Favorite Fall

I actually find appealing things about all four seasons but I have decided that the things about Fall that I love outweigh the others. There is the warm days, the cool nights, the coziness of early evenings, soups and chili, warm spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, baking pumpkin bread, beautiful colors and the fun of decorating for Fall. I know there are more things I love about Fall but those are just the things that come to mind first.

What is your favorite season? Leave a comment and let me know which season and why.

Of course, I have been busy decorating since that is one of my favorite things to do. The front of my house is covered with mums and different color and shapes of pumpkins. Now that we are in October I am going to bust out the Halloween items. Generally, I refrain from jack-o-lanterns and such until October. However, now we are full-on skeleton and spooky!

I got together recently with my cousin, Linda, and we had a crafting afternoon. We had seen a wreath in a craft store that was very high in price and we thought we could make it much more cheaply and it wouldn’t be hard to create.

We set a date and each purchased our own supplies. After a nice lunch of chili and cornbread muffins we went to work!

For the wreaths we each purchased a wreath form, black and white yarn, black, white and orange felt. Armed with our hot glue guns we set to work. (Linda had purchased thicker yarn than I did feeling that it would require less wrapping around the wreath form. She was probably right but both wreaths looked good in the end.)

We wrapped the yarn around the wreath form, alternating black and white at regular intervals. To keep from having to stop and measure with a measuring tape we each just pulled the yarn out to our maximum wing span and cut it. That was a time saver! As we did each section we used our hot glue guns to secure the end of one piece of yarn and the beginning piece of yarn.

Next we created our felt flowers to accent the wreath. Linda had done some research on Pinterest to see how they were done. She found you cut the felt in a spiral and then roll up the resulting felt. I checked online and found that you could use a cd as a pattern to cut a circle and then proceed to cut your spiral.

When we had cut all our spirals and wrapped them to create the flowers we hot glued them on the yarn wrapped wreath. Below is the result.

We were both very pleased! Mine is on my front door as I write this.

The one that we saw in the craft store was about $50. I figured out my supply cost and it was approximately $13. Sweet, right?

Tips

1. I found out a little trick while making my cornbread muffins for the above mentioned lunch. After mixing the batter you should let it rest for 3 to 4 minutes and then give it a quick stir before placing in the muffin pan. This creates a higher, really nice looking crown on your muffins.
2. The holiday season, which we are approaching, can be filled with stress. If you need a little stress relief there is something to help. It is a musical piece called Weightless by Marconi Union. It lowers the heart rate and has a calming effect. You can find it on YouTube. Below is the link.                                                                           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfcAVejslrU
3. In the cold months I always struggle a little with dry and/or cracked heels. I have found a home remedy that really works. You need a tub to soak your feet in. The foot soak is a mixture of 2 cups of hydrogen peroxide and 2 cups of water as hot as you can handle. Soak your feet for 30 minutes. After you remove your feet from the tub dry them and use a pumice to gently slough off the dead skin. Then put a nice moisturizing cream on your heals and put some socks on. Give it a try!
4. Speaking of hydrogen peroxide, there are just a lot of different ways to use it around the house. To name just a few; removes stains and odors in clothing, kills mold, whitens grout, finger nails, and teeth, aids acne in healing faster, disinfects wounds,  sponges, lunch boxes, shower curtains, cutting boards, counter tops, toilets and the toilet cleaning brushes, aids in healing canker sores. That is just a few.
5. I am not sure about you but I always wash and  save containers from foods I buy that would make good leftover containers. This works great when sending food home with others. They don’t have to worry about getting containers back to you and you don’t have to worry about them bringing them back. The down side is that all these different shaped and sized containers really junked up my cupboard. In a moment of clarity I took all of them out of my cupboard and placed them in a garbage bag with a drawstring and hung them up in my pantry. Now, whenever I need a container to send something home with a guest I go to the bag and grab a container. No more messy cupboard for me!
6. As you know from a previous post, I make Ice Box Pickles. They always taste better to me when stored in the refrigerator in a glass jar. I don’t can so I was considering buying some glass canning jars for that purpose. Then I noticed a salsa jar I just had emptied. I washed it thoroughly and saved it for my next batch of pickles. After that I noticed spaghetti sauce jars and jelly jars were a good size and would work too. It is nice not spending extra money.

Recipes

It is zucchini season and I wanted to try a different way of using it.

Zucchini Crisps

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. I used parchment paper to line my baking sheet.

2 medium zucchini sliced 1/4 inch thick

2 Tablespoons of olive oil

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs (you can season your own if you don’t have them pre-seasoned)

salt and pepper to taste

Put the olive oil in a medium bowl with a lid. Add the zucchini slices to the bowl, cover and shake gently to coat. In a second bowl place all the other ingredients and mix thoroughly. Then dip each crisp in the dry mixture. Place the covered slices on the baking sheet. bake for 18 to 22 minutes.

Caprese Skewers

I used mozzarella, basil leaves and cherry tomatoes to make these skewers as an appetizer for my daughter’s wedding. I used 4 inch skewers to create them. When finished I arranged them on a tray and drizzled dipping oil lightly on them. You could also use a balsamic reduction.

I hope you have a fantabulous October!! Make the most of whatever it is you personally enjoy about this month. Kick some serious Fall action and take prisoners!

Let me know in the comments your thoughts on anything in the blog.