I've Never Been a Morning Person

...especially during the winter. It doesn't matter what time I go to bed the night before, getting myself out of bed by 7:00 am is next to impossible. And I'm pretty sure that if I woke up to this beautiful view of Chicago every morning, I would never get out of bed on time.

{Good thing I only ever see this on the weekends.}

First, Second, Third

Do you want to know what moving to a new state all on your lonesome does to you? It...

-first, makes you crazy.
-second, validates your netflix account.
-third, brings a whole new meaning to the phrase 'cultivating your talents (or wannabe talents...close enough).'

I'm on bullet point three right now. Half way through a pottery class I signed up for way back at the beginning of fall...and just realized I haven't shared any photos! So. This is me and my first baby back before she went into the kiln. Peeps, this pottery business is harder than it looks but SO. MUCH. FUN.

PS I've now lived in MI for five months. FIVE MONTHS. Where did the year even go?

The Awesome-Things-Only Filter

I'm so over the lame parts of life. So. Want to see my week through the awesome-things-only filter? It's pretty rad. Take that lame parts of life.

-My favorite Chicagoan got a web cam. I love skyping a million times more than talking on the phone.
-Working in media has some serious perkalerks. Favorite of the week: getting a beautiful white Williams Sonoma ceramic cake pedestal.
-I decided it was time for a purge and splurge of my shoe collection earlier this week. The best news? I purged, and then thanks to some amazing sale finds, successfully revamped WITHOUT having to splurge. This deserves miracle status, people.
-I rewatched all six of the Harry Potter movies. It was awesome.
-I discovered Pinterest this week. Anyone who uses Reader should also use Pinterest. I put it in the same mega awesome category as Google & teux deux. This little page makes it a MILLION times easier to organize and keep track of all of those different things you find online and love. (it's also a lot of fun to wander through other people's inspiration boards on there)
-I created a pandora station called "13 Years Old" this week. It includes Justin Beiber and Miley Cyrus. I listen to it every afternoon at work and love it.
-And lastly, this weekend is devoted to fall crafting and cooking, followed by climbing. win, win, win.

See? My week was clearly awesome. Such a fan of this filter.

Christmas Cards

Yes, I said the word Christmas. Yes, it's still mid November. But have you guys checked out Shutterfly yet? Talk about an awesome blogger promo (thanks for the heads up Steph!), bloggers get 50 free prints!

I for one am all about saving my time and not having to design the family card myself this year...especially when so many of Shutterfly's designs are so cute. Seriously, they've got some good stuff. My Mom has me put together our family Christmas card every year and it usually takes the better half of Thanksgiving weekend to complete, so I'm thinking this year we may just have to Shutterfly it since there are a few designs that look like something I'd do anyways! Tell me what ya think. Our favorite holiday cards are the ones that include a picture of the fam along with their yearly update. Here are my top one two and three choices, we're thinking a picture of the fam bam on the front with an enclosed family update.

So...if you're like me and looking for a way to cut corners and save some major time this year without compromising the cuteness of your card, check them out!

The Recent

My life currently looks something like this:

-Furniture shopping is the new clothing shopping. so addictive, so easily expensive, ...so awesome.

-I cannot get enough of country music. It's become quite the love affair.

-Daniel has been in Italy for 6 months already! Where is time going?

-I've been taking a pottery class and I'm seriously obsessed. I love it!

-Seasonal depression. It's real. My prescription? Get a special light to sit under every day...hmm...sounds an awful lot like fake tanning to me. It may be time for me to succumb.

-My winter duvet has now officially made its permanent home on my bed. Oh hello, winter.

-I go to bed every night now by eleven. ELEVEN, people. And even that's stretching it for me. Who am I?

-My bangs are almost fully grown out. And now I want to chop them back in. gahh.

-Gossip Girl. I'm still so obsessed.

-I want a pet. But I kinda have commitment issues.

-And lastly, can I just say that html is cake compared to that nonsense called css? I now understand why web designers can charge so much.

Applesauce Spice Cake

Oh my. I really have no words for this besides you all NEED to try this.

After one too many trips to the apple orchard this fall, I had a surplus of apples sitting around. (Really though, how many times can you eat apples, make apple pie, apple spice bread pudding, apple crisp, apple anything before you just get sick of it?) So...this weekend I decided to try my hand at homemade applesauce and wipe out the whole surplus in one fell swoop. If you haven't tried making your own applesauce before, you really need to. It is so easy and sooo good. I ended up tweaking a recipe from Smitten Kitchen, and it was to die for. All you need is apples, cinnamon, a lemon, and water. SK's recipe calls for 4 pounds of apples, 1 cinnamon stick, 4 strips of lemon peel, and a cup of water. I used the same amount of apples and water, but substituted 3/4 teaspoons of cinnamon, and 2 strips of lemon peel for the suggested amounts. I'm guessing that a few tablespoons of brown sugar would be yummy too...but I left it out in the name of healthiness. And then made applesauce spice cake. Haha. The applesauce spice cake recipe came from Smitten Kitchen as well and is literally my favorite thing I've baked this fall. Seriously, it was that good and I'm not even a cake person.

On another note, my mom and I have started skyping each other while we're baking and it is so much fun! It's almost as good as baking in the same kitchen, and let me tell you, there are few things in this world that I love as much as just spending an afternoon in the kitchen with my mom. Here are a few photos from the foray into applesauce caking that we had this afternoon:

We forgot to take any 'during' pictures. Oops. Here's the finished product:

SO yummy. cream cheese frosting with fall spices, can anyone resist this stuff?

The first bite. I always feel slightly guilty cutting into something right after I finish it. Don't let that face fool you though, this stuff was GOOD.

And really, if you're going to try baking anything this fall, try this! You won't regret it one bit!

Are You Happy?

You better believe this will be hanging in my home as soon as the next run is available. Such a basic idea, yet so beautifully stylized. From Alex Koplin.