I just spotted this amazing tutorial for single serving pie in a jar over at our best bites.  These look amazing and would make such a great little gift or finale to an autumn dinner party, perhaps even for Thanksgiving.

I think I just decided what my first fall project will be.  I've got some lucky neighbors.

#21 - Susan from British Columbia has won! 

Here was her comment:

I loved the Little House books and television show. My love of the simple things in life I believe is in part due to that. Have recently thought of re-reading the books actually. My husband and I live in the suburbs of Vancouver, BC, Canada and we have an allotment vegetable garden. We love it. We spend so much time there. It is an amazing experience to grow your own food and learn about composting and watch the cycle of how everything in nature works together (except for the relentless weeds ... but even they are trying to survive). My husband often says of modern day society that we weren't meant to live this way. Life should be simpler. Some day we would like a small farm somewhere in the country. I have heard of the Prairie Girl's Guide (hope to read soon) and have recently finished reading "Made From Scratch" (which was great). I have also reacquainted myself recently with crafting. To make things and be as self-sufficient as you can is extremely rewarding.

I've spent a fair amount of time in various National Forests over the past month and each time the views and surrounding have been nothing short of glorious.  But there has been one shocking delight in my viewfinder that I wasn't anticipating.  I am falling in love with National Forestry's signage.  I am expecting to lose quite a few of you with this one.  Nonetheless, as my ardent devotion continues to grow, I feel now is the time to speak up. 

I tried finding the script font and found instead that it was a custom job, hand lettered.  A much as I love a good font, this certainly added to the appeal for me.  And the cookies and cream color combo?  Delicious.

Clearly the signs - with their off kilter shape and jaunty script look kitschy and nostalgic.  But they work, they just really work.  Last decade, next decade - there is a sweet timelessness about them.  I can only hope that these will never be updated, that the look will endure.  In this cases I'm gonna have to stick with the old adage, if it ain't broke...

What are your thoughts, either way?  Are these signs faded or fantastic?

{images: Colorado Guy, Eugene Carsey, Ron Niebrugge}

a plan via ffffound

seeing the world in black & white via S.HOPtalk

my classroom via apartment therapy

mirror balls in copper.  swoon.  via apartment therapy

green & clean via HEAD OVER HEELS

the VW California*. Though not available in California, go figure.  via handmade Charlotte

saving the date via Once Wed

kitchen gardens via Design*Sponge

 the Holidays broken down via poppytalk

shared interests via cup of jo

alphabettruth via Swish and Swanky

putting it out there via HEAD OVER HEELS

lacey cakes via Design*Sponge

flight via booooooom

being surrounded by the ones I love via Auburn & Ivory

knowing where you stand with the family via awkward family photos

Paul Smith.  The man can make water covetable via happy mundane

more rainbow cakes, oh my!  via colour lovers

non-disposables via ffffound

serpentine leafways via Design Crush

{images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}

I have always had a thing for Mexican paper flags but it was just after a little recent exploration that I came to find out that these little flags are quite event specific as seen through all of their beautiful intricacies. {those shown below, for example, are for a wedding, spring & valentine's day}  I have typically seen these in the multicolor variety but there are also plenty of single tone garlands as well.  All of the flags that I have pictured below are available here.

I made this collage of the flags and then fell so in love with it that I am considering having a large print made and framing it in our house.  It's just so...happy.

{top image from Martha Stewart Weddings}

I feel a little sad about that fact that I haven't been this excited about someone's wedding in a long time. 

I am blown away by this series entitles "Camouflage" by Beijing based artist Liu Bolin.  Covered entirely in paint to blend into their surroundings, each installation can take up to 10 hours of painstaking work.  I find his work utterly compelling and beautifully executed. 

Thanks to my brother Jamie for the tip!

{photos from here and here}

who: amy twomey
where: dallas, texas
what: mom of three little rascals, professional photographer, writer for dallas morning news, and an aspiring cook

 
1. [cameras] well...this was bit obvious huh? ok. but it had to make my top 10. by the way, these are by no means in any order of importance.
2. [rock climbing] when time means nothing and all thoughts of worry and anxiety dissipate into thin air.
3. [our blog project] my current obsession, a place where i can challenge myself daily and push my creative self to the extreme.
4. [vintage bicycles] ahhh. nothing is better then cool wind blowing in your face while riding nowhere important at all, just passing time.

5. [polaroid heart wall art] this i had to post, well...just because of my love for design and that someone actually incorporated polaroids. perfection.
6. [my three children] without them i would be empty, they are my absolute everything that fills me every day. i love them so much it hurts.
7. [cooking] a new friend. a new passion. a new door is opening and my eyes are full with excitement. flavors, sauces, mixtures....we are eating well.
8. [knitting] when will I ever finish my scarf? who knows, all that matters is it makes me happy.
9. [letters in the mail] no day is better then a day you have a personal piece of mail to open from an old friend. i love mail.

10.[my husband] seriously, must i say more. i married the man of my dreams and I am so lucky. He still gives me chills and butterflies, i swear.
 

{images from here 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10}

"amy and ann" is the blog blog project that Amy was referring to in her previous post.  I am loving this project.  Monday through Friday these two friends (and moms & photographers) post a photo not knowing what the other will post.  Each photo will have something food relate within it.  Their images are really beautiful and I love to see how, somehow, magically the two photos end up somehow playing off of each other.  Then each Friday they post a recipe.  Amy is a celiac and though I am so very sorry for her, I can't help but be grateful that she is blessing the rest of us in the midst with some fantastic food.  Ann is just cooking up great dishes, gluten and all - for the rest of you lucky ones.  Check it out... you may just get hooked.

p.s. for all you gluten free-ers out there - Amy has another food blog devoted to gluten free call i am celiac.  The woman is a Godsend.

Thank you, Emily of the Marginanlian for tagging me with the Kreativ Blogger Award.  Emily and I have a shared love of Billy Collins, particularly the poem Marginalia that I posted awhile back.  Not only has she named her blog from this poem but I love the little footnote that she has added:

Inspired by the Billy Collins poem, "Marginalia," about writing in the margins of books that you love, I write in the margins of a life that I love. 

love that.

1) Thank the person who nominated you for this award

2) Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3) Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4) Name 7 things about yourself that people might not know.
5) Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.
6) Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7) Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they have been nominated.

Ok - I don't typically do this type of stuff but what the heck...

My seven things:

1. America has always seemed a little strange and foreign to me.  I feel as though I was born in the wrong country.  I feel far more at home overseas, oddly, in most other places I have visited.  Given the chance to move back overseas, I could be packed by tonight.

2. I never really ate vegetables until I was an adult.  Embarrassing, sad and true.

3. I love my kids so much it hurts, like literally my heart hurts.  I love my husband even more.  And Jesus even more than my husband.  Yep, I have a pecking order.

4. I have a very low relational capacity and it takes a lot for me to feel loneliness.  I like having a few close lifelong friends and spending most of my time just with my family.  And it seems like I need alone time almost as much as oxygen.

5. We just became #5 on "the list" waiting for a referral for our first adoption.  We should be traveling to Thailand within the year to meet the newest member of the family.

6. I've never sewed on a button.  Again, embarrassing, sad but true.

7. I am a homebody that loves to travel.  After a night in a hotel, I start to consider it "home".

I am tagging: Two Ellie, Amy and Ann, You Are My Fave, Domestic Reflections, SimpleSong, Heart of Light and DeliaJude.

"I read.  And as I opened Little House in the Big Woods, I no longer felt lonely or bored or unfortunate to live in the country.  I felt blessed.  In the pages of the Little house series, I found a friend and a heroine Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Her simple life, work ethic, and innocent pleasures transported me from my ranch house to her homestead.  I was caught up in all the activities of the Ingallses' everyday life: Ma making pie, Pa working a harvest, Laura studying for her teaching certificate, everyone drinking lemonade and watching the buggy races on independence day."

If you were to go waaay back to the start of this blog, I mention part of my initial inspiration in starting it was as a way of sort of channeling Caroline Ingalls.  I grew up in an upper class town and learned next to nothing about traditional homemaking skills.  I really have no idea why these things appeal to me so but I know that I want to learn them and I want to teach them to my daughters.  I picked a man with a similar sense and he wants to teach our sons the things that he never learned growing up.

I have found someone kindred in Jennifer Worick through the pages of the Prairie Girl's Guide to Life.  She too sees how fleeting the joy is of our super consumer society.  How no matter how much you buy you are always left wanting more.  There is something rich and deep in the simple pleasures of making things from scratch and even just making do.  You needn't have a prairie to be a prairie girl, it's a mindset more than anything else.  I'm not there and perhaps never will be but life has sure gotten richer with each step I've taken in this direction. 

This book is jammed packed with great insight and practical skills that are no longer considered basic knowledge.  If you would like a chance to win a copy of this book just leave a comment after this post: maybe a homemaking skill that you would like to learn or one you already have.  Or perhaps something about the Ingalls family that resonates with you as well.

I'll choose a winner next Monday - good luck!

Oh my.  Words cannot describe how gorgeous Southwest Colorado is this time of year.  We hit Durango, Ouray and Telluride.  Each more beautiful than the last.  The temperature was in the high sixties, crisp.  The colors popped more each day.  Knock your socks off yellow all the way into jaw dropping reds.  Surely this is what heaven will be like. 

We hiked, attempted a climbing wall, trampoline bungeed, sled slid down the mountain, hit the farmers market in Telluride, scoped real estate, and had leisurely mornings with plenty of coffee.

I'm not sure the weekend could have been lovlier. 

Have I mentioned how fall makes me positively giddy?

We're of for a loooong weekend in Durango to celebrate...what else...? 

Fall!

{image by David Slauson}

Who:  Brooke Rosolino

Where:  Nashville

What: my dear friend.  She's also a killer personal trainer and author of the blog Nashville Health Nut. 

1: My husband - I am telling you he is the funniest, WEIRDEST, and most wonderful person I have ever met.  He is also a wonderful musician and songwriter.  Check out his new EP on itunes (Justin Rosolino)

2: 8 hours of sleep - I LOVE SLEEP and when I get enough of it! 

3: The small things in life -  Weather is be my husband bringing me home a half-eaten muffin or the way he devours my vegan cookies I make him.  A child's smile.  A phone call from a dear friend.  Taking naps on Sunday afternoons accidentally.

4: Sweating - I know that sounds gross but weather it is running, hot yoga, or spinning it makes me feel alive and I am sooo thankful I am able to have the health to do this.

5: My mom and Dad - I adore them they are sooo precious to me and some of my dearest friends.  My heart aches to live in the same city with them one day!

6: Wine with friends - I love drinking a good(and always cheap) glass of wine with girlfriends.

7: The Mountains - I love being in God's creation like this. It just reminds me how small I am and how big He is.

8: The Mornings - The world is quiet early in the morning and my soul breaths deeply at this time.

9: Lululemon - My FAVORITE workout clothes brand!  I am telling you they make your butt look amazing and they are so comfy and cute.

10: Local coffee shops with a good book that I cant seem to put down - enough said.
 

I have a deep and specific admiration for the buffalo check.  Unlike, say houndstooth or herringbone, two of my other favorite patterns - I don't fancy it in nearly any capacity.  I love it in small and appropriately placed doses, never in trendier forms.  And if done as described, I love it a lot. 

One of my favorite aspects of this particular pattern is it's ability to appear both nostalgic and forward and graphic at the same time.  I am partial to red & black, and white or cream & black. 

To me, nothing says so long summer, like buffalo check.

{images: hello blackbird, J. Crew, Paul Smith, Gap, Remodelista, my home ideas, Remodelista, Ralph Lauren, Remodelista}

And the winner of "Master Your Metabolism" and the Omron pedometer is...Grace!  (#11)  Congratulations Grace on winning and on how far you have already come.  (In her comment Grace shared that she has lost 60 pounds since January - So inspiring!)

I love this recession friendly iphone case.  Why pretend?

spotted here.

So I'm not quote sure why I have put off for so long talking about this but I have.  In early July I found out that I have some food allergies.  Some rather severe food allergies.  Like I'm really allergic to eggs.  And wheat, gluten.  And dairy, beef, almonds, pinto beans...  I think you get the idea.  At this point me and water are on good terms.  And the thing is, I think that the reason that I haven't spoken about it is...I just can't seem to wrap my brain around it.  Each mealtime arrives and I just sort of get this dazed expression.  I've ben eating a lot of tortilla ships with A-1 sauce.  For real.  For everyone with beef allergies - It tastes like an overdone steak. I cannot believe that I've just admitted to this.

I'm actually so grateful to have found all this out.  I have been feeling really sick for really a long time and I am thrilled to begin to be understanding some of the reasons why.  And in truth it isn't all together that different from the way that I had been eating, I mean, the eggs definitely through me for a loop.  I think that it's being told that I can't eat all these things.  I can eat fruits and veggies to my hearts content.  I can eat poultry. And these are the things i eat most of the time anyway.  I even found this fantastic cake & icing mix that have no gluten or eggs or dairy - how is that even possible?

And yet I am still stumbling around in this weird stupor. 

Help.  Anyone out there going through something like this?  Anyone have a magic recipe, or tip or joke to snap me out of this? 

Anyone?

{photo from real simple}

And the 2 winners of the signed copies are...

Sarah, #6

and

Emily, #18

Congratulations!

You still have time to enter this giveaway!