Awesome Giveaway over at Sometimes Sweet

Danielle over at Sometimes Sweet is hosting a super rad giveaway for the rest of tonight and tomorrow (November 1st). She has nine lovely sponsors and each one is giving away something truly spectacular like the gorgeous bicycle necklace above. make sure to head over and check it out!

Halloween Countdown Day 1: Halloween Party!

Yay! The day is here! Halloween! I've got to admit, though, this year I got all my halloween celebrating out before it was actually October 31st. This countdown definitely helped. I'm ready for thanksgiving! haha. I didn't do much today, because I woke up not feeling too well and ended up just hanging out online while stewie was at work. It's 8 pm and I just now showered. This is going to be a quick post cause now I just want to curl up with my handsome boyfriend and drink tea and watch friends. I love lazy sundays.

Halloween Countdown Day 2: Frightful Food!

I know, I know... this should have been posted yesterday. I'm sorry. I can explain! Stewart and I went to a halloween/birthday party on friday night, and were up super late. So, we woke up pretty late yesterday (saturday), and after getting showered and looking up a few things online we went straight out grocery shopping for this food post. When we got home I literally cooked for the rest of the day- it was dark out by the time everything was finally done. Stew and I quickly ate and then I spent the next 2 hours finishing my costume! I was planning on at least posting a few pictures on here before going off to a second halloween/birthday party, but before I knew it it was 10pm, I was rubbing green glitter glue all over myself, and two of our friends were there to pick us up and take us to the party! By the time we got home at like 3:30 am, I was too exhausted to even think about doing a whole post.

I think I can make up for it, though, because not only are there now going to be two posts today, I personally feel like this post should rightfully be split into 3 different posts, because it's so jam-packed full of awesomeness and delicious recipes.

Let's not waste anymore time and just get straight to my halloween-themed treats!

Halloween Countdown Day 3: So Now You Have a Pumpkin.

You may be asking yourself, "What now?"

Well fear not, I'm here to guide you through a painless, stress-free pumpkin experience.

lol.

Pumpkins are so versatile, aren't they? Bake them into pies and breads, roast them with butter, blend them up into a soup, and of course carve strange faces into them and set them on your porch.

I wish I had time to go through all the different things one could do with a pumpkin, but that would take waaaay more than one post. Today, I'll just be going over the use that everyone is probably seeing the most of these days: pumpkin carving.

Halloween Countdown Day 4: Creepy Cocktails!

  Whaaat? But I thought today was the pumpkin post...

Yeah, it was, and I was pretty darned excited for that post. Unfortunately Stewart had to go and go to work on me, and it's not like I can carve these pumpkins up myself... so that's going to have to wait for tomorrow. Oh well. That just means that for now I can give you some super cool drink recipes!

Halloween Countdown Day 5: Creative Costumes!

So, you may have gathered from the title that this is the first day of a Halloween countdown. If you've been reading this blog, you've probably noticed that I LOVE holidays. I also love countdowns, like the one I made for St. Patrick's Day earlier this year (and yes, each word is a different post). My FAVORITE holiday of ALL TIME, however, is the one happening this Sunday... Halloween!

It's funny because when I was a kid I'm sure my favorite holiday was something more like Christmas, where you get to wake up early and open presents and drink lots of hot chocolate. Halloween was less exciting, since I usually had to go to school that day and all you really do as a kid is dress up and go get a ton of candy. Now that I have the ability to be more creative with my Halloweens though, I can't get enough of them!

A Weekend in Prescott

I already mentioned that I went up to Prescott last weekend, but let me reiterate: It was awesome! Usually when people grow up in one place, they can't wait to get out and aren't too concerned with going back once they have. I have the opposite mentality. It was difficult to leave Prescott and I love going back to visit- and I especially love that I now live close enough to do so! I've even thought seriously about the possibility of someday (after I've traveled the world and stuff) coming back to Prescott to settle down and raise my own family. Speaking from experience, I think it is such a great town for kids to grow up in. It's so quaint and beautiful, has several great areas to go camping, hiking, and swimming, AND it has a lot of the perks of a city- great restaurants, shopping, cafes, etc. Plus, it's pretty centrally located in AZ so it's relatively quick and easy to get to other cities. I love this town :)

"Chicken" Piccata

Well, I had a really amazing weekend. I went to Prescott on Thursday and stayed til Sunday and had SUCH an awesome time. It was kind of like a mini fall break since U of A doesn't have a scheduled one. Also, going from Tucson to Prescott was like taking a little trip to a whole different world- a world where it's chilly and there are leaves blowing around in the wind and a fire in the fireplace sounds like a grand idea. I LOVED it.

I haven't gotten around to uploading the zillions of pictures I took yet though, so a full post will have to wait 'til tomorrow. For now, how about a nice food post?

Reasons Why Autumn is the Best Season

I'm one of those people that loves notebooks. Seriously, I have a million of them. When I go into a book store, I can't leave without at least looking at the display of pretty books filled with all those wonderful blank pages. It doesn't matter that I already own a bunch that I haven't gotten around to writing in yet- if I see one that catches my eye, I have to buy it. I'm sure I'll never run out of things to write, or places to write them in.

Since I also like to be organized, every notebook ends up having a theme. I have a journal that I take with me when I travel, one for at home, one for in my purse (for when I need to jot down random ideas, shopping lists, or quotes I don't want to forget), one full of poetry, one full of stories, and of course there's a whole slew of those black and white composition books which were my #1 choice of journal throughout middle school and early high school. There are several binders, too, but we won't get into that.

Sabino Canyon

The weekend before last my Mom came to visit me in Tucson for a couple days. We had a really great time doing things that I hadn't had the money or time to do yet... Like getting the cable in my room working FINALLY (so now I don't have to go into the living room if I want to watch something on tv), trying out a local bagel shop, going back to the totally awesome 4th ave Italian restaurant, Caruso's, and most importantly exploring some of the truly beautiful natural areas around Tucson!

Little changes...

I took this at Sufi camp last summer... playing with the dim room, italian lights, camera movement, and slow shutter speed.

I've been reading lots of great blogs recently, and they've got me thinking a bit about my own. I've also been having a lot of thoughts about my life and a few things I want to adjust or change or add. This post is going to be the start of the change.

Book Review: Still Life With Woodpecker

It's glorious outside right now. And by glorious, I mean mid 80s, cloudy, windy, and threatening thunderstorms. And what's that I see? Is that a hint of color on that singular, probably imported, university-owned deciduous tree? I think it is. Oh, and while I was walking to my media arts screening (did I mention I love my major? from 4:00-6:30 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays I just go watch movies.) I saw a bunch of palm tree leaves(?) crash down onto the sidewalk about 100 feet in front of me. Awesome weather.

All of this means that when I get home in 3 hours I'm going to be doing some serious fall cooking. Regardless of the fact that a stupid STUPID cop gave me a speeding ticket on the freeway where I was going the exact same speed as everyone else and now I have to pay 210$ by the end of the month. Luckily I got my last check from working at Mama Edda's so that will be going towards that. I'm still broke though, so hopefully I can continue to make yummy things. Anyways, that was a serious digression. I was talking about how I'm going to make fall food later. Probably stuffed gourds. We'll see.

But I can't do that NOW. Right now, I'm sitting in the lounge of the McClelland Park building waiting for my class. What I can do, though, is catch up on some of the non-food related stuff this blog is supposed to cover. And since it's all rainy out, how about I tell you about a good book to read?

Lemony Greek Pasta

I've begun to post this recipe three or four separate times, but I always get stumped on what really to say about it. Basically, I took my very favorite potato recipe which I have yet to post and swapped the potatoes for farfalle pasta. The results were intense.