Back again and Happy Thanksgiving

Hello there everybody and Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you all had a wonderful evening eating and being thankful, surrounded by loved ones!

This year I included the Friends cast as "loved ones" 

I apologize for the lack of posts in the last couple of weeks, what with Thanksgiving happening so quickly after I got back from vacation and now getting ready for the holidays it's been a bit busy over here in casa de Megan.

To get you updated on the past couple of weeks:

-I'm happy so say that my house is all holiday'd up which makes me so happy. I'll be sure and share photos soon.

-Most of my holiday gifts are purchased (thank you cyber Monday and November vacations!)

-I've been crafting it up this holiday season and can't wait to show you guys some of the stuff I've been making

-I have also been cooking up some awesome stuff in the kitchen, including a FULLY homemade pumpkin pie (scraped out a pumpkin and everything). Some delicious hot cocoa with homemade whipped cream and more

I can't wait to share all of it with you and then some in the coming weeks! Hope you have an awesome weekend - supposedly this is the weekend you're supposed to get your Christmas tree (if that's something you do) so hope you all enjoy trimming (a glass of wine always helps)!

Month In Review - October 2014

I wanted to start this post by saying that I am currently on my way to the British Virgin Islands to start off my dream vacation. That being said I do have some posts scheduled to go up while I'm gone - though they will be more scattered. I'm going to try to possibly post some stuff while I'm away - but no guarantees, though you should also watch my Instagram just in case pictures go up there first. Now past the formalities and on to the meat of it:

Some exciting things that happened this month:

- It was fall. I really don't feel like I have to say anything more than that. Seasonal events included, apple picking, fresh apple pie baking, pumpkin carving, cider drinking, bread baking, and so much more. 

- I got a "promotion" in a sense - I was asked to move up to bartending at my restaurant, which is exciting! Perhaps you can expect to see more cocktails here as a result!

- I went to an incredibly beautiful wedding in Purchase, NY

New discoveries this month:
- In research for my upcoming sailing trip I did some research on different waterproof iPhone cases and man are there a lot out there these days - based on the majority of reviews that I read, I ended up going with the Lifeproof Fre - I'll let you know how it holds up!

- Again I have another not so new discovery that I wanted to share with you guys called Pixlr. This amazing website does virtually everything that Photoshop does but FREE! You don't even need to download anything (of course that does mean that you have to have an internet connection) but still it's unbelievably useful and operates similarly to Photoshop so if you are familiar with that set up Pixlr should be a breeze!
- Super cheap flights to Europe via Norwegian - makes a girl think.  

What to look forward to here on Muneshine:
- Pictures and stories from the islands!! As I write this I'm at the airport between flights on my way to  St. Thomas and I can't wait to share with you all kinds of photos once I'm back!

DIY Fall Decor: The Ghost Frame

After a long weekend of celebrating I decided to keep it simple today and share with you one of my Halloween DIY decor items that I made last year. It's one of those pieces that was SO easy to make and yet I get compliments on it all the time.

So without any further ado allow me to introduce you to the Ghost Frame:

Like I said before - this was the easiest thing to make and would look super cute on a fireplace mantel... alas if only I had one. 

I bought the frame at the Goodwill and when I got home I just removed the image and backing that came with it and secured the glass to the frame - in some cases this may require hot glueing but with mine you can see the little tabs just closed around the glass. 

Then I got a large piece of white construction paper and drew out a ghost shape - I liked these ones with wing-like arms because they added a little more character and body to the shapes. Then I lay the shapes out on the frame deciding which direction I wanted each of them to face before drawing the three small black dots to create their tiny and adorable screaming faces. 

Then I glued the ghosts to the FRONT of the glass - I felt like this helped to create the "box frame" look and creates an eerie shadow behind the ghosts. This also eliminated my need for fancy sure-fire clear glue allowing me to use just my standard hot glue gun.

And Voila! Done. Like I said super easy and creates a fun impact on your decor!

Obviously the same strategy could be used for loads of shapes too and I'm sure this one would look super cool on a painted wall (but alas I rent). So to all you DIYers let me know if you try it out! I'd love to see some other versions!

Bread Baking: Pt 1 - The Inspiration

Last month in the October issue of Food Network Magazine they did a piece on "50 Different Bread Recipes" and it got me curious. In the past I've never been a huge specialty bread fan but I do LOVE my mom's chocolate chip banana bread and have always enjoyed a good piece of sweet dessert bread. Plus fall seems like a good time of year to get into the bread spirit. The question then of course is which one to try.

Honestly all 50 varieties sound incredible but I think I've narrowed it down to trying either the Pear Hazelnut, the Chocolate Stout, the Earl Grey, or one of the savory varieties such as the Spinach-Goat Cheese or the Jalepeño-Corn.

Needless to say if you're in the spirit of baking bread you should definitely pick up an issue of Food Network- in fact if you like being in your kitchen at all you should pick up an issue - it is by far one of the best magazines out there.

I think I'm going to try to bake a loaf this weekend or next week and I will be sure to let you know how it goes.

Catching Up: Fall Adventure

So some of you folks may have realized that I took the last week off and my apologies for that - I just needed some time to get organized with things. Unfortunately, something had to take a backseat and this time it was this. But now I'm back with a ton of fun new posts to share :)

To start us off - scenes from recently:

Hope you are all enjoying your fall just as much as I am and I promise to improve on my timeliness of posts!