Beginnings of Fall

    I love fall, though I'm pretty sure I say that at the beginning of each season. However, since I am in the "fall spirit" at the moment-fall is my favorite! There is so much to love: beautiful leaves,cuddling up with a nice hot drink, delicious fall foods (which I have been purchasing every Saturday at the local farmers market), and pumpkin (foods, candles, decorations).
    Since my return to Chicago I have been cooking up a storm, but haven't had any time to blog about any of it. But in light of this wonderful season and the pumpkin goodness that comes along with it, I am going to post some muffins I made this past week. I have been reading about the wonderful health benefits of oatmeal and I found these wheat- less muffins made from oatmeal-they were delicious! I actually made them twice...the first time I followed this recipe with a few modifications such as, applesauce instead of yogurt and honey instead of brown sugar. Anyway, the second time I made them I replaced both the applesauce and the banana's with pumpkin (since plain pumpkin isn't as sweet as applesauce and banana's I would suggest adding more honey or brown sugar) to make a lovely and healthy fall treat. Happy Fall!

Our little corner of the world

    Alright, here we go again-update number two! Our trip back to Chicago after our summer-long stay in Pennsylvania, was a lovely and relaxing little trip. Steven and I rode with his parents in their cute little hatch back car stuffed with all of our darling little trinkets and toys collected over the summer. Er...make that some of our darling little trinkets (my parents drove behind us in a mini van packed Tetris style with our things, like we were newly weds moving into our first home). I may have gone on a shopping spree for foods and household goods almost everyday, but hey, the expensiveness of all these fancy designer stores and what-not  here in Chicago was seriously cramping my thrifty style!
    Anyway, I basically redecorated the place and stocked my cupboards fuller than they have ever been before-come on blizzard or famine, I'm ready for you...well maybe not, unless I plan to eat copious amounts of crackers with BBQ sauce for a long time (they were cheap). Anywho,  I'm sure this has been a bunch of incoherent nothingness to all of you so I will cease my ramblings and give you something a little more interesting: Pictures!

These are the glasses I used to make some delicious homemade butter.
However, the red trying pad underneath the drying rack is what I'm trying
to show off, but doing a fairly poor job. It livens up my counter space.

Fresh tomatoes just purchased from the farmers market. They are
sitting in a basket from the salvation army (my favorite place), next to
a whole grain baguette that doesn't have to do with anything, but just in-case you were wondering.
Oh, and all of these items are sitting upon my wonderful convention oven.

Some yummy herbs sitting on my kitchen windowsill. They are
planted inside some pots that I painted to match my kitchen.

My kitchen is now Asian themed-hence the adorable Asian tea set and chopsticks.
I also have the red bamboo place mats to add a bit of color.

Tea set on top of a lazy-Susan 

My lovely little table

I bought this at the Hobby Lobby in the clearance section. I wasn't sure at first
what I was going to do with, but I thought hey, I hate having to drape towels and wash
clothes over the sink-why not hang them up? 

A few of my prettier cooking ingredients

These were originally plain old paint lids, but with a bit of work,
they have turned into wonderful accents to my kitchen.
I painted them black and white and though you can't see it in this picture they have
the fruits of the spirit written on them in Chinese.

You can kind of see the figures in this picture

On to the living room! The pillows are kind of hard to see, but
I made them. Found some great fabrics and wala!

More pillows and little black rug purchased from the dollar general
(yay for back to school sales and college dorm supplies!)

I love sitting down in a dimply lit room with candles, a good record and a
cup of coffee.

Another candle and a plant

My favorite part of this picture is the divider next to the stand.
I also got this at the Hobby Lobby on sale for $28 down from $135

Our poor book shelf has been through so much in the past couple years. It has been
stuffed beyond what it can bear. I have decided this year to free up some space for his new books he will be
getting, so I decorated with them. I set them on the top of this stand and put some pictures in front of them and
some dried flowers. It has a great vintage kind of feel. The tree on the wall I made out of  about 22 twigs I found out side. I just nailed them individually to the wall to form a tree.

Our entryway. I finally got a coat rack! 

Just a few things I wasn't really sure what to do with so
I set them up on top of my dresser-they also look kind of vintage.

Candle, jars, and paper flowers.

Moments

    Ah yes, life. You know, that thing that passes by moment by moment and you don't realize just how quickly it passes until one day you sit down and start reminiscing and you realize that those memories are ten years old. So much happens in those little seemingly unimportant moments and I constantly have to remind myself that I need to enjoy the moment I'm in, instead of jumping to the next one.
    It has been a little while since I have made an update about my life's trek, simply because there have been so many moments between my last post and this one and they are all so important and exciting-it feels like such a daunting task to catch up with everything. SO having said that, I will try little by little to bring things up to date.
    First, and most importantly and excitingly and...just overall great thing going for me right now is: I'm a Nanny! After much frustration and tears (having to work at Panera where I really wasn't doing anything I had a passion for) and then prayer (realizing hey, I'm stupid, why don't I pray about this?)-I landed a job as a nanny for a wonderful Christian family in a nice neighborhood, conveniently located,normal consistent hours, doing something I love. God. Is. Awesome.
    A few little details about my job: First of all, it really doesn't feel like a job-you know the saying "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life." This definitely applies to me. The little boy I watch just turned one about two weeks ago. His name is Adam and he is a pretty easy going little guy. I watch him from about 7:30am till sometime around 4:00pm. They also have a five year old daughter named Norah who spent the first couple days with me before school started. She's a bundle of energy which always livens up the mornings before she goes to school.
    So right now my day looks something like this: Get up at 5:30am (only downside to the job, but I'm getting used to it), take a bath-funny story: Our hot water heater is broken so Steven gets up at 5:00am to boil water for me to take a bath in. Steven and I ride the train downtown together and then go our separate ways. After I'm done working I head home, put dinner in the oven, eat, go to the gym, come home and make the dinner for the next day and by then it's getting close to 10:00pm which is when I go to bed. Phew! Long day, but it's productive.
    A little random side note: I have recently joined the world of Pinterest and am already fairly addicted. When I have the time I spend quite a few of my fleeting moments glued to the Pinterest app on my new Kindle Fire (which is one of the greatest inventions ever).
    This concludes the first in a series of rambles about the moments of my life.