Welcome, Fall!

Happy fall! It's officially here, my favorite time of the year! And I love that the weather has cooperated accordingly. On the first day of fall, and the day after, it felt like FALL. It was COOL outside. And isn't there something just magical about fall air? I swear it looked and smelled different than it did a week ago. The sky was that most terrific shade of blue that seems to only appear with cooler temperatures. I love it. I spent two cool afternoons sewing in front of a breezy open window and it was divine. Aside from the allergy attack that ensued. And I made a pot of butternut squash soup (because fall means soup!) and am ready to get down with some hearty fall flavors in the kitchen!

I am also very ready for the string of wonderful holidays that are soon to begin. In just a week it will be socially acceptable to start picking out pumpkins, spookifying our little home, and of course watching my favorite Halloween movies. And time to scheme Halloween costumes! Neither Brendon or I have any idea what we're going to be, which is weird because we usually have that figured out months in advance. Slackin'.

Thanks for showing up in all your splendid glory, fall. I love you and have been waiting all year for you to arrive, please be good to us. September has been a wild month so October, you're welcome to be slightly calmer. Also cooler please.

AND, this has nothing to do with anything, but the most popular post on my blog by far is this post on Brendon's lederhosen. Random eh? Year round it gets exponentially more views than any other post (when you Google "lederhosen" Brendon's picture is on the first page), and lately, it has been blowing up. Oktoberfest, y'all. Folks are trying to get their Bavarian on. My first and second dirndls are getting some love too, though not nearly as much as Brendon looking cute in his lederhosen. I have yet to decide on whether I should make a third dirndl this year. I haven't even planned my Halloween costume and there's a dress pattern and fabric from this spring sitting on my sewing table that I haven't touched. I'm a bit behind on my sewing game I guess. So anyways, if you are here at my little niche of the internet because of Brendon in his lederhosen, thanks for stopping by. Sorry it's all food. Here's German Brendon, just for fun, because it's what the internet wants.

Summer versus fall

It's been a while since one of these went down. A terrible webcam photo of yours truly and a boring post without food or pretty pictures, revolving around my actual day to day life and thoughts. Wooo. But first and foremost, look at that busted chair. Thanks, cats. I reupholster a nasty chair with the cheapest fabric in the scrap pile for the living room corner painting studio that I never use and this is how you treat it? Shame.

Pharmacy school has started. Oh pharmacy school. Can we break up already? This is year three out of four, so at least we're over half way there. The constant studying and a certain wife falling asleep alone hasn't started yet, but I can smell it. I'm just trying very hard to look at it from the "the sooner it starts, the sooner it's over" side, but it's got me a little bummed. And I know Brendon isn't stoked either.

This cycle with pharmacy school has brought on mixed feelings about my favorite time of the year. I am not a summer person, and I don't think I ever have been. I look forward to the fall months leading to the holy time of December (so much irony) all year long. But this year, I want to hold on to summer. Not the heat, hell no, not the heat, but the summeryness of summer. The freedom and the fun and the carefreeness. The husband out of school and the adventures we have together. TWO incomes. Bright colors and sunglasses and tan lines and even sandals. Luckily for me, we live in Texas and summer is basically forever, or at least until November, but school starting is the unofficial beginning of fall regardless of temperature. There are cases of pumpkin syrup on my shelves at work, begging to be latte-ed up. Stores are clearancing their shorts and showing off their sweaters (and I want them all, oh my goodness especially this one). Leaves are starting to change in regions of America with seasons. My Facebook newsfeed is unfortunately flooded with football posts. Halloween costumes are being schemed and I've got a hankering to watch You've Got Mail. And somehow tomorrow is the first day of September. It's happening. Fall is happening. And usually I'd be lapping it all up, but I am clinging to summer. I am a fairly forward thinking person, but I want to go back. I want to rewind to May and do it all again. Madness. I blame this on a wonderful summer and funky things happening in my life at the moment. Fall is the season of change and maybe that's what I'm afraid of. But I need to quit it. Fall is the most wonderful time of the year, followed by the most magical month of the year. I am going to enjoy it, damnit. One pumpkin latte at a time (kidding, not actually a fan of pumpkin outside of candles). So bring it on, September. Whatever you bring, I'm armed with a handful of fake red and yellow leaves and an arsenal of fall baking ideas.

And this has nothing to do with anything, but because I'm a maniac and love working 50+ hours a week, I got a second job. This summer I started sewing a day or two a week at a drapery workroom with the sweetest lady ever. Seriously, nicest boss in the world. This job is my happy place. It's the greatest escape and I am learning so much. I get to sew with fancy machines on fancy fabric and learn fancy tricks and techniques. I haven't sewn at home since I've started, but I imagine my little machine will feel... different. But this little job has made me realize even more that I am happiest when I am making something. When my hands are at work. Even if it's drapes for someone's home that I'll never see, I'm creating. I'm not sure where my calling is in the world (honestly, is anyone? If you know, then tell me the secret to figuring it out), but I feel like I'd be pretty happy as long as my hands are at work making something. Preferably something pretty. I think I need to take this more to heart.

End ramble. If you made it this far, congrats. I think all that typing about fall has me ready for it. I'm sad to see summer end, but I'm about ready to tackle this fantastic season. Maybe I'll just pop You've Got Mail in and let it push me over the edge.

Missing

I missed the first day of fall. It was Saturday and it blew by without any recognition from yours truly. Not that it really feels like fall. We've still been hitting the 90's, which is a lot of fun in a car that has working ac about half the time. But regardless, the first day of fall doesn't usually slip by me, as it is the official start to my favorite time of the year.

The past week has been a hectic whirlwind and most of it hasn't been much fun. Nothing went according to plan and I am tired and frustrated. I haven't seen Brendon for more than an hour or so in a few days. It's full on pharmacy school mode over here, which always sucks. I thought I would be tougher this time around, but it's still so hard. I miss my husband. Pharmacy school plus conflicting schedules equals no bueno. I've been a grumpy baby lately and I feel terrible about it. That is the worst way to handle things but I just want to stomp and pout and get what I want already. Because I'm obviously five years old.

BUT (silver lining, y'all) it is fall now. The best time of the year. Soon we'll be putting up Halloween decor, carving pumpkins, and baking loaves of banana bread (because it makes your house smell better than the fanciest fall scented candle). This week was just a rough week and all will be well soon enough. It is Monday after all, and this coming week will be better. I promise.

A post without pictures

I figured I ought to post a little bit about what's actually happening in my life, versus what I'm eating.

Fall is arriving! This weekend has been full of rain and cool weather and I've loved every minute. Unfortunately the cool weather brought a little something extra with it, Brendon caught a cold or something this week. That's not been fun. I'm crossing my fingers in hope that my immune system keeps me safe! I absolutely do not have time to be sick! And even though he's under the weather, school is in full swing again, stealing my husband away. I had my first night of falling asleep alone last week, and it was real lame. But, even if fall brings pharmacy school, it's still my favorite time of the year. This cooler weather has me all kinds of excited. I can't wait for the next few months and all the fun they bring! October, November, and December, how I love you!

First up is Halloween! Any ideas on what you're going to be? Brendon and I have our respective costumes settled and I've got to admit, they're pretty good. His is probably better than mine. They are a secret of course, but no hints like last year. You will all just have to wait and be surprised. Can't promise my costume will beat my crazy Marie Antoinette get up, but I'm still excited.

Fall is sewing season and I've got all kinds of projects lined up. I just finished Brendon's Halloween costume and I made a little blue dress for myself just for fun (I'm sure you'll see it here soon). Next, I've got my Halloween costume to make, plus a new dirndl for me and lederhosen for Brendon in time for Wurstfest. Oh and we need to learn to waltz so we can dance to polka music (Mom, teach us!). I'm nervous about Brendon's lederhosen, I'm venturing into uncharted territory with these and there will be a lot of improvising. Wish me luck. And Austinites, come to Wurstfest with us! I hear they have beer there.

So that's about it for recent and upcoming events. Mostly I just make a lot of coffee and Brendon is a smarty pants at school. Story of our lives.

Happy October!

We were welcomed into October with a lovely morning of coolness, even now it's only in the 80's! THE EIGHTIES! Not the 90's or 100's. It's so lovely. I think it's time to start sittin' on the porch in the evenings! Maybe I can convince Brendon to do some studying out of doors.

Today I decorated for Halloween. I had been waiting all week for it to be officially October so I could do so, and I'm surprised I made it. Decorating for holidays, or doing anything holiday related, is a passion of mine as I'm sure you all have gathered.

This ridiculous cat is my favorite of our decorations. Brendon got it for me a couple years ago. He brought it home from work one day and sat it on my desk to surprise me. It took a few minutes for me to realize it was there but when I did it scared the bejeezus out of me. I'm pretty sure I shrieked, which is very appropriate for Halloween. Mission accomplished, weird sparkly cat. I added a bow to make it cuter. Bows on everything y'all. Everything.

Also, this happened today. Orange toe pumpkin toe nails! That pumpkin was insanely hard to draw with a toothpick and cheap-o black nail polish. So hard I could only do it once, hence the lonely left big toe.

I hope that October is good to you dear readers. The wonderful season of fall is upon us! Enjoy it people.

Banana Bread

It's that time of the year again. Banana bread time! Yet another wonderful part of this upcoming season is the yummy food items that come with it. It's doesn't feel like it, it's still incredibly hot outside, but tomorrow is officially the first day of fall. Brendon needed something for a pharmacy group bake sale so I decided to make my banana bread. And thus was born another food blog post! I'm going to share this super easy but crazy yummy recipe with you guys. I've been using it for a few years now and I swear by it. Not sure where I found it, probably a blog or website somewhere, so if you recognize it let me know and I'll give the creator credit, because it is genius!

Here's whatcha need:

 (not pictured baking soda, and a greased and floured bread pan)

3 whole ripe bananas (and seriously RIPE, they need to be soft. I've made it with bananas that were a tad green and it's not nearly as good.)
1 stick of butter - softened
1 cup of granulated sugar (already got a stick of butter and a cup of sugar, you know it's going to be good.)
1 cup of flour
1 egg
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Greased and floured bread pan

You could totally add some nuts if you'd like. I like my banana bread pretty simple and not crunchy so I leave them out.

Now here's what you do:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour your pan. Then mash up the bananas.

Now add all the other ingredients and mix together.

Pour it into the pan and bake for 1 hour. And let me tell you, this is going to make your kitchen and surrounding rooms smell amazing. It made our whole apartment smell divine. Your mouth is going to water. 

Once you're hour's up, take your bread out, let it cool for a bit, and enjoy!

Try not to eat it all at once. It was rough having to give all this away. I foresee another batch being baked in the near future.

Fixin' this place up

Hello y'all! How was your weekend? Mine was great! It rained (sprinkled), I got lots of time with Mr. H, and I finally started making our apartment look more like a home and less like a giant dorm room. I think for a while I was kind of in denial about living here long term and refused to decorate. But I am over it! Kind of.

Hung up some pictures all crazy style, no measuring involved. And for me that's a feat, because when it comes to hanging things I'm usually pretty neurotic. We just have this ridiculous long wall in our living room and I needed something to take up a lot of it. So I hung every picture we have with a black frame. Super creative, I know. Brendon had been giving me crap about not hanging pictures (they were all still packed up) so BOOYA. Two birds with one stone. This covers about half of the giant wall, no clue what we'll do with the other half.

Aaaand I made a table runner for our huge coffee table!

Isn't this the prettiest fabric? Plaid is pretty much my favorite color. Jk, it's blue. But seriously I love plaid. Hipsters may have tried to kill it, but I will always be loyal. So anyway, I was at Joann's, which is a dangerous place for me, and I was walking up to the register with this other cheapo plaid fabric in my arms, when I saw this fabric and it said to me, "Marie, put that crap down and come get serious with me. I'm beautiful." And of course I grabbed it. I think it's the kind of fabric you reupholster chairs with. It's fancy. So fancy that it broke the needle on my sewing machine and it scared me so bad I almost peed my pants. Lesson learned, there are different sized needles for different thicknesses of fabric. I justified the splurge on the fact that not only are they fall colors, but also Christmas colors, and I'm thinking we'll just end up using it year round. Brendon did not see my logic. Whatever.

We also got a new bookshelf! Our movies finally filled up our previous one and we lost our other bookshelf in the move (don't buy bookshelves from walmart, they're about as sturdy as copier paper) so we headed on up to ikea to get another to match. What's that? You noticed there are a couple shelves missing? That's because ikea is the antichrist. They are always magically out of what we go there for. That shelf only comes with four shelves (which is moronic) so we needed to buy an extra two which is no biggie because they're only 5 bucks. But of course! They are completely out of those shelves in black/brown. And to order them online would cost $23 for shipping alone. SERIOUSLY? $23 for two $5 shelves? I'm assuming they're coming straight from Sweden and are wrapped gold. We had the same experience with that coffee table up there. It took us three trips to ikea before it was in stock. The second trip we checked online and it definitely said they were in stock so we trek over and NOPE. Not there. This would not be a big deal except ikea is always a good half hour drive both from our old place in Denton and us now. NOT CONVENIENT. Okay, sorry about all that, I really do like ikea. A little. END IKEA RANT.

And for your (my) enjoyment, here is a picture of my sweet man studying for pharmacy school. Obviously he loves having his picture taken. He sent me a text today that said, "I can't wait to have you bug me while I study tonight". Worst wife of the year award goes toooooooo.....

Happy Labor Day, laborers!

Hope you have a lovely 9-5 Mon-Fri job and got to chill out today or do something outdoorsy in this absolutely divine weather. I had to work today, at 5:30am, but I sure don't mind that time and a half.

Burns. They keep happening to me.

Recently, I have been burning myself on various things like crazy. I'm pretty accident prone as it is, but this is getting excessive. This recent burn is from the edge of a cookie sheet that I somehow managed to touch with my arm. Last week I burned one hand with the espresso machine and poured freshly steamed milk over the other hand. A few weeks ago I burned my arm on the top of the oven while taking something out, and a week or so before that I burned my inner arm on a pie pan. What's wrong with me? (a lot.)

Now let's talk about this fantastic weather. It feels aaaamazing outside today. Yesterday we had some killer winds blow in some cooler weather, thank goodness. My walk to work this morning was actually a little chilly, granted it was like 5am and still dark. I spent my lunch break today sitting outside soaking in the sun and enjoying the breeze. And listening to the UT tower play the fight song (Brendon told me that there's an old man that actually plays the bells up there and has been doing so for decades. I don't know if it's true but every time I hear the bells I like to imagine he's up there playing). It's 87 degrees right now with a cool breeze, such a dramatic change from stuffy 106. Thank you September for bringing cooler weather our way. And thank you Texas for giving us this beautiful pre-fall day after a hellish summer, you owe us. Thus begins my favorite time of the year! I LOVE YOU FALL.

I tried to take a picture of the trees outside our apartment blowing around yesterday, trees blowing in the wind creates the most wonderful background noise, but this really doesn't do it justice. At all. I'm still very new to taking pictures in manual mode, but slowly I'm learning. Should have taken a photo class in college.

Yesterday my momma came up and spent the day with me, it was awesome! We had lunch, hung out on the couch with the cats, went to see the Help (so good), and then we made this feast:

 See my little pyrex baby holding our garlic bread? Put that bad boy to use.

My mom has some serious skills in the kitchen. I steal all her recipes but they always taste better when she makes them. Must be those mom-powers. I'm looking at this picture and seriously considering tackling some of those leftovers we've got in the fridge. Yes... I think that definitely needs to happen.