My Fall Balcony

In addition to adding some fall flavor to inside the apartment, I also added a little bit to outside. I wish I could use my real pumpkins out there, but I was afraid they would fry up in in the sun and rot really quickly. I am not sure if these pumpkins are for outdoor use either, but they have been outside for nearly 2 months and are holding up well. they have a good weight but aren't too heavy so I haven't had any issue with them toppling over in the wind.

All my herbs are doing really well right now. I think that it being less hot out (but still hot..) has been good for them. I also recently added some radicchio, but it's too soon to see if it will last out here.

Fall Arrangements

Fall is my favorite season. Sadly, the weather just gets slightly less hot and less humid here, and we don't have any beautiful foliage to look at, but I still like to bring some of the season alive with some fall themed decor and flower arrangements.

This year I became obsessed with heirloom pumpkins, but I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to find any anywhere. Lucky me we have a big nursery near us that sells them, even luckier for me is that I didn't buy them at the nursery and found them for less than 7 bucks at both Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. I incorporated them into some of my fall arrangements on my table.

How incredible are these marigolds? They were HUGE. I am also loving the eucalyptus.

This one is a bit of a cheat, I did get a pre-arranged bouquet from TJs (couldn't resist that awesome protea) and then I added some orange mums. 

I actually got 2 weeks out of the previous arrangement, and then I combined some of the pieces with the above arrangement. The orange mums lasted 3 weeks!

This arrangement isn't really fall themed like the others, but I needed to add something to my stack of pumpkins and I scored 2 dozen light peach roses for $10 while looking for florals for my friend's upcoming wedding. Sadly in just 3 weeks I will be putting up my Christmas decor and pumpkin season will be a distant memory, so I need to enjoy my pumpkins while I still can!

Healthy Pumpkin Spice Latte

I used to love pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks, but these days I try to only drink coffee from our french press and stay far away from sugar so I can't indulge. Thankfully there is a healthier and organic way to enjoy my pumpkin spice lattes at home, and they don't even take too much work.

Ingredients: 

1 cup prepared coffee

1 cup milk

1tablespoon canned pumpkin

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (+ more for topping)

sweetener of choice to taste (I add agave)

(optional) whipped cream to top

Directions:

1. Heat milk and pumpkin in saucepan until warm/steaming

2. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla and pumpkin pie spice until frothy

3. Divide coffee into 2 cups then pour milk mixture over each

4. Sweeten to taste, top with whipped cream (homemade if possible!) and additional pumpkin pie spice

(Re)Arrangement: Mums and Spray Carnations

My arrangement from a few posts below lasted me a good 2 weeks. The daisies and queen anne's lace were not looking so fresh anymore, so I tossed them an arranged the carnations and mums. The mums have a few more days left in them, but the carnations probably have a week or more, so I will probably transfer them to some bud vases after the mums die. Both mums and carnations get so much milage for such a low price - even on their own I think you can make an elegant statement.

American Pie (Healthier Version)

I think I must have been inspired by all the cute pies on pinterest, because last weekend when my husband and I were browsing Sur La Table, I decided that I was going to make a pie. To hold me to my pie-making, we bought a pie pan so I HAD to do it.

I searched for recipes all week, learned how to make good crust, and tried to find a good filling recipe. I decided to take a little bit of what I learned from several different sources, wing it, and do my own thing - and it actually came out good!

The first thing we wanted to do was use whole wheat flour, we also didn't want to use any refined sugar. Thirdly, no pie-filling in a can junk - there are so many fruits in season right now that there is no reason to not use beautiful fresh berries. I also wanted to make one of those cute American flag pies, but all the recipes I found for it required using aluminum foil to divide the blue and red. We try to not use aluminum foil, so I had to come up with an alternative solution.

Whole Wheat Pie Crust:

2.5 cups white whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks salted butter, cut into small chunks
1/4 cup ice water
1/8 cup vodka (ours was from the freezer so really cold)

1. Mix the flower, salt, and butter by pulsing a few times in blender.
2. Add the water and vodka, pulse until you press together a few pieces and a dough consistency forms
3. Place dough in a bowl, mix with hands and flatten into 2 disks
4. Place dough into plastic bags and let sit in freezer for about an hour
5. Roll out your dough, place into pie pan. Let sit in fridge for 15 minutes before adding your filling.

American Pie:

Whole wheat pie crust (above)
3 cups strawberries
1 cup blueberries
1/4 cup cornstarch
a few tablespoons of agave (or preferred sweetener) to taste
melted butter for topping

1. Place berries into separate bowls
2. Divide cornstarch into the two bowls
3. Add agave to each fruit bowl and mix, let sit for 10 minutes
4. With the extra dough, roll out, use a pizza cutter to cut several strips, and a star shaped cookie cutter (or you know, just a knife like me) and cut out a few stars
5. Take a strip of dough and line 1/4 of pie with it (photo below) to make a dough wall, add some blueberries (to the top of the dough line)
6. Add strawberries, starting at the dough wall and working out (to keep the dough wall standing)
7. Fill in the rest of the blueberries
8. Add first stripe starting right below the blueberry line
9. Add the stripes below to the bottom of the pie
10. Add a vertical stripe to the right to line the blueberry area
11. Add small stripes from blueberry area to the right of the pie
12. Add stars over blueberries
13. Brush with melted butter
14. Bake at 350 for 1 hour

Here you can see the dough wall separator I used (vs. foil)

Some Stars came out better than others...

All assembled

All done!

You can add some homemade whipped cream for some added goodness

Balcony Update

One day my husband and I would love to have an amazing garden, but right now we are just working with a very small outdoor space. I decided to take our sad outdoor space and spruce it up over Memorial Day Weekend.

This is what it looked like before, a very overgrown succulent garden in one corner, and 2 chairs, and a small table in the other. I don't think it was terrible, but it could use some sprucing up. The azalea was added during the redesign, so it didn't even have that yet.

We started with adding an herb garden:

The photo on the right is from the first day we planted the herbs: cilantro, Italian flat leaf parsley, dill, mint, and basil. The second photo is from this week, so a little over a month later. The basil fried pretty quickly so we had to get rid of it. The cilantro is flowering and seeding right now, after a few brushes with death. The other three are growing great! We get morning sun so it's a good amount for all these plants.

Since they were overgrowing and their roots were coming out all over the place, I replanted the succulents, which was actually really easy, and fun because I could do my own design. All you do is cut a few inches of root with the plant and place in to new soil. These are doing really well too! Also, how cute is this planter that can hang over the balcony?

Last was sprucing up the seating area. We now enjoy coming out here in the evenings to sit after I water the plants.

This Week's Floral Arrangement: Pink Gerbera Daisies and Queen Anne's Lace

Pink, white, and green always looks great together. When I saw these amazing light pink gerbera daisies at the flower shop this week I had to have them. I'm also a fan of big, full mums, they are cheap and last a long time usually. Football mums are my favorite, but these are great too and last longer. I added some queen anne's lace and some spray carnations for the green and put together this arrangement worthy of a fancy event, or you know, just beautifying the apartment for our enjoyment. The best part? The cost of flowers were less than $25.

Quaint Travel: St. Augustine, FL

Although this blog is primarily focused on homemaking hobbies - floral design, entertaining, cooking, etc. I also wanted to add a series on Quaint Vacations. My husband and I love going to places where we can just walk around, browse cute shops, stay in old Bed and Breakfasts, and eat good food - so much that we even planned our honeymoon in same fashion. It all started 2 years ago when we visited St. Augustine, FL for a wedding. We haven't gone back yet, but we can't wait.

The Cedar House Inn is the best Bed and Breakfast I have ever stayed in. I know St. Augustine is full of other Bed and Breakfasts, but I don't think I could ever bring myself to try another one in town since we loved the Cedar House Inn so much!

The breakfast was incredible, and they accommodated my dietary needs.

Beyond the breakfast, they also have wine, port, and cookies out every night. The cookies are to die for and oftentimes they were still warm!!!

There are so many things to do in town, we only scratched the surface during our short weekend there (with a wedding to attend too!) but we mostly enjoyed just walking around. We visited the winery in town, but Florida wine is very sweet for our tastes. We did like the port and enjoy a bottle at home here and there when we come across a bottle.The fort is a must see too, I thought it would be boring but we actually had a great time there!