Saw this beautiful and fun idea at The Pleated Poppy and loved it.  As I think more about my own growing family, I’ll definitely be making my own version of this sweet artwork.

I saw this great idea over at MayaMade for reusing spent coffee grounds (no joke!) and had to share this tip. Dry out your coffee grounds and then use them to fill a handmade pincushion. The grinds will keep pins and needles rust free!

photo courtesy of Maya*Made

This summer we hosted our 9-year-old nephew for a week. Because his birthday fell that month, we hosted a family birthday party with his East Coast relatives. Due to some allergies, we needed an alternative birthday cake idea. My cousin had recommended Red Mill chocolate cake mix, but I wasn’t able to find it. My sister-in-law sent some sugar cookie mix out with our nephew, so I decided to use that to make an alternative cake….each cookie was used to create an insect, which this 9-year-old thinks are super cool. He helped me decorate them with colored icing and other toppings, creating a caterpillar, ladybug, bumblebee and dragonfly. Cute, huh?

I also wanted to have a little insect-themed game with prizes for the few kids in attendance, although the majority of their time was spent playing outdoors and with new Legos. What I came up with was “Name That Bug”. I printed out pictures of 9 different insects and hung them on the mantle.  The kids wrote down the names of each in a list. There were prizes for each of them, but they were able to pick them out in order of who had the most correct answers.

Warm up with these fun finds:

Autumn Pillow by theingthing

Paper Lanterns by coughcoughchoke

Plum extra long Cowl by fibrevolution

One of my favorite summer veggies is zucchini. We slice them in half and grill them. I cut them up for stir fry or in salads. But I tend to usually have too many at once. I’ve found a couple of recipes that I’ve enjoyed trying to use them up before they go to waste.

One recipe from cooks.com are vegetable pancakes. These are great at any time of the day and are delicious with sour cream.

But my favorite use ‘em up recipe is Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread. I used this Paula Deen recipe this week and made a loaf of bread and muffins too. I like breads like this because I can freeze them and use them a few weeks later when I need dessert (or breakfast!).

I’m often asked how I come up with so many ideas and then find time to make them. Honestly, my “making” is relaxing for me so I do it to calm myself down and take a break from the hustle bustle. I come up with ideas from the homes of my own friends and family. And, one of the reason I love the blog world is because of the inspiration sharing. There are lots of resourceful and creative people out there.

An early project when moving into my home was kitchen window treatments. A friend of mine had created a simple valence on a tension rod using a pillowcase and brightly colored ribbon. That inspired me to try something so resourceful in my kitchen, also because I wanted to spend as little as possible.

Using a few kitchen towels (I had way too many), a couple coordinating ribbons and a $5 tension rod, my mom and I whipped together this simple valence one weekend.

In the midst of my first pregnancy, I’m always looking to save a buck. One of the best tips I’ve gotten from a friends, besides borrowing maternity clothes from others for free, is the use of Bella Bands. These stretchy tubes are getting me through the middle of pregnancy without having to fork over lots of money for new clothes as I grow out of my pre-prego clothes.

The idea is that you use them to hold up your pre-pregnancy slacks, jeans, etc. that you are now unable to button. I’ve been using them for a month and expect to be able to do so well into my pregnancy and am thrilled that I can save some money in this way, particularly on clothing for work.

You can find Bella Bands on various sites online, but I’ve also recently seen them at Target.

While New England gardens didn’t produce as well this year, we still reaped a decent harvest of herbs, a few zucchinis, green beans, some heirloom and cherry tomatoes, a couple of green peppers and some late carrots. Because of the late harvest, we had alot to use at one time and not enough days to eat it only for dinner. So I wanted to share how I work “extras” into a few recipes.

First extra: Tomatoes

While hubby and I had hoped to can lots of tomato sauce at the end of the summer, we didn’t have enough produce to do so. We decided instead to use up our tomatoes in a big pot of chili - just in time for fall.

To “crush” our tomatoes, we first steamed them for a couple minutes to loosen the skin.

When cooled, the peel was removed. I decided not to spend time seeding the tomatoes and threw them straight into the blender. A few pulses and my tomatoes were crushed.

Once done, we added to our pot with 3 cans of kidney beans, a pound of browned ground beef, chopped onion and green pepper. We spiced it up with chili powder, salt and pepper, hot sauce, and cinnamon.

A couple hours of simmering later, mmmmmmm good.

In case you’ve forgotten anything for fall school days, here are a few more ideas:

Plaid headband by PurpleLicious

Insulated Lunch Bag by Britgaldesigns

I am a planner. A creature of habit. Everyone who knows me, knows this about me. So, when it comes to food, I can get stuck in a rut and, until I was married, I really wasn’t too adventurous on my own.

I’m not what you would call a “foodie”, but I’m pretty much willing to try anything. I love any kind of gourmet cheese, am a huge fan of olives, will try any kind of produce (especially if it’s local), am really missing tuna sashimi during my pregnancy, and am a huge believer in the use of fresh herbs. So, I’m here to share my latest experiment (it’s easy):

SPAGHETTI SQUASH.

I never had this growing up. I didn’t know what it was, but with an amazing farmer’s market down the street, hubby and I try to challenge ourselves to try something new regularly and winter sqashes are here for this season! Now, don’t get me wrong.  We’ve tried things that haven’t gone well (or that we’ve been too intimidated by to do anything with and they’ve eventually landed in the compost pile). This includes garlic scapes (10 for $1) and some sort of beans that were just too much work. We did try Swiss Chard, and it tasted like dirt, so we need to try a different recipe.

I kept it simple, since I was cooking without our lead chef, my amazing hubby and used this recipe by Emeril Lagasse because we had everything on hand. This makes enough to feed four (4) people as a side dish.

You need (measurements not necessary)

• One spaghetti squash
• Any variety of fresh herbs, chopped (I pulled straight from our garden: basil, sage, chives, and parsley)
• Butter
• Salt & Pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 375. Cut the squash in half and place face down in baking dish half full of water and cover with foil. Bake for 45 minutes. Flip squash and replace foil and bake 15 more minutes. Remove from oven and remove center pulp and seeds. Scrape “spaghetti” squash strands into a bowl.

In wok or frying pan, melt a couple Tablespoons of butter and add squash and chopped herbs. I added more butter, then salt & pepper. Toss carefully and, Voila! You’re done!

We served this with a vegetarian plate of local Silver Queen corn cut from the cob, sauteed zucchini from our garden, and pickled beets made by my Grandpa. Yum.