These are a few of my favorite fall things.

Well, its obvious that fall is here. The temperature isn't quite fall-ish all day long but every now and then I feel it in the air. The front porch decorations are out. I started painting our pumpkins last year for our first Fall as a married couple and I loved it so I did it this year as well.

Adam and I are SO looking forward to our annual Fall Party coming up October 20th. We make sweet chili (it is to die for and I will post recipe at a later date), Caramel Apple Cider, Roast Marshmallows out back in the fire pit, eat some yummy fall flavored desserts and cakes (this year we will have cake dots for sure), drink sweet tea from mason jars, and just enjoy fall and all that comes with it. Its a blast and I look forward to it every year!

In honor of fall I figured I would come up with a few reasons why I enjoy it so much and wish it would stick around a little bit longer, and here they are (in no particular order):

The entire month of October

Football (The boys watching, not me)

Fall smelling candles burning at home

Leaves falling

Pumpkin patches

Corn mazes

Hayrides

Seasonal beverages at coffee shops

Fall and Christmas decorations up in stores

New Wardrobe

Fall Cooking (Chili, Pumpkin Rolls and Pies, etc)

Planning for upcoming holiday meals

Bonfires

Being only months away from Christmas

Uggs and VS sweat pants

The sound of leaves crunching

I could go on and on about Fall but my head keeps bobbing so right now my favorite thing is going to my bed. Night little bloggies!

What's YOUR favorite thing about fall??

Sweet Tie-dye Reunion

...and for the record, I have no excuses for being gone so long. One of the reasons I have not posted anything in the last couple weeks is because I kept pondering what to write when I had to explain why I have been out of my blogging element lately. This morning I decided I would say nothing. I will just blog... and I will start with a fun little edible craft. Tie-dye Cupcakes!

I decided to bake these for my "SuperMom". In reality, she probably deserves the most expensive cake you could ever find or buy in this world but I wanted to show a little "labor of love" and bake her something myself. Here is my mom. I hope I look half as good as she does when I get to be her age and I want her beautiful skin, her hands ( which are so perfect to me), and her heart.

So here are the cupcakes I made and here's how YOU can make them too!

You start off with a regular butter cake recipe or use your favorite light colored cake. Follow directions until batter is mixed thoroughly.

Then scoop an even amount of cake batter into 4 different bowls. (Or however many different colors you choose to use.)

Choose what colors you would like to use and drop food coloring in 1 drop at a time until you get the brightness and color you desire.

Drop 1 spoonful at a time, alternate each color, and layer them until the baking cup is 3/4 full.

Each one is different and unique.

Bake at 350 degrees (or whatever your recipe calls for) ice them with your favorite buttercream or cream cheese icing and you will get these little cuties!

Don't ask me why the tie-dye just makes it taste better... but it does.

Now go make some cupcakes and tell me about them!!! Have a great day everyone :)

empty calories and reasons why.

It's 11:32 p.m. I'm watching the girliest lifetime movie I have ever seen, nursing a Dr. Pepper (my personal poison) and catching up with you guys! Today has been a FULL day of baking...and laundry...and errands.

*About that Dr. Pepper. It will be the death of me.

If you see me out and I am drinking one....

Grab it.

Pour it down the drain.

Or in the grass.

Just get rid of it.

Replace it with a water bottle.

Please.

There.

I said it.

Now let's move on. :)

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Despite my busy day I managed to squeeze in a little time for some online shopping. (Just little things, of course. It's my favorite. )

I have been in desperate need of some of this for about 2 months now. Luckily its summertime and I'm not pasty white so I've been able to go without. I figured it was time to break down and get some.

I somehow made it over to www.expressionary.com and found these.

I'm such a sucker for personalized stationary. I think it's a great idea to get new notecards or stationary every so often because it encourages you to always send thank you notes and "just because" cards to friends and family. It's much more fun when you have cute stuff! Just like a southern girl should. :)

Adam and I are coming up on our 1 year anniversary next weekend!!! SO happy to be with this WONDERFUL man.

There are SO many reasons why I consider myself the luckiest girl in the world. But just to name a few....

He is such a little charmer but SO genuine.

He's a planner.

He loves to surprise me.

He would cook me breakfast every morning if I let him.

He never gets mad when I have those lazy days of him coming home from work and I'm still in my p.j.'s.

He's my biggest fan and pushes me to do things I never thought I could.

He ALWAYS folds clothes and does most of the dishwater duties..(The 2 things I hate!)

He's loyal..to me.. to his friends..our families, to his job and his employees and anyone else that needs his support.

He is the most compassionate person I have ever met.

When he listens to me...he really listens.

He is THE FUNNIEST GUY ALIVE.

and..

He's MY husband.. forever and ever and ever.

Have a great weekend everyone!

better late than never.

Well after a little delay, I'm back! It seems like every time I sit down to blog a little, something takes over my attention and I get distracted. With that said, I am here now and that's all that matters, right?

I left off with our first supper club. Sadly I was so busy cooking, and setting up that I failed to take as many pictures as I would have liked to. I did, however, snap a couple with the ever-so-faithful iphone which I have to have to admit, gets the job done.

The invites.

The table settings. ( Thought about breaking out our monogrammed fine china and linens for the event but opted for the bit more casual every-day dinnerware)

The hors'dourves. Tomato-Mozzarella Bruschetta

This recipe was given to me from my BFF/Matron of Honor - Keegan Raybon McWhorter whom I love dearly and miss SO much.

Keegan, and her sweetie of a husband Robby, came to visit earlier this year and we had such a great time with them. They even got ME to climb chilhowee mountain for an amazing view from the top.

O, Adam.... :)

I did not get a single picture of Adam's homemade meatballs and spaghetti sauce. I also made a delicious, fresh italian salad that ranked right up there with The Olive Garden salad. (I think, anyway) I had the best of intentions of making either tiramisu or Italian chocolate mousse in chocolate bowls, neither of which I have made before, but they are quite detailed dishes and require a lot of time and that afternoon I did not have it. Instead, I made my favorite:

Hershey Pie!

This recipe is very easy and DELICIOUS. I keep all the ingredients on hand at all times for a last minute dessert. I make it so often that have memorized the recipe so I figured I should share with you all!

Ingredients

• 1 9 inch single crust pie shell (I use pillsbury ones in the freezer section)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 stick of melted butter
• 2 eggs slightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl until mixed well. Pour in unbaked pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until set.

I like to serve mine warm with a dollop of cool whip or a scoop of ice cream.

I recently found this video on another blog and immediately looked for more after watching it. It's SO funny. Adam and I share this video with everyone we know and a few of us actually attempted it ourselves the other night at the ever-so-popular Wally-world. It didn't work out so smoothly for us but I hope to be back with a successful video of it for my blog later on! For now, enjoy this!

Later Bloggies!

can't handle couponing and loving the new iphone update.

Adam and I just got home from a grocery run to Publix, getting some things for our first supper club tomorrow night at our house! We recently decided to start this and invited a few other newlyweds to join in. We are hosting the original Supper Club and then will pass it on to another couple. SO excited!

What I am about to tell you might be a bit suprising but...I am sad to say you will never see me post anything about grocery bargaining and coupons. I will not post pictures of 39 items that I got for 2 dollars. I will not give tips on where to get your coupons and when and how to double them to get money back on an item instead of actually paying for it.

I do not have the brain cells and the energy it take to do all of the planning and organizing for it. Soon after Adam and I got married I "thought" I was cut out for it - showing off my binder with dividers and plastic baseball card holder sheets to organize all of my coupons. This lasted every bit of a week and 4 days. Now don't get me wrong. I LOVE a bargain and when it comes to clothes and shoes I buy sale items over half the time. But you don't have to cover your living room floor with newspapers, clippings, and coupon piles to save money on your clothes. I think the women that coupon and get all of this stuff for next to nothing are very smart and have a lot of patience and drive to figure it all out and "beat the system" if you will. I don't mean that offensively at all. I just mean that for example, Green Giant did not set out with intentions of paying 'YOU' 15 cents to buy their frozen vegetable bags. El Paso didn't plan on you getting 18 jars of salsa for a nickel a piece. Anyway, I wish I could do it. I really do. I am sure it is a great feeling coming home to your husband with all of that stuff but I guess it is just not for everyone. I wonder if it is some kind of maternal instinct that kicks in after your have a baby? Could be.. Maybe I will have to delete this post one day and write about how much I LOVE couponing. We will see!

Adam and I both updated our iphones last night to the new iOS 4 software. So far I am loving the multi-tasking and folders, but I have to admit it is getting a little much. It took me all of 5 minutes today to find where I put my calculator in my phone! Sometimes I hit the wrong button and I keep doing it to the point of high frustration because things are so new. Not complaining though. Could NOT live a day without it.

I finally got to do some catching up with my great friend and bridesmaid, Victoria today!

She lives in northern Alabama, very close to Chattanooga so we met there for some P.F. Changs, of course! I havn't seen her in a while and it was so good to chat! We sadly sat in the booth from 12:30 until 4 p.m :/ I know, I know. I'm sure they hated us but I just couldn't stop talking!!

Subject U-turn. Everyone welcome my beautiful, sweet, (newly married also) friend - Jessica G'deau and her husband Clark to the blogging world!

She's got great posts and I am SO looking forward to reading her stuff!

Check her out here:

http://web.me.com/thegdeaus

With that said, I am gonna finish up a couple things and head to bed. Check back tomorrow night for "Supper Club" talk and fun photos and maybe a recipe or too!

How do you feel about couponing?? Love it or just can't handle it? I would love to hear from you!

cute kids, recipes, and rolls

The end of this week has quickly approached and I am feeling a bit tired from an extra busy week. :/ I have a feeling my housewife sleeping late days are over. There is always plenty to keep my busy these days! The Cooking Camp was a blast. The kids were adorable and they did so good with everything. My mom was, of course, a huge help. She drove 6 hours just to help out. God gave me an incredible mom, thats for sure. They all loved her and for some reason, I thought it was sooo cute when they called her "Sharon". So fun. Is it possible that I enjoyed it more than they did? Anywho...I snapped a few pictures...

We made some fun dishes and they all tasted really good. We started out the week on Monday with "Breakfast". We made things you could serve for breakfast. The next day we did things you could serve or might have for "lunch"... and so on. The last day we made and decorated homemade cupcakes and had a little party. I have to brag a bit on our students... Check out these cupcakes that they decorated. SO creative. SO cute!

One of my favorites recipes of the week was the strawberry butter we made on 'breakfast' day. I thought I would share it with everyone!

Strawberry Butter

1 10 oz. package of frozen strawberries (drained)

or 1 pint fresh strawberries

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup powdered sugar

Mix all together in stand mixer until creamy and no lumps. (It may look like it's curdling but keep mixing until smooth)

Place in sealed jars and refrigerate.

* It is delicious on biscuits and toast, waffles and pancakes. You can also substitute strawberry butter in recipes for dishes calling for regular butter. Serving strawberry butter is an easy way to dress up your family breakfast table, or impress guests by serving it with dinner rolls at your next dinner party.

Ok, complete change of subject. To say that we 'like' Sister Schubert rolls is an understatement.

Adam and I can sadly put away a whole pan between the two of us at any given point. I only buy them every once and while because if Adam knows they are in the freezer he will beg me to bake them immediately. We don't understand how they are so good or what kind of addictive poison is in those things but we always said if we ever got the chance to meet her we would ask.

What are the odds that she walks into Adam's restaurant.

He text me right away when she came in and I sent him a picture of a pack in the freezer. Unfortunately, he did not ask about them being addictive but he did show her the picture that I sent him and actually got to sit down and talk to her a bit about my new CoCo cake dots business venture. She gave me some great advice and wished me luck. Precious! As if we could like the rolls anymore now??

Happy Father's Day to MY most wonderful DAD and all the dad's out there!

Have a great weekend!