Is it too early to talk about Christmas decorations?

I hope not because I am very excited to decorate a real house for the first time this year! Granted I've had a few good tiny apartment Christmases, but I've never had a substantial space inside or outside to decorate. Plus, seeing all of the holiday catalogs and December magazines has really gotten me in the mood to start brainstorming what to do this year. We are definitely going to put candles in our windows and lately, I've become obsessed with the idea of hanging small wreaths from red ribbon in our windows too. The windows are very tall, so I think it might be ok to have both a candle and a wreath, as long as the wreath is up high.

The wreath look I want is basically a combination of what is in the pictures below. I like the look of hanging the wreath in an outdoor window like the picture on the left, though I would hang it higher up, but I like the actual wreath better in the picture on the right. I am excited to hear what others in the preppy blog world are doing for their Christmas and holiday decorations, so feel free to share your favorite ideas.

Pictures of Harvest Table Setting

Here are some pictures of our new dining table centerpiece I described in my post earlier today. I set it (partially) with some of our everyday china for the photos. Not quite Pottery Barn store display worthy, but it definitely has some autumn spice now.

Harvest Table Setting

This weekend I made a special trip to the Pottery Barn to cash in on my "Family and Friends 20% off your Entire Purchase" coupon. I'm not quite sure why the Pottery Barn thinks it is my friend... hmm, maybe because we moved six months ago and gave them way too many of our $$ for furniture? Likely. In any event, I have been wanting to change up our dining room table centerpiece for a while but haven't had any brilliant ideas. So I went to good old PB for inspiration and ended up finding a very inexpensive way to put our table together with some fall flair. I will post pictures of the whole set up later because very few of the items I used are available on the PB website (so check back!), but basically, I purchased an orange table runner, some ivory linen hemstitch napkins, cute green napkin rings and several different vase fillers - pears, acorns, pinecones, etc. and went to work. Luckily I was able to use three small square vases and one large square vase I already owned and all of the different vase fillers were 30% off in the PB store right now, even before the additional 20% off coupon! All of the colorful filled vases placed together on the table looked great against the orange runner. This idea could be dressed up with a few votives or tealights and used for Thanksgiving dinner.

Preppy Fall Home Accessories

I like to redecorate our house every so often with season-specific accessories like pillows, glass vases, hurricanes, candles, etc. It's fun to get in touch with your creative side by finding new ways to arrange what you have and sometimes one or two new items is all you need to feel like you have an updated room without having to break the budget for a whole new look.

Want to spice up your home for the Fall season? Visit Pottery Barn today for some easy, inexpensive ideas to give your place a cozy feel for the upcoming cold weather months. PotteryBarn.com is offering free shipping on decorative pillows and throws right now. The colors they are showing are so vivid and really "pop" in a room of neutral colors. I'm not sure how long this offer lasts, so cash in while you can. And while you're there, pick up some cool decorative accents. You can get anything on this page for under $50. I especially like the Panna Cream Vases.

Ahhh, Fall

It is perfectly Fall outside today, clear and sunny with a little crispness in the air, and I am loving it. Here are my favorite things about my favorite season:

Apples. I love apple picking, apple crisp, apple cider, caramel apples, honeycrisp apples... you get the idea. Mr. Prepster and I are going on our annual apple adventure this Saturday. Can't wait.

Cardigans. I look forward to adding to my "collection" each year. This year I'm lusting over these ruffled ones from J.Crew.

Football. Oh how I miss the atmosphere of college (and grad school) tailgates and game days. But the TV and couch with a nice bowl of popcorn (Blue Ridge Kettle Corn is the best) isn't so bad either.

Pumpkins and gourds. I like to decorate our house with these items and find recipes that use them, like squash soup and pumpkin bars with cream cheese icing. Last year I made a flower arrangement like this using a pumpkin as a pot and it lasted for several weeks and was a fab centerpiece.