Fall Cupcakes

We spent today making some delicious cupcakes. The first batch we made were apple spice. They had tons of apples in them, but their tops sunk a little, so they weren't quite as nice as we would have liked. We made a caramel cream cheese icing to put on top. We also made a batch of pumpkin cupcakes. In years past, we tried making pumpkin cupcakes, but there were probably the best tasting ones yet! These were topped with an almond cream cheese frosting. We then topped each with an apple and pumpkin cut-out, so we could tell which was which!

The first picture is of the apple spice batter. It was nice and thick, with chunks of apple! The second is the finished product.

The first picture is of the pumpkin cupcakes, right out of the oven. The second is the same ones, all dressed up!

My First Completed Quilt!!

Out of the two of us, Robyn has been the one to do all of the sewing projects. Or, at least, she's the one who actually finishes the projects she starts. Last year (I think), I started a quilt that was supposed to be a Christmas present, and then a birthday present. I had everything done, except for the binding. I finally decided that now would be a good time to do it, and finally finished something!! I kind of wish we had this blanket this summer, during those chilly nights camping!! Here is a picture of the finished product!! I kind of want it now...too bad I promised her!!

I think I'll let her do all the sewing still!! Her latest project is SUPER ADORABLE and I wish we could show it off. Not yet!!

A Little Early?

I didn't want to post this yet, since I think it's a little too early still. But then I realized that if the house is all decorated for Halloween, then it shouldn't be a big deal. This is another wall hanging I made, similar to the one yesterday. I think I like this one even better!! There are a few more details that give it a nice touch.

The castle didn't come out exactly like I wanted it to, but it looks good, still. I think my favorite part is the purple rose at the bottom. I don't know if you can tell, but it sparkles. Unlike the vampires. I also like the raven on top of the 'H'. I actually didn't expect it to come out this well! We have a few more projects planned for this weekend, so we'll see how much gets done!!

Happy Fall, Ya'll!!

(In honor of Sarah and Erik, where it doesn't quite feel like fall yet...)
It has felt like fall for the last few days, and now it's finally here! Today starts the best time of the year (in my opinion!) I love being able to sleep with tons of blankets and pumpkin spice coffee, and baking with apples! And the holidays help, too. So, in honor of Fall, here is a project I made for Mom. I saw something similar to it online yesterday and had the urge to make one. I think it fits her personality and decor quite well- simple country.



Texas Project

I don't think we've posted a picture of this project yet, but this is what we were working on when we were down in Dallas. If we did, well, here's another! It is a set of baby clothes for our Cousin and his wife. We tried to design something that was gender-neutral and figured that everyone should have a holiday outfit. So, the baby gets a few for the holidays. With matching bibs! The picture of the card is also below. The white ones also have a little design on the tush, for a nice added touch! There is also a tie-dyed onesie to match. I hope they like it!!

This is the Halloween set. The white says a simple "Trick or Treat", with a pumpkin on the back and a jack-o-lantern tie-dyed onesie. The bib is supposed to be a skeleton, which looks a lot better than I thought!

This is the Thanksgiving set. This one is pretty "plain". The white one says "Happy Thanksgiving" with a little turkey on the back, and the tie-dyed one is brown, red, and orange. This is probably our favorite tie-dyed one. The bib is a turkey gobbler. Not too much to it, but still cute.

This last one is the Winter/Christmas set. The first white one says "Seasons Eatings" with a little gingerbread boy on the back. The other says "Let it Snow", with a snowman on the back. The red and white one is supposed to have peppermints on them, but the paint was a little too thick in some places. The bib is supposed to be Santa's collar. As we were doing it, the paint looked pretty puffy, but once it dried- not so much.

Here is the last picture for today. This is the card that we sent along with the gift. It's another "neutral" item, as long as green is as neutral as I think it is!! It's a cute baby card, with a diaper holder to match (the white piece next to it)! The card fits into the diaper snuggly, and looks adorable together! We can't wait to meet the new baby!!



Thank You's

First of all, we would like to thank everyone for reading our blog. I know that you all had better things to do, and not all of our days were exciting. So, thanks for following us! Hope you enjoyed it. I know we did!! But, it's nice to be home (for a little bit, at least).

Anyway, we have been spending the last few days crafting and catching up on some projects. We have a ton on our list of things to do, but we may finish everything this year, for once! Today's post is a picture of our thank you cards. I think they're mighty cute, and appropriate!

I guess it's a good excuse to re-use those old maps! Thanks again to everyone!!

Day Eighty-Four- All Truths, No Lies

After talking to Luke last night, our plans changed. We were planning on heading up to Pittsburgh, but, unfortunately, it didn't work out. Kind of a bummer because we would have gone driving today, which turned out to be a much nicer day. Anyway, we decided to head home. After 80+ days on the road, the idea of sleeping in our own beds was so tempting! Before we left, we texted Mom and told her what our "plans" were. We told her that we were going for a drive through West Virginia. Not a lie- we just went a little farther. And longer. But, Mom said she wouldn't bother us today. Aunt Debbie played along with us, and just told us to e-mail her when we got to Connecticut. She also said she wouldn't answer if Mom called her. So, at about 9:00, we headed for home. The drive wasn't too bad. We were on back roads for much of the drive, until we got near Wilkes-Barre and Scranton. From there, we got onto I-84 and it was a straight shot home. There wasn't that much traffic in Pennsylvania or New York, really. I think Mom texted once and asked where we were. We told her we were still on the road (also not a lie), and then left us alone again. It was amazing when we got into Connecticut. Not because we missed it so much but because the amount of traffic increased greatly. People were honking for no reason, etc. Such a friendly place... We stopped at the Danbury rest area, which is actually pretty nice (but apparently they're shutting it down. Makes tons of sense...) At around 7:30, we pulled onto our street and decided to give Mom a call. I started talking to her and couldn't stop laughing. It wasn't even that funny. We kept talking until we pulled in the driveway and knocked on the door. All you could hear was, "Bob, get the door, I'm on the phone!!" Dad didn't sound too happy, but answered it anyway. He was quite shocked to see us, and then Mom was like, "Who's there??" and then she realized it was just us. She wasn't very happy with our "lying", but everything was the truth, but she got over it. The rest of the night was spent talking, which went much better than expected. There weren't too many interrogating questions. Now, it is time to sleep in our own beds!! Hopefully we won't be woken up early tomorrow!!

Day Eighty-Three- The Mountains of West Virginia

We woke up to some rain this morning. It really felt like a fall day today- which is great! Aunt Debbie showed us the many projects she's working on and gave us some tips for our sewing. She also gave us her old one, which found a nice snug place in the car, for the trip home. There's always room in the car!! Uncle George took the day off and we took a drive around town. Our first stop was a tour of Elkins. We saw the post office, courthouse (in the same building) and the college. We also saw where Uncle George works. We continued out of Elkins and into even smaller towns. They tried showing us the windmills, but it was so foggy, we couldn't see them. It turns out that they were right in front of us and we still couldn't see them. Pretty neat, actually. We drove through a few ski areas, including a state park that had a ski lift, etc. in it. We saw Seneca Rocks, which is a set of rocks that just juts out of the landscape. Apparently the Army used it way back when to train troops on how to rock climb. Eventually, we got back to Elkins. It was a long car ride, but it was nice to not have to worry about driving, or at least Robyn didn't have to worry about it. We went out to dinner on Uncle George's "Golden Apple". When we got back to the house, we watched the Forest Festival tape from 1998. We saw Becky laugh at the guy singing. Typical. But we laughed along, too. We watched Project Runway and criticized their work, and Dance Moms, which was absolutely ridiculous, in my opinion... After a long day, it is time for bed.

Day Eighty-Two: Next Stop: Wild, Wonderful West Virginia

Today looked like it was going to be another day in North Carolina (not that it would be a bad thing.) Around 10:00, the mechanic called and said they had to put the tires on, still. Who knew it took so long to put two new tires on?? At 2:00ish, he called again to say that the car was all set. We went to pick it up. They were very friendly- they didn't charge full-price for them fixing it. Luckily, everything worked again! When we got back to the house, we decided to head for West Virginia. We packed up the car and said our good-byes. Our first stop on the road was to get some coffee. There aren't many coffee shops between Raleigh and West Virginia. We put the closest one in our GPS and passed one that was even closer. A little disappointing. We ended up stopping at a Dunkin Donuts on the Duke campus, near their medical center. Wow! One we left the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area, there wasn't much to our ride. We went through rural Virginia, back through some areas we already drove through. We crossed into West Virginia before sunset. It was a gorgeous sunset, so at least we had something to look at. It got dark pretty quick, which was kind of scary, driving through the mountains. At about 9:30, we made it to Aunt Debbie & Uncle George's house. Or, at least their town. After getting (and giving) "Hudak directions" (their's is not the road right after the church...), we made it to their house. It was great to see them again. And the cat, Rudy-begga!! He was on his best behavior for us! We spent the night catching up and telling stories.

Day Eighty-One: One More Day in North Carolina

Found out this morning that not only does the car need a new battery, but new tires too! It must be mad at us for putting it through so many miles this summer. Or maybe it doesn't want to go home yet... Looks like one more day here in North Carolina and then off to West Virginia tomorrow.

Day Eighty: Well, Better Here Than Middle of Nowhere...

Talk about a slow start to the day. Becky had to work this morning, so she came in to get Robyn's keys, to move her car. A few minutes later, she came back in saying Robyn's car wouldn't start. Oh boy!! On a good note, the dogs have not been as "barky" as they have been. I think Bear is starting to realize that we are, indeed, not dangerous. Although they are spending the day sleeping. We went to go get some things for dinner, and yet again, the car wouldn't start. So it was off to the garage for the night to make sure that it's the battery and hopefully nothing else... Eventually, we made some dinner and watched the Patriots game. Honestly, never thought we'd watch this much football!

Day Seventy-Nine: Hangin' Out With the Cuz'

Today was another laid-back day. We spent the day watching some football games. We watched the Steelers/Ravens game. I didn't realize that the Ravens were pretty decent, probably because I don't follow. The Steelers lost. By quite a bit. After that, we watched part of the Carolina/Arizona game. The Panthers also lost. Who would have thought that we'd watch that much football?! In defense, Becky was trying to find some things for us to do, but apparently there is not much to do around Raleigh. Who knew?! After dinner, however, we drove through downtown Raleigh. It is a pretty small city, with like five tall buildings and 10 roads. Apparently they spent a ton of money trying to revamp it, and it looks nice. It's not what I expected, but it was a cute city! We got back pretty late, so we hung out a little bit before bed.

Day Seventy-Eight: Rip Van Winkle State (who knew?!)

Today started a little later than we were planning on. The puppy started barking at like 2:00 in the morning, so we didn't sleep very well. He also woke up pretty early and started running around the house. Somehow, everyone else slept through it, so I spend the morning playing. Finally, Robyn woke up, and then slowly, Adam woke up. We were planning on going out to brunch at 11, but it ended up being close to 12. We went out, had a great time, got the scoop on everything, and then headed to Adam's house. We met Harold and Rocco, the boxers. They're pretty big, but very loveable. At around 2:30, we decided that if we didn't leave, we would end up staying another night. We said good-bye to everyone and headed towards North Carolina.
It's a scenic drive between Virginia Beach and Raleigh. It's a country road. It takes about 3.5-4 hours between the two. It wasn't too bad. We got to Becky and Matt's house at around 6:30. It was great to see them!! It's been a while. We also met their puppies. They haven't stopped barking yet!! Oh well, at least their cuteness helps their personalities. We caught up with them, filled them in on the family, and then had dinner. The guy at the restaurant was "new", or so he says (or, it's been two months), but he kept coming up to our table and trying to chat. Didn't work very well. Afterwards, we headed back to the house, and talked a little longer, before bed.

: Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho,Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming (25/50)
States Visited

Day Seventy-Seven: Virginia is for Lovers

We had a pretty late night yesterday, and Robyn and I were the only ones who didn't have much, or anything, to do. Adam woke up early but we slept pretty late. By the time we woke up, it was almost 9:00. Turns out, Adam decided to work from home this morning. Apparently he does it once a week. Lucky. We had breakfast and we finally started our day at like 2:00. By "starting our day", I mean lists were made and Wii games were played. Adam had some errands to do, so we stayed at the house. We played on the Wii- I am a better golfer than her, She's a better bowler and baseball player. The neighbors brought over their puppy since they're going away. The puppy is a little black Daschund with a mohawk. He's a cutie with a ton of energy. We haven't met Harold yet, I think we're doing that before we leave tomorrow. We went out to dinner tonight. We were there for a while- we were commenting on all of the different people who had come in and out by the time we were done. We came back to the house and watched some television. Some work needed to be finished, so it was a relaxed night. Robyn and I are leaving tomorrow morning, headed for North Carolina. Can't wait to spend some time with the family for the next few days!!

Day Seventy-Six: Free and Easy Down the Road We Go

Since we stopped outside of Nashville for the night, we decided to get an early start this morning. We had breakfast, talked to Adam a little, and headed out. The girl at the front desk wished us luck, too. We left at 8:00 and hit very little traffic. The good thing about taking I-40 through Texas and up to Tennessee is that there is very little traffic. It's a lot of truckers and only a few cars. We drove on, and crossed the last time zone. No more accidental 4-am phone calls. We drove on through Knoxville, where it was cloudy. I think today was the first time we've seen clouds and fog since Northern California. Apparently there is a park called "Frozen Head State Park". We passed signs for Dollywood, Oak Ridge, and the Smokey Mountains. Fun family vacation memories...
After a while, we made it into Virginia. The drive from the border to Richmond, through Roanoke, is such a nice ride. There are small cities along the way, including a whole bunch of historic points and the such. Once we got to Richmond, we met some rain. It was pretty bad for like four minutes and then the sun came out again. It didn't rain that hard all summer! When we first started this morning, we were supposed to get to Virginia Beach at around 4:00. After stopping for a few coffees and traffic, we got to the area at 6:00. We ended up getting there at 6:30. Once we got there, we met a few of Adam's friends. Very nice! We spent a few hours talking, looking at pictures, and catching up. It was a nice evening with everyone.

States Visited : Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho,Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming (25/50)
States Visited

Day Seventy-Five: Music Trail

Yesterday, we decided that we were going to leave Texas today. Erik woke up early, which woke us up early. He had to work today, so we said our farewells. He was actually disappointed that we were leaving, which totally surprised us! After he left, the three of us had breakfast and talked for a few hours. I'm pretty sure it was Sarah's way of making us stay longer. It sort of worked. We ended up leaving around 9:00, which is probably our latest starting time all summer.
It took us about three hours to just drive out of Texas. There wasn't too much traffic, except for the beginning through Dallas. We got through that and some construction, and then it was a straight shot to Arkansas. I did find it kind of funny that you could tell what state you were in because all of the bridges on the Texas side of the border were accented with blue stars and the shape of Texas. Once we crossed over they were all red. There wasn't much in Arkansas. We did see the sign for Bill Clinton's birthplace, though. We ended up stopping in, or at least near, Little Rock. It didn't seem like a big city, which was kind of surprising. It took about 4.5 hours of driving to get through the whole state. There wasn't much on the other side of Little Rock either, except for a bunch of trucks. We did see a circus drive by, with all of their rides. One of them was broken down on the side of the road.
We decided that since we were so close to the Mississippi border, we were going to dip down so we could add it to our list. The city of Southaven is right on the border. We were afraid they didn't have a sign since it had been like three miles into the state before we saw it. We turned around and headed back for Tennessee. Actually, we crossed into Tennessee, then Mississippi, and then back. So, we drove through Memphis and stopped for a coffee. We kept going towards Nashville. We got into the city around 10:00. We were planning on stopping and spending a few days there, but decided to keep going. We ended up finding a hotel about 15 minutes outside of Nashville, on the eastern side. It was a good time to stop. It was in a small town, with not much around. Another early start tomorrow!

States Visited: Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho,Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, , South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming (24/50)

Day Seventy-Four: It's Starting to Feel Like Fall. A Little...

Today is our last full day in Texas. Sarah and Erik are not very happy with us leaving...Our day started off pretty slow. We finished up some more crafting and did some hunting (jobs, etc.) in Washington. We took a quick trip to the store to pick up some things for dinner. Sarah and I made a bet. Who knew cheese and cheese product does not necessarily have to be refrigerated?! We stopped at Starbucks, since today was the first day they had their pumpkin spice drinks out. It made us excited! The girl asked if we were double fisting- kind of wish we were able to!! But we were nice enough to share with Robyn and Erik. Nothing is more fall than a pumpkin spice latte and weather that is cool and breezy!!
When we got back, we played with the puppies for a little bit. Luna played ball with us. Woody is finally getting used to us being around, and now that we're going to be leaving... He was friendly enough and came up to us, without barking!! A little later, we started dinner. We made queso (aka cheese dip) and quesadillas. The dip was surprisingly delicious, and a little spicy. The quesadillas were pretty good, too. Not a huge fan of BBQ'd chicken quesadillas, but they were different, so it was good.
Tonight, Sarah thought it would be a good idea to read scary stories. She started reading us one by Stephen King called "1408". Robyn switched with her. I was sitting all by myself. It's about an author who wants to stay in a haunted hotel room, but the concierge was trying to convince him not to. I couldn't tell you how it ended. The beginning of it was a little slow, and I ended up waking up right after Robyn finished reading it. She tried to explain how it ended, but I didn't get it. After a nice nap, we stayed up a little longer and talked a little more and packed up. Now it's bedtime- getting ready for another long day tomorrow. The break has been really nice!!

Day Seventy-Three: Happy Labor Day

Since Emily had a lot to do today, we left College Station pretty early. The drive to Euless wasn't too bad, except that the closest coffee place was an hour away. It was a long hour, but it was worth it! We had a pretty easy drive back, so it was good. We got back to the house at 11:30 and filled Sarah and Erik in our excursion. Not sure who won the bet- Erik says he did, but I'm not sure if he actually did... At around noon, we headed over to Sarah's parents' house for lunch. We had chicken and ribs and some pretty amazing mashed potatoes (Sarah made them...) Sarah's Grandmother came over after lunch, so we spent some time talking. It was rather interesting, to say the least! Here's to the shaggy outdoors-man and the clean-cut business man!! But, we can't take anything too seriously! As we were talking, Sarah's dad and granddad cleaned Robyn's car. It looked great! After a few hours, it was time to leave. We were planning on going for a 'yog' with Sarah, but it was getting late. So, instead, we watched some television and chilled out. Later on, I went out to see the puppies, and all of a sudden, there was another stuffed animal on the patio. I hadn't seen this toy yet, and they told us about the possums the dogs play with. It looked like a baby possum but the dogs weren't doing anything about it. All of a sudden, it turned over, off the patio, and the dogs ran over to it. We got the dogs away and sent Erik to scoop him up. He was not very happy about it, and the possum started to move, but decided against it. Erik move it, so hopefully the dogs won't find it and attack.

Day Seventy-Two: Aggieland

We started out pretty early today. Last night, we finalized our plans with Emily and decided to visit her. We left early to drive down to College Station, to Texas A&M. We started out by looking for a Dunkin Donuts. Apparently the only one on our route was in Cowboy Stadium. Needless to say, we didn't get it and it was a little disappointing. Our way down wasn't too exciting. We did see a pretty big fire, with lots of smoke, drove through Baylor, and then a whole lot of nothing. Finally, we made it to College Station and reunited with Emily. It was great to see her again! We went to the Texas A&M football game against SMU. It was absolutely crazy there! Nothing like the college football games we've been to. There were so many people there, all the girls in their little game-day dresses and cowboy boots, and all the maroon. It's a good thing I had a grey tank-top on- the yellow would have definitely stuck out in the crowd. Apparently some girl gave me a dirty look because of what I was wearing. We met her friends down there, played some boccie (Robyn is pretty good in the short game), and tailgated a little. We watched the game on the jumbo-tron. They won by quite a bit. Apparently, now we have someone to stay with when we visit southern Texas and the Houston Space Center. After the third quarter, we left and headed back to Emily's apartment (it's really cute!) Her friend had to decorate an "I'm sorry" cake, which was pretty impressive for a guy. We went to bed pretty early, since Emily had to work early on Labor Day.
(Emily- thanks so much for having us! We had a great time and it was wonderful to see you again! Glad we could bring a little bit of home down to Texas for you!! Hope you got everything done today!)

Day Seventy-One: The Best Way to Spend a Very Hot Saturday

So, I'm not going to lie, it's been a few days since I've updated this. I was doing OK, and then fell off the bandwagon. So, this post is not quite full, but here's the gist. We spent today making arts and crafts. We worked on our "secret" project, which is adorable! We tie-dyed a little, which came out pretty cool. Much better than I had expected, actually. The colors looked good together. It seemed to take up a lot of time, so by the time we realized it, it was kind of late. I think we kept working on some projects, watched a movie, and came up with our plan for tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing Emily and can't wait!

Day Seventy: Already?!

I can't believe it's already been seventy days!! Only a few more to go, I think. Since Erik had to work and Sarah had work to do, Robyn and I decided that we would get out of their hair for a little while, and take away the distraction we cause. We went to the craft store to pick up some things for a project we're doing. It is so much nicer to go without someone complaining about being there...We found what we needed, and more, and then headed to Target to look around. We found the stores fine, but then we couldn't get back to their house. The GPS was all sorts of confused, leading us in the wrong direction. It took us an hour to get back, when it should have taken 25 minutes at the most. By the time we got back, our coffee was watered down and Robyn was not very happy. Erik made some snarky comments, which weren't appreciated.
We worked on our project for the night. It is about 1/2 way done and coming out adorably! So cute! We came up with some ideas for the holidays, and helped Sarah come up with some, too. Tons of projects to work on!! Can't wait. Our plan is to finish this project tomorrow and then we'll see what's next on our plate!

Day Sixty-Nine: What a Toot!

After Erik and Sarah convinced us they didn't have anything to do, we spent part of the afternoon out and about. We spent some time at Dave & Busters, which is like a grown-up Chuck E. Cheese. We had some intense games or air hockey and basketball shoot-outs (imagine Erik and Robyn competing against each other. I think Robyn had more wins.) Sarah beat us all by a ton in the football throwing, but I guess that's the difference between southern high school football and Connecticut high school football. Not to brag, but I got the most tickets, at 500. Sheer luck. You can't put that many in your pocket, though. It doesn't fold up nice enough.
Afterwards, we came back and relaxed a little. We made some cookies, Sarah did some work, and Erik helped Sarah's Granddad do some work in the yard (I think. He was MIA for a while, so I'm not sure.) This evening, we went to dinner at the Melting Pot. Oh boy! Talk about too much delicious food and drink! We talked to the waiter- about Paula Deen and her butter obsession. He was also flirting with Robyn-Sarah kind of non-verbally put an end to it. We all ate too much and had a hard time staying awake! And making it to the bathroom in time, for some of us (hence, the title.) We had to throw the black flag in at the end. After dinner, we came back to the house and chatted a little. Tonight is a little earlier night than others. We'll see what tomorrow brings for us. We may have to spend some time planning out the rest of our trip, seeing as the storm is supposed to hit New Orleans soon, which is supposed to be our next big stop. Hope Sarah and Erik don't mind us staying a little longer...