Oct 142017
Thanksgiving and Autumn Home Decor

As promised in my last post, I’m going to show you how I’ve decorated the flat for the autumn season. Some of these pieces I made last year, while others are new editions. But first, last weekend was Canadian Thanksgiving! I made an entire roast dinner and many many pumpkin pies. My work colleagues were intrigued about pumpkin pie so I said I’d bring some in for them – I think it was a hit. Lucy’s work colleague used to live in the United States, and so I always make extra pie so that he can have some too. 🙂 You can find the pumpkin pie recipe I use here.

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I’m fairly particular about my Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. My family always has the same thing and I’ve sort of developed my own version of a “traditional” Thanksgiving dinner for Lucy and I, which substitutes chicken in for turkey.

We have: roast chicken (this year made with rosemary, garlic powder, parsley, and thyme); mashed potatoes; peas and brussels sprouts; herb flavoured box stuffing; honey parsnips; and swede and carrot mash. FYI, I add butter to everything and I have no regrets!

I may have over-catered a tad as we had enough for two full meals and two lunches, plus some leftovers for two different meals. I am going to make a chicken pie, and a turkey hash with the leftover potatoes and swede mash.

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My attempt at a pastry turkey topper as inspired by Pinterest

Now on to the home decor! First, the pieces that I’ve had from last year are the glass jars that I decorated à la Pinterest. One of them has decoupaged autumn leaves (yes, I dragged Lucy to the lake path to collect these), and I sprinkled glitter on each leaf before glueing it to the jar. This is a recycled pasta sauce jar and the opening is too narrow and causes candles to over heat. Our solution was to get a battery operated candle that flickers. Safety and ambiance at the click of a switch!

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The other candle holder is also a recycled jar. You can find this pattern on Pinterest. I made it with a sharpie, Modge Podge, and Glitter. I also have a small vase with glittered acorns in it that I made last year.

The next piece that I’ve actually had since Christmas is the Calavera (sugar skull) mat. My mom put this in one of my birthday/Christmas presents last year. She got it on sale (from Pier 1 Imports) and thought it was a pretty, colourful mat. I don’t think she realised it had skulls all over it until I opened the gift and was a bit puzzled. In any case, the bead work is beautiful and it’s Halloween/Day of the Dead themed. We don’t yet have a coffee table that it can go on, so for now it can look sort of shrine-like at the base of our stupid, fake fireplace. For more information on the candles, see last week’s post.

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Apart from mini pumpkins that I buy every year, and my new candles, the new addition to my autumn decor is the vase of silk flowers. The vase came from a huge bouquet of flowers that my parents had delivered to me when I passed my doctorate viva, and I use it for my Christmas branches. I thought I should get more use out of it, so Lucy and I went to the local garden centre and picked some flowers.

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Artificial flowers are expensive so I didn’t get many, but I’ll gradually build my collection and make seasonal arrangements. I’m  planning on using the poppies in my Christmas arrangement. The flowers came to around £20, and I reused the packing paper that my candles were wrapped in from Home Sense for the base filler.

That’s all for now, and I estimate I’ve got 3-4 more weeks until I switch over to Christmas decorations!

P.S. I thought I’d share that as I write this I’ve been listening to two of my new favourite songs on repeat: “Home” by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, and “Makeba” by Jain.

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The completed look

 

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