Autumn in Blue, with Cheddar Orange

Hello, everyone! Fall has finally arrived at the beach. It's bright and sunny but a chill is in the air.

Cold fronts blowing through have brought many tiny birds to my sky. The most I have ever seen. [click to enlarge so you can see the almost Hitchcockian swarms of birds from this morning.]

Mo was very upset by the birds. Or something. Haunts?

So now that Fall is a reality, I did some indoor styling, just adding hints of colors to my usual color scheme. This year I decided to keep my cottage decor dressed in its standard blue and white, but with easy additions of bright orange, pumpkin, and ''cheddar'' to give a fun Halloween air.

Instead of digging out my brown and sepia transferware, I used deep cobalt blue pitchers, filled with bittersweet and drying sunflowers, along with an indigo blue/ cheddar/ red small quilt.

Some things got moved around to protect them from Mo's current binge of naughtiness, so you may see something twice, same but different.

Always have to have candy corn, filling my grandma's candy jar.

Another antique candy jar, at the back. Handblown,Sandwich glass, early 1800s. Filled with heart shaped cooky cutters and choclate molds.

Most of my pumpkin-colored and also brown glazed bowls reside on this blue rack.

Sunflowers and pineapple drieds.

 real pumpkins...

 Quilts on the beds.

Projects:

A fall-at-the-beach toned table runner, from Cape Cod Christmas Tree Shop. It's sari cloth remnants with hand sewed couching embroidered seams.

After Halloween I'll start removing the very bright orange pieces and the Jackolanterns, moving towards a more subtle blue and brown palette, maybe, for November.
[below, favorite mini quilt I made many years ago.]

Mark your calendars, guys! Friday we are going to the pumpkin patch. Glorious colors, I promise.

Photo with shoes by the door. For Mel who always wants a glimpse of Real Life.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach...

Beach photo from my friend L...

The Great Candy Corn Debate?

Trick or treat!

We're gonna have snow? Is this a trick? 

(more on Halloween snow in a moment) but first...

Candy corn! This post was inspired by a blog on etsy. The esty blogger wrote about how much she hated candy candy corn as a child.

Who knew? I adore candy corn...though I've never offered it as treat for my ghosties and goblins who come to my door. (I tend to go with Reese's and Hershey bars, I just leave them in a basket tied to my doorknob: "Have some goodies" ---I've never quite figured out local T & T customs, the children may come any day, any time!)

But I always buy candy corn. It's so cute, so Halloween perfect.

I love to fill a few old mason jars with its festive happy glow...

It never occurred to me to choose sides, lol. When I was a child my mom was very much into healthy eating. No candy ever in our house,and cake only at birthdays (and my dad was capable of serving only half a cake! and freezing the rest for another birthday, later in the year.).

So I was beyond ecstatic to get that pillowcase full of candy each October. I pretty much liked any candy, as long as it wasn't licorice...

Candy corn was a definite fav, right there with the Reese's Cups and Necco wafers.

I also always loved the candy apples, caramel apples, popcorn balls and Rice Krispy Treats that some moms made for the neighborhood kids.I thought making the treats was sooo cool. (It was considered okay to take such treats from moms we knew.) My own mom was like: You gotta be kidding me! No way!
Oddly my children don't like candy at all...must be genetic, via my mom?

Now back to the Halloween snow! How is that possible? I had to go out tonight and bring in my palm trees off my deck. Okay, I thought : "frost"...never imagining.

I remember one snowy Halloween when I was about five. This was back in the Midwest, where it gets colder earlier, but still.
I was Tinkerbell!
 I was adorable.
My mom made me a tiny green leafy dress about the size of a swimsuit. I had glitter green little shoes with pompoms and bells...and a hilarious (I realise now) mask with the face of Disney's Tinkerbell, including a brown rubber topknot, like Tink's hair! Oh and---I'm sure I remember correctly---palest green gossamer wings! And yes! A wand! Fairy dust! I believe!

Well it snowed...a lot! Heavy slushy frigid deep October Midwestern snow. I had to wear snow pants under my mini dress, a puffer parka and snow boots. The wings, mask and litle green slippers stayed home.

I'll never forget the disappointment.

The candy corn helped...maybe a little...

So tell me: What was your favorite Halloween treat? Most hated?  And best costume?
(And psst! Did you do tricks? Like, uh, soaped car windows, rang doorbells, or what?)

love

     lizzy

gone to the beach....

Here's the link to the etsy blog: The Candy Corn Debate

And for the doggy lovers out there, especially lovers of pugs, you must look at this etsy shop here...you'll laugh, I promise. Pugs rule! Perfect litle goblins!