Category: Fall Decorating

Time is Flying

Hey Everyone!

What a week.

Last Tuesday was very busy, and I slept the rest of the day.

Last week was one of those weeks where I ended the week exhausted after the week I had had.

Saturday, I went with my family to the annual Greek Festival at one of the Greek Orthodox churches here in Portland. We aren’t Greek or orthodox, we go for the Food.

I had Monday off, which was nice. I had needed the extra day off. Monday afternoon I had started packing up my room at my parents house. I have been going through what I want to keep and what can go, so whenever I am able to move away from here, I will be going as minimal as possible.

Working on living a more minimalistic life when it comes to material things, has been a goal of mine. I don’t want a lot of material things holding me back from living my best possible life or making it harder if I were to move half way or completely across the country.

As I have been getting older, I have been learning the value of memories and experiences are more important than a lot of material things that you don’t use everyday.

Don’t worry, I am not getting rid of everything. I am keeping my kitchen stuff (how else am I going to be able to cook and bake stuff up to post about on Simple Homemaking), my knitting stuff (my favorite hobby), my books, my autumn decorations and my Christmas decorations, among other things.

I have learned that I don’t need a big house, and lots of material things to make me happy, give me a comfortable pair of hiking boots and a beautiful day outdoors with a home to come back to at the end of the day and I am happy.

Fall is Coming!

Hey Everyone!

The past few days especially, I have been noticing that we, here in Portland have entered into the transition from summer to fall. It has begun to cool off, especially at night. It has been cooling off fast once the sun starts going down.

The light has started to change as well, the tilt of the earth has changed the past couple weeks. The shadows are different during the day.

I have also noticed that the air is starting to smell more like fall. Fall has its own distinct scent. It’s not completely there yet to the full fledged fall scent yet, but the hints are there. It also doesn’t smell like the height of summer either.

Each season has its own look, feel, and smell. Soon, I will have to break out the Apple S’mores and Pumpkin Roll Scentsy Bars full time for a few weeks.

I am so ready to have my own place and be able to decorate it the way I want, as I have a good collection of fall decorations started.

Enjoying the City

Hey Everyone!

It is early Saturday morning as I am writing this post. Yesterday (Friday) which ended only about 15 minutes ago for me was a productive day.

I finished up the pair of socks I was knitting. I knit this particular pair using KnitPicks Palette Yarn in the colors Victorian and Hazelnut. Beings I knit up pairs of socks entirely of these two colors and had some yarn left over, I have been working in combining the left overs of the colors I have already used and making socks from the left over Yarn.

Yesterday, my mom and I had also gone to my favorite bakery for treats. My favorite bakery is the only gluten free vegan bakery in the city. There are other bakeries in town that do either gluten free or vegan, but Back to Eden is the only one that does both. I hadn’t been in to the bakery for a few months, and since the last time I went in, they have acquired the space that used to be next door, took down a wall, and expanded and done some redecorating. The space that was the original (as I know it to be) is still where you enter the bakery, but now that they have expanded, they have way more space for seating and moving around. I love what they have done with the space. In the old / pre expansion when it got busy, which it would be at times, you would constantly be literally bumping into the other customers and there would be no place to sit. There is now plenty of seating and plenty of room to look at what they have available and order. It’s also like and airy, and definitely a fun place with great food. I know I will miss being so close when ever I am able to move away from the city.

At the bakery, I had a cardamom vanilla bean cupcake and a triple berry smoothie. It was very delicious.

After my mom and I had treats at the bakery, we stopped at Fred Meyer to pick up a few items. Fred Meyer has their autumn decorations out. While I love decorating for Christmas, I love decorating for autumn more. Autumn is my favorite season. It is cooling off, yet October can have some of the most beautiful days, with the leaves turning yet it can be sunny and be between 68 – 72 degrees (Fahrenheit) 🍁🍂 and perfect. Itis still warm enough to go out without a jacket on those days, yet isn’t so warm that I am too hot.

Longing for Autumn

Hey Everyone!

Yesterday had been unseasonably cool, and a bit wet at times.

It has been the perfect day to bake cookies, drink tea, warm some Apple S’mores Scentsy cubes in my Scentsy warmer, work on some knitting, and day dream about autumn and having a home of my own.

I am still trying to find a job, so that I can do normal, boring adult things, as well as try new recipes and bake new stuff. I am also longing to have a home of my own and my own kitchen again. I do miss having my own kitchen.

There are so many things I want to try cooking, baking and canning – just not all three to the same food item. I really want to make my own jams, jellies, preserves and syrups. I also want to can fruit and pickles. I want to be able to make more breads and try new main courses and be able to do some entertaining.

I would love to have a freezer full of fresh caught fish (various kinds of salmon, trout, cod, etc), some elk, venison, moose pork (raised on site), locally raised lamb, and chicken (that was raised on site). I know there are animal rights activists out there that are anti-hunting and anti-fishing. To all of them, I would rather have locally hunted/ locally caught meat, that I know where it came from and that it was free range, and wild in its natural habitat . Meat that comes from commercial farms that use hormones, antibiotics and have cruel and inhumane confinement where the animals are living in dirt and manure is poor quality even at best.

Having had better quality food, as well as the whole fresh air, gorgeous scenery, and the whole less screen time (even if it means crappy internet), would totally be worth giving up the city life for.

I long for a life of honest hard work, to have an overall better way of life. I want to grow and raise as much of my own food as possible, and what I cannot grow or raise (or feasibly do so on a non commercial level), purchase locally from those who do.

I actually do enjoy Homemaking, and yes, I would rather be in the kitchen cooking, baking, and canning or out in the garden, weeding and picking fresh produce over sitting at a desk, in an office, any day of the week.

Now watch, I may have to eat those words, but really, in all honesty, I would rather be a modern (ie have electricity, indoor plumbing, central heat and AC, and a modern kitchen) homesteader, than have a career in corporate America. I like being tired from a long day of physical work.

Yesterday I had also worked a bit on my current sock that I am knitting up. I finally got the cuff done, which is making progress. That anymore seems to be what takes the longest since I do 1 x 1 ribbing.

The weather yesterday totally had me wanting to to be autumn already, so it would be cool, overcast and wet almost everyday, or at least sunny with the high around 65, with cool crisp mornings, and a crispness to the air as the leaves are turning to the beautiful autumn colors. I so want to be able to decorate for autumn and be warming scents like Apple S’mores and Pumpkin Roll daily.

Out of Nowhere Summer Happened

Hey Everyone!

If you are not from the PNW, you probably weren’t aware of the 206 day stretch of below 70 we had had, that ended on Tuesday. We had not hit 70 since like October 7th or 8th, and then it went from upper 50’s to 84 degrees yesterday. We are on track to hit that or higher today, since it was already 79 with 47% humidity at 11:00 am. It had hit 88 degrees around 2 pm.

I am one of those people who is complaining that it is too hot when it is 70 degrees. I prefer the cold wet weather, and prefer winter over summer. Though Autumn / Fall is my favorite season, especially from mid October (when the days are still around 65 – 70, and before it really starts to have measurable rain most days) through about the first week of November.

So typical me – as soon as we get our first 70 + degree day (Yesterday), I start wanting it to be fall. Last night, and most of today, I have had everything pumpkin, pumpkin scented, autumn colors and autumn decorating on the brain.

Summer is a necessary evil so to speak, but I do love summer evenings, when it is light well into the evening, still warm enough to be outside, yet cooling off from the heat of the say since the sun is going down. Having a backyard and back patio (with string lights up) to grill up hotdogs, brauts, or burgers for dinner, and being able to eat dinner outside. All the fresh, local fruit, that is in season, as well as being able to have it available to can and make jams & Jellies out of. Pretty much, as long as I can have air conditioning, I manage to survive summer, and it does have a few things going for it.

Now that I am working on living a simpler, more purposeful, and purposefully driven live, as well as wanting to get more into homesteading or even Urban Homesteading; growing as much of my own food as possible, summer is necessary in order to achieve the goals I have set for myself.

I joined Scentsy

Hey Everyone!

The past few weeks have been crazy.

My cousins from Alberta and British Columbia had come to visit. My cousin from Alberta, hadn’t been to visit in 6 years, his wife had never been to the states and they brought their daughter.

I was also sick before their visit. Between being sick, family visiting, and life happen time has flown by. I finally kicked the cough.

In the weeks since my last post, I joined Scentsy as a consultant, and I am working on my launch party. I joined in August to get the spring / summer testers and the fall / Winter testers. I was super excited when the new warmers were released as well as the harvest collection warmers.

Still trying to figure things out

Hey Everyone!

I can’t seem to get this post written, even though I feel like it should be written.

I have had a lot on my mind today. A lot of has to do with my future and career plans and goals.

After I had realized that being a teacher wasn’t for me, I became kind of lost in terms of career goals and aspirations. I finished college and got a degree in Social Science with a focus in American History and I minored in literature. It will be 6 years in June that I graduated with my bachelors degree and I still feel as lost as I did then, and I have no idea what career I should have or what I should be working toward.

Some people know what they want to do as a career from the time they are young, others take some time and figure it out through working several jobs in different industries.

I know I have said it before that I want to read more books as I still have 7 Outlander books to read, as well as the newest Nicolas Sparks book, and the Game of Thrones books. I was a literature minor in College, because I love reading. Since high school I have started collecting books. I have a whole uhaul electronics box full of books and then I have been buying more since then.

The six things that are constantly on my mind are Gluten Free/Dairy Free food, knitting, books, blogging, a home of my own/homemaking and adventures not exactly in that order. I would love to find a way to get paid to do all the above as well as help young women who are or have gone through what I have been through.

Preparing For Christmas

Hi Everyone!

The past couple of weeks I have been working on accumulating a 3 ft fake Christmas Tree (I love the real thing but I will talk about my reasons for getting the fake one in a bit), as well as lights for said tree and a few ornaments to add to the collection I have started already.

I bought the fake tree because it will be easier to take care of, I won’t have to water it, or deal with the shedding of needles. I am from Oregon, which is the largest producer of Christmas Trees in the nation. Due to the fact that I am still single, and looking to move somewhere else in the near future, I still want a Christmas tree, but like the idea of not all the hassle especially if I come visit my family for Christmas. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about it being a fire hazard while I was gone.

I really like the clear tear drop lights so I had picked up some at Fred Meyer while I was there shopping. I think they are really pretty and festive. I also like the clear because they are elegant and classy. For outside the house I like the color Christmas Lights, but for the tree I like the clear.

I had started my Christmas Tree ornament collection years ago when I had gotten ahold of some that my grandparents had had that are of the 12 days of Christmas, and then my aunt had given me one of Princess Aurora as Briar Rose.

This year I decided it was time to add to my collection, so I did some ornament shopping at Fred Meyer, where I got a snowman, a wreath of bells and a stuffed owl ornament. I also went to the Disney Store where I got The following ornaments: Mary Poppins (based in Julie Andrews), Tinker Bell, Merida (from Brave) and Tigger.

I love that I am starting my own collection of decorations for fall and Christmas. I am really working to be able to decorate my own place and eventually my own home if and when I marry and have a family of my own. Even if the whole husband and kids thing doesn’t work out, wherever I move will be my home, and I want to be able to decorate it and enjoy it.

I also got my Christmas lights and ornaments on sale which was awesome. They were having Black Friday sales like a week early.

I also recently hosted a Scentsy party, so I was able to get their moose warmer (fall and wintery) and their fireflies warmer (spring and Summery) that looks like a mason jar, as well as more wax bars. I am excited for when I have my own place and I can put my fireflies warmer in my kitchen, and use my cherry tree warmer in the living room area during the spring and summer and using the moose one during the fall and winter. I am just so ready to have a job I can support myself on and having my own place.

Preparing For Christmas

Hi Everyone!

Preparing For Christmas

Hi Everyone!

The