Real Simple's How to Write the Perfect Note By Amy Spencer

Real Simple's How to Write the Perfect Note By Amy Spencer

Carving Halloween Pumpkins

I admit it. October with the turning of the weather into crisp, clear days (or in Seattle mostly rainy, gray days), leaves turning orange and gold, and Halloween is one of my favorite months. Decorating for Halloween, carving pumpkins, baking pumpkin seeds and pumpkin bread just says Fall to me. Here are a few of my favorite October activities.

 Of course my teenager had to make a pumpkin being sick--but it's rather clever.

The carving templates offered by Spookmaster are simple and fun to use like the trick-or-treating monster.

 Make sure to save and roast your pumpkin seeds after you clean out your pumpkins. It's so easy to do and makes a delicious, healthy anytime snack. Here's a recipe but I just spread the seed out on a foil lined baking sheet with a little olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt and brown sugar. Mix and stir periodically at 300 degrees for about 45 minutes and voila!

My all-time favorite chocolate chip pumpkin bread recipe. My kids love it and it makes a great hostess gift or dessert.
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread
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3 cups white sugar
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
4 eggs
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, oil, water, and eggs. Beat until smooth. Blend in flour, spices, soda, and salt. Fold in chocolate chips. Grease and flour three loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until knife inserted comes out clean. Cool on wire racks before removing from pans.  Freezes well too!

Recycled Plastic Water Bottles Make Amazing Anthropologie Flower Display

They've done it again! The creative geniuses behind the window and store displays at Anthropologie have come up with an outstanding and gorgeous store decor--Recycled plastic water bottles. It looks like they put drops of paint in plastic water bottles and shook or spun them to coat them with an array of bright colors, cut them in half and made flower petals out both halves, and hung them by the hundreds from the ceiling of their store. The combined effect is truly lovely--a hanging garden! It's a must-see. Plus, there are many great finds at their annual summer sale!

Great Shopping in Seattle's University Village

Seattle's University Village open-air shopping center is vibrant, busy, and a treat for the eyes. The hanging flower baskets, unique potted plants, artwork, tempting restaurants, and high-end retailers make this a fabulous shopping experience. It's a great place to shop for Mother's Day gifts and cards. Today I noticed the adorable frog fountain which sends shoots of water into the air to the other frogs in different timed arrangements.

 Even the construction sites are artfully disguised--reminds me of a Roger la Borde card!

My favorite candy store...How can I resist going in with such gorgeous and colorful window displays?!? I can't! 

How many have you read?

How many of the top 100 books ever written (as determined by the BBC) have you read? The list is pretty inspiring. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I've read more of them than I thought. Does seeing the movie count? (i.e., The Princess Diaries--seen a dozen times with my 3 girls, or Dicken's A Christmas Carol, Treasure Island--just watched it last week with my youngest, The Thorn Birds--remember that?, or Gone with the Wind?) Probably not, but I may have to skip them anyway to get through this list. What about Shakespeare? Apparently his writings don't count as they are plays, not novels. Hmmm. If that weren't the case, his plays would dominate the list I guess and be unfair to the others.

The Lord of the Rings (actually 3 books) was ranked number 1 in Britain. I have to agree but only if The Hobbit is included--how sweet is that book?!? It looks like I have my reading list laid out for me for the next year (or two). I wonder if I can get through the rest of them by the end of 2010 (along with all of the other books I'm reading or listening to in my car or ipod)? I think it will be fun trying! I'm going to start with the top-ranked 21 list. Take a look below and see how many you've read. Happy reading!

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie