Fall Bucket List

A lot of bloggers are starting to share their fall bucket lists and I did one last year so I thought I would do another one this year as well! Now that we have a child I am looking forward to creating a few fun new fall traditions! Here is my list (and clearly most of it revolves around food...):

What's on your fall bucket list this year?

New fall art.

I found this quote today and really liked it so I thought I would make a print and display it for the fall season. I am slowly adding fall decorations to our decor, but since we live in a new place this year I am having a hard time figuring out where everything should go. And I also want to incorporate some new stuff this year so I am basically just switching things around and trying to figure out how I want it. I can see this turning into a week-long project though! Plus, I think I will probably switch some things out for both Halloween and Thanksgiving. We will see how things turn out!

Do you decorate for the fall season? What are some of your favorite items?

Fall Playlist

Via

I have probably mentioned this on the blog before, but my husband makes the best playlists for every season & for Christmas. He just finished his fall playlist last weekend so we could listen to it on our drive and it's pretty great. I just let him find new music for me so I don't have to do all of the work. It works out well! If you're interested in some fall music, here's the playlist!

Griffin House - Better Than Love
Villagers - The Pact (I'll Be Your Fever)
The Lumineers - Ho, Hey
Brandi Carlile - Heart's Content
Mumford & Sons - I Will Wait
Ryan Adams - My Winding Wheel
Sea Wolf - Leaves in the River
Sam Phillips - Reflecting Light
Matt Pond PA - Locate the Pieces
Kings of Leon - Back Down South
The Decemberists - June Hymn
Chris Cornell - The Keeper
Radical Face - Welcome Home
The Lonely Hearts - Heartbreaker
Brandi Carlile - That Wasn't Me
Denison Witmer - Stations
Apartment - Fall Into Place
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife 3
Sondre Lerche - Modern Nature
Sufjan Stevens - Holland

What are some of your favorite songs to listen to during the fall?

First pumpkin taste of the season (and other fall tidbits)

I had pumpkin oatmeal and coffee with a dash of cinnamon for breakfast today. I love welcoming pumpkin back into my life! And yes, my oatmeal is bright orange because I added a lot of pumpkin. But in my world one can never have too much! And it's healthy so there's that too. Now that I have an open can of pumpkin in my fridge I need to decide what I want to make with the rest of it (besides more pumpkin oatmeal, of course).

I finally made my way to Whole Foods yesterday and just had to stop at Bath & Body Works next door to smell all of their wonderful fall scents. It took me forever to decide, but I finally settled on the Warm Apple Cider hand soap. I wash my hands quite frequently so I love that I will be smelling fall all day long.

NFL football season officially kicks off tonight. I am super excited, especially since I have two fantasy players going tonight (Eli Manning and Dan Bailey, Dallas' kicker). I hope my team does better than it did last year!

Have you started cooking with pumpkin yet? Any suggestions for what I should make?
Do you use fall-scented hand soaps?
Will you be watching football tonight?

Apple pie oatmeal on a humid morning.

I caved. I wasn't going to make anything on my "Fall Inspiration" board, which includes many apple and pumpkin recipes, until after Labor Day. However, I am feeling a bit fall-ish today since we have our fantasy football draft tonight. So I made apple pie oatmeal for breakfast. And it was delicious. I'll save the pumpkin oatmeal for later this month. I'm going to keep going with the fall trend and make some chili and jalapeno cheddar cornbread for dinner. I usually wait to make any type of chili or soup until it actually gets cool outside, but I figure I will make tonight the exception. And for some reason I have been obsessed with the cheddar and jalapeno combination lately. Here's to hoping I have a good draft tonight!

What fall recipes are you looking forward to making?
Do you play fantasy football?

Introducing a little bit of fall...and some weekend tidbits.

We are slowly transitioning to fall in our home. I won't go into full fall mode until after Labor Day though, which I always view as the unofficial end to summer. Last night we lit our Woodwick Fireside candle and this morning I brewed some pumpkin spice coffee. It just feels nice to savor some of these little fall pleasures and think ahead to the next season.

We had a nice weekend as a little family. We visited my in-laws and had dinner with them, then ended up visiting some friends at the last minute and got ice cream from my favorite little ice cream place in our old town.

Eli was really into our in-laws' dog. I'm just not sure the dog is into him!

The next day we went to this cute little vintage store and then hung out at a coffee shop with some blended coffees. I chose a fabulous chocolate and peanut butter blend and will definitely need to try to re-create it at home! I made a Hawaiian pizza for dinner before Jon headed to hang out with a friend and I relaxed with a glass of wine and some magazines after our son was in bed.

What did you do this weekend? Have you started thinking about fall yet?

Hellooo autumn!

Source: flickr stream Simply Stardust via Pinterest

It's officially my favorite season. Quick recap of last night - the concert was amazing. The Foo Fighters played for almost 3 hours and I really think it was the best concert I have ever been to. The only things that weren't cool was the guy smoking in the same row as us INSIDE the arena and the girl next to me spilling her drink all over the floor, resulting in soaking my canvas shoes all the way through to my socks & me having to stand in a puddle. Seriously, people? I ended up getting paper towels to try to soak up some of the spilled drink, but it was still pretty wet. Otherwise, it was a really fun anniversary night!

The main school district I sub in is closed today so I'm off work with Jon on his day off so we plan to run some errands and to start checking out baby stuff. I have a feeling we are going to be overwhelmed! We also hope to go out to dinner with his brother and wife tonight at a local restaurant. I can't even remember the last time we went out to eat so I'm pretty excited to just relax tonight!

What's your favorite band? Mine is the Foo Fighters (obviously), but I love so many different types of music and listen to a lot of songs seasonally.
What's your favorite restaurant? Mine is a local German restaurant - they have the best German potato salad, sausages, sauerkraut, and applesauce!

Fall fun list.

Taken at a local metropark - Fall 2010

I've started working on my fall fun list and here is what I have so far:

• Go to a pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins
• Carve the pumpkins!
• Make apple cider with red hot cinnamon candies mixed in
• Go to a friend's Halloween party
• Make new soup recipes
• Try a new pumpkin recipe
• Take a walk through the local metropark when the leaves are changing
• Put some mums on the front porch

I will most likely add to this as the season goes on, but thought I would share what I have so far!

I think I asked this before, but I want to hear from all of you - what is on your fall fun list?

Let's talk soup.

I think this buffalo chicken soup looks delicious - from BHG via Pinterest

 I'm pretty sure I could eat soup every single day and never get tired of it. I've already made creamy potato soup, creamy chicken and wild rice soup and a few random canned soups for quick dinners (minestrone & tomato) this year. And it's only September 16th. I have many more soup making months ahead of me! I have chicken tortilla soup lined up for the weekend, but I'm always looking for new recipes! I do have a few saved on Pinterest, but I would like to know what your favorite soup, stew or chili recipe is or a soup that you are planning to make sometime this year.

So link up your recipes! :)

Fall drinks.

via Pinterest

I posted on my Facebook about really missing coffee on days like today. I have been exhausted the past 2 mornings and could really use that caffeine boost! However, I have chosen not to drink caffeine during my pregnancy. I know that you are allowed to have 200 mg., but I have decided not to drink it because there are conflicting views and I just feel better cutting it out. However, I do still eat chocolate because it doesn't have that much caffeine in it.

So I've been thinking a lot about fall & winter drinks today. Jon's mom has always made apple cider with cinnamon red hots melted into it so we have adopted that recipe into our family as well. I also really like apple cider with caramel in it. Hot chocolate is another favorite of mine. I want to try some new drinks this year though so my question for you is...

What is your favorite non-caffeinated and non-alcoholic fall drink? (I know that limits it down!)

Thinking about fall boots.

These would be great weekend boots! - Source

It still feels like fall here in central Ohio so I think I am going to bust out my boots tonight. I like the boots above and think they would be great weekend boots. For some reason I can see myself wearing these while picking out a pumpkin in a pumpkin patch. Yeah, I know I'm a little crazy! But really, boots are one of my absolute favorite things to wear in the fall and winter.You can usually find me in skinny jeans, boots, scarves, lots of layers, and always a cardigan or sweater.

What's your favorite fall clothing or accessory? Favorite fall outfit?

A hint of fall in the air.

A little fall decorating inspiration: Pottery Barn via Pinterest

Our draft party last night was a success, even though I accidentally auto-drafted 2 players because I can't keep an eye on the clock. I am blaming everything that goes wrong on pregnancy brain this year.

I think this is going to be a pretty good Labor Day. I woke up to fantastic weather...cool temps, a slight breeze and even a scent of fall in the air. I quickly got to work making a blueberry crumb cake for breakfast since we had a couple of our friends stay over last night. It was delicious so I highly recommend that recipe! Right now I'm relaxing with an apple cinnamon scent in my potpourri warmer and listening to the podcast review of last night's draft that some of the guys made. I am also going to get out my fall decorations today since I have the time and today's weather is pretty darn perfect for it. I think some chai tea and a book will round out my day. So I'm not having a conventional Labor Day, but I'm pretty happy about it anyways.

What are your Labor Day plans?

Fall music.

Source

A few weeks before each season begins (or a big event with friends), Jon usually starts a new playlist of songs. He's pretty much a genius when it comes to making them. I've been checking out some of the music he's chosen for this year's fall line-up and was happy to see Denison Witmer's new album included. It actually came out in April, but he's always been a fall favorite of mine.

Do you have any artists/bands you like to listen to in the fall?

Summer is almost over...

and I am totally fine with that. Of course, the temperatures could hang on well into September, but I'd like to think that they will get better by the beginning of the month. We just received our electric bill from last month and let's just say I am not happy. So now I am sitting in a hotter-than-normal house to try to make up for the air being almost continuously on last month due to the heat wave we had. I like to complain about the heat if you haven't already noticed. :)

However, activities that are related to my favorite fall events are rapidly approaching. Next week is our fantasy football lottery draft party where we'll decide the draft order for our picks next month. I love fantasy football and I am super excited that there will be a full NFL season. I'm already pinning recipes on Pinterest that I want to make during football season!

Reasons I love September

September is one of my favorite months. This is just a random list (in no particular order) of things I love about this month and fall in general. (The ** marks the source - click to go to it!)

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Our wedding anniversary (9/22 - this year is our 2nd anniversary)


My birthday (9/10 - I turn 27 this year - yikes)

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Pretty leaves

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  Football season (Go Browns! and Notre Dame - that's for the husband!)
  
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  Pumpkin spice lattes (I'm going to make my own this year & they will be fabulous)
  
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  Cooking with pumpkin
  
  
  
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  Cooking with apples
  
  This is some crock pot applesauce I made already.
  
  Chili
  
  This is chili Jon made last year
  
  Sweaters & hoodies
  
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  Open windows with a cool breeze
  
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  Woodchuck cider
  
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  Apple cider (I am planning to try a bunch of different variations this year)
  
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  Fall-scented candles (our latest purchase is a Woodwick fireside candle)
  
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  Fall decorations
  
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  Candy corn
  
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