They're so awesome... I want to drink my orange juice out of these each morning. Or my tea for that matter. It was so fantastic to open the package. The earrings are cool. I am not an earring person, but I have worn these three days so far and I am loving them! I can hear them tink when I move my head. Makes me feel pretty.
I just received a brilliant blog award from Diane over at Diane's Mixed Art. I'm really excited to get one of these ~ I've been putting a bit more work into my blog and I feel as though this means it's getting noticed.
It's been a while since I posted a recipe, and after devouring nearly 2 dozen of these muffins in as many days, I figured these would be a perfect fall recipe. I had a can of pumpkin and I wanted to use it, plus I love pumpkin baked goods.
You could substitute whole wheat flour with the oats, but I love oatmeal muffins so I specifically wanted to include this. I started out with 1 cup of oats, but then I realized my can of pumpkin is larger than the "can" called for in all my other recipes. So I added a bit extra at the end.
I'm also a big fan of ginger, so I think I ended up adding a bit more than a teaspoon. The dark brown spice is allspice. Some of the recipes I had called for ground cloves and nutmeg, neither of which I had. So I used allspice and it turned out great!
Don't forget to add in the sugar. And always firmly pack in the brown sugar unless otherwise noted.
There, now mix all the dry ingredients together.
I really liked the thought of adding in some apple sauce. I figured it would help keep the muffins moist, and replaced plain old water or extra oil in some other recipes.
So most recipes called for maximum 15 oz of pumpkin. I was going to use only 1/2 of my 28 oz can... but who can resist? The beautiful orange looked so pretty with the yellow eggs. 
And more pumpkin just means more moist, right? Either way, mix all that together.
Just make sure to get all the dry powder wet and then stop. This picture shows dough that still needs a bit of mixing.
Enjoy!
These sea opal briolettes are handwrapped in sterling silver wire by TheCrazyDaisy. Opals are a huge favourite of mine, and I found these while searching Etsy for them. I love the shimmer of colour throughout the stone.
These dark elegance earrings feature a crystal vitrail Swarovski crystal teardrop handwrapped in sterling silver by queenb. I love how the same colours that appear in the opal are intensified by the black of these crystals. 
Hand-thrown by utilemud, these bowls are the perfect size for ice cream, cereal and a soup. I love the bold (bowled?) colour on the inside.
This adorable little Wisteria tree is made by winsomehollow, a favourite seller of mine. I love the soft blue pattern, and these little trees are just too sweet! I want a whole forest for my shelf!
We would almost always play school, and of course Simba was the cool one. Awesomly, I played Simba, and my brother played Nala. HAHAHA!
(The Bookworm by Carl Spitzweg)
That's right. Sweet little Sylvia is flying over to live on my wall, along with a few other birds I've been collecting. Isn't she just adorable?
The hand-embroidered bird is just too cute, and linen is one of my favourite fabrics. The stripe of rich mustard fabric, the linen doily, and the buttons just adds to this little purse's charm and make it the perfect clutch for fall!
Aren't they beautiful?
I snagged a treasury today! You can find it HERE. I featured the awesome artists (and my new friends) from the More Meaningful Gifts BnR. There's really a great bunch of people taking part in this BnR, so much fun to talk to! And we really help each other out ~ I'm featured in 2 treasuries made by 2 of the girls in the BnR. THIS ONE is by jvdarcy: 
If you want to join this great group, click on the link above. However, we do use a new thread each day, so to make it a little easier to find us, just search "More Meaningful Gifts" when on the forums page. We should be right at the top of the list! Not only will you find great products, but you'll make a few friends along the way! I look forward to seeing you there ~ tell them Ulixis sent you!
It was created by LetYourLightShine and is soooooo spooky! I think this picture of it is excellent too. I came across this through this More Meaningful Gifts BnR I'm taking part in. All of the people are really friendly and helpful, and I've had a blast talking to them each day. My sales have also gone up since joining, so that's really exciting! If you're an Etsy seller, you should definitely check it out!
I love the warm colours that, as opposed to shocking orange, will be more wearable year round. I love the extra little curlicue... having grown pumpkins myself, I know the plant actually grows these little curls. I think it's because it's a vine of sorts, and helps to anchor itself (but I'm no expert gardener). Snag them while you can, I think they'll be sold very quickly!
I love the green inside, and I especially love the button detailing on the front:
You should check LAMdesigns out ~ there's a sale going on right now!
Isn't it a beautiful garland? Each star is tied to the next, so they can be given as little favours... but I'm not going to do that. I'm going to decorate my tree with it. And my living room the rest of the year.
This one is from my high school notebook, dated November 2003, using markers. 
Again from my high school notebook, dated November 2003, also with marker. I (heart) Pat draw in swirls.
More of the same - dated November 2003, my name (Amanda) in marker.
This one is from a notebook I made for myself, and is dated September 2007. One page is filled with circles, the other with triangles. I used markers, highlighters, pencil crayons and pens.
Finally, this one is from my moleskine notebook and is dated sometime in the summer 2008. These pages are filled with orange pen squares.
I had planned on making this for the swap... but I can't part with her. She is too beautiful! I used patterned paper for everything, then used pencil crayons to draw in her hair, features, the design on her dress and on the background. I also used gold paint and a polka-dot stamp on the background.
I'm also swapping a few ACEO's with bellsakabin, so I made a goddess, Artemis, for her too: 
This time, I used more pastel colours, since that is more my style than Klimt. I also drew the flowers in felt-tip pen instead of collaging them.
This blue notebook has also been in my favourites for a long time. I love her signature flower print, as well as her use of a variety of vintage collage elements.
This gorgeous painting of Frida by wjcatnip was inspired by Klimt, and I thought her angelic expression was perfect for today's feature.
That's right, this ring by TheBrokenPlate is made with a small piece of a Swiss Alpine plate. It makes me a little sad that the plate was broken, but I trust is was before this ring was made. And really, what better way to make lemonade out of lemon! It turned into a beautiful ring!
Made by marriageofmetal, this copper oak leaf was heated to produce the violet/brown/red/blue variations. It's just so beautiful and unique ~ I absolutely love it!
The second reason is much more important. While the creator of this beautiful piece is starsb117, it was donated to alysonscure. I think the shop announcements and profile say it best:We are a collective of artisans who have come together to help out a very special little girl named Alyson. Alyson was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and is undergoing treatment at Denver Children's Hospital.
Alyson is a three year old girl who has been diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. She enjoys playing with her brother, play doh, fisher price little people, dolls and watching TV. (Her Mom thinks she does a little too much of the latter.)
Her website is at alyson.mystyl.us , where you can read more about her and her family and keep updated on how she is doing on her journey to a cure.
I love the vivid, rolling colours, especially in the clouds. All his paintings have so much movement and life ~ Matt is truly a talented artist. Why don't you lend him some support?
So I've been meaning to post about my recent sewing projects, but was having trouble with my cameras adaptor so it didn't happen until now. After my pincushion, I wasn't too sure what to make. I wanted to make a seat cover but never really got around to it. I got in a bunch of great fabric, and just wasn't sure.
So I decided to embellish my lab coat before the lab I TA started. Just something simple. So I sewed ribbon onto the pockets. Of course, I didn't have enough of one colour for all three. So I went with black for the two larger pockets:
And burgundy for the smaller one:
I picked a ribbon with a subtle polka-dot pattern. My supervisor / boss / program coordinator Denis noticed. And asked why I hadn't done the sleeves too. Maybe for next week.
I used fabric I received from fabricsupplies: Joel Dewberry - buttercup in deep water. This fabric supplies shop was really easy to work with, putting together a custom order for me no problem. And shipping was pretty speedy too.
Here's a close-up of the flap. I need to work on my pattern making and cutting... it wasn't exactly straight... I also used a button instead of a loop and chopstick the instructions called for. But my machine did both the button hole and the button, so I was quite impressed with that. 
The inside of the flap is lined with Amy Butler - seeds in okra. I really like how the fabrics contrast yet still match. All in all, I'm quite pleased. Next, I really want to make fabric napkins. I just have to decide on whether they'll be single or double-sided, and whether I should make them "quilted" in order to show off more fabric.
