Friday, October 31, 2014

Snapshots 5

Hello there all,

This week has been different than all of the other weeks that I have posted, and it will probably be different than the future posts for awhile because it has been a vacation week! Woot! Me and the mister actually took a much needed/earned vacation. I have an INFINITE amount of pictures, but here is just a snippet of what I took. There are still a lot more pictures than normal, and I edited A LOT out.


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The Lowdown:
1.) A Halloween visit to the lighthouse that was the inspiration for this ghost story.
2.) Exploring in the rain.
3.) Cute lined up seagulls while visiting Nye Beach.
4.) No trip to the beach is complete without some salt water taffy.
5.) The beautiful view from our little condo. Dreamy. You could also hear the sea lions barking all week :).
6.) Even on vacation, I just want to thrift store shop. I. love. it.
7.) We are sentimental schmucks that created a shell heart at Yaquina Head.
8.) Yaquina Head was so swoon worthy: seals, tidepools, high activity of all different birds. Love.
9.) When you are living somewhere that isn't home, you have to make some non-traditional arrangements to live with like drinking local beer from measuring cups.
10.) One of the highlights of my trip was constantly hearing the sea lions. I included a picture of the sea lions at the bay in my last post. These two cuties were at the Oregon Coast Aquarium.
11.) We always are looking for good food places. We ate at Nana's Irish Pub two days in a row because we wanted so many things on the menu from the first day that we just went back a second night!

Hope your week is going well and you have a safe Halloween,

-Autumn




Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Vacations are for...

Hello there all,

Being on vacation is just what the doctor has ordered for sometime.  I feel lucky to be able to finally do this thing.  Sometimes,  we need to remember to buckle down and take care of yourself.  Without stopping to breathe and relax,  you miss the ability to live. When you are in a career where you are helping others constantly,  you need to step back.  When you take care of yourself,  it allows you to take care of yourself AND others better. I need to remember to take these moments more often.

Here are just a few shots from this vacation:

Vacations are for eating delicious food.

Vacations are for seeing beautiful places and doing beautiful things.

Vacations are for doing what makes you smile.

Vacations are for sleeping in and staying up late.


Vacations are for not checking the clock and forgetting what day it is.


Vacations are for seeing cute animals.


Vacations are for being quiet in one moment and loud the next.

Most importantly: Vacations are for being with the people that you love.


-Autumn

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Listy Listiness: Birthday

Hello there all,

My birthday is coming up next Monday (November 3rd), and here are just a couple of things that I've had my eyes on recently.




1.) Khaled Hosseini's book And The Mountains Echoed. I have read The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns which were both beautiful. Now, it is time to read another Hosseini book.

2.) alphabet stamp set which can be used in wood, metal, etc. So, I can make some projects that I've been dreaming of like this and this.

3.) A rotary cutter for sewing adventures.


4.) This old tv wet bar. I would also be okay with an old tv turned into an aquarium like here. It makes me think of the old tv show "Caroline in the City." Anybody else remember that aquarium?

5.) These leggings


6.) This porcelain pen to create neat-o things like this.

7.) This pressed plant print from The Dainty Squid. It also inspires me to want to press every plant. ever.


Happy almost birthday to me!

-Autumn

Friday, October 24, 2014

Snapshots 4

Hello there all,

Here are some glimpses of my week.


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1.) We got a growler fill at Growlers Hawthorne. We are so glad that we found this place. It gives such a wonderful selection of beers that we can sample, and the prices are ridiculously reasonable for their craft selection. Also, they have kombucha!

2.) The Mister and I have crossed another thing off of the autumn list this week. We went to Bella Organic Pumpkin Patch. While we were there, we saved three adorable greenish pumpkins because we love misfits and wanted to make sure that they got a home. They deserve love, too. We also got some delicious apple cider and shared a Voodoo ear (chocolate, peanut butter, and bacon elephant ear). No photo, but we also went to a haunted house this week. We almost got the whole list checked off in one week!

3.) All of the leaves have been extra colorful, and they are all so gorgeous.

4.) I made these delicious ginger molasses cookies. This recipe makes a billion of them, and they were all so delicious. If you make this recipe though, I'd suggest a little less butter.

5.) It has been raining like crazy here, and I have a love-hate relationship with rain. When I am inside, I love it. When I am outside, I am too wet to feel love for anything.

6.) This week, I have been obsessed with my fleece leggings. Also, I just love feet pictures.

-Autumn



Sunday, October 19, 2014

DIY: felt bows

Hello there all,

Whenever I draw a cartoony-sillsy version of myself, I draw myself with a bow. For example, this picture of me as a cuttlefish.


 However, I, personally, had no bows! What a travesty! Therefore, I went on a binge and made myself some felt bow barrettes. When I wore them, I got multiple compliments, so I thought: why not share the how to with other people  while making a batch of bows for some of my loverly residents at work.

Here is where I originally got the idea. However, I modified it slightly by using hot glue and making them bigger for my needs.


What you'll need:
  • felt in colors of choice
  • barrette clip-y doodads
  • hot glue gun and glue
  • stencils from the template found here (you can easily make your bows bigger/smaller than this) The ones that I made are slightly bigger). I traced the template instead of printing them because we don't have a printer.
  • scissors
  • pen/marker/chalk
  • Hands that hot glue won't destroy
Let's make some bows:


Trace the stencils onto the felt then cut the pieces out.




With the longest piece (the piece of that kind of looks like a mustache), gently fold one side over into the middle and glue it down to the middle. You should have a loop on one side after this step.




Fold the other edge over and hot glue that section down into the middle. Your bow should already be taking form, and you should now have two loops.




Hot glue the first shape that has two loops onto the smaller shape that looks like two attached Pac-man (seen above). You should have the creases from the first made shape facing down and glue that part to the Pac-men.




With your smallest piece left, wrap this around the two other pieces and hot glue it down to the rest of the bow. I think it is best to do it in the middle of the bow and underneath where it wraps under.




Hot glue your finished bow onto a barrette.







You could easily modify this for several things: bowtie, beanies, socks, headbands, sweaters, ornaments, magnets, etc. Everything can have a bow and just be a smidge cuter.

Good luck with your bow making and may everything you own be bow-tiful.

-Autumn






Friday, October 17, 2014

Snapshots 3

This weeks snapshots are the super filter-y type.


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The shots:
  1. We order alike: Two pumpkin spice lattes and two Southern Flair Waffles from Waffle Window. They were absolutely delicious, and the perfect amount of sweet/salty. However, the sprigs of Rosemary were more reminiscent of having sticks mixed into your breakfast. High fiber diet anyone?
  2. Favorite. Thrift. Store. Ever. Rerun
  3. The Mr enjoying his delicious malt at the soda fountain at Fairley's.
  4. We've been getting into board games in this house as of late.
  5. Token max picture.
  6. Pizza, beer, and cute animal video night. Don't all grown ups spend their nights like this?
  7. With the cold weather finally coming to town, I have caught my baking bug again.


Thursday, October 16, 2014

Prized Possession Post

Hello there all,

I have been mainly writing about food and crafts, but I was going to bust into a little more personal side of the blog with something that I am going to call "Prized Possession Posts." In these posts, I will talk about how sometimes material objects grow into something immaterial. It is where nostalgia rears its ugly head, and the reason why you hold onto that old stuffed animal from 3rd grade.


What am I looking at?
Honestly, I don't really know what to call it...him? Let's call him Conrad.

What is the story?
Conrad came into my life one Fourth of July when I couldn't have been older than 5. My family ventured to a celebration at For Vancouver, and there was a booth where you could make one of these things. You could fill your bottle with all sorts of colored beads (I chose a rainbow of course) and the body parts. Over the years, he has lost some appendages, but he is just as handsome as he was when I first got him. If anything, time has made him more handsome (just like George Clooney). I kept him over the years because it is from one of my first memories, and it is of being with my family doing something that is very Leave it to Beaver-y. Just a good old fashioned, American 4th of July celebration. Today, he lives above the Mr and my's refrigerator looking out and dreaming of when he'll move to the Hawaii and only eat coconuts.

-Autumn

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Recipe: Spent grain banana bread

Hello there all,

I have a confession. I used to hate bananas. Yes, it is true. Even the smell of baking banana bread made me want to puke. However, in my older refined age, I have grown to love them and even yearn to smell banana bread baking.

Recently, the honey made one of his delicious batches of beer leaving us with a lot of spent grain. What is spent grain? They are the grains that are used in the beer making process. After the the home brewing adventure, you are left with gallons of grains. There are a couple of things that you can do with your leftover spent grain that we do (who wants to throw away food that you paid for?):

  • Add into our compost bin
  • Make spent grain flour (drying out the grains and then grinding them up, so they make a flour) to bake with
  • Using the wet grains in recipes (the drawback to this method is that the grains can only stay good in the refrigerator for so long before they go bad)


With a heaping load of wet grains ticking away in our refrigerator and multiple bananas melting away, it only made sense to make up a delicious batch of banana bread.

The recipe that I concocted was influenced by the recipe here.

What you'll need:
  • 1 cup of all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup of tightly packed brown sugar
  • 2 tsp of baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp of salt
  • 4 mashed bananas
  • 1 egg
  • 3 tbsp of molasses
  • 1.5 tsp of cinnamon
  • 1 tsp of vanilla
  • 3/4 cup of wet spent grain (you could substitute this for other things like rolled oats)
  • 5 tbsp of melted butter
  • chocolate chips (optional)

What to do:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a bowl, mix together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
  3. In a separate bowl, mix together: egg, mashed bananas, vanilla, melted butter, and spent grain.
  4. Gradually add the dry mixture of flour, sugar, etc. to the wet mixture of egg, bananas, etc.
  5. Pour mixture into a greased bread pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips if you desire.
  6. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.
  7. NOM!

The wet mixture

The mixture of dry and wet ingredients in the pan. Contemplating the life long question: to add chocolate or not to add chocolate?

Of course you add chocolate!

 The delicious noms fresh from the oven. This is a fairly moist/dense recipe, but I mean that in all of the best ways. It is delicious.

-Autumn




Sunday, October 12, 2014

Recipe: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hello there all,

It is autumn. The most wonderful time of the year and the time of the year with some of the most delicious foods. One of my favorite things to nom during this time of the year is pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Heck it is even on my fall to do list here.

It celebrates the deliciousness of fall alongside with the sweetness that my sweet tooth constantly craves.







The ingredient list:

  • 1 cup of canned pumpkin puree
  • 1 cup of tightly packed light brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup of olive oil
  • 2 cups of flour
  • 1/2 tsp of salt
  • 1.5 tsp of pumpkin pie spice
  • 2 tsp of baking powder
  • 1 tsp of baking soda
  • 1 tsp of milk
  • 1 TBSP of vanilla
  • 1 11.5 oz bag of milk chocolate chips


 The steps:

1.) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

2.) In a bowl, mix together the pumpkin, brown sugar, egg, and olive oil until it is creamy.

3.) Mix together baking soda, vanilla, and milk until the baking soda dissolves. Add this into the pumpkin, sugar, etc. mixture.


4.) In a separate bowl, mix together pumpkin pie spice, flour, salt, and baking powder.


5.) Slowly add the dry mixture into the wet mixture until well mixed then add the bag of milk chocolate chips.


6.) Spray a pan with olive oil. Scoop the cookie dough by the spoonful onto the pan. Bake the cookies at 350 degrees for about 11 minutes. This recipe makes about 30 cookies.



 7.) Enjoy!


Even Alfredo got his hands onto a couple of cookies. He eats and he eats, but he is all bones!


Enjoy the noms and cross that off of your autumn to-do list.

-Autumn