Friday Favorites - Fall Edition

Today I am linking up with a couple of my favorite bloggers,

 Andrea and Erika to share our Friday favorites!

 

Today I am sharing my some of my Fall favorites!

 

 

After a long summer of tank tops and shorts, I am always ready to wear jeans, long sleeves and light jackets.  I love the crisp air that makes jeans and long sleeves a necessity but doesn't require us to be completely bundled up. 

 

We have family pictures planned for October (eek!) so I have been searching high and low (on Pinterest, of course) for color palette inspiration.  Sadly, in the process I realized that I own very little (basically none) warm tone clothes.  I have no shirts in the Fall palettes that I keep seeing online.  What is a girl to do?  Am I thinking too literal and I should go with a simple black shirt, leopard scarf and simple shoes?  My leopard scarf has a really pretty orange that I could use to pull my outfit into the rest of the family's outfits. 

 

Or do I just go shopping for a new shirt??  #whataterribleproblem ;)

 

We tend to end up with some shade of blue so I am hoping to get out of that box.

 

I love the warmness of the deep red in this one but I want to keep it from looking to Christmas-y

via

 

I like all the neutral-ness and fall-ness of these outfits.  Scarves, layers, boots and ballet flats, YES!

vest // olive skinnies // neutral collage source not found

 

 

One of my very favorite things about Fall is baking.  Any baking is good but I really love incorporating pumpkin spice into desserts.  In fact, last year when I was invited to a "Favorite Things" party (bring 3 of your favorite items for $5 or less) last year, I brought a pumpkin spice gift pack with pumpkin spice pudding and pumpkin spice Hershey Kisses - recipes included too!  Yes, I did.  :)  Because who doesn't love pumpkin spice in their Fall cookies?! 



 

My favorite Fall cookie recipe is Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Pumpkin Cookies from Chef-In-Training.  These are so ridiculously good I can't do them justice with words.  If you bake nothing else pumpkin spice this Fall, at least try these.  Soooo yummy!

 

Another favorite pumpkin spice cookie recipe in our home is this little treat from Sprinkle Some Sunshine.



Pumpkin Kiss Cookies    

The dough has the perfect touch of cinnamon that makes it delicious on its own but the pumpkin spice kisses kick it up an extra notch.  I can hardly wait to make a batch of these yummy cookies!

 

I have been busy, busy, busy pinning new Fall dessert recipes the past few weeks in anticipation of the upcoming season.  Every year we go apple picking so I know I will need a couple yummy apple recipes in addition to homemade applesauce in the crockpot and mini apple pies.  Last year I made lots of baby food with the apples we picked but we are past that stage of life now so bring on the apple desserts! 

 

I'm thinking Baked Apple Pie Egg Rolls from Chef in Training or maybe Apple Snickerdoodle Coobler by Baked by Rachel will be my sweet treat for apple season.  Both look so yummy!

 

As for pumpkins, I have quite a few new recipes I want to try but realistically I will probably only get a few new ones in the rotation.  These are the ones at the top of my list...

Simple Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls by Mix and Match Mama.  Pumpkin?  Cinnamon?  Yes, thank you!

I have been obsessed with scones lately so I will definitely be trying these pumpkin scones from Cooking Classy

Pumpkin Pound Cake from Something Swanky also sounds delish!

 

Hmm, apparently I have a thing for pumpkin breakfast items!  Lol!  :)

 

Fall is probably my favorite time to decorate as well.  While I love Christmas and all the beautiful décor that goes with it, the Fall decorations signal a change in seasons and I love the warmness it gives to a home.  Especially after the house has been void of holiday decorations most of the summer!

 

I bought the supplies to make this wreath because we all know my love of the letter P!  ;) 

Though looking at it again, I'm not sure I bought enough of the garland to ensure it is full enough.  Hmm, I guess we will see what happens...

via Etsy

I'm also thinking about trying to make these creepy little guys to incorporate into my Halloween décor.

  Crafty in Crosby

 

Are you all as excited for Fall as I am?!?!?!

 

 





A little of this, a little of that

Just a couple random things this week that we have been working on. 

We were in desperate need of some patriotic décor around here so I decided to get crafty.  My two projects?  A chevron flag and a material banner.  The banner was considerably easier than the flag but both were relatively simple overall.  I'm thinking these two items may become the foundation of our summer mantle - from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

 

I was inspired by Momfessionals and White Cottage Boutique but decided to put my own twist on the flag since that is what DIY is all about!

 

I forgot to take pictures of the first couple of steps but basically I was on a budget so instead of buying strips of wood, I went with a 2 ft by 2 ft piece of plywood for $6 at Home Depot.  Plus it didn't require me to use a nail gun and for that my hubby was thankful!  I originally thought I would be ok with a square flag but after looking at the board more I knew it needed to be cut.  So I asked Matt to take a little off the bottom.  I spray painted the whole board white without sanding it down.  Oops, that was definitely a no no.  The board was a flaky hot mess and kept the painter's tape from sticking well.  Lesson learned.

 

Next I painted the top corner blue.  I just eyeballed it but looking at the final product I think I should have made it a little larger.

 

From there I followed White Cottage Boutique's instructions on the tape for chevron.  I wanted a few more stripes so I went with a thinner tape.  I should have followed her instructions a little closer though....she knew to sand down the wood!  Ha! 

 After all the tape was down, I used an exacto knife to cut out the tape sections that would be painted.

 Up next was the red paint...

 After the red paint dried, I moved on to the stars.  I found a stencil at Hobby Lobby for a couple bucks and knew it was worth every penny of my sanity after completing the chevron stripes!

A close up of the finished product.  As you can see my stripes are not super straight and the red paint did bleed a little but overall I love how it came out.  It definitely has my personal touch!  Ha!  :)

I didn't take any step by step pictures of the banner making, but it is pretty simple.  You just need a mixture of material that compliment each other and the theme you are working on.  In the past I have picked up fabric bundles at Hobby Lobby.  They are the perfect size and usually offer the colors I need for $10 before the 40% off coupon.  This time I wasn't in love with the red, white and blue bundle so I decided to pick out my own fabric.  I bought half a yard of each fabric which is WAY too much - unless you want to make 3 or 4 banners!  The problem was really making sure the individual fabric pieces were long enough to tie so honestly I'm not sure if you could buy less yardage.  Anyway, it is as simple as cutting strips of fabric and tying them around twine or yarn or string in a pattern.  Voila!  You have a cute, decorative banner!

In the end I spent under $10 on the flag and around $12 on the banner.  Cheap and simple crafts that can make a big statement.   

Next to the outdoors. 

Since the day we moved into our new home almost 2 years ago, I have wanted to paint our shutters and front door.  I honestly disliked the color so much that it made me cringe every time we drove up to the house.  #realtalk

This picture is from the day we moved in but I wish I had a more recent picture because the color has faded into a more pink tone.  Yuck!
Disregard the beautiful, yellow lawn as it was one of the hottest summers on record and the previous owner thought watering the lawn was overrated.  ;)


This picture is a few weeks later at Natalie's birthday party.  It may be just me but I felt like the pink/red/maroon color was too bright and didn't blend well with the rest of the house. 

After almost 2 years of debating and nagging, we finally agreed on a color and painted the shutters and front door!!!  I absolutely adore how it looks now.  It even changed my opinion of the front door!  That is saying something since I really don't love the gold and glass look....but again, I think I was more focused on the color of the door than the intricacies of the design itself.

 

It looks more quaint and neutralizes all the yellow in our brick/roof/siding in my opinion.  Honestly, I can't believe something that cost about $20 and took about 4 hours of time took us 2 years to accomplish.  Another lesson learned - just go for it!  A small change can have a huge impact!

We decided to paint the door one step darker on the Behr color sample card.  The shutters are Scotland Road and the door is Amazon Moss.

Landscaping is up next but right now I am loving the new look!  Oh and I think the hubby did a good job getting the lawn under control  ;)

 

Happy Friday!