Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars.

When Ryan and I were married (nearly 13 years ago!) my soon to be sister in law gave me a very thoughtful bridal shower gift. She wrote out every one of my husbands favorite recipes that his mom prepared for their family while growing up and gave them to me on 3X5 cards, ready to be placed in a recipe box. I remember thumbing through that stack and testing out recipes our entire first year of marriage. Many were keepers- recipes I still prepare frequently. This Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bar recipe was one of them and has been made so many times throughout our marriage. I love it because it's quick (bars are a great treat when you don't have time to bake multiple sheets of cookies), calls for ingredients I always have in my pantry, and of course its delicious. 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp water

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp soda

1 tsp salt

2 cups oats

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 375. In your stand mixer blend together the butter and sugars. Add vanilla, water and eggs. In a separate bowl mix the flour, soda and salt. Add the oats to the flour mixture, then add the oats and flour mixture to the batter in your mixer. Fold in chocolate chips. Spread batter in a spayed 9x13 pan and bake for 22 minutes. 

Notes: I always use rolled oats in recipes that call for oats, not the quick kind. I like the taste and texture better. Also, If you like your bars a bit undercooked pull them out of the oven after 20 minutes. Slightly overcooked at 24. The 22 minute time I gave in the recipe above seems to be the perfect time for my oven, but your oven may vary. Happy baking!

100 Days of Holidays at Parents.

Exciting news today! Parents online recently launched their fantastic 100 Days of Holidays newsletter series and included my mustache ghost sucker in the Cool + Creepy Halloween Decorations slideshow. Fun, right? You can subscribe to receive emails of all the holiday craft ideas and recipes by going here. Thanks for including me, Parents!

Pinned.

I've obviously fallen into Autumn with both feet, haven't I? I can't help myself! It's my favorite time of year. The past few days have been cloudy + cool which has lead to a lot of fallish pins on my boards.

I've enjoyed putting these Pinned posts together so much I'm considering making it a weekly feature in this space. What do you think? Meet me here on Tuesdays?

1.Closetoe Wedge in black from Marais USA via Lindsay's pin of the gray version | 2.Wreath Stamp from Emilie Friday via EZ | 3.Simple Gibson Tuck Tutorial from Simply Stardust via Laura | 4.Cozy Nook Bunkbeds photographed by Richard Leo Johnson on Suziebeezie via Love Letters | 5.Thank You Kindly by The Black Apple via Christina

Shop for Sharlie | Secret Project Revealed.

Cross stitch is one of my favorite pass times when the weather cools. I love to sit by the cozy fire and stitch away. This weekend I finished up a series of designs that I think would look perfect in your space. The patterns are simple, great for a beginner and available for download for only $5. The best part of buying these patterns? You will be making a huge difference in the life of a lovely woman named Sharlie.

Sharlie is a wife and mom. 

She loves to read.
She loves to laugh.
She has an infectious smile.
And the best hugs on the planet.
Sharlie is also awaiting a double lung AND heart transplant.
She is an inspiration.
A fighter.
A miracle.

Jessica (one of Sharlie's best friends) and Mique reached out to the creative community to come up with a way to raise funds for her impending medical bills. They created a Shop for Sharlie- full of tutorials, printables, and advertising opportunities. Every single dollar raised will go straight to Sharlie's Angels.   So shop 'til your heart is content. And in return it will help Sharlie get her new heart.

This very moment...

It's officially Fall! I'm so happy I could cry.

To celebrate, this weekend I plan to:

-eat pumpkin pie

-paint my nails this lovely color

-finish up a secret project

-find the perfect cardigan with elbow patches

Happy weekend to you!

How To Clean A Mac Keyboard.

Fall always gets me in the mood for cleaning and organizing. While typing away recently I was horrified by how filthy my keyboard was looking. Dirt and grime were covering my once pretty white keys. After a little goggle-ing I discovered people have all kinds of techniques, although half of them didn't sound safe for electronics.  I decided that using a dampened lint-free cloth (we bought a HUGE bag at Costco) would be the safest cleaning method and was surprised by how easily the keyboard came clean. The entire process took less than five minutes and now my grimy keyboard looks good as new.

Reader Worthy.

How do you choose which blogs are added to your google reader? For me, it's a tricky process. My computer time (as is yours, I'm sure) is very limited. My family is my first and foremost priority so I try to be careful about the number of blogs I subscribe to. This helps keep that pull to the computer at bay. Some blogs are perused every few weeks, others longer than that. Every so often I come across a blog that is immediately added to my google reader because I don't want to miss a single post. The Beauty Department is one of those blogs.

Recently Stephanie shared a picture on Instagram of a darling fishtail she did in her sweet Mabel's hair. She mentioned The Beauty Department which offered the tutorial so I clicked over and was immediately smitten. The Beauty Department is full of hair and make up tips, tricks and tutorials and has me happily awaiting every new post. The site is authored by Lauren Conrad, Kristin Ess and Amy Nadine. Their tips and tutorials are so great! Plus, The Beauty Department is, for lack of a better word, beautiful. The posts are thought out and well designed. It's an inspiring place to visit and is definitely reader worthy.

Image: Angela + Ithyle/thebeautydepartment.com

Organizing Children's School Papers + Memorabilia.

A little over a month ago I asked you dears how you organize your children's memorabilia. Your tips were wonderful and inspired me to finally clear up my desk and get some kind of system into place. 

Here's what I did:

-Waded through boxes and piles of colored pages, stories, tracings of hands + feet, and the cutest little stick people drawings you've ever seen. I sorted out our favorites from the collection.

-Once I had our favorites picked out I organized them by child + age/grade level.  

-I purchased file boxes + folders from Office Max and organized each child's memorabilia into their own file box.

I loved Jen's idea of making a cover sheet for each year's folder. I decided to design a label for each year that could be printed off easily and filled in with each child's information. Along with the label, I attached that years school photo to the front of the folder using self adhesive picture corners. When the files are slipped into the clear file boxes it's easy to see who the box belongs to. Plus, each file box is stored in an easily accessible place making it handy to add to the collection when those special treasures come home from school.

The labels I made go from Preschool through 12th grade and were designed to be printed onto Avery 3 1/3x4" Shipping Labels. If you would like to use them to organize your children's school papers and memorabilia you can download + print them here. Happy organizing!

School Paper Organization Labels download.

First Day For Audrey Mae.

Can you believe this babe is already in preschool? Me either. It seems like just yesterday she was crawling around + getting into the superglue. It's true what they say, children grow up too fast. Happily, miss Audrey had the best day. In fact she cried this morning when I told her she only got to go to preschool two mornings a week, not the five she was hoping for.

Pinned.

It feels like summer is finally winding down in my neck of the woods. How's the weather where you are, dearies? I told Ryan this morning as we were getting ready for the day that I would give about anything for a nice cloudy day. I know it sounds weird but clouds and rain invigorate me. Unfortunately, there aren't any clouds in the forecast but the temps are progressively decreasing which has me happy enough.

Also making me happy? Pinterest and all the inspiration found there. Here are a few lovely images I've pinned recently.

1.California Girl by Amanda's Flickr via Kelly | 2.Alice's pretty nursery by Tiny Warbler via Casey | 3.Work Hard And Be Nice To People by Anthony Burrill via Suann | 4.Newlywed Roadtrip by Ryan Ray on Ruffled via my original pin | 5.* originally pinned by EZ E from Holy Hellsbells via Marta

Surprise!

You know what's fun? Surprising your daughter with tickets to the Taylor Swift concert the day of the show, minutes before you pack up the car and make the drive over the mountains. That's what I did Wednesday. You should have seen Abby's face when I told her (tears welled in her eyes and everything!) . She knew her best friend was headed to the concert but had no idea I had purchased tickets months ago for us as well.  It was a perfect couple of days spent with our favorite people. We finally made it to the new American Girl store too which was like icing on the 9 year old girl cake. I think I can officially count this as the best executed surprise of my life. Have you ever surprised someone or been surprised with something amazing? Do share, I'd love to hear all about it!

p.s. The best two parts of the trip? 1. Listening to Abby and Brynn giggle and giggle and giggle in the backseat. 2. Hearing Abby sing along with Taylor with all her might. It was darling and something I never want to forget.

Bake, Craft & Sew Along.

Good news! I revamped my stationery kit and and shared how to create a sweet teachers gift as part of the Bake, Craft & Sew Along. All month According to Kelly, Skip To My Lou and A Southern Fairytale will be posting projects + recipes to inspire earlier holiday preparations. I've already started making my holiday lists and these recipes and crafts are perfect inspiration. My hope is that getting things done early will alleviate that end of December stress. You know what I'm talking about, right?

Read my teacher gift post on According to Kelly here + keep up with the projects all month long on Skip To My Lou right here.

Styled.

Need some inspiration for your fall parties? Victoria of A Subtle Revelry has just launched the autumn issue of Styled. and it's really beautiful. There are over 100 pages filled to the brim with ideas for merry making during my favorite time of year. My head is spinning from all the loveliness! The best part? I've contributed a little piece to the issue and I'd love for you to check it out and tell me what you think. It's a favor idea I hope you love.

View Styled. online here and purchase your printed copy of issue two right here.

Welcome, September.

Friends, our ladies are officially laying! What a lovely way to begin one of my favorite months.

Other things making this first day of September especially happy: "Merino Cool" on my nails, putting away flip flops + wearing my favorite black flats, and toddlers that think coloring and cutting paper is the coolest thing to do. Ever.

What's making you over the moon happy today?