Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice

I hope you're all savoring these last few weeks of Indian Summer (is that even a politically-correct term anymore?) I have caught myself on several occasions, lately, thinking "What a glorious day!"...and, "I just love this time of year!"...and, "I've got to file this amazingness in my memory bank before winter gets here!"

As Mother Nature paints the world with her colors of fall, I can't help but greedily go out and collect flowers and branches from the yard to heap into vases, baskets and trays in our home. This vignette is an example.

I clipped some branches from our curly willow tree, which I love to use all year long in arrangements for visual interest and movement. When placed with a vase full of Autumn Joy Sedum in front of an open frame on the dresser in our sunroom, it creates a simple, but beautiful, fall display.

And what would Fall be without all of those amazing pumpkin-flavored treats? I seem to have a slight "problem" with the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte (by problem, I mean borderline addiction.) But thanks to Kathy at Smile for No Reason, we can all make our own at home! Check out her recipe here.

After browsing Pinterest (my favorite guilty pleasure) I decided to bake this pumpkin chocolate chip bread this past weekend.

I tweaked mine with some flax meal to try to add a little nutritional boost. You can find the original recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction here.

Can you even believe it's the second week of October already? And now, I have a confession to make...I'm a Halloween Scrooge. It's true. Now that we are empty nesters, the days of costumes, jack-o-lanterns, and scary movie nights have come to a screaming halt (no pun intended, haha.) To be honest, Halloween never really was a favorite of mine. While I do miss making memories with my two favorite "goblins", I can do without the zombie apocalypse and the late-night toilet paper wielders and pumpkin smashers.

I never really overdid the Halloween decor, even when the kids were still around. And now that it's just my hubby, the dog, and I, it's not too festive around here. But I still like this piece that I had bought years ago, so it suffices as our entire display of holiday decor. Obviously, I prefer niceness to horror for a theme.

And finally, to prove to you that not all bloggers are related to Martha Stewart, I want to share a couple of photos of a gorgeous, full mum plant that I put in the ground last year with a plan that it would add some gorgeous fall color to the landscaping by our patio. I have included a blurry shot of Mario near it for proportion purposes (Mario doesn't like to stand still.) If you put your "readers" on and squint really hard, you can see it below his collar :)

OK, that pretty much sums up my skills at gardening ;)

Enjoy the season, everyone!


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