Prints

I hope you all have been enjoying the sunny, beautiful days as much as I have. My little family has been outside every chance we can. We've been gardening, jogging outside, eating dinner on the deck.....it's quite enjoyable. I also love wearing this top outside when it's warm. It's light and easy to wear when I'm chasing a toddler around. I love the pastel flowery print as well-I like to get away from solid colors every now and then.

 

I'm on Spring Break this next week, I am beyond excited! I get to spend all day with my little man and next weekend we'll be off to St. George. Enjoy your week!

Top: Cotton On / Jeans: AE / Sandals: DSW / Watch: Ann Klein / Earrings F21

Homemade Goldfish Crackers

I love making new recipes, especially when they are something we already eat. Beckett isn't a huge cracker guy but after I made these he literally gobbled them up. In my opinion, these homemade goldfish crackers are WAY better than store bought. I suggest you try them out.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces, weight Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Shredded
• 4 Tablespoons Butter, Cut Into Cubes
• 1 cup Flour
• ¾ teaspoons Salt
• 2 Tablespoons Cold Water

Preparation Instructions:

 
• First, if you want a goldfish shaped cracker, make your cookie cutter. I got an old cookie cutter out that I didn't use, cut it with scissors and shaped it into a fish.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Pulse everything (except water) together in the food processor until the dough resembles coarse sand.
  
• Pulse in water, 1 tablespoon at a time.
• Remove dough from the processor, wrap in plastic, and chill for 20 minutes.
  
• Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes. You can use a toothpick to make the eyes and smile if desired. Place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
  
• Bake at 350 degrees F for about 15 minutes, or until crispy.  Makes approximately 7 dozen crackers.
  
  
  
  

Jeans

I have to wear business casual clothes to work everyday, so I love it when I get to slip on a pair of jeans. Especially these ones, they are so comfy! I love the high rise, and they come in a long length....a must for a tall gal like myself. I also love this necklace....adds some flare to t-shirt and jeans, or you can easily dress it up!

 

 

Cardigan: Cotton On / Tee: Old Navy / Jeans: AE / Belt: H&M / Booties: Target / Necklace: F21 / Glasses: eyebuydirect.com

Camo = Neutral

Love, love, love the new camo trend. You can wear it as a neutral which makes it even better! I paired my camo jeans with a tee that i stole from my husband and made over and a chambray shirt. Easy, peasy, comfy outfit. Perfect for running errands and chasing around a crazy toddler.

Chambray: F211 / Tee: Cotton On / Jeans: Target / Wedge Sneakers: Target / Earrings: F21

Our Home

My little family has been loving our new home. The updates have seemed never ending but the payoff is worth it. Check out the before & after pictures on my family blog.

DIY: Painting Stripes

Another DIY post today! My life lately has been filled with fix-it-up projects, thus the posts. I picked the colors for my house and new I wanted to redo my son, Beckett's room. I feel like you can be a little more adventurous in kids rooms, so I chose to do one of his walls in stripes. The key to making a stripped wall turn out well is your taping job. Here are the directions.

Materials:
1. Your paint (however many colors you want)
2. Tape (thick tape is going to be easier)
3. Paint brush
4. Paint roller
5. Chalk string

Directions:
1. Prep your wall by cleaning it with a wet rag.
2. Tape the edges. Tape your ceiling, baseboard, and wall edges. Take your time! You want to make sure your tape is straight and your press the tape down firmly, or you will get leaks.
3. Next, decide how thick/thin you want your stripes, measure each side of the wall and make a small mark with a pencil where your stripes will end.
4. Next, get our your string, get chalk on it (these are found at Home Depot). Hold the string from edge to edge of the wall, tightly (you will need 2 people to do this). Once the line is the correct height, pull the string back-it will hit the wall and make a perfectly straight line of chalk. This is SO much easier than trying to do it all with a ruler and pencil.
5. Tape off 1 stripe (press it VERY firmly against the wall to prevent leaks). I had 3 colors, so 3 stripes (cream, red, navy). To make it easier I painted the entire wall cream. Once that was dry I started with step 2. Decide which stripe you want to paint first and tape that off.

6. Paint your first stripe. Go around the edges by the wall with your paintbrush, then go over the entire stripe with a roller. Take your time, you don't want to get paint outside of your tape and have to go back and fix it.
7. Once dry, go back over it, I would do at least 2 coats.
8. Carefully peel off the tape. Re tape your next stripe, taking your time and pressing firmly.
9. Repeat step 6.

10. When all stripes are painted, carefully tape your tape off and VOILA! A beautiful statement wall.

DIY: Cabinet Makeover

As I previously posted about, we recently moved and have been overhauling our house. One of my favorite rooms in our house is the kitchen, and we changed just about everything! We got new counters, back splash, and appliances. In order to be more cost effective we decided to paint our cabinets instead of buying new ones. I must admit, I was skeptical at first,  I wasn't sure if painted cabinets would look nice or cheap or just plain bad. However, they turned out fabulous! I found a bunch of tutorials online and went from there.

Materials:
1. Paint (semi-gloss in a paint/primer mix)
2. Sandpaper
3. Electric sander or hand sander
4. Paintbrush
5. Paint roller
6. Any extras you want to update (Example: knobs, hinges)

Directions:
1. Take off all of your cabinets and lay them out on a clean surface (garage is a good place, or in your house on top of an old sheet). Make sure you know which cabinet door went where, some people suggest you write it on the back-I didn't do that.
2. Sand! Our cabinets were already white, but they weren't done well. We didn't sand them all the way down, just lightly sanded them. You want it sanded enough to where there is a rough surface, it helps the paint to stick and stay.
3. Wipe your cabinets/drawer fronts down so they are nice and clean.

4. Paint! Start with the paint brush first, covering all the edges and corners. Next use your roller to
paint the rest. How many coats you have to paint will depend on your color. I painted mine an off-white color, I did 3 coats on the front. Wait at least 4 hours between coats. Once dry, turn them over and paint the back. I did 1 coat on the back side.

5. When your cabinets are fully dry you can hang them back up. Once up, you can add your knobs.

BEFORE

(sorry, I didn't get a good before shot)

 AFTER

 (we also tore out the section of cabinets above the counter to open it up. There is one cabinet that we still have to get up)

 

 

 

Sunshine

I looooved the warmer temps and sunshine last week. It was amazing. I am completely in love with the color of this top. It is so summery and bright. I've been pulling out all the bright colors lately, I can't seem to get enough.

 

Have a good week everyone!

 Top: Target / Bottoms: F21 / Wedges: Antonio Melani / Watch: Ann Klein

 

 

Neon + Print

I love neon colors, I think they look good on everyone! They are fun colors to wear in the spring too-it always brightens your mood :) I love these pants I found at Forever 21. They are high waisted with a thick band that is comfortable and flattering.....which is an awesome combo! Speaking of combo, short for combination, my husband and I have had an ongoing debate about shortening words. I feel that it is completely acceptable to shorten words or make them more interesting. Such as: amazefest (amazing), cray cray (crazy), ridic (ridiculous). My husband, on the other hand, hates it and rolls his eyes everytime I use a slang word. However, please explain to me how this scenario makes sense. My husband is a bit of a soda addict, and when he goes to the gas station to get a soda he calls it a 'bevy', short for beverage. I called him out on it, but he thinks calling it a bevy is completely acceptable. Am I missing something?! Oh, the fun of being married to a man :)

Top & Bottoms: F21 / Heels: Zigisoho (similar) / Earrings: H&M / Sunnies: Target

Quick Dinners

I have a few recipes i'd like to share with you all. They are quick, easy, and best of all....yummy! The first recipe is Tuscan Soup (similar to the one they have at Olive Garden). One of my co-workers made this for a soup cook-off, and it was the favorite. This soup does have cream in it, but it is a MUCH lighter soup than most, without affecting the flavor. That was one thing I really liked about it.

Tuscan Soup

Ingredients:
1 pound spicy breakfast sausage
1 whole red onion, diced (yellow onion works fine)
2 sliced bacon, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 whole potatoes
1 quart warm water
3 cubes chicken bouillon
1/4 C Kale, roughly chopped
1/2 C heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Crumble sausage into a pan and heat over medium heat until cooked through. Drain and set sausage aside.

2. Chop onions and dice bacon, add to the pan. Reduce head to medium and cook until onions are clear. Add minced garlic and cook for 1 minute.
3. Slice potatoes in half lengthwise and cut into 1/4" slices. Add warm water, bouillon cubes and potatoes to the pan and simmer for 15-20 minutes until potatoes are almost done.

4. Add remaining ingredients as well as the sausage and simmer 5 more minutes.

Antipasto Pasta Salad

Ingredients:
1 pound seashell pasta
1/4 pound salami, chopped
1/4 pound pepperoni, copped
1/2 pound asiago cheese, diced (cheddar works fine)
6 oz chopped black olives
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped

1 package dry italian style salad dressing mix
3/4 C extra virgin olive oil
1/4 C balsamic vinegar
2 Tb dried oregano
1 Tb dried parsley
1 Tb parmesan
S&P

Directions:
1. Cook pasta in a large pot until al dente. Drain, cool under cold water.
2. In a large bowl (very large), combine pasta, salami, pepperoni, cheese, olives, peppers, and tomatoes. Stir in the envelope of dressing mix. Cover and refrigerate at least one hour.

3. To prepare the dressing, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, oregano, parsley, parmesan, S&P. Just pefore serving, pour dressing over the salad and mix well.

*Like most pasta salads, this tastes best the next day. Great for leftovers or quick meals!

Sunday Dress

I brought some color into my Sunday outfit this week. I'm loving the blue skies and slightly warmer temps. This blouse is super comfy and easy to wear. I like how light and colorful it is. My new pumps happened to match perfectly with this top, and they are more fun than black shoes. I'm still adjusting to the time change and on top of that, Beckett & I caught a cold.....boo! It's not too bad so i'm hoping it'll go away quickly. Regardless, I think it'll be a good week. We are getting new counters in our kitchen/bathroom today. That's a good Monday if you ask me! 

 

Hope you all have a good week!

 

Top: F21 / Pencil Skirt: Target / Pumps: Target / Jewelry: F21

Denim & Leopard

Is anyone struggling with the time change besides me? I feel off today. I usually get up and go to the gym at 5 a.m. on weekdays. So that means it'll feel like i'm waking up at 4 a.m. tomorrow morning. Eh.....I might just stay in bed.

 

We celebrated my poppa's birthday a few days ago and this is what I wore to the festivities. I just got my new headband in the mail from Lemons & Lace (link below) and love it! I feel like I have a weird shaped head, headbands never seem to fit me right or stay on. This one fits like a glove! Plus, you can wear it a million different ways. It's easy to throw on, like I did, when your hair isn't cooperating.

 

Black Tee: TJ Maxx / Denim Shirt & Moto Jacket: F21 / Pants: Target / Shoes: Steve Madden / Belt & Necklace: Nordstrom / Headband: Lemons & Lace

Peplum

Oh how I love a good peplum top. They are fun, flirty, and figure friendly. You can't beat that. I heard it is supposed to get up to 60 degrees today.......awesome! The warm weather is brightening my day, so I had to brighten up my outfit with a splash of color and a floral bangle. I'm also super happy because we finally got all moved in to our new house. It's been crazy and we're living out of boxes, but it was worth it! Also, make sure you follow my blog (to the right)!  :)

Top & Bottoms: F21 / Shoes: Target / Bib Necklace & Bangle: F21