Friday Favorites - May 12, 2017

Happy Friday!  We have a wide array of features for you today.  My favorite was a scrumptious tomato sauce.  Check it out below.  And don't forget to link up and share your great post ~

Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Christine at Light and Savvy - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Maisy at Becoming Alice - FB | G+ | Pin

Sheree at Stage Presents - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst | Inst

Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Amy at A Day of Small Things - Pin

Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Kelly at Under a Texas Sky - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL

If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!

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You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!

And if you love all of this week's favorites, please pin, share, and invite your friends to this week's linky party!

Thinking Out Loud Thursday - May 11, 2017

Well hello friends!  Thanks for popping in to Thinking Out Loud Thursday.  I can't wait to share with you what I'm thinking out loud about today!

I took a little time off from blogging last week to enjoy a couple fun activities we had going on.  First, our son Ian was sworn in to the Illinois Bar last Thursday and we couldn't be more proud! He has now passed the bars in Missouri and Illinois.

Eric's mom and my parents were able to join us and witness this special occasion.  Doesn't having family participate in these momentous occasions make them even more special!?!

My friend, TW, arrived at our house Tuesday night from Wisconsin to help me with a wedding I was doing on Saturday.  It takes a very special kind of friend who will drop everything to help you out and I'm so thankful to have him in my life.  We both worked our normal jobs during the day and transformed ourselves into wedding planners at night.  Let me tell you, there was a whirlwind of activity happening each evening - paper was being cut, glue was being sprayed, spreadsheets were being examined.  Some people might not think that sounds like fun, but for us it is a blast.  Friday night Kayla, my daughter-in-law, joined in on the fun and when we woke up on Saturday morning we were ready for the wedding!

There's not many things I love more than weddings, especially if I get to help with them.  My friends Lyndsey and Justin are a perfect couple and to work on their magical day was truly an honor.  So many things went right, starting with the weather.  I was at the chapel getting the ceremony started while TW and Kayla were transforming the History Museum into a reception haven.  The day could not have been better.

I was so thrilled to be working with my favorite photographer, Erica Turner.  Her photos truly capture the essence of the subjects she is shooting.  Erica's sneak peak photos are fabulous and they make me so excited to see the rest of the pictures from the day.  Need a photographer?  Turner Creative Photography is your answer!  You'll be hearing more about the wedding details in future posts, but for now I have to share her sneak peak pictures (these make my photos above look SUPER amateur)  ~

When I reflect back on the whole wedding weekend, an overwhelming feeling comes over me.  I am truly so blessed to have friends who will step in and share with me these experiences.  It's my passion to help with weddings and they are willing to come with me on the ride and make it even more fun.  Thanks TW and Kayla!  Can't wait till our next one!

So that's what I'm thinking out loud about today.  What's on your mind?  Link up below and let us know.

An InLinkz Link-up

Enjoy more Thoughts for Thursday at:

Home of Malones

East Coast Chic

Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop

This is How We Roll
This post contained affiliate links.  I may receive a small commission if you click on the link and purchase.  Thanks!

Friday Favorites - May 5, 2017

Happy Friday!  I'm helping with the wedding this weekend and am knee deep in the prep.  I'll be back next week to share the beauty.  Until then, enjoy the features today.

Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Christine at Light and Savvy - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Maisy at Becoming Alice - FB | G+ | Pin

Sheree at Stage Presents - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst | Inst

Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Amy at A Day of Small Things - Pin

Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Kelly at Under a Texas Sky - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL

If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!

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You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!

And if you love all of this week's favorites, please pin, share, and invite your friends to this week's linky party!

Five on Friday - April 28, 2017

Friday is here and I'm so ready for the weekend!  This has been a fast week and just thinking about being able to sleep in a bit on Saturday puts a smile on my face!  I've got five fun things to share with you today.  Take a look ~

1.  Bath and Body Works Fizzies
Did you know that Bath and Body is now selling bath fizzies?!?  And their names are so fun ~ Hello Beautiful, Endless Weekend, A Thousand Wishes, Love and Sunshine.  Turn your bath into a luxurious oasis of fun, color and scent by plopping one in the water.  Would a collection of these not make a super fun Mother's Day gift!  If you use the code JUSTPEACHY, you can get 25% off your entire order.  Get 'em before they are gone!

2.  Into the Water
Did you love The Girl on the Train?  The author, Paula Hawkins, has her next book coming out May 2 and it is currently available to pre-order.  Could be a great summer read!  Here's how Amazon sums up the book, "A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town. Earlier in the summer, a vulnerable teenage girl met the same fate. They are not the first women lost to these dark waters, but their deaths disturb the river and its history, dredging up secrets long submerged.

Left behind is a lonely fifteen-year-old girl. Parentless and friendless, she now finds herself in the care of her mother's sister, a fearful stranger who has been dragged back to the place she deliberately ran from—a place to which she vowed she'd never return.

With the same propulsive writing and acute understanding of human instincts that captivated millions of readers around the world in her explosive debut thriller, The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins delivers an urgent, twisting, deeply satisfying read that hinges on the deceptiveness of emotion and memory, as well as the devastating ways that the past can reach a long arm into the present.

Beware a calm surface—you never know what lies beneath."

I'm adding this psychological suspense novel to my summer reading list!  Click HERE to purchase.

3.  Bon Appétit

Katy Perry, along with Migos, is dropping a new song today titled Bon Appetit.  KatyCats were all excited on Monday when she tweeted out her World's Best Cherry Pie recipe.  Some people are speculating that hidden in the recipe are song lyrics to the new tune.  How clever is that!  Here's the tweeted recipe.  Sounds pretty delicious to me!

4.  The Circle

I've seen the previews for this movie and I truly think Tom Hanks has done it again.  Here's the storyline from Movie Insider, "When Mae (Emma Watson) is hired to work for the world’s largest and most powerful tech & social media company, she sees it as an opportunity of a lifetime. As she rises through the ranks, she is encouraged by the company’s founder, Eamon Bailey (Tom Hanks), to engage in a groundbreaking experiment that pushes the boundaries of privacy, ethics and ultimately her personal freedom. Her participation in the experiment, and every decision she makes begin to affect the lives and future of her friends, family and that of humanity."  

5.  Reality...

Have a wonderful weekend!  We will be glued to the TV tonight watching the St. Louis Blues try to get their first victory in the second round of the playoffs.  LGB!!  There's a ton of rain in the forecast so it sounds like we are going to be spending most of the weekend inside.  That's fine by me because I'm helping with a wedding next weekend and I have plenty of things to keep me busy!  See you soon!

Linking up with:

Amy at The Farmer's Wife
The Peaceful Posse

Amanda at Meet At The Barre

Erika at Little Bit of Everything

Simply Sweet Home
High Five for Friday
5 on Friday
Oh My Heartsie Girl

Friday Favorites - April 28, 2017

Happy Friday!  You really need to check out all the great favorites today!  I'm especially excited about sharing mine because it's about the Kentucky Derby.  Are you planning a Kentucky Derby party?  Maybe checking out the recipes will help you decide to throw a run for the roses gathering.

Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Christine at Light and Savvy - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Maisy at Becoming Alice - FB | G+ | Pin

Sheree at Stage Presents - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst | Inst

Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Amy at A Day of Small Things - Pin

Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Kelly at Under a Texas Sky - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL

If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!

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You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!

And if you love all of this week's favorites, please pin, share, and invite your friends to this week's linky party!

Thinking Out Loud Thursday - April 27, 2017

Welcome to another edition of Thinking Out Loud Thursday!  Thanks for stopping by to see what I'm thinking out loud about today.  Link up below and share what's on your mind.

I got a new computer this week.  (Notice there's no explanation point expressing excitement at the end of that sentence.)  As much as I want to be feeling a frenzy of excitement, it's more of a feeling of dread.  My files aren't exactly where they were, so I'm going to have to spend some time organizing things a bit.  Something I'm really not very excited to spend my time doing.  I have a hard enough time moving forward and getting everything done that I want to accomplish.  Going back and redoing things from the past rarely happens with a smile on my face!

So my heart stopped when I went to download my favorite photo editor, Picasa, and saw this ~

We’ve decided to retire Picasa in order to focus on a single photo service in Google Photos – a new, smarter photo app that works seamlessly across mobile and the web.



What!?!  But I love Picasa!  How can they just "retire" it?!?  It was so easy to use and made my photos look so much better.  My heart is broken.

So friends, I need your help.  I'm in a real conundrum.  What free photo editor do you use?  Even if it's not free, I'd love to hear your recommendations.  This girl needs a new photo editor to fall in love with!

Feel free to link up below and tell me what you're thinking out loud about today.  See you tomorrow for Friday Favorites and Five on Friday.  Right now I need to get back to working out the kinks on this new computer!

An InLinkz Link-up

Enjoy more Thoughts for Thursday at:

Home of Malones

East Coast Chic

Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop

This is How We Roll
This post contained affiliate links.  I may receive a small commission if you click on the link and purchase.  Thanks!

Weekending - April 21, 2017

Hello friends!  How did Monday get here so quickly?!?  We had a lovely weekend and the only down side was it passing so fast.

Friday night I met some friends after work at a new joint and am already trying to figure out when I can go back.  Seriously, it was that good!  Club Taco in Kirkwood was the perfect little spot to grab a drink and dinner to start the weekend.  They have an adorable little area to sit outside, but the rain made our decision to sit inside pretty easy.




We got there in time for their happy hour pricing and enjoyed 1/2 price tacos and 2 for 1 house margaritas and sangria.  What a deal!  I ordered a traditional carnitas and traditional bisteca taco with a side of club tots.  The tots - OMG!!  Fried tots with aged white cheddar, freshly roasted green chiles, chipotle crema and a Buttonwood Farm free-rage fried egg topped with radish.  I can't stop thinking about how good it was!

One of my friends got a side of roasted street corn casserole.  She let me take a bite and I literally ordered six sides of them to go.  We were having Ian and Kayla over to watch the St. Louis Blues hockey games on Saturday and it was going to make a perfect side to the chicken enchiladas I was making. (Just an FYI, everyone at my house LOVED the corn!)

After the food was devoured, we hung around for another drink.  The watermelon basil 'rita sounded too good to pass up so I ordered one of those.  Fabulous!  Guys, this little place is definitely worth checking out.  It was the perfect place to catch up with my friends!

Saturday morning I got up early and started cooking.  We made the chicken enchiladas casserole that I blogged about HERE, a new chocolate cake recipe that I'll have share with you and homemade ice cream.  Fun way to spend a Saturday morning!

Between cooking and when Kayla and Ian were arriving, we popped in Fezziwig's to pick up a few items.  They were having an Earth Day sale and we had wanted to take advantage of it!  They carry a pear wine that is so delightful.  We're stocked and ready to enjoy it with friends now.

The highlight of the day was the St. Louis Blues winning their game and moving on to the second round of the NHL playoffs!!  We were so excited to have Kayla and Ian there to watch it with us.  Could this be our year to win the cup?!?  Let's hope so!

Sunday was sailing along quite nicely -- right up until the time Eric was headed for work and experienced car trouble.  Man, can that really throw a wrench into things!  He ended up taking my car and leaving me home with no vehicle.  First world problems I know, but darn is it inconvenient only having one car with two working people going in opposite directions!  We are hoping to get the car back by Wednesday.  Until then, we are going to have to do some creative commuting.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend and your week is off to a great start.  Cross your fingers that life with two cars resumes at our house soon!

Check out what others were up to this weekend.

B Loved Boston

Over the Moon

This post contained affiliate links.  I may receive a small commission if you click on the link and purchase.  Thanks!