Around Here

Looking at our Christmas tree and enjoying the view

Loving that the holidays are just around the corner

Shopping for the perfect Christmas gifts now so I'm not doing it at the last minute

Getting ready for delicious food, lots of family time and relaxation that is Thanksgiving

Preparing for our annual holiday party. Lots and lots to do!

Painting our kitchen cabinets

Working on my December Daily page prep and getting super excited to start it again this year!

Eating lots of pumpkin goodies before Fall comes to an end

Needing to get back on the treadmill after last weeks absence

Building a wooden "tree" display for my advent calendar (more on that later)

Reading Daring Greatly by Brene Brown

Drinking lots and lots of water lately

Cooking new recipes from Pinterest in hopes of adding some new favorites to our rotation

Listening to the Christmas station on Pandora with a little bit of Mumford & Sons mixed in

Feeling extremely grateful for all the wonderful things in my life

Five Favorites

I'm not finished with my Pinterest Challenge project yet (big surprise), so I thought I would post a few of my favorite things at the moment.

1. Midwest Living Magazine
It's the November/December 2012 issue in case you want to pick one up for yourself. It's filled with all things holidays and I'm loving it! I actually need to get started on my pages for December Daily, so I was looking for a little holiday inspiration to get me in the mood.

2. Our new family photo

We finally had a professional family photo taken by a photographer named Danny Bligh, who also happens to be an old friend from my high school days. He's pretty selective about his projects, but I think my cute kiddos had a little influence on his decision. I couldn't be happier with the outcome! It's actually our first "real" family photo of all four of us. Please don't tell anyone that. How embarrassing. Thanks Danny!

3. The Dreaming Tree Wine

Jeremy and I bought a bottle of the Cabernet and really enjoyed it! I think it's my new favorite for the holiday season! And not only is it good wine, but it's also made by Dave Matthews (along with some other guy), one of my favorite musicians.

image source



4. My (Almost) Completed Summer Mini Book

It's an Elise Cripe mini book that I bought to document our trip to Big Sur. I'm loving how it's all coming together. I'll be sure to post about it when it's completely done. I still have some journaling and embellishments to add. Here is the link to her shop if you are interested in making your own summer mini book. She will also be adding holiday mini books soon too. I've seen a sneak peak on Instagram and they look pretty rad!



5. The Walking Dead

I seriously am obsessed with this show. I'm constantly telling everyone I know how awesome it is. I need to get out more...but in my defense, it is awesome. We started watching it on Netflix last Spring, finished the the first season in less than a week. We were hooked.

image source

I'm hoping to be done with my Pinterest project before the end of the week. Fingers Crossed!





Around Here

Planning ahead for the holiday season without planning too much.

Cooking more comfort food now that I'm about to use the stove without it making our house 100 degrees!

Reading A Sweethaven Summer by Courtney Walsh. It's different than most of the books I've read lately.

Listening to the new Dave Matthews Band cd, Away From The World. LOVE them so much.

Feeling excited about this weekend and being able to spend time with my family.

Needing to do some major cleaning, but don't have the motivation. Not. At. All.

Enjoying watching Hudson play soccer for the first time! He is so excited about it and gets better every week.

Drinking lots of coffee with Pumpkin Spice creamer. Yum!

Watching all of our favorite shows returning this season and some new ones that may turn into favorites.

Loving the Fall weather and all of the beautiful colors that come with it.

Dreaming of having everything for my photography business in place and branching out into other ventures as well.

Dating my husband as much as possible because we've finally reached that point where we realize just how important our time alone is and that we need to take advantage of every opportunity.

Wearing sweaters and slippers in the evening when the sun goes down and the air gets that Fall chill.

Running on the treadmill again; following the Get Running app on my iPhone and loving the way it makes me feel.

Eating lots of Greek yogurt. I'm obsessed with Fage blueberry at the moment.

Spending lots of time with my sewing machine lately. I have too many plans for it for the holidays.

Wishing for a fun night out with friends. I just don't get enough of those!

Learning as much as possible about turning my blog and my rekindled love for scrapbooking into a small business.

playing along and linking up with

Ali Edwards

Hello Fall

I L-O-V-E Fall!

I am thrilled that it has finally arrived! I love the freshness of a new season. There are so many new sights, smells, tastes and activities. I'm ready to get outside and enjoy the cooler temperatures. I made up our annual Fall Bucket List (it's much shorter than the Summer List) and I'm so looking forward to starting to cross those off.

I'm also looking forward to breaking out my crockpot again for some hearty home cooked meals! You know, some chili, some pot roast, some chicken and dumpling soup. I could go on and on. I have a ton of yummy looking soup recipes pinned on pinterest and would even like to whip up a few batches to freeze. I've never done that before, but love the convenience factor.

I'm already loving the college football season! And although we are a house divided (I'm a big Nebraska fan and my hubby is a big Iowa fan) we still have lots of fun watching the games together. Hudson is finally starting to get into it a little more this year!

I'm planning to do a Fall family photo shoot with all the changing leaves. Love the colors!!

I also plan on making lots of pumpkin recipes this Fall. I adore pumpkin and really start to crave it by the time September rolls around.

I started pulling out my Fall decorations, but still need to buy a few new things to complete the look. (Then I'll do a little photo tour post)

I have BIG plans for a major blog overhaul this Fall. There are going to be a lot of changes that I've already put into motion. I can't wait!

This Pumpkin Cake with Apple Cider Glaze is one of the first pumpkin recipes I plan to try!  Um, doesn't this look A-MA-ZING! Probably this weekend...

Welcome Fall! So glad you're back!

Busy Planning

We've been staying pretty busy around here lately. We've had friends and family in town, our basement bathroom finally got finished (more on that later) and we've been trying to get out and about with the kids as much as possible given the terrible heat wave that hit us last week.

I've also been making some big plans involving the holidays. Yep, that's right, I'm already planning for Christmas. I'm starting early this year because it seemed like it was upon us so fast last year that I felt pressed for time. Now that I'm sewing, well maybe I should say learning to sew, I'm planning a few handmade Christmas gifts as well as some awesome pillow cases for the kids, which will probably take me at least 4 months to make! Ha! Anyway, I wanted to give you a sneak peak at a few of the things I'm planning to make.

Booster Seats

I am actually planning to make these before Christmas. I found some cute vinyl tablecloths on clearance for $2.50 at Target a few weeks ago, so this is my next project.

tutorial found here

 Coasters

I'm loving these diy coasters from Martha Stewart. The colors are awesome! I think these would make a great hostess gift!

tutorial found here

Hand Warmers 

I think these would be perfect for keeping little hands warm while playing outside. Hudson went sledding for the first time last winter and I know he'll be all over that again this year. I always worry that he won't tell us if he's too cold, but with a couple of these, at least his fingers will be warm!

 

tutorial found here

Painted Utensils

I love the colors on these utensils and think it's a great way to personalize and jazz up what is kind of a boring gift. I want some of these for myself, but I'll have to wait, because I know someone else who would like some too!

tutorial found here

Beauty Scrubs

I adore scrubs of any kind. Who knew they were so easy to make yourself?! I didn't until I found a little website call Pinterest where I came across a ton of different recipes! I think these will make great inexpensive gifts for my girlfriends.

 

tutorial found here

Quilted Christmas Pillowcases

And this is my BIG project that I've already started preparing to make for the kiddos! I think this is so beautiful! I have absolutely no idea how to quilt, but I'm willing to give it a try if this is the end product! I hope to have these finished by December 1st so that the kids can use them all month. Harper doesn't sleep with a pillow yet, but at least she can have one for the future.

 

original post here

I found all of these ideas on www.pinterest.com. LOVE that site so much!

I have a ton of other ideas floating around my head too. I was thinking a diy play kitchen for Harper and a desk for Hudson's room. Of course, I would need to get the hubby on board for helping with those projects, so we'll see what I can figure out!

Is anyone else thinking about Christmas already? It's kind of hard not to when so many of the blogs and online shops are hosting Christmas in July!

Are you planning any handmade gifts this year? I'd love to hear about them!

Right Now Around Here

watching The Walking Dead, season one on Netflix (so, so good!)

eating Better Oats blueberry muffin oatmeal topped with half a sliced banana and a few chopped walnuts (it's my new favorite!)

reading The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra

looking forward to our 5 year anniversary trip to Big Sur next month

enjoying summer and crossing activities off our Summer Family Fun List

preparing for The Color Run this Saturday (I haven't been running at all because our basement flooded and everything, including our treadmill is sitting in our garage waiting for the new carpet to be installed)

loving that Harper has started walking

sewing a lovey blanket for Harper (using a tutorial from Pinterest)

learning as much as possible about photography

drinking tons of water

focusing on losing some of that pesky baby weight that keeps sticking around. Sigh.

wrapping up Harper's bedroom redo (will post photos soon!)

obsessed with my Project Life album and making it perfect (so much fun and rewarding!)

wishing the weather would cool off just a little

needing to learn photoshop, but feeling intimidated

using my silhouette machine more for projects

starting a yoga class

photographing everything, especially the kids

Who Loves New Recipes?!

Today I want to give a shout out to my good friend Melissa and her (along with her husband, Heeyoung) new food blog, H&M kitchen!

They love finding new and interesting recipes to try and share, as well as, adapting recipes to put their own spin on things and coming up with original recipes to share. Here are just a couple listed on the blog so far:

Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus

recipe

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

(I can't wait to make these!! Yum, yum, yum!)

recipe

On Saturdays they post a Simple Saturday recipe to help make cooking on the weekends that much easier. I already made this one for my son's birthday party and it couldn't have been easier:

Ravioli Lasagna

recipe

So, if you're a foodie or aspire to become one, hop on over to Melissa's awesome blog and check out all the other recipes she has to offer and don't forget to become a follower so you can check back daily!

Happy Friday!

Ten Things

1. I've been working on an art project for Harper's room based on one I came across on Pinterest (big surprise). I would have just bought the one that I found, but I wanted to use some of the fabric that I'm making her curtains out of, so I figured I would make one myself. I should have it ready to post tomorrow morning.

2. This is my new favorite combination for my morning coffee. I love chocolate and caramel together! I'm drinking some right now!

3. I haven't been on the computer much this week because the weather here has been amazing! It totally feels like Spring, so it will be extremely disappointing when Winter finally decides to make an appearance.

Anyway, I've been playing outside with the kids every day. It's been awesome! I took them to the park on Tuesday and it was the very first time Harper got to ride the swings! She loved it so much! She was smiling and giggling the entire time! Hudson has tons of fun too!

4. We have a few projects finally happening here with the house. It's hard to do much when your husband loses his job for 9 months and there is absolutely NO extra money to spend, but we're finally getting back on our feet and playing catch up, including getting to the nursery. I think I found the perfect shade of gray to paint the room and will be working on that and the curtains this weekend. I can't wait til it's all finished!

5. I'm also working on a list of all the recipes I've made from pins on Pinterest and plan to rate them in case you want to give some a try. Some have been good, some not so much...

6. So far, I'm loving the One Little Word class and just the concept in general. My word, nourish, has been playing a huge role in my life so far already. I know I still have 11 months to go, but I have a good feeling that it will only become more powerful with time. Love that!

7. If anyone has any brilliant parenting advice on how to deal with toddlers and tantrums, I would love to hear it! We've been dealing with A LOT lately and it is exhausting!

8. I finally ordered my Project Life binder and kit last night. I've been waiting for the page protectors to restock, but I couldn't wait anymore! I at least want to get started on my journaling before I get too far behind. I'm actually still playing catch up with last year's book. Plus I plan to add more of my own flair to this year's book.

9. I took a knitting class (did I already tell you that?), but it's possible that I've already forgotten everything I learned. Sigh.

10. The hubby and I need to start planning our anniversary trip for August. We originally wanted to go to Alaska, but I don't think we'll have the funds for that this year. Any other suggestions for a romantic getaway?? What about San Francisco? I really need a vacation!!

One Little Word

I have a bunch of projects that I want to get onto the blog in the next week (I need to take a lot of pictures first) or so, but for right now, I wanted to talk about One Little Word. It's a class offered by Big Picture Classes taught by Ali Edwards. I decided to take the class this year in hopes that it would help guide me in achieving my goals for the year. So, instead of declaring a New Years resolution, I picked one word to describe all the changes I would like to make. Actually, my word kind of picked me, but that's another story.

My One Little Word for 2012 is, Nourish.

This word is perfect for me because nourishing my mind, body and soul is exactly what I hope to do this year, as well as, my relationship with my husband and my friends, both of whom have somewhat taken the back burner since having kids.

Taking time for myself is something I know I need to do too, but I just never really get around to it.

I would like to have more me time, more date nights with my husband, eat better and be more mindful of what I'm putting into my body, find a little balance, exercise and maybe even take a trip or two to nourish our little family's souls.

If you'd like to join the fun, you can register for the class by going to Big Picture Classes and searching for One Little Word or Ali Edwards.

I already talked my friend Abbie into taking it with me, so I'm even more excited to share my adventure with a good friend!

Happy 2012 Everyone!!