September Decor- fading into fall

September is such a transitional time. The weather can't decide if it is summer with searing high temperatures, or fall with its fogs and cool breezes. Some plants are making a last valiant hurrah of flowering, while others have already gone to seed and succumbed to brownness. And school is back in, changing the mindsets of both children and parents from the thoughts of summer break to the schedules of autumn.

I know that come October, my house will be filled with fun Halloween decor. And after that the oranges and colors of fall for Thanksgiving. Then on to the red and green cheer of Christmas. Knowing these months are coming, my September decor is quiet, with muted and monochrome tones.

It feels very restful to me. There is nothing to buy, no totes to drag out. I just walk around the house and pick things out of bookcases and cabinets to arrange in vignettes. Below is a black turned-wood darning "egg". It is placed inside a sock to darn the toes. This one was my great-great-great Granny Hannah's. My great Aunt Jane said that Hannah was very old when she was a girl, but would always wash the dinner dishes, and darn the toes of their socks before they had even been worn to make them last longer. The Mason jar is one of many filled with antique lace that was kept by my Grandma Tommy.

The beautiful mother-of-pearl opera glasses were a gift from my Pop when I was in high school. I also have the fitted leather case they came in. They are so gorgeous, but they are not just for ornamentation. I have used them at ballets and plays and they are as strong as binoculars. The milk glass sugar shaker on the top was an Easter present from my Grandma Tommy when I was a child. There is a chick on the reverse side.

If you have ever noticed, hydrangeas are some of my favorite flowers. I have two enormous bushes that my Pop made from cuttings of my Great Granny's plants. I love them when they open white and billowy. Then I use them when they age to a sprightly green. And when they dry on the bush to this lovely sepia tone, they are perfect for fall arrangements and wreaths. The leather-bound books below were plucked out of the dining room bookcase. The lower is filled with poems from the turn of the century, while the upper is called The Complete Home. It literally contains everything from cooking and cleaning, to caring for the infant or infirm, to making you own paint and medicines. And do you see the glorious ivory orb in my milk glass compote? It is an ostrich egg that was gifted to me by my dear friend, Andrea. The gold rim glasses were worn by an ancestor.

Below is my beloved Victrola that belonged to my Great Aunt Add and was given to me on my 16th birthday from my Grandma Tommy. I love to listen to the music of that time period! One of my favorites is called, There's a Trick to Picking a Chick-chick-chicken Today, the word chicken was referring to a lovely female ;).

On top is an amazing globe made of glass that plugs in and makes the colors glow. There is a sweet lady named Ms. Dixie who lives on the main street of our nearby little town. She was having a sidewalk sale one day when it began to pour. My boys were just small, but we all ran over and helped her move her things inside. After it was all safe and sound, I told her that I wanted to buy the globe. She refused, saying it was our reward for being kind. I adore maps and globes, and the study of geography in general. But this one is very special because of the lady behind it.

Below is a piece of architectural salvage, the zinc pedant to a building. I turned it upside down and secreted a thin vase behind it, filled with dried flowers and seed heads from the fields and roadsides. That is the only embellishment, because it is easy to move out of the way. You see, this is the spot where I set up the microscopes for my homeschool biology classes! School is back in and I am so excited for this year!
But above the sideboard is a real treasure. This amazing 1800's print hung in my parent's house as I was growing up. It is huge, and I could look at it forever. When we added on the dining room and I had a large enough wall, my Pop gave it to me. Its matte had become age mottled, and he cut a new one for me. This doesn't sound like much, but at the time he has bone spurs built up over nerves in his neck and could hardly lift his right arm or close his fingers. And yet he was still determined to rematte and frame this for me. He is such an amazing person!

 It was hard to get a close-up, because this large an expanse of glass catches so many reflections. This was done by a man who was commissioned to make this picture of the Siberian couriers to the Royal Court. They had to carry important missives through the snowy wastelands, and it was a very dangerous duty. Note the rolling eyes and flared nostrils of horses, and how they are panicking. Then look to the back where there is an armed man to protect them from both bandits and wolves. Then look at the far right to just the hint of the pack of wolves following. Siberian wolves can reach 8 feet long and 125 pounds. They were a deadly threat, and the picture shows a life or death race to safety. See why I could look at it for so long?

 Less thrilling is the top of one of my china cabinets. My vintage paper mache owl decoy stays up year round, and the cotton and antlers fit my monochromatic theme perfectly. All the antique crocks and pottery were ones my dear Moma gave me from her collection.

 Squeaky is adorned with a branch of a buckeye tree from my Pop's land in Oklahoma. He knows that inside the seed pods are shiny brown buckeyes, and that they are supposed to bring luck. He is one lucky squirrel with all those buckeyes!

 Hydrangeas once again. This is the one and only branch to bloom from a bush I started off of my husband's grandmother's shrub. When it is past it's prime I will fill brown transferware pitchers with the ornamental crabapples from one of my trees like this photo from last year. 

The runner I used is very old, and the netting is torn in places. But the work is exquisite and I think it has a look of faded grandeur.

 And lastly, hubby let me leave two of the four rows of corn stalks standing to dry in the garden. Soon I will be making sheaves to tie to the posts on my porch.

The past months have been ones of unprecedented rains, and so the lawns and trees are still a beautiful, vibrant green. But I can feel the wheel of the seasons turning, and soon there will be leaves beginning to change. It has been a beautiful summer, but my heart is ready for fall. How will you celebrate the end of season, Dear Reader? Are you decorated for fall?