Fab Friday Faves 11.9.18

Hello everyone, and yes, it's another late Friday.  This week I got my house back to normal and watched some TV and actually had a hard time adapting to my empty house and I really miss my mommy! Josh and I will have our first weekend alone together in like, 7 weeks though.  I ended up at the emergency vet last weekend with Miss Smudge.  I was concerned because she had been throwing up and having some other tummy issues on Saturday morning and I did not want to end up having to take her in, in the middle of the night or something.  I was worried it was a blockage but turns out it was some sort of gastrointestinal infection.  She got a anti-nauseant shot and an antibiotic shot and she seems to be doing quite well now.  This coming week I am getting started on my second round of IVF, so that is exciting, and scary!

Alright, everyone enjoy your weekend, and please don't forget to that Sunday is a very important day.  Our veterans deserve so much admiration and respect, and if you can take a couple hours out of one day a year, please do.

When mom and I went to the Tampa Vintage Market, I bought some Chalk Couture, chalk paint and silk screen stencils.  I finally got around to trying them out on the front door and I love them!  They can be used on almost any surface and are easily wiped off when you are sick of them.   I think I'm hooked!

On Sunday, Josh, Stephanie, Steve and I went on a half day deep sea fishing charter.  I was hesitant, because I am the most seasick person ever, but I loaded up on the Bonine and I actually did great, besides from being the most tired I have ever been! I actually was the only person in our group that caught anything big enough to keep, a Grey Snapper.  I actually took him to a restaurant on the docks when we got back and had him cooked up.  Now I have the fishing bug and can't wait to go again! 

I went down to the Dunedin Farmer's Market this morning, and on my way home I stopped at Flying Cloud Tea on Main Street.  What a cute place and the owner was so sweet.  they have an insane amount of tea, as well as the cutest mugs and teapots and other tea related items.  I got an iced key lime tea and brought home a few sample packs of other tea.  I think I might have a new favorite hangout! 

I decided to try a new nail place this week (the one that I went to in Clearwater last time, closed two weeks ago), Happy Nail, which is actually where I get my pedicures.  Kimberly there did such a fantastic job and was a doll.  

While mom was here, we did three pretty difficult puzzles.  This was the hardest one and took a lot of work, but it was so much fun and I am apparently now also hooked on puzzles.


Today I'm linking up with:

/ Simply Sweet Home / Style Elixir / Bright On A Budget / 

A Little Bit of Everything /

*Recipe* InstaPot Deconstructed Eggrolls + Wonton Chips

I know I said that I would be back this week with some Fall recipes, but honestly I have only had 3 days to get my house and life back to normal after over a month of company, soooo that hasn't happened yet.  Maybe before the weekend?  This recipe though, is one that is deserving of a blog, no matter what time of year it is.  I made it just after Mom and I got back to Florida as a quick meal, and I paired it with some Trader Joe's Orange Chicken and homemade fried rice.  It was seriously the easiest recipe ever, and would be great at a Potluck or holiday party. I made mine in my InstaPot, but it could easily be made in a pot on the stove.  The crispy, light Wonton chips give the dish just the right amount of crunch and just take a couple minutes to whip up too.

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground pork or any other ground meat
•  bag coleslaw mix
• 1/2 cup bone broth (I used chicken)
• 1 tbsp soy sauce or to taste
• 1 tbsp garlic powder  or to taste
• 1 tbsp ground ginger or to taste
• 1/2 tsp pepper or to taste

Wonton Chips

• 1 pkg egg roll wrappers cut into strips
• olive oil

Directions

• Place InstaPot on saute.
• Wait until it's hot and then add pork, seasonings and soy sauce and brown meat.  it you are using a meat that in't lean, drain out the fat.  
• When meat is browned, turn InstaPot off and add broth and Coleslaw and DO NOT stir. 
• Put the lid on and turn the knob to sealing position. 
• Set InstaPot on manual high pressure for 0 minutes.  (Just keep hitting the - button until the timer reaches 0)
• When timer is up, do a quick release.  After pressure is released, open the lid and stir.

Wonton Chips

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees while InstaPot is preheating on sauté. 
• Cut egg roll wrappers into strips and brush with olive oil. I used Eggroll wrappers instead of wontons because they are a bit sturdier, but you can use whatever. 

• Bake for 4-5 minutes until bubbly and brown.  Watch carefully because they go from brown to burned in a split second. 

• Let chips cool and enjoy with the deconstructed egg roll. 

Thank you to "I don't Have Time For That" for the recipe.

Fab Friday Faves 11.2.18

Happy Friday everyone!  Seeing as it is currently 9PM, this is going to be a short Friday Faves, I just really felt that I needed to do one blog at least!  As some of you know I spent two weeks in Saskatchewan, and then brought my mom back here with me for a month.  During that time I also had Josh's dad and stepmom and his Mom and stepdad each for 10 days separately.  Jim also came down for about 10 days and he and mom left today.  Its been a very busy couple months and I'm not sure what I will do with an empty house come Monday!  We had quite a storm today just as I got home from taking my parents to the airport.  It was crazy windy and rainy and there were a couple tornadoes just a few miles away.  No damage here thank goodness.

Everyone enjoy your weekend, and I'll be back soon with some fun fall recipes!

The other day, us girls went to a lovely DIY studio in Safety Harbor, called Aerie Lane.  We made some beautiful signs (I think we were all surprised how amazing they all turned out).  We had such a great afternoon, I highly recommend this place and there are a few locations throughout Florida and a few other states. 

Last Saturday was Jimmy's birthday.  Friday night we went down to the Fenway Hotel, for their soft opening and had some drinks on the rooftop bar and a delicious steak dinner in HEW, their chophouse.  The hotel is redone to look how it did in the 40s during the jazz era and is so beautiful! On Saturday we had cake (s) and had a nice relaxing day.  

I have to show off Smudge's adorable Mickey Mouse Halloween costume.  How cute was she?  Also we had 75 kids this year for Halloween,  so much fun!

The las couple weeks have been negative tide here where we are, and the shelling has been phenomenal.  We all have found so many cool shells and creatures that we have never seen before.  I also found my biggest shell ever, the Lightning Whelk pictured.

Last Friday, Josh went to a charity Skeet shoot with his work and came home with this Kayak.  We have been talking about getting kayaks for ages so this was a great start!  He also won a couple Yeti cups and a football Sunday party kit.

Today I'm only linking up with a couple people since I want to go to bed:

/ Bright On A Budget / Simply Sweet Home / Style Elixir /

*Recipe* Dilly Beans

I started getting the Martha and Marley Spoon dinner delivery box a couple months ago, and one of the first recipes that came in the box was a delicious Dilly Bean salad with fresh dill and green beans. Everyone knows that I love pickles and this dish is so light and simple that I just had to try to make it on my own.  I think I have it mastered and wanted to share it with all you pickled bean lovers out there!

Ingredients

-1/2 lb green beans

-2 shallots trimmed and thinly sliced

-1/4 cup red wine vinegar

-1/2 bunch fresh dill (about 1 cup)

-1 clove garlic finely chopped

-2 tsp salt

-2 tsp sugar

Directions

-Bring a large sauce pan of salted water to a boil.

-trim stem ends from beans and cut in half.

-trim ends from shallots then halve, peel and thinly slice.

-In a medium bowl, combine vinegar, whole dill, sliced shallot, garlic, sugar and salt.

-Add beans to saucepan and cook until tender crisp, about 3 minutes.

-Use slotted spoon to transfer beans to vinegar mixture and stir in 3/4 cup of cooking water and let cool.

-Use slotted spoon to transfer beans, shallots and dill to plate.

Enjoy!

Thank you to Marley and Martha Spoon for the recipe!

Fab Friday Faves 9.14.18

Happy Friday all! I hope you all had a fantastic week.  I don't know why but this week seemed like it was over in a blink.  The main news at the moment is of course Hurricane Florence.  She is ravaging the the east coast right now and has barely even hit the shore.  My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone in her path.  I know how scary it is waiting  to see where the destruction is going to go and how bad it will be, after our home being in Irma's direct path last year.  We lucked out but I know Florence hasn't been so merciful.

On a brighter note, tomorrow is Josh's birthday!  We don't really know what we are doing yet but it's just nice to actually know that he will have the weekend off and not have to work on his birthday.  Probably for the first time ever.

Another interesting fact... I'm headed to Saskatchewan next week for a few days.  Since it is a short trip, I am going to be really busy, but I'm excited to see whoever I can!

Happy 12th birthday to Smudge!  we had a little party for her on Sunday.  She is such an amazing cat that puts up with my BS on a daily basis.  Sometime she even humors me by wearing things like party hats.  Thanks to Pugs2Persians for the adorable birthday girl collar.

Also, thanks to Whiskers Crafts for the new bow tie collar and bandana that Smudge won on an Instagram contest a couple weeks ago!

My first nail day back in Florida was this week and I got some cute Fall ones, done by my girl Tee @teerific nails in Palm Harbor.

Josh came home with some beautiful flowers for me this week.  The Peruvian lilies are just like my tattoo. They are just the right amount of Autumn colours for the still very hot weather in Florida.

We went to the USF vs. Georgia Tech game here in Tampa on Saturday.  It was hot but cloudy at least, and we had club seats so we got to enjoy some lovely Air conditioning at halftime.  USF ended up winning and the game was super exciting and fast paced. 

When I was in St. Pete today I found this gorgeous mural in downtown.   Seriously, how talented is the artist that painted this?

 Also in St. Pete today I stopped in at Trader Joes to get some of their new Fall and Halloween items. The only one I have tried so far is the Candy Corn Popcorn, and even coming from non Candy Corn lover, this stuff is delicious!  The Popcorn really balances out the sweetness.  Highly recommend.

Today I'm linking up with:

/ Style Elixir / A Little Bit of Everything / Bright On A Budget / Simply Sweet Home / 

Fab Friday Faves 9.7.18

Happy Friday All!  I'm a little late today, its been a busy day, as most of them have been since we got back here.  Between unpacking, organizing, doing normal cleaning and cooking and doing errands, it pretty much takes up every day.  We are still getting thunderstorms every single afternoon, which I love because I love storms, but it also pretty much makes it impossible to do anything in the afternoon.
Tomorrow we are going to the USF vs. Georgia Tech football game here in Tampa.  Josh got tickets at work so everybody pray for me that its not as insanely hot and miserable as the Bucks vs Bears game we went to around this time last year!
Happy birthday to my Dad today,  he would have turned 63.  <3
Lastly, today is "Wear Teal For Ovarian Cancer Awareness" Day and September is Ovarian Cancer month.  For anyone who doesn't know, I am an Ovarian Cancer survivor.  When I was 22, I was not feeling well and took some search engine (I don't even know if Google was a thing back then?) to see if I could figure out what was wrong.  I discovered I had the symptoms of Ovarian Cancer.  I knew that the chance of me having it were almost zero, but I also knew I was very ill.  I went to several doctors, who gave me pills for gas because I was very bloated.  I actually so bloated from the fluid that was building up inside of me from the tumors, that I couldn't even brush my teeth without throwing up.  Finally, I managed to get a referral to a gynecologist, who also really didn't think that anything was seriously wrong.  At this point I was so frustrated, that I demanded they do SOMETHING because I was convinced I was going to die.  They sent me for an ultrasound and within seconds, the ultrasound tech looked at me and looked like he was going to fall over and said "we need to get your doctor." Turns out that my ovaries were the size of tennis balls.  From there it is all a blur.  Within a few weeks I was booked for a surgery in Edmonton.  They ended up removing my ovaries, my omentum, a chunk of my liver and many "cauliflower like growths" from all over my organs.  I was very lucky in the fact that they were able to remove everything that they needed and I didn't have to have any chemo.  It was obviously a life changing ordeal, but I listened to my body and kept pushing for someone to help me, and I am convinced that is why I am still here today.  Here is me in my teal today (btw, this is a Liberty Humane Society shirt, an amazing rescue in Jersey City, NJ) and a little infographic with the main Ovarian Cancer symptoms.  I had all of these quite severely, but most women's are subtle until it is too late.  Pay attention to your body!  It is always telling you something!

Now on to my Favorites of the week!  everyone have a fantastic weekend!

We got a new car this week!  Well, its not new but new to us.  A 2014 Jetta TDI.  Its pretty and I love my TDI in Saskatchewan so much that I suggested we should try to find one here.  It will be Josh's commuter but I still zoom around when I get a chance.  

I got this necklace a few months ago, and I finally remembered to get a cool picture of it at the beach.  It's made by Nine Styles, a great little designer out of Saskatchewan.  For anyone that doesn't know, this is the shape of my home province and the heart is approximately where my hometown of Kyle is located. 

I won this cool "Friends" style America sign from Word Sky Designs in an Instagram contest a couple weeks ago.  How awesome is it? Now I just need a matching Canada one!  Anyone?  Hint Hint!

Josh and I went out to our Local Brewing Company for a beer on the weekend and they had jut gotten in their Punkacino beer.  A pumpkin coffee porter with a caramel cinnamon sugar rim.  This is the perfect Fall beer, even in Florida!  

 I have been eying this Pineapple lamp at Target for a few months and last week it finally went on clearance for 50% off!  I was so excited!

Today I'm linking up with:

/ Simply Sweet Home / A Little Bit of Everything / Style Elixir / Bright On A Budget /

Fab Friday Faves 8.31.18

Happy Friday everyone!  I'm coming live to you today from sunny Florida, AND not only am I in Florida, Josh, Smudge I are now full time residents of the Sunshine State!  We packed up and arrived here from Maryland about 10 days ago and we are so excited.  Josh got a job here in Tampa and started on Monday and so far he is loving it.  It has been hot and very stormy and rainy, but that is normal for the coast. No hurricanes yet thank goodness but some of the loudest thunder I have ever heard! We are looking forward to exploring the area, making friends and settling in some where for the first time as a couple. I know I haven't blogged for a while, obviously I have been quite busy, but I am hoping that now that things are less crazy I'll be able to get back in to it a bit.  These are some of my favorite things since we have been back in Florida.  Everyone have a great Labor Day Weekend!

Honestly one of the things that makes me happiest about being back here is how happy Smudge is.  She has always loved it here, the space, all the critters, the sunshine coming in the window... she is usually laying in her bed on the window seat watching geckos and birds or laying in a sunbeam having a nap.  She loves it outside too, but this time of year I don't really trust her or the Florida wildlife enough to just let her roam the backyard! 

Also we are pretty happy too :)

As a housewarming gift for myself, Josh and I went out and bough a Avocado tree and a Key Lime tree.  It will be a while before either produce but I'm excited to watch them grow! 

We got this lovely Dish Garden from my parents and brother as a "Welcome Home" gift.  So pretty.  Another plant to nurture and watch grow.  

On Saturday, Josh and I braved the heat and went to the New Port Richey Caribbean Festival.  We got some delicious food (I got some of the Paella pictured) and listened to some great music.  We ask wandered the streets of NPR and looked at all the old buildings and beautiful murals.  

We went to one of my favorite food trucks, Reel Bar-B-Que near our house.  He had posted that he had some Wagyu brisket left over from a catering event he was doing later in the day and we had to try it.  Not even kidding, this was one of the most amazing foods I have ever tasted. The brisket was fall apart, melt in your mouth and seasoned perfectly.  Seriously, I can't even describe it.  I gave Smudge a tiny little taste when we got home, and she ran around like a crazy cat for about 20 minutes after.  

I got these compostable phone cases from Pela Case, a Canadian company, and I am so excited about them.  They are apparently super protective and shock resistant (which I need), they are cute, a portion of the sales goes to environmental initiatives and when I am sick of them I will just go bury them in my yard. Such a great idea!

Today I'm linking up with:

/ Bright On A Budget / Simply Sweet Home / The Slaughters / Style Elixir /