Mardi Gras!

Growing up Catholic, Mardi Gras was always a big deal! Do you celebrate Mardi Gras? 

I didn't grow up in New Orleans and I've never been there for Mardi Gras but every year we would go to the Mardi Gras parade where I grew up! And every year, the day before Lent (which I'll post about tomorrow), I would indulge in ice cream or chocolate or whatever I was giving up. I remember one time, I made my mom take me to Sonic at like 9pm to get a milkshake because it was the last time I would indulge in a milkshake until Easter Sunday!

Today, I wanted to share a little bit about Mardi Gras for those of you who don't know much about it! 

Mardi Gras is a FRENCH term meaning "Fat Tuesday". It is usually celebrated on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday which opens the fasting season of Lent in the Catholic Church. 

Here is a website that gives the history of Mardi Gras!

Here's a little history that they shared: 

In 1872, Purple, Green and Gold became the official colors of Mardi Gras!

 The traditional Mardi Gras colors of purple, green, and gold are said to have been chosen by Grand Duke Alexis Alexandrovitch Romanoff of Russia during a visit to New Orleans in 1872. These three colors also have powerful meanings:  purple for justice, gold for power and green for faith. 

...and the King Cake Tradition began!

The "traditional" king cake is a coffee cake and is oblong and braided. It is iced with purple, green and gold sugar. Each cake contains a hidden small plastic baby and custom says that whoever finds it must either buy the next King cake or throw the next King cake party! 

I absolutely love king cake! You can find a yummy recipe for king cake here at Bunny cooks! & they have some yummy ones for sale at Publix (if you live in the southeast). 

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MARDI GRAS is a fun tradition to take part in, especially if you celebrate a time of fasting during Lent (the 40 days before Easter). I don't think I'll ever go to New Orleans, LA for Mardi Gras but in the future, I would love to have friends over to celebrate Mardi Gras with a little king cake and wine! I think its a great tradition to start... 

Welp, that's all I have for today. I just thought Mardi Gras was a neat tradition and I should share it with all of you. Let me know if you've heard of Mardi Gras, Do you celebrate it? 

Thanks for stoppin' by

xoxo Jen.

Hair Care!

Today, I decided to do a lil post on hair!

My hair has not been working with me lately. 

And there are so many cute blogs with great hair ideas! The beauty of blogging & pinterest is that we are blessed to have so many resources at our fingertips! Here's what my hair looked like at my wedding:

If only I could wake up and it would look that amazing!

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You can check out all of my favorites here on pinterest! But here are some of my favorite hair blogs:

1. I love this one! The Quick Twist! It can be found at the Beauty Department- a great blog by Lauren Conrad, Kristin Ess and Amy Nadine for hair, make up and fashion!

2. My Yellow Sandbox has some pretty awesome tutorials. She even made an e-book for only $4.99. She has lots of hairstyle tutorials on the the site after your purchase her e-book! its pretty awesome! I was following her way back when and have seen most of the video- they are awesome and so helpful!

3. My Soul is the Sky has awesome tutorials for hair! So many different ideas for hair! I love her blog! This one pictured was inspired by Nicole Richie: 

Didn't she doe an awesome job? Well go here to check out the tutorial! So wonderful!

4. The Small Things has a ton of great hairstyle tutorials from this cute fishtail braid to even how to wear your hair straight! She's a professional hairstylist too! So she definitely knows what shes talking about. I love blogging! So many awesome resources for hairstyles ans so much more!

5. Three Pink Dots has the greatest sock bun tutorial! Check it out! :)

6. & I just found this site tonight but she has some awesome tutorials! Love Maegan- Check out her site!

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And that's all I have for today! Feeling inspired? Me too! Maybe I'll start actually doing something with my hair! Thanks for stoppin' by: 

xoxo Jen.

Do we see beauty?

Hey Everyone! I'm back! I'm so sorry!

My life has become incredibly busy these past two weeks and I was not doing a good job of keeping up with my blog that I love and hold so dear. Today I have a story that is not mine to share. I saw this on facebook and thought it was so very important. 

This is so awesome. Please take a moment to read:

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, and continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work. 

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: 

Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context? 

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

I just thought this was a really neat reflection for the day. My friend, Marianne, takes really beautiful pictures. You can find these and purchase one on her website here @ Mariannegreig.com! These pictures are under landscapes! So beautiful! Here are some that I love: 

We are so blessed with beauty all around all the time: in nature and in people. Take the time to appreciate all that is beautiful in your daily life.

That's all I got for today! 

Thanks for stoppin' by:

xoxo Jen.

SuperBowl Cheddar Bacon Dip

Here we are. I'm pretty sure I have no make up on here... 

Anywho. This past weekend it was the Super Bowl! Ahh! We weren't really leaning toward a particular team. We chose the Giants because the Patriots had a few Ex-Gators & Ex-Miami football boys on their team and we are die hard Seminole fans! I was craving this cheddar bacon dip so I ran up to Publix to grab some ingredients...Here's the recipe! (thanks to my bridal shower)

Ingredients:

1 round loaf of Sourdough bread

1 1/2 cup of sour cream

1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese

2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese

1 1/2 t. Worcestershire

1/2 cup chopped green onion

3/4 lb cooked crumbled bacon

Bread cubes and crackers for dipping.

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cut the top of the bread off and hollow out, leaving a one inch shell. Cut the removed bread into cubes.

Next in a large bowl mix with a fork, softened cream cheese, sour cream, & Worcestershire sauce.

Stir in bacon, and onion.

Spoon mixture into bread bowl. 

Wrap the bread bowl in foil and place on a cookie sheet or pan.

Bake at 325 degrees for one hour.

Serve with crackers and bread cubes...

sooo yummy!

That's all I have for today!

Thanks for stoppin by,

xoxo Jen.

Linking Up:

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Its so very Cheri

Valentines Pins!

Its almost Valentines Day.

I'm quite a sucker for the mushy, gooey, lovey stuff.

So today, I'm sharing some of my favorite Valentine pins from Pinterest!

this is soo cute! make a 3D card!

don't these look yummy

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Printable Valentines!

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cute decor for Valentines Day

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Valentines wreath! so cute! 

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I'm totally doing this one day if I have a son!

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Red Velvet brownies.. Yum. Technically you could make these anytime but so yummy as a Valentines treat!

Did I mention the white chocolate butter cream frosting? omgosh!

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Make your own Valentines! 

Cute & affordable! What a fun craft for a kid!

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and this is my favorite. Such a cute decor. I hope to have time to make this one day!

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And my favorite song right now... I feel like its pretty Valentines Day-ish.

All your Life by The Band Perry!

That's all I got for now! 

Thanks for stoppin by, if you are new, 

be sure to leave me a comment so I can follow you back!

xoxo Jen.

Linking Up:

Pinning at the Baxtron Life

Yummy Strawberry Dip!

My husband is a PE coach. We went to a little team party last night which was a lot of fun. 

One of the moms made this dip and she told me what it was. It was soo yummy. I couldn't get enough of it so I wanted to share it with all of you!

Mix Marshmallow fluff, a package of Cream Cheese and Strawberry Jell-O mix...

So for your next get together, make some of this Yummy Strawberry dip!

That's all for today!

Thanks for stoppin' by:
xoxo Jen.

PS. I just go an I-phone & I'm loving it!

Linking up:
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Lovely Crafty Home
I can't stop crafting
The Wiegands

Love will hold us together.

One month ago today.

I married my best friend.

We are so happy and in love. 

Life with him is simply the best.

I love waking up beside him every day.

. . . 

Some people say it is just the butterflies and "oh...young love" but its not.

We work at it. 

We choose to love each other everyday. 

We pray every night before we go to bed.

We ask for forgiveness from God & each other when we're wrong .

We make each other smile & laugh.

We tell each other everything.

We hold each other.

We LOVE each other.

And at the end of the day, if everything goes wrong...

We look to each other, smile and say its okay

because we have each other!

.....

It don't have a job. Don't pay your bills. Won't buy you a home in Beverly Hills. Won't fix your life in five easy steps. Ain't the law of the land or the government.

But it's all you need.

Love

will hold us together, make us a shelter to weather the storm. And I'll be my brother's keeper so the whole world will know that we're not alone!

.....

This is the quote from a song by Matt Maher! 

Have you heard of him? 

He's a Catholic Christian singer/songwriter. and I love his music.

But this particular song... is my favorite.

It's so true. 

Life is not always easy. But if God is on your side, who can be against?

Because God is Love.

That's all I got. Reflections of the day. I'm feeling pretty blessed.

Thanks for stoppin by:

xoxo Jen.