DIY Felt Fall Garland

The decorations in my house are constantly changing.

I usually decorate the mantle and a few other parts of the house specifically around the different holidays throughout the year.

I don’t go all out. I usually do something easy and make it a project I can keep from year to year. (I have big tupperware bins labeled by holiday in my basement – therefore each year I have a few more pieces to pull out and it gets easier and easier!)

In fact, this year I only let myself buy one autumn decoration.

I bought this pumpkin from Home Goods! For items that are on the larger side, I always go for seasonal – not holiday specific. This pumpkin is about 18 inches tall.

Remember this autumn wreath I made last year?

I had some leftover pieces of felt in my craft bin and this idea was brought to life.

Felt Fall Garland:

Within an hour I had:

1. Found some leaf and acorn shaped cookie cutters (from the Target dollar bin)

2. Traced on several colored pieces of felt with a fine Sharpie

3. Cut them out and laid them out in the order I wanted them to hang

4. I hand stitched them together with little knots

Then I hung it up on my mantle with my trusty blue painters tape. Voila.

I think this will transition us from fall to winter – because, yikes, I can’t believe winter is almost here!

For tutorials on the previously mentioned bunting and wreath:

Nearly No-Sew Autumn Bunting

DIY Felt Autumn Wreath

Linking up to:

Easy Fall Dessert: Caramel Drizzled Apples

So long Pumpkin Pie. Move over Maple Ice Cream.

My favorite fall dessert is in town – Caramel sauce and fresh apple slices.

This is the easiest fall dessert to make!

And it’s even easier than it used to be with these awesome Caramel Bits by Kraft (found by the chocolate chips, $2.99 for the bag.)

I used to make this all the time with my mom, except I had to unwrap a whole bag of these:

Now it’s even easier.

Take 1 bag of Caramel Bits and 2 tablespoons of Half and Half and slowly bring to a simmer. Caramel burns very easily, so stir often!

When it’s a rich, amber color it’s done!

Slice a fresh apple (yum!) and drizzle on the caramel.

Don’t be too hasty – it’s easy to burn your mouth!

Not that I know what that’s like… because when it comes to caramel sauce I’m the Queen of Patience.

Eat and enjoy! Happy Autumn!

Autumn in New England

I love the fall.

Crisp air in my lungs. Crunchy leaves underfoot. Boots and wool socks reappear.

I love New England. Especially in the fall.

I feel like I’m living in the opening song of Gilmore Girls.

Every road is a delight. Explosive fiery foliage at every turn.

And the beaches are empty. Perfect for long walks.

Only the roaring waves to fill your ears.

Or the quiet lull of the tide.

Apple pie! Apple crisp! Apple cider! Caramel apples! Applesauce!

I could go on. But I’m too busy looking up apple recipes!

And our favorite fall activity, the Topsfield Fair – America’s oldest agricultural fair.

Where else can you see the world’s largest pumpkin, prize-winning zucchini, racing pigs and baby farm animals?

Fall, please stay here forever?

Or at least until Summer gets here, of course.

Weekend Trip: Manchester Village, VT

A few weeks ago we drove up to Manchester, VT for the night. The whole drive I channeled Danny Kaye a la “White Christmas” saying, “Vermont should be beautiful this time of year.” (Wrong seasonal movie, I know.)

It was…. rainy. It poured the whole drive. We were, however, still able to catch a lot of views of the majestic fall trees through the swishing of the wind wipers.

Cranberry. Auburn. Mustard. Tangerine. Fire. Aubergine.

So many beautifully colored leaves!

We stayed at the Equinox Hotel (a big thank you Starwoods Points). It was a beaut to say the least.

via The Equinox Resort

The hotel was lovely. Classic resort campus in the middle of mountains. There was hot apple cider to be had, fireplaces to be enjoyed and bellmen to be greeted by. Yes, they had bellmen.

The Equinox is over 200-years-old and the walls are filled with old photos of visiting Presidents and vintage social outings on the lawn.

Manchester Village is a quaint little town, filled with cute antique shops and a number of big-box outlet stores, like J. Crew, Banana Republic and Orvis. Orvis, the mecca of fly-fishing, was actually founded in Manchester by Mr. Charles Orvis.

And, while we are on the topic, the north wing of the Equinox Resort is the old Orvis Homestead.

(Any Gilmore Girls fans? Do you notice the sign resemblance?)

On Friday night we had dinner at Seasons Restaurant. It had a casual atmosphere with tasty, and affordable (!) dinner options. The soups and (huge) panini sandwiches garnered four stars out of us.

On Saturday morning we toughed out the lines at the ever-popular Up For Breakfast.  It was worth the wait! Delicious fluffy pancakes with, you guessed it, hot Vermont maple syrup and venison sausages were the highlights of the meal. It was a great deal too, since we split one of the breakfast specials between us. Five stars.

Then we drove down to the Equinox Nursery. They were having their annual Pumpkin Carving Festival. Scarecrows, gourds, pies and pumpkins abounded.

It was an autumnal feast for the eyes!

Two reasons to be happy on a gray, cloudy day in Vermont:

1. Boot season is official here. My feet are so happy. Hello wool socks. Hello toasty toes.

2. Crunchy leaf season is in it’s prime! Quick! Go outside and stomp on a few to the delight of your inner-child.

Before we left we decided to drive up Equinox summit. If you’re hardcore you can hike up too.

But first, let’s just say that we saw the group from our hotel leaving on the morning hike as we left. After we experienced a leisurely morning of maple-syrup-covered-breakfast-eating, independent bookstore browsing and pumpkin festival attending, we drove up to the top of the summit just as they arrived.

You can decide which sounds better to you.

The views from the top were stunning! (And yes, the sun managed to peek out for a few moments here!)

Earlier, while waiting to check into our hotel room, I met a man in the lobby who was from Colorado. We started chatting about how I had just been out there skiing earlier this spring. He boasted about their mountain ranges (yes, like he was solely responsible for the creation of the mountain range) and scoffed at the pitiful size of the Vermont mountains.

Scoff-worthy, I think not.

The drive UP Equinox Summit was quite colorful. We needed to make a few pit stops since our car brakes smelled like a BBQ gone wrong, with smoke to boot. Well worth the $12 acccess fee.

Plus the mountain is owned by a monastery. Does that make you feel better about the $12? No? Well, the views of bucolic farm life from the top will warm your heart. And wish you lived in the Sound of Music or something.

The ride home was rainy but just as lovely as the one up (we took a different scenic route for more sights). For having never laid eyes on a real covered-bridge before, I saw at least a dozen on our drive.

We also stopped at a sugarhouse on the side of the road and got fresh hot cider and cider donuts.

Don’t forget, those were #1 on the fall favorites list last week. ; )

Have you been to Vermont? Been in a covered bridge? Love cider donuts?

Harvest Autumn Salad

Slice a butternut squash into thin potato-chip size pieces (about 1/4″ thin). Toss with olive oil and a sprinkle of brown sugar. Bake until they are slightly crisped on the outside.

Meanwhile, cut up an apple and toss with spinach, chopped onion and cucumbers.

Add butternut squash right out of the oven.

Drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette. Toss with feta.

Enjoy : )

Fall Favorites

via

Things I love about fall in New England:

1. Hot apple cider donuts. Not from Dunkin’. Not from a bakery. Not from the store. They have to be from a place that has goats outside and bits of straw are trailed all over the floor. The better you can see the vat of oil, the better they taste. It’s true.

2. The satisfying sound of dry leaves crunching underneath your shoes as you walk on the sidewalk.

3. Hot beverages. Cocoa, coffee, tea, chai, steamers, you name it.

4. Brisk, chilly walks. I love taking walks in the fall. (*See #2.) The air is chilly enough to keep you cool. The air just tastes fresher. You can feel it in your lungs.

5. The changing leaves. New England is known for their scenic autumn landscape. It’s worth the frigid winter every single time.

6. The clothes. Jeans, sweatshirts, sweaters, scarves, flannel, puffy vests, boots, wool socks and earmuffs. Welcome back into my life.

7. Lumberjack husband. I used to tease my husband about the wardrobe takeover of plaids, flannels are Carharrt that would take over every fall. But now it’s not autumn without it.

8. Raking. Well, conditionally. It’s fun the first three times. After that it’s painful. But at least you’re burning calories. Right?

9. The plethora of holidays: namely, my birthday, Halloween, our dating anniversary and Thanksgiving.

10. Apple picking. Pumpkin picking. Homecoming parades. Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Maple scones. Fleece lined slippers. Sidewalks lined with hay bales. Scarecrows. Return of the Crock Pot. Hocus Pocus on VHS. And fall scented candles. Just in case I left anything out in the previous 9.

10A. Did I mention I can wear boots again?

What’s your favorite thing about fall?

Nearly No-Sew Autumn Bunting

This project begins like many others in my house. With two little words: Trash. Picking.

There is an interior designer who lives down the street from my parents. Every once in a while she weeds through her stash and puts lots of lovely items she doesn’t need anymore on the curb. In the case of this project, she was getting rid of a swatch book of designer fabrics. I’ve been saving them for eons and the right project finally came long.

I thumbed through it and cut out all the swatches that looks warm, cozy and all-things-autumn.

First, I folded them in half an cut them into rough triangles. Then I ironed them flat.

Then I folded over one “hem” by about 1/4 inch and ironed it down. Then I used dabs of hot glue to “hem” the first side of the triangle.

I let them dry for a few minutes and then I ironed the opposite sides of the triangles. You will want to take care not to press the iron on the hot-glued-hem, as the heat will cause the hot-glue to liquefy again.

When ironing the second side, be sure to create a nice point at the bottom of the triangle. You may need to trim the fabrics slightly to allow for this.

After I ironed down my hems of the second side, I dabbed them with hot glue to make them stay.

After they all had time to harden, I trimmed the corners of the topside. Since I would be hemming this side as well, I didn’t want the corners to peek out the sides. After I cut the corners off, I ironed and hot glued just like before.

Then I ironed each flag flat.

IMPORTANT: Be sure to iron in-between two pieces of fabrics. Otherwise you will get hot glue all over your iron face. Also don’t iron for too long or the hot glue will seep through the front of the flag.

Next I took all my flags and arranged them in the order I wanted them to hang – alternating the plaids, golds, reds and blues. I piled them in order and started to “sew”.

This could hardly be called sewing. If you can thread a needle you can do this part. I overlapped the corners and made a quick loop (by hand) and tied the knot in the back.

Once they were all connected I taped them up with painter’s tape (as to not ruin our freshly painted walls!).

I think it’s sweet. : )

Total Cost: FREE
Total Time: About 2 hours

Now I just need to pretend we have cabinet doors back on the cabinet bases (yep! my living room cabinet doors are also in the abyss of my basement) and get some window treatments up in here.

I already have my swatches picked out for my Christmas one! I can’t wait to make it. Perhaps next time I shall try sewing it.

DIY Felt Autumn Wreath

I’m plugging my nose and cannonballing into the pool of fall decoration with full force! Our spring was spent packing and our summer was spent unpacking, therefore I haven’t had any fun decorations up since Easter.

Fall decorations are going to abound this fall to make up for it! I love New England in the fall. It’s perfect.

To begin my autumnal adoration, I started with a natural wreath from Joann Fabrics ($3 plus a 10% off coupon!) and six sheets of felt (at 35 cents a sheet).

I made two different kinds of rosettes in various colors and sizes.

You will need a strip of felt 1 inch wide. The longer the strip the bigger the flower. You will just want to hot glue it as you roll it up. Then “foof” the flower with your fingers.

For the second type of “bloom” I cut a circle out of felt and then cut a swirl into the circle. By tightening the swirl, starting from the middle, a rosebud-shape begins to form. As with the “pom”, you will also want to dab little bits of hot glue along the way.

Then you will need to arrange your flowers as desired. I placed mine to look like they are creeping down the top and up from the bottom. Then I cut a few leaves out and glued them on too.

You will want to use plenty of hot glue to make sure the flowers stick!

I love the colors and coziness of it. Now it’s hanging by our front door on our porch!

Total Project Cost: $5.00
Total Project Time: About an hour

How are you decorating for fall?

DIY Autumn Bloom Belt

I came across this awesome tutorial on I Am Momma – Hear Me Roar and wanted to pass it on!

Cheri (aka Momma) has a lot of creative tutorials for DIY projects – a few of which are now on my task list!

When I came across her Autumn Bloom Belt, I knew I wanted to give it a shot.

Here is hers:

And here is mine:

Instead of buying 1/8 of a yard for each felt color, I bought felt squares for 35 cents each. That plus the ribbon set me back about a total of $3.00 and took about 30 minutes.

(I could have made 2 belts out of the 4 felt squares and spool of grosgrain black ribbon I purchased. In fact, it was so easy I think I will make one for a friend!)

Cheri gives a great photo tutorial. Check it out here:

 Autumn Bloom Belt from I am Momma – Hear Me Roar

Bouquets of Newly Sharpened Pencils

“Don’t you love New York in the fall?
It makes me wanna buy school supplies.
I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils
if I knew your name and address.”

~ You’ve Got Mail

Watch this clip and mentally transition from summer to autumn with me, will you?

I have been fighting it.

But yesterday I bought a bag of candy corn.

And there is a pumpkin scented candle in my kitchen.

And today I’m wearing fleece lined moccasins.

Autumn is already upon me.

Although, as usual, I feel like the throes of summer are being ripped away from me, I’m ready for fall.

Now I just need to get a Pumpkin Spice Latte and a maple scone and I’ll be well on my way.

(Does it count that I still have two beach trips planned in the next few weeks?)