Our Fall Porch

       Hi. My name is Meg. I'm an absentee blogger. Now that that's out of the way, let's move on.
       
       On Friday, I finally committed to what Nolan & Quincy will be for Halloween (I have a real commitment issue when it comes to Halloween costumes; so many good possibilities, so few un-opinioned years), and I placed a few key orders online for the pieces of their costume that I needed (please note that I am already second guessing my costume choice, but at this time, I have to move forward). With that out of the way, I decided that I actually had some time to devote to some Fall decorations. So that's what I did this weekend. I was devoted to decorations.
       Here's where the story takes an interesting twist. Jon was out of town for the weekend, so it was just me and the kiddos. As I usually do on nights when Jon isn't home, as the sun sets, I lock everything up. All the doors. The windows. Pull the bedroom blinds. My car. You get the picture.  After bedtime on this particular night, I had a second wind so I did lots of picking up around the house. I figured my Saturday morning would be a happier one if the house was already in good shape. But oh no, I didn't stop there. I figured I should get a jump on my decoration projects while I had a few moments to myself, so I headed out to the garage to see what I had that I could work with. I had run into our neighbors that evening on a walk, and found out that I had free rein on lots of freshly felled trees in their yard, so I was basing my plans on incorporating some free stumps into the design. I walked into the garage, and decided I would use some spray paint that I already had on hand to spruce up a few things that were sitting on my shelves. Here are the inner workings in my head over the next few minutes:

"Well, if I'm going to spray paint (in the garage), I should close the door so that the fumes don't get into the house." Picture me then pulling the door from our garage to our small mudroom closed. 

"I should make sure that door (that I just consciously closed) is unlocked."

Imagine me then walking over to the door, attempting to open it, and realizing: Oh Crap! I just locked myself out of the house!

With the kids asleep inside!

At 9pm!

And it's 30 degrees out!

And I'm wearing flip flops!

       After I had a mild heart attack in the garage, and for a moment thought I might actually be trapped IN the garage (seconds later realizing that the garage door button was 3 inches from my shoulder), I proceeded to check all of our doors. Yep, locked, just like I thought they would be. Luckily, we have a little lock box with a house key in it. Unluckily, I couldn't remember the code to the box. No problem right. I could just walk to a neighbors house, call Jon, and find out what that code was. Oh wait...I don't know Jon's cell phone number either (5 years of marriage, and I cannot for the life of me remember his last four digits). For years, when I need to know his number, I refer to our checks which have them printed on them. That wouldn't work this time...those checks were inside. Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap. Will I need to call a locksmith?
       Before I allowed myself too much time to freak out, I started checking windows. My first attempt was a bust, it was locked. Then I thought I could give our kitchen window a try. From the day we moved in I was frustrated that I could never get it to latch well. So I popped off the screen (which I didn't know that I knew how to do, but desperate times call for desperate measures), and gave the window a push. IT WORKED! Oh Lord. I have never been so happy to climb over a kitchen sink before in my life. When I descended into the kitchen, Blue was staring at me very concerned and confused. I on the other hand, was extremely relieved.
       And that my friends, is a long way of saying: Here's our Fall Porch set up.

       I'm pleased with myself to say that this cost me $4.00 + the cost of the pumpkins. I had grabbed the lanterns years ago for free at someones yard sale. They were brown and rusty. The thought has probably crossed my mind a dozen times that I should get rid of those dang lanterns, but I could never bring myself to do it.  A little gold spray paint later, and I'm loving them. 

The blue vase- that was a $4.00 clearance find at Michael's that I picked up on Saturday. 

I just wish I had picked up about four more of them.

The pine cones and leaves were all courtesy of our yard.

And all of the other knickknacks, I already had on  hand. 

They just needed some new life.

The view from our front door looking out.

       We're still hoping to make a big scarecrow to post on our front lawn. Crossed fingers that it happens this week!  Happy Fall Ya'll!   A little update soon on our Master Bedroom project, and where our house plans are taking us the next few months.