Fall

Fall Tour in the Breakfast Nook

Hello everyone and welcome, I’m so glad you’re here! Today kicks off the the first of my fall home tours of the season and stay tuned as I’ll be sharing more in the next couple of weeks.

I’m joining in with some blogger friends for the Fall Decor and Entertaining Blogger Home Tours hosted by Angelina at Peonies and Orange Blossoms. Be sure to check them all out at the bottom of this post.

If you’ve been following along with this week’s blog hop and you’re coming from Rosemary and Thyme, thanks for stopping by. Janet has some scrumptious fall desserts over there and I hope you’ve found some creative inspiration for your own homes!

Fall Tour in the Breakfast Nook

Fall is one of my favourite seasons. I love the cool weather, wearing boots and sweaters, hearty meals and nights by the fireplace. There’s something about fall that causes us to want to nestle in and enjoy all the comforts of home and I love making our home feel cozy, warm and inviting.

I’m starting my fall tour in the breakfast nook. It’s kinda central to everything so this is where I first start bringing in the fall decor. Nothing says fall like pumpkins and I love to use them, fresh and faux. There are so many different kinds and colours to choose from now so you don’t need to stick with the traditional orange colours, although I love those too! I’ve kept the decor in the breakfast nook neutral and chose these wooden pumpkins to place on the shelving as well as these sweet little white baby boos on the table.

The blue and white curtains have been switched out for these brown floral ones from the Pottery Barn. I’ve had them for years and still love them come the fall. They look great with the burlap table runner.

I love using greenery in my decor and fall is no exception. I swagged some faux silver dollar eucalyptus along the shelf and used some fresh stems with some cabbage florets in a vase. You don’t need to buy any greenery if that’s not in your budget. You can always cut some branches and put them in a vase, they’ll look great. Investing in some life-like faux greenery is another idea and it pays for itself eventually and you can use it year round.

Another thing I love about fall is the baking. The fall harvest yields all kinds of goodies for us to use and when the temps go down, you don’t mind turning on the oven again. There’s nothing more comforting than the aroma of cakes and muffins baking. If you don’t have time to bake you can always pick something up from the grocers. Displaying it on a cake stand or platter makes it look homemade and welcoming, great for when company comes by.

Thanks for joining me for my fall tour in the breakfast nook. I hope you were able to get some inspiration for your own fall home. Next up on the tour is Back to the South and In case you’ve missed any other tours from this week, I have the links down below.

Blessings,

Kim

Monday

DIY Beautify || Raising a Farmhouse || Unlikely Martha || The Welch House || Life on Shady Lane

Tuesday

Frazzled Joy || North Country Nest || A Purdy Little House || Hood Creek Log Cabin || Peonies & Orange Blossoms

Wednesday

The Whimsy One || Polka Dot Poplars || A Home to Grow Old In || Virginia Sweet Pea || Lincluden Cottage Life

Thursday

Semigloss Design || Keys to Inspiration || Reinvented Collection || Of Fairies and Fauna || Rosemary and Thyme

Friday

Kim Power Style || Back to the South || Living Large in a Small House || From House to Home || Centsably Creative || Life is a Party || The Organized Mama || || Our Crafty Mom

Hearty Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon

5:00 am by kim 6 Comments

Thanks for joining me today along with 10 other bloggers as we share some of our favourite slow cooker recipes! Fall is my favourite season and I love it when the air starts to get cooler and we go from barbecues and salads to more hearty indoor comfort meals. There is nothing more hearty than a delicious beef bourguinon made slow and easy in your slow cooker. This tasty slow cooker beef bourginon recipe has a little work on the front end but once that’s done you can enjoy the aroma of it cooking away while you enjoy your day!

Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon Recipe:

Ingredients:

5 slices of bacon chopped
3 lbs stewing beef
1 cup good red wine
2 cups beef broth
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup flour
1 lb baby potatoes
5 medium carrots chopped
4 cloves of garlic minced
10 0z mushrooms sliced
8 oz pearl onions
2 tbsp fresh thyme minced
fresh parsley finely chopped for garnish
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Add chopped bacon to a pan over medium heat and brown for 3-4 minutes. Remove bacon and place in slow cooker.
Salt and pepper stewing beef and place in the pan to sear in the bacon fat in small batches. Add beef to slow cooker.
Pour the cup of red wine into the pan and deglaze all the bits from the bottom.
Whisk in beef broth, soy sauce and tomato paste. Once those ingredients are incorporated, whisk in the flour and let simmer for a couple of minutes. Add to slow cooker.
Add the potatoes, chopped carrots, pearl onions, sliced mushrooms, minced garlic and thyme.
Stir all the ingredients together and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until beef is tender.
Once it’s done, finely chop some fresh flat leaf parsley on top and you’re ready to serve.

This delicious meal can be served with a crusty loaf of bread and creamy mashed potatoes. It’s definitely worth the added time it takes to sear the meat once you taste that rich dark gravy. It makes a great week night meal or a special Sunday supper with the family. I hope you try it, I promise you won’t be disappointed! Don’t forget to check out all the links below and visit the rest of the bloggers for some more great slow cooker recipes.

Blessings,

Kim

Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon by Kim of Kim Power Style

Slow Cooker Loaded Baked Potato Soup by Jo-Anna of A Pretty Life

Cheesy Sweet Potato and Bacon Soup by Tara of Suburble

Weight Watchers Crock Pot Chicken Tacos by Virginia of Fynes Designs

Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken with Peppers by Christina of The DIY Mommy

Slow Cooker Hot Fudge Cake by Kendra of Joy In Our Home

Slow Cooker Chicken Fajita Chili by Christine of Amidst the Chaos

Slow Cooker Apple Sauce by Jen of Kitchen Counter Chronicles

Slow Cooker Beef Stew by Shannon of AKA Design

Mexican Pulled Pork by Sarah of Flourish & Knot

Slow Cooker Spinach and Artichoke Dip by Dannyelle of Life is a Party

Guest Room Makeover Week two

6:00 am by kim 4 Comments

Guest Room Makeover Week two

Hello everyone! Here is a peek of the guest room I’ve been working on over the last couple of weeks. On week one I started by white washing the dresser. I shared a little tutorial on how to do that here. The bed was really the jumping off point for my modern farmhouse look that I’m going for in the room. I found the bed on kijiji for a great price! It’s originally from IKEA but is now discontinued.

In week two of the makeover, I’ve added this neutral jute rug called the “lohal’ from IKEA. I have this same rug in my living room and I love it! I looked at many different rugs but I really wanted to keep the major pieces neutral and the price worked with my almost next-to-nothing budget. When my main pieces are neutral, I can switch out the soft furnishings and change the colour/style whenever I get the hankering to. If you know me, you know how much I love adding blue come the spring and summer!

I love the texture of this rug and how well it goes with the white washed plywood floorboards we put in last year. I made these cushion covers to add to the bed next week when I show the new bedskirt I’m making. This fall look will slowly transition into Christmas in the next week or so.

It’s next to impossible to do anything without this guy wanting to be in the middle of it, so you may see him in quite a few pics!

Thanks for joining me in week two of the guest room makeover. I really appreciate you stopping by. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please do to make sure you don’t miss any posts!

-Kim

How to Add Fall Decor to the Bedroom

6:00 am by kim 4 Comments

How to Add Fall Decor to the Bedroom

Hello everyone! I wanted to share how I add fall decor to the bedroom. When we think of fall decor we don’t always think of adding it to the bedroom. The master bedroom is usually the last room we think of when we think of seasonal decorating. We tend to choose to spend the bulk of our resources on those rooms that are seen by everyone. But I’ll show you how by using a couple of seasonal pieces and changing up your bedding, you can add some fall decor to your bedroom.

I started with this wreath I made from cotton picks which became the centrepiece and jumping off point for the rest of the room. The colour and texture of the wreath go well with the neutral modern farmhouse vibe I’ve got going on.

The white linen duvet is kept on the bed and mixed up with coverlets and patterned pillows depending upon the season. I replaced the blue coverlet I had on for the summer with this cream coloured one for fall, keeping the neutral creamy theme going on. There are a couple of black and white toile pillow shams peeking from behind the white ones. They add a little break from all the white although it’s difficult to see in these pics. The bed is such a large statement piece in the room. By changing up the linen, you can change the whole look of the room.

Hydrangeas are one of my favourite flowers and I usually have them throughout the house. I use faux hydrangeas when the real ones aren’t available. They add that something special to whatever room they’re in and they look great here on the tray..

Lastly, I added a few small velvet and white baby boo pumpkins to the room. Nothing says fall like pumpkins!

By simply adding a statement piece like the fall cotton wreath, changing up the linen and adding a few little pumpkins, I’ve brought some fall decor in the bedroom. Using things that I already had on hand made it a simple and easy project.

Thanks for dropping by to visit! I hope you enjoyed looking at my fall decor and were inspired to add a little fall decor into your own bedroom.

Fall Maple Carrot Cake

6:00 am by kim 6 Comments

Fall Maple Carrot Cake

Hi everyone! I’m sharing this fall maple carrot cake I made this week and I’m hoping you’ll try it out…and like it! Fall and winter are the times of the year when I enjoy baking. There’s something really comforting about having baked goods come out of the oven made from farm fresh produce as the temperature drops and the weather turns chillier. Not to mention the heavenly aroma that fills the house!

This is a delicious maple carrot cake with a maple cinnamon cream cheese frosting. I decided to make it a naked cake due to the ease of decorating it. I love naked cakes, they’re rustic and pretty at the same time and if you’re not the greatest at doing a pretty frosting job this is an easy and no-brainer way to do it. Even if you mess it up, it still looks good! I used some of the white mums from my front porch to decorate it up a bit. So easy!

If you’re noticing a large chunk missing from the cake, that’s because I we couldn’t wait to try it!

Maple Carrot Cake

2 cups (500ml) all purpose flour
2 tsp. (10ml) baking powder
1 tsp. (5ml) baking soda
2 tsp. (10 ml) ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp (2 ml) allspice
1/4 tsp. (1ml) salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup (175 ml ) vegetable oil
1/2 cup (125 ml) maple syrup
1/3 cup (75 ml) packed brown sugar
1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla
1 1/2 cups (375 ml) grated carrots

Icing

4 0z (125g) softened cream cheese
2 tbsp (25 ml)) room temperature butter
3 tbsp (45 ml) maple syrup
1/2 tsp (2 ml) vanilla
1/2 tsp (2ml) cinnamon
2 cups (500 ml) icing sugar

Preheat oven to 350º F (180º C) butter and flour 2, 8-inch baking pans
Whisk together in a large bowl: flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and salt.

Whisk together in another bowl the eggs, oil, maple syrup, brown sugar and vanilla until smooth, pour into the flour mixture, add the carrots and mix just until moistened.
Bake for 20-25 minutes depending upon your oven. Let cool on cooling rack.

Using an electric mixer, beat together cream cheese, butter, maple syrup, vanilla, and icing sugar. Frost tops of cakes and stack. Decorate however you’d like.

Recipe adapted from Foodland Ontario.

Thanks for dropping by and let me know if you tried it and how it turned out!

Kim

Canadian Bloggers Fall Tour 2016

6:00 am by kim 41 Comments

Welcome to our Canadian Bloggers Fall Home tour! I’m so excited to join in with nineteen other Canadian bloggers from across Canada to share our homes and fall decor. Each day a new group of bloggers will be sharing. Visit each home tour by following the links on the days at the bottom of this post!

If you’ve just come from visiting Jennifer of Rambling Renovators, welcome to my home!

I love fall for so many reasons and it’s my absolute favourite season, what’s not to love? Cooler sweater and boot weather, warm comfort food, the changing of the colour of the trees and pumpkins to name a few.

When embarking on fall decor I’m not averse to any colour, the sky’s the limit! Last year I used brown’s, and tans with a hint of orange, you can find last year’s home tour here. This year I was loving the colours of the charcoal and sage coloured pumpkins and thought I’d use more of a black/grey and white colour scheme.

I started off with charcoal and sage pumpkins and then found this gorgeous black and white floral fabric and sewed together these cushion covers. I added the black and white ticking cushion covers to complement them. Having a neutral backdrop makes it easy to add any colour you like to your decor.

You’ll notice lots of pumpkins! I added a mixture of faux pumpkins in plastic, paper and velvet, as well as some real classic sage and white ones along with my favourite little white baby boos. They were my main staple in decorating this year and I left out my usual cotton stems and branches. Sometimes you need to mix it up a bit, but they may come out yet, my decorating changes like the weather and I’m adding and removing things all the time!

I love any kind of eucalyptus during the holidays and this seeded eucalyptus is used all over my home right now. The beautiful soft green is in keeping with the sage and charcoal I used this year. You may also notice a bit of birch here and there. I basically have some form of birch hanging around all year long. The beautiful white and texture of it goes with everything and adds more of that natural element I like to bring into my home.

The mantel in my family room is full of pumpkins with sage faux greenery flanked by a couple of faux topiaries. My mantels change constantly and I’m mixing thing up all the time!

My living room looks out onto the breakfast nook. I have a large collection of vintage ironstone and I’ve placed some pitchers and an arrangement of platters, bowls and cake stands on the shelves. I display them and use them all the time. The rest of my ironstone is in the dining room and displayed throughout the house. I’ve simply added a few pumpkins out there along with a bit of eucalyptus on the table and thats it for fall decor. I change up the curtains out there in the fall into whatever I’m using to decorate with in the season. These curtains are a charcoal grey and white with a floral design. Whenever I have curtains that aren’t lined I place a pair of white curtains behind them to make them more opaque and appear heavier, which makes them appear a little more substantial.

I decorated my dining table with the same coloured pumpkins that I have in the living room. I’ve added some brass candlesticks to add some warmth and who doesn’t love candles on your tablescape? I had different coloured pumpkins on the mantel in here but later changed them out for all white. I told you I change my decor like the weather! I made this simple linen table runner last year and It’s my favourite, I’ve used nothing else since I made it! My table is set for a hearty fall soup with a thick french loaf…which I couldn’t keep my hands off which is why a third of it is missing 🙂

I couldn’t do a tablescape without adding a bit of fairlyights! As well as candlelight I love mixing in some delicate fairylights interwoven between branches and/or greenery. It just turns what may otherwise be natural and simple into something that’s festive and sparkly. No matter what you’ve set your table with they up the wow factor!

I switched up my mantel in the dining room and used some simple faux white pumpkins along with some baby boos on top of seeded eucalyptus with vases full of dried green hydrangeas. Simple and beautiful.

Thank you all for joining me and staying till the end! For more fall decor inspiration be sure to follow the links at the bottom of this post to join the other bloggers on this tour!

Monday

Northern Style Exposure
Clean and Scentsible
Amidst the Chaos
Heather In Heels

Tuesday

The Happy Housie
Satori Design for Living
Love Create Celebrate
A Pop of Pretty

Wednesday

PMQ for Two
Brooklyn Berry Designs
Rambling Renovators
Kim Power Style

Thursday

The DIY Mommy
Vin’yet Etc.
Home To Heather
Fresh Crush

Friday

Life is a Party
A Pretty Life
This Little Estate
Suburble

How to Arrange a Simple Fall Centerpiece

8:49 pm by kim 4 Comments

How to Arrange a Simple Fall Centerpiece

I wanted to share a really quick and easy how-to to arrange a simple fall centrepiece using what you already have in your fridge, fruit bowl and yard. For many of us, creating a beautiful centrepiece can seem a little overwhelming, not to mention budget breaking, especially when we see all the lovely pics on pinterest and in magazines. But if we look closely at those arrangements, most of the time they’re simply a few items that are easily accessible as well as easily alternated for other items we may have on hand.

Depending on your own style, choose a container of your choice. I love my vintage wood bowl for centrepieces, it’s so pretty you could throw a bag of onions in it and it would look good! I also like this little galvanized metal trough for arranging smaller objects like fruits, pinecones etc. You could choose a basket or platter in any size that will fit on your table .A plank of wood down the centre of your table would look gorgeous! The sky’s the limit for containers!

I decided to use these little white baby boos because they just scream fall to me and really fit into my neutral decor. You could also use seasonal fruits like pears and apples. The markets are full of all kinds of little pumpkins and gourds at this time of the season and they’re pretty cheap too.

Next you can pick out any kind of greenery or natural elements you can find right in your own yard. I had some baby’s breath, but could have also used some oak leaves and acorns Bub’s and I find on our daily walk.

I looove twinkle lights! Most of the time I keep them up all year long hanging on my ladder, around wreaths and in clear jars. They just add that little sparkle that makes everything look pretty and festive. So, if you have some little battery operated twinkle lights you can place a strand or two weaved around your display. If you are doing your arrangement on a platter or flat surface like a wood plank, you could place little tea lights in your display. You may want to use the faux ones though if your arrangement includes any kind of dried leaves or anything flammable. Remember, safety first!

Now you can start with your largest pieces first and arrange them in a way that looks attractive to you. Add some of your greenery between your larger pieces and stop when you feel like it looks full. If you have some lights, add them now.

Stop and look at your creation. You’ve just made a simple fall centerpiece! It probably took you only a few minutes to do and looks beautiful! Everyone will think you spent so much time on it and it’ll be a one of a kind piece, creatively made by you!

Blessings my friends,

Kim

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