Bragging Rights - French Braid Style

My style is definitely comfy cozy, if I happen to be stylish at the same time then it is a great day! I love French Braids for this reason: They are super stylish and also very comfy! There is nothing I love more that French Braiding your hair and just lounging in it all day. Plus if you have to leave the house, your hair is already done! 

When I had super long hair I used to wear it in a French Braid all the time. Then I cut my hair and donated it to Locks of Love and was no longer able to braid it. Well my hair is finally long enough to French Braid again.. REJOICE! I have to secure a couple places with bobby pins just to make sure layers don't fall out, but that is just fine with me! 

I apologize for the poor picture quality! As you can see the braid is a little crooked, probably because I am still teaching myself how to French Braid my own hair. ;) But I am still pretty excited and proud of the whole thing. 

What is your favorite way to style your hair? French Braid fan, or no? I would love to hear more about you! Comment below, and make Monday awesome! :)

For tutorials and hair inspiration you can follow my Pinterest Hair Page. 

Black Bean Quinoa

Quinoa seems to be all the rage these days. Not only is is super yummy, it is also really good for you! It actually beat brown rice in a health food face-off. You can see those results here. I have tried making quinoa a couple of times now and each time it came out a little.. crunchy, under cooked, however you want to say it. So I gave up on it for a while. Then the other day a genius idea popped into my head, rice cooker.

My sweetie bought one that has just been sitting in our kitchen unused for the past year, so I pulled that puppy out and gave it a try. Let me tell you, I am now a huge supporter of rice cookers. The quinoa cooked perfectly, and it was so easy to prepare! Just throw it in with some vegetable broth and let it sit! Easy peasy.

Now that I can actually get the quinoa properly cooked I plan to use it more. The great thing about quinoa is it can be served as a side dish, but with the right combination of ingredients it can also be a main course. I cooked this Black Bean Quinoa as a main course and it not only filled me up, but my honey as well. So without further ado, here is my recipe for Black Bean Quinoa, enjoy!

Ingredients:

- 1 cup uncooked, organic quinoa (a little goes a LONG way!)

- 2 cups organic vegetable broth

- 1 small red onion, peeled and chopped

- 3 cloves of garlic, minced

- 1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained

- 1 can of corn, drained

- 1 green bell pepper, chopped

- Savory Spice Shop: El Diente Peak Southwestern Seasoning (you can purchase some here) to taste

- Salt and Pepper to taste

- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Directions: 

1. Rinse your quinoa to remove the powder. Place quinoa in your rice cooker with your organic vegetable broth. 

*If you are not using a rice cooker, follow the instructions on the bag to cook on your stove top. 

2. Stir in onions and garlic. Season with El Diente Seasoning, salt, and pepper. Set the time for your quinoa to cook and let the rice cooker do it's magic! I always cook on the "Quick Cook" setting ;)

3. Steam your green peppers in the microwave (I use a little olive oil and cook them for about 1 minute), and heat up your beans and corn as well.

4. Once your quinoa is done, combine all ingredients and mix well. Stir in freshly chopped cilantro and add more seasonings if needed. 

There you have it! Super easy, super healthy, and SUPER yummy! This one will definitely be one of my "stand-by" recipes for when I don't feel like cooking! ;) Have a great day everyone, and thanks for stopping by! 

Good Ideas - 10 Halloween Projects

Halloween is just around the corner! Can you believe it? I love this time of year. Cool mornings, leaves changing colors, boots, scarves, pumpkin spice lattes! ;) It is just a beautiful season.. Plus, it means Christmas is just around the corner!! Go ahead, call me crazy. I can't help loving Christmas, but I am getting ahead of myself.

To get in the Autumn spirit, here are some of my favorite Halloween Pins! 

Burlap Boo Bunting via R & R Workshop

Spray Painted Boo Pumkins via HGTV

 Happy Halloween Bunting via Etsy

Pretty Pumpkins via McKay & Dixie

Mini Pumpkin Dcoration via Ten June

Door Sign via Eleven Magnolia Lane

Creative Use of Pumpkins via Better Homes and Gardens

Boo Sign via Etsy

Paper Pumpkin via Two Paper Divas

Chic Halloween Ribbon Wreath via Bowdabra Blog 

Don't forget you can link up your Halloween creations and tutorials here. Can't wait to see your lovely projects!! :)

"I Did It!" Pinterest Edition

It's no secret, I love Pinterest. However, I feel like I spend way too much time simply browsing through everything. See I have this sickness, I find and pin thousands of awesome projects, and then I never complete them. Or even worse, I pin a project, buy all the supplies I need for it, then never finish the project. Can you say Pinterest fail?

When we were packing for our move I was going through my crafting and sewing supplies and realized just how many unfinished projects I had laying around. It was then and there that I promised myself I would start to actually finish said projects once we settled in our new place!

And thus my series "I Did It!" Pinterest Edition was born!

For my first project I am going to share a cute little sewing project I found a while ago. It is an ADORABLE little fox stuffed animal! Here is the original pin:



This project is a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I always get intimidated with new projects, and this was certainly out of my sewing comfort zone! My seam ripper was close by at all times, as were my printed instructions. Make fun of me all you want, but I like things to be perfect. Especially when this little guy is a present for someone ;)

Here are some pictures from the creative process :)

I always have my helper nearby!

Snuggling the little fox.

I still need to put eyes and a nose on the little guy. I think I am going to use felt but I haven't decided! After I sewed the fox and stuffed him I decided he was too small. I also decided that I wanted the bottom to be flat so he could sit on a shelf (I don't know when I decided the fox was a he, but it is). So I am currently working on enlarging the pattern and tweaking it a bit to better suite my fox stuffed animal needs! When I have modified the pattern I will post a tutorial for you all! 

<div align="center"><a href="http://theupstairscrafter.blogspot.com/" title="The Upstairs Crafter" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag73/speckdoodle/250x250IDidIt_zpsaa6dd261.png" alt="The Upstairs Crafter" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

If you would like to participate and share your Pinterest creations please do so! For now please grab the code and link up below! I would eventually like to make this a weekly linky party, so participation would be amaze-balls! :) If you have any suggestions about making this a linky party (perhaps hosting it every other week instead?) I would LOVE to hear read them! Just leave your ideas in the comments below. Or if you have any advise to offer about hosting your own linky party that would be appreciated as well! Thanks everyone!

One Grand Adventure

One great bonus of having to move around a lot is being able to explore different parts of the country that you probably wouldn't get to see otherwise. So this past weekend we decided to take a mini vacation to go explore some of the wonderful places around us. We decided to check out the Grand Canyon and stay in Flagstaff for the weekend.

Both of us had been to the Grand Canyon before when we were little, but we were still really excited to see it again. I personally felt like I would appreciate its beauty more now that I was older. Last time I visited, I remember being impressed for about 10 minutes then just bored because it was the same "hole in the ground" for the rest of the day. 

So we booked our hotel, packed an overnight bag for ourselves and Tifa (did I mention this was also our first vacation with her??) and off we went! 

She was very excited for our adventure! 

Family all ready to go! 

On the way there we passed signs for Montezuma's Castle. I had remembered my Grandma mentioning it was a cool landmark to see, plus Tifa needed to let off some steam, so we decided to stop there as opposed to at a rest stop. If you are ever down in Arizona (and/or just a huge history buff like myself), Montezuma's Castle is definitely worth seeing. Here is a link to the National Park Service's website so you can read more about the castle and it's history if you are interested :)

Such an amazing sight to see. 

Wish they still allowed people to go up into the castle! :(

Modeling.

Tifa wanted to be included in the photos. 

Essentially that is Montezuma's Castle. There are other, smaller caves carved into the hill that were used for storage and spiritual activities, but that's about it. It is a quick little walk around, all paved with spots to sit and enjoy the view. There is also an area where you can sit and interact with a ranger to learn more about the castle and the people that lived in it. 

Or you can just press a button and have a recording tell you all about it ;)

Anyway, if you are driving through the area I would strongly recommend stopping here for a rest stop and a chance to stretch your legs. That way you can take care of yourself, get a quick history lesson, and some awesome pictures! 

After our quick pit stop we hit the road again to continue on our way to the Grand Canyon. As we got closer we realized we were driving into a rain storm. According to the weather forecast there was a chance of thunderstorms, but oh my goodness were there thunderstorms!! 

Driving to the Grand Canyon.. AKA right into the storm!

So when we finally got to the canyon we arrived right in the middle of a HUGE storm, complete with lightening, thunder, and hail! We hid in the car for a while then just had to take sweet Tifa out to go potty. After she did her thing (TMI?) we ran in the visitors center to wait out the rest of the rain. While inside we met an adorable couple from Holland, they were doing a month long trip along the west coast of the US. They were so sweet, and made waiting for the storm to pass so much fun! 

So then the rain stopped and we dashed outside to enjoy the beautiful view!! The Grand Canyon is so much more beautiful that I remembered it being. The pictures we took do not do it justice. For whatever reason we could not drive around the whole canyon, so we walked some of the way and just enjoyed the parts we got to see. We also learned that Tifa LOVES jumping and playing in puddles. Can you say cute?? I'm thinking she was made to be an Oregon dog ;) Hopefully she will get to play in more puddles soon.. but I digress! 

We stayed at the canyon until it started getting dark, then made our way to Flagstaff. The next day it was raining again in town so we didn't do much exploring, but maybe another time! We would prefer to go back once we have some bikes anyway! :) Then we started on the journey home, only to get stuck driving in crazy intense thunderstorms and traffic. But we made it home safe and sound, then enjoyed a relaxing Sunday together. 

All in all it was an awesome trip. Tifa was the ultimate dream puppy, and we enjoyed our time together exploring nature! Plus Thomas was SUPER snuggly when we got home :P That always helps! Here are some pictures of our time at the canyon, and some cute puppy shots as well! :)

First picture :)

Such a beautiful view.

I was so scared in this picture... 

Our fearless fur ball. 

Cute :)

Puddle lover.. Wish we would have recorded her playing in them. 

On the drive to our hotel. She was so sleepy from her day of fun!