A Festive Living Room

Here's a teeensy little sneak peak into our Christmas living room.  

We don't have a fireplace but hanging the stockings over the bookshelf is the next best thing right? My mom made our stockings - and I love them. Mine is the red one with the curly elf toe.


Basically all of our Christmas ornaments have either been given to us or we bought them in thrift stores. Which has been nice - we likeuh to saveuh da moneys.

This fabric antique Night Before Christmas book used to belong to the hubs' great great grandma (we think??) The copyright is 1908!

We have a fake tree - each year we wonder if we will give up the cash to pay for a real one BUT...we haven't yet. Our tree was given to us and fits perfectly in our front window. I just buy a bunch of Christmas scented candles including PINE - mmmm so wonderful. Christmas candles are my happy place.

As I mentioned here - our cats like to destroy our tree. A reader gave us a helpful hint though - to bend the branches over (since they are fake) so the ornaments can't be pulled off. It has helped! 


Here's a pic that's all nice and glowy. 

Hope your Christmas preparations are coming along stress-free! The speed at which December is passing me by is blowing my mind right now.

Food for Fall

As Thanksgiving approaches the hubs gets more and more excited about all things pumpkin, asking me frequently if I will make him a pumpkin pie.


Now. Pumpkin pie is just fine and everything, but one or two slices a year is enough for me. And when I know there are going to be opportunities for pumpkin pie right and left during the Thanksgiving season, I try to appease the hubs' monstrous pumpkin appetite with other pumpkin treats.


Cue these pumpkin cream cheese muffins.

When I make these the hubs tells me over and over how much he loves them. Which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and wife-like, since I don't spend as much time as I would want to making him his favorite foods.

The recipe is from the always wonderful Annie's Eats. It makes 24 muffins but I only ended up with 22 1/2 because I apparently ate a muffin and a half's worth of batter. Why is batter so good????


AND I've got another pumpkin surprise for the hubsy up my sleeve as well! But because of my crazy frazzled week it may not happen until after Thanksgiving. Which is ok. Pumpkin lovin' can be for any time of the year. 


SO. IF you like pumpkin, you should definitely try these out.


.......................................................................................


Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins (24 muffins)


Filling:
8 oz cream cheese softened
1 cup powdered sugar


Muffins:
3 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cloves
1 tbspn + 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil


Topping: (I had lots of this leftover and probably could've halved it)
1/2 cups sugar
5 tbspn flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 tbspn butter cut in pieces




Filling: Combine cream cheese and sugar in bowl, mix well until smooth. Cover bowl and refrigerate until needed.


Muffins: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with liners. In bowl combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking soda. In a separate bowl combine eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin puree. Add in dry ingredients after combined. 


Topping: Mix all ingredients together until coarse and crumbly.


Assembly: Fill each muffin liner with a small amount of batter (1-2 tbspns). Add a spoonful of filling. Cover filling with more batter (I filled to just about the top of the liner.) Sprinkle topping on each muffin. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Granola Bars

Mmmm.


Yummy.


Granola bars.


Homemade.


To be exact.

As a keeper of a few different part time jobs, I at times have to eat on the fly. You know, a little snack to hold me over until a late dinner.


Granola bars are of course the easy option. Throw one in your bag and you have a fairly substantial miniature meal. 


But after awhile, don't you just get sick of all the granola bars in the store? No matter which ones you try...after awhile they're just....blah.


Enter homemade granola bars. Chewy. Substantial. Delicious. The recipe is from the absolutely fabulous Smitten Kitchen, and the wonderful thing is that you can make as many variations as you want with your very own delicious preferences.

PS. I apologize for the not so good of photos. I had such good plans to take them during daylight hours. And somehow it just. didn't. happen.


Here's my take on Smitten's recipe:


Thick, Chewy Granola Bars


1 2/3 cup quick rolled oats
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 to 3 cups nuts/dried fruit/chocolate chips/ WHATEVER CHUNK YOU WANT. (For the bars pictured I used a combination of white chocolate chips, dried pomegranate seeds and dried cranberries, and slivered almonds)
1/3 cup peanut butter or other nut butter (I prefer almond butter)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp almond extract (Optional. I just love me some almond extract.)
6 tblspn melted butter
1/4 cup corn syrup
2 tblspn honey
1 tblspn water


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 8 x 8 pan with greased parchment paper with extended edges (if you are wondering if this is an important step...it is. I found that out the last time I was out of parchment paper). Stir together all dry ingredients. In separate bowl, whisk vanilla, butter, corn syrup, honey and water. Toss wet ingredients with dry ingredients and also add the nut butter. Mix until mixture is evenly crumbly. Spread in pan, press firmly to mold to pan. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until brown around the edges and slightly on top. Cool completely in pan on cooling rack. Use serrated knife to cut into squares. If they are crumbly, cool in fridge for 30 minutes. Store in airtight container or individually wrapped plastic. 

Little Red Barbara

Want to know something interesting about me?


I used to have a special little car. A special little RED car.

Her name was Little Red Barbara. But I often called her Little Red for short.


I bought her with my very own money my senior year of college - a 97' Plymouth Neon. Oh how proud I was. She was the simplest of models - no AC, manual windows, a stick shift.


And oh how I loved her. Because, you know. 


She was mine.


We had many adventures together. A year after I bought her I married the hubs, and he eventually started driving her more often than I did because of his longer commute (Little Red had great gas mileage.)


At first I protested. That's my car! I should get to drive her the MOST! 


But as time went on, I started secretly being glad that I didn't have to drive her because of all her growing...problems.


Like when her heater went out. And when she constantly overheated in the summer time. And when her shocks got broken or something and every time we hit the slightest ant mound she banged metal against metal and shook our heads around enough to give us brain damage.


And of course she had no AC, and the windows didn't roll down anymore and the driver's side door stopped opening so you had to climb out the passenger side.


Yes, this past spring we came to the conclusion that Little Red had to be replaced by something a bit more reliable. After we got a new car, the hubs put her up on Craigslist not really expecting anything to happen.


He had five replies within a half hour and he ended up selling her that morning after I went to work.


Turns out she really was a gem!


But. She was gone when I got home and I never got to say goodbye to my Little Red Barbara.


Goodbye Little Red! I'm sorry that I ever doubted you and I hope you are still driving around the freeways at great speeds while making that strange whistling sound coming from your hood that nobody could figure out. 






Yes I did really just write a fairly long post about my old car. Sometimes these things just happen.

Fall thoughts.

Fall is here in Minnesota, and even though you can't tell by the Indian Summer we are having, you can tell by the beautiful changing leaves! I nanny a couple of days a week and took a few pictures of the neighborhood.

I feel like I'm having a bit of a writer's block right now. A brain fart, if you will. But I was talking to my very smart friend Drew the other night and we discussed something along the lines of...writer's block doesn't really exist. Just write. That's the point of a blog.


So. Here are my fall thoughts. With the new season here I am reminded of the many tasks around my home that need to be taken care of before winter comes. 


You know, things like planting the clearance plants we got from Menard's in our empty garden. Or replacing the screens on our windows so that we can open them without being eaten in our sleep by horrid box elder bugs. (Because they EAT you! IT'S TRUE.) Or spray painting these file cabinets that I wanted to spray paint. Or raking, because even though the trees in our yard consist of mostly half dead pine trees, the neighbors' lush and healthy trees shed all over our yard. I'm not complaining (it makes our yard look better by association), I'm just saying.


Or deep cleaning our bathtub.


Not that our bathtub HAS to be cleaned before winter comes but man, I have been meaning to do that for awhile now.


When I left my job about a month and a half ago, I had such great plans to not only work on my personal artwork, my graphic design work, teach violin lessons, and nanny two days a week, but also to deep clean a part of my house every day, cook delicious meals for my husband, practice my violin an hour a day, and be really good about making time for devos.


You know. Some type of domestic goddess.


Right now I'm at about the level of a domestic booger. And my excuse has been "I don't have time. I have a magazine to format. I'm making new pieces. I'm working on getting cards in my Etsy shop. And I need to work on letting people know that my shop exists in the large world of interwebs!!"


BUT. I was talking to my friend Mel the other night. She knows me well. We used to live together. And as we were talking I had a bit of a lightbulb moment. It's not that I don't HAVE time. It's that I don't MAKE time.


Oh garsh.


So. Here is my fall resolution - get better at making time for things. Leaving my work alone for a bit so I can take care of my house and my hubs. You know, time management, I guess it boils down to. 


Hmm. I do believe I have posted about my problems with time management before.


Well. I guess for having writer's block, I sure wrote a bunch of stuff. Happy fall everybody!

Making Stuff.

For a long time I have been wanting to add stationery to my shop. Slash notecards. 


(What's the difference? Are they the same thing?)


It's been a long process. At first I was definitely going to have them in the shop by the end of June. Then I was going to get them done in July, but I had a paper problem. Then perhaps I would get them done in August but probably not. 


Now that it is very nearly October, I am getting close. I was productive today.


This is my work station. (Which I have to tear down and set up every time I use it because it's actually my kitchen table.)

You will see to the top left of the above photo one of my most prized possessions - my lovely Epson Stylus. It's big. It's black. It's smooth. And it makes lovely, wonderful archival prints.


I really love my printer. It's probably a weird thing but I'm just going to keep saying it. I really love my printer.

You can't tell from the picture below, but these are all printed on different papers. Which is probably a bad idea since I'm one of the most indecisive people on the face of the planet. Remember when I took an obscene amount of time to decide what color loofa to buy? Ya. I know. It's a problem.

BUT. I think I may be close to a decision on this one. I surprised myself by preferring some linen and canvas samples over a simple premium matte. But I'm bringing them all along to dinner with my fam tonight to ask their opinions.

I'm really excited to start getting some of these in the shop. 


And to get better at taking product photos. 


BUT. 


Can I ask you a few questions?


If you were to order stationery. Or notecards. Or something. You know. How would you prefer to do it? 


Would you like to buy one at a time? Or would you prefer a pack? 4 in a pack? 12? 


And what size do you prefer your stationery / notecards? 5 x 7 folded? 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 folded?


Or do you like a little of everything?


Your thoughts help me. :)




I'm linking up with Gussy again (a day late again). The prompt for this week was DIY!

Click to see everyone else's linkups!

Thrifting is one of my passions in life.

Have you been to Unique?

I'm surprised I haven't mentioned it on here before. I talk about it all the time.


Just ask anyone who knows me.


Unique is a small chain of thrift stores around the twin cities area.


And as fate would have it, we happen to live just up the street from one.


Ya, probably about half of my wardrobe and most of the decorations in my house are supplied by Unique.


I went there on Tuesday because Tuesdays are 25% off all merchandise days.


I mean, can it get any better?


I saw these two. 

I love birds. And I thought it would be awesome to Young House Love these bad boys by spray painting them white and using them as some awesome book ends. Or something.


But alas, they were $8 a piece.


C'mon. Really Unique?!?


Aww, I can't stay mad. I got nothing but love for you.


I did happen to snatch this cute clutch and lovely scarf. 

Um, confession? I have a scarf fetish. Obsession, if you will.


I also bought a book. As I mentioned last week, I like reading.




...I was going to take more pictures of the inside of the store. But I felt wierd.

Linking up with Gussy:

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Books books books

Warning. This post is picture heavy. Pictures of books, to be precise. 


So I'm a little late on the Gussy train this week but I didn't want to skip it, because her prompt was books. And I love books. I love reading. As a kid I used to stay up for hours in bed reading by our hallway light. 


Don't worry, this is old news to my mom. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I never fooled her into thinking that I was sleeping.


Here are some pictures from our book shelf:


Notice the collection of Winnie the Pooh classics that the hubs got me for Valentines Day. Ya, he's a keeper.

Also notice the agate collection. Fantastic, I know.

Here we have some Dostoyevsky, some Dickens, and a cat family.

I recently finished reading both Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck and Dandelion Wine by Bradbury.

I love Steinbeck but for some reason always put off reading Grapes of Wrath. I'm so glad I finally got to it - it's incredibly profound and obviously one of his best (although I think I still like East of Eden better). 


Dandelion Wine was full of nostalgia and summer days, but still had some of the intrigue you find more of in Bradbury's science fiction works. I loved this quote: "My dear, you will never understand time, will you? You're always trying to be the things you were, instead of the person you are tonight."


Makes you think, you know.


My current book stack:

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - a fun read recommended to me by my bff. I've read it before, but decided to take it out once again because I love it so. Mystery, romance, murder, excitement, all that good stuff. And a fairly easy read as well - a nice break after ol' Steinbeck.


I haven't read Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson before, but I am enjoying it so far. One of our small group members highly recommended it - it's about relearning how we view and follow the Holy Spirit. I'm looking forward to getting further into it.


And of course my sketchbook is always in the pile. I spend a lot of time in there.


Now I'm off to check out everyone else's linkups - I'm always looking for new books!

Linking up with Gussy:

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Vintage Stuff

I was having trouble deciding what to post about for Gussy's inspiration link up today, with the prompt being Vintage.


I mean I like vintage as much as the next person but I'm no vintage guru. If that's even a thing. But after digging through some pics on my computer I remembered that I have some awesome vintage photos of my dad as a kid scanned into a folder.


Brilliant!


I mean. Vintage.


So I chose a couple favorites of the ol' Pap.


This one obviously because can you GET any more cute and vintage than this?!

I love the ruffly curtains in the background.


My dad loved to fish and appears to have been good at it from a very young age.

I do not share his fishing talent. I'm really good at reading in the boat, though.


And he loved to water ski. He was a water ski guru. I'm pretty sure that's a thing.

I love to water ski too. Maybe I will get to do some water skiing this weekend?


Maybe?


Please?


I love old photos. And old photo albums. Really I love all photo albums, old or new. Vintage or yesterday. What a wonderful way to be able to remember those that you love.

Linking up with Gussy:

Click to see everyone else's linkups!