{Happy Thankgiving}

It is the beginning of thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. Naturally my thoughts go toward being thankful and being aware of Who gives me those reasons to be thankful.

God has blessed me with an amazing husband and friend, who is an awesome daddy.

God has given me a beautiful little boy, who fills my life with laughter, frustration, joy, lots of running and continually answering the question, "what's that?" 

God has given me another blessing who is growing healthy and strong. 

Even though my week may not go the way I think it should go, or I don't have the amount of money in my bank account that I think should be there, I stop and look around at the blessings God has given me, and I am thankful. 

Take some time this weekend out of the busyness of baking, cleaning, and getting together with family (no matter how crazy your family may be) and be thankful.

~ Happy Thanksgiving ~

 P.S. Because we are thankful for you, we have a giveaway for this super snuggly cowl that Melody made (seriously, how does she do it!?).

There are a three ways you can enter and a few rules to follow:

• Enter by "liking" us on Facebook and leave a comment. If you already follow us, post about it on Facebook or Twitter for an extra entry and leave a comment telling us that you did that too. A bonus entry is following us via Google Plus or RSS feed.

• To enter you must have a valid email address

• The contest will end next Wednesday, October 10th at 12pm EST. 

Good luck! 

Autumn Vignettes & Giveaway

The other day I had one of those days... My kids refused to sleep through the night, I had an exam that day, and my truck was giving me problems. The kind of problems where the wheels set on fire when you're driving. Not fun.

Thankfully the girls were not with me when that happened and I was able to put out the fire using table salt!

But that night, when I was so exhausted, that's when my creativity randomly kicked in and I started decorating my house for fall.

I added some lentils to some jars (just like Heidi did here) and a few decorative gourds for colour.

I updated some artwork to hang in the living room. I'm not sure why I feel like these vintage maps are autumnish, but to me they are!

I made these metallic pumpkins by spray painting decorative pumpkins with silver spray paint. 

I feel like I can cuddle up with my blanket and a good cup of coffee and enjoy my house now!

And now for the moment we've all been waiting for .. drumroll please. A giveaway! Yes, thanks to our wonderful readers, we have 100 "likes" on Facebook! 

Since we wanted to show you how much we appreciate you, we thought we'd give away a comfy cowl to one of our readers. I crocheted this baby up the other night and let me tell you, it is wonderful. So comfy and warm! It's like a blanket to wear around your neck!

There are a three ways you can enter and a few rules to follow:

• Enter by "liking" us on Facebook and leave a comment. If you already follow us, post about it on Facebook or Twitter for an extra entry and leave a comment telling us that you did that too. A bonus entry is following us via Google Plus or RSS feed. 
• To enter you must have a valid email address or else you'll be disqualified.. boo! 
• The contest will end next Wednesday, October 10th at 12pm EST. 

Good luck everyone!

Getting Cozy

This past Monday, I was tired. My computer stopped working. We had a really busy weekend. And my house was messy from our busy weekend. But pregnant me, instead of sitting on my couch while my little one napped in the late afternoon, I decided to clean, organize and decorate for fall. Sure. Why not? 

 I found this cute free printable over at the blog, "it is what it is". 

Lentils in a jar, a faux wood candle holder and a cute picture of my little boy change the summer looking shelf into something a little warmer. 

An easy way to decorate for fall is with leaves. Now, these are fake (until I have time to get out and get some real ones), but putting leaves in a clear vase is simple and colourful. 

The other bookcase just got a clean up and a simple white jar with a (again fake...for now) sprig of leaves. 

After I was done, I then put my feet up and spent the evening relaxing and playing with Gavin. When my home is tidy and a looking at least a little organized, I feel like I can really relax and feel rested. Plus, I really love fall, so breaking out the small pumpkins and leaves was fun for me. :) 

Up next: the fireplace mantle. Nothing too fancy, but just a little change for the season. 

What about you? Do you do a little cozying up your home for the fall season? Anyone else love the mini pumpkins? 

(If you want to read up on the transformation of my bookcases or see what they looked like before I changed them up for fall, click here)

Yummy Apple Crisp

On Saturday my little Sienna turned one. I can't believe how fast the year went. It seems like just yesterday I was bringing her home from the hospital!

My husband was able to be home for the weekend which was a blessing. Because of his work, he misses quite a few special occasions so we were both excited that he would be there for this one!

Saturday was such a beautiful day that we decided to go apple picking. We live 15 minutes away from the nearest orchard so we packed up the girls and headed off.

Since it was early in the morning, hardly anyone was there and we had the place mostly to ourselves.

They gave Bella her own basket so she could pick her own apples but Sienna wasn't interested in picking, just eating!

Fresh apples are the best for making into apple crisp and I have the best apple crisp recipe in the world. My mom always made it this way growing up and it was always so delicious there were never any leftovers.

This recipe makes a large 9x13" pan so if you would like to make a smaller batch, cut the recipe in half.

Apple Crisp 

8-10 apples peeled and sliced in a buttered 9x13" pan
Combine and crumble over fruit:
4 cups oatmeal
3 cups brown sugar (I usually use a little less)
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 lb of butter 

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. 

Your house will smell absolutely amazing and cinnamony (not a word, but it works, right?)

We are almost up to 100 "likes" on Facebook and you know what that means? A giveaway! Yep, we love you guys so much we want to show you how much you mean to us! I have a few options that I've been thinking of so if you could comment below and tell me what you would be most interested in winning, that would be great! I've decided on a cowl (big surprise, right?), a slouchy hat or a purse made some really fun fabric in my stash. So let us know! :)