Bits of Fall

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Bits of Fall are creeping into the home-naturally.

We haven't had that much time for decorating, yet. 

Tomatoes are turning red in the kitchen window, 

while squash which has fallen off their vines ripen on the OLD  kitchen scale.

A few sunflowers nest in the Ivy urn, my favorite GREEN thing in the house.

A simple kitchen theme on the island, with an OLD enameled fish poacher, vintage s&p delft cows, 

chicks s&p, a baby dish, and NEW 

Sunflower arrangement  and some and resin chickens. 

The OLD thrift store pumpkin landed on the vintage B&G porcelain pedestal, cottage biscuit jar adds a touch of earth tones to the table, the NEW owl just hangs out.

Here an OLD Antique Ironstone pitcher holds thrift store faux flowers with real dried roses from our anniversary bouquet.

I love the fall tones that are earthy and jeweled at the same time.

A wooden trough (1940s cracker server) holds last year's acorns. 

Russet sunflowers juxtapose with the sweet coral dried roses.

I still haven't polished this OLD teapot, I simply love the golden patina it has rather than black.

Vintage Quaker Lace runner, adds the perfect homey touch under the antiques.

Our Antique spinning wheel hosts a chenille pumpkin from a thrift store. 

A little later I will bring out more pumpkins. 

Our fresh garden pumpkins will be limited,

 but I have a huge stash of gourds and faux pumpkins in a tote.

Last year we had enough fresh pumpkins for EVERYWHERE!

My Grandmother's OLD antique iron dog and the original doorstop house. This was at their summer cottage, and I remember playing with it as a very young child....memories.

A bird protects his egg deep in moss and dried hydrangeas on the buffet.

I love we are starting to luxuriate in the rich colors of Fall.

Stay safe!

Thanks always for visiting. 

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

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I have not been paid or reimburssed in anyway for my opinions, where I shop, or any products I show or recommend. Please do not use my photos without linking back to this blog post, or my permission.

Thank you for your cooperation, 

Sandi 

Last of OUR Midwest Gardening 2025

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On Wednesday this week, I rescued all our houseplants and our 4 blooming Mandila from outside and brought them in. Our home is a bit of a mix-up with a visiting Dog and a Cockatiel in a LARGE cage. So now, I have plants everywhere, and nowhere to put them. 

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My Ivy Tree loved it outside this year with so much rain, sunshine and heat...I think it is thicker than ever. Eventually it will land in the bedroom. I used a organic bug spray on all my plants and tied them up inside plastic bags for a half-day before bringing them in...hopefully I brought in just plants and no bugs.

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Our crazy weather year, so many plants were late...the too hot June and July was great for growth, but no flowering.  Too much rain kept vegetable blossoms from being pollinated. My Impatiens look the best right now...and the Mandilla only began blooming in September...yep, a crazy year. 

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I don't know the name of this plant but it tripled in size. It's from my Dad from 2012 and has just been existing and now it's super big. I have a little Halloween here and there.

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I did an OctoberFest Fall with Fall colors, tankards and steins, my beer truck carving, earthy pottery pieces mixed with some blue and white. I love the Sunflower stitchery from my good friend, Dot. It's a favorite and moves around the house quite a bit. The sunflower bowl I bought at a thrift store to make a garden stake...well, next year.

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I didn't do many garden posts because the garden was such a disappointment. Despite generous rain, the heat actually shut many plants down.

I still have green tomatoes now, because we had none in July. We did have quite a bit of squash, and some pumpkins and smaller squash. I have a basket on the table filled with garden produce. I had a huge Zucchini, which must have pollinated with a pumpkin...and now it's orange? I'll show it when I open it to find out if it's a Zucchini or a Pumpkin???? Love surprises!

The neighbors' Chestnut tree had mature leaves this year, and they are just gorgeous copper and rust. I brought a few in to dry and use in decorating

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I'm not sure what I will do with them yet, I'll tuck a few in the basket. I spent a hour in the garden picking the last of the produce. The two sunflower heads were on stalks 12 feet tall....and the stalks were too big for my clipper.

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They are still quite moist. I want to harvest some seeds, and the birds/squirrels and raccoons have already had their way with them. Another blossom was ripped to shreds and dragged to the ground. These two (10-11" across) were looped over a beam across the garden. When I unhooked them they crashed down across the 10 foot high miniature corn...LOL.

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This is our miniature corn, 6-8" cobs of multicolored corn. We had excellent pollination and the ears are full except for a couple of the tips. There are still more on the stalks, (some stalks had 2-3 cobs), for later but they are still very green. Goodness it's the 3rd week of October. 

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I cut my basil and dumped it in a jar of water, and a bowl of tomatoes to ripen,

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Also a half a colander of small ripe peppers, seeds from flowers that are drying. I have more Zinnias blooming now than in August??? I have huge green Balsam plants that haven't bloomed yet? 

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Thats a 10" pie plate so those are small tomatoes, and the long squash is the last one and they are delish...I believe some sort of Delicata...I got the seeds from my friend.

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A few green beans for a treat for the dog, some cherry tomatoes, and a few mini broccoli...honestly a bunch of mini vegetables, Barbie scale, lol.

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Another garden pumpkin...and some Avocado seeds trying to start. My Begonia is coming back after being drowned and boiled in July, it was down to one leaf, but is finally coming back in the house.

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A bit of Fall, and some mini plants I'm babysitting for my friend.

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It's really Fall, finally. We expect a frost on Saturday. Hopefully we can get most things taken in or mulched. My Dahlias are monster green things and really blooming now...and they will all be wiped out. 

The Dahlia bulbs should be huge when I dig them all up.

Other Fall jobs, clean the garden, empty all the pots, greenhouse, take in the hoses and all the leaves which haven't turned or dropped yet...maybe when it snows, LOL.

Just 2025....A WEIRD YEAR!!!

I will post at the following Link Parties, I hope you visit them.

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All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, unless otherwise designated. I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown or anywhere I shop.

Thanks ALWAYS for visiting!

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question. Please don't use my photos without my permission.

 Sandi Magle

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Midwest Gardens. 2025...Just watching it grow!

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Just a delicious hazy photo of vines and Sunflowers out my window...almost like a painting. Our Sunflowers have been plentiful and spectacular this year. And the goldfinches (middle of this shot) have been insatiable and almost violent while stripping the juicy heads of the flowers.

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See his little black wings and daunting stare..."MY SUNFLOWERS"

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Our fence is six-feet high on the East side, and that's the neighbor's house. This is about half of what was there earlier as so many were torn down with storms...Such a glorious way to celebrate summer with Yellow smiling faces in the morning sun.

Quick post...the garden is alive, we are only half alive and caught a bug this week but are recovering.  Anything at our age can be serious...but we are on the mend.

Hope to get some produce photos tomorrow! 

Midwest Gardening has been interesting this year, 

More to come soon!

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question. 

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All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own unless identified, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown.  

 Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission.  

Thank you for your cooperation, 
Sandi 

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Is It Really Fall?

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Beginning Fall on the Front Porch

Good Morning, is it finally FALL!?!

**This is a repost of years gone by----would you believe 8 from 2016..sometimes it's fun to look back!

I think I had 4 readers then... smiles enjoy!

Slowly I have been starting to do Fall as temperatures have finally gone down in Chicagoland. Yesterday was spent in the garden, pulling up done plants, 

and trying to find our pumpkins and squashes. 

Not the best year--all my pumpkins are very small,

except for two FairyTales (one in a tree) which are not even a bit orange yet.

So last June, I found this NEW great greenhouse garden frame for $4.00 at a craft store discount aisle,  I showed it in an early post here: Somethings Old….

 I thought this would be great for a REDO vignette for Fall, with the rich rust coloring on the metal.

I wanted to use different things this year on the refurbished porch, 

I thought this would be a great addition for cool Fall nights, an OLD kerosene lantern.

Here is a closeup of my Grandfather's watchman's lantern cleaned up from an early post:

Junkin' in the Garage

I confess the garden-shed frame was tucked away behind the settee on the porch all summer. The porch was a mess, undergoing new railings and stairs---with NEW 'out of stock' materials since May---holding up the whole show for almost six months--that's a YELP story for another day.

Still not 100% done, the porch is ready to style a bit and use now.

 We bought the larger pumpkin at the local grocery store, as ours were too small. 

The gourds are from years past; dried and left natural grown in our own, GREEN, garden. 

 Everytime I walk by, I fiddle with the gourds, and occasionally 

find a walnut stored in there by one of our local squirrels.

Do they really think the corner of the stairs and my Fall vignette is a hiding place?

 I did spray the gourds with some Johnson's Wax-Pledge when they were fully dry to enhance the color and seal in the dustiness of the gourds.

Here's our Zinnia's--oops we found out they were Sunflowers in July. I picked one of the dried blossoms and used it for the 'GREEN' element in the front.

Another sprig of smaller sunflowers was put in the back. 

Adding a few pinecones and that is pretty much it. 

I'm sure this will change when my Fall bins are delivered by hubby, from upstairs in the garage.

The craft wood Scarecrow was from a painting project I taught at Michael's back in the 1990's. I taught free-hand painting without patterns---back then, which was out of the norm. 

Somewhere I have a photo  of 14 of these all painted differently by the students.

This scarecrow is a favorite of the Grandbaby as the arms move up and down. He has long since lost his "Pumpkins for Sale" wired sign. My gosh, he is OLD and vintage now.

A straw hay bale waits over in the corner with the houseplants, for a pumpkin or two or three--

they are really small!

The pensive angel tile was a NEW rescue from 'HomeGoods' two seasons back.

The one plant that was very happy outside this summer was my Rosemary--I'm wondering where on earth I am going to keep it in the house this winter. It smells so good.

Here's a  view of the entire seating area--with a lightweight throw REDO

 for those cool nights-perfect color for the porch from GoodWill-$2. 

I added smaller mums in the summer planter box.

 Granpa's OLD lantern and a stoneware candle pot from my potter days, probably from the 1980s finish off the table top. A REDO antique crate serves as a table between the chairs. 

So Finally---beginning Happy FALL, 

from my front porch to yours.

Sharing at these great blog parties :

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All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions or posts. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

And Always, Thanks for stopping by, 

Sandi

A Glimpse of Fall in our Kitchen

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It's been hard to think Fall when your temps are in the high 80's and 90's for the last 6 weeks here in Chicagoland. Actually it has been HOT since the second week in June. 

 I think we had 3 days of 70's last month and no rain for weeks. Today it finally rained. I put a few dried Hydrangeas in my transferware. I may still switch this out when I find my brown cottage pieces.

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Right now this container is an old porcelain tea canister I found last summer. It has transfers on all four sides...and in my favorite blue and white.  

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I have a few old this and that Fall items,  and this may change later.

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This was my cookbook counter in 2022, I try to  coordinate tablecloth in soft fall tones. 

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Then the Rex begonia I thought was dead from being chewed on,--but revived when I brought it inside. Bugs and critters have been voracious this year. The one this year is recovering also from being chewed on.

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I  love to add something natural, and here are some gourds and mini pumpkins. I only have three pumpkins this year. They just couldn't get going in the heat. Illinois is one of the top producers of pumpkins...I wonder how the crops are this year.

I have a few thrift store Halloween things that will go out soon, not before October 1, though. We have some large Skellies for the yard, which will be fun.

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The Mandillas were very happy this summer with the heat, I have 5 to bring in this year. This one is on the end of the cabinet and still in full bloom---and twining away...and a Happiness is Homemade sign. 

Honestly the seasons "HALLOWTHANKMAS"

are so rushed in the stores now...it's crazy. Life flies by and the stores are already loading up for Christmas. UGH!

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We have many a gathering here with family all year. We are having Thanksgiving this year, but not much else.

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I love Sunflowers...and pulled out a faux bush, now that they are done in the yard. The real ones are left for the birds, upside down Goldfinches are the most fun to watch.

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Normally if I serve buffet style off the island. I can't remember what it was like when this kitchen didn't have the island. It functions so well...and this little end I always have something Happy going on! 

Right now it is 'Harvest' for sure. Antique pickling crock, enamel coffee pot, grandmother's crocks a few gourds and peppers for color.

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The sink is seldom empty, and here is the basil I need to process for the refrigerator and freezer. I need to buy garlic, olive oil and pine nuts to make pesto, this afternoon.

I still have to dry a huge crop of Sage and Majoram. Also, need to dry the Thyme and Parsley plants.

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The busiest place in the kitchen is our coffee station....pumpkin spice is always nice!

Staples, actually some need filling...I don't have a walk-in pantry like some bloggers, but this works for all those essentials.

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The workaholic in the kitchen the toaster/convection oven. Use this constantly for two people...it's perfect. Plus throws off less heat in the summer. Now we turn the stove oven on for dinner and taking the chill off.

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I'm going to refresh this shelf this week, maybe with some pops of orange and yellow, or I might bring out some transferware. Depends on how much energy I have.

Almost everything is inherited or thrifted in our home.

 I love the hunt and let's face it, old stuff was made to last!

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Last bit of clean counter---more staples...in our family antique blue jars. My mom-in-law's Kitchen Aide. Love it, except it is so HEAVY! My old mixer went to my kids.

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Since my kitchen was clean enough to share and

now I'll go mess it up and making PESTO!

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All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, unless otherwise designated. I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown or anywhere I shop.

Thanks ALWAYS for visiting!

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

Thank you for your cooperation,

I will post at the following Link Parties, I hope you visit them.

Love Your Creativity

Metamorphosis Monday

Inspire Me Tuesday

 Sandi Magle

OldNewGreenRedo