Happy 1st Saturday in October! We are finally seeing much cooler weather in Phoenix and fall tree colors in the mountains. Hard to believe last Saturday I was on a ship in the Bahamas, with hot and humid conditions. It’s nice to finally get into the fall mood and today, we will be pumpkin hunting at Willis Family Farm in Snowflake, Arizona. Welcome to Saturday Meanderings where we chat about all good things this week.

Fall Styling Workshop

This is the last opportunity to sign up for the Fall to Holiday Styling Workshop, being held at our home on two dates, October 20 and October 21st. We have only a very few spots left and would love for you to join us. I am so excited to be sharing our home and the expertise of Chloe Crabtree, from Celebrate and Decorate. We will be closing registration soon, so come and be part of a lovely day of learning, friendship and delicious food. For more information, click here.

Autumn in the Mountains

Typically when you think of Arizona, hot weather and desert come to mind. But we have beautiful mountains and lakes here. Being born and raised in Connecticut, I have such fond memories of the gorgeous fall colors in New England. School, back then, started in September which meant new sweaters and shoes.

It is tradition now that we come up to the mountains the first weeks of October to experience a bit of fall. Though our leaf peeping is not as colorful, we do have lots of yellows, rust and browns. The skies are a deep blue and the air is crisp and clean on sunny days; moody and dark when it rains.

It is also a time where we haul all our geraniums back to the Valley and let them enjoy winter is a milder climate. Every year it seems a bit more daunting as the geraniums are huge and the pots seem heavier….must be us getting older!

With such a large variety of pumpkins and gourds, Willis Family Farm is our #1 choice for pick your own. I believe they are open all of October and you can get so many pumpkins at a price far less than the local grocery store chain. Not only does the farm sell pumpkins, but they have many fall activities for families such as a corn maze and a train ride.

Have you Been on a Cruise?

The very first cruise I ever went on I won at a charity event with the Phoenix Symphony back in 2001. For a $100 raffle ticket, it was for a 10-day trans-Atlantic cruise on the Queen Elizabeth II with Cunard Cruise Lines, all expenses paid. It was right after 9/11 and the world felt like a scary place. But it was practically free and after securing appropriate childcare, my husband and I flew to London and then took the Orient Express to Southhampton, where we boarded the ship.

Quite honestly, I hadn’t given much thought to going on a cruise, being busy with 3 small children and a major house renovation. Since then we have taken only one other cruise with the entire family, touring the Baltic Sea in 2008. The QE II cruise was quite elegant, formal with most passengers on board were adults.

Holland America did an excellent job touring the fjords and many countries in the Baltic. The children still share their fun stories from that trip.

Last week I experience my first 3-day Disney cruise to the Bahamas with dear friends. My, ships have certainly improved and gotten bigger in 15 years! The Disney ship, The Wish is a new one and beautifully appointed. I didn’t have any feelings of claustrophobia as the halls are wide and brightly lit. Since COVID, Disney does an excellent job of providing sinks at the entrances of each restaurant and require each passenger to wash their hands prior to entering.

Of course, the best part of the trip was spending it with fabulous girlfriends. I hope to write more about this in detail in the future, as I am still processing all the information about this cruise, our destinations and amenities.

Making Quick Breads

Especially in October, everywhere you go you see pumpkin flavored items~from lattes to breads. There are so many good pumpkin quick bread mixes available so it isn’t necessary to make one from scratch.

My favorite go-to pumpkin muffin and bread mix is from Trader Joes. However, there are so many on the market. King Arthur has a gluten-free one here.

Though I haven’t tried this, I always have good luck with Krusteaz products. You can find this one online here.

Adding More Flavor and Texture to Your Bread

I rarely just use the mix and bake. Have fun experimenting with adding chocolate chips, nuts, dates, dried fruit such as cranberries and raisins. Occasionally I will make a mixture of cream cheese and sweetener (sugar, honey, agave) and swirl it through the bread. Be creative!

Use a Pretty Pan

If you bake it in a pretty pan, well, it just looks that much more impressive.

I don’t recall where I bought this pan as it was many years ago. But here is Harvest Bounty loaf pan that is similar.

If you are seeking mini loaves, this one has a harvest theme as well.

Happy Baking! I am so ready for those wonderful smells in the kitchen. What an easy and perfect recipe with an afternoon cup of tea.

From the Internet

Rachel from The Ponds Farmhouse is always so creative and full of ideas. Decorating for the fall doesn’t need to be expensive. Her post, Autumn Decor with Elements from Nature, is filled with foraging from nature and how to display in your home.

Fall Bucket List

Do you have a Fall Bucket list? Elizabeth from Pinecones and Acorns shares 25 ways to make this fall extra special. Personally, I have never made a Fall bucket list, but I am inspired by her post. You can see it here.

Well that’s a wrap for our first Saturday Meanderings in October! Getting ready to plan and plant the fall garden. Stay healthy and be safe out there.

Greetings from the Orlando Airport! Even though it is early October, it is still hot and humid here in this part of Florida. With a long wait until my flight to Phoenix departs, I am at the Admiral’s Club overlooking the tarmac with multiple planes coming and going under the heavy and moody Florida sky. So what better way to get into the Fall/Autumn mood than sharing some of my favorite images of the season.

Pinterest~Front Porches

I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest. For me, once I get on their platform, it tends to be a bit of a rabbit hole. However, you can find SO many ideas and tips that the love part outweighs the other. If you don’t follow me on Pinterest, consider doing so as I have over 200 images saved in my “Everything Fall and Autumn” folder (@lifeatbellaterra).

I love looking at other peoples’ homes and can’t get enough ideas from some of these exterior front door shots. There are so many ways to gussy up your front entrance in the fall. The added bonus is that I keep my fall decor up until Thanksgiving (unlike most bloggers who are already onto Christmas).

With that strong pop of color from the red chrysanthemums, isn’t this entrance just magical? The corn stalks perfectly draws your eye right up to the front door.

Pinterest~Food

With Halloween occurring this month, there are many ways to theme your snack boards or charcuterie trays with some spooky touches.

A simple spider web design onto of your dip or guacamole, can transform a typical snack tray to something spectacular. For more seasonal trays, click here.

Fall is the time of year to enjoy seasonal squashes~like this Maple Pecan Roast Acorn Squash.

After a long and hot summer, I love turning on the oven and filling the kitchen with wonderful cooking and baking smells. It’s time to prepare roasts and use seasonal ingredients in abundance such as apples and apple cider. I always find great recipes from Tieghan from Half Baked Harvest like this Fall Harvest Cider Roasted Chicken with Walnut Goat Cheese and Grapes.

Do you have a favorite fall recipe? My recipe for Apple Cider Donuts is our way to celebrate the start of fall. Baked and full of apple cider goodness, these are always a special treat on the weekends.

Favorite Autumn Photos

It’s hard to believe I took this photo on my old iPhone during a morning walk in Simsbury, Connecticut in 2019. It is not enhanced~ just plain old gorgeous fall colors!

On that same trip we toured many towns in New England, which allows me to capture all these seasonal photos.

Poland is on the travel bucket list, and look how magical this park is in the fall in Lodz, Poland.

The link to this photo doesn’t work, but this is a classic, autumn photo I’ve seen many times on the internet.

As I wind up this wonderful trip with good girl friends, I am reminded of how life is full of blessings. Can’t wait to get home and see my family, sleep in my own bed, pet my cat, feed my chickens and reminisce about the laughter and love I experienced on this trip.

I love my dining room and having an oriental rug with shades of pink, claret, beige and greens does create obstacles when decorating for the colorful fall season and holidays. But I love a challenge and what better way to dive in than taking those colors and transforming them into fall decor. With white walls, white slipcovered chairs, and a mahogany dining table, I have some neutral pieces to work into the scheme.

The Dining Room Rug

As you can see, this 9’x12′ rug anchors the space under the table and chairs. The dark claret border looks especially nice against our Canadian beech hardwood floors. See how typical autumn colors would clash with this?

Getting Affordable Fabric

We have a great fabric superstore, SAS here in Phoenix with a huge fabric selection at good prices. I select a toile, and soft yummy fabrics in the rug colors for handmade fabric pumpkins.

As you know I am not a big DIYer, but in 2020, a bug infestation ruined many of my purchased fabric pumpkins. Forced into making more of my own, I find that this DIY task is very easy, and I wrote a blog post about it. If I can do it, anyone can!

I cut various sizes of fabric circles and start making custom color pumpkins during a weekend at our cabin. Saving pumpkin stems from the previous year’s real pumpkins, I glue them onto the fabric pumpkins using a glue gun for a realistic look.

These are so quick to make and it takes no time to end up with a rather hefty crop of fabric pumpkins. Running out of real stems, I use short branches for the smaller pumpkins’ stems.

The Mantel

Starting with a blank canvas, I remove everything from the dining room mantel (and do a little dusting too!). The walls are painted a Cottage White, providing a creamy background. Our sweet youngest child, Elisabeth is 3 years old at the time and the subject of the oil painting. Holding her favorite chicken, the colors of her dress and background go well with this room.

I start adding back some elements that I love~this orchid pot from Dear Keaton to anchor one side of the mantel.

On the other side of the mantel, I use faux antique-looking books, with my vintage Virgin Mary statue under glass. Adding dried hydrangeas at the base of the statue ties in with the color scheme.

Adding the Pumpkins and Candles

I have fun playing with the different sized pumpkins and where to place them. It seems a little bare with just the pumpkins and some seasonal candles, right?

Greens and Faux Flowers

By adding some green and pale pink eucalyptus, faux burgundy hydrangeas, and a few magnolia leaves, look how lush the mantel looks now!

Here’s an overhead view and you can see how this fabric combination works so well against the dining room rug colors.

Fall Decor that lasts until Thanksgiving

What I love about this color combination is that you can leave it up from September to November. It’s seasonal, yet timeless. I am able to incorporate these colors into my Thanksgiving tablescape and the decorations become easy on the eye.

I realize many people decorate for the fall in neutrals and whites. Do you use bright autumn colors to decorate? Truly I never thought shades of pink and green would work but I love taking the plunge to use other colors enhances this room in particular.

The fall decorating is happening ever so slowly this year. But it always comes together sooner or later.

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Even though I try to eat well most of the time, every now and again I long for something homemade with the ingredients of the season.  With my husband being a cherry fan, I decide to make this cherry cobbler (and realize I have never made one before). There is something comforting about baking a decadent cherry dessert in the fall, when the weather is starting to cool.

The Recipe

After doing some research on the BEST cherry cobbler recipe,, this one is originally from Cooks Illustrated, an American cooking magazine published every two months by America’s Test Kitchen Limited Partnership in Brookline, Massachusetts.. However, a subscription is required to get the recipe directly from them.

Being resourceful, I am able to obtain this same recipe from GroupRecipes.com.

The Ingredients

Canned cherry filling doesn’t do it for me~~way too sweet with an unnatural thick, gelatinous consistency.  However, it is difficult to find fresh fresh sour cherries from the local grocery store.

The Morello cherry, also known in English as griotte (its French name), is the best-known variety of sour cherries. Since the recipe calls for Morello cherries, Trader Joe’s used to carry them and I understand they have been discontinued. Aldi has them in stock. Walmart has sour cherries, but not Morello.

I would imagine you can substituted sour cherries in this recipe and they can be found here online. However, for this recipe, I did use the ones from Trader Joe’s.

Making the biscuits and syrup

Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and then the butter in a food processor. I like my Cuisinart, but if you don’t have one, then use a pastry dough blender and cutter. Add buttermilk until the dough comes together.

The recipe says to use a spring loaded ice cream scoop to measure out the biscuit dough, which I do not have.  A regular ice cream scoop or large spoon will do. Is there anything better than homemade biscuits?

While the biscuits bake, make the cherry syrup using the cherry juice, wine, cinnamon stick, sugar, cornstarch and salt.  If you want to minimize the red wine flavor, use less wine or just boil it down longer.  My syrup has a distinct red wine essence, which I really like.  Pour the syrup over the drained cherries.

Arrange the biscuits in 3 rows of 4 over the filling.  Bake the cobbler until it is bubbling and the biscuits are golden brown.

Serving it up!

I serve it with freshly made whipped cream (another indulgence!).  If you do not have a whipped cream dispenser, it is a must. Making whipped cream with a dispenser is SO easy.

For an extra kick, you can drizzle it with Chambord, which up until this post I thought was a cherry based liqueur~~it is actually a black raspberry liqueur, but works too!!

Not only is this a beautiful dessert, but so delicious too. The recipe makes 12 individual servings and is perfect ending to a fall meal.

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We are half way through September (already!) and I just returned from 5 day girls trip to Newport Beach, California. There is something so therapeutic in staring at the ocean and the Pacific did not disappoint. With storms off of Mexico, the waves and rip tide made it dangerous to swim. High tide is higher than normal so much of the beach is under water. None the less, the skies are moody and dramatic and lovely just the same. Welcome to another Saturday Meanderings where we chat about all good things this week.

Death in the Yard

We are fortunate to spend most of the summer away from the brutal high temperatures in Phoenix. However, now that we are home, I am so devastated over the loss of some of our fruit trees. Most of the apple tree is dead as is a large part of one of the apricot trees.

I am not sure if there is any hope for this tree. Do we cut it back and pray it recovers? Or is it time to pull it and plant a new tree? Our yard looks so stressed from this summer and there is lots of work to do to get it looking beautiful again. Naturally I am motivated by hosting the Fall Styling Workshop here in October. There are a few spaces left and we’d love to see you there.

It is also time to start planning my fall garden! What are you doing in your garden this month?

Slowly adding Fall Touches

You may recall last year I had ordered 2 fall wreaths from an ad I saw on Pinterest. Shame of me for not doing my due diligence (not checking for reviews, making sure the company is legitimate) but I did receive 2 very poor quality wreaths significantly smaller than portrayed.

Naturally I could not use them (very poorly made), but I did take them apart and added some of the nicer elements to my existing front door fall wreath. Now every time I walk into my front door, I am reminded that sometimes you need to make lemonade out of lemons. The wreath was beautiful before, but now it’s more lush. Makes me happy that I didn’t completely lose money on those ghastly cheap wreaths. If you missed that post, you can see it here.

From the Internet

Chloe from Celebrate and Decorate is the master of holiday decorating. She will be demonstrating two holiday mantels at the Fall Styling Workshop at Bella Terra in October. To get a sense of Chloe’s creativity, see her autumn mantel using magnolia leaves and all white pumpkins.

What You can do with 800 square feet

This absolutely adorable guest house, according to county restrictions, can not be more than 800 square feet. Good things can come in small packages. From the decorative lamp in the cocktail bar to the blue and green colors on the front porch, I just love this space and could move in immediately.

Designed by Brandon Ingram and featured in Southern Living (I believe in 2020) you can see more photos here.

This Looks Delicious!

We are getting ready to pick our mountain pears the first week of October and I just found this recipe. If this tart tastes as good as Lisa’s photos, I cannot wait to make it. Celebrate Creativity’s Ginger Pear and Walnut Tart combines the perfect fall ingredients in this stunning dessert.

Even if you don’t bake, you may want to click on the link to see Lisa’s gorgeous video of Food in Motion as she walks you through the steps of this recipe. Beautiful music and editing~it’s very relaxing too!

Some Fall Inspiration

I dream about owning a cottage by the water, and that’s exactly what my friend, Kim from Shiplap and Shells has. Check out her fall home tour and an extra bonus at the end of her post, are links to other fall home tours.

Too Hot to Get into the Fall Spirit?

Living in the southwest, the temperatures, though changing, are still rather hot during the day time. If you need some help getting into the fall spirit, here are 8 ways to get in the mood for autumn.

Well, that’s a wrap! Wishing you a great weekend. It will be a busy one around here. I am tackling my 60 lbs. of Roma tomatoes making and canning sauce. My brother will be in town for a few days and my daughter is coming home for the weekend.

As always, I am so grateful that you tune in every Saturday and let me know what you are up to!