We just added some fantastic bar stools to our kitchen and it has us hanging around the counter more. While we were catching up on our day in the kitchen last week I figured we should fancy up our happy hour. I am usually a simple beer or wine fan but have been trying out some new recipes to add to my hostess skills (like this moscow mule recipe here!) I grabbed my cocktail shaker and added a classic gin fizz to my go-to drinks list!
I put together a quick little DIY for Brandon as a treat for Easter morning. We get baskets every year at my parent’s house so instead of another basket full of treats I thought a little candy jar would be sweet.
My silhouette, vinyl, a mason jar and a little cotton ball were all I needed to put this little DIY together.
I was able to find the bunny outline here, turned the image into a PNG file and opened it in the silhouette software to cut it out on the vinyl. The cotton ball was my favorite little touch.
*thank you to Angel Crafts for the great vinyl pack which came with tons of great colors to choose from for this project!
When we were first started building our house and were searching for building plans I would drool over the giant homes with extra living rooms, more bathrooms than we would ever need, and rooms that we would have to come up with some function for because the rest of the house was already so big. I knew then that a too big house would be more that we would want, but what I didn’t realize was two years in I would be binge watching tiny house shows on the DIY network dreaming over how perfect a tiny house, with only 400 square feet worth of space to clean, would be.
Cleaning has become my arch-nemesis. When we first moved in, I dreamed we would start with this perfect clean slate of an untouched home and it would be so simple to keep clean. Then reality hit and as we walked through the doors we realized the construction crew doesn’t clean nearly as well as my type-A personality would have liked (or really much at all…). We had dust all over the baseboards, filthy air filters from the building process and little specks of paint where little specks of paint should never have been. So I slowly got to work scrubbing the house over trying to get it to the clean I wanted it to be. Then life happens and everyday (or what feels like every minute) a new mess is made. I started to dread the weekends when I would have to clean a weeks worth of mess up. I would sit on the couch with my coffee and overestimate how long it would take to clean it all and try to convince myself it wasn’t worth it. (sidenote… we don’t have children, just a very hairy dog and husband who lives for the outdoors, mud and all, so I salute all you mothers out there cleaning up after little ones too!)
I know I had to find a better way so I went to work scouring pinterest, because why re-invent the wheel, and combined some tips and tricks from across the web to find a plan that worked for us. Now we have a cleaning schedule. I found that completing just a simple task or two each day would keep the house clean and not fill the weekend with chores. Some tasks are cleaning, like on Tuesday we clean toilets, and others help us tidy up around the house, __ we compile business receipts. Brandon owns a lawn care company and is famous for dumping everything, including business receipts and checks on any open space as he empties his pockets, so we now set aside one day a week to file these all for taxes. This little system is an ongoing process and we tweek it as we need to.
Some of my favorite products to help get me through are the Shark Freestyle, cordless is key for a quick sweep and this little guy’s battery holds a whole lot of power, the Swiffer Dry for quick pick-ups, the Shark Pocket Mop to keep the hard wood and kitchen floors sparkling and the micro fiber clothes from Pro Chef Kitchen Tools which are perfect for wiping down the stainless steel appliances in our kitchen.
After all the help I found online helping us straighten up I thought it was only fair to share what works for us, below is our list, feel free to change it to fit what you need. (And a posted list never hurts for everyone in the family to see how they can help.)
Are you a clean everyday-er or one day binge cleaner?
{Thank you to Pro Chef Kitchen Tools for sending their micro fiber towels. All thoughts and opinions (and cleaning skills) are my own}
Can we give mother nature a high-five for the fabulous weather we had here this past weekend. The perfect weather for lunch on a deck overlooking the water has me craving the upcoming warm days ahead (please tell me they are close ahead!).
While I am prepping my beach bag with beach towels (Target hit it out of the park with this one) and bikinis, I thought what better time than now to try out some new recipes to take to the beach house for the hot summer days in the Outer Banks.
Today’s recipe is the quintessential Moscow Mule! Grab a lime and a cooper mug and try one for yourself.
1 can ginger beer (not ginger ale… there is a difference, I googled it)
1/2 lime
2 oz of vodka (a shot glass full)
3 strawberries
lots of ice
Instructions:
1. Grab a cooper mug (so you look fancy), muddle your strawberries (which means mash the strawberries enough to get the juice out, but not enough to turn them to paste), add vodka, ginger beer and squeeze the lime juice into the mug.
2. Lightly stir. Garnish with lime slice and strawberry!
Now take your tasty new drink, in your fancy new cup and cheers!
Cooper Mug – c/o Inspired Basics | Cutting Board – The Christmas Tree Shop
After falling asleep within the first 10 minutes of our redbox movie night on Sunday, I woke up Monday morning and watched The Maze Runner over a cup of coffee. Man, do I love long weekends! A Monday with no responsibilities and a blown off to-do list are definitely needed every now and again.
When I finally got off the couch and washed the breakfast dishes I grabbed my tablet and finished reading another science fiction story. If you enjoy the after-earth type, dystopian genre than I would have to recommend the new book by Dima Zales, Oasis (The Last Humans Book 1). A quick read told from the view point of the main character, Theo, as he works to understand the workings of the society around him. It is a good winter read that grabs your attention and has an ending that you definitely do not see coming (and that is all I will say because I have a terrible tendency to give away the all story when I try to give a teaser…)
Check out the first book of this growing series. What’s best is if you have Amazon Prime you can grab yourself a digital copy for free! A perfect way to spend a snowed in weekend this winter for the dystopian genre readers you know. (A heads up if you would recommend to a young adult, there is some use of foul language throughout the story.)
*I was sent a copy of this book at no cost to read. All opinions are my own.
I walked outside yesterday and it felt like Christmas time! Yes it is the middle of January, but there is the perfect chill in the air and the smell of fireplace fires (and Christmas in Virginia was 80 degrees so I’ll take it when I can get it)! What I am really looking forward too is big scarfs and chunky sweaters. What I am not looking forward to is a freezing cold front seat first thing in the morning. When building our house, a must on my list was a garage, and more specifically, a garage to park my car in! Somehow, throughout the unpacking process, my car’s sacred spot was lost to stuff! I feel that every time I shift stuff around to squeeze my car back in something comes up and it is banished back to great outdoors! Dramatic I know, but I am looking forward to a 4 day weekend ahead (thank you Virginia for the abundance of state observed holidays!) and the cold air to get me motivated to clear my little spot out again to put and end to those cold morning front seats. What better way to kick off that 4-day weekend than with a little on-line shopping to grab the perfect chunky sweater to keep me warm while I spend this January weekend outside.
Check out my current favorites:
Shop your favorites ->
Cheers to a chilly weather weekend (and clean garages)!
I apologize first for anyone whose diet this threatens, but after a successful day of baking I had to share this delicious recipe.
My mom’s chocolate chip cookies have always been my favorite and when I went into the pantry this weekend and stared at the empty cookie shelf I figured it was time to grab the kitchen aid and curb my sweet tooth.
Below is the simple recipe for delicious chocolate chip cookies that have a slightly cakier taste then the average go-to style.
What is your favorite type of cookies to make? If you try your hand at these, let me know how it goes!
The colorists at Pantone got it right this year with the color picks of 2016. Rose Quartz to highlight our love of warmth and Serenity to reflect wellness and connection and the colors themselves are the perfect mix of pastel and airiness.
Today I am playing with the Rose Quart palette for a look at some ways to incorporate the subtle gentle tone into your wardrobe this year.
Blouses are my current obsession! I am constantly on the hunt for a great sleeveless top to pair with a blazer for the office (especially for the office spaces that seem to believe that high heat = high productivity). After finding this plum colored piece for my wardrobe the obsession has only grown stronger. And with the weather in Virginia deciding it is going to do it’s own thing on the temperature front, this has been a highly worn outfit for the warm winter days.
Do you look for blouses in long sleeve or short sleeve? (and can we talk about odd it is how much I touch my hair in photos?!… is it just me?! ha)
I don’t think a New Year calls for an entirely New You, but setting up a plan for the upcoming months can make this the year of the Best You (super cliche… I know, but anything to make life better can’t hurt to try).
Some of my favorite bloggers talk about a word or phrase they use to define their new year and Simplify and Produce are what I am setting my intentions on for 2016. Instead of spending my time reorganizing and planning, I want to simplify the processes and create the content I spent all those hours “planning” for. Now organization and processes are the only way things will be accomplished, but those steps can’t be the main focus. Setting aside time each week to plan for a productive week will help keep this year on track.
I found these great resources on Pinterest to help. Now to find a simple way to be more productive!
