Fall decorations

We finally pulled out the fall decorations last week; despite the fact summer is still hanging on. I really can't wait for the weather to cool down! 

We bought a few new decorations, and I made this leaf garland. You can find the leaf template here.

Have you decorated for fall yet?

Super blood moon

Did you see the super blood moon last night? I had forgotten about it; but then my mom and I were in town when we saw the moon. I happened to have my camera with me so I pulled off the road and took a few pictures. I wish I would have had my tripod and my other zoom lens, but this is what I was able to get. 

So did you see the super blood moon? What did you think?

Five for Friday

Hey and welcome to my Five for Friday! I hope you all had a great week! I am linking up with Cup of Tea , Della Devoted , Bright on a Budget and Coffee With Caitlin!

Sorry for the lack of blogging this week. The week has been pretty busy! Between work, errands, starting a church home group, and some other stuff going on, I just never got around to putting together a decent post. But I have some things planned for the next few weeks, so check back!

Anyways, on with the Five for Friday!

1. I decided to pull out the fall decorations earlier this week. Despite the fact it is still in the 80's here. Sigh. But, I'm going to do a post about our fall decorations next week!

Here's just a few of the things I have...

2. I finally got all of my pictures from our trip to Europe and some other summer stuff edited and sent in to Costco! It took SO long to do that! So here is what 441 pictures looks like. I am still going to have to sort through them and organize everything. That is going to take a while! 

And in case you didn't know, 4x6 prints are $0.09 at Costco right now since their photo center was down for so long. So if you have pictures to get printed, I'd recommend doing that soon! I believe the sale is good until October 7th. And the discount comes off once you get ready to place the order.

3. I made a pretty nice dinner last night if I do say so myself! I made a large batch of spaghetti sauce. I like having a large batch of something so it's easy to already have something ready to fix throughout the week. This is a recipe we've been using for quite a few years and it's always good! I also made a Caesar salad, which was quite good too! I made homemade croutons and used fresh parmesan.

4. I got my Hallmark ornament yesterday. Every year my mom buys my siblings and I a Hallmark ornament and this was the ornament I picked out. Hey, it's Harry Potter, I couldn't resist ;) Hannah got the same one. It even plays dialogue from the scene when Harry first goes through Platform 9 3/4!

5. We are a little excited that The Amazing Race is starting tonight! As well as Shark Tank and Hawaii Five-0. We watched Castle and The Voice this week too. I am already kind of tired of The Voice after two episodes. And I felt a little lost while watching Castle. I hope Five-0 won't be too bad! Sometimes it can be cheesy, but we like it anyways. 

Are you looking forward to any shows coming back?

Have a great weekend!

Five for Friday

Hey and welcome to my Five for Friday! I hope you all had a great week! I am linking up with Cup of Tea , Della Devoted , Bright on a Budget and Coffee With Caitlin!

1. Have you heard about Chatbooks? They're subscription photobooks for your Instagram pictures. They do photos from your cameraroll and Facebook, but the Instagram series is cheaper. For $8 you get 60 pictures (One picture per page). I finally ordered some and was so happy when I got mine in the mail! I uploaded my Europe pictures. While the quality isn't prefect, they're not too bad. Definitely worth $8 a piece! And if you sign up with my referral code, you get your first book free! Code is: PR7UNE6N

2. Wednesday was my sister's birthday. It's crazy that she's eighteen! We did some shopping and went out to Red Robin for dinner. And she requested a caramel apple cake, so I made that for her. I used this apple cake recipe. (I didn't make their filling or frosting.) I just used a basic buttercream frosting and drizzled caramel syrup on top. The cake is SO good! It isn't too sweet either. I cut the apples into chunks instead of grating them. I would definitely recommend making this cake! It's perfect for fall! I think next time I would add more spices and apples.

3. We got a storm yesterday. It's so rare that we get any sort of interesting weather, I had to take a picture. And I really enjoyed the few minutes of rain we got. If only it had lasted longer! We got some thunder and lightning in addition to the rain.

4. These gel pens. Pens can be so annoying; they never seem to work when you want them to! My cousin introduced me to these Pilot G2 ones and they work SO well! They're pretty much magic the way they glide across the page as you write. If you do much writing by hand, I definitely recommend giving these a try!

5. And last but not least, Doctor Who starts tomorrow!!! Hannah and I are pretty excited about it!
Trailer 1 - Trailer 2 - Magician's Apprentice trailer

Have a great weekend!

Harry Potter party

Since today is my sister Hannah's birthday, I thought I would post some pictures from the Harry Potter party we did for her a few years ago. 

My whole family really likes Harry Potter, so it was really fun to throw this party for her! 

My dad wanted to help with Hannah's party, but we weren't sure what to have him do. I asked him if he maybe wanted to make a wand. He came back a little while later with this! I thought he did a pretty good job! I think Ollivander has some competition ;)

All of the labels and images were printed from random websites. I can't find the link to the labels we used on the Honeyduke's candy jars. I'll add the link if I come across it sometime.
Looking for more Harry Potter content? Check out the pictures from when we went on the Harry Potter studio tour!

Currently

Reading - I just finished Cold As Ice by MK Gilroy. I was really looking forward to this book because I really really liked the first two in the series, but unfortunately this one just wasn't that good. 

Watching - Pretty much just Shark Tank reruns and The X Factor UK. I'm looking forward to all of the fall shows starting up soon. Castle, The Amazing Race, Hawaii Five-0, and new episodes of Shark Tank.

Drinking - Water and coffee are my typical drinks. Coffee in the morning and water the rest of the day. I just opened a bottle of Trader Joe's sparkling French berry lemonade, which is really good!

Eating - I've really been liking having salads lately. I've been making a southwestern chicken salad for dinner pretty much every week all summer long. It's SO good! I'll have to share the recipe sometime.

Wishing - I was back in Europe! We had such a great time and I really miss the slower, more laid back pace of life there. I miss being able to take the metro or walk places instead of having to drive.

Needing - To wrap my sister's birthday present. And I need to bake her cake. And go to the store to get the ingredients to bake Hannah's cake. I really need to get started on that.

Working on - I have a lot of projects I'm working on. Some knitting, scrapbooking, photo editing, some fall crafts, as well as a few others. I always seem to have a ton of projects going on!

What are you currently up to?

Five for Friday

Hey and welcome to my Five for Friday! I hope you all had a great week! I am linking up with Della Devoted, Cup of Tea, Bright on a Budget and Coffee With Caitlin!

This week was really uneventful and I am having a hard time coming up with 5 things!

1. My church is starting up small groups and I signed up for one. I just don't know what to really think about it. 

First I'm all "Eh, what the heck. It can't be too bad."

(source)

Then I try to tell myself that it might even be fun!

(source)

And then the social anxiety side of me is all "WHAT HAVE I DONE?"

(source)

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So I'm really hoping the experience will be a positive one. I've never done a small group, so I really have no idea what to expect!

2. I saw this idea for a fun fall decoration over at Snippets & Snapshots. I don't have very many decorations for autumn, so this looks easy and cute! And I have a ton of felt; so it's nice finding craft ideas with stuff I already have.

3. Tonight we're going to a neighborhood block party/barbecue. So I now have a salad to make. We weren't sure if we were going to go or not, but we really don't know very many of our neighbors. And the neighbors next door to us that we do like are going, so at least we will know someone!

4. I was at Target earlier this week. I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did pick up a few things from the Dollar Spot.

5. And in case you needed something to laugh at today...

My sister and I saw this at JoAnns and we couldn't stop laughing. The guy is just so freaky! And then we saw this:

Just. Why. I just can't even imagine why someone would want to buy something like that! "Why yes, George. I DO need to dress Twinkle, Fluffy, and Sparkle up like Anna, Elsa, and Olaf." I just don't understand why anyone would want to put clothes on their dog in the first place, let alone go to the trouble to sew an actual costume for their dog. Very, very strange!

Anyways, hope you have a great weekend!