Little Things for Valentine's Day

Stephen and I aren't big celebrators of Valentine's Day. Sure, we like to do something a little special but we never go all out and celebrate with elaborate things. Even though it's not big, I do like doing little things for Stephen and our families - I like to remind them that we love them.

This year for our families, I found adorable heart cards and washi tape in the dollar section at Target and figured it was the perfect little thing to send them for Valentine's Day. I loved how the washi tape added a little something to the outside of the cards.

Love my new Kate Spade address book

Every year I like to bake Stephen something fun. Back before we were married, it was a lot easier to surprise him with what I had made but now he just gets to enjoy the sweets without being surprised. 

These chocolate covered rice krispie treats were so good that I made them twice for him! 

These chocolate covered marshmallows look delicious and a lot easier to make!

 

This year, I'm going to go a little more traditional and make cookies with royal icing. I've never decorated cookies with royal icing but I have some Valentine's Day cookie cutters so I'm going to test out the royal icing.

What are some fun things you like to do for Valentine's Day to make people feel special?

Linking up with Annie.

Mix & Match Mama Chocolate Tres Leches Bunt Cake

I made this cake for Stephen two weeks ago after one of my business trips and it was so good, I had to make it for my parents.

Ingredients
- 1 box of chocolate cake mix
- 2 small boxes instant chocolate pudding (I only used 1 box since the cake box said there was pudding in it already)
- 1/2 cup veggie oil
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup milk
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup Eagle Brand condensed milk
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 stick of butter
- A few splashes of vanilla coffee creamer or milk
- 1/4 or less caramel topping (ice cream topping)

Directions
1. In a mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, pudding, oil, water, milk & eggs. Beat with an electric mixer and then pour into a greased bunt pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.

2. Let the cake rest in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove the cake. While the cake is still warm, poke medium sized holes around the top of the cake and drizzle the Eagle Brand Milk over the top of the cake and into the holes.

3. Let the cake finish cooling and then prepare the frosting.

4. Combine the powdered sugar, butter, coffee creamer/milk and caramel in a bowl with an electric mixer until you've reached your desired consistency. If needed, add more milk to thin it out or more sugar to thicken it. (We placed ours in the fridge until the cake was cooled, which thickened it some)

5. Frost the cake and enjoy :)

Linking up with Jessi.

Weekending

My parents came in town this weekend and we had a great time together! It was so good to see them since the last time we saw them was Christmas.

Stephen kicked off Friday with a rocket launch and I worked from home because our AC unit was leaking in the garage and I had to let the AC guy come in and fix it. Since I was home, I got a great view of the rocket launch!

Thankfully, the AC problem was fixed (some yahoo cut the main pipe, jerry-rigged it back together and then added some secondary pipe that was unneeded) and minimal damage was done. Later that afternoon, my parents made it to town and we headed out to grab some BBQ before heading home for a movie. Poor Stephen was up for work that morning at 1 am and had a 13+ hour day, so he was out like a light and missed the whole movie. I wore my new dress with boot socks (on Friday, I was talking about how I tried boot socks with jeans and it was a hot mess) and I think it turned out super adorable, not to mention the dress was so comfy. 

Saturday, we made breakfast and then headed to the driving range because the weather was beautiful! We were going to head to the beach but while we were at the driving range, clouds rolled in. Instead, we looked at some fancy model homes for fun (after moving 15+ times, looking at models is fun for our family). We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, baking and hanging out while it rained. It was such a long week for all of us (especially for my dad and Stephen) we loved just handing out and relaxing together. 

We accidentally matched

Stephen was a trooper and grilled steaks for dinner all while it was raining and cold outside (at least he was able to pull the grill under the roof). He did an amazing job on the steaks, potatoes and I added roasted broccoli & okra. For dessert, my mom & I made an amazing chocolate de leches bunt cake. We followed up dinner with the movie The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and we loved it - I'd definitely recommend it! 

Sunday, my parents left early so they could get home before it got dark. After church, Stephen left to help move some furniture for a friend and I finally watched Grease Live. They did a great job and I was surprised to see how close they mimicked the movie. We spent the rest of the day relaxing before the Super Bowl. I made ham & cheese sliders, sweet potato fries and roasted veggies for dinner - I didn't want to go too crazy since it was just Stephen and I. We were cheering for the Broncos - I only cheered for them because Peyton Manning is my boy. If he wasn't their QB and it wasn't his last Super Bowl, I would've cheered for the Panthers. I can't believe the Broncos won!! Everyone at work was saying it'd be a blowout for the Panthers and therefore, a non-eventful game.  

Being a cheese ball - Super Bowl is the only time I can get away with glass bottles lol

Can't wait to read this!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!! Linking up with Biana.  

Five on Friday

I am so glad the weekend is finally here!! We didn't have a rough week, by any means, but I've just been SO TIRED this week (don't worry, I'm not pregnant). I think it's attributed to the fact that a lot of people at work are either in training or traveling and it's so quiet! Staring at a screen all day really does a number on you and the hour commute each way doesn't help either... so cheers to the weekend!

One
I'm so excited because my parents are coming to town today!! My dad had a business trip in Miami this week so they're stopping by our house for the weekend on their way back to TN. Can't wait to see them again and show them all the updates to the house!

via

Two
On Monday, I mentioned that we were between two styles of chairs for our living room. We bit the bullet and bought this one!! We are so excited to get them in the living room but it'll be about a month before they're delivered - boo! So glad we finally settled on chairs that we both liked :)

Three
My parents got me some Hunter boots for Christmas and my mom threw in some adorable boot socks from Old Navy and Francesca's. I've been wanting to wear the boot socks but I quickly realized they look so weird (at least on me) with jeans so I've decided I'll try them with a dress. Well, I realized I didn't have any good dresses that matched and set out to find a swing dress to go with my green Hunter's and beige colored socks. I found an adorable navy dress (this one is similar, of course they don't have the one I got online) that doesn't make me look like I'm wearing a potato sack while not being clingy and showing off all my cellulite. I'm hoping to get some wear out of it this weekend, especially before it get's hot. [This one is fantastic for spring/summer!]

Going for a look kind of like this

Four
While hunting for said dress above, I stumbled upon these amazing rompers from Old Navy. How adorable are they for spring/summer!? Love that the navy one has a small gingham print on it. I'm getting super excited for spring now (I won't mention that we're supposed to get a cold front and the temps will be around the 30s... in FL)!

Five
One last fashion-related item - Target recently released their Who What Wear collection and I have to admit, I have no clue what this is; is it a designer? is it just the name is fun? I'm totally missing the point but I'm loving some of their pieces! I really like this pencil skit, this birdcage skirt would be adorable with a black top and heels and the matching top is so sophisticated.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Makeup Review

Disclaimer: I will be the first to admit I don't have a single clue when it comes to makeup. I usually keep things very minimal and don't buy expensive/"nice" makeup (thank goodness for Stephen since he thinks my $12 power foundation is expensive lol)

After following along in the blog/vlog world for a little bit, I had noticed that people had more "complex" makeup routines than I did and the things they did with makeup made a big difference. One of the big things I wanted to try was contouring. My mom got me this contour pallet for Christmas and I loved it, until I broke out from it. After returning it, I didn't want to spend $40+ on another contour kit so I opted for the new Maybelline contour kit and used the extra money to get some fun brushes and chap sticks. I've been really impressed with the Maybelline kit - the dark shade is perfect but I have to admit, the lighter shades were better in the NYX kit.

I love Neutrogena products because they're not harsh on my skin and it's not too expensive. I always use this pressed powder and it gives me great coverage for everyday use. If I wanted a more polished look, I would use Clinique liquid foundation and then add the pressed powder on top. The liquid foundation was very thick and even though it gave me an airbrushed look, I didn't like how thick it was on my face. When I was at home for Christmas, my mom got my sister some Urban Decay liquid foundation - it doesn't give her enough coverage so she gave it to me. I love this stuff!! It is light/medium coverage but it feels so light on your face and still looks super natural. I use this almost everyday under my powder foundation and haven't had a problem! This will probably be my one expensive makeup piece that I will continue to splurge on.



Neutrogena was running a BOGO 50% off when I needed to buy more foundation so I took advantage and snagged a fun pink blush. My current blush is kind of dull and I wanted to spice things up a bit with a new, brighter blush. I really like it and it'll be the perfect shade for spring/summer!

After returning the NYX contour kit, I had some extra money to play with so I snagged this makeup sponge and brush. I wanted to try out the sponge for my liquid foundation application but I was very disappointed with the sponge because it seemed to soak up all of the foundation instead of leaving it on my face. I was about to return it when my sister informed me that you can use it for concealer (which I didn't have - told y'all I don't know much lol). I decided to get some cheap concealer to try it out. I really like using the sponge to put on the concealer and for $3, it's a steal! I also got a new brush which I love using to blend my contour.

I've been using Burt's Bees chapstick for a little while now and right before Christmas, Target ran a BOGO deal on their kits. Stephen wanted to get me some for little stocking stuffers and I decided to go with some tinted kits rather than plain chapstick. I picked out this kit and this kit and so far, I have been really impressed by them. The colors are great and perfect for someone like me, who doesn't usually wear a lot of color on my lips. I'll probably keep getting their lipsticks in the future because my lips are very sensitive and these don't bother them as much. FYI: I read that eos chapstick can really mess up some peoples lips and after seeing some pictures, I realized that's what was happening to mine (although not as bad). I decided to throw out my eos chapsticks and now I don't have as big of a problem.

One last thing that I got for Christmas was the Urban Decay Perversion mascara. I received a sample tube for my birthday and LOVED it but didn't want to buy the bigger tube. I got it in my stocking from my parents and have been enjoying using it. Unfortunately, it seems different than the sample tube that I had but still gives great volume. Honestly, I'll probably go back to drug store mascara after this tube runs out - it's good, not great.

Thanks for bearing with me and my makeup post - there's a first time for everything!

Linking up with Annie.

Valentine's Day Gifts

Stephen and I haven't been ones for big Valentine's day gifts (one year he did get me a Coach purse so he could get some nice mats for his car ;)) but it's still fun to look at cute gifts!

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

Linking up with Jessi.

Weekending

As I sat down to write this post, I realized I did not take a single picture this weekend! Even though I failed on the picture taking, we had a great weekend filled with relaxation and productivity.

via

Friday, Stephen was off from work and did a lot of work around the yard. He finally brought all of the pavers to the trash that we had ripped up from the side and back yard back in the fall - so glad those are gone! After work, we basically watched The Office the rest of the night and went to bed early since we had a long week.

Saturday, we made some bigger decisions - we decided to move ahead with plans to install a screen on our back porch, we got serious about buying some chairs for our living room, finally sold our breakfast buffet and pulled the trigger on an item we've been thinking about for a while now (more on that later).

We've been looking for some nice accent chairs for our living room for quite some time and haven't been able to find what we want for our price point. About 30 minutes away, there's an area with almost every major furniture company on one street so we hit every store in hopes of finding what we're looking for. We realized that in order to find what we want, we needed to up our price point. We didn't want to settle since these chairs will be the focal point of our living room and we had a very distinct look in mind. We found two options that would've worked great but I think we're going to go another direction. We originally wanted some standard, traditional winged back chairs (below) but after Stephen got to browsing online, he decided he really liked the French chair look.

I am still leaning towards the more traditional look but Stephen is sold on the French style. We found a chair that is a compromise and I think it will work really well in our living room. I figured it has the winged back look and is something different that we wouldn't be able to do anywhere else in the house. I'm really excited to hopefully get these chairs in here soon!

I was so excited that we finally sold our breakfast buffet and get that out of the house since we bought our china cabinet. We didn't want to put it on Craigslist because we don't like the idea of total strangers coming to our house and no one was wanting it on Facebook so Stephen found a used furniture store that bought it from us - and we got more than we would've gotten from Craigslist!

After all the furniture fun, we headed home to relax and enjoy the rest of the afternoon which consisted of more Office, mini ping pong and watching The Maze Runner 2 (it's totally a knock of The Island, I am Legend & World War Z).

Sunday we did the usual, church, Publix, laundry, cleaning and Stephen let me take a nap while he pulled weeds (which also led him to agree to hire a landscaper lol)! We officially finished season 8 of The Office - it kind of makes me sad that it's almost over!

I hope everyone has an amazing week!! Linking up with Biana.