Halloween Wreath

I don't have any Halloween decorations.  And I don't really have any door decorations in general (I have a Christmas wreath which I LOVE... but despite what Garden Ridge may tell you it's too early for Christmas.)

My plan is  to hopefully hit up some after Halloween sales for some decorations to save for next year, but I really wanted to do something to show the Halloween spirit!

So I searched the interwebs and found a few that I liked.  I sen them to my mom because I needed someone else's opinion on it... and then I decided to do this one.

I was a little intimidated about getting it right, but I just took it one step at a time.

First I hit up Joann's for all my supplies.  I got one yard of orange (nicer quality/thicker felt like she recommends on the blog) and a half a yard of black glitter felt.  The amount for the orange turned out just right for me, while I had pretty much left over of the black.  Luckily on their website I found a 20% off my entire purchase coupon.  So always look for that stuff, especially at craft stores!

Next I traced a bunch of circles onto my orange felt.

Then I began cutting - at first I just cut up small sections and then cut the circles.  I realized it would be much faster to cut all the circles into rough squares first

Just the beginning

All the squares cut out

I cut these circles while watching TV.  It was nice that I didn't have to be exact with anything - I really like that.  I liked how easy the task was, sometimes I like doing these repetitive tasks like cutting circles... it's easy, mindless and keeps my hand busy while watching TV.

All the circles cut out... you'll notice there's extra orange felt in the background... well I ended up using that so it's not technically all the circles I used

Then I got to making the actual wreath.  You simply take the circles, fold them in half, and half again and pin them onto the wreath.  I was pretty nervous about this part... but once I got going it was pretty easy.  I first worked on the inside of the ring and then moved onto the outside edge and then worked my way up and around.  I will say if I do this kind of wreath again I'll get pins with bigger heads on them.  I also totally stuck myself once by trying to push in the wrong side of a pin - OUCH!!

Don't you like how the orange comes off different in every pic?  I'm not good with my iPhone pics haha

Here's a close up

All done with the orange!

Then I added in some black so it said more 'Halloween' than 'orange wreath'.  I just kinda put a circle where it felt right.

Hanging up (I took this pic like 5:50 am on my way to take my mom to the airport)

I'm really happy with how it turned out.  It makes me want to make MORE wreaths.  I'm very excited about doing more crafts around the house.  I'm thinking I might even make another Halloween related craft soon - we shall see!!

I ate too much for dinner - NEW RECIPES

I feel like I have so much to share!  But food is what's on my brain right now so I'm going to start with that. 

Dan has said he wanted some White Chicken Chili.  So this past weekend seemed like as good a time as any to try it out.  I scoped out Pinterest and decided to try this recipe.

Here's the ingredient list with my notes in red
1 can black beans (I used black beans with jalapenos)
1 can corn, undrained
1 can Rotel, undrained (I got the hot can)
1 package ranch dressing mix (forgot to put this in until towards the end... whoops)
1 tsp cumin (probably put more in than this, but since I just guesstimated I'm not sure how much I actually used)
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp onion powder (didn't have onion powder.  I wasn't going to add anything, but then I remember I had some onion soup packets so I added that way later in the cooking day)
1 8 oz package light cream cheese
2 chicken breasts
I also used a can of White beans, drained

Directions:
Drain and rinse black beans. (I did not do this, just b/c the sauce it was in tasted good and figured it would be good, I did drain and rinse the white beans I added though.) Place chicken at bottom of pot, then pour out whole can of corn (undrained), rotel, and black beans. Top with seasonings and ranch mix. Stir together. Place cream cheese on top. Cover with lid and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Stir cream cheese into chili. Use 2 forks to shred chicken (barely needed to do this as the chicken shredded on its own). Stir together and serve.

It really was that easy!! A lot of the other recipes I looked at you had to cook the chicken first.  This one you just put it at the bottom and cooks for you.  It was super duper easy and really really yummy.  Mine was pretty spicy, but we like spice which is why I used things like the black beans with jalapenos and the hot can of Rotel.  We are having it for dinner again tonight and I'll definitely make it again!!

In the crock pot - mine was thicker than the pictures of that blog looked... I will probably add some water or chicken stock when I reheat

In the bowl ready to eat.

On Saturday night, since Dan was going to the hockey game leaving me with no plans, I decided I wanted to bake something.  After going to the grocery store for one of those mondo big trips, there just wasn't enough time on Saturday night, so my baking got pushed to Monday.

I scanned all my pinned dessert recipes and was leaning towards making a bread... specifically this Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread.  It is a lot like Monkey Bread, however I made this from scratch so it feels more special than just Monkey Bread.  It had yeast in it and everything.  I just took my time and followed the directions.  I'm not going to copy and paste like I did last time - go to her blog she tells you what to do like I would never be able to :)

Just wanted to take a picture of the ensuing chaos that was my kitchen during this process... not pictured the sink full of dishes b/c I couldn't wash them b/c the sink was broken... more on that in a different post.

It was fun to roll out dough - here it is with the cinnamon sugar mixture on top - a lot of this ended up falling off... but oh well it still tasted delicious!  (I added some of the excess to the top of the bread when it was in the pan, but not all of it b/c that would have been nuts)

Out of the oven - how pretty

Top view

It was delicious!! Dan and I ate about half of it last night... I love that it pulls apart in slices... and honestly I'm pretty proud of myself for baking bread from scratch.  There's some bananas browning in our kitchen and I'm thinking I'll make banana bread... or peanut butter banana bread.  I'm excited!

Weekend in Review: Surprisingly Full

This past weekend started a bit early for me...

I was sitting around work on Thursday hoping the afternoon would go quickly.  I was actually on a conference call and had another one scheduled later in the day when I got a text from my dad...

In case you don't know what the heck the 'game' is (have you been living under a rock??) That would be Game 1 of the NLDS Cardinals vs. Pirates.  After the conference call I went down and talked to my amazing boss and was out of work by 1:30.

I headed home, got Cardinal-fied up and headed down town to meet my dad.  Of course it was crazy downtown and parking was expensive... and I couldn't decide where to park to save my life (I ended up going with where I normally park even though it's further away).  I was headed to meet my parents.

Red Water in Keiner Plaza

We met by the Stan Musiel Statue and Janet even showed me the brick they bought for my Grandparents.  We've tried looking for it before, but there's just so many!! I would have taken a picture but in the excitement of all of this my phone battery didn't have much juice so I saved it for special occasions haha.

We had some pretty great seats in the outfield.

As you can see above we were in the left fiend right next to the Pirates bullpen.

Panoramic

The game was so much fun... my dad and I had quite a few beers... and best of all THEY WON!!  I was joking around that there's some benefits of being the only kid in town :)  We really had a great time together.  There's just nothing quite like post-season Cardinals baseball and I'm so grateful my parents invited me to come!

After the game we headed over to Flying Saucer. We got some food there... they have a pretty good selection of beers on tap, but honestly I had enough at the game that I just drank water.  Really I couldn't tell you how much fun I had.  It was a perfect night!!

On Friday I slept in a bit and then started my running around for the day.  I went to visit my good friend Susan and her brand new baby Logan.  I brought them Psghetti's and cookies and Pumpkin Beer (hey she can drink now!) and visited.  I held Logan for awhile and he's just so dang sweet and small.  It was nice to reconnect and see the baby.  Since she's on  maternity leave I imagine we might connect a lot on upcoming Fridays.

I headed back home and relaxed a bit more before I got ready and met my friend Beth for a drink.  I found out kind of last minute about a surprise party for a friend.  So we met up ahead of time at 54 Street for a drink (and to catch up!) and headed over to the party.  We thought we got there with enough time to make the actual surprise, but the birthday girl was early so we were kind of a secondary surprise haha.

The party was nice and I enjoyed catching up with my high school friends.  Each of our lives have taken such different directions but always nice to catch up.  I can't believe we are all turning 30... ugh!

On Saturday I made some Apple Pie Shots for a party later in the day and then relaxed.  It actually took a couple of trips to find the Everclear I needed for the shots.  Here's the quick recipe I used:
4 quarts Apple Juice
4 quarts Apple Cider (or whatever that normal size of juice is for these two)
Cinnamon sticks (I used all of them in the container and did not need that many... oh well it was spicy)
2 cups of sugar
1/2 quart-ish of Everclear (probably could have added more)

You boil everything but the Everclear together until the cinnamon sticks lose all their flavor and then add in the Everclear and refrigerate.  They were delicious and made the house smell nice.  I put the shots back in the containers for the juice.  It filled one up completely and the other one half way up.

We ended up watching This is the End and then taking naps.  Then we headed over to Abby's 5th birthday party.  The main part of the party was over, but we knew we'd be staying late so we arrived later.  It was fun... nothing too exciting or crazy...

On Sunday I met up with my mom.  We met for lunch first and then went to the craft store (I'll hopefully share what I'm working on soon) and the antique mall.  We also stopped by a couple of other second hand shops before we parted ways.  It was a real nice time hanging out with her, plus the antique mall is fun.  Seriously if you're looking for a free activity just walk around one of those places I guarantee you'll be entertained!

Sunday night ended with television and Chinese food.  All-in-all a full, but amazing weekend!!

Weekend in Review - Quick Trip

This is the Weekend in Review for September 27-29... hopefully I remember all the good details.

I can't really remember what I did on September 27th (which by the way is my half birthday).  I think that I didn't do anything... actually I'm pretty sure that's precisely what I did... and it was awesome.  I watched TV, I took a nap, I cleaned the bathroom, packed... it was great.

That night though Dan and I stayed in (he didn't want to go over to my cousin's house since they were watching the baseball game... silly boy).  Instead we made some food... and by we I mean Dan.

He made the corn all pretty!

We had cheeseburgers with bacon on a pretzel bun and corn on the cob.  It was delicious!!

In the morning I got up and left for my mom's house.  You can see my Saturday in pictures here.  Since I already posted those pictures I'll give you some different ones from my mom's camera.

We went to a wedding of a close family friend on Saturday.  She got married down at Lake of the Ozarks where they live.  This is a family I've known my entire life... actually their oldest daughter is exactly two months older than me.  They have all D names which I thought was fun (but would never do myself) Don, Donna, Diane, Debra, Daniel, and Dustin.  Diane is the one that's near my age and it was Debra's wedding (she conveniently married a D too - David).

My uncle Steve was good friends with Don as a kid... and we've always stayed in touch.  My uncle passed away 16 years ago come November.  I'm not sure how much I've talked about it on this blog but my uncle was a pretty great guy and a lot of his friends still remain in touch with our family.  Don hugged my grandma when we got to the wedding and she started to cry.  I asked her later what he said to make her cry and she said that he called her 'mom'... how sweet.

The wedding was very sweet.  You could tell they did things on a budget, but everything was very nice.  She obviously put a lot of thought into the wedding.  The food was surprisingly very good too. 

The family is also just so easy to be around.  It's like you fit right in.  Every time we hang out with them, it's like why don't we hang out more often!!

Overall I'm really happy we were able to come (originally Lindsey and I weren't invited, but my mom wrote on the response card that we would love to come if they had room and we got the ok).  We had a lot of fun hanging out together, seeing the K's and celebrating the wedding.

Here's Lindsey, me, and Grandma with Diane... she's crazy, but really likable.

A group shot... Grandma looking off into the distance haha

A slightly blurry selfie

Grandma eating pickles - they had pickles on all the tables and she downed nearly all of them.

They had a photo with some props so we took our own pictures.

 

There was one (maybe gay) guy that really enjoyed dancing so I got drug out to the dance floor with him numerous times.  He spun me and stepped on my toes quite a bit, but it was fun nonetheless

He even got Lindsey to dance

 

 

We headed back to the hotel and spent the night.  Lindsey and I shared a pull out couch and it was pretty terrible haha... but at least it was just one night!

 

We grabbed breakfast at the hotel restaurant and then hit the road.

 

When I realized we were near Jefferson City I told my mom we should stop at Central Dairy for ice cream... which we totally did.

 

 

The ice cream was delicious!!  Lindsey and I each got something different and then shared.  I got Caramel Caribou and she got Rainbow Sorbet, both were good, but the caramel one was better!

We dropped grandma back off at home and then randomly decided we could make it to the StrangeFolk Festival.  This is my fourth year, mom's third year and Lindsey's second year.  While we didn't buy anything I think we would have regretted not going. (Here's some things I got last year...)

Finally I ran by the grocery store and headed home.  It was a wonderful weekend spent with some fabulous people!!

Happy Humps

I totally missed my review of last weekend... so stay tuned for that as well as one for this past weekend.  Normally in cases like this I just combine them, but two weekends ago was pretty full of interesting things and even though I did a day in pictures I'd really like to share about the weekend in it's entirety... hopefully I remember the details.

Anywho... this past weekend was pretty full as well, but before I get to that I really wanted to share some purchases I made.  My mom and I went to the Antique Mall (among other places) and both of us made some good purchases.  I thought I'd share with you the things that I got.

First, I've been casually looking for a Q-Tip holder for that bathroom.  I thought it would be neat to find a small container at an antique mall or the like for the bathroom to hold Q-Tips.  I've seen this done very cutesy on blogs and such.  I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted, but looking for cute, small containers was fun.  We saw a couple of contenders but this ended up winning!

So cute

It's technically a toothpick holder, but I love the bright blue and the details on the glass.  I keep moving it from the back of the toilet to the sink... I'm not sure where I'll end up liking it better, but loving it in the bathroom!

My second find we saw pretty quickly... and I fell in love pretty darn fast.  I mean it's a camel plant holder - how freaking adorable is he??

What day is it?

I kept walking past it and really wanted to get him... but being $45 it was just not in the cards.  We went back one last time for me to say goodbye... and the owner of the stand just happened to be standing there.  He caught my admiring the camel and told me he was just about to put him on sale... um what?  I asked how much and he said $24... sold!!  I told him I'd gladly take him for that price.  I was so happy it just worked out that perfectly.  My mom admitted she was going to come back for him for a Christmas gift... much like my jaguar.  But now he's already living at my house.

He is a planter... so I guess he could go outside, but I'm not sure I want that... right now he's sitting in the mostly empty dining room in the corner... He will find his perfect spot eventually.

I know I have a different kind of style... and I like that.  But seriously even if you wouldn't put him in your house, doesn't he make you smile?

A Saturday in Pictures

I thought I would try this out - but honestly I'm not sure the pictures are all that great. I kept remembering late to take them... But I think I'll try it again sometime. This was just the first pancake in Gilmore Girls speak...

Straightening my hair

All done!

Hanging out with the cats before I leave

Scratching Pretty's ears

Headed over to my mom's house

On the way to pick up Grandma

Breakfast at Bob Evans

Nap time in the car

Bathroom pit stop

hair did, makeup did, dress on, wedding time

Arrive at the ceremony

Waiting for the ceremony - see mom hiding back there?

Program - I love the order of ceremony

Reception time

Draft beer was free so draft beer it was

Dance party

Bed time - Terrible pull out couch for the night