“It’s Monday! What are you reading?” is a weekly meme hosted by book journey.

Post the books you completed last week, and what you are reading this week.

Book completed last week:
Savor the Moment by Nora Roberts (book 3 in the bride quartet)

What I am currently reading:
Happily Ever After by Nora Roberts (book 4 in the bride quartet)
The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

What are you reading this week?

Fall is our favorite time of year, and what better way to celebrate the season than by baking some fresh chocolate chip pumpkin bread?  I saw this recipe via pinterest from Taste of Home. It turned out great and was a big hit with our families! It makes a lot of batter, so be mindful.

Instead of using chocolate chips, I used dark chocolate chips, and I used sea salt instead of regular salt. The directions say to bake the bread for 60 minutes but because I used smaller pans, mine only took 45. The mini muffins baked for 15 minutes and the large muffins baked for 20 minutes.

This recipe made all of this plus two more small loaves that are not pictured.

The following directions are not my own. They are from Taste of Home.

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt (I used sea salt)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups canned pumpkin (I used organic)
• 1-1/2 cups canola oil
• 1-1/2 cups (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate chips)

Directions

• In a large bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. In another bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oil. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in chocolate chips.
• Pour into two greased 8-in. x 4-in. loaf pans. Bake at 350° for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Yield: 2 loaves (16 slices each).

-LC

We are back from our anniversary trip – a cruise to the Bahamas and Co Co Cay! We had such a nice and relaxing trip! The food was incredible and the Caribbean was as beautiful as I remember it! I must say that I am happy to be back home though! The boat was starting to feel a little too claustrophobic. Here are a few pictures from our trip!

Waterfalls in Atlantis

Inside our ship

This photo was taken from the iphone app, Photosynth.

A water spout in the Caribbean!

Our towel monkey, Marvin.

I love the clear blue water!

Formal night

Atlantis from our ship

-LC

It’s hard to believe that we were in Europe nearly a year ago. Our honeymoon was an amazing experience. Ryan and I love to travel and going to Europe has always been a dream of mine. The architecture is breathtaking and the culture, fascinating. I am slightly obsessed with the royal family, so we were in a constant hunt for Princess Catherine and of course H.R.H. Queen Elizabeth! Unfortunately we had no luck as we did not run into them as planned.

“Mind the gap, please,” as you view a few pictures from our trip! I hope you enjoy!

Big Ben and Parliament

Buckingham Palace

Piccadilly

Westminister Abbey- probably my favorite place we went in all of London. It was breathtaking. I loved reading about all of the history and thinking about all the royals who have married there and are buried in the Cathedral itself.

Tower Bridge

Stonehenge is about 2 hours outside of London! It was definitely worth the trip. The countryside is beautiful and worth seeing.

We loved the Louvre! I could have spent a week in there.

Notre Dame

I had to snag Ryan’s jacket because Paris was much colder than London!

The eiffel tower was much larger than I had anticipated.

It’s finally fall! This is my favorite time of year – when leaves start turning, the cool, crisp feeling in the air, Halloween, and football! To celebrate, I did a quick and easy fall craft to help me start decorating for the season.

First, paint the wooden letters. While they dry, trace the scrapbook paper with a canvas and cut the paper out. Second, mod podge the scrapbook paper on to the canvas and let it dry completely. After your letters and canvases are dry, glue the wooden letters to the center of the canvases and let them dry over night. Ta da!

Helpful hint for the candle project: put the candle in the vase before you pour the beans and candy corn. It will make your life so much easier.

Here is a picture of my table. I spray painted the pumpkins with looking glass spray paint, and sprinkled leaves all over.

I hope you enjoy decorating for fall as much as I did!

I love to read all kinds of books but mostly “girly fiction” (as I call it) and mystery novels. One of the reasons I decided to create this blog was so I could talk about and review the books I have read. So here goes my first review.

Safe Haven is a romantic novel about a woman and man coming together after heartbreaks, larger than most people have to deal with, and creating a beautiful love story. I was literally on the edge of my seat while reading this book and found myself cheering at the end. I definitely recommend this book to all women – after all, what woman doesn’t want to read a book that includes make-ups, break-ups, abuse, death, love, secret identities, and romanticism?

The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks
Pages: 292

First Line: For Dawson Cole, the hallucinations began after the explosion on the platform, on the day he should have died.

The Best of Me is a story about high school sweethearts breaking up over matters out of their control and reuniting years later when a mutual friend passes away. The book ends in tragedy, like several of Sparks’ other novels. This book is too sad for my taste. I don’t like crying throughout a story and feeling depressed when it ends. However, that is exactly how this book made me feel. 


What are your thoughts?

Peace, Love and Books,
-LC

My husband and I have been married for 9 months. I am so lucky to have him as a part of my life, but along with him came all of his “stuff.” He was on his own for seven years before we married and therefore collected  a lot of bachelor pad furniture, or as I refer to it, “yard sale furniture.” I now present to you exhibit A: the end table.

Hideous, right? Instead of tossing it, I figured I’d get creative with it instead. I went to Home Depot and purchased the following:

-2 new knobs
-1 pint of yellow paint
-sandpaper

I began by removing the 4 old knobs and  puttying the bottom two holes. I let it dry and then sanded it down. I then lightly sanded the rest of the table and wiped it off really good to remove any loose powder and dust.

Next I painted two coats of yellow paint. You may need more or less coats of paint depending on the furniture and how light the paint is. I let the paint dry while I did some laundry and then lightly sanded the edges of the table and legs to scuff it up a bit, giving the table that shabby chic look that I love so much. After doing this I screwed in the new knobs and my project was complete!

It’s amazing what a little paint and new hardware can do for a piece of furniture!

Here’s to crafting!

-Logan