Artist Living

Share Your Fall Ideas!

Me Ra Koh

I’m inspired by how New England celebrates the fall. In Chatham, they bring in trucks of pumpkins and the whole town comes out to help unload the pumpkins. Their bookstores are also filled with favorite ghost stories from old Inns and Lighthouses. I took a peak at one of the books and read about how a certain Inn owner was shutting his restaurant down for the night, blew out all the candles and locked up. Then he looked in the window and ALL the candles were relit! Spooky!

On Monday morning, we did a photoshoot in Boston for Stacy Debroff, CEO of Mom Central. We got the full tour of her private garden and the Maple trees were showing off all their fall splendor. I loved how Stacey had four or five candles lit on her kitchen counter all day. Each candle was a favorite fall scent and made you want to cozy up on her couch with a good book.

Brian and I also like to take walks with the kids and collect our favorite leaves. Then we sit by the fire as we string the leaves to hang in the windows.

Last week I took advantage of the last yummy peaches and made us peach cobbler one morning for breakfast. It’s kind of a Fall’ish thing to do right?! (Any excuse to have cobbler for breakfast works for our family. :)) But my favorite…my absolute favorite is pumpkin pie with a big dollop of whip cream!

Yep, it’s safe to say that Fall is my favorite season.

What are your Fall traditions? Fall recipes, candle scents, favorite books, decorating traditions of any and all kind! What do you do for Thanksgiving? What do you do for Halloween? Tell all!

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  1. Lauren says:

    Falls in Michigan are soooooooooo beautiful. The colors are just stunning – they are breaking out full force right now. A big thing to do around here is to get the family together on the weekend and go to the local apple orchard. You can go on hayrides, pick apples, drink fresh apple cidar (it’s super good HOT with spices!), and eat fresh donuts off the line. You can pick out your pumpkins, and a lot of places also make giant corn mazes. Candy apples are also a must.

    My family always used to go on a “color tour.” We’d drive to all our favorite state parks and go hiking just to enjoy the crisp air and the beautiful colors on the trees. I plan on taking the family this year because the weather has been perfect for prime tree color!

    I have all sorts of plans for trying new things with my photography, too. I want to get pictures of all the usual stuff, but I always want to try some action shots of the kids jumping into giant leaf piles, or sitting out around the last bonfire for the year. I have this idea in my mind of sitting the baby down in all sorts of leaves and letter her play with them… and transforming a few prime photos into black & white and then coloring in a red leaf or two.

    Evenings are best with a good book, some yummy candles, and a big mug of hot apple cidar with a splash of spiced rum.

  2. Dawn Beirnes says:

    We love to go to craft fairs in the fall. In Bell Buckle, Tennessee, they have an awesome one. It’s a huge fundraiser for Webb School. The entire town is one giant craft fair, so you walk around the cutest town! My family loves carmel apples! I love to takes walks in the crisp air, and to look at the stars at night when it’s really crisp! We also go to a Pumpkin Farm every year in our town. I’ll post some pictures when we go. I LOVE FALL!

  3. Monica says:

    Ryan and I both have birthdays in the Fall. We pick one weekend that falls in between both birthdays, and we drive down to Cannon Beach. It’s usually cold, but the Oregon Coast is so beautiful! It’s just nice to get away from the craziness of life.

  4. shawna says:

    Having grown up in NE, I am still partial to picking my favorite leaves and pressing them. Sometimes I stick them in a document frame, so it’s just leaves between the glass, floating in a frame on my wall. :O) Now that I’m out here, finding great leaves is like winning the lottery. And of course mulled cider and pumpkin pies can’t be beat to warm holiday nights, (and mornings!).

    Our tradition for the last few years has been going to a pumpkin farm, checking out the maize maze, (this year we went to fall city farms and dug up our own potatoes!), and finding faces in the pumpkins. It’s great, creative fun. (and you don’t have to find room for it on your fridge!)

    (coincidentally, i just posted about it for love thursday today! http://tumblieweed.blogspot.com/2008/10/love-in-pumpkin-patch.html )

  5. J Sandifer says:

    Mine is vegan pumpkin pie…I am no longer a vegan, but I still make at least two of these throughout the fall! Have to say that Maine has some of the most beautiful colors right now 🙂

  6. Katie says:

    I just did a short blog about fall…funny. http://katejamesphotography.typepad.com/ I love fall. I live in San Diego so we don’t get much fall here, but we had a few days last week and it was so fun. We went to the pumpkin patch and carved a pumpkin. So much fun. My absolute favorite thing about Fall is Thanksgiving. I just think it is so wonderful to have the family together for big feasts. It is just so warm and fuzzy. Even when there is drama. LOL And since my husband has 5 sisters and a brother and 16 nieces and nephews, there is always some drama. 40 people all in one house for dinner and drinks…oh yea drama will flow. LOL
    OOOOH and mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. MMMMMM!!!
    My favorite candle scents for fall are: Creme Brule and Harvest Spice. Both are from Designs by Chelle (a local company). Trust me they are awesome. The creme brule is their best seller and everyone I know always asks me to buy them one at the once a year sale, which is coming up.

    We are all set with our Halloween costumes. My 3 year old will be a Clone trooper from Star Wars, and of course he wanted mama and papa to be Princess Lea and Han Solo. And NO I will not be Princess Lea in the gold bikini. NO WAY!

  7. Denise says:

    Fall is definitely my favorite season – but in Arizona, its as beautiful as other parts of the country. I totally light cinnamon and pumpkin candles all over the place to give it a fall feeling as well. The weather starts getting a little cooler and after the long hot summer here, cool weather is the best.

    Our fav. halloween tradition is going up to Prescott to see my dad. Prescott has a really small town feel and they’re much colder than phoenix. Its about an hour and a half away from where we live. There’s a long street there that they call, ‘trick-or-treat-street’. Dozens of huge old victorian style houses decorated from top to bottom for halloween – we took Kayden trick or treating there last year and there were thousands of people – we loved it!

  8. Denise says:

    oops, I meant to say ‘arizona is NOT as beautiful as other parts of the country during the fall’… 🙁

  9. Aina Cheek says:

    Fall is truly my favorite season! I love the crisp, cool nip in the air…it gives me an extra skip in my step (which I could sure use right now). I love the beautiful hues as the leaves turn before falling into the dead of winter. It’s a fun time…a cozy time…a family time. One of the Cheek’s favorite holidays is Thanksgiving. We love the smells of turkey baking for hours in the oven, pumpkin, pecan, and apple pies, as well as all the other wonderful foods that we fondly share with family and friends. Our family tradition is to invite family members, as well as friends whose family and loved ones live out of state. We share a great time of fellowship as we gather around the dinner table. I place baskets in the middle of each table that contain questions for everyone to discuss. After a few hours of “vegging”, we traditionally watch a movie. This year we’ll hopefully (if it’s out on DVD by then) watch Fireproof…EXCELLENT movie! Also, about three years ago I was given the idea (can’t remember the source) of doing a Thanksgiving table runner. It’s really neat… everyone writes on the runner what they are thankful for that year. Then, the following year we read the notes written from years past and add our new ones. This year the runner is full, so we’ll start our new notes in one of our Thanksgiving Blessing Boxes from Your Defining Moments. Because we live in a fast paced society, it’s easy to get caught up in the stresses of life and forget how blessed our nation is. It’s extremely important to give to others at this time of year and also reflect on all the blessings we’ve been granted. Focusing on the good in life is so vital in the world we live in. Especially during the holidays! I’m so glad Thanksgiving is right around the corner….

    Oh yeah, my favorite fall candle is Pinon Wood from Morenci Candles, and favorite book is Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers (a MUST READ!!!)

  10. laura says:

    we always do the corn maze, pumpkin patch and pumpkin blaster at dell osso farms near our homne. that tradition looks iffy since i had surgery but i sure am going to try since i always get the most amazing photos of my kids there. we also check out our town’s annual pumpkin festival (our town is one of the self appointed pumpkin capitals of the world. darling daughter #4 always performs and of course i take lots and lots of pictures there.

  11. Me Ra says:

    The kids and I have been reading your posts together, and we are so freaking jealous of the hayrides!!

    And Katie, why would you not be Princess Leah? Where is your spirit? 🙂

  12. fall favorites: the farm, pumpkins, blue skies, crisp days, farm veggies and making soup.

    J Sandifier – I agree, Maine is beautiful in the fall!

    http://fimby.tougas.net/finding_fall

  13. Jen S says:

    One of my favorite fall traditions is to write with glue on construction paper “Give Thanks” with eacy letter on a different fall color of construction paper. We then head out for a nature walk to collect nature items to put on the glue letters. We hang it in the window and admire it throughout Thanksgiving. Each day we give thanks for so many different things!

  14. Dorian says:

    Peninsula gardens in Gig Harbor has mini hayrides on the weekend and indoor pumpkin patch. You don’t have to be jealous.

  15. Megan says:

    Ever heard of Pumkin Chunkin’? It’s a tradition/sport/entertaining event where they have contestants chuck frozen pumpkins. They have sling shots, catapults, cannons, you name it… The event it hillarious and I believe it was in Virginia.

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