One more day til the pumpkins come out here. I will change out Summer to Fall sometime before Oct 1. Probably pack away my straw handbags too (I’m dragging my feet on the purse change, usually do it Sept 1).

If displaying a pumpkin could lower our temperatures, I would run out and find a huge one.

I do, yes! Fall and Halloween are my fav holidays to decorate.

Yours sounds wonderful, Tina!

The ‘real feel‘ here yesterday was 103 and I’m so ready for cooler weather. I agree — it’s hard to get in the mood during such heat.

I don‘t do a ton of fall stuff. I have a pretty wreath made of dried grasses, but that won’t go up until next week. No fall anything until summer is officially over.

Not much - usually a couple mums and a pumpkin on the front step and a couple subtle things in the dining room along with some fall cocktail napkins. I got one mum a couple days ago and a pumpkin today even though it’s going to be in the 90s for the next few days.

I've ordered Christmas wreaths already and that feels strange, but the preseason sale and now that is done and checked off my list (we send some as gifts each year). I will change my front planters for fall and the holidays depending on how the spring plantings are doing. This year I thing I will either replant or add pumpkins. I always have pumpkins -- fairytale, Cinderella, blue, white or an assortment, and we will cook with them later and donate any extra to the zoo or for animals somewhere. We had a scarecrow and some other decorations, but stopped doing more after the boys went off to college.

I usually get a pumpkin for the front, but I don't carve it. This year, tho, I can't see having a big round orange thing at my door. Yuck.

LOL!

I dont decorate for fall -- the trees do enough for me!

I do change my bedding out -- but havent yet.

I am not even sure if I will decorate for Christmas -- as I leave on the 25th for 10 days.

ETA Beautiful flowers, Mtn ... Mr Mtn has a great eye!

Tina -- I hope to heaven that the bittersweet you use for your decorating is artificial and not the real stuff!!!!! If it is real, I guarantee that you will live to regret it. Oriental bittersweet is a pernicious thug in the landscape. and easily takes over everything. Ask me how I know...

It will root with abandon throughout lawns, garden beds, up mature oak trees and even up through driveways. It has an orange-colored roots, and any piece of that will happily make new plants, continuing its world-domination tendencies. Young plants can be yanked out (try to get the whole root system) but it ain't easy to do.

Birds probably were the cause of my ongoing fight with this horrible weed. Cannot do much about that. Once part of your life, it will likely be ever-present, I'm sorry to say. =(

As for fall decor, I have decided that it is all a bit too much for me this year. I'm thinking of lugging my large collection of fake pumpkins out to the street with a "free" sign for passersby. Need to downsize, lol. I have quite a few artificial floral arrangements I made over the years that will come out for both inside and outdoors on the porch. A large fabulous door wreath of fake Chinsese Lanterns . And a nice "wooden" carved owl that is 2 1/2 feet tall for the porch, too.

Maybe doing fall decor will cheer me up....

Funky i change our bedding out probably 3 or 4 times a year. i get tired of the same thing year round!

Roxanna, it is live bittersweet but it does not come ftom our yard and we’ve never had a problem with it.

I sure do! I start with beautiful fall leaves and apples in September switch to Halloween Jack-o-lanters come October and Turkeys for November inside and out.

I miss arranging pumpkins out front. I had to forego that pleasure because the squirrels and chipmunks nibble and nibble until they are gone. I did place a sunflower wreath on the door at the riverhouse. At the woodhouse last week, I exchanged the summer table runner for one with a more autumnal vibe and put out some pottery with fall colors. I decided to wait another week or so to display the clay and ceramic pumpkins. I am still wearing shorts for heavens sake. Not sure this counts but I declared summer over at the riverhouse as I put away or covered all the dock, deck, and patio furniture and the water toys. It's a bit early, but DH and I will be traveling for an extended time later this fall. Better to have it done before going.

Mtn, love the flower arrangement.

Arcy, I enjoyed seeing the fall decor at your house.

I am not up to fall decorating this year, and we are not entering the neighborhood scarecrow contest this year. If DH can find our big lighted pumpkin I will put it in the front porch but that is about all of my decorating bandwidth right now. I have to take it easy for ten days until my new stitches come out so I have been working on a couple of projects I meant to do last year but ran out of time— a Lego Elf Clubhouse and the Gingerbread House. The Elf Clubhouse is almost finished, just two more bags of hundreds of tiny pieces for step 5. I haven’t touched a Lego in more than 25 years and it takes some practice to get back in the groove. This is what I started with. I took the tree apart 26 times before it was right. Not hyperbole… 26!

The front with working door and windows and the interior does light up.

The bunk room is on the second floor, living area downstairs. Please notice the wrapping room (below right) with scissors, red and white paper on rolls, and a cardboard box waiting to be wrapped. Somebody at the North Pole has been watching HGTV!

I forgot to say earlier, my DD has inherited my love of Halloween decor …. I’ve been sending her cute primitive wooden figurines and she has them out already:

I have not ever noticed much in traditional fall decorating in my area of So Cal. Maybe because we’re so close to the ocean, or maybe because fall is a relatively brief season here. We’ll see some of the large pumpkin-like (but not orange) squashes that TJ sells seasonally out on a few front porches. Our warm weather easily lasts through Halloween, plus October and November are also subject to strong Santa Ana winds — no one’s idea of delightful fall weather.

I let the normal changes in the garden be my seasonal decorating. Plus maybe a pumpkin just before Halloween — too many squirrels to risk much more.

Edited to add: I’ll have a few of the mini white pumpkins on the dining room table towards early - mid-October. Purchased flowers reflect the season as well.

I don't decorate outside, but I've brought out a few pumpkins for the indoors plus candles and some autumn wreaths. I probably rushed the season a little, but I was having some friends over for dinner earlier this week and I wanted to use an autumn-hued table setting.

As @nancy_in_venice_ca said, we don't experience autumn weather like the midwest and east do, so I use seasonal decor according to my calendar, not the weather. I'll wait until November to add any turkeys to my decor.

October I decoratefor Halloween both inside and out. Outside is primarily pumpkins, plus a holiday doormat. Inside I do more. November the Halloween retreats, fall decor and a few turkeys make an appearance.

I used to start with a light fall decor

pre- Halloween, but it has been so hot the last couple of years I just could not get in the fall mood.

I still have the summer baskets on the front doors. I’ll change out to fall wreaths today.

Cookbook club luncheon is at my house next week. I’m wanting to do centerpieces similar to the pictures below. I’ve bought mini white pumpkins (real) and mini blue-green pumpkins (fake) to take to the florist. I have no idea what to tell them to do with the pumpkins. I know I want blush roses and seeded eucalyptus. Maybe some dried hydrangeas.

Love those centerpieces Bbstx. Hope you will start a thread about the menu with pictures of your table!

Jilly, I love the quirkiness of those figures! Nicole, when I looked at your flag I thought the pumpkin stems were the tails of more hiding cats— cute!

Sushi, you have a point. DH bought one Cinderella type already -- it is orange and very broad. LOL

Jilly, those are cute! I could put a witch or ghost on top, but I tend to lean into Dia de los Muertos now. I much prefer the love and cherishing memories of those who have gone before over the gross and scary welcoming of fall. I also like the way the monarch migration ties into it.

Kswl, I love your Lego elf clubhouse. I hope you've enjoyed the process in spite of the tree restarts. Hope all goes well with getting stitches removed and continued healing.

I grew a pumpkin vine in the compost pile down in the orchard. So far I have three pumpkins of varying sizes on my porch, and there are two or three more ripening down there. I'll only have the three for decor, will probably give the others away to neighbors.

Every year I love to decorate my mailbox cover for Halloween, but the Super Bells petunias I planted in it this Spring are still going gang busters - even in this heat and drought. I water it every day so I'm enabling. Because they are so beautiful I may just end up doing a small Halloween thing on the front porch instead.

I will put a pumpkin on my front step and call it a day. Lately it seems folks really get into Halloween decorations in their front yard, primarily aimed at kids.

One of my neighbors has a GIANT skeleton in their front yard. Ugh, doesn't it scare the children? I also wonder where they store this thing the 11 other months of the year? In my house, I use a tabletop lighted pumpkin Halloween night.

There's a house a couple of miles from mine with a giant skeleton in their front yard. At Christmas he wears Santa clothes, for the 4th he's Uncle Sam. It's a tiny little house on a main thoroughfare, so it kind of dominates the property.

Very minimal over here. I recently put out a few of my white ceramic pumpkins inside in various places. I don't even bother with a pumpkin on the porch anymore. Just not the same once the kids grew up. I usually buy a bunch of the small white pumpkins if I see them at a store, but it seems I go to actual stores less and less these days so that might not happen either.

I used to put a hanging skeleton on the porch and a sign on the front door around Halloween when the kids were little too. Haven't done that in years either which is fine with me. I was never really a fan anyway.

This year we will be away over Halloween and actually away on election day too. I didn't even think about that when I impulsively booked this non-refundable trip (I did order my mail in ballots for this election). Also after I booked it, I realized we will also be away on DS's 24th birthday. Told him I can tell his sister to come home and take him out to dinner. He could not care less! Boys are so different from girls! We'll be home 2 days after his b'day and will take him out to dinner.

I love fall and usually have a bunch of pumpkins on my porch steps around the beginning of Oct., then add the Halloween decor closer to the 31st. But we’ll be gone starting this weekend until Oct. 16 so I am less inspired to do all that. Plus our poor Frenchie girl has to have brachiocephalic surgery on Oct 31 and has to be kept quiet for a while, so we are probably going to be a Scroogey ”lights out” house on Halloween because she goes nuts when she hears kids on the porch.

Maybe I will at least get some little pumpkins for the dining room table so our dog sitter can enjoy them!

I do have a mum in a planter out front…

Aww i hate to hear about your dog Sue. We do not do halloween decorations. I put out my fall stuff and used to add a jack-o-lantern on Halloween night, but no more as we rarely have trick-or-treaters. Hopefully I can put out my pumpkins, cornstalks, etc. by week’s end. Our temps are supposed to be lower. I have a great pilgrim door hanging that i will put up right after Halloween and he stays up till Christmas decs. We will be traveling 10-12 days in October, but the house will be decorated! 😂

Tina I would love to see a picture of your pilgrim door hanging. Growing up everyone decorated with Pilgrims, not turkeys or leaves, and they seem to have disappeared around here.

Sorry to hear about your dog’s upcoming surgery Sue. I hope it isn’t too serious but it sounds vascular? One of our two is on her deathbed with congestive heart failure that requires a paracentesis about every ten days. We need to let her go but DH isn’t ready.

K, it has to do with the way Frenchies are built, sadly. She has been fine for her whole life (almost 7) but has always been a snorer. She started sounding like she had something stuck in her throat about 2 weeks ago and we ended up with a week full of ER and dr visits. Fortunately the surgery can wait until after our trip. It does sound pretty complicated — they widen the nasal passage and also do something to her soft palate? All I can say is, she’d better live 7 more years after all this!

https://kb.rspca.org.au/knowledge-base/what-is-brachycephalic-obstructive-airway-syndrome-boas/

So sorry to hear about your furry friend. 😞

Oh Sue and Kswl, so sorry to hear about your doggies and their troubles.

Tina, you inspired me to get a few more fall items out. The best I had done was to put a fall wreath on the door. I never got around to putting anything on the door for spring/summer. Just as well since sometimes the birds try to build a nest on my wreaths. I also swapped out pillows on the sofa and chairs which is a usual seasonal task.

I did order a couple of large mums from my niece’s girls and they were delivered last week. Their swim team sells them as a fund raiser and they are beautiful. Back when the grands were small, we decorated a lot for Halloween because we usually hosted a big ‘haunted hayride‘ and party in the country for the kids. It was such a blast and some of the kids had never experienced seeing shooting stars, tractors, sack races, horses (we had a neighbor in full costume as our escort on the ride), and much more from year to year. Always ended with s’mores, what else?!

KSWL, I will try to remember.

Outside, glad I inspired someone! I have only done the minimum here as we are still in the 90's, but change is coming!! Thank goodness we are to get some rain and then the temps drop to the low - mid 80s.

I started decorating yesterday, then most of it was eaten. (Visit of son and son-in-law helping decide what Hurricane prep needs to be done.)

Okay okay, I am going to the farmstand/market this afternoon to get pumpkins. I also took out my Anthro fall table runner and centerpiece platter this morning. The GW pressure got to me!

DH was getting something out of our storage closet last night and asked when I was going to put my spiders out … I’d totally forgotten about them! I’ll put them out soon.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/6403960/what-has-eight-legs-covered-in-beads#n=85

I love your spiders Jilly!

Maddielee, your photo ticks both boxes… fall decor AND hurricane prep !

Tina I will try to remember to remind you! 😁

Thanks, K. :)

I love candy corn.

Today was a glorious sunny day and 73 -- convertible weather ... even saw people on the beach.

Still picking blue hydrangeas! My dinner table last night. I did use fall-ish plates and placemats.

And, my menu had fall items (lentil salad with roasted squash, beets, carrots and celeriac). Best of all, I baked apples for dessert. Sweet tangos, cored, a 1/2 tsp of butter, 1/2 t brown sugar, and a dusting of cinnamon. Then I stuffed the core with raisins and pine nuts. So good and the smell is divine, yes? Loved it leftover this am with a dollop of greek yogurt.

Beautiful and your menu sounds delish!

im on the beach in CT — same temp range but more cloudy than sunny. Im out on the balcony now listening to the waves. a perfect slow transition to fall!

Funky, hope you are having a lovely time!!

I loved pumpkin patches and fall festivals with my kids. I’m now enjoying them with five grandchildren! I have to say ~they have become much more elaborate……!

Thanks, Mtn! It has been lovely …. and relaxing!

We were in the western CT mtns on the NY border on thurs and not too surprised that fall colors had started to come in —- more surprised seeing them on the coast and now as we’re headed towards nyc

i had forgotten how beautiful it is here … and clean!

funny we are in Maine along the coast this weekend and it is stubbornly green!

My autumn place setting for my small dinner party.

Love that china, Fun2bhere!