Falling for Fall

Smell that? Cinnamon, mixed with a hint of clove and a bit of ginger? It's the smell of fall fighting really hard to make its entry into Southern California. I love fall and so I felt obliged to help it along today by baking till our hearts were content, lighting my favorite fall candle and completing the transformation of our home into a spooky Halloween Haunt.

I started early by baking the kid's favorite donuts. The recipe from Deceptively Delicious is fantastic and healthy, and the kids get so excited to see we're having donuts. I make the little ones for them and the grownups get the big ones.

The other day I discovered that TJ's carries sweet potato puree, which
makes the recipe even easier to make.

I planned to just make the donuts but then Miss T asked to make muffins too, so again I fell back on DD and made the banana-peanut butter muffins mixed with carrot puree. The thing I love about the DD baked goods is not so much that I'm "hiding" good stuff in them, but that by adding the puree it makes them so amazingly moist. They did not disappoint the ghouls and goblins in my house!

My absolute favorite candle of all time are the Aspen Bay Pineapple Pinecone candles. I bought mine a couple of weeks ago and it's been sitting in the box waiting for the right moment to be lit, but in the meantime it's delicious scent made its way throughout the house. You can get yours at Chartreuse in Los Alamitos

All these things made it the absolute perfect day to complete our Halloween scape. I have to admit that I have not always been the biggest fan of Halloween decor. Quite frankly I found it to be a little garish, but I have been inspired the last few years by my mother in-law. She has the ability to transform her house into a Halloween wonderland and the children absolutely love it; walking through the house and looking at all the nooks and crannies for treasures. I have been working on perfecting the right balance between spookiness, fun and even a little bit pretty. With some handmade paper bats, I feel happy I have achieved just the right mood for our home.

I did most of this last night and today at nap-time. When the kids woke up they just walked through the house transfixed with all the little decorations. Tay said "gee mommy, you have been busy!" Yes, indeed little girl, yes, indeed.

I was inspired by the table scape below by this picture

I almost went out and bought some black branches and I said "what the heck are you doing? You have perfectly good dead branches in your backyard Andrea, plus black spraypaint!" Voila, spooky Halloween branches in 5 seconds flat. LOVE IT!

For the mantel, I was inspired by this Martha Stewart craft at Michael's.
I saved a bit of money, and it gave me something to do while watching The Wrestler last night.

No white pumpkins were to be had at the grocery store yet, but I was so anxious to complete
the decorating, I bought some Funkins at Michaels. Now I can use them year after year.

Happy Haunting Everyone!