Straining Toward the Beautiful - and how I decorate - oh how its changed

  The Wild Geese

Horseback on Sunday morning,

harvest over, we taste persimmon

and wild grape, sharp sweet

of summer's end. In time's maze

over fall fields, we name names

that went west from here, names

that rest on graves. We open

a persimmon seed to find the tree

that stands in promise,

pale, in the seed's marrow.

Geese appear high over us,

pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,

as in love or sleep, holds

them to their way, clear,

in the ancient faith: what we need

is here. And we pray, not

for new earth or heaven, but to be

quiet in heart, and in eye

clear. What we need is here.

I love that poem - lately I've been reading poetry. And this book. There are so really lovely ones in it. 

I love that poetry makes me think and ponder even past when I'm actually reading it. 

And I thought it perfect for sharing a bit of our home this fall - especially our living room mantle. 

These days my decorating as changed considerably from what it used to be. I am no longer a fan of signs and things I can find at Home Goods/Hobby Lobby/Michaels. I try to use what I have and my favorite places to shop for decorating are antique stores and thrift stores because I'm always looking for something a bit more authentic. I've always loved antique stores but especially now - I find that my mantles are less 'perfectly matchy and put together' and I really really like that. 

I love this canvas from (although not from an antique store) It is actually from a Currier and Ives print titled "Autumn in New England". It just love the hills and the farm and the colors so much. 

 

Of course I don't live on a farm and I want my decorations to last so not real pumpkins and bittersweet from our local garden store (still feels better shopping there than Hobby Lobby!:)

This bundle of wheat, tied with vintage lace ribbon I found at an antique store when visiting Anna in Massachusetts. Perfect in a glass mason jar. 

I used to think decorating meant redoing e v e r y t h i n g... now I don't I like to leave a room as it is and try to incorporate a bit of fall. It truly takes the stress away and really helps me just enhance to old-fashioned, vintage, homey look I love every day. 

We recently added this amazing mirror to our home from this lovely antique store. (This is a picture from a long time ago when Anna found the perfect desk in there) I go there as often as time allows and just love it so. 

We've been looking for an antique mirror just the right size for our family room and found it! 

Scott, Abigail and I were in that lovely store, I walked up the stairs, turned the corner, and there it was. 

Yes, I gasped out loud - just the right size, just the right price. So down it came and home with us. 

A simple basket, and books that are the colors of fall (that I've actually read) - this sign I found at thrift store, hand stitched with bitter sweet. I love it out in October so much. 

Our mudroom holds a little spot on the bench for a picnic basket, a vintage linen, and a lantern I found at an antique store in Vermont this summer. The candy apples are from Etsy and are just so fun to have out. 

Yes, I know it is October and that frame says September but it's from apple picking years ago and it just makes me so happy. 

In the dining room - I kept it the same, simple and sweet. How I love dining rooms - the long forgotten rooms in a home. Ours is an 'actual room' not part of the kitchen and I am so glad it wasn't changed when a previous family remodeled the kitchen. It is always so peaceful to me. 

I am a reader of Anne of Green Gables. The whole series. Although I came to it as an adult after traveling to the place where it was born I am almost glad I was an adult. 

This autumn I take comfort in the words I love from the books that are like a hug to me. 

"She opened her eyes and looked about her. They were on the crest of a hill. The sun had set some time since, but the landscape was still clear in the mellow afterlight. To the west a dark church spire rose up against a marigold sky. Below was a little valley and beyond a long, gently-rising slope with snug farmsteads scattered along it. From one to another the child's eyes darted, eager and wistful. At last they lingered on one away to the left, far back from the road, dimly white with blossoming trees in the twilight of the surrounding woods. Over it, in the stainless southwest sky, a great crystal-white star was shining like a lamp of guidance and promise." 

Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery 

Isn't that passage just exquisite? Just like this Valley of Light painting I have. 

I love this print in our dining room - from Lore Pemberton. The way she so elegantly captures feeling and mood through light. 

Perfect for our autumn dining room - it goes lovely with wooden candle sticks annnnd... 

... the tea cups match the roof of the house just perfectly. I love when things come together like that. 

A fall home post wouldn't be complete without a rainy, getting dark, picture of our front steps. 

Why did I title this post "Straining Toward the Beautiful"? Because I think it is profoundly important for me to notice the beautiful around me - to place things in our lives - things we walk by and see every day that are beautiful. So that even if a day is swirling - teaching, home, chores, homework, planning, yes swirling... there are beautiful things all around us reminding us that home is beautiful.