Sweet Summer Sampling: Guest Post Jesseca from One Sweet Appetite

Today I'm running 9 miles-if you don't hear from me next week, you'll know I didn't make it...


Wow guys, we have had SUCH an amazing week of guests! We started the week off with a Sweet Giveaway and we were blown away by Marissa, Gin, Aimee, and Cassey. And we've got another great gust to wrap up such a fun week! Everyone say hello to Jesseca! We got to hang out at Breathing Space and she is so adorable and such a great cook! And she's got a fun-super easy summer recipe for you today-

Hey guys! I’m Jesseca, and you can find me over at One Sweet Appetite! It’s great to be a part of Sweet Summer Samplings! I love Kari & Vanessa, and am glad they are letting me take over their sites for the day!! Today I want to share a fun and easy summer treat. I know that everyone is outdoors grilling, or playing in the pool, so I have just the thing to cool you down!

The best part about this recipe is….

1. You DON’T need an ice cream machine 2. It only has three ingredients 3. You can change the flavor easily

Vanilla Ice Cream {recipe adapted from Kevin & Amanda}

2 cups heavy cream 1 can of sweetened condensed milk 1T. Pure Vanilla Extract

START MIXING: Whip the heavy cream until you get stiff peeks. In a separate bowl, combine the condensed milk with the vanilla. Fold into your heavy cream.

FREEZE: Transfer to a 2 quart container, and freeze overnight. (or at least six hours)

Isn’t this the easiest recipe you’ve ever seen? And perfect for summer!

You don’t have to stick with plain ol’ vanilla either. You can add strawberries, caramel, nuts, chocolate chips… Or you can get creative and come up with an entirely NEW flavor for you and your family to enjoy!

Keep in mind that July is national ice cream month. So you should probably make this recipe at least a dozen times!

Thanks ladies for letting me be a part of this super fun event! I hope to see some of you soon over at One Sweet Appetite!

Thanks so much Jesseca! And thanks to all of our guests-I am so thankful to all these wonderful ladies for helping us all get ready for a week full of BBQ's. I hope everyone has a fabulous 4th of July! I've got some really amazing posts set up for next week and I can't share them with you!

Sweet Summer Sampling: Guest Post Cassey from Natural Nesters

Good Morning! Are you guys ready for another fabulous guest poster? Before we get to today's fun guest be sure to enter to win some yummy cake pops from The Sweet Tooth Fairy. And don't forget to check out the other fantastic guest's we've had-Marissa and Gin!

Cassey is one part of the DIY blogging/sister team behind Natural Nesters. They have a great mix of yummy recipes, DIY projects, weight loss stories, and more! Cassey's got a really fun recipe for us today-

Happy 4th of July! 

We are so excited to be part of the Sweet Summer Sampling with Newlyweds on a Budget and Our Thrifty Ideas

Sweet Summer Sampling Guest Post Aimee from Like Mother, Like Daughter

Good morning friends! Haven't we had such amazing guest bloggers thus far? I mean seriously-everyone is making me SOOO hungry! Just a reminder that after you read all about this delicious recipe to go check out Our Thrifty Ideas to see what Vanessa's guest poster is whipping up.






I've been a fan of today's guest for a while now. Aimee and her mom blog at Like Mother, Like Daughter and they have the MOST delicious recipes! Once again, Aimee doesn't fail to disappoint today either-she's got a great recipe perfect for any BBQ or any holiday! Take it away Aimee-

Sweet Summer Sampling: Guest Post Gin from Life as Topher's Mama

Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope you've had a chance to enter the awesome Sweet Tooth Fairy giveaway and be sure to check out yesterday's guest Marissa from Rae Gun Ramblings! 

Today I've got another fabulous guest to introduce you to-

Gin and I go way back-in the blogging world at least. She was one of my first followers and her blog was one of the first I started reading. We hit it off right away and I loved her from the first moment I "met" her. So once you read all about this BBQ worthy recipe be sure to check out her awesome site Life as Topher's Mama.

Sweet Summer Sampling: Guest Post from Marissa at Rae Gun Ramblings

Good morning! Has everyone entered the Sweet Tooth Fairy giveaway yet?! Those cake bites are SO yummy! You won't want to miss out on winning some. 


Today I've got one of my favorite bloggers sharing a yummy BBQ worthy recipe with us today. Marissa from Rae Gun Wear have been blogging  friends for a few months now and we got to meet IRL at SNAP! She's absolutely adorable, and the best part is she understands my obsession with reading! She's got a fantastic site chuck full of awesome tutorials, recipes, and fashion! Take it away Marissa-

 Hi, I'm Marissa from Rae Gun Ramblings.

Sweet Summer Sampling: Sweet Tooth Fairy Giveaway

It's Monday which means it's time to kick off our week of fabulous BBQ worthy recipes!

Just a quick reminder on how this whole week is going to work-today Vanessa and I are both hosting the giveaway. Then be sure to come back each day this week and check out the wonderful guest posters Vanessa and I will be having. There will be a different guest for each day, and on each blog which means you are going to get LOTS of fabulous new recipes to try out at your fourth of July BBQ!

Feature You Friday #19

TGIF! This week has been stressful and I am so excited for it to be over-and to start the weekend off I've got an awesome new blog to introduce you to today!

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Running Questions Answered....

So I had a LOT of questions come in after I wrote my latest update on my half marathon training. I feel like I should preface this post with a disclaimer. I am NOT a fitness extraordinaire, I am NOT a health professional, and I am NOT a personal trainer. I'm just an average 23 year old girl trying to finish her first half marathon. So keep in mind as you read this post that these are simply things that work FOR ME. If they work for you great! If they don't, don't worry keep trying and you'll find something that does.

A little back story, back at the end of April I ran the Color Me Rad 5k with my really good friend Ms. Lizzy. The thing with any race, 5k to Triathlon, is that at the beginning of the race there is a HUGE amount of energy moving through you and the crowd. It's exciting, your adrenaline is going, and your pumped up and ready to go. It's what helps you get through the race. Well when the race was over I still had lots of that awesome energy coursing through me-so when Ms. Lizzy told me all about how she was doing a half-marathon at the end of July I was like, "Oh yaaah, sign me up for that!". Because I thought...I just ran 3 miles...I can TOTALLY run 13.1 miles. So I went home and signed up for the race (which was $60 green ones by the way).

It wasn't until I started training that reality kicked me in the butt, literally. 13.1 miles is a heck of a lot longer than 3 miles...like a lot lot longer. But I had paid $60...and I'm cheap...and Mojo is cheap...and there was no way I could get out of not doing the race (no refund or transfers people). So I had to bite the bullet and get to it.

Now you know the back story let's get onto the questions some of you had-

ForRent.com Hearts Pinteresting Renters

Everyone whose anyone knows and loves Pinterest-if you haven't heard about it yet, stop what your doing, go to Pinterest.com and kiss your social life goodbye. 

It's the ultimate style board, party board, dream home board, pretty much anything you want board. At the moment I have 70 boards....yup 70. And I add more all the time....can you say addicted much?

Are you a lover of all things Pinterest like I am? Are you also a renter? Do you have a unique and fabulous style that you want to shocase? Well today is your lucky day, ForRent.com has decided to reward one lucky Pinner a $500 gift card! That's right...there are two zero's after that five! Think of all the decorating you could do with $500!!

Sweet Summer Sampling Week Long BBQ Ready Recipes

I am so excited to tell you all that I'm teaming up with Vanessa from Our Thrifty Ideas for a fun, week long recipe event celebrating BBQ season and the 4th of July! 

One of my favorite things about summer (besides the weather) is the time spent with family. Mojo's brother's family lives thousands of miles away from us (in France to be exact) and we are so excited that they're coming to visit all summer long! That means we'll be having LOTS of family BBQ's. 

To help get everyone ready for the fourth of July and BBQ season Vanessa came up with the great idea of having a week chuck-full of awesome guest posters showing us some of their favorite BBQ worthy recipes. 

We're kicking off the week next Monday with a SWEET giveaway you won't want to miss! So be sure to grab the button on the right hand side bar and spread the word! 

P.S. I still have an opening for ONE more guest poster next week and I'd love to have it be you! If you've got a great recipe you'd love to share contact me!


 

13 point FREAKING one

I saw the title of this post on this running shirt and thought it was appropriate-

I've been "officially" training for about 7 weeks and "unofficially" training for about 5 and a half. I unexpectedly took a week and a half off during the whole move/painting the house craziness. It was just to much for me to try and get everything done on my to-do list plus go running each week.

Despite taking time off I'm actually doing pretty well. I'm amazed at the change I've seen over the last 6 weeks. I am going to point out that I haven't seen a whole lot of change pound wise. I have dropped a few pounds but nothing drastic-and I wasn't expecting to. I haven't changed my eating habits that much-so I wasn't expecting a huge change in the weight department.

I have however seen a HUGE improvement in my stamina. It's insane-I could barely run a mile while doing the fat man shuffle (i.e. a 14-15 min mile/pretty much walking) when I started 6 weeks ago. It was really hard for me to start out because I used to run 6 miles every Saturday and was in great shape-then I got married and that all went down hill. So, having to start from scratch was difficult but the changes I've seen have been awesome.

Feature You Friday with a Twist

I decided to switch things up for this week's Feature You Friday and hang out with Britt from The Magnolia Pair in her From Blog Life to Real Life link party-



1- Do you have any real life blogger friends? 
Ever since going to Snap and Breathing Space I like to think I have lots of real life blogging friends. Some of the girls I feel closest to are-

Vanessa from Our Thrifty Ideas

Marissa from Rae Gun Ramblings

and Jill from Being Spiffy

I love these girls. I've met and spent time with all of them and their awesome!

Just Keep Swimming..

So, it's been a while y'all. Trust me when I say I did NOT plan on taking almost a month off blogging. I've popped in a few times here and there but overall I've been pathetically inconsistent. And it wasn't part of the plans.

Things have been insane  a little crazy at our house lately. Although I love being able to say "our house"! It's still a little surreal that we own a home. I'm sure reality will kick in when we have to pay our first mortgage payment in July. But until then we have been BUSY! We decided to tackle two fairly large projects right when we moved in and before we got our furniture into the house. We had grand plans of being able to move in and punch these projects out in a crazy four day weekend. Ya, that didn't happen.

For the last week and half it's looked kind of like a bomb had gone off. Or maybe that a tornado has flown through. In other words, it is a giant mess!

Up-cycled Clay Planter

If you're anything like me when it comes time to do the dishes you spend a good 5 minutes hunting for the dish scrubber (for lack of a better word). For some reason it always seems to end up at the bottom of the pile and it takes some serious maneuvering to get it out without breaking anything. After I broke one of my favorite dishes from said maneuvering I decided I'd had enough.

I headed to Walmart to buy something to fix the problem and was inspired when I went into the garden section. I came by a generic clay plant holder and decided it would be a perfect for my dish scrubber. Plaid was generous enough to send me some fun supplies to help "pretty it up". First off-I was like a little kid on Christmas when I received my package in the mail. I mean who wouldn't be? Look at all these fun goodies!

If you've been around here for a while you know I'm all about saving money and still getting the look I want from the projects I've made. Well that just got way easier because Plaid Craft Products have come to Walmart!

Feature You Friday #18

Time for another Feature You Friday and I can't wait to introduce to today's spotlighted blogger!




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