Autumn in Our Kitchen

I like a traditional dining room, a formal living room, a cozy family room, but a whimsical kitchen. 

Our kitchen is where I like to to 'play' with my decorating and have some fun. 

Last Christmas it was a snowman childhood theme.

This fall I decided to go all neutrals giving me a blank palate for whatever I felt like. Here's a peek at our kitchen this autumn: 

Looking in from our dining room -- this is really the spot that is used the most. That particular part of the counter gets most of the 'heavy work' and cooking. I like to set up little scenes that might make it inspiring to be in there. 

Here is the opposite side looking from our kitchen table. You might spot something new! I'll show you a close up in another post some day but for now just a peek at the outside -- it's my own little country store! I found it at an antique store and it was there FOREVER! Every time I went to the store I 'visited it'. One day I said joking, "I'm headed out to visit that little country store", and Scott said, "why don't you just bring it home?" 

So I did!

And since this picture (when it was vacant) I've been filling it with shelves and things that would be for sale at an country store. Oh I love it so much! 

Still loving these sweet baskets above the kitchen sink -- the colors look especially tender in the fall. 

I love adding as much cozy as I can and this little cordless (chargeable) lamp is such a soft touch. I've never had it on the windowsill but I love the spot of light especially at night. 

Love that ironstone gravy bowl I found at a thrift store too! 

Scooped up this covered butter dish for a few dollars... darling! 

Looking from the hallway into the kitchen. We keep our cast iron pans out all the time. When they were in the cupboard we barely used them (so heavy and tricky to get out) But out here they are used daily! 

This area really deserves a post of it's own (maybe I will someday). When we pained our kitchen white this summer I asked Scott if he could build some open shelving right next to the table. I used to have a huge canvas of my daughters. I loved it but wanted a different look here. And it couldn't have come out better. 

Here is a better look at those shelves. I love them so much! 

Here you can see how it ties into the mug rack so nicely. I did 'loose' one mug rack with the shelves going here but I have plenty of room right on the shelves if I don't have enough room on the rack. 

On the other side of the room is another little bitty shelf Scott built me. This season I have a teapot, a little pumpkin pie, and all of my ironstone creamers.  

oh... and this adorable little pitcher that reminds me of a favorite childhood picture book. 

A close up of the general store... adorable! 

On those shelves Scott built me I have a framed print. I chose this one because it's a kitchen scene with a mama getting soup and bread on the table. She's calling her two daughters in for dinner as they play in the fallen leaves in the backyard. It reminds me of those years blogging years when my girls were in elementary school and I was home with them. 

Wooden spoons in a crock, painted trays, and baskets with apples are a few of my favorite things in the fall. 

The baking center and pie cooking window have a cozy feel this fall -- ready for apple crisp and pies. 

So many cozy mugs to choose from. 

And that's it! Thanks for coming along on a tour of our kitchen this fall.  

Here's our dining room

Living room 

Family room this fall 

 

Late September Weekending

Three days home - yippee! I had stars in my eyes about blue skies and sunshine and when the weather called for rain all weekend I realized a few things - 

1. I like cozy and especially since our home is all dressed up/cozied up for fall, rain would be the perfect weather to enjoy being home

2. We still could do some of our fall outside plans even if the weather wasn't perfect. 

So here's how our late September weekend went: 

Friday ~ 

no pictures but as tradition in our home - homemade pizza sauce and homemade what we call "pizza breads" and a movie and an early bedtime (we are so tired from our school week)

Saturday ~ 

Abigail headed to viola tour group class and then orchestra

I headed to a few thrift stores I love to pop in briefly in the morning and a few other errands. We were all home all afternoon and decided to head out to eat that evening. 

Sunday ~

We adore our church but it is a bit time consuming to go to our parish in the city. So if we want a fun little day trip, we've learned that going to a parish in that area gives us a better chance (time wise) than going to our parish and THEN going to another town. 

We explored the darling town of Washington, CT. It is the inspiration for the show, Gilmore Girls. Here's the weird thing: I actually don't love the show. I don't not like it, but I just never clicked with it. But I knew a little about the show. So if was based on a CT town, than that CT town must be adorable. And it was. Here's a little peek into our half day trip! 

I could have taken a million pictures of our drive there (about an hour from where we live). All twisty, wooded streets. I loved loved loved and we both kept saying, "let's move here!" I wish I took more pictures of our drive. 

We started with Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Hope. Definitely a little country church - we loved it. 

And then we ate at Marty's. The food was all homemade, gourmet and amazing! We also bought some scones, cookies, bars for the car ride home later. 

We meandered through a bookstore. 

And we did our annual apple picking. It was a bit misty, rainy so we actually just explored the apple orchard a bit and ended up buying our apples. It was fine with me because, well, just take a look at this darling place. Loved it so much! 

When we got home Scott came into my school with me to hang a new light that I love so much. It makes it cozy inside my classroom. 

Then in the evening after dinner I made a big batch of Molasses cookies with frosting. 

Monday ~

Enjoyed a slower morning than a school one! While Abigail was doing school work all day long, Scott and I got a bunch done around the house. We are taking the time to work through the lighting of our house. I like to get to this every fall so that when the holidays come around, everything is bright and sparkles. For some lighting we just need to change the bulbs. For the glass fixtures, we take them down and wash them in hot soapy water getting them sparkling clean. For any lamp shades we take them off and soak them in a bucket of warm water, bush them, and rinse them. We let them dry overnight. I like to work in bits and pieces. We are busy teachers with a lot of regular responsibilities so this method has always worked for us. Next weekend we will finish upstairs and then work our way to the main floor and basement before Thanksgiving. I love how it's getting all sparkly and clean in here before the holidays! 

Other posts you might like: 

Lyman Orchards

An Afternoon at an Apple Orchard

Apple Picking

Apple Picking, 2014

Autumn in Our Dining Room

(living room post for autumn is back here)

(family room post for autumn is back here) 

I think that dining rooms are lovely - 

They are the forgotten rooms no one wants in a new house but I still love them. 

Think about it: 

A room set aside for gathering and often a holiday feast. 

A whole room set aside for a holiday! 

This season I asked Scott if he could build me a box about, "this long and this wide" (holding out my hands). And here it is! 

I think it came out so wonderful and I can use it any season! But autumn is the prettiest of all in our dining room. 
 

I filled the room with 'pies' too and I love how cozy it makes this space look. I never gathered them all together like this but I do love it. 

Oh yes, I love dining rooms... 

Other posts you might like: 

Two cute videos 

I Cried and Laughed and Cried (at the end end end the way Abigail says "I love you mommy") 

Scenes from Last Weekend 

Autumn In Our Family Room

Well it's that cozy time of year. The weather sure has shifted and I couldn't be happier about that fact. All of the windows are open and there is a breeze blowing through. I've packed away shorts and even though there will be sunny warm days I know that it won't last long now. We are past that half way mark through September.  

I posted back here how I decorated our living room for fall. 

And I'm going to show you our family room. We are not in this room enough! Always on Friday night but other than that we just have such busy schedules that we can't chill out much! But I sure love the cozy way it turned out. 

I started with this little cozy scene. The painting has the prettiest fall colors. It's from Lore Pemberton.  She's an artist in Vermont and I love even more than this her paintings of cozy unperfect homes - especially the kitchen scenes. I bought one for a shelf in our kitchen and I'll show that to you when I post our fall kitchen. 

I love the spay of wheat and the adorable pumpkin teapot. 

The mantle was fun to put together. Greens, golds (brass), and some orange. I love the way it came out. 

I can't believe how long I've had these pumpkins. I bought them 25 years ago when I was a young bride just beginning to learn how to decorate my home. I still think they are the cutest. 

I found this "Home Sweet Home" sign stitched at a thrift store and loved the colors in it. 

I love to decorate with books in this room and love these brass candlesticks so much. They are my moms. 

This is looking in from the porch. 

I switched out the area rug for this one I had for 27 years. It was the first area rug Scott and I bought when we were first married. I love it more than any other one I've had, and I think it looks perfect in here with it's cozy colors. 

So thankful for this room. And seeing these pictures makes me look forward to Friday night right now! 

Other posts you might like: 

Autumn in our Living Room

Little Hands In the Kitchen

Glorious September

Soon, Very Soon