Autumnal Happiness

I love fall. I love everything about it. The food, the temperature, the leaves, the football, the pumpkins!

And the other night I carved my first pumpkin. I'm not known to be good with knives so I never did it. But my roomate and her boyfriend brought two home to carve and we had one on our front step. So I grabbed it and carved the following...



That's right-it's our house number! I saw the idea on Better Homes and Gardens website. For my first pumpkin experience, I think it turned out pretty good. We put them out right away...and now our step looks like this.



Spooky? Maybe not!




And tonight Lancaster kids have trick-or-treat time. To our shock, we had two little ones come to our door and we only had a small bowl of random candy. So I quick ran out and got a bag of Kit-Kats. If no one else shows up, at least I like the candy in the house. :-D

Hope everyone has a spooktacular weekend of haunts.

I'm Now a Stuffer of Shells

Last Monday (yes, I know, it's over a week later!) I invited my dear friends Megan and Jacquie (from Bread, Wine & Family blog) over for dinner. I decided it was time to go big in the kitchen and use the space!

So I ventured into the land of stuffed shells- that I stuffed myself. That's right world, Alyssa made a legitimate meal! We also had salad and garlic bread, but those are not nearly as interesting as the shells.

Here's how it went:

You will need 12 dried jumbo shell macaroni, 1 10oz package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed, 2 eggs, 1 8oz package of shredded Italian cheese, 1 cup of ricotta cheese, and 1 26-32 oz jar of pasta sauce.

Cook the pasta as the package says..duh. Rinse it with cold water and drain it. Then put those babies to the side. Like so...


Then you will want to drain the thawed spinach. To make the filling, beat the eggs (in a bowl). Add the spinach, 1 1/2 cups of the shredded cheese, and the ricotta. Stir, stir, stir. It will appear like this...yum!


Then spoon that concoction into those pre-cooked shells.
They should look like this...



Place them in a dish, cover with sauce, and bake those babies at 350 for 40 minutes. When you get them out, top 'em off with the rest of the shredded cheese. And then...pig out!

I was really impressed with my shell stuffing and the dinner as a whole. It was great to spend time with great people and eat good food and use the kitchen!

Tales of Joy

Some people say that they love their house but they don't really mean it.

When I say that I love my house, I am so not kidding for a second!

I love that right now I am sitting on my couch watching my new fave show (Design Star-it's the season finale) with my diet coke on the coffee table and the windows open. This sure beats sitting on my bed, balancing my snack on my pillow in an air-tight coffin of a room. (Although I loved it at the time, don't worry!) Also- I can walk into my kitchen if I want a snack or to cook myself some dinner. So great!

And did I mention-I have got the coolest bedroom ever. I have my own floor people! That's pretty banging. And I love my workspace and my bed and my nook. Did I mention the love I have for this house. Yes, it has some imperfections, some blank walls still, and unfortunately a few critters that like to enjoy the house too. But really who can blame them?!

I do need to work on a covering for my skylight. I have all the materials, all the ideas, but no time. That is not something I love.

Ok- my homework is starting to pile up. Guess I better start working. It's just so easy to not when you have things to do and hang out with people. Ahhh...the problems of life. :-D

With Love, from the Lane.

New Year, New Title

So yes, this the 4th blog title I've come up with. Sorry-I just can't find my niche in the blogging world yet. But I think I may have hit gold. I've been permanently living in this gorgeous house for 2 weeks while I train to be an Orientation Leader. I LOVE THIS HOUSE! It is perfect for the 3 of us who live here. We've had a bunch of people over for games and dinners and desserts. And yes, we've had our fair share of issues. Aka- 2 clogged toilets, an overflowing toilet, not knowing where the lint trap was in the dryer and almost burning the house down, storage woes, and incredibly large spiders that like to scare us on our way in the house. But the good has definitely outweighed the bad. I plan to take many more pictures of DIY tasks, cooking adventures, and hopefully a lot of joy spilling from this house. So come along for the ride, and if you're in the neighborhood-stop by and I'll cook for you. :-D

A Roof Quiz

So I took a roof personality quiz from younghouselove (yes, them again!) and it told me that my colors are beige and taupe. HOW BORING!

http://roofing.owenscorning.com/homeowner/color-compass/compass.aspx#/quizresults/

I did think that the description was accurate.
You like classic looks and are careful about allowing too much excitement into your life. You are practical, fair, and well balanced, and you make a good arbitrator.

Which basically means boring. But at least it was accurate!

Then I took the colorstrology quiz (regarding how your birthday fits in your color) It was pretty accurate.

http://www.colorstrology.com/colorstrology_sniffer.html

Then I took one based on colors and what occupations you'd most be suited for. It said I was first and foremost an organizer. I KNOW- I was shocked too. haha, kidding.

It was fun!

A Serious Addiction...Well maybe not quite so serious

So babysitting for two functional boys who love video games means I have a lot of time on my hands to read, knit, & be on my computer. And being on my computer means keeping a permanent tab open of younghouselove! If you have never been to their site, trust me, you'll be addicted as soon as you go there.

The site upkeepers are the Youngsters, John and Sherry (with help from baby Clara and Burger, their dog.) I love it!

And while puttering around their site today, I found this: http://www.blogadilla.com/swedishFurniture/swedishFurniture.html

You can see what your Ikea furniture name would be.



That's mine. I'm LOVING the umlaut over the A. Can you imagine if I walked around spelling my name like that. Cool!

I'll be posting again soon with the DIY task of covering the skylight in my room. It gets so stinking hot that I need to do something. So I'm going to tackle a covering that doesn't require tracks, hammers, OR an empty wallet. Check back soon.

Martha Stewart...Eat your Heart Out

Although it's been a little while since I officially moved into my house in Lancaster. But with a vacation right after, there was no way I could post all about it. It was such a crazy move in day! My uncle and friend Tom got here at 7am to pack the truck so we could then leave by 8am.




We arrived at Livingston Lane and had this to deal with:


And them too...


We were all so excited to move in and make our house a home!



And here's the house, all set up!

Bedroom! I love it.





Kitchen/Dining Room




Living Room




So what do you think?!
We love it!