DIY: Fancy fall inspired wreath

Fall is upon us! well, sorta...I think most people start to welcome fall as soon as the Pumpkin spice latte becomes available, I however, might just be the only person on the planet who isn't crazy about them. I mean, I have tried, really, I tried to like me some pumpkin latte, but I just dont see what the big deal is. Now bring on the peppermint mocha and we have a different story. But this post is not about starbucks and their fancy lattes, it is about my obsession with this awesome wreath. Awesome right? now I am not one to spend that kind of money on decorations, I mean, I would but Ryan would probably leave me. So I decided to make my own! and you should too! its not hard really. All the supplies I used came from the dollar tree! Now, I know mine is not as fancy as the one on Etsy, but I used what I had...fake flowers found at the dollar tree are not the nicest but hey, the closest Michaels is 2 hours away and what can I say, I am cheap. ok, ok, so here is what i did...

I am really bad at taking pictures when doing DIY projects..and i wasnt planning on making this a blog post, but here you go, I started with a dark woody wreath. I suppose you can use any type you find and any size really..I picked this one because it was easy to just stick flowers in between the branches, but you could also use a hot glue gun to stick the flowers on. 

I picked a variaty of fall colors and simply cut the flowers away from the "bouquet" leaving about 3 inches of stem to stick through the wreath.  I first used up all the big flowers I had, alternating colors,

Ta-Da! now you can leave it as is or keep going...

next I added some of these fun things(I dont know what the name of this type of "flower" is, i know, i suck)

I just stuck them in between every two flowers or so...i had an odd number but the end result still looked fine

for some added color I took these guys, 

and I cut them off the stem, leaving no stem attached. 

I used some hot glue and glued the dark red flowers in the middle of each of the mustard color flowers. please excuse this picture, I had a four year old photographer. :)

nice huh?

next i took some ribbon and fed it through the back of the wreath 

and there you have it!

Sorry for such horrible pictures, I promise to get better :D Happy Crafting! -Jess

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Weekend : fancy dark chocolate chip Zucchini cookies

Riley's afternoon snack..fresh from the garden 

I think I need to iron my apron :/

My girl 

Our weekend was very uneventful. Ryan was feeling under the weather, so we decided to stay home and let him rest. On Saturday, Riley and I decided to make cookies., well, I decided, it wasn't until she saw me pull out the giant bag of chocolate chips that she decided to help because she knew she could get a sample :)

 Sunday I made my fourth batch of Tomato Jam which is a pretty painful process(did i mention how much i hate chopping tomatoes?) but I know my efforts will be much appreciated. The recipe for anyone who is interested, can be found here.

 I think I already mentioned the high volume of zucchinis coming out of my garden. I have made so many variations of zucchini and was getting a little bored so in my attempt to make something fancy and interesting, I added a cup of shredded zucchini to my chocolate chip cookies. I know it sounds kinda weird, and when Ryan saw the finished product he said "whats that green shit?" which made me laugh, but I also felt a little scared that I had ruined a perfectly good cookie. But they were awesome! and really really moist, even today..two days later, they are still as good as they were Saturday.
 In my attempt to make the most of my time, I also made some hummus which I served with dinner Saturday night. That recipe will be up later this week, but for now you can enjoy this super fancy cookie recipe.
Happy Baking-Jess

Chocolate Chip Zucchini cookies
Ingredients 
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened 
3/4 cup organic granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup shredded zucchini 
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, and salt. In the bowl of stand mixer cream together butter, sugars and vanilla until light and fluffy. add eggs one at a time, add zucchini and mix well. remove bowl from mixer and mix in nuts and chocolate chips by hand with a rubber spatula until well combined. on baking sheets lined with silpats (because i dont like a mess) use a cookie scooper (small ice cream scoop) to scoop out cookies, about 1 1/2 inchs apart. place sheets in freezer or fridge to firm. meanwhile preheat oven to 375, bake cookies for 12-13 minutes until golden brown and puffy. let cool for 5 minutes before removing from sheet, place on cookie rack to cool and try not to eat them all while they are still warm. trust me they are delicious this way so it will be hard, but you can do it! be strong! -Enjoy