It's Finally Fall!

Ok, so I know it won't officially be fall for a few weeks yet but it looks like fall at our place! We had some great fall like temps over the weekend - lows in the 40s, highs in the 60s. Since it felt like fall, I just couldn't resist putting out the fall decor.


A little tour (warning: bad lighting plus bad photographer equals not so good pictures, but you'll get the idea).

Ignore the cords please. They hate me and refuse to stay hidden.

I love these BIG acorns! I got them at Walmart in the ornament section last year after Christmas. I think I paid 50 cents a piece.

This little ceramic leaf is another after season deal I got last year. I picked up two at JoAnn's for 19 cents each. The other is a little more Thanksgiving-y so it'll make it's debut in a couple months.

Oh and it smells so good in here too! I have a cranberry spice tart in my warmer, now our whole apartment smells like fall!!

Visit The Inspired Room for more fall goodness!

Fall Decor

Quick question: When do you all put out your fall decorations?

I think I put mine up on September 1st last year. Getting pretty anxious though so I might not make it til then this year.

My Husband Rocks

So once in awhile my husband will leave me a voicemail pretending that it's him calling after our first date. Usually goes something like...."Hi. This is umm, David...........(last name). We uh,went on a date last Saturday. Just wanted to know if you want to that again sometime. My number is ---- if you want to call me. Okay, bye."

It's cute and it makes me smile every time.

If you want to read more about MHR, visit Katy Lin.

What was I thinking??

I looked at this wall the other day and wondered what the heck I was thinking when hung these things (yeah that's our lovely wall air conditioner unit peeking out at the bottom).

It really started to bug me but with no extra dollars laying around to redecorate I had to get creative. I took out a few pictures frames I had on hand, a can of spray paint from the closet, and printed out some of my pictures in black and white. I ran to Goodwill to pick up a couple more frames, a real splurge at 25 cents a piece ;o) I gave the frames a couple coats of paint and inserted the pictures. Now our wall looks like this:
I like it so much better and best of all it only cost a whopping 79 cents!!
I decided to rearrange our living room during the whole process too. That's why you see a lamp in the final picture and not in the first.

So long summer....

Things I'm not doing today:
sleeping in
crafting
reading blogs
watching Martha, Rachael Ray or Ellen
playing with fabric


Things I am doing today:
getting up early
sitting though a couple meetings
learning the layout of our new school
getting myself acquainted with my schedule
lesson planning

We have inservice today and tomorrow. The 09-10 school year officially starts on Wednesday.

I have a love/hate relationship with the end of summer. I hate to see the lazy days of summer go but I love the excitement of a new school year.

Bonus: School starting is a sure sign that fall is just around the corner!

Dear Zachary

Most Sunday afternoons you can find me sitting in our living room watching MSNBC documentaries. This past Sunday a documentary called Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father was shown. I'm still thinking about it. I want to tell everyone I know to see it. It's shocking, sad, maddening, and it shows the strength of the human spirit.

If you have Netflix you can watch it instantly on your computer. Don't read anything about the film before you see it, the less you know the better the watching experience.

A few Netflix member reviews that say it better than I can:

This film ripped out my heart, jumped up and down on it and then put it back together and left me with hope.

This is perhaps the most moving tribute to a number of legacies of love I have ever seen. I've never ridden such an emotional roller coaster by watching a movie until seeing Dear Zachary

No matter how tough you may think you are, this movie will sit with you for some time.

Most powerful movie I've ever seen...a documentary that will leave you heartbroken. Unforgettable and beautiful.

Picture source

Signs of Fall

Welcome to everyone from ASPTL's DIY Day! This is a post from earlier this week but I thought I'd share it with all of you too :o) A little background...I had a few boards laying around and some extra time on my hand this past weekend so I thought I'd do some painting. I'm very impatiently waiting for fall so I decided to go with a couple fall type paintings.

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Here are the finished products from the sneak peek.

It's kinda hard to see, but I glittered the little jack-o-lantern faces with some Martha glitter (my favorite!).


The Halloween sign is just over a foot long and the hay ride sign is just over 2 feet long. I used to chalk and trace method like I did here. A fun little project that kept me busy for a few hours. Now I just have to wait til I can put them up!

Just a Peek

Here's a little peek at a couple projects I worked on over the weekend.

I'll show the finished projects tomorrow. :o)

Makin' Paula Deen Proud

A couple days ago our niece Sarah was looking for a dessert recipe to try. I offered to let her look through my recipe binder to see if anything caught her eye. She picked out a Paula Deen recipe that I had found on Bakerella called Deep Dark Chocolate Truffle Cake. It wasn't a recipe I had tried so it sounded like a good choice to me too.

Here's Sarah at work making the cake:

All mixed up and ready to go in the oven:

Straight out of the oven:

After it fell (it's suppose to) in all it's rich fudgy goodness:

It was really good! It's super rich but very good. Our first baking session was a success!! :o)

Our next venture will be the Bakerella pie pops.