Leaf and Pumpkin Wall Hooks

November 30, 20161 Comment

Rose and I had this wonderful idea to make these fall inspired leaf and pumpkin wall hooks. The first struggle we had to figure out was how to attach a hook to the leaf and pumpkin. Once we decided we could cement/plaster it onto the back of the leaf and pumpkin it was smooth sailing…

Until we suddenly realized neither of us could nail or drill holes into our nice, clean walls at our homes least we want to endure the wrath of our moms. Desperately missing apartment living we had to come up with someway to actually take pictures of said leak and pumpkin wall hooks without ruining any walls.

Rose thought that we might be able to jerry-rig them to a doorway, but since they are meant to hold something heavy this would not do. I poked around my basement a little bit to see if maybe there was an old bookshelf we might be able to resurrect and fake as a wall.

No such luck, until I turned a dusty spider filled corner and found this giant piece of plywood. Cue light bulb and dancing girl emoji – we could definitely drill into the plywood and it was big enough to look like a wall. Woo! A couple of wood-stain intoxicated hours later and I had the whole piece of wood dyed and ready to go.

Can you tell that this wasn’t a real wall? Thought I might share a little behind the scenes thought process for you all. If you came here for the wall hook DIY shoot on over to Homedit where we have posted the full tutorial. And if you came here just to read about our #wallproblems give the post a thumbs up and let us know in the comments below any time you had to be a bit crafty when blogging.

Find the full tutorial for these leaf and pumpkin wall hooks on Homedit.

No Sew Thanksgiving Table Runner & Placemats

November 23, 2016November 21, 20162 Comments

Learn how to make this no sew Thanksgiving table runner and placemats

Ugh. Sometimes I really hate sewing. We’ve had our fair share of very very simple sewing projects in the past but neither Rose or I are very good at sewing. Sometimes you can get away without breaking out the ol’ needle and thread, other times not so much. We try to finagle our way out of having to sew anything if we can. Like this Thanksgiving table runner and placemats for instance.

It’s a shame because both of our grandmothers were incredible sewers and we both would love to learn how to use a sewing machine butttt in the meantime we gotta stick to our guns and either use a simple running stitch for every single project or break out the glue gun.

If you hadn’t guessed by now this project was the latter. We wanted to keep things nice and easy for all you Thanksgiving hostesses. These Thanksgiving table runner and placemats couldn’t be easier. All you need is some plain fabric, some felt, and a handy dandy glue gun. Though, if you are not like Rose and I and actually are good at sewing you could also sew on the leaves.

To learn how to make this no sew Thanksgiving table runner and placemats head on over to Homedit

And if you like any of the other decor, check it out here:

1.pilgrim hat wine stoppers

2.wood slab serving tray

3.thanksgiving-themed copper lettered plates

The agate napkin rings are coming soon!

Also, don’t forget to check out our Thanksgiving printables!

thanksgiving holiday printable | Popcorn & Chocolate

Free Thanksgiving Table Printables

November 2, 2016November 1, 2016Leave a comment

Did everyone have a fun and spooky Halloween? If you missed the pool float costumes we made, go check them out! But now that Halloween is (sadly) over, it’s time to start thinking about Thanksgiving: food, guests, what we are thankful for, etc. We made some free Thanksgiving printables for you to start planning out your Thanksgiving with. And keep your eye out for more posts to come to set the whole table for Thanksgiving.

My favorite part of Thanksgiving is definitely getting to cook. We are people who eat Thanksgiving dinner at a normal dinner hour, so I find myself antsy during the day, anticipating this exciting meal, so to distract myself, I like to take over in the kitchen.

One of the Thanksgiving printables we made for you is to organize your grocery list. This is great if you want to simply make a list organized by recipe so you know which ingredients are a part of which dish. This printable is also great if you have guests who may have food allergies. You can write all the ingredients in each of your dishes so everyone can see! I filled mine out with the recipes that I like to use, which I’ll share at the bottom of this post.

The other printable is for you to put at each person’s plate so your guests can jot down what they are thankful for. The automatic settings on your printer will try to fit the printable to the page, but I recommend printing it scaled down somewhere between 80-100% (mine is 85% in the photos). This way it will fit nicely on a plate without taking over. I love going around the table and talking about what we are all thankful for, but I always feel really uncreative while everyone else has such clever thoughts to share! I’ll have to start thinking up a few this year to put on my place card. It’s fun to have a mix of some serious ones and a few silly ones. What are you guys thankful for this year?

Attached here are the Thanksgiving printables:

(1) I am thankful for…

(2) Thanksgiving dinner ingredient list

If you want the ingredient list with extra space and a line like mine for hole punching (you can easily hole punch the one without the line as well, there’s enough room), that one is here: Thanksgiving ingredient list to hole punch

Rose’s Thanksgiving dinner:

Stuffing is my favorite. I love to make this pear sausage stuffing from Martha Stewart. The fennel and the pear are so delicious with everything else on the thanksgiving plate! Note: if you buy a pre-stuffed bird, try to remember to half the stuffing recipe or you’ll have wayyy too many leftovers (unless you’re cooking for a huge crowd)!!
We always make two different cranberry sauces too: this classic slow cooker cranberry sauce and Madhur Jaffrey’s cranberry chutney. I think we often like the chutney best but it’s fun to have both. Plus one is in the slow cooker so it doesn’t use up a pot or a burner on the stove and it can stay warm right up until dinner.
I always roast a huge pile of veggies: Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, parsnips, carrots, beets, almost every root veggie in the grocery store. I’ve used different seasonings in the past, but the preferred is classic rosemary, salt, and pepper (sometimes with a hint of maple syrup or maple sugar).
Last year I made these pumpkin blondies from The Healthy Maven and an apple galette.

What are your favorite thanksgiving recipes? Anything I should try this year?

Halloween bat choker | Popcorn & Chocolate

Simple Halloween Bat Choker

October 5, 2016October 4, 20161 Comment

Learn how to make this super simple Halloween bat choker to wear all throughout October!

Eek it’s Halloween month! Rose and I both love Halloween.. Or at least I do and I force my love for it on Rose every year. This year might be one of our first Halloween’s apart.. to be determined though as I’ve already planned our costumes for this year, might be hard to beat last years costumes though. Again, here I go forcing Rose to enjoy Halloween and hang out with me #frienshipgoals

All kidding aside this year we do have lots of Halloween goodies we are trying to get done. I’ve been covered in orange paint and little bat confetti all week working on different projects. I’ve also been wearing this bat choker all week to stay in the holiday cheer (not because I tied it on and can’t untie it…)

To make this lovely Halloween bat choker all you need is some felt and ribbon. Simple as simple can be (my favorite kind of craft)! Keep scrolling through to find the instructions on how to make this easy choker.

Materials:

Felt
Ribbon
Stencil

Instructions:

Find an image of a bat online and print and cut it out to use as a stencil. You can also draw a bat if you are good at that.. which I am not so I went with good ol’ Google.
Tape the stencil to your felt and then cut the felt around the stencil.
Cut two small slits in both the wings of the bat, but don’t cut all the way to the edge!
Thread the ribbon through the two holes you made.
Optional: if the string is showing over the top of the bats head you can put a small black stitch in the middle of the bat (where my finger is pointing below) to hold the string down.

Now tie the choker around your neck and you’ve got instant Halloween pride! Another option for tying it is to make sliding knots. This video explains how to do it. I think he does a clear job, though it takes him a little while to get started (about 2:00 he gets going). This would look cute layered with other chokers or you could just wear it plain like I did. You could even make the bat a different color to jazz things up.

Let us know in the comments below what you are looking forward to this Halloween!

DIY Embroidered Cork Board Leaf Coasters

November 14, 2015October 3, 20166 Comments

Sorry for being a bit MIA the past week. I would say we have been busy and what not but really we haven’t, we’ve just been lazy bums. Sometimes all I want to do when I get home from work is sit my bum on the couch and watch TV and eat cookies and drink tea. While that is all fine and dandy, we do enjoy this blog and are trying to make some fun things to share with you all (whilst balancing work and those occasional lazy days we all need).

Today we have one of said fun things to share with you. We have created embroidered cork board leaf coasters! They are super cute and a lot of fun to make! Plus, they are perfect for your Thanksgiving table or just out and about for an extra seasonal flare.

At first, we knew we wanted to be able to embroider different patterns on the leaves but didn’t know how we could go about doing this. That is when the lovely cork board came to mind. It is perfect because not only does it already look sort of leaf colored but you can also easily embroider into it to make any design your heart desires.

We printed out basic leaf stencils from the interweb and then Rose stenciled them onto the cork board and cut them out using an exacto knife. This was a bit more of a delicate process than one would think, so be careful with your cuts. Cork board tends to rip and break off, and you wouldn’t want your acorn to lose its stem now would you? As you can see some of our poor acorns heads got a bit chopped off. But, ya know, nature ain’t perfect!

Finally once we cut out all the leafs and acorns our hearts desired, we began to embroider. For this, we took embroidery thread and took only 4 of the strands of it. We found that using all the strands was too thick for the cork and made bigger holes in it than we wanted. We used a regular needle for embroidery and just remembered to knot the thread before we started. Again, be careful at this step because the cork can break easily. If you have to undo a stitch, just be careful pulling it back out that you don’t break anything. We played around with different patterns and styles on all of the different leafs. We also chose fun bright colors so you would really be able to see the string.

This craft was a lot of fun to do! I’m not much of an embroiderer but I didn’t let that stop me from trying. You can do simple stripes across (like with our acorn) or simple stitches outlining the leaf. Or, get more fancy if you are a true embroiderer and make some funky designs! We would love to see what you guys comes up with!

Salted Caramel Popcorn

September 26, 2015October 3, 20163 Comments

Oh popcorn how I love thee. I love it when you are buttery. I love it when you are kettle-y. I love it when you are cheesy. I love it when you are spicy. I love it when you are sweet. Oh but I especially love it when you are sweet. I will just eat you up I love you so.

Do you like my ballad to popcorn? I figured it was about time I let them know how much I do truly love them. I mean I did name part of our blog because of them…

Recently Rose and I have been popping all sorts of delicious popcorn creations in the kitchen. We thought in case there was anyone else out there who possibly loves popcorn as much as us two that we would share one of said recipes for you.

We created a caramel-melt-in-your-mouth-sweet-and-delicious popcorn. It only seemed right what with all the salted caramel drinks popping up everywhere. Plus, caramel is pumpkin pie spice’s lesser known cousin that sometimes get a bit neglected. (Don’t worry pps lovers we have some recipes for you soon too!) But right now it’s time for the caramel corn.

Bring on the crunchy sweet deliciousness!

Ingredients:

1/3 cup popcorn kernels
2 tablespoons coconut sugar
3/4 tablespoon butter (I’m sure you could use coconut oil too, but we used butter here)
salt

Steps:

Pop the kernels. We used an air popper but you could also do them on the stove. This will make about 5 cups of popcorn so if you have an air popper, be prepared with a big bowl!
In a small saucepan, heat the sugar and the butter on low heat, stirring frequently so the butter melts into all the sugar and doesn’t burn. Stir frequently but not constantly until all the sugar is melted into the butter – about 5 minutes. You want the mixture to stay runny and not start to clump because once this cools, it will start to harden together quickly.
While the mixture is hot, drizzle over your popcorn. I used a spatula to help drizzle.
Salt the popcorn to your liking. We used pink himalayan sea salt and used less than a teaspoon since we wanted a sweeter treat.
Let cool and enjoy!

Follow Us Around: Apple Picking

September 23, 2015September 23, 20156 Comments

It’s is officially fall!! Phew, now I don’t look so silly with all my fall and Halloween decorations up, or adding pumpkin spice to my oatmeal every morning, or burning fall candles…

Am I the only one who starts fall a few weeks early?? Once September hits, the summer is pretty much over and hello leaves/acorns/pumpkins galore. We even got our first apple cider doughnut before the first real day of fall and I was not the least bit mad.

Over the weekend Rose and I had a Skidmore in Boston get together with fellow graduates that live in the area. The event was to go apple picking at Drew Farm, so naturally we signed up right away and showed up early and eager to go a picking.

The apples were definitely ripe and ready to be picked, at least the mcintosh apples, which, let’s be honest, are the best. We had no trouble filling our bag to the brim. We also might have sampled an apple or two whilst picking.

Once we decided we couldn’t fit any more apples in our bag, we headed back to where the Skidmore group was located and got to enjoy some apple cider doughnuts and apple cider. It was just glorious. I haven’t had an apple cider doughnut or apple cider in a really long time… too long. I forgot what I was missing! Needless to say that probably won’t be my only doughnut of the season.

Now we have a huge bowl full of yummy apples that are begging to be made into a pie or tart or something sweet. And now that it is officially fall I can bake one without any shame or celebrating the changing season too early!

Look at all those gourds! We were so tempted to by some little pumpkins at the farm but decided we best wait so they don’t just sit and rot in our hot apartment.. soon though, soon my little pumpkins.

Happy fall everyone!

Favorite Items To Welcome Fall

September 19, 2015September 15, 20152 Comments

I love the fall. It’s a time to cozy up and slow down, which is always welcome in my book. I like to enjoy all the things that fall has to offer like candles, blankets, and all the beautiful reds and oranges that are scattered across the sky. Not to mention it is a nice break from all the humidity and heat that comes from summer. I feel like to me as I get older fall becomes more and more about a time to unwind and really relax and enjoy the moment. Fall always used to be a time of stress as I shuffled off to school and then college, but now I get a moment to breath in the crisp air and really sit and enjoy the transition from summer to winter. Here are some items that I’m looking forward to enjoying and unwinding with this fall.

Sam Edelman ‘Paige’ Fringed Ankle Booties. I bought these during their half yearly sale and can’t wait to try them out this fall! Similar style from Target.
Anthropologie Backstory Tee. Again got this on sale and can’t wait to wear it! Similar.
David’s Tea Peanut Butter Cup. I love tea in the fall – this is a new fall flavor from David’s Tea that sounds delicious! Perfect in this mug.
Threshold Herringbone Throw from Target. So soft and cozy!
Marshmallow Fireside 3-Wick Candle from Bath and Body Works. My all time favorite fall candle from BBW.
Fox Socks from Target. Gotta keep those toes warm too!

A Fall Weekened in New Hampshire

November 8, 20142 Comments

As we mentioned in a previous post, Rose and I were in Hanover at my house over the weekend. It was a perfect fall weekend with a little bit of rain and a lot of cozy sweatpants and fun activities. We were surrounded by the changing leaves and couldn’t help but snap a bunch of pictures.

We left from Boston right after lunch on Friday afternoon. As we drove from city to countryside, the view became breathtaking. From all the color-changing trees to the roaring mountains in the background, it was a sight to see. We tried to take some photos in the car, but I don’t think they quite captured how pretty it truly was.

Once we arrived at my house we were greeted by my horse-dog Olive, who was happy and a little bit confused to see us.

While my Mom cooked us a yummy dinner of taco pasta Rose and I grabbed our cameras and went out to explore my backyard. There is a huge tree that I used to climb when I was younger that had the most amazing colors on it.

Eventually Olive joined us so we tried to engage her in a game of fetch but she grew bored and wanted to go back inside.

After our delicious homemade dinner, my Dad came back from his run, and somehow we got on the topic of how I can’t skip in place. This soon lead to both my parents (attempting to) skip in place as well; needless-to-say I now know where my inability to skip and dance comes from. Rose got a good old laugh out of the whole situation. After the whole who skipping routine, Rose and I wondered into town. It was homecoming weekend for Dartmouth College and they had a huge bonfire going on the green. We stayed and watched as it collapsed in on itself and then decided to head back home for what we really came to Hanover for – carving some pumpkins.

Saturday we woke up early and had a slow morning, just enjoying the cool weather and the view from my kitchen window. We had planned to go on a big hike but it was supposed to rain off and on all day so we weren’t sure we wanted to drive an hour to hike in the rain. Instead we loaded up Olive in our truck and went to a place that wasn’t too far away, Gile Mountain.

Gile Mountain is known for its fire tour that you can climb up and get a pretty good view of Vermont. Unfortunately it was really foggy and started to rain half-way through the hike, so there wasn’t much of a view. But it was still fun regardless.

We made it to the top! Olive tried to climb up the stairs of the fire tour, but we had to barricade her off because she wouldn’t have been able to get back down.

The rain started to pick up as we hiked back down.

Olive gets a little wild when she gets wet…

After the hike Rose and I had some lunch and then went to my local food store to pick up ingredients to make some cookies and dinner for my family. Since we were both chilled from being out in the rain we were craving soup and decided to make a hamburger soup. We kind of lost track of time in the grocery store and spent a bit longer then we had planned just pursuing the chocolate and popcorn selections (we came back with a delicious Angies dark chocolate drizzles popcorn). Once we were back home we started on the soup right away and prepared the cookies once it was simmering. We will make a separate post for these cookies because they were a bit tricky to make but very delicious to eat, my whole family approved.

After dinner it was time to carve again. We spent some time figuring out which patterns we wanted to do and then poured ourselves some wine and a grabbed some popcorn and a cookie or two (or three) and then hunkered down to carve all night.

On Sunday we took it slow and just hung out with my Mom and Olive until we decided we should get back on the road. We then loaded up Rose’s car and headed back to Boston. It was the perfect fall weekend spent at home full of beautiful foliage, lots of laughs, delicious food, and dog cuddles. Until next time, Hanover.

Pumpkin Carving

October 24, 2014October 24, 2014Leave a comment

This past weekend we spent at my house in Hanover, New Hampshire visiting my parents. One of the main reasons we decided to go home was so we could carve some pumpkins. My mom and I always get really into carving pumpkins every year and always have a great time doing it.

Ever since I remember we have always used these kits to punch out a stencil onto the pumpkin, which you then carve out. They make amazing designs and always turn out really cool (even if you accidentally cut off your witches finger). Since we have been doing them for years we have an over-abundance of old kits and patterns to choose from. It probably took each of us the longest to actually choose which design we wanted to carve than to actually carve it out.

Since it was our first pumpkins of the year, no one wanted to start with the hardest one. My mom chose to do some skulls for her first one, Rose picked a zombie coming out of the ground, and I chose someone coming out of a coffin.

My mom graciously had already scooped out all the goop inside the pumpkins, so we got to poking our designs right away. This part is the most annoying, and can hurt your hand after a while, but we powered through it. With a quick fill up on wine, we then each started carving. Here are the finished pumpkins!

We picked up the pumpkin carving again on Saturday night after dinner. This time we each picked out two patterns to do. There must have been a witch vibe because both Rose and my mom chose a witch design to start off the night with. I did a Frankenstein one.

For our third pumpkins, my Mom did Dracula, Rose did another zombie type one, and I did a skull and lizard. We were joking the whole time because my mom said some years she likes to do a theme, for instance all Witches, so we were trying to see if anyone had a theme to their pumpkins. Rose was the only one we could see, she had a hand theme. All of her pumpkins were focused on hands, I mean one of them was even called Jazz hands. We started making some hand puns after that.

Once everyone was finished with their last pumpkin we lined them all up and lit them all. They all looked so cool together. Now hopefully they will make it until Halloween night so we can put them out on the porch for all the trick or treaters to see.

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Tag: Fall

Leaf and Pumpkin Wall Hooks

Find the full tutorial for these leaf and pumpkin wall hooks on Homedit.

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No Sew Thanksgiving Table Runner & Placemats

Learn how to make this no sew Thanksgiving table runner and placemats

To learn how to make this no sew Thanksgiving table runner and placemats head on over to Homedit

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Free Thanksgiving Table Printables

Attached here are the Thanksgiving printables:

Rose’s Thanksgiving dinner:

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Simple Halloween Bat Choker

Learn how to make this super simple Halloween bat choker to wear all throughout October!

Materials:

Instructions:

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DIY Embroidered Cork Board Leaf Coasters

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Salted Caramel Popcorn

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Follow Us Around: Apple Picking

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Favorite Items To Welcome Fall

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A Fall Weekened in New Hampshire

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Pumpkin Carving

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Learn how to make this no sew Thanksgiving table runner and placemats

To learn how to make this no sew Thanksgiving table runner and placemats head on over to Homedit

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Attached here are the Thanksgiving printables:

Rose’s Thanksgiving dinner:

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Learn how to make this super simple Halloween bat choker to wear all throughout October!

Materials:

Instructions:

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