My Fall Living Room: Yep, You Read that Right.

I'm sorry, I don't remember where I found this word art. It was perfect for my colour scheme.

I've been feeling terribly inadequate lately. As a blogger with a blog, I mean, not as a person. (As a person, I'm feeling pretty awesome right now, actually, thankyouverymuch.) But geesh. As a blogger with a home decor blog?

Definitely lacking.

It all started with Fall, actually.

I planned to do a Fall House Tour and it was important for the living room to be just so.  I figured I finally had the decorating chops and I was going to prove it to you all.

That pouf has sure lost its poufiness. But look at that fake cotton! The scale! the drama!

At the same time, I began to think I wanted to expand my readership. I started looking into what it might take to grow my blog.

The first week of September I started looking at houses decorated for Fall. Um, seriously folks? The first week of September? I remember one or two blogs from Texas saying the temps were still far too warm "to get in the mood." But that's also when I started to get an inkling that this blog will never be like those blogs. I will never have my living room decorated for Fall by the first week of September. (Never mind styled, photographed and written up!)

I loved this mantle. I took photos of it soon after I created it, I liked it that much.

So, my blog will obviously never be a trendsetting home decor blog. That's not going to be my focus. I'm not even sure I want this to be a home decor blog. But the blog does need a focus, apparently. Moreover it needs a narrow focus. As one blogger advises, "The narrower your focus the broader your audience." Harumph.

And s we all know, I do love to decorate.

Yep, I bought a role of burlap and hot glued it to a mason jar for a vase.

So, I started to decorate the living room--as I also planned and executed my decluttering series (because a well decorated home is also an intentional home and while that doesn't mean one needs to be a minimalist, it does mean one needs to decrapify regularly--and boy oh boy did my house need decrapification!)

The living room was ready at Thanksgiving (Canadian Thanksgiving, mid-October)-- well, it was as ready as it was ever going to be.

The day before Canadian Thanksgiving I drove to a store in a snow storm to exchange the pillow covers I'd bought for a different pair. But the store was out of the ones I wanted, so, after wandering around the store for twenty minutes or so, I stood still and racked my brain --and remembered a throw I'd seen at a store across town that might work. If they had any in stock. Twenty minutes before closing, I drove across town --in that snowstorm--  to buy a throw that just might pull it all together for me.

yep, that's the throw. I'm not sure it can do all I want it to do.

And on that horribly stressful drive, I thought about how simplicity is one of the things I value--and how this decorating business --especially seasonal decorating--and decorating to a deadline-- is not -- absolutely not "simple."

I spray painted some sticky dots from Staples with gold and stuck them on fake cream pumpkins 
--and wound up with spotty pumpkins.

So, simplicity is a touchstone for me and my blog--but I'm still figuring out what that actually means. Among other things. Figuring things out, I mean.

I'm still figuring things out: like why the living room didn't gel like I'd hoped.

The sofa strikes me as too white for "fall" but lots of others managed to create the cosyness of fall with their white sofas. I think it's the cushions: one set in particular.

See the orange one tucked back there behind the grey one and the throw? It's from H&M and looks lovely in person--it is orange--but not a burnt or rusty orange--and I think it needs to be. Or maybe a clearer stronger orange? Just not this orange. The orange and the white together actually read as coral more than orange. I had orange velour pillows. I decluttered them a few months ago. Oh well. They were solid and I had wanted a pattern--but I had no idea the perfect orange patterned pillows would be so hard to find!

I wasn't all that happy with this corner, either. The Ikea blanket just didn't do enough for me, somehow.

The truth is, after Thanksgiving, I put the living room out of my mind. Working on my Mom's dressing room took every single minute I had after that. There was no thought to spare for it--and, certainly, no time to take pictures.

Then, I finished the dressing room. I rested.

That's when I took a course on blogging--on photography and styling, specifically. From the course, (and a bit of other reading) I learned that a successful blog should have a pithy tagline. Every post should contain stunning pictures and styling. Apparently, the blog needs to be a recognizable brand --and I need to be on social media pushing every post and instagramming on a schedule. (Good people, I don't have a cell phone--not even a flip phone).

I would totally instagram this awesome photo of the river valley if I did instagram, though.

I don't know if any of that will ever happen. I'm still figuring it out.

I'm all about making life more pleasant--and that means making my house pretty and functional--or at least trying to. Figuring it out. Housekeeping, as you all know, is a struggle for our family. But I want this blog to be about more than just that struggle--but I feel like I need to include it, too.

I've figured out this much:

The blog is my diary, my record of what I do to make this house of ours a home for us. I like to figure out what home is, wht that means to us--and then create it. What I do at home drives the content of my blog --always. This living room was so stressful, in part, I think, because for the first time I let the blog (and my aspirations for it) drive the content.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing--but I don't think it's my thing.

Like the pillows. In person, they aren't that bad.

But I was happy to notice they were starting to pill a bit, already. I can let them go.

But I am not sure I want to let go of wanting to grow the blog.

I'm afraid any plans I had of doing a fall home tour are now kaput. My husband has already put up our tree. But that's OK. I am feeling the urge to decorate for Christmas.

A little bit.

Just as soon as I get over being intimidated by all those beautifully decorated kitchens. living rooms, and bathrooms (!) out there in blogland.

PS. If you don't mind my asking--why do you read this blog? What would make it more valuable to you?

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