Cheap & Everlasting Bouquet

Here's a fun quickie project! This took me about 10 minutes to complete--pompom flowers! There are at least a bajillion tutorials on this and I used this fork method. A little 5-minute epoxy and they were sturdily attached to wire floral stems.

Vase-thrifted for $3

Yarn-thrifted for $0.50

Bag of floral wire stems thrifted for $0.50

$4 everlasting bouquet!

Apple Pie Caramel Apples

Finally followed through and made caramel apples this season! Cody and I have a habit of picking up Apple Pie Caramel Apples when we are in Santa Cruz (Marini's on the wharf!) and I always promise to make them. And while they aren't real difficult, they are a REALLY messy treat to make (and eat!).

Ingredients:

Granny Smith apples (I bought minis since they seem to grow an inch with all the dipping!)

Caramel (make it or melt individually wrapped candies)

White Chocolate

Cinnamon Sugar blend

Lollipop sticks & a sterilized small screwdriver

I also used an oiled mixing spatula to spread the caramel & chocolate evenly around the apples.

Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar and let cool. But make sure they are back to room temperature before you try to eat one!

What is your favorite type of caramel apple?

Pumpkin Personalities

Decorating and/or carving pumpkins is just one of those things you must do in the fall. We had planned to host a carving party/bbq over this past weekend, but had to cancel at the last minute due to a dirtbike crash. Cody's hanging in there. No broken bones, SO THANKFUL FOR THAT. But he did a number to his hip and it will take some time for him to feel like himself again. I did manage to squeeze in some pumpkin time with Emily so at least the front porch is ready for passing out candy!

(Emily's first pumpkin on the far left!)

I stocked up on supplies--costume faces, mustache stickers, ribbon, tacks, etc.-- at the dollar store (not the best carving knives by the way..but I guess I should have figured that!). After carving one pumpkin, I decided the other two would just be embellished. It got cold outside and I'm a whimpy Californian. 

Luckily, the one pumpkin I carved had a lot of pumpkin seeds for roasting!

Unluckily, I burnt the pumpkin seeds. I blame the new issue of BH&G. I got all settled with a cup of tea and completely forgot I had something in the oven.

So how is your fall going? Burnt anything lately? I do have two new recipes that I managed to cook properly coming soon!

Warm Pasta Salad

I fell in love with this dish at a local restaurant and decided it was time I try to make it myself. True to form, I changed it up a little. Tomato Thyme makes this dish with bacon, I substituted that with Aidell's chicken sausage (Sun Dried Tomato-Basil to be exact). 

My 'recipe' is exactly what you see here, pasta, spring lettuce mix, chopped squash, parmesan cheese and chicken sausage. I cooked the sausage and pasta and then combined those into a large bowl with the raw lettuce mix and squash mixed with a bit of olive oil. It was hot enough that with a few minutes under a pot lid the veggies softened up perfectly. A sprinkling of parmesan cheese and black pepper and you are good to go! I have a habit of adding veggies to every pasta dish. Cauliflower and broccoli absorb your chosen sauce just as well as pasta and a little more fiber never hurts!

Ins & Outs

I've updated a few things around the house so I thought I would just lump them all together into one shout-out. Here we go..

The cubes and china cabinet have been fall-ified.

There are finally items on our floating bathroom shelves. And since our gray towels turned yellow from our face-wash (?) I'm thinking I might actually bring yellow into the bathroom...

Made a chicken version of Taco Lasagna. Can you even spot it under all that cheese?

And Cody survived his first babysitting experience!

Any plans for the weekend? I'm hosting a pumpkin carving day and I'm super excited about getting crafty & roasting some pumpkin seeds!

A Pet Peeve

This bugs me. Why not just use a piece of tape? Nevertheless, I was told by one of the volunteers at Happy Dragon Thrift that hairspray will remove permanent marker from glassware.

It worked! It took a few applications and allowing some of them to just sit for a few seconds in-between scrubbing. But the whole process was only a minute or two. Phew! All that glassware I thought was ruined still has a chance!

Make-Up Bag Rehab

My make-up bag has seen better days. It's torn, stained from spilled bottles and powders. I have been needing to replace it but I just couldn't find the right size bag. I finally downsized and threw out a lot of samples and nearly empty containers. Speaking of which, anyone watch Shark Tank on Friday? The Spatty  and Spatty Daddy? Not a bad idea! Best wishes to her!

 I stumbled across a pencil pouch in the Target dollar bins that I thought would work nicely to keep my brushes separate from my make-up, so I grabbed that to get me started. A few weeks later I spotted this cute blue clutch at the thrift store for $0.50! 

A $1.50 well spent!