Great autumn scents are the gateway to starting autumn. Cinnamon, cloves, fall leaves, pumpkin, warm vanilla are all wonderful scents.

Bath and Body Works makes all the great scents for autumn.

Autumn is scent notes are Gala Apple, Juicy Fig, Eucalyptus Leaf with Essential Oils.

Autumn Woods scent notes are Dark Walnut, English Lavender, White Amber with Essential Oils

I am using older wallflower plugs for autumn but I did buy a new plug for halloween. It is a cute little haunted house. I love how the witch shows up on the wall above the wall.

But of course I have to light a candle or two.

This Spiced Cider candle came from Michaels. The chalkboard drawing on the label is co cute. The scent, not that awesome. I guess I am use to Bath and Body works who really brings the scents out in full force.

I love fun little socks. I have wide and big feet so I cannot find beautiful shoes, so thank goodness I dont have a shoe buying addition.

But I can find fun socks. I love finding those bundles at TJ Maxx or Sams Club of themed bundles of socks

What I love about these socks (besides the cute pumpkin design) is that they remind me of the “cat paws” would buy us girls every Christmas for our stockings. My sister Jan and I fondly remember those stocking stuffers.

These socks were part of a set of 8 socks. It was hard to decide which one to model.

One of the autumn bucket list items was getting some cute slippers.

When I was at Wal-mart I found these great slippers. They have Mama Bear, Daddy Bear and Baby Bear. I know there is a set of Aunt Bear but they were not selling those slippers.

But since I am “mama” to my little doggos, I think Mama Bear slippers are just perfect.

October is my Mothers birthday month. She was born on October 25, 1931. I always remember her birthday because it was ONE month and ONE day more than mine.

She would have been 89 this month.

I miss her. Wish I asked her a lot more questions. But when I did, she usually said “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember” I often wonder about her youth and before she started her family.

Did she think she was cool. Was she full of confidence, or timid. Did she have big dreams. I know she liked working but never really sure if she did it to get away from us kids. LOL

One day I will see her again, maybe I will see the young, happy, beautiful woman in the pictures above.

Happy Birthday Mom!

I love doing a puzzle every Christmas with a good holiday theme. I usually like the puzzles from Hallmark. This one is super easy to do and I had no issues. And I actually did not lose a single piece.

Since I was staying home on Christmas Day with my little dogs, I decided to make a nice meal for myself.

I thought I would start off with Trader Joe’s Cinnamon roll wreath and finish off with the Trader Joe’s Cranberry Pie.

For my main meal, i was planning on having turkey & stuffing en croute from Trader Joe’s. The guy at the store told me a lot of people liked it and it was a popular item during the holidays.

So Christmas morning I woke up and after opening gifts I thought I would make the cinnamon rolls.

To my horror I discovered that I needed to PROOF the rolls over night. Damn. I resorted to the Pillsbury Pop Up cinnamon rolls in a can. Oh well.

Then I looked at the instructions on the turkey! Egads, I did not realize I needed to defrost it in the fridge for 24 hours. TWENTY FOUR hours. What the heck.

I decided to just thaw it out on the counter. The house was cold but warmer than the fridge, plus it was sealed in the bag. I figured I would not get sick.

So after several hours of defrosting, I was ready to put into the oven.

It was a bit interesting but it felt thawed.

Fortunately it came out yummy.

Turkey wrapped in stuffing with a pastry shell around it. It was quite good and actually came with cranberry sauce on the side. A very good dinner considering my failure to read.

As far as what I got myself for Christmas, well, besides the instant pot, is my letterboard saying below.

Christmas morning was a nice lazy morning. Unlike children, the dogs do not care it is Christmas Morning….until they see the toys.

Miss Olive heard the squeak of a toy and went crazy digging into the bag. I have long since given up on wrapping the dogs gifts. A) they don’t appreciate it B) saves me money.

Miss Olive received two toys. A squirrel log with three squeaky squirrels. And a hot cocoa mug with three squeaky marshmallows.

As of today, I have no clue where the toys ended up. Probably under the bed.

Miss Penny received a new fluffy bed and a new red blanket. I need to sneak the old ones away and toss in the traash. They are so old and dirty, even after many washings.

Penny was not sure, but then she got into it and relaxed. Her little face says it all.

I tend to get carried away.

As I do every year. Not sure why I do that.

Besides the Jam I made for my co-workers, I also gave them cute socks. I had a hard time figuring out how to package the socks. Then I decided to use the same type of labels that I did for the jam jars.

I photo shopped these to make them smaller so they would fit over socks.

I also used some candy cellophane bags I had in the drawer to package the socks.

I got these cute socks at Target. They have the cutest socks out there. I especially like the Xhilaration brand. Cute as can be. I just noticed they have Valentines socks. Oh dear.

What was so cool is when I posted my socks on Instagram, Valerie McKeehan from Lily & Val, who designed the chalkboard labels made a comment about my post. How cool is that?

Of course I received a couple of gifts from co-workers and I felt awkward, so I decided to make some treat holders.

These super cute dies make a quick treat goodie, unless you make thirty of them like I did. I did not want to forget anyone for the holidays. So all weekend I was gluing stuff again. Big Sigh!

I am not sure which one I think is cuter! I have to admit I am glad that is all over with. I will try not to do that again.

It seems to take forever for Autumn to show up in Southern California. Here it is in December and I noticed the neighbors trees had finally turned golden.

When I drive to work I drive down a street that has beautiful trees that turn golden and red with a touch of light green. And for a brief moment I have Autumn. I love the feeling. I tell myself I simply must move somewhere that actually has autumn. And an Autumn that happens in November and not December.

Autumn here only lasts for a few weeks before the trees are bare, and winter is here. On this particular day all the trees had turned golden. I marveled on the drive home how pretty all the trees where. When I parked my car, I looked up and noticed the glory of the golden leaves I just had to capture it, if only to remember Autumn for more than a week.

It was cold…. it rained that night…..

I wanted HOT apple cider….

I did not have any….

I went to Starbucks….

A picture of a Starbucks cup is boring….

So I added the picture of the cup on a nice table with apple floral display.

So since this post is rather boring, I thought I would add a recipe for Starbucks Copycat Apple Cider Recipe.

I snagged this from www.momsneedtoknow.com  Click on the recipe to go to her website.

I think I need to make sure of this…..  I just need apple juice.  YUM

I think I forgot to add this onto the blog.   I posted to Instagram but forgot to post here.

I found this cute little cover from a catalog called Lakeside Collection.

Here is my bed.  It threw a pumpkin decorative pillow on to make it complete.

It is a thin cover but surprising that the print is on both sides and came with the two pillow shams.  A great deal for $35 bucks for a King-Sized item.  The pattern is so cute.  I think it was worth it.

Click on the picture to take your self to the website.