We have a lot of unfinished, unblogged about projects around here.  We’re waiting for some molding to be finished in the hallway/bedroom and another layer of spackle needs to be applied to the new wall.  We also have yet to finish up the office, because I am in full swing of midterm time over here.  So while Mike was hanging around, unable to make any house progress, he decided to book a vacation.  Ladies and gentlemen….

WE’RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!

In my 26 years on earth (it will be 27 by the time I get there) I have never been to Disney.  That is right.  I might as well be the devil.  I just really didn’t start traveling until I graduated college and by then I only had 2 weeks of vacation to use, so I wanted to go to distant places.  But starting in January, I will receive a third week of vacation! Yaaay!  So we’re leaving January 5th, Mike’s birthday 🙂

Usually when we go on vacation, I like to bring a little something back for the house.  I painted this from one of our Florida vacations (and just so happens to be where we got engaged)….

I painted it for a college art class and we had it hanging in our old bedroom, but I’m not sure what to do with it here yet.  It kinda has sentimental meaning, so I’ll have to frame and hang it somewhere.

When we went to Mexico, I picked up this little cat…

I try to find local, handmade things, but it’s hard in touristy areas.

Then exactly a year ago, when we were in Maui for our honeymoon, Mike snapped literally thousands of pictures…

Four of these awesome photos (which I didn’t have the time to post right now) will be hanging above our fireplace shortly.  I placed two of the “rejects” from the rounds of choices in small frames on our entertainment center…

So what am I going to incorporate from Disney?? Hm maybe I’ll just get some mouse ears for Darwin (Macky and Mowie are too cool for that). Oooor, we do have some Pixar prints already, though they’re packed away somewhere and we never framed them.  Maybe we’ll add to that collection?  I have a weakness for Pixar and all things Finding Nemo, we shall see 🙂

ps- since I was going through honeymoon pictures, I checked the dates to see what we were doing a year ago today.  We were hanging out with chickens and kittens… in one spot!

Last night Mike ran to Rite Aid to pick up some toothpaste and brought home Oreos.  Not for himself, he’s a good husband and bought them for me.  But Oreos are my weakness and I can’t eat just 1, or 3, or 5. At least they will look pretty in my jars for the 2 days they will last.

I think that in the time that passed between the first and last picture, about 4 Oreos went missing.  I blame Macky.  Until the evidence appears on my hips.

Tonight Mike and I decided to make some stirfry for dinner to use up our veggies from the farm.  I fell asleep and woke up for dinner, stumbled over to the table and started to eat when I spotted this…

IT’S MY PURPLE PEPPER! Mike cooked the purple pepper!

So I stopped eating and grabbed the camera…

For those who wondered what it would taste like, it was actually green on the inside, so it tasted quite like a green pepper…

And yes, I just so happen to be wearing the greatest shirt OF ALL TIME!

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…

I went to the farm again to pick up our veggies yesterday and saw a bin of green, light green and purple peppers together.  I should have taken a picture of all of them because they were just so pretty.  But then again, if you’ve browsed our wedding pictures, you know that I love the purple/green combo.

I overhead someone at the farm say how delicious the purple peppers were last week.  We didn’t eat ours, but maybe we’ll venture out this week and give it a shot. But for now, I put my pepper friends in the usual countertop bowl, accompanied by a spaghetti squash, some tomatoes and some other peppers.

I say purple is my favorite color, but I’m usually more attracted to turquoisey-blue/greens.  But I think I need to get some purple in this house… Shh don’t tell Mike…