Little slice of pumpkin heaven...

Fall season just so happens to be my absolute favorite time of year. Love everything about it! Pumpkins, the colors, the change of the leaves, the holidays (heelllloooo thanksgiving! and halloween!!) and yes, even the rain. We are a very green state for a reason, you know! It totally makes it worth it when we have those BEAUTIFULLY sunny, fall days. Those days make me so thankful to live here!!

Back to my main reason for this post... Pumpkins. Love pumpkins. Love the pumpkin patch, pumpkin spiced lattes, pumpkin decor, pumpkin muffins, cookies, breads, etc. Love it all. My husband and I went grocery shopping yesterday and I got two big cans of pumpkin because I knew that I had a few recipes in mind to make! I looked up on google (yes, we are speaking again...) for a recipe for pumpkin bread, and it lead me to my absolute favorite recipe site, allrecipes. Those recipes have never failed me. This time was no exception!! I did tweek it a little because of two reasons... 1) people's comments told me to and 2) because I am trying to get in the habit of using healthy not so unhealthy ingredients.

So, instead of only white sugar, I used light brown and raw sugar. For the flour, I used half all purpose and half wheat flour. I wish I could have halved the oil and used applesauce but have yet to buy a mesh strainer...

I know. What kind of kitchen doesn't have a mesh strainer?? Ugh. You never realize how useful those things are until you need it and don't own one. Lame.

But anyway, after those fixes, I nervously put my bread in the oven. I've never really messed with different sugars or flours before, so this was going to be interesting...

IT TURNED OUT DELICIOUS!!!!

Helllllllooooooo my love!

I'm always a little nervous too about baking because I have the tendency to over stir the batter, and so it comes out too dry. Lame.

But not this time! I fought my urge to keep stirring, and just put down the spatula! Plus I think this bread is just more moist than others I've tried. So delicious.

Here's another picture...

Don't worry, its not undercooked, that is melted butter on my slice of pumpkin heaven. Yum. I think I may go have another piece... 

Next recipe I am wanting to try is pumpkin butter... sounds amazing right? I thought so too. 

Ok, so to be honest, I'm making pumpkin butter so that I can make some ridiculously scrumptious looking pumpkin granola I saw online... Yes, I am obsessed with pumpkin. I'm ok with that. 

It is done...

I am currently sitting in my living room, supposed to be packing for our trip to california... however, I am so excited that I finished my daughter's halloween costume that I decided to post it on here first... shhh, don't tell Michael...

It didn't take as long to finish as I thought it would, thank goodness! And as far as my very first costume ever, I'm pretty darn proud of it. I do, however, have a problem with continuing to add things well after my final stopping point (just can't keep things simple! its a sickness really...). I may find something that I think will absolutely look adorable with it and decide to add more, but for now... here it is!!

I, so badly, wanted to add a brown tutu, HOWEVER, my husband is a total hater of them. My heart broke when I heard this, we've got two little girls!! You're killin me, man!! Oh well, she will look adorable anyway. I tried putting it on her, but it was poor timing on my part. She was mid-hissy fit, so she was in no mood for pictures. Lame. Oh well, come Halloween, I'll be going picture crazy! 

Next year, I will also tackle piper's costume. But we were lucky enough this year to be given an ADORABLE pumpkin costume for her. So cute. I'm totally ok with that!

Chaos is... chaotic

I've never really been a super organized, neat freak by any means what so ever. My mom is, and so her house is always clean. I mean... ALWAYS. She will tell you otherwise, but take my word for it... Of course, growing up, that was super annoying. What teenager wants to clean the bathroom or pick up her room, etc? I didn't. Now that I have my own house however, I see first hand what can happen and now suddenly have a new appreciation for my mom's cleaning habits. Not saying that I will ever be like her... (take a look at my house right now, no where close) but I would like to think that in that aspect, I'm slowly becoming more like her.

With that said, moving is stressful and chaotic and leaves your house in a total and utter DISASTER AREA. Its been driving me insane lately and yesterday, it was the straw that broke the camel's back. Things still don't have a place. Some boxes still are unopened. Time to get crackin!

Our house has lots of shelves (which I love) however, a lot of them are open shelves... as in, you can see them. No doors, curtains, etc. I am not dedicated enough to constantly straighten and tidy my cleaning supplies, and/or towels. I saw on pinterest, so many creative ways to make your own storage boxes, using what you have readily available to you. Well since we recently got rid of our moving boxes (thank you nichole!) the next best thing that will we have around for the next two ish years is diaper boxes. I don't have large amounts of scrapbook paper lying around, not to cover boxes anyway, but I do however have wrapping paper! Genius!

On a total side note, that actually does have something to do with this, I watch my friend's son two days a week. Yesterday was one of the days he was here, so while him and my daughter entertained themselves, I got to wrapping my boxes to make them less "huggies" and more "normal storage". Now that I'm looking back on my finished project, I have two points I would like to share with you:

1) Two toddlers don't entertain themselves once they see that you have something cooler going on...

2)I may use something more durable next time, rather than wrapping paper

The wrapping paper worked, and for what I'm using it for, it will hold up fine. But if you want to make a bin that will get a bit more abuse (i.e. your kids will be pulling it out) I'd go for something like fabric. Even some old tshirts or something. Anyway, here it is:

Now I can hide my ugly cleaning bottles and what not. Planning on making more, perhaps all the way across. I am tired of chaos. I want to be organized!!

google failed me.

That's what I've been telling myself since last night. Totally and completely google's fault. I was in no way responsible for the outcome of my previously frozen bread dough. So I keep telling myself...

The dough would not rise the second time around. Well, let me rephrase. It only rose a little. I don't know if I stored it wrong in the freezer, or if there was a draft in my kitchen, or if I was too impatient and didn't give it enough time... who knows. Maybe a combination of all. Don't get me wrong, it still tastes fine, I'm still going to eat it, I just wish it was slightly bigger. And maybe less dense. haha. I still have another frozen loaf, so I can try again. Try to forgive google for giving me false information, and even perhaps find it in my heart of hearts to trust google once again in my search for tips on freezing bread dough. We will see.

I saw a really delicious looking recipe for pumpkin bread last night on allrecipes... they've never failed me before. Perhaps I'll take a little break from google, and try out that recipe first. Maybe that will give my little baking ego a boost, and then try for the second frozen dough. Yeah, pretty sure that's what will happen. 

Two in one day...

I know, I know, why not just combine both of them into one mega post? Well, to be honest, cause I am the most fickle person on the planet. I started my other post with every intention of doing so, then changed my mind, mid-typing. Thought maybe I could save this one for another day... however, I was way too excited to wait, sooooooo, here ya go. Two in one day...

So anyway, I've been seeing all these way cool wreath ideas on pinterest. I've pinned like a million that I would want to try, and finally the other day, I actually made one! Whoop! I took somebody's advice to get styrofoam from Home Depot cause it is cheap. (97 cents for 6 ft... i like) Joann's was having a sale on felt and since I was already getting some for my daughter's halloween costume, I picked some other colors up with this project in mind. They were 4 sheets for $1. Thank you Joann's! It was once again, crazy easy, but TIME CONSUMING... (maybe its not that I'm picking tedious projects, maybe its more that making things at home just takes longer... wow, light bulb!)

Anywho, I am in love with this wreath. Its a little on the skinny side, but I am totally ok with that! I got this recipe box from Michael's one time, and I am in love with the colors on them, and just recently have decided to slowly start building my home decor around this box... well, these colors are a part of that! I am currently in the process of making a christmas wreath out of the other half of this styrofoam tube... hope it turns out awesome like this one...

And a picture of the recipe box, just in case anybody is actually interested...

Don't know what you got, til its gone.

Garage sales are so enticing. There's nothing like someone else's junk for cheap that totally fills my need for shopping. Its true what they say that one man's trash is another man's treasure. I've found my fair share of treasures at garage sales. Right now, I'm totally obsessed with mason jars... but thats a whole other post...
Two mill creek garage sales ago, I bought a bread machine. It cost me $10 and I had all these hopes and dreams of no longer needing to buy bread from the store because the Oxnevad house was going to be the bread making house. Two mill creek garage sales later, the bread machine was NEVER used. It just sat in our kitchen, in the box I packed it in, mocking me. About three weeks ago, I finally gave it away to a friend who has already had way more use out of it than I did. (which wasn't hard since it was never used here...)
What is the point of this, do you ask? Well, it wasn't until after I decided to get rid of my bread machine that I finally decided to try making bread. I googled a simple recipe for beginners. Have I mentioned how much I love allrecipes.com? Cause I totally do. I now love making bread. It is a very long process to do without a bread machine, but I love it! The last recipe I tried was also an allrecipes find for honey wheat bread, only it made 3 loaves... Um. I do not need 3 loaves of bread sitting around,
because I will eat all 3 in a matter of days. Google to the rescue! I read that I could freeze bread dough and bake it later. Now for any of you novice bread makers out there, this could be either a no brainer or a tragic mistake. I read up on some tips, and hopefully tomorrow, I will be able to bake up some dough that has been in my freezer for about two weeks... or, I will find out that I completely ruined the other two loaves and thus wasted all those delicious ingredients. We will find out tomorrow!

A little distracted.

So I had some big plans for the other day to post about my daughter's halloween costume that I am in the middle of making. Naive me, thought that I could finish the costume, take pictures and post on here all in one night... that however was not the case. The costume is started, but leave it to me to take on the MOST tedious projects in the world. I saw this really adorable owl costume on pinterest and thought that I could just do that myself. Well.... its doable, but TIME CONSUMING. So far, all I have done is this:

Doesn't look complicated, right? Its not. It literally is just cutting a MILLION little feathers out of felt. Probably doesn't help that while taking on this project, I had the show "laguna beach" on. Don't judge. Its a guilty pleasure. And a distracting one at that. If I am completely honest, its probably more that the show was on that the costume isn't done. Pardon me, while I go hide my face in the corner...

The original costume I saw had a mask, however, my daughter is almost two. A mask is not an option. I'll have to fashion some sort of hat...

Keep your fingers crossed for me. When making things by hand, it can either look impressive or... well look like you made it by hand. Lets hope that my first attempt at a costume is leaning more towards impressive.

Eat.Pray.Love. (not the movie...)

The other night, I was thinking that I wanted to have some decor in my kitchen but being the frugal person that I have become, I didn't necessarily want to pay for anything. So I got to brainstorming. I wanted some words up, so naturally the word "eat" came to mind. We are church going people, so naturally the word "pray" came to mind pretty quickly there after. My mind immediately went to the title of the movie (which by the way, I have not seen... any good?) Eat. Pray. Love. Who doesn't like those words? I sure do! So I gathered my materials and got to work!

Things I grabbed:
Material
Canvases (whatever size you want)
Acrylic Paint
Pencil
Scissors
Hot glue gun

First things first:

I layed my canvas on the material so that I could measure out how much material I would need (the material I used was just old curtains that the old owners left at our house, I just washed one)

I, then just drew on the back of the material with pencil around the outside the canvas, making it about two inches wider. Doesn't have to be exact, you wont be seeing the back.

Then I used the scissors to cut the fabric. 

Next, I laid the canvas face down onto the cut piece of material (the side that you want to show of the material is also face down) and began hot gluing the fabric to the canvas. Make sure you pull tight cause you don't want the fabric to be loose when you are done.

After that, I flipped it over and began using the pencil to make where I wanted my words. I just don't know what happened to that picture...

I then, went over the pencil marks with my paint. Once you are done, just do it two more times and you have your finished product! So easy and so cute!! 

*if any of this didn't make sense, let me know. this is my first tutorial!

Where do I begin?

I started this post because ever since I became a mom, this whole other part of me woke up and became alive. Suddenly I was creating a home for not only my husband, but also a little baby (and soon after, two little babies!) I began to realize that the ability to use what you have and to think creatively and outside the box, is golden. I've been pouring over other people's blogs lately, just soaking up any inspiration I could. There are some super creative people out there! And the best part of that?? Creativity it TOTALLY contagious!! I want to get back to the time where all we needed was our own hands and a little creativity. So the purpose of this blog is to force myself to become more "self sufficient". I want to fine tune my sewing, learn how to garden, get more creative with cooking, and be inspired to have an AWESOMELY decorated home (which, is ours by the way, no more renting for us! whoop!) And shoot, maybe I'll even pick up some random skills along the way, such as hair cutting (I find it annoying to pay money for my husband's hair cut when it seems simple enough that I could just do it myself) and maybe even wood work (I've seen some pretty awesome wood furniture ideas, best get out my brother's saw and see what i'm made of!). So, here we go!