10 Pumpkin Recipes For Fall

I am a lover of pumpkin. All things pumpkin. Sweet pumpkin treats, hearty pumpkin dinners, pumpkin drinks..whatever- I love it all. Our sweet baby Bray had his first fever yesterday and because he didn't feel awesome, he napped beautifully! When that happens it leaves me too much time to wander on the internet and find fatty yummy recipes, hence this roundup for y'all. Enjoy!
Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispie Treats via The Kitchn 4-Ingredient Pumpkin Frozen Yogurt via Babble
GF Pumpkin Pancakes via Design Sponge
Pumpkin and Cheese Spice Bread via An Edible Mosaic
Iced Pumpkin Cookies via Allrecipes {i've personally had these and LOVE them}
Skinny Pumpkin Latte via Skinny Taste
Skinny Pumpkin Granola via Skinny Taste
Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze via Pretty Good Food
Pumpkin Oatmeal Cups via Green Lite Bites

Pumpkin Chili via Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body {love this chili!}
Heres to hoping that Bray feels better and that y'all have a fantastic weekend! Happy Friday!

Cleaning Up The Kitchen And Correctly Storing Produce

I don't know if y'all are like me in the sense that your house, specifically your kitchen, can get messy really fast. It is the place that we spend a ton of time and the first place we unload after walking in the door. Its the place that friends congregate at, and I start crafts in. It gets cooked in every day, Bray has his bath in everyday, etc.  I hate when its dirty and messy, more than any other room in the house. I want it to look like a designer kitchen at all times, but then I am brought back to reality. I cannot have my counters completely empty at all times. I won't put my soaps, scrubbing pads, and bottle cleaners under the sink at all times. I have multiple appliances that I use daily that I want easy access to. So this is to show what a difference a little cleaning and reorganizing can do.  This is before I changed it all up:

The main reason I was inspired today to finally clean it all up and out, and switch locations of items, was the need for more storage of fruits and veggies. You see- I have almost always kept all my produce in my refrigerator. Everything. That was until I started reading multiple sites from Pinterest telling me that there are actual proper ways to store produce, and that I was doing it all wrong! Whoops! I tried out some of the recommendations and wanted to hit myself for doing it wrong for so long! Now I have a large metal basket that can store any and all produce that needs to be on the counter, and I have a print out of what should go where on the side of my fridge.

image via 

 I also decided that I needed to get the coffee maker off of the main kitchen counter since we use our espresso machine way more than our coffee maker nowadays. I moved the espresso machine and syrups to a corner, so just call us Starbucks;)

 And the coffee maker to the bakery counter:

I finally organized my cookbooks and baking items, and moved the sugar, flour, and oats to the bakery counter as well, instead of on the main kitchen counter.

This is what it all looks like now, while keeping it realistic. Yes, the Vitamix is not a pretty sight, but we use it every morning- so it stays. Sure, the bottle cleaning brush isn't beautiful, but its necessary. I am just glad that I moved the not daily items to the bakery counter, and the really necessary stuff stayed put. I know some of y'all might be giggling over my kitchen towel attached to the dishwasher. I am completely unable to hang a normal towel on the bars because the dogs think they are toys. I however cannot crochet, so I am left to buying towel like this from thrift stores, or from my mom...which leads to some ugly but practical towels! Oh well! I am mainly glad that I learned that how you store produce makes a ridiculous difference, and now I can enjoy my tomatoes, avocados, etc. at how they actually should taste!

 Have you done any easy changes in your house that make a huge difference in not only looks, but ease of daily use?

Chocolate Brownie Bits Ice Cream

So you know how I am trying to make healthy dinner for J and I...well that doesn't include dessert. I make some desserts healthy{er} by making substitutions, but ice cream is one thing that it is so not worth it on. Bring on the heavy cream, sugar, and yumminess. I tried to make ice cream one time with coconut milk, and I spit it out. Literally, and I never spit food out, and this crap I spit out three times. You know, I kept needing to try it to just make sure it really was as gross as the last bite:) 
This recipe produced the most heavenly chocolate ice cream with brownie bits. And you want to know my dirty little secret about it? I used Kroger brand brownies. Oh yes I did. I opted out of the recipes that made me make homemade brownies as well, because, well J and I are totally in love with Krogers brownies. Crazy, especially for how cheap they are. I found my recipe from Dinner and Dessert, and added a few twists of my own.

Chocolate Ice Cream
from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

2 cups heavy cream

3 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

5 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup whole milk

¾ cup sugar

Pinch of salt

5 large egg yolks

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Warm 1 cup of the cream with the cocoa powder in a medium saucepan, whisking to thoroughly blend the cocoa.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer at a very low boil for 30 seconds, whisking constantly.  Remove from the heat and add the chopped chocolate, stirring until smooth.  Then stir in the remaining 1 cup cream.  Pour the mixture into a large bowl, scraping the saucepan as thoroughly as possible, and set a mesh strainer on top of the bowl.

Warm the milk, sugar, and salt in the same saucepan.  In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks.  Slowly pour the warm milk unto the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula.  Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the chocolate mixture until smooth, then stir in the vanilla. My strainer slightly sucks so I attempted to use it in the beginning, but in the end I ended up just pouring that delicious custard in and lightly whisking it till smooth. Came out beautiful! Stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator {I did mine for about three hours} then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions  (If the cold mixture is too thick to pour into your machine, whisk it vigorously to thin out). 

To make this ice cream with brownie bits, bake your brownies and cut up about 1/2 your pan. I cut/crumbled mine in to little bits and froze them for about an hour. When the ice cream maker has two minutes left toss the brownie bits in. So good and so easy.

Makes about 1 quart

This ice cream is the most decadent chocolate ice cream ever. The addition of the brownies makes it even better. And to make it just over the top, I even add brownies to the top of my ice cream. There is a rule in my household- Never tell me I have eaten too many brownies. 
Now go, make this ice cream and give me big virtual hugs when you take that first ridiculous good bite.

Design Inspiration Monday

We had such a fantastic weekend with friends and family, hope you all did as well. Here are some images that make my heart smile:)
via
I can't imagine having these windows in Phoenix, but they are stunning:

via

via

via

both above via

I spy a Papa Bear chair!

both above via

I love the high contrast in this home:

all above via

How To Refinish Furniture; An Online E-book

Get their e-book by clicking above photo

Today I want to take the time to introduce y'all to our friends Mike and Keeley. We met them back when we very first bought our home in 2009 and needed furniture. We bought a beautiful hutch and dining room table from them, and have loved them ever since. We found their table on Craigslist and went to buy it, loved it, and they showed us a matching hutch and we just couldn't leave without it. They were the first people to truly inspire us to try things on our own, instead of always buying. They are where we have gotten multiple card catalogs from to fix up and turn in to buffets. They have hearts of gold and freaking hands of gods. Joking aside, they are insanely talented when it comes to refinishing furniture. They collaborated with the talented Christa from Stories of a House and produced an incredible E-book on refinishing furniture.

Within the book they do a great job of detailing how they prep a piece to be painted, fix any imperfections, videos showing their transformations. Its a great place to go if you are just starting out on working on your own pieces but don't feel like you can find enough detailed explanations on how to achieve a certain look.  We purchased this e-book as soon as it came out, and it was so interesting to see their different methods they use compared to ours.

Mike and Keeley have a blog that they post the projects as soon as they are finished with them, and they usually sell within the day. Seriously, they are that good. So especially if you are local, and see something of theirs that you like, buy it ASAP...otherwise someone else will. Or better yet, buy their e-book and learn how to do it on your own:)

Happy weekend!!

DIY Wool Dryer Balls

Let me introduce y'all to one of my most favorite small DIY projects I have done lately, my wool dryer balls. These things are the best laundry items ever. Let me tell you the main benefits, and then i'll show you how easy they are to make.
Benefits:

1. Cuts your drying time in almost 1/2
2. Prevents static in clothes
3. Softens clothes as a dryer sheet would
4. Much more eco-friendly than dryer sheets are
5. Can be used with any type of fabric, cloth diapers included {which dryer sheets are a BIG NO-NO for cloth diapers}

I had seen these sold all the time on sites like Babysteals and Zulily, but I knew that they had to be easy to make. To make four large sized dryer balls {I keep feeling like I have to write dryer in front of balls for this post to not get weirdos finding it in google!} this is what you need:

1. 100% wool { I ended up using about 1 1/2 things of Wool}
2. Some sort of tights or knee-highs {yes, I did just write knee-highs...who owns those now a-days?!}
3. String
4. Scissors

• I have pictured a measuring tape, but didn't find it necessary at all actually, so ignore it:)

• Begin by rolling the wool around your fingers until you create a little ball, and then take it off of your fingers and continue rolling until you have a ball that is about the size of a lime.
• Once the dryer ball is 'lime' sized, cut your wool and tuck the end into the center. You can use a crochet hook if you have one, or you can be super classy like me and simply use a bobbypin:

• Once the end is tucked, put the dryer ball all the way in the tights and tie it off with your string. You will end up having all four dryer balls in the tights separated by the string. Now throw them in the washer and dryer with your next load of laundry. I washed and dried mine about three times. This allows the dryer balls to felt {harden in to firm dryer balls {again, key word DRYER}}.
• Once they have felted, cut the string and take them out of the tights for the next round. You now are making the dryer ball its full size. Simply wrap the wool around the dryer ball more until it reaches about the size of a large lemon. 

• Once you have finished wrapping, cut and tuck in the end of the wool again, and place back in the tights. Felt again with your wash, and then they are finished and ready to be used!!

I have had mine going for about two months now and love them. They truly do cut down on drying time and make the clothes so incredible soft. You can even add a couple of drops of essential oils to them so they add fragrance to your clothes, but I just keep mine unscented. Hope you like the tip, and put it to good use.

PS- I did a little Pinterest tip yesterday for my shower curtain liner. I simply threw that, along with my actual shower curtain {since it is solid white as well} in the washing machine and ran a hot wash with just bleach. The curtain came out looking brand new. Why didn't I think of this on my own earlier?! I love sparkling clean things, especially in the area where we go to get clean:)

Giggles And A Bumper Debate

I am also talking later today over at Scottsdale Moms Blog about whether or not we should use a bumper in Bray's crib. What's your take on bumpers? We don't have one as of now, but I am thinking we might need to get one...

Design Inspiration Monday

It's Monday, we all need some beautiful images to get our week started off right:

all above via
As always I am a lover of exposed brick: via
via
via

both above via
Happy Monday loves!