Falling, yes I am falling

Okay, I've got to admit that I am. sort of, just a little bit, not tons but kinda, getting into the Fall spirit. I am NOT getting into the cold weather (hate cold weather!!) which is creeping in but I am enjoying the first touches of autumn such as it is here in California; the colors, and the pumpkins, the birds flying south over our coastline and the excitement of forthcoming holidays, the football games and Homecoming, which is next week here at our high school (that will be a whole 'nother blog post ) and well, I like the food - you know, chili and stews and apple pie, cornbread and squash and caramel. Yum!
This is my Autumn potpourri, though if truth be told I have it out all year. I have star anise in there and then my applesauce dough pears. These are so fun to make. You could actually make any shape you like. I like pear shape - reminds me of...ME. Anywhoooo. The way to make the dough is like this. Drain some applesauce to get the liquid out. I do this with a coffee-filter-lined sieve. I drain it over night in the fridge. Then the next day mix equal parts dry ingredients with the drained applesauce. The dry ingredients can be all cinnamon but that's a little extravagant for me so I mix the cinnamon with flour, white or wholewheat and also throw in a dash of cloves and nutmeg and whatever else strikes your fancy. Mix all that together until you have a nice stiff dough, adding dry stuff or applesauce until it's juuuuust right and then shape away. For the pears, I used whole cloves as stem and blossom end and then dried the tiny beauties for a day or two. They last forever and are virtually indestructable if kept dry. I belive most people make ornaments out of this dough, for Christmas trees. You folks are all so terriby clever I have no doubt you will find some new and crafty thing to do with it.

I went to the thrift store a couple Saturdays ago. I didn't photograph my finds. Sometimes I forget the blog way of things, but I did score this cheesy little candle ring with acorns. I love acorns. My daughter Megan always gets acron stuff from me 'cause she loves acorns. Acorns always make me think of when I was in Brownies for some reason - I haven't quite figured out why.
A lot of the stuff I got at the thrift store that day will appear in other forms as I have joined another swap (see sidebar) and I am making a card for a sort of exchange over at Teresa's blog. Next time I score thrift stuff I promise to take pictures. I love looking at other people's stuff so you might like seeing mine.


I will leave you with this gorgeous bouquet that the PTSA brought to display on my desk. If you look closely you'll see that I even have an autumn photo on my desktop. So I am truly falling and she keeps calling me back again.