fall front porch

Today is the first day of fall!And with how cold it has been for the past few days,it is hard to believe it is not October already....But it is the perfect time to enjoy our new front porch,and I had fun adding some seasonal touches:

with pretty colorful mums,

pillows, trow blanket and pumpkins.

And for the first time, we have a doormat!

When I bought that one at Michaels, I did not think about size,

just how pretty it was...

and now I know why people layer doormats,

they are too small for the doorways!

I am still searching a few extra pumpkins,

the colorful pepper plant is a fun and different addition,

which gave the opportunity to get a new pot/planter,

my latest addiction.

For the pillows, I just borrowed them from inside,

I am still quite a fan of my fox pillow.

I did get something quite fun from Scotland to keep me warm:

a blanket from the Tartan Blanket Company.

I purchased it from Amazon but it came from there:

The colors are perfect for my fall decor,

and I already tried it,

it is quite warm.

My ultimate fall accessory?Bosco of course!I will not recount the amount of effortsto get to that pic....It was totally worth it,such a good dog!

Happy Fall!

a fast and easy plum tart

Last weekend, we went to our favorite orchardto purchase apples, and we found some plums, I could not resist.

Because of a late freeze on mother's day, the orchard lost of lot of fruits,

almost no peaches this summer, and fewer apples,

so I was quite pleased to find these beautiful plums.

And I made a quick and easy tart!

 I used frozen puff pastry for the crust (I thawed it first).I just cut the plums into eights, added some sugar, cornstarch and a little cinnamon,and baked it until golden:

The actual ratio is about

1 lb of cut plums,

1/3 cup of sugar

2 tbsp of cornstarch

1/4 tsp of cinnamon

Mix all the dry ingredients,

then mix the cut plums,

pour in the crust

bake at 375 for ~1h

Enjoy warm but not hot,

otherwise the filling will run,

like most pies!

Happy Day!

a little kitchen vignette

This year, I am decorating the house for fall a little differently:

Brick Master did not return to the dorm this semesterinstead he is remote learning from the kitchen!We moved his desk here as his room is quite small(before moving away to university last year,he switched bedrooms with Miss C.,losing his large room for a small one!)

So now, I have lost my favorite place to decoratefor fall or the Holidays!But I found this cute 2 tier tray at Target,so it has become my portable vignette for fall.(I do not like to have anything on the island while I cook!)

It looks great on the repainted island.

We can have a few mugs ready for hot drinks,

and some sweets like caramels, chocolates, figs...

but no eating of the fake acorns!

I think it will work perfectly

as a cocoa station later in the season.

Happy Fall Day!

histoire de Pommes cross stitch embroidery

I started this "delicious" embroidery at the beginning of the stay-at-home order,thinking it was the perfect time to workon such a large project:

It was and it is, but I have been back at work for months,so it is slow going.....I am not sure I am going to be done in timefor apple season!
The pattern is from Madame la fee,a French designer,whose cross stitch grid can be purchased online,but it is not like Etsy and other placeswhere you get immediate download,it can take a couple days.

Here are all the pretty colors necessary for the embroidery,

originally I was planning on doing it on linen,

but after a few hours....

I hated the look and the irregularity of the stitches!

So I grabbed some white even-weave and tea dyed it,

so it would be less white, without being yellow,

and restarted the embroidery:

much happier!

I kept on stitching, keeping busy...

Mon Cheri describes it as my form of meditation,

which is pretty accurate!

The embroidery grew bigger and bigger,

from the middle to the outer edges,

the opposite way of a puzzle!

It took quite a while to reach that size,

it is a great activity when it is too hot to move outside!

Then I realized that in order to stitch all the white parts,

I needed stronger glasses!

And it totally helped!

See that little lace behind the tarte aux pommes?

so delicate!

I still need to stitch the donut, the cider glass, a pot of jelly and finish the flower....

Now I dream of finishing this embroidery

and eating apple goodies like this "chausson aux pommes",

literally apple slipper!

Happy day!