A Beautiful Fall Weekend

What a fabulous weekend!  I love fall, we had the blinds wide open today, here's the view out our front window.

We didn't get any painting done this weekend but I enjoyed some Fall nesting ... cleaning, and cooking.

I received my Epicure prize shipment this week courtesy of Nancy McKay Watts (aka The Spice Nut) with Epicure Selections.  One of the items I decided to get with my $85 winning was a 12" fry pan with a glass lid ... this sucker is huge and it is my new kitchen fav!

Friday night I made a beef and noodle stir fry, there is sooo much room in this pan it is fabulous for one pot cooking.  It's so much more then a fry pan.  Tonight I made Pork tenderloin with a mushroom pan sauce and served it over a cornbread stuffing.  Here are some pics ...

Love the tempered glass lid!

I made Frank take a picture of his plate before he started to eat!

Back to decor ...

Did a couple of "practice boards" on some paint finishes this weekend.  We want to do some faux brick on the wall behind our gas fireplace/stove.  Frank will do the texture portion of the bricks with drywall compound then I will paint the bricks, this photo just shows some of the colour palette but the texture will make such a difference to the final outcome.  I had also been wanting to paint faux wood beams, I did practice boards of barn board, pine to match our floors and a darker stain but right now we are leaning toward a full wall of brick only.  My pine practice painting is below.

There will be more texture on our wall from the compound which will make it easier to add dimension with paint (I haven't mastered adding dimension on a flat surface)

If we had decided to do a beam I would have gone with a  less "mustard" base, maybe something a little more grey.

Well this was a mish mash of an update wasn't it.  I read so many great blogs, I hope to pick up on their style as I get more accustomed to updating here. 
Have a great week!