Fall Fabric Wreath

With autumn now in full swing I’ve seen loads of cute, festive wreaths on neighborhood doors and all over the blog-o-sphere. While I don’t know if I trust putting one outside our front door (we do live in Oakland, you know), I really want to make one to display somewhere our the apartment. I even made it a goal before the end of 2010. 

I love fall colors. So much so that I literally gasp when I see a tree decked out in it's best fall colors. B claims that I will go into sensory overload if I ever go to the East coast in the Fall (true that). However, I wasn't sure I wanted to go the silk leaf route with my wreath. Maybe just incorporate the beautiful colors. 

When I saw this wreath + tutorial by one of my favorite bloggers, Elise, I knew that's exactly what I wanted to make!  Using a hanger, fabric and ribbons I made this lovely fall wreath: 

The hardest part of making this wreath was picking out the fabrics - so many awesome fabrics to choose from. After going to three different stores, I settled on these fabrics and ribbons. While I realize there are no purple or pink fall leaves, I liked the way they complimented the others colors much better than red. 

I cut all the strips of fabric and ribbon 7 inches long. I measured the width of the fabric using the width of the ruler. I cut 20-25 strips of each color. Once all my pieces were cut and organized, I got to tying. 

Here is the wreath 20 minutes later, before I twisted the knots so that the wreath had more dimension. To complete, I added the orange polka dot ribbon to be able to hang the wreath.

And here's what happens to your black pants while you're tying all that fabric. It looks like I was attacked by a large, colorful cat. 

The fall wreath is now happily hanging in our hallway. I love how it turned out and the splash of fall its added to our apartment! 

Personalized Wedding Gift: Picture Frames

Last summer when we visited Chicago, I fell in love with this photo collage in Emily and Ryan's guest room.  

I even went to the boutique and looked through all the letters but couldn't settle on anything I loved enough to have it spelled out. B also pointed out that it would be fun to take our own pictures if we were to do this. Genius - I love a good D.I.Y. project!

Inspired by their Chicago collage and a photo idea I saw earlier this year, I suggested to B that we personalize their wedding gift. My idea was take photos of pretty, artistic numbers of their wedding date (10-16-10). I also wanted to somehow incorporate a picture of Hyde (their last name) street in San Francisco. We ended up taking a bunch of different pictures and settled on these as our favorites:

OCT from a concert venue sign in Chico
16th Street in Sacramento
2010 address in Sacramento
the corner of Hyde and Francisco in San Francisco

I searched their registry and picked two frames from Pottery Barn, which happened to also be on sale! Using Picassa, I made several versions of each picture with different tones and filters. I'm happy I printed multiple versions, because on the computer I loved the black and white (like their Chicago collage), but in the frames the Sepia tone looked the best. 

And here is the final product wrapped up, tied with ribbon and ready to be carried on planes, trains and taxi cabs! 

We included a note with the frames explaining our inspiration for the gift, the extra copies of the photos (in case they prefer the B&W) and also a disclaimer that we won't be offended if they use their new frames for say, their gorgeous professional wedding photos. We had fun taking the pictures and have no doubt they'll appreciate the thoughtful gesture. 

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Imagine my delight when I saw this awesome wordle collage at their rehearsal dinner. One of the bridesmaids made it as a wedding gift. It includes words and dates from the first day they met (at CareerBuilder, Ryan was on the panel that interviewed Emily!) up to their wedding day, 10-16-10. Another great gift idea!

Summer Squash and Corn Chowder

Each week as I make my grocery store list, I flip through my recipe book and pull out 2-3 meal ideas. I never plan what days we will have the meals, I just purchase the ingredients to have on hand for the week. Then I put the recipes on the fridge for when I need them. This is my new routine, since moving in with B. It's working out really well and keeps me from wandering the grocery store aisles thinking "what the heck should I make for dinner?" Plus, I have the chance to keep trying new recipes. 

Here's what we ate this week:
Sunday: Gnocchi with Roasted Cauliflower
Monday: Summer Squash and Corn Chowder 
Tuesday: Pumpkin Pancakes (mix from TJ's) with fruit smoothies
Wednesday: Chicken Taco Salad
Thursday: Beef Stir Fry

The Summer Squash and Corn Chowder was my new recipe for this week (#10 of my 10x2010 personal challenge). I knew B would love the corn, he is an Iowan after all. The summer squash was a delicious addition to an otherwise average corn chowder! And how can you resist a healthy recipe that includes cheddar and bacon on top? Although I try to steer clear of dairy, I went ahead and used regular milk over soy milk. Next time I will definitely make it with Lactaid milk, as suggested by Kaci. 

Summer Squash and Corn Chowder

Ingredients
2  slices applewood-smoked bacon
3/4  cup  sliced green onions, divided
1/4  cup  chopped celery
1  pound  yellow summer squash, chopped
1  pound  frozen white and yellow baby corn kernels, thawed and divided
2 1/4  cups  1% low-fat milk, divided 
1  teaspoon  chopped fresh thyme
1/2  teaspoon  salt
1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
1/8  teaspoon  salt
1/4  cup  (1 ounce) shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese

Preparation

1. Cook bacon in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving 2 teaspoons drippings in pan. Crumble bacon, and set aside. Add 1/2 cup onions, celery, and squash to drippings in pan; sauté 8 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

2. Reserve 1 cup corn; set aside. Place the remaining corn and 1 cup milk in a blender; process until smooth. Add remaining 1 1/4 cups milk, thyme, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper to blender; process just until combined. Add pureed mixture and reserved 1 cup corn to pan. Reduce heat to medium; cook 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated, stirring constantly. Stir in 1/8 teaspoon salt. Ladle about 1 1/2 cups soup into each of 4 bowls; top each serving with about 1 tablespoon bacon, 1 tablespoon remaining onions, and 1 tablespoon cheese.

Serves 4

Enjoy!