It's a beautiful Autumn day here in the mountains of New Mexico. Still nice enough to sit outside on our front portal (long, covered front porch) and just enjoy it for a while. I love it out there!
Lynn

Ha! My new garage doors!
Just went on Tuesday so I'm still in love.

:D

An asst. of gourds and squash and some Indian corn I've collected over the past couple of days. I've just been laying them on the counter, and it's become a pretty still life.

{{!gwi}}

All of my nicely trimmed cedar hedges. No pic sorry.

But leafy02 - when we moved into our house 22 years ago the PO left all the nails in the walls where they had hung their pictures. We were moving into the house with a 20 month old and a 6 week old baby. (I sat on the couch and directed.) Because of the 20 month old, the pics couldn't be stacked against the wall and so I had them just hung by the movers where the nails were already in the walls. Fortunately I gave some thought to the process because the pics were still in those spots last year when we moved out of the house for our whole-house reno. When I painted the walls throughout the years, I would take them down, paint and put them back up in the same spot. Life got in the way of decorating.

blfenton--lol, I've used the "Pre-Existing Nails" school of decorating, too. I just have a lot more pictures to hang than the previous owners.

Lynne--I'd love that porch, too. How terrific to have that kind of outdoor space.

Biochem--oh, yes, those garage doors are loveable. I can see why they're a favorite.

Schoolhouse, you're at least a day ahead of me with your autumn beauties--as I was working out in the yard today I realized it's officially fall and I still have my ferns out on the front porch. Tomorrow will be my day to switch to mums and Indian corn, for sure. We raked our first leaves today.

I have not done a whole lot of decorating for myself lately. I painted this piece for our last house, and it just never fit into our new house. It has since been sold, but I do like the vignette. The silver candle holders were made by my kids when we went to Williamsburg, and they are why I even took this picture.

Life does seem to get in the way of decorating!!

My new Keurig coffee machine cornered on my kitchen counters not only looks good but the to die for coffee makes me happy!

Leafy, love your zinnias. I pulled most of mine, but found a few in bloom today. The butterflies are happy.

My favorite today is accomplishing a few things in the yard. Replaced a rotting bamboo short fence used as bed edging with big river rocks. Also helped dh cut down and dig out a Chinese elm that was growing lopsided from lack of proper sun. Now I have a whole new vista and can see everything the tree's canopy was hiding.

natal, I felt really happy with my outdoor efforts today, too. I pulled out a shrub that was in the wrong place and looked awful. Once I had the area tidied up, I must have walked past it ten times to admire how much better it looked. Great to get a lot done :)

My recently delivered old English pine cupboard that I spent some time today filling with things from all around the house, to give it a fall look. It sure doesn't feel like fall in southern Maine, though - it's hot and very humid. Bring on the crisp, cool weather!

Today's favorite.... The new decks. Not quite finished, but we are getting there!

And of course, the view

My3dogs that hutch is to die for!

And I own one of those pitchers (in front of the oval platter) too. Exact same. Gotta love the little quail.

I have a small atrium, and this week I added more plants and windchimes. Amazing how small changes can make a big difference- I'm happier with it now.

My3dogs, I haven't seen you posting in a while. It's great to see more pics of your beautiful home. I'm loving your new hutch and the way you're accessorizing it!
Lynn

Oh kswl -- what a pretty view. It makes me think of a southern golf course: just lovely.

This weekend I have madly been taping and then painting mattress ticking stripes in my 7 year-old son's room. It's addictive and it looks terrific (immodest, c'est moi!). That sweet, accommodating child is still building his massive Lego creations all over his room whilst I shuffle things around to tape and paint. I am proud of myself for finding a productive rhythm and keeping the lines (1/4") *relatively* level. Ahem.

leafy: what a lovely idea for a thread! Thank you for starting it and sharing your charming photo, too.

Lynn, Thank-you! I have been working LONG days, and trying to keep up with yard work on non-rainy weekends. What makes that cupboard even more of a favorite is that I traded some things I wasn't using plus a bit of cash for it and two of its 'friends'! When I saw them at my favorite local shop, the Mustard House, I knew I'd go to the ends of the earth to have them. I'll start another post to show them to you.

Leafy, I also want to thank you - this is a happy post, and it's great to see the different things that have been or are our favorites.

rmkitchen, let's see some pix of the stripes when you're done--you're a brave woman in my book; I've always thought I couldn't paint stripes.

Thanks to all who posted--it's great to see us loving our spaces. Sometimes I'm so driven crazy by something that's bothering me about my house, it's hard to remember there really are some nice bits.(Even if I had to keep the focus rather tight to crop out the stacks of overdue library books, dog hair, and dh's gym bag, and take the photo in crummy light with my daughter's i-Thingy because I STILL don't have a decent camera!)

Thanks, rmkitchen :)

And my3dogs, I love your cabinet! Years ago I had a dresser made out of old English scrubbed pine by a company in Lewes, England. It is a treasured piece.... I love that antique pine and the color of your piece is the best!

I'm at work so I cannot access photobucket, but I just bought a new pillow to go on the new bench in my foyer. I found the bench at Target a few weeks ago and it fits the area perfectly.

This is the pillow I got. It matches all the other colors in the foyer perfectly.

{{!gwi}}

I will post real pics when I can.

What a great thread, and what gorgeous photos! I'm so impressed with what I see upthread that I'm slightly embarrassed to post my pics, but I'm going to do so anyway, just because it's important to me to be thrilled with the little details as much as the major improvements. My favorite thing right now has got to be my new pink towels. I wanted a softer, but still colorful, look in my tiny little bathroom. Before it was like a Mexican fiesta in this room, but now it just feels more feminine. Over the weekend I relegated all of my old, mismatched towels to the closet where they'll sit until we decide to wash cars next, and bought all new ones at Target. Even the color name on the tag - Nostalgic Pink - felt right for my bath. Sorry the pics are not great, but I'm too lazy to use my camera and have just grabbed the phone to snap pics with lately. The little round metal shelf over the potty is from the 1950s, which I guess is appropriate enough in a 1940s bath. On it sit three little pieces that my grandmother always had in her bathroom. The floor in this room is bright red tile, and crazily enough, the shower curtain ties all the hues in the room together. This is our main bath, believe it or not. It does get a bit cramped when DH and I both need to get ready at the same time, but we make do.

Thanks for posting your pic leafy02, hope you don't mind I snagged it so I could remember to do something similar with my buffet. I was trying to think of what I could do that would not be higher than the lamps that are sort of short, I think an arrangement like this would be nice

auntjen, I am glad you posted--no project or new "love" is too small to enjoy and appreciate! I am a third-generation towel addict, so I totally understand how those pretty towels can make you so happy.

From major projects like amazing outdoor decks and fabulously hand-painted furniture to simple throw pillows, towels, or a vase full of flowers, it's great to see what we are happy with.

Now, I have two new prints from Etsy arriving later in the week that I'll need to get framed and then I bet that they'll be my favorites...though those zinnias and roses are gonna be tough to beat ;-)

Auntjen, when did you pose for that picture?

;)

"it's important to me to be thrilled with the little details as much as the major improvements."

I love this sentiment--- you are absolutely right, aunt Jen. Sometimes I get so caught up in the big projects that I forget it's the details that make living in a house more comfortable.

What a fantastic topic! Jen did one similar in the winter, showing where we love to sit.

I'm going to walk around the house and see if anything stands out to me today!

Oh, and DH took the camera with him this morning, so it will be much later before I can post a picture.

I'm loving my newly rearranged office! I can now see (from my chair) the changing colors of the trees out of the windows and it's much brighter and feels much better than where my desk had been. Unfortunately, it's still such a mess that I won't post pics yet, but hopefully I can whip it into shape soon!

my fav for the moment is soon to be covered up its use is shortlive in my new england climate:( It is my back yard...

roarah, yes, I'd be loving that view, too.

My absolute favorite thing this week is the view out my dining room window. Having only been in our new house for 3 months, the colors in our woods are all new to us. There's this magnificent maple right outside our dining area window, and I just love seeing it as I work in the kitchen. The colors take up the whole window, and it flat out makes me happy. Dark and gloomy here this week, and a photo just doesn't do it justice.

My favorite today is my little table that sits on my porch. I spent so much time stripping and painting it white last year. This summer my nieces painted the top and I taught them to stencil. I love the daisies and the little gem stones we added for centers. It was such a fun project to do with them.

Kelly, I think the table would look much better on my porch. :) Those are perfect color combinations too. It won't get rained on will it?

I have two recent spots in my home. Now that the sun is shining through the windows again I love looking at my utility room in the afternoons. It also makes a nice plant hospital for the other plants in my house in case they get sick.

Not a good picture because of the shadows on the shutters. They look really dark in this picture, but they're a light cream.

{{!gwi}}

Below is the lamp I bought specifically for the sofa table, but stupid me forgot how dark shades give off poor light, even though this is a 3-way. But the lamp found a new home in a small corner in the living room and it's perfect there. The area really highlights the embroidery on the shade.

You can't tell from this picture but the two walls are only about 3 feet wide, which makes it a fun and difficult spot to decorate.

{{!gwi}}

The little glimpses of everyone's home is so fun!

I just washed the windows in the living room and the glow of the woods was such a pretty still life with our scrabble board.

Now that I look at it, that bowl of dried pods and stuff has been sitting there since last fall! And I'm seeing streaks in the window!lol!

I snapped a pic of the tree out the dining area windows despite the rain and fog. The colors will soon be gone, and snow will be here soon. Ugh!

Beautiful Deedee and Joyce! Don't you just love the changes in daylight now that the Sun is lower on the horizon?

dee, you just gave me a great idea! I have a cobalt blue bowl similar to yours. The diameter is about 15" and 3" high. I usually keep potpourri in the bowl but I also have a lot of those dried pods and pinecones. And various oils for scent.

I'm going to piddle with it tomorrow!