Blogging Fail and Apples

By this point, you would think that I would know myself well enough to know that I'm not good at juggling life. Let me take that back. I can juggle life, but I always hit a point where I think I can throw one more ball into the mix and then they all come crashing down.

This time around the crash wasn't exactly a negative thing, but I definitely couldn't figure out how to make everything work together. It's been about 2 months (give or take) since I last posted and in that time I've gone out of town twice, painted the buffet (finally!), quit my job, got a new job, had a few weekend visitors, spent hours at Ikea, bought a new car, threw a party, and painted/decorated the office. Phew, reading everything makes me tired all over again!

So, I know it's no excuse for my absence, but I thought I should at least catch you up on my life.

Now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about Fall.

Last October, Jesse and I went to a pumpkin patch called Cox Farms. We had a great time seeing all of the baby animals, picking out pumpkins and enjoying the fall weather.
Here's a quick snapshot of our afternoon at the farm.

We haven't made it out to any pumpkin patches this year, but we've still found several ways to enjoy the season. This past weekend we hosted a post-season bocce party at our house, which was full of fall treats. I made a big batch of chili, spinach artichoke dip, an apple dip and a nice fall cocktail for everyone to enjoy. We spent the afternoon watching football and playing bocce outside. Everyone seemed to have a great time, but more than that, they all loved the food. :)

Since everything was such a hit, I wanted to share a few of the recipes here on the blog. I especially want to share the apple recipes while there's still plenty of time to enjoy the fall bounty. (Yes, I just used the word bounty ... it sounds so mature!)

So let's get started!

The first recipe is for an amazing fruit dip that I discovered on, the one and only, Pinterest. I didn't know I'd be throwing a party when I came across the recipe, but I pinned it anyway because I figured it might come in handy. Boy am I glad I did! People were a little skeptical at first, but as soon as the first person dug in, it didn't take long for everyone else to follow suit. I'll definitely keep this one in the arsenal for any upcoming potlucks!

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Dip

Servings: 8-10

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Inactive Time: 2 hrs. - overnight

12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

3 Tbs. heavy cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 small jar Caramel sauce

1/2 cup Heath milk chocolate pieces

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

2-4 Granny Smith or other crisp tart apples, sliced and soaking in
lemon juice and ice water until ready to serve

Line a six inch cake pan or springform pan with plastic wrap. Use enough plastic wrap to hang over the sides of the pan about 2 inches.

Place softened cream cheese in a mixing bowl and beat on medium speed until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the heavy cream and powdered sugar, mix well, until smooth. Place half of the cream cheese mixture in the lined pan and smooth with the back of a spoon. (If you dip the spoon into warm water before you start to smooth the cream cheese, it will be much easier to spread.) Spoon on a layer of caramel. Sprinkle with a layer of chocolate chips and the Health pieces.

Place in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes. This will help the caramel set up a bit and make topping it with the remaining cream cheese much easier.

Scoop the remaining cream cheese on top and smooth out using the back of a dampened spoon, like you did for the first layer. Add another thin layer of caramel, heath pieces and chocolate chips on top. Fold the overhanging plastic wrap over the top and refrigerate for at least two hours, but up to overnight for best results. Pull back the plastic wrap so that the top of the cheesecake is exposed. Place a serving plate on top of the pan and invert. Remove the pan and the plastic wrap. Spoon caramel sauce over the top of you cheese cake and top with more of the Heath pieces and chocolate chips. Place the sliced apples around the dip and serve.

*Note: If you want to throw this together super fast, just spread the cream cheese mixture on a serving platter and top with the caramel, Heath bits, and the mini chocolate chips.

I'm not sure if I have any readers left, but hoping assuming I do, what have you been up to? Does anyone have any good fall recipes to share? I'd love to hear any updates, if nothing else so I know you're still here!

I missed you guys and it feels good to be back! :)

Monday Challenge: Junk Drawer Clean-up

Writing this blog is motivating. It forces encourages me to continually improve our home, cook delicious meals and try new things (like sewing and gardening). I've had a few people ask me where I get my ideas, and the answer is pretty simple. A majority of my ideas come from the variety of blogs I read, along with my other new love -- Pinterest. Whenever I find an idea that inspires me, I either pin it to one of my boards or file it away in my memory (not nearly as reliable).

While my latest inspiration isn't exactly glamorous, it's something that I've needed to do for awhile. I was reading Young House Love the other day (one of my all time favorites) and they did an entry about cleaning out the junk drawer in their kitchen. I'll admit, I thought it was a little silly at first ... a whole post dedicated to cleaning out one drawer? And then I realized that our junk drawer could use a mini-overhaul as well.

The junk drawer in our kitchen is tiny, but we don't have many storage options on our main level. We continued to cram more items into the little space until it got to the point that I had to rearrange the drawer just to shut it. Not cool.

There are several items that I like to keep close by, so I needed a better solution than relocating everything to our basement or continually cramming everything into one tiny drawer.

I started by emptying the drawer in our kitchen and sorting it by category - tape, tools, writing utensils, rubberbands and miscellaneous items.

Once I sorted everything, I pulled out a few items from each category that we tend to use pretty frequently. I put those items back in the drawer -- this time much more organized than the mess we started with.

As for the rest of our supplies, I put them in this glam toolbox that I scored from Home Goods for $6.00. It was originally a photo box, but it just so happened to be the perfect solution to my problem.

All of my leftover "junk" fit so nicely into the compact little container.

The best part about it is that it coordinates perfectly with our sunroom. So well, in fact, that I decided to give it it's own little home on our desk.

I have to say, it's nice to still have everything at arm's reach without overusing our teeny-tiny junk drawer!

How about you guys? Do you have a junk drawer that is getting out of hand? Or do you have a creative way to hide your not so glamorous home supplies? 

I'd love to hear about any other creative storage ideas you have because my next challenge is finding a way to hide my hand weights on the main level. I just scored a great set of 4, 7, 9 and 12 lb. weights from Drew's work for just $8 (total!), so now I need somewhere handy to hide them. I'll let you know what I come up with as soon as I figure it out.

Tired, But Still Inspired

I'm tired today. Not the kind where you fall asleep watching a movie, but the kind that makes your mind feel like mush and your body feel like jelly.

It causes you to start telling a story, but forget the point of it halfway through, so you wrap it up with a "sooo, aaaa-ny-wayyy ..." and then the person you're talking to chimes in with a "how you got your job ... remember, you were telling me how you got your first job," which prompts you to say "oh, right, so my first job ..."

That happened to me today.

If you've never done that, maybe this will sound a bit more familiar ... I came home after running a marathon two miles tonight, and I was so hungry that I needed a little snack while I cooked dinner. After I was done chowing down on my hummus and crackers, but before my husband came back in from watering the flowers, I quickly put everything away. Here's where the tired part comes into play. As Jesse was cleaning up after dinner, he opened the cabinet to put away the tortilla chips and the next words out of his mouth were, "Why is the hummus in here?" To which I replied, "Oh s*** ... I put the hummus away with the crackers!"

Yep, that's the kind of tired I am today.

I have an exciting story to share, a new recipe that I tried this week, and a few pictures of my newly decorated bookshelf, but what I'm trying to tell you is that I'm too tired tonight. 

teaser for the recipe that I'll be sharing soon!

I hope this doesn't make me lazy. 

I had good intentions. 

Promise.

Soooo, since I don't have any delightful treats or fabulous makeovers to share with you, why don't I share a few inspiring rooms instead? I would hate to make you feel like you stopped by for nothing. :)

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Until recently, I couldn't identify my personal design preferences. I think a lot of rooms are gorgeous, but they're not always my cup-o-tea. As I spend more time reading all of my favorite home design blogs, magazines and websites, I find so many inspiring spaces that draw me in. 

With the help of Pinterest, I've been able to save all of these spaces in one place, which helps me visualize my style and see what catches my eye. 

I've learned that I like layers, a lot. I also love color - lots of color. I tend to lean towards bright, energetic rooms, but nothing too overwhelming. Oh, and I love gold (but that's not a new revelation). I know that matchy-matchy is not so much my thing. I prefer the pieced-together-over-time look.

Learning what I like has been a fun process. I find that I spend more time looking for the right item, and less money settling on junk that I don't love. 

I know I still have a long way to go, but I'm enjoying the learning process. Putting our house together in stages is much more fun than buying everything at once without any rhyme or reason. :)

Don't know what Pinterest is? Check out my Pinterest write-up from a few weeks ago and then request an inviation ... asap!

Squealing with Excitement & Happy Blog-iversary to me!

As a novice blogger, I check my stats just about every time I login. The Blogger Stats tell me things like how many people click on each post, where they were referred from (i.e. other blogs or google searches) and what part of the world they live in. I like to see how many people are reading my blog each day, along with which posts are most popular. Whenever I link-up to a blog party, I get about 30-40 more hits on my blog than usual. It's always exciting to see my numbers increase, and I feel good knowing that people are reading my blog.

This Saturday, I did my usual stat check, and instantly noticed that I had a significantly high amount of page views. I haven't linked-up to any parties recently, so I was a bit perplexed. When I checked to see which posts were popular, I noticed that my Sounds Pinteresting... post had 60 hits! Wait a second ... how could that be? I jumped over to their blog to see if I could find anything out, and here's what I saw (check out the 3rd paragraph!):

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In case you can't read it, here's a zoomed in version:

That's right, Pinterest mentioned my write-up (they called it a write-up -- it sounds so legit!) on their blog. I couldn't believe it. Not only did I run around squealing to Jesse, I immediately called my parents to tell them how excited I was! This is the first time that my writing has been featured on another blog, so for it to be the Pinterest blog is even more exciting. I was on Cloud 9!

Ok, they did call me Suzy, but who can blame them? It's the name of my blog. For the record, if you read this blog and don't know me, my real name is Susan. :)

I still can't believe that I was featured, and I'm so grateful for the whole world of blogging. It has started a new drive in me, that I've never felt before. I'm constantly dreaming up new projects, recipes and posts - all because I love sharing my world with everyone in the blog-world. I hope that you guys are enjoying my blog as much as I enjoy writing my posts. Thanks again for stopping by, and I can't wait to keep forging ahead in this adventure!


Update: I called myself a novice blogger, but I just realized that today is the one year anniversary of my blog! Can I still use that term? Well, I'm going to for now. It makes me feel better about any anxieties I have about blogging. :)

Back to the exciting part - Happy Blogiversary to me!

We should eat cake to celebrate ... too bad I didn't make one. Let's share a virtual cake instead! :)

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And, just for fun, lets take a look back at year one:

Readers from 10 different countries

16 new followers

74 posts published

100 comments received

AND

2,857 page views

Most Popular Project: Prepping for the Prep Work

Most Popular Recipe: Sunday Breakfast: Weekend Waffles

Most Popular Makeover: Sunroom Makeover: Before & After

Most Comments Received: Craigslist Find of the Year

It's been a fabulous first year and I can't wait to see what's around the corner. I'm hopeful that year two will bring new ideas and projects, more followers, and most importantly, happiness!

Sounds Pinteresting ...

Inspirational Design

I have a new-ish obsession and it seems to be taking over my cyber-life. I'm sure you've heard about it through other bloggers, but if not, then you're in for a treat (and your own new addiction).

The website that has been stuck in my head for the last six weeks is called Pinterest. Have you heard of it? If not, keep reading and I'll fill you in. If so, keep reading anyway because you might find a tip that you didn't know about. :)

I actually started this post back in April, but every time I started to explain Pinterest, I got overwhelmed. After using the site for several weeks and reading other posts about Pinterest, I finally feel ready to give you a brief rundown of how Pinterest works and show you some of my favorite pins!

What is Pinterest? • How do I use it? • Where do I sign-up?

What is Pinterest?
The easiest way to describe Pinterest is that it's a social pinboard for all of your virtual eye candy. Too much? Let me try again ... better yet, why don't I show you what the creators of Pinterest have to say:

Think of Pinterest as a virtual pinboard — a place where you can create collections of things you love and "follow" collections created by people with great taste.

People use Pinterest to collect and share all sorts of things -- wedding inspiration, favorite T-shirts, DJ equipment. You name it, people are pinning it.

We know you have great taste in something. Our mission is to make Pinterest the best place for you to share your taste with the world.

So there you have it ... you can setup multiple pinboards and pin things from all of your favorite websites to file away in your Pinterest account.

DIY Crafts

As you can see from the picture above, everything you pin shows up as an image, making it all very visual. The neat thing about Pinterest is that every image you save is actually a link, which allows you to refer back to your original inspiration.* You can also add a caption to detail any notes about the project, and/or to help you remember why you pinned an image.

*Tip: Always pin from the permalink, to ensure that you can find your original inspiration later.

How do I use it?
Using Pinterest is actually quite easy. The whole site is very intuitive, and as I said before, visual. Here are a few of the most popular ways to pin your favorite items:

1. Pinning directly from a website. If you follow a lot of DIY blogs, you're probably in a constant state of confusion over which site had that one project that you just had to try. Sound familiar? Well, with the 'Pin It' bookmark, you can quickly pin items from any of your favorite websites. You will need to download the add-on to your browser, but once you have it, you can pin an item in just two simple steps. (Go to Pinterest's About page to find out how to get the bookmark for your browser.)

2. Pinning from Pinterest.  Like many other social sites, Pinterest allows you to follow other user's boards, making it a very interactive community. You can scroll through the various pins and boards, and Repin items on to your own boards. Browsing through the home page of Pinterest, as well as the boards you follow, is a great way to kill time get new ideas and inspiration! :)


3. Uploading Pins. You can upload pins from your computer, which is really helpful for those of us that have folders dedicated to different design project ideas. For instance, I had a folder on my desktop titled Buffet Inspiration. Anytime I found a picture online that inspired my buffet redo, I would save it into that folder. So, rather than leaving all of my design ideas in random folders, I can use the Pinterest upload feature to upload all of those photos into their own board. (I don't know what my original source was for several of the photos, so this is a perfect example of when to upload directly from my computer. If I knew the source, I would go back to the site and pin from the Internet)

4. iPhone Pinning. The creators of Pinterest were very smart to realize that a companion App would be in high demand. Shortly after releasing the original site, they also released an App that can be used in conjunction with their website. Not only does the App allow you to browse your favorite boards and repin from your phone, it also allows you to take pictures and post a pin directly to one of your boards. I've yet to post any of my own pins from my phone, but I've spent COUNTLESS hours perusing the general Pinterest board, as well as the boards I follow, repinning image after inspiring image.
(They are still tweaking the app because it has a tendency to crash pretty frequently. They've already released a few updates, so I'm hopeful they'll get it right soon!)

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but this should be a good start!

Food Finds

Where do I sign-up?
Alright, are you ready to feel exclusive? Pinterest is still in its Beta phase (meaning they're still testing and perfecting the site), so you can either request an invitation on their site, which can take a few weeks/months to gain access, OR you can be invited to join Pinterest by a current Pinterest user.

I originally requested an account back in March, but never heard back ... booo ... I think I was too impatient! So, I kept reading other blogger's ooey-gooey posts about Pinterest, wishing that I too could be part of the club. Well, thank my lucky stars for Melissa over at IS•LY, because she did a Pinterest post, and told all of her readers that she would invite us to Pinterest, if we gave her our email address. Not only did I want to be part of it, I was so excited to get an account that I emailed her as soon as I saw the post!

Long story short, I want to offer the same thing that Melissa did to all of you. If you leave me a comment with your email address, I, too, will send you an invitation to Pinterest. Also, if you read my blog, but you're not a follower, I would really love it if you began following my blog officially ... you know, as sort of a trade off for getting the invitation ... :)

I've already sent an invitation to my mom and a few of my co-workers, who all said they love it, too! I hope to see you over on Pinterest soon!

Oh, and if you already have a Pinterest account:



And finally, if you decide to join Pinterest, or if you are a current user, I highly recommend following their blog. The creators of Pinterest offer great tips every week, as well as exclusive news about any updates and changes to the site. They also highlight different Pinteresting Trends, which are great resources for finding new images, sites and blogs.

Happy Pinning!