Happy Halloween

Sitting around waiting for the hordes of trick-or-treaters and thought I'd share my Halloween costume from last year. I was and still am sooo proud of it!

Anyone remember He-man and She-ra?

Here we are:

Spray painted gold boots, swords made out of cardboard, duct tape and spray paint. Faux-fur loincloth for He-man. :)

Hope everyone has a fun-filled evening!

J Squirrel

Quidditch World Cup

You've heard about it if you're a Harry Potter fan, but guess what...it has come to life in college level competition. Check out the awesomeness here: Quidditch World Cup

Who wants to take a field trip to see it next year?

Better yet...who wants to form a team with me??

Happy Friday!
J Squirrel

Halloween Costumes

Taisy was not very pleased when I got home with her Halloween costume for this year. I usually don't dress her up because she's too big to be the type of dog you carry around dressed in pink sweaters and rhinestone collars. However...while at Target today I happened to pass by the Halloween costumes and found this funny little costume on sale for about $6. In case you couldn't tell...she's a Hot Dog! OR a Veggie Dog since she's a vegetarian dog (yes, a vegetarian dog, I know...it's weird...whatever) Either way...how cute?!?!

Hahaha! Sooo hilarious! She just stands or sits when she has it on. She's not really sure what to do with it or how to move in it...she's such a good sport, isn't she? :)

Anyone have any stellar costume ideas for Halloween this year? I outdid myself last year and am taking it "boring/easy/simple" this year.

Til next time,
J Squirrel

AllieJane Designs

Remember those cute necklaces I showed you from AllieJane Designs? Well, I had to get one. :) It came in the mail this week and I adore it!

It came in the sweetest little blue box. Very Tiffany-esque. :)

Good job AllieJane Designs and thank you for a new, fun necklace!

Have a lovely day, J Squirrel

Weekend!

Last weekend my boyfriend and I had a lovely, lazy, Saturday morning complete with coffee, eggs and pancakes. We both love cooking so we thought we would try and experiment a little with our pancakes. Granola + coconut + almonds + pancake batter = super delicious pancakes! Here they are:
I'm not really into syrup on my pancakes, so the granola and coconut gave it just the right amount of extra sweetness. I also tried a little nutella on the pancake when my roommate brought her jar out. Nutella makes everything better. :)

We've also tried peanut butter and pumpkin pancakes, lemon and ricotta pancakes, and mac'n'cheese pancakes. Crazy, huh?! Okay...I'll admit it...we didn't think of those ourselves. We got those recipes from a really cool cookbook called Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin.

Available on Amazon for about $17.

The lemon and ricotta were the tastiest pancakes by far. The other two needed a few adjustments from the original recipes. Check out the cookbook for some other crazy recipes such as Egg Guacamole and a Cuban Bean Polenta Melt. If you ever get a chance to check out Shopsin's restaurant in New York I highly recommend it. Take everything with a pinch of salt though - it's not your everyday restaurant. :)

Have a lovely weekend!
J Squirrel

Matryoshka Doll Key Covers

We love our new key covers!! Little Matryoshka dolls. So sweet. They make us smile when we open our doors. You can get them here.

J Squirrel & J Fox

Where The Wild Things Are... Part II (the real wild...)

My original plans for today were to visit my favorite metro Atlanta attraction, the Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain. But alas... the 49 degree weather, cloudy skies, and my lack of getting down all of my warm clothing from the attic has prevented me from pursuing my planned adventure, so I decided that there's really no better way to spend it than staying in my pajamas with plenty of yummy candles lit, a big mug of cider & spiced rum, John Coltrane on the Bose, and a good book in hand (right now it is 'Into the Wild' by John Krakauer).

However, I have decided anyway to share with you some pictures of my friends at the Wild Animal Safari that I would be visiting with today...  I am hoping that they are all having equally cozy days (perhaps cuddling with one another and asking themselves why a zebra, a pig, a giraffe, a sheep, a buffalo, an ostrich, a goat, a deer, and countless other creatures are all living together on a big farm an hour south of Atlanta, Georgia??!!)

Enjoy :)  And if you're a local, make sure you visit this fabulously peculiar attraction sometime, its well worth the trip! The animals are free roaming (as they should always be in my opinion!) and they love to try to get into your car windows, especially when you give them treats!

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend! 

- J Fox

Where the Wild Things Are

Anyone else going to see the movie at midnight??? Maybe I'll see you there. :)

Have a good evening!
J Squirrel

Pumpkin Carving

My roommates and I hosted a pumpkin carving party last night at our house. We have a great, big screened in porch, so we moved our dining room table out there (along with two porch tables) for everyone to carve pumpkins on.

My lovely sister working on her pumpkin.

For the most part everyone stuck to "normal" pumpkin carving - my boyfriend being the exception, not for what he made, but the tools he used...a dremel. Oh, those engineers. :) In the end we had a couple different scary faces, a haunted tree (mine), a heart monitor beat (very cool), Cartman (I think), and a few other ones. Here they are:

All the pumpkins lined up together. Good job guys!

The one in the middle that's not lit has "red rum" (from The Shining) carved into it. The candle went out in the midst of picture taking. Oh well. We all sat around staring at the pumpkins after they were lit. It was kind of like watching a fire burn. Relaxing and quiet...but after about two minutes it got a little boring so we started playing around with the pumpkins. :)

Senor Pumpkin

We had a pretty big crowd, 10-12 people, which meant a lot of pumpkin goop and a lot of pumpkin seeds to roast. Yum-o! I sprinkle salt, pepper, curry, and cumin on my pumpkin seeds, pour a little oil over them, and stick them in the oven at 375 degrees. I recommend checking them every 8 min and stirring them around on the pan. It usually takes about 20 min for them to dry out properly.

Have you ever roasted pumpkin seeds? What do you put on them?

Until next time!
J Squirrel

Fireflies

Have you heard the song Fireflies on the radio? It's by Owl City. I'm really 'digging it' right now. Sounds a lot like The Postal Service, but with a bit more 'pop-py' sound. Check it out through iTunes...OR...go check out their website. It's really cool and they play music in the background so you can listen to some of their songs. On their home page there are planes that fly across the screen with comments that people have left. You can leave your own comment if you sign up. :) It's the little things in life sometimes.

Hope you're having a great weekend!
J Squirrel

Boodalee Pillows

So, after doing a little research I just learned that the Boodalee pillows I got in the mail yesterday are meant for kids/babies...oh well, they're awesome and they are going on my big adult bed. :)

I attempted taking pictures of them last night, but my camera doesn't know how to take a good picture in anything other than bright sunlight, so here are the ones from the Boodalee website.

Squirrel and birdhouse. I love this one the most, obvs. The blocky, simple design is great for a kid, but the cheekiness (is that a word?) of the squirrel with the birdhouse keeps us adults entertained as well.

The robot pillow is just fun. I can totally see a little boy making up stories about the robots and what battle they're going to fight during nap time. :) It's also really interesting that Boodalee went with such a detailed image compared to the rest of the pillows in their aresenal. I wonder if a simpler robot image would look as good...

This girl pillow is so sweet with her big rosy cheeks and the flowers in her hair. I'm actually not sure I'm going to keep this pillow. It might turn into a birthday gift for someone...or maybe I'll save it until a friend has a baby...we'll see which one comes first.

Check out the rest of the pillows on the Boodalee website. I was lucky and picked them up from a great, online sample sale for a lot less than what they are originally. (yay!)

Sleep well,
J Squirrel

Photos

After going through the gazillion photos on my computer, I thought I'd share a few of my favorites. They were all taken on one of the two Nikon digital cameras I've had over the past few years. What did we do without digital cameras?? I have so many great (well, I think they're great) pictures from my time studying abroad and I don't think I would have captured them if I hadn't had a digital camera...hooray for technology. :)

Statue of Liberty - NY, NY

Manarola - one of the towns of Cinque Terre, Italy

Tintern Abbey - Wales, United Kingdom

The London Eye - London, England

The Hummingbird Bakery on Portobello Rd. - London, England

Orchids at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens - Atlanta, GA

Vernazza (I think) - Cinque Terre, Italy

Fruit Stand in the Portobello Rd. Market - London, England

Chicken on the Braun's Farm - Newnan, GA

Shadows on the beach - Savannah, GA

I hope you have enjoyed these images. They bring back a lot of fond memories. :) Let me know if you have any questions about any of the places. I'd be glad to share what I know about them.

Back tomorrow,
J Squirrel

Scarecrows - Atlanta Botanical Gardens

Today was the perfect morning for a trip to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Cool, crisp air, warm sunlight - don't you just love the change in seasons?! I do and the decorations at the Botanical Garden put me right in the mood for the fall weather that's coming our way.

Have you ever been to the Bot Garden in the fall? I hadn't, but now that I'm a member they keep reminding me of all the cool things they plan! So, it was off to see the scarecrows this morning with a few lovely friends. The scarecrows were made by families, businesses, art clubs, boy scout troops, ladies clubs...pretty much anyone who wanted to sign up to make one. Some scarecrows were better than others, but for the most part it was just a lot of fun to walk around in the nice weather and check out the creativity people put into the scarecrows. Here are some of the ones we saw while walking around.

Where the Wild Things Are

The Blues Brothers?

Wizard of OZ characters

Ugly Bug...but it won first place in the non-professional category. It was made by the Druid Hills HS Urban Art Club.
(That's where I went to school!)

This was the winner in the professional category. The name was something with 'belle'...

This was one of my favorite scarecrows. I wouldn't say that it would do a good job scaring away the crows...or any other birds or animals eating the veggies in your garden, but it was soo cool! It's made from plastic bottle caps of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Yay for using recycled materials! I also loved the butterfly next to it.

Well, I hope you all are having nice weather wherever you live. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Until next time,
J Squirrel

Carrie Bradshaw with AllieJane Style

I don't know about you, but I've kind of always wanted a name necklace like Carrie Bradshaw had on Sex in the City.
Lucky for me, I was recently informed about a new Etsy shop out there called alliejanedesigns. She makes custom necklaces right now that are "sweet" or "sour" words (how fun!), but I'm kind of hoping she can customize and do my name. :) Check out these super snazzy, handmade, word necklaces below.

Love Necklace

Free, Hope, Love, Craft, Faith, and Peace necklaces

What do you think? I'm smitten. :) They are super reasonably priced, you can choose a gold or silver chain, and I would bet that you could even ask her to do a certain color scheme or fabric.

She'll be hearing from me soon...and maybe some of you as well? Check out the other things in her shop as well as her portfolio of work as a repeat pattern and graphic design artist.

Happy Etsy-ing,
J Squirrel