happy halloween

happy halloween

Love The Trolls

surprises

i'm so thankful for the people who love us.  we got a couple of surprises in the mail this last week and it brightened our whole month.

a candle that smells so good from my mom -  thank you so much mom! we have not gone an hour without that thing burning while we're home.

cookies, a note and a handmade bookmark from one of my best friends, amy.  the bookmark has one of my most favorite verses on it. zephaniah 3:17 'The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.'  thank you so much amers!  you are so thoughtful and encouraging.

pumpkin

i carved a pumpkin this year.  hoot hoot! here is the website i got the template from.  just click through the green arrow to find it.  i changed it up a bit because i'm not as talented as the template. haha.

my tools from the dollar store.  the gut scooper broke, as you can see.

in the dark... ooooooo

what you would see if you came to my house

my star on the side.

knitting

i've been knitting.  but i can't tell you what yet..  i will show you when i'm finished.  any guesses?  it's not a scarf!

cauliflower soup

my oh my.  i found this recipe on pinterest.  it is sooooooooooooooo freaking delicious i can't get over it.  i substituted a couple ingredients (like veggie stock instead of chicken stock because i don't love chicken - i also don't have half and half so i just didn't use it).  here is the recipe.  she has about 8 other soups on her website that i want to try.  it's fall and the beginning of soup season!  i've also been kind of sick with a cold, so this will be nice to eat over the next few days.

recipe - and she has some hilarious comments in her recipe. i think i'll add kale or spinach in next time.

i also just let mine sit in the crockpot for a bit instead of cooking it on the stove for 20 minutes.  just because i made it before noon.  all of the flavors blended and oh. my. goodness.  it's so good!  the consistency of the soup isn't super thick either (much thinner than panera's broccoli cheddar soup) which i am very happy about!

i also saw this smart idea: Make large batches of soup then freeze in silicone muffin molds. Pop 'em out and freeze. Just reheat 2-3 pucks in a mug for a quick dinner. Perfect for the upcoming fall/winter season! BRILLIANT!

one last recipe that i found on pinterest.  here is the photo and recipe from pinterest.  i didn't take a picture of what i made, but it did not look at yummy as this looks.  it didn't stick together as well as this picture.  but it was really freaking delicious!!!  i also added quite a bit of spinach in (like 1/2 - 3/4 of the frozen bag).  just because i add spinach in wherever i can since you can't really taste it anyway and it's so darn healthy.

upside down potato onion tart recipe

let me know if you try these out!  i highly recommend them!

flowers

i heard a knock at the door and to my surprise it was the fed ex man holding a box like this...

as you can see, des was very interested in the flowers!

my best friend, amanda, sent me some flowers all the way from ohio.  how awesome is that?  it made my month.  i am blessed beyond measure with some of the most beautiful friends in the world.

and i am such a 'words of affirmation' person it's not even funny

if you can actually read this, i always compare my friendship with amanda to jonathan and david in the bible. yes, she is that awesome of a perosn.  she is my david & i'm her jonathan.

this brought tears to my eyes and came at the most perfect time.  thank you.

more headbands

i'm obsessed with headbands.  i wear them almost everyday.  i made a few more a couple of weeks ago.  and tonight around midnight i decided to take pictures.  so please disregard the lack of make up and the awfulness of my hair.  i studied at Barnes today, so my hair was actually really cute in an awesome fishtail braid (another one of my latest hair obsessions) but unfortunately at this hour i wasn't about to redo my hair and make up. and if i didn't take photos now, it would've never happened.  so off we go,  no judging...

don't worry i don't ever wear two at the same time... at least not yet...

i'm just now realizing i need to do something to those eyebrows!!! gahhh!

mean mug? give me a break, i'm old and it's past midnight.

 like 'em? be careful with your answer... it might be your christmas gift.

rosemary yams

so here is a recipe that i make at least every other week.  just because it is soo good and healthy and you can do like a billion things with them.

drizzle a little olive oil in your pan, cut your sweet potato or yam into cubes and sprinkle with rosemary and let cook until tender.  so simple and sooo good.  they are delicious plain 

and they are PHENOMENAL with sauteed onions and mushrooms over spinach.  just plain, no dressing.  seriously, try it!

really they are good over any salad. let me know what you think!

home made butterfingers.

i found this delicious and super easy recipe on pinterest and just had to share because it is sooo stinkin easy to make.  let's just start off by saying that it's incredibly sugary and unhealthy, but it's delectable!


here is the actual recipe and instructions.  the ingredients include a jar of peanut butter, a bag of candy corn and chocolate to melt!

you basically just warm up the candycorn over the stove or in a microwave and stir in the peanut butter.  let it set in an 8X8 pan and cool (i put mine in the fridge).  the hardest part was cutting them into squares.  and i'm too lazy to actually dip them in chocolate, so i just drizzled the chocolate on top.  paul said, "these really taste like a butterfinger!  how did you do this?"  hahaha.