Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Autumn in Ithaca

This post (titled "Autumn in Ithaca") comes to you with a subtitle: The "oh yeah I have a blog" post.

When I last wrote, we were headed out of town to celebrate our anniversary.  While I would love to say that my delay in posting was due to an extended vacation, that wasn't exactly the case.  But, the weekend away was absolutely wonderful!  How could it not be, with this handsome husband (who had a rose-per-month delivered to our hotel room!)

We were in Wellsboro, PA.  Sunday (which happened to be one of the only sunny days in all of October) was perfect for a bike ride at the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon.  Yes, we did set a dangerous precedent by going to the Grand Canyon for our honeymoon and the PA Grand Canyon for our first anniversary.  We're seeking suggestions of other holes-in-the-ground to visit in upcoming years.

Here's Justin biking (you should be impressed by my photography skills, because I also was biking while taking this picture.  It gave a whole new meaning to point and shoot).


We came home and celebrated with wedding cake (which was still delicious a year later, thanks to my mom and her excellent following of the "how to freeze a wedding cake" Google directions).


But now back to home improvement.  Another recent post showed my very nice (but very unseasonable) nativity from my grandparents.  Since that time, I've embraced the fall decorating and replaced the nativity with a pumpkin and a basket of apples:


You may also notice the addition of my apron hook (a Christmas gift from Justin, commemorating the quails we saw in Arizona last year - we found them to be hilarious, and they became the official mascot of our honeymoon).  I made the apron (with fabric purchased more than a year before we painted, but with the intention of having it coordinate the new kitchen), and I just hung up some small scissors for herb and flower picking.


You may have also noticed the new window shade.  Similar to our front door window, it's a two-sided fabric piece that can be rolled up (and buttoned) during the day, and undone at night.  This fabric is particularly special to me because it belonged to my great grandmother.  She was living until my junior-high years, and we had an excellent relationship (centered around our love of sewing).  I remember sending her letters with snippets of fabric from my latest projects, and she'd always write back saying, "Em, that will be just beautiful."  Anyway, when she passed away, all of her sewing things went to my mom.  When my mom was looking through her stash a few weeks ago, she found this fabric again.  We both couldn't believe how perfectly it matches the new kitchen!  It looks as though we chose the paint to match the design!  It's so special that my mom decided to give it to me, and so special that it was Granny Long's.  I'll never know what she bought this fabric to make, but I know she'd be really happy to know this is how it was used.


In other kitchen decorating news, we put the bookshelf back beside the table.  It stores our board games (theoretically so that we'll play them more often, although that has yet to pan out), and I've had lots of fun decorating the top:



Excuse the mis-matched candles; sooner (or later) I'll get some that are all the same shade of white!

One other fall touch, thanks to my mom.  Does she know the way to her daughter's glass-storage-loving heart, or what?


In addition to the fall decorating, I've got some fall cooking going on - mainly in the form of apples, apples, apples!  I went apple picking with friends on Saturday, and still have a huge basket of apples, even after making 4 pies (2 in the freezer, 1 for our neighbors, and 1 to enjoy!)  Applesauce canning is on my agenda soon!


As you can see, there have been plenty of fun things keeping me busy (including several that I'm saving for future blog posts!)  As the weather cools down, it has been fun to make our house cozy.  At Justin's suggestion, I'm including a picture of last year this time (technically, this was from last December since I see the Advent wreath) as a reminder of just how far we've come.




Looking a little better, wouldn't you agree?  I promise I won't leave you hanging for several weeks again (after all, we have some exciting things to share, including new furniture and excellent Halloween costumes up our sleeves!)

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