Totally Obsessed Tuesday: Finally Fall!

Okay, people.  It's September.  I can say this now.

IT'S FINALLY FALL.  Sort of.  It's still 94 degrees outside and the pools are still open.  Being a Midwest girl, this is weird for me.  It SHOULD be in the mid-sixties to seventies, and the windows of the shops downtown should be painted to reflect this year's Homecoming theme.  (Yes, I am that small-town.) But whatever.  Ridiculously hot weather aside (recordbreaking in my home town, in fact!), it's fall.  I'm calling it.

Anyways, yes, I am one of those people.  For the next three months or so, I will be pinning, blogging, and posting Facebook statuses about pumpkin EVERYTHING, Halloween, fall favorites, and Thanksgiving dishes.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

Today, I only have one thing I'm Totally Obsessed with instead of my usual three--Fall Decor.  There are so many great ideas out there for decorating your home (inside and out) for fall.  Right now, I have about a million ideas of what I would like to do. If I do everything I want to, it will look like a jack-o-lantern vomited inside of my house.  In any event, today is all about the best decorating ideas I could find.

Fall Decor--Outdoors

I don't know if I've ever posted a picture of the front of my house.

There it is, in all its glory. (You can kind of see our cat, B.C., chilling in the window by the door.)  We live in a quad-plex, in one of the middle two units.  So if our neighbors decide not to decorate, our house is going to stick out like a sore thumb.  But I totally don't care.  Here are some of my favorite ideas for the front porch and door.

 

I'm a big fan of this mummy door idea, which I found at Honey & Fitz.  All it requires is some white crepe paper, some double sided tape, two sheets of printer paper, and some black construction paper or cardstock.  The original poster was able to create this look for less than a dollar.  Pretty sure this is happening.

 

I also love this Frankenstein's Monster door (because we all know that Frankenstein was the scientist, and his creature didn't have a name, right?  Right?!) that I found on A Girl and A Glue Gun.  Since my friendboss Courtney has a green front door, I'm pretty sure Gavin and I will be having a craft day in the near future where we recreate this look.  (My front door is white, darnit, so I'll have to stick with the mummy.)

 

If you're not into whole-door decor (or if, like me, you're pretty sure your husband won't be), you can do a lot with wreaths.  This is a burlap wreath I found on Debbiedoo's, and as a bonus, it's super cheap and simple. If you'd rather it be a little more fall-ish, you could switch out the sunflower for a small gourd or some leaves (both of which can be found at the dollar store).

If you prefer something a little more Halloween-ish for your wreath, you could re-create this ribbon wreath found on Porter Mae Designs on Etsy. I love this wreath... But I don't $90 love it, which is how much the shop owner is asking for it.  I do love it, but I could easily make it with some ribbon, a foam wreath, and a hot glue gun. Also I don't have ninety dollars.

You could also make your own wreath from a dollar-store branch wreath and some fake leaves from Hobby Lobby.  I swear I pinned something about making a dollar store wreath, and it looked fabulous, but I can't find it for the life of me and now I can't remember what blog I found it on.  Sad.  In any event, there are roughly a million pins on Pinterest about fall wreaths, so I'll cut myself off here before I go crazy.  

 

I lied.  I'm in love with this idea too. It's not exactly a wreath, but still. I love how SIMPLE it is, and it's still adorable.  Any idiot with some wooden letters and some ribbon could make this (although I would probably cover each letter in different fall-themed scrapbook paper).  Okay, really done with door stuff now.  I swear.

I'm also really into decorating the whole front porch this year, so I'll carry on to that.

I love everything about this look that I found on Shelterness. I love the little bats (which can simply be made out of black cardstock and double-sided tape), and I love the collection of small gourds in the corner.  The bats would work well inside also.  If Jimmy hates the mummy idea, I might combine this with a fall wreath.

 

This is easily one of the BEST DIY decorations I've found, and it actually came from parents.com.  It's literally a pool noodle cut in half, some cheap stockings, and a pair of black shoes from Goodwill.  Personally, if I do this one, I'll probably switch the colors and add some ruby slippers so it has a Wizard of Oz feel. 

 

The last great idea I've come across for outdoors is super simple.  Anyone can make these eyes in the bushes that Thrifty Crafty Girl made.  You simply take some old toilet paper rolls, cut out a few different eye shapes, and stick some Christmas lights in the back.  If you don't have an outdoor outlet, I think glow-sticks would work just as well, although you'd have to save this just for Halloween night.

Now do you guys see why I'm having such a hard time deciding what to do?!  Doing all of these ideas would be serious overkill, but they're all just so darn awesome!

Fall Decor--Indoors

I have to admit, I found far less indoor decorations that I loved than outdoor.  There are several reasons for this.  Number one, the inside of my house is kind of shitty.  We have crappy linoleum floors throughout the whole house, a really ugly off-white paint color in all but one room, and a kind of weird layout.  I don't particularly feel like highlighting any of these features with decorations.  Number two, only five people really ever come in our house; myself, Jimmy, neighbor Caitlyn, her husband Mike, and their two-year-old son Ayden.  Some of these ideas feel like a lot of effort to make when no one is going to see it.

 

This is one idea that I'm definitely going to do, because our stairs are the very first thing you see when you open our front door.  The little mice are just made out of more black cardstock, and I bet I can find some cheap, small pumpkins at the dollar store for along the side.  This super cute and fairly simple idea came from DIY & Crafts, and since it's in a high traffic area, even the Fed-Ex delivery guy will see it.  (And the trick-or-treaters, of course.)

 

This is just an example of what the bats can look like inside, also from DIY & Crafts. I might do these in the entryway as well, especially if I don't do them outside.

 

How adorable and easy is this one?  All you have to do is take some masking tape (or electrical tape if, like me, you have white floors), and create a spider web!  I will probably do this one in our entryway as well.  It's too cute and easy to pass up.  This also came from parents.com.

So there you have it.  I just vomited fall all over you.  You can find more ideas on my Pinterest, or just search around yourself.  If anyone wants to tell me which door/front porch idea they like best, please comment!  I can't make up my mind and I would love to hear your opinions. Also, if you have any other great decorating ideas, feel free to share them!

Happy Fall, everybody. :)