Tag: friday favorites

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Friday Favs: February 26, 2016

On By SaraIn Spotlight, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you all had an amazing week. This week was pretty awesome here! Between vacation, starting my workouts again full force and just feeling in a great mood, this week has been pretty great. I have still been working on my newest photography project too, and this week’s photo is from that.

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Day 7 – “Rest” 

And to make it even better, there have been a lot of really interesting posts that I found for this Friday Favs! Enjoy!

Recipes

Spicy Red Lentil Curry from Minimalist Baker – Um, yes please?! This sounds so tasty! And my curry obsession may be kickstarted again by seeing this. I want it. Now

Home and Decor

The Impact of Negative Space from Censtational Girl – This is something I struggle with. I have a tendency to clutter up spaces, especially bookshelves!

Art and DIY

Scrape Wood Wine Holder from Pretty Handy Girl – Such a cute idea for scrape wood! And as I’m still just starting my wood DIY projects, I appreciate that it is relatively simple with great directions.

Life and Family

Black Lives Matter + Feminism from Uncustomary Art – This. Just this. This article is amazing, beautiful and thought provoking. I can’t possibly have said this better than she did here. If you only read one article from my list today, make it this one.

30 Ways to Show Love from The Freckled Fox – A great post from Emily! Sometimes day-to-day life can overwhelm and we can forget to show the ones we love just how much we love them. I love this list, especially because it’s not about grand gestures, but little things to do on a more regular basis.

Things You Have to Remember in Your Twenties from dizzybrunette3 – It really is good to hear sometimes that others are experiencing the same feelings that I am as I have gone through my twenties! Love this!

Blogging and Business

Switching from WordPress.com to WordPress.org from Lexi’s Clean Kitchen – This is actually something I have been considering lately and Lexi lays out the process in a clear and simple way. Love it!

Blogging without Boundaries from A Girl, Obsessed – An interesting read! Do you hold back from certain topics when you blog? I know it’s a topic I have thought about a lot and I love her take on it!

Pros and Cons of Running a Small Business from Our Freaking Budget – Since I am working towards starting my own small business, this article caught my attention. I love the way she lays outs the pros and cons! Great article!

Feeling Jealous on the Internet from Pinch of Yum – This is a seriously wonderful article! While I try to keep this in check, I can struggle with this a lot. Especially since I am just in the early stages of this blog, and even more so in my (soon-to-be) business, yet have a tendency to compare myself to people that have been blogging and/or running their businesses for years! Great read, and a great reminder to spend more time creating and less time comparing.

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Friday Favorites: February 19, 2016

On By SaraIn Spotlight, Uncategorized3 Comments

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful week 🙂

I’m really excited to share these links with you..I found quite a few that look really great! But first: I started my 365 Photography Project! This is my favorite picture from this week (today actually)

The photo prompt for today was “Cover.” Now, you might be wondering why I photographed an old notebook. Well…this notebook is actually one of my most prized possessions. It is a recipe book, handwritten by my mom. It was started in 1993 and has every recipe she cooked that I liked, from then (age 5) to when I moved out right before I turned 17! It’s pretty amazing and I absolutely love it. I actually plan on doing the same thing when I have kids. Just looking at it makes me smile, makes me feel loved.

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Day 4 – “Cover”

And now, on to the awesome links from this week! Enjoy!

Recipes
Cabbage Ginger Noodles from Naturally Ella – I have just recently started cooking with fresh ginger and I love it! I can’t wait to try this!
Lemony Soup with White Beans, Kale and Pasta from A Cup of Jo – This sounds delicious! And I have to agree with her…I love any soup with beans 🙂
Pineapple Coconut Smoothie from The Iron You – This smoothie makes me wish for summer. I really want to try this one! I have never used pineapple or coconut in my smoothies, so I’m looking forward to trying something new!

Home and Decor
Water Gardens from Robinne Weiss – Their water garden turned out wonderful!
LZM Home: Photo Wall Collages from Le Zoe Musings – I love how they pulled the two collages together! We have a lot of empty walls in our home that I’m currently trying to pull together and would love if ours turned out this nice!
A New Home (And a New Bed) from A Cup of Jo – Can I just say how much I love her style!? While we are not currently looking at getting a new bed, I never thought to order one online. I will have to keep that in mind when we do look at getting a new mattress 🙂

Art and DIY

Creations, Magnolia & Cotton Wreath from The Painted Apron – I love making wreaths, but I haven’t made one of this style before. I love how she breaks down how she put it together and it looks beautiful!

The Problem Of a Creative Creature from The Richness of a Simple Life – The search for creative outlets in life can be difficult and I love Niki’s take on it!
DIY Diamond Shaped Book Shelves from A Beautiful Mess – I absolutely love this bookcase! I have wanted built-ins pretty much forever, but there is no way that we can put those in here. These though?! These we could do! Would it be overkill to put these in two rooms? Cause I kinda want to 🙂
Take a Seat: How to Make a Budget-Friendly Bench in Under an Hour from Paper & Stitch – So cute! And I love the idea of using a carpet piece on part of the bench!

Fitness

Top 10 Fitness Bloggers to Follow from Semi-Sweet Tooth – A couple of these I’ve heard of, but most are brand new to me and sound great! I’m looking forward to checking them out more!
Health & Fitness: Splurge & Save from The Fitnessista – Love this list! I pretty much agree with everything on here. 🙂

Life and Family

You Don’t See My Sad – That Doesn’t Make My Happy Fake from This House Is Our Home – I really love this! I have always been bothered by the idea that someone is being “fake” by only showing the positive or not getting involved in hot topic debates online. I hate getting into those things and I am definitely not going to complain about my less-happy stuff online. Anna does a great job talking about this!

Blogging and Business
A Color Story Filters: Shifting Colors from A Beautiful Mess – I’m still learning a lot about photography and photo editing, so this was a great read!

Have a great weekend!

Sara (1)

Friday Favs: February 12, 2016

On By SaraIn Uncategorized2 Comments

Hey everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful week! In all honestly, my week wasn’t great. I caught a pretty terrible cold and didn’t do much more than lay on the couch for most of it 😦 But I feel like I’m on the mend now and can’t wait to get back to life as normal! Sadly, being sick means I pretty much took zero pictures this week, so I have no favorite picture of the week. I’m looking forward to next week’s though! I’m starting a new photography project on my birthday!

Recipes

8 Ways I use Frozen Produce from 100 Days of Real Food – While not a recipe exactly, this has some great tips (one of which I had to learn the hard way!)

Spicy Skillet Hoisin Chicken from The Slender Kitchen – I don’t think I’ve actually used hoisin sauce before. I should change that!

Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Shells from The Recipe Critic – Cheese, pasta and veggies?! I’m all about this one 🙂

Roasted Garlic Cauliflower from Damn Delicious – I haven’t had roasted cauliflower before, but I do love cauliflower and garlic, so I can’t imagine this being bad!

Marinated Kale & Chicken Bowls from Pinch of Yum – I’ve never marinated kale before! In fact, as an ingredient, I haven’t used kale a lot, but I’ve enjoyed it when I have. And her pictures just make this dish look mouthwatering!

Home and Decor

Glitter and Gold Valentine’s Day Mantel from Organize Your Stuff Now – Oh how I wish I had a mantel…I’m not big on Valentine’s Day, but this decor is beautiful!

Fitness

The Mind-Body Connection – The Importance of Focusing on Toning Moves from Organize Yourself Skinny – Great article overall! One point that she points out that I love is to take every move slow and focus on form. When I was in physical therapy that was one of the things they stressed and that I’ve seen a lot of people slack on.

Fitness Social Media: Beyond the Six Pack Selfies from Lazy Girl Running – You all know that I am pretty much in love with Kayla Itsines’ and the BBG community…and there are a lot of six pack selfies on there. I’ve met (online) a lot of great ladies through there. That being said, I love this article!

Life and Family

Snow Shoe from Barefoot Blonde – This is too cute and sounds like so much fun!

My Book Came!!! from Uncustomary Art – I love how you can just feel the excitement radiating from her post! I can’t imagine the feeling of holding proof of all of your hard work coming to fruition.

The Complete Budgeting Guide: How to Make a Budget That Works from Making Sense of Cents – A great guide from a great blog!

I Married a Blogger from DIY Playbook – Ok, this is actually just one post in a huge loop. I would definitely check out all of them. They are pretty entertaining, informative and just…cute 🙂

That’s it for this week! I hope you enjoy the list! Did you find anything neat this week? I would love to hear about it, so leave me a comment below!

If you haven’t yet, don’t forget to enter into the Jewelry Giveaway! It ends on Tuesday!

Giveaway

Sara (1)

 

metal sculpture ames iowa

Friday Favs: February 5, 2016

On By SaraIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful week! Here’s the awesome links I found this week! 🙂 Enjoy!

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Playing with angles – my favorite picture from this week of a sculpture in downtown Ames, IA

Recipes

Homemade Spicy Ramen with Tofu from Pinch of Yum – This sounds freakin’ delicious! I actually haven’t cooked with tofu yet and this recipe might be changing that.

Spinach Chana Dal from 100 Days of Real Food – So you might have noticed that I have started really getting into cooking Indian food lately…like all the others, this one sounds wonderful! Can’t wait to give it a try!

Teriyaki Grilled Chicken and Veggie Rice Bowls from Cooking Classy – This sounds so tasty! I’ve never made my own teriyaki sauce before and I really love her point about food in bowls just being awesome in general 🙂

Shrimp Summer Rolls with Peanut Hoisin Dipping Sauce from Skinnytaste – These sound delicious! I’ve never cooked with shrimp…honestly it makes me kinda nervous. But these sound like a great introduction to them!

Slow Cooker Sausage and Peppers {Lightened Up} from Organize Yourself Skinny – Slow cooker and tasty sandwich?! This sounds perfect to me! We are definitely going to make this in the future!

Sriracha Buffalo Cauliflower Bites from Half Baked Harvest – I have heard of of using cauliflower as a substitute for chicken for buffalo “wings” but haven’t really looked up any recipes. Well that is different now! I can’t wait to try these!

Game Day White Chicken Chili from Lexi’s Clean Kitchen – I have plenty of chili recipes, but no good chicken chili ones. This sounds super tasty!

Breakfast Enchiladas with Roasted Poblano Sauce from Pinch of Yum – As I’m sure you’ve noticed, we have a bit of an enchilada obsession over here…And I love any and all breakfast foods! This combination sounds just about perfect for us!

Peanut Butter Flourless Chocolate Cake from Gimme Some Oven – Ahhh…Peanut butter and chocolate. The perfect match. With my birthday coming up, this beautiful cake needs to be made!

Home and Decor

On Starting a Garden from The Small Things Blog – I love reading about new gardeners! You may remember that I did a small gardening experiment last spring/summer. What she is talking about doing for her garden sounds like what I would like to try this year!

Art and DIY

Personalized Gift Wrap from A Thoughtful Place –

Fitness

3 Shoulder & Back Strengthening Exercises I Learned in PT from Working Out and Eating In – Ok, so those of you who have been following me for a while might remember that I have a lot of problems with my back, even ending up in PT myself a few months ago. However, these 3 exercises are ones I didn’t learn in my PT and are definitely ones I am going to try out!

Blogging and Business

How to Make Your Blog Posts Stand Out from A Girl, Obsessed – This article has some great tips, including two that I really want to work on!

Ten Tips for Flay Lay Photography from A Girl, Obsessed – She is just killin’ these articles this week! (As she is most weeks) Photography is something I am really trying to work on and I hope to try out some of the tips in this article.

5 Best Pieces of Advice When Starting a Business from Goodbeads – I love this! As someone who is working towards launching a business soon (more on that to come), she has some great pieces of advice…the first and last ones I will probably have to remind myself on a regular basis!

The Blogger’s Guide to Networking from damask love – As something I have a hard time with and not many opportunities to practice, this is a great read!

Life

10 Things I’ve Learned Since Becoming An Adult from Dizzybrunette3 – With my birthday coming up later this month, this so hits close to home! (Plus, keep an eye out for a post I have planned that is similar to this on my birthday!)

5 Ways to Make Sure You Have a Good Day from Barefoot Blonde – Amber’s post is too cute and I love the idea of the 30 min power clean!

What to do After You Pay Off Debt from Making Sense of Cents – I’m not even close to paying off my debt, but this is a great article on what to do if I ever do!

This is 29 from Racing Bananas – Another post that really hits home with my 29th birthday coming up! I love how they had a pretty low key and relaxing celebration. Plus I’m kinda envious of that dog park!

5 Things I Do to Keep Meal Prep Simple from Organize Yourself Skinny – I love the tips she puts here, many of which I do myself! If you are looking at starting or simplifying your meal prep, this is a great read!

Cooking Date Night from Cupcakes & Cashmere – Draz and I work together, so this article has a particular draw for me. Creating a dedicated “date time” on a regular basis is something we could probably work on and this is a great idea for one type of date night!

I would love to hear what fun articles you found this week, so leave a link to one below! Or from an article from your blog from this week! I would love to hear from you and check out what you think and like!

Sara (1)

 

Friday Favorites: January 29, 2016

On By SaraIn Uncategorized5 Comments

This week for Friday Favs I decided to try something a little different than last week! I’ve been wanting to focus more on photography than I have been the last couple months, so I think each week will include my favorite photo from the week 🙂 I also realized that a brief description of the posts I’m linking to might be helpful, so that’s going to be present from now on too!

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Recipes

Sunflower and Oat Energy Balls from Slim Sanity – I can’t wait to try these this weekend, they look so tasty!

Creamy Garlic Roasted Red Pepper Pasta from A Pinch of Yum – Admission time…I have yet to try zucchini pasta. I want to, but haven’t gotten a spiralizer yet. That being said, this sounds delicious!

Kung Pao Chicken Meatballs from Iowa Girl Eats – Outside of the fact that I love highlighting bloggers from Iowa, these meatballs look freakin’ amazing! I can’t wait to give these a try!

Home and Decor

Valentines Day Centerpiece from Craftaholics Anonymous – This centerpiece is quick, easy and oh so cute! And it looks like they have a bunch more fun holiday DIY decor too!

Shop the Look: Casey’s Master Bedroom from The DIY Playbook – There are so many cute things in this room! I got some great inspiration for our own remodel too!

Tips for Moving House from DizzyBrunette3 – I’m not moving right now, but these are some great tips! And things to definitely think about if you are planning on moving!

Laundry Room Makeover Reveal from Vintage Revivals – This room! This room is swoon-worthy! I love this laundry room! Ok, for context, my laundry space is in an unfinished basement and not at all pretty. But this room? This room is gorgeous!

2016 Craft Room Tour from Organize Your Stuff Now – I really like this room, but the part I like the most is the shelves of photo props! I’m working on improving my photography skills and I love how all of her things are put together and so pretty!

Create Dining Room Storage with Floating Shelves from hey, let’s make stuff – These shelves are going to get built for our dining room and possibly a corner I’m designing for the kitchen! These are so pretty and I’m sure my dad would help me make them! (Right Dad?!)

Art and DIY

Knitting Projects: My First Accomplishment from 2BlueEyes – I love how honest and excited she is about her first dishcloth! I still haven’t finished my first crocheting experiment, so I’m impressed by the fact that she finished it up as well. Learning a skill like that is hard!

Fitness

The Five Best Podcasts for Running from Just A Colorado Gal – I listen to a lot of podcasts and audiobooks. There were a couple on here I haven’t check out before and the ones I had were some of my favorites! If you are looking for some new ones, check this out!

The Importance of Stretching + 12 Stretches to Help You Cool Down from Organize Yourself Skinny – Stretching is so important in your fitness routine and this is a great article about why!

Blogging and Business

7 things I wish someone had told me about business five years ago from jesscreatives – Some of these are things I have learned and some are still sinking in, but this post definitely resonates with me! As someone who is just now getting ready to start her business, this was a great read!

How to Take Better Photos for Instagram from DizzyBrunette3

Original photo
Using one of the tips from the article – Processed with VSCOca with c1 preset: I clearly still have a lot to learn! I think it was a bit of an improvement though?

– Ok, so I’m way behind on actually curating my Instagram. The whole “personal brand” for it just makes me feel weird and kinda fake (I know that’s not actually the case). But I really would like my Instagram feed to feel a little more cohesive and this has some great tips to do just that! What do you think of my first attempts?…Both the right photo of Achilles and the photo above of Crystal are edited using tips from this article 🙂

Life

I Confess…I’m Inspired by Gym & Tonic – I love this! She tells a story about giving someone a wonderful compliment and how that effected them, going on to talk about how important it is to spread kindness. This really hit home for me. One thing I’ve learned over the past few years is just how big of an impact something like that can have. So I try to do something to “spread kindness” every day.

Have you found anything new or interesting this week? I’d love to hear about it, or anything from here you like, so please leave a comment below!

Sara (1)