Autumn's Arrival

It's almost official! My calendar tells me that Autumn will make it's grand entrance tomorrow, though it has been making it's approach well known with crisp mornings and cool nights. We're blessed with blue skies and sunshine in our neck of the woods today. With Chi-Chi in preschool for the day, little Muffy and I are off to perform some clean up duties in the garden, and likely a bit of bug hunting as well.

I'm looking forward to getting out in the fresh air! I was feeling a little under the weather this past weekend so focused most of my efforts inside the four cozy walls of our home. With a batch of apple sauce on the stove, the boys and I set to work on revamping the family's seasonal nature table. Some of the bits of summer were tucked away in favor of autumn inspired objects. Anyone who owns a copy of Amanda Soule's latest book Handmade Home is likely familiar with the "fibre garland" project. Drawing inspiration from this idea, we cut leaf shapes from my rug hooking stash and created a set of vibrant garland to add some festive flair to the table. Chi-Chi in particular enjoyed this activity. He used a blunt darning needle to do the stringing and had no problem piercing the wool fabric. I crafted a few new items myself including a fall-foliage dyed playsilk and an autumn tree puzzle. My handmade wooden toys always add a bit of fun to the table. Muffy in particular loves playing make believe with them. In no time he was placing falling felt leaves under the tree to help in the decorating. The nature table has been such a huge success in our home, helping the whole family gain awareness of the gifts of each season.

With a whopping seven cords of firewood piled neatly in the backyard, my mind has also been on the upcoming wood stove season. Though it's a bit too early to light the stove just yet, I've been doing a bit of planning for those cozy reading sessions by the warmth of the fire. This past summer we picked up a couple of child's rocking chairs on our antiquing adventures. I recently did a bit of furniture rearranging to incorporate a rocking/reading nook into the living room. I thought the space could use an extra touch of comfort and warmth so I set to work on set of hooked chair pads for the little chairs. Though I actually started these chair pads over a month ago, I finally put the final touches on them this weekend. I've definitely neglected my rug hooking frame the past nine months so this was a nice fast and simple project to ease myself back into it. Chi-Chi and Muffy were quite pleased with the extra bit of padding for their little bums!

In the meantime, I think I'll throw on a pair of shorts and a tank top and get out to soak up the sun. Though the calendar tells me it's fall, I'm hoping to take advantage of the lingering hints of summer that still remain!