Fall :: Apple Picking

 This weekend Shawn and I went apple picking with our friends Kelly, DJ, and Karson from The Smedley Family. We had a great time, it was the perfect start to fall activity. We bought a half bushel bag to fill with apples that we picked, we stuffed the bags as full as they could be. :)

The boys had a good time finding just the right apples.

After picking apples we had apple cider and donuts. They were so good. The cider is made right in the shop.

Me and the little man! Love him, so cute :)

I am planning to make apple sauce this week with all the apples we picked. Kelly and I are going to have a mini canning party to make and can apple sauce. I'm super excited. I love canning and and making things from scratch.

This Sunday I used a few of the apples to make apple crisp. However I forgot the flour and ended up with soft apples flavored with a brown sugar and butter syrup. So we put ice cream over it and it tasted great. Next time I won't for get the flour so we can actually have apple crisp.

Canning :: Pears, My first attempt!



Look at all those pears!!



Our neighbor has fruit trees and gets tons of fruit off them. So he goes around the block and gives the neighbors fruit. So far he gave us plums and pears, and there are more pears and then apples coming. Last week he gave us a five gallon pale full of pears. Perfect for my first try at canning! The first few cans I tried failed but they I was able to quickly re do them so they were still usable.



I never said I was clean cook.



Try number 2 was very successful! Now we will have plain pears and cinnamon pears this winter. Soon I will be make a second batch of pears and hopefully lots of apples too.

Nine wonderful cans of pears! I can't wait to open them this winter :)

Tutorial :: MADE blog created a great tutorial

the MADE blog created a great tutorial about how to make your blog header using word. I super excited about this cause the way I have been doing it is very time consuming and a little annoying. Check out the link and her blog. She has lots of sewing and diy projects. Its a fun blog to follow.

http://www.dana-made-it.com/2008/07/tutorial-how-to-make-graphics-in-word.html  

BAKING UP SOME GOODIES :: Milk Free Blueberry Bread

-Super delicious blueberry bread-

Finding milk free baked goods or even recipes is very very hard. They are out there, but you have to search. Luckily SILK brand makes a lot of different types of soymilk that when baking is equivelent to milk. I searched and found a blueberry bread recipe that didn't have many dairy ingredients. The original recepie is "Blueberry Bread 1" from allrecipes.com. I just changed it a little to make it milk free. I used vanilla soy milk instead of milk, I didn't taste a huge difference. I added extra blueberries (that my mom and I picked), to make it extra blueberry. And I didn't at the walnuts that it called for.

To bake them I used my new mini 8 loafs ban so each piece was perfect for two people. I definitly recomend getting this pan. I think I found it at Meijer. It will be perfect durring the holidays too!

The bread was delicious. We ate all of it. Next time we will have to give away a few loafs.

My Very Own Craft Room!

I spent the afternoon organizing the mess that was our basement. All my craft stuff was filled the floor and on the table. But now I have my very own craft room!

BEFORE: a complete mess

AFTER: an organized, supercute area to do all my crafting!

I can not wait to start crafting in my new space. It feels really good to have a space that is just mine. (Don't get me wrong, I love sharing everything and being with my husband but a space for myself is definitly a good thing.)

I still have a few more finishing touches that have to be done but for now I love it. I am thinking my first crafts in my new room will be some fall wreaths! Can't wait to start!!

We recently celebrated our 1 month wedding anniversary. Now we are by no means the couple that celebrates every little moment but 1 month of being married sounded like a great reason to celebrate. One month came way faster than we realized. The first month has been wonderful even with the occasional argument and the irritating habits that WILL be fixed :) . We are definitely loving the married life.

This is what I came home to after work July 18th...

Shawn had chicken on the grill, veggies on the stove, fries in the oven, and our cake topper thawing on the counter. So sweet. He also did the dishes and picked up around the house. I love it when he makes a point to make something special. He definitely earned some brownie points!

Home Sweet Home

I wanted a nice picture of us in front of our first house as newlyweds. I am going to try again maybe on a Sunday when we are both dressed a bit nicer. But for now this is perfect.

We are so happy in our new home. It is definitly different living together. At times we both look at each other and say "This is weird." Neither of us lived away from home before we were married and at 24 and 26 living on your own is great but definitly different.