DIY: Acorn Garland

Hello there all,

I don't know if it is just me, but fall seems to inspire me so much. I'm not sure if it has to do with the fact that I need to be indoors more often, the fact that I am finally comfy heat wise, or the colors just inspire me. Ultimately, I have no idea what it is, but I have been over here creating like crazy.

On a walk recently, I found a bunch of acorns tops without the acorns attached (the squirrels have been very hungry). Being the forager that I am, I grabbed them because I knew that I could make something with them: a garland. I am always making garlands. What is it about them? They bring a sense of whimsy and celebration to everyday life.

Here's What You'll Need (Amounts and lengths are dependent on length of garland you want):

• String or twine
• Scissors
• Acorn tops
• Pom poms
• Strong adhesive (I used E6000)

Here's What To Do:

1.) Glue the pom poms to the acorn tops. At this step, I also kind of pinched the pom poms to make more of an acorn shape.

2) Soon you'll have a cute little fluffy/furry guy like this.

3.) Do this to many pom poms and acorns. Let the glue dry fully. I waited overnight to make sure that the bond was strong.

 4.) Next, Put glue on top of the acorn and place the string on top of the glue. After letting the glue dry a bit (does not have to be fully), put more glue on top of the string to seal the string to the acorn.  Let this dry over night.

5.) Hang your creation. Yes, it is a bit silly, but I love how it mixes nature with a bit of silliness of the colorful pom poms. They kind of remind me of what truffula acorns would look like.

 Also, it is such a fun thing for kids to do on a nature walk: scavenge acorn tops and bring them home to make this. I'm basically a child, so this is perfect for me.

Happy Fall Crafting,
Autumn

Birthday 2014

Hello there all,

Another year lived, another year older. I am now the big 2-8. Yes, I know that it might sound old OR young to you, but I have to say that I cannot believe that I am 28. It sounds so incredibly close to 29 which is deadly close to 30. Growing up, I never thought that I would be shaken by getting close to 30, but here I am slightly freaking out. I still can't believe that I have fooled others into believing that I am an adult. However, I promise you that I am the dictionary definition of an adult, but I am still not a grown up. How could I be a grown up? But I am a little frightened that my young self might think I am. How did I get here?

Anyways, this is how I celebrated the glorious day:

Ate some delicious breakfast noms with my love at Pine State Biscuits.

Some beer sampling at Growler's Hawthorne.

Did an obscene amount of thrifting. We made away with some amazing deals today, and I mean ridiculously amazing deals. It was some of our best work.

The Mister surprised me with a sweet scavenger hunt. Here are some of the clues.

Ate nachos and drank delicious beers at Migration Brewing.

All in all, it was a wonderful day full of memories, love, thrifting, and good food. It makes me a little more excited to be bringing on another year and more accepting and grateful for the years that I've had. It even brings a little excitement for the years to come. However, I don't think that I will be growing into the grown up title anytime soon.

Cheers to another happy year,

Autumn

Beer Pick: November 2014

Hello there all,

Just here with this month's beer pick. This month, I am paying homage to one of my favorite Oregon breweries: Fort George. This beer is all of the deliciousness of a stout with some slight hints of coffee which is perfect for this time of year. It is something that you will gladly have warm up your belly because it is just so scrumptious.

Fort George has a special place in my heart because it is the first brewery tour that I went on. Additionally, the Mister and I went to Astoria (home of Fort George) on our first trip together as a couple. In that cute little coastal town, it was where I realized that I loved that kiddo, and I've been doomed ever since :).

We got a growler fill from our favorite fill station in Portland: Growlers Hawthorne.

No, I have not been sponsored by Growlers Hawthorne or Fort George. My taste buds are the only things that sponsored this.

Autumns up (like bottoms up...get it?),

Autumn

Snapshots 4

Hello there all,

Here are some glimpses of my week.

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6.

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

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

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

DIY: leaf garland

Hello there all,

One of the reasons that I started this blog in this first place is because I am constantly inspired by the work done at A beautiful Mess. I mean that blog is insane, and I can't even begin to understand where they get all of their inspiration. Let's be honest: I am a jealous fan girl. Yes, I am a fan girl. I'll admit it. First step of recovery is admitting your problem, right?

One project that they have done is here. It makes me swoon. I am not sure if it is my unnatural obsession with leaves/trees or the fact that my name is Autumn therefore, I was born to be a bit crunchy. Who knows?

Anyways, here is my own version of the garland. I chose to use embroidery thread in my version.

1.) Raid the local craft supply store and raid the felt selection in whichever colors you would like. If you want this to have more of a fall theme, you could definitely make these in autumn colors, but I wanted the option of using the garland all year.

2.) Trace an outline of a leaf onto the felt. I used a regular old pen, but I think chalk would've been more helpful for those darker colors.

3.) Start the sewing process: You will need a larger needle, your embroidery thread, your felt, and some strength. It can be rather difficult to push the needle through the felt, so put some back into it and PUSH! I would recommend putting your felt into the pattern that you want BEFORE you start sewing. Once you have your pattern decided start sewing up a storm.  Before you know it, you will have a schwing garland.

4.) Revel in your awesomeness: You are now a big deal so sit back and enjoy your homemade beauty.

What's so great about this project is that it is so versatile. It can be adapted for so many seasons and shapes. The internet has destroyed me recently and made me become smitten with garlands. It seems that every week I am trying a new garland that I saw on Pinterest, this is first one actually worth documenting :).

-Autumn

Listy Listiness: autumn

Let's be real: I am obsessed with lists. I don't know what it is. I am also the most frazzled and chaotically organized person that you will ever meet, but I have a serious relationship with lists. I have notebooks full of pages: bucket lists, shopping lists, pet name lists, to read lists...you get the idea.

One thing that makes my heart smile is to create a list of things to do during seasons. This is this year's autumn list. BAM!