True life at the kitchen table

My kitchen table is very important to me. Its where everyone comes together, the place where we talk, have coffee and make important decisions. When we first got married our kitchen table folded up (so did the chairs, only 3 of them, the 4th chair was broken) and rolled away :) Then we upgraded to a wonderful chocolate brown table with.... wait for it... 6 chairs!! You would of thought we had won the lottery! The chairs were covered in this tan microfiber suede. After a few years and a few kids this is what those chairs look like. Its not pretty. Its downright gross. True life~with kids. I've cleaned and cleaned them and it didn't seem to help.

I also discovered that my daughter had put stickers on the inside of one of the legs. Princess stickers anyone?

 I got tired of looking at the dirty seats and decided to take on a project. I found this home decor fabric at Joanne's. It was on sale! 2 yards and only 14.99, down from 10.99 a yard! We all know that home decor fabric can be so expensive, when I saw this I snatched it up!

 More true life-me ( sans makeup) doing my mommy thing and trying to be crafty at the same time. I stay busy.

The hardest part was using the scary air compressed staple gun. I just knew that I was going to hurt myself! Its how I roll! But surprisingly I didn't! Go me! Heres how they turned out....

I like! The chairs themselves still need to cleaned. And I'm off to buy a big bottle of scotch guard until my kids are spill proof.. How long will that be ya think? :)

Pumpkin spice latte cupcakes

So here it is, the greatly anticipated Pumpkin Spice Latte cupcakes! I love anything with pumpkin it! It feels so fall-ish! These are the moistest cupcakes I have EVER made. If you want to see the original recipe you can see it here, but I didn't exactly stick to it... also, if you want some great recipes then subscribe to Annie's Eats (where I got this from)! So, heres how it went!
What you need:
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
In the original it says to use all the spices for the pumpkin. I just used like 2ish table spoons of the "pumpkin pie" spice. Im such a cheater! 
1 tsp. salt
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin puree- I used the kind that was already spiced. Not the puree, but the kind you can cheat with and just pour into a pie dish ;)
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup  vegetable oil
4 large eggs
It also calls for espresso powder- 3 tbs-but I wanted to make them a little more kid friendly. Can you imagine my kids with caffeine?? No thank you! Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and pumpkin spice. Stir well. Then combine all the other ingredients. If you have a great mixer use it!  Slowly add the flour mixture to the puree. When its all mixed it should look kinda like this

Pour them into the cupcake wrappers. Bake at 350 for about 20 mins. If you fill the wrappers more than half way then you will need more bake time. 

To make the frosting you will need
2 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream that has been in the fridge for at least an hour(chilled)
1/2 powdered sugar
This is by far the hardest part. Whisk the heavy cream slowly then add the powdered sugar a little at a time. Whisk it until it creates stiff peaks. It should look like frosting but more fluffy. Now you can make it pretty by using a decorating bag and tip to frost them. The whipped cream has to be COLD and it warms up quickly. I had to quit halfway through... refrigerate the whipped cream and then come back and finish up. You can add caramel drizzle and cinnamon. I got a little impatient and only put cinnamon.

I had no fall colored cupcake wrappers! Only bright ones, but I kinda like how they looked.

These were a huge hit at my house! I left some unfrosted and they go great with a cup of coffee in the morning. Hope you are welcoming fall with open arms!

 

BEAVERS & ducks

So it seems... that football season is here! We all have our favorite teams or our favorite rivalries. Here in Oregon it's between the Beavers 

and the ducks. You can already see I have some serious loyalties!  I love to watch football but you wont catch me rooting on the ducks. Ever. I just can't! But when a friend asked me to help her stitch up her lucky duck flag, I had to help. She can't help she chose the wrong team to root for... right? :) My sewing machine has seen the color, yellow and the color green. But never at the same time!! 

Look at that sad flag. Its so pitiful and torn.

 It's seen better days...

I basically had to chop a good inch off the top and bottom. Then I hand sewed the flag back on the plastic rod. Its smaller but its what had to be done to save it. 

Here we are on the way back from cheer camp together. Don't we look exhausted?! And yes, there is 40+ teenage girls behind us. If we can get through that together then I can sew up a little flag!

Up next- Southern mint sweet tea!