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As I wrote about on Monday, we spent our Saturday afternoon at the apple orchard. After our apple picking adventures, we returned home with about fifteen or twenty pounds of apples. This summer, we canned homemade pasta sauce and fresh peaches, so we decided to add applesauce to our pantry for the winter as well.

Applesauce was by far the quickest and easiest of all three canning processes, so I thought I'd share with you how to can applesauce. If you're new to canning, we use a water bath canner and these simple canning supplies. We use Ball canning jars, which we pick up at our local Target or sometimes find at the grocery store.

First, after washing the apples, core them and place the sliced apples in a huge stock pot to simmer with several cups of water. The water helps the apples cook, but don't use too much water or it will thin out your sauce. As the apples cook over medium heat, stir them regularly so that they do not stick and burn to the stock pot. Once the apples have been broken down to a fairly soft and saucy consistency, use a food mill to remove the apple peels and grind down any remaining whole apple pieces.

At this point, if you'd like to add anything to the sauce, you may do so. We added a little bit of brown sugar and cinnamon to this batch, but it is also quite tasty on its own. Once your sauce is ready, it'll be time to start the canning process. We used pint sized jars that had been sanitized in the dishwasher. While the sauce was being processed through the food mill, bring a large canner filled halfway with water to a boil. In another stock pot, bring more water to a simmer.

Next, dip the pint jars one at a time along with their lids and rings into the simmering water. Use tongs to remove the jar, lid, and ring from the hot water, and fill the jar with hot applesauce. Don't forget to leave about a half an inch of space at the top! Wipe the rim of the jar clean with a warm cloth, place the lid on the jar, and screw the lid closed tightly with your finger tips.

Finally, place the jar filled with applesauce in the canning rack. Once your canning rack is completely filled with jars, lower the rack into the boiling water, place the lid on the canner, and process the jars for 40 minutes. At the end of 40 minutes, remove the hot jars from the boiling water and let them cool. As they cool, the jars will seal, making a "pinging" sound.

Overall, canning is an easy way to stock up your pantry with the fresh tastes of local produce for the long, cold winter months. We ended up with 12 pints of applesauce to enjoy for the coming months.

Do you like to can fresh fruits and veggies? What are some of your favorite canning recipes?

It's no secret that we love baseball. If you follow me on Instagram, you may or may not be sick of seeing my photos from Oriole Park and Camden Yards. I grew up listening to Harry Caray broadcasting the Cubs games on AM radio, chewed my nails through watching my dad's hometown team the Pirates play in the playoffs in the early '90s, spent years with a glove on my hand at first base, and happily married someone that loves the sport just as much as I do.

When we moved to Baltimore eight years ago, we were glad to be in a baseball town, and took advantage of being a bike ride away from Oriole Park. About two years ago, we realized that we were attending so many baseball games, that it was actually more economical to purchase a small season ticket package, and so we did.

Over the course of the past few years, the Orioles have gone from last in their division to winning their division and heading to the playoffs. As season ticket holders, we are lucky to get first dibs on some postseason tickets. When the ticket information arrived in our mailbox, Andrew and I excitedly looked at each other, knowing that this could very well be our only chance to potentially go to a World Series game, a definite bucket list item, and we purchased our postseason tickets the next day.

Our first game of this postseason was Game 2 of the ALDS against the Tigers. It was a come from behind win with the winning runs scored in the bottom of the 8th inning. The stadium was electric with energy and as loud as I've ever heard it to be. The Orioles went on to sweep the Tigers in three games on Sunday night in Detroit, so our postseason excitement will only continue.

As for now, here are a few shots I snapped at Game 2 capturing some of that excitement on Friday afternoon.

Are you a baseball fan? Have you ever been to a postseason game?

On Saturday, temperatures dipped below 70 during the day and a crisp and fresh breeze beckoned us outside to enjoy the entrance of fall. We headed to Larriland Farm to stock up on apples for our next canning adventure. There is something rather happy about mingling with others amongst apple trees, people peeking out from their tall branches, hoping to reach high enough for the perfect apple. Everyone is jovial, a bit romantic, and even a tad nostalgic while enjoying a beautiful fall day.

We picked Ida Red, Golden Delicious, Mutsu, and Red Delicious while munching on a few here and there. And when our bags were full we headed back to our car, bellies full and ready to can homemade applesauce. We were delighted by the size of the orchard and farm, and made one last unexpected stop to pick some cauliflower, spinach, and raspberries before heading home.

Do you enjoy apple picking? What did you do this weekend?

October has arrived, and fall is most definitely here even though it officially made its appearance last week. With this new season comes richer tones that bring warmth to chillier air. Here's a look at a few of my favorite finds inspired by Pantone's new Aurora Red that will help bring warmth in color to your wardrobe and home.

1 // Fiesta Disc Pitcher, 2 // Frye Phillip Harness Tall Boot, 3 // Corliss Chair, 4 // Tiny Wine-ey by Essie, 5 // Drawstring Dress, 6 // Linden Pillow, 7 // Crosley Classic Kitchen Phone

What are your favorite fall colors? Do you find warmth in richer tones when the weather gets cooler?

photo credit Death to the Stock Photo

Here I am, a little over a year into this working from home thing, and I finally feel like I have established some routines. Recently, one of my college roommates and I were chatting about working from home. She just transitioned from an office job of seven years to freelancing at home after the birth of her first child. I was suggesting a few things to her that I thought might be useful based on what has worked for me in the past year, and thought some of my suggestions may be relevant for others in the same situation.

1 / Set a schedule the night before. One of the last things I try to do before I go to bed or finish up my work day is to set a schedule for the next day. Scheduled reminders for activities I need to get done help to keep me on track, and not having to plan things out in the morning makes it easier to get started on the day. There are a plethora of ways this can be done, but I simply set schedule alerts in my iPhone calendar app. As a bonus, these sync to my computer and iPad, and I can also sync with Andrew's calendar when need be.

2 / Choose a couple non-negotiables and center your day around them. Non-negotiables are things that have to happen every day. For me, it's getting showered and dressed by 9am at the latest, exercise, fulfilling orders, and eating lunch. Each of these items needs to get done every day, and if I stray from them I notice that I am less productive. My non-negotiables are the constants that I can use to schedule the rest of my day around.

3 / Give yourself breaks or one free day to recharge. I found that while it's much more productive to have a routine, I also have a hard time sticking to the routine if I don't cut myself a little bit of slack. Throughout the day, I give myself a couple short 15 minute breaks to separate activities. Usually it involves an afternoon coffee or snack, some quick reading, or that sort of activity. Additionally, I often leave my Friday afternoons completely open, and I use the time to either recharge or get creative.

4 / Make manageable to do lists. While having a schedule and a to do list helps me keep a routine, I also notice that putting too many things on my plate for the day is bad news. I shut down and become completely unproductive. I try to pick the most pressing task first, and then I add one or two tasks that have been sitting on the back burner.

5 / Schedule bigger tasks for times that are more productive. My routine is set up based on how productive I am during particular times of day. I am not a morning person, so I set more familiar and less intensive tasks for the morning hours. I read blogs, respond to blog comments, fulfill orders, and other such things in the morning while I'm drinking my coffee. I leave my afternoon hours open for larger wholesale orders, custom work, and designing because I know I am much more productive at that time.

Do you work from home? What are some of your best strategies for creating and sticking to a routine? I'd love to hear any other suggestions you may have. While I have found much more balance in my daily schedule, I'm still not perfect!