I consider watching the new Autumn movies a sort of practice to get ready for the marathon of Christmas movies.

I have a few favorite all time Hallmark Autumn movies, but lets focus on the new releases this year.

Follow Me to Daisy Hills
Premieres Saturday, September 19 9pm/8c
When Jo realizes that her family’s general store in Daisy Hills is losing money, her father Duke calls in a favor to help. Duke’s help is Jo’s ex-boyfriend, Blake, former Daisy Hills native. Stars Cindy Busby and Marshall Williams.

This was not quite my favorite this year, but was cute.

Falling for Look Lodge
Premieres Saturday, September 26 9pm/8c
Lily dreams of being a hotel event coordinator and is thrilled when she’s given the chance to do so by helping Noah, a hotel guest, finish planning his sister Justine’s wedding at a remote lodge. Stars Clark Backo and Jonathan Keltz.

I thought this was cute and like the chemistry of these two actors.

Country at Heart
Premieres Saturday, October 3 9pm/8c
A struggling country singer meets a Nashville songwriter in need of inspiration. Teaming up to write a song, their work gets complicated but results in both a hit song…and true love. Stars Jessy Schram and Niall Matter and Lucas Bryant.

I like Jessy Schram, especially some of her older movie. This was cute but not my favorite.

My Best Friend’s Bouquet
Premieres Saturday, October 10 9pm/8c
Josie Hughes is a hopeless romantic who believes in the kind of romance in black-and-white movies where the leading lady finds her one true love and gets swept off her feet. She also believes the wedding bouquet always finds its way to the right person when tossed by the bride, as proven time and again at weddings dating back to her childhood. But single Josie ends up with the bouquet at her friend Emma’s wedding instead of their not-single friend Athena and fears she’s wrecked her chances of getting engaged. But when Josie begins dating eligible bachelor Will after meeting at the reception – much to the dismay of her long-time friend Alex, who has secretly held a torch for her since college – she decides the bouquet is responsible for the budding romance and begins to think that Will is “the one.” As Josie clings to the notion that the bouquet is always right, she’s missing the real-world signs that her perfect match is someone else who’s been right in front of her all along. Starring Chaley Rose and Nathan Witte.

This was my favorite of all the new releases.

Sweet Autumn
Premieres Saturday, October 17 9pm/8c
Maggie, a successful entrepreneur, returns home for a will reading and discovers she’s inherited half of her aunt’s famed maple candy business. What she doesn’t understand is why Aunt Dee’s maple supplier, Dex, inherited the other half. Her return also coincides with the town’s Sweet Autumn Fest, and through a series of letters Aunt Dee left, Maggie and Dex search for the reason behind her aunt’s final wishes. As she and Dex grow closer, Maggie must decide if the life she built is the one she wants. Starring Nikki DeLoach and Andrew Walker.

This was cute too. I always like a little conflict before they all fall in love. LOL

The other 8 films on the Hallmark Checklist is as follows:

All of My Heart – The Wedding – did not watch
Autumn Dreams – watched
Falling for Vermont – did not watch
Falling for You – did not watch
Harvest Love – watched
Love, Fall and Order – watched
October Kiss – Watched (One of my all time favorites)
A Harvest Wedding – Watched

Sadly I did not meet my goal of watching of the previous 8 movies, but I have seen them all. So I think that counts!

If 2020 was not weird enough, it actually had a Harvest and a Blue Moon all in one month.

A Harvest Moon relates to the timing of the autumnal equinox (September 22, 2020), with the full Moon that occurs nearest to the equinox being the one to take on the name “Harvest Moon.”

It is also called a Harvest Moon as for several evenings, the moonrise comes soon after sunset. This results in an abundance of bright moonlight early in the evening, which was a traditional aide to farmers and crews harvesting their summer-grown crops.

This year the Harvest Moon happened on October 1st.

The Blue Moon is two full moons in a calendar month. It does not happen very often, hence the term, “Once in a blue moon”.

The blue moon happened this year on October 31st – Halloween.

Speaking of Halloween, this was a historic weird year. Normally I get around 60 to 100 kids. I was worried about this year as it fell on a Saturday. Halloweens on the weekend usually brings in more children. However this year with Covid I was not sure what I would get. Santa Clarita was one of the few places were Halloween door to door trick or treating was not cancelled. I bought about 350 peices of candy and ended up only having 8 kids. EIGHT! Ugh. What am I going to do with all this candy.

Back to the moon, I did go outside and looked at the moon and tried to take a photo. Lets just say the photo did not come out so good. But I think everyone has seen a full moon, so I will let it go.

Great autumn scents are the gateway to starting autumn. Cinnamon, cloves, fall leaves, pumpkin, warm vanilla are all wonderful scents.

Bath and Body Works makes all the great scents for autumn.

Autumn is scent notes are Gala Apple, Juicy Fig, Eucalyptus Leaf with Essential Oils.

Autumn Woods scent notes are Dark Walnut, English Lavender, White Amber with Essential Oils

I am using older wallflower plugs for autumn but I did buy a new plug for halloween. It is a cute little haunted house. I love how the witch shows up on the wall above the wall.

But of course I have to light a candle or two.

This Spiced Cider candle came from Michaels. The chalkboard drawing on the label is co cute. The scent, not that awesome. I guess I am use to Bath and Body works who really brings the scents out in full force.

I love fun little socks. I have wide and big feet so I cannot find beautiful shoes, so thank goodness I dont have a shoe buying addition.

But I can find fun socks. I love finding those bundles at TJ Maxx or Sams Club of themed bundles of socks

What I love about these socks (besides the cute pumpkin design) is that they remind me of the “cat paws” would buy us girls every Christmas for our stockings. My sister Jan and I fondly remember those stocking stuffers.

These socks were part of a set of 8 socks. It was hard to decide which one to model.

One of the autumn bucket list items was getting some cute slippers.

When I was at Wal-mart I found these great slippers. They have Mama Bear, Daddy Bear and Baby Bear. I know there is a set of Aunt Bear but they were not selling those slippers.

But since I am “mama” to my little doggos, I think Mama Bear slippers are just perfect.

October is my Mothers birthday month. She was born on October 25, 1931. I always remember her birthday because it was ONE month and ONE day more than mine.

She would have been 89 this month.

I miss her. Wish I asked her a lot more questions. But when I did, she usually said “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember” I often wonder about her youth and before she started her family.

Did she think she was cool. Was she full of confidence, or timid. Did she have big dreams. I know she liked working but never really sure if she did it to get away from us kids. LOL

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One day I will see her again, maybe I will see the young, happy, beautiful woman in the pictures above.

Happy Birthday Mom!

I love doing a puzzle every Christmas with a good holiday theme. I usually like the puzzles from Hallmark. This one is super easy to do and I had no issues. And I actually did not lose a single piece.

Since I was staying home on Christmas Day with my little dogs, I decided to make a nice meal for myself.

I thought I would start off with Trader Joe’s Cinnamon roll wreath and finish off with the Trader Joe’s Cranberry Pie.

For my main meal, i was planning on having turkey & stuffing en croute from Trader Joe’s. The guy at the store told me a lot of people liked it and it was a popular item during the holidays.

So Christmas morning I woke up and after opening gifts I thought I would make the cinnamon rolls.

To my horror I discovered that I needed to PROOF the rolls over night. Damn. I resorted to the Pillsbury Pop Up cinnamon rolls in a can. Oh well.

Then I looked at the instructions on the turkey! Egads, I did not realize I needed to defrost it in the fridge for 24 hours. TWENTY FOUR hours. What the heck.

I decided to just thaw it out on the counter. The house was cold but warmer than the fridge, plus it was sealed in the bag. I figured I would not get sick.

So after several hours of defrosting, I was ready to put into the oven.

It was a bit interesting but it felt thawed.

Fortunately it came out yummy.

Turkey wrapped in stuffing with a pastry shell around it. It was quite good and actually came with cranberry sauce on the side. A very good dinner considering my failure to read.

As far as what I got myself for Christmas, well, besides the instant pot, is my letterboard saying below.

Christmas morning was a nice lazy morning. Unlike children, the dogs do not care it is Christmas Morning….until they see the toys.

Miss Olive heard the squeak of a toy and went crazy digging into the bag. I have long since given up on wrapping the dogs gifts. A) they don’t appreciate it B) saves me money.

Miss Olive received two toys. A squirrel log with three squeaky squirrels. And a hot cocoa mug with three squeaky marshmallows.

As of today, I have no clue where the toys ended up. Probably under the bed.

Miss Penny received a new fluffy bed and a new red blanket. I need to sneak the old ones away and toss in the traash. They are so old and dirty, even after many washings.

Penny was not sure, but then she got into it and relaxed. Her little face says it all.

I tend to get carried away.

As I do every year. Not sure why I do that.

Besides the Jam I made for my co-workers, I also gave them cute socks. I had a hard time figuring out how to package the socks. Then I decided to use the same type of labels that I did for the jam jars.

I photo shopped these to make them smaller so they would fit over socks.

I also used some candy cellophane bags I had in the drawer to package the socks.

I got these cute socks at Target. They have the cutest socks out there. I especially like the Xhilaration brand. Cute as can be. I just noticed they have Valentines socks. Oh dear.

What was so cool is when I posted my socks on Instagram, Valerie McKeehan from Lily & Val, who designed the chalkboard labels made a comment about my post. How cool is that?

Of course I received a couple of gifts from co-workers and I felt awkward, so I decided to make some treat holders.

These super cute dies make a quick treat goodie, unless you make thirty of them like I did. I did not want to forget anyone for the holidays. So all weekend I was gluing stuff again. Big Sigh!

I am not sure which one I think is cuter! I have to admit I am glad that is all over with. I will try not to do that again.

It seems to take forever for Autumn to show up in Southern California. Here it is in December and I noticed the neighbors trees had finally turned golden.

When I drive to work I drive down a street that has beautiful trees that turn golden and red with a touch of light green. And for a brief moment I have Autumn. I love the feeling. I tell myself I simply must move somewhere that actually has autumn. And an Autumn that happens in November and not December.

Autumn here only lasts for a few weeks before the trees are bare, and winter is here. On this particular day all the trees had turned golden. I marveled on the drive home how pretty all the trees where. When I parked my car, I looked up and noticed the glory of the golden leaves I just had to capture it, if only to remember Autumn for more than a week.