Fall Things On A Friday

Sharing a few favorites and some miscellaneous bits and bobs on this second Friday in October. 77 days til Christmas for anyone who might be counting. 

For the record I'm not counting. I feel like we're just now finally getting in to fall and fall is my favorite. 

Linking with Erika and Andrea today for their Friday Favorites link party. Here we go-

The air this time of year is so nice. We have so much heavy humidity all summer long, but late afternoons in autumn are cool and clear and perfect. Hubs and I like to sit on the lower patio with a glass of wine and music playing and this bottle in particular is so pretty. It's Spanish and the bottle itself is a soft shade of blue.

Matches the lake and sky both.

I don't do a lot of seasonal decorating other than Christmas, but I love the colors of fall and they fit with the style of my home and my personal taste really well so I do add a few things come Autumn.  

Outdoor cushions for the upper deck furniture-

A basket of assorted acorns, pumpkins, and pinecones made with different fabrics and lots of texture sits on the kitchen island-

Fall chargers and napkin rings in the dining room-

I like my velvet pumpkin sitting on a velvet runner  in the middle of the table. My dining room window treatments are still my favorite and have a fall feel to them. I normally have them open but the sun was too bright for a picture so I pulled them closed. 

On the keeping room side of the fireplace I set my glass pumpkins and then I prop the spidey hands my oldest grandsons made when they were very small.  

Too sweet to part with so I don't. 

I put a glass pumpkin on the bar downstairs filled with hubs favorites in the mini size-Reeses and Kit Kats. I had it upstairs but decided it was healthier for me to have it downstairs. 

I also bought some new pillows for my family room couch and love the muted colors. I especially love the green plaid and will change out the pumpkin pillows for something more Christmasy when December rolls around.

In 54 days, except remember we're not counting. 

I bought a new candle for my coffee table. It's so pretty and the scent is similar to the Volcano candles most people are familiar with-

My front porch...

I resisted buying mums for as long as I could, because our front porch gets so much sun and mums don't seem to last, but I love them. They're the epitome of fall to me and I had to have some. I added a few pumpkins too and have the big bow my daughter made me last year on my front door wreath. 

The autumn moon is something pretty spectacular...

As is an October sunrise outside my bedroom window...

Happy fall y'all...have a nice weekend! 

Everyday Images

I enjoy the Everyday Images link up hosted by Kym (Another Cup Of Coffee) and thought I might try to make some of my recent random photos fit the prompts. Bloggers tend to snap a lot of pictures and a prompt like this one is a nice place to set them down. 

Kym posts new prompts every two weeks and the most current are-

flag, simple and/or complicated, at home, Wednesday weather,

 doorway, movement, and branched

Well flag is an easy one because I'm adding patriotic decor in spots around the house and several feature flag motifs-

This is on my coffee table, a little vignette that's fun and festive. I chose poppies because they make me think of soldiers and sacrifice. The pop of red in a little blue floral vase is so pretty. These are artificial poppies, but look so real. I ordered them from a company called Luv Sola Flowers which I think is out of California. The stems have some bend to them which made arranging easy. 

Love my 'smells like freedom candle' too. What does freedom smell like? For some reason I immediately think of freshly mown green grass, which is not the scent of this candle, but that's the first thing I thought of. The label on the bottom says gun powder, but I had to check so I don't think it's obvious. 

Since we're talking flags I also bought hand soap for my powder room and some disposable towels, both with red, white, and blue flag designs on them. 

Simple and/or complicated-

I spent Thursday afternoon cooking. I made dinner to take to a friend as part of a meal train (pot roast, mashed potatoes, green beans, and glazed carrots), then made a big pan of ziti to have ready to go for Friday night's dinner when my two sisters, my brother-in-law, and my nephew will be at the lake. 

And I made hubs and I a big cobb salad for our Thursday dinner. I'll make a dessert tomorrow but it felt simpler to devote an afternoon to the bigger cooking as opposed to spreading it out over a couple of days. 

Hubs is grilling wings Friday too but that's his department and he's got it covered. 

at home-

I'm writing this post at 8 PM on Thursday and this is the first I've sat down today. Maybe all week? 

Here's the sofa on our upper deck which is pretty much my favorite place to sit and it's currently on point with my patriotic theme. Happy birthday America! 

Wednesday weather-

Hmm. I take a picture almost every morning, but did not snap one on Wednesday. It was drizzling when we got up, we had thunder at one point, humidity, clouds and then a very pretty sunset. We had gone to dinner with some neighbors and I attempted to take a photo of the pastel skies from their driveway. 

Doorway-

I didn't have anything that fit this particular prompt so I scrolled back through my camera roll and found a photo I took back in March that I never posted. Yes, of course that counts. You make your own blog rules, right? 

I took this when I was visiting my daughter2 in Tennessee and we shopped in the prettiest little store. Even the doors were beautiful-

Movement -

Well the beaver family has returned. Not the original beaver family because ahem, they're goners, but maybe one of their offspring? 

He's movin' alright. Moving is good though because we do not want him stopping and staying a while. 

We started seeing one good sized beaver swimming from the back of the cove towards the channel, which means he swims under our dock bridge. You have to get up very early to see him (which we do) and he is busy. As a beaver. Ha! That saying has merit y'all. We watched him one morning swim across our cove and under a neighbors dock all while carrying a large branch with the leaves still on it. Crazy! But kind of interesting too. 

On Tuesday he had a friend with him. Oh boy. 

We don't want him/them setting up house on our property so we're doing what we can to deter them . I don't think I'll elaborate. 

Also, I wrote back in 2020 about the beaver who ate his way through our hillside landscaping and if you've never seen one you might think they're cute, but I'm here to tell you they are not actually cute. One reason we put in the waterfall was to save the hillside and the beavers have not come up the hill since so it's working. 

branched-

This one feels like a challenge. Technically they're under some branches-

These two deer were in my neighbor's front yard the other day. They were not bothered by me at all. 

Happy weekend everyone! 

Antiques Homeshow

 Chugging right along in the A-Z Blog Challenge...

Day 6-F is for Furniture

A lot of people when they retire, and particularly when they move from something like the suburbs out to the lake, sell all of their furniture along with their house and just buy new. If you've had somewhat traditional furniture with lots of dark wood it's understandable to want to make a change, find furnishings that are lighter, airier, more minimalist with less mass. 

When we moved to the lake, or rather as we prepared to move, we put everything we owned in storage and lived in a rental apartment with rental furniture for the whole year we were building. We weren't sure exactly what our new finished space would look like so we held on to a lot and figured we'd deal with it on this end. 

We knew we wanted a king sized mattress as opposed to our then queen, so the plan was we'd put our bedroom furniture into one of the guest rooms and buy new for our room. Which we did and we love it, but it's lighter in tone than most of what we own. 

We love wood and we love dark rich wood tones especially. Gray toned everything was really popular when we were building, but we knew that wasn't us. In fact when we were choosing the color stain for our trim and staircase we both pointed to the exact same sample our decorator was holding up at the exact same time. She said, 'well you definitely know what you like'. 

We have a few antiques, purchased when we lived in the UK, and we weren't ready to part with them to make room for something new. So we embraced the wood, and we kept the things that made us happy. 

Like this-

A monk's bench we purchased on a fun day shopping with friends in a little town called Hungerford in Berkshire UK. It was a great day out, despite the hysterical call we got from our daughter1 (a university student on the other side of the pond) as we were on our way home where she finally managed to say she'd had a car accident.  

Waiting to hear how bad it was took about ten years off my life, but no one was injured and we had a little chat afterwards about how that needs to be the first thing out of her mouth as opposed to the last. 

Memories are a funny thing and when I look at this bench I'm reminded of village life, of how much I loved getting in the car or hopping on a train and browsing a new to us town, and also those college years where we lived an ocean away from our girls and we all grew up in ways that would serve us well in the decade that followed. 

We sit photographs on the Monk's Bench now, photos of that same daughter's wedding that happened six years later. It's tucked along a wall beside our sliders and we framed botanical prints to hang above it so it works. 

We had our girl's portraits painted on the very first 'out of the UK trip' we took when we first moved to England. 

They're not antiques, but they are more than 20 years old and still hang in our bedroom today. While the girls in these portraits are now grown married women we look at these paintings and remember that special first trip ...

...the funny hotel room with the questionable television and Thanksgiving dinner eaten on the Eurostar, fish!,  which felt so, so wrong to my kids, but who wouldn't trade the moment now for the best roast turkey in America. 

This clock-

Bought in a little shop in a village very near our home that we frequented often. We happen to have the exact right space for it in this house and I can't imagine letting it go. 

And hubs has this tantalus which I remember the seller telling us was something the Americans were buying up, but we'd been looking for one the whole time we lived there and this one is so pretty. 

It sits on a commode in my dining room. Also purchased on our trip to Hungerford and hubs turned it into a drinks cabinet which is something I love about antiques. Finding new ways to make the old pieces fit into our more modern living spaces. 

We still have the first big furniture purchase we made as a married couple, our dining room set. I know one day it won't fit in our living space, and maybe someday one of my girls will want it or maybe not. We could reno it and make it less formal but for now it makes me happy. 

We've parted with some things through the years, usually by giving to someone who needs whatever it is we don't. I dislike the hassle of selling stuff and in general would rather donate than deal with a sale. 

As I'm writing these posts and thinking about what I hold on to I realize the why is really pretty simple. The things I keep are anchors to the moments and milestones in my life. They're markers in the story of me. 

Linking today's A-Z post with Joanne for Talking About It Tuesdays 

It's The Hodgepodge. Period.

Welcome to the second Hodgepodge of the year, the 584th edition of all time. That's a lot of questions, wouldn't you agree? We press on...if you've answered this week's questions add your link at the end of my post, then be a good neighbor and leave a comment for the blogger before you. Here we go-

1. At the end of every year (or at least since the mid-1970's) Lake Superior State University posts a list of words they think should be banished from the Queen's English for misuse, overuse, and/or general uselessness. You can read more about the decision making process here, but this year's list includes-

cringe, game changer, era, dropped, IFKYK (If you know you know), 

sorry not sorry, skibidi, 100%, utilize, and period. 

Which of these words/phrases do you use regularly or even just every now and then? How many did you have to look up? Which of these words would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why? Is there a word/phrase not on the list you'd like to add? If so do share, then tell us why. 

I use cringe, 100% and period on occasion, but wouldn't say they're a regular part of my speech. I had to look up the word skibidi. I've never heard it used or used it myself and it's safe to say I have no plans to do so going into the new year. 

None of the words bother me too much, but if I have to pick one I'll say I think era has become tiresome. 

2. Your favorite soup? Do you make this one yourself or is it from a can? 

I love soup and make lots of different kinds this time of year. Hubs would say my vegetable beef soup is one of his favorite meals. Good ol chicken noodle is probably my favorite. I love the way my house smells when a pot of soup is simmering on the stove, and a bowl of homemade chicken soup just says comfort to me. I make my own and that's my preference, but I can eat the canned variety too. I like Progresso's homestyle chicken and noodle if I'm having soup from a can.

3. How do you feel about winter? What's one winter activity you look forward to? 

I enjoy the changing seasons and don't mind a little bit of winter in December-January. We have some cold weather here, but it's rare for us to have snow. I miss it a little. Now, I do not like the late snows or a long winter like we had up north, but there's something cozy about a snow day where everyone is in and the world feels quiet. We may have some snow here on Friday, but I'm not holding my breath. 

I don't ski anymore and like I said we won't really have snow that amounts to anything here so not a lot of true winter activity. I love a walk in the woods on a winter day and we'll make that happen for sure. 

4. The Pantone color of the year for 2025 is mocha mousse (sample pictured here). What say you? The website describes it as 'a warming, brown hue imbued with richness. It nourishes us with its suggestion of the delectable qualities of chocolate and coffee, answering our desire for comfort'. Is this a color I might find in your home or wardrobe? Is it one you might add in some big or small way in the year ahead? 

I like this color. I like shades of brown, particularly the darker tones. While I don't have this exact shade I do have something close to it in some of my decor, and I'd definitely wear this color too. 

In a similar, but not really vein...if I were to offer you a choice right now of either a cup of mocha or a cup of mousse which would you say yes to? 

A cup of mocha please. 

5. Which of the following winter related idioms can best be applied to your life in some way right now? Choose one, then tell us why you chose it.  

snowed under, on thin ice, tip of the iceberg, chill out, break the ice, snowball effect, not a snowball's chance in hell, get cold feet, the cold shoulder 

I'm going to say the snowball effect. Our outdoor project started out as 'landscape the hill', then picked up speed and quickly snowballed into a waterfall, outdoor BBQ bar, patio, and new furniture for all, which somehow also included a new couch for the indoor pool table room too. It's more like snowmageddon as opposed to one little snowball. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

A random throwback to 2014 when we lived in the wilds of New Jersey and had a ridunkulous amount of snow every other day...

And icicles that could literally kill you perched on our gutters...

The neighborhood sky tried to make up for it...

And our Gordon Setter was in her glory...

Happy Wednesday everyone! 

Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list...

<!-- end LinkyTools script --