September days...🍂 hosting a cozy movie night, garden updates, & wool needle felting tutorial!

September is in full swing. I feel like it's flying by. I just want to go at a snail's pace this September and soak it up. Today I just have some random pottering around the home and miscellaneous projects but then I'm also hosting a little movie night tonight with some of my girlfriends. I honestly was thinking of canceling when I woke up this morning because I just feel like I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I was feeling overwhelmed but I'm so glad I didn't because it's sounding so nice now just to giggle, have some girl time, snack. I'm very excited. We have that to look forward to and I'm not really making any treats. I acquired some so I'll show you what I picked up and then kind of for dinner and then also I'll serve some to my friends if they'd like some. I'm going to make a spicy buffalo dip with corn and jalapenos, just like a warm dip was sounding so good and I made some fresh sourdough this morning so dipping the sourdough, yes that was sounding amazing which isn't a very fall recipe. I was looking specifically for fall dips but none of them were speaking to me. There was a lot of whipped feta with like some you know additions that had those fall flavors but we're gonna go classic spicy buffalo dip which does feel fall because it's a very popular football weekend recipe so that's what's on the menu partially but I'm looking forward to this week and just soaking up September together. It's time to hang back up our pumpkin patch sign in the garden but I want to just touch up the paint real quick. Some of the orange is quite faded from last year so we'll give it a fresh coat. Okay movie night snack haul. I bought this salted caramel popcorn. I already popped it open and it's delicious. It's wow so yummy. I'm also going to make some coconut oil popcorn and then we have these dark chocolate crispy quinoa gems. Yummy. And then some potato chips for the dip but also just a snack on. Spicy dill pickled chips. I've never tried them. Also just some plain sea salt and then I also got this french onion dip. I don't know if I'll put it out tonight. Maybe. Why not? But my mother-in-law had it at family dinner this past weekend. So so good and it's really I like this brand. The ingredients are really good which is nice and you know that feels like a lot of effort to make a french onion dip so it's amazing to have that option. Some cinnamon sticks. I also got some rosemary just to top our fun drinks and then this variety pack of yum earth candy. We have some jelly beans, giggles which is like their skittles, chewies which is like their starbursts and their sour littles which are like sour patch kids. Hello from my craft closet storage closet. I don't think you can even see the ground and that is for good reason. I'll show you in a second but this closet I use it all the time. It is just it's a happy place because I have all my craft supplies. I keep like my sunglasses and just like some of my little bits and bobs. I love it in here but the problem is it's also like a dumping spot because it's very centrally located so whenever I want to just get stuff out of the way it comes in here. So we need to do a tidy up of this closet because I can't even navigate around it right now. The problem is I don't think there's much to like declutter. I genuinely use this stuff all the time and then I have all of our gift wrapping stuff back here too and like gift bags and wrapping paper which I love to reuse. I always say like I'm a tissue paper saver. When I get a gift I will refold the tissue paper and save it for when I'm wrapping a gift. Does anyone else do that? I'm sure I'm sure I'm not the only one right but it does get a little messy when you do that because you kind of hoard a lot of tissue paper. So anyways I'm just going to try to organize it. I'm yeah I'm not doing I'm not going in with the purpose of decluttering but if there is anything that I feel like could be given away we will do that. I actually do have a pile of clothes that I'd like to give away to some friends so I have that but yeah other than that we just need to tidy it up. As I'm evaluating I definitely could use more like shelving in this section of the closet so I think I'll add that to my list but probably not till the new year when I do more of a declutter and organization. In this bag I'm putting some fall stuff that I've yet to use some of it's for the soup soiree party we do and then some of it's for our little library and then in that tote bag up here I just put some home decor and like a lamp that I have out when I don't have it decorated for fall. I've been hoarding these preserved leaves or branches that Brandon cut off from our trees when he was pruning them and they're making such a mess I don't know if I'm even going to use them. I was thinking it'd be fun to put some twinkling lights on them for tonight for movie night so maybe I'll do that but they're making such a mess. We are going next level cozy tonight for movie night. I brought out the air mattress so I'm going to blow it up put it in the center and then we also have our duvet covers which I forgot to bring out when we decorated that's one of our fall traditions fall winter traditions is to keep our spare duvet cover on the couch just for an extra layer of coziness so I'm excited to set up this situation. Okay I'm loving this setup besides the minor detail that the air mattress is like a foot taller than our couch so we will just have our feet elevated I suppose but you know it's just for the atmosphere for the option it's only going to be four of us so thankfully there's plenty of room on the couch but this is fun. Fun fact this air mattress was actually my bed senior year of college I thought I was subleasing a furnished apartment we go to move in there's nothing there so I ended up sleeping on an air mattress my whole last year of college but it's a good story and I put a foam mattress topper on it and you know I slept like I was gonna say like a baby but we all know when we have a baby we never want to say that again because it doesn't make sense. It already smells so good now I'm just gonna pop it in the oven also this is where Palmer insists on sleeping while I cook the bubbling wow oh I should mention I went a little rogue with the recipe I just tried it it's really yummy but I put a cup of corn and jalapenos and instead of green onion I did just yellow onion this one's making me nervous it's almost too tall with the fresh taper okay but get cozy oh our non-grass grassy area is filling in quite nicely if you're unfamiliar basically we stopped trying to keep our grass alive in our backyard it is a fight in Florida at least in our area to keep grass alive so we fully surrendered and just wanted to switch over to ground covers and weeds that are positive weeds like weeds have such a negative connotation but it's actually so life-giving for pollinators and bunnies and wildlife so we're just part of the ecosystem back here I don't even know what this is called it looks a little silly because it's so bright green but I just plopped it in there and then our sunshine mimosa I picked up from a local nursery is taking off which is great it hasn't bloomed any of the pretty purple flowers yet but I think it's just trying to get established and then we have frog sprue which I never planted but a little bunny or bird must have brought it over it's so cute the little flowers that pop up I'm very excited about the frog sprue I was hoping it would somehow end up in our yard and then all of this I'm not sure what it is but it also has pretty purple flowers that open up every now and then and then our moon flowers are over here which have doesn't look like anything right now but at night they open up to really pretty yellow and pink flowers once the moon comes out around dusk the bunnies love to eat them though so I see a lot of them are beheaded but hey they brought them over I'm happy to give them some food for their contributions but yeah it still looks a little spotty but it really is growing in you just got to be patient I love seeing the little pollen baskets on the bees also how cute are these funky mushrooms that look like pebbles look what I just spotted a happy little sunshine mimosa flower it's so cute it's straight out of Dr. Seuss when I can see evidence of the seed opening up right next to the sprout here's our pumpkin seed okay we have a mini Trader Joe's haul I put the pumpkins outside already and I realized I got one without a stem which isn't smart I think the golden rule is to get pumpkins with stems because apparently they last longer but c'est la vie that one spoke to me hopefully it'll do okay got some spiced cider classic I get this every year and then I got some hand soap for our powder bathroom and then this honey crisp apple candle oh it's just so refreshing and delightful I ended up putting the candle where I had a little pumpkin on our towel rack in our powder bathroom because I feel like that'll just be so nice when hosting to have this lit in the bathroom the little movie night was delightful I feel like this time of year is my favorite time to host and have people over I just want my friends to be cuddled up in my living room having fun being cozy so I'm really thankful we made that happen and then Brandon and I got to go on a little day date we went to lunch and then we popped into Trader Joe's they had a lot more fall things which was exciting and now I have unlocked a new craft that I am jazzed about so this is called wolf felting I've made one project so far and I'm excited to share it because it is just so neat and I feel like it's an attainable craft if you don't consider yourself super crafty I feel like this is a good place to start I love embroidery I used to embroider just do like hand stitch embroidery quite a bit but I haven't done that in a while and this is reminding me of it but I think it's even simpler I've only done this one little pumpkin so far but look how sweet it is and truly it took me probably 10 minutes to make so I need to cut the fabric off the edge but I want to give you all the details in case you are interested because I have seen this on Pinterest and online for a while but it kind of intimidated me and I'm I'm mindful to just be cognizant of starting a new craft and like buying all the supplies I you've seen my craft closet it is a little it's a little nutty in there so I try not to start things that I'm only going to do for a little bit and then I have these supplies sitting around but thankfully this was not very many supplies you really only need like three things but I feel like you could be even more resourceful with it um but I'll link all the stuff that I got and just give you a good place to start I already have these little fabric squares actually so I didn't even have to get any fabric but you could use whatever spare fabric and with the wool felting you can make 2d art like this just on a piece of fabric or you can make 3d art so those cute little like felted creatures I love or even like a 3d pumpkin you could make I haven't tried that yet I'm I'm intimidated by that but essentially what you need is wool this is like wool I don't think it's called wool thread but it is a special kind of wool that's recommended for this sort of crafting so I bought a box I don't have all the colors here but it just had like a variety pack of colors but there's a lot of good autumnal ones in the pack so I just kind of pulled those out because I want to make a bunch of fall themed little little pieces of art and then I have my fabrics I my little fabric spare swatches I have has a bunch of different colors but I again just pulled out like the more fall colors that I'll use for the back and then where did I put it oh you need a needle so I got a 36 star no this isn't it oh here it is a 36 gauge star needle that's the one I picked out which I researched and they said that's a good one to start with and then I also this is something that like you don't have to get but I feel like it does make it way more comfortable is this little holder piece so that as you're poking and prying on the little felt you can just have a better grip and then if you are going to do 2d you need little embroidery um hooks which or what are they called embroidery hoops not hooks hoops which I've never had these before typically I've only used the wooden ones that you screw in together but these are kind of just like more flexible and then it was easier to put the fabric on so that is a good invention so let me show you how I make I guess what should we do I want to do another pumpkin I want to do a bat I feel like a little cup of tea or coffee would be cute Pinterest has a lot of ideas of course a little teddy bear a little goose for a little baby shower gift would be cute but I am trying to think of fall ideas also I have my annual soup soiree coming up so I'm like what could I do as like part of the golden ladle gift because the winner of the soup soiree gets this special golden ladle and I'm like oh that'd be cute if I could make a little either spoon or a dutch oven or something I don't know I'm I'm getting a little ambitious this pumpkin gave me confidence but this is more of a simple one so we'll see but let me show you how to do it I think I forgot to mention I also bought this little mat to poke through which you could use a spare pillow that you don't mind getting holes in but it is pretty convenient to have this okay so the first step we're going to secure our fabric okay there we go and then I'm going to pick out which orange I want to do for my pumpkin I'm thinking this one looks the best that's more yellow okay so you just gently pull out a little piece of wool I just do a little bit at a time as I'm still getting the hang of this but I find this to be a fairly forgiving craft too which is nice takes the pressure off like this piece actually is a little bigger than I was anticipating and then you simply just start poking the shape that you desire so I start with a little just to secure it down and then I'll use my fingers to continue to shape it and then just poke it down as I establish that shape and I love this too because you could make it even more intricate or you could make it as simple as you fancy okay we're gonna do our middle and then we'll continue to shape the outside edge once we get more of a defined size okay there's a little rough draft of the middle of our pumpkin some more wool bunch it together okay it looks a little messy so I'm gonna define the different like edges or the ribs of the pumpkin by poking to make them more defined I like it to be nice and thick I feel like that just looks sweet but I do want my edges to be a little more refined so cute let's add our stem and then we can continue to shape the body of our pumpkin if we fancy I love that brown for the stem I think that's a little too dark for what I want oh that one's cute too we'll do this one to switch it up the stem really brings it together I think I took a little too much and simply just poke poke poke into the shape you want and I kind of use my needle to stretch out the wool if I want it in a certain direction you could even layer with different colors too which I haven't really dabbled with yet I'm tempted to try it right now but tada how stinking sweet I just spilled something on myself so don't mind me but I'm about to go to my friend Kamiya's home she's hosting a party and she's an event planner so when she hosts a party it is not just a little casual gathering it is a whole production she spares no expense she puts her heart and soul into every single gathering she puts together and this party is specifically for the moms in her life she does it every year and it's just so special and this year's theme there's always a different theme this year's theme is like luxury hotel so I'm in this like satin pj set because it's spa themed like relaxing and this is the invite I have to show you the details it's just she blows me away so you take out this little wrapping and it's called the sweet society hotel and spa and then you have like a little hotel key and it says my name the guest theme and the room number penthouse and everything it's just incredible so I'm really looking forward to that I will absolutely try to get some video of what she put together because it is so extravagant and I'm just in awe we were completely blown away and spoiled by Kamiya the amount of details is truly extraordinary and we got massages we had delicious food beautiful conversations about motherhood and just chit chatting it was such a highlight of the week okay I am cozied up I have some little candies from our movie night mother night they're so yummy and I have my book I've been reading this bat book that I checked out from library a few weeks ago and it's actually so fascinating I'm about 55 pages in so I have a while to go there's probably about yeah almost 300 pages so I have a lot to learn but I wrote down a few fun facts because again it's been so interesting and I don't want to forget what I'm learning okay here's some the bumblebee bat is the smallest bat and it's two grams it's tiny and then the biggest bat is the giant golden crowned flying fox look it up it is wild it's so big I believe those are in East Asia or maybe Australia I feel like they're in Australia and bats are found everywhere on earth except for the two poles and then their echolocation is so fine-tuned that they can locate things as small as a strand of hair which I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the whole echolocation of it all it is so fascinating oh they pollinate tequila so if you like to drink tequila you wouldn't be able to have it unless bats existed that one is fascinating I've never heard that before and a quarter of the world's mammals are bats so that's what I have so far but I'm sure I will learn a lot more interesting things but thank you so much for watching this video I really hope you enjoyed it I hope you are well I'm excited to see you next bye