changing seasons

I've been busy!
My mom visited for a week...we miss you, Grammy! Then my besties came out for a long weekend...woohoo!! And then we headed out for a mini vacay in the Upper Peninsula...so fun!

And in all of the excitement, the weather changed.
We had a week of fall, then it was hot - so hot I almost sent Mr. Three to preschool in shorts - and now I'm pretty sure the cooler temps are here to stay.

So I feel like I should finally swap from my summer bag to my fall purse.

summer canvas, traveling purse, leather for fall!

I feel like swapping purses is the final change of the season.

How do you mark the passing seasons? 

What bag are you carrying this fall?

my new favorite chocolate frosting

Because I am *positive* you need more chocolate in your life, I am joining Amanda's Weekend Bloggy Reading link party at Serenity Now. 

On Sun. I whipped up a batch of chocolate cupcakes. And I was planning on making cream cheese frosting, but I keep whole sticks of butter in the freezer.
Do you do that?
It seems like a great idea, but then whenever I need butter for baking I have to either think about the butter ahead of time (what?!) or wait forever for it to thaw on the counter.
Don't try to microwave your frozen butter.
It never ends well.
Ever.

nom nom nom

So I pulled out the butter and let it thaw while the cupcakes baked.
But that's not enough time...not even close.
So I was becoming more and more impatient, and I totally did eat a naked cupcake and it was just NO GOOD.
And then I looked at the box of cocoa powder.

The clouds parted and angels sang...the simple recipe on the box calls for melted butter.

cuppie cakes

"Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting

*taken directly from the cheap-o box of Hershey's Cocoa*

1/2 c. butter (ok, it says "or margarine" but promise me you will never make this with anything but real butter)

2/3 c. unsweetened cocoa

3 c. powdered sugar

1/3 c. milk

1 t. vanilla extract

*Melt butter. Stir in cocoa.

*Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating on med. speed to spreading consistency. Add more milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla.

Makes about 2 c.

blurry baby - he doesn't like to hold still, and I think someone touched the lens

My notes:
I made this in a large sauce pot, and I skipped using the mixer (didn't want to destroy the inside of my pot, and didn't want to dirty another bowl). It came together really easily and has an almost fudge-like consistency (which is pretty awesome). I added the vanilla when I added the last bit of milk (I thought it would be sort of hard to evenly mix in the vanilla otherwise). If you did use an electric mixer the frosting would probably be a bit fluffier, but the fudgieness is so yummm...I'm not sure I'll ever make this with a mixer. I also had more than I needed to frost 24 cupcakes - but I didn't pile on the frosting...it's really rich, you probably wouldn't want to anyway.

he prefers to clean his own face. thankyouverymuch.

Where do you keep your butter?

What's you favorite frosting?

a space for ME, getting settled, day 8

Last week our tv, internet and phones were out for more than 12 hours.
It put a major damper on my normal nap time routine - sit on the couch and eat cookies while watching DVR'd episodes of Teen Mom and Donna Decorates Dallas. And I actually had to do something productive to keep from going crazy while the boys napped.
What?! Work!! EEK!

I decided to dig into my office...or what will be my office.
Here it is on the day we moved in.

Hey! It looks like no one lives here!

It's a little, square room off of the living room.
It (conveniently) has french doors, which are really necesarry because it's become a dumping ground while we've settled in.

Oh, wait. People do live here, hoarders, obviously.

So I got to work.
Removed the major stuff that was going into storage.
The pile of boxes (because all of my friends just had babies! squee!).
And started sorting through stuff.

oohh...sorting baskets...i loves them

About halfway through I almost gave up.

halfway there...just keep going!

Then I realized that if I just stuck everything back into the room, I would have effectively wasted my energy.
Not cool.
Back to work.

This is clean enough.

Clean enough to set up this little corner!

That's the garage sale chair I scored for $25! And a little GW shelf that I plan on painting ($14), complete with my Missoni tote.
And...do you see it?
My PRIZE!!!

gnomie love <3

Amazing ceramic gnome lamp, courtesy of my MIL, who found him at an estate sale and knew I had to have him :)
Thanks Rita!!! He looks pretty happy here, I think we will keep him :)

I still have work to do in my office.
But for now it works, I can blog in here, pay bills, hide from screaming children.
You know, all of the important stuff.

And I have a gnome.
And really, that's the most important part.