Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins and Costco Flowers

According to Blogger, my last published post was February 26, 2014. Huh. I knew it had been a while, but it didn't think it was THAT long ago. Oh, well. Life happens.

RC is in 4th grade (how the hell did THAT happen?) and brings a snack every day. Most of the time this snack consists of granola bars and fruit snacks. I've been trying to think of things for him to take that are easy, tasty (i.e. have chocolate in them) and aren't totally horrible for him. I've made these double fudge banana muffins from Yammie's Noshery and they are fantastic.

I was telling my mom how awesome those fudge banana muffins were and she mentioned the pumpkin chocolate chip ones she made when we were kids. I asked for the recipe last week and finally got around to making them this week. And, they are a hit! Seriously, how can you go wrong with pumpkin AND chocolate chips. It's a match made in heaven.

They are super easy and very tasty.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
1 Box Spice Cake Mix
1 C pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
2/3 C water
2 eggs
6 oz chocolate chips

Mix cake mix, pumpkin, water and eggs together. Stir in chocolate chips. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Makes 12-16 muffins. (I use an ice cream scoop to fill the muffin tins and got 16 out of this batch.)

This was my attempt at food styling. I took a large plate, a cereal bowl turned upside down and a small plate and put them on a beverage stand my sister got for me on clearance at Target. 

On a totally different topic, I love Costco flowers. I'm no Tulipina, but using these flowers makes me happy. (Her arrangements are amazing. Her Instagram feed just makes me happy everyday.)

Our grocery store chain, Hornbacher's does a good job too, but Costco has some fantastic $15 flowers. These are the flowers DH and the kids brought home today. DH was surprised at how full it was. He almost bought two thinking they would make a small arrangement at home. I love them. I think they are perfect. I use a trick I read in my Better Homes and Gardens magazine a couple of years ago. I make a scotch tape grid and fill it in. They always turn out awesome. (And since it's almost Halloween, you have to have Halloween salt and pepper shakers. These guys make me smile.)

Hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather and beautiful colors this fall. I've also been thinking about the southeast since we have friends and family that are getting a lot of rain and flooding. Stay safe!

Well, duh!

I had kind of a “well, duh!” moment the other day after reading this post from Karen at The Art of Doing Stuff.

We have a bajillion daylilies. No, really. We haven’t done much with the outside of the house since moving and as a result, have a jungle on the west side of the house.

See?

Oh, and I found this little yellow guy. I hadn’t seen him there before. 

So, the other morning, I went and cut some. And put them in bowls.  And put them on my table with a pint jar of daisies (my favorite flower). 

Simple and pretty and I actually get to enjoy them. Thanks Karen!

Linking up with:

Centsational Girl Garden Party

Where has the time gone? (And pretty flowers!)

How did it get to be the end December already? I had such good intentions of keeping you updated with the cool Christmas crafts and decorations I made. Only, I didn't make any. Sigh. Things just got away from me.

In the past, we made the trek from Colorado to North Dakota for Christmas. This meant, I had to have everything done and ready to go by December 20th or so. Our tree was always up the day after Thanksgiving, so we could enjoy it before we left.

This year, since we are back in North Dakota there didn't seem to be much of a rush. The tree didn't go up until the second week in December. I was still puttering around with decorations the week after that. And, by then there didn't seem much point in creating a bunch of cool, new Christmas decorations. Sigh.

Next year, maybe next year will be the year. We'll be in a new house and maybe I'll get up the motivation to do a bit more.

I did manage to get some fresh flowers in the house with some greens though! I love the look of white and green, so I went with some white flowers and Christmas-y greens.

I think they turned out pretty cute. I had a big arrangement on the table, then three small ones on side tables through out the house. The only things I bought were the flowers and greens. I bought two bunches of flowers and one bunch of greens at Sam's Club for $3.88 a piece. Everything else I had on hand.  So, I got four arrangements for around $12!

For the biggest arrangement, I used a quart mason jar, a plastic silver charger and some green and silver ornaments.

For the smaller arrangements, I used a pint jar and some green ribbon. 

Cutting the flowers and greens took the longest (and of course I had a 4-year old helper). 

They added such a nice touch to the house! My plan is to keep swapping out flowers and ribbon throughout the year. We'll see how it goes.

I do have a bunch of pictures of the house remodel as well. That's what coming up next! The transformation so far is just amazing! I'm super excited to get painting and super scared to get painting.

Have a safe and happy new year!