My 3 favorite "F" words...

Family. Friends. Food :)

Tonight my brother and his girlfriend came over for dinner and it was so fun! I love to cook and its always so much more rewarding when I can share the final product with people I love and care about. I decided I would make something from Pinterest, to further work on my goal of actually making the things I pin, and I landed on a Cowboy Casserole found here. I mean, helloooooo it's got tator tots on the top! What could be better? It didn't look super appetizing all piled on the plate, but it was a hit- especially with Luke and Bob. We sat around the table chatting for a while and then dug into dessert that Cassie and Bob brought- harvest plum walnut crumble pie from high 5 pie and it was incredible! I'd take pie over cake any day and this one was so yummy. I don't think I've ever had plums in a pie before, but I'm a fan!

I love that my bro is going to school just a few miles away and I get to see him so often. We always connect Sundays at church and if it works in our busy schedules we'll hang out during the week too. Not all siblings get this opportunity to spend time together (or even like spending time together) and I feel so blessed by the relationship that we have. I loved hanging out as a foursome too- no extra family members or friends, just some siblings spending time together. Can't wait for more times like tonight in the future!

Halloween Bark

Last night Luke came over for dinner and we finished watching Lord of the Rings. He told me that I needed to watch all three before the Hobbit movie comes out this Christmas so I semi-unwillingly obliged because I knew it was important to him. Who knew I would become so obsessed with finishing the three movies asap? Between Gimli and Aragorn I was definitely a happy girl. All that to say, we had a nice evening in, but I was in a baking-make-something-from-pinterest mood :) Enter Halloween Bark! I got the inspiration from this site, but I altered mine a bit. (My mom would be so proud! hah) I used about a half a package of Halloween Oreos, probably a cup of broken pretzel pieces, a handful of Reese's Pieces, and a combo of melted chocolate chips and white chocolate (with festive sprinkles on top of course). Clearly this is an exact science and must be measured very carefully.... :) I took a container of the finished result to church today and it did not last very long in that office! I had to get it out of the house otherwise my roomie and I would have eaten every last piece!

Also, while I was in the kitchen Luke rearranged the letters from my
"Happy Halloween" window stickies....he is pretty clever, I'll give him that much!

Crayon Art

Wow, I haven't posted in quite a while and a lot has happened in the past few weeks! I want to write about all that is going on, but for now I will only post about my craftiness that happened this afternoon. I have a new position at work which means I now have an office. (SO weird! I'm definitely not old enough to have an office!) All that to say, I needed something to put on the walls in that place. Thank you pinterest for inspiring me once again!

1. Gather supplies- crayons and canvases (harder to find than you would think!). Also need a hot glue gun, hair dryer, and some sort of tarps or newspaper to put under everything.

2. Hot glue the crayons to the canvas. Another blogger noted to make sure you pay attention to which way you put the crayons down. Having them all different ways would have driven me crazy.

3. Once the glue has dried get the hair dryer out and start melting away. (It splatters a little so make sure the area is covered well).

4. Melt, melt, melt, melt....

5. Ta-da! Let the wax cool and add some pretty flowers! And just like that- art for my office :)

Last Saturday Night

It's my last Saturday night of college and I'm living it up! Writing a paper and watching How I Met Your Mother, home alone. It's actually really relaxing and something I haven't been able to do in a long time. Yesterday was my last day of school! (I still have 2 finals this week, but that's always different than regular class.) It was a rather anti-climactic day, however. Classes were ordinary, nothing special or exciting for being the end. I'm excited for this week, but know it's going to be a busy one. Finishing up projects, papers, and finals. Packing. Parents arriving. Moving (we found an apartment today!!!). SOT Commissioning Ceremony. Ivy Cutting. Graduation. Family meals. And lots of celebrating.

To celebrate the week ahead and my lovely evening home alone, I made these yummy no-bake peanut butter bars. Delicious! How could you go wrong with peanut butter, powdered sugar, butter, graham crackers, and chocolate? I found them on Pinterest earlier and had all the ingredients, so I decided to just go for it! Just continuing my goal to actually make the things I find on the lovely time-wasting website known as Pinterest.

Bridal Shower #1

This weekend, my lovely (ex-) roommate came to visit and we honored her with a bridal lingerie shower for her upcoming wedding! It was a wonderful time to see friends, have fun, and eat lots of yummy food. We had a girls night Friday, including pedicures and attempted bridesmaid dress shopping (for my OTHER soon to be married roommate), Saturday was the shower, and then Sunday we did some shopping, more talking, and of course more eating. It was so fun and such a nice break from school. [I did NO homework this weekend! Mostly because I didn't have any, but it was so great!] The shower also gave me an opportunity to make something else I found on Pinterest- the best brownies I have ever had in my entire life. Seriously, so good. Brownies, Reese's, peanuts, marshmallows, chocolate chips, peanut butter, rice krispies...there is a reason they are called "crack brownies"! The leftovers are currently in my fridge and let's just say, they won't be around for long.

The wedding season has just begun, because in two weeks we will have another lingerie shower for Esther who is getting married in August. So much wedding stuff! I feel very honored to be a part of it all :)

Summer yet?

The Seattle weather has been flip-flopping back and forth from sunshine to rain a lot lately and I am ready for the sun to stick around for a while! Is it summer yet? Since I will be staying here for the summer I am very hopeful there will be sunshine and warmth (that's not too much to ask right?). In anticipation of spring and summer I have created boards on Pinterest, and have been pinning recipes and flowers and things to do when the sun finally stays for longer than two days. All that to say, this morning I made strawberry banana muffins for a meeting with the women of my major and they were delicious! (and totally a spring/summer food) Last summer I told myself that I would be better at making the things I pin on pinterest so I'm trying to get back into the swing of that. I also want to blog more. Last quarter I ran out of time to do the things I had to do, yet alone the things I wanted to do. So now I'm back. Back to pinning, back to baking, back to blogging, back a lot of things I missed and truly enjoy.

Pineapple Bliss Cupcakes

I found this recipe for Pineapple Bliss Cupcakes on Pintrest and I thought, I HAVE to try these. So, we had a family get-together this afternoon, and I thought here is my opportunity to try something new. (In addition to making regular chocolate cupcakes, oatmeal raisin cookies, and peanut butter cookies- so when the new item doesn't go over well with a family that always expects the same things there is still some dessert to eat. ha) Anyways, I made the cupcakes following this recipe and I thought they were delicious! So easy to make and a little bit better for you- no eggs and a lot less sugar in the frosting!

Two ingredients: crushed pineapple and yellow cake mix. SO easy!

Out of the oven.

Frosted and ready to go.

Love pintrest. Love trying new things. Love these cupcakes :)