Crafty Wednesday {monogram cup}

Hello!  The craft I’m going to show you today is so easy to make.  I’ve also gotten SO many compliments on it and orders from a few friends to make more.  Most people know I like to put monograms on everything.  I just love a good monogram.  When  I saw an insulated mug at Walmart I thought it would be perfect for a monogram.  Every day I bring ice tea to work so this cup is perfect for that.  And it was only $10.  I found it in the housewares section in the same aisle as the glasses and plates.

I used my silhouette vinyl cutter to make my monogram.  I have my monogram saved as an image on my  silhouette computer program and I can adjust the image to be bigger or smaller depending on what I’m making. 

I use my silhouette ALL the time for crafts.  I got it two or threee years ago for Christmas. It helps me make big andsmall  projects.  I also use it  to make projects for our crafts nights for Branch and Bloom. I just love it!  For this project I used white glossy permanent vinyl.  I always use oracle vinyl and I get it on amazon.

Here is my finished cup.  I just love easy, cute craft projects.

Happy Wednesday.

Xoxo

Saturday Snack {2 ingredient bagels}

I have made these two ingredient bagels a few times now and they are delicious!  My friend posted this recipe on Facebook and I immediately wanted to try to make them.  This is a weight watchers recipe and each bagel is 150 calories.  If I have one of these in the morning with some cream cheese I stay full until lunch time.  

The two ingredients in this bagel are self rising flour and Fage Greek yogurt.   I always keep this in the fridge so I can make these bagels whenever I want.

2 Ingredient Bagels

1 cup of self rising flour

1 cup of Fage Total % Greek Yogurt

1 Egg (for egg wash)

Trader Joe's Everything But the Bagel seasoning or use my homemade bagel seasoning

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine 1 cup of self rising flour and 1 cup of Fage Total % Greek Yogurt in a bowl until a dough starts to form.

Turn dough on a lightly floured surface and brush your hands with a bit of flour.

Knead and divide into 4 parts.

Roll out each dough ball to form a rope and pinch the ends of each rope together to make a circle. You will have four bagels.

Beat one egg and brush over the bagels and sprinkle with Trader Joe's Everything but the Bagel seasoning.

Bake at 350 degrees for 23 minutes and 500 degrees for 2 minutes so the tops can brown.

At first the dough is a little crumbly but keep stirring! 

Form the dough into a ball and then divide the dough into four parts.  

Form four little balls and then roll into logs.  Join the two ends of the log together to make a bagel shape.

Beat one egg and then brush egg on top of bagel and add bagel seasoning. 

Cook as directed and enjoy!

Let me know if you try these.  They are really good!  

Happy Saturday!

Xoxo

Crafty Wednesday {February Craft Night}

Happy Wednesday!  For today's post I am going to show you how we made the Rustic Photo Galleries for our February craft night.  I usually look so forward to our Craft Nights.  They are so much fun and we have the best time.  This month I was sick with a bad cold and I was going to stay home and rest but my friend/business partner Rachael got sick with the flu so I had to go and teach the class.  

Thankfully I recruited two friends who were signed up for the class to help me.  They both were a huge help to me in setting up and cleaning up after the class.  I am so thankful for both of them!!

Here is most of the class with one of their finished photo galleries.  Each participant made three during the class.  We told everyone to wear old clothes because we were going to be sanding, staining and distressing our boards and that is messy work. 

The first step in making your own rustic photo galleries is sanding the ends of the boards and staining your boards.  We gave the people in our class two choices-gray or dark.  About 1/2 the class chose gray and 1/2 chose the dark.  

After they sanded and stained their boards we had people put on safety googles and we used hammers to rough up and distress the boards a little bit. They could use either the head of the hammer or the claw to make distressed marks in the wood.  Everyone enjoyed this part of the class!! 

We like the people that come to our classes to have a good time with their friends and this group had a great time!  Our classes are held in the Community Room of my friend Rachael's organic grocery store.   People can buy things to eat/drink before our class and have it to snack on during class.  We also hold our classes on Friday evenings so people love to come, relax and have fun after a long week.  We love when people have a good time at our classes!!

After the stain dried we added the eye hooks and the wire for our photo galleries. You can see the eye hooks in this picture.  We put one eye hook on each side and then hung a thin wire from the eye hooks. 

Here are the specific ones we used for our class.  

After the eye hooks were screwed in we added a thin wire to complete the project.  

We also gave everyone mini clothes pins so they could hang their pictures at home.  

It was a fun and easy project to do!  Rachael and I didn't make one during the class so I don't have an after picture to share.  This is a picture of our inspiration picture from Pinterest.  

We had 8 feet boards cut into 2 feet sections at Lowe's for this project.  We also got the stain, eyehooks and wire from Lowe's.  We ordered the mini clothes pins from amazon.  These are the ones we bought. 

Let me know if you make this craft!

Happy Wednesday
Xoxo

Make Up Party

Last night my friends Jenni, Julia and I hosted a make up party for our friends.  We thought it would be fun to try some new products and get some tips on how to apply our makeup.  I have been using the same make-up for years and it takes me less than 5 minutes to do it every day.  So we thought a party would be fun and informative.  

We had some snacks and some wine for our friends.

We had our party at a spa and they have Bare Minerals make-up for sale. It was fun seeing all of the Bare Minerals products. I  have been using Bare Minerals for years but I always use the same old stuff.  It was fun seeing all of their products and trying on new things.  The lady who did our party explained everything so well.  We learned all about highlighting and contouring and she did a foundation match for us. 

Here are all the steps we did.  I am writing them down and I texted them to my friends who went to the party so we wouldn't forget.  There are SO many steps.  I will not do all of these steps every day but it was fun to learn how to do them all.  

Cleanse
Moisturize
Primer
Color Corrector
Foundation
Concealor
Setting powder
Coutour
Blush
Highlight

I especially liked learning how to color correct, contour and highlight. When she contoured and highlighted us it made such a big difference!  I bought both highlighter and contour so I can practice at home.

Here is the color correcting kit she used on us.  I would like to buy something similar to try and cover up the dark circles under my eyes.

We had a great time.  It was a fun night and I loved learning how to use new products.  

Xoxo

Happiness Project Update {January}

In December I read the Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.  I decided to do my own Happiness Project this year.  Gretchen chose one theme a month and then spent the month doing things related to that theme.  I chose 6 things to concentrate on for the first 6 months of the year and then I will choose 6 more for the last half of the year.  Here in my post from January about my 2018 Happiness Project.  

 In January I focused my Happiness Project on going to bed earlier (super exciting I know-ha ha)
I wanted to start my year with going to sleep earlier because so much of my personal happiness revolves around sleep. If I am tired I am crabby, I eat more junk and I feel awful.  Getting enough sleep is SO important for keeping myself happy.  

Honestly going to bed earlier wasn't easy for me.  I am the type of person that likes to get a lot of things checked off my to-do list each day and I always want to stay up late to finish one more thing, read a little more, watch one more show, etc.  
In January I forced myself to get into bed each night around 9pm.  I developed a little routine that really helped me transition from wake to sleep. 

These are some things that help me transition to sleep every night...

1-Journal-Every night I write in my journal and write a note for my Happy Things  jar.  

 2.  I put lotion on my feet, spray linen spray on my pillows and sheets and put cuticle oil on my fingers.  

If I have time in the evening I like to do a restorative yoga sequence from the Down Dog yoga app.  The app has step by step instructions and music to go along with the yoga poses.  I love it!  I don't always have time to do yoga at night but I love it when I have the time.  Restorative yoga is great because it is so slow and you hold positions for a few minutes.  In restorative yoga you always concentrate on your breath and breathing.  Doing restorative yoga helps me sleep better at night.  

After I do all of this I get into bed and read for about a half and hour before going to sleep. I I turn my phone on silent and don't answer any messages or go on Facebook or other social media after 9pm.  Sleep is still a struggle for me but doing these things definitely help and I love the little routine I've set up to go to bed earlier.  I really hope I can keep this up all year long!

Xoxo

Saturday Snack {Almond Sugar Cookies}

I have made these delicious cookies a few times now and they are always a big hit!  This week I brought them to the annual Valentine's Day Tea for Garden Club.   I have also taken them to parties and get togethers and everyone loves them.  The best part about them is that they are SO easy to make! 

 The secret ingredient is organic almond extract.  I got this one from my BFF Rachael's organic grocery store but if you can't find it at your grocery store you can get it on Amazon.  

I added pink food coloring to my icing for Valentine's Day but you can color you icing to match any holiday or event.  

Almond Sugar Cookies

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon flaked sea salt (or can use regular table salt)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons almond extract

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon milk (or water)

1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and almond extract, mixing until combined. Add flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time, mixing until completely combined.

Roll 1 tablespoon of dough into small circles and then press with hands into a disk shape. Place on prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 8 minutes. The cookies will not look browned or cooked, but they are! Remove from oven and let cookies rest on baking sheet for 5 minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To Ice: In a small bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, milk and almond extract - until smooth.

Using a spoon, smooth icing onto the top of each cookie and let set for 10 minutes, or until hardened. Store in the fridge, let come to room temperature when ready to serve.

Let me know if you make these delicious cookies.  Happy Saturday!!
Xoxo

Book Review {January}

Happy Thursday friends!  I hope everyone had a great Valentines Day.   G and I went to the movies and we saw Three Billboards...I’m trying to see all of the Oscar nominated films this year.  I’ve seen 5 so far and Three Billboards is one of my favorites.  

 This week has flown by! In January I read two books and since I have book club tonight I thought this was a good day to post my January book review.  I absolutely love reading and if I can spend a little time each day it’s a good day.  

Last month I read two books.  The first one I  read Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate.

I thought this book was absolutely incredible and I couldn’t put it down.  Historical fiction is my favorite kind of book to read. This book follows a family of children taken from their parents.  The family lived in a shantyboat on the Mississippi river and there  were very poor but they were a very loving and the parents adored their five children.  When the mom goes to the hospital to have twins the kids  are taken and their story of survival begins.    This book was based on s real place-The Tennessee Children Home Society and a real woman- Georgia Tann who ran the whole operation.  I honestly had no idea about that terrible place or that awful woman until I read this book.  This is a hauting book and one that I keep thinking about.  I think we will have a great discussion tonight at our book club about this book.  

From Amazon

Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family's Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge--until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children's Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents--but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility's cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and uncertainty.

The second book I read was Fire and Fury:  Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff.  There was so much buzz about this book and so much on TV about the release of this book that I started reading it the day it came out.  I was both fascinated by this book and angered by it at the same time.  One year into his presidency, I still cannot believe that Donald Trump was elected.  

From Amazon

With extraordinary access to the West Wing, Michael Wolff reveals what happened behind-the-scenes in the first nine months of the most controversial presidency of our time in Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.

Since Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States, the country―and the world―has witnessed a stormy, outrageous, and absolutely mesmerizing presidential term that reflects the volatility and fierceness of the man elected Commander-in-Chief.

This month I am reading Beartown and Kevin Zraly's Wine Course.  I really love both books so far. I'll have a full report on both of them at the end of the month.  

Happy reading

xoxo