DIY Fall Floral Pumpkin

By now, you guys know I LOVE fall. 🍂🎃 And one of my other favorite things? Crafting. Put them together and you get some fun fall DIY content like this DIY fall vintage dough bowl centerpiece and today’s post: this adorable fall floral pumpkin!

Let me tell you… the love for fall runs DEEP in my family. We don’t mess around with the fall vibes -- everything from home decor to DIY to crockpot soups. So it won’t surprise you that my mom is the one who inspired this project! She sent me a cute inspiration photo (below) with a real pumpkin decorated with faux succulents. My immediate reaction was 1) this would look great on my porch with the lanterns I just purchased and 2) what a fun project to kick off fall! 

Based on past projects I’ve done, I knew I didn’t want to use a real pumpkin because I want to be able to display and love this beauty for years to come! So off to Michael’s I went to grab a sturdy faux pumpkin. They had several more standard round options, but I wanted it to be a bit taller and more oval and ended up purchasing this 13” craft pumpkin by Ashland. It was perfect!

I grabbed the leftover faux floral from my haul for the dough bowl centerpiece and got to work trimming. I knew I wanted varying lengths, textures, and colors that popped against the orange of the pumpkin, but still stayed true to fall. I decided to go with a mix of stems and large and small flowerheads. 

After figuring out the right mix of faux floral, my next challenge was deciding the best way to secure them to the smooth-surfaced pumpkin. I was heating up a glue gun but knew it was going to be hard to get the tiny floral stems to stay attached. My husband is theeee best brainstorm partner when it comes to these types of questions. He at first suggested I sand down the surface a bit, but then recommended I try out a staple gun.

My first thought was 'staple gun?!’ I’m not going to lie… I was skeptical because I was nervous the pumpkin would split. But the material was strong and sturdy enough that it worked like a charm! It was smooth sailing from there -- the staple gun made it go SO fast! Of course, there were a few floral pieces that logistically I couldn’t staple, but with the pumpkin surface area covered with multiple layers toward the end, I could easily secure those last finishing touches with the glue gun.

I love how the asymmetrical look turned out! What do you think? Would you replicate this on a real or faux pumpkin?

Summer Throwback: Magnolia Silos

As I was checking out at Magnolia Home, I thanked the cashier for such a great experience and told him the whole day had felt like I was at Disneyland. He was appreciative and casually said, “yeah, we get that a lot.” 

And I wasn’t exaggerating. Visiting Magnolia really was like going to Disneyland for me… someone who’s obsessed with home decor and all things cozy, and who has watched Chip and Joanna’s show since the beginning. 

Magnolia offered everything you needed -- coffee shop, food carts, refreshing drinks and snacks, baked goods, picnic areas, playground areas, and lots of great shopping. One other similarity to Disneyland: there were only two ways out (that I noticed), meaning you were a fish swimming in a school all going with the current in the same direction, hitting up every last shop along the way. It was a money trap, but in the best way.

We ended up going to Magnolia a bit last-minute. After getting vaccinated, we felt more comfortable traveling and finally made it out to see Tim’s parents’ new home near San Antonio, Texas. We flew into Austin and had an amazing time with them and his brother’s family; we even got to meet our cute little Godson for the first time 🥰 We explored San Antonio a few nights, grabbing some food at an amazing brewery and pizzeria and exploring the San Antonio river walk for an evening out on the town. We also hit up a lot of cute little towns right around them, filled to the brim with antique shops, farmer’s markets, outdoor concerts, and coffee shops.

We both had to work almost the whole trip, so our adventuring was limited to the evenings and weekends, but I’d say we really made the most of it! We actually did quite a bit of exploring even with the limited time off.

So Friday evening rolled around and after we met up with his brother’s family, ate some delicious Texas BBQ, and said our goodbyes, we drove 3 hours to Waco for our big Magnolia adventure. I’m not kidding when I say I was so excited the night before I almost couldn’t sleep 🤣

We booked the cutest Airbnb TWO BLOCKS away from the Silos -- and we only booked like 4 days in advance! That was definitely a sign that we were meant to go 😉 The house was fantastic; way too much room for just the 4 of us, but the location was perfect and it was everything you would have thought it would be being so close to all the goodness of Magnolia -- very similar style to Joanna’s (because why wouldn’t it be?!). If you’re looking to go to Magnolia, I highly recommend the Avenues of Waco.

So we arrived on Saturday morning at Magnolia Press around 8 a.m. Most of the shops open at 9 a.m., so we decided to grab coffee and breakfast at the coffee shop. We heard Magnolia Table is amazing, but that the wait is horrific, so we decided to skip it this time around. The coffee shop and grounds weren’t too busy when we got there, so we relaxed for a bit in the coffee shop and outside in the patio area and wandered around for some photo opps 📸

After coffee and breakfast, we hit up Magnolia Home first, walked around, took everything in, and browsed. There is so.much.good.stuff! But I felt like there was still so much to see (and their furniture is a pretty penny) so I decided not to buy anything quite yet.

We explored the cute little row of shops. I went into all of them and bought at least one small thing from each -- jewelry, clothes, beauty/skin care, kids gifts, birthday gifts, etc. These were fun because they had such uniquely curated items.

At this point, it was getting pretty hot and humid out, so we sat down for a bit and had some refreshments -- lavender lemonade for me (so YUM)!

We then made our way over to the Magnolia Market which has a ton of kitchen stuff, plus even more souvenir-y gear. After shopping to our heart’s content, we grabbed lunch from the food carts and drank the yummiest sweet tea I’ve ever had.

We made two last stops before leaving the Silos: 1) Magnolia Seed & Supply and 2) Magnolia Bakery (how could we NOT?!). Magnolia Seed & Supply was a cute, quaint little shop. I didn’t get anything related to gardening, but I did find a cute baseball cap 😉 And the bakery cupcakes were amazing (see mouthwatering photo below).

We spent a good half day+ at the Silos and then went home to rest up for a bit before heading out to do some more exploring. We couldn’t leave Waco without swinging by Joanna’s very first home store, the little shop on Bosque. It was adorable! So small, but they had a cute selection of stuff (+ sale items) and definitely worth going if you’re a Joanna fan like I am ☺️ I bought two latticed shutters that are now hanging at the top of our stairs - forever a fun memory piece.

There are sweet non-Magnolia antique and home decor stores around the Silos that you won’t want to miss -- we went to The Findery, which also has a warehouse a few blocks down. Lots of good finds there. 

And how could I forget -- we also just happened to meet THE Jimmy Don -- the guy who makes all the iron signs for Chip & Joanna in Fixer Upper! It might be open by now, but when we were visiting he was building a shop right across from the Silos that wasn’t finished yet, so they had a trailer in front of it with some ready-made signs for sale. As we were walking up, I saw him standing there and basically whisper-yelled to Tim and his mom that I thought that was Jimmy Don himself. And, sure enough, yep! It was totally him and he was as nice as could be. We ended up buying a sign from him and he signed it! So fun.

All in all, I’d say our trip was a success. I’ve heard mixed reviews about whether or not visiting Magnolia is worth it, but I would say it definitely is -- just know what you’re getting into. You can do it in about a half-day, so don’t go for a week thinking that’s all you’ll do. If you love everything home, home decor, family, and fun, you’ll have a blast.

Life Update 001

I was going to write ‘it’s been awhile’ since posting a life update, but this is actually quite a new concept for the blog. So, I guess I should really say ‘it’s been never’ since I posted a life update 😂 I’m not exactly sure why all of a sudden I have the urge to share a general life update other than it’s been quite a crazy year and a half living through the ups and downs in a world navigating COVID-19. Nonetheless, here are some updates from our crew.

We bought a house!

Yep, you read that right… we bought a house!… in the middle of a pandemic. Are we crazy?! Maybe 😉 But as they say, everything just fell into place. We feel very blessed and grateful to have been able to purchase our first home in an incredible neighborhood AND with incredible neighbors. Whenever I return to the house from running errands or from a trip, I immediately feel calm and so, so at peace. I think that’s how you know you’ve made your house feel like a home. 

So, buying a house naturally comes with all of the motivation and excitement for DIY projects. We’ve already tackled some (I’ve shared a few on my Instagram, with more to come!), but I feel like my head is exploding with new ideas every day. I want to install beadboard in our hallway, picture frame trim in our main bedroom, wallpaper in the guest room… and maybe our main bedroom, too… mixed metals and candleholders as a gallery wall above our bathtub, a more permanent desk and shelving system for Tim, maybe a garage gym; the list goes on and on. It is both FUN and overwhelming at the same time.

Tim got a job!

Most of you know my husband, Tim, was laid off by Airbnb at the beginning of the pandemic. He applied and interviewed for a year and nothing was coming through. He didn’t want to take a step back in his career -- and we were lucky enough to be able to get by on my income -- so he took his time finding the right fit. 

Well, when it rains, it pours (in a good way). After nothing sticking for almost a year, he was suddenly interviewing at 3 different companies at one time and was ultimately recruited for a startup where he landed a great job and was promoted within 3 months! It was a year filled with persistence, patience, and faith, and we feel blessed that everything worked out and he’s thriving in his new role.

I started a new position!

I’m still loving where I work, and I actually transferred roles in the last few months. It’s still within marketing, so not a complete 180, but my new position is more closely tied to sales vs. awareness and engagement. It’s been really interesting and challenging so far, and I can’t wait to see where this new role takes me! It’s always awesome to experience a different side of the business.

I’m going back to school!

They say you should announce something publicly to keep yourself accountable. Well, here I am, being vulnerable and announcing my return to school. Due to a mix of working at a consumer packaged goods company and dedicating lots of time each week for years to nutritious meal prepping, I’ve gotten more and more interested and invested in the fact that food is medicine and have decided to pursue my master’s degree in nutrition (eeek, I couldn’t be more excited!). I have some pre-requisites I need to wrap up before I can apply to the program, which I’ll be tackling over the next several months. I’ll still work full time and school will be part-time for now. The actual master’s program itself is full-time online (no specific times for classes, just weekly deadlines), so that feels like an excellent fit with my full-time work schedule, but I know life will get a lot more crazy. 

This bachelor of arts grad is diving head first into her first science pre-requisite in a few weeks: human anatomy and physiology, so good vibes are welcome 🙏 I think I’m going to find this all fascinating, but the good news is if it’s not what I thought it would be, there’s always another door to open and another path to explore.

The blog is now Wholly Rooted!

Staying with the same theme of ‘food is medicine’ -- I really do believe this and I’m excited to dive more into holistic nutrition and learning about the human body through my courses over the next few months and years. As I’ve grown, this blog has grown with me, so I decided to re-brand (again 😉) to Wholly Rooted, a space dedicated to health, home, and happiness. Look forward to more food and nutrition topics, as well as my usual DIYs, baking, home decor, and life updates. I feel it in my bones that this is the right move and path for me, so I’m happy to have you alongside me in this journey!

Well, that’s it for now… a lot of movin’ and shakin’ over here in our world. I hope you are thriving wherever you are in life right now and I know the best is yet to come for all of us.

Cheers!