Sunday Funday!

Hey everyone! Happy Sunday! It has been a few days since my last post, so here is a little bit of what has been going on!

I've been attempting to prepare healthy meals ahead of time to last throughout the week. 

 Preparing healthy meals this past week has given me the opportunity to use my air fryer! Seriously though, who doesn't love fried foods? Everyone loves the taste of fried food but hates the calories and fat that goes along with it. I bet when you hear "air fryer," you don't automatically think it will be healthy.  I received my Farberware air fryer this past Christmas. I cannot believe I haven't used it until now! 

The top knob on the fryer is for heat, and the bottom knob is the timer. 

I added my marinated chicken and slid the basket into the air fryer with ZERO oil! Yep, you read that right. I fried chicken with no oil whatsoever!

Since it was my first time using the air fryer, I kept checking the chicken to make sure it was cooked all the way through. I love how crispy the chicken was on the outside, and it was juicy and tender on the inside. The flavor was delicious! I'm really impressed with the air fryer. I don't think I'll be using my grill or oven anytime soon.... ;)

Now that I know how to use my air fryer, I can start planning on what awesome snacks to prepare for the Superbowl!! I already know that I HAVE to try making fried pickles!! YUM!!

Who else is excited for the Superbowl?? Broncos vs. Panthers! It certainly will be interesting! Who will you be rooting for? I'm having a hard time deciding between the two teams, but I think I'm going to have to go with the Broncos! If you live in Tennessee, you are more likely to be a Peyton Manning fan!  :)

A few other healthy meals this past week:

It had been forever since I had oatmeal but it sounded really good. I boiled the water, stirred in the oats, and let it cool a little before I mixed in two tablespoons of chocolate PB2. I put the oatmeal in a bowl and covered it with a sliced banana! 

It was SOOOO good! This is definitely a new favorite breakfast go-to for me. 

You cannot go wrong with smoothies. When I start craving ice-cream, which is often, I make smoothies! This past week, I made a peach & banana smoothie. I used a little less than 1/4 cup of Almond Breeze almond/cashew milk, 1/4 cup of Dannon Light & Fit vanilla yogurt, 1 banana, and about 6 frozen sliced peaches. 

I added the yogurt to give the smoothie more of a milkshake texture. Next time, I want to try it with Coconut yogurt instead of dairy yogurt.

When I am out and about, my absolute #1 restaurant of choice is Panera Bread! I'm addicted to their chicken greek salad. I probably could eat that salad twice a day, everyday! It can be hard to resist since it is right across the street from work!

I still have been looking for items around the house to re-use for organizing purposes. I saved all the Hickory Farms sweet hot mustard jars, cleaned them out and painted the lids! These will be perfect for holding salad dressings, other condiments, and taking them to work for lunch and/or picnics! 

These jars would also be cute filled with some Valentine's Day candy and a ribbon around it for a little gift for friends, co-workers, etc.!

Command Hooks are one of my favorite items at the moment for organizing. I have been hanging them everywhere. Command hooks are amazing because they don't ruin walls or furniture! I've ended up saving a lot more space in my kitchen just with a few hooks!

There are multiple different types of command hooks, and I cannot wait to try some of their other items for organizing the house!

Overall, I have had a low key week and weekend, but I did dog-sit my friend's pups last night! Chloe and Chipper are the sweetest doggies, so when I was asked if they could spend the night, it was a no brainer! Riley wasn't thrilled but he had the upstairs and master bedroom all to himself! 

I am a huge animal lover, and for me, the more the merrier! I just felt bad for Chipper because he would go to the door anytime he heard a noise. We cuddled a lot, but he still was quite anxious. Since they were in a new unfamiliar place, I slept downstairs on the sofa to keep them from feeling so alone. We took some cute pictures at least! 

Meet Chloe:

Meet Chipper:

Aren't they adorable?!

While I was dog-sitting, I spent some time marathoning the current season of Younger (on TV Land). Now that I know it is on Wednesday nights at 10pm, I'm going to have to keep up on it! Younger is a hilarious show. Check it out! 

<3 Don't forget tomorrow is the first day of February! <3

I can't wait to post some ideas for Valentine's Day!

Here are some questions for y'all:

* Do you have any pets?

* What are some of your favorite snacks and beverages to have during the Superbowl? 

* Do you stick with only healthy snacks, unhealthy foods, or a mixture of both?

DIY Lavender Pillow Spray

Hey ya'll! Did you survive the blizzard of 2016?! I hope you are staying safe and warm! I took advantage of the cold weather and came up with some new DIY ideas at home.

I saw an advertisement recently for a lavender pillow spray that is supposed to help you relax before going to bed. After looking through Pinterest, I found that I could easily make my own spray with ingredients found around the house!

Ingredients to make the lavender pillow/room spray:
*Mini spray bottle
*1 tsp of rubbing alcohol
*30 + drops of Young Living Essential Oils - lavender
*Water

I filled up the bottle with the rubbing alcohol and drops of the lavender Young Living Essential Oils, then I filled up the rest of the bottle with water! It was THAT easy to make!

All you have to do is spritz your pillow a few minutes before bedtime, and it helps relax you and fall asleep faster!

This spray can retail for around $10 per bottle! The Crabtree & Evelyn brand is a good $18! Ouch!
The DIY version is all natural and way cheaper! Plus, you can change the scents, and personalize it any way you want! It can be used as a room spray instead of Febreeze or air fresheners in bathrooms!

For the spray bottle - you can find some at the Dollar Tree OR if you already have travel size hairspray - keep the bottles after using them and wash them out! The bottle is just the right size to re-use for this spray! I'm pretty sure you can also get the rubbing alcohol at the Dollar Tree if you don't have some around the house. Per the Young Living Essential Oil website, the lavender oil retails for $30.92. It doesn't take much to make the spray and the oil has lasted me quite a while already.

I absolutely fell in LOVE this spray! The travel size bottles are perfect, especially for trips! If you are like me, and have a difficult time falling asleep away from home, this spray really helps out! I also keep it with me so if I start to feel stressed or anxious, I spray it to help keep me calm/relaxed.

DIY Lavender Pillow Spray

Have you bought any pillow sprays?

Which scent(s) would you use in your spray?

First Snow Recap!

Wednesday was the first snow day of 2016 in Knoxville! It feels like it has been forever since we have had snow here, so it was a pleasant surprise! Watching the snow fall with a hot cup of coffee (usually with a cat on my lap) is one of my favorite relaxing things to do. It snowed quite a bit, but unfortunately did not take long to melt away on Thursday.

First snowfall on Wednesday:

After playing around in the snow for a little bit this week, I came inside to work on another chalk paint project. My jewelry armoire!

Before:

I used the Americana Decor brand again. I chose the color "Yesteryear," which is a beautiful light grey with some blue tint in it. 

I wanted to show you how you want the first coat to look - very streaky. A little paint goes a long way!

After:

The jewelry armoire turned out perfect, but blends in a little too much with my blue walls. I'll have to place it in front of my accent wall (dark grey) so it pops out better!

Thursday, the hubby and I both had the day off, so we grabbed some Starbucks and ventured up toward Tellico Plains and Cherohala Skyway.  We're always ready for an adventure!

Our first Starbucks of 2016!! 

Bald River Falls is one of my favorite places to go in that area, so we stopped to take some pictures.

Isn't it gorgeous?!

The sun came out for a second!

Cherohala Skyway is such a fun scenic drive, no matter what season it is!

Today we woke up to a little bit of snow on the ground - maybe half an inch or so. Looks like the "blizzard" missed Knoxville this time. 

Even though it wasn't a ton of snow, I went outside to play around and to build a tiny snowman. 

I had on about 4 layers to keep myself warm! I would be lost without my Columbia jacket!! It's the best!

Our patio heater puts out some good heat! It was nice having it on so I could sit and not freeze to death!

I grabbed my Canon 60d to take some pictures of the birds in our backyard. I love sitting out there (even in the cold) watching the birds. The bluejays are my favorite!

Finally, I decided to hang out with Riley for a while inside, WITH my heated blanket on & coffee in hand! Tonight will probably be dedicated to marathoning shows on our Amazon Prime TV. Nathan and I have become addicted to watching the show "Orphan Black." We have binge watched the first two seasons already! Orphan Black seriously is amazing, and the acting is phenomenal! I HIGHLY recommend checking it out!

Riley sure enjoys the little heater! He just lays in front of it, soaking in all the warmth! We're pretty spoiled!    :)

I hope ya'll are staying warm and safe in this weather!

Is it snowing where you are? 

Do you have cabin fever?

Do you like to go outside in the snow?

Curried Cauliflower Rice

I am no chef and I honestly do not enjoy cooking very much. BUT, since I do want to try to eat healthier, I thought it was time to start trying out new healthier recipes. My first experiment was cauliflower rice. I pulled out the food processor, cut up a head of cauliflower, pulsed it until it formed a rice consistency. Sure enough, in seconds the cauliflower transformed into "rice."

Now, to answer the question everybody wants to know, "Was it good?"

The texture was really good - better than expected. This time, I had it was seasoned with curry spices  - just as I would season regular rice. I would have liked it better with more vegetables and/or meat. Other than that, yes, it was good! Not to mention the less calories and it being healthy and all. :) The next time I make it, I want to add more vegetables with it and maybe some taco seasoned ground turkey or chicken instead!

Have you tried cauliflower rice yet?

How would you have it seasoned and what would meals would you add it to?

Post Chalk Paint Project!!

My project with chalk paint has been completed!! I am thrilled with the results! The dresser looks fantastic. I love the vintage look of it.

The Americana Decor brand of paint did a great job covering a lot of space with just a little bit of paint. It also dried very quickly, which was awesome because I didn't have to wait around for it to dry before doing a second coat. I ended up only painting two coats on the dresser, and the 8 oz. container of paint was the perfect amount! I am pleased with how well it turned out!

Now all I need to do is head over to Hobby Lobby and grab some new dresser knobs and handles to put on the drawers!

I cannot wait to go back to Home Depot to buy more paint, paint other pieces of furniture, as well as my wingback chairs!

In my other spare time, I ended up making my first beaded bracelet! I collected all the tools necessary to make the bracelet and turned to YouTube for a video tutorial. 

The extremely helpful tutorial I watched on YouTube can be found at this link:

https://youtu.be/CNMB0A5ZVmY

The bracelet was surprisingly easy to make! Mine turned out a little big, but that can easily be fixed. 

:)

Pre-Chalk Paint Project

I have seen so many ideas that involve "Chalk Paint." Not to be confused with chalkboard paint; it's a different type of paint. Chalk paint has a finish that gives furniture more of a matte texture, which makes them look like antiques. I have even seen tutorials on using chalk paint to paint fabric. I want to do that, but decided that I need some experience with chalk paint first. The most popular brand of paint on Pinterest is Annie Sloan - but that is a little expensive and I wanted to try something without spending a ton of money on paint.

I have an old dresser that I put in the "craft room" and I think it is the perfect item to try the chalk paint on! I picked up an 8 oz. container at my local Home Depot! The brand is: Americana Decor - the color is "everlasting." It was only $8.48 (at my local Home Depot). Not bad at all!   :)

This is the dresser I'm going to paint! I also plan on replacing the knobs/handles. I can't wait to finish this project and show you guys the results!

Updating Pillows Project

I found a few pillows that I had planned on throwing away. Then I thought why not make my own pillow covers?! Of course, I went on Pinterest and found the no sew tutorials. I actually already had the heat and bond tape, an iron, and fabric to use.  It was an easy project that I should have done sooner!

Believe it or not, the fabric I used for these pillows was from an old table runner that I was going to donate. All I did was make sure I had enough extra fabric on the sides of the pillows, inserted the tape, folded the fabric, and used the iron to seal the heat and bond tape. 

Seriously. It was that easy.

I love the way the pillows look on our wing back chairs! The chairs are in need of a little update - but that project will come some other time.

For a quick spontaneous project, I think the pillows turned out nicely!

Of course, I also made some fresh juice today! I went with good ol' orange juice - you can never go wrong with orange juice!

I re-used a wine bottle to hold the orange juice. I think it looks cute! 

Fresh orange juice with no added sugar, preservatives, etc! It tastes amazing! Yum!