A most delicious recipe

I simply must share. It was so delicious. So extremely delicious.

I wanted to take a picture, but I am such a terrible photographer that I decided my photos weren't worth sharing. But this recipe is.
Yesterday, my sister and I made homemade granola bars. Delicious homemade granola bars (did I already say that?).
The recipe, taken from Honest Cooking, was easy, fast, and horribly addicting. The ingredients are as follows:
2 cups oats
½ cup sugar
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp cinnamon or nutmeg (we used nutmeg)
½ cup chocolate chips
1 cup raisins
¼ to a ½ cup sesame seeds
¼ cup flax seeds
¼ to a ½ cup shredded coconut
⅔ cup peanut butter or almond butter
6 Tbsp coconut oil
¼ cup honey
1 Tbsp water

(Their ingredients were slightly different; They used less peanut butter but we had trouble getting it to come together, and even with adding more, it still kind of falls apart, so even more might be necessary. Also, they recommend olive oil but we decided coconut oil might go with the flavor better.)

Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking dish with parchment paper, then lightly grease it (We used a 8 x 8 baking dish, which worked, but I think next time we will use a larger one, since it was very thick).
Process ⅓ cup of the oats in a blender or food processor until finely ground (we actually used our nut and seed grinder [an old coffee grinder] because it was such a small amount).
Stir together all dry ingredients (oats, ground oats, sugar, salt, nutmeg, chocolate chips, raisins, seeds, and coconut). Stir in oil honey, peanut butter and water.
Spread into pan. Press firmly into the corners and edges to top is even.
Bake for 30 minutes, until top starts to brown. The edges will become deep golden and may feel underdone in the center, but that's okay. They'll firm quite nicely as they cool. (The last three sentences were directly from the recipe, and I'm not sure if they're true. Our granola bars sort of fell apart as we cut them, so I wonder if maybe cooking longer would help? But then again, I tend to overcook rather than undercook.)
Cool in pan for 20 or so minutes, then take them out of pan using parchment. Let cool completely before cutting.

Once again, I'm sorry I have no pictures to share. You will simply have to go on my word that they were wonderful, without any tantalizing pictures to tempt your tastebuds. The sweet and salty and chocolaty taste, with the hint of peanut butter… Oh, they are so good.
Thank you, Honest Cooking, for this good recipe!

I'm Excited!

Guess what? My sister and I are... *drumroll*....  redoing our room! I'm really excited about it. It will be a sort of shabby chic/french country theme, rather than messy/dirty/splotches of random color/no-theme-at-all. After three years in this house, we decided to redo our room. We're painting our [dirty] yellow walls a very very very very very very very very very very very very very very pale pink (like, almost white), selling our bunk bed and instead getting two white iron twin beds, selling our dresser (and possibly getting a vintage desk with a hutch on it), and where two mismatched bedside tables used to be, we have...

THIS!

It is soooo pretty (even in my small, dark picture). It is a window seat and a bedside table. (You can see the corner of our twin-over-full bunk bed on the left). We will put our beds on either side of it. I just love this.
Anyways, just thought I'd share what made my day yesterday. Hope all your weekends (and weeks) are full of blessings.

Progress!

Finally making some progress on my story! I'm writing the second to last chapter today...

So here's a few snippets for all you completely uninterested people:

“Watch the edge!” someone yelled, as our horse then tripped on the slick ground. Gabrielle screamed as I slipped off. I rolled to avoid the stamping feet of the horse, and rolled right of the edge of the path. My feet hung in empty air as I clung to the edge of the cliff. I wanted to scream, but, like a nightmare, my breath was gone and I couldn’t even breathe.

“Quain, Quain,” she murmured. “Don’t worry, I can fix it. Bridget can help you.” She sounded almost like a woman, so calm and comforting was her voice.

One of my favorite scenes. Oh, so romantic and tragic!

“We never thought –” I shook my head, my words gone. “When I was six my mother sold to a different master.” I continued. “I’ve been sold half a dozen times, until my last mistress trained me to be a lady’s maid and I was sold here.” I realized, then, everything I had said. I had half-forgotten that he was there.

And... I finally found a picture for Gabrielle and Maurelle! Once again, y'all probably don't care, but I they're so perfect that I just have to share.

Gabrielle (Frank Dicksee, of course)

And then for Maurelle I'm divided between two. My sister likes the first one:

Edward Burne-Jones

But I like this one:

Also Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones

What do you think?

Anyway, that's what my week has been. Cool, cloudy/rainy days (can you believe we had the heat on all day yesterday? In June?) – perfect for writing. I like to listen to the Amelie soundtrack, though I've never seen the movie, while I write Maurelle.
Hope you're all having a wonderful week so far. Sorry for blabbering on and on about my story. :)