Autumn accents

As I’ve said a couple times already {broken record, anyone?}, autumn is my favouritest. This week I made a couple of changes to our home as we inch towards the winter months. I didn’t go out and buy anything – just subtracted what we had, and brought a bit of the outdoors in. 
I pulled back on the lavender and pink stuff in our home and tucked them out of sight for the season. I still love those colours, but I think they have a time and place; that being in the brighter months. The light colours get swapped with dark berry shades, gold and brown. All things cosy. And candles. Candles on anything that will sit still. I’m such a creepy romantic. Especially my black candles which sometimes remind me of Hocus Pocus
One last thing – this morning me and my messy hair were on the other side of the lens as part of an exciting feature coming up. I was snapped at my desk crocheting, with gold spray paint. Yeah, I’m going to do that annoying thing where I don’t give you any more details and leave you hanging. More details on that next week.

Do you like to decorate for autumn? Or do you skip autumn decorating and jump right into Halloween? I don’t know how much longer I can wait before I crack out the skulls and creepy Halloween stuff. xx A

Blog Awards Ireland 2013 – finalist

Way back in June Hydrangea Girl was nominated in this years Blog Awards Ireland. It was nominated in three categories and I was OH SO excited / flattered / massive ball of nerves. Then in September, the Blog Awards Ireland announced their shortlist. Hydrangea Girl made it through in all three categories. I was pretty surprised, considering I had eye-balled {and swooned} over my fellow nominee’s sites, and couldn’t believe I even made the short list

Then, last Tuesday, I checked the Blog Awards site and I had made it through to the finals. In all three categories. Balls to the walls. Nominated for Best Craft Blog, Best Lifestyle Blog as well as Best Designed Blog. Only five blogs make it into each final category. Five. To say I was overwhelmed would be an understatement. 
It’s true when people say it’s been a pleasure to just be nominated. I’m incredibly flattered to be in the final round among such awesome bloggers. I’m not expecting to get any further and I’m heading to the awards ceremony this weekend to shoot the breeze and make new blogger / bloggette friends. And wine friends. Did you check out the blogs I’m alongside in the finals? No really. They make my site look like a bag of hammers. It’s very humbling. 
If you’re attending the awards this weekend, lemme know! I get nervous at these things and never know where to stand / look / not to talk with food in my mouth and be a lady and swear less. So if you see me there, let’s make awkward conversation. With beverage in hand. Obv.
xx A

DIY Friday – fall wall

Some of the trees near us have finally started turning really lovely autumny reds last week. I just couldn’t resist, so while embracing my social awkwardness at full capacity, on my way home from work I started collecting my favourite leaves, which attracted some interesting glances. Once I got home, I lazily taped them all in one bundle to the wall over our TV and then that little light bulb sound went off – create a leafy gallery wall and my own little ode to autumn. A super simple DIY Friday that doesn’t require mad craft skills. 

All you need are leaves and washi tape. Just head outside, or even better – if you have children that still consider picking up leaves fun, send them outside to collect their favourite ones. I used my favourite black and white washi tape and taped them over the chair in our living room which currently doesn’t have a focal point. I didn’t get technical, just eye balled it and stuck the leaves in no particular order. 
TIP: I would advise pressing and drying your leaves in a heavy book for a couple of days before you tape them up. It prevents your leaves from rolling up as they dry, and they will look much more manicured on your wall. Two days in a book will do the trick. I didn’t have time to do this, so I have some backpedaling to do. I blame the eager blogger bug. 

I’m really happy with how it turned out and I can wholeheartedly say the {blurry} pictures do not do it justice. Once I’ve properly pressed and dried my leaves, I’m hoping to keep them up from now through to Halloween, Thanksgiving and right up until I switch things up for Christmas. A perfect little autumn accent me thinks.
That’s it really. Nothing more to add. Happy Friday, peeps! I got a ridiculously good deal on some monk fish today, so we will be dining like frugal kings tonight. I hope you have an autumny weekend lined up. xx A