It finally feels like fall, y’all, instead of hotumn, LOL.

Above and below are some photos I took on my walk today. So beautiful! I feel like I’m Anne of Green Gables with her statement, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers!”

Whereas for all of September and the first half of October, almost every day we’ve had 70-90 degrees days, it’s now 50-60 degrees through the day. When I wake up in the morning, it’s chilly enough that I don’t want to wear my capris any more. Especially when I have to drive my son to his morning classes that are outside of the home for part of our homeschooling routine.

I’m really excited that I anticipated this cold time coming up and found some brand-new-with-tag Pioneer Woman jeans on ebay to buy, to replace two pairs of old jeans from last year that are either too worn out, or ahem, too small. This new PW pair of jeans is so comfy and cute! As much as I love thrifting, I just didn’t want to go to the thrift store and be tempted to buy more stuff on top of jeans that I need. I decided I’d just get some on ebay and not buy anything else and I’d probably end up saving money than if I went thrifting and bought more than $20 worth of stuff. Now I’ll never know what I missed :-).

I love that the jeans just slip on so easily and fit like a glove, since they are pull-on, slightly stretchy denim, with no zipper. Only Ree Drummond could make a pair of pull-on pants feel fashionable and not like something a toddler would wear. So perfect! They will work along with some of my other old pants, which used to be baggy on me, while I get more strict on keto, to fit back into the old pairs :-).

They are so cute!!! Only $20 on ebay, free shipping!

OK, on to the purpose of this post: decorating your home for fall easily and cheaply. I got all my fall decorations up last week! If you are looking for how to decorate your home for autumn easily and inexpensively read on! It is #thriftingthursday after all.

Here’s what you need for this project/what you can use:

-autumn-colored leaf garlands from Hobby Lobby, Walmart, amazon, or thrift store

-twinkle lights from amazon or elsewhere

-any kind of free or inexpensive printable banner you can find online, like here and here. I’m not super big into Halloween so I use Thanksgiving-themed banners for my fall decorating

-fall picture books with themes of harvest (like The Oxcart Man), apples, pumpkins, Columbus Day, Halloween, heroes, for Heroween, and Thanksgiving. If you have few or zero fall picture books, never fear! You can find them online using addall.com for used/thrift store prices, or of course new online. Go here to learn about using addall.com. I have collected mine through the years thrifting at thrift stores and used library sales.

-wax paper lanterns (just collect some fall leaves, then sandwich them in-between wax paper using an iron on low with thin fabric in-between the iron and the iron. Then form a cylindrical tube and tape the edges. You can put a small battery-operated tea light candle inside for a lantern effect.)

-any small type of fall decorations from Dollar Tree or other stores. I think that’s where the quirky turkey in one of my photos came from years ago

-paint-safe Scotch tape for places where you can see the tape, and green frog paint-safe tape, where you won’t be able to see it

So go ahead an assemble all those things. Then decorate your shelves, doorways, and windows with the garlands and banner. Use the paint-safe tape for attaching the garlands and banners.

If you have ledges, like I do above my windows, and doorways, you can put the picture books on those. My ledges have grooves that the book fits into to help prevent them from slipping. I discovered last summer, for Independence Day, that I could put my seasonal and holiday picture books on my ledges for decorating! Yay!!!

What an amazing discovery for my homeschooling mama, picture-book loving and collecting heart!!!! Here’s what my front room looked like last year before I made this life-changing discovery, without the books on the ledges.

Then here are my ledges this year. They are so purty!

Dangerous Journey is a child’s version of Pilgrim’s Progress. The March sisters act out Pilgrim’s Progress in The Little Women book. I always think of Little Women as a Thanksgiving and Christmas movie. The theme song of the 1994 movie gives off Thanksgiving vibes, the story starts on Christmas Day, the author Lousia May Alcott has a November birthday, all on top of the pilgrim journey played out in the story. (You have to read the book to get that, sadly, it’s not given in the movies very much or at all.) It’s such a great movie (the 1994 version) any time of year, but especially for Thanksgiving weekend.

If you don’t have ledges, use bookshelves, hutches, or coffee tables for the books. Display the books by putting them on top of the shelf or table with the pages slightly fanned out so they can stand up on their own.

If you have more than one or two books to put on top of the shelf or table, put the rest in a pile with the spines out, or put them in baskets if space is limited so the books don’t look cluttered. Baskets do wonders for organizing and adding beauty at the same time!

That’s it! Enjoy! Feel free to share any photos of your fall decorations in the comments below. I’d also love to hear if you have any fall picture book suggestions I don’t have pictured in this post.