Friday Five!

-For lunch bunch this week I made a copy cat recipe of Auntie Anne's pretzels.  I'm always too cheap to buy a pretzel from the mall, but these made me 12 of them so I thought it was worth it!  You can find the recipe here.  They were very tasty and pretty simple to make!

- I went to a consignment sale this week called Just Between Friends.  Many cities throughout the country put on this sale and there were TONS of clothes, toys, shoes, costumes, etc.!  You name it, they had it.  I had a good time and got some great bargains!  You can click the link and put in your zip code to see if they have one near you! 

-Fall has definitely arrived here in Wisconsin.  I look out my window to all the beautiful colors all day and I love it! 

-Elise had her first real pig tails yesterday!!  It took me about a half hour of chasing her around the apartment to get her to sit still long enough to put them in, but we finally got them, and they were adorable!!  Of course our camera died yesterday so I did them again today for your viewing pleasure!

-Since General Conference is coming up soon, I made little gift bags to give to the girls that I visit teach!  I got the idea here and you are more than welcome to copy me and do the same!!  I'm looking forward to the Relief Society broadcast tomorrow and getting a night off and a yummy dinner with my friends.

Switch things up!

So I'm sure you all remember, since it wasn't that long ago, that we got our piano!  Well....since that blog post we have had some crazy ups and downs with it!  So instead of that piano, we now have this little beauty in our living room. 

This piano is much newer, it was made in 1955.  While that still isn't a brand new piano, it is much newer than the other one that was made in 1905!  It is a Gulbransen spinet piano.  How did we come about this crazy switch?  Well, it's a long story but I'll try to summarize. 

When our tuner came and took the sound board and said he would work on it in his shop, he said that the G chord was beyond repair and that he had a different piano in his shop he would give us for free!!  I was still a little confused by this and wanted to make sure it was a good deal so we went to his shop and checked this one out!  He told us he would even find us a good deal for piano movers since he knows a lot of them and wouldn't charge us for the tuning he had already done.  In the end, it has cost us less to move this new one to our apartment that it would have been to fix and keep the other one.

Even if we are being taken "advantage of" (which we don't think we are) we are happy to have this other piano.  It is a lot smaller and weighs much less than the other one so this is a piano we can move with us when we leave for residency.  The other one was too old and heavy to do that with. So in the end, we feel like we got a great deal!  They moved the new piano in yesterday and Zack played beautiful music for us all night!!

Friday Five

1- I've completely lost my voice this week!!  I sound like either a raspy man or someone who likes to whisper a whole lot!  I don't have a cold, sore throat, sneezing, coughing, runny nose or anything!  It is the strangest thing why it's gone!

 

2- We are having a neighborhood potluck tonight and I'm bringing one of my favorite fall treats, Apple Crisp!  Here's the recipe:

 

8 large apples (peeled and sliced)

2/3 C. Sugar

2 tsp. Cinnamon

1/4 t. Nutmeg

lemon juice

 

Mix mixture then toss with sliced apples. 

Topping:

1 1/2 C. Flour

1/2 C. Oatmeal

1 C. Brown Sugar

1 C. Melted Butter

 

Spread over apples and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

 

3- Zack and I often refer to each other as "sweetie" and when Zack got home from school the other day she ran up to him yelling "Sweetie!!!"  It was so cute!

 

4- Found out that the book check out limit at our library is 99 items!  That is a lot of books!  We checked out about 20 fun and new board books for Elise and are excited to read through them in the coming week.

 

5- I decided it was time for my annual (realistically it's been about a year and 4 months!) hair cut.  A friend in our ward cut it for me and I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  What do you think?

Craft Bug

I finally got around to cleaning up our spare bedroom which means that it is now my craft room!  It's not anything too exciting to look at, just a room with a desk and a sewing machine- but it's all mine :)  Since I finally have a creative area I had to get going on some projects! 

The first one I did was a crayon roll.  I used the tutorial from The Pleated Poppy.  I love this project because I can make the whole thing in about and hour and I can use my scraps to do it!  This is a very simple and straightforward tutorial and would be a great project for any beginning sewers as well!

Even though they are scraps, I love the fabrics I used on this project. Here is how it looks when it is filled and rolled out, ready for use!

 

Here is what it looks like when it is rolled up.  Super easy to move from purse to diaper bag and bring with you anywhere.  I've made different crayon rolls that have ribbons to tie it up, but I personally really like the look and ease of the button. 

 

My next project was to make and apron for Elise!  Ever since I made her play kitchen I have been meaning to make her an apron and chefs hat (next on my list..) and I am just now getting around to it.  Little did she know, Elise reminded me to do it since she has been putting on my apron in the kitchen almost daily.  Now we can both wear our own!

 

I also used left over scraps to make her apron and it matches the fabric I used for the curtains on the play kitchen!  It is a child size apron (even though it's still big on her!) so it doesn't take too much fabric to make.  This would also be a very easy beginner project and took me about 2 hours!  Quick and easy- my favorite project!  I used the tutorial from the blog Making It Fun.  If you click on the link all of her tutorials are on the right side of her blog.  Just scroll down until you find the one for the apron!

Fall is Here

Can you believe that it is September already?  I feel like it snuck up on me!

Here is today's list of my Friday Five!

 

1- It finally became official that me and my sisters will have a girls weekend in Chicago at the end of October!  We've talked about this since March and I'm so happy that it is really happening!

 

2- Zack and I were talking last night about how much we love the age Elise is right now.  I know lots of people say that about every stage their kids go through, but for me I'm loving this one!  Elise is still so sweet and baby like in many ways but also such a big grown up girl!

 

3- Ever since leaving Provo, Zack and I have been on the hunt for a great Massaman curry recipe.  Our favorite Thai restaurant, Thai Mango, has THE best and we have been trying to recreate it ever since.  This week we got very close!  I used this recipe and the only thing I did different was to add about 2 Tbs. of oyster sauce. It was delicious!

 

4- I was released from the nursery this week and called as a Relief Society activities committee member.  This is by far one of my favorite callings!  I love it!

 

5- For the first time since making all of my seasonal decorations, I have a display up for September! When I started to make something for all of the months it was October and the next season I couldn't find them after the move!  Below is a picture of what it looks like!

 

 

I love that in this apartment I have a great place to display all my decorations!  I found the printable for this month  here.  It reads, "Caramel apples, pumpkin pie, fall is here, my oh my!"  I thought it was cute.  I also love the acorn and the books and bouquet of pencils for September!  Here's to a great month!