Sweet Tooth Anyone?

I have a confession... I have a sweet tooth.  Well, that's actually an understatement.  It's more like the tooth fairy gathered the magic from every child's sweet tooth, and deposited the magical sweet-loving power in my mouth.  I seriously would be completely happy living on ice cream, frosting, and cupcakes for the rest of my life.  I even put Splenda in wine...crazy, I know.  

That being said, I found my absolute FAVORITE new cookie bar recipe!  I have made it at least three times in the past two weeks alone.  They are Salted Caramel Butter Bars, and they taste even better than they sound. 

Yummy looking, right?!  I found them on a blog, but the recipe actually came from the cookbook Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey.  ...a cookbook that is currently on my shelf I might add. :)  Now my picture doesn't really do them justice, (I don't claim to be a photographer) but you seriously HAVE to try this recipe!

  

Here is what they look like in the pan:

 

Mmmm...look at all that caramel!  And the crust is almost like a shortbread cookie.  They are super duper easy, only take about 20 minutes of prep time, are absolutely delicious and are awesome with a scoop of ice cream!  They are super rich, so unless you are a sweet-a-holic like me, you might want to take a small piece. :)  That's it for now, and happy baking!


Love, Sara :)

2 Months Down

As of today, Anthony and I have been married 2 months...Yay!!! And no, we didn't get to do anything special.  Between my open house at school and his Fantasy draft, we didn't even see each other until almost 9:30 tonight.  

We did, on the other hand, get to see our wedding pictures for the first time!!  Our wedding was featured on the Katie Norris Portrait Arts blog yesterday.  Is that not perfect timing or what?  It was so fun getting a chance to relive all of the wedding festivities together.  People told me constantly that I wouldn't remember much from that day, so I made a conscious effort to take mental pictures the whole night.  My mental pictures didn't do the wedding justice, but they did help bring back fun memories.  I remembered things like seeing my old cheerleading coach as I walked down the aisle, or having friends take pictures of our first dance with their iPhones, but it was even better seeing that those were captured on camera too.  It was especially neat to see the stuff I missed.  I loved seeing people dancing and having fun.  And I didn't even know we had fruit or sandwiches as part of the buffet! Now all I have to do is fill all of these empty picture frames around the apartment with my favorites...too bad I'm not going to have enough frames for all of them! :) 

Love, Sara :)

Cute Easy Pillows? Yes Please!

Anthony lived in Houston a little over a year before we got married and I moved down here.  As things turned out, we ended up renewing his lease and I simply moved into his apartment.  The decor I can only describe as "bachelor-esque."  I, of course, immediately set out to make it feel more homey, and less like his apartment that I visited for the past year.  

Part of his bachelor pad consisted of a brown couch and tan recliner.  Both are pretty comfy, and the best part is that were given to him!  (Thanks Sue!)  The only drawback was that they looked a little bland by themselves.  Here's what they looked like before:

I decided my first homey touch would be to add a few simple pillows.  What I thought would be simple, turned out to be a HUGE project.  

I looked at every store I could think of...I mean absolutely EVERY store I could think of.  I even got suggestions from about 8 different people of other stores I should check out.  Now, I don't know if you've gone pillow shopping recently or not, but they get super expensive super quickly.  I tried to get two pillows for the couch and it was going to cost a whopping $129.00!  And they were just plain brown! And I didn't really even like them!  I definitely needed to go a different route.

I thought about making pillows, but I don't have a sewing machine here, nor do I have room for one.  I briefly considered hand sewing them, but quickly decided that was a HORRIBLE idea. :)  As luck would have it, I ran across a blog for no sew pillows:

http://www.centsationalgirl.com/2011/03/no-sew-cloth-napkin-pillow-covers/ 

 All you need is hem tape and an iron! Totally genius!  I then found another blog for the inspiration for a design:

http://www.thediydish.com/2010/02/how-to-make-chic-pillows-thediydish-on-studio5/ 

So I bought fabric, spent a Saturday afternoon putting them together, and voila! Brand new, one-of-a-kind, super cute pillows!  And get this...all of my supplies cost WAAAAAAY less than those two icky brown pillows.  Here's what the final product looks like:

 Super cute, right?!  I just love finishing new projects...

Love, Sara :)

Traveling Down New Rhodes...

I have wanted to start a blog for about 6 months now, but I could never figure out what I would write about.  The first week at my new job, one of my new teacher friends asked if I had a blog.  I gave her the rundown of how I have been wanting to start one, but my life just isn't interesting enough and I have nothing to say.  "You just got married...you have a lot you could write about!" was her response.  It really got me thinking, and I finally decided to take the plunge!

If you know me at all, you know I don't take well to change.  It makes this time in my life a pretty interesting road to travel.  I'm in a new city, with a new husband, a new job, making new friends, signing a new name...every day is filled with change.  As I thought more and more about a topic for my blog, I realized there is newness in everyone's life.  It may be a new name, or a new marital status, or even something simple like trying a new restaurant or creating something new for your house.  Each season of life may have various levels of newness, but it's something different just the same. All of a sudden...BAM!...my inspiration hit!  My plan is to share anything new that is happening in my life, whether it's happy, exciting, sad, or funny.  Anything that comes my way, my goal is to is to embrace it and take delight in newness, change and the unknown.  You never know what life will bring you, but for now, I'm excited to travel down my Joyful New Rhodes... :)

 Love, Sara :)