Are you a Texas Blogger?

 

I am… in case you didn’t notice from the title of my blog ;)

Lately its been on my heart to connect with bloggers that are *local*! And by *local* I mean somewhere in the MASSIVE state known as Texas.

Not that I don’t love all you Non-Texans… Because I really, really do! You just aren’t as cool :p Or should I say as Hot? Cause its getting hotter and hotter by the second!

Anyways… I’m  asking if you’re a Texas blogger cause I want to get to know you! And with that in mind I’ve started a Texas Bloggers Facebook Group! The purpose of the group is to connect, support and encourage one another :) And its really nice to have other creative minds to bounce ideas off of! It’s a closed group, so not just anyone can join. Not trying to be selective or exclusive, just trying to build relationships with those near(ish) by. I hope you understand :)

A few other other *local* bloggers have already joined and I hope you will too!

Secret Blogger Swap

I recently signed up for the Secret Blogger Swap on Framed Frosting!

I got matched up with Kayla from Close Encounters :) Here’s what I know about Kayla… She loves Lipgloss, anything sparkly, wiener dogs, all things purple, and COFFEE! She also has a slight nail polish obsession. :) I think she is my Long Lost Twin!!

I had fun coming up with something that I thought matched what I new about her!



I’ve become obsessed with making zippy pouches! And I love this zebra and purple one. Its got a lavender zipper and purple lining!



I also made a Lavender rosette headband and a Coffee cozy with one of my favorite purple prints :)

I included one of my favorite purple nail polishes and some yummy lip gloss :) I also added in my favorite instant coffee beverage and some chocolates (not shown).



I think that I had the most fun wrapping all of the goodies up! I taped together some pages from an old book and used that as the first layer of wrapping. Then added lace and finished it off with some purple floral ribbon :)

Hope you enjoyed your gift Kayla!!

I Love Swaps!

 

If you look at my sidebar, you might notice that I really love swaps! Since I started blogging I’ve participated in over a dozen! And I’m in the middle of 2 right now :) Told you I LOVE them.

In fact I love them so much that I am writing a second post for today!

You need to head over to Everyday Is A New Adventure and check out the Christmas in July Swap that Alyx, Cecelia, and Daryl have put together! Signups Start today and are open until June 20th.

So What are you waiting for! Get your Christmas-loving-bottom over there ASAP :)

When Words Fail

 

Sunday morning I woke with an intense migraine, an ache in my soul and a burden in my heart. And of course I was late for church.

With the intense pain in my head there was no way I was going to be able to sit through church, let alone drive there. So I knew that was out. I sat down at my laptop and switched on some worship music. I’m a big fan of Pandora because I can tailor the music to suit my mood. But on this occasion the Holy Spirit decided to use it to minister to the ache in me.

This was the first song that played.

By the end of the first verse tears were streaming down my face. By the end of the second verse I was sobbing.

In that moment I ran into the arms of my savior and laid my burdens at his feet. I was stressing about my husbands job, a friend’s disappointment and hurt, and a few family issues. I could literally feel the tension building in my body, but in that moment it drained away and I was filled with an incredible peace.

Over the course of the next 2 hours I sang, prayed, and poured out my heart to God. When my words failed me, I just basked in the love of my Lord. What a feeling :)

After Mule left for work, I headed outside for a couple hours to enjoy the fresh air and cooler temperatures. I took a moment to just breathe. And once again, I was filled with peace.

Psalm 36:5: "Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies."

Memories on Memorial Day

 

I was born and raised in Canada. For Canadians the “official day” to remember is November 11th. So this is a little different than I am used too. And of course my hubby has to work, so this Monday seems like every other.

But.. its not. It’s a chance to honor those who lay down their lives in defense of our freedoms.

My Grandfather was one of those that sacrificed so that we can enjoy the comforts and freedom that we have today.

My Grandpa George drove a tank for the Canadian Military during WWII. I can honestly say that he is one of the most incredible, honorable men I’ve known in my life. He passed away a few years ago, and I still miss him deeply.

I will never forget the lessons he taught me, the stories he told, or the sacrifice he made.

To all those who serve to protect my rights and freedoms, here and in Canada, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I will remember.

KISS–Megan of Absolute Mommy

I love Megan! She is such a sweetheart :) So happy to have her sharing this week!

……………………………………………………………………………………….

Hello friends of Jennifer and readers of Finding My Way in Texas!! 

 I'm Megan, of AbsoluteMommy.  I jumped at the chance to be a guest for Keep it Simple Sunday, since my life is all about keeping it simple!  Like we use paper plates.  I know I'm the worst environmentalist, but dishes keep me from blogging.  So does cooking, so I'm always looking for ways to make my life easier in the kitchen.

 Let me say that I'm not the best cook.  I don't roast chickens or make pot roast.  I made pork chops when I was a newly wed, like twice.  Now that I have kiddos, I've turned into a short order cook.  I hate that I have, but let's be honest, we have to feed our kids something other than goldfish crackers and Oreos.  Yes, even I draw the line at Oreos for dinner, when we already had them at breakfast!  Plus it feels good to use the oven or stove top.  Doesn't it make you feel like a Gold Medal Mom?  I mean if you had to use your oven, or your stovetop and a pan, who cares if it was frozen or from a can.  Girlfriend, you just cooked!

 In my quest to become a fully functioning SAHM, I've created a few recipes out of convience foods.  For example canned biscuits are every mothers dream.  Seriously!  Canned biscuits can make a can of soup a meal!  They also make awesome biscuit pizzas!  That's right individual pizzas, catered to everyones taste, that litterally take less than a half hour! 

 Amazing, I know, hold your applause.  For more info on biscuit pizzas, click here. Today I'm sharing my new masterpiece.  And my rickety, old, muffin tins!  I swear ladies, if I knew how awful they were going to look photographed I would have skipped the photo all together.  But we are all friends here and you should know that nothing in my house is Pinterest approved.  Just sayin! My new masterpiece, isn't really mine.  Millions of you are making them, and I found the recipe via Google, but, my girls think mommy is totally fancy because she made cinnamon rolls for breakfast on a Monday in May.  Isn't that all that matters?

KISS: Cinnamon Rolls (original source) 1 can crescent rolls spreadable butter or margarine 2 TBLs brown sugar, or if you are out like I was, regular sugar works fine 1/2 tsp cinnamon cooking spray muffin tin (perferably in better shape than mine) Frosting or glaze - optional and found via the original source

1- Open your crescent rolls and lay them out in rectangles.  Pinch the seams just to be sure they don't separate.  Then spread butter or margarine on the dough.  As much or as little as you want, or Paula Deen them to death, whatever floats your cinnamon roll.  Then combine sugar and cinnamon together.  I did this in a plastic baggie, and shook it up real good.  Don't forget to seal it, by the way.  Then I clipped the end like I was frosting something, and shook out all the cinnamony goodness onto the reactangles.
 
 2 - After your rectangles look like #1, roll them up.  After rolling, cut them into slices, I cut 3 from each roll.  Once cut, place them in a muffin tin.  The original recipe says to use a mini muffin tin, I didn't have one, so I put them in liners in a regular sized tin.  And just to be sure they wouldn't stick, I sprayed some cooking spray into the liners.
 
 3- Bake at 350 for 15-17 minutes.  Mine took 15.  Then ice them, or leave them to cool.  Since my girls were already hopped up on Fruit Loops the morning I made these, I left the glaze off.
 
4- This little one was so cute, I had to snap a pic.  Then I decided to share it after Mac called it a "snuk", as in snail.  She leared about snails recently after stepping on them in my grandma's backyard.  She kept saying "Ewww. Snuk", and Caitlin and I kept telling her this was a good and yummy "snuk".
 
That's it gals!
 
Go forward and get your domestic diva on!  I'm so glad Jennifer had me over today, and I hope you liked what you saw!  If you'd like to see me in my bloggy life, visit me here.  How are you spending your Sunday?  Simply, I hope!
 

…………………………………………………………………………………….…



Weigh in Vol. 4

 

I wasn’t exactly on the ball this week. It started out great! I had a loss last Saturday, biked to the meeting and back. I even cut the grass… it took an hour! Sunday I behaved too!

Then it was Monday… there was a ladies meeting that night and my darling friend Denise (the Pastor’s wife) made this incredibly delicious Pink Lemonade cake.

She also made little fruit “pizzas”, but the “crust” was a sugar cookie! OMG so good!

I mostly behaved, only had one large-ish piece of cake and only one pizza/cookie. Not too bad… I definitely could have/wanted to eat more. But I didn’t.

But I think all that sugar kick started some sort of crazy-sugar-deprived monster! All I wanted for the rest of the week was chocolate and cake and cookies and candy and Dr. Pepper and more cake! I gave into a few cravings. I got some cans of Dr.Pepper (kept it to only one a night though). I quit counting points for a couple hours Friday night :( and gave in to temptation :( :( Night time is the hardest for me. I like to snack and Mule isn’t around to help with my self control.

Source: onlinefitnesstrainingprogram.com

 

 

But I still somehow managed to pull a 0.2 pound loss! Don’t ask me how! I was convinced I had gained 5 pounds back. I guess the point system really does work!

I’m back to basics this week. Drinking only water/coffee and exercising 2-4 times. I’m gonna try and get the sugar monster back in its cage. lol. and instead of snacking at night I am going to try having a protein shake.

I hope you’re all have a wonderful weekend! Play safe :)

Pin-ed It, Made it #19!!

Not every Pinspired project works out as planned…

Nichelle Allen via Kiel Reid onto Random Awesomeness on Pinterest

…But we hope that you’ll link it up anyways!

Your hosts are Brandi & Meig from Crafty Girl Squared, Melanna from Rhapsody of Cacophony& Me, Jennifer from Finding My Way in Texas

Now on to the Features!

Top Viewed This Week:

Mirror Turned Chalk Board from I Should Be Mopping the Floor!

Meig & Brandi’s Top Pick:

Our favorite link up is the Nutella Fudge Pops from Heather's French Press! We LOVE fudgecicles AND Nutella. Putting them together is a great idea!!

Melanna’s Top Pick:

Maybe it's because I've have 2 girls, but I LOVE me some hair bows. I'm totally in the mood to make some of these super cute felt ones. And lucky for me (and you!) Sarah at Crafting and Creativity just posted the tutorial!


Jennifer’s Top Pick:


I love my crock pot! And so does Cynthia from Eating in Neverland :) I think this is a receipe that even my picky eater of a husband would like!
Please Remember to...

Follow ALL 3 hosts.

Post our new and fabulous button on you blog so others can join the fun. (its on my sidebar)

Visit a couple of the other links and spread some love. We all love comments :)

For all projects linked to the “Pined it, Made it” category, please ensure you link ONLY projects you were Pinspired to create and that the original post that inspired your project is properly sourced. We want to play nice :)

For the “Everything Else” category, please do not post giveaways, items you’re selling or other link parties.

Pin-ed It, Made it!:

Everything Else!:

If I were a song…

 

If I were a song I would be…

If my marriage were a song, it would be…

If I could sing any song, it would be…

 

If my life story were a song, it would be…

 

The song that got me through the toughest, darkest moments of my life…

 

Just a glimpse of me via music I love ;)

Wordless Wednesday

I Love Free Stuff :)

 

So a couple months ago I heard about this cool website called Influenster.

What is an Influenster?

Community of trendsetters invited to share their lifestyles and show off their influence to qualify for personalized product shipments, special rewards and exclusive deals from the brands they love. Members love testing the latest products, giving insightful feedback, and spreading the word on their favorite finds!

There are lots of perks! Scoops on deals and new products, and even the opportunity to try out new products!

I got my first Vox Box recently and I was sooooo happy with the awesome, free products that I got to try out :)

As you can see… I scored!! There was more awesomeness than I expected :) Let me run it down for you…

Sheer Cover Duo Concealer. Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Body Wash. ChapStick Lip Shield 365. Sally Hansen Salon Effects. Bath & Body Works Fine Fragrance Mist. SoyJoy Bar. Dr. Scholls for Her Ball of Foot Insoles.

I LOVE the ChapStick Lip Shield 365! It smells heavenly and tastes even better! This might even be the only ChapStick I haven’t lost with in the first 36 hours of opening it! I swear!!! They need to come up with some sort of GPS tacking system for those things!!

The SoyJoy bar was YUMMY! Tasted like a strawberry fig newton. I’m definitely going to be getting this again in the future. Especially since it was a perfect afternoon snack at only 3 Weight Watchers points :)

I tried out the Aveeno Body Wash after spending an hour cutting the grass in the Hot, Hot sun! I was sticky and dirty! The body wash was refreshing and smelled so good!. I’ve got nice soft skin now too!

I love the way the Bath & Body Works Fine Fragrance Mist in “Twilight Woods” smells :) And so does my husband. Enough said ;)

 

Next I played with the Sally Hansen Salon Effects :) Took a couple tries to get the first nail looking good, but after I got the hang of it, it was super easy! I was impressed by the fact that they last almost a week! I’m hard on nail polish with all my crafting, dish washing, cleaning and a million other things that I do in a day. I have to be honest and say that I probably wouldn’t have tried this product if I’d had to purchase it on my own. But now that I have tried it, loved it, and gotten a ton of compliments about it, I have no problem spending a little more!

I think that my favorite product so far is the Sheer Cover Duo Concealer!! There are 2 shades of concealer and I find that id I mix them just a little, they match my skin tone perfectly!!! Depending on where I am going/what I am doing I switch between powder and liquid foundation. Sheer Cover Duo Concealer works very, very well with either! With the liquid foundation, I put the concealer on first. If I am using powder, than I dab a little on after I “powder my nose” :) I tried to get a decent before and after pic… but I just couldn’t do it! Ugh! Silly iPhone camera!

I really hope you’ll check out Influenster! Its worth the time investment to check out some and receive some fabulous products!

 

Please note: I did not receive any monetary compensation for this post. I did receive free products to try out and review. All opinions are 100% mine.

Easy Peasy Magnets

 

I don’t know about you, but in my house it seems like I can never find a magnet when I need one! And I like keeping pictures, notes and reminders on my fridge! I mean it’s the biggest thing in the room I spend half my life in!

OK, Maybe not half my life, but it sure seems that way at times.

If you follow me in Instagram (and you really should follow me on instagram cause I LOVES it ;)  @jenniferintexas) then you would have seen this little sneak peak :)

All you need is some printable magnet sheets ( I used the Avery brand because it was on sale at Wal-Mart! ), a computer and a printer!

I LOVE free printables** and I keep some of my favorites on Pinterest :) So I simply went to pinterest, found my favorite FREE printable**, downloaded or followed the owner/copyright instructions, added/copied them into a word document, and printed onto the Magnet sheets!

Told you it was Easy Peasy :)

Once they’re printed off simply cut them out (good luck cutting a straight line, cause I suck at it!) and stick them on your fridge!

Grab your favorite pictures, reminders or lists and stick’em to the fridge in style!

See? I’m Stylin’! Not to mention that since I used some of my favorite quotes, I get inspired every time I go near the hulking beast we call a fridge! Seriously that thing is probably as old as my husband!

Told you it was Easy Peasy :)

** please respect the rights of the owner of the printable/design! Don’t just copy and paste anything you like directly from pinterest! Play nicely and only use the free, downloadable prints or purchase the ones you like :) No Theifing!! :) **

Happy Monday!

KISS–Renee from Cover to Cover

I’ve got some FABULOUS things going on today! I’m Kicking off Clutch week at Bear Rabbit Bear AND giving away a super cute Lace Clutch. I am also part of the Foley Fam’s Blogiversary Group Giveaway with a $15 shop credit and an XL Ad Space :)

……………………………………………………………..

I am so very happy to have Nay here today! We met a couple of months ago when I did a guest post over on her blog and we kinda hit it off :) I LOVE my bloggy friends! If I ever win the lottery I’m gonna fly all of them to a private Island for some fun and face to face time! Hehehe

Take it away Nay!

……………………………………………………………

Hello Simply Wonderful Readers of

"Finding My Way in Texas"!

I am so very happy that Jennifer asked me to be a part of her "Keep It Simple Sunday" series.

This is so up my alley and I hope you enjoy my take on it.

I'm "Nay"

from

and here's what I think of

keeping what's important just plain simple:

 

Source: detectivevaudeville.tumblr.com via Renee on Pinterest

Yes, it's that simple.

I was thinking about how to teach my daughter the real and important lessons in life.

As a mother, this is my most important thing to do. 

I have to

simply teach

my daughter how to grow into woman.

I need to show her with

my actions,

with my words,

my love for myself...

This way she will know what a woman is supposed to be like.

I aim to teach her that, most importantly,

she must love herself so that she may be loved.

And I won't stop with my daughter.

In the simple act of loving myself, I am showing my son how to treat a woman.

How to treat a woman with dignity and integrity...that she is his equal.

That a woman with good self-esteem who loves herself in every way is the kind of woman he will want.

My children will be better than my husband and I ever could be.

That's how I'm going to do it.

By example.

Simply.

ps:
Thank you for having me over today, Jennifer.
YOU
ARE
WONDERFUL & AWESOME!

…………………………………………………………..

That is such a great tip Nay! I think sometimes we forget to love ourselves! I know that when I am happy and loving who I am it is much easier to love on, have compassion for, and minister to those in my life! May we never forget!!

Happy Sunday!

Weigh In Vol. #3

I’m happy to announce that I had a 1.8 pound loss this week :) That makes a total of 7 pounds so far!! Yay me!

You know what “they” say… Slow and steady wins the race! At the rate I’m going it’ll take a while to get to my goal weight, but I am already feeling healthier. And with feeling healthier I find that I am also happier! Its hard to beat that :)

I did better with my personal goals this week :) I managed to cut out some sugar and I exercised 4 times this week. Now the exercise I did wasn’t a full work out. But pretty much any exercise is a huge improvement from my former life. On wednesday I got a bicycle and I’ve ridden a couple times since then. My Mother In Law decided that she wanted a bike too, so we’ve been riding together. Its nice to have someone to go with, and to “force” me to actually go :)

This weeks goal:
Do a Jillian Micheals work out dvd at least 2 times!
Cut out more Sugar :)









Today is the Last Day to Enter my Giveaway over at Royal Daughter Designs! Head on over for your chance to win an XL Sponsor space, a $20 credit to LoneStar Lovlies and a surpise bag fo carfting goodies!

Final Day of Blog-A-Pal-Loosa!!!

There are some awesome goodies up for grabs!  Head over for your chance to win!

...................................................................................

This was my thrift store find, a new wallet~

Add some bling with these~

Ball of Lip Gloss~

I believe in the written word, Note Cards~

Craft Paint & Decorative Ribbon to get your creative grove on~

Decorative Serving Dish~

So come on over to 

Atir Inspired Decor

Thank You & Many Blessings

Nina


..............................
I just wanted to say a big thank you to Randee for putting this together! And to all my followers that went and entered other giveaways! You helped make Blog-A-Pal-Loosa a success!