Hallo Oktober! My gnomes are celebrating Oktoberfest in their little garden this fall! Often my favorite gnome and fairy garden designs turn out to be those with a specific theme, and I’ve wanted to make a German-inspired Oktoberfest themed fall miniature garden for some time now. The inspiration behind this garden stems from one of family’s favorite fall traditions. I grew up going to a lot of Oktoberfest celebrations at German Park in Indianapolis with my family on my dad’s side who has German heritage. I also got to see the fairground in Munich, Germany where…
Fall is here and autumn fairies are near! A hot, dry stretch of summer weather finally broke a few weeks ago and gave way to comfortable temperatures and rainy days, so most of my fairy gardens are greening up and thriving right now even as summer winds down. I’m hoping we have several weeks until the first frost hits, because I just finished decorating my last fairy garden for fall on Friday and would like to enjoy my new autumn gardens for as long as possible. Without further ado, here are this year’s fall designs…
As I write this post on the first day of autumn, signs of fall are appearing despite the warm weather. Leaves are swirling down on my deck, my mums are blooming, and spider webs are cropping up all over my yard. It’s finally time for the fall décor to come out! Last week I finished transforming my summer fairy gardens into fall themed miniature scenes. Overall, the plants in my fairy gardens fared very well this year despite our hot, dry summer and I didn’t have a lot of dead growth to remove…
Is there anything more cheerful than a field of sunflowers? It’s like a thousand smiling faces quietly greeting you with their beauty. On my recent trip to South Dakota to visit my friend Rebecca and her family (more on that trip will be coming soon!), we drove past several beautiful sunflower fields on our journey west to the Black Hills, and ever since, I’ve been wanting to immerse myself in fields of golden sunflowers! On Sunday the weather was perfect so Mom and I drove up to Kokomo to see Prices Pumpkin Patch’s sunflower…
Today’s fall craft tutorial is brought to you courtesy of my crafty Mom. She showed me the two pretty pumpkins pictured above she had made and I was wowed by how she had turned a simple foam pumpkin from the dollar store into a beautiful fall decoration, using mostly supplies she already had on hand. I told her she’d have to show me how to make one, so we set up a mother-daughter craft day last weekend to make her third pumpkin and my first. These are really fun to make (as long as you…
There’s a chill in the air and temperatures are falling faster than the leaves! It was inevitable our long stretch of summer-like weather would come to an end. It is November after all, but a mostly unseasonably warm fall prompted me to decorate another fairy garden last month. I realized my Fourth of July fairy garden was still on my front porch and that I should have transformed it for fall. It seemed like a good idea to give it a makeover to match my pumpkins, mums, and wreath on my porch. After all, it was still 80…
For years I’ve been searching for the perfect pumpkin patch. A scenic spot, not too crowded, with a large variety of pumpkins for sale at reasonable prices. The pumpkin patches in and around Indianapolis are geared more towards kids’ activities – like bounce houses, slingshots, and tire climbs – than pumpkin picking. They can be crowded on the weekends and many charge for admission, parking, and activities. Usually I end up getting my pumpkins in Indianapolis at a nice farmer’s market which has a large variety of every kind of pumpkin imaginable. But it’s a little pricy…
Hello fall friends! I hope that your autumn is off to a great start, full of pumpkin spice and everything nice. At my house, September means fall makeover time for my fairy gardens. I’ve enjoyed my summer containers since May, but by now they’re in need of some TLC to tame overgrowth and remove dead plants that didn’t survive our crazy summer weather, which alternated between hot dry spells and heavy rain. Many of my summer garden figures have faded from the sun or become buried in overgrowth over the past four months. And this year the…
Today I’m sharing some last-minute quick & easy fall decorating ideas that you can enjoy now before it’s time to put up the Christmas tree. Whether you’re hosting Thanksgiving, or just prefer waiting until after that last fall holiday is over to decorate for Christmas, here are quick ways to incorporate some fall touches into your décor now. November tends to be overlooked for seasonal decorating. Halloween is over and Christmas decorating hasn’t yet begun, although many people do start on their Christmas displays in November. My tradition is to start decorating for Christmas…
Fall always flies by at record speed for me, and this year is no exception. It’s one of the busiest times of the year for me at work and home. I love autumn events, but finding time to check off my fall bucket list can be a challenge. I decided to take a day off work so Mom and I could attend the covered bridge festival since we hadn’t been in several years. The Parke County Covered Bridge Festival is a ten day event which begins on the second Friday in October each year. It is…
Just 20 miles west of downtown Indianapolis, the small town of Danville, Indiana puts on a festive fall display of scarecrows each year from October 1-31. This year is their 10th annual display of creative scarecrows designed by local businesses and civic groups. My mom and I strolled around the square on a lovely warm Friday evening just before sunset. We’d stopped there on our way home from the Parke County Covered Bridge Festival. I’ll be blogging about our trip to the Covered Bridge Festival this week. Thirty-one scarecrows are displayed on all four…
October 14 UPDATE! We have a winner! Barbara Shreve won the set of three cards! Thank you to everyone who entered! *** World Card Making Day is celebrated each year on the first Saturday in October. It started in 2006 as a way to encourage crafters to get a jump on crafting for the holiday season. What better way to celebrate than with Gnome Décor’s handmade card set giveaway? We’re celebrating the site’s launch with this freebie. You can enter to win this set of three cards three different ways. Choose one, two or all three methods…
In September I shared my farmers market fall fairy garden. This week I finished transforming the rest of my fairy gardens for fall. Fall fairy gardening is especially fun because there’s no planting required! I get to focus on decorating, my favorite part. You can pull out any dead growth caused by summer heat spells or early fall chill, and fill in those areas with figures. Likewise you can trim back and pull out overgrown plants to make room for your decorations. My main problem is overgrowth, so the layout of my fall gardens is determined by the choice…
I have a bit of a fairy garden addiction. Okay, more than a bit. I started making them four years ago, and have expanded my tiny kingdom from one in 2013 to six outdoor fairy gardens in 2017. There are two main reasons I’m hooked on fairy gardens. One is that you can plant and design an entire mini garden in under an hour, which is highly satisfying. There’s no way you can whip your yard into shape that quickly! The second is that they are absolutely adorable, and you get to shop for the cutest…