Photo Diary: Fall Vibes

With temps dropping outside, my roommates and I are seeing how long we can go without cranking up the heat. Current status: blankets on blankets.

The sweaters are unpacked, placed, and ready to go!

This is this photo's second appearance on the blog, but it's a favorite of mine. Photo creds go to my girl, Michelle on this one. This is from a very well spent day at the apple orchard and pumpkin patch.

A delicious butternut squash and sweet potato soup that I will be posting the recipe for soon!

(photo credit: Pitt Alumni Association)

Also, I cannot say more about how beautiful this campus is in the fall! I love walking through the leaves on the sidewalk and seeing the Cathedral poking out behind the colorful trees. 

<3 Ashley

Are you enjoying the autumn? What is your favorite part of the season?

How Early is Too Early

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Recently--about a week ago--my roommates and I decided that we could officially start going holiday crazy. We are planning our roommate Thanksgiving for before our break, making plans for Light Up Night in Downtown Pittsburgh this Friday to see the Christmas tree in PPG Place, making gallons of hot chocolate, and also listening to Christmas music. Yes, Christmas music started a week ago and has all been downloaded to my phone. We are all on the same page with the holiday schedule and it is wonderful.

However, there are mumblings of people getting frustrated with the early Christmas excitement. I know one girl my friend is acquainted with loves Thanksgiving and feels that we are skipping over the day of thanks completely. So the question I pose to you all: How early is too early for Christmas?

Here are my thoughts. For me, the winter holidays are not really systematic to me. To be perfectly honest, I lump Thanksgiving and Christmas together as the holidays. Both are spent with family, sharing time and stories around the table together. They are only a month apart anyway, so both make-up the holiday season for me. For that reason, I do not feel a shred of guilt for starting the Christmas tunes in early November (not the first day...I do have some self-control.) I respect the rights of others to rage about my level of joy in mid-November, but please also respect my right to wrap myself in Christmas lights and belt "Silver Bells." ;P

<3 Ashley

How early do you start Christmas music/decorations? What is too early?

Book Club: Dead Wake

Good morning everyone! Before I get into my little review (and I mean little...sorry...time crunch!) I wanted to just send out a "Thank you" to all of our veterans on this Veteran's Day. Thank you so much for your bravery and sacrifice. You've made getting up everyday and pursuing good things possible!

Now, in an unexpected turn I finished reading a book during the semester. *pause for gasps, passing out, and utter chaos*

That book was Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson. As minor in history with a focus in U.S. history, this kind of book is what speaks to me. It is not necessarily historical fiction. Larson pulls from a number of sources--seriously, a good chunk of the end of the book is endnotes--to tell the story of those who were on the ship when it was attacked by a German submarine.

Not only do we get the accounts of those on the boat, but also chapters devoted to President Wilson, Churchill and Room 40, and even Walther Schwieger--the submarine commander who initiated the attack. Through researching letters, notes, video, and photograph Larson was able to pull together a convincing account of day-to-day life on the ship and the mentality of the British and American governments as the signs of an attack grew even more obvious.

After finishing the book, I was left with many questions that would be interesting to research--this is the history student talking! If this is the kind of reading that you enjoy, or find yourself particularly interested in the World War I period, I definitely recommend this book to you. I can't wait to read it again.

<3 Ashley

Have you read Dead Wake? What did you think? 

Holy Moly!

Research for my final ad campaign. Hire me, Kate Spade?

Sorry for the absolute silence last week guys! It appears that this is the time when college comes at me at warp speed because I have been doing nothing but work, work, work! While I enjoy being busy, having so many projects due at one time has really knocked the wind out of me. I was up late last night, and woke up early this morning to put the finishing touches on an ad campaign project so that I can make final edits throughout the day before it is due at 3. You can tell that I really like to push it to the limit. However, since this campaign is figuratively for Kate Spade (thank you, prof for letting me follow my dreams on this one) it wasn't all a horrible experience. :)

I was able to break up with work a little bit with some fun in between. We had our home football game against Notre Dame this weekend. Spoiler alert: we lost. It was a great game though and the most packed the stadium has been in my time here--kind of incredible to be a part of!

Hopefully this won't be the last you hear from me this week! I will try to have a post set up Wednesday. xo

<3 Ashley

How was your weekend? 

November is...

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...long hikes through fallen leaves

...a tall mug of hot apple cider

...a cozy cable knit sweater

...evenings baking with roommates

...large family meals
...breaking out your holiday best
...buying decorations

...impromptu coffee shop stops

...early nights in bed

...early mornings to attack the day

<3 Ashley

What is November to you? 

Spotted

Spotted on the Pitt campus, Blair Waldorf and Serena van der Woodsen popping champagne to commemorate their final college Halloweekend. Chuck and Lonely Boy no where to be found. What fun lies in store for these Upper East Siders? I'll never tell. xoxo Gossip Girl

That's right! Happy Halloween everybody! Last night was full of fun times and great costumes. My friend and I went as Blair and Serena from Gossip Girl. This was a natural pick for us since we OBSESS over the show. I was Blair...because of course. It was great to step out dressed as TV's best dressed duo; everyone else's costumes of course paled in comparison to ours. :)

<3 Ashley

How are you dressing up for Halloween?

Sunday Brunch: Pumpkin Pancakes

Well well well...here we find ourselves enjoying yet another lazy Sunday morning. I really hope these never end. I need my sanity days. Now, my intention was to post this on Friday (really!) but that clearly never happened. So welcome to an actual Sunday Sunday Brunch brunch post. See what I did there? Low-cal calzone zone, anybody?

Anyway. I mentioned early in the week how I am basically obsessing over all things pumpkin and one of the newest and most frequent fixtures in my diet are pumpkin pancakes. Sometimes these appear with chocolate chips, sometimes they fly solo. The recipe is super easy and is actually the recipe that I posted before for single serving whole wheat pancakes, just with pumpkin and spices added!

Ingredients:
- 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. baking soda
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- a few shakes of cinnamon and nutmeg
- 1/3 c. milk
- 1 egg
- 2 tsps. maple syrup
- 3 tbsps. pumpkin puree

What to do:
- Mix up your dry ingredients first. Then add in the rest. When it comes to the spices, you are free to do as you please. This was an experimentation for me one morning so I do not actually have measurements for you.

- I usually add about 3 tbsps of pumpkin puree to my mixture because I am only doing the single serving amount. You should probably adjust accordingly if you are making more. Also, the pumpkin will make the batter a little bit thicker so I pour in a touch more milk at the end to thin it a bit.

- Ladle batter onto hot skillet (medium low heat) and let brown on each side. Add chocolate chips at your discretion ;)

- Serve with butter and maple syrup. Enjoy!

<3 Ashley

What are your favorite pumpkin recipes? Share below!