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As the autumn air becomes chillier, it has become entirely necessary to add more soups to the weekly menu. Some night you want nothing more than a warm bowl of soup accompanied by bread and butter. I had one of those nights recently and had run the gamut of soups that are my usual go to's and needed something new. Thanks to Erika and her suggestion that I check out her amazing Pinterest board chock full of delicious soups, I stumbled across a recipe for a Sweet Spiced Pumpkin Soup. While the soup sounded quite tasty, I wasn't sure that I was in the mood for sweet-- I was thinking more earthy spices and stick to your ribs kind of soup. So I started with some of the main ingredients and adapted as I went. The final outcome was just what I had hoped for-- a hearty soup that warmed me up and tasted absolutely fantastic. I amped up the curry powder just a bit to give it a little extra kick and it turned out perfectly! This will definitely be a recipe that I will come back to.


Spiced Pumpkin Soup

2 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped carrot
1 cup chopped celery
half of an onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
4 cups chicken broth
1 can of pumpkin
1 can of coconut milk
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
2 teaspoons yellow curry powder

In a large soup pot, melt butter. Add the carrots, celery, onion, and garlic and saute until the onions are transparent. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer until the carrots and celery are tender. Use a hand-held blender to blend the soup in the pot until smooth. If you don't have a hand-held blender, you can transfer small amounts of the soup at a time to a standard blender or food processor.

It has taken quite some time for me to prepare my holiday card collection this year. I never had any set block of time where I could really sit down and work on the designs I had floating around in my head. However, I can finally say that it is now ready (for the most part)! I still have a few more design ideas that I'll be working on this coming week, but for the time being I thought I would share what is currently available in the shop. I have included last year's designs in this year's collection as well because they have been tweaked a bit so that I am 100% satisfied with the final product. I have the cards listed as either singles or sets, so if you need a different quantity than what is listed, I am more than happy to accommodate! Here's a quick look at the full line of cards available in the holiday section in my shop.


I'm super excited to finally be finished with this project and share it with everyone! What do you all think?!

This past weekend, we went shopping. We don't go shopping very often, but when we do, we go all out and get the big staples that we need for our wardrobes. The time had come for Andrew to give a good ol' boost to his wardrobe. He was in desperate need of pants for work. He had shrunk a pair of khakis and a few sweaters in the wash (go figure). In addition, his best dress pants had been ripped this summer in a horrific bike crash. He and friend had been biking home from work together when a woman opened her car door right in front of Andrew. He quickly had to swerve, crashing and causing his friend to crash as well, and ripped a huge hole in the knee of his pants in the process. Regardless, a shopping trip was in order.

This is how Andrew shops: 1) Go to Gap and Banana Republic. 2) Try on one pair of pants at each location. 3) Declare the shopping trip as a failure. 4) Out of frustration and a final hope, go to Nordstrom Rack and buy dress shirts instead even if they aren't really needed.

The good thing? Number 3 didn't happen this time. Pants were bought at Gap and Express (oooh, a new store instead of Banana Republic!) and they were happy purchases. The bad thing? Number 4 still happened due to not having shirts that matched the new pants and due to shrunken sweaters that needed to be replaced.

Off to Nordstrom Rack we went and dress shirts and sweaters were picked out. However, each and every one of them needed to be tried on. I waited for about twenty minutes before I gave up all hope and assumed that Andrew had fallen into the depths of the dressing room for the rest of eternity and headed over to the women's section. I wasn't supposed to do this. You see, I am supposed to be on a bit of a shopping hiatus. It may have to do with the fact that I like shoes too much.

Off I went anyway with the intention of looking at sweaters for myself. Key word "looking." As I got to the first rack of sweaters, I noticed a familiar looking coral and red striped article of clothing. No, it couldn't be. But it was!

via Free People

The $108 sweater that I posted about last week was sitting on that rack, calling my name, for only $50. I know that this shopping trip wasn't supposed to be about me and that I was only allowed to buy things I needed (plain long sleeved shirts to layer under sweaters and a pair of jeans), but I didn't care. I was buying that sweater, damn it. And apparently, Andrew must have had the best shopping experience of his entire life, because he happily walked over to me as I clung to my sweater and told me that it was not only ok that I got the sweater, but that I could get another new pair of shoes too. Talk about luck!

P.S. If you haven't tried your luck at my most recent giveaway, there's still time to enter! You could win a $25 gift card to a super cute boutique and do some shopping of your own!

Sometimes you just need to write in order to feel better. I had every intention of writing one of those "Get out and vote!" posts this morning when something else came up. A stray dog arrived in our tree box. I am not sure where the dog came from other than the story from my neighbor that she wandered down the road before hopping into our tree box. Either way, she decided to hop into our tree box.

The dog, a beautiful boxer mix of some sort, curled up in the box as she shivered and shook. She was obviously very ill. My neighbor covered her with a blanket and brought her some food and water. I was unsure who to call, and finally, by way of twitter, was able to get in contact with a volunteer from BARCS, a local animal rescue. I sat on my stoop in my pajamas stroking the dog, just trying to make her more comfortable. She seemed to like that I was there and rested her head and closed her eyes when I pet her. She didn't seem to shake as much either. I sat there for nearly two hours waiting for animal control to arrive.

Animal control arrived and filled out transfer paperwork to take her to BARCS so that she could be treated. An hour after they had picked her up, they called me to let me know that she had tested positive for parvo and that she would have to be put down. This news broke my heart. How cruel that such a beautiful and young pup would have to suffer this way and meet this fate. I know that there was not anything that I could have done to prevent this outcome considering her condition, but I still can't help but be upset. The one thing that I do know, is that there was a reason that she hopped into our tree box this morning on election day when schools were closed and I had a day off from work. And the least I can say and be somewhat comforted by is to know that she was cared for in the last few hours of her life.

I know my post today is certainly not a happy one, but sometimes it just helps to write about things that make you sad. I promise that tomorrow I'll be back on a happier note. And as I had originally intended to tell you all-- get out and vote if you haven't already! I let my voice be heard and I hope you do too!

It is Saturday morning, and we all need some light reading. The head is foggy because you haven't yet had a full cup of coffee and you might still be stuffed from eating too much Indian food the night before (but it was sooooooo good!). Oh wait, that's my life I am telling you about. Either way, this is a story about a cat and his love affair with a toy. Meet Finn (if you haven't already).
Say hello to Finn's toy. (Ignore the dog hair on the floor. It's the latest home decor craze, didn't you know? And nearly impossible to get rid of.)
That doesn't look like a toy, you say? Well clearly you haven't had a cat before if that doesn't look like a toy. That, my friends, is a mangled plastic spout from a half and half container. It was ripped out of the container by Lilah, our resident chocolate lab, about six months ago. And from that moment on, it has been Finn's favorite toy.

Finn spent three months obsessing over this toy. It was by his side at all times. He would even cuddle with it while he would sleep.

He would carry the toy in his mouth around the house everywhere he went. He could not leave this toy out of his sight. Sometimes, he would lose the toy under the pantry or bedroom door and he would wait patiently by the door until we would open it for him so he could retrieve his beloved toy.

Then the tragic happened. After three months of his love affair with this toy, the toy suddenly vanished, nowhere to be found. We checked the pantry and the bedroom closets-- the usual culprits. For over a week, every time we would go near the pantry or bedroom closets, Finn would sit anxiously by the door awaiting the retrieval of his toy to no avail.  Finally, he gave up and two months later he found a new toy-- a red ring from an apple cider jug. This toy became a mediocre replacement for a few days until he gave up on it. We even tried to give him a new half and half container spout, but he didn't want it.

Five days ago, a miracle happened. Finn's favorite toy emerged from inside the box of garbage bags sitting in the pantry. How it got into the box in the first place is a mystery. However, the only thing that matters to Finn is that he has his toy back. He's back to his old obsessive ways-- pushing the toy under the pantry door, waiting for you to open the pantry door, and then swiping around the corner to retrieve his toy.
He carries it in his mouth, drops it next to Andrew's shoes, and stalks it from a distance before pouncing and going in for the kill.

And when he's not playing with his toy, he keeps an eye on it to make sure it is still there.
 And that, dear readers, is the story of Finn's love affair with a plastic spout from a half and half container. (I think our cat might need some psychiatric help.) The end.