I have a real thing for gold leaves right now. It started with the lantern, but as I was thinking ahead to the holidays I liked the idea of using gilded fall leaves with candles for this year's late Thanksgiving, which is also the second day of Hanukkah (Challah stuffing),and continuing the look through Christmas and into New Years, when I'll be hosting a fancy dress party for Adam's 40th birthday. I love the understated look of naked wood, white ceramics and gilded bits of trees. They are neutrals that play with light, and when you add a secondary color, like crimson red for Christmas or a royal blue for New Years it completely changes the mood of the design. I felt pretty validated about my obsession when I got the new Dwell Studio catalog in the mail yesterday and this was on the cover:
Oh Dwell, you and I are kindred spirits. To create a look like this for the holidays, all you have to do is go outside and gather. Gather leaves, branches, pine cones, acorns...whatever appeals to you, everything looks amazing with a little gold metallic spray. Make sure your bits of nature are completely dry before applying paint, thin applications at a time to ensure even coverage.
I have a million little white ceramic vessels, most of which I found at IKEA in the garden department, or at thrift stores. I use them as bud vases and votive holders all over the house. I also hoard white dishes, different patterns for different courses, scraped together from Anthropologie, estate sales, some inherited, some from Target (their Threshold collection rocks). Mixing and matching whites adds texture and interest, but keeps things simple and they work with anything.
Have a very Happy Thanksgiving! xoxo, Heather
I've had a couple of craft store pumpkins sitting in my work space (aka my dining room table) for several weeks just collecting dust while I worked on other things. I finally got to them, now that you've been totally inundated with Halloween decor ideas, so just know that I'm planning on rocking them on the Thanksgiving table as well. These are "transitional" pumpkins. That's right, I said transitional. Also, they light up, so they are magic. I'm planning on making several more, because we are hosting this year and if the weather cooperates we'll be eating at an extra-long table extending out into our backyard. This project is easy enough for a mid-sized kid to work on, so I'm enlisting an enthusiastic Jasper to help me poke all the holes. I love my sweet artsy boy. Here's the tutorial and materials list...
Pumpkin Luminarias
Materials: papier-mache pumpkins, bamboo skewer, chopstick, small box cutter or cutting blade, black metallic spray paint, battery operated tea light.
1. Poke holes into the seam lines of the pumpkin, spaced about 1/2".
Start by poking the holes with a skewer, then go back through and widen and round using a chopstick.
2. Use a blade to cut a hole in the bottom of the pumpkin wide enough to insert a battery operated tea light.
3. Spray with 2 light coats of metallic black paint (Rustoleum) and allow to dry for several minutes. Pop a light in and you're all set!
Here's something delicious to make for brunch if you should find yourself with half a can of pumpkin puree leftover from making a pie. It happens. I suppose if you were so inclined you could also use it as a taco shell to hold the leftover stuffing, turkey, and cranberry sauce. You know you want to.
Pumpkin Waffles
1 1/2 cups AP Flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice (or a mix of cinnamon and nutmeg)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk (or almond milk)
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
Whisk together dry ingredients. In a separate bowl beat egg with milk. Add sugar, vanilla, and pumpkin puree until smooth, and combine with dry ingredients.
Oil heated waffle iron, and bake until edges are just crispy.
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Kid friendly idea: let them crack the eggs and mix the batter. There might be a few shells in your waffle, but it's worth it.
It's pretty up here in Sonoma County right now. The seasons are so much more vivid than by the bay, and it's chilly. With an unexpected weekend with no plans, we busied ourselves with some fun fall projects. After 2 years of sitting idle in the box, we opened up our grinding attachment for our Kitchen Aid mixer and made our first attempt at a handmade whisky-fennel sausage. More on that later. We also played a mean game of family mud football, complete with a bloody lip, I refinished some campaign chests I found at a thrift store (upcoming feature), and Jasper and I made some wreaths from the shrubs and trees in our back yard.
To make one like ours you'll need gather some olive branches (or sturdy, pliable vines), berry branches, small dark rubber bands and some hot glue. Snip several rubber bands open. Attach the olive branches together, overlapping by about 6 inches. Tie their ends together with the rubber bands, trim to finish. Stretch the wreath to shape. Place berries around wreath, we draped ours to give it more dimension, and hot glue them to the olive wreath.
Last week I really started to notice the flutter of gratitude posts on Facebook. November has become a month of giving thanks, which I think is actually very lovely. I am too lazy to think of a unique thing to say every day, which extends to writing my blog. Last week I started several projects, and prepared a few posts, but nothing felt authentic or all that interesting to me. I don't want to write something unfinished or uninteresting just to put it out there, and I don't want my children to watch 4 hours of television to make myself appear perfectly crafty. So, I think I'm going to slow it down and tidy it up. Stay tuned for some pretty holiday projects that you can work on now, make-it-yourself gift ideas, and some more recipes from our kitchen.
For today, in the spirit of Thanksgiving...I am thankful for my wacky family, and our light-filled happy home, even when it looks like this:
xo,
Heather
