A lamp Revamp!

Since I've already shared that secretly I'm a Thrift store HOARDER, I'm feeling comfortable enough to share that I dumpster dove this lamp. And it works. And David was embarrassed at the time. And whoever threw it away is going to be very sorry when they see how cute it is now. And..that's it. No wait. And, if you don't think it's cuter now, you better lie and tell me it is anyway.

In the Fall you have to eat soup!

This is kind of funny. In the picture above, I made a soup called Broccoli velvet soup. However, after making it and taking the picture, I decided that a better fall-ish soup might be another favorite of ours called Zuchinni Bisque soup. I know, if you aren't a big squash fan, this might sound pretty sick. But to let you in on a little secret: I'm not a big squash fan myself. But I love this soup. And ....I especially love it when my Husband makes it so I don't have to. So here it is. Make your Husband cook some up tonight!

Zuchinni Bisque Soup

2 cups of diced onions
2 Tbs Butter
3 and 3/4 cups Squash (Zuchinni or you could try another squash if you'd like.) diced.
3 cups Chicken Broth
1/8 tsp Nutmeg
1/8 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup cream (Why do all of my recipes have cream?)
Shredded Pepper Jack Cheese (or cheddar if you prefer)

Cook onion in butter until soft. Add Zuchinni and cook for a few minutes. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Simmer together for 15 minutes or until squash is tender. Add seasonings to mixture. Using a blender, Puree the mixture and return to the pan. Add cream and heat through. Serve with grated cheese on top.

Another Fun and Easy Skirt!

This started when my cute neighbor Brooke made a skirt very much like this one. I loved it and wanted to make one too. So I cut out the fabric and it was way too fluffy and not long enough. This is what I get for trying to figure it out on my own. My Mom told me to try a tutorial found on Simple Simon and Co for this skirt, which I did after I added the white border to the bottom of the fabric. (haha! It could have been okay without that right?) So, to make this, don't do anything I did. Go directly to Simple Simon and co and look for the Starboard Skirt tutorial.

Every emotion in the book.

A few weeks ago, while we were out on a walk, McKinley noticed something. SHE HAD A LOOSE TOOTH! As soon as she realized it was loose, she started crying. Bawling her little eyes out actually. David wiggled it a little bit to see if it was really loose, and said, "Kinley! You have your very first loose tooth!" After hearing how excited Daddy was about it, she started jumping up and down and yelling "yay yay yay! My tooth is loose!"
When we got home, she immediately asked to call her Grandmas to tell them the news. She told them that we were going to have a party for her loose tooth!(news to me.)....what? You don't have parties for your loose teeth?
That was quite a while ago. It finally fell out on Saturday night, and we went through the same range of emotions that we had when the tooth was loose.
That night she refused to put the tooth under her pillow. She said the tooth fairy would never find it there. Our tooth fairy was a little unsure what the going rate for a tooth is these days. Does the tooth fairy put a dvd or an Ipod under pillows now or is a bright shiny quarter still good. We asked Mckinley about it, and she said that the Tooth Fairy brings MONEY! We settled on some coloring books, a 10 dollar bill and a silver dollar. Sprinkled her with glitter fairy dust in the night while she slept and fell asleep wondering how the time has flown by so fast. Oh yeah, and the tooth fairy kept the tooth, too. Guess what else? Another tooth has started to wiggle.

Fall Outdoor Film Festival

Last year, in our family, we started a fun tradition that we hope we can maintain every year. We plan a Fall Film Festival where we pick 4 movies that we would like to watch together. Then we plan which 4 nights we would like to have as movie nights. When the night comes, we move our TV and DVD player outside, put our jammies on, and set up sleeping bags and blankies on the grass along with camp chairs. We also make our favorite Caramel Popcorn to eat. We might try some new treat recipes for a couple of our movie nights this year. We have especially loved this activity for some of our family nights or times when other activities are not in the budget. We decided to do this after finding out that watching family movies together is one of Mckinley's favorite things to do. Here is our Caramel Popcorn recipe:

Sea Salt Caramel Devil Popcorn

1 Cube Butter
1 Cube Margarine
1 Cup Brown Sugar
3 cups mini marshmallows ( I don't know why it makes any difference that they are the mini ones but it actually does.)
2-3 bags (3.5 oz) Butter Microwave Popcorn popped with kernels removed.
Dash of large grain sea salt

In a large saucepan, melt together butter, margarine and brown sugar. When melted (Brown sugar dissolved) add marshmallows and stir until they are melted and incorporated. (Doesn't need to be boiling) Pour mixture over bowl of popped popcorn and mix together. Add a dash of large kernel sea salt at the end of mixing. Enjoy!

legwarmers

I thrifted some very cute sweaters specifically to make Mckinley some legwarmers because she has just started a dance class. While making them, I thought they would be cute for the girls to wear with leggings and dresses. This was a very easy project. I just cut off the sleeves of some sweaters and used a small stitch on my sewing machine to sew an elastic wasteband casing into the top of the legwarmer. I then measured around the girls legs and cut elastic wasteband to fit the measurement and threaded the wasteband through the casing. Dolce's outfit is actually a shirt of Mckinleys that I sewed some tulle bows to the upper left side of and added a belt. Aren't these girlies so cute?

Comforts of Fall!

I love it when the weather cools down enough that I can pull out extra blankets and flannel sheets. I love the feeling of snuggling under a bunch of layers when I go to bed, especially if the layers feel a little bit heavy. The only drawback I can think of is that a cozy bed makes it a bit harder to get up and get going on crisp mornings. But I guess you can't have it all.