This fall was a very special time for us and I wanted to make sure our porch was just as special.  I decided there was no better way to celebrate our newest arrival than to create a fall-flavored ode to Ella Violet.  Some kids get a beautiful nursery….our little girl gets a decorated front porch in her honor.  Lucky girl 🙂  And what better way than to use her name as inspiration….Ella Violet in reality means “GIRL PURPLE”.  Not exactly the most profound name meaning.  But creating a feminine fall porch with touches of purple is something that I can definitely do!

Welcome home little one….

First thing I did was get some faux white pumpkins.  They are normally pretty pricey but I scored them 60% off at Michaels during a sale and now I have a bunch of pumpkins that will not melt on my porch….and yes, every year our pumpkins melt into a squishy orange puddle in the Georgia heat and that means I have to dedicate a November day to pressure washing our porch.  Faux pumpkins sounds like a day dedicated to pedicures…not cleaning….canigetanamen?!

I was also able to score some big mums at my local Growers Outlet here in Loganville….3 of these 3 gallon ones for $25….which is an amazing price compared to the regular home improvement stores which sell them at $21 each!  I filled in around the mums in the bigger pots with some ornamental cabbages.  I’ve never used these before but a random stranger who looked like Blanche from The Golden Girls told me about how she was gonna use them with the mums and I was like….if it’s good enough for Blanche, it’s good enough for Bower.

I still am fairly obsessed with our $20 tall planters….to the point of wanting them in different colors now.  These blueish-gray ones work with a lot of different looks but how cute would rustic wood ones or distressed white ones, right?!

The real star of the show though are these super sweet wreathes.  Wreath are super easy to whip up….I used some floral stems from Michaels (make sure you buy them when you can get them 50% off and then use an additional 20% off coupon!) and a grapevine wreath.

Wreaths are so expensive in the stores that it makes way more sense to make your own!  These cost me roughly $18 each which is a heck of a lot less than the store-bought versions.

Overall, I really love the jewel tones, feminine vibes and the fact that this fall porch is different than all the others from the past….which is also very true of our newest baby 🙂

And I think I might DIY a couple white ghosts or a whole bunch of white bats for halloween….jury is still out (yes, I know it’s last minute either way)….but it would be easy to put up and easy to take down and this fall porch could last us through November 🙂

So did you guys prep your porch for fall?  What was the color scheme you did?  Anything out of the norm?  Or maybe you stuck to tradition and it looks just as fabulous as last year?  Anyone else use the mums/cabbage combo?  Any tricks or treats I need to make sure they get to growing?