Coco's new pad

One bonus of our new apartment is that he gets his very own play space. His own place to sleep, his own place to retreat to. (our own place to throw all his toys!)

I wanted his room to be fun, colorful and most of all, affordable. We found a couple things at Ikea and went from there.

Here is his room.

This is the hallway to Cohen's room. To the right is our bathroom and the double doors on the left hide our laundry room. This is "Phase II" of our apartment complex, so it's built all 'lofty'. Lofty is a fancy term "no doors". Yea... It's all that was available and we needed to move. Anyways, we hung two noise canceling, black out curtains at his entrance. It's worked out nicely so far. 

Here's the view walking in. The wall color isn't really that powdery, but the light coming in the window is toying with it. 

Ikea table and chairs, Ikea rug and abacus. The soft ABC flash cards were made by our friend Chelsea! Cohen loves to tote these around!

I loved this whimsical canopy when I saw it and it inspired the room. I got the wall color from one of the pennants. I want to make it into a reading corner when he gets a little bigger.

These were the aqua colored, glittery letters we used at Coco's birthday party. We sanded off the glitter and painted them red! I think they turned out great! I got them at Hobby Lobby originally.

This is his book shelf, with bunches of fun books and random items. That's the growth chart Ashley gave Cohen! Goes perfect in his new room.

That cross-stitch was hand made by my cousin Roland. Isn't it the sweetest thing? Those cute letter blocks are from my sweet friend Suzanne at work. And Aunt Myra is to thank for the Very Hungry Caterpillar. :)

I got this idea from pinterest.. (where else?) I found these alphabet flash cards at Barnes and Noble for around 10 dollars. And I already had the twine and clothespins. 

Here's a close up. I just love this wall. Cohen loves for us to sing the ABC's to him, so I know he's going to love learning what each letter looks and sounds like with these flash cards! And they're super fun and cute!

We put his trucks and legos in his closet and what does he play with? The swiffer duster. :) Never fails! But seriously, he likes to go in there and play. 

Our big boy! Almost 30 inches tall! 

So, while we purchased a few new items, most of these things were pieces we already had! And we just finally got to use them in his bigger space. We're so happy with the outcome, we can't wait to watch him play and grow in there. 

S'More Pie, this is not a joke

Wednesday's are Community Group day, and we got together for a fun dinner last night. I volunteered to bring dessert! (My favorite course to make!!)

I browsed pinterest for a while, looking for something creative and new. I was taken to a blog for another pin I found, so I began perusing that blog. And landed on this.

S'More Pie.


So, thanks to Cookies and Cups, I have a new blog to waste hours away with.

Here we go.
Gather these things:

1 stick salted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp baking powder
1 7oz jar of marshmallow creme
6 Hershey's chocolate bars, broken up

Preheat oven to 350.
Spray pie dish with cooking spray.
In a stand mixer, fitted with paddle, creme together the butter and sugar.
Once blended, add the egg and vanilla.
Then, on low, add the flour, baking powder and graham cracker crumbs.
Take half of the dough and press it into the greased pie dish.

Spread the Marshmallow Creme onto the dough.

Next, layer the broken chocolate over the Marshmallow creme. I got excited here and did not picture the chocolate. Or maybe I was eating chocolate. You'll never know.

Roll out the remaining half of dough, between to pieces of wax paper. Roll it into a 9 in. circle.

 Peel away one side of wax paper. Carefully flip the dough onto the pie, over the chocolate.

Now, carefully remove the last piece of wax paper.

Seal the edges together.

Now, bake it for 20-25 minutes, until lightly browned. I suggest putting a cookie sheet underneath it, it gets pretty bubbly!

 Oh, YEA.

It's hard to get a decently shaped pie piece, but no one seemed to mind. 

This pie was dee.lish.uss. A messy mixture of melted chocolate and gooey marshmallow. The easiest way to eat a S'more. I'm not sure how I don't think up stuff like this on my own. 

I may or may not have had a slice of this for breakfast with a tall glass of milk. Again, you'll never know.

Well, thank you Cookies and Cups!

Fall/Christmas Wreath

About a month ago I crafted a very cool wreath for fall. It ended up looking pretty Christmas-y, but, it's super cute!

Where did I get my idea? Pinterest! From Ellen's Creative Passage blog.

See? It's a little Christmas-y, but I'm glad now, because I can leave it out for longer than November!

So here's what you need:

grapevine wreath (Hobby Lobby)

wool felt (JoAnn's)

hot glue and gun

scissors

bowls of varying sizes

marker

Pick your colors! Any colors! Match any decor!

Trace your circle.

Cut out your circle.

Spiral cut your circle. Stop when you have a small circle in the middlel As you practice and get better, you can vary the width of your spiral, depending on the type of rose you want.

Start with the outside point.

Begin rolling it up, making a flat bottom out of the edge the scissors touched.

Keep on rolling! Keep it tight and straighten as you go.

This is what it should look like.

Spread hot glue all over the rolled edges, like so.

Fold the leftover circle onto hot glue, making sure to cover all those edges.

Trim of the excess of that circle you just hot glued down.

Voila! How pretty! 

Then change up your bowls to make different sizes. Or, like I mentioned, cut a wider spiral. Even cut your spiral a little uneven to get a more "natural" looking rose. 

Once you finish as many as you want, lay them out on your grapevine wreath. Then, one at a time, hot glue them down. You can fill your wreath with way more, I chose to do an uneven look. Afterwards you can add bling if you want! The blog creator (who created this first) added some glittery snowflakes to her wreath after finishing it. 

Have fun!! Be creative!

Hosting Thanksgiving

This year, we got the special opportunity to host Thanksgiving Dinner for my Mom and Dad and brother. We were just thrilled! I started planning for decorations and menu about a month ago.

I'm very in to free printables from the internet. It is thanks to free printables that I was able to do a lot of my Thanksgiving decor! I'll start with pictures.

 The Table

My handmade "Give Thanks" banner!

Letters: Font from dafont, printed via Microsoft Word

Paper: Hobby Lobby

Twine: Hobby Lobby

Plates and Napkins: Hobby Lobby

Printable Napkin Rings: Paper&Cake

Printable Napkin Rings: Paper&Cake

*can also be used to wrap water bottles or candles*

Simple centerpiece.

Beaded charger/mat: Target

Candlesticks: Hobby Lobby (already had)

Mercury glass piece: our treetopper from Hobby Lobby

Pumpkin salt and pepper shakers: gift

candles are simply covered with scrapbooking paper and embellished with twine

Printable Napkin Rings: Paper&Cake, just another version 

Place card/food labels: Paper&Cake

Potato and Sweet Potato Gratin: recipe here, found on pinterest

Green Bean Casserole: recipe here, found on pinterest

Mashed Potatoes: made by my Momma, recipe: secret

*why two potato dishes? Mom pointed out that I had wanted traditional mashed potatoes with turkey gravy when I first talked about hosting, then I went and made a menu including only the gratin potatoes. She fixed my dilemma!*

Thankful Subway Art Poster: I can no longer find this! So sorry!

Frame: Hobby Lobby

Roasted Turkey Roulade: recipe here, from the Barefoot Contessa

check out the first time we made this turkey and hosted Thanksgiving 

My handsome Hubby carving the turkey!

So, dinner was a smashing success! The turkey was beautiful and delicious, and all the sides were to die for!

After dinner we had to lay back and play games for a while before setting up the dessert table. We were TOO full! 

Pecan Pie: made by my Momma, recipe: secret

Pumpkin Parfaits: recipe here, found on pinterest

Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows: Central Market

Brownie Bites: Ghirardelli 

Food flags: handmade by me from scrapbook paper and toothpicks

Cohen with his uncle Josh, watching the game :)

Remember this?

From March 5, 2011, Cohen was about 7 weeks old. LOVE this picture!

The handsome big brother and me. Here we are, 27 and 25 years old!

I didn't get any other pictures. :( I was busy running around the kitchen and taking pictures of tables and food! ;) I hope you enjoyed, and I hope all of your Thanksgiving celebrations were memorable ones! Please feel free to share!