Fall is for...

New front door wreaths.  And cozy blankets and sweaters.  And hot drinks.  Fall has finally hit in Missouri, I am of course being stubborn and have not turned on the heat at our house yet.  The cooler weather meant a bonfire at our house Saturday night while we listened to the Mizzou game on the radio.  And drinking wine out of my Tervis tumbler, classy.

 

 Our actual firepit kind of bit the dust so we're planning to actually build a brick one, but for now we just keep it classy by making our bonfire in the hole where the fire pit used to sit.  And wine has to go in a lidded cup so my dog doesn't try to help me drink it.

Okay, back to wreaths.  You know I love me some wreaths.  I made a super cute Mizzou-ish wreath for our kitchen door last fall.  I still love it.  It still came back out for fall.

But I  needed a new wreath for our front door.  The first fall we were in our house, I made this wreath.

 

Kind of sad and not very cute.  It made me think of the 70s.  And the idea definitely looked better in my head than it turned out.  It has since been turned into a different wreath.

Last fall I just kept this wreath up until Christmas.  I thought the black and yellow kind of still worked, Mizzou colors anyway.

 

But this fall I was ready for something new.  I'd been pinning tons of cute wreaths and my mind was full of fun, cozy looking wreath ideas.

So, I set to work with a straw wreath, a roll of burlap ribbon and some felt.  I'm apparently obsessed with burlap/twine wrapped wreaths.  With flowers on them.  And after.... um.... at least a week, I had a finished wreath.  I finally sat down Saturday night during the end of the football game to finish it up.  I made my poor husband wait for dinner until I was finished.  Then I had it all together and my wreath was too fat to go in my wreath holder.  So I dug around and found some ribbon that worked perfectly.

 

I didn't end up actually even gluing the flowers on.  I just stuck them on with sewing pins.  Which you can totally see in the centers.  I need to get something to put over the pins.  But overall, super happy with how it turned out.  I keep opening my door to stare.

Anybody else working on making their home (and entryway) super cozy for fall?  I'm feeling the need for more cozy blankets.

 

 

 

On Some Future Projects

I have been a total crafting/DIY slacker lately.  I haven't done a dang thing.  It's been time at they gym after work and that's about it.  And I miss my craftiness.  I miss it a lot.  So I'm trying to find a way to do both.  And maybe making a list will light a fire under my buns and get me started doing something.  Maybe.

Or maybe I'll just sit and ponder how the shirt I'm wearing today looks like something my granny would've worn....

So, what am I hoping to work on craft-wise?  I'm so glad you asked.

• A new fall wreath for my front door.  I hung my Mizzou argyle wreath on the other front door.  And I still have my black and yellow scrap wreath hanging on the actual front door.  But I want an actual fall wreath.  I'm thinking something like this.  But maybe wrapped with burlap instead of the stripes.  And of course bright fall-ish flowers.
• A gold spray painted jar to serve as a vase for fall/winter.  I'm thinking doing the bottom glitter dipped like this.  The best thing is, I think I have everything on hand to make this so it will cost me zero dollars.
• I also need to touch up the paint on my front door so I can show it off....  Yet another DIY fail.  Oops.
• And I'm going to finish my fall mantle.  I've had half finished pumpkins in my floor for the past.... Um, let's be honest, month.

Stay tuned this week, I'm going to knock it all out of the park.  Also,  Work it Wednesday is coming!  And anniversary details.  Saturday was six years of being together and tomorrow is our third wedding anniversary.  So, this is pretty much going to be an amazing blog week.

What have you guys been up to?  Can anybody tell me how to better balance blogging and working out?  Ug, I need help!  And apparently better time management.

Chocolate Oatmeal

Yup.  That says exactly what you think it says.  Chocolate oatmeal.  Let's take a minute and pause for excitement...

I loooove breakfast.  And I love eating a really delicious breakfast.  However, my work schedule doesn't really allow time for the kind of breakfast I would like.  I leave for work at 6:30, who wants to cook/eat breakfast that early.  So most days I end up grabbing breakfast at my desk once I'm already at work.  That means it's a bowl of cereal, a smoothie, an egg muffin, you know something super simple.

Well, I made a great discovery.  Yesterday (I think) I got a Pillsbury email, one of those with recipes.  It included a recipe for chocolate crockpot oatmeal.  Um, I'm a complete failure at planning ahead.  So even when I have great crockpot plans, half the time I end up have to hurry my food along on the stove because I've forgotten to put stuff in the crockpot before I left for work.  Fail.

But I figured I could whip up some chocolate oatmeal in the microwave.  Spoiler, I was right.  And I have no pictures to share because it turns out microwaved chocolate oatmeal in a Tupperware container does not look especially glamorous or delicious, but trust me, it is delicious.

So, here's what you do.  Grab a bowl, dump in 3/4 cup Old Fashioned or Steel Cut Oats.  Add an envelope of hot chocolate mix.  Pour in about 1/2 cup of milk (eyeball it til it looks right).  Microwave for about 3 minutes, stirring to make sure you don't have an oatmeal volcano in your microwave.  Let it cool for a couple of minutes and enjoy.

And if you're like me and your milk came out of a school milk carton, drink the rest of the carton with your oatmeal.  Yum!  And it just seems so decadent.  It's not even absolutely terrible for you, I'm sure we could healthy it up with actual cocoa and some splenda or something.  But even with instant hot cocoa mix, it's delish.

What are you guys eating for breakfast these days?  Anybody else a complete breakfast person?  I totally love breakfast for dinner, unfortunately that gets voted down at my house.

Work it Wednesday

Hey, Work it Wednesday is actually happening on a Wednesday.  I'm going to go ahead and give myself a gold star.  So, for the sake of transparency, this has been a terrible working out week.  Two days I didn't work out at all.  Like nothing.  And on those two days I ate everything I wanted to.  A BLT pizza (yes, it's as delicious as it sounds), Mediterranean food, steak...  Man, it was all so good.  And since my Diet Bet is over, my motivation has gone down somewhat.  I'm still trying though.  And I"m trying to make myself stick with it.

 
So, here's the break down for the week:
I biked 38.12 miles.  Up 6.35 miles from last week.  I've been trying to bike 9 miles a day.  There were obviously a couple of days I did way less and a couple days I did nothing.
I walked 3.5 miles.  Down 3.11 miles.  Blah.  I hate the treadmill.  And I figure biking extra miles makes up for the lack of treadmill time.
And I've done 30 Day Shred exactly once in the past week.  Fail.

This morning I was running too late to pack my gym bag.  I really need to get better at packing it before I go to bed.  So I'm going to have to make myself workout at home.  I should be able to.  I have a bike.  I have an elliptical.  I have workout videos and weights.  The problem is sitting down when I get home.  I can't do it.  If I do, nothing else gets done.

But, here's to a better report next week.  I'm going on a mini-vacation this weekend so it's going to be tough.  I'm going to make myself exercise some before I go fishing with my husband.  And I'm going to try to make healthier choices when we go out to eat.  The wine....  I make no promises on that.  It counts as a fruit though, right?

So, how do you guys stay motivated?  Any tips for not hating the treadmill?  

Kitchen Ideas

Yesterday while I was at the gym I was watching Love it or List it.  I kind of hate that show.  But they were working on a kitchen on this particular episode.  And that got me thinking about our kitchen.  We don't have tons of cabinet space.  And we definitely don't have a pantry.  We have a lazy susan cabinet that has some food in it.  The top cabinet to the right of the stove has food in it.  And then I keep cereal and stuff in a bottom cabinet by the dishwasher.  So, it's pretty much scattered all around the kitchen.  It's fairly ridiculous.

So, I'm kind of thinking I can build (with the help of my dad) a pantry.  We have a floor to ceiling cabinet beside the stove.  It has the vent for the furnace, the stove, or something.  I don't really know.  I just know it's a big pipe...  I store the broom, the mop, our lunch boxes, and food wrap in there.  The upper part of that cabinet has hot pads, my cookbook rack, and my food scale. 

Okay, so there's the cabinet beside the stove.  And I'm kind of thinking I could build a pantry on the same side of the kitchen but beside the fridge.  I think it would kind of cap things off perfectly.  It wouldn't be quite as big as this cabinet.  But it would be perfect pantry size.  And it could also house our trash can I think.

 

So see, there's just this extra space there on the side of the fridge.  And the wall is just kind of awkward.  It might just be the storage solution I've been looking for.

 

Even from the front it looks unfinished.  And I hate walking into our house and seeing that trash can.  Not the most attractive thing ever.  I could even do chalkboard paint on the side for my weekly menu.  Or make it magnetic or something so that it was still totally functional.

What do you think?  Anybody else tried adding on to your cabinetry?  I'm also thinking this might mean I could reface all of my cabinets to get rid of that super 70-ness.  Now I just have to convince my dad and my hubby that this is a good idea.

A Dream

No, not the kind you have at night.  The kind of things you hope for and wonder if you could ever make happen.The kind of thing the practical side of you, the side that has bills to pay, responsibilities, and a masters degree, tells you are silly and not going to pay the mortgage.

You may have realized by now that I love baking.  It's one of my favorite things.  What, you say it's your birthday?!  Can I bake you cupcakes for whatever celebration you're having?  Or can I bring a pie for you to take to your next holiday celebration?  Have you had my butterscotch brownies?  No?!  Let me make you some!

So, in my silly little dream I want to have a little tiny bakery.  And just do cupcakes.  And pies, but just cream pies.  And brownies.  And anything else that sounds good at the moment.  Never full sized cakes.  Ain't nobody got time for that.

And there's a tiny little building in the town where I live that would be perfect.  It's adorable.  The building can't be more than 10x10.  I would paint the building pink.  A pretty cheery, bright pink.  With the palest of pink trim and door.  And I would have a cute little easel sign outside.  And because I'm ridiculous, it would look kind of like this.

 

Except it would have a picture of one of my actual cupcakes.  Not just one I found by doing a Google image search for a pink cupcake...

And I would name my sweet treats after people I know.  What kind of treat would you want named after you?  Anybody else have a wild dream of what they want to be when they grow up?

Fall Fashion

Weather in Missouri is feeling like fall, at least for a couple of days.  I'm ecstatic.  I'm not usually too into fall but this year I'm super ready for it.  I'm ready for cooler weather, cozy clothes, bonfires, and cranberry Sierra Mist.  Priorities, people!  I love me some cranberry Sierra Mist.

Anyway, since I didn't buy any new clothes for back to school, I'm planning to pick up a few new things for fall.  I may have accidentally on purpose ordered a couple of new pairs of boots from Payless the other day.  I'm not usually a Payless kind of girl, but I have kind of beefy calves and it's one of the few reasonably priced places that stock extended calf boots.  And I need some tall boots for fall/winter.  So I ordered them in black and brown.  But with a coupon code and buy one get one half, I got both pairs for around 75 bucks.  I call that a serious deal!

 

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These are going to be so cute with skinny jeans and sweaters!  And dresses and leggings!  I cannot wait!  There supposed to be on my porch tomorrow by the time I get home.  Too bad it's supposed to be back in the 80s the rest of the week.  I may just wear them anyway.

I'm also really wanting a chambray button down dress.  Even though every ounce of my being is reminding me that's what my mother wore when I was in middle school.  It's fashionable though, right?  With leggins and boots.  And a big chunky belt.  I'm thinking one of these from Target.

 

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Also, I'm loving this shirt.  I think.  I might hate it in person.  Or maybe I should just keep losing weight so I can fit in the plaid shirt I already have.  But this one is red.  And red is one of our school colors, we're supposed to wear school colors if we wear jeans on Fridays.  So I could wear jeans and still wear a cute non-school shirt.  I'm going to have to see it in person.

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And I really want some gold-ish/bronze-ish flats.  I used to have a pair of kind of gold Skechers flats that I loved.  Remarkable for me because I hate Skechers.  It's just a personal preference, I blame it on working in a shoe store for 4 years.  Anyway, they were the best flats in the world.  They were the perfect color.  I wore them all the time.  Without socks.  Yes, I know I'm gross.  I bought them while I was still in college.  I graduated from college in 2005.  So I'd had them a hot minute.  Last year I finally decided the just smelled too bad and that I had to throw them out.  

Every day when I get dressed, I regret throwing them away.  They were perfect for so many outfits.  Like today:  tan skinny jeans, cream 3/4 sleeve shirt, and a scarf.  I need my gold flats.  I have on cream and blue striped ones, they don't match.  So, if you know of any amazing gold-ish flats that are reasonably priced please tell me!  You will be my best friend forever!  I will bake you a cake!  And give you a giant hug.  And tell everyone how you saved my fashion life.

Okay, the dramatics are over.  What are your must-haves for fall?  Anybody else having the great 90s dilemma with the return of chambray?