'Tis that time of year!

** I'm sorry the quality of my pics are so horrible for this post. I had really bad shakes today and it reflected in the majority of the pics I took :( **

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! It's officially Fall! I mean, to ME, it's Fall because it's September. Eric on the other hand was arguing with me that it's not officially Fall for another eighteen days or some nonsense like that. Whatever! 'Tis the beginning of my favorite season :) With that being said, it was time to drag out the decorations!

As you can see, Eric was absolutely thrilled!

Normally, I like to really doll up the house with leafs, hedgehogs, acorns, pumpkins and etc. everywhere..but, since I'm leaving on Wednesday for two months, I only did a little bit. Eric was teasing because I won't even be there to enjoy it, but in my heart, my house needs to be fall-ish weither or not I'm there. That's just how I roll. Besides, whenever Eric looks at the leafs or quirky squirrel, it'll remind him of me....right? :)

The foyer

One of my trogs filled with putka pods, acorns, hazelnuts and pine cones.

My Party Lite hurricanes (I guess they don't sell them anymore cause I was going to link them from Party Lites site, but couldn't find them) also have putka pods, acorns and pumpkin scented potpourri in 'em. I managed to snag the little birds (and three other ones) last year when they went on clearance due to Christmas decorations coming out. Not bad for twenty five cents, right?

I made my way over to the living room and set up the entertainment center. As you can see, Cole is modeling the front of the room with the leaf garland, pumpkins and a squirrel. My "Home is where the Air Force sends us" sign looks crooked in this pic and made my inner OCD come out. Also, ignore the elliptical, medicine ball and kettle bell...the living room is a part time gym. Didn't ya know? Anyway, here ya go:

Here's the squirrel..again, sorry it's all blurry :(

I wasn't "allowed" to do much with the kitchen...mainly because I think Eric knows he'd kinda trash my leafs if they were on the kitchen table. So, all I put on there was a table runner..it goes all the way across the table, but looks like it stops under the trog.

I switched out my Cup Cake Scentsy warmer for my Montpelier warmer (officially discontinued)..so there's a lil piece of Fall in the kitchen, aside from the table runner:

Annnnd I really had no idea where to stick my "harvest" bouquet, so I just left it with my Amish cutting board and chili pepper container. A complete mismash of color and patterns, but whatever, lol.

I'll be back in the States in...ohhhh....four-ish days, so I can enjoy 'em till then. Best part is that I'll have access to Michaels, Joannes, Hobby Market...oh my god, craft store overload! EEEEE!!

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Kitchen Theater

Just bare with me... I was really bored, despite the fact that I'm really tired from baking all day...and it's barely 11am. I've been up since 5am between cooking bread, cakes, and even cookies. 

I was staring at my bag of dried cranberries and was trying to figure out what to make with 'em. I mean, sure, I can make trail mix.. not really feeling it. I originally bought them to make pistachio cranberry sugar cookies, but Eric pretty much nixed that whole notion since he hates pistachios. So, I started trolling through  Allrecipes.com and found a recipe to make Pumpkin / Cranberry Bread. Might as well try it since it sounds like a pretty "Fall-y" recipe! 

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (I ended up using Pecans)

Directions 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 9x5 inch loaf pans (or 4 mini loaf pans).

 In a mixing bowl, combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder and salt.

Combine eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oil in small mixing bowl, beat until just blended. 

Stir the wet mixture into the dry with a wooden spoon until batter is just moistened. 

Fold the cranberries and walnuts into the batter. 

 

Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf pans.

 Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes. (If using mini loaf pans, begin checking bread after 25 minutes.) 

 FIN!

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Fall Baby

 

I love Fall. Absolutely love it. I dunno if it's because I'm a Fall baby and I feel that it's possibly the best season ever.. or it's because I know my birthday is right around the corner. I dunno. I'm a fan of the leaves changing color, the cold weather, the rain / snow.. I love it all. Fireside "dates" with my husband and enjoying cups of hot chocolate while cuddled on the couch. 

Since it's officially Fall now... it was about time I actually put my decorations up. Eric wasn't too thrilled about it considering he's a scrooge about holidays and such. OH WELL!! Bwahahahaaa

I went on eBay about two weeks ago on the search for Putka Pods. They're like lil mini pumpkins that you can use for decorations. Normally, I stalk for things on Etsy since I like helping out creative peeps, but in all honesty...some of 'em were asking WAY too much for a small bag of these lil' guys. I ended up paying $10 for a 2lb bag....I know, it sounds like alot, but it was just enough to fill two hurricanes and my trog :) It had Putka Pods, Rose Hips and Cinnamon Sticks (yes, it smells very fall-y).

Once my lil pods arrived, I could "officially" put up the rest of my decorations. I say that because..come on.. you know how it is. You have something particular in mind you wanna do and I wanted to make sure I filled up my trog and hurricanes to go with the rest of the decor. 

Eric referred to this as my "Shrine", lol

My little "Welcome" sign in the foyer

Once my stuff from Scentsy shows up, I'll be unstoppable. I'm talking in terms of : Autumn Sunset, Pumpkin Roll, Cinnamon...oh yes.. my house will smell very delicious. And..oh so Fall-y.

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