The reveal.......

Autumn Joy Sedum has finally made its appearance and announced the arrival of autumn at the farmhouse.

The bees are getting ready for winter too....

I have to say~my oh my girls! 106 comments and many of them quadrupled because you kindly posted the give away on your blogs. I am so happy that so many of you liked this sign. I love it too, it is very simple and can really go with any type of decor.

I enjoyed reading everyone's comments, all the descriptions of fall really got me into the mood. The new blogs I have found through this giveaway were also so exciting and I can't wait to have sometime to go back and look at all of the new blogs.

Some of my favorite things about the fall season are:

--I was born in the autumn of October so it is only natural this is my favorite season.

--The warm colors of autumn, pumpkins overflowing on my front porch, corn stalks, the jewel colored mounds of mums.

--We light a fire in our outdoor firepit, and gather round for smores and cocoa. Later in the season the wood stove and fireplace be lit when the evenings are a little chillier and we will all snuggle up with a good movie.

--I love the comfort foods of autum, my great aunt Anna's round pumpkin bread recipe, homemade caramel dip, baked apples, spice cake, chicken and dumplings, mulled cider.

--Putting the quilted throws out on the furniture for snuggling. Adding the down comforters to our beds and snuggly flannel sheets

--Sweaters and jeans, out with the jean jackets and boots.

--All the fall festivals we have in our neck of the woods, The Decoy Show, Fall Antique Sale, the Cranberry Festival, Country Living festival, and the Pinelands Jamboree all so much fun!

--Hay rides, mazes, apple and pumpkin picking with my family.

--Carving our jackolantern, and making our costumes.

--Thanksgiving, we host at our home with my in-laws.

--The scents of the season, baked apples, cinnamon, spices....mmmmmm.

We are getting our harvest decorating underway at the farmhouse now, my husband dragged out the 10 totes (he wasn't happy bout' that) full of autumn decor from the barn on Saturday and my plan is to have it all up by the first of September.....I will be sharing some photos hopefully by next week. School starts on the 8th for my children so I may have some time before then. We are enjoying our last few days at the lake this week. Summer certainly went by too quickly but

I am now happy to welcome fall thanks to everyone's inspiring comments!

With all of that said, I want to announce the winner,

but first, I want to explain to you all how I had to do this. Since I said that I would quadruple anyone's chances if they posted about it the giveaway on their blog (and so many of you did) we jumped from 106 comments to 182 entries.

I am a libra and if you know anything about us libra's it is that we are fair. Everything has to be balanced...EVERYTHING or it drives me crazy. It drives my family nuts but they get me. I kept a list of anyone who added it on their blog and gave them 3 more chances added onto the end of the comments in the order they entered.

I then used a random number generator to select one number between 1-182...these things are really neat considering the alternative (writing down ea. persons name and pulling it out of a bowl). Anyhoooo, the number that was pulled from my list was and what does that mean? It means that comment #24, Erica, from Simply Country Chic is the winner of my HARVEST giveaway!

Congratulations to you, I hope that you enjoy your win. Here are the goodies coming to you.......

I so wish that I could give all of you who took the time to comment on this giveaway each a sign, but I am not independently wealthy, well I'm not any kind of wealthy! I have instead decided to take 15% off the price of this sign for anyone who left a comment for this giveaway until September 22nd. So, if you are still interested in it you can head over there in a day or two to pick one up.

Happy autumn to you all!

Let the fall festivities begin!

Farm Fresh Corn

FARM FRESH

CORN

I hope you are enjoying the last of summer's fresh bounty!

The Farmers Market

had the

sweetest fresh corn!

I certainly am making the most of it, since it will all be over after this week.

Oh, the new, old, enamelware pot?

I picked it up at our Country Emporium...cute and useful.

Take Care now!

Hugz,

Dee

Victory in my Victory Garden!

Sweet Victory in my Victory Garden!

Walking through our vegetable garden yesterday I snapped a few photos. I must say that I am rather pleased with how things have turned out in my little garden this year.

I didn't always feel that way over the past few months and there were many days that I didn't think I would see a single vegetable come from all of my hard work!

I started up a brand new garden this year and took a leap when I decided whole heartedly to leave out the chemicals and see where organic gardening would lead me. It has been an interesting journey. My tomatoes once grew long and stalky and squash and zuchini once flowers fell off of the plant if I brushed past it. I quickly realized that converting over would not be all too easy.

My pepper plants are still in a pitiful state, producing barely a thing and when it does it is too small to be worthy of eating! This is something I will have to work harder at for next year.

To my surprise though, mothernature eventually took the reins and led me in the right direction. By adding natural fertilizers and pestisides, regular watering and tender loving care, very slowly I began to see some results.

Success can truly be valued after a few failures. My new venture in organic gardening has taught me patience most of all! It seemed to take longer than usual and there were a few times I looked upon all of my hard work and thought it would never come to pass. There is a reason, after all, that Miracle Grow has the word miracle in it, and getting instant gratification from a few sprinkles every now and again was just all too easy!

Some things are definately worth waiting for!

But there is a true miracle in the slowly moving process of letting mothernature do her job, slowly coaxing it along naturally and patiently waiting for it to show you the satisfaction of hard work.

I cannot say that my organic garden has shown me the bounty thus far that my "miracle" gardens of the past could easily produce, however, I am sure that this is certainly another learning process and in time I plan to master this organic garden of mine. Perhaps next year the peppers will also show up for the garden party!

Sweet Success!

Now, what is a girl to do with all of these vegetables?

Well, we have been feeling a little under the weather this past week and had quite a few rainy days so I thought some soup could do us all some good. I made some vegetable soup and mini quiche for lunch. It was a nice combination and the kids really liked it.

I sauted an onion, one of our mini red peppers, and a little bit of minced garlic in a T. of butter. until transparent. Next, I chopped one of the smaller zuchinis and tossed it in too.

I opened up and drained a can of corn. I know what you are thinking! All this talk about my garden and I open up a can of corn! Corn is not growing in my garden and since I wasn't feeling so great and didn't want to hit the farmers market, I reached into the pantry, but you could def. use fresh corn. Roasted corn would be great too!

I added some chopped basil, oregano and parsley from my garden. Then I added a can of crushed tomatoes, about 1/2 cup of vegetable broth and brought it to a boil. Next, I added about 3/4 cup of whole milk and 1/4 cup of 1/2 and 1/2. Stirred it up and for extra creaminess I threw in a dollup of sour cream.....It was pretty good, and much better than a can of campbells.

I have so many more recipes that I want to try! I will be making zuchini cake tonight...if it is good I will share the recipe, so....stay tuned!

By the way, the giveaway for the harvest sign is still on until the end of August, so if you want to sign up, just click on the link to the right and leave a comment, I just love reading everyones descriptions of fall, I am getting excited for its arrival!