Before we even bought this house, I knew wanted to get a rainbow of mums to put on either side of our steps in the fall. Like a gradient of yellow, orange, red and purple. So one day a few weeks ago, we set out to the garden center to pick some up. When we got there, there was no shortage of mums, but they were in pumpkin or otherwise fall themed pots. Really I’m not a scrooge, I have just never been a fan of those type of holiday decorations. So I searched for other pots, with no luck. I knew we’d be busy the next couple of weekends, so I thought my mum dreams would have to wait another year and we’d live with our sad spring/summer leftovers.

Then! I went to the Crate & Barrel outlet sale over the weekend and scored some awesome, year round Soleil Planters.

I also picked up this bird because it was $5 and it was adorable. Mike said he only agreed because it was $5. The bird has nothing to do with this post but I saw it on the website and had to brag about getting it.

I only bought 2 pots because I didn’t want a bunch of the same one and I figured I’d just accumulate pots I randomly find places. So I decided to get just 2 mums for my pots to put by my door, since Mike and I agreed after planting and mulching during the hottest summer ever, we were done planting for the year.

Fast forward to Wednesday when our floors were done being installed a little early, so I decided I’d go get my 2 mums. Driving there I thought of those 4 dead zinnias in a row and how I should reeeally put mums there. Then I remembered the blood, sweat, tears and more sweat that went into planting them, but that didn’t stop me. I ended up getting 8 mums, knowing Mike was not home to help me, I was overtired and I had sawdust and an office to clean.

Turns out it only took me an hour or so to make the house fall ready. I planted the mums…

Then I arranged some pumpkins we got from the farm…

Hung the Harvest Wreath from Crate and Barrel…I know, I know, I could have made one for much less! But it’s already October and my free time these days is minimal…

I also bought the wreath hook from Crate and Barrel… I know, I know I could have saved myself the $10, but it matches our door quite well and will be used for other seasons…

To save a little dough, I passed up the Crate and Barrel doormats and instead went to my usual doormat stop- Target.

And tada! House was fall-ified in a little more than an hour.

The only thing I didn’t do was get some fall pillows for the brown chairs on the porch. If I ever pulled out my sewing machine I would make some. Definitely a revision to make for next year, when I hope to do this in September…