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By Dave and Mary
Front Porch Appeal Newsletter
Issue #130 October 2022
"My favorite color is October." - unknown
The two of us love October. Do you as well?
'Tis the month of crisper air, backyard football games, glorious autumn colors, and of course, Halloween.
Perfect setting for a fall day
"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." - L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
Inside This Edition...
- Inviting Fall Decorating Ideas
- Try This Autumn Decorating Project
- Halloween Projects We Gathered for You
- Beautiful Before and After by Vintage Woodworks
- Imagine the Possibilities - Interlocking Deck Tiles
- Porch Podcast Entertainment - Think Disney and Winnie the Pooh
- To Bring a Smile
- Inspiration and Tidbits - Be True to Yourself
- We Appreciate Our Porch Sponsors
- Thank You as Always
If you're reading this and haven't joined our newsletter family, won't you please subscribe here and get our free Curb Appeal ebook.
Inviting Fall Decorating Ideas
Simplicity has its own beauty, like this mailbox dressed for fall.
Do you agree?
We love this inviting autumn porch, courtesy of Tucker Hill, McKinney, Texas.
Pumpkins in shades or orange, classic bales of hay and a lantern, pots of vibrant mums and elegant crotan petra, along with warm, comfortable rugs.
Such joy for this welcome season.
Bountiful harvest
Remember how simply you can bring autumn to your doorstep
With thanks to our reader, Debbie, for sharing this lovely photo
Our kind readers, John and Susan, shared their autumn porch with us
Nothing like the porch swing in autumn
Looking for more autumn decorating ideas?
We've got you covered.
Our Amazon Shop, Front Porch Ideas, is now open. We chose products for you from Amazon that we think you will enjoy.
Everything from seasonal decor (think autumn and Halloween) to our personal favorites.
Soon we'll add a Christmas list, too.
We invite you to take a look and see what's in our shop.
We'd love if it you followed us on Amazon. Thank you, dear porch friends.
Decorate your porch or garden with this easy-to-make picket fence and pumpkin project.
Learn how to make this picket fence and pumpkins
This cute fence could be decorated for just about any holiday or season.
We like the whimsy it adds to our porch.
See the instructions for both projects here.
Friendly ghosts for Halloween
Many people adore the Halloween holiday and love decorating.
Who knew it would be so popular a day for decorating as it is these days?
Halloween Memories by Mary
The two of us remember plastic formed masks with elastic that we wore as kids in Ohio.
My dad would cut the holes larger for the eyes so that we could see better.
Sometimes we'd dress up in thrifted clothing or what we could find from our closets.
Other times, we simply wore just our masks.
We carried pillow cases or paper bags for collecting candy and honestly, I can't remember people decorating their homes for Halloween.
Nothing like today, that's for sure.
No inflatables or Halloween trees or banners on the porches.
For nearly six years, our family was stationed in Alaska and oh my!
We remember those Halloween evenings in Alaska - so very, very cold.
We bundled our boys in many layers of clothing plus moon boots, with their costumes over top of everything.
Frozen toes and fingers were part of the holiday.
Perhaps you live in a colder region and can totally relate.
In Middle Tennessee, where we now live, the weather can be unseasonably warm for the trick or treaters.
Often times, our grandchildren are comfortable wearing just their costumes.
Mary and I have created many wonderful Halloween projects over the years that almost anyone can do.
With a few simple tools, you can try our ideas and have fun displaying these cute Halloween decorations on your porch.
Click here for instructions and free downloadable templates (as required) for the projects featured below!
Build this fun scarecrow for your porch
Build this happy scarecrow; the kids will love making it come to life.
We lived in an apartment for a year while we had our house built and our apartment had this extra nice porch!
While living there, we built this scarecrow and came in First Place in their porch decorating contest.
Try this black cat project
Have a ball making this black cat; so popular I've used it year after year and have added lights to the eyes and a fence upon which he sits.
We even provide a free template and instructions.
Would you enjoy making this owl and moon project?
Nothing says Halloween like an owl at midnight!
Quite easy to make.
Mary and I enjoyed talking with Interior Decorator Jennifer Davenport who shares her love for Halloween.
She offers some of her best, most creative ideas.
Admittedly we love our sponsors and Vintage Woodworks is one of them.
They are like family to us, having worked with them since 2011.
With us located in Nashville and them in Texas, we are miles apart, but we had the pleasure of visiting them and oh my!
Such genuine, heartwarming people. The same goes for their porch products. Genuine and heartwarming.
Here's an example from their website to show you how a simple porch can be transformed into something wonderful.
A simple home
Such personality now with the addition of a porch!
Love these decoratively cut shingles and repeating cornice brackets
Look closely at the half posts against the wall
and the detail on the gorgeous spandrels
Gregory and Holly, founders of Vintage Woodworks
We are very proud to know Gregory and Holly, as well as their daughter, Ellen and family.
Their family business began back in 1978, much before the internet came to be as we know it today.
What we love about their business, in addition to their handcrafted porch parts and love of keeping porch architecture true to the past,
is their down-to-earth customer support and their guarantee of happiness!
You can also see more of their handcrafted solid wood porch parts right here on our website.
Is your porch or deck in need or repair?
Or, would you just like to change the look of your porch or deck?
Mary and I may have discovered a solution you might consider: interlocking deck tiles.
Interlocking deck tiles can lay over your existing hard even surface (e.g., concrete, asphalt, gravel, hard dirt).
A suitable exterior filler or compound should be used to level the area if there are large cracks, bumps, or irregular areas.
You can also choose between porcelain pavers (planks, cobblestones, blocks and slabs) or wood (Ipe) deck tiles depending on your project.
Interlocking deck tiles by Archatrak Inc.
Interlocking deck tiles for a walkway by Archatrak
See more options for these innovative deck tiles
Will Winnie the Pooh Ever Find Freedom?
October is the perfect month in which to spend time on your porch and listen to an episode of Tracing The Path with Dan R. Morris.
Hear the story of how Disney built its empire using the public domain as a tool and learn how A.A. Milne, Mickey Mouse, Jimmy Stewart,
and the U.S. Congress were part of this story.
Be True to Yourself
Did you know that the things you enjoyed as a child - your interests, your hobbies, and your strengths - are a good indicator of what you enjoy as an adult?
Think back a few years.
What was exciting to you as a kid?
- Did you like collecting, selling, fixing or arranging things?
- Did you prefer reading novels, non-fiction or comic books?
- Did you like taking pictures or giving orders or singing your heart out?
- Did you gravitate to certain books or magazines, clubs or groups?
- Were you drawn to nature or art supplies or fishing gear?
- Did you prefer being indoors with your nose in a book or outdoors watching a bug on a leaf?
- Did numbers or letters make you crazy or fascinate you?
All of these things are clues to our inner selves and where our passions and strengths lie.
For me, Mary, it was learning how to make things.
From the time I was very small, I loved to make things out of paper and fabric.
I loved new boxes of crayons and sparkly glitter.
I loved learning and reading about how to make wonderful things for gifts.
And greeting cards! I even sold assorted boxes of handmade greeting cards to my neighbors.
What we love as ten-year-olders is a good clue as to what we will love throughout our lives.
It's something to think about.
Maybe you have time on your hands and are looking for a hobby.
Maybe you'd like to switch jobs or teach something to younger people.
Think of those things you loved as a kid and just maybe that will inspire you to pickup a paintbrush, your guitar or your hammer.
No matter what it is, if it makes your heart sing, why not do more of it?
Be true to your ten-year-old self.
It's not a fairy tale or pie in the sky stuff.
Celebrate your strengths and your joys and build your life around them.
Our world is a better place with more happy people in it.
Happy Pumpkins!
How do you steal a porch?
You take it step by step.
I recently saw this and wanted to share:
The company that makes yardsticks reported they won't be making them any longer!
We value and appreciate our relationships with our sponsors. May sound corny, but it's true!
Our sponsors are like family to us - very fine, good people and we are proud referring their services and products to you.
They each have amazing business ethics and at the top of their game in what they can provide to you.
Vintage Woodworks handcrafted products are beautifully planned
We love the details in their wonderfully crafted porch trim
The Porch Store creates these wonderful cathedral railing panels
In addition to many other gorgeous products for your porch
Peaceful, isn't this?
The two of us appreciate you being in our porch family.
You're always welcome to send us pictures of your porch at info@front-porch-ideas-and-more.com
While we cannot promise it, we often feature your pictures in our newsletter and website and social media.
We thank you for stopping by and hope this finds you well this month.
Wishing you warm, sunny skies, gentle breezes and flowers blooming on your porch steps.
We are grateful for you!
Will you get to enjoy time on your porch today?
We value our sponsors and the products and services they provide.
They are like family to us!
You're invited to be part of our Facebook community.
We share ideas with one another for decorating and using our porches.
We are blessed with over 17,000 followers and would love to count you among them.
Please enjoy browsing past issues of our newsletters right here.
Take a few moments of chill time.
Happy porch sitting from your friends,
Mary and Dave
Life is short. Enjoy your porch.
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Hi! We're Mary and Dave, lifelong DIYers, high school sweethearts, and we both love porches.
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Hi! We're Mary and Dave, lifelong DIYers, high school sweethearts, and we both love porches.
You've come to the right place for thousands of porch ideas.
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Mary and I enjoyed talking with Interior Decorator Jennifer Davenport who shares her love for Halloween.
She offers some of her best, most creative ideas.
We value and appreciate our relationships with our sponsors. May sound corny, but it's true!
Our sponsors are like family to us - very fine, good people and we are proud referring their services and products to you.
Please 
