{Weekly Wishes}

Today I am linking up with Melyssa from The Nectar Collective for weekly wishes. Weekly wishes are your goals, wishes, hopes, or challenges for the week!!

My weekly wish for this week? Start being more active!: I have been wanting to start up running again for a while. It is something that is just for me and I need something that is just for me. There are so many days that I just want to get out of the house, breathe some fresh air and leave all the stresses of life behind. I feel like running will help me do just that. Now that I have LESS then 2 months to train for a 5k I really need to get my butt in gear. I just need to find my running shoes....

- See more at: http://thenectarcollective.com/2013/07/weekly-wishes-linkup-10/#sthash.8LwfRI7W.dpuf

- See more at: http://thenectarcollective.com/2013/07/weekly-wishes-linkup-10/#sthash.8LwfRI7W.dpuf

- See more at: http://thenectarcollective.com/2013/07/weekly-wishes-linkup-10/#sthash.8LwfRI7W.dpuf

What is your weekly wish? 

A Weekend Wrap-Up & A Heartwarming Recipe

 This past weekend it was cold here in wonderful Wisconsin.With a daily high in the low 60's it felt like October not July. We still enjoyed our usual summer weekend outing to the farmer's market though. The sweet scent of all the fruits and vegetables, the gorgeous brightly colored flowers and the to-die-for food vendors are enough to bring a person back every week.

 This Momma got to enjoy some much needed me time {with the little one, of course} and got to go shopping!! I see some great style on a budget posts in the future!!

With the weather being cool it made me crave a warm pot of chili {which pairs perfectly with the amazing sourdough we get from the market}. It's breakfast time here and I already want a bowl...especially since leftover chili is the best chili. This chili is a quick and easy recipe. It doesn't require hours to make it...just 1. It is better {of course} if you let it simmer for 2-3 hours but it isn't necessary. I typically make it the day before we are going to eat it and then throw it back in a pot to heat it up.

Chili

1 1/2 Lbs Lean Ground Beef

1 Large or 2 Medium Onions, chopped

4 Cloves Garlic, minced

1 Tbls Olive Oil

1 Cup Celery, diced

1/2 Cup Green Bell Pepper, diced

1/2 Cup Red Bell Pepper, diced

4-7 Tbls Chili Powder

2 Tsp Garlic Powder

1 Tsp Onion Powder

1 Tsp Black Pepper

2- 15 oz cans Red Kidney Beans

1- 15oz can Diced Tomatoes

1-15 oz can Tomato Sauce

1 Tbls Worcestershire Sauce 

6 oz Beer (or Water)

Hot Sauce, to taste

1. Cook ground beef in olive oil with onion and garlic until browned in a large pot. Break up meat with a spatula as you cook. Drain off fat.

2. Add bell peppers, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, and hot sauce (if desired). Continue to cook on low heat for 3 minutes while stirring. 

3. Add remaining ingredients and gently bring to a boil.

4. If enjoying right away, simmer for 1-2 hours. If you are making ahead of time, simmer for 30 min, turn off heat and allow to cool. Reheat when ready to enjoy. 

5. Serve with shredded cheese, chopped onion, and sour cream. 

I hope you all had a splendid weekend full of fun!!

{The Mary Kay Look}

I have always been one of those super girly girls. I can't leave the house without, at least, a coat of mascara or 2. Trying new products that have either been suggested by a friend, in a magazine or are the newest thing out there is something I really love to do. The best thing about blogging and my love of trying products: I get to share my great findings with anyone who will listen!!

I recently received my first VoxBox from the lovely people at Mary Kay. It was full of great products to try and review and I must say I was so excited it was hard to wait!!

Me wearing the Mary Kay Lash Love Lengthening mascara.

 The first products I tried were the Mary Kay Lash Love Lengthening mascara and the Mary Kay Lash Primer. The applicator brush that comes with the mascara isn't the traditional pipe-cleaner like brush I am used to. I would have never tried this type of mascara simply because of the applicator but I was pleasantly surprised with it! I definitely noticed a difference putting on my mascara with the primer on. I tried the mascara with and without the primer. Without the primer it did lengthen but with the primer it really added length to my lashes, especially those little lower lashes. I have such sparse tiny little lower lashes that my usual mascara doesn't work well, it just gets clumpy and gross. With Mary Kay's Lash Love mascara I have the lower lashes that I wish I had!! Will I purchase this product again? I may. I do truly love a mascara that also adds more volume however I do love that this mascara lengthens and isn't clumpy at all.




The next product that I tried was the Mary Kay True Dimensions Lipstick in Pink Cherie. The color I was not too fond of, it was a little too bright for me. The feel of the lipstick I absolutely LOVED. It went on so smoothly and felt like I was wearing lip balm, not a heavy lipstick. It felt very moisturizing on. Would I purchase this lipstick in a different color? Yes, that is how much I loved how it felt. Not to mention I loved the packaging it came in!!







  The last 2 products I tried were the Mary Kay Cream Eye Color in Violet Storm and the Mary Kay Cream Eye Color/Concealer Brush. I was a little intimidated by the color of the cream eye color. I applied an eye primer before applying the cream eye color and I was surprised how sheer the color went on. I first applied it with the brush and couldn't see the color at all so I ended up using my finger to apply it. I think the brush would be better to use with concealer and not the cream eye color. It is a long-wearing formula so I made sure to test it on a warm day and it really did last all day without creasing which was nice. I would probably use this eye color more as a primer under a purple shadow just because the color wasn't vibrant enough for me. If I am going to wear purple eye color I want to be able to tell that it is purple!! Will I buy the product? I am not a huge fan of cream eye colors but I do think this would be a good eye primer. The brush was a brush, it was not anything special enough  to me. I would rather buy an E.L.F. concealer brush from Target for $3. What can I say, I'm a stay at home mom on a budget :)

Note: I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes. All opinions are my own.  

Summer List Update

 Now that our summer is half over {sad} I decided it was time for a summer list update!!



~ Head to the Chicago area to celebrate our 1st anniversary!! (Hhhheelllllooooo Ikea!!!!!): Due to our house selling so fast we had actually decided to not go to Chicago for our anniversary. We did make a day trip just to go to Ikea (loved it) though!! 

~ Attend a Brewer's game & tailgate (it's a summer must in WI): This weekend we went with a group of friends to a Brewer game. It was sooo much fun! I have been to a lot of games but these were by far the best seats I have ever had. We sat 8 rows up from the team dugout. Plus they kicked butt ;) 



~ Go on a winery tour.  Earlier this year we attended a benefit for an adorable little baby boy and ended up winning a winery tour in a raffle! I'm excited to go because I have never been to a winery!: Due to a few things coming up, this is getting removed from the list. We are going to try to do our winery tour this fall though!! 

~ Visit the Milwaukee Zoo with my boys {link}

~ Go golfing for the first time with the Hubby

~ Paint our front door turquoise!!!!!

~ Start running and do a 5K: I am officially registered for The Color Run {the happiest 5k in the world :) }. Now I must start working my butt off, literally! 


What did you do this weekend? Share it with me below!! I love getting your comments :) 

 

Wedding: What I Would Do Differently

 For the last wedding week post it's all about the things I wish I could change or just do a little differently. Every bride has things they wish they could go back and do over and if they say they don't then they either are lying, had an unlimited budget or is just a simple person who didn't want much anyway. I LOVED our wedding day and pretty much everything about it. The things I wish I could change were little things that I'm sharing only to help other brides out there.

{I included a few of my favorite photos that haven't already been shared}

#1 Hire a Videographer. 

I read this everywhere: Get a videographer or or you will regret it. Well, I didn't because I really didn't think it was necessary. I was very wrong. This is one of the big ones. As much as I don't mind not having a video of our ceremony, the big reason I wish I had video was for my brother's speech. As I mentioned before, it was awesome, and I really wish I had it to watch again. Then again it would be nice to watch our ceremony again considering I really didn't pay much attention. Which leads me to #2.



#2 First kiss as Mr & Mrs do-over.

Let me share a picture:

First of all, we stood so far apart from each other during the ceremony and apparently never really got any closer to each other so just standing closer together would have made a difference. Second of all, I'm holding hubby hand...and it looks weird...and it looks like I'm pretending to shoot him in the side...

Do over please. 



#3 Do a First Look

Have you seen the pictures out there from couples doing first looks?! Ah-ma-zing. Plus, I think it would have relaxed Chris a little during the ceremony. He even said he held back a little because he was standing in front of a bunch of people. I think having that moment between just the 2 of us would have been perfect. 

#4 Get Chris a Card 

I had planned on doing this and I was up at 6:30am so I had PLENTY of time. But, I had so much on my mind that morning that I completely forgot. I didn't relax until I was at the church and in my dress. Chris had actually texted me a sweet message before the ceremony as well which I didn't see until the reception! So there's another thing...I could have at least texted him back. :)

#5 Do More Cake Shopping

I know, it's such a small detail and really doesn't matter, but I still wish I would have looked more. I do think our cake was pretty but it wasn't what I asked for. I'm a perfection-ist...



#6 Get More Pictures with Family

There are so many times I look through our pictures and say "Oh I wish I had a picture with...". There was just so much going on and we were getting pulled in so many different directions it was impossible to get everything. This one also leads me to #7...

#7 Make Sure Little A Was More Involved...

We don't have many pictures with him and we didn't get to do a few of the things we had planned. This is one of my absolute biggest regrets...



#8 Go Out After the Reception & Celebrate More...

I have no explaination for this. Why didn't we? I don't know but we really should have. With all the mingling we did during the reception, hubby and I didn't get to really celebrate together and I wish we would have simply just to relax and enjoy the rest of the night. 

I really had so much fun and I wish I could relive our wedding day over and over. We have such wonderful family and friends who all deserve a great big THANK YOU for everything they did to help us make this day so special.

All photos taken by Shannon @ PeoplePaperPrints

Wedding: The Details

I know I missed a day, life got in the way and I wasn't able to blog yesterday. However, I'm making up for it and doing 2 posts today!!! 

This one is all about the details. They are honestly one of my favorite parts of a wedding. I love looking at all the little stuff that the bride put so much effort into just to make her day perfect and a lot of people don't give them enough attention. I know when planning, most brides look all over for inspiration, which is why I wanted to share all my details. The flowers and decor were all important to me and everything you see {except the flowers} was all DIY.  I spent plenty of nights up late {with the help of some wonderful people} crafting and making everything perfect. Everything turned out better then I expected and looked fantastic!

 The Flowers

 My something blue that my mom found for me :) I was  {and still am} completely in love with my bouquet. It was absolutely perfect!!

 Bridesmaid's bouquet

 

All of the guys boutonnieres were some form of the grooms. His was all white with a yellow ribbon and the groomsman's were yellow flowers with a grey ribbon. 

 The mother's corsages 

The Ceremony

For the ceremony we kept it simple. A little aisle decor {no runner allowed}, simple programs and our unity candle. 

 You can't see it in the picture but our unity candle has almost a lace detailing on it. I purchased it, the tapers and the glass stands all from Hobby Lobby for about $10.

The Reception

{Not Pictured: our private covered patio was decorated with string lights & glowing yellow and grey round lanterns}

 

Card Box- Supplies all from Hobby Lobby

 Our cake was from Vande Walles Candy. Each tier was a different flavor and we decided to not do fondant & just did buttercream.

 We had 3 different centerpieces on our tables: a cylinder filled with lemons & a floating candle, White football mums, yellow tulips & sliced lemons, and yellow football mums, white tulips & river rock. We had a grey table runner on each table along with the table numbers and votive candles.

Table number frames: Ikea (purchased from a bride on Wedding Bee) 

Votives & Holders: Purchased from a bride on Wedding Bee

Personalized votive wraps: Theknot.com

 The escort card display was made from a vintage frame {not pictured}, foam board, fabric and ribbon. It was something I saw on theknot.com and I loved it! All of the escort cards, table numbers, programs & displays were printed at home by me!

 We had a few interesting "words of wisdom" from a few guests of the restaurant located in  the same building as our room.

Our guest "tree". Something I saw on etsy and loved. It was different then the traditional book and is something I will enjoy displaying in my home for years to come.

This Girl

Some of you may recognize her. This is Whit {BlackLittleButton}, she is amazing and a big detail that needs to be mentioned. There is no way our wedding day would have gone as smoothly as it did without her. She was my personal attendent and she went way above and beyond what I expected. She designed our invitations, the guest tree above, helped me with a few DIY projects, and ran around like a crazy person all day making sure everything was perfect and set up exactly how it was supposed to be. She even had a big bag of everything...literally EVERYTHING that anyone could possibly need. A few of our guests even went to her for something. I adore her and there is not enough thanks in the world for what she did for us.

Flowers: Fleur Couture

All photos were taken by Shannon @ PeoplePaperPrints

Wedding: Reception

Everyone says your wedding day goes by SUPER fast. For me, it didn't....until the reception. It was so much fun and the time just flew by! We had our reception at a local restaurant that was right on the river. It was my first choice for a reception site so we actually changed our original wedding date just so we could have our reception here. Everything went perfectly and the staff there was great and the food was fantastic. We had such a blast dancing the night away and mingling with guests. I couldn't have asked for a better wedding day!!

 The best man and man of honor, they are quite hilarious.

My brother's speech was the best. It was absolutely the funniest (he asked for any single girls number) and the most heartfelt speech. There is only one thing I wish I could do differently because of this exact moment...which you will hear about on Friday. :)

 

Best picture of the night simply for our groomsman's expression.

 We were being heckled to smash cake in each others faces & to quit being nice. I totally would have done it but I didn't feel like getting cake smashed in my face.

Two of my closest and dearest friends. The 3 of us have been bffs since 7th grade. The lovely girl on the right is getting married next year which I'm sooooo excited for!!!

We danced to "You and I" by Michael Buble.

 Again, just like having both my Dad & step-Dad walk me down the aisle, I needed to have a dance with both of them.

 Mother-Son dance...so sweet!

 My crazy-fun Momma. I have some of the most epic dancing photos of her and countless other guests BUT they would kill me if I shared them. ;)

All photos taken by Shannon @ PeoplePaperPrints.