Five for Friday

Hello everyone! Hope you had a great week! I'm here with another edition of Five for Friday! I'm linking up with Coffee With Caitlin, Cup of Tea, and Della Devoted!

1. I finished knitting my first blanket this past week! I'm a little excited about it. It is SO soft!

2. On Monday, we had a movie and dessert night. We hadn't watched National Treasure in a while, and thought it sounded good. We also made brownie sundaes, which are always good!

3. I did my nails earlier this week. I didn't have Seahawks colors, so I went with what I had. And I thought I would try the accent nail thing that is so popular right now; but I'm not sure if I really like it. It's kind of annoying me not to have nails all the same color!

4. We're celebrating my dads birthday today (a little late because he was gone on his actual birthday.). We have some presents and we're going to go out to lunch today. He requested a spice cake, so I made that as well. And on a side note, why is it so hard to find a recipe for a spice cake? I looked on Pinterest and they were all for pumpkin spice cakes, there were hardly any for a regular spice cake! I finally found a couple that didn't sound too bad, so I hope it tastes ok!

5. Are you ready for the Superbowl on Sunday? Go Seahawks! I've got my menu all ready and I think we're ready for the game! 

Have a great weekend!

My Super Bowl Sunday menu

Since the Super Bowl is this Sunday (Go Hawks!), I thought I would share my menu! It's just going to be my parents, my sister and I, but that isn't going to stop me from making a bunch of food! 

Anyways, I think I'm going to make:

-Deviled eggs

-Pigs in a blanket

-Stuffed mushrooms (I'm not going to follow this recipe exactly, but this will be a place to start since I've never made stuffed mushrooms before.)

-7 layer dip

-Carrot sticks and dip

-Vanilla cinnamon candied pecans

I forgot to pick up some Skittles, so I might have to get a bag of those.

And I'm not sure about anything else!

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What are you making?

Las Vegas mini book

We visited Las Vegas about two and a half years ago. It wasn't really somewhere we were planning on going, we stopped for a couple of days while driving back to Arizona. I did a scrapbook after the trip, but I had always planned on making a mini book. I finally got around to it and put this one together.

I have somewhat of a minimalist approach when I'm scrapbooking. I don't like to use a lot of embellishments or anything. I use some, but, especially when I'm doing mini books, I like to keep it really simple.

Five for Friday

Bonjour! How was your week? I'm sharing another Five for Friday and linking up with Coffee With Caitlin, Cup of Tea, and Della Devoted!

1. I made bœuf bourguignon et baguette for dinner earlier this week. It was SO good! (I used this recipe.) I would definitely recommend trying it! 

2. I had some sugar cookie dough that I froze at Christmas in the freezer; so I pulled that out and made some cookies. I know it's a little early for Valentine's day, but I didn't care. ;)

3. I picked up some flowers while at the grocery store this week. I always like having fresh flowers around!

4. And I also got some cute things while at Michael's this past week.

5. This article from Buzzfeed. If you're a 90's kid, you'll find this pretty awesome. Right in the childhood. You're welcome. ;)

À bientôt and have a great weekend!

Pony Bridge hike

I was looking through some of the pictures on my computer and came across these ones I took this past summer while in Washington. We were visiting my grandparents and we went hiking up by Lake Quinault. It was a somewhat short hike, but it was nice to get out and take some pictures.

Celestial Candy Cane Lane Tea review

I will start off by saying I am not much of a tea drinker. I have some black tea from England that I kind of like, but besides that, I don't really care for it. I would much rather have a cup of coffee! But anyways, back to the tea...

There were two tea bags in this packet, so I made a cup for my sister and I.

Hannah and I did not like the tea. The peppermint flavor was way too strong. (Obviously it would be since it is candy cane lane!) Hannah usually really likes peppermint flavored things, but she agreed that the flavor in the tea was too strong and we both thought it had an odd aftertaste. Had there not been so much peppermint, I think we might have liked it. So, it was a miss instead of a hit this time.

On the positive note, I did like that it had all natural ingredients. Such as vanilla bean and orange peel.

I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes in exchange for an honest review. All reviews and opinions are my own.

Five for Friday

Hello! How was your week? Mine wasn't too bad. I'll quickly highlight a few things from the past week in this edition of Five for Friday. I'm also linking up with Coffee With Caitlin, Cup of Tea, and Della Devoted!

1. I got this coat I ordered from Modcloth. It's cute but the hood is HUGE! Fortunately it comes off so I will probably be taking it off!

2. Have you tried these? We were at Trader Joe's earlier this week and picked up a bag. They're SO good!

3. I think I'm over our Keurig. I took out our regular old drip coffee maker today and I decided it makes better coffee than the Keurig. I was never a fan of K-cups anyways (I mean, pre-ground coffee? Ew. But, I am from Western Washington, so that's my excuse for being a bit of a coffee snob ;) ) I did always grind my own coffee and use the reusable K-cup. Has anyone else done away with their Keurig?

4. I got some slippers last weekend and I can't believe how comfortable they are! I have never really worn slippers before, and I feel like I was missing out. Haha! 

5. I just realized I have 813 pictures on my phone! I will now be spending the weekend deleting some of those! I already printed most of them, I just need to get them deleted!
Anyways, Have a great weekend!

The best chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe

I love chocolate chip cookies. Who doesn't? After trying so many recipes over the years, I came up with this one and it's definitely my favorite! They're soft, chewy, and chocolatey. What's not to love?

 The ingredients.

Cream the butter, shortening, and sugars. 

Then add the eggs and vanilla.

 Add your flour and baking soda.

Mix together.

 The best part...the chocolate!

Stir all those right in! 

Voilà!

3/4 cup shortening

3/4 cup butter (softened)

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 1/4 brown sugar

3 eggs

2 1/2 tsp. vanilla

3 3/4 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. salt*

1-2 cups of chocolate chips

*I always bake with salted butter, because that's just what we always have, so I omit the salt. If you are baking with unsalted butter, add the salt.

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. Cream together shortening, butter, and sugars.

3. Mix in eggs and vanilla and mix.

4. Add flour, baking soda, and salt (if using.) and mix well. 

Consistency is something I always watch for when I make cookies. If there's too much moisture in the dough, the cookies will melt and turn out flat and crispy. And if there isn't enough moisture in the dough, the cookies will be dry and crumble. Sometimes I have to add a little water (about a tablespoon) to the dough (I live in a really dry climate.) The dough needs to be able to pull away from the sides and hold together when mixing and not be sticky. 

5. Add chocolate chips and stir together. I usually use a mix of semi sweet and milk chocolate. I use about 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips. I know some people like really chocolatey, and others don't like too many chocolate chips. Use what you prefer.

6. Drop rounded balls of dough onto the cookie sheets and bake for 9-12 minutes. You want to pull them out of the oven when they are just done because they will finish baking on the sheet. 

This recipe will make about 5 dozen if using a medium sized cookie scoop.

Enjoy!

Rimmel London product review

I had been wanting to try a kohl eyeliner, so I was happy to receive one in my Frosty Voxbox.

The color (black) is really bold and it glides on really easily, which is nice. (Isn't so great if you happen to mess up as it's hard to get off!) The only thing I didn't like about the Rimmel London Scandaleyes kohl liner is that it is hard to remove! 

I definitely wouldn't consider this makeup remover anything special. It did an okay job removing the makeup I typically wear everyday (none of which is waterproof.) but when I tried to use it to remove the waterproof kohl liner (above) I had a really hard time getting it off! It says it is a 'gentle makeup remover', but I was scrubbing and scrubbing trying to get the waterproof eyeliner off. I got a little in my eyes and it was burning. I finally used my natural face cleanser and that worked much better. I thought it was kind of dumb that this makeup remover couldn't even remove makeup made by the same brand. I definitely don't think I would recommend or buy this makeup remover. 

I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes in exchange for an honest review. All reviews and opinions are my own.

Top 10 places I want to travel to

I love to travel. I love exploring and trying new things. I love taking pictures and experiencing different places and foods. The only other country I have been to is Canada (which is a given considering I grew up in a border town.) but I really, really want to travel the world someday! The top ten places I want to travel to (in no particular order) are:

1. France

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2. England

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3. Germany

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4. Austria

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5. Ireland

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6. Scotland

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7. Iceland

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8. Switzerland

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9. Poland

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10. Sweden

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So basically, I just want to travel to every country in Europe! Hopefully someday I will be able to see all of these places! 
Where would you like to travel to?