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.
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.

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!
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.
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.
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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