Summer Fades, Fall is Here, Winter isn't Far Behind

For a week or so the temps warmed up. I could have alomst swore it was summer again with high temps in the 80's. You see, our normal temps for this time or year are usually in the mid 60's so I'm sure you could see how it would be pretty confusing. This week reality has set back in starting with the foggy cold football game of last Saturday.



It is fall, it was actually fairly clear for picture taking yesterday (well it wasn't raining or foggy a the time anyway) so I got a shot of the vibrant colors in my yard. This is one of my favortie shots because it shows so many different colors and textures.



Some of the individual trees were displaying all of the fall colors. I thought that was pretty unusual as I had never seen anything quite like it. Most often a tree does not show us greens, yellows, oranges, and reds all at the same time. Most of the time I have seen just a couple of colors on a tree. This particualr tree was a birthday gift to my husband from some of his friends. It is the most beautiful tree in our garden right now, I have to think that is their love for him that makes it shine.



Unlike the outdoors though, my feet will display signs of summer all winter long. My tan lines from my sandals will likely last until they can get more added to them next summer. I'm still wearing my sandals now, but I wear socks with them more often now. I really need to get some tennis shoes out soon I suppose, but they are so restrictive on my poor toes.

The cool weather outside has given me a chance to do some indoor rearranging and re-decorating. That and all of the progress in my basement spurred me into action yesterday. I was getting very tired of the way everything was looking inside. Having no money to buy anything new, I decided to change things up a bit. I used only things I already own and making them look new and different.
.


This was one of our fall colored swags. I had it hanging on it's own, which looks okay, but I wanted to add some drama and some interest. Most swags in my house have flowers, but I find that foliage is very interesting too. Keeping that and the tree from my hunband's friends in mind, I paired it with an ivy swag that was also already hanging on my wall.



As you can see, there was some variation in the greens, but in both swags the interest really came in with the twigs in the ivy and the mossy looking substance in the fall swag. These aspects are very easy to over look, so I decided to put the two together to form one swag.



Do you like the results? This is what I did to achieve these results.

1. If you start looking through these swags, you will see where they connect in the back thay seem to have a natural tendancy to want to bend in a certain way. Take one of your swags and very gently bend each branch in that direction. I will warn you not to be too gruff with them as some swags can be quite delicate and you may unintentionally snap some sprigs off.

2. You will end up with a hollowed out looking center with most of the foliage leaning towards the outside of that swag.

3. Take the other swag and place it in the hollowed out center area.

4. Gently twist the branches of the spread out swag into the center swag as if you are braiding hair. Do not pull hard. It is a good idea to twine them together as much as possible so they don't seperate while they are hanging together on your wall. If you have difficulty doing that or if you're not sure that you will want to leave the swags together any amount of time I have had great success with both zip ties and yarn.

5. The two should come to look like one with the colors interwoven with each other, a beautiful tapestry to behold. I think I will add some flowers to these creations once I find some that I like to add another dimension, what do you think? Maybe some sunflowers or daisies?

I'm off to do more redecorating, stay tuned!

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy