Halloween Decoration Inspiration

via Midwest Living

via Omah Trends

via BHG

What a brilliant idea!  And we can actually do this with the burn bans here in Texas. How original.

via Real Moms Real Views

I'd love to see photos of your decorations. Feel free to Link Up.

Picks from my Pinterest For the Home Pinboard

Here are some of my favorite or most popular pins from my For the Home Pinterest Pinboard.  If you are on Pinterest, leave me a link, I'd love to follow you!

via 79 ideas

via Creative Home Ideas

via Home Interior Design Info

via Omaha Trends

Source

via Family photo wall display

via Apartment Therapy

Fabulous Fall Beverages

Fall is full of tantalizing aromas and phenomenal rich tastes.  I adore fall.  Below are some Fabulous Fall Flavors with links to the recipes.  Enjoy!  I am saving the Wassail for Christmas.

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte Copycat Recipe via Babble

Starbucks Caramel Macchiato Copycat Recipe via Babble

Starbucks Caramel Apple Spice Copycat Recipe via Three Years of Death

Pumpkin Pie Shake via Cooking Light

Pumpkin Pie White Hot Chocolate via Closet Cooking

Mmmm, delish.

Basic to Brilliant Y'all: A Review

Title:         Basic to Brilliant Y’all


Author:     Virginia Willis


Publisher: Ten Speed Press


Pub. Date: September 27, 2011

Publisher's Synopsis:  A follow-up to the author’s acclaimed Bon Appétit, Y’all, featuring 150 recipes that combine Southern flavors with time-honored French technique, and include a sophisticated variation that kicks each dish up a notch to make it brilliant. Virginia Willis has a knack for giving French recipes a down home Southern feel. In Basic to Brilliant, Y’all, she builds on her signature style by offering 150 dual recipes: a soul-satisfying basic recipe accompanied by a technique, garnish, additional step, or short recipe that transforms a wonderful dish into a show stopper. A weeknight classic like Mama’s Chicken Pot Pie becomes sophisticated dinner party fare when it’s baked in a winter squash, and Old Fashioned Stove Top Low-Country Broth can be transformed into a Bouillabaisse-style broth with just a few simple changes. Throughout the book, Virginia paints a vivid picture of her Southern upbringing, drawing readers in with her vibrant tales of food and friends.

My Thoughts:  Virginia Willis is like a merge of Julia Child and Paula Deen.  I do admit that some of her recipes were a little too involved for this mom of six and not all recipes were “kid friendly” but I found some recipes that I really want to try and I believe some will become new staple recipes to my kitchen. 


In Basic to Brilliant, Willis shares foundations for the preparation of basic stocks, homemade mayonnaise, dressings, piecrusts, 150 recipes in all.  My first to try include: Summer Squash Slaw, Summer Tomato Salad, Mom’s Macaroni Salad, Tarragon Egg Salad, Mama’s Barbeque Sauce, Skillet and Michele’s Quick and Easy Fudge!


Helene Dujardin’s beautiful photographs really add elegance to this book.

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received a copy of this title for review purposes, free of charge, from  NetGalley. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. This Review is my honest opinion.

Fabulous Fall Colors

I adore all the sights ans sounds of fall/harvest/autumn.  There is no season more natural to decorate for either!  Here is some inspiration:

Source

Source

Source

I love the lights on the branches.

Source

Simply different colors of tissue papers wrapped around candles!

Pop of Yellow

Care for a pop of yellow?  These designers have achieved a beautiful balance of color without going overboard.  Very, very beautiful.  Sunshine.  Which is your favorite??

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Which is your favorite pop of yellow?

Pink Kitchens

Pink Kitchens!  Back from the 50s?  No contemporary ones!

These are bold.

Source

Source

Source Unknown

Source

Thank you Lowes

We participated in the Build and Grow work shop this morning.  Here.are three of the kids police cars.

Zesty Orange in the Home... Invigorating

It's fall!  Time for the Oranges, browns, reds and yellows. The older I get the more I love richness (food and color). Orange is such an invigorating color.  These home designs are absolutely gorgeous.  I love the use or orange in all of these.  Stunning:

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Now don't you want an orange room?  I adore the bathroom on the first photo, very elegant.

Great Resource for FREE E Books

Books on The Knob
Bargain reads, free ebooks and book reviews for the Amazon Kindle, nook, kobo, Sony and other ereaders, along with some games, music, technology and computers tossed in now and then.  Sound good?  Head on over to Books on the Knob and subscribe to their free feed.

I subscribed to this blog over a year ago.  This is a terrific resource for free and steeply discounted e-books and apps.  I don't see how they find all this stuff but I sure am glad they do and best of all they share.  I know it is extremely time consuming too so I hope the faithful readers kick back a little to help out in the expenses on the site.

Subscribe to the feed, it's free of course, so you don't miss out on any of the great freebies.  Be selective though or you will quickly become overwhelmed.

Autumn Bliss

I adore Autumn! My favorite time of year. It feels so incredibly great outside. I wish I could just lay in the grass in the sunshine all day.

"Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all." - Stanley Horowitz

"In the garden, Autumn is, indeed the crowning glory of the year, bringing us the fruition of months of thought and care and toil. And at no season, safe perhaps in Daffodil time, do we get such superb colour effects as from August to November."

- Rose G. Kingsley, The Autumn Garden, 1905

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns." 

- George Eliot

"A few days ago I walked along the edge of the lake and was treated to the crunch and rustle of leaves with each step I made. The acoustics of this season are different and all sounds, no matter how hushed, are as crisp as autumn air."
- Eric Sloane

"There is a harmony
In autumn, and a lustre in its sky,
Which through the summer is not heard or seen,
As if it could not be, as if it had not been!" 

- Percy Bysshe Shelley

"I love fall! Fall is exciting.
It's apples and cider.
It's an airborne spider.
It's pumpkins in bins.
It's burrs on dog's chins.
It's wind blowing leaves.
It's chilly red knees.
It's nuts on the ground.
It's a crisp dry sound.
It's green leaves turning
And the smell of them burning.
It's clouds in the sky.
It's fall. That's why...
I love fall."

- Author Unknown