It’s an October Two-fer and It’s Free!

I couldn’t resist.  My favorite season is spring, but my favorite season to decorate for is fall! So, when I found myself choosing a First Friday Freebie for you, I couldn’t make up my mind.  Take advantage of my indecision today because I got both!

Let’s take a look at them.

Fall Decor Give-a-Way www.midweststoryteller.com

The slatted wall hanging on the left measures 13.5” X 9” (not counting the twine hanger) and invites your guests to “Gather Here with Warm Hearts”.  The metal section adds some sparkle and shine against the rest of the rustic wooden slats which are all connected with twine, enabling the whole thing to collapse accordion-style for storage.  This is great if you have limited space as I do.  On the right you’ll see “Leaves are falling – autumn is calling” on a 6” square wooden box that can either perch on a shelf as it is 1.5” deep or hang on the wall.

When I say I was undecided, I really mean it.  I started out with three items and ended up falling in love with one and keeping it for myself. Just true confessions here.

To enter to win the “October Two-fer” wall décor, all you need to do is “Leave a Comment” on this post, saying, “Make mine a double, please!”  You’ll need to leave your comment before midnight TONIGHT, October 6th, 2023.

NOTE:  An occasional problem occurs with subscribers not receiving confirmation emails.  Should this happen, email me at barb@midweststoryteller.com so that I can report it and have the issue resolved.

Haven’t subscribed yet?  You’ll need to do that before entering to win.  Head to the right sidebar or use the menu to navigate to the “Contact” page where you can fill in your email address and then watch for your confirmation email.

If you’ve missed my recent post, you’ll want to visit my Food Freedom page and get the recipe for “Lime Sillies” which only takes seconds to make.

ANNOUNCING: The September First Friday Freebie went to Ruth in St. Louis, Missouri! Ruth didn’t have a way of getting a photo to me, so if you’d like to see what she won, check it out here.  Congratulations, Ruth!  I hope this finds a great spot on your wall during “sweater weather”. 

Be sure to share my blog with friends and family through all your social media.  They’ll never know about it unless you do.  If you save things on Pinterest like I do, hover over the photo and “pin it”. Hey!  The world needs to know.  People have enough news every day to drag them down.  Give them something smile about.

On the “Freebies” page, you can see what readers have been winning every month.

A winner will be chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight tonight, October 6th, by leaving a comment which says, “Make mine a double, please!” 

For the complete First Friday Freebie rules, click here.

We’ve been doing a few things to beautify our porch and also screening it in.  We’re thinking we may not see much of Phoebe June when she finds out she can get out there and glory in the fresh autumn air.  You get out and do the same and remember – October is a gift!

Welcome September and Sweater Weather!

We have arrived.  It’s “relief month” here in the sweltering Midwest.  September means that there is a chance that perhaps even half of the days this month won’t be those that enable you to fry an egg on the sidewalk in less than a minute.  A few of them may even leave your hair without the frizzies.  One or two might even get you out of your flip-flops. Today it is a certainty that you can enter to win my First Friday Freebie.

Let’s take a look at it.

Sweater Weather Wall Hanging www.midweststoryteller.com

I’m a believer in positive confessions, so join me in announcing “Sweater Weather” even if it hasn’t actually made itself felt yet.  This round wooden declaration of crisp days to come measures just under 8 inches in diameter.  The white inset is metal with cutout lettering and leafy embellishments.  It’s just the thing to prop on an easel, tuck into a shelf or hang on the wall using the attached metal hanger or even its twine extender.  This is just one of Hobby Lobby’s great fall items.

This time, instead of just getting one for you and wishing I had one just like it, I went ahead and bought an extra for myself.  Now I’ll have no regrets when this one leaves my house for yours! 

To enter to win the “Sweater Weather” wall décor, all you need to do is “Leave a Comment” on this post, saying, “I can’t wait for sweater weather!”  You’ll need to leave your comment before midnight TONIGHT, September 1st, 2023.

NOTE:  An occasional problem occurs with subscribers not receiving confirmation emails.  Should this happen, email me at barb@midweststoryteller.com so that I can report it and have the issue resolved.

Haven’t subscribed yet?  You’ll need to do that before entering to win.  Head to the right sidebar or use the menu to navigate to the “Contact” page where you can fill in your email address and then watch for your confirmation email.

If you’ve missed my recent post, don’t forget to check out the results of Smuffy’s kitchen remodel!  We are both glad to have the bulk of that ordeal behind us and I can’t wait for you to see how my design and all Smuffy’s hard work turned out! 

Be sure to share my blog with friends and family through all your social media.  They’ll never know about it unless you do.  If you save things on Pinterest like I do, hover over the photo and “pin it”. Hey!  The world needs to know.  People have enough news every day to drag them down.  Give them something smile about.

On the “Freebies” page, you can see what readers have been winning every month.

A winner will be chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight tonight, Septemer 1st, by leaving a comment which says, “I can’t wait for sweater weather!” 

For the complete First Friday Freebie rules, click here.

Enjoy every bit of pleasant weather coming your way.  I know I’m going to try.  Life for me will fluctuate between getting outdoors to enjoy these days and closeting myself to do final edits on my novel series.  More news on that in the days ahead!

Be the Hostess with the Mostest (and the Cheapest)!

They’re coming! You can hear their expectant panting from miles away as they prepare to descend on your home for Thanksgiving. You make a frantic dart through the house and decide it’s time to throw away the 4th of July balloons and take down the seashell jar that’s been welcoming everyone to your home with its shades of summery pastels.

Now what? There’s enough money to be spent on the turkey and ingredients for the traditional side dishes.

Been there – done all that. One thing I’m thankful for is the fact that my mother handed down to me the ability to make something out of nothing. Another quality we share is “squirrely-ness”. I’m not talking about that tendency to be just a tad odd – you know, the type of person that makes other people tilt their head to one side and blink – I’m talking about the ability to squirrel away cool stuff, small stuff, odd stuff and “sooner or later I’m gonna use that for something and when I do, it’s gonna be really cool” stuff.

I love to decorate and hate throwing good stuff away, so I’ve learned to stare at things and ponder how I might recycle them into something new and different without having to go out and spend more than a few dollars to put a new twist on things.

I get the urge to decorate for fall at sundown on Labor Day. I ran a week or two late this year, but in case you’re way behind and wanting to “lovelify” everything before the doorbell rings and the turkey timer goes off, I thought we’d brainstorm.

Here’s my fall fireplace. I took the photo with all the candles lit so you could see how we like to enjoy it on these long fall evenings.

Fall Fireplace www.midweststoryteller.com

Here’s a close-up of the mantle.

Fall Mantle 2017 www.midweststoryteller.com

Now, let’s take a look at the individual elements. Aside from batteries for flameless candles and string lights, I don’t think I spent a single dime this year!  Even the votive candles are leftovers from a bulk purchase I made at my local thrift shop a year or two ago.

Fall Mantle Elements www.midweststoryteller.com

I hope I’ve gotten your cogs turning. Somewhere, tucked into a bookshelf, stored in a tub in the basement or perhaps still in a sack in the trunk from when a friend passed it on to you, there are things you can round up and experiment with.

Admittedly, I did some degree of head-shaking and standing around with my hands on my hips as I tapped my chin. Then, I’d arrange and re-arrange, and before long I found myself content.

Is it super-trendy? No. That would have taken a trip to the store for chalkboards and things covered in burlap and chevron prints.  Somehow, I just wasn’t tempted to go there.

Once I’d completed my “design remix”, I was free to get out an enjoy fall and do my usual thing, perhaps causing not a few people to tilt their heads to one side and blink, but that’s my normal and I don’t think I got it from Mom. 

As you can see from the photo, all you really need is family, friends, a mixture of garage sales and flea markets, a willingness to build your stash and a nice set of working blinkers so that you can zip into the stores with the best prices.  Obviously, I’ve done more than a little “squirreling” in Hobby Lobby, Tuesday Morning and Big Lots.  I can’t say enough about the great quality of QVC’s Bethlehem Lights collection!  Seems they always have something great on clearance.

I had a group of ladies over for an annual Pumpkin Night event and we enjoyed a buffet of recipes containing pumpkin.  I didn’t spend any money on table-scape either.  I just dove into my stash!  Take a look – as long as you don’t mind that guests had already arrived before I got the photo taken and things look just a trifle askew.  Trifle!  Now, why didn’t somebody bring a pumpkin trifle?  Great idea for next year!

Fall Tablescape www.midweststoryteller.com

I’d love to hear from you. Just under the title of this post, you can “Leave a Comment”, letting me know your thoughts and ideas. What kind of things have you pulled together to decorate that will inspire the rest of us?

More inspiration for quick fall décor can be found here. You might enjoy getting to know my mom here. Need inspiration from me and my mom to help you rescue and recycle the poor, the tired and the pretty-much-trash stuff around the house? Check it out here

Coming up next:  Two fabulous free recipes for a heartwarming fall meal.  SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss it!

Introducing: First Friday Freebies!

There’s nothing like getting something for nothing! Oh, that glorious word – F R E E !

I’ve been wanting to do this for a while and so I’m happy to announce (drum roll, please) First Friday Freebies! Each month, on the first Friday – I did that on purpose to make it easy for you to remember and wasn’t that clever of me – I’ll be offering a gift to one of the loyal and loveable fans of Midwest Storyteller. All you have to do is: Don’t dawdle!

First, let’s take a look at our first gift –

In my last post, I gave a “2017 Tour of the Estate” in which I mentioned Sweet Annie and posted a photo. I’m offering a wreath today (hand-made by me) of Sweet Annie. Let’s look a little further into what it is and what I do with it and you can decide if you want to win!

As mentioned in the last post, Sweet Annie is a fragrant herb that grows tall and is happy in a sunny place. It smells “like fall”, so this is the perfect time of the year to decorate with it. I’ve filled my wicker planter with it to give it a fall “weedy” look and make my porch smell nice and I’ve also used it around this little bucket next to Hermie.  I am lagging behind in decorating my side porch, but at least I’ve got my “weeds” as Smuffy likes to call them, in place.  You get the idea.

Weedy Porch www.midweststoryteller.com

Here’s a photo showing how I make a wreath.

Sweet Annie Tutorial www.midweststoryteller.com

Let me state this clearly. Sweet Annie, like any other plant, is organic. That means it’s been in the great outdoors. That means that other little “organic things” once strolled through it’s branches saying hello to their little organic friends. This wreath has been drying under my porch for a couple of weeks and should now be free of all the critters that may have liked to munch on it while it was green.  I make no promises.  However, I’ve never had anything on my wreaths once they dried.  (If I’d brought “creepies” into my house, you would have heard my screams.)  

Also, dried plants are exactly that – dried. I use Sweet Annie as a candle ring or a wreath on a wall or mantle-piece, but I don’t place it on a door that we’ll be opening and closing, as that shakes it around and causes it to shed.

Here’s the wreath I’m offering as Today’s Friday Freebie.  You can easily remove the burlap ribbon and replace it with anything you like.

Free Wreath www.midweststoryteller.com

And now, here are the rules. There are always rules, aren’t there?

  1. First Friday Freebies are available to SUBSCRIBERS ONLY. That means if you have come to this post through social media or someone has emailed you a link to it and you haven’t become a subscriber yet, you’ll need to hop on over to the right sidebar and do that really quick. If you are on a phone or tablet, the easiest way is to go to the “About Me” page. As a subscriber,  you’ll receive an email each time Midwest Storyteller has something new, which won’t likely be more than once or twice a week. It keeps you from missing out on all the fun and FREE STUFF!  And, I’m not sharing your emails with anybody.
  2. You’ll need to scroll back up to the top of this post and under the title, “Leave a Comment”. The first subscriber to comment with, “I’ll take the wreath!” will win, provided that you’re already on the subscribers list and that you live within the continental United States.

Two rules. So simple. Have a wonderful and blessed First Friday of the month!  Now, go!  Subscribe!  Comment!  Go!