From The Patch

Pumpkin Cookies to DIE for!

From the kitchen of Esther Cunningham, these Pumpkin Spice cookies are simply to die for.  Good thing it’s Halloween Season!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt.

In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.  Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 tsp vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy.  Mix in dry ingredients.  Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls, flatten slightly.

Bake for 15 - 20 minutes in preheated 350F oven.  Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.

Glaze: Combine confectioners’ sugar, milk, butter, and vanilla.  Add milk as needed to achieve drizzling consistency.

PLEASE NOTE:  These ARE the cookies that we had at the Harvest Festival this last year - the ones that we went through 300+ in a day and a half (and that's only 'cause we brought the second batch in the next day.... Enjoy!

Autumn Splendor

The prospect of raking it isn't so bad when you see how pretty it all really is...

Loving the October days....

Halloween by ESC Trading Company!

Our Fall & Halloween order has arrived from ESC Trading Company!  We opening boxes as fast as we can, which honestly has been so fun because the characters are just so jolly, silly, and adorable.  I only got through two boxes before I went home sick, so I only have a few pictures to share so far.  Here are a few:

Pumpkin Gent, by Lori Mitchell

Mr. Bo Jangles, by Lori Mitchell

Indian Guide, by Lori Mitchell

Indian Princess, by Lori Mitchell

Pumpkin Lad & Lass by Lori Mitchell

All About the Candy

Lil Halloween Boos

Check out our complete Halloween line here, and all Lori Mitchell here!  More to come!!

Fall is Coming!

Just a quick note to say that after many requests, tonight I started putting out our Fall, in small preview display.  The photos aren't great, I know, but it was late and there wasn't much in the way of lighting.

The display practically put itself together, it was so much fun.  You come around the corner to this spot and just BAM! you're hit with color.  I'm so excited for fall and Halloween this year, but of course I say that every year.  But this year it feels different (I say that every year too).  I guess life is just like that, there's always new experiences to enjoy, especially now with Ben being two, plenty old enough to really take joy in the festivities of the harvest season.  Seeing all these things come out makes me think of baking, picking pumpkins, burning yummy spicy candles and reading good books under wooly blankies...  Sigh!!!  I just can't wait.

Blossom Bucket Fall is Here!!

I know a lot of you have been waiting anxiously for our ever popular Blossom Bucket to arrive, and I'm happy to announce that it is finally here!  About 90% of our fall, Halloween, and thanksgiving Blossom Bucket order arrived just this last Friday, and it has been like Christmas at the house opening it all.  For those of you with preorders, we'll get those out to you this coming weekend.  For the rest of you, I recommend getting your orders early, because it is already selling fast, and once its one, its usually gone! 

P.S.  For those of you local folks, this stuff won't go out until August, so you won't find it in the store.  However, feel free to place an order online, we'll pull it together for you, and you can come pick it up!

Here are some photos....

This is just a sampling of all the fantastic designs of artists such as Barbara Lloyd, Suzi Skoglund, Heather Myers, and more!  Click here to see our complete offering of Blossom Bucket figurines!

Studio Bakeshop

Oh my yes, are we cooking up some great things in the artsy-fartsy studio bakeshop!  Sneak peeks just for you....

Great things to come!  Ooooo, I can't wait...

Pumpkin Picking

Chris and I find traditions very important.  There are just certain things you do at certain times.  We are not dogmatic or regimented about them – we simply love traditions because they are fun and provide a fantastic excuse to take a break and go do something together as a family. 

Last Saturday we packed up Benjamin and headed over to Craven Farm in our beloved Snohomish so that Benjamin could having his first experience with picking out the all-important Halloween pumpkin. 

 

We had no illusions that he would actually know what Halloween was, or care about a pumpkin as anything more than one of about a billion toys covering the whole festival area, but we knew the experience itself would be great fun for him, and memorable at the very least for us.  We were not disappointed. 

Craven Farm is nestled in Snohomish’s farmlands (being a farm, this of course makes sense), and with the day being right in line with most of this fall so far (weather-wise), the place absolutely sparkled.  You walk into a clean open area surrounded by various barn-like outbuildings, with wood chips underfoot, and pumpkins and gourds of every size, shape, and color strewn all about the yard, along with chrysanthemums, a couple fair-food stands, and plenty of contraptions for kids to crawl into and over while parents snap endless photos.  We of course were among them.  

I think at first when we put down, he was incredulous that he could run free, relatively uninhibited, and was shy at first. 

That lasted about five minutes.  And then he was everywhere, which was Ok because they place is extremely kid friendly. 

They even have a little petting zoo, so Ben got to see kittens, bunnies, goats, geese, chickens, and ducks, all of which he joyfully named “wa-wa’s”.  (That’s Ben-ese for cat, and really any other pet-like animal).

  

 

We never did get a pumpkin, which we expected – by the time Ben had enjoyed every toy there, he was exhausted and never would have lasted in the line, even though it moved pretty quickly.  We packed him back up in the car and he was asleep inside two minutes.  We picked up a pumpkin at the local farm stand by our house, and he just slept.

A very good recipe for a successful nap, if you ask me!

Thoughtful Friday 11

"Listen!  The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves, we have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!" - Humbert Wolfe

Fummer...? Or, Sall...?

Here is a bit of pretty for you.  Seems appropriate this time of year, as we're just getting into that gorgeous time of year where it is kind of fall and summer at the same time.  Fummer.  Or Sall.  Anyway, the sunflowers are blooming, leaves are starting to die, and it is hot, but we're getting some nice fall-like breezes and smells.  I like the smell of dead fields.  We were in the car the other day, stopped at a light next to a large span of dead grass, and Chris says "why does it smell like fall?"  So true.  Some dead things smell really very nice.

The photo is of a design painting I did in college.  Sometime I'll tell you how it was created, as it was the third in a series of design products that grew more and more complicated until it came to this painting.  It was also a color lesson - every color in the painting I created using basic primaries, plus black and white.  It was such a wonderful class!  Anyway, I was entertaining the idea of selling prints of the painting, but I'm not sure if anyone besides me loves this painting.  We'll see.

Adding more products like mad to the site!  It's killing me, because I have a whole big huge spreadsheet of products ready to get uploaded onto the site, but just haven't been able to do it yet, as it is a time consuming, complicated process.  But we've got Tag, Blossom Bucket, and Kurt Adler Christmas all ready to go, just sitting here waiting!  Ack!  But it is coming, I promise. :)

Take care...

Seasons of Cannon Falls

So sorry it has been so long since we've written!  All of our Christmas and Fall stock has been arriving, and we are furiously trying to open up all the boxes, prices everything, and find a place for it all before the next big shipment arrives!  We've had some long stressful days, but it is so much fun to see everything in person finally!  This means that within the next several days, I'm taking off most of the preorders for the Fall and Christmas, so that everything shows on the site as being ready for immediate shipment!  It is so much fun!

Today I am working on our Seasons of Cannon Falls order.  Here is some eye candy for you, just a few of the over 150 Seasons of Cannon Falls seasonal goodies we have!  Enjoy!

Girl on Pumpkin Container, by Nicole Sayre

Glittered Star Treetop

Happy Halloween Blocks Set

Merry Old Soul Santa

Noel Door Swag, by Wendy Addison

Oh Little Snowman Salt & Pepper Shaker Set

Welcome Pumpkins

Vintage Winter House

See all Christmas here, Fall/Harvest here, and Halloween here!  More to come!