sweet november, part 2

We're bringing it back this year! Tara and I loved hosting our week long Sweet November blog hop 2 years ago, so much so, that we've been working away on another edition! Starting next Thursday join us for over a week of Autumn inspired projects, crafty tutorials, recipes, fun ideas, photos and a couple of giveaways! Stay tuned!

sweet {sweet} november: giveaway winners

Thank you to all who followed along last week. And now for our winners! I used True Random Number Generator to pick three numbers and here they are:

10 Mommyswanson who said:
I just love your blog & fall so it's too hard to choose!!!!
But the yo-yo's are extra sweet!!!

14 Danielle who said:
Found your blog through Tara's pink couch ~ Absolutely LOVE your blog and all
of the beautiful, creative things that you make and show us <3

Those little yoyos are so sweet and they would look PERFECT on fall layouts or
mini-books <3 and the mini photos are the bestest!!!!

7 Michael-Innkeeper who said:
um, i'd have to say i really liked the yo yo wreath. even though i haven't made
them yet, it has inspired me too make them for an upcoming project. and who
would have thought yo yos would look great on a wreath.

the pumpkin butter also looked ah-mazing!!! i do want to try that at some point too!
thanks so much for the chance.

So, there you have it! Please send me your address so I can mail your goodies out to you! You can find my email on my sidebar near the top left...

sweet {sweet} november: giveaway a-go-go

I meant to have my giveaway ready on Friday but let's just say I'm sticking with character and lagged just a wee bit. So, talk to me folks, did you enjoy our little blog hop? Did you find anything inspiring between the two of us? Do you think fun like this is a good thing? Should I do more or should I throw in the towel and stick with scrumdilly-do (I'm only half kidding folks).

For those of you who stuck with us I have a nifty giveaway or at least, I hope you find it nifty...leave a comment here and tell what you think/ What was your favorite fall inspired post? What, like Tara wrote, would you like to see around here? Give me a shout out and I pull three names for some giveaway goodness. You may find yourself the lucky recipient of a pretty wee photo pack like this:

Or this:

Or you may find yourself with a nifty little yo yo pack all hand-stitched and yo yo maker free by little old me! So leave me a happy comment, some praise or a kick in the pants and tell me what you would like to see more of and I'll pick three winners on Wednesday morning so stay tuned!
**oh and if you are soooo taken with these goodies, you can find them in my shop! Happy November!

sweet {sweet} november: giveaway time

What would a fall blog party be without a giveaway? Hop on over to Tara's blog for a most amazing giveaway. I wish I could win it! Also, don't forget to check back here on Monday for a scrumpdillyumptious giveaway a-go-go! Have a fantastic weekend!

We hope you had a delightful visit with us this week, stay tuned for some upcoming December goodness! To catch up with our week full of Fall, check out these links:
Autumn Journal
Autumn Yo-Yo Wreath
Place Settings
Pumpkin Butter recipe
Pumpkin Spice Granola recipe
Jessica's Fall Playlist
Jessica's Hullo Fall
Tara's Welcome to Autumn

*above photo credit Tara Anderson

sweet, sweet november: day 5

Pumpkins aren't just for Halloween. They and all their happy squashy cousins make for excellent autumn eats. From cakes and breads to side dishes and soups, pumpkins pack a healthy punch! Here is a simple recipe for pumpkin butter that is so full of fall flavor and scent you'll want to park yourself on the sofa and sniff, sniff, sniff away. I hope you enjoy it!

*15oz of pureed pumpkin. I used this kind but you can make your own puree as well.
*1/4 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
*3oz apple cider
*1/4 t each: cloves, nutmeg, black pepper
*1/2 t each: cinnamon & ginger
*dash of salt and cayenne pepper
Pop the pumpkin, apple juice, spices, and sugar in a suitable saucepan; stir well. Bring the whole happy party to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes or until thickened. As it bubbles and spurts a lot, make sure to stir frequently. The mixture will darken slightly from all those good spices.Let cool a tad and transfer to a happy glass container, do NOT process this for canning. It will keep well in the fridge for a few weeks (if it lasts that long, it's pretty tasty stuff). Divide pumpkin butter into small sterile jars and give as gifts. Don't fergit some happy tags! Pumpkin butter is tasty on toast, in smoothies, on oatmeal, in cookies...seriously, there are oodles of uses for it, have fun!
*check out scrumdilly-do for a delicious kid-friendly recipe!

sweet {sweet} november: day 4

Today Tara has a beautiful fall art journal to share and a list of autumn words to inspire. Back in May I was so ecstatic to be sitting at Tara's large round table as we dug into her paper collection to create a lovely book for my road trip memories. That girl sure has a knack for layering. My book is stuffed with all my road trip trinkets as in STUFFED. I have yet to arrange or anchor anything down and must do so. And now, after seeing Tara's beautiful fall pages methinks I need to make a fall book as well. Which means I now have three books to make but that is another story. Tara has the controls for today's sweet november goodness, I'll just leave you with some pretty fall pics...look familiar?

sweet {sweet} november: yo yo lurve

sweet (sweet} november: day 3

Lately it seems I'm a bit mad for yo yos. I think it is because crafting is in my blood and even though I currently appear to be lacking in crafting space I still need to do something. Yo yo making is a super easy take-along craft, if you shell out for some yo yo makers it is even easier. I have a few makers but they're somewhere in the garage so I have been whipping these out old school. They don't take long but they do take long enough, it all depends on how much of a perfectionist you are. Here I have, just for you a fall pretty wreath you can make for yourself or as a gift. All you have to do is rethink up your colors and bits and you can make a wreath for every holiday!

Materials
*woven stick wreath from craft store
*acrylic paint
*paintbrush
*container of water
*handful of handmade yo yos
*hot glue gun & hot glue
*fall leaf sprig from craft store

Craft it up:

To make your yo yos, you can use a yo yo maker like this or you can do them by hand. If using a maker, you'll want a few different sized bits and they will come with templates so use those as your guide. Otherwise, hunt out a variety of bowls and glasses (or use a handy compass) to create your templates. When making yo yos, don't forget that the actual yo yo will be MUCH smaller than your original template so don't go too small. Check out this awesome tutorial on Heather Bailey's blog.Paint your wreath. I used a happy green acrylic paint and painted the front side of my wreath making sure to keep my brush wet so as not to dry out the paint. I did one coat but if you want a shiny, glossy wreath, do two coats and seal with something shiny like a Mod Podge, etc. Allow for drying time though. Mod Podge takes a while to dry while the acrylic took but a few minutes (about 15).

Disassemble your fall sprig by pulling the leaves and bits off of the stem or cutting them. You can get uber crafty and make your own leaves from newspaper like Alisa Burke or maybe some felted sweater leaves like these from Design Sponge but I think the simplicity of the fabric/plastic leaves enhances the handmade yo-yos.Gather up your yo-yos and fall bits. Plug in the glue gun and as it heats up, play with the whole shebang to see what tickles your fancy. Go for one side at the top and cluster all that happy for maximum effect.Once you're delighted, glob on a bit of hot glue to each piece and wait a moment for it to gel then gently adhere to the wreath. Take your time and be careful, hot glue is very HOT. Layer up and take it slow...you can always add more later but removing bits may be more difficult. Once everything is set and you have banished all those gluey threads, loop a length of ribbon, string or wire through the back, hang in a happy place and admire (wearing !

I hope you like my happy little fall wreath and I hope it inspires you to make something. If you make a wreath this week (any kind of fall wreath) send me a link and/or a pic and I'll make sure to post it here. You can also add it to the flickr group and don't fergit to pop on over to the pink couch to see if Tara has any little bit of pretty to share.

sweet, sweet november: day 2

Tara has a delicious diy project going on over at her blog the pink couch. If yer looking to make an awesome recipe full of fall flavor head on over. I'll be following it myself, thank goodness I got some oats. Speaking of oats, when the weather turns cooler we a-go-gos break out the oatmeal more often than not. Seriously, I'm a huge oatmeal fan. I even wrote up a whole post about it last year as a guest blogger for SEI. So, what's yer favorite fall breakfast? Oh, and if you decide to blog along leave me a link and I'll post a round-up each evening...oh and double oh! We started a flickr group for you to post yer sweet november photos and pics of fall inspiration so please join and share in the delight!

sweet, sweet november: my favorite fall songs

I'm not sure if you remember this or not but the mr. a-go-go & I packed up our tiny casa back in May and hit the road for three months. Most everything we own is now stacked to the rafters in the mama a-go-go's garage and we're bunking it at the family a-go-go's homestead. When fall hits, the first thing I do is dig up my fall playlist that has pretty much remained the same for the past five or so years. It lives happily on my itunes on the mac-a-go-go which is now hibernating in one of those durn boxes. I transferred a whole lotta my music to the laptop for the road trip but then the hardrive to a flying leap and we had to replace it with an empty vessel. I've been checking out cds right and left from our tiny local library and let's just say the tunes are vastly different. Not bad by any means, just lacking in my comfort tunes. If I had all my comfort tunes I could easily compile a fall playlist but since I don't I have to make up a new one. You might wonder how hard can it be but I promise you I have quite a musical library, maybe not quite as large as someone else I know (yes you ms. marielle) but it is pretty decent.

When the temps drop and the leaves turn and the light changes I dig out the Nick Cave, Paul Simon, Cat Stevens and such. Here's a tiny list of some of my favorite fall tunes...be warned, I can get kinda mushy and melancholy in the fall...

*all my little words: the magnetic fields
*if you want to sing out: cat stevens
*slip sliding away: paul simon
*tattoo: petra haden
*nobody's baby now: nick cave
*sweepstakes prize: mirah
*another sunny day: belle & sebastian
*stupid memory: sondre lerche
*margaret vs pauline: neko case
*the organ donor's march: vermillion lies

sweet, sweet november: hullo fall!

Fall has been with us here in the western hemisphere for awhile now but for those of us in the west and southwest the physical evidence of fall is a little laid back. The temps can get a little manic hitting crazy highs during the days and freaky lows at night, so kooky that we're not sure if it's ever going to get here yet it always does. The very first thing I notice about fall here in California is not so much the color change in the foliage (which, contrary to popular belief, California DOES have a fall) but the light. There is something so magical about the fall light. The shadows are longer in the mornings while the sunset seems more golden.

Fall for me begins with the magical light, it makes me smile and I find myself spending more time simply watching the sun rise and/or set. Once the light changes, I can be sure the temperature will too (though this year seems to be a bit confused) which signals the all important fall wardrobe inspiration. Long sleeves and sweaters come out, tights are gazed upon and a new hat appears anxiously waiting to be worn.

Once the weather cools I hit the recipe books and internet in search of new baking and soup recipes. I even revisit some old favorites. To put myself in even more of a festive mood, I change my color palette and start crafting with golden tones and whimsical greens. I also make up a new fall playlist and drink oodles of tea and other hot beverages. And that is how I welcome fall.

This week, Tara Anderson of the pink couch and I will be bringing you some fall inspiration every day. From recipes to tutorials, you can be sure to discover something pretty. So pull up a chair, grab a hot cuppa, wrap yourself up in something warm & cozy and fall into something pretty.

I'll be back later today with a little chat of fall goodness. Tell me this, what inspires you in the fall? Do you have any traditions or rituals? Leave a comment, share a link, I would love to hear from you!

stay tuned!

next week i'm pairing up with Tara of the the pink couch for some festive fall fun so stay tuned and come back for recipes, tutorials and giveaways! sweet, sweet november...fall into something pretty!