Cranberry Banana Pumpkin Bread

I love baking bread. It's so easy, you can pretty much put whatever you want in it, and it always turns out yummy! Here's one of the new breads that I really liked...

Adapted from here

Ingredients:
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 banana

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Beat the butter, brown sugar, pumpkin, cranberries, egg, vanilla, and banana in another bowl until smooth. Stir in dry mixture.

Pour batter into 9x5 bread pan.

Bake for about 1 hour or until cooked throughout.

Let cool and enjoy!

Monthly Baby Photo Idea

I'm so, so happy that I started this idea when my little guy was a newborn. I took a photo of him every month on a desk calendar and marked off the date. My plan was to make a collage after 12 months so we could see how much he's grown. There were months when it was hard to get him to sit still, but I'm so glad I stuck with it. The final collage is amazing!

I printed out a large version of it and set it up on some foam board at his birthday party for everyone to see. I also hung one on my cube wall at work and so many people have stopped by to take a look at it.

If you're pregnant or have a newborn baby, this is such a fun way to mark each month and look back to see how big they've gotten in such a short time!

Embroidered Wedding Gift Pillow

My sister is just got married over the weekend and I really wanted to give her a special personal gift rather than something from her registry. I've been designing all of the paper pieces for her wedding, so I know she loves the monogram we used for everything. Why not put it on something she can display in her house?
I bought a pillow insert at the craft store and designed the lettering to fit in the space.

I printed out the monogram and the date we used on her programs, placecards, etc. and pinned it onto the muslin fabric I chose to match their living room decor.

I used gray embroidery floss to embroider the lettering onto the fabric. I leave the paper pinned onto the fabric until I'm done. Then I carefully rip the paper off and it looks perfect!

I gave it to her at her bridal shower and it was a big hit! I can't wait to see how it looks on her couch!