Winter wreath!

During my last visit to Boise, my momma bought be a darling over-the-door wreath hanger from Tai Pan. Before I was finished unpacking, the hanger was on my front door, ready for action! And there it stayed for a few weeks, wreath-less and sad. :(

The sadness is over now!

Last night, I busted out my glue gun, put on Tangled (I like noise when I'm home alone... it makes me feel like I have friends) and whipped up this little beauty! 

Like many others I've been captivated by the wonderful world of Pinterest, and have found plenty of inspiration on there. So I just combined a few ideas I snagged from my boards and made it my own! It was ridiculously fun to make.

I started with a styrofoam wreath, and wound shiny silver ribbon all the way around (and apparently 12 yards of ribbon isn't enough to make it all the way around. Hence the random white yarn wrapped around one section!).

Then I made some felt rosettes, like the tutorial here. I even tried doubling up on colors like in the tutorial, but in the end I wasn't a fan. I liked my solid rosettes better this time. :) Also, in the tutorial she uses double stick tape... I just put a couple dabs of hot glue on the backs of my rosettes to hold them together.

 I arranged the rosettes on the wreath, and once I was happy with the look, I hot-glued those bad boys on there, and voilà! I love my wreath. LOVE IT. 

PS. Sorry the lighting isn't pro-photog-esque. The lighting in my apartment is akin to a hotel room at night without all the natural light streaming in from my ginorm windows. Which is actually awesome as long as you're not trying to take pictures!

Being 25

I have this persistent tendency to start every single blog post with "So..."

Its seriously something I have to consciously avoid, and I think that is super weird.

SO... Now that I'm 25, I feel like I've earned a little bit of legitimacy in life. You know, like I've been around long enough to matter or something. If that doesn't make sense, then nevermind. Anyway, I wasn't sure what to expect from this year of life, but it felt like it would be significant. The 2nd day I spent as a 25 year old, I was asked TWO SEPARATE TIMES if I was a teenager.

AWESOME. False.

Context: A girl asked if I was over 18 at a retail store, first time I've been asked that since turning 20 and FAR WORSE even was a lady we ran into who I'd known as a child, who asked if I had graduated high school yet. Yes. Yes I have. Almost 7 years ago thanks. That was bad, but then she looked like she pooped her pants when I told her I'd been married for 5 years, so I added that I was 25, so she didn't think I got knocked up or something but that seemed to shock her too. There was no way I could have saved the encounter from the impending awkwardness anyway. You guess a 25 year old is just out of high school... well, there's no recovering from that.

I guess this should make me happy. I'd be just depressed if people guessed I was 7 years older than I am rather than 7 years younger, so I'd better be glad they think I'm 17 rather than 32.

I'm going to blame it on the bangs. Which I love by the way. Bangs rock.

So thank you life, for that super back handed compliment of sorts. It was... interesting.

Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispie Treat Pumpkins

Howdy! I had a few recipe requests when I posted a pic of my Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispie Treat Pumpkins (Its a long and redundant name, but there's no mistaking what we're talking about!) so I thought instead of messaging everyone the recipe, I'd just post it so all can enjoy! Yay!

I'll first point out that this recipe is the result of a few different inspirations. I pinned a pic on Pinterest that I found of super cute pumpkin shaped rice krispie treats. Then I thought it would be awesome if they tasted like pumpkin pie spice too! So I found a rice krispie treat recipe that called for pumpkin pie spice, and I merged the idea with the recipe and a little creativity and BAM. Awesomeness! So here's MY merged, adapted and tweaked recipe.

Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispie Treat Pumpkins:

4 tablespoons butter
6 cups mini marshmallows
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
6 cups rice krispies
orange food coloring
frosting (I made my own, store bought tubs or tubes work too)
tootsie rolls

*I had to double the recipe because it doesn't make many as is.

Lightly grease 9×13 pan. Set aside.
Melt butter in large pot. Add marshmallows and stir until melted and smooth. Add pumpkin pie spice & orange food coloring to desired color and stir to combine. Remove from heat and add rice krispies. Mix until cereal is coated with marshmallow mixture. Press into prepared pan. (I recommend doing this before shaping your pumpkins by hand so the rice krispie treat mix doesn't stick to the pot as you make your pumpkins.) Shape into pumpkin-like ball-ish shapes and set on wax paper to cool.
Add tootsie roll to the top middle of each pumpkin for a stem.

Butter Cream Frosting:
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
milk to reach desired consistency
green food coloring

Combine (mix or beat) powdered sugar, butter and vanilla till smooth. Add milk to thin to desired consistency. Add green food coloring to desired color.

I used a leaf decorator tip & bag to make my leaves.

And there you go! Cute and yummy = double awesome :)