Thanksgiving Treats

I got to bring dessert to Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt's house this weekend. First I made this yummy yummy pumpkin crunch cheesecake. The recipe came from the same place as the spider cookies (a Betty Crocker mini-mag that I picked up at the grocery store before Halloween and is proving to be a great purchase!). 

My favorite part of this dessert is the pecan topping. I don't usually like pecan pie but this topping was just enough sweet, maple-y, crunchy perfection. The cheesecake flavor wasn't too pronounced so I think next year I'll buy a store bought pie and make the same topping to add at the last minute. Same flavor - a lot less dishes and time! 

As yummy as this pie was, not everyone in my family (ahem, Wes) is a fan of cheesecake or pumpkin! So, I also made these special little treats. 

This recipe came from the Rice Krispies website and boy are they ugly! I said that to Wes after I had assembled a couple and he reminded me that real turkeys aren't that good looking either but they sure are delicious!

can't deny it

... Christmas IS coming! I'm not in a huge hurry to take down my autumn leaves, but I have started knitting Leila a Christmas stocking (well, really I picked up what I started last year but never finished) to go with the ones I made for Wes and I many years ago.

I'm making pretty good progress on it (this picture is actually from a couple days ago and now I'm down to the toe already!) so I might even attempt to make one for baby brother too since I could add the name later. I have a feeling that next Christmas I won't really have a ton of time to make new things. 

Also, earlier this week I got an email from shimelle to announce that it's almost time to start this year's edition of Journal Your Christmas! 

I am super excited about this because I feel like I sort of know what to expect whereas last year I was a little overwhelmed. Also, I am accepting the challenge to make this a non-expensive (maybe even free?) project. Since this class is a one-time fee, and I paid last year, I don't have to pay to participate ever again (which I think is a really really sweet thing for shimelle to do!). Plus, I have a lot of stuff leftover from last year so depending on what format I decide to go with, I might not need to buy anything other than the actual album ... we'll see. First I need to finish up my album from last year! I got as far as December 21 before houseguests arrived and things got crazy. I'm not going to do every page, but I want to pick out my favorite photos from the family celebrations and at least get those in the album so in 20 years I can remember what we did for the actual celebration and not just the stuff leading up to December 25. 

welcome autumn

I don't really care for the spooky Halloween decorations, but I love autumn! Our new house doesn't have a ton of room for knick-nacks and accessories, but I've put up a couple of things with a fall leaf theme: 

Kristen and I made cute leaf garlands out of felt and embroidery floss a few months ago. They're based on something we saw on elsie's blog ... she never posted an official tutorial so we just winged it. 

Our picture wall is mostly rectangle and square frames so I wanted to make a fun wreath to compliment the clock at the other end of the wall. This was super easy to make with strips of fabric and a wreath frame. I made it in a naptime and still had time to eat lunch and do laundry. I love that it's totally autumn with the orange and the leaves, but since I have splashes of orange throughout our living room, I could keep it up year-round. But I think I'll definitely make a new one with Christmas fabric next month to swap out for a little while :)