Less than a week!

"Non-Partisan".

On Saturday night we celebrated the autumn by hosting a pumpkin carving-World Series-football-soup evening. "Football" wasn't on the evite, though, I'll tell you that much.
I prepped the scene with some bats, thanks to Dana.

There were about seven pumpkins and lo and behold! Seven voting categories and prizes!

Amazing!

I bought a kit from a grocery store, one of the little packets I had always scoffed at because they look flimsy but it came with a bunch of stencils and I thought that could be a good thing to have for a crowd.

We taped down plastic garbage bags on the floor and got started cutting, scooping, and scraping.

I whipped out my big chef's knife and after poking at my pumpkin a bit and realizing just how challenging it might be, I gave one of the little grocery-store tool a chance and OH MY GOODNESS it was amazing!

Those little saws and knives work SO well. Though they might appear cheap and snap-able, they do exactly what they're supposed to do.

My favorite part of the evening was lighting all of the candles and turning off the lights; what a scene!

There were too many to fit in one row.

We had some store bought soups {cheat} and the pumpkin black bean soup {thanks Becs!} I made. There were lots of snacks and goodies that everyone brought and it was a very delicious and filling evening.
Our categories were:

Most Halloween-y.

Nicest.

Best Name.

Most Original {mine!}.

Scariest.

Funniest.
And "Cutest" but I can't fins a picture of the cute owl pumpkin so just imagine it; it was cute.
Guinness was also quite popular.

Then he got tired.

Have you carved yet this year? Halloween has taken a bit of a back-seat to "Frankenstorm" and I'm glad we got this in before the rain and wind started.

And wowzas; it's almost Wednesday and I haven't been to work yet this week! Here's to a Halloween back at the desk.
xoxo, natty ♥

It will!

We are both preparing for our second day at home; the district has shut down all public transportation through tomorrow and our work/school as well.
In some positive news...

1} Can I get a "Let's Go GIANTS!!!!"? YES I CAN!!! I actually missed the last two innings of the game last night because it was getting too fraught for me and I was getting drowsy. A couple of text messages about half an hour later let me know the good news.

2} Our electricity is still on. I'm being cautious about this and don't want to assume it will stay this way.

3} Our car is safely tucked away from possibly downed tree branches.

4} We haven't been evacuated.

5} We are safe.

Let's all think good thoughts and say a bit of a prayer for those strongly affected by this weather.
xoxo, natty ♥

Will it or won't it?

Everyone seems to be talking about "Frankenstorm" aka Hurricane Sandy. She's not going to touch ground here but supposedly we're going to get a bit of an impact.
Here's some informational reading in case you're interested {Dad}.

• Washington Post Breaking News Blog
• Washington Post Capital Weather Gang Blog {a recent FAVORITE}
• Washington Post Capital Weather Gang Blog on pet safety during Sandy

And my DMV appointment to get my DC driver's license and license plate is cancelled.

Thank you DC DMV Twitter; such a quick and efficient way to get in touch with the DMV!
Despite the cancellation, we're not taking things too seriously {we haven't purchased a generator} {famous last words...} but we are making sure that our phones are fully charged and maybe we did buy a big case of water and we're definitely saying a positive prayer for those who are getting the biggest brunt of the storm.
xoxo, natty ♥

Gourds.

We had a party!

We carved!

Everybody won!

xoxo, natty ♥

Great mail.

I got two fabulous things in the mail today.

First I received my vote-by-mail information - finally.

And then my sweet, sweet grandmother sent us a wonderful Halloween card.

This ghost card totally made me smile and feel loved; it was the best part of my day. Also, I LOVE The Post but I don't reciprocate as much as I'd like to. It is, for good reason, a goal of mine for the next year.

Thank you to my amazing grandmother and happy weekend to y'all!
xoxo, natty ♥

What a treat.

L-R, rhubarb, raspberry, mojito; aka, yum, yummier, yummiest.

Last week we had a Peace Corps friend of Mike's over for dinner. We had a lovely evening together and she was kind enough to Bananagram it up with us, though we I was by far the most enthusiastic participant.
As an added perk to a great night together, she downright SPOILED us by bringing a trio of Pitango gelato.
This place is a dangerous locale and we've made a decent effort recently to not head over after dinner {decent to our wallets and waistlines but not to our taste buds and emotional well-being}. 

There were three delectable flavors for us to choose from; uh-may-zine!
Thank you to our sweet friend for a fabulous night and delicious treat ♥.
xoxo, natty ♥

Let's forget.

Oh my goodness; what a POTENT time this is. There are so many political issues flying around in the air one can practically catch one in the eye. But. Let's forget about that. Let's focus on baseball instead. Oh BUT WAIT. We won't talk about that. We are far too much of a nervous sort for that type of discussion.
So.
What is there?
There are...

Pretty local parks!!!

And pretty local colors!!!

Shadows.

More beautiful leaves.

And local mums.

xoxo, natty ♥

Yea!!

Adventures in cooking.

Monday is drawing to a close and I am having a few thoughts...

Taken from the car.

1} So I didn't get any pictures because there was hot oil flying around BUT...no one told this girl that when minced garlic meets minced ginger - THEY TURN GREEN. Both were fresh so there was no fear of spices who have gone bad and I didn't really worry about it but I was kind of...weirded out. I looked it up out out of curiosity and found out that it has something to do with the acids in the ginger mixed with the somethings in the garlic. In the end, our fried rice was delicious and I've learned a new bit of culinary science.

2} We're skipping the last debate. There's Law & Order SVU on TV and I don't think either of us feels up to mentally grappling with the future of our country. Don't judge us by our alterative viewing choices. Never-mind, we gave in.

3} There are two bags of gloriously varietal Halloween candy in our apartment. However, someone keeps eating it {not I!} so I think I'll be squirreling it away somewhere secret. I love a good intrigue.

4} The mercury is rising this week which makes for beautiful leaves, blue skies, and very pleasant weather.

5} Thanksgiving is next month {how'd that happen?} which means that the month after next I get to see family and friends in California ♥.

What's going on in your neck of the woods? Have you ever experienced this bizarre ginger-garlic-green phenomena?
xoxo, natty ♥

Hodgepodge; October 2012.

A bit of a brain dump for y'all.

*   We had a great and exciting time volunteering last night! Prost!

*   As I said, I am really pumped about our Winter CSA. I mentioned it HERE. We'll be receiving a twice-monthly bounty that includes cheese, yogurt, and eggs. The first installment was plentiful! I'll be tackling butter beans this week and a variety of other leafy greens that we still have.

*   Yes, I'm still mentally keeping track of my 101/1'001which I EEK haven't update for you all since May. Life got the better of me but I have not forgotten! Perhaps in November there will be a Mega-Update.

*   Earlier this week I started a great book. A few years ago I read "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls and I've been thinking about it since. It's a haunting memoir and such an engaging novel. The book I finished this week is Jeannette's subsequent novel entitled "Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel" and it's a historical memoir of her grandmother. Both pieces are, like I said, haunting. I highly suggest both books.

*   The weather is roller-coasting all over the place. It's been very pleasant, I will say that much, but there was CRAZY rain Friday afternoon {I was driving and it felt like a person was throwing buckets of water onto my car} and then it's about to go back up to the mid-high seventies. I'm really loving the leaves and warm breezes!!! But I could do without the buckets of rain.
We're carving pumpkins next weekend; YES!!!!

I hope that your weekend was fruitful and that you are feeling rested and well prepared for the week ahead!
xoxo, natty ♥

Oktoberfest.

Though this post isn't very wordy like I mentioned it might be in my last one, I will inform you that Mike and I are volunteering at the church's young adults Oktoberfest dinner. Sadly, no lederhosen are involved but I'm excited nonetheless!
And, a shout out to Rebecca who's gearing up to run her latest marathon tomorrow morning; go Becs! That girl is a running machine, very inspirational in her dedication, and we wish her temperate weather and good splits tomorrow morning!!!

Fast Times.

Ohmygoodness what's whirlwind of a Friday; Good Weekend to you and more to come this weekend!

"And that's why you ALWAYS pay your parking tickets."

Alternately titled "Dude, WHERE'S my car?"

Yesterday I had decided to drive o work because I had an errand to run after work that would be a lot easier/faster with our car. 
But.
When I walked out to get into my vehicle it wasnotthereohmygoodnessitgotstolen!

After some neighborhood canvassing and calling and fretting I figured out that the car hadn't actually been absconded but that it had been towed.

Because we had two unpaid tickets. 

I'm fully disclosing our/my sins here so that we don't ever let this happen again.

I guess that in DC one's back tire gets booted if you haven't paid a ticket or tickets in a while. After a day you then get towed.

You naughty thing!

Man oh man I wish we had paid those tickets or at least checked out the car some time on Monday which is when the boot was installed.

So I took the bus out to the boondocks a.k.a. the impound lot, paid some bucks to atone for the tickets and the towing cost and the lot fee, and drove to work three hours late.

Lesson learned. Let's hope.
xoxo, natty ♥

Stuart Larkin.

Via.

xoxo, natty ♥

"Look what I can do!"

**I'll give you a Gold STAR if you can tell me where my title came from.**
 
Soup. 

I made butternut-acorn squash soup tonight.

It looks like what they sell in the restaurants! I think it tastes at least as good.

It came from THIS recipe, though I used Swiss cheese and wheat bread instead of Gruyere cheese and French bread.

Have you been cooking recently?
xoxo, natty ♥

Still muggy.

Maybe it's my mile-plus walking commute but things, though a bit cooler than summer months, are still humid; I need two showers a day. Blech. In other and happier news...

Cute sidewalk kitty.

1} We're signing up for a winter CSA. I am a bit over the moon about this; it's something that I've been wanting to do for quite a while and it's super cool to be part of this little agricultural community.

2} Beautiful skies abound!

The clouds brought about a bit of rain later tonight.

But they were so pretty!

3} Three different squash are on our counter, just waiting to be turned into something delicious.

4} Mike and I had a wonderful dinner on Saturday night. We ate at a lovely restaurant thanks to a very generous anniversary gift from my brother-in-law; thank you SO much for giving us a great night out!!!

5} A friend at work this week just ran her second marathon this past weekend.

"What hills don't kill you make you stronger."

I'm really happy for her to have run a second 13.1 AND glad that she was able to snag herself such a dang cute medal...it's a crabby crab!

What's good about your Monday? Are you partaking in autumnal activities?
xoxo, natty ♥

A belated month in pictures; September 2012.

1. Mr. Chef. 2. Cinema. 3. Enchiladas. 4. Agua. 5. Noodles {yum!}. 6. A Purple Station Wagon. 7. Management. 8. Sky. 9. Program. 10. Blue. 11. "Yes?" 12. Buffalo. 13. Flash Dog. 14. Chess. 15. Bananagrams Art. 16. A gift. 17. Toes! 18. Slippies! 19. Just a Wednesday morning. 20. Dress. 21. Clean-up. 22. Lighting. 23. Festival. 24. Clouds. 25. Sacrificial Lamb? 26. From the op. 27. Metro Mom. 28. Gourd. 29. Clouds. 30. Franciscan. 

xoxo, natty ♥

Ribbon.

I wanted to write down how I made the wreaths I concocted earlier this week.
I made two separate ones, a ribbon wreath and a rag one.

For the ribbon wreath:

I used a 12" foam wreath and a spool of cute orange & black diamond-checkered ribbon.
I secured the end of the ribbon spool to the foam wreath with hot glue and just wrapped the ribbon around the whole foam wreath.
I added on about eight inches of black grosgrain using the same process.
I made a smallish bow using the orange and black ribbon. I formed it and then tied/secured the bow with black sewing thread. 
I glued this ribbon on the black portion of the wreath.
I cut a several inch length of the plain black grosgrain ribbon and connected it to the back the wreath where I wanted it to hang from using a florist's pin.

Yea!

For the rag wreath:

I bought several quarter-yard's worth of coordinating orangey-brownish-autumnal fabric. I chose out about six different patterns.

Using pinking shears I cut out two types of strips; both are one inch wide and one set are about eight inches long and the other about six.

I took a wire hanger {thank you dry-cleaning!} and formed it into a circle. I kind of pulled down the hook park so that it's not that high up.

I layered the strips so that they alternated in size and pattern and then I started tying the strips to the wire hanger.

My black pants accumulated a lot of fluff during the process.

I actually had far more strips than needed to cover the wire hanger but I put them all on and it came out looking nice and shaggy!

I've since bent over the hook so that it doesn't stick out this much like some turkey neck.

I LOVE this kind of crafting; do you?
Happy Saturday and, Washington Nationals - I am SO sorry about last night.
xoxo, natty ♥

Let's go Giants!!

Today, in a city who's team is doing quite well {and I really am a National's fan!}, I proudly wore some orange and black.

Mirror image.

Playoffs are here!
xoxo, natty ♥

Pacing.

As a runner, pace is often a looming concern in my mind. However, I tend to not carry over the concern to my non-running life. The past month is a time when I really could have been considering how we were crunching in as many activities and plans as we did.

Pretty shadows on an autumn day.

When we moved to DC we were both excited to be active and engaged in our community and social circles; we weren't exactly that while living in San Jose {work was hard! There were a lot of family things to do!}. 

New Toy. Thank you auntie Jeanne.

Maybe we're leaning a bit too much in that direction but, honestly, I'm loving it. I'm loving my walking commute and I'm loving that there are several things to do in the evening each week. This might not sound like much to everyone out there but it's definitely a change for us from the past few years and though we haven't had a real dinner at home since Monday {it's Thursday}, I declare, it is a Good Thing.
And, happy almost weekend to you!
xoxo, natty ♥

A winning combination.

Carmel apple flavored candy corn?
Yes, please!!!

"Not without my pillow."