Sea Star Ornaments

S
o I have this idea that I am going to create a "Beach Themed" Christmas tree this year. That being said I want to do it on a small budget. I have found many places that sell seashells in bulk, but the best deal I have found is simply creating your own ornaments from salt dough. It is really simple! You can find a recipe for them HERE. These took me maybe 20 minutes to make, although as you can see they look cracked so I need to work on a solution for that. They can dry on their own or in the oven on a low setting. I am pretty excited to perfect this craft as I would love to have a fully decorated beachy tree! Being a beach girl at heart I am super excited to see how this tree project turns out! Check back around Christmas for more!

Testing, Testing... Mini Pies

I
have been working on ideas for Thanksgiving this year, and believe it or not I have never made a pie. At least not without the help of another older more experienced family member. I decided to start by attempting Mini Salted Carmel Apple Pies. You can find the recipe for them on Just A Taste. They are really easy to make! I would just decide ahead of time how you want to crimp them. I wasn't sure what that meant but apparently there are different ways of crimping pie with a fork or your fingers to make them look pretty and keep the crust together. I am curious how long you could freeze "preserve" something like this, because it would be great to make them before I leave to the coast. (Yes! We are spending Thanksgiving at the beach!) I can't wait to test out more recipes for the Holidays and advance my baking/cooking skills. It is my dream to one day host a Thanksgiving Dinner at my own home (Barn House) with tons of food all made from scratch with my family. It would be so exciting! and sooooo my training continues lol

Yachats our Favorite Spot

P aul and I were recently able to take a trip to our favorite spot Yachats, Oregon thanks to his parents who let us crash the last few days of their vacation home rental. We had such a good time playing with their new Dachshund puppy Jack and taking walks along the beach. Well, all except our romantic evening walk in to town followed by a not so romantic run/walk back to the house through dense trees being dive bombed by bats. Funny story we used our new iPhones as lights to detour the bats and it totally reminded me of Harry Potter. I was half tempted to yell Expect Patronum. Ok got that out of my system. We really had a great time, and on the way home I just couldn't stop thinking about life, how short it is, and how I want to spend mine. I know, I know deep thinking again, but seriously I am on this never ending job hunt/unsolved career mystery and really all I want out of life is to spend every day with Paul traveling the world. It's just funny how we (people in general) have convinced ourselves that success = job, money, car, house, family. Maybe I'm the only one but I just don't think I am. In summing up this semi rant in the next few years I hope to travel more, see more, and do more.