mama, smitten: a girl date

Girl dates are the very best, especially when accompanied by an amazing friend.

I decided Kylee needed to see the beauties of San Diego, so we headed to my favorite breakfast spot in Solana Beach. After, we want for a nice walk along the coast. Oh, was it a beautiful day. BE-U-TIFUL!!!! I still feel like I need to pinch myself when I see beautiful coastlines such as this:

After our walk we headed to Ocean Beach to peruse antiques. Okay, so one area that I have never felt confidant in is decorating my house. I'm always torn between straight, modern lines and more French-cutesy colors and decorations. Kylee told me I most definitely need to go look at antiques because it was completely my style. I love when people surprise me and know me better than I know myself sometimes. Oh man, was she right! Where have these antiques been all my life?????

I saw some that I could totally make (in my spare time...right?!?!). Look at this adorably cork board! I totally have a cork board waiting to be made adorable! Now all I need is some burlap, stencils, paint, and doilies.

Kylee had to drag me out eventually. I did walk away with a beautiful blue tinted Ball Mason Jar and endless possibilities about what I will do with it. We landed ourselves at Anthropologie where I saw this amazing wall unit. Look how adorable this is!!! I'm completely inspired.

After breakfast, walking, antique shopping, and mall hopping we came home and baked COOKIES!!!

I had a new can of pumpkin just begging to be used so we made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies from Skinnytaste.

The recipe:

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 egg white
2 tbsp pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°. Line two cookie sheets with non-stick silicone baking liners such as Silpats (I highly recommend for best results) or lightly spray cookie sheets with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine the flours, baking soda, salt and pumpkin spice; stir to blend. In another bowl, whisk the sugars, butter, egg white, pumpkin puree and vanilla together until light and fluffy.

Whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in two additions until the batter is very well blended. If the batter looks more “crumbly” than smooth, add just a drop of water at a time (ONLY if needed) until it smooths out.

Drop by level spoonfuls about 1 inch apart onto baking sheets.

Bake 8 - 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, and let them stand 5 minutes before removing the cookies from the pans to cool on wire racks.