It's Fall y'all!

I know it doesn't really feel like it here in San Antonio, but today is the first official day of Fall!!  I loooooove Fall, even  if there is no appreciable weather change.  I thought we would kick off the new season with one of my favorite new recipes...Fall Harvest Turkey Salad.  I made it up when I did not have all of the ingredients for chicken salad one day, and it is delicious! Here goes...

1 pound diced cooked turkey breast (smoked or roasted)
2 ribs celery diced
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
1/2 cup dried cranberries (or craisins as they are called)
1/3 cup dijonnaise
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all of the ingredients together, blend very well chill and serve. This is great on bread as a sandwich or as a topper to your favorite lettuce as a salad.  I love mustard on my turkey sandwich the day after Thanksgiving and that is what this salad reminds me of.  You can use half mayonnaise and half dijonnaise if you prefer a less mustard-y taste. If you make it, let me know how it comes out!

I Made This Y'all!! Yarn Wreath

I had seen these very pretty yarn wreaths on Etsy a year or ago selling for about $50.  I filed the idea away for a rainy day, and wouldn't you know it, we actually had a rainy day!!  So I decided to make my very own yarn wreath and it could not have been easier. I got all my supplies from Hobby Lobby for less than 8.00, which was very exciting.  The base is a straw wreath which came wrapped in protective plastic, I left the plastic on.  I purchased one skein (have always wanted to use that word) of yarn and wrapped it around the wreath. This was the most labor intensive part and probably took about an hour.  Next I cut circles out of felt, I bought the felt squares for .25 or whatever they were and it took about one square per flower.  After I had the circles cut, I cut each one into a spiral and was left with a small round center.  I coiled each spiral from the place I started cutting and when I had the whole thing coiled I hot glued it to the felt round.  ThenI hot glued the flowers to the wreath.  Simple as that! 

Refs Rock

When most people think of a football game they think of the touchdowns, the crowd going wild for the score, fresh popcorn, cheerleaders, and mascots. Well in my house growing up football consisted of cheering on the Referee, AKA my Dad. This past Saturday my family went to a good old high school football game. One of the teams just happens to be my sisters' Alma Mater, which I won't name since they lost in a pretty bad way. The referee's two biggest fans (Tatum and Blake) wore these homemade shirts to show their spirit. More pics to come...

Sausage Roll Recipe - Yum!!!

I have not made my sausage rolls in awhile, but after talking with my sister the other night, they will be on my list of things to make this weekend. Below is the recipe for those of you who want a delicious weekend breakfast that is fast and easy to make.

Ingredients:
1lb bulk pork sausage
1 (8oz) package cream cheese, cubed
2 (8oz) cans refrigerated crescent rolls


Directions:
In a skillet cook sausage over medium heat until the meat is no longer pink, then drain. Stir in the cream cheese until melted. Separate each tube of crescent dough into 4 rectangles on a cookie sheet. Spread the sausage/cream cheese mixture evenly onto two of the crescent rectangles. Take the other two crescent dough rectangles and place it over the tops of the sausage/cream cheese to cover. Pinch seams to seal all of the sides together. I typically rub some butter over the top to help it brown, but this is optional. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cut into slices and enjoy!

Closet Freak

If you know me, you know I love clothes.  If you don't know me, I am telling you right now: I love clothes.  As previously blogged about, I live in a small urban apartment (as urban as you can get in San Antonio) by choice.  I really am trying to reduce my carbon footprint and quite frankly home ownership was not for me.  I tried it, spending all my time and money on such exciting endeavors as tree trimming and fence repair was too depressing for words.  My goal is to live as graciously in a 900 square foot apartment as one could in a 2000 square foot house. It's actually not very difficult, but lately my closet was making me sad every time I opened the door. Observe:

The closet is very small, but I wanted it to appear larger.  This would necessitate removing the horrid wire shelves furnished by the management company. I promptly removed all of them. Then I measured the space and drew out a plan.  Once I had the layout I liked I went to (where else?) Target and bought their laminate closet components.  There were many options to choose from, with my limited space I bought one super tall shelving unit, a medium shelving unit, a shoe unit, a cabinet with doors and a 3-drawer unit.  The most difficult part of the process was assembling the units, I have major callouses on my hands. The exciting part was next, setting up the closet!

Because I removed the wire shelves I had nowhere to hang my clothes, so I went to Lowe's for some rods.

This was so easy! And it only took me about 10 hours from start to finish, but that included trips back and forth to Target and Lowe's as well as a small lunch break.  Also, Rufus needed to go out a few times : ) 

Secrets of a Wanna Be Stylist

So a couple of months ago Emily Henderson of HGTV's 'Secrets of a Stylist' (you know she won last year's Design Star if you are not watching her show you absolutely should she is an adorable styling genius!!!) But, I clearly digress...anyway she did the coolest, easiest art project ever!  She enlarged this guy's vintage Coney Island postcards, blew them up and framed them. She shows it in her blog here: http://www.stylebyemilyhenderson.com/blog/episode-8-mood-board.html

I was totally inspired by her as well as my mom's vintage Hemisphere poster which I have coveted for years.  I went straight to eBay and found some vintage Hemisphere postcards and for about $7.00 including shipping I was the proud owner of these beauties:

A quick trip to Kinko's to have these enlarged to 24x36 inches, then to Target for poster frames (I like the brushed brass looking ones, I am having such a brass moment right now) and I now have two brand new pieces of spectacular art in my home.  What do you think? Is this something you guys would try? 

Grandparents Day

Yesterday was Grandparents Day and each year we celebrate by bringing breakfast to my Grandmother's house and enjoying our time together. Typically I make a family calendar for my Grandmother and my dad, Tatum's Granddad. This year I decided to use some of the leftover bags from Tatum's birthday to make sacks with homemade cookies and a gift card. Along with the baked goods bag, we created cards with all the reasons Tatum loves her Granddad and Bubbe. We finished it off with her hand prints in yellow. Check it out.