Salted Caramel Butter Bars

I made these back in October, so I'm catch-up blogging right now. :) I made these for a dinner party we went to. They turned out pretty well, but they were super sweet. I couldn't eat very many of them. Here is where I got the recipe from.

This was all that was left after the dinner party!

They were fun to make, but I don't think I would make them again.

Our Fall Puzzle

I said awhile ago that I would post about our puzzle when we were finished with it. Well, we've been done with it for a few weeks now. Sorry I haven't been updating lately, 12-hour night shifts for my Practicum are messing up my schedule! All I do is sleep. Anyhow, here's the puzzle! :)

In progress...

And finished!

We decided we really like puzzles, and we plan on doing more of them. They are super addicting. 

Happy Puzzling!

Mom's Turkey Neck Soup

I made this tonight, mmm mmm!!!

I only took one picture of this, sorry! This is another recipe I learned from my Mom. It's great for Thanksgiving leftovers. Here's how to do it!

-Fill a big pot almost 1/2 way with water, stick of celery, pepper

-Bring to boil, then simmer no more than 1 hr with turkey neck (from Thanksgiving turkey)

-Strain broth through colander/cheese cloth into another pot

-Pour the broth back into the big pot

-Add can of chicken broth

-Add leftover gravy

-Add chopped celery (can add frozen green beans)

-Add chopped carrots

-Bring to a boil

-Add spices- onion/garlic powder (or real garlic), parsley

-Might need to add one teaspoon chicken bouillon

-Season with salt

-When carrots are tender, add noodles (not too many, they expand)

-After noodles have cooked, add already cooked left-over turkey

It is soooooo yummy!!!

Homemade Applesauce!

Here is Niall snug as a bug while it snowed for the first time this year. I thought it was a nice day to heat up the apartment while cooking, so I made some applesauce!

My Mom taught me how to make applesauce a few years ago, and now it's a tradition of mine every Fall! Here is how you do it:

Go pick some apples! We picked these at Greenbluff awhile ago. You will need a lot of apples if you are going to make a lot of applesauce, I think I used about 30-35 apples this year. And it is good to have a variety of different types of apples because it makes it more flavorful.

Core and peel the apples. Then cut the skin off.

Fill a large pot with the cut apples and add about 1/3 of a pot of water. Turn on the heat and bring to a boil.

Boil until soft, then mash. Add lots of cinnamon and sugar.

All those apples only made two large jars worth of applesauce, but it sure does taste good. And it's so easy! Yummmmmmm!

Homemade Tile Coasters

I started this project last summer but just never finished it. It is really easy, and would make a great gift! I just bought tiles at Lowe's for 10 cents each, cut out some of my favorite fabrics slightly smaller than the coaster, and Mod-Podged them a few times. I also sprayed a clear sealer on each coaster a few times, to make them a bit smoother and water-proof.

Then I cut out different colors of felt and Mod-Podged those to the back of the coasters so they don't scratch the table.

And that's it! Sorry for the dark photos, it was night time when I took these!

Fall Table Runner

I had been planning on having people over for Thanksgiving this year and I wanted to make a table runner so it would feel more festive. I bought this fabric at The Quilting Bee and I think it's perfect. I bought way too much, but now I have leftovers for another project or two! The fabric is Robin Pickens for Robert Kaufman in Nutmeg. 

This is one of the only times I made up my own project, so I was excited that it turned out pretty cute! 

First I laid out the fabric.

Then I cut two pieces, each 13" by 38".

I also cut some interfacing a bit smaller than the other fabric. I had never used interfacing so I was excited to try it. It works pretty well! It makes the table runner a bit more rigid.

Next I lined up the interfacing with the fabric and pinned it into place.

Then I warmed up the iron and ironed how the directions said (put the rough side of the interfacing on the wrong side of the fabric, apply iron for 10 seconds, move iron and overlap slightly.) The iron makes the other side of the interfacing turn into some kind of glue that binds onto the fabric.

I ironed the other side too, just to make sure!

Then I put the two pieces of fabric with interfacing right sides together and sewed around 3 of the sides.

And lastly I flipped it inside out (should look like a long pillowcase at this point), then folded the exposed edges under about 1/2" and topstitched that side closed. Then I continued to topstitch around the rest of the sides to make sure it had a nice finished-looking edge.

And voila!

Cute little Fall table runner! :)

P.S. An important note: when it's time to flip the material right side out and then topstitch the exposed side closed, make sure to iron your seams- this makes the table runner look professional!

Mr. Fish

This is Mr. Fish. 

Our first pet! 

His full name is Magnus Theodore Fish.

We were in the bodywash section at Walmart and I turned around and there were all these Beta fish! I really wanted to get one, and Niall said yes, so here he is! 

Mr. Fish has had a rough life at our place so far. I think maybe he is old. And he doesn't like our Beta food we bought for him. We have to grind it up or he wont eat it.

 There's Niall feeding him! 

It is sort of fun to have a fish again. :)

Thanksgiving!

For our first Thanksgiving as a married couple, I came up with the brilliant idea of hosting Thanksgiving in our one-bedroom apartment- after working two 12-hour nights shifts. So here was what it looked like- I thought we did pretty darn well. Couldn't have done it without a lot of hard work from Niall!

I got off work at the hospital at 7:30 AM. I had the turkey in the oven by 9.

Here it is before. This was the first time I've cooked a turkey, and I really am not looking forward to doing it again.

The rest of the goods!

The cooked turkey. Niall took this picture for me because I was sleeping. I only got 2 hours of sleep.

Here is our living room in our dining room. We moved the kitchen table into the living room so we would have enough space. We had Niall's parents, my parents, and my friend Phoebe and her husband over. 8 people!

Here is my window chalkboard! I will post on this later! Still needs another coat of chalkboard paint, but it works for now! And I am kind of proud of my little turkey!

Our table. My idea but Niall's crafty work. He loves setting the table! :)

I was so impressed with how he set it I couldn't even believe it!

I tied twine around the silverware. There is also twine and ric-rac tied around the jars with the candles on the table (see above). And I made the table runner too! I'll post about that later as well.

After dinner, everyone looked at the newspaper ads for Black Friday, and I took a nap. Then we played Balderdash. It was so much fun!

There's Phoebers! I think Justin is praying? Ha.

This picture was at the end of the night. We did it!

I also saw these apple candles on Pinterest, so I had Niall make them. They were great! All you have to do is hollow out the top and put a tealight in it.

And after everyone left we looked at the ads! What a great Thanksgiving!