My weekend exhausted me, but I did take a few photos of my Dollar Tree autumn decorating

I volunteered, along with one daughter, on Saturday. We serve at these fund-raising teas/luncheons. My daughter is a waitress, and I am kitchen help. The two of us are typically part of the clean-up crew, too, so it is a full day for us. I come home pretty tired, and need to just have some tea and relax for a bit. But I did have work to get to, after a few minutes and some tea.  Sunday, I was still tired, so after church again I just sat and drank a pot of tea. In the late afternoon I put myself to work again.

Today, I still woke up tired, but am more like myself this afternoon. I took some quick photos of some of the items that I used in decorating, and wanted to share. All of these "projects" were as fast as putting groceries away.

The window clings -- the door to the kitchen is all glass,
with no place to hang a wreath.
Window clings work pretty great for my door.

My Value Village silver bowl -- I didn't even polish it. The
 "rustic look" is intentional, or at least that's my story. I cut the
 tags off of the Dollar Tree faux apples and put them in the bowl.

The door to the kitchen, just off the driveway -- a flower pot with
  spring bulbs that will over-winter in the dirt. I tucked the faux
 mums into the soil, added some cedar branches, the ornamental
pumpkin pick, and an outdoor Christmas bow. It looks festive
 and autumnal, and took less than five minutes to complete. Once
Thanksgiving passes, I'll pull out the faux mums and tuck in some clippings
 from my yard of holly and other winter greenery, for a Christmas pot.

When I find a suitable tray for the trio of candles, I'll show you what I did with those, too. Easy decorating on a dollar store budget.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for an early September week

Again, trying to remember what we had from last weekend.

All I remember from Saturday was cole slaw, because I remember the bowl on the table.

Sunday -- lentil and cheese quesadillas, with carrot sticks
Monday -- pasta, meatball, marinara, spinach, mozzarella layered casserole, with steamed cauliflower core juliennes, and a tossed green salad (with lettuce cores, too)
Tuesday -- leftover pasta casserole (I made a lot), nectarine slices, frozen green beans
Wednesday -- pumpkin soup, French bread pizza sandwiches (using hoagie rolls)
Thursday -- family dinner: roasted chicken, stuffing, cranberry sauce, frozen peas, pumpkin snack cake (this cake, with the pumpkin variation) with butterscotch chip icing

The cake from last night was so tasty. I was in a hurry to get it finished and chose to use a butterscotch chip topping, by dumping a cup of butterscotch chips on top of the hot cake out of the oven. Only, butterscotch chips don't melt like chocolate chips do (see the sad photo of unmelted chips on the cake).

So I scooped them off the cake, and into a custard cup, and along with some Crisco shortening, melted them in the microwave in short 15 second bursts, for a total of about 30 seconds. Then stirred like mad until it was a nice melty mess.

I quickly spread the melty mess on the cake, and it set up very quickly. It was a little extra work, but it smelled and tasted autumnal.

What was on your menu this past week? The weather is definitely cooler, here. How fast it all changed! I'll be volunteering all day tomorrow. I hope you have nice plans for the weekend!