sweet november: inspiration

When I think inspiration, color comes to mind. Of course. I have alot of fun putting together my color wires, I start with a stack of magazines and a clip board. Usually, I have a color combination already in mind that I want to use, but sometimes I'll see an photo in a magazine that is so pretty or inspiring that it will shift the initial color combination. 

For this color pallet I chose warm tones inspired by traditional Fall colors with the addition of a rich berry color. It's always been one of my favorite colors to use, finding scrapbooking papers in that color isn't always easy but I can almost always find it in fabric! 

dove grey - warm pumpkin - black raspberry - cedar brown

The next time you have a project to complete, or even just a scrapbook layout, try putting together a 'project board.' Just grab a clip board and add things that you find inspirational to help you with the creative process! I love making these little fabric charts - I take small snips of fabric and sew them together. Seeing a combination of fabrics helps me decide on the colors I want to use or the patterns that I want to combine for my own projects! 

Color is what inspires me to create, what inspires you? 

xo ~ Tara

sweet november: handmade

Yesterday certainly did not go as planned! (keys locked inside the car fiasco, Costco's pharmacy at lunch time - yikes! ) By the time I finally got home the good light for taking photos had gone down, and I had nothing ready. Good news: I got to 7 posts before I missed one - that is impressive, for me at least. 

So, yesterdays word was: handmade

It was an easy enough prompt and I had thought it was about time for some scrapbooking anyways. I'll admit, I'm not a big fan of scrapbooking each and every week but I do like using the project life photo pages. You can utilize those plastic sheets in a number of ways, I used 2 with the theme of 'Fall.' This way you can include various sized photos, journaling/notes all without having to create multiple layouts and it makes scrapbooking a quick and simple!

(I combined photos from our trip to Sedona last month and the kids' photos from this week.) 

 I love this fabric page, really it's the fabric that I fell in love with and didn't want to cover it up with a photo. Just a simple sewn leaf tucked in between layers of fabric and a little Autumn quote.

I'm going to get back on track and get today's post ready tonight! Thanks for stopping in tonight and happy Saturday to you! 

xo~ Tara

sweet november: up-close

Todays' word is 'up-close.' The first thing that comes to mind is flowers, or something equally as pretty when taken with the macro camera setting. I however, don't have any flowers at the moment. So, succulents it is. I also walked around the house looking at different textures to photograph. I love this time of year, the warm colors mixed with brass and gold are some of my favorite decor combinations. (I may be also going through a brown phase lately, I seem to be drawn to the color!) 

I'm going to attempt to go spend some time in my craft room tonight. I have some things for Etsy I need to get ready and I've been wanting to get some scrapbooking time in as well. I miss all of paperish stuff! 

Happy Wednesday! 

sweet november: sky view

I'm doing a quick post tonight, (still finishing up homework!) Today's prompt was 'sky-view,' I was planning on taking a photo up in the hills nearby, but that clearly was not going to happen today. Today was more of a stay home and cook kind of day! (I made apple butter! I've been waiting all year for pumpkin waffles with apple butter!) 

 The view from our balcony just before sunset. I was hoping that if I waited all day, that maybe the clouds would roll in during the late afternoon as they often do, but no luck today. Just a clear blue sky for as far as you can see. 

I'm hoping your view looks a little more like Fall than ours here in the desert! 

xo ~ Tara

sweet november: orange

Today's word is orange. I know, the first thing that comes to mind right now is probably pumpkins, but I was thinking about a darker orange, like burnt pumpkin or terra cotta orange. I created a Fall color combination inspired by a collection of tiny potted succulents and spools of thread. 

granite- terra-cotta- pumpkin cream-patina-peach

This is the easiest crafty project ever! If you have 5 minutes, a few paints and a little canvas, you have time to be creative! Chase and I love making these, we choose a combination of paints, some small paint brushes and we just 'scribble' various colors onto the canvas. I think these canvases look best when collected and displayed with other framed art pieces. I'll share my Fall art collection this month, I'm still adding to it! 

 Hope you're having a wonderful Tuesday afternoon!  

xo~ Tara

sweet november: 2pm

At 2pm today, I was getting the family ready for photos. 

Hair, makeup, clothes.  

We are finally going to have a family photo for our Christmas cards this year! (Yep, 2013 is the year I will actually send out Christmas cards and as a bonus there will be a family photo inside!) A good friend & neighbor of mine also happens to be a wonderful family photographer in this area, so she let me bring along my camera to take a few photos of the kids. I'm excited to see the photos that she took of them! Shelby takes amazing photos of kids, and both of my little ones love her, so I have my fingers crossed that Chase was more willing to smile for her than he was for me. 

 Here's a few photos from tonight. Alaina is my little model, she is so easy and eager to take good photos. Chase on the other hand, he's my hot and cold kid. Some days are good, some days not so much and tonight he decided that he was "bored and wanted to get out of here." Even bribes weren't working for us. 

Ahh kids, got to love them and their ever changing moods! 

Thanks for stopping by again tonight! xo~ tara

Sweet November: dessert

Today's word is dessert, and I have a perfectly pumpkin dessert recipe to share with you today! 

Nothing is quite as sweet during these chilly Fall months as a warm pumpkiny dessert! This Autumn inspired dessert has been lightened up a bit with the help of skim milk, pumpkin butter and wheat bread. Serve as a dessert or even as a quick holiday breakfast with a drizzle of maple syrup and a sprinkle of powder sugar. 

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

1 loaf wheat - oat bread, cubed (I've tried different types of bread, but wheat is always the best!)

1 cup Egg Beaters

2 egg yolks

1 1/2 cup skim milk

1 cup fat free half & half cream

3/4 cup pumpkin butter* or pumpkin pie filling

1/2 cup raw cane sugar, organic

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

2 Tbsp butter, cold cut into sml pieces

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. In a 13x9x2 inch pan add bread cubes. 

2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together milk, cream, pumpkin butter, egg beaters, egg yolks, sugar, cinnamon and salt.  Pour mixture over the bread cubes, and press bread cubes down with the back of a spatula so they can soak up the pumpkin mixture. let sit for about 10 minutes. 

3. Scatter the cut pieces of butter on top of the bread cubes and cook for 35-45 minutes. Bread pudding should be set in the center. 

4. Serve warm with maple syrup and powder sugar. 

*pumpkin butter is quick & easy, just combine a can of pumpkin pie filling, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1/4 cup apple juice into a sauce pan, simmer over low heat until thickened. Let cool and store in the refrigerator.

We store the leftovers in the refrigerator. You can reheat the bread pudding in the microwave or under the broiler for a just a minute or two. 

Enjoy! ~ Tara

sweet november: collected

One of my favorite words! I have alot of collections, most of them vintage, and most of which I justify as photo props. *wink*wink (Like for these photos! I do have photographer friends though that can also use my vast amount of old stuff!) One of my current favs is using old books as home decor. I gathered a few books in warm Fall colors and grouped them together on the piano. 

This summer I came toting home 2 big boxes of books. One box contained a set of Thackeray books from the late 1880's and the second box, I picked up at a local library box sale - vintage text books from UC Berkeley and Stanford. Those were such a great find! 

Vintage books are this seasons collection trend for me! What is your favorite collection a the moment? 

xo ~ Tara

sweet november, day 1

Hello November and thanks for joining us this Friday morning!  Today is the first day of our Sweet November photo-a-day challenge. (click here to see the photo list) Hopefully you'll be inspired to play along with us, and at the end of the month  we'll have weeks worth of fun photos to share with each other! 

Today's word is perfect for the start of a photo challenge (I can't take credit for it though as Jessica came up with the idea) but it sets the stage for what's to come! 

morning

What does morning mean to you and if you were going to take of photo of your 'morning' what would it look like? 

My mornings, are pretty routine. Simple really, kids running about, dogs following the kids around the house, backpacks being filled, breakfast being made, the smell of sweet cream and coffee, Charlie & Lola on the tv. After Alaina is off to school I start my morning cleaning routine. I love this time of year because I can leave the windows open, the cool air makes tidying up the house less of a chore!  

Mornings here are peacefully quiet. 

Don't forget, we have a Flickr group just for your Sweet November photos and if your posting your photos on your blog, leave us a link so we can come look! 

xo ~ Tara

Sweet November 2013

It's that time again for Sweet November! Jessica and I are going to be hosting another edition of Sweet November here on our blogs tomorrow, but we've changed things up a bit. Now, instead of Sweet November being a week long as in the past 2 years, we're going to make it last for the entire month and we've made it into a Photo Challenge of sorts!

Just like our previous Sweet Novembers, we still have lots of crafty tutorials, sweet recipes and pretty photos to share, but we'll be tying those projects with a photo prompt for that coordinating day. Think of it as a scavenger photo hunt for the month of November. 

Check back tomorrow for our first post! 

xo ~ Tara

The best of Oregon

I've had such a hard time getting these photos posted and not in any technical sense (although, I would have loved being able to blame it on a technical glitch) sadly enough, I just haven't been interested in editing any more of them. It gets to the point where I literally feel as though I'm going to blow a gasket if I have to edit one more photo. Editing photos is just not my forte. 

But, the kids and I had a great time in Oregon! I had invited these friends to come up and meet us at the house for a long weekend. Got to say, vacationing with friends is alot of fun! Everything is more fun with friends, getting to explore the beaches at low tide, wandering through antique shops, painting drift wood, even making dinner - all better with friends by your side! 

Jessica did a much better job at taking & posting photos of our time together, you can see them here, here and here. (I bet she has more photos posted somewhere, I'll have to ask where they're hiding). Oh and I should also mention that my kids completely forget about me in favor of Jessica and Jeff when we are all together, which explains my lack of photos of them and how they pop up often in Jessica's photos. 

(all photos taken in & around Florence, OR)

I'm getting ready for another quick post on Thursday! Sweet November will be back, revamped and hopefully a tad more interactive than our previous editions. See you Thursday!