Etchings || Photo App Junkie ~ Free Today

Confession, I am an app junkie especially photo apps. This app is awesome! Even better free today, take a picture and transform it into a fun etching chose from a few different color patterns. Super simple to use.

For iPhone

Happy Etching!
xoxojolleen

What is your favorite photo app?


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/etchings/id551229053?mt=8

Lemon Cookies || Pepperidge Farm

If you like lemon cookies, these are delicious! Pretty crispy, but sometimes a crispy cookie is exactly what you want. Would be great with tea. The Double Chocolate Milano are always my favorite!! The best part about Milano's is when you bring them somewhere and people's faces light up and they say "Mmmm Milanos".

xoxojolleen

Happy New Year!
2013 I will share more Milanos

Diamond Earrings || Girls Best Friend? These Are!

Anyone else get diamond earrings for Christmas? I did; So excited I found these beauties on Esty and put them on my Amazon Wishlist, then my lovely sister got them for me! Lucky me!! They are so perfect.

Charming Charlie & Les Miserables

Sister Date! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We certainly did, went to Hawaii to visit friends and family and came home to my sister visiting us in Milwaukee. Today we went on a sister date and went to one of those fancy theaters with big seats and food! I think I'll never go to a regular theater again...after the movie we stopped by Charming Charlie and spent a gift card from Christmas, I know that didn't last long. Check out my super cute animal finds!

xoxojolleen

Merry Christmas from the Big Island!

I hope your day is filled with laughs and hugs!

xoxojolleen

New Nails || Essie Penny Talk

Love this color! Perfect vacation color.

Essie || Penny Talk

Merry Christmas Everyone!

xoxojolleen

New Highlighters

You know your husband loves you when he goes to the store and brings you back a surprise. You know he really loves you and knows what makes you happy when he brings you new highlighters that you've been sweat'n.

Awesome! If you're a pen/office supply nerd like me - go get these now! So cool and really fun to use. They are gel, almost feels like a crayon, no bleeding or smearing. And they're Sharpie, so how could they be bad...

xoxojolleen

BIG NEWS! Offer Accepted!

This morning our offer on the house we wanted was accepted! Praise The Lord! Soooo excited, I wanted to share the new here so I can look back on this one day and remember how excited I am! I have been Pinteresting like crazy coming up with ideas on how I want to paint, arrange, decorate, everything.

I will have before and after picture on everything we do.

Steps left:
1. Home inspection - home was built in 1895 so this is a biggie
2. Loan finalized
3. Home appraisal
4. Final walk through
5. Get the keys!!!

We are buying a house! First time!!!

So unbelievably excited!!!!!!
xoxojolleen

Hello World!! Bold Blue Nails

I'm back! Man, I've missed you guys!
So in the last two months-
My honey got a new job in Milwaukee- we lived in Colorado Springs
Packed or sold everything
Moved to Milwaukee
I came back to Colorado to work for three weeks
Back to Milwaukee
Looking at buying a house for the first time! (I will be writing some tips about buying a home down the road, learned so much)
Reconnected with lots of friends, we both went to high school here...so we are moving back home, haven't lived here for 12 years!
I think that's everything.

New nails -
The blue is from my September Birchbox Color Club Insta-This $8- awesome color! One of my winter favorites - looks cute alone, or paired with neutrals/bolds.

Then on pointer and ring finger I used China Glaze Crackle Black Mesh $4, if you haven't used crackle nail polish...first off where have you been? Second go get some, every brand makes a similar polish now. Super easy to use and it is a really cool effect - just paint one coat, try your best to not paint over where you've already painted, then watch it split apart, really cool to see, then when dry use your favorite top coat.

Missed you all! I'm so excited to share with you all the exciting stuff I'm doing/making/finding/trying!

New Shades

DIA layover = cute new Sunnies

It's really a gift, to be able to shop anywhere and find cute stuff. I don't think my husband finds it nearly as impressive as I do.

Fav Five Mondays

Happy Monday, here's my five favorite pins to inspire our week.

Jacques Torres’ Chocolatey Chocolate Chip Cookies - Bakerella

These look so amazing, can't wait to make them! I love this blog too, if you love baking it's a must. 

Watermelon Blueberry Salsa - Love and Olive Oil

How fun...what a cool combination, another awesome blog.

Cheese Puff Toss

Love a good game.

DJ Yoduh

Perfect gift for your awesome nerdy friend.

Creme De La Creme - Atlantic Pacific

I love love love this look and maybe found a new blog to follow.

Have a lovely week everyone!

xoxojolleen

Getting New Hair!!!

Getting a new look is one of my favorite things ever. Here's the look I'm going for... Appointment on Thursday night! Yippee!!!!

Meal Planning Part 3 - Weekly Plan

These are earrings that me and my sister made this weekend, I love them! I'll post the DIY later this week.

food budget-posted
monthly planning-posted
weekly planning

WEEKLY: Saturday Grocery Shop for the following week, local grocery store - Budget $40
So, for the first week (last post “monthly”) I get staples and next week’s food, for the other three weeks I just get what I needed for the following weeks meals.
Shopping Time: 30 minutes

I have learned the more I plan the less stress I feel. So I have certain days that I do certain things and everything just flows and falls into place. I also have a lot less waste, I feel like sometimes people over shop and then they are throwing away so much stuff they just bought. This is what I found with us when I would stock up on sale/coupon stuff, I’m not saying I don’t use coupons or sales, I love a deal, but I’m not over buying just to save money, then not using the stuff and throwing it away because it’s expired or bad.

If on Friday I have a bare fridge we did a good job. Here is my weekly meal planning template, if I follow this we tend to stay in budget and we don’t waste food. Again bring a list and cash.

Saturday- Make Meal

Sunday- Make Meal, Sunday is when I’ll try to make something bigger. Then I can practice being an Italian Grandma, so when I have kids and they have kids I’ll be ready for them all to come over and eat dinner. This is usually when I bake a treat for our week too. I love cooking and baking, so really Sunday is my day that if I want to spend the whole day in the kitchen I can.

Monday- My honey is off of work, so he cooks me dinner. I know he is a sweetie! So on Mondays I come home and dinner is cooked and he also does the dishes! I would be fine with dollar menu too, if he decided on it. But it’s really nice knowing one day a week; I don’t have to make any decisions on “what’s for dinner". He'll grill other times for me too, especially in the summer, but Mondays are a for sure, he is wonderful to me. 

Tuesday- Make Meal or Leftovers from Sunday

Wednesday – Something very simple and inexpensive, grillies and soup, deli meat sandwiches and salad, mac and cheese and hot dogs, cold cereal…something along these lines.

Thursday – Leftover clear out! This is a must to have no waste grocery shopping. I take everything out of the fridge that is leftover and we each create our own dinner from the items. We’ve had some pretty funny combinations.

Friday- Date Night!! We have a $20 budget and make no plans until we are home from work and then decide together what we want to do with our $20, then any money left over we spend on Sunday after church for Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, or Breakfast Burritos. This has been a really fun addition to our marriage; I would label this as a “MARRIAGE SAVER” for sure. Who says you have to wait to have kids to make a date night??

Now on a side note I’d like to share with you the meal planning app/service I LOVE-

Plan to Eat, amazing….it really does all the stuff I did before by using spreadsheets and meal calendars on my computer. But using Plan to Eat it's all online so it's super easy. Here are some reasons why I love it-

1. I input my recipes including a picture of the food I made (i love this, makes me feel like a famous cook/baker!)into my recipe book, including ingredients. Once you’ve done this your recipe will always be online for you.

2. There is a monthly calendar, on Saturday I just drag and drop my recipes into the day I want to make it.

3. Since my recipe is in the calendar it knows all the ingredients that I need to make it, I just click on"shopping list" everything I need to make the weeks’ worth of food is listed for me! I can look at this on my iPhone too, so all I need at the grocery store is my phone and when I check something off of my list it disappears....oh......and it's all in order too. Produce, can goods, dairy, so on.

4. I can save menus, so at the end of the month I save July 1-31 as a menu then next July or whenever I just drag and drop the ENTIRE months’ worth of meals. Then I can edit certain days if things need changing.

5. Kind of like how you"pin" stuff you can copy a recipe to your Plan to Eat site, so when I'm on Pioneer Woman site and I like something I just copy it over, amazing!

6. You can email a recipe from your Plan to Eat, so say I'm with someone and they are like, "Wow, Jolleen these are the best Sloppy Joes I've ever had! Can I have your recipe?" I say yes and take out my phone and go to the website and email it to them. Done!

7. You can make your own categories for recipes. Example- When it's over 90 degrees out; I don't like to turn on the stove top. Over 80 degrees I don't like to turn the oven on....so I have a category called "warm weather food" so when I'm making my meal plan for the week, I check the weather forecast. If it’s over 80 I just look for recipes from this category, it’s so nice.

Plan to Eat - You can get a free 30 day trial, then it’s $39 per year

I really could go on and on...but I think 7 favorite things is a good amount.

My meal/budget wrap-up:
Budget- Costco $40, Staples at Wal-Mart $80, other three weeks local grocery store $40, Date Night $20 = My Monthly Food Budget $320 (this includes all house stuff too like shampoo, cleaning stuff, contact solution)

Plus my honey makes me dinner night, I don't give him a budget, but he usually spends around $10 (he does his own shopping too for this, but can use anything in the cupboards or freezer) = Approx total $360 for the month

Ok this really was a lot of stuff to tell you all, I hope it is helpful and maybe you got some good ideas. Just remember you need to make whatever you do work for your family. I really love doing budgets and meal planning, so it was really fun to share all of this with you.
xoxojolleen

Do you have any meal planning tricks you use?

Fav Five Mondays

Here are my favorite five pins to inspire yours and my week!

DIY Bow Ring

Can't wait to make this ring!

I love this.

Paper Mache Deer Heads, set of three

These are so cute! I want to try and make one.....

Prada Sunglasses

BEAUTIFUL! Love these sunnies.

DIY Arrow Bobbies

For sure making these!

There you go everyone, these are my favorite pins for the week. Happy Monday, I hope someone brings you an unexpected present today. 

xoxojolleen

P.S. Link under photo, goes to the home of the original pin.

Let's Eat, My Meal Plan for the Week

First time making these peanut butter bars, excited to see how they turn out.

Have a wonderful week everyone!
xoxojolleen

P.S. I'm sad I ended up not doing the art walk, was sick. But that was my plan so I just left it up. We ate cereal and white rice.

Meal Planning Part 2 - Monthly Planning

Ha!! That's me, I love a caricature drawing.

This post will be broken up into three parts
food budget-posted
monthly planning
weekly planning

Shopping: First question - What works best for your schedule regarding grocery shopping? I have tried many different things, Costco, couponing, 4 different grocery stores to find the best bargains, stocking the pantry, only buying stuff on super sale.

This is what I found - it really didn't work with how we work; even though I was getting great deals...we weren't always eating food we loved. Or I'd have so much stuff in the pantry it would expire before I used it! Maybe this is just me, but I realized I needed to change our grocery shopping to fit us, how we live and how we eat. Remember you need to have your plan fit your life and budget. We are a family of two, just me and the honey, if you are wondering.

MONTHLY:

1st of the month Costco trip, my budget $40 - I have a staple list of about 15-20 things that I get at Costco and I rotate through it as needed. I've priced stuff out so I know things that are better to get at a grocery store and what to get at Costco. Example - I love to bake so I get my butter at Costco saves me a lot, for you it might not work to buy 4 pounds of butter at a time. I keep track as I'm putting stuff in my cart, when I've reached my budget, I'm done shopping. We also get dinner while we’re there, so that's a great cheap dinner and guess what, that means one nights of food for the month is always planned!! That was easy...
Shopping time: 20 minutes + dinner

Here’s what I bought on Aug 1^st-
Butter $7.59 (this will last me three months in summer, two months in winter)
Tortilla $2.99 (this will last two months)
*Romaine lettuce $3.29 (this will last two weeks)
*Vine Tomatoes $4.49 (this will last two weeks)
Granulated Garlic $4.49 (lasts two years or more)
*Eggs $2.99 (this will last one month)
*Items I get every month

Total with tax $25.84 + dinner at Costco+ drive thru McDonald's for $1 cones and we still have $6 left! Perfect, I’ll add this to my staple shopping fund for Saturday.

1st Saturday of the month Wal-Mart trip for staple/pantry stock shopping, my budget $80 + my $6 from Costco trip,yeehaw!! I go to Wal-Mart to get all my staples for the month, cheapest. I have a staple list of things that we typically go through in a month. Examples- 1cans of pork and beans, 2 cans black beans, 2 can refried beans, any baking items, toiletries, Ziploc bags, salad dressing, stuff like that. So this Saturday I'll look at my list of monthly staples and go through all of my cupboards and through the bathroom and ask myself “do I have enough whatever to get through the month?” If not, than I get it. I also use only cash, so as I'm shopping I keep track of how much I'm spending. Same as Costco when my cash is up, I’m done shopping. This shopping trip and budget includes regular groceries for the following week.

Shopping time: 1 hour + 30 minutes at Grocery Store for produce/meat (I hate Wal-Mart’s produce, it always looks a little funky)

The key for me is to make a list at home for what I need at the store, making a list is the best way I have for staying in budget.

That’s it party people, check back tomorrow for my weekly stuff.
xoxojolleen

P.S. Tomorrow I'll also tell you about the meal planning service I use and LOVE! That helps makes all of this super fast and easy.

Banana Cupcakes with Caramel Butter Cream Frosting

Banana Cupcakes with Caramel Butter Cream Frosting

These are pretty tasty! Banana cupcakes with a caramel butter cream frosting, oh yea. The cupcakes are a Martha Stewart recipe, but the frosting she uses for these takes about 5 hours to make, well maybe an hour....way too long for me just for frosting, that is just good. If it was unbelievably amazing then I'm in, but not this one. Instead I just use a simple caramel butter cream frosting.

Another thing i love to do is top it with crunchy bacon pieces, YUMMY! These I just topped with pecans.

Recipe for Martha Stewart's Banana Cupcakes

Below is my recipe for Caramel Butter Frosting, I also use this for a Salted Caramel Butter Frosting to top brownies, so good....but for the banana cupcakes I left out the salt. This recipe makes enough to put a circle size amount on 24 cupcakes, like picture above, if you like a lot of frosting double the recipe.

Caramel Butter Cream Frosting

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter softened
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup powdered sugar sifted

Directions

1. In a small saucepan combine sugar and water. Bring to a boil and cook, without stirring until it turns dark amber color. Remove from heat.

2. Stir in heavy cream and vanilla FAST & carefully, stirring well even as bubbles form.
3. Allow to cool
4. While that cools- Beat butter, salt until smooth and creamy. Add powdered sugar, beat until well incorporated (add small amount at a time or else you'll have a mess)
5. Once caramel is cooled pour caramel into butter mixture until light and fluffy.
6. Frost it
7. ENJOY!!

xoxojolleen
Have a wonderful weekend!

Make It Work, Season 10!!!

Last night was girly night with my sister! Every other week we meet and have dinner, do nails, and watch Project Runway, Smash, or Craft Wars...just depending on seasons.

Gelish Tiger Blossom

Nails: I LOVE this color, it's perfect for summer Gelish Tiger Blossom it's a beautiful orange/red/tangerine (Gelish is a polish that you use special polishes and dry in a UV light....no chipping for two weeks, drys instantly after the light,  and it stays this shiny)

Dinner: Same as always Sesame Chicken from China Village, it's the best EVER.

Show: Project Runway, we both love Project Runway and after the first show before elimination we pick our 3 favorite people to win. This is what we picked, we only watched the first two shows last night, we are two show behind.

Megan's Picks-
Christopher Palu
Ven Budhu
Beatrice Guapo

My Picks-
Buffi Jashanmal
Ven Budhu
Alicia Hardesty

and I hope Kooan Kosuke goes along way too because I want to see all the funky stuff he makes!

xoxojolleen
Who is your favorite for season 10?

Meal Planning Part 1 - Food Budget

Cute sign I want to get for my kitchen, Hobby Lobby

This post will be broken up into three parts food budget, monthly planning, and weekly planning.

I've been working on this for about a year, trying different ideas and ways to shop and organize. I'm happy to say I'm down to perfection! (Well in my mind...hehehe) It's taken a lot of trial, error,and redo's but here you go. Use whatever you like, probably the best thing I've learned is you need to create what works for you. What I like to do, you might hate.

BUDGET:
You need to set a budget, the best way I stick to my budget is buy using cash ONLY and a shopping list.

I love to shop and spend money; it really doesn’t matter on what. So grocery shopping is just as much fun for me as clothes shopping, well almost. So in order for me to stay in budget I have to do cash and a list. Or else I’m spending more and getting lots of unneeded stuff, I’m very distracted when shopping by eye candy. If I don’t have a list I’m most likely buying twice as much stuff as I went in for. Ha! Love being a chick, I think this might run in our blood.

So since I know this is my weakness, I stick to cash and a list and I’m good.

P.S. The app I use and love for book keeping is called Pocket Money (iPad and iPhone), I also have heard really good things about Mint.com and Mint is free.

xoxojolleen
Do you have any tricks to help you stay in budget?

Fav Five Mondays

So in honor of all the fun I've had with my Summer of Pinteresting, for the month of August (I know it's not August yet, but close enough) I'm sharing my five favorite pins to inspire your week. I'm feeling like mint, pink, black, and purple will be filling my outfit choices! (You know picking just five was terribly hard).

Land of Cool on Tumblr

Yes please, want these socks! Totally Rad!

Kate Spade New York St Elmo Stripesmall Natalie Cosmetic Case

I love this Cosmetic Case, adding to my wishlist...

Double Ring - natural wood ring in cherry

I love a double ring and this one made of wood, really cool and from Etsy even better!

Steve Madden Lookoutt

Fuchsia heels!!! Come on, I wish these were in my closet right now!

Lovely Clusters on Tumblr

This kitchen is lovely, love the checkered on the wall.

While we're talking Pinterest I want to share with you one of my new favorite Pinners. Shannon Kirsten I  found her just yesterday, she has great fashion and photography pins. I'm always excited to find someone new!

xoxojolleen
*Link under pics will take you to their original home.
Do you have a favorite pinner?

Pastrami Roll-Ups

Don't they look like Sushi?? I think that's a little why I like these so much! I hate fish, but wish I liked sushi, something about eating it seems so hip and cool...the cool bus will pass me by on this one.

Anyways this is my modified recipe from The Pioneer Woman's Turkey Roll-ups...I'll post that later.  These were so delicious I made them with a peppered cream cheese, cucumbers, carrots, PICKLEs!! (side note, I love to drink pickle juice so we always have two jars of pickles in the fridge one that is mine that I can drink out of , labeled "Jolleen's Drank" and one that is for the honey and guests), Swiss Cheese, pastrami, and lettuce all rolled up into a tortilla! I also like to top them with black sesame seeds for a little extra flavor and it looks really cute....adds to the sushi feel.

Pastrami Roll-Ups

Pastrami Tortilla Roll-Ups

Ingredients

• 8 ounces weight Cream Cheese Softened
• 1/2 tablespoon Course White Pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon Fine Black Pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1 teaspoon Fresh Lemon Juice
• 6 whole Taco Sized Flour Tortillas
• 1/2 pound Shaved Pastrami
• 3 whole Carrots Peeled And matchstick cut
• 1 whole Cucumber Skin cut off and matchstick cut
• 3 leaves Green Leaf Lettuce Spine Removed
• Kosher Dill Pickle cut into matchsticks
• slices Swiss cut into matchsticks
• Black Sesame Seeds (optional)

Make the herbed cream cheese by combining the softened cream cheese with the pepper, salt, and lemon juice. Stir to combine.

Spread cream cheese in a thin layer over the tortillas. Lay ingredients down the middle of the tortilla. Let the veggies extend past the edges on either side.

Roll up the tortillas as tightly as they'll go, then wrap each roll-up in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.

To slice, cut each roll-up exactly in half, then line up the two halves and cut them in half again. Stand the end pieces up so that the veggies stick out the top.

I like to sprinkle mine with black sesame seeds.

NOTE: If your tortillas are cold they will crack, so warm them for a few seconds in the microwave to make them room temperature.

ENJOY!!!
xoxojolleen
Let me know if you try these...perfect meal for not heating up your kitchen. 

The Plan

I love meal planning!

But, I realize some people don't think this is one of the best things ever....so to help you out I'm going to start posting my meal plans on Saturdays, maybe this will give you some new ideas.

Then through out the week I'll post the recipes of stuff I made. This week I'll be posting in detail how I organize and budget planning for weekly and monthly stuff. Hope you get some new ideas!!!

xoxojolleen

Just Cute Mustache-e

This picture makes me smile so big and giggle. Love.

Edible Cookie Dough Truffles?!?!? Yes Please...

I mean it has cookie dough in it, how could these not be good?Let me tell you, they are delicious! I originally saw these posted on a blog I follow called Bakerella if you love really cute cake pops or fun sweet treats, I recommend following her...I'm always amazed at the stuff she can make!

But for this post she was trying these Edible Cookie Dough Truffles out of a new cookbook called The Cookie Dough Lover’s Cookbook (click here for recipe) the cookbook looks awesome!! I have it on my Amazon Wishlist, lots of fun stuff and just like the title says everything has cookie dough in it!YUM!! The book was written by Lindsay of Love and Olive Oil which was an awesome new blog find for me. They have really great recipes right now for the hot summer weather.

Edible Cookie Dough Truffles

Anyways I tried this and I love how they turned out, and they were really easy to make too. They recommend using popsicle sticks, but I had these pink flamingo toothpicks leftover from something else so I decided to use them up. I would like to try then dipped in dark chocolate next.

Let me know if you try this or if you have The Cookie Dough Lover's Cookbook what is your favorite recipe to make?

xoxojolleen

DIY Microdermabrasion

Dear Pinterest, You are amazing....I've been looking for DIY beauty tips and found this...DIY Microdermabrasion, it's awesome and super easy 3 parts baking soda and 1 part water into a paste and apply in a circular motions, lightly,  and rinse. 

 

I really can't believe how great this worked, I tried it about three weeks ago and will be doing this every week. My face feels super soft and tight (in a good way). The original pin is from bloggers Kelli and Lisa at their blog Bud & Leo, they also have a face mask and face scrub I want to try. I highly recommend their blog if you love fashion and girly fun stuff.

Let me know if you try this!!

xoxojolleen

Nails Hot Pink with Leopard Spots

I'm so loving the come back of nail art...sixth grade me thanks you fashion world!! I forgot how much fun I would have doing different stuff.

Pink- Orly La Vida Loca
Leopard Spots- Essie Mint Candy Apple & L.A. Colors Art Deco Black

Have a wonderful week everyone!! Follow my Pinterest board "Nail Love" for more inspiration.

xoxojolleen

I'm always looking for a good recipes for "too hot to cook" and "leftovers" nights. Chicken salad is one of my favorite things to do. On one night either my honey grills chicken and I have him make some extra or I get a Costco Rotisserie chicken we eat that one night with then I pull all the leftover chicken off  the bone and chop it up and make a chicken salad for another night that week.

Buffalo Chicken Salad

I love this one, I'm a HUGE buffalo wing fan so anytime I can have that flavor I'm all for it. There are a few different ways to serve this:
On lettuce for a salad
In lettuce for lettuce wraps
Use chips or Frito Scoops
Or whatever you like

Buffalo Chicken Salad

Serves  

Ingredients

• 2 cups chicken cooked and chopped
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce
• 1 carrot chopped, you could add celery too if you like I'm not a fan
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• whatever you want for serving the chicken salad

1. Dice up chicken into the size pieces you like, put into a large glass bowl.
2. Add mayonnaise, Frank's Red Hot Sauce, chopped carrot, salt and pepper to taste. (start off small you can always add more) stir.
3. Taste add more of any of the above ingredients to suit your taste buds.
4. Let sit for 10 minutes for the flavors to mix, I put it in the fridge because I like it really cold.
5. Get together whatever you are serving it with/in.


ENJOY!

xoxojolleen
Let me know if you make this, what do you think? How did you serve it?