Easy Pumpkin Decorating for Fall

I'm a little late to the game, considering fall has been here for a month already. But this past weekend, I finally gave our front porch a proper (albeit cheap & easy) seasonal makeover.

The star players in my display are the perennial fall favorites: pumpkins & mums. I bought three big pumpkins at Aldi for only $3 each, and four potted mums at Dillon's for $3 each. I prefer pumpkin painting over carving, but I had already done the black & white thing a couple years ago. This year I decided I wanted to go for the gold instead, so I bought a gold paint marker at Hobby Lobby for about $3.50. 

The first thing that came to mind was polka dots, which were simple enough to do freehand (and no one would notice that they weren't perfect circles). 

Fall Baking: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today I realized it's been two months since I've posted anything, and this makes me sad. There just haven't been a whole lot of new developments with our house, despite the fact that our unfinished basement keeps taunting me every time I go downstairs to do laundry.

One thing I've found myself doing a lot of lately, however, is baking. Since it's officially fall (albeit unseasonably warm), I felt the need to use some of the canned pumpkin that's been patiently waiting in my pantry since last year. In search of a recipe containing ingredients I already had on hand, I found one on Pinterest for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (via fifteenspatulas).

Since I followed the recipe word for word, you can just head to the original source for the instructions. Basically, all I'm here to say is that they're delicious! The combination of the spices with the gooey chocolatey goodness was perfect. I had one (or three) fresh out of the oven with a glass of milk, and I was a happy girl. They're also probably the softest cookies I have ever made, and they stayed soft even after a couple days. (Although I'd recommend popping them in the microwave for a few seconds to make them warm and melty again.)

One thing worth mentioning is that the original recipe states one batch makes one dozen cookies. Since I felt this was not nearly enough, I doubled the batch. Well, I found myself putting cookies in my oven all evening until I ended up with about 50 of these babies. They were big, too. Don't get me wrong, you can never have too many cookies. Just be forewarned.

So in order to avoid temptation and premature winter weight, I sent some with my husband to take to his office and also stuck some in the freezer to be enjoyed later. And since I only used one cup of pumpkin for these cookies, I still have quite a bit left to try out another recipe!

What's your favorite fall treat? Pumpkin recipes welcome!

Going Paperless: A Window Treatment Transformation

For the past five years, I’ve been on a mission to destroy all of the temporary paper shades that we put up to cover the windows when we first moved in our house. It’s been a slow process because A) I just don’t want to spend a lot of money; and B) some of our windows are odd sizes which makes it a bit tricky. But so far I’ve gotten through our living room and master bedroom, and this past weekend I finally de-papered the guest bedroom.

Close-up of the shade in all its pleated, papery glory

This particular window is about 45” wide by 46” high. Based on my experience, I hadn’t seen any window treatments to fit those dimensions, and I wasn't going to pay to custom order something. So I was going to have to get creative. There's definitely no shortage of DIY curtains on Pinterest, from drop cloth curtains to tablecloth curtains to no-sew roman shades.

Baby Shower Gift Idea + Pretty Packaging

When it comes to gifts, sometimes I’m a buy-it-off-the-registry-and-stick-it-in-a-gift-bag type of person. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) Other times I like to have fun and be a little more creative with my gifting, if only for my own enjoyment. Case in point: my sister-in-law’s baby shower this past weekend. I had seen a couple cute ideas on Pinterest and this was a perfect opportunity to try them out.

1) Onesie Cupcakes

(inspiration pic below)

{ via Living My Style }

2) Washcloth Lollipops

(inspiration pic below)

{ via Surf & Sunshine } 

Adorable, right? So first I went out shopping in search of some onesies. The only challenge was, because they don’t know the sex of the baby yet, I had to find something gender-neutral. On top of that, it was very hard (in my experience anyway) to find something gender-neutral and colorful. So, I ended up with some white & tan ones with little monkey designs on them. Not very cupcake-y looking, but they would have to do. I also had to settle for white socks.

Summer Cooking: Philly Chicken Sandwiches to the Rescue

I like cooking, but I don't like cooking in the summer. It's just too hot, and there are other things I'd rather be doing. Sometimes this means we end up scrounging around and dining on culinary delights such as cereal or yogurt parfaits (which are actually quite tasty). Other times we might get really lazy and just go out to eat (although I hate spending money on that). 

This weekend I decided it was time to be a responsible adult and make an actual meal. Since I refuse to turn on the oven in 90+ degree heat, I turned instead to my Pinterest board just for crockpot meals. My interest was sparked by a recipe I had recently pinned for Philly chicken sandwiches. It required tossing only 5 ingredients in the slow cooker, so how can you go wrong?

Well, you can't. It's that easy. And that good. Which is why I felt compelled to spread the Philly chicken goodness and share it with you. 

In fact, in re-reading the recipe a little closer right now, I realized that I used dry steak seasoning instead of the liquid steak seasoning that was specified -- and it was still delicious. I also used Swiss cheese instead of mozzarella.  And, I even got crazy and toasted our hoagie buns by spreading butter on them and putting them on a griddle for a few minutes. Totally not necessary, but I think it made the end result even better.

I managed to snap a picture before I scarfed it down 

(because I'm also an obsessive Instagrammer now).

My husband even raved about these sandwiches, even though he usually gives me a hard time for making too many chicken dishes and not enough steak (he's a red meat kind of guy, aren't they all?). The chicken mixture had great flavor, and it was just as yummy left over the next day. Would Philadelphians approve of this non-steak version? I'm not sure. But if Philly chicken sandwiches are wrong, I don't wanna be right.

I would definitely try these sandwiches out if you're looking for an easy meal this summer (or anytime). Check out the recipe from Cat at Food Family & Finds! Oh, and I haven't tried it myself, but I'm willing to bet that if you weren't in the mood for a hoagie, this would make a pretty tasty Philly chicken pizza, too!

Basement Inspiration: Part II

Last week, I decided to start sharing some ideas that I have for our future finished basement (partly to help keep myself motivated as we DIY our way through this looooong process). Well, it turned out I had quite a few ideas and had to cut my post short. So now I'm picking up where I left off!

{ via custommade.com }

As I mentioned last time, we'll have a small room that will serve as our office (and/or my craft space). We've framed out a door opening for it with something like the photo above in mind. 

Basement Inspiration: Part I

Can you believe it's officially summer already? The temperatures around here definitely tell me that it is, but this year is just going way too fast. We haven't really done any big projects lately, but we manage to stay plenty busy with the usual everyday things--especially now the lawn & landscaping need a lot of attention.

So, since I don't have any completed projects to share this time, I thought I'd daydream blog about an ongoing project in the works: our unfinished basement (cue dramatic music). We're DIY-ing everything as much as we can, but I'm about ready to fork over the money and pay someone else to take over. Right now we have most of the framework finished, as well as part of the plumbing. We still have to finish putting insulation up on the ceiling and outer walls (a tedious task that neither of us is motivated to do), then electrical. None of this is very exciting to me.  I just want to get it done and get to the fun stuff quicker.  
Which is why I've been saving design ideas for our future finished basement (thank you, Pinterest). In case you're curious, the layout will include:
- 1 bedroom
- Office (or hobby/craft room)
- Living area
- Wet bar
- 3/4 bath
- Laundry room

Time for some pretty pictures now, yes? Here are just a few of the ideas I'm loving and may have to put to use in our own basement!