These are a few of my favorite things...

What comes to mind when you hear
"These are a few of my favorite things"

raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...

But who ever really thought to themselves:
"I think the whiskers on this kitten are MY FAVORITE!"

Maybe more like:
"I'm gonna cut these whiskers off so they stop POKING ME IN THE EYEBALLS"

-Not to get off track or anything-

I was laying in bed this morning
thinking of all the blessings in my life
thinking of a few of my favorite things

-The accomplishment of running farther than I ever have before
-Waking up early to have my pumpkin coffee hot (while its still cool outside)
-Then getting an iced pumpkin latte later
-Burning my "pumpkin" and "leaves" candles while its 91 degrees outside
-Hanging up my skeleton on the palm tree out front, just to have Mason tell me to take it down
 because its only September
-Hanging the skeleton in the entry way to scare him when he gets home
-Letting Bowie sleep in our bed with us while she recovered from her little surgery
-Getting lost in a christian romance novel set in the 1820s (yes, there is such a thing)
-The feeling of clean sheets
-The TRIUMPH of a clean house
-Visits with my sister at the cliffs
-Spiced bourbon in the making
-New favorite albums and the excitement of all the new albums to come out this fall
-Getting glitter everywhere and Mason smiling about it

These are a few of my favorite things
tell me yours

So, this one time, at Michaels...

So, this one time I was in Michaels
 -like two weeks ago-

And I was planning ahead and buying all my harvest stuff
(I couldn't wait any longer I LOVE IT ALL)

I happened to buy a skeleton for our palm tree out front
This thing had a mind of its own
(well, technically, it didn't have a mind, because it was just bones... but anyways)

I had it in my cart with some other things
okay, okay, my cart was overflowing
I LOVE FALL
and there was really no room for this little skeleton
so he was kinda sticking out

I was making my way out of the store
his legs were firmly secured between a hay bale and cupcake liners
but his arms were just waving in the wind, free as can be

I tried to squeeze by the checker who was in-that-moment bending over
and my skeleton man just simply...
how do I put this?

Spanked her

Like I said, mind of its own

The lady didn't really think it was that funny
But, did I happen to laugh all the way to the car
and then call my mom and continue laughing re-telling the story?
maybe.

Spring Flowers

Spring flowers shining bright in the midst of a rain storm

So thankful for this rain

cuddle time

a leak to keep me humble

clean laundry

a fresh pot of coffee

time with dear friends

sweatshirts

corny movies

springtime

Oh I love you Christmastime

My tree topper of Joy

Handmade by my Grandma

Gotta have some fake glittery poinsettias 

Getting into the spirit of what christmas really means

All lit up

Joy in the Kitchen

A peppermint stick, for ol' saint nick

Almost gone... and its only December 1st

Let the countdown begin

The Wood-Burning Stove

My husband woke up this morning and said, "it's freezzzzzing!" 

And then he got up and said,

"I have an idea!"

He got a magazine and proceeded to try and light our wood-burning stove for the first time

A little unhappy that we are using HIS magazine

Putting the paper in just the right spot

The final outcome! Man made fire!

And the fire alarm didn't even go off once

now that's impressive

R.I.P. Cupcakes

Just in time for Halloween! I got this recipe out of the Betty Crocker Magazine "Best Halloween Recipes 2011." I just changed a few things. If your in the mood to bake something spooky, they are perfect (and they aren't very hard to make either).


Ingredients:
- 1 box Duncan Hines Devil's food cake mix
- Water, vegetable oil and the eggs used for the cake
- 2 honey graham crackers, crushed
- 2 chocolate graham crackers, crushed
- 1 container of creamy white frosting
- 12 Milano sandwich cookies, cut in half
- A tube of ready-made chocolate frosting or homemade brown-colored frosting

First: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place a halloween themed cupcake liner in each of the 24 muffin tins. Make the cake as directed on the box for 24 cupcakes. Let the cupcakes cool completely* before starting to decorate.

Second: Ice all the cupcakes with the vanilla frosting and set aside. In a large ziplock bag, crush the graham crackers (both kinds together) using a rolling pin and set aside.

Third: Take each Milano cookie and cut in half crosswise. Using the frosting, pipe onto the cookies different halloween sayings such as "R.I.P", "BOO", or tombstone dates "1811", "1790", etc. After decorating all the cookies, place in the freezer for a few minutes to help set.

Fourth: Now you are ready to assemble! Place the flat side of the "tombstone cookie" into the back of the cupcake and push down until the cookie stays in place by itself. Take as handful of the crushed graham mixture and sprinkle in front of the tombstone to look like grave dirt.

And now you have a very spooky cupcake!

*If you know you are going to make then ahead of time, you can actually made the cupcakes the night before and then decorate them the day you need them. It saves a lot of time!

The First of October

Mason and I decided to have a pumpkin adventure to celebrate the beginning of our favorite season. Our day was full of hay, Julian goodness, pick-your-own-apples, pumpkin patches (we had to visit a few just to make sure our pumpkins were perfect), and a few street fairs. We had a blast to say the least...

Rows and rows of apple trees

Mason started having a heat stroke...

A festival we happened upon

The corn seasoning stand! They don't mess around

A pie eating contest for kids

My pumpkins!

falling into it

...and its only just beginning...

     

  I may or may not have a problem with excessive decorations during holiday seasons...