fabric designer Paula Arndt 
that is similar to the one I upholstered my Swedish trundle bed. 

You can order fabrics and samples from her Spoonflower account. 
 I ended up choosing the faded blueberry gingham
at the top for my sofa.  Isn't it pretty? 

You can see it in the background at my dining room table. 
Anyway....I digress.

 Ok, here is one shot including a pie....
but really, look at the porch view!! 

OMG

For the last scene we shot, we were all sitting out on Sandra's lawn in the 

old weathered Adirondack chairs and waiting to be handed plates of pie. 

That will be one of the shots in next summer's issue of Country Home magazine.

Which is something to look forward to after the fall and very long 

New England winter....sigh.

Decorating Changes

Our living room has gone through some decorating changes this summer.

It all began with selling the painted baby grand piano.

Since we are planning to move to our lake home one day, (which is yet to be built),

I decided to sell off a few things we wouldn't be taking,
 like the piano to get prepared for the eventual move.

Then we impulsively bought a lilac colored sofa at an estate sale auction 

and played with where to put the sofa, since the piano was gone. 

Yes I said "WE", as hubs egged me on to buy it because it looked

much more comfortable than the Swedish couch we had.

 Also. the lilac of the sofa and the blue color of the wall just was a bit too much

for my taste, and I hated how the sofa looked against the staircase banister.

So that was going to have to change....

The couch went back between the windows, but not before I 

painted the walls a neutral color, French Canvas, by Benjamin Moore.

The corner where the piano was gained the mora clock from the front

entry area and the small French provincial desk.  

The Swedish trundle bed/sofa that started off in the living room last year,

was moved to the dining room for seating along the farm table.

I have been reupholstering it in a blue and white gingham.

I painted a pastoral mural to hang above it, however it ended up being moved

into the living room as seen in the previous pic above.  One thing leads to another,

and our home hasn't seen this much decorating activity in a long time.

A mirror and the opaline sconces got moved over the Swedish sofa.

This was the same mirror that hung on that wall shown in 

Nora Murphy's County House Style book.

An arrangement of purple transferware plates surrounded the mirror.

So it's been a full summer of moving furniture around and painting walls.

I have more changes to share but I will end it here, 

wishing you all a happy and safe Labor Day weekend!

We are visiting the lake cottage these last days of 

August, taking some needed family time with hubs and the kids,

before the school year begins and everyone is back on the wheel.

Goodbye summer and hello to the cool fall days that 

have quickly arrived in New England.