I know for a lot of people, summer is their favorite season. That is not the case for me. I would so much rather be cold than hot. You can always add more layers, but you can only lose so many layers before it becomes socially unacceptable. It doesn’t help that getting too hot is a sure-fire way for me to end up with a headache. You would think then, that I would dress weather appropriately. Not so much. I seem to think that if I break out my flannel and plaid, the weather will magically change to fit my wardrobe. Case in point: these pictures from our girls trip to Zion’s national park last year.

From left to right: Kira and I showing off our matching ruffle skirts – because who doesn’t wear a maxi skirt and a black shirt in the middle of the desert in 85 degree weather? The second picture was taken after walking about a mile from where we had to park to get to the Zion’s national park entrance (not ideal). Bottom row: you like that hairdo in the picture on the left? That’s what I call, the “it’s too hot to handle having hair on my neck and all I have is one bobby pin” look. I’m sure I’m going to get lots of requests for hair tutorials following this photo. Middle: a rare photo of all of us looking happy while wandering in the heat in weather-inappropriate clothing. Right: I wasn’t the only once affected by the heat. I believe this picture was taken shortly after the phrase “I’m done, it’s too hot” was uttered.

I have definitely reached the “I’m wearing my plaid, regardless of the weather” stage of the year. In the next two weeks here in Utah, the highs are between 74 and 88 degrees, but I’ve already started to put away my t-shirts and pull out the long sleeves and sweaters. However, in an attempt to not give myself a ridiculous number of headaches I’ve decided that a more productive way to usher in fall would be to decorate my home instead.

My Husband loves Halloween, and he loves having the house decorated. We pull out the boxes on October 1^st, and the decorations stay out for the whole month. I like Halloween, but not enough to have the house decorated in that style for two months (Christmas décor is a completely different story). However, since I don’t want to put out all of my fall decorations just to take them down in a few weeks I figured I would just decorate my mantle. I completely missed changing out the mantle decorations for summer, and I thought it would be fun to switch out my watercolor “welcome spring” sign for one geared toward fall. The first step was sketching out design elements in my sketchbook. Then, I brought them in to illustrator and manipulated the sign until it looked right. Since it’s 12” x 12” I had to split it in to pieces so I could print it on my personal printer. A little cutting and tape, and I had the sign put back together. The next step was to use my light box to trace the sign onto the watercolor paper. Many, many, many hours later I finally had a sign to put in my IKEA frame.

That wasn’t quite enough though. For my spring mantle I made a little pom-pom garland and as it turns out, I like the mantle a lot more with a garland on it. Pom-poms didn’t seem quite right for fall, and I have a TON of yarn from various knitting projects, so a tassel garland seemed to be in order. I was able to use up those little left over pieces and now I have a seriously cute new garland. I love it! Plus, it was way easier and way less time intensive than the sign. There’s a message in there about not making things more difficult than they need to be and appreciating simplicity I’m sure… oh well. Got to love it when things work out that way right?

That was a really long post to basically say, I’m ready for fall and now my mantle is too!