Nov 1, 2012

Sweet November: Welcome to Autumn

Hi there and welcome to day one of Sweet November! Just like the previous Sweet November, Jessica from the crafty Scrumdillydilly blog and I have an entire week full of Autumn inspired projects and posts that we hope you'll enjoy! Since Autumn is my favorite season I thought I would start our first post with some of my favorite things! 

Let's begin with a color-combination. It's no secret that color is always my main inspiration. For me, all projects begin with a simple color combination. I usually spot various embellishments on my work desk and it sparks an idea, or a concept and this year Jessica gave me the challenge of incorporating teal into our palette. So I gladly accepted Jessica's challenge and set about  creating a very neutral nature inspired color palette. 

Some of my favorite things: Color Combination
dove grey - apricot peach - teal blue - chocolate brown - taupe - gold



What can you find on your desk today that would make a spectacular color palette? 

Some of my favorite things: decor

I'll admit that I don't have very much in the way of Autumn/harvest themed decor and most of what I have collected I've made myself - with the exception of this collection on squirrels & chipmunk. The chipmunk was given to me by my Grandmother. As a little girl I remember this little figurine displayed on an end table at Granny's house. I never knew the back story of where she acquired it, or why she loved it so much and even with a chipped ear and broken tail (which Grandpa glued carefully back together) she still really wanted me to have it. So, Chippy came home with me last summer and found a place to stay in my craft room, perched on my dresser to watch over my creating. I'm thinking this chipmunk will be one of my more treasured Autumn decor pieces. 


Some of my favorite things:  Pumpkin Seeds

Need an idea for what to do with all those pumpkin seeds from this week? I love roasting just about everything, and pumpkin seeds are no exception! I've already made a spicy batch of pumpkin seeds but I also wanted to make one that was on the sweeter side. Here's my recipe for Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin seeds! 

Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Seeds

2 1/2 cups pumpkin seeds, rinsed & dry 
2 Tbls. butter, melter
3 Tbls. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

directions:
- Preheat over to 220 F. 
- In a mixing bowl, combine pumpkin seeds and butter, stir to coat. Sprinkle on cinnamon sugar to stir again to cover pumpkin seeds. 
- Cover a baking sheet with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray
- spread the pumpkin seeds evenly on the baking sheet and roast in oven for about  90 minutes, stirring every 30 minutes
- when the pumpkin seeds are finished cooking they should be dry, crunchy and no longer sticking to one another

I like to cook at a low temperature because: 1. I've been known to forget about what I have in the oven and 2. cooking at a lower temp can be more forgiving.... which is good because of #1. I tend to use the old cooking rule: when you can smell what's in the oven throughout your house, you'll know it's done and your house really will smell like cinnamon sugar, or like doughnuts as my son told me today! 




Some of my favorite things: music

When Peter and I were dating, we would take weekend roadtrips as often as our schedules would allow. Peter had a stash of cd's set aside just for our outings together and an old Frank Sinatra cd ended up being on of my favorites. It seemed like the perfect fit too as the theme music as we wound our way down Oak covered roads and through the historic mining towns of Northern Arizona. I can almost picture a black and white movie filmed in Sedona or Jerome with this song playing in the background. Frank still reminds me of date afternoons in the Fall!




I shared a few of my Fall favorites and I'd love to hear some of yours! Don't forget to pop into Scrumdillydilly to see how Jessica is starting her Sweet November -  Thanks for stopping by!

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