(Autumn foliage from last season, 2008, on a much sunnier day)

Today’s weather report is suppose to be pretty much horrible.  Cold, rainy, grey, and even perhaps in some areas… snow.  Yep, already.  However, my husband and I have been waiting for us to have a day off together to go on a day trip and we’re going to take it, whether the climate is cooperating or not.  We’re still not sure where to, I think we’ll just pull out a map and see where the road takes us.  But somewhere either in the Berkshires or the White Mountains.  A hot cup of tea, a fully loaded iPod, and my sweetie at my side are all I really need.  Hopefully I’ll return on Monday with some interesting photos from our excursion around New England (although perhaps they won’t be the foliage type).

Have a lovely weekend.
xoxo

I’ve come across these invites before, but upon seeing them a second time I’m smitten all over again.  Charlotte & Justin’s invites from Ice Cream Social are so visually delicious… I am loving the apple and peach motif (a nod to the native New Yorker bride and Georgian groom) and adore the pattern used in the set.  The color is also perfect for a backyard summer wedding.  And the seersucker fabric is not only used on the invite, but is also the fabric used for the bridesmaid dresses.  After seeing how great these turned out, I’ll be adding a pinking rotary cutter to my tools wishlist!

{image shown belongs to Ice Cream Social}

I was grinning ear to ear reading SouleMama’s latest post about how to make applesauce.  The happenings that went on in that kitchen are too cute for words, and I love that something as simple as applesauce turns into a family event.  I was telling my sister only yesterday (who went picking recently and came home with 11 full pounds of apples) how simple it is to make applesauce (especially when you cooked more crisps, pies, etc. and you still have more apples).  Peel, slice, cook (add cinnamon if you wish) and ta-da!  Applesauce.  But having a few cute kids around is a great ingredient too!

{images shown belong to SouleMama}

While catching up on reading some of my favorite blogs, I came across the work of Carson Ellis (via rifle).  I’ve been wanting to do a post about an illustrator for some time now and I am really loving the line quality of Carson’s work.  She also has a beautiful way with watercolors, painting in soft hues which work well with her drawing style.  She also has a blog via her website.

{images shown belong to Carson Ellis}

This past weekend I finally got to bake a recipe I’ve been meaning to try for months.  It’s a healthier version of brownies from Body + Soul Magazine.  This recipe has 148 calories per serving (instead of 227), 5 g of fat (instead of 13 g!), 3 g of saturated fat (instead of 7 g), and 28 g of cholesterol (instead of the whooping 56 g).  It also has more fiber, having 2 g instead of 1 g.  It’s made with little butter, only one egg, whole wheat pastry flour, and instead of all the oil that’s usually in brownies, pureed sweet potato.  I do have to say, I love brownies (almost a little too much – I usually end up eating half the pan in one sitting) and to me these didn’t taste like the real thing, but it came close and satisfied that chocolate craving I was having late Friday night.  It was a little less dense and a little fluffier, almost like a chocolate cake than a real brownie, but was still yummy nonetheless.  Definitely give it a try next time you have a late night hankering for a little chocolate!

Fudge Brownies (from the April 2009 edition of Body + Soul Magazine)

{images shown belong to Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia}

These photos from bloom-grow-love on Flickr capture the type of feeling I have today on a grey, autumn day.  These particular images are from her Polaroid set, which is really lovely and has an atmospheric feeling to it.  The photographer, Alicia Bock, has a wonderful website to view as well.

{images shown belongs to bloom-grow-love and Alicia Bock}

Some really sumptuous food photographs from Anna Williams.  These particular ones definitely have an autumn feeling to them!

{images shown belong to Anna Williams}

There was some major swooning by me this morning when I came across 100 Layer Cake‘s post about their DIY Vintage Wallpaper idea for Project Wedding.  The project contains a few aspects, including wallpaper lined envelopes and wallpaper paper flowers.  As someone who’s worked with envelope liners before, I have to tell you that they couldn’t be easier.  And I’ve heard from a good friend that if you go to a paint supply store and ask for discontinued wallpaper that they’re trying to get rid of, they’ll often sell it to you for very little or even give it to you for free.  This would be a lovely way to put together an elegant notecard set as a holiday gift; not just a great idea for wedding invites.  And I can’t get over their color palette and patterns (and that calligraphy!) … simply lovely.

{images shown belong to 100 Layer Cake}

This morning I went outside to poke around the garden to see what was happening.  Not too much.  Fall is still slow on it’s entrance, but with the exception for the leaves of the strawberry plant there really is no burst of autumnal color yet.  The hydrangea still have blooms, although most are turning purple or have already died to wispy brown petals.  Most of the plants know that with the recent chilly evenings and cooler days not to produce anymore blooms (except for one rebel daisy, who apparently wants to hedge his bets).  I’m hoping that this fall we get a lot of good color since the last few years have been sort of a disappointing, muddy mix.  I’ll keep my eyes (and my camera) peeled for any good New England fall foliage.

{for more of my in the garden photos, check out my Flickr}

I love Red Velvet Cake, but I don’t like the heaping amounts of red food coloring they put in it (especially after discovering what’s really in food coloring), so this recipe I came across from Small Stump + Studio Choo’s Blog for a Velvet Cake made with beets sounds like one that I’ve got to try.  The recipe comes from the founder of Produce to the People‘s Lauren Anderson, and was also featured on Design*Sponge.  I wonder if my sister would mind me baking these for her upcoming birthday…

{image shown via Small Stump + Studio Choo}