The Goods- Festive Fall Decor

So Mike didn't really want his birthday celebration to scream "birthday" and nixed the usual streamers and balloons. Instead, we went with a festive fall upgrade to our dinner table which usually looks like this:



(To be fair- this was  right after we got home from grocery shopping! It doesn't usually look this terrifyingly disorganized.)

With a few cheapy cheapy additions, it ended up looking like this:



We have a TON of books, so they are a go-to for decorating in our house. In fact, we even included many of our faves into the table centerpieces for our wedding! (wedding table photo)

By simple gathering a few tomes with a wide, satin ribbon, we instantly add a little height and interest to the neutral table cloth and boring, woven runner. Top that off with a few old-fashioned glassed filled with blooms snipped from a $3.99 Trader Joe's bouquet and we're feeling festive!



For the other table (an occasional table that we keep on our porch outside), we covered that up with another fall-ish orange table cloth and added a two-tiered serving dish topped with apples, squashes and gourds of all kinds. This distracts from the fact that the table is pushed up against our laundry closet door and adds a little flair to an otherwise utilitarian table.

Next up: lighting the place up! We have weird, random lights in our kitchen so when we're entertaining we prefer to stick with low light and candles. A few votives here and there, a couple of hanging candle holders from IKEA and we're good to go!



The last thing to do is turn up the music (we had the new Sufjan Stevens album on) and get ready to party!! Up next: the eats!

(Karaboda candle image found here)