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12.21.2014

Pretzel Caramel Pecan Treats

This recipe is super easy, tastes great, and I've already received tons of compliments on them.  I thought of these chocolate caramel and pecan turtle cluster recipe while making the super popular pretzel/hug/m&m treats, so I got a little creative and came up with these pretzel caramel pecan treats.  As we know, I'm super good at food photos (not), so don't judge a recipe by the photos.
+Pretzels
+Bag 'o' caramel candy
+Pecan halves
+1-2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips
+1/4-1/2 a stick of butter

1. preheat oven to 300 degrees
2. half the caramel candies 
3. lay out pretzels on a foiled cookie sheet (do not use wax paper, the caramel sticks)
4. place a caramel half on each pretzel
5. put cookie sheet in oven for approximately 6 minutes
6. remove cookie sheet and place a pecan half on each pretzel/caramel combo and push it in
7. melt semi-sweet chocolate chips and butter in microwave (about 2-3 minutes stirring every 30 seconds)
8. drizzle chocolate on pretzel/caramel/pecan combo
9. place in refrigerator for an hours or so
10.  take treats out of fridge and let them get to room temperature before enjoying.  Don't eat them straight from the fridge!  That will make you think you've made a terrible mistake and want to scrap the whole project.
I'd love to hear from you if you make these pretzel caramel pecan treats... or if you have a better name for them.  If you're looking for more quick and easy treats to make for the holidays, check out this family favorite recipe for Pistachio Bark.


12.19.2014

Inspiration: Weaving II

Here is a follow up from yesterday's post with some more weaving inspiration.  I mostly find new artists from Instagram and looking through hashtags like #weaving, so that is why these posts are pretty IG heavy.

I recently came across Courtney and Nicky from Warped Threads on Instagram.  I didn't realize there were two different people behind Warped Threads until I was writing this post, but it helps explain the range of colors and designs that are offered in their Etsy shop.  I love their feed because there is so much diversity among their pieces.  Here are a couple favorites:






Another Instagrammer that I love following along with is ShopHelloChiqui.  She shares some great weavings of her own, regrams of other artists, quick video tutorials, and updates from her shop.


That's it for now. I'm sure as I dive deeper into the world of weaving I'll find some more inspiration to share and I'll eventually share some of my own (working full time and trying to get photos in natural light has proved to be a challenge).  If I don't make it back here next week, Happy Holidays!

12.18.2014

Inspiration : Weaving

It has been a quite a while since I've shared an inspiration post, but my inspiration has been all over the place lately.  Maybe it is just all of the blogs I read, but weaving just came out of nowhere and is starting to gain traction.  It's a great way to add texture and art to a room at the same time.

I was reintroduced to weaving by Rachel from Smile and Wave.  She has been doing some weavings lately that are so fun.  I love seeing them together as a collection.  She also gives some weaving tutorials over on A Beautiful Mess (see here and here)


Maryann Moodie has some amazing weavings.  I creeped on her Instagram way back when and found some of her first weavings from more than two years ago.  Seeing her first pieces and seeing how she has developed is really encouraging for a beginner like me.  I pretty much screenshot every instagram she posts and save it for inspiration.  Here is one of her collections and a couple of my favorite pieces:


A photo posted by Maryanne Moodie (@maryannemoodie) on

A photo posted by Maryanne Moodie (@maryannemoodie) on



I love the color combinations she picks. To learn more about her, check our her Etsy shop, her house tour on Etsy, and a day in the Life of Maryanne Moodie on Design Sponge

Another one of my favorite weavers to follow on Instagram is Melissa Washin.  Maryann Moodie shared a shot of Melissa's weavings a couple months ago on Instagram and I have been following along ever since.  When I was creeping on her Instagram, I found some of her first weavings and they were only from 11 months ago.  Seriously?!  She's only done this for 11 months and she is this good?! Here are some of my favorites:





I think the 'siblings' in the last picture are my favorite.  I love that they coordinate and I like the threads of green and blue in the fringe.  Check out her Etsy shop for more.

As I'm exploring on Instagram, I'm finding more and more artists that I'm loving their work and I'll probably have another post of weavings and artists that I'm inspired by.  I still need to photograph the pieces that I just finished, but stay tuned for some pictures of those in the near (probably after Christmas) future.  Have you been noticing a weaving trend lately?  Or is it just me?

12.10.2014

Life These Days

Life feels so frantic lately, like there is so much going on and there isn't time to fit everything in the day. Even on the calmest day I still feel like my mind is going a mile a minute. Maybe it's the time of year, or maybe I just have too many ideas and not enough time.
We've traded in our evening walks for cuddles and creating. I miss the sun and spending time outdoors every evening with my girl, but I know that this is just a season.
Since we have been spending so much time inside, we've had to come up with some more activities for Cora to do. I pulled out some of my smaller canvases and foam brushes and let this girl go wild. It was fun to watch her realize that she could move this blob around and the color would spread. She tries to eat the paint and cries if she gets too much paint on her body, but overall it is a fun activity. She moves from using the 'wrong' side of the brush to the foam part to using her fingers. It is so beautiful to watch her make art uninhibited when I have spent my life being trained to follow the rules and continually assess and plan whenever I'm creating.
Maybe I'm inspired by Cora or maybe some other spark has been lit inside me, but I have had so much motivation to create in the last month or two. I've had so many ideas and I'm trying to find any spare minute I can to bring my ideas to life. Just in the last week, I finished a large weaving (more on that in another post), started another weaving for a Christmas present, made a hat from an old sweater for Cora (below), and started painting again. Hopefully this motivation continues through the winter because it has been so fun for my family to create together and encourage each other in our individual passions.
Since a lot of the things we've been working on are for Christmas, I can't share pictures for another couple weeks, but there should be lots of eye candy and posts coming your way.

11.03.2014

Life With Cora : 18 Months

Since my last update, we went on our first vacation as a family (see herehereherehere, and here), Cora has added a lot of words to her vocabulary, she has become a dancing machine (see herehereherehere, here, and here), and she loves to explore now more than ever.
Probably 90% of the photos on my phone are of Cora on our walks (see more here and here).  This is a special time that I get to spend one-on-one with her and she really comes alive when she gets to explore and observe nature.  She loves to try and sneak away from me by running down the sidewalk and going onto our neighbor's steps.  She always glances back with a mischievous grin to make sure I'm trying to catch her.

It is unbelievable how quickly Cora's vocabulary develops.  Somedays I come home from work and she has added a couple words to her repertoire in the 9 hours I was away.  My favorite thing she says is 'happy'.  She uses it at different times when she is telling us she is happy, saying it when she wants to be happy but isn't (diaper changes), or checking to see if we're happy.  
We have a lot of books laying around our apartment so Cora has access to a book whenever she wants to read.  Throughout the day, she'll grab a book and nuzzle up to us to read.  Sometimes she takes charge and flips the pages and babbles through the story as if she is reading. 
Cora and Clove have the sweetest little friendship.  I love watching them follow each other around and play together.  Wherever Clove is lounging, you will find Cora right there cuddling with her.
 
See more Life With Cora posts here or follow me on Instagram to see more day-to-day life with Cora.

10.14.2014

Fall Walks With Cora

I've mentioned this before, but Cora and I try to get out on a walk on our street almost every day. Some days our walks last 5 minutes and some days I have to drag Cora in for dinner.  Yesterday, was one of those drag-Cora-in-for-dinner days, but I'm not complaining.  Cora finds so much excitement in ever little thing.  Cora got so excited to see a squirrel sitting on the fence that we paused for a couple minutes to watch it sit there and run around, then we focused our attention on a single leaf falling from a tree.  She also crouched down and squawked as she searched for noisy birds in the bushes.  It is so fun to experience things through the eyes of a child. Fall has brought so many fun things to discover and I'm looking forward to more fall activities.





Follow along on Instagram to see more #walkswithcora and progress on my current project

10.02.2014

Fall Leaves

It all started during my first year of college...  We had an assignment in our color class to collect leaves and create a collage.  This was always one of my favorite projects because it involved nature and color (and positive feedback from my professor and classmates always helps).  We collected leaves for a couple weeks and I used pages I pulled out from my hoard of National Geographic magazines.  Below is the project that I turned in.  The photo quality is poor because these photos are from 7 years ago, but tilt your head to the left and you get the gist of what it looked like when it was hanging up for critique... that and the one on the bottom (far right) is supposed to be flipped 180 degrees.
Now every year when fall rolls around, I always find myself walking with my eyes searching through the leaves on the ground for that perfect leaf.  Clove and I went on a walk while Cora was napping and I took the extra baby-free time to collect a couple leaves, remember my days in art school, and snap some pictures.





9.18.2014

Walks With Cora

One of my favorite activities to do with Cora is going on evening walks together.  She loves to look at all of the sticks, rocks, acorns, and leaves on the sidewalk and always picks a treasure to carry in each hand.  Yesterday, we shared our evening walk with Pops and his neighbors.  We reached this field during golden hour and took the opportunity to snap a couple shots of Cora and her friend.






9.10.2014

Ten on Ten

The purpose of Ten on Ten is supposed to be a challenge to find the beauty in the every day.  I always feel like my Ten on Ten posts are boring on work days because I sit at my desk most of the day, but that's why it's called a challenge.  So here we go with another day in the life of Haley:



 1 morning cuddles / blue pants, blue car / 3 office view


desk breakfast / 5 cubicle views / 6 to-do



7 scarf weather / 8 soapy / 9 bath time / 10 runaway


ten on ten button

ps.  I promise someday I'll get my ish together and actually edit pictures again...  until that time, unedited iPhone and DSLR pics will have to do

8.21.2014

Wisconsin : Sunsets

Sunsets are my love language and Wisconsin sunsets on the dock are perfect.  A couple of the nights were rainy or my phone died, but I did what I could to capture the beauty.












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