A Bright & Happy Fall Front Porch

The front porch is the welcome center to your home. You see it every time you leave and it’s there, welcoming you, after a long day at work. Shouldn’t your front porch feel warm and friendly? And, what better time to spruce up your front porch than when guests start arriving? After all, it’s that time of year. Fall gatherings. Football watch parties. Thanksgiving. Before fall’s over (why does it happen so fast!?) I wanted to share my front porch all decked out for autumn. Dressed up with just a few fall essentials, my front porch is bright, happy and welcoming. Add some fall mums In pops of bright yellow and deep burgundy, fall mums add festive fall color to your front stoop. Pop the plants into unexpected containers, like woven baskets or my plastic pumpkin planters, and your plants will be anything but boring. Bring on the pumpkins No fall porch is complete without a display of pumpkins. Orange and white pumpkins keep it classic, but you could also add in green pumpkins or warty pumpkins. A place to sit If you have the space, a simple wooden bench makes the perfect spot to plop down, read a...

Fall Decorating on the Front Porch

Decorating the front porch for the fall season is a must for me. Nothing looks more cheerful than orange pumpkins and bright fall mums decorating a doorstep. Even if you do something as simple as setting one pumpkin on the step and hanging an autumn-themed wreath on the door, giving your doorstep a little seasonal style will put a smile on your face every time you come home. This year I didn’t put more than five minutes of work into decorating my front doorstep. And, most of it I found by wandering around my front yard. If you reimagine how you think about décor for your doorstep, you can find what you need by just looking around your home or taking a walk around your neighborhood. Take a look at my doorstep. The pinecones were scavenged from my front yard. The mums are plants I bought last year that reappeared. They’re annuals! The mums haven’t bloomed yet, but they’ll show their cheery yellow buds soon. My boyfriend already had the antlers. And, I added a few gourds and miniature pumpkins (which I did buy this year) for color. (Please ignore the icky wrought iron screen door. It came with...

Rainy Days

I have a thing for dreary days. Give me gray skies, a steady storm, that cold scent of rain, and I’m happy. The unseasonably wet late summer we’ve had here in Kansas City has been my perfect weather. A happy do over for the always too short spring rains. There has been a lot of drinking coffee on the porch and lazy afternoons going on around here. This is what the view from my porch has looked like lately… No, that gorgeous brick number isn’t my house. But I get to look at it every day, so that’s something, right? Of course today, the day I’m writing, it’s all blinding sunshine and high temps outside. But the day I took these pictures, the rain poured for hours, and then… …that magical soft light that only comes out after a hard rain appeared. That fellow is my sweet boyfriend who recently injured his knee. Hence all of the porch sitting and lazy afternoons we’ve had lately. I thought that I should finally show some pictures of my neighborhood because there might be some changes coming for me soon, hint, hint. The skinny houses, Virgin Mary statues and red, white and...