Autumn In Full Bloom

There is a nursery in town that has a park area that’s open to the public for photograph or just visiting and it is beautiful in the fall. They have trees in every color. I’ve taken some photographs for clients there in the past, but never any of my own kids. The weather was really nice last Friday, so I got the kids dressed and grabbed my camera. We didn’t have a ton of time because we were about to head out of town, but I got some really great shots of them surrounded by all the pops of color. I’m so loving these! 

And how about these trees?! They look like a rainbow! Gorgeous.

I’m so happy that I finally got some really colorful fall photos of my babies. I can’t wait to order some prints to put up in the house.

Anyone else going crazy over the insane color this year? I have a shoot in a couple of weeks and I’m hoping some of the color will stick around until then.

Well, I’m off to work on some projects!

**If you live in the Omaha area and would like your own fall family photos, check out my website http://www.tashiadoylephotography.com and call or email me to set up a session!**

Pumpkin Surprise Balls

Last weekend we traveled up to Sioux Falls to visit my parents for my dad’s 60th birthday. My sister and her family were going up too and I wanted to take a little Halloween treat for all the kiddos.

A while back, I came across a few ideas on Pinterest for surprise snowballs, which are little balls made of crate paper wrapped around small toys and goodies. (You wrap a toy at a time until they’re full and then tape the end.) I’ve wanted to make them since and decided to make jack-o-lanterns for Halloween.

I went to Party City for the crate paper and goodies. I found some fun little things in the party favors section. The toys can’t be too big or it won’t work, so find small things like bouncy balls. I bought tiny cameras that are like mini view finders, orange Sixlets, tiny animal erasers, some of those poppers that you flip upside down and they pop up, and teeny tiny notebooks. Sorry I didn’t get a photo of everything, but I was trying to make them in secret while my oldest was distracted and my youngest was napping.

All the kids loved them and my kids are still playing with all the little goodies!

 

 

I drew the face on after they were wrapped and hot glued the pipe cleaner stem on. Done.

 

Just a fun and cheap Halloween treat for the kiddos!

Autumn In Omaha

I don’t know if it’s just because I’m getting older and I didn’t pay attention when I was younger, but I have really been blown away by the all brilliant colors that have burst across Omaha this autumn! It’s gorgeous! I can’t get over all the yellows, red, oranges, purples and greens everywhere.

I am absolutely loving October this year!

I only wish it could last longer, but since it’s such a short season, I’m determined to enjoy every last bit of it.

Today the kids and I are making pine cone bird feeders to hang in the backyard and another Halloween craft and then I think I’ll bake another fall treat… maybe these or these. Both look delicious!

Have you been baking pumpkin or apple treats? Are you getting out and enjoying the fall weather and foliage? Any big plans for the weekend?

This weekend we are going to my dad’s 60th birthday dinner, taking fall family photos and carving pumpkins. I would love to squeeze in a late movie with the hubby. Has anyone seen Gravity yet?! I’m dying to see it!

See you tomorrow!

 

Recipe Book-Pumpkin Bars

Yesterday I mentioned that I took some homemade pumpkin bars with us on our picnic. It was a new recipe that I found on Pinterest and they turned out great, so I thought I would share it with you today.

Pumpkin bars are one of my favorite pumpkin treats, and this recipe was perfect.

Pumpkin Bars

Original recipe found here at Hoosier Homemade.

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 eggs
• 1 2/3 cups sugar
• 1 cup oil
• 1 can (15oz) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 (3 oz) pkg of cream cheese, softened {you can buy an 8oz pkg and cut it down if your store doesn’t not carry 3 oz pkgs} **Note** I used the entire 8oz
• 1/2 cup butter, softened **Note** I used 1/3 cup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla **Note** I used 2 tsp
• 2 cups powdered sugar **Note** I used 4 cups

I followed this version of the recipe to make my frosting because we tend to like more frosting than what the original recipe made.

Directions

Pumpkin Bars

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt & soda) and set aside.In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Add the dry ingredients, gradually. Mix well. Spread batter in a greased 15x10x1 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 – 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely.

Frosting

Cream together butter and cream cheese. Add vanilla, mix well and then gradually add the powdered sugar, beating until mixture is smooth. Frost bars.

This is the second pumpkin bar recipe that I’ve tried and I liked this one better. If you like pumpkin bars you should definitely give this recipe a try!

Enjoy!

A Perfect Fall Day

Yesterday my little family and I got out to enjoy the beautiful fall weather before it disappears. We started our day by picking up some coffee and heading out for a fall drive through a local forest. It was a calm, cool morning and perfect for a drive. After our drive we went home so I could pack a picnic.

I didn’t have time like I had planned to make our lunch this time, so we opted to grab some Panera instead, with homemade pumpkin bars for dessert. Sometimes keeping it simple is the way to go. I packed our basket with everything we needed, we picked up our food and went to a park on a lake. It was so much fun! I’ve always wanted to go on a fall picnic. I loved all of it! Once we were finished eating, the kids played at the playground for a bit and then we went for a walk along the lake and down by the water. The kids were having so much fun.

We still needed to run an errands, so we had to leave the lake and the kids weren’t very happy about that, but once we were home we played in the leaves out in the backyard. Even that was fun and we were able to cross two activities off of our Fall Bucket List!

So far, this fall has been magic! I can’t wait for what’s next!

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Happening Now

Drinking pumpkin spice coffee with pumpkin spice creamer. Hi. My name is Tashia and I have a problem.

Working on lots of projects!

Starting to plan for my December Daily album. Yep. It’s that time of year again!

Hoping to get outside a bunch this weekend. Maybe an apple orchard and a picnic.

Wishing that someone else could finish painting my living room.

Watching The Monster Squad (a Halloween tradition) tonight. If you’re an 80’s child and haven’t seen this cult classic, you need to watch it ASAP.

Needing to re-pot a bunch of plants before they die.

Loving that it’s sweater and boot weather.

Enjoying the change of colors as fall envelopes the city.

Crossing things off of our Fall Bucket List.

Reading Me Before You by Jojo Moyes.

 

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

Ten Projects-Project #2

I fell in love with this project from http://www.ellaclaireinspired.com after a friend sent me the pin on Pinterest.

You can find the original by clicking here.

As you already know, I love, love, love fall and this sign sums it up perfectly. After I pinned it to my holiday inspiration board, I quickly went to check out the website and discovered that she posted a template for the words! So awesome!

This is my version of her project. I pretty much duplicated what she had done. I mean, it’s so cute how could I possibly make it any better?! I used my own colors of course and mine isn’t nearly as fancy or as cute, but I’m super satisfied with the outcome! Plus, it turned out to be completely free. I used an old junkie piece of plywood and paint that I had on hand.

I haven’t decided on a place to display it yet, hence the photos taken out in the leaves. But as soon as our living room is pulled back together after the painting is completed, I’m sure I’ll find just the right spot!

Project #2 is complete. I’m still working on the other project and have another planned for this weekend. Yay! I love handmade projects!

All About Them: Washi Tape Mummies

Today I want to share a cute, and very simple little craft that the kids and I did yesterday.

Washi Tape Mummies

 

I came across the idea here on Pinterest, but wanted to add my own spin. The original idea called for masking tape to wrap the mummies, but I thought it would be cute to use washi tape in Halloween colors instead. Plus, my kids love washi tape!

To make these cute little guys, I simply cut a person/gingerbread man shape out of white cardstock, and then I grabbed some googly eyes and my washi tape. The kids were able to decorate the mummies without much assistance. They loved this project. So did I. It couldn’t be easier and you’re left with a cute little keepsake that you can pack away with your Halloween decoration and pull out every year. They could even be made into magnets or framed!

Harper’s Mummy

Hudson’s Mummy

I think I might end up framing them when the kids are tired of playing with them.

If you make your own washi tape mummies, I would love to see them!

See you tomorrow!

What We’re Up To

So this has been a pretty busy and now we’re moving on to a busy weekend. Starting today we are having our roof replaced. We had a terrible storm a few months back and it totaled our roof, so we get a new one. And so far this week, well at least since Wednesday, I’ve been running errand after errand. I’ve also been working (very hard I might add) on a quilting project, which is something I’ve never done before. It’s one of the projects on my Ten Projects before Christmas list and it’s the one I’m most excited about. However, it’s going at a slow pace, so I’m also trying to work on some other projects at the same time. Ahhhhhhh!!

Anyway, I’ll give you a little peek and then I’m off to get things in order around here before the madness sets in!

 

Have a great weekend!!

Project Life-Weeks Nineteen & Twenty

I’m really going to try to catch up on not only the work on my Project Life album, but also getting all of the weekly spreads posted. Now that it’s October, I’m already starting to think about and plan for my December Daily album, but more on that later. Anyway, I need to get caught up on PL, so that I can keep up with both albums.

Week Nineteen

I didn’t add much for embellishments this week, and now that I look at it, I didn’t add very much for journaling either. I think I may have to go back and add some simple white labels, so that I can include a few more words.

 

 

I did add a “mom” button to a picture taken with the kids on Mother’s Day.

Another little addition instead of using just one photo, I combined three photos into one in order to document that I had some of my favorite things on Mother’s Day weekend. I included our movie ticket stubs as well. Love adding those little paper keepsakes.

 

 

Week Twenty

Another really simple week. I added a few of Ali Edwards photo overlays and some glittery letters.

 

If I have a 4×6 photo that I want to include, but run out of space, I like to cut it into two 3×4 photos. 

 

Sometimes keeping it simple works and other times, you need (and want) more embellishing.

 

I was working on my album last night and realizing just how much I truly love it. Jeremy teases me about taking pictures of silly things sometimes, but those silly photos document all of the small details of our everyday lives and they are pretty cool to see later. I appreciate these albums so much already, I can only imagine what it will be like to look back on them twenty years from now.