autumn anticipation

As I was doing a little online window shopping I became completely inspired by all the things I love about fall... Just look:

I'm trying as hard as I can to patient and wait for autumn to get here. Technically speaking the first day of autumn or Fall as many call it begins next Tuesday, the 22nd. But for me, I start thinking about all the alluring autumn goodies as soon as the calendar says September 1st. Everything about this season makes me warm, cozy and happy inside. I love the leaves changing into warm, rustic colors. I love the deep browns and bright red and orange shades of all the fallen leaves on the ground; the pumpkin patches, apple picking, comfy sweats, new leather boots, apple cider, jack-o-latterns, thick wool sweaters, hiking through piles of crunchy leaves with more leaves changing color over head.. *sigh* I just love and embrace all of it..

Alrighty, well that's all for today. I just wanted to share my little collection of fall. Enjoy the weekend!

lake wenatchee camping trip

Evening All,

Still recouping from our camping trip... We took a nice little weekend trip over the mountains to Lake Wenatchee.

We packed up the car and left Friday morning(ish), got some breakfast and arrived at the campgrounds by 1:30pm (we really good time - about 2 hours total). We spent the rest of the afternoon & evening just relaxing at our campsite; setting things up and getting the fire going. Saturday we spent a few hours at the beach - I read (& finished my book) and Hubby swam/spalshed water at me from the Lake. Thanks to PCC's bean soup mix we had a nice big bowl of yummy soup to warm up with that evening. Sunday we made some pancakes and reluctantly packed up. We figured we had two choices: one choice to go home, or drive about 40 more miles East to Sonic... Needless to say we decided on a trip to Sonic Drive was in order considering 1) It's the closest one to where we live, 2) Hubby's have withdrawls from their Route 44 Cherry-Limeades, 3) I'll never been!! One word to say: YUMMMMMMM!

Back to camping.. We had a great time - we always do but being home is always nice. (We missed the kitties!) The weather was perfect and we had a pretty good campsite! Plus the in-laws are looking to buy property over in E. Washington so they actually came by the campsite we were at and visited for a while Saturday evening.

Rather than write all about our trip, I figure I'll just post pictures: Enjoy!

Notice the little picnic table condiment holder... FREE at a garage sale! Soo cute!

Our beautiful camp fire the hubby built.

Lake Wenachee view from the beach.

Lake Wenatchee again.

The Lake, again.

Leavenworth, Wa. We drove through on our way to Sonic.

Maypole in the center or Leavenworth.

One of my favorite pictures.

...and we're back!

Alright, well, it's been over a month since my last post and today's a lazy day at home (GO Labor Day!!) for us so I decided to use this time to do something productive... like blog.

I was actually supposed to be at the bakery today but weaseled out at the last minute because hubby had it off and we were needing an "Us Day". So we woke up at a semi-decent hour this morning and went for a walk to the coffee shop and then out to breakfast for omelettes (Yummmm!). Once we got home we curled up with our new books, (& the kitties) and read for a while then decided to go to some thrift stores...

Lord what a mistake that was. We first went the local Value Village; as we drove by we saw that they were having a 50% sale today. Score, right?! WRONG everyone else beat us there. There wasn't a parking space for atleast a mile I kid you not. So we decided to go to the Goodwill instead... Gotta love the Goodwill. The people who work there are far nicer than VV and I personally think you can kind more treasures there. We did from this horrific plaid comforter that is probably the most comfortable thing I've ever felt. It's a cali-king size so plenty to curl up with. We bought it specifically for camping and it is not to be seen any place other than the campsite or in the car being transported to the campsite. I also found four cute placemats. They're just a simple golden yellow, floral cotton print. Easy to clean :)

After all the people and parking lot battles we decided to call it a day and head home. I've been working on a painting for our living room the past two days so I spent some more time on that.

Then I got an inspiration to make peanut-butter treats. They're in the fridge right now cooling so I can't honestly guarentee they'll taste yummy but when you look at the ingredients it's a pretty sure bet they're gonna be yummy. Recipe below:

3/4 c. peanut butter (I was at the bottom of the jar so I used more like a full cup)
3/4 c. maple syrup
3/4c. trailmix (I got mine from the bulk bins at PCC... it's full of sunflower seeds, crystalized ginger and mango, cranberries, cashews, almonds and raisins)
1 c. cereal (Ideally I would have used rice crisps but we're out so instead I used hubbies Kix cereal)
1/4 c. chocolate chips (optional!)

This should be sweet enough but if your trailmix doesn't have the fruit try adding some agave nectar :)

Heat the peanut butter and syrup in a small saucepan on LOW heat. Takes about 5 minutes to get the peaunt butter melted and gooey. Either line muffin tins or prep a small casserole dish so the bars won't stick to it.

Once the peanut butter and syrup have melted and melded together (You should see some small bubbles rise from the mixture), add the trailmix and cereal, stir to combine & cover. Then add your optional chocolate chips and stir again.

Spoon into the muffin tins or pour into the casserole/baking dish. Toss into the fridge are resist for about an hour. Then enjoy!

I'm thinking of making another batch of these for the weekends camping trip... It'll like a trailmix treat bar - Enjoy! I'm off to the fridge for a treat and then to paint!