Friday Favorites 6/30/17

I am so glad it is Friday and today I'm heading to the beach! Woot woot!

Before I go I'm joining with A Little Bit of Everything, Momfessionals and Grace and Love blog for this Friday favorite link up.

My favorites this week:

1. It's a recurring theme in my recent posts but BEACH! I'm so glad to be getting out of the office for a few days. Even though I'll be working some still, it's on non-profit work and it's not in an office, so I'm very happy about that.

While we're there hopefully we'll get some more fishing in and maybe some tennis. There is definitely fresh seafood in my future though.

2. July 4th is coming up and it's always a fun time to celebrate our freedom and spend time with loved ones. Last year we went to a local place that does reenactments and historical education type things.

Not sure where we'll be this year but I will be taking a few minutes wherever we are to give thanks for this great country and the freedom we enjoy, and especially for all those who sacrificed to make it possible.

3. Finding great deals!

A friend at work had told me about her OTBT shoes and how incredibly comfortable they were. I looked them up online and thought to myself "there is no way I am paying that much for a pair of shoes". I thought about how nice is would be to find some at a good price if they were really good shoes.

This is a great example of how God is so good that He pays attention to even the small things we desire or ask for. Very shortly after this I saw a pair of this brand of shoes in a style and color that I liked listed on a local for sale listing that I never really even look at, but for some reason I was that day. They caught my attention as they were brand new and priced at about 1/3 of the cost brand new!

I messaged the seller and long story short I ended up with a nice pair to give a try for a very reasonable price. Since I'm always a little unsure about this type of thing it's also comforting to know that I can turn around and sell them again if they don't work and from what I'm told they should sell fairly easily. Even the seller suggested that if I didn't end up liking them I just re-post where she had them when I found them because several people messaged her about them too.

4. These chocolate chip muffins.

Mmmmm I make them every now and then and often when we're traveling I make some to take with us for easy snacks and breakfast in the hotel or condo. They are from scratch but super easy to make and very yummy.

5. This bathing suit.

  I found it on sale at JCPenney and literally paid about $1.97 for one piece and either $1.97 or $4.97 for the other. I love finding deals like that!

I wasn't sure if I would like it but it's ended up being a favorite so far. It's fits well and is very comfy and flattering. I'm not posting a photo of me in it because well, who wants to do that, but it is a favorite of recent swimsuits.

I especially like the detailing in the back and the fact that I can wear it with the matching bottoms or with some plain black ones.

The only complaint I have is the top can take a little bit of effort to get on and off, but it is very comfortable and you're able to move around freely once it's on.

Well I'm heading to the beach!

Have a wonderful weekend and July 4th holiday. I hope we all remember the reason behind the holiday too and give thanks for our freedoms and those who died to secure them. Happy Independence Day!

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Muffins

This is my favorite chocolate chip muffin recipe.

It's from scratch, it's easy, and it's delicious. They make very moist, dense muffins every time.

I wouldn't say they are necessarily low fat but they are a yummy indulgence for every now and then.

I'm making a double batch tonight at my family's request to take with us on our upcoming weekend trip to the beach. 

I got the original recipe from searching the internet several years ago on a blog called The Curvy Carrot who got it from Taste of Home. (You've got to love a name like that) It might have been via Pinterest, but it's been long enough that I'm not sure.

I make a couple of slight changes, but for the most part kept it the same. You could do some variations by changing the chocolate chips out for something else like peanut butter chips or blueberries or some other fruit, but personally I love a good chocolate chip muffin!

Go make these for yourself and see if you don't like them as much as we do!

Makes 12 muffins: (I made 24 tonight!)

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking power

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1 cup sour cream

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup milk chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

Line cupcake pan with liners or grease and flour. I use cooking spray sometimes.

In large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In another bowl, combine egg, sour cream, melted butter, and vanilla extract, mixing well. (I often use a glass bowl to melt the butter first and then add the other ingredients. I'm all about less dishes to wash!)

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Fold in chocolate chips (or other ingredient of your choice!) until combined.

Pour batter evenly into prepared cupcake pan (make them about 3/4 full each).

Bake at 350 for 16-18 minutes or until tester in center of muffin comes out clean.

Enjoy!

What's Up Wednesday 6/28/17

It's already time for another What's Up Wednesday with Mix and Match Mama, The Larson Lingo and Sheaffer Told Me To.

This month has been super busy and I can't believe it's gone by so quickly!

1. What we’re eating this week
Monday was a Moroccan inspired meal from one of my many cookbooks. Apricot, date and chicken tangine. (Excuse the fine china ;))

We discovered we liked Moroccan food and Epcot of all places. 😊 It's the first time I've tried to make it at home and it turned out pretty good I think.

Then last night it was ground turkey and spaghetti. 

I'm not sure what we'll be having tonight and tomorrow but come this weekend we're heading back to the beach for another conference, second weekend in a row, so more fresh seafood! YAY!

2. What I’m reminiscing about

My cousin got married this past weekend so I've been reminiscing about our wedding. Sweet memories!

3. What I’m loving

Beach trips and being away from work!

4. What we’ve been up to

Beach conference last week into the weekend and then again this weekend. It's just nice to be away from my real job for a while and get a little bit of time by the ocean.

We've done lots of tree cutting and land clearing this month.

 I (finally) finished my ottoman recovering project.

I learned to operate a Bobcat.

Family wedding but I don't have a single photo in my phone. It was a lot of fun though and I even got the hubby to dance with me a little, which is no small feat!

5. What I’m dreading

Going back to work after this next beach trip, especially since my work buddy left me last week :(

6. What I’m working on
Trying to get some projects done around the house and get some items listed to sell too.

I'm also working on finding some legit work from home and/or part time work options that are not sales related. Sales is really not my thing. I could be a great editor though with my red pen. I am always finding errors in random things!

7. What I’m excited about
The BEACH and Independence Day!

8. What I’m watching/reading
I haven't been watching a lot but we did go see Cars 3. My niece loved it.

We also watched both the NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup. You won't find us watching hockey or basketball on a regular basis around here, but we got quite invested in these two finals this year for some reason.

Of course the fact that Nashville was in the hockey finals helped since we had to cheer on the Southern team. 

9. What I'm listening to

A little country, a little worship, a little elevator music when we're road tripping with my brother in law.

10. What I'm wearing

Same ole thing to work.

I have some new wedges I'm excited to try out. They're supposed to be really good shoes that a friend at work told me about. So we'll see.

11. What I'm doing this weekend.

BEACH! Working a conference and then an extra day just to relax.

12. What I'm looking forward to next month
More progress being made on clearing the land.

July 4th and hopefully finding some more fun summer adventures to go on.

13. What else is new
I think that pretty much covers it 

Bonus Question: What's your favorite July 4th tradition?
Probably when we used to go to the downtown area of an old neighborhood in our city that has the best views of the fireworks. We always went as kids and even up to a few years ago. The past few years we've tried some different things and they've all been fun too, but I'll always have a soft spot for the area we watched fireworks growing up.

Friday Favorites 6/16/17

I am so glad it is Friday and I'm sharing a few of my Friday Favorites to celebrate! This is my first time to join in this link up with A Little Bit of Everything, Momfessionals and Grace and Love blog. I always enjoy reading it so this time I'm joining in.

I learned to drive a Bobcat.

With all of the land clearing and tree cutting going on I had to step up my game and learn something new. :) I need a lot of practice still, but it was fun and I didn't run into anything! My forearms were pretty sore afterwards though.

Another favorite is how much we've gotten done recently on the land. We now have a nice pile of logs and more to come.

Staying with the land theme, my father in law brought down a picnic table he made for us when he came to help move trees.

It's nice to have a place to rest and put things while you're out in the middle of the woods. Now if I could just get some indoor plumbing added that'd be a real favorite! 😁

This time next week I will be at the beach! That is for sure a favorite! I NEED to get away for a few days.

That's all I have for today. So glad it's the weekend!

Thankful Thursday 6/15/17

Today I'm thankful for:

My families health. There have been some recent concerns and tests but praise the Lord for good reports.

It's almost beach time!

The amount of work we've accomplished on our property recently.

Spending time with family and friends.

That God has everything in His hands and He knows my future every step of the way and it is good. (Jer 29:11)

Ottoman Rescue - Finally Done!

Well it has taken waayyy longer than I anticipated to get this project done but I'm so happy to finally have it finished and post the results!

As I posted before I rescued this vintage ottoman from the trash pile.

It was in sad shape when we found it. It had been in a storage shed on the property we bought for probably at least 30 years if I had to guess. Could have just been around 20 but still that is a long time.

I started the project by cleaning it up and removing the old fabric and skirt.

Then I sanded and painted the legs. Leaving a little bit of patina I guess you could call it on the metal part.

I could have just gone down to the store and bought new legs but I wanted it to have some character and something from the original look.

Once the fabric was all removed I basically just had a box left with holes for the legs.

I replaced the worn out top cushion that goes under the fabric and then covered the top and sides with batting.

Once that was completed I covered with the new fabric. This really pretty fabric called Adele by Magnolia Home.

I had a picture in my head when I started off a blue and white floral fabric and after searching the web this was the one that stood out to me. Not surprising since I love all things Magnolia. ☺

After covering with the new fabric the only thing left was to put some fabric on the bottom to finish it out.

For my first attempt at furniture recovering I was pleased with how this project turned out.

Homemade Banana Pudding

So this banana pudding came about almost by accident. It turned out being a very yummy one. :) Because of how it happened though, this is not really even a recipe but more of some general guidelines. 

I had some bananas that were getting ripe much faster than I had expected, several boxes of Nilla wafers in the pantry (due to a recent BOGO deal and my love of Nilla wafers), some cream cheese I needed to use soon, and a craving for something sweet. 

I thought I had some Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk in the pantry too and I remembered seeing some banana pudding recipes that used that and some that used cream cheese so I set out to make one.

Once I got started with the first few steps however, I realized that I in fact did not have the sweetened condensed milk. So, I improvised and it turned out surprisingly yummy and easy too. There are not a lot of exact measurements because I really just threw it together but I'll give my best guesses.

I think I will make it again but on purpose next time and maybe even measure things more!

Ingredients

2 ripe bananas (mine were very ripe and you could use more or less to your taste)

1 vanilla pudding mix

2 cups cold milk (or whatever your pudding mix calls for)

Nilla wafers in whatever amount floats your boat, I'd say we used maybe half a box

1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened

Powdered sugar (probably about 1/4-1/2 cup)

Whipping cream (probably about 1/4-1/2 cup)

1 tablespoon sugar

Directions

Make pudding mix according to package directions and set aside.

Cream softened cream cheese with powdered sugar. I probably used about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar.You could also throw in a teaspoon or so of vanilla if you wanted. I didn't but you could.

Beat your whipping cream until stiff peaks form, adding in about a tablespoon of sugar or more to taste. I used probably about 1/2 cup whipping cream.

Fold a couple of large dollops of whipped cream into pudding mixture.

This is where you make it all your own. You can layer it up however your heart desires.

I used a large round casserole dish and started by placing a layer of Nilla wafers around the bottom.

Then we covered it with a layer of pudding mixture and a layer of the cream cheese mixture. 

Then I decided to just combine the two, so I did that and added a little more of the combined mixture.

I followed that with a layer of sliced bananas. In hindsight I would probably add a layer of banana at the bottom too. 

Then more Nilla wafers and the rest of the pudding/cream cheese mixture.

Then I topped it off with the remaining whipped cream and some more Nilla wafers. 

We ate it right away because it was late and we wanted to, but it was even better after sitting in the fridge for a while. 

I didn't even take a photo until after we'd eaten about half of it. Oh well, like I said it was late and we wanted to eat it right then. :)