DIY: Pumpkin Spice Cupcake Muffins

Hey everyone!

Another new recipe to add to the books this week as I tried out Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes. I call them Cupcake Muffins because they are somewhere inbetween a cupcake and a muffin. This was a recipe I thought about while making the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and I decided to give it a whirl! And one of the best parts? They're eggless! Yay for egg free recipes! Here's how I made them:

What you'll need:
1 Spice Cake Box Mix
7/8 Can of Pumpkin (the rest went to Nike ;))
1/2 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
1/3 Cup of Olive Oil
1 Cup of Water
1/4 Cup of Brown Sugar
Cream Cheese Frosting
Decorative Sprinkles

Candy Corn

Preheat the oven to 350. I mixed the cake mix, can of pumpkin, cinnamon, and olive oil together in a large bowl. After that, I noticed the mix looked a lot like the mucky consistency I got when I made the cookies, and realized that I needed to add water. After I added the water, it was much more like an egg filled cake mix would normally be.
TIP: When looking at the mix before mixing, it looks too wet, but it isn't!

I then added the brown sugar as a little experiment to take some of the strong pumpkin flavor away. You don't have to add the cinnamon or brown sugar, that was just my own touch.
TIP: Use a small gravy ladel or ice cream scooper to put your batter into the cupcake tins. It helps give you a good amount of batter in each to make the perfect size cupcake.

The cupcake box said to bake for 17-20 minutes, but I always do the lower and subtract two minutes. I hate overcooked baked goods. 15 minutes worked out perfectly! I wanted to make enough for everyone at work tonight, so mine were a little on the small side, but if you made a good ice cream scoop size the mix would probably make about 18-20 cupcakes. Doing a little smaller made 24. Let them cool for half an hour then decorate them with the frosting, sprinkles, and candy corn to your liking!

So what do you think? Pumpkiny-deliciousness? I thought so ;). Do you have more yummy fall pumpkin recipes? Let me know! I love trying new things!

Thanks for keeping up,
Olivia :)

DIY: Fall Leaf Lanterns

Hey everyone!

Happy fall! Since it is in full swing now, I wanted to share a project I worked on this week: DIY fall leaf lanterns! They're so adorable, easy to make, and you can live in Florida and do them ;) I am obsesesd with fall time: from the outfits to the yummy treats to the smell of pumpkin spice (white girl right here), it is my favorite season! So try these out and tell me what you think of mine!

Here's what you need:

Mason Jars- $10-15 for a pack of 12

Mod Podge (small bottle)- $2-3

Fake (or real) Autumn Leaves- $2 on clearance at craft store

A couple heavy books- around the house

A paint brush- $1-2

Rubber bands-$1

Fall scented tea light candles-$5 for 12

I bought fake leaves from Michaels (since I live in Florida), but I removed them from the fake branches and put them flat in a book with other heavy books on top of them for 24 hours. After your leaves have been semi-flattened: you're ready to start! If you're using real leaves, put newspaper between the book pages so the moisture doesn't ruin the text. Next, take off the lids on the Mason Jars. You can make as many as you want, you just have to have the right number of leaves. Cover the entire base of the Mason Jar with Mod Podge and the back of the leaves. TIP: Paint and paste one leaf at a time, the Mod Podge dries pretty quickly. After that, you'll stick as many leaves in whatever pattern on the jar and apply rubber bands to areas where you think might pop up or not stick well. I used about 4-5 rubber bands on each jar, and make sure they're pretty tight. 

Let the jars dry for about four-six hours, turning on a fan can speed up the process. You will know when they're dry when the glue isn't showing on the outside of the jar anymore. Touch the jar to make sure it's dry, and remove the rubber bands carefully! You can see some reside from the glue when you take off the rubber bands, but when you light the candles you can't tell. Last, put the tea lights in the jar, and light the candles! Wah-lah: gorgeous falltime lanterns! I LOVE how mine came out! I was a little weary at first, because the leaves are fake, but with the pumpkin spice tea light glowing and the fall aroma in the air, I couldn't love them more: and they won't brown with time, so they'll be good for years to come!

So that's it! My latest DIY project. What do you think? Have you ever made fall lanterns? If you have, share some tips that you found helpful. If not, try it out! It was a pretty inexpensive project that had great results, and would make a great gift! I only made five, but I totally have enough supplies to make five more easily.

Thanks for reading,

-Olivia :)

#BookWorm: The Wedding

Hey fellow readers!

I finally finished another book! With the NCLEX in my past, I started leisurely reading again. I am working on my list, and The Wedding was the next one up so I decided to give it a whirl. I cannot tell you how shocked I was that I actually really enjoyed this book. Why was I so shocked you may ask? Because it's a sequel to a Nicholas Sparks classic The Notebook. If you HAVEN'T read The Notebook or don't know that the ending is different from the movie, stop reading here because this is a major spoiler alert.

The Wedding is about Noah's granddaughter who is getting married and the preparations for her wedding. It is a middle aged male perspective the entire book, Noah's son-in-law Wilson, and a majority of the story takes place in the present when they're middle aged. Typically I like books about younger couples and from a female perspective, but this one was great. I was worried it would ruin my thoughts on The Notebook, but it didn't. I loved Noah and his relationship with the swan in the book, and loved that they included a lot of flashback moments from Noah and Allie's crazy relationship. Overall I would give the book a 9/10, yeah that good. Which is odd since normally I like the female perspective (like in my review of Dear John I kind of bashed him for not including more female perspective), but I honestly didn't miss it in this book. I was impressed. Again, if you hate romance stories and/or Nicholas Sparks, first of all you're cray, second of all you won't like this book.

Also did anyone else see how they changed all the old Nicholas Sparks covers to pictures of couples? Like what the heck? I hate hate hate the new covers. So annoying. Google it, you'll be angry too if you're a Sparks fan.

I started reading Four by Veronica Roth, which is a collection of stories from the view of Tobias. I will let you all know when I finish, but so far so good. So what are you reading these days? Has your list expanded? Let me know!

Thanks for reading,
Olivia