pumpkin cookies

Eight days! It's been eight whole days since I wrote my last post. In the blog world... that's an eternity.

The truth is blogging takes up a crazy amount of time. And sometimes I need my time for other things. What kind of things? Well I can't say. Yet!

I've been working on a couple special projects that require a lot of time. While my deadline approaches I pretty much have to ignore everything to insure that they get done. And sadly everything includes blog time.

But it hasn't been all work! I got to play a little too. In case you didn't know, last Saturday was a special day. The first day of Autumn!!! Obviously!!

To celebrate I had to make something with pumpkin. I went with cookies.

When it comes to baking, pumpkins are truly magical. Anything you add pumpkin too will be soft and pillowy. At least in my experiences anyway.

The recipe, as usual, is a hybrid. I looked at a few recipes and picked and chose what I liked until I came up with my own. So here it is!

Pumpkin cookies:

3 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Then add pumpkin puree, egg and vanilla. Stir until mixed.

This is where I do things differently than most cookie recipes suggest. I don't mix the dry ingredients separately! Eeeep. But the world still turns. What I do is stir in a cup of flour at a time to the wet ingredients until it's all incorporated. With my last cup of flour I add the other dry ingredients; in this recipe it's salt, baking soda and pumpkin pie spice. This way you don't have to dirty another bowl. How efficient!

Once the cookie dough is all mixed up scoop tablespoon-sized balls into a sugar cinnamon mix. Fully coat the balls of cookie dough then transfer them to a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

To make them look like little pumpkins I used the edge of a glass to create curved vertical lines. This also helps to flatten the cookies out a bit. And it makes them very cute!

Bake for about 10 minutes until puffy and slightly browned around the edges.

I didn't get a chance to photograph the process of mixing them up because I wanted to do it quickly. But these are just too good to keep to myself!!!  

More posts next week! I promise!!

fall window decorations

I've been waiting for awhile now to do something pretty with these fabric leaves that you may have seen in my fall craft supply post. I bought them a couple of years ago on clearance after the fall season was over. I didn't have any plans for them so they just sat with my craft supplies.

I thought about using the leaves to make a wreath but I really liked the idea of hanging them like they were fluttering down from a tree. Something you don't see too often downtown.

Last year I doctored them up with some glitter and strung them together with yarn. I hung some from this lamp...


... and some in the windows.

This year I hung them all in the windows. What I came up with is still simple but a little more intricate than last year.



I started by crocheting three chains of dark brown yarn in varying lengths for each window. I crocheted them on a metal ring for easy hanging.

 

Then I cut some dark brown ribbon and melted the edges to prevent fraying.

 

Pinching the melted edges together made it easier to string the leaves on. Which is what I did next.

Once I had all the leaves strung up I tied the ribbons to the crochet chains. And I was done!

 To finish I moved them up to the top part of the windows.

Now I'm constantly reminded that it's fall. Marvelous!

it's almost here!

So we're halfway through August which means my favorite time of year is just around the corner. Fall officially begins on September 22nd... but to me it starts as soon as I flip my calendar to September.

I saw these in the store and even though it seemed a little early I couldn't resist!

Pumpkin room spray and pumpkin candles. My must have fall essentials. Another fall must have - Yankee Candle in autumn leaves... my all time favorite candle. I can't wait to get my hands on one this season!!

I love everything about fall! The changing leaves. Bare trees. Crisp dry air. Sweater weather!

red, orange, yellow, brown and gold. I love everything about this time of year.

(as I write this our upstairs neighbor seem to be getting new carpet. To me this means loud ripping and banging noises and every so often a sprinkling of... plaster, dust and old stuff that was once in our wood ceilings. Marvelous. Note to self - keep latte covered)

I love redecorating my apartment and the change of seasons gives me an excuse to do just that. I've been looking through all my craft supplies for fall inspirations and ideas of new apartment accessories to make.

I've collected a lot of craft stuff over the years (have you seen my craft drawer?) so to keep my fall supplies fresh on my mind I took a few photos. That way I can look at what I have on my computer and make project plans without making a mess.

I'm already getting inspired just putting these photos together!

What will you be crafting this fall?