special delivery
A few weeks ago, this lovely Bunny organized a gift exchange for any bloggers/twitterers who were so inclined to participate. I jumped at the chance to join in and give something to one of the internet folk who I chat with on a regular basis. I was excited to give a gift to someone I admired or perhaps find someone new out there on the web to appreciate. Everything was chosen at random, but I have to say, I got really lucky. While I was extra enthused about the giving aspect, I didn’t think too much about the receiving half. Until last a few nights ago.
On Monday night, in the midst of busying myself with last minute pre-holiday things, the doorbell rang. When I opened it, much to my surprise, there stood Becca with a gift in hand. Strangely, I immediately knew who she was and was filled with happiness and excitement. Just by chance, my gift giver is my sort of neighbor.
On top of meeting someone with a blog I admire, I got a really adorable gift. How cute are these owl pot holders? LOVE THEM.
Then yesterday, I saw this post from Liz about the gift I sent her as my part of the exchange. So much happiness.
As a girl, who’s always been a little shy and introverted in real life, it brings me so much gladness to have found people on the the internet to relate to. I am thankful that I am able to connect with people out there who inspire me and have been able to turn that into genuine friendships. I know it sounds pretty sappy but I feel like many of the writers of blogs that I read and readers of this blog are my dear friends, even if we’ve never met.
So thanks for being here, you all really mean the world to me.
Halloween Pumpkin Mantle
Generally speaking when it comes to Halloween decorations, I lean more towards the actual scary than the cute. On the other hand, I love pumpkins and I knew for our mantle I wanted a ton of pumpkins.
I bought a handful of fake pumpkins from the craft store (they never go rotten!) and went to town. I thought I’d stick with a black and white theme and at first I was tempted to make them pretty with patterned stencils, but was inspired to paint cute faces on them when we found a light up pumpkin at a Halloween store. We turned that one into a makeshift light putting it on an antique tripod.
Of course with the black and white theme, I was able to incorporate the ghosties I made.
Look at that happy pumpkin face! They were all painted with acrylic paint we had laying around the house. Pretty simple and pretty fast.
This is the just the beginnings of our decor. We have some more creepy awesome stuff that I’ll share over the next weeks. Not to mention that next weekend is our horror movie marathon and all the treats and decorations that go along with it. Can’t wait!
memorial day weekend in photos
Hope everyone had a lovely long weekend. It was nice to have an extra day for things. We had zero plans for the holidays but still went to a few bbqs and watched a few movies which was nice. And I did a lot of laundry. Yep.
In keeping with the theme of the weekend of not doing too much, I didn’t quite finish the posts I had planned, but I do have a bunch of lovely photos to make up for it.
Happy Christmas
It’s Christmas Eve! While I’m not a religious person, nor do I particularly care for what Christmas has evolved into, but I am a huge fan of holidays. I love the excitement, the festivities, the specialness that holidays bring about. I feel that Christmas time has this feeling tenfold.
We tried to get a tree this year. It was a fake one, flocked and pre-lit. It was also the saddest Charlie Brown Christmas tree you’ve ever seen. But upon trying to actually purchase it, we were told it was not for sale. Major holiday let down.
Instead I decorated a branch I found by wrapping it in twinkle lights and hanging tiny glittered blue and silver bulbs. It was supposed to be hung from the ceiling but in the pre-holiday haste, it is merely dangling from a curtain rod.
It’s sweet and gives our living room a warm glow at night. Next year when we have our first home chosen together we’ll have a tree I’m sure.
Here is to putting away daily stresses, forgetting about emotional drama and being grateful for what you have. Here is to being present and appreciating your life for what it is today, not just what it will be or what it was. Here is to relaxing.
I hope your Christmas is filled with love and magic.
Thanksgiving leftover hot pockets
It may seem like I’m a little obsessed with leftovers. It’s true. But Thanksgiving always leaves you with so many of them. Even though we didn’t cook this year, we still ended up with a few nights worth of holiday food. I wanted to spice things up a little bit, just so we weren’t having exactly the same meal over and over. Hence the creation of the Thanksgiving leftover hot pocket.
All you have to do to make these is make some pastry crust (I used the flakey pie crust recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking
Start by preheating your oven to 425° F. Roll out your crust (or one sheet of puff pastry) and set aside one half. Put a few tablespoons of stuffing or tofurky or whatever leftover you want in a grid on the dough, leaving about an inch between each filling. The next part is really important, you must drizzle a little bit of gravy over your filling. Make sure the filling isn’t piled too high or your crust may crack.
Carefully lay the other half of the crust over the prepared fillings. Press the spaces between each filling together with your fingers, starting in the center and working your way out. It’s ok if a little bit of gravy or whatever leaks out the side, but try to seal it best you can around the edges. Using a pizza cutter or a pastry cutter, cut the hot pockets into individual pies. Slice a few diagonal slits in the top of each. Transfer to a baking sheet and cook for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.
These would also be great with your holiday meal, they’re not just good for leftovers. Let’s face it, everything is better in a pie crust. We had ours with some celebration field roast, more stuffing and some kale.
The bottom line is that pretty much anything is good in these. Get creative. If you want them filled with sweet potatoes and dandies, I’m sure they’d be extra awesome. Feel free to keep them simple or get crazy.
