Weekend Adventures - Cunningham Falls

Some of my favorite days are the ones where we have no plan at all.  We just get in the car and sort of see where we end up.  We've been doing a lot of that lately, as the weather gets cooler and the leaves are so pretty and orange.   It's usually some place with lots of rocks and trees and preferably a lovely little stream.  I also like to take the boys to places I remember loving as a child.  Cunningham Falls is one of those places.  I was a little disappointed to see that walkways have been built at the bottom of the falls, making it much harder to splash in the falls like I did when I was little.  We still enjoyed the views and all the amazing surrounding nature, though!  

Music for a Monday

Here's a short playlist of some current favorites.  I recently found this site where you can type in something you like, musicians, movies, books, etc, and get suggestions based on your tastes.  It's been fun discovering some new music this way and how I learned about two of the acts on this list, Andrew Jackson Jihad and Paul Baribeau.  They both on heavy rotation on my ipod now!  Enjoy and happy Monday!

Five Servings of Fruits and Veggies

Find these great items here-

1/2/3/4/5

Hooray for Autumn!

I'm not much of a summer girl.  Sure I love the beach and freckles and ice cream, but my heart belongs to Autumn.  I'm looking forward to fall adventures with Donnie and the boys.  I've been looking back at photos from previous Autumn months and feeling all sorts of nostalgic and excited.  Here's to cool days, falling leaves, and pumpkin everything!

Shop Crush

It's no secret that I love dolls and paper dolls in particular.  I found these adorable paper doll necklaces from Prairie Moon Crafts during one of my many lengthy Etsy binge sessions.  The necklaces are made from actual laminated paper dolls!  There are so many to choose from and each one is adorable and totally affordable.  There are also super cute brooches available in the shop too.  It was tough to narrow down my favorite necklaces, but here's what I chose-

Head over to Prairie Moon Crafts to pick your favorite!

Easy/Lucky/Free

The weather is getting cooler and the days are getting shorter.  I love this time of year.  Everything feels more relaxed to me.  I think this song title describes it perfectly!

Graze Box

I mentioned in a recent post about being a little bored with food.  I thought a Graze box would be a good way to get my taste buds excited again and get back to healthy snacking.  Graze has tons of options and delivery options.  For now, I am receiving the calorie counter box bi-monthly.  All of the snacks I will receive are 150 calories or less.  They have so many different snacks and it's really easy to go to their site and choose your preferences and review snacks you've tried.  This was my very first box and I was seriously impressed with the contents!

I'll start with the top left, cherries & berries.  It was a sweet mix of dried berries and raisins and that little box counts as a serving of fruit!  Next to that is The British Barbecue, my favorite of the box.  It was a tasty mix of smoked almonds, rosemary crostini, mini basil breadsticks, and fiery seeds.  I'm hoping to get this one again!  On the bottom left is banana shortbread cookies with a caramel dipping sauce.  Even picky eater, Oscar, approved of these!  Last, but not least, is some toasted pistachios.  You can never go wrong with pistachios!  So everything was delicious, the portions were great, and I really love that there are little nutritional facts right on the front of the package.  If you're interested in signing up for Graze, you can do so through my link here.  You'll get your first and fifth box free and the rest are only around $6 per box!

Baker Park

We don't get to Frederick, Maryland very often these days, but we do really enjoy spending time at this lovely park.  The weather was absolutely perfect on Sunday, so we headed to Frederick for brunch and then spent the afternoon at Baker Park.  I love how full of life this park always seems.  There are so many people riding bikes, walking their dogs, playing sports, and just relaxing in the grass.  If you live in the area, this is a perfect little weekend spot for a picnic!

Spooky Gals!

Silly me!  I forgot to take proper photos of the girls I've been making in preparation of a certain upcoming holiday!  If you follow me on Instagram, these gals are old news and most of them have already gone to new homes.  I'll be honest, Halloween isn't my favorite holiday.  These girls have been so fun to make, though, so I will probably make more before October even gets here!

While we're on the subject of doll faces, now would be a good time to mention a little contest I'm having.  So far my giveaways have only been on Instagram, but I thought it would be fun to include everyone in this one! So here are the rules- If you are on Instagram, post a photo of some inspiration for your ideal doll face.  To play along here,  post a description in the comments or you can email a photo or collage.  I'll pick two winners to have their ideas turned into a reality at the end of the month!  The entries I've gotten so far have been really fun!

Thriftstracted Club

I'm running a little behind with this post, since this is July's Thriftstracted Club!  Oops!  I forgot to sign up for August's and I haven't gotten September's yet, though, because I just remembered to sign up a few days ago.  At this point you're probably wondering what the hell I'm even talking about.  So the super awesome Amberly came up with this great idea- a monthly themed package of thrifted, vintage, and handmade goodies!  She seriously goes out of her way to tailor these packages and make them extra fun!  So July's theme was Kitschmas in July and included everything from sweet handmade personalized stockings to vintage gift wrap and seals.  Go to the club's blog or Instagram to find out how you can become a member of this cool club!

So I'm pretty sure Amberly is some kind of machine or maybe she doesn't sleep!  She made the members these adorable stockings and everything about mine is perfect!

I don't know if it gets brought up much on my blog, but I am sort of crazy for goats and especially baby goats!  Clearly I am saving this little guy until I find the perfect place to stick him.

Here are all other great little goodies!  There were some vintage cards too and most of these little stickers and seals were in an envelope that proclaimed, "Molly likes to glue shit to shit."  It's true!

I can't wait to see what this month's package includes!

Musical Flashback

I asked for some music suggestions on Instagram last week and there were some good ones, but for the most part, they were bands I've already been listening to.  I've been feeling bored with music, but instead of listening to all the recommendations, I decided to take it back to the early part of 2000.  I've stuck some of these old favorites back on my ipod, from days when we frequented Warped Tours and small clubs and band tees were a pretty standard part of my wardrobe.  I still have those shirts, but I mostly just sleep in them now.  Sometimes they drum up memories of my early twenties and although I loved those shows, I prefer venues with air conditioning and proper comfy seats now or just listening from the comfort of my car or couch!

Battlefield Adventures

We spent Sunday exploring Gettysburg and repeatedly explaining that those large black things are cannons and not canyons, that there aren't still soldiers marching about on the battlefield, and that statues don't move.  We also answered endless questions, had a moment of braveness and climbed to the top of a lookout tower, and foolishly tried to explain the Civil War to a four year old.  We did have fun, though, and it was nice to visit a place so close to home and  full of such history.

August's Kawaii Box

So after opening up this box, I sort of had this moment where I wondered just what the hell am I going to do with this stuff.  Now don't get the wrong idea.  I'm still a giant lover of all things cute and kawaii, but how many tiny useless pouches does one grown woman need?  So September's box will be my last for awhile.  I may try out some other subscription boxes, though, because I love the idea of getting surprises each month. I have recently signed up for graze and will share my first box as soon as it arrives.

Okay, let's get to the items here.  First up is the candy kit in the upper left.  I haven't actually tried it yet, because there aren't any instructions in English and I'm obviously too dumb and stubborn to try to just figure it out from the pictures.  I opened it up and there were little squishy blocks that reminded me of clay.  I'll probably just throw that away.  The upper right photo is pretty much everything I didn't like and will be saving for gifts to my preteen nieces.  Hopefully they don't read my blog and will be surprised.  The bottom two photos are the cuter stuff, with my favorites being the sad cat stationary and the little Rilakkuma sticky notes.  I don't know who that little black bear is, but he's alright too.  If you feel like you're lacking in the kawaii department and need to fix that, you can sign up for your own kawaii box here.

What's For Dinner?

I've been really lazy lately when it comes to cooking and preparing meals.  That's definitely reflected in my waistline and in the amount of take out containers and restaurant receipts we've been throwing out.  I blame some of it on a busy life and two picky eaters, but I think a lot of it is really just some laziness that has come with my depression.  Yes, that's kind of been back.  I may talk about in a later post, but know that I am once again working on it.  So anyway, last week I finally put my foot down and decided to get back into the habit of planning meals and packing lunches.  I actually really enjoy cooking.  That alone time in the kitchen and watching ingredients come together to make a great finished product is extremely soothing.  I started the week with a skillet pumpkin lasagna that I've made before.  It was delicious, as always, and there was enough left for an easy dinner the next night!  I did some delicious paninis the following night, with fresh mozzarella, basil from our garden, and a bit of pepperoni.  I had leftover ingredients from both meals, the mozzarella and some ricotta.  We have a bounty of all kinds of homegrown tomatoes and there is almost always some puff pastry in the freezer for a quick tart.  Those items, combined with the previously mentioned leftovers made for a great quick and easy sort of rustic tart/pizza.  I never settled on a name, so you decide.

It was yummy and doesn't it look beautiful?  I love the variety of tomatoes and all their different flavors!  So this isn't really something that calls for a recipe, but here are some general instructions.  I used a fork to poke some holes in the thawed puff pastry and then baked it at 400 degrees for about ten minutes.  After letting it cool and settle for a few minutes, I topped it with slices of mozzarella and tomato that I had let drain in a colander, dropped on dollops of ricotta cheese, and sprinkled it with some dried oregano.  Then I stuck the whole thing back in the oven for another ten minutes.  Easy, right?

I've gotten this week's meals planned out again and have been pinning and bookmarking some recipes to try, so I am hoping to stay inspired and keep on cooking.  Anyone have any great dishes or suggestions they'd like to share?

Let's Dance To Joy Division!

This is one of my most favorite songs and I love to sing along loudly and dance to it.  I'm sure I look awesome while doing so.  So I found this website once where you could do karaoke and this was one of the song choices, so I performed it repeatedly for my husband.  He's a patient man.  So listen, imagine me dancing like a total fool, and enjoy!