Hello there!

I'm very excited that today is my day as a featured blogger over at the SITS Girls! For those of you who haven't heard of it, SITS Girls is an awesome community of women bloggers. They have forums, a fabulous Facebook page, and TONS of great articles and resources on their website. I have learned so much and met some really great bloggers too :)

Now that you're here, I want to say hello and introduce myself properly!

Hi there! I'm Moira :) 

I hope you get a chance to look around my little corner of the internet. You'll find yummy things to eat, great books, and the occasional musing on motherhood. 

My family and I just moved back to New England (Connecticut, to be precise) from Oklahoma so my posting schedule is a little off while I unpack boxes and get organized. I can't wait to share more pictures of our new house, and really get cooking in my new kitchen!

Usually you can find me posting on Monday, Wednesday and Friday on the blog. Sometimes these cuties even make an appearance!

I love to connect with readers and bloggers on social media too. You can find me here:

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Pinterest
Goodreads
Google Plus

Thanks for stopping by! I hope to see you again soon :)

And a special thanks to my regular readers too-I'm so glad you're here! You make me smile every day!

Gifts from the Kitchen: Maple Ginger Roasted Almonds

Thanks for your patience with the late post today!  I spent this afternoon uploading the new site design. It's a template made by Kate at 17th Avenue Designs who was so awesome to work with. I wasn't ready to invest in a full custom design, so I wanted to find a middle ground-something a little more unique than the ready made blogger one but not full on custom.

I'm really happy with the direction things are moving-and there are still some other tweaks I'm going to be making in the next few weeks so keep your eyes peeled for a few more changes over in the sidebar! Now with changes sometimes come quirks, so if you notice anything isn't working right (comments, links, etc) let me know! (Facebook or Twitter are the fastest but feel free to drop me an email if you'd prefer!)

While most of today's update was cosmetic I did add a "Pin-It" button that will allow you to pin right from the picture! If you hover the mouse over the image you will see the word "Pin"in the upper right corner of the picture. Easy peasy! Pin away friends :)

Now on to the food! These smelled so good roasting in the oven-just like I was baking gingerbread! Perfect for a crisp fall afternoon. The flavor is sweet but not overwhelmingly so, and the heat from the ginger is spot on. It's not "spicy" but there is warmth there, raising the ho-hum almond to something special. I'm already giving away the batch I made for this post, because I can't.stop.eating.



Maple Ginger Roasted Almonds
adapted from Blue Kale Road and The Honour System

2 1/2 cups raw almonds
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon


Preheat oven to 375 and prep a baking sheet by covering it with parchment paper. Whisk together spices and maple syrup. In a bowl, pour over almonds and mix until all the nuts are coated.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, stirring once about halfway through.

Alt for Everyone

                  

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was participating in an online blog conference called Alt for Everyone. It's an online version of THE blog conference to go to called Altitude Design Summit in Salt Lake City (and now New York and San Francisco). It's perfect for a gal like me who can't travel to the big meetings...and frankly I'm such an introvert I'd probably hide in the corner and not meet as many people in person as I was able to from the safety of my computer keyboard.

The classes were all an hour long, and ranged from Photoshop to branding to graphic design. I took 7 classes over 3 days, and two weeks later I'm still digesting everything I learned and trying to figure out how to apply it to the blog. I'm feeling really inspired, but still a little overwhelmed by all that I could do with this little blog of mine.

Bear with me-this post is less a recap and more about keeping myself accountable. If I tell you all how excited I am to step up my blogging game then I'm more likely to follow through.

I realized in the midst of the conference that I'm ready to start moving towards a more professional attitude towards Hearth and Homefront. Right now I tend to post a few days a week when I have time, but I'm ready to start implementing an editorial calendar and a real posting schedule. The ongoing series I started have made those days much easier to write and create. I want to be that organized on the other days too!

I'm also ready to start pulling the look of the blog together into a cohesive brand. I've been doing this for almost a year, so I'm figuring out what I like on my site and what needs to change (the Blogger comment tool is at the top of that list by the way!) You can see from the picture above my notes are turning into lots of brainstorming lists!

The best thing about Alt though? The networking. I have a massive word document of cut and pasted blog rolls from the classes, and I've already been able to connect with some fabulous people. It's probably going to take another week or so to check them all out, but man there are some crazy talented bloggers out there!

Someday I'll get to the in-person conferences, but right now this is perfect for me. I can't wait for the next one, and in the meantime there are more online classes on the Alt Channel. (Blogging friends- check it out!)

I know it will be a lot of hard work but I can't wait to see where this inspiration takes me!

My view for the next two days

My parents just left yesterday after a lovely visit and now I'm settling back into the routine. Today starts Altitude Summit's Alt for Everyone blog conference, so for the next few days (in between school runs and meetings) I'll be soaking up all sorts of good bloggy knowledge. I've only listened to the keynote and participated in the first class and I'm already feeling so inspired! Any other blogging friends participating? 

Since I haven't done a Friday Favorites in a while, I'll be back with one tomorrow and then we'll be back to the usual yummy foods next week!