Five for Friday

Hello and welcome to my Five for Friday! I hope you all had a great week! I am linking up with Cup of Tea , Della Devoted , Bright on a Budget and Coffee With Caitlin!

1. For Valentine's day, I, of course, had to make some sort of fun treat, so I baked a gluten-free cake for my brother, and some funfetti cupcakes for my sister and I. Unfortunately the recipe I used for the cupcakes wasn't that great and the cupcakes were a little dense, but not too bad. Hannah helped with the decorating, or at least putting the sprinkles on top!

2. On Valentine's day I wrapped up some little gifts for my brother and sister, then made some pink pancakes for breakfast.

We didn't really do anything the rest of the day. Hannah and I played some Mario Kart, I got some things done around the house and that was about it. And then for dinner we made some homemade grilled heart shaped pizzas!

3. This video from the Tonight Show was SO funny! Definitely worth watching! 

4. We have had some really weird weather around here! We had a lot of fog not too long ago, then Tuesday it got up to 62°, and then at about 4am Thursday morning a huge storm came through with pounding rain and lots of wind and even some thunder and lightning! It's a little crazy and all the variations in weather make it hard to know how to dress! But I don't really mind, it's kind of fun when it's stormy. I just like it when it does something different. 

5. A new burger place opened in town and we gave it a try last night. Consumer Reports rated The Habit the best burger in America, so we wanted to see if it lived up to their hype. My brother, sister, and I stopped by for dinner and really liked it! We all agreed that it wasn't the best burger we have ever had, (Gott's in San Francisco still holds that title) but it's definitely at the top of the list! It basically tasted like a Red Robin burger, but at half the cost! I got the basic charburger and it was a little over $3! And that came with lettuce, onion, and tomato. The fries were just under $2. So definitely good prices! We will definitely eat there again!

How was your week? Did you do anything new or fun?

Five for Friday

Hello and welcome to my Five for Friday! I hope you all had a great week! I am linking up with Cup of Tea , Della Devoted , Bright on a Budget and Coffee With Caitlin!

1. Did you watch the Super bowl? We really weren't interested this year. I think this is the first time in a while that we didn't watch the whole thing! The commercials have been so bad the last few years that it wasn't even worth it to watch for those. We did watch a few minutes before and after halftime, and it sure was a boring game! 

Halftime was pretty bad too. Coldplay was kind of a joke. 

2. I recently made this recipe for chow mein and it was SO good! I've tried a couple of recipes for orange chicken, but so far haven't really liked either. But the chow mein was definitely a hit!

3. I stopped by Trader Joe's earlier this week for a few things and couldn't pass up these pretty flowers! I figured pink would be prefect for Valentine's day! 

4. I finally got my hair cut on Wednesday! It had been SO long since I had last had my hair trimmed, and I ended up getting a couple of inches cut off and I am actually liking the length! It's so nice to have all of the split ends gone! 

5. My mom had bought some candle making stuff (at my request) and, after putting it off for a while, I finally made a candle! We had bought a vanilla scent (like Bath and Body Works warm vanilla sugar!) and it smells really good! I've been lighting it just about every evening!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Influenster Target Dry Spray VoxBox

In this VoxBox, I received one dry spray deodorant for myself, and another to share with a man in your life. Which, for me, was my brother.

My thoughts:
3/5
I wasn't real thrilled with this product. I do buy Dove deodorant, but only because I have not been able to find a natural/organic deodorant that works. 

I do not like spray-on products because of all of the propellants used in them. I don't like to use chemicals on myself! This was no better, every ingredient was some strange chemical and was pretty much unpronounceable.  

I also didn't really care for the smell. It's not too bad, just not my preferred type of scent. 

I think the price is too high for the amount of use you would get out of this product. It seems like a stick of deodorant would last much longer than this.

Now onto the good! I liked the design of the bottle. It is smooth and easy to hold onto. The design was clean and easily conveyed what it is. The spray does dry very quickly and is long-lasting. I was concerned about overspray, and it making my clothes icky, but that wasn't really an issue.

Overall, my only real complaints are the ingredients. 

Micheal's thoughts:
4/5
My brother enjoyed this product. He liked that it was easy to use and he really liked the fact that it sprays on and prefers that over stick deodorant. 

His only complaints were that he didn't care for the scent and he wasn't sure how much of the deodorant to use. There is no direction or instruction on how much is needed. I don't know if it's one of those things that is more preference or, for instance, is a 2-second spray enough? 

Thank you to Influenster for sending us these to try!

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

Souvenirs & other fun travel things

Well, I was going through my drafts folder and came across this post I had written but apparently had forgotten to post! So here is some of the things I picked up while in England, France, and Germany!

In England, I picked up the Hogwarts crest mug and Hogwarts notebooks from the Harry Potter studio tour gift shop.

The mini phone booths and London mug came from a tourist shop in London. I wish I would have picked up more little souvenirs in London! Like a little tower bridge or something. I was worried about spending too much money because I thought we were going to be doing more shopping, but we ended up not doing much more and I missed out on some things!

While a lot of people will say to wait until the end of your trip to buy souvenirs, I think that is bad advice! One reason being that you might never come across those neat things again and then you will be mad at yourself for not getting them! Anyways, I guess that is one incentive to go back ;) 

The tin and mini Eiffel towers came from a neat tourist shop in the Monmartre neighborhood in Paris.

The bird mug came from a Monoprix in Lyon. And the Le Petit Prince came from a bookstore in Lyon.

The Alice in Wonderland book came from a used bookstore in Dinan.

And the little embroidered doily came from a gift shop in Heidelberg.

I bought a couple of kid books for a few different reasons. One, Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince is the English version.) is possibly one of the best childrens' books ever written. Seriously. If you've never read it, and even if you don't have kids you should read it. It's got such a great message and the story is pretty cute. And the movie is coming out this year!

Alice in Wonderland was one of my favorite movies as a kid, so it only made sense to buy the book! And it was only like €3, so I couldn't pass it up! 

 I like buying interesting postcards when I travel. I don't like to get the ones that are pictures that I could take myself, so I usually stick to ones that are vintage or artsy. I like the vintage style ones best, but you don't find them very often! I also found those two Eiffel tower posteres while we were walking around in Montmartre in Paris.

 Some great clothes I picked up in Lyon! While in Lyon, we came across a couple of great stores. One was Pimkie and the other was Promod. The two white shirts on the left are from Pimkie, and the other two shirts and skirt were from Promod. I really like Pimkie, and am disappointed they don't have any store in North America. They don't ship to the US either! I prefer more simple patterns, and it's hard to find interesting or unique pieces here.

I definitely think next time I travel to Europe, I'm going to bring less clothing so I can be able to buy more there! 

I was not about to leave Europe without some chocolate! You can find Cadbury bars in the US, but they aren't as good as the ones from England. And Chocolate with Oreo? Need I say more? And yes, they are as good as they sound! 

I actually still have one of the Milka Colors bars left, which I need to eat! I put it away and kind of forgot about it. Also, if you are ever in France, be sure to pick up some Madeleines. They are SO SO good! 

When I travel, I typically try to pick up some postcards, an interesting coffee mug, and some sort of fun decretive things. It's nice to find something to display around the house as a reminder of my travels!

Do you collect anything when you travel?

Five for Friday

Hello and welcome to my Five for Friday! I hope you all had a great week! I am linking up with Cup of Tea , Della Devoted , Bright on a Budget and Coffee With Caitlin!

1. My brother, sister and I saw Mockingjay Part 2 a couple of weeks ago and we were not impressed. It just wasn't that good! We were not huge Hunger Games fans to begin with, and we thought the first three movies weren't too bad, but Mockingjay Part 2 was pretty much a waste of time.

2. I made some chocolate chip cookies a few weeks ago and added some mini M&M's and they were SO good! Freshly baked chocolate chip cookies are one of the best things ever! ;) Here is my recipe.

Okay, the cookie dough might be the best part! ;)

3. I went to Target a few weeks ago and picked up all of this stuff from the Dollar Spot! While some of this stuff was a little more than a dollar (Like the cake plate which was $5, and the bowls and mugs which were $3.) I thought they were cute! And definitely fun to use! 

And the sprinkles will be fun for Valentine's day treats! ;)

4. I put up the few Valentine's day things I have. Like this and this. We don't really decorate or anything for Valentine's day, but I though it would be fun to have a few things up. I've looked on Pinterest a bit for some ideas, but it's so hard to find anything! Most of the crafts and ideas are for kids. Anyone know of any cute Valentine's day decorations that aren't for kids?

5. And in case you missed it, I shared a Currently post and some of my recent Pinterest finds!

Have a great weekend!

Recent Pinterest finds

I like to scroll through Pinterest every once in a while. Who doesn't? I pin a pretty random assortment of things. Here are a few of my most recent pins!
I thought this was a cute gift idea! Maybe for Valentine's day?
This one made me laugh!
I made this for dinner the other night with some orange chicken and it was SO good! Definitely will be making again!
I thought this was pretty funny!
I thought these trees in the fog were kind of pretty. Reminds me of Washington!
Quite the house!
I know it's a little late for Christmas (or really early?) but I thought this was funny!
Such a beautiful kitchen! And that stove! The hood! A real dream ;) I would love to have a gas stove again! I am convinced that glass top stoves were created by satan. I HATE the one we have right now!
Um. Yes. Especially considering where I live right now where it is apparently 'normal' to drive 10 - 15 under the speed limit for no reason! Plus the multitude of other stupid/dangerous things people seem to do here while driving!
I always forget how pretty wisteria is!
(You have to click on it to get it to work) This gif(insert crying/laughing face emoji) It's funnier the more you watch it!
What have you been pinning lately? Anything fun or interesting? And be sure to follow me here!

Currently

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately! It's not because I haven't wanted to blog, but I just have not done anything interesting or blog-worthy lately! I really have just had nothing to write about. 

So, I figured since it had been a while since my last Currently post, I thought I would share one!

I just Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I've been re-read the Harry Potter books in between other books, and I always forget how long this one takes to read! I have a huge stack of books on my nightstand I need to read after this one.

Watching - Not a lot at the moment! We have been watching some older seasons of The Amazing Race on Amazon Instant video. There were a couple of seasons that we hadn't seen and I was glad to see they were finally available on Prime. I'm not real thrilled with the newest season starting in a couple of weeks since it's all social media people. I'm hoping it won't just be a bunch of annoying narcissists. We've also been watching Shark Tank, Undercover Boss, and The Profit. 

And I've started watching Luther on Netflix. So far I'm really liking it! I mean, it's put on by the BBC, so of course it's good!

Drinking - Coffee at the moment.

Eating - Nothing right now. I can't think of any new or interesting food items I've found recently either.

Wishing - I could travel somewhere. It's been a while since I went anywhere and I really want to go somewhere!

Needing - To go grocery shopping. I also need to get some more blog posts put together. I usually get them started and then wait until the night before to finish them. Which means I am up late doing them! 

And I also really need to get a hair cut. Let's just say it's been a while and the ends of my hair are looking really bad!

Working on - Getting caught up on my scrapbooking, organizing and getting rid of things in my room. (I am getting quite a stack of things to donate!) 

What have you been up to lately?