Our fall wreath

This actually turned out even better than I imagined:

You might remember my inspiration pictures here. I never found any one wreath that was exactly how I imagined -- so I decided to go to the store and wing it.

First of all - wreath supplies are expensive! You can buy flower picks for $7.99 per flower! That can add up very quickly, and suddenly the Pottery Barn wreath no longer seems expensive after all.

I wanted to do this on a budget - so I clipped coupons, looked up sales, and made multiple trips to 3 different stores. I spent a total of $18 and am SO happy. 

First, I started with a grapevine wreath. I like how you can have parts of the base showing -- unlike a styrofoam base.

I had bought a few branches and garlands that I could cut up, and used flower wire to attach to the wreath. Another pro of the grapevine -- attaching was easy.

In case cutting these is much harder than you imagine, get out your bolt cutters. Oh wait. You don't have bolt cutters? You don't have a mother who has a love for both crafts and power tools and decides that every female should have bolt cutters in her craft box? Hmm. Well then, come on over! My bolt cutters are your bolt cutters.

Once cut, it was just about that simple. I started with the leaves and the gold pieces.

Added the white flowers and the berries.

Made a bow out of burlap. (Note: In case you decide to buy burlap on your lunch break, walk into the fabric store in your suit jacket, grab a very heavy burlap roll and hug it to carry it.. you have a bit of explaining to do when you get back to work. For the burlap will be all over you. Just something that I have heard).

Secure the worth-the-dry-cleaning-bill bow to your wreath with another piece of wire. 

And ta-da .. the finished product!

I think it looks so good with our brown door. I love seeing it every time I drive home. 

Despite the 80 degree weather, our front door knows its fall!

Fall bucket list cross-off:

• Make a fall wreath. Consult Pinterest if necessary.

Pinterest: fall wreath inspiration

We crossed a few things off our fall bucket list this past weekend:

40 pounds of apples puts a HUGE smile on my face. More to come on this.

Since Saturday is the first official day of fall, I should really get a move on, on my fall wreath.  Here is my Pinterest inspiration:

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Edit: The fall wreath that I ended up making is here.

Date night: pumpkin challenge

Dan and I found ourselves very confused when we realized that we didn’t have plans last Saturday. What do we do with ourselves? If I get bored, it usually becomes a complex endeavor – like “let’s re-do the mancave!” I still owe yall pictures from that, by the way. Either that or I pout to Dan that I am ‘in a rut.’ Dramatic much? Nope.

What went from “lets go to this bar” to “lets go to dinner” to “lets go to Total Wine and pick out our own beer to save money,” got very interesting when I became overwhelmed by the number of pumpkin beers at Total Wine.

How would anyone choose?! You don’t just keep cases of pumpkin beer around. But when it's fall, and you want a pumpkin beer, which six pack do you get?

Challenge accepted.

We grabbed every pumpkin beer that they sold as a single.

Nine. Nine pumpkin beers were about to compete for our affection. It was going to be a glorious night.

On the way out of the store, something attempted to throw a very large wrench in our plans. Dogfish Head Punkin Ale. 4 pack. 

How can we pass it by? The rules: 1) Must be pumpkin, not harvest or fall. 2) Only singles. 3) Buy all of them. No singles anywhere to be found. We left Dogfish Head and its deliciously-orange case behind, to not break rule 2, and proceeded with our night.

The line up of fierce competitors:

Our set up was elaborate because, if you are going to do a pumpkin challenge, you have to do it right.

Fall candle? Check.

In-depth scoring sheets? Check. 

Pumpkin-orange shirt for Dan? Check.

I don't mean to brag, but we are connoisseurs when it comes to these tastings and know all the correct terminology when discussing beers.

Trust me, “night ruined” is not a good tasting note to receive.

Each beer had to be tasted, scored on a scale from ‘yuck’ to ‘yummy’ and could be re-tasted as many times possible until we ran out. Then, a favorite had to be chosen.

Dan easily went with “Shipwrecked.”

I apologize for the picture. He apparently confused “Here, pose with your favorite beer!” with “Quick, I’m taking your high school hockey photo, if you smile, you’ll get beaten up.”

I, shockingly, couldn’t decide.

I like most all of them! Cottonwood was delicious, but a little light. Sam Adams was delicious, but a little heavy. Shipwrecked was great, but had so much of a clove taste, that I could only have one. Blue Moon and Buffalo Bill were, as always, delicious. UFO did disappoint. But I liked the Unita, and didn’t think my night was ruined, as Dan so eloquently put it. 

Approximately 4 days later, Dan came home with the temptress herself: the 4 pack of Dogfish Head Punkin Ale.

She's beautiful.

Winner. Done. Hands down. Our favorite.

So there you have it. Our super professional opinion. Dogfish Head is not ‘nooooo’ nor ‘night ruined.’ When describing a beer of this caliber, we like to use the technical term ‘delicious.’ It’s not sold in singles because, trust me, you will want all four.

If you don’t believe me, have your own Pumpkin Challenge. (It’s capitalized now, because it’s a thing.) Let me know what you decide.

Happy fall, yall!

Fall bucket list

I love summer. LOVE summer. I would take 100 degree days anytime, all the time. I love pools, lakes, oceans, bathing suits, suntans, and HEAT. I love that my morning commute is 15 minutes less without school buses. I love that the days are longer and the light is plenty. I love that the farmers market is stocked with fresh fruit. That pants are optional (summer dresses … what else). And shoes? 100% not necessary in the summer.

And now, in the blink of an eye, here we are at the end of August with a high of 78 degrees. And I am in mourning. It was dark when I left for work, and a fall décor Pottery Barn catalogue sits on my coffee table.

Photo courtesy of my photographer mama. This is what happens when she gives me a
memory card that already had pictures on it. :)

But fall .. my second favorite season. Oh how I love fall, and pumpkins, apple picking, and homemade things in quilted mason jars tied with a ribbon. Second to Christmas, Halloween is my favorite holiday, and squeezing it at the teeny tiny tail end of October gives us all month to celebrate. I almost don’t want to get excited, because I know that the second I do, Mother Nature will hear me, and in the blink of an eye summer will officially be over.

I debated posting this. What if Mother Nature reads my blog? I decided she was more of a Pioneer Woman kind of lady, and figured it was safe. Shhhh.

Ergo. To ensure that fall doesn’t fly by as fast as summer did, and to make sure I squeeze out every drop of rust-orange goodness, I made a fall bucket list. Every item must be checked off and mentioned here, with photographic evidence.

• Go apple picking: We go to Sky Top Orchard in Hendersonville every year.
• Make homemade apple sauce with the fresh picked apples.
• Drink a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte.
• Make homemade apple butter. Can it. Share with friends.
• Pick out a pumpkin and carve it.
• Roast the pumpkin seeds.
• Make homemade pumpkin sage gnocchi. Share the recipe.
• Have a back yard bon fire with smores.
• Go hiking.
• Make homemade apple pie. Eat it for breakfast. With ice cream.
• Make a fall wreath. Consult Pinterest if necessary.
• Make and wear the sweater boot socks that I pinned.
• Buy a box of Trader Joes pumpkin muffin mix. Make the muffins. Top with cream cheese icing. Call it breakfast, not dessert.
• Find a recipe for and attempt homemade apple cider. Spike it if feeling crazy.

There you have it – my must do list for fall. As long as we have a few more hot days, and I can maybe con someone with a pool into letting me come visit, I might be getting excited. Just might. Not confirmed.

Definitely not confirmed.

Dried hydrangeas

Have yall seen my mom's blog on how to dry hydrangeas? (Who knew the key was picking at the right time?) She was so nice in drying some for me. Currently, I have a large vase in the middle of the dining room table, and another large vase in the living room.

The original plan was to use some short square vases and put one short stem hydrangea in each vase and use this as decor in guest rooms and on shelves around the house.

I think part of it was my fear of cutting these long stems. But somehow I just fell in love with these large statement arrangements. 

I could put dried hydrangeas in every room in the house. I love how they are colorful all year round. Somehow the blues, purples, and greens manage to go with anything.  They aren't fake, but don't have to be watered. Second only to fresh flowers.

Sorry mom - looks like we will be drying more next year! :) Only next year I will have pink to contribute.

Homemade "York" Peppermint Patties

I have another recipe for yall. This one deserves to be shared. It is for homemade “Yorks”. These are a little time consuming, but oh so worth it.

I swear I have recipes that don't involve chocolate or mint .. just give me a chance to prove it to you. In the meantime, enjoy another chocolate-mint recipe.

First, gather your ingredients. Outside. Where the lighting is better. To take pictures of them. Complain to your husband that we need more lights in the kitchen.

Don’t judge our large bag of chocolate chips. We buy them in bulk. I like to bake. You never know when life calls for a cookie cake.

You'll use:

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk

7 cups Powdered Sugar

3/4 teaspoon Peppermint Oil (or 3x that of peppermint extract -- I'll explain)

A few cups of chocolate chips

Food coloring (if desired)

First pour the condensed milk in your mixer, or in a bowl (but a hand mixer will be necessary!).

Add the Peppermint oil. I like to use to use peppermint oil (you can get it at Michaels, Sur La Table, etc.) because it is more concentrated. It won’t affect the consistency as much as extract will. This is especially good for icings, candies, and other non-baked items. Extract won’t hurt this recipe, just make sure you use about 3 times as much.

If desired, add your food coloring here. Then add the powdered sugar one cup at a time. You want the mixture to no longer be sticky.. If it is still sticky, throw in another half a cup. It should look like this:

The batter will taste like toothpaste. Don’t panic. I promise these will be delicious.

Take spoonfuls of the batter and flatten into patties. These do not have to be exact. As large of patties as you want, as thick as you want, they can all be different. Lay them all over your kitchen. Stress your Type-A self out.

Melt your chocolate chips. Mine took about twice this much melted chocolate.

Smooth chocolate over one side. Let harden. (I slide the foil on baking sheets and stick them in the freezer for a few minutes to hasten the process).

Flip.

Spread chocolate over the other side. Decide whether it is worth the added effort to smooth chocolate around the edges to fully coat. Decide that it is not.

This makes about 40 (depending on size). Feel free to half the recipe. Feel free to immediately regret it when you taste these.