Good day, all, how’s your fall?  This morning, Rhoda and I off to the Antique Faire (with a chance of rain, yikes) so we’ll see how far we get.  We’re also working on two mantels this afternoon!  Meanwhile, let’s take a peek at more inspiring projects from this week.

There’s a lovely dining room over at From the Right Bank you won’t want to miss, I am especially smitten with that Barbara Barry chandy and those coffered ceilings.

Cassie makes the case for painting a brick fireplace over at Hi Sugarplum, and isn’t that black and gold mirror a fabulous accent?

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Hi y’all, thanks for all of your congratulations from yesterday, it’s so very nice to read all of your kind comments.  In other news, guess who’s in my house?  Rhoda, that’s who!  Yep, my good friend Rhoda from Southern Hospitality arrived yesterday from Georgia and I’m going to play tour guide for a few days and take her to visit all my favorite places while she’s here.  We’re going thrifting, antiquing, and to both Sonoma and San Francisco, so follow me and follow Rhoda on Twitter and we’ll share all of our Northern Cali adventures with you.

I’ve got a fantastic seasonal giveaway for you today.  One of my sponsors Love Feast Table sells the cutest velvet pumpkins you ever did see made by Plush Pumpkins with ‘real and spectacular’ stems which brings to mind a certain Seinfeld quote but I will spare you from spinning off into a Seinfeld quote frenzy which I am prone to do often, crazed fan that I am.

I love these!

Perhaps you’ve spied them over at Nester’s place or in Layla’s cute basket.  Well today is my turn to giveaway a set of six!  How sweet are these authentic stems?

These pumpkins were recently featured in Better Homes & Gardens and now’s your chance to get your hands on them!

These velvet pumpkins come in several sizes and plenty of colors like Lagoon, Stone, Curry, Chocolate, and Spice to name a few.  They’re perfect for your fall mantel, sideboard, or Thanksgiving table, and you’ll be so tempted to leave them out all year long.

There are so many color combinations to choose from, here is just a small sampling!

Good news, there’s a set of six up for grabs ( $148 value) !

Eligibility to win a set of Six Plush Pumpkins – you choose the set:

1.  Leave a comment with the word ‘pumpkin’ in it.  Or you can leave your favorite Seinfeld quote, either will qualify!

2.  For a second chance to win link to this giveaway on either Facebook or Twitter, then leave a second comment telling where you mentioned it (FB or Twitter).

Giveaway ends Monday September 26th at 8 p.m. PST, one winner chosen at random.

Two more quick things, the winners of the Style Package Giveaway and the Decorative Pillow Giveaway have been added to the original posts.  Winners notified via email.

Also, don’t forget, the Fall Link Parties start next week, with Layla hosting Mantels on Tuesday the 27th and Rhoda hosting Door Décor on Thursday the 29th.  See you there!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED.

Winner, #1,328 Aly, notification sent via email!

Cheers and happy fall weekend y’all!

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Greetings all, perhaps you’ve heard – the Christmas Ideas  issue by Better Homes & Gardens has finally hit newsstands, and yours truly is inside!  I’ve been purchasing this Special Interest Publication for so many years, and consider it one of the best sources of holiday inspiration, so to actually be a part of it this year is completely surreal. 

You might recall that week in late February when I was in a complete frenzy prepping the house for the crew and the shoot. They sent me a list of all the shots they wanted to take for the magazine and of course they all required greenery.  

Because all the fresh garland from Christmas was dried to a crisp in early January and I had disposed of it as a fire hazard, I called on Lynch Creek Farm who came to my rescue. They shipped yards of cedar garland and several fir wreaths too just two days before BH&G descended on my house. 

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Fall foods are my absolute favorite, so the other day I had a hankerin’ to fill my kitchen with a few of their flavors. I made pork chops with caramelized onions and pan sautéed pears (oh yeah), then followed it up the next day with roasted butternut squash risotto. It had to be done. 

Today, I share with you my favorite butternut squash risotto recipe.  It has cream.  It has wine. It has butternut squash. And it is so good.

Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto

Ingredients:

1 medium butternut squash cubed (approx. 4 to 5 cups raw)

½ medium yellow onion, finely diced

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

16 oz. arborio rice

8 cups chicken or vegetable broth

1 cup dry white wine

1 cup + 2 tbsp half & half or cream

½ tsp dried sage

8-10 fresh sage leaves

salt & pepper to taste

3 oz. shaved or grated parmesan

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I can’t recall where or when I saw a bottle cutting kit, but I spied it somewhere a few months ago and thought it was completely cool.  Around the same time, I saw a set of tumblers in a local shop made from the bottoms of wine bottles and thought they were a great way to repurpose old bottles into drinking glasses.

DIYer that I am, I determined bottle cutting was definitely on my ‘learn to do this’ list ASAP.  The kit I bought (seen below) ended up on a shelf in my office shortly after it arrived months ago, but last weekend as I was cleaning and sorting I noticed it again, and decided to give it a try. I spent a fall morning experimenting with the kit with mixed results, but in the end arrived at two decent cut glass vases made from a wine bottle and a champagne bottle. 

Take a peek:

Here’s the kit I used to cut my bottles and turn them into vases:

I must caution you, in my limited experience, this kit was a hit and a miss.  The miss may be attributed to my lack of skills in this craft, but I did not end up with perfect edges.  Read on!

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