It’s starting to feel like fall and I am looking forward to lots of fun things in October.
- Making some Candy Corn Garland
- Adding some homemade art to my craft room. Maybe something like this?
- Working on some new wedding invitations and stationery designs.
- Making welcome boxes for my friend Kelly’s wedding.
- Adding lots of new stuff for my Etsy shop.
- Collecting pretty leaves for crafts with the kids.
Anthony has been on a diet since February, and so far he has lost over 40 pounds! His plan is simple – eat less. It’s amazing that is all there is to it. He packs a bag every morning before he leaves for work with everything that he is going to eat for the day. It usually contains 2 Power Bars, a few crackers and some Laughing Cow cheese wedges. He also keeps a big bowl of fruit in his office for snacks during the day.
Last week he asked me to try making homemade granola bars, just to give him a little more variety in his routine. I did a ton of research online for different recipes, and combined a few to make my own.
Homemade Granola Bars
Time – 20 minutes prep, 40 minutes baking
Ingredients:
- 2 cups old fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds
- 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
- 1/2 cup wheat germ
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- handfull of chocolate chips
1. Line a 9″ x 13″ rimmed metal baking sheet with parchment paper, and grease bottom and sides, set aside.
2. Toast the oats, almonds, seeds and wheat germ on a large baking sheet at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, stirring once halfway through.
3. Combine the honey, brown sugar, butter, vanilla in a small saucepan over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.
4. Pour the honey mixture over the toasted oat mixture and mix with a spatula until well coated. Transfer the mixture to the greased baking sheet, spread evenly, top with chocolate chips, and press mixture down so that it fills the pan.
5. Bake at 300 degrees for 25 minutes, remove and allow to cool for about 30 minutes.
6. Remove from pan (this should be easy since you greased it), and onto a cutting board. Cut bars into 12 equal pieces – they will be about 2″ wide by 4.5″ long.
The bars should be stored in an airtight container, and will stay chewy for about a week. I put mine in individual plastic bags and printed out labels with a note to Anthony, reminding him to have an awesome day.
One of my favorite sites, Rent the Runway, now carries one of my favorite brands – Kade Spade!
All of the dresses can be rented for $75 or under, and I am absolutely obsessed with the yellow beaded necklace.
Rent the Runway is also giving away a $1200 gift card to Kade Spade, and you can enter to win here. Good Luck!
I have a craft room! It is coming together slowly, and the best thing about it so far is the pegboard.
I ordered the pegboard and all of the hooks and accessories from a website called DiamondLife. The board itself and all of the stuff was not more than $50. When I was placing my order, I started out with a 2″ x 4″ board, and made a diagram of all of the pieces as I was placing them in my cart.
The layout was great, because otherwise I would definitely have ordered too many or too few accessories. It also helped me think about the stuff that I needed to store and where it was going to go.
The board I ordered started out brown, and I used some paint I already had to paint it turquoise. The painting process was the hardest part, because the tiny holes kept filling in with paint. I also used a foam brush, which started deteriorating because of the uneven surface. If you plan on painting a pegboard, spray paint might be easier.
It looks so great over my desk, and I can already tell that I am going to be spending a ton of time in the craft room.
I just discovered this awesome Australian shop called Castle. I absolutely love the colorful prints and patterns, and the handmade embroidered artwork and prints are amazing.
I am obsessed with their garland, made from felt circles of different sizes and colors. 
I love all of the colors in this piece too.
Here are some of my favorite things from the site:
1. Blue Flower Pillowcase
2. Isn’t She Lovely Artwork
3. 29 Spot Multi Artwork
4. Baby Ampersand Artwork
5. You & Me & Us Print
6. Raindrop Artwork
I’m getting packed and heading to the Jersey Shore for the weekend with my aunts and cousins to celebrate my mom’s birthday. I’m so excited to spend the entire weekend with some of my favorite people in the world. I made some treat boxes for everyone to welcome them to the house yesterday, and I can’t wait to share them.
I found the red boxes at Michael’s – they are actually cupcake boxes that come with inserts, I just didn’t put the cupcake inserts in. I printed the tags with the same design that I used on the inserts, and tied them up with black satin ribbon.
I have a stockpile of clear bags and boxes for projects like this, so I filled boxes with Hershey’s Kisses and Swedish Fish, and bags with homemade Oatmeal Crasin Cookies and Twizzlers (my mom’s favorite).
Emily Henderson, the super-talented winner of last-season’s HGTV Next Design Star, is having a Dollhouse Decorating Challenge! It is named (adorably) “I’m a Giant!”.
I have an awesome dollhouse that I built when I was in highschool, and it needs a major makeover after years of neglect. I am totally doing this.
It’s hard to believe that Anthony and I have been married 4 years today. This is still my favorite picture from our wedding – it was one of the most fun days ever and I wish we could do it again.
I have spent some time getting our dining room put together over the past few days. I finally ordered fabric and made curtains for the 2 windows. Everything is very blue on this wall now, so I am going to make some colorful pillows for the 2 white armchairs.
Yesterday I hung some picture frames from our old house. I had more frames than pictures, so I filled some in with quotes that I like. Our building is very old, and it seems like the walls are made of concrete in some places. Since it is so hard to get nails in the wall, I used Command Adhesive strips to hang the frames. I’m thinking of adding floor lamps with interesting shades next to each of the white chairs.
One of the biggest differences between this apartment and our old house is the height of the ceilings. Even though the dining room has a drop ceiling, it is still much higher than our former dining room. I am having trouble getting the scale right with the tiny furniture from our old house, but in the meantime I really like the extra space. This oil painting on the opposite wall was a wedding gift, and I like the way it warms up the color in the room.
I finally framed and hung my Paul Ferney Cake Prints on the inside wall. I really like the way they look together and I am looking for a small table to put under the prints. It would be so fun to use for desserts during a party.
Now that the kitchen and dining room are in a good place, I am going to move on to getting my craft room organized.
My mom was nice enough to let us stay at her lake house for a month while we were waiting for our apartment to be ready. To say thanks, I made her a present.
Anthony’s mom recently made a big move to Chicago, so he asked me to make her a housewarming gift too.
They both came out so cute that I made extras for my Etsy shop.
