Fall Randoms: patio dinner, more chalk paint, and other fall fun

We had some friends over for a backyard dinner the other night. It got cool that evening, so we rented one of those outdoor heater deals from a place on Keihl in Sherwood near my parents house. Believe it or not, every other party supply store I could find had rented all of theirs out for the weekend. 

The heater made for a much more cozy dinner... and tailgate the next morning : )

I love using the table that Isaac and Chris built for me for my bday. It was fun to use leaves from my backyard to fill the vases (which I got at Michael's on clearance for about 5 bucks a piece.) I used some wheat and other fall filler stuff to spruce them up a bit.

Obviously, I'm NOT a perfectionist.

Plus, I'm not one of those people that gets a lot of seasonal decor out. Partially because I'd rather make some weird mess or be lazy with the kids, and partially because I really dread putting it all away when the season changes. But that's one of the perks of having people over sometimes.... to motivate me to get projects finished, be creative, cleannnnn, and arrange stuff. Maybe I should do it more often :) 

I have never liked our fire place. First of all, it needs a real mantel. I'm always on the lookout for an old one at antique/thrift stores to have fit to this space. One for a ridiculously cheap price that is. Or I could get our handy man to build us one. That'll be for another day. And secondly, it has/had a green slate-ish tile I don't/didn't love. 

So, I googled 'Painting Fireplace Tile'. There was girl on a blog who had successfully used chalk paint on hers. With no prep work. Sooo, since I already had buckets of the stuff on hand, I just went for it. In Isaac's words when I texted him about my spontaneous painting decision, he said, "I'm not worried because it can't get much worse." Love his honesty.

Voila. It is far from perfect, but it is a less bothersome green in our opinion. The Annie Sloan chalk paint worked like a charm. 

And while I had my paintbrush out, I attacked this hutch that was my granny's. It was yellow in her kitchen... black in our first house... and now a lovely Antique White (by annie sloan) in this house.

Here she is now, all whitened up. May need to add some distressing/stain rubbings to her to make her look a bit more cottagey. I put the plates that had been in there on the wall. Which means now I'm trying some other plates in there to see which ones seem right.

While I painted away and worked on the nursery/kids bedrooms in the last week or so, Isaac took the kids to the festival out at Wildwood, to the zoo, and to some little league football games. Super Dad always.  Look at this cute pic he took.

Today we went to Lake Willastein  park in Maumelle. Our first time as a family and it was so so nice.

32 weeks pregnant. Feeling good thankfully... and large.

The other night, my niece (my older brother's daughter) was recognized for being in the top 5% of her NLR senior class. SUCH a smartie. Proud of you, Bailey!

 And here the kids are enjoying the leaves in the backyard while we were waiting for Isaac's arrival home from work on Friday afternoon. Annette was in the mood for a photo shoot, so we went with it. 

Happy Fall Weekend!

~morgan