Annual Harvest Party & Seasonal Treats

We've been hosting an annual autumn open house for years. Nearly 20 years to be precise. I started these way back in High School, and have kept up on the tradition for years as I've married, and as Holly & I have created our own family traditions. It's a time each year where I make a spread of soups, chowders, chili and stew to share with all our friends and neighbors. We also make a bunch of homemade confections as well. 

We make homemade suckers (lollipops) every year. In traditional autumn hues. I always make root beer and orange-cream suckers.

Cooking down the sugar syrup to make a batch of root beer suckers.

Crock pot's full of potato-leek soup, and Guiness Beef Stew.

All the fun Fiestaware Holly has purchased for me/us over the years for this fun annual tradition.

A big batch of chorizo chili, and clam-oyster chowder on the gas stove.

Our treat table. Complete with baked goods, homemade confections and of course some store bought Halloween treats.

I tempered a bunch of dark and white chocolate and made some pretzel rods. Holly always designs beautiful labels to package up all our homemade goodies we make together.

The homemade orange & root beer suckers, alongside a bunch of chocolate oatmeal cookies and peanut butter cookies with big chocolate kisses.

I love the way the suckers look all wrapped in saran wrap and on display.

All the individually packaged pretzel rods with Holly's custom labels.

All the soups are ready to share with the masses that come and visit us each year.

Chowder ready for eating.

Chili ready for eating as well. 

Our fun new Halloween purchase this year. Some 1940s retro pumpkin couple, each about 3 feet high. Picked these up at a antique store, that I perused online via Etsy.

Also, each year we put out our collection of antique Ball canning jars, in various shades of blue. The look gorgeous lit up with candles all up and down our entry & driveway.

Enjoying some rest time on the couch with our snuggle bug.

With the annual open house complete, it was time to put all the Halloween specific decor away, and break out all the Thanksgiving specific decor to complement the harvest decor and pumpkin collection we've grown over the years.

Our minimal, yet sophisticated Thanksgiving table.

Some of the antique turkey tureen's I started collecting.

Another turkey tureen.

I still love the beauty of the black walnut dining table we recently purchased. Looks great adorned with holiday decor, and lots of candles illuminated.

Also my sister Melanie, made Oscar his first "silky blanket." He loves this treat that Aunt Mel sent him.

Another turkey tureen.

We love our annual harvest time traditions. Our fun soup party and open house we put on. Making seasonal goodies. Getting out all our decor for this time of year. Autumn, and the holiday season are hands down our favorite time of year.

1st Halloween

It was Oscar's first Halloween, we wanted it to be fun for him and fun for us. I think it turned out much more fun for us :) We couldn't figure out what to dress him up as, we bought a pumpkin costume on super sale which he looked pretty cute in, then my co worker brought in a turtle costume she'd purchased years ago and didn't get a chance to use. It was hard to decide, one fit better, but the other was much cuter...especially when he crawled :) Here's some crying video of our little turtle.

He wore his costume to the church party the Saturday before Halloween, this is the first time we saw him crawl in it, it was so funny! He had a pretty good time hanging out with people in our church congregation, followed by the melt down that meant we could leave early :)

The second time he wore his costume was for his daycare parade and trick or treating. He was a bit sick that day so he wasn't quite into it then either...but we still had fun hanging out with his friends in his class.

That night we had 25+ trick or treaters, which was fun. We met some neighbors and were able to see some fun costumes. Oscar went to bed and we crashed and ate candy :)

Craven Farm

We love taking our annual trek to the Craven Farm in Snohomish. The drive is beautiful, and it is by far the best free pumpkin patch we've ever been to. So of course we couldn't wait to introduce Oscar to this tradition and see if he would like all the pumpkins. The jury is still out...

Oscar was a bit overwhelmed and sleep deprived, but he was a sport and let us prop him in a wheel barrow and up against some pumpkins :)

Love that kid. Even when he won't smile he's the cutest thing ever!

Getting Festive For Harvest

Hands down, Harvest and Autumn is my favorite time of year. I love the change in the air, bringing chill at night. I love the pending holiday season of Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and the end of the year. Canning and putting up a bunch of farm fresh produce for the winter season. Hosting our annual open house with a huge spread of soups, stews, chowder and chili. I've always loved this time of year. 

Friends of ours recently brought us over a gorgeous potted Mum for our new home entry. It's the perfect backdrop to copious amounts of the seasonal gourd.

Our new front entry has a deck, benches and landing area. Perfect to enhance with gourds and pumpkins.

Accenting our potted shrubs.

Getting the front entry ready with decor.

Our front entry Mum.

Getting all the Halloween decor out inside as well.

Our new Room & Board Black leather chair and ottoman in our formal living room. A perfect accent to our newly painted white fireplace. The interior is all coming together.

My favorite harvest luminaries we've had for years.

The cast iron witch Holly and I both adore. This has been in our home during the Halloween season for years as well. I love our annual traditions. Picked up the Orange and Black glass tray in Venice, Italy on vacation a few years ago.

Haunted House and Marimekko bowls make a nice accent to our formal living shelving.

Milk glass cake plates, and our pewter pumpkin tureen. Perfect for our new hutch in our formal dining area.

My Mom's antique cake plate we inherited, after she passed away. Makes a great year round addition in our dining room to remind me of her presence and influence in my life.

The new black walnut dining table and contrasting white Eames chairs. Love our white soup tureen and soup bowls we break out this time of year as well.

This time of year is not complete without the 4qt Staub Orange cast iron dutch oven. Holly picked this up for me two years ago. I love the way this looks on our stove, as well as front and center on our informal kitchen table.