Simple fall porch decorating

I can't believe how BRIGHT the fall colors have been here in Michigan this week! Especially driving down the road wearing my yellow-tinted sunglasses. :) But even when I lifted up my glasses to see the trees with just my own eyes, I was in awe of how beautiful everything looks this year!

I wanted to post the little update I made to my front porch. This is one of the very few times of the year that I actually decorate out there. And this year I did it completely with stuff I had on hand, plus a few pumpkins I bought.

I brought all of my random fall-colored stuff up from the basement:

Including this cute little guy that I got from my secret pal at church a few years ago:

Then I took a basket and started throwing things together... and after about 10 minutes of arranging and rearranging, this is what I came up with:

Then I took the leftover flowers and grasses and put them in another basket along with some little pumpkins:

Abby helped me played with sidewalk chalk while I put the decorations outside.

I felt like something was missing with the basket on the door, so I looked one more time through my fall stuff and came across a yellow ribbon:

It's nothing much, but it makes me smile when I come home. :)  I hope to carve a couple pumpkins for Abby and Ellie a week or two before Halloween. Now it's time to start planning their costumes...

Do you have beautiful fall colors where you live?

Goodbye summer... (and good riddance! ;-)

Today is the last day of "summer". As I look out my window, it's cloudy and 62 degrees. Rain is on it's way for tonight and the weekend.

Hurray!!!

I don't like summer. I never have.

I love:

• blankets (especially heavy ones or super soft ones)
• hooded sweatshirts
• crisp air
• fresh cider
• soup/chili in the slow cooker
• college football (go MSU!)
• harvest/cinnamon/spice smelling candles
• rich fall colors 

I took the girls to a local farm stand today and got a few pumpkins. Front porch decorating coming soon!

Do you think I'm crazy?
Am I the only one who hates summer and loves fall?

Soup's perfect companion: part two

Since so many of you told me you love homemade bread on my post the other day, I thought I would share another of my favorite "soup's companion" recipes with you!

I had never thought of any other type of bread going as well with soup as just plain ol' normal white/wheat bread. But then a couple of years ago at our small group (Bible study group we meet with once a month), we were planning the following meeting's meal and decided to have chili. Someone mentioned bread -- which I jumped on :) -- and someone else mentioned cornbread. Cornbread? With soup/chili? I have a great cornmeal muffin recipe that I got years ago from my mom, so sure! I'll make cornmeal muffins too.

I grew up with cornmeal muffins as a treat. We would take them fresh from the oven, tear them up into smaller pieces in a bowl, and drizzle them with maple syrup. That's my memory of cornmeal muffins!

But now I've come to really enjoy them with soup -- usually chilis or spicy tortilla-type soups -- smothered in butter. Or plain. But then I can also have one with maple syrup for dessert. :)


Without further ado, here is my mom's recipe! The best part? These should all be basic ingredients you have on hand already. Except maybe the cornmeal -- but I keep a small container on hand specially for these muffins and for homemade pizza...

Cornmeal Muffins 1 cup cornmeal 1 cup flour 1/4 cup sugar 1 tsp salt 4 tsp baking powder 1 cup milk 2 eggs 4 Tb melted butterStir dry ingredients together. Add the rest. Stir quickly until just moistened. Bake in greased muffin tin (or use paper cups) at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until tops have turned golden brown. Makes 12 muffins.

And I love how this recipe only makes a dozen muffins. Just enough to fill one tin. Of course, it can easily be doubled or more to feed a larger crowd.

Do you like cornmeal muffins/cornbread/johnnycake/whatever you might call it?? :)

Linking up to:

Soup's perfect companion

Now that it's November, I'm feeling the transition from fall to winter starting already. It's time to move past the pumpkins and harvest-y things toward frost and (dare I say it?!) snow, and pine wreaths and white lights...

I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. I love Christmas. I should do a post about that sometime, similar to this one.  But not today. Maybe a
week or twoday or two from now. :)

Today it's about transition. That sort-of-chilly, no-snow-on-the-ground-but-frosty, no-more-leaves-on-the-trees time of year. Bring on the soups!!

I love making soup in the crockpot. Unfortunately you will probably never see a soup recipe posted here. That's because I tend to start with a written recipe, then as the day goes on and I continue to taste the soup, I end up adding things. A dash of this, a sprinkle of that. Until finally when dinnertime rolls around I've created the perfect soup recipe that I will never be able to duplicate.

Now bread, on the other hand... I love bread. And I think every soup should be served with some type of bread. One of the things I put on our wedding registry 7 years ago -- one of those if-I-get-it-great-but-if-I-don't-I'm-not-buying-it-for-myself -- was a $100 breadmaker. Guess what? I got it. And IT'S PROBABLY MY MOST FAVORITE WEDDING GIFT.



My favorite breadmaker recipe (from the book that came with the maker) is simply called "White Wheat Bread". It goes great with any dish, as it's not seasoned or flavored in any way, and turns out perfect each time. Except when the yeast is getting old, but that's more my fault...

White Wheat Bread For 2 lb. loaf: 1 1/4 cups + 2 Tb warm water 2 Tb oil 1/4 cup sugar 2 tsp salt 2 Tb dry milk 3 1/2 cups bread (white) flour 1/2 cup wheat flour 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast Add ingredients in order to breadmaker. Select Basic White Bread Cycle.

If I tried a little harder, I could probably get away with never buying bread from the grocery store. But I just have not gotten into the habit of making this bread consistently, and I always manage to find store-bought bread on sale. So this bread has become more of a special treat.

I have honestly never made bread truly from scratch. I've tried some roll recipes, but have never been able to get the rising stage correct. I love how the breadmaker does it all for me! It's definitely an appliance worth investing in, or asking for for Christmas... :)

Do you like to bake homemade bread?

Get more use from your candles

Rain rain go away... It rained ALL day yesterday and it's going to be raining ALL day today. They're talking 2-3 inches by the time this system moves out. You know what I love on rainy days? Blankets. And hot cocoa. And candles.

I love candles. My hubby doesn't. So I never burn them while he's home, but while he's away at work...

I do enjoy dollar store and other cheap candles. But nothing beats a Yankee Candle. I've received a number of them as gifts over the last few years, mostly the small ones but occasionally the bigger ones too. I love so many options of scents, and I rotate them throughout the year. But eventually this happens:

• 


• 

It burns out. Sad day. :(

But look how much wax is still in there!! I love this candle! I'm not ready to be done with it!!

Enter the greatest-invention-ever in candle-burning: the wax warmer! There are so many different styles available. I was given one as a gift a number of years ago, along with 3 "tarts" of different scents. I've since purchased a few, found a few at a yard sale, and made my own.



I took a spoon and scraped all that Harvest Candle goodness out of the jar, lit a tea-light candle, and let the wax warmer do it's work. A few minutes later, my house was once again smelling like that beautiful candle...



So now I can enjoy another couple of weeks days (you know I'll go through it quickly... :) of this smell!

One secret about the tart warmer, that I didn't discover until I'd had it at least a year: If you want to switch tarts, all you have to do is stick the whole warmer in the freezer (after the wax has cooled and solidified of course!) for about 10 minutes, and the tart will pop right out!



Store the label and the tart in a plastic bag. So easy!

What is your favorite candle scent?



**I am NOT writing this post for Yankee Candle. I have NOT received any compensation, or free products, from writing this post. I just love this stuff. :) **

Mmmm applesauce...

'Tis that time of year! Fall is in full swing here in Michigan, and after today where temps might touch 80* one more time, it's back to sweatshirt weather. Yay!

Yesterday I had a real desire (I'm NOT calling it a craving because it might start some pregnancy rumors...) for some homemade applesauce. I actually love it frozen -- I grew up getting a container from the freezer, microwaving it for a few seconds, then scraping the chunk of apple-ice with a spoon. Yum!

I saw a few blogs and a few people on Facebook mention crockpot applesauce, and I really wanted to give it a try. Problem? No apples in this house. So I put out a plea on Facebook:


But had no takers. So in the evening after Rocky got home I had to go grocery shopping anyway, and I picked up two bags of apples (3 lb bags for $2 each). This morning after breakfast I took my apple slicer and a knife and got to work. I only did one of the bags, I wanted to see how long it would take and how much it would make and how it would taste. Put the slow cooker on low, added a 1/4 cup of water, a dash of cinnamon, and a little brown sugar, and 3 hours later my house smelled AMAZING. I mashed it up, took some out to cool for Abby's lunch, and took a bite myself. Wowsers! I don't think I'm ever going to eat store-bought again... As soon as it's cooled to room temperature I'm putting most of it in freezer containers!

Then I gave some to Abby... and she promptly spit it out. It wasn't too hot, I'd just tried it. Maybe too tart? Too chunky? I don't know. What a punk. Way to hurt my feelings.

Do you make your own applesauce?

 

 

Front porch updates

A couple weeks ago I posted about the current state of my entryway. While I haven't done anything inside, yesterday I took the time to spruce things up outside!

I had a gift certificate for $15 to a local farm stand that's known for their pumpkins (in a couple weeks I hope to take Abby there and get some pictures!). I used about half of my certificate on produce:


 (I was sad. I took the last 3 zucchini. I was hoping to make more bread and muffins and fried zucchini this week... oh well!)

And I used half the certificate on pumpkins! Here's the finished project:


(I figure a week or two before Halloween I'll get two more pumpkins to carve and put on the steps. And the pink gladiolas will be gone soon, I just couldn't cut them down quite yet...)

I brought up one of our old folding chairs from the basement (which are currently also our dining table chairs...) and found the perfect sized basket in my basket stash. I'd gotten the flowers for $1 a bunch at the dollar store a few weeks ago. And those cute little pumpkins were 50 cents each at the pumpkin patch!


Wanna know a secret? Those pumpkins aren't sitting flat on the bottom of the basket. You wouldn't be able to see them if they were. I went searching through the garage and found...


A small cardboard box! Perfect! Then I used this same trick under the chair in the bushel basket:


Since it was just a little too deep for my (previously hanging) plant.


I can get a few more weeks out of that thing. I'll never buy that kind of plant again though. It died way too easily throughout the summer. I kept reviving it. For now it'll add a little more orange to the mix.

So there you have it! Hopefully it makes the neighbors smile when they drive by. It makes me smile. :)
I love fall...

BEFORE

AFTER

Now I have a new crazy idea running through my head... I want to paint my door... hmmm we'll see if that idea flies with the hubby. ;)

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Edited to add 10/6:
The plant in the basket finally bit the dust. Or at least it got bad enough that I didn't feel like trying to save it one more time. Then I realized I still had a bunch of beautiful orange marigolds out in the backyard, surrounding the vegetable garden (which is now done for the season). Brilliant! Why didn't I think of this in the first place?!

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i love fall

So today's Roomspiration link-up is bathrooms. Yeah, I'm not doing that one. We still have the cheap shower curtain we frantically bought the day we moved in, since our previous house had a glass door and no need for a shower curtain... It's that bad boring.

BUT look what came in the mail yesterday!!



Oh, be still my beating heart!!

I. LOVE. FALL.

I love the rich colors, the crispness in the air, the cozy sweatshirts and flannels, the football games, the fresh apple cider, ALL OF IT!!!

(Yes, I know some of you will just tell me it means winter is almost here. Let me bask in the beauty of fall for a few weeks, ok? :)

Here in Michigan the high temps have been in the 50s and 60s the last few days. I'm lovin' it. I made chili in the crockpot for dinner and homemade bread yesterday. I picked the last of my garden's decent-looking sunflowers.




Do you have any fall-type plans for this weekend? Enjoy!