Whole Wheat Muffins!

A couple weeks ago I made Whole Wheat Muffins and they were super delicious! I have a ton of whole-wheat flower lying around and was excited to use some of it up. They are sweet but not too sweet, and they are pretty healthy for you. They're so yummy and easy to make, I will definitely be making more of them!

I tried to freeze some to save for another day, hoping that I would forget they were in there. But, I never forget- and now they are all eaten. :)

   

Newspaper Print Nails

Okay. I saw this on Pinterest and have been wanting to try it! Newspaper print nails! I don't know if you can see it too well, but I have gotten a lot of compliments on these! All you have to do is paint your nails a white-ish sort of color. Let dry completely. Cut little rectangles out of newspaper (about 10, but a few more just in case). Then pour some alcohol (any kind- I used wine) in a small bowl or cup. Dip your finger in the alcohol then press the little rectangle of newspaper on your nail HARD for about a minute. Peel off and voila! So much fun!

Fall so far...

I can't believe it's already November! Many exciting things will happen this month: Jared and Carrie's baby is due, we are hosting Thanksgiving at our apartment, and I start my Practicum on the Mother-Baby unit. School has been keeping both Niall and I extremely busy, I can't wait until I graduate and have some more time to do things that I love (like blogging and crafting!). Recently Niall and I have been doing a lot "puzzling" as we call it. We bought a puzzle at Walmart and have been addicted to it ever since. We are almost finished with it! I'll post a picture when we are done. 

So, here's what I've been up to lately, sorry for not posting hardly at all:

I really liked the yellowing tree right outside our apartment, so I asked Niall to take some photos with me in front of it, since we haven't taken any fall photos yet. I edited them myself and I really like how they turned out!

Tofu. I just love it. I don't really know how to cook very well with it, but I love it.

One night when Niall had night class I fried it up with some honey and cinnamon, a squirt of lemon juice and some oil.

I steamed some Kashi brand Rice Pilaf (my favorite!) and put the tofu on the top. It was mmm mmm good! And I had some left-overs for lunch the next day.

Fires. We've been making a lot of them. I love that our apartment has a fireplace (I think it's crazy, but I love it). We like to make hot chocolate and do our homework in front of the fire. So cozy. There will be many more fires this winter. 

Here's some bomb hot chocolate I made the other night. I just love our N&J mugs (a wedding gift from one of my old roommates- best gift idea ever!):

Hot Chocolate Recipe:

1 1/2 packets of hot chocolate mix

Handful of marshmallows

Dash of Rainbow Sprinkles

And, of course, a fire and the coals (which are very beautiful):

 Last week Niall and I made the yummiest dinner (yet again!). We cooked a mixture of veggies, some honey-glazed lemon-pepper chicken (our fav), and I made some mashed potatoes from the potatoes we bought up at Greenbluff a few weeks ago. 

Alright. We received a wonderful Crock Pot for our wedding and I still haven't used it. I finally bucked up and tried to make some soup in it. I sort of just threw in what we had in the fridge/freezer and cupboard. I vaguely followed a recipe online (I'm sorry I don't remember which one), but mostly came up with it off the top of my head. And I should NOT have done that. It was gross. And I mean GROSS. Niall said he liked it. I think he just said that to make me feel better. I froze some of the leftovers just in case we're starving one night and just need to eat something. But I will definitely follow a recipe next time. I was really disappointed. If anyone has some amazing Crock Pot recipes that are not too complicated, I would love to try them!

Here is a picture I thought was pretty that I took the other day. This is the view from our back deck. I love the colors of fall!

 And I am trying to keep the geraniums, African daisies, and basil plants alive as long as I can. They currently live just inside the back slider so they get lots of afternoon sun. Today I forgot to open the blinds and they are only getting about and hour of good sunlight- poor things! Here is a small snippet I made for our table one night.

 And finally... HALLOWEEN! Apartment living does not attract many (if any) trick-or-treaters. And I LOVE trick-or-treaters. My favorite thing to do on Halloween is to stay home, put on a movie, and pause it a million times because we have to answer the door to hand out candy. I love seeing all the kids dressed up, it is just too much fun. So, I got a little excited. Niall would say WAY TOO excited. But doesn't everyone run around the house yelling and jumping and cheering about how great of an idea it is to make a glowing ghost in the window to attract trick-or-treaters??? That is exactly what I did. It was my idea but Niall did most of the hard work. He hung the sheet over the ball and positioned the lamp underneath the ghost. But I did make the ghost's eyes and ran outside to make sure he looked spooky enough. Because, that's the most important part! I also made an orange sign that said "CANDY!" so everyone would know that we had it. Oh yes, and I hung up my small strand of blinking orange lights around the door.

In the end, we were successful- we had one family come to the door- the parents and the two kids were dressed up. So a total of four trick-or-treaters, and that was just enough for me! :)

Fall Yarn Wreath!

I finally finished my Fall wreath! I started it a couple weeks ago. It looks exactly how I wanted it to, I really like it a lot!!!

I started with some very soft and somewhat fuzzy Lion Brand pumpkin-orange yarn and wrapped it around a foam circle.

Made some felt flowers with my hot glue gun...

Wrapped the circle with skinny brown ric-rac...

Hot glued the ric-rac on the back of the wreath...

Almost done!

 Hot glued the felt flowers and a sprig of deep red berries and hung it with a ribbon!

I'm super proud of how it turned out. I think it's just darling!

Oven-Fried Zucchini Chips, Basil Dipping Sauce & Star Biscuits

I am terribly behind in blogging, so here is a recipe I actually made a few weeks ago. And we had an amazing sunset the other night, and here is a picture of it! So beautiful.

My mom also gave me a few dahlias from her garden and I just had to take a picture of how pretty they were.

Ok, so I realize this is dinner is not completely nutritious, but it was yummy just the same. I found a yummy-looking recipe on Pinterest for these scrumptious oven-fried zucchini chips. You can find the recipe here. I omitted the onion powder because I didn't have any and these came out super delicious! I would make them again, for sure. The basil dipping sauce, not so much. We thought the zucchini chips were great all by themselves. I got a little creative and put the sauce in a hollowed out part of the zucchini (we had a very large zucchini from my mother-in-law's garden!).

Before cooking...

 I also had some quick-biscuit dough that I've been meaning to use forever, so I finally put it to good use and made biscuits in the shape of my star cookie-cutter. They were very fun to eat! Mmmm. I put honey on mine. :)

Aren't they beautiful?! Mmmmm.

Here is Niall's plate...

And mine!

A very fun dinner indeed!

Niall's Monkey Rice Warmer

With the weather getting cooler, I decided to make hot rice packs for Niall and I. He doesn't have one and his feet get cold so easily, and my old rice sock is, well, old. I haven't made mine yet, but here is Niall's! I think the little monkeys are way cute, and it fits his personality (and his nickname!). So here are Monkey's monkeys!

 I got my inspiration for this rice warmer from this website. I had a really hard time sewing straight lines for each compartment, but I don't think it really matters. It's hard to keep the rice from coming out while you are trying to sew!

It's finished! Now I need to make one for myself because I keep stealing Niall's.

I don't know if you can tell, but this thing turned out to be super long! Luckily, Niall has big feet! :)

Mini Chicken Pot Pies

I made these little chicken pot pies for dinner last night and they were so tasty! And we still have some leftovers. They were a fair amount of work, so I don't know if I have the patience to make them again, but they sure are cute! I used this recipe as a guide.

Mmmmmmm! They were so good! :) And I got to use some of my home-grown tarragon. And right now we're sitting in front of a fire (for the third night in a row!) and watching some Grey's Anatomy. A nice way to spend a Friday evening. :)

Random Happenings

Wow it's been a crazy month! School has started for both of us and we have been extremely busy! Niall is starting student teaching and he has to wear a tie everyday to class. Here he is on the first day of school! So handsome!

Made this potato recipe and it was not as good as I thought it would be. :( Not flavorful enough.

 Back to the grind!

 We had some friends over for a game night so I made some yummy food. This is a white bean dip which I accidentally put too much salt in and it ended up being too salty to eat.

 This was what we had for dinner before our friends came over. Ham & Cheese Crescent rolls with basil. They were really yummy! It was super easy and I found the recipe on Pinterest!

 Here I am, baking away!

Friends!

We played Scrabble. It was a great time!

 And this was all we had left the next day. Peanut Butter Snickers cookies, brownies, and Salted Thyme Flatbread (which turned out to be too salty too! And not very yummy.) I found the PB Snickers cookies and the bread recipe on Pinterest.

 When we went to our parents' houses to wash clothes (I can't wait to have my own washing machine!) I got to see my mom's dahlias. They are so beautiful! And large- these are almost the size of my face!

And last weekend we got to go to Women of Faith! It was incredible and I am so so so glad I could go! The Lord was amazing and provided us with a lot of free tickets!

 This is Mandisa- she is an incredible singer! I love her shoes too! Sandi Patti was there as well and I cannot believe the lungs on that woman!

 I also got to hold my mom's friends' grandbaby. She was so sweet and I LOVE babies!

 My mom and my mother-in-law. I thought this was such a cute picture of them walking together, with their arms out to the side! I am so glad we can all get together and enjoy the same activities.

 My Phoebers!