Autumn Dinner Party

Remember this gourd wreath I made?  Well over at Violets & Laurel we made it our centerpiece for our Autumn dinner party.  Head over there to see all the details and for other great events we put on.

Also,

last years Autumn dinner party

&

our Summer dinner party.

xo

Erin

Renting A Vacation Cabin

Looking back, we typically vacation in cabin rentals.  We did for our honeymoon, for Christmas and we even rented a one room cabin at a KOA when we went to Niagara Falls.  Ryan did the same when he surprised me with this New Hampshire vacation!  For this trip he chose to rent a cabin on a picturesque lake in North Conway, NH.  Vacation rentals can be found all over the inter-webs simply by googling the location and cabin rentals.  There is always Craigslist (be careful of scams) and vrbo.com where Ryan found this cabin.

Reasons I like to vacation in rental cabins:

- We could invite lots of friends and family to join us.

- We could bring our dog Glacier!

- There's a kitchen to cook our own meals, which is very attractive if you are allergy free.

- We could relax! and not always have to be on the go to find our next meal or place to go.

- We could take advantage of the property for things we would have to pay for if we were staying in a hotel.  In this cabin we were able to swim (at all hours, even the night), have camp fires, kayak, canoe, grill and enjoy the scenery!

- We could play loud music and laugh all night during our spade tournaments.

I'm already wondering where our next vacation rental will be!

xo

Erin

Things to Do in October Around New Hampshire

Ryan surprised me with an trip to New Hampshire last week before our lives started to get a little hectic busy.  It sure was an amazing surprise.  He put so much planning into it by renting us a lake cabin and secretly inviting our friends to join us up there.  I really had no idea all of it was being planned. 

We ended up going up to New Hampshire during prime time when all the leaf peepers (yes that is what they are really called!) head up to see the tree colors.  This post is to tell you the places we went to see to act more as a guide for others looking for activities while there. I will be posting more about our adventures and the lake cabin a little later.

Let me first start out saying we were in the North Conway, NH area.  

Everything we did was within an hours drive.

Cog Railway

Mt. Washington

This was truly great.  The trip up and down were narrated and was informative as you took in the views.  I've driven to the top of Mt. Washington before on the Auto Road and I preferred the railway to driving for the simple fact I wasn't so worried for my life the entire time.  If that kind of stuff doesn't bother you, both ways up are good.  Or even better,  hike it!  Anyway you do it, get to the top of Mt. Washington!

The Flume

Lincoln, NH

The Flume is a natural gorge with a waterfall/river going through.  Plank ways were built so we were able to walk right into the gorge.  It was breathtaking and unexpected.  We ended up walking the full loop hike instead of going back down through the gorge which I wish we would have gone back through just to see it again.

Gondola Skyride

Mt. Loon, Lincoln, NH

This activity wasn't my favorite.  To me it felt like a regular ride up a ski lift and it made me motion sick on the way down.  Although, the view on top was good and there was a neat glacier cave trail.

Kancamagus Highway

A 26 mile stretch of highway with amazing views and scenic stops.

Cathedral Ledge State Park

North Conway, NH

We caught a sunrise here!  There is a road to the top, which we took, but you can also hike to the top.  The view is perfect for the sunrise.  We brought our hiking stove and made breakfast on top.

and some great restaurants...

Moat Mountain Brewing Company

North Conway, NH

Woodstock Inn Station and Brewery

North Woodstock, NH

That is what we fit into our too short vacation up to New Hampshire.  We also spent time enjoying our cabin and kayaking on the lake.  New Hampshire has "Brake for Moose" signs everywhere and did I see one moose?.... no.  Anyway have any of you been to New Hampshire?  What did you do while you were there? I'd love to hear.

xo

Erin

DIY Gourd Wreath

I love decorating this time of year, especially with all the gourds and mini pumpkins you can get from an orchard.  I usually get the gourds and set them on the deck railings or up the stairs but this year I wanted to try something a little different and make a wreath.

I don't love buying materials for DIY projects and tend to make due with what I have on hand, so instead of buying a wreath base I made it all from ivy in the yard.

Items You Need:

 (Giant Dog Not Needed)

Ivy - I used some that was growing up trees in my front yard, I know one kind was English Ivy but I'm not sure what the other type of ivy I grabbed was.  Although, I know it wasn't poisonous, so don't be grabbing any poison oak.  Any branch or ivy (non-poisonous) that is bending will probably work for this.

Wire - I used some floral wire I had on hand. Most any wire will do.

Scissors - or wire cutter

Gourds and/or Mini Pumpkins

Start by making one of the ivy branches into a circle and then secure and then continue to add ivy branches until it looks like a full wreath.  Secure each main branch as you go and I tucked the off shooting branches in where they fit so they didn't stick out everywhere.

Then lay out where you want your gourds and/or mini pumpkins before you start securing so you get the look you want.

Now start securing the gourds and pumpkins to the wreath with your wire.  This is the hardest part.  I have no great way to do this.  A little tip though is to know which way is up when you will be hanging your wreath and wire according to which way gravity will be pulling.

And viola, hang your gourd wreath!

I love how it looks and adds more interest then just setting some gourds on my deck railings.

xo

Erin

 

UPDATE:  We made this wreath our centerpiece at an Autumn dinner party here!

Things I Did Last Fall

Mt. Washington
I rediscover my love for Autumn each year when it comes along.  Last year we had a few adventures during the season including my first trip to Mt. Washington (above).  We have plans to go back in a couple weeks so Ryan can do a night hike.... EEEK!

Amanda and I threw an awesome Autumn dinner party, which we are planning on doing again in the next few weeks!

We went to the Roger Williams Pumpkin Spectacular for our third year.  You bet we will be going back for our annual trip this year.

Last year I was able to fly home to my parent's house during their business season at  Nature's Select Orchard and I loved it!  Wish I could have gone this year but we plan on going at a different time this year.  

In the meantime I have to find some orchards or pumpkin patches in New England worth going to.

Stay tuned, I'll let you know what I find and the other adventures this season brings.

xo

Erin

Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Rachael from Tumbleweeds and Tantrums hosted all of us military families that weren't going home for the holiday.  A few weeks before the big event she told me she wanted a sit down meal and wanted my help.  I don't think she will ever know how happy that made me asking for my help!  

We got to work right away.

My mom mailed me all the pumpkins and gourds we used for the day from Nature's Select Orchard.

Rachael got her table inspiration from here.

I made all the gals flower crowns and everyone got a place cards with inspiration from here.

Everthing turned out great!

Thanks Rachael!

Now on to Christmas ;)

xo

Erin

See another Thanksgiving we had together here.

See out Autumn Dinner Party here.

Table Settings for Thanksgiving

See the full blog post and more pictures of this table setting here.

See the more pictures of this table setting and our autumn dinner party here.

You can probably already tell I love dinner parties and what is Thanksgiving than the all American dinner party?!

I love creative ways to decorate a table. 

How are you decorating your Thanksgiving table this year?

Check out some more ideas here.

xo

Erin

It's Not Winter Yet...

I've been hearing friends and family say they got a jump on Christmas this year and are already done with all of their shopping.  I love Christmas time and all it represents but it seems unnatural to me to start all the celebration before Thanksgiving!  Don't get me wrong, I put up the Christmas decorations and listen to Christmas music 24/7 but only starting the day after Thanksgiving.  I also just want to hang onto Autumn as long as I can because it's also one of my favorite times.  This fall, I was able to go home to my parents orchard to help out and I took a billion pictures.  Here are some more images to keep us all in the Autumn season and don't forget everything you are thankful for!

You can see more of my visit to the orchard this year and more posts about Nature's Select Orchard here.

xo

Erin

Autumn Dinner Party

Amanda from Amanda Louise and I did it again; a dinner party!  I'm so thankful to have her as a friend.  We both love to throw dinner parties and even decided to continue this year with one for each season! 

This go around, we added a kids table equipped with  sparklers, fun straws, 

and markers to draw on the table top.

I mailed myself some decorative gourds from my parent's orchard when

 I was home this fall and we had a bit of an adventure getting those cattails! 

Ryan of course helped out again by cutting our slab of wood for the center piece

 and making creative cinder block heaters to keep us warm on the deck.

It was a fun night but we learned some lessons from this one that we won't repeat next time.  We decided to make a day of it and started cooking in the afternoon and figured we would slowly pull it all together in plenty of time to snap photos while the sun is still out and casually wait for our guests to arrive.  Well, we ended up frantically trying to cook everything, especially Amanda's pumpkin pie, and just felt this time crunch we weren't expecting.  We did pull it all together but with better planning (making the food the night before, or in the morning) we can enjoy the fun part much more (all the decorating and DIY's)!!

Head over to Amanda Louise to see more photos of the night

 and to find out how much we spent on the night!

Stay tuned for our winter dinner party in February!

See our Summer dinner party on the patio here.

See our DIY deck furniture here.

Check out our inspiration for the night here.

xo

Erin