Friday's Faves

Wow. What a week.

I woke up Monday morning to the awful news about Las Vegas. I immediately texted my friend who was down there and had been at the Route 91 festival, along with three of our other friends, and thankfully she responded back quickly that they were okay. But, they had been there and managed to escape with their lives. I can’t imagine living through an experience like that. My heart absolutely broke for them, and for all those who were injured and for the families of those who didn’t escape the horror. It has definitely given me great pause this week; and made me think and reflect deeply on my own purpose and my own life choices.

When things like this happen in the world, it reminds me that the point of all this is sharing our love and light to the people in our lives. This weekend is Thanksgiving here in Canada, and I’m really looking forward to hosting Thanksgiving dinner and to being really present with those we love and care about. That being said, it’s also my first time cooking a turkey completely independently so I’m a little nervous! I studied up this week on some recipes to follow for our Thanksgiving meal and found these two incredible looking ones by my friend Jo-Anna. I hope my turkey turns out looking half as amazing as this Traditional Roast Turkey with Pan Gravy Via Pretty Life in the Suburbs…

And since I’ve been focused on eating a more nutritious and balanced diet, I think I just might give her Wild Rice Raisin Apple Stuffing at try instead of the traditional bread-based kind!

I’d love to make our home extra cozy and welcoming for our Thanksgiving guests, so I loved perusing the beautiful fall tablescapes that popped up in my blog feed this week. I was especially inspired by a few of them. Hint: they involve blue! Like this cozy, rustic blue and green fall table shared by Cheryl over at Tidy Mom…

And this stunning blue and soft mauve fall table Via Craftberry Bush. I love that blue table cloth! I wish I could find something like that in time for hosting Thanksgiving dinner this weekend…

I also love the rustic simplicity of this gorgeous fall tablescape Via Rooms for Rent. Those blue wine glasses are amazing! I will have to keep my eye out for something similar.

I’m also hoping that the sunny weather we’ve had all week continues through the weekend. It would be great to enjoy our outdoor space and our new pea gravel fire pit area… did you have a chance to take the tour of it, this week?

A few people have emailed asking me about where we got our fire bowl and our adirondack chairs. The fire bowl was a clearance find at our local Canadian Tire store and I love the simple round shape of it! I hunted down a few similar ones for those of you who are looking…

I love the lines and simplicity of this Red Ember Gas fire bowl from Hayneedle… and it’s a great deal on sale for $329 US.

Similar but with different colours is this 36″ round fire bowl from Overstock – on for $373 with free shipping!

I also found some similar Adirondack chairs to the recycled plastic ones that we purchased from Costco. These Jamestown Adirondack chairs are available in several colour choices, as well!

Speaking of outdoor spaces in the fall, I’m totally smitten with this stunning and cozy outdoor family fall entertaining space shared at Ella Claire. Isn’t it dream worthy?!?

Cozy blankets are a must for keeping warm outdoors in the fall, at least around here… and I would LOVE to learn to arm knit a giant throw like the one featured above. I found a great tutorial by my friend Aniko, here that I hope to follow to make my own.

But until I manage to arm knit my own, I love our cozy fur and sherpa throws. This one is very similar to the fur throw I featured in our fire pit reveal the other day…

And this cozy cream double sided faux fur & sherpa throw is almost exactly the same as the two that we have that my boys are obsessed with. They carry them everywhere! Even to bed at night for an extra layer of cozy over their quilts. You’d think we don’t heat our house!

Lastly, I was completely smitten with this gorgeous purple fall front porch shared at The Lilypad Cottage this week; and her siding!! It is SO Much like the siding we have chosen; I can’t wait to see ours finished, even if it doesn’t quite have the same stunning lines as Kelly’s new house. Plus… that front door. How great is it?!

I’m heading over to my friend’s tonight to help her plant some fall planters and decorate her front porch; we are following a similar plan to what I did in the simple fall planters that I shared a few weeks ago. A perfect October weekend project, right? I hope to share the results with you next week!

Did you see something inspiring? Want to remember this?