September 10 on the 10th.....Fall Essentials

It's time for 10 on the 10th. Leslie from Once Upon a Time and Happily Ever After is back and co-hosting again with Marsha from Marsha in the middle. 

Well, I'm a few days behind...I kind of forgot about it, which is frustrating because I love 10 on the 10th. This month is 10 essentials for fall. 

It's definitely starting to feel like fall here in the PNW. The mornings and evenings are cooler, but the days still warm up. There are many things I love about each season, fall is definitely one of my favorites. 

Here are my essentials for fall:

1.  Fall scents: I don't burn candles much anymore, or if I do I make sure they are not filled with nasty stuff. I do love diffusing some amazing fall scents in my essential oil diffusers. 

2. Baking: There's just something about baking more in the fall. Especially if it involves pumpkin....like pumpkin scones or pumpkin muffins. Oh and these pumpkin seeds are the best. 

3. Comfort foods: I LOVE using my crockpot more and making hot soups to enjoy. 

This soup doesn't look pretty, but I made it to remember my dad...it's called Chicken Paprikash. It is so simple but so tasty. Sometimes it's made more like a sauce with whole pieces of chicken, but I've always had it like a soup and with dumplings. 

4. I'd love to say bulky sweaters but I get hot and rarely wear sweaters. I see all these pictures of women in cute fall outfits and then feel like I look like a lumberjack...haha. So my essential, is layers. I do try and find thinner long sleeve items that still feel like fall without causing me to sweat to death.  

5. Pumpkin Patches: Though these don't open til October, I love pumpkin patches. My son in laws family has run one for over 25 years and I have helped work at it for the last 8+ years. It is so fun! 

6. Fall decorations: I only really decorate for fall and winter...and I'm excited to pull down my fall decor. I need to do this soon, because I like to have a few months of decor. 

7. Pumpkin drinks. I love a pumpkin chai or a pumpkin white mocha. With the days still warm and even hot, I've been getting mine iced with some pumpkin cold foam and sprinkled with nutmeg. 

8. Fire Pits: We do our fire pit in the summer too, but it's different in the fall, more bundled up.

9. Nature: I absolutely LOVE the changes in the leaves on the trees. That is one of my favorite things. We are heading to the New England States in October and I'm hoping it's beautiful, though my hubby is hearing some not so great things about the leaves this year. It would suck to get there and have missed them. 

10. Reading: My hope is that with fall, I can find more time to curl up and read by our gas fireplace. 

With Joy UNquenchable,

Kirstin