A Pinteresting Wednesday: My Fav Fall Look

On this A Pinteresting Wednesday we have something rare.

Rare, I tell you.

What is rare?

Nope not my steak.

Not that piece of literature nestled away on my bookshelf.

Not even a sighting of Big Foot or Loch Ness.

Rare would be an outfit/full body photo shot of myself.

I just don't do 'em people.

I am a little cooky about seeing my WHOLE body in a photo, especially in jeans. I have a history of loathing jeans. LOATHING.

I also always think I am rocking the posing thing. In my head I am the best stylist/photographer/model ever.

"Turn to the left."
"Pop that heel."
"Pouty face."
"Happy face."
"Serious face."
"Look off into the distance."
"Toes in."
"Potty stance."
"Stick Fanny out."
"Stomach in."
"Drop a shoulder."
"Don't look fat."

That is a lot of direction to take, especially when it is going on all at the same time in one's head. So while I may think I am rocking the posing, history has proven that I am really more like NOT rocking it. More like Gregorian Chanting it.

So yeah, no outfit posing for me.

However recently I gave my fashionista self another go.

For two reasons.

Reason one: This outfit was a Pinterest inspired outfit. I might have been super excited when I was able to recreate one of my most favorite Fall outfit pins. I just had to share my new favorite Fall inspiration.

I know, a little over the top for clothing. I am just a little excited to have some new pieces of clothing in my closet. My closet basically consists of mostly hand-me-downs from my sisters teenage wardrobes (they are now in their 20's).

Reason two: These jeans. Remember earlier how I said I hate jeans. Well that was before I met these jeans. NOW, I know I am never gonna look like an Olsen twin in skinny jeans or for that fact in any piece of clothing; however, I wanna feel what I imagine an Olsen twin feels when she puts on a pair of jeans.

Thin, comfortable, and glorious.

Check. Check. AND check.

So, yup. The above two reasons are why you get a rare (like unicorn prancing under a rainbow rare) outfit picture.

Thanks Pinterest for the great PINspiration. Hahaha, man I kill myself.

The Look that started it all 

PIN

Pinterest is crazy with all kinds of clothing ideas. CRA-AZY I tell you.

It is really easy to take an idea you see and to recreate. Mix new with old. Add your own personal touch. The possibilities are endless.

Instead of the cardigan I added a sweater. The orange of this sweater is also a little brighter.

I simplified the necklace idea and added my very favorite simple gold one. I also got rid of the belt and added some flashy gold bangles (my new favorite accessory).

Oh leopard print shoes.

How I love thee.

One complete outfit that I love wearing. I feel Fall-ready and quite fabulous.

shirt: JCPenny

sweater: JCPenny (not online)

jeans: JCPenny

necklace: Forever 21

Bracelets: Target

Shoes: Target

Everything but the necklace in this post is current. Did you notice that JCPenny is bringing their A game in style now? Seriously people. Lucky me that I had a gift card there.

What is on your Fall wardrobe wish list? Do tell!

Halloween Ghoulie Printables

Happy Halloween everyone.

We are now a good week into October. Only three weeks left until Halloween. AHHHH! Costumes not even close to being done...

Don't think about, just don't think about it.

Currently, our house doesn't even look too spooky or festive or scary or trick-or-treaty. This last week I have had the constant internal conversation with myself,

"To decorate, or not to decorate??"

I don't always decorate for Halloween. GASP.

I know, are you disappointed in me?

I mean I do proclaim to be a DIY, crafty, holiday-lovin' blogger. SO it is quite shocking that I don't decorate for every single ever-lovin' holiday. Shocking indeed.

I have had the intention of decorating this year. I do have a couple of ideas in my head about some simple decorations. However, as of now they are still just ideas knocking around in my head with all the other crazy going on in there.

I may even pull off a mantle decoration by October 30th...we shall see, we shall see.

I have been playing around with an idea for a big graphic print for the mantle. Recently, I was messing around in PicMonkey, taking advantage of all of their awesome Halloween photo editing options.

While I am still working on the print for my mantle,  I veered off what I was doing and started creating these fun, traditional, and ghoulie graphics instead.

They would be really great printed off and framed. They would also be great printed off as posters and hung.

I love the simple fun silhouettes of the traditional Halloween Ghouls. I added their "sound" of choice at the bottom to complete the print. The quintessential green, purple, and orange help add to the Halloween mood.

I also made the individual graphics available in collage style. 

In order to add these to your Halloween decorations, all you have to do is right click on the image and save as a photo on your computer. After you have saved them to your computer simply print them off at your favorite photo place.

Costco and Sam's Club has great prices on printing off photos in poster size.

Happy Halloween Friends!

Cinnamon Chip Zucchini Bread

I have bags and bags of frozen zucchini in my, well obviously, freezer.

I shared a Chocolate Pecan Zucchini Cake recipe a couple of weeks ago. Man what a delightful little cake that was. Pretty sure if I was having an "eating my feelings" kind of day I could have eaten half of that cake by myself.

Around the same time I discovered that cake recipe, I came across a recipe for zucchini bread in our Sunday paper.

Yeah, who knew that the Sunday paper has more than the funnies, the Target ad ads, and coupons...

Coupons. Okay I am gonna digress for a minute. Go off on a tangent if you will.

So, the word coupon.

How do you say it?

"Q-pons" or "coo-pons"?

This has turned into to quite the point of casual argument in our house.

Story has it that one of the reasons that Hubby knew it was meant to be between the two of us is that we both said "coupon" the same way. We both said "q-pons". While I am sure my sparkling personality, breathtaking good looks, and innate wifely qualities truly hooked him, I guess this whole saying "coupon" the same way really sealed the deal.

So you can imagine his horror and utter disappointment when sometime in our marriage I, his lovely wife, some how randomly and inexplicably started saying "coo-pon".

Shock. Gasp.

Why? What caused the change? What is a husband to do?

Absolutely nothing. He just has to take it like the good man that he is. With of course the occasional mocking and ribbing to said wife for her "q-pon" deception.

So for me, "coo-pon" it shall be.

Okay, back on topic. Coupons. Sunday Paper. Recipe. Cinnamon Chip Zucchini Bread.

I came across this recipe, published by our local baking/kitchen store The Prepared Pantry,  while going through our Sunday paper.

I happened to have cinnamon chips already on hand. Cinnamon chips that I had purchased from that very store. Cinnamon chips that were used in my very Pinterest famous Cinnamon Churro Chex Mix (not only is this my most viewed recipe, but this is also my most viewed post EV-AH). You all really like yourselves some Chex Mix.

Since I had the cinnamon chips on hand, and the recipe called for cinnamon chips, I decided it was the baking universe telling me that I must make this bread. The fact that I needed to get rid of some more zucchini also had a teeny weeny influence.

I love pretty much everything about this bread.

I love the texture. I love the cinnamon chips. I love the subtlety of the zucchini. I love that there is zucchini in it so I can feel minimally better for eating half a loaf by myself. I love that this recipe makes TWO loaves so that no one is super mad that I ate half a loaf by myself because there is plenty to share.

I love this bread. The family loves this bread. The friends who I make eat it with me, love this bread.

Definitely add this recipe to your quick bread arsenal.

Also, remember stock up on cinnamon chips now since they are a seasonal item in the regular grocery stores and the season is now. The good news is that if you can't find them in your local grocery store. You can order them online at stores like The Prepare Pantry. Isn't the internet a wonderful thing?

Cinnamon Chip Zucchini Bread
The Prepared Pantry

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups grated zucchini
1 1/2 cups cinnamon chips

Preheat oven to 325.

In the bowl of your mixer, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt until well combined.

In a separate bowl whisk the eggs, sugar, and vanilla together until combined. Fold in the sour cream, oil, and zucchini.

Slowly add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix in mixer until just combined. Stir in the cinnamon chips. Do not stir anymore once the chips are incorporated.

Pour the batter into two well greased loaf pans (aprox. 8 1/2x4 1/2). Bake for 55-65 minutes or until done. Cool for 10 minutes on a rack. Remove loaves from pans.

Admire. Slice. Serve. Devour. Repeat.

Enjoy. Thanks for reading!

6 Months

Nothing like being a couple of weeks late.

Life gets hectic busy with my house full of Little Men.

Before I know it another 30 days has gone by and it is time to document another month of Bean's life.

He is still a happy, happy baby. He is stronger and in more control of his wee little body. He is growing, but he is still the smallest baby we have had. He is in the 4th % for weight and the 5th% for height.

The big shocker is that his head is in the 64th%. Normally long before this age my boys are like cute little  bobble heads, with heads in the 95th%. I am amazed at how the size of his head allows him to hold it up SO much better!

We continue to love, love, love him. He is a joy and delight. I know I say it every month, but I just have to tell it like it is.

I also thought it would be fun to take a stroll down memory lane and see all the changes our Bean has gone through.

Thanks for reading friends!

Tootsie Pops: How Many Licks?

Delightful, wonderful Tootsie Roll Pop.

How I love thee!

Always have. Always will.

When I was a kid, I was a huge SUCKER for Tootsie Roll Pops...pun fully and whole-heartily intended.

I have fond memories of taking the trek from where I lived on top of a hill down to the small mom and pop town convenience store. This delightful little store had a whole wall full of hanging baskets; each basket lovingly cradled a different kind of candy.

I could often be found standing in front of said wall with money burning a hole in my pocket, and my mouth hanging open in sugar anticipation.

Nine times out of 10 several Tootsie Roll Pops were part of my purchased loot.

Before even leaving the store parking lot, one of my Tootsie Roll Pops, most likely my favorite the red (Cherry) one, would get unwrapped and popped in my mouth.

Walking home I would contemplate the question posed by a very wise commercial owl, "How Many Licks Does it Take to Get to the Center of a Tootsie Pop?".

I always had very good intentions of finding out.

I would start licking and counting.

One. Two. Three. Four.

Then I would get tempted to just bite into my cherished Pop.

I would work through the temptation and keep licking.

Five. Six. Seven. Eight...

"CRUNCH!"

I just couldn't seem to resist getting to that chewy chocolaty center as quickly as possible. I mean I thoroughly loved the hard candy coating too, but man I just had to get to that chocolate center.

I still haven't grown out of Tootsie Pops. I still haven't licked my way to the center. Alas, I am not sure I ever will. I mean, that has got to be a LOT of licking, right?

A couple of studies were actually done to test How Many Licks it would take.

You wanna know what they found...

Um, well one found it to take 364 licks (Purdue University) and another found that it took 411 licks (University of Michigan).

I am WAY not patient enough for that. Are you?

I thought it would be fun to see if my Little Men were patient enough to lick their way to the center of a Tootsie Pop.

They already love Tootsie Pops, so it was not hard to convince them to give it a try.

While I had done a great job at teaching them about the delight of a Tootsie Pop, I had been remiss in asking them "How Many Licks Does it Take to Get to the Center of a Tootsie Pop?".

We excitedly ripped open a bag of Tootsie Pops.

Little was delighted to find a new flavor in the bag.

BLUEBERRY! He was pretty excited.

Did you know that Tootsie Pops come in more than the traditional flavors of Chocolate, Cherry, Orange, Grape, and Raspberry?

I know, jump back, right?

In each bag you now get the originals plus a sixth flavor. The sixth flavor rotates per bag, but some favorites in this house our watermelon, green apple, pomegranate, and now BLUEBERRY.

With their Tootsie Pops in hand, they got ready to answer the age old question:

I watched them excitedly unwrap their Pops.

Middle got his open right away.

Little took a bit more time with his Pop.

After it was unwrapped, they were immediately popped into mouths.

Then they started licking.

Licking and counting.

Little quit licking his right away and decided he would much rather just keep it in his mouth for one mega lick.

Middle, however, kept on licking.

Four. Five.

Six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Eleven was a mega long lick/suck and then he continued.

Twelve, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.

Then I turned my back to check on Bean, who was crying. Before turning back toward Middle I heard a familiar, "CRUNCH".

He had fought a good fight, but that chocolaty center won again.

Oh no! Another generation of Tootsie Roll biters.

I am not gonna lie, it warmed my Tootsie-Roll-Pop-loving heart to watch two of my Little Men attempt what I attempted years ago. I love that they love Tootsie Pops as much as I did and still do.

In fact, when Little heard me talking about Tootsie Roll Pops he said, "TOOTSIE POPS! I love those!"

Me too. Me too.

Do you love yourself a Tootsie Roll Pop? Do you have yourself a favorite flavor?

What do you remember about Tootsie Pops from your childhood?

Do you remember asking yourself, How Many Licks Does it Take to Get to the Center of Tootsie Pop?

Have you ever licked your way to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?

Now is the time to give it a shot.

Tootsie Roll is holding a "How Many Licks?" video contest. You can win all kinds of prizes by submitting a video that simply answers the very question, "How Many Licks Does it Take to Get to the Center of a Tootsie Pop?"

You can enter by going to the Tootsie Roll or Tootsie Pop Facebook page , “Like” the Fan Page, click the “How Many Licks” Contest tab, and click “Submit Entry.” Then, follow the instructions to enter by uploading your “How Many Licks” video.

There will be weekly winners as well as a grand prize winner, a funniest video winner and a viewers’ choice winner.

The contest begins October 1, 2012 at 2:00 a.m. PST and ends on October 25, 2012 at 11:30 p.m. PST .

So get ta' lickin'. Get ta' videoin', and you might just get ta winnin'.

Good luck and go get yourself a Tootsie Pop or two or three.