Fall Color on the Patio and a Free Printable

Well, it sure has been awhile, hasn't it? I didn't mean to take such a long break from blogging, but things just got busy around here. :)

I'm back today to share our patio with you. I started looking for mums a few weeks ago, but couldn't find the colors I wanted. It seemed everyone only had two or three different colors. Then I finally lucked out and found all six colors I wanted at Houston Garden Center. Yippee!

This one is going to be beautiful in a few days...

I LOVE this pale orange color...

Purple mums are one of my favorites.

After I took these pics, I remembered I had this little pumpkin on a stick, so I added it in...

I spent all day today getting out my Fall decor. While I was decorating, I put this little vignette together. I thought it was appropriate since today is National Coffee Day. :) 

Isn't that Fall printable darling? You can get it (and lots of others) for free HERE. 

Here's a close up...

I'll be back soon to share all my Fall decor. Hope y'all have a nice day!

~Lisa 

Fall Goodies From Target's Dollar Spot

Hello all! So, for the last week I've been crushing on these cute Fall pillows and burlap pumpkins from Target that kept popping up in my Instagram feed. 

My Target is hit or miss on seasonal stuff, but luckily I scored and found exactly what I was looking for...

I REALLY wanted one of these "Give Thanks" pillows and snagged the very last one. Everything was going fast. At $3 a pop, you can see why. :) 

Here's a wide shot so you can see the size. It's a little smaller than I expected, but I'll make it work. I might have to add a slightly larger pillow behind it.

Here's a close up of the details. I love the shabby edges.

The pumpkin pillows landed on the dining room chairs. 

I love the neutral colors. 

That pillow behind the pumpkin one is the same pillow you're used to seeing in here, I just flipped it over because I thought the leopard print would be a little too much. 

Here's the side you usually see...

I'm loving this polka dot pumpkin too.

Oh, and several of you emailed me about these burlap pumpkins in my LAST POST so I thought I'd show a close up...

I got them at Kirklands last year on clearance for $1. I took this one out so you could get a better look...

That "Fall" pillow is from Kirklands too. I just kind of hung it over the side of the basket.

Oh, and one last thing. My favorite seasonal coffee creamer is on the shelves again. Peppermint Mocha. Yum! Last Fall my oldest son and I tried almost every flavored creamer and this is the only one we liked. Do y'all have a favorite coffee/creamer? 

Hope y'all have a great week!

~Lisa

A Few Touches of Fall

I couldn't stand it any longer and HAD to pull out just a few Fall decor items...

I brought out my orange pillow covers along with my cable knit pillows. Do you spy the two pumpkins on the shelves?

I love this little wheelbarrow I got at Joann's. I should bring it out more often. 

I replaced the hydrangeas with lots of burlap and cream pumpkins in this basket in the foyer. Now we just need the weather to cooperate and make it feel more like Fall outside. :)

I'm thinking of skipping all the jack-o-lanterns and Halloween-ish stuff this year and just leaving my Fall stuff up until Thanksgiving. Usually I put up some Fall things, then I transition to more of a Halloween vibe, then I move on to Thanksgiving.  Hmm...I'll have to think about it. 

Here's a quick and totally unrelated tip for you. Do you have a Sonic Drive-In near you? If you sign up for their text alerts, they'll periodically send you a text with an unadvertised special such as half priced burgers, dollar Sonic dogs, etc. 

These texts have come in handy many times for me right when I was wondering what to do for dinner. I got a text the other day about their half priced burgers, so I picked up four burgers and two large tots for my hungry crew for about $12! I can't even make homemade burgers and tots for that. 

Click HERE to sign up by putting in your mobile number. Enjoy!

~Lisa

Chocolate Cake, A Garden Update, and a Cat Allergy Question

Hope everyone had a wonderful extra long weekend! We started it off right with this fancy little dessert...

Chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting and Bluebell Dutch Chocolate ice cream. Yum!

In other news, we worked in our garden this weekend. We've had a strange summer, weather wise. We seemed to go from rain every single day for weeks on end, to not a drop of rain and drought like conditions, then back to rain again. Feast or famine, I tell ya. 

My knockout roses weren't happy with this and they showed it. They were starting to look very scraggly and their time between bloom cycles was a little too long for my taste. So we pulled them up and replaced them with Turk's Cap and Lantana. I did keep one knockout, but the rest are history. 

Our garden center was having a huge sale and we scored three Turk's cap plants and five Lantana for around $15. Not bad. 


Below you'll see where we used to have four knockouts and now we have two Lantana, and a couple of Pink Turk's Cap for bookends. 

Both the Turk's Cap and Lantana bloom from May to December in our neck of the woods. Here's a close up of the Pink Turk's Cap bloom...

This is my favorite Lantana color combo...

Followed closely by this purple one...

I love the variety of colors in Lantana, as well as its ability to tolerate our Texas heat. This stuff will bloom on and on and on. It's drought tolerant, isn't picky about the soil condition, and is a Texas native. 

My blue plumbago is doing rather well too...

As is the bottle brush...

This is my messy little corner of the garden. All the purple Gomphrena was grown from seeds gathered last summer. 

Here's a close up.

Here's my red Turk's Cap...

This is a yellow Lantana. If you look closely, you can see a peek at the purple Society Garlic bloom to the right. The Society Garlic is just starting to bloom again now that we had some rain.

This area had two huge Knockouts. We replaced them with two Lantana. My hubby said he definitely won't miss pruning all those Knockouts in the spring. :)

I'll share pics as these new plants start to fill in. Both Lantana and Turk's Cap grow rapidly. 

Here's my sweet basil and believe it or not, my Shamrock plant is still going strong. It even has a little Zinnia friend that popped up in its pot to keep it company. :) I'm realizing that basil really needs to be pinched back. Oops. 

Okay y'all, I had to take a pic of this Elephant Ear in my backyard. I've never seen it get this big! Those leaves measure 24 inches by 21 inches (yes, I went out there with my tape measure just for you) and it's almost as tall as the 6 foot fence! It sits in a shady spot right between some Bridal Wreath and I guess everyone gets along famously because it's thriving there. 

One of my favorite places in the backyard...

Looks like Geoffrey the lizard is visiting for a drink. 

For some weird reason, when my boys were little, they started calling all lizards and geckos "Geoffrey" or "Sara" and every squirrel "Phillip." So now when we see one, we call them by name. So strange, I know. Lol!

So, here's the cat allergy question...do any of you have a cat allergy, but you also live with a cat? Y'all remember the sweet twins my mom adopted...



Well, her hubby seems to be showing signs of an allergy to them. Of course my mom has already fallen madly in love with them, so they're looking into ways of treating his allergy, or at least keep it under control. Have any of you taken anything for a cat allergy that actually helped? 

I've heard you can take things like Claritin and Zyrtec, but I don't know anything about them. Please leave any advice you can offer in the comments below. We really appreciate it and I'll keep y'all posted on everything. :)

Well, I hope y'all have a good week. I cooked twice this weekend, one of which was homemade baked potato soup. It's not a difficult recipe, (especially since I discovered I can remove the corer on my APPLE PEELER and use it to peel potatoes) but it does require some time. So other than baking some HOMEMADE BREAD my son requested, this mama is done cooking for the week. It'll be take out all the way. :)


~Lisa