Creating a warm fall glow.

When it comes to decorating for fall, there are three things you need for a fabulous result: different textures, layering of the textures and it's gotta smell gooooood! You can't go wrong if you incorporate all of these.

I like to take items I already have and change them up for fall. For this display, I used a tray (Southern Living at Home, I love you!) I already had:
I had the two larger candleholders, and purchased the three smaller ones for $1.50 each at Hobby Lobby. I placed them so the sizes were layered, and and filled in between with my go-to fall filler:

I got this stuff at Z Gallerie a couple years ago and it's still my favorite filler for this time of year. It's got glitz, it's got natural, it's got warm. Awesome.

I fluffed it all just so and added my candles -- the large ones were $5 from HomeGoods, the smaller were $3.50 at Hobby Lobby:

It took all of five minutes to do. I bet you have items laying around you could use too!

I wish they had scratch and sniff computers. The scent of cinnamon and apples is wafting through our house.

This is my view while I blog tonight:

Loverly. Have I mentioned yet how very much I ADORE fall? Just in case I haven't, I. ADORE. fall.

Our family room mantel has been warmed up as well. Last year I found some scrap wood, stained it and it serves as the perch for simple red and brown candles:

You'll soon realize I am a bit obsessed with these beady things. I think they are GORG. You can find them at Micheal's. (I always get them on sale, they are $7 each before the discount.) I weave them through the candles for texture:

And wrapped them around the candles in the hurricanes for more texture and layering:

Yum. I could just eat it, it's just delicious. Well, not really, but you know what I'm sayin':

Delish.

These candleholders are so fun to fill during the holidays. Funny how I can't figure out what to put in these things most of the year, but from now until early January, I'm golden:

I fill the bottom of each with leaves in different shades of orange and red:

I get my leaves by finding garland I like, then snipping off the leaves. This is much cheaper than buying packages of leaves.

I add my candles and then my "scatter" -- I love this stuff! This I found at Pier 1 years ago, and I think they still carry something similar:

Autumn-inspired ribbon is tied around and fluffed just a bit for a final touch. Sigh. Have I mentioned how much I love fall?

In the kitchen, I used another Southern Living piece and a clearanced plate from Pier 1:

I wrapped the candle with more foamy beady things (I used double stick tape on the back to secure them). Again, layering and texturing (word?):

Oh yeah, and a yummy candle. Glorious! Try taking items you already have -- add a candle and then some texture -- whether it be pumpkins, acorns, apples, leaves, whatever! (Just make sure they aren't near the flame! Yikes.)

Have I mentioned how much I love... ummm... OK, I'll shut it.

I'm off to eat a caramel apple covered in peanuts, that should shut me up. Next up this week, my dining room centerpiece!

Taking care of some business.

I so loved reading your comments about NYC! I want to come visit all of you that live there, umkay? I'll just stay at your place next time -- OK with you? I forgot to tell you all the biggest reason I love New York -- we got married there. ;) We couldn't think of a better place to do it and it was one of the best days ever, in the best city ever.

I also forgot to mention something important in my post about blogging last week -- making sure you have an e-mail attached to your Google account. SO OFTEN I want to send you back a quick e-mail when you say something funny, totally get my joke, know who says my TV lines (yesssssss!) or just say something really sweet. Often many of you will ask questions and if I can't reply back to your comment through e-mail, I feel awful.

Keep a girl from not feeling awful if you can. If you don't want your personal e-mail out there, it takes about two minutes to create a free gmail account. Problem is, I can't remember how I did this to my profile. If any of you know how to, can you leave the directions in the comments? Love you forever. Kisses.

I'm super excited about the opening of my new Etsy shop! I have been toying around with the idea with fellow Twitterers for a couple months now and I've got a nice little inventory going. I was hoping to get it up by tomorrow, but it will most likely be next Monday. It will be a mix of antique and thrift store finds. I'm so excited!!

Finally, I will be raising my consultation rates to $30 starting this Wednesday, the 16th. I hate to do that, but I really do spend a good amount of time on each one. I will still be significantly lower than any other site I've seen that offers the same service. I always want to keep it affordable for you all. I believe my past "clients" (hate that word!) will agree it's worth the money.

If you are interested in getting in on the $20 rate, feel free to pay with the button on the left of the page before Wednesday, then e-mail me your pictures. I need about five to six pics of each room, as well as any specific items. All I need to know is what you like/don't like, any questions, and budget if you have it. I like to work with what you have and try to make suggestions that are budget-friendly. :)

If you are not ready to send your pictures right now, that's OK. Just use the button to pay for the consult and then e-mail me when you are ready.

Stay tuned tonight for the start of my fall decorating extravaganza!! OK, it's not really an extravaganza, but it's making the house even more warm and cozy and I'm loving it.

My favorite place on Earth.

There is only one place I'd ever rather be than home. That place is New York City. If you've read this blog for a while, you know of my love for New York.

Today is always hard for me, every year. I know it is for everyone in this country. I have a love for this city that I can't really explain. It was love at first sight, and I fall in love more every time I'm there. It's electric, it's alive, it's beautiful, it's serene, it's amazing.

In late August of 2001, my husband took me to NYC for my first trip. I loved it like I knew I would. If I lived another life before this one, I know I was a New Yorker.

We went to the top of the Statue of Liberty, and got shots with the skyline as the background:
This is a picture of a picture because our scanner isn't working today, so excuse the quality. I still find it eerie how you can barely see the towers behind me. Less than two weeks later, those towers were gone. I treasure this picture so much!

Today I thought it appropriate to share a few of my favorite pictures of NYC with you. The first (above) was a makeshift cross created by the workers at Ground Zero.

My favorite shot of Lady Liberty (again, sorry about the quality):
A view of the city from to top of Rockefeller Center (the best views are seen from here), from my most recent trip in January:

The city is so big, you just can't fathom it until you drive up to the island and see it...breathtaking. (This view is just half of it.)

In my opinion, Times Square at night is one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen:

ALIVE!

My husband took his band there the January after the attacks. We were supposed to go to Japan and cancelled that trip for obvious reasons. Instead, we thought the best place to go would be our favorite city. We thought it was important the students be there at that time.

This is just some of what we saw at Ground Zero:

Absolutely, positively heartbreaking and heart-filling at the same time.

People would stop us on the street, seeing all the students, and thank us for coming to their city. I don't care what anyone says, New Yorkers are some of the best people on Earth.

You don't think of natural beauty when you think of New York, but Central Park is hands down one of the most gorgeous places I've been:

I know it sounds cliche, but we can't forget. I know it's getting easier to, but we just can't. We need to remind ourselves every year, we need to teach our children about it. We need to keep praying, healing, loving. On a trip a few years after 9-11, this was written on one of the walls around Ground Zero, and it still makes me cry:
God Bless America.

How I paint.

**The paint color I used is Cinnabark from Behr. Sorry about that! :)

I've been teasing you so bad with my dining room redo. I know, I'm a big meany!! Totally! Because of the holiday sale on paint at Home Depot, I thought this past weekend was as good as any to start redecorating our dining room:
This has been the one room in our home that I cannot get settled with. I've struggled with it from the beginning. This is because of a couple things -- the furniture is the first. I absolutely LOVE it, don't get me wrong. I love the curvy lines of everything, love the wood. But it was a rushed purchase to try to fill the space. Now I wish I would have taken my time and filled in the room one piece at a time, mixing and matching furniture.

The other reason it's been giving me issues is the window wall is shared with the living room, which is the space with huge ceilings. There is a cardinal rule in decorating -- supposedly you are not supposed to break up a wall that runs through more than one room with a change in paint color. There was just no way we could paint the WHOLE wall without paying someone $500 to come in with a scaffolding.

I was so stinking tired of not loving this room, and I am never one to necessarily follow the rules, so I went ahead and started my redo. (Which included ignoring that cardinal rule -- buhwahahahahahaaaaa!)

I will share the steps it's taking to redo this whole room as I get through them, and then I'll show you the result at the end. Don't worry, I'm almost done, so it won't take too long. For now, I thought I would share how I paint a room. I bug y'all all the time about how much painting a room can change the space for very little, and this room sure is an example of that.

You need very little to paint. I use a decent angled brush, a 3/8 nap roller, blue painters tape, an old sheet and the paint. (Well, duh.)

Before you tape anything off, take your dry brush and clean your baseboards with it -- it gets all the cat hair dust off the boards so the tape will stick well:
It's always a good idea to take a duster around the top of the walls too. There are usually lovely little goodies up there you really can't see from below. Not fun when they get in your paint. Uck.

I always use painter's tape for the baseboards. The other areas I've learned to cut in, which I'll show you in a second. I paint baseboards and cut in areas around the ceiling and moldings first. That gets the tough stuff out of the way, and then filling in with the roller is easy and quick. (By the way -- take your blue painter's tape off as soon as possible after you paint. When it's WET. If the paint dries it will create a seal with the tape and may take up some of the paint when you peel it off.)

Cutting in is a term used for taking your angled brush and, without using the painter's tape, painting right up against molding. I still don't know if it saves much time, but as you get better at it, it does make painting a room a little bit less of a hassle.

I was cursing the day I put so much blasted molding in our dining room. Argh! Fists shaking in air!! Although, as I got into it more, I found it oddly relaxing. I know, I'm a complete fruit loop. I try to do things right, but often I rush through painting a room because Iwantitdonerightthissecond. Cutting in so much in this room made me slow down and do it right, and it was kind of nice.

To cut in, dip your brush in the paint just a smudge, on the side that you are cutting in. Then wipe off some of the excess like this:


I like to start away from the molding first, then work my way closer to it. You have to have a steady hand and take your time:



After you cut in, filling in the rest is easy peasy Squeezies. Professionals always do two coats, but I always do one and then wish I had had the patience to do two. :) If you take your time and use plenty of paint on the roller you should be fine with one coat.

The result? Do you want to see?

Huh?

Do ya?

I'm such a brat. Here's a peek:

Oh yeah, and I totally broke the decorating rules and split up the rooms with molding. I didn't even take out the baseboards, I just did it. And guess what? I like it, and it WORKS. So there, cardinal-rule-creators:
Sticks out tongue.

The color is to die for. It is so dramatic, so warm, I am in luuuuuuurve...

Next, I'll show you my new window treatments, the new centerpiece, the ceiling, and the change I hope to make to the hutch. And more, I HOPE! We will seeeeee...

Do you paint? Do you hate it? Never done it? Are you too scared? Why? Share with the group, talk amongst yourselves!

All I know about blogging.

If you haven't already, check out the Before and After Party below! I think I'll make this a monthly shindig. I'm highlighting some of the projects on my Facebook page, so join me there if you want to check them out. (You can find my button to the left of my site.)

So a few days ago, Thrifty Decor Chick hit one million hits. Wowzers. I still can't even believe that. I mean, that's a lot. Especially considering a year ago, I had about 1,000. And those were probably just from my four friends who read my site. I've learned some things along the way that I wanted to share with all of you. I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I know about one million hits worth. So let's start from the beginning!

Starting a blog:

I went with blogger because it's so incredibly easy to start up and operate. I am pretty computer savvy, but not overly so, and blogger is very user friendly. And it's FER-REE. Score!

When I was creating the name for TDC, I wanted something fun but that perfectly described what I was going to write about. (I had Thrifty Decor Girl at first. Chick is so much more caaute.) I think my name helps bring folks to my site, because they know exactly what it is I write about. So if you want to start a blog about a certain subject, I recommend creating a title that alludes to what you are going to write about -- if it's a cooking blog, include words about food or cooking in the title. If it's a gardening blog, the same. If you have a family blog and want to start making it more specific to something you love, I suggest starting up a separate blog just for that.

Your site design:

Make it easy for people to read your site! I have a background in marketing/journalism, which included a lot of graphic design. I know white space (empty space) is a good thing, serif font is a good thing (the one with "feet" -- easier to read), people read left to right (meaning their eye travels across the page that way) and the average population reads at an eighth grade level. (Not sure if that is still the case but it was back in the day.) Please don't think I assume you all read at the eighth grade level folks -- it's just a standard writers use and it works!

This one is very important -- make it easy for people to COMMENT on your site. I like my comment form because it opens a separate box for comments, and commenters can still see the page they are commenting on. I highly recommend you go to your own site, while you are logged out, and try leaving a comment. See what is the easiest for your readers. There is one blogger comment form that seriously takes me four steps if I'm not logged in. Many times I've almost said forget it. :)

The comment moderation (where you are required to enter the "word" they give you) is a big topic of discussion among bloggers. I don't find it necessary. It's just another step your readers have to go through to leave you a message. In almost a year I've had mine off, I've only gotten about four of five spam-type comments I've had to delete. It's worth it to me to have it off.

Bringing people to your site:

I didn't even realize there were many decorating blogs out there for the first three months I blogged. I did it for my friends and family to see what I did around the house. When I discovered this big, beautiful bloggy world, I quickly realized how important commenting was to getting my name out there.

I did it a LOT. And often. And I was sincere. And when I realized I could add a "blog roll" to my site, I would comment and let people know I was adding them, then ask them to stop by if they had a chance. Some did, some didn't. It did help bring people over to see what I was doing. (If you ask me to come by your site, I ALWAYS do, it just takes time.)

One big tip I have is to change your name you use when commenting to include your blog title. So instead of "Sarah," mine says "Sarah @ Thrifty Decor Chick." If people see my name in a list of comments, they also see what kind of blog I have, and if they are interested in decorating, they may click over.

There are many sites dedicated to highlighting bloggers -- I am so fortunate that I have been highlighted by a few of the big ones, including Tip Junkie, Today's Creative Blogs and The Secret is in the Sauce. I recommend you go to these sites and check them out (see my blogroll on the right.) Most of the time you need to submit to be featured on these sites, so please do so!! They will drive an insane amount of traffic to your site.

Keeping them coming back:

When things started to get busier around TDC last fall, and just because of the time of year it was, I was posting a LOT. Almost every day. That is the nature of this time of the year for me (it's going to get crazy here in about a few days folks!) but I also wanted to have something new to keep people coming back.

I think this is important to do to drive traffic to your site, but I also want to warn you -- blogging gets addicting. You will quickly get obsessed with it, both as a blogger and a reader. PLEASE do not let it interfere with your life. If you have the time, post every day. If you don't -- DON'T. I got so busy with it last fall, I realized I was letting it take over my life just a bit, and I didn't want that, and I don't want that for any of you.

Stay true to you. If you are goofy, funny, sarcastic, crude, whatever -- don't CHANGE. People that love your site love it because you are goofy, funny, sarcastic, crude, whatever. Don't think you need to change because more people are visiting. Don't stop being funny. PLEASE. And whatever you do, don't stop saying "cauuute" and "lurve." No matter what.

Extra little tips:
I succumbed to the Twitter bandwagon and really do love it (thought I would NEVER do it). My "hits" went WAY up when I started really using it. It is a fun, unique way to get your site out there, and I recommend it if you are interested. There are some spammers within Twitter that you have to watch for, but otherwise I've found it really enjoyable.

This is a big one -- YOU WILL NOT PLEASE EVERYONE ALL THE TIME. You will also offend someone, no matter how much you try not to. It's just the nature of the beast. You can't please everyone, and even though the disgruntled comments hurt, you have to move past them and stay true to you.
Speaking of not pleasing everyone, you will most likely never hear me discuss anything controversial on this blog, my Facebook page or my Twitter account. For example, I am a VERY passionate, opinionated person when it comes to politics. As hard as it is for me not to discuss it at times, it would take something really big for me to break this rule. I want this site to be fun, stress-free and enjoyable for everyone -- no matter if they share my views or not. I don't like seeing it (unless I agree -- hee!!) and I never want to make anyone mad or uncomfortable. I mean, this is a decorating blog. If you have one about politics or where you are sharing your opinions on a regular basis -- that's what people expect.

ALL of this being said -- these are MY thoughts, and what I follow on MY blog. As with your home, you can do whatever, whenever, however you want!! It's your blog. (Whateva whateva, I do what I want! Who says THAT?)

Just wanted to thank you all for visiting, reading, commenting, and inspiring me! Here's to another meeeeeellion hits!!

Vermilion House

Tucked away in the leafy Cleveland Road in Frazer Town, Bangalore is Vermilion House.
Vermilion House has many beautiful facets to it. Vermilion House is an antique store started a couple of decades ago, where you will find antiques sourced by Uma Rao who has the eye of a connoisseur from various parts of India.Here you will find painstakingly restored antique furnitures, unique artifacts, Tanjore and Mysore school of paintings, lithographs, traditional lamps, paintings by contemporary artists and many more...Vermilion House also exhibits work by various NGOs. Here you see hand blockprinted wrapping papers and gift items made by one of the NGOs.
Vermilion House also has Edgeware- The Frame Shop by Bina Rao who will help you find the perfect frame for your treasured artworks and paintings. Edgeware has a range of frames in various finishes -Teakwood, Rosewood, Coloured, Antique, Ornate.

Bina Rao will help customise the frames with various mounts like silk, handmade paper etc to give your paintings/photographs that picture perfect look, that will enhance any interior.
They have a Book Reader's Club where serious book lovers join in once a month for book reading sessions and enjoy the coffee morning:-) They have a selection of books on interiors, art and also by Asian and Indian Authors.Purvi Patel of Vermilion House is a designer who revives old hand-embroidery techniques on blouses, kurtas etc
If you are passionate about antiques, paintings, artifacts, hand- embroidery, customised frames for your interiors, this is your one-stop shop.

You can get in touch with Uma or Bina or Purvi at
Vermilion House
3/12 Cleveland Road Cross
Frazer Town, Bangalore-5, Tel- 080-41225830

Hope you enjoyed this store tour, do write in and tell me:-)