~ Braided Rug & Searching for Fall Foliage ~

Yesterday hubs and I went on a search for the colors of autumn. We do get the colors right here in central Virginia but not until the first part of November and I'm always anxious to see them so every year at this time we take a drive. I read online that the peak colors were occurring in the higher elevations here in Virginia so we decided to follow one of the fall foliage routes layed out by the Department of Forestry. It began way up in the north west area of the state which took us about 3 hours to get to, then we followed the route and while it was an area of our state that we hadn't yet traveled, and the route was indeed picturesque, there wasn't much color at all, pooey!
At least I got to see a bit of the Shenandoah River, I've always wanted to lay eyes on it for some reason, maybe because of the John Denver song, I don't know! but the route took us across the north fork and I had to get a picture so we stopped the car as soon as possible after crossing so I could walk back to snap a couple of pics. This is from one side of the road:
...and this is from the other side of the road:
...it's not like me at all to do anything risky or dangerous so for me to walk along a highway and even cross it on foot, you know I wanted pics of the river pretty bad! LOL There you see my little white SUV in the distance, I took that pic while walking back from the river crossing.
...this picture was taken right by where we stopped the car too, it's someone's driveway, must be nice!...just look at those manicured weeping willow trees that line their property!
So back on the road, we entered the town of Strasburg and shared a Subway sammich (we always say sammich! LOL) While eating our sammich, a really super LOUD siren started going off and it was an air raid siren like you hear in the war movies!! We were like, WHAT THE HECK IS THAT!!!! No one around us was panicking but we couldn't believe what we were hearing and had to ask! Turns out that is the town's fire alarm! GOOD GRIEF! So after that bit of excitement, we started on our journey back in the direction of home. Once we got back to familiar territory, we just couldn't pass the entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway without taking a quick jaunt on it and I'm so glad we did because we saw more color there than on our adventure! Every year at this time we usually just drive up and down the Blue Ridge for our fall foliage but wanted to do something different this year...figures!...the Blue Ridge is only an hour and a half away from our house and that's where the color was! It's still not peak just yet so I'm still feeling color deprived, LOL, but I did get a few pretty pictures.



Originally, we were planning a drive to New England to see their fall foliage but several folks who live up there were saying that the color may not be at its best this year due to the long, hot, dry summer we had here on the east coast and I did not want to waste my only opportunity to get up there if the colors were not at their best! It's like pulling teeth to get hubs to go on drives with me because he does so much driving in his contracting work and has trouble sitting for long periods of time. So we are shelving our New England drive until next year and he knows that, even though he's off the hook this year, it's going to happen at some point in time! LOL

One other thing I wanted to share with you today is some pics of my new braided rug that came on Friday! It's made from wool braided yarn and I got it at Capel Rugs here in Richmond, their rugs are made in North Carolina. The colors in this are sage, brown, black, beige, rusty barn red, and creme.
Katie sure misses the carpet and is glad to have the new rug!
I think it adds a much needed softness to the room.

Well that about does it for this time...have a great week!

~ Floor is Done! ~ Lots-O-Pics! ~

The wooden floor has been down a little over a week now and first let me say that I was totally unprepared for the amount of dust caused by removing 700plus square feet of carpet, good grief!!...hubs and I gave everything a good cleaning as we moved it all to make way for the floor and had to turn right around and clean everything again while putting it back!
I have updated my Picture Trail with all of the pics I've recently taken, but here are a few of them:

dining room:
family room:I purchased a 4x6 oval braided rug for under the coffee table but I'm still waiting for it
you see in this picture where my recently purchased primitive pie safe ended up standing
and the other new addition is this olde oak candlestand made by Don, Pat's husband (Olde Bittersweet Farm)...she is who made the make-do chair and they are having an update this week, be sure to check it out!

foyer:
the jury is still out on the slate...I saw a similar slate entry once in a house we looked at and have always wanted to do it but now that it's here, we are having second thoughts!...also, I want to add that the reason why it doesn't go all the way across is because there's a doorway on both sides of the entry but they are not directly straight across from one another so you can't draw a straight line from side to side if that makes sense

The green stepback got a makeover too!...hubs added doors to the top part, painted the whole thing black for me, painted the inside tan, then grubbied it up nicely with stain and I am thrilled with the results!...here are the before and afters:

BEFORE, green on the outside, yellow on the inside:AFTER, black and tan with added doors:
I've also posted all of my autumn decorating pictures to my Picture Trail so hop on over to have a look...have a great week!

~ It Won't Be Long Now! ~

Yesterday the wood was delivered that is to be our floors in the living/family room, dining room, study, and foyer...and this is just one of the stacks!
...here's a closer pic of the wood...it's solid red oak, lightly hand scraped, 5" planks...I think it's going to be pretty!...they are supposed to get started bright and early Monday morning so I guess I will be a morning person for a few days next week, ha!

Earlier this week, I took an hour and half drive to go and pick up a piece of furniture I bought online...I have been looking for an antique pie safe for ages but every time I'd see one that I liked, either it was too expensive, or the tins had a design I didn't particularly care for, or it would be painted, or something!...but when I saw this primitive gem, it was love at first sight!
It needs a good cleaning before I bring it into the house plus I want to put some lemon oil on it to perty it up but I just think it's charming!...there is some tin loss on the sides and it has a few apologies, but it's believed to be from 1850!

When it's time to put the furniture back in place, I'm going to omit several pieces and try to simplify, I've never been good at that so we'll see how that goes...but I am so anxious to decorate for Autumn!...I'm enjoying seeing all of your lovely pictures and I want to do it too!...Even though it's supposed to be 98° here today...WHAT??!!...yep you read that right...I certainly hope this is the last of the heat because I am tired of it!!

Well that's all for now, have a joyous weekend everyone!

~ Braided Rug Question / Help ~

Quick question here!...I am trying to decide on which type of braided rug I want to have underneath my coffee table...having always had carpet, I have no experience whatsoever in buying rugs so I would love to hear what is the preferred material for a braided rug to be made out of?...cloth or yarn?...I'm looking at cotton cloth rugs by the Homespice Decor Co. and nylon yarn rugs from the Colonial Braided Rug Co....any and all help / suggestions would be greatly appreciated!...Thank you in advance!

~ Painting ~

This weekend's goal is to get the foyer and living/family room ceilings painted...not an easy task because of the vaulting but it hadn't been painted since the house was built 8 years ago and there is no better time to paint since all of the furniture had to be moved out anyway for the new floor that will be installed later this month.
I've worked all week on getting decor items packed away as well as moving furniture into our bedroom, kitchen, and breakfast nook. Here's what the family room usually looks like...
...alot of stuff!
And here's what it looks like today...empty!The only thing that isn't getting moved just yet is the big black entertainment cabinet because it is unbelieveably heavy!...that thing is next to impossible to move, it's insane!...so we covered it with a drop cloth, that and the fireplace mantel and hearth...the plan is to move the entertainment cabinet just around the corner into the kitchen/nook area just before we paint the walls in 2 weeks...need to give the ceiling paint time to cure so we can tape it off safely in order to paint the walls. I was thinking that I may have wanted to change the wall color to a creamy neutral but I'm just not ready to give up my sage green!...the name of it is Weeping Willow for cryin' out loud! LOL...so we will just give it a fresh 2 coats of the same.

Here is hubs painting the highest part...normally when we paint walls, he cuts in and I roll...but he spared me from the neck straining task of the ceiling.The wood floor install has been scheduled to begin on the 27th...they are going to deliver the wood on the 23rd to give it time to acclimate and at that time they will also lay my little bit of natural slate that I want in front of the front door here where the blue tape is on the carpet.
Still have the dining room and study to empty of furniture but at least the bulk of it is out of the way...we'll put the sofa and a few basics back until we paint the walls but having the room so empty is giving me a fresh perspective on where to place things when the time comes to put everything back...I want to simplify!

Well the 1st coat is now on the ceiling and the 2nd coat will go on Sunday...have a fantastic Labor Day weekend!