Things I Love July

I always love reading lists of random things on other blogs, like Carly’s On My Radar and Diary posts and Mary Kate’s monthly favorites. So I’m going to give it a try as well!

Apple Pie | My old house had two apple trees. I absolutely loved picking fresh apples, but I soon had an overabundance of them! So I decided to learn how to make an apple pie. I found a recipe online, made some adjustments, and now my apple pie is kind of famous among people who’ve tried it. While I no longer have an apple tree, I often have a craving for apple pie--especially around the fourth of July! So of course I had to make one! I’m planning on making another one this weekend.

Walking to Work | One of the nice things about living half a mile from work is that I’m close enough to walk! When I have to work on Saturdays, Casey walks me to work then continues a few blocks to the farmers market where he picks me up a pastry for breakfast, then brings it back to me. I love those Saturday walks! This week I realized that I shouldn’t save walking to work for Saturdays, so I’m trying to get my act together and walk more often. I have no excuses! (Except for the notorious, daily South Louisiana rain, but that’s why I’ve got pink rain boots, right?) It’s a great opportunity to get some vitamin D and listen to an audiobook.

Audiobooks | Remember my book challenge? One of my challenges was to listen to an audiobook. I’ll have you know I finished two audiobooks and I’m on my third! I finally realized that I don’t like to listen to fiction--I want to read it myself--but I don’t mind listening to nonfiction. I’m currently listening to Mrs. Kennedy and Me by Clint Hill. I listen to all my audiobooks free through my library. Almost all public libraries have a collection of audiobooks you can download to your phone for free via various apps, so go to your local library and see what kind of options they have!

Cookbooks | I’m turning into my aunt. I always picked on her because when we’d go on vacations, I’d have a stack of YA fiction books (or e-books, thanks again public library!) and she’d have a pile of cookbooks. She doesn’t cook a lot, but she loves to look at cookbooks, and now so do I! I love grabbing cookbooks from the library and came home with five the other day. Casey and I have been going through them and noting recipes we want to try.

EKWIP camp | Every year, our church hosts a kids camp called EKWIP, which stands for Equipping Kids With Individual Purpose. I couldn’t be there the whole time due to work, but was able to go a few times. It’s amazing to see how many people put so much work into it. Many people take a week of vacation time from work so they can serve at EKWIP. They look forward to it every year and consider it an investment in our kiddos. I’m so blessed to be a part of the Pentecostals of Lee Road! Our church is truly our second family!

Front Porch Sitting | We visited my family for the fourth of July, and I mentioned to my mom's husband that I was looking for an outdoor table and chairs for our porch. He's great at finding things on Facebook Marketplace, so I wanted to mention it to him in case he found something. He found EXACTLY what I was looking for! I've been having a cup of tea and reading my Bible on the porch the last few weeks, and it is bliss. Such a great way to start the day. Sometimes we also have dinner outside or I'll go out there to work or paint. I love spending more time outside!

My Fave Essential Oil Blends

Last year I began using essential oils and I’ve really been enjoying them! My favorite way to use them is in the diffuser. I love being able to change the smell every day depending on my mood. Here are a few of my recent fave diffuser blends!

Thieves and bergamot - This is called the “apple cider” blend and I’m so in love! It’s pretty much the only thing I diffused all winter! Sometimes I swap the Thieves for Eden’s Garden’s Guardian blend, which is basically the exact same thing.

Cedarwood and vanilla - I’m surprised that I love cedarwood so much because it’s described as being “earthy”. But it smells sweet to me! I love to diffuse it with vanilla, and sometimes I’ll add orange to it as well.

Lavender, cedarwood, and frankincense - This is a great calming blend. I also have a roller blend with these three oils that I rub on my wrists, neck, and over my heart some nights. (I have a few blends I switch between before bedtime.)

Orange, vanilla, and cassia - Oooh, this smells soooo delicious, like something sweet coming out of the kitchen. Cassia is strong, so I usually do one drop of that with a few drops each of vanilla and orange. This is my favorite “homey” blend.

Eden’s Garden - Good Morning - This is a blend from Eden’s Garden and I am OBSESSED. It has all my favorite scents in it--vanilla, orange, and peppermint. It smells so sweet and uplifting and I diffuse it all the time!

Making Old things NEW

One of the best things about learning to sew has been to see clothes differently. Thrifting will never be the same! Instead of passing on skirts that are a tad too big or too long, now I know I can fix them!

I've had this white dress for about a year now. My Gramma gave it to me. Here's a thing you should know: My Gramma is more stylish than me. She has a collection of cute dresses and when she's done with them, I'm on the list for hand-me-downs. It never fails that I get compliments on the dresses she gives me, and people always ask, "Where did you get that dress?" Then I admit that I got it from my Gramma.

Anyhoo, so this dress came from Gramma. I thought it was cute, but I never wore it because I felt like I was wearing a tent. It just felt too big. But a few weeks ago, I saw it and wanted to wear it. I thought, "Maybe I'll like it better if it's a few inches shorter." So I went to the sewing room (aka my craft room/library/office/painting room... whatever project I'm working on today), cut off a few inches, and hemmed it right back up. Now I love it!

Unfortunately I managed to get black sharpie all over it in kids church that night, so now I've got to treat the stains. I can't wait to get them out and wear it again!

Here's the before photo! It's amazing what taking off a few inches can do!

2019 Book Reading Challenge

I’ve recently started working part-time at the library (alongside some freelancing editing jobs) so, needless to say, I’ve been pretty busy. I’ve stopped making cookies for a while, but I’ve truly enjoyed taking up sewing and I’ve made four skirts (working on numbers five and six now) and some cute hair scarves.

Anyhoo, this is about my book challenge! I’ll have to do another post about sewing later!

Since working at the library, I’ve realized that I tend to stick to the same genre--YA. This isn’t surprising as I used to run a YA book blog with my besties. Recently I’ve been getting into middle grade too, which has been so fun.

But today when a patron asked me about book recommendations, I had nothing! I realized that it would do me some good to branch out into other genres and read some new things. So, of course, I googled reading challenges, but instead of using any of them, I’m making my own!

This challenge is a part of my goal to read 50 books this year. I've currently read 21, so I'm three books behind schedule. However, I'm in the middle of a few books (Girl, Wash Your Face, Because of Winn-Dixie, and The Iron Queen), so hopefully I'll catch up soon.

Here it is: Read one book each month that is out of my comfort zone.

I know that seems so simple, but I only read about three books a month, so making one of them something new seems doable. I’m a big believer in setting attainable goals, and I can definitely do this one!

I’ll be picking those six books out of these categories:

A graphic novel
A book club book (from work)
Biography
A book on the 2019 NYT Bestsellers list
Nominated for (but didn’t win) the Goodreads 2018 choice awards
A classic
A book that is also a movie
Harry Potter
Audiobook

These are all things I never read (yes, I work at a library and had a YA blog and somehow never read Harry Potter), so I’m excited to give them a try! I’m currently listening to an audiobook (Girl, Wash Your Face) while I sew, so I guess that’s a bonus one since this challenge starts in July. If I remember (and have time) I’ll share updates here!

Until next time!

Making Macarons

My sweet friend Kaleigh came over the other day and we made macarons! Since I've been wanting to do more photography with my DSLR, I pulled it out and took a few shots while we worked. The macarons didn't come out perfectly, but they were tasty and the most important part was that we had such fun making them! It's been so amazing to have a baking buddy in Hammond! Who knows what we'll bake next!

Meet our new kitten!

Meet our new kitten--Tigger! Aptly named for his color and stripes and tendency to bounce everywhere he goes. 

Casey found him at a job and the man there was on the phone with the pound trying to get them to come pick up the cat. He was meowing like crazy (it was seriously annoying) but he was just so cute. So Casey told the man he'd take him and find him a home. 

Several weeks later... and he's still here. In his home. We couldn't bear to send him elsewhere.

Tigger is currently staring at me and I can't get over how adorable he is. Except he's a little less adorable when he wakes me up around 4:00 every morning. 

Everyone always asks how Oxford feels about the situation and he pretty much hates it. By pretty much I mean completely. Oxford is not playful at all and he doesn't understand that the cat is playing and not being mean by attacking him. Because of that, he's completely wary of the cat. Sometimes Tigger will try to cuddle up next to Oxford and he only puts up with it for about 30 seconds before moving away.

Tigger's new favorite thing is outside time. Unfortunately, he loves to get under the house. We had dinner with Casey's parents this week and had to bribe the cat out from under the house before we could go eat. He's getting super sneaky about sneaking past us when we open the door, so we're having to be extra careful when we get home and let Oxford in and out.

Seeing that I've never had a kitten, it's definitely been an interesting experience, but we are loving (most of) it. He's an adorable little furball!

And here's the best part... PHOTOS!

Happy Pi Day!

I may not be a math person, but I am definitely a nerd at heart and can get behind celebrating days that combine nerdiness and sweets!

Today I was driving downtown to Courtyard Cafe to get some work done when I saw a sign that said PIE! Immediately my attention was drawn because... pie. There were tables out with fresh homemade pies, people holding signs about pie, and the kicker—they had shut down the street. Literally. They shut down the street so people could sell pies. And in that moment, I received confirmation that I live in the right town. Small towns are the best.

I didn't actually make a pie today (nor did I make one yesterday that could be consumed today), which means I'm totally slacking this year. I did, however, make a chocolate coconut cream pie last week at Casey's request, so I guess we just celebrated early. My fave pie is apple though, and, man, I'm craving an apple pie. Maybe I'll make one next week, so we'll have celebrated pi day early AND late!

Hope you're having a happy pi day!