bringing a little joy to my life

I have to thank Josh for introducing me to Little Joy. This band is one of the best I've heard in quite some time. Thank god for new, good music! "Don't Watch Me Dancing" is my new favorite song. It kind of reminds me of "After Hours" by the Velvet Underground (love it!).

wrap it up

It's a holiday tradition in my household to drag The Husband to the Container Store, where in the parking lot he has a mini-mental breakdown whilst fighting over parking spots. Once inside, he follows me around as I hunt aimlessly for the ideal wrapping paper for the season. He huffs and puffs as I go, "hmmm" and, "What do you think of this one?" It's a festive annual excursion indeed. These were some of my favorites from this year's expedition:

2009, here we come

I'm swooning over this 2009 calendar by one of my favorite Etsy sellers, Modern Printed Matter. It's gorgeous, is it not? I'm a sucker for letterpress and just about anything related to stationary. I love the large numbers standing in for the months.

welcome home

Finally (finally!) we have a new front door. I kid you not when I say that when we moved into our mid-century rancher, the first thing I said I was going to remove was the front door. It had an oval (ick) window with gold-inlaid (ick) detailing. The door knob was also gold (ick ick). Now, four years later, we've finally found a front door that not only matches the historical integrity of the house but is so much more aesthetically pleasing. The Husband installed it with the help of my handy grandfather with minimal cussing. We painted it "andiron," a hue by the folks over at Martha Stewart. I love my new door. It's gorgeous, isn't it?

pumpkin bread batch #1

My first batch of pumpkin bread this season was a success, and I can thank my Kichen Aide Mixer. I love it straight out of the oven with it's warm and fluffy inside and crunchy, sugary outside. However, I do have a fondness for the day-old-pumpkin-bread snack. After it's been wrapped in foil overnight, it morphs into a cool, moist dessert--especially with a dollop of whipped cream. (I've even been known to grab a slice for breakfast as I'm running out the door each morning.) Pumpkin bread is, I've decided, in my top 10 list of favorite things about the holidays.

homage to the pumpkin

When I was a child, autumn had not officially begun until my Mom would bake pumpkin bread from scratch. I'd watch her pour all the ingredients into the mixture, from ground cloves and cinnamon to flour and eggs, and then my brother and sister and I would wait impatiently for an hour for the bread to bake. We luckily had a new loaf to devour almost every weekend. She still makes the pumpkin bread, though probably not quite as often, as the kids have moved out now and are attempting to make pumpkin bread loaves of our own.

Last Christmas, The Husband bought me a Kitchen Aide mixer, and I couldn't wait to use it to make a batch of pumpkin bread. However, the fall season was over, and I wasn't about to break the seasonal tradition by making pumpkin bread past Christmas. So I've waited, and not finding anything else worthy of my semi-culinary genius, the mixer has sat unused in the cupboard. I have since been reminded of my neglect, so we went to the grocery store, where I procured all the necessary ingredients to make pumpkin bread. I'll post the results here.

The photo above is an image of the white pumpkin (also called a "Casper") that I got from Central Market. I love these pale pumpkins. It's been the centerpiece on my dining room table all season.

leafy residential

Autumn in Texas goes quickly. One day it's summer, and then suddenly the leaves are golden and on the ground. Sometimes, the trees skip the golden part completely and morph from green to brown. If you want to see fall in Texas, you must look quick, for after a good thunderstorm, the trees are left bare and it's suddenly winter. This unfortunate fact is a sad one for someone like me, who looks forward to fall so much. This week the trees on our property have dumped tons of happy little leaves all over our St. Augustine grass. I couldn't help but stand in the middle of them and take a few photographs.

yes we can