March Recap + April Goals

I'm writing this in the last few hours of March- trying to finish this post before the end of the month. So I'm sure I'll forget some of the things I wanted to add...just a warning. ;)

Another month has whizzed by and I'm not even surprised any more. There's no way we can slow time down so lets just enjoy it, okay? Here we are entering April 2017. I'm actually very excited to do this! Lots of things are happening in April so it'll be a fun and busy month! Also, spring is totally here. Everything is SO green and the temperature is perfect. *can't wait till summer*

March // What Went Down

I LOVE how green everything is here!!

Goals

+ Photography Challenge - This was going great- until the 17th. On that fateful day, I was putting my SD card into the card-reader, when I felt the card break. Apparently I pushed it too hard and it cracked. Thankfully, I was able to press the card into my card-reader at just the right angle and save the pictures to my computer. Phew! I had over a thousand pictures on the card!! I'm crossing this off because I did all I could to complete this goal. And I'm still planning on posting a recap next week.

+ Learn a new hymn on the piano Check! I learned 'Jesus, Lover Of My Soul'. I also started learning the Charlie Brown theme song 'Linus and Lucy'! (Do you watch charlie brown?!)

+ Five Blog Posts This post makes the fifth this month! Yay!

+ Make 20 bracelets Only ten bracelets finished this month... Next month I'm going to try to make fifteen more though. Consistency is key! :)

+ Finish four modules in science Nope. Not even close. I failed to remember spring break when choosing this goal and there was no way I was going to do science during spring break. ;) Even then I should have gotten three modules done. But I only got two, which is what I do every month without doing extra...

Blurry picture because it was taken with a phone. Let's just pretend it's supposed to be that way...

A Few Other Things That Happened

+ Books I Read 

• Flight Path A biography of Frank Barker, a fighter pilot and pastor. 
• Of Moose And Men A HILARIOUS book written by Tory Martin. (If you listen to Adventures In Odyssey- He's the writer that created Wooton!)  
• Flags Of Our Fathers A book about the lives of the six flag-raisers on Iwa Jima, written by one of the flag raisers sons.

It had been so long since I'd read anything besides my Bible and school books, I really enjoyed reading these.

+ Found out I'm gonna have a lil' nephew in August!!
+ Got to wear bunker gear (firefighters gear)- that stuff's heavy! :P
+ Went strawberry picking for the first time.

*Can't think of anything else because my brain doesn't function at 10:20 p.m.* :P

MORE green.

April Goals

 I've got a lot of them this month...

+ 7:00 Rise and shine Lets just say I've gotten a little slack on wake up time... My ultimate goal is around six, but for this month seven will be a good start. ;)

+ Teach Jessica to ride her bike (My little sister) Oh boy- let's see if we can do it!! (I know we can *winks*)

+ Fifteen Bracelets I made nine this month, next month we're shooting for fifteen!

+ Finish learning 'Linus And Lucy' (The Peanuts song) I already have 4 of 8 pages down so I'm half way!

+ Memorize a Psalm I'm not sure which one, yet. But I have a few I'm going to pick from... Ok, maybe a few isn't the write word- 150 is more like it. :D

+ Read Four Books After reading three this month, I realized how much I enjoyed reading and how much I learn by doing it. Hopefully this means a few trips to the library too! ;)

 "When life gets blurry, adjust your focus" 

This was a quote I heard this month and just loved, so I though I'd share it with y'all. :)

Sharing my goals on my blog has really motivated me to work harder on them. Thanks for taking the time to read! :)

So tell me- what are your goals for April? 

Also, April fools day is tomorrow... got any plans? *mischievous grin* I've got a few things planned my brother... *winks*

♥Katie 

Friday Favorites // Your Favorite Recipes // + A New Feature To All Recipes!

Hey there! I hope you're having an awesome week + start to the weekend! You'll notice I didn't post on Wednesday, but that was actually on purpose because I wanted to wait until Friday so I could post a Friday Favorites. Since last time I totally forgot and posted a Friday Favorites on a Wednesday. *face-palm*

For this Friday Favorites I'm doing things a little bit differently. Instead of sharing my favorites- I'm going to share yours! I've taken the five most popular recipes on my blog and created a recipe card for each of them! This recipe card will allow you to print out the recipes so you can save them in your recipe box or binder and make it way easier to find + make my recipes. You can also pin the image to make it easy to find without having to search my blog.

I'm also announcing the addition of this feature to every recipe I post in the future. So every recipe that is published on my blog will also have a recipe card included in the post. How awesome is that?! I'm super excited and I think these turned out absolutely adorable. Also, I'll add the cards I've made (below) to the recipe's existing posts.

So here are the five most popular recipes on my blog. Funny- 80% of them are desserts... ;)

click on the name below the pictures to view the recipe's post

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Download PDF

Funfetti Cake Mix Cookies

Download PDF

Fudge Brownies

Download PDF

Homemade Biscuits

Download PDF

Sugar Cookies

Download PDF

I can't get over how adorable these recipe cards are! I hope they help make it easier for y'all to try the recipes!

Do you have a recipe box/binder? Or is it just a Pinterest board these days? ;)
Which recipe card is your favorite?

I love how the sugar cookie recipe card turned out! It's definitely my favorite!
♥Katie

Parmesan Potato Wedges

A recipe! Yay! Today, I'm sharing one of my favorite recipes ever!! Every time I make these people are telling me how good they are. *blushes* (But it's really the recipe- not me :P)

 ~ Parmesan Potato Wedges ~

Also known as really yummy french fries. ;)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 Tbsp. seasoned salt
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 6 large potatoes, cut into wedges

To a Ziploc bag, add the Parmesan cheese,

flour,

 seasoned salt,

 salt,

and pepper.

 Add the potatoes;

 shake to coat.

 Lay coated potatoes in pan in one layer.

 Melt the butter, then pour melted butter over the potatoes.

 Bake 30 minutes at 400 degrees, then turn over. Continue baking another 20-30 minutes.

Then you're done!!

- - - - -

I definitely like these french fries more than regular ones. And that means these must be good since usually anything fried is better than not fried. (Ok, definitely not always... :P)

 Random fact: I don't like ketchup on fries!! 

Do you like ketchup on fries? Or are they better plain?

♥Katie

Friday Favorites + Free Printable // Favorite Quotes

Hey guys! Did you notice?! I'm posting this one week after my last post- right on schedule!! Yay! My schedules already "recovering"! :P *is done annoying y'all with the whole schedule thing* Seriously- sorry about all that!

*cringes while looking at this edit because it's literally my worst*

Do you like quotes? I hope so! :) Because today I'm sharing four of my favorite quotes! I designed these to put on my wall- and I loved them so much I decided to share them with y'all! I hope you get good use out of them. ;)

Feel free to do whatever you want with these. You can print them out if you'd like (though I'd recommend you print them out at a store- or it'll use a ton of ink from your printer *has learned from experience*), save them to your computer/phone just to look at every now and then, or pin them to your quotes board! ;) (Just hover over to quote, then click on the Pinterest icon.)

BTW, these aren't ALL my favorite quotes. But just a few short ones I made graphics for. :)

You know what my favorite thing about these actually is? The simplicity of them and- the color!! ;) 

Do you have a favorite quote? Also, which one of the above was your favorite?

Also, it's totally not Friday when I'm posting this...but...
Hope your having a great week! ♥Katie

March 2017 // Goals

Hey there!! Well, in my last post, I said I was hoping to get my next post up in one week. Here I am two weeks later with nothing posted- but a bunch of great excuses!!  Rather than bore you with the details, I've chosen to start now and change this terrible schedule of posting-- starting off with a post about my March goals!

Picture@StockSnap.io

I love making new years resolutions/goals. In fact I made several this year. Now, it's time for me to take action and get to work on those goals. Something that helps me is to take a few minutes at the beginning of every month to sit down and write down my monthly goals. Today I'm going to share a few of my goals for March 2017. (I'm not even going to go into how crazy it is that we're in already in the third month of 2017. Like, whaaa....??)

Next month I'm hoping to do a 'March Recap + April Goals' post. I'm super excited to start this (-for a lack of better word) tradition!! Now, here are a few of my goals for March 2017!

March Goals

+ Photography challenge I'm super interested in working on my photography + learning how to use my camera this year. My goal for this month is to take at least one picture every day that I absolutely love. Who knows, maybe at the end of the month I'll do a post with all the pictures I took? ( If you think I should, please tell me! *winks*)

+ Learn a new hymn on the piano I love playing the piano! But recently I've found myself slacking off in practice. I love sitting down at the bench, taking out my hymnal and just choosing a song to learn! I just have to take the time to actually do it. This month- I'm totally doing it. :)

+ Five blog posts *guilty grin* I know, I know. This shouldn't be a "goal". I really enjoy blogging and I don't think of it as a chore at all! But this is one of my "goals" so....

+ Make 20 Bracelets I posted a few months ago about a project one of my friends is doing- 100 dolls for 100 girls! You can find out about it here- anyways I volunteered to donate 100 handmade bracelets. This month my goal is to finish 20. I'm sharing this goal on my blog because I want to get the word out about this project. You really should check it out! :)

+ Finish four modules in science I'm desperately trying to finish my science book by the end of this semester. I finished my last science book in one semester, so I started this one in January and- gaaah! I REALLY don't want to have to stop half way through, forget it all over summer break, then have to re-read it all next school year! So ANYWAYS knocking out four modules this month would be super awesome!

There you have it! These are a few of the goals I've decided to try to tackle this month!

So, a picture every day this month? What do you think?
What are some of your goals for March?

Recipe // Biscuits And Gravy

Guys, it's been two weeks since I've posted. *gasps*  I'm still figuring out what posting schedule I want to stick with- but I think once every two weeks is a little too far apart. What do you think about every Wednesday?

Anyways, I'm finally posting and for this special occasion (no, not really. It just feels special because it's been so long since I've posted!) I'm giving y'all a classic comfort food --- biscuits n' gravy! I made these for Sunday dinner last week and they were the perfect Sunday afternoon dish. Breakfast for dinner anyone?

Let's start with the biscuit recipe...

~ Biscuits ~

Ingredients:                  Makes 6 biscuits

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/3 cup butter or shortening  
• 1 cup milk

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder,

salt, and sugar.

Cut in the butter, until the mixture resembles coarse meal. 

Gradually stir in the milk until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.

Turn out onto a floured surface, and knead 15 to 20 times.

Pat or roll dough out to 1 inch thick. 

Cut biscuits with a large cutter or juice glass dipped in flour.

Repeat until all the dough is used.

Brush off the excess flour, and place biscuits onto an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake for 13 to 15 minutes in an oven preheated to 425 degrees F, or until edges begin to brown.

Recipe Card
Download PDF

Now for the gravy... :)

- - - - - - - -

~ Gravy ~

Ingredients:

• 1 pound sausage
• 1/4 cup flour 
• 2 cups milk
• salt and black pepper to taste

Crumble and cook the sausage in a large skillet over medium heat until browned.

Stir in flour until dissolved.

Gradually stir in milk.

Cook gravy until thick and bubbly. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve over hot biscuits. Refrigerate leftover gravy.

- - - - -

What is your favorite food to have for breakfast?
I don't like sweet breakfasts because I usually end up felling sick the whole morning.. ;) I'd take biscuits and gravy over donuts for breakfast any day!

DIY Colored Cork Board

When I walk into Hobby Lobby, my common sense sometimes stays at the door and I often end up walking out with things I wasn't planning to buy, or don't even like! Take these cork boards for instance, I don't know why I bought them. But they came home with me one day- and have stayed in my desk drawer ever since. Last week, while cleaning out my drawer, I discovered them and decided I should find a use for them, and of course painting them with acrylic paint is the obvious solution, right?! Well, obvious or not that's what I decided to do to these cork boards and they couldn't have turned out better! I LOVE the color they bring to my wall and I honestly didn't want to cover them up when it came time to hang things on it! I did end up adding a few things, just to complement it. ;)

This tutorial is really pretty simple- but I'll go ahead and show you how I decorated my cork boards to hopefully inspire you for you own design! Feel free to replicate mine if you like. I'm decorating four small pieces of cork, but you can do the same thing with one large piece, or whatever collection you have! :)

~ DIY Colored Cork Boards ~

Supplies:

• Cork board
• Acrylic paint (Have you noticed I use this stuff a lot?! :D)
• Foam/sponge brush
• Masking tape

 I'm using two different colors of acrylic paint, you can use as many as you want! Or you could just use one color- it's totally up to you!

I started off, by painting the first square blue.

You'll want to put a piece of scratch paper, or a paper towel down underneath the cork board so you don't get any paint on your work area.

(It's really pretty self explanatory- just brush on the paint!)

Then I did the same thing with the pink paint on the second square.

For the third and fourth squares, I painted half of the square blue, (It won't matter if you're exact or not for the first color [blue for me], you'll be able to cover up the messy edge with the second color [pink].)

Allow the paint to dry completely.

 Now is where you want to get exact. Using a piece of masking tape will help a ton! Just mask off one half of the square and you won't have to worry about having a messy edge.

Now you can apply the second color of paint.

 Do this with both squares. Allow to dry completely before removing the tape.

When the paint has dried, remove the tape!

Ta-da!! Now they're all done and just need to be arranged.

I used foam tape to hang them on my wall. Then they were ready for me to hang my knickknacks on!

Other projects in picture: DIY Dry Erase Board

I love how they look next to my desk! I just painted my room (it used to be green!), so this is the first thing I've hung on my wall yet, and I love the color it brings to my room. :)

- - - - -

 Do you have a cork board? What kind of things do you hang on it?

 ♥Katie