Out of the Kitchen September 2018

We bought a sectional for our basement!! We stayed under our set budget which is great, because you know it can be hard once you get to the store and start looking at everything. If only we had a fireplace in the basement with winter coming… The second photo – our Meijer store got an overhaul and they moved every item around. It’s hard to adjust because I used to know where everything was – but I have noticed that one awesome part of the redesign is that they have tons of gluten free labels and signs!!

Our church had a huge back to school bash and making a whole bunch of goodies for the bake sale was right up my alley! I made combination of regular and gluten free treats – I made s’mores bars, peanut butter cookies, and monster cookies. The second photo – this was a spontaneous photo Ryan took of me! I’m posting one personal photo a week on my instagram to let me followers know who the person behind this blog is!

We cat sat for our friends Steph & Neil while they were out of the country. I learned that Salsa is not a snuggly cat compared to these two kitties! They were my buddies for 10 days and they are so fluffy and nice! Plus I got to practice my cat photography ????

I shared a really fun Amazon Fall Try On this month. I reviewed 10 amazon items that are good for cooler weather. Most of them were actually really great pieces! Check out the post here!

September begins family portrait season! Taking family portraits for friends is something I love so much. Photography is one of my favorite parts of my blog so it’s really fun to capture these precious moments! The second photo – Salsa has been eating my fake plant and bending all the grass pieces. Then he throws them up. So I decided to give my plant a little haircut and he was super curious.

Here is a behind the scenes photo from this apple cider punch photo shoot! I don’t photograph drinks too frequently so it’s always fun to try my hand at something new. The second photo – I tried Color Street Nails after seeing a blogger I follow on instagram show how to put them on. I really like them! They are 100% real nail polish but dry when you get them and adhesive on the back, so they are like stickers. One of the main reasons I don’t paint my fingernails is because I hate waiting for them to dry and I always seems to smudge them. I’m waiting on some more colors to come in the mail.

Ryan has trained Salsa to climb on top of him to get treats. That’s about all we’ve trained him to do! The second photo – we took a 5 mile “hike”. And by hike I mean long walk through the woods because there aren’t any mountains in Michigan. We even saw a snake. We’re practically hikers now ????

Such a cute picture of Salsa. I love using portrait mode on my iPhone X to take pictures of him ???? The second photo – our fall porch! At first I only had white pumpkins out and Ryan kept suggesting I add some orange ones, and he was right, it looks better with the pop of color! PS. All of the white pumpkins are fake and the rest are real!

We made homemade candles for the first time! And Salsa did not want to get off the counter (he was curious about all the supplies) so I saw it as a family photo opportunity. We definitely need more candle making practice.. they aren’t super scent-y and both of our cracked while cooling. The second photo – our halloween mantle! Halloween is my favorite holiday! I think I may add some more cob webs and spiders ????️

Opening up…

September seemed to be packed with so many good things! Plus there’s something about the changing of the season from summer to fall that is so exciting.

I know Ryan likes the transition into fall.. he’s had 10 pumpkin spice lattes. And yes I’m keeping count because his love for them is DEEP.

I feel like we’ve been able to spend good time with friends this month. Plus life groups within our church started back up and it’s so good to be back in that rhythm, doing life and growing in faith with friends.

I’ve been enjoying my quiet time in the morning and connecting with Jesus first thing. I’ve been jumping around doing different things like reading Ruth, following a video series from Right Now Media, listening to worship music or reading a proverb. I’m always looking for new ideas so let me know if you have a devotional or something you like!

Ryan and I are trying to be more intentional about doing things together – like the hike and candle making. We both have work-a-holic tendencies and sometimes we can fall into the trap of just working on the weekends.

Buying a sectional for our basement is probably one of the best things we did all summer. Our basement was just a wide open space before so we never used it and it was spidery – but now it’s our favorite spot to watch netflix!

Other than that, we’re still going to the gym (and I even drink protein powder after I lift ????) still thinking about getting another cat and still thinking about taking a vacation.

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See the rest of our out of the kitchen posts.