After The Autumnal Equinox It's Time To Decorate For Fall

 The Autumnal equinox occurred on Sunday, September 22 this year.  The Autumnal equinox occurs on either September 22, 23, or 24 of any given year.  The term equinox is derived from latin and means "equal night."  Therefore, the equinox is a 24 hour period of nearly equal day and night.  There is the Vernal equinox in the spring and the Autumnal equinox in the fall.  The Autumnal equinox is our gateway into the fall season.  Personally, fall is my favorite season and I am decorating a little at a time.  How about you?  Do you love all things fall?  Are you decorating your home for fall?

Above is the top of the cabinet in my kitchen/dining area.  Look how beautifully my new tobacco basket lends itself to the look of fall.  It is so warm and inviting it gives me the warm fuzzies.

I am going to miss our fireplace and decorating it for all the seasons and holidays, so this cabinet has  become my new decorating center.  The warmth of the oranges and browns with little hints of yellow makes me want to make a big cup of hot chocolate and sit and watch the candles glow.  To decorate the cabinet, I used a tea light candle holder that used to sit on the mantel at the little yellow cottage.  I filled it with pumpkin scented tea light and they smell delicious.   There is an antique box our daughter restored one summer while doing summer stock theater in Arrow Rock, Missouri filled with a small grapevine wreath, a star (of course) a small pumpkin and a few fall leaves.  I made the burlap candy corn banner for something fun - do you love candy corn as much as I do?  That's one of the best things about fall as far as I am concerned.  I just cut out some small burlap triangles and painted them with white, orange, and yellow acrylic paint and hot glued them to some twine.

The column candle is sitting in a glass vase surrounded by acorns our grandsons picked up while walking back and forth to the pool in the first part of September while it was still warm enough to swim.  We would take a gallon sized zip lock bag and they would pick up acorns, pine cones, and gum balls.  They came home with lots of treasures and it was lots of fun.  Grandma appreciates their treasure hunting!

 I had a piece of the grapevine ribbon I used to make the hanging lamp next to the cabinet, so I just sort of wound it around everything for some texture and interest.  Because it is wired, it is easy to "shape."

 There are some copper votive holders that I already had, and artificial fall leaves that I have had for eons and reused a bazillion times.  The little gourds and pumpkins came from the Farmer's market.

The decorations are simple and warm and are all things I had on hand including the candles.   The only things purchased were the pumpkins and gourds.  The Farmer's Market was selling the little gourds and pumpkins 3 for $1.00.  My kind of price.  How is that for some cheap decorating?

On the kitchen island, I used a metal pumpkin candle holder that I already had and placed it on a piece of burlap ribbon with a red stripe down the center.  The candle holders were a wedding gift 44 years ago and have been used over and over and over throughout our married life.  Using candles with fall colors and more pumpkins and gourds, I was done.  Easy peasy.

I have a new marble topped bistro table for the dining area that I am eager to show you and it will be decorated too, but first I need to find some chairs to go with it.  That table along with my two new bargain wicker chairs make the dining room comfortable and cozy.  Oh, and I am on the hunt for just the right rug.  I'll know it when I see it.  As soon as I get it all together, I will share it with you.

In the meantime, we are enjoying all things fall in the kitchen.  I think I will bake some apple bread.  That would be perfect for these early days of fall don't you think?  And then maybe some pumpkin bread, and then some..........who knows.  Cool weather makes me want to bake, to nest, to get ready for the coming cold weather.  Does fall makes you feel that way?

When decorating for fall, there are many natural elements you can find literally on the ground to use and they won't cost you anything.  There are many "weeds" that are perfect for table top arrangements.  Look around your home and see what you may already have on hand that is usable with these natural elements.  You may not have to spend much of anything to make your home warm and inviting.  Nothing like some candles burning on these earlier evenings, with the smell of something wonderful baking to make the house smell heavenly.  Perhaps some mulled cider or hot chocolate.  Yes, I am ready for this season.  Are you/

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

“I guess I'm just feeling Septemberish," sighed Chester. "It's getting towards autumn now. And it's so pretty up in Connecticut. All the trees change color. The days get very clear―with a little smoke on the horizon from burning leaves. Pumpkins begin to come out.” 
― George Selden, The Cricket in Times Square

Thanksgiving Mantel

Happy Hump Day one and all.  It is countdown to Thanksgiving and it is one week from tomorrow.  One week, 7 days.  Are you ready?  I am working on all preparations since my mom and sister will be here this weekend from our home town and we will celebrate Thanksgiving with them on Saturday.  Next week will be just Nashville family.

This is such a tricky time of year because not only do we have Thanksgiving to celebrate, but I am also mid Christmas preparation - making gifts and decorations which sort of takes over the entire house.  There is glitter everywhere, glue, paper, ornaments, and the kitchen table is piled high with every manner of crafting equipment.  I do have a craft desk in the back bedroom, but there is not enough room to do everything in there, so the kitchen table makes up the additional space I need.  Do you have that issue?  Not enough space?  It really gets perplexing at times.  I hate cleaning off the table every night when it's dinner time, but that's just the way it has to be.  Everyone finishes dinner with glitter on their face.  The guys love me for that.

For our mantel this year, I reused the banner I made last fall and the beautiful glittered trees that I bought.  To make it look different, I added 6" burlap ribbon, white lights, lots of small white pumpkins and colorful gourds and candles.  It looks so inviting and warm and it makes me happy.  Needless to say, the day after Thanksgiving, it all comes down and Christmas replaces these decorations.  Although, I am considering keeping some of it for Christmas and changing out the gourds and the banner.  I especially love the burlap ribbon.  What to do, what to do?  Every day at this point, I change my mind.  Nothing is written in stone until the fat lady sings as they say.

The picture above was taken at night so you can see how lovely the lights look.  Here is the same picture in daytime.

Our living room tends to be dark this time of year because of the covered porch that shades the light coming in the windows.  So, I have been leaving the lights on all day and through the evening.  I really like the ambiance it gives the room.

The center of the mantel is anchored by this lovely mercury glass candle holder that is round and beautiful and reflects the light in an awesome way.  You can see the burlap ribbon snaking across the mantel and it helps diffuse the glow of the lights.  The beautiful little copper candle holders came from TJ Maxx and they hold tea lights.  Don't  you love the little gourds which their crazy stems?  They add a lot of texture and color to the vignette.

Here, you can see the lights in the bottom of the "tree" and more of the gourds and candle holders on the mantle.  I made the candles by stamping tissue paper with a stamp that looks like French handwriting.  Then, you wrap the tissue paper around the candle and heat it with a blow dryer (or heat gun if you have one) until the tissue paper adheres to the candle.  They are really beautiful.

There are also several more mercury glass candle holders on the mantel.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE mercury glass and TJ Maxx has lots to choose from for a very reasonable price this time of year.   The clear candle holder also came from TJ Maxx and I paid $2.00 for it in the clearance section.  ALWAYS look in the clearance sections for bargains!  The tall clear candle holder in the picture above also came from the clearance section for $3.50.  My kind of price.

I had already taken all the pictures above when I added my Harvest angel candle that I made.  It looks so lovely on the mantel right at the left tip of my big white star.   Have I told you how much I love stars?  Yes, I know - about a thousand times, but I do love them so.

Here is the mantel from further back which shows some of the other decorations at this end of the living room.  It sort of makes me sad when things look just the way I want, and know that next week, it will all change.  But then again, there is the challenge of rearranging and making everything look different.  It is my decorating A.D.D. I guess.  I like changes.  Really, I do.  Do you like making changes or do you like things to stay the same?

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

I approach decorating like life, it's all about changes and accepting them when they happen.  Nothing ever stays the same.

Thanksgiving Decorating Ideas

Next week is Thanksgiving already (where has this year gone?) -  the time when we gather with friends and family and give thanks for all the bounty and blessings in our lives.  Even if it's been a "hard" year, there is much to be thankful for.  When we eat ourselves into a food coma, maybe watch some football or our favorite movies, nap, enjoy time with those we love and enjoy at least one day off.  (At least I hope you get a day off)  Because Thanksgiving is celebrated in the fall, we use fall colors of oranges, golds, scarlets, dark greens and browns for decorations.  This is a beautiful time of year with a myriad of colors to use.  We all know the iconic symbols of Thanksgiving - turkeys, pilgrims, native people, pumpkins, gourds and fall leaves.  The choices are endless.

After Halloween, I changed a lot of my home accents from bright oranges to more fall-like colors of golds, bronzes, lattes, and browns.  How did I achieve this?  I spray painted all my gourds and pumpkins that I used at Halloween so that I didn't have to go buy new or throw out all the perfectly good ones I already had.  It is a very simple process.  I used Krylon spray paint in metallic gold, sparkly bronze and metallic latte.  I purchased my paint at Wal-Mart, but it is also available at Lowes and Home Depot.   All you have to do is spray whatever you want and let it dry.  Simple!

I took everything out in the yard to spray it.  It looked so pretty sitting in the dried grass and leaves that I snapped this picture.

Some of these gourds and pumpkins are real and some are artificial.  When they are sprayed, you cannot tell the difference and they are so lovely.  It just gives a new vibe to all of them and makes things look different without expending a lot of effort or money.

After Halloween, I added some artificial glittered "trees" to the mantel, removed some of the more Halloween type decorations, did some rearranging and added some of the spray painted pumpkins, gourds, pinecones and artificial acorns.  The more muted colors will carry us through Thanksgiving when it will then be time to start decorating for Christmas.  Whew.  It's never ending.  This is how our mantel looks now.

I also sprayed the big pumpkins on the front porch and added some lovely fall mums and a fall welcome flag.  Yes, I decorate inside and out - I  have just always done that.   Here is how the porch looks.

I also put my painted candy corn candle holders away until next year and made a new centerpiece for the dining table.  It is really easy to do and it looks like this.

All I did, was take a wide cylinder vase that I already had and placed in on a small serving plate.  I placed a candle in the middle of the vase and filled around the candle with small pinecones and acorns.  (Place the candle in the vase before you fill with anything to keep the candle in the middle and so that it will sit flat in the vase.)  Next, I added some artificial fall leaves that I had.  I laid more leaves on the plate around the vase and then placed small pinecones over the leaves.  I had some big artificial fall leaves that I placed on the table and then sat the plate with the candle holder on them.  ( Dollar Tree still has artificial leaves for sale and a whole package is only a dollar.)

If you are hosting Thanksgiving dinner next week, you can use some of these easy ideas to decorate your home.  Look around outside for branches, pinecones, acorns and leaves that you can use - even gum balls.  All it takes are a few candles,  some vases, a little imagination, and a few minutes to create a lovely table scape and decorations to welcome your guests.  If you are going to be dining at someone else's home, make a simple centerpiece to give to your host or hostess.  They will be so appreciative that you thought of them!  

We have family coming from out of town next week and I am busy making new pillow covers for all our toss pillows.  I will share some ideas for new pillow covers with you soon because next, it's the BIG holiday season when I want everything to look really spiffy.  I am also going to make "gratitude flags" by cutting triangles of paper in fall colors,  I will ask everyone to write something they are grateful for on a flag.  I will have a strand of sisal rope tied where we will hang these flags with mini clip clothes pins so that we can all read our "gratitudes".  Then, we will be reminded of more reasons why we celebrate this special day of Thanksgiving!  So many projects, so little time!  Time to get busy.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice.  ~Meister Eckhart
 

Bountiful Fall Harvest

The Nashville Farmer's Market is where we do the bulk of our food shopping these days.  Why?  First, we support local growers and appreciate their effort and the quality of food they provide us.  We want to know that will continue, so we give them our money in exchange for their excellent products.  Secondly, it is always an adventure.  There is always something new to see or explore.  Third, it means there will be some recipe forthcoming to make our dining experience worth the effort.

I thought I would show you some of the fall products available at the market right now and then share a recipe I made using butternut squash.  Did I take a picture of the butternut squash or the stand where I purchased it?  No, I forgot.  Silly me.  But, I did capture the beauty of the fall mums and pumpkins.  You can even see the state capital in the corner of one picture.  The Farmer's Market is not far from downtown.  It is quite large, has a wonderful variety of fresh produce and locally grown meat - beef, pork, chicken and lamb which is grass fed and hormone and antibiotic free.   There is  also a food court offering a wide variety of international cuisines.  The Jamaican restaurant, Jamaican Way, has been featured on Diner's, Drive Ins and Dives on the Food Network.  It's worth a trip just to enjoy some of the food.  There is also a large Indian market that offers a huge variety of spices and products.  And, there is a really nice nursery offering all sort of flowers, shrubs and lawn decorations.  I can spend a lot of time checking out all the beautiful flowers and I usually come home with something lovely.

Here are just some of the fall pumpkins available.  It is so hard to pick out just a couple to bring home when they are all so beautiful and interesting.

I love the way the sunlight plays on the pumpkins in these pictures.

If you look to the center of this picture, you can see the Tennessee state capital sitting grandly upon the hill.  It is quite a distance from the Farmer's Market but looks lovely on this sunny day.

This poor pumpkin looks like he needs to see the dermatologist.  There are so many interesting varieties of pumpkins and gourds - some quite beautiful, others quite prehistoric looking.  Isn't nature amazing?

Don't you love the leaning towers of pumpkins?  How cute would these be decorated on your front porch?  Or, you could just stack them like this.  They are so interesting and varied.  I could spend hours  looking at all the varieties.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures from the Farmer's Market.  Just thought I'd share them with you.  We had a lovely afternoon there with our "besties" while they were visiting.

My BFF Tonya loves butternut squash, so I purchased some while we were at the market.  I will tell you it is NOT easy to peel, but hopefully this will help you.  Butternut squash has a very hard "shell" like pumpkin.  It can be split and baked, but it had to be peeled for this recipe.  Hopefully, this will make it a little easier for you.  Using a chef's knife, I cut off the top and bottom ends.  The squash has a thick neck and a round bottom with a definite separation between the two.  Cut between the neck and the round bottom.  Next, peel the neck with a sharp knife or heavy-duty vegetable peeler, then peel the round bottom.  Cut the bottom in half and remove the seeds and pith.  Cut the neck in half.  Lay the cut sides down and cut long strips and then cut crosswise so that you have about 1 to 2 inches squares.  Do the same the with round bottom pieces.

Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray.  I used two squash for this recipe to serve 8 to 10 people.  Lightly salt and pepper the squash and place it in the casserole dish.  Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, then drizzle with honey.  I used about two handsful of brown sugar and crumbled it over the squash.  Next, I took about 3 big sprigs of fresh rosemary and stripped the needles from the stems and minced it.  Sprinkle the rosemary over the squash.  You can used dried rosemary if you do not have fresh. ( Let me say, I am going to miss my herb garden terribly this winter.  I think I may have to put some of my favorite herbs in pots and keep them in a sunny window in our sun room.)   Place the casserole in the oven at 350 and cook until the squash is soft.  It is really delicious and makes a wonderful fall side dish.  Next time, I am going to try this same recipe with sweet potatoes because I think it would be just as good and sweet potatoes are a whole lot easier to peel!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and that you will try this really delicious recipe now that the days are cooler and there are definite signs that winter is on the way.  I will miss all the summer and fall beauty of the farmer's market and all the fabulous summer produce, but we will continue to shop there all through the winter trying whatever local things are available.  Am I looking forward to cold weather?  Not at all!  But, it's part of living isn't it?  Now, it's time to start sewing on all those Halloween costumes I have to make.  Catch you later.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

“Living up to an image that you have of yourself or that other people have of you is inauthentic living.”
― Eckhart Tolle,

Think Fall Y'All

Do you hang some sort of seasonal decoration on your house or front door?  Perhaps a wreath or basket filled with seasonal flowers?  Well, I do and have done so for most of our 42 years of marriage.  To me, it is welcoming and adds texture and dimension wherever you place it and is also a way to celebrate the changing of the seasons.  I am a trained floral designer and have worked with flowers for 30 years.  There is a method to making a wreath and I will show you how.

Last week I made a trip to some of the craft stores and of course, to the local Dollar Tree.  September had begun and we all know that the fall season is upon us.  The aisles were filled with lots of beautiful fall leaves and flowers and it put me in the mood to make a new wreath for the front of the little yellow cottage.  It was time to take down my summer wreath and jump into the wonder of the fall season I love so much.  This is the wreath I took down.

For my summer wreath I had used reds, yellows and a beautiful tiffany blue ribbon.  It had given a cheery welcome to all guests during the summer season, but now it is time to put it away.

I was just in the nick of time with my purchases.  This weekend, our temperatures went from the high 90's nearing 100 down to the high 60's and rain.  Because of the few days of cool weather, there are already hints of red in the dogwood leaves and yellow hints in the maples.  Yes indeed, fall is on the way! Hot dog!!  If you want to make a wreath for your home, here are some suggestions for how to do it.

When purchasing decorations, make sure you do not skimp.  You don't want to be in the middle of your project and discover you do not have enough decorations to fill the wreath and have to go purchase more.   If you have decorations left over, you can always find uses for them to add to the fall flavor in your home.  I had enough left  that I will be able to make a centerpiece for my table and I still only spent $25.00.  Shopping at Hobby Lobby or Michaels when flowers are 1/2 off saves you lots of money and of course everything at Dollar Tree is - your guessed it - only $1 per item or package.  I purchased the mini pumpkins and small gourds at Dollar Tree.  The small gourds were in a package of 6 or 7 for $1.00 and the mini pumpkin were $1.00 each.  That is a big savings over prices you will pay at other stores.

The 18" grapevine wreath was $2.99 at Hobby Lobby.  I purchased one large bush of fall leaves and "weedy" things at Hobby Lobby also for 1/2 price and it was $6.00 and provided me with lots of filler for my wreath.  There were 15 stems total on the bush.

I purchased 3 large yellow sun flowers, a grapevine type garland with fall leaves, a small bush with 5 stems of thistle and two bolts of ribbon at Dollar Tree for $1 per item.   The hank of raffia came from Hobby Lobby for $2.99.  I love raffia because it adds texture and interest and there are so many uses for it!

  These are the things I purchased to make this wreath.  I did not use the packages of individual leaves on this project.  They came from Dollar Tree and I will have another project for them which I will share with you when it is completed.

The tools you need are a pair of wire cutters, a hot glue gun and glue sticks, some chenille stems for making the bow and a piece of floral wire to make the wreath hanger.  Remember, they call hot glue "hot" for a reason.  Be careful with your fingers when placing flower stems covered in hot glue in the wreath.

The first think you need to decide is where you want the flowers on your wreath.  Top, bottom, left or right side?  It's up to you.  You can make the design any way you want. I always visualize how I want the finished project to look and go from there.  Because we are taught to read left to right, we tend to look at things as more balanced when they are made that way.  Therefore, I made my wreath with the flowers on the left hand side.  You choose however you want to make yours, just use the same general method.

First, I placed the grapevine garland with the fall leaves in a reverse "S" shape on the wreath and hot glued both ends to the wreath.   Be sure and use enough glue when making an outdoor wreath so that weather and wind will not make everything fall off.

Next, I pulled the green leaves from the sunflower stems and glued them at different angles along the left side of the wreath.  This makes your "base" working area.  Place your flowers where you think you may want them before gluing them down.  I cut the sunflower stems about 6 inches long.  You want them to stand out from the wreath.  You can move them around until you get the look you want.  I glued two of the sunflowers and mini pumpkins angled up and one sunflower and mini pumpkin angled down leaving a space for filler flowers and another space where my bow would go.

Next, I took the bush with all the fall leaves and filler "weedy" things and cut it apart leaving the stems as long as they could be.  I placed the stems in different places on the wreath, moving them around until I got the look I wanted and cut each stem to the length needed.  Then, I placed lots of hot glue on the end of each stem and up about 3 inches and placed it back in the wreath.

The final step was making the bow and adding long strands of raffia to the back of the bow when I twist tied it with the chenille stem.   Twisting another chenille stem to the one tying the bow and wrapping it around the wreath snuggly keeps it in place along with some hot glue.   I added some more raffia throughout the rest of the arrangement so that there was lots of texture to represent all the dried weeds, pods and flowers of fall.  I made a hanger on the back of the wreath by putting a piece of floral wire through some of the grapevine and twisted it making a loop strong enough to hang the wreath.

Your beautiful fall wreath like the one in the first picture is now ready to hang wherever you like - on the wall, over the mantel, on the door or front of your house.  And you can say "I did that!"  This wreath would cost $50 - $75 depending on where you bought it.  You made it and saved a lot of money in the process!  I hope you try this project and enjoy it through the fall season.  This same technique can be used to make a wreath for any season or holiday!  Let me know if you try this and how it turns out.  Happy Fall Y'All.

Everyday Donna

Things to remember:

Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn.  ~Elizabeth Lawrence