Fall decor and crockpot dinners

 Happy Monday!

Another weekend has passed by so quickly that there was barely any time for enjoyment. My parents came over and while my mom and I got manicures and pedicures, dad and husband worked on the condo. Ha, so fair of me :)
I've been waiting for the day that I could get grey polish -- apparently it's just not appropriate for summer ;) So I was happy to get a beautiful grey on my nails. It just screams "fall" to me!

This is going to be a busy week (as always) with celebrating Rosh Hashanah on Wednesday, and finding some time to paint the bathroom, clean all of the windows, buy a smaller desk chair, put up and steam all of the new curtains, move the last items out that are cluttering things up and make it all cozy and minimalist at the same time ;) Not sure yet how that will pan out. I've finished the dining room (aside from the pile of boxes) and the second bedroom. I am in love. Wish I'd done this while I could enjoy it more, but it will be how our new home looks for sure. Husband has finally seen how delightful fall décor makes the home ... maybe I can buy more while it's still on sale (haha, he'd kill me for that one!)
Here are the dining room back table and the second bedroom photos (terrible lighting -- it was dusk).

 

Gosh that lighting ... but check our my gorgeous curtain work with the sheer in the middle!

 

My favourite part of the room. Fall, antique furniture and pumpkins!

 

Pumpkin spice and everything nice! I also added a little pumpkin beside the sign later that day

 

 

For the bouquet on the dining thing, it will go on the table. It's just waiting there for now. I couldn't find anything at Michaels that I liked (and that my picky husband thought was acceptable), so I decided to make my own bouquet. The guy in the floral department was kind enough to cut the flowers down for me, so it was all ready to go once I made my choices. I feel like these colours can be acceptable for any season, even though they have that rustic fall feel to them.

 

 

Pretty pretty flowers

 

Before I go, super proud of myself today. I set up the crockpot last night, and just whipped it out of the fridge this morning and it's ready to go! I'm not sure how it will turn out, but here's hoping! I had potatoes that were seasoned with the big Italian 3 (basil, parsley and oregano) and mixed them up with some evoo and minced garlic, then on top I put chicken with the big 3 plus onion powder and garlic powder which had been seared for a couple minutes on each side. When I get home I will add some kale for the last 30 minutes or so. I haven't used the crock pot in ages, so I'm a little worried but the convenience is huge so I hope this works and can become a regular thing!

Have a great start to the week! Happy Monday, friends!

Need more hours in the day

 

Time has not been on my side lately! Work has been crazy busy, as has life! We *may* actually be able to list next week. This weekend should finish everything off and then we wanted to have a cleaner in to do a deep scrubbing before the photos and everything.
Yesterday I had a volunteer meeting in the evening and very little time in between work and getting there. I had also had a fairly sedentary day with back to back meetings and was not even close to my needed steps for the day. So I made the decision to run a short run instead of no run at all. It was great because not only did I hit my steps, but I also felt better getting out there! My sinuses are still kind of blocked up and I still have a cough, but otherwise I'm definitely on the road to recovery, and getting back to the fitness is a good way to get there. Also, new running shoes always make things more exciting!
I'm heading to the gym tonight. Not sure yet what I plan to do, but I'll have a plan before I get there.
This step bet is really keeping me on track. It's much harder than I thought it would be. We have already lost 35 participants and it's only the second week (and last week, as the warm up, didn't count).

Tomorrow is our very last CSA delivery (as I mentioned in Monday's post). Go figure this is the week they remember to send out the info as to what's in the order. No surprise veggies this time! Thankfully, we aren't getting carrots. Still have 2.5 bags left. Sigh.

Tonight I am making Bruschetta Spaghetta from Daily Dose of Pepper's website. It looks and sounds delicious, so I'm pretty excited! I will try to remember to take a picture and post it tomorrow. I (of course) failed to take a picture of our dinner on Monday when I made the Autumn skillet (link in Mondays post), but I will say that it was delicious, incredibly easy and definitely is something I'll make again. I also made a Cajun spice sauce to go with it (because I need sauce for everything) and that just took it over the top. My husband did a snapchat of it, so I'll post his silly photo here. Ignore the text. Also, it's blurry because it was a video. Ah well.
I realize it isn't actually very pretty, so you'll just have to make it and believe me that it's worth it. I used sausage, potato, carrots, yellow squash, green squash, mushrooms and Cajun spice. I sautéed the sausage first in a bit of olive oil, then added the veggies, another good drizzle of olive oil and covered it up and just let it cook for about 30 mins. Easy peasy. Also smelled so good! These recipe websites are keeping me motivated

 

 

Oh and in VERY exciting news, I FINALLY found a set of curtains that works in our second bedroom (still with the sheer for added bulk in the middle). It only took 4 (5?) different sets, lots of swearing and dropping curtains rods, some marks on the wall that will need to be painted over and too many trips to BB&B than I'd care to admit. Now, our building has a very strict rule that curtains have to have a white backing ... these do not. I do not care. Fingers crossed no one notices before we move. I'll take my blue-backed DKNY curtains with me if I have to, but they're staying up for now. No photo. Maybe tomorrow.
Yes, curtains are incredibly exciting to me right now.

Happy Thursday. Tomorrow I will be back for Friday favourites - lots to share this week!

Back to school, back to fall

Yesterday was the first day of school for many and Fall has definitely been in the air. There's still something magical about the back to school feeling and the way the air smells.

So even though I'm not "back to school" I can still enjoy my own September-based nostalgia.

The weekend was a busy one for sure. We saw lots of friends and family and had some great times. One of my friends really outdid herself with an amazing BBQ - the food was unreal. She's one of the few people who can make pinterest-inspired food actually turn out the way its intended. So delish!

Everything was gluten free, including the croutons on the salad. Homemade croutons!

We also did some more packing and storage. I'm always amazed at how much I can fit into my little car. The hatchback is ugly but it definitely has more space (I only got a hatchback so my bike would fit - priorities!)

My dad is coming over next weekend to help with the finishing touches and then we should be ready to go. It's just small stuff now - we've finally got the bulk of the stuff out. I set up the second bedroom bed yesterday and you can't even tell that it's an air mattress instead of a real one. Just need to steam those curtains out now and add some bulk. Our windows are just ridiculously wide -- I don't understand who thought those were a good idea. So standard curtains just looks sad and sparse (as you can see). I'm going to buy sheer panels to add in the middle and it should look nice and full. I have hope that one day I will have a week where I do not have to go to bed bath and beyond and curtains and packing are only a distant memory.

Yesterday was go-go-go with a day full of meetings, a new haircut and colour (bye bye greys) and dinner with a friend who is going to be several hours away for a few weeks. It was also a day where I didn't have time for a workout and I ate two meals out (ick! Always try to avoid that). Tonight I have a run on the schedule and tomorrow the gym. The weather is cooling down enough that I'm willing to consider hot yoga again, but I just don't like the location I'm at right now. Unfortunately, my whole reasoning behind my membership was the fact that I was getting the gym, pool and hot yoga in one membership for less than I was paying for all three separate. Sigh. I'll have to suffer in silence for now #firstworldproblems

My last open water swim was this past Saturday and IT.WAS.COLD! We have been fortunate to have lovely water temperatures this whole season, but Saturday it was windy and the water was freezing and wavy. Every time I lifted my face to breath, I got a mouthful of water. So gross. While I was standing outside, freezing my butt off and trying to wiggle into my wetsuit, I definitely wondered why I do this to myself. Of course, afterwards it's a different story. It's true what they say about the only workout you'll ever regret is the one you didn't do. So I'm glad I went, cold as it was. Oddly enough, I stopped dreading the OWS after the breathing thing was sorted and actually enjoyed myself. I'm sure next season will start with some anxiety around getting back into the open water, but who knows, maybe I'll surprise myself after swimming all fall and winter. Now it's time to patch up all the holes I put in my wetsuit this year and pack it away for next year. Now husband can stop complaining about finding it in the shower. Unfortunately the goggles and swimcaps in the sink aren't going anywhere anytime soon ;)

It's the perfect time of year for running, so I'm really looking forward to tonight. I'm feeling a slight burning in my throat so hopefully I'm not getting sick.

Hope all of your Wednesdays were splendid! The weekend is almost upon us again!