The Green Barn

Last weekend my husband and I went to a place called 'The Green Barn Shop.'  It is a scavengers paradise!  There is stuff in any direction you look and it goes on and on.  We found some great stuff.  And the owner has really good prices.  I actually didn't get to see everything.  There are several little sheds and trailers to go through, along with an unlit barn.  Hubby and I had to use flashlights to go through it.  I got freaked out by finding a spider and couldn't continue on.  But there looked to be some great stuff hidden in the shadows! We will have to go back.  There was so much more to see and they get new stuff in every day!  We spent probably an hour or more there.  It's located in Sand Springs, behind the Wal-Mart off of Highway 97.  It was quite an experience.  Be sure when you go to wear long pants and sturdy walking shoes.  No open toed sandals.  There's stuff you have to walk on and weeds to walk through to get to all of the locations.

{All of this, plus 10 mason glass jars with handles, and a mid sized window for only $25!}

                                           {Great yardsale find the same day.  $0.25 a piece!}

{One of my Green Barn purchases.  I bought some flowers to put in it and gave it to Sister to put on her new dining room table, which I will be making a post about later t his week or this weekend!}

Old-Fashioned Spice Cake and Cream Cheese Frosting

And now continues my barrage of all things Fall.  When Hubby and I were in St. Louis last month, we picked up and Old-Fashioned Pumpkin Recipes book.  It goes through the process of how to prepare fresh pumpkin pulp and contains many delicious recipes!  I selected the recipe entitled Hallowe'en Cupcakes.  If you're one of those peekers and read ahead, then you can see that I only made half a batch of cupcakes and the rest into little bundt cakes using one of our wedding gifts from Grandma.  The recipe is super easy and straight forward.  Ok, actually one part was confusing to me.  The ingredients don't list butter, and yet the first direction is to cream together  the butter and sugar.  The first ingredient on the list is vegetable oil, so I just interpreted that as them meaning to say vegetable oil spread, like the Country Crock I have pictured.  The recipe still turned out deliciously!

Ingredients
1/2 cup vegetable oil (vegetable oil spread)                            
 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups brown sugar                                                          
 1/2 tsp ginger
2 eggs, beaten (I forgot to beat mine!  But I'm sure they thanked me for sparing them...)
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 cups all-purpose flour
Dash nutmeg (I just shook my little nutmeg container a couple of times and called it good.)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup whole milk (I used 2%)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

Spice Cake
1. Preheat oven to 375 deg F.
2. Put on some good music- I love my Pandora station for the Civil Wars.  Great band.
3. Cream vegetable oil spread and sugar in mixer. (It will look like the consistency of wet sand.)
4. Beat in eggs.
5. In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients and stir into first mix alternately with milk. (I actually poured the milk in first on accident then slowly poured the dry ingredients.  You'll want to add the dry ingredients a little at a time if you're using a mixer.  It tends to kick up dust if you put too much in at once.
6. Place paper muffin cups in muffin tins, (or spray the little bundt cups with a non-stick pray,) and fill each cup 2/3 full.  Bake for 20 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
3 oz cream cheese
3 oz butter (again, I used the vegetable oil spread...)
2 tsp vanilla
Powdered Confectioners Sugar (Enough to achieve desired consistency)
Milk (enough to thin out if need be)

1. In an a stand or hand mixer, mix together butter, cream cheese and vanilla.
2. Slowly incorporate powdered sugar.
3. Mix in milk a tsp at a time until the desired consistency is achieved.  I wanted mine to be more like a glaze, so I played around with how much powdered sugar and milk I added until I had it thin enough to drizzle over the bundt cakes. (Hubby loved the frosting!  It was his idea to make it cream cheese.  I was just going to make a simple powdered sugar, vanilla and milk glaze.  Good choice, Hubby!)

Breakin Out Fall Clothes

 So with Fall officially upon us, that means I get to break out the layers, scarves and boots indicative of Fall weather!  The mornings have been a crisp 61 degrees.  Perfect for cups of coffee with toasted bagels and pumpkin creamcheese.  (Which is a super simple recipe: I just started off with 4oz cream cheese then stirred in about two heaping spoonfuls of pumpkin filling, dashes of nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cinnamon and a little pumpkin pie spices.  Mix it all up and voila!)

  Today, I got to do some more job training for school, but instead of teaching 2-5 year olds, we started off teaching lap babies and preschoolers. Let me tell you, they are so precious.  I was the shiny new toy that they all wanted to sit next to.  Some of the teachers told me that the outfit I was wearing (pictured below,) looked like something straight off of Pinterest.  I took that as a big compliment!  I'm trying to start accessorizing more and fancying things up, hence the numerous bracelets I was wearing.  I'm trying combos out to see what works and what doesn't.  It's been a fun process!

And Happy Fall, Y'all!!!

For These Things, I am Thankful

 It's time for a thankful post.  God has been so good to us.  A lot has happened in the past couple of years.  Big life changes.  Graduating from college, getting married to the love of my life, adopting a puppy, starting a new job... And through all of this, God has been faithful to provide, encourage and support. As have my Hubby and family.  I have compiled a list of things t hat I'm thankful for.  However, everything I'm thankful for is not confined to this list.  There's so, so much more.  I don't think I could even begin to list the number of things I'm thankful for.  The little things.  I'm thankful for sunrise and sunsets (even if I'm not up early enough to see the sunsets,) coffee, the diversity of people, flowers, smells, technology (sometimes..,) Fall, cool weather, different climates, the United States, freedom, good friends, and I could go on and on.  Here are a few of the big (and little) things:

 {I'm thankful for marrying the best, most handsomest man in the world.  My best friend.  He makes me so happy, takes care of me, is godly, caring, innovative, handy...and I could go on and on for him as well.}

{I am thankful for getting to spend time with Hubby. I love going out places with him{.  I love being in his presence.  I love talking to him.  I wish I could be around him more.  Like, all the time!}

{I'm thankful for our family.  This is us way back in the day.  Okay, not that back in the day.  This was probably taken when I was in middle school.  We had to walk past several prairies before we got to the two room school house.  And in the snow!  Actually...this was one of those pictures taken at Silver Dollar City I believe.  Haha.  Makes for a good story though!}

{My family is great.  They's fun, supportive, loving, giving... Love you guys!}

{I'm thankful for our puppy! Bandit. He's so spoiled.  We adopted him from the ASPCA.  Next week will mark one year that we've had him.  He has been such a joy in our lives.  He's exuberant when we come home, sad when we leave, excited to do things with us.  He's silly, he's precious, he's one of a kind!}

{I'm thankful for the miracle of a tree or plant springing out of a little seed, a big seed, anything coming out of a little ball that looks like a clump of dirt.  This is the avocado tree I'm growing.  I'll have to put a tutorial up later about how to grow a tree from the pit. It's pretty neat actually.  It seems to take forever.  But it's worth the wait.  It has even more leaves on it now that in does in the last picture in the series.}

What are you all thankful for?

PSL Syrup DIY

Fall is in the air.  We've had such great weather this past week.  I've been able to wear scarves two days this week!  I want to celebrate this cool weather by sharing a delicious make at home PSL recipe!  It tastes just like Starbucks', though not as strong.  But that's okay by me.  I always thought Starbucks' coffee was a little strong anyway.  But this recipe is sure to please the die hards and the PSL newbies.  It contains all the usual suspects: clove, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and pumpkin.  I'll let y'all decide how close it comes to the real deal.  In my opinion, it tastes better.  Plus it's a fraction of the cost!  It just takes about 10 minutes to make if you're good at multitasking.  I had the coffee brewing while the syrup mixture heated up.  When the mixture was almost done, I started heating up the milk for the 'latte'.                                                                                                               

Ingredients
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar (I only used 1/2 cup of Splenda and it still turned out perfectly!)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
4 heaping tbsp pumpkin puree (My favorite part!)

Instructions
1.Combine all ingredients in pot.
2. Over medium heat, stir ingredients until sugar has fully dissolved.
3. Continue heating for 5-6 minutes, but do not let boil.
4. Remove from heat and pour through fine mesh strainer.
5. Inhale the delicious fall smells emanating from the steaming pot.
6. Store in airtight container(s).

Latte Instructions
Like me, if you don't have an espresso machine there's an easy way to make a latte-like drink.
1. Brew a strong strong pot of coffee.
2. While coffee is brewing, heat a pan of milk over the stove. Don't let it boil either or it could scorch.
3.  After the milk is heated through, take a small whisk and whisk it up to incorporate those little air bubbles.
4. Pour PSL syrup into cup of coffee, then the frothy milk. Ah...
5. Sit back and relax with your favorite book, absorbing the nice crisp mornings.

                                                Original PSL Syrup recipe can be found Here.

Pretty in Blue

Happy Tuesday!
    My mom, grandma, sister and I went on a shopping trip to Dallas several months ago as a Christmas gift from our parents.  One of the stores we stopped at, (a store whose name I can't quite recall at the moment) had this beautiful shirt in several different colors.  Grandma swooped this blue shirt off the rack and bought it.  Lo and behold, several months later within whose closet should it be found?  That's right, mine.  Grandma no longer wanted it so I got this shirt, along with another similar shirt but in denim.  Grandma had always been conscious and wary of some of my clothing choices when I was younger, (wearing a Halloween costume to school??) not ironing some clothes, having messy hair...just to name a few things.  But this option she approved of!

{A necklace given to me by Hubby after we'd been dating for a month.  He actually surprised me in Edmond (where I'd been living at the time,) and had put together a scavenger hunt for me around my house.  My friends and I had just returned from a friend's beautiful wedding shower.  What a sight it would have been to see 4 or 5 of us girls flocking around the house from spot to spot, looking for the next clue.  The hunt ended in one of my dresser drawers where nestled among my clothing was a little cream jewelry box.  He then showed up at the house!  And I'd wondered why my friend, Lizzle had been trying to herd us quickly from the wedding shower...}

{Twinkies! I just love accidental twinkie moments.  This brightened my morning when one of my fellow coworkers showed up at work in practically the same outfit!  Just goes to show how versatile one piece of clothing can be.}

6 Days Til Autumn

Autumn.  Crisp mornings and evenings, pumpkin flavored everything, crunchy leaves, hot chocolate, hot cider, Halloween, Thanksgiving, family, pumpkin and cinnamon scented everything!  I love everything about Fall.  I could go on an on.  I know I have in previous posts.  Well now, it's only 6 days away, y'all!!  Not that I'm counting...
  On a side note I hope to start taking pictures with a real camera soon.  For some reason, my phone pictures don't like transferring very well to computer screen and end up looking slightly discolored and pixelated.  I'll feel much better once they start looking better!  Now, onto my Fall decorations so far!
{Corner table in formal living.  I like the different levels of items on this table.  The lamp is the only thing of its height, then the sized kind of draw your eyes down to the pumpkin and bottles.  you can't see it from this angle, but I actually have the lamp sitting up on a couple of books.  I'll have to add more pictures later.  I love decorating with old books.}

{A fun little vignette type of display I did on our china hutch.  I had to be creative and find little objects to put underneath the silky fabric to elevate some of the decor items for multi-levels. A funny story about the two pumpkins on the right; I bought these from Rivercity Trading Post (one of my favorite antique and collectible places to shop!) in Jenks a few weeks ago.  As I was unpacking the rest of my Fall decorations, do you know what I ran across?  A second set!  I guess it goes to show I like them so much that I got a second set. Ha!  The spyglass is from the Plimouth Plantation in Massachusetts. The silky fabric is actually from our wedding reception.  It was a square of fabric bunched up around a candle holder/candelabra in the middle of the tables.  It's a very symmetrical and eye catching display, if you ask me!  I wanted to include different textures and elements.}

{Now this isn't a decoration, but it's one of the aforementioned Fall favorites, 'pumpkin flavored everything': Pumpkin Pie bagel from Panera.  Mm-mm!!}

{All of the bagels in all of their flavorful glory!  Notice the pumpkin pie bagel basket is the emptiest one!}

{And pumpkins!  They have arrived in store, ready to be carved or just sit on your front porch.  One day I hope to grow my own.  I tried it the 'correct, book' way but they died!  (Actually, I think that was more because of the melon mites that got to them.) Next time I think I am going to try just throwing the seeds into an appropriate area of the yard and letting them go to see how they do!}