Cozy up

After a few weeks of indian summer, I'm more than happy the weather has changed. The air is crisp, cool, and carries the slight scent of leaves and rain. There's something about the smell of autumn air that makes me want to curl up under a cozy blanket with a mug of something warm and watch a movie while something delicious bakes in the oven. So tonight, I did just that. 

After roasting some pumpkin seeds to bring home to my daddy, I decided to make homemade granola for the first time. As with the quiche incident, I'm pretty disappointed in myself for not making this sooner. It's probably the simplest recipe ever, and turns out such fantastic results. I made this version from Tiny Urban Kitchen with the optional vanilla and brown sugar. I also added a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice for a little something extra. I will never buy granola from the store again.

If you decide to make this, I highly suggest eating a bit of it right after it comes out of the oven. The warm honey makes it slightly chewy which is absolutely delectable mixed with the crisp oats. 

Now I'm off to curl up with some cider, a movie and a bowl of pumpkin pie yogurt topped with some crunchy goodness. 

{don't you just adore the face on my ghost mug?}

Happy Weekend, and Happy Halloween!

In the Trenches.

Guys, I made a purchase today...

{I am in love} 

I've been coveting a trench for years but haven't been willing to commit to the price tag a good trench normally carries. When I saw this one hanging on the wall at Forever 21, I knew I had to have it. Not only was it a great price but the little ruffle made it irresistible to me! I've recently realized that I'm drawn to classic items with a little twist. Like this living room

I love the classic neutrals mixed with the bright pops of blue and red. It's quite lovely, don't you think? 

{image via design sponge}

Weekend Whirlwind

Once again the weekend has disappeared, this time for a totally different reason however.

Since last Wednesday my schedule has basically been work, eat, sleep, shower, repeat. Plus, in between the sleeping and working part yesterday I discovered that my refrigerator had died and my building manager was out of town. Boyfriend brought a cooler and salvaged most of the perishables and today maintenance man returned and brought over two mini fridges.

It looks like it may be a few days until my big, monster fridge from 1963 gets to see a repair man.  I'm wondering what types of odd dishes I'll have to cook up to use the food that belongs in the freezer but doesn't fit into that little shoebox freezer space in the "dorm refrigerator" (as maintenance man likes to call them).

Other plans for this week include: 1. attempting to find a pair of jeans that actually fit me well (I have high hopes for these) 2. antique-ing- still in search of a cool coffee table, coat rack, and vintage frames. 3. A much needed visit home, and maybe passing out some Halloween Candy to the kiddos! :)

Happy New Week loves!

A place to sit.

This may be the smallest DIY project ever, but it's my first shot at anything not involving a scrapbook or construction paper so I'm pretty proud of it.

Back when my bff (the super cool lady of She knows this much is true, and treble and lace {she's always been an over acheiver ;) }) and I were roomies in college she found these dining room chairs at a garage sale for something ridiculously cheap like $5.

You can't really tell (because I like to use my ipod to take pictures, when really I should just use my camera) but the seat cushion is corduroy and pretty gross. We didn't use them a whole lot so we never bothered to recover them. When we finished college she didn't have a use for them so I got them when I moved into my first studio apartment (where I hardly used them, so I didn't bother to recover them). Yesterday I realized that with the limited seating I currently have in my living room, these chairs would be great to use when more than 3 people would like to sit down. I borrowed a staple gun from my aunt, used an old tapestry I bought to use as a slipcover for my couch and went to work. This is the result. 

I thought about spray paint, but the bronzed metal actually goes pretty well with the fabric so I nixed that idea and shall leave them as is. This would be a minuscule project for most people, but it's an accomplishment for me and I am a little bit more proud of them than I should be. 

In way more exciting news: I'm getting INTERNET tomorrow! For some reason I found it incredibly hard to decide which internet provider I should sign up for so I debated for 2 whole months before I finally realized how ridiculous I was being.

Fancy That: Never, Never Land

A while back, I had a small obsession with Flickr. While browsing one day I ran across this image by Chrissie White. I've long admired people who have even the slightest photography skills, and browsing through Chrissie's photostream I was completely enamored {and envious}.  She takes exactly the kinds of photos I would take if I had any hint of an eye for photography: whimsical, fun, and full of awesome staging. I dare you not to be inspired by this girl's work.

Monday Melodies

 On my drive to work last night I was listening to a local radio show, Freedom Rock, on Cities 97. The show was airing past recordings of instudio performances and interviews of artists that will be on this years volume of their annual live performances cd, the City Sampler. This song stopped me dead in my tracks (seriously, someone had to honk at me to signal a stop light had turned green).  The group is the Civil Wars (visit their website here), and it's composed of Joy Williams and John Paul White. They produce hauntingly beautiful melodies accompanied by unimposing acoustic instruments. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks their work is stunning, they've been selling out shows everywhere. Which makes me think, for goodness sake where have I been!?

Their down to earth personalities in the interview made me love them even more. John Paul has a knack for self-deprecating humor and Joy Williams seems sweet as pie. These guys fall in the same folksy genre as some of my other favorites such as Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers, and when talking about the wide audience for such acts John Paul made a comment that I think sums up the growing audience for such music: "When times are hard, people tend to gravitate towards reality based music...people want to devolve a little bit, and simplify their lives...we just need to get some of the clutter out of our lives. We do that when we listen to music, and we do that when we create music. We're all in the same headspace..."I've said before how I've been gravitating towards stripped down music, and I believe that's one of the reasons this band hit the right note for me. 

Pretty for pennies: Hair Edition

If you're reading this, you probably already know that that's me. What you don't know is that's my hair after visiting the Juut Salon in Uptown. 

I'm generally a pretty low-maintenance girl. I usually go to Great Clips to get my hair cut. Never again I tell you. Just like when I had my foundation brush epiphany, I now know why some people spend upwards of $100 on a haircut. It's the salon experience! 

After checking in for my appointment, I was served a cup of peace coffee, sat in a very nicely decorated reception area and read the latest issue of Nylon Magazine.  My stylist came to greet me (exactly at my appointment time!) and what followed was close to 2 hours of bliss. 

It started with a "consultation", which is basically the customer telling the stylist what they want, followed by a pressure point aromatherapy massage (10 minutes later, I was putty).

 After that it was time for a little suds. Juut uses hair washing beds, which means that instead of sitting in a chair and having them wash your hair while your neck is tilted back awkwardly, you lie on an angled cot. Much more comfortable. Then the cut. Since the Uptown salon is a training studio most of the stylists are new (to Juut) and therefore get guidance and consults by master stylists. Which basically means that stylists who charge $90-$120 per haircut are monitoring your cut every step of the way. 

Lastly, a blow out and style. My stylist used a roundbrush to dry and curl my hair. I can barely brush my hair with a roundbrush, and it takes about an hour for me to make my hair look like that with a curling iron (I have a lot of hair). Obviously, I was impressed. And the grand total? $30 including tip. Well worth it, I'd say. 

If you're looking for ways to keep a little more green in your wallet, I'd say going to a training salon is an excellent option. I spent about $5-7 more than what I would spend at a Great Clips or Supercuts, and got a much better cut and experience. But, if you go to a professional salon (where the average haircut is about $45) you could save about $130 over the course of a year! The only drawback is that you're not guaranteed to get the same stylist every time, but unless you have extremely unmanageable hair this probably won't pose a huge problem for you. Needless to say, I'll definitely be returning the next time I need a trim!

Weekend Whirlwind

Seriously, where does the weekend go? I even got a three day weekend and I still have no idea how it slipped by so quickly. It seems time really does fly when you're having fun, because I sure made the most of the past three days. Here's a list of things I did, because I love lists.

- Saw Moneyball. This is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. Brad Pitt really is an incredible actor (also, he seems to get more and more attractive with age...). I'm a sucker for a heart-felt dramedy, and this definitely falls into that category.

- Toured Target Field with my family. I love going to Target Field to see the Twins play, but this was a whole different ballgame (it's okay you can groan). We got to see everything in the stadium from the visitor's clubhouse (the Twins don't let you tour theirs, rats), to the pressbox, to the dining room that serves only those who hole $250 tickets. We even got to go into the dugout!

- FINALLY did laundry and unpacked all of my clothes! For the past month I've sort of been unpacking stuff I want to wear, wearing it, then washing it and putting it away. This resulted in a lot of hunting for the item I planned on wearing that day, which then resulted in a clothes bomb exploding all over my closet floor. The bomb has been diffused, and my clothes are now neat and tidy. My closet is by no means organized even close to the way I want it to stay, but at least I can find an outfit now! 

-Baked banana muffins. Not an incredibly difficult task, but a yummy one! My mom always used to bake banana bread and muffins for me to take to school for breakfast on days where I'd go in early for one reason or another (usually because I didn't want to have to park a mile away), so baking and eating them always makes me a little nostalgic. 

- Headed back to Aamodt's! A friend I hadn't seen in a while organized a group trip to the orchard for a round of pick our own apples. Sadly, all of the pick your own apples had been picked. Instead of heading out and letting our festive plaid go to waste, we hung out and made the most of the rest of the activities at the orchard. I bought some more of their amazing apple cider donuts (which I mentioned here), did a wine tasting, fed some goats, took a hayride, and enjoyed the absolutely gorgeous day. 

-Watched the crazy people participate in the Twin Cities Marathon. And I mean crazy in the best way possible. I still can't run a whole mile, these people run 26! 

All in all, I had a pretty great weekend soaking up the remaining beautiful weather before mother nature runs her course and sunny and 70 degrees turns into overcast and 20 degrees. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.