Weekending

This weekend was a wonderful way to close out the month of February! Friday, we kicked off the fun with a bridal lunch to celebrate my friend, Madison's wedding this weekend!! It was a wonderful way to celebrate her and spoil her with some gifts. We had to laugh because Madison won the "how well do you know the bride" game at my bridal shower and I won it at hers :) After getting home, we went for a quick bike ride before it got dark and then watched another episode of Downton Abbey season 1 before going to bed early.

I monogrammed a shirt with her new monogram as part of her gift

A co-worker brought in homemade cupcakes and I was going to resist until I saw how pretty they were - there's glitter on top!

Saturday, we were up super early so I got to work on Miss Andi's embroidery order and I'm so happy with how the two items came out - that dress is absolutely darling! Thank you for letting me monogram some things for Andi, Jessi!

After finishing up the order, I tested out a new pineapple design and then I got ready to meet some of my friends for a girls day at Disney Springs! We had so much fun walking around, window shopping, eating ice cream, getting pizza's at Blaze and getting to sit down and chat :) It was a great time but man, I was exhausted afterwards - I'm getting too old for my own good lol

Sunday, we headed to church, Publix and then got to work on chores (so much fun...). I was able to squeeze in another embroidery item which I can't wait to show everyone - hopefully in a few weeks! Stephen and I were even able to go on another bike ride before making dinner and watching another episode of Downton Abbey. Stephen went to bed early while I stayed up far too long to get our lunches together and blog but at least I got to watch some of the Oscars.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and a great start of March! Linking up with Biana

Five on Friday

One
I was scrolling Facebook the other day and came upon this hysterical Buzzfeed article about life as an elementary school student in the 90s and it's 100% spot on!! So funny - can anyone else relate?

Not going to lie, I've been wanting to take another one of those timed multiplication tests - they were so stressful and I'd like to see if they got easier with age

Two
The past few days I've been doing Tone It Up Yoga in the morning after I wake up and I've really been enjoying it! I swore off yoga after a difficult class in high school but since I can't do anything outside as early as I wake up, I decided to give it another try. I'm shocked at how much I like this video (it could just be the video and not really yoga that I like lol) Hopefully, I'll keep up with this and try new videos :)

It's also nice waking up with the ocean view... even if it is on a screen ;)

Three

Today I cashed in my first free pound of chicken salad from winning a pound every month and it was delicious! It didn't look like much but man, there was a lot. Thankfully, it makes making Stephen's lunch easier ;) Next time, I'm going to have to plan it as a lunch with my friends at work so it gets eaten.

Four

If you missed it this week, I shared an easy oven steak recipe on the blog. This would be the perfect meal to make this weekend

Five

I'm excited because this weekend is shaping up to be pretty fun! For lunch today, I'm going to one of my friend's bridal shower lunches with some co-workers and then Saturday we're doing a girls day at Disney Springs. With Stephen working so much on weekends, I'm looking forward to some fun with my friends instead of sitting at home, doing chores and monogramming all day (don't worry, there will still be lots of monogramming ;))

Steaks with Mushroom Sauce

This recipe is actually a Publix Aprons recipe that I tried and loved a few weeks ago. I thought it'd be the perfect thing to make for Valentine's Day. I'm not going to lie, the pictures could be a lot better and the steaks could look better - Stephen ended up getting home extra late that night so they sat in the sauce and soaked everything up for like 2 hours... thankfully they still tasted amazing!

Ingredients:
- 1 shallot, thinly sliced
- Grilling steaks (we used NY Strip)
- 1 tbsp smoky Montreal steak seasoning
- 2 tbsp herb garlic butter
- 8 oz fresh, presliced baby portabella mushrooms
- 1 tsp flour
- 2 tbsp balsamic glaze
- 1 10.5 oz can condensed beef broth

Directions:
1. Preheat the over to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with foil. Season the steaks with steak seasoning

2. Place 1 tbsp herb butter in a pan, melt and add the steak; sear 3 minutes each side or until well browned. Place the steaks on the baking sheet (leave any drippings in the pan) and bake for 10-12 minutes until steaks are done. Once done, place steaks on a cutting board and let sit 5-10 minutes before slicing

3. While the steaks are cooking, place the remaining 1 tbsp herb butter in the pan and melt. Add shallots and cook 1-2 minutes. Stir in the mushrooms and cook 5-6 minutes or until mushrooms begin to brown. Stir in the flour and cook another minute

4. Add the balsamic glaze to the shallots and mushrooms and cook 1-2 minutes. Pour in the beef broth and simmer 5-6 minutes or until the sauce is slightly thickened

5. Slice the steaks at an angle while everything else is cooking. Serve steaks with the mushroom sauce

I've never cooked steaks in the oven before and this recipe couldn't have been any easier! I'm definitely thinking this will be our next supper club recipe ;)



Linking up with Jessi

Weekending

We are just flying right through February and I'm not hating it. Hopefully work will soon start to slow down for Stephen and he won't be working such long weeks. I didn't get around to blogging on Friday but I did want to share our simple Valentine's Day so that it's remembered :)

After work, I decided to make a delicious steak dinner (recipe coming Wednesday) but my timing was all off because Stephen got home extra late that night. I was very happy that the steaks turned out so well though despite the long wait. After Stephen got home, we were able to eat dinner and I gave him his card. The next day, Stephen was off at a normal time so he stopped by Publix to get me flowers and a card.

Now let's get into our weekend - during lunch on Friday, I ran over to Style Encore to check out their spring collection. Unfortunately, nothing really fit right except for this skirt which was $12 and then I got $5 off - can't beat an adorable LOFT skirt for $7! 

That afternoon, I had a meeting on the other side of Orlando and while over there, I realized my friend lived close by and I hadn't met her new baby yet! I stopped in after my meeting and loved getting to meet baby Tristan, even if it was only for a few minutes. After I left, it took me 2 hours to get home... 2 hours! I hope I never have to go back to that office again - it was rough.

Getting to hold this little guy was worth the long drive home!

Saturday, Stephen didn't have to go into work until a little later so we were able to watch the final Christmas episode for Downton Abbey. I'm so sad it's over butttt I did see the rumor that there might be a prequel and a motion picture! Once Stephen left for work, I got going on a few embroidery orders and ran a few errands. Shockingly, Stephen got off work at 4:00 so we were able to have a whole evening together for once. We worked out (I introduced him to Tone It Up ;)), made dinner and finished up the night with some funny YouTube videos.

Sunday, we went to church (an old guy fainted so the paramedics had to come in right during the Lord's Supper - thankfully he should be fine), stopped by BB&B to order a wedding gift and then finished up at Publix. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, doing laundry and catching up on things.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Linking up with Biana

Custom Stickers

I'm so thrilled to share another round of custom stickers from StickerApp! Y'all, I seriously love these stickers, especially for my side hustle - they make the perfect packaging for customer orders.

Last time, I made stickers with my company name and this time around, I decided to have them say "Thank You" because, I want to thank my customers for their business. They're such a fun way to jazz up customer orders.

StickerApp is the easiest website to work with to get amazingly good quality stickers. It took me literally 5 minutes from start to finish to place my order, after creating my design in Photoshop. I love how customizable their stickers are (they do have pre-made stickers) and I love that I'm able to have them cut around my design.

Thank you to StickerApp for providing me with beautiful stickers - all thoughts and opinions are my own

Happy Valentine's Day!

I wanted to do a quick post to say that no matter what your circumstances, know that God loves you no matter what! He loves us like no one else and will never let you down!

I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day and know you are loved :)

Weekending

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I am so thankful to say that ours was fantastic - filled with the perfect amount of relaxation and productivity. I kicked Friday off with a delicious breakfast before work with some of my co-workers to celebrate the move of one of our friends to Denver. We will miss her but it's hard to be sad when she's finally moving back home - I'm so happy for her! Work was very busy for me and Stephen got home late - that was basically our evening lol I did sit in the Chick Fil A drive through for a pack of nuggets because I forgot to get a meat for our dinner and I was too lazy to go into Publix.

Stephen had to work Saturday so I slept in, got some things done around the house, made myself breakfast, caught up on the latest episode of This Is Us and caught up on blogs. Then, I got to work on one of my bridal orders - finished up some handkerchiefs and did some groomsmen socks before vacuuming the house and getting ready for our Valentine's date night. I was worried Stephen wouldn't make it back in time for our reservations at Disney. Thankfully, he put his foot down and left in time for us to get over to Epcot and make our dinner reservation. We had the best time and it was so needed - I haven't seen too much of Stephen lately; 2 weeks ago, I was on a business trip and this past week Stephen would come home late, eat dinner and go to bed. We tried the restaurant at France for the first time and loved it - we even got to see the fireworks!

I need this shirt lol

Sunday, Stephen did not have to work so we went to church and then Publix before coming home for lunch. I ran out after lunch to use my Old Navy money and grabbed these shorts (just found these online and might have to go back and see about switching out) and to get a wedding gift for a friend. Afterwards, Stephen and I relaxed and watched a few episodes of Downton Abbey before eating dinner and getting Stephen off to bed early (he had to go in super early today since he cut things short on Sat). 

I will say this, I watched some of the Grammy's and Beyonce's performance was sooo weird to me. I felt like she was summoning the Illuminati lol Was I the only one who was disturbed by it?

Anyways, I hope everyone has a wonderful week!! Linking up with Biana

Five on Friday

One
Since I've been slacking on the blog front so bad lately, I need to recap our past weekend - and I have no pictures to show for it #badblogger Friday morning, I flew home from a week-long business trip in Houston. It was nice to get home and get things caught up around the house before resting and watching a movie. Once Stephen came home from work, we just hung out, made dinner and watched like 3 episodes of Downton Abbey - we were having withdrawals lol!

Saturday, we slept in, made breakfast and hung out some before Stephen headed to poker day with some guys at work. While he was away, I got lots of embroidery done, watched LA LA Land (I didn't care too much for it) and caught up on my blog reading.

Sunday, we went to church, came home and did some yard work, did more embroidery and then headed over to a Super Bowl party with some people from our church. We left right before half time and finished up the game at home. I kept telling Stephen we'd go to bed and not finish the game but it was so good we ended up finishing it. I cannot believe the Falcons didn't win!

Two
I'm so excited to share that my sister started a lifestyle/fashion instagram account! Seriously, she is so stylish and would always send me cute ootd snaps so I encouraged her to put them to good use. She called it Caroline's Collection and I'm so excited for her to join the social media community!

Three
One of my co-workers is super into loose-leaf tea. He always has delicious flavors and is adamant about how long it needs to steep and whatnot. Most afternoons, he likes to host "tea time" with various people to give everyone a short break in the day. Well, it caught on this week and on Wednesday, everyone went all out for it - it was so much fun and a great way to take a short break during the day. I remembered that my friend gave me a tea cup set (it had a succulent but I killed it lol) so I washed it and used it for tea time. It was so fun feeling fancy and proper - everyone got a kick out of it. Downton Abbey is rubbing off way too much on me lol

Four
I ran to Target the other day to pick up some things (you know the fun stuff, like paper towels lol) and I noticed there was a sale sign over on the boots. I did what every good Target-going girl does and meandered my way over - I needed to get some new boots this season but I never really got around to it. I about died when I saw the price tag for some amazing boots - $11!!! Thankfully, I was able to squeeze into a size that's about 1/2 a size too small. I won't be able to wear them anytime soon but I'll be ready for next winter!!

I couldn't find them online to link to :/

Five
This past week, I decided to try Brittany's quick and easy meatloaf and it didn't disappoint! Meatloaf always intimidated me, so I never made it but when Brittany said she had an easy recipe, I had to give it a shot. It was super easy and turned out delicious!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! We were supposed to spend all day at Epcot tomorrow but now Stephen has to work. We're hoping to still make it for our dinner reservation - we decided to go to a fancier restaurant for Valentine's Day :)

Blueberry Overnight Oats

Lately, Stephen and I have been trying to pull together some good, filling and quick breakfasts before we head to work each morning. One of my co-workers has been bringing in overnight oats for quite some time - they always looked delicious but her ingredients seemed to be a mile long. I brushed off all overnight oats thinking they needed to have complex ingredients in them. That was, until I found this recipe on pinterest. Since then, we've made them a few times and I've altered the recipe to fit our needs.

We quite enjoy overnight oats as they're easy to prepare the night before and then it's a quick grab in the morning before heading out the door. Something to note, you can alter the ingredients as much as you'd like depending on your taste and what consistencies you like.

Ingredients:
- 2/3 cup and 2 tbsp cooking oats
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- A handful of blueberries
- You can also add chia seeds for added nutrition

Directions
1. Combine all of the ingredients together in a container with an air-tight lid

2. Place in fridge and chill overnight - 8+ hours

3. Enjoy :)

Linking up with Jessi