A Thought on Memorial Day and an Amazing Turkey Feta Burger Recipe!

Yahoo!  Today is Memorial Day!  I hope y'all have had a wonderful weekend playing, having fun, doing house projects, and or relaxing!  This weekend has been full of work for us. I posted on Instagram a photo of us ripping out our old carpet in our living room.  We're installing new floors, baseboards, tile, and will be painting our doors.

Today is a day that a lot of us get together with close friends and family and remember those we lost who served our country.  Last year for Memorial Day my family and I visited my Grandpa's grave site.  I was really close with my Grandpa.  He served in WWII and was enlisted a month after my grandparents were married.  He was lucky enough to have survived lived until he was 92 and was married to my Grandma for almost 70 years.  He lived a long happy and fulfilling life, but it was still was hard to say goodbye.

On this Memorial Day I'm so grateful for those brave and strong men and women who have given up their lives to serve our country so that my family and I can live with the freedoms we have.  I know most of us take our freedoms for granted, I know I do.  I was thinking about how lucky I am to have the freedom to write my random thoughts and opinions on this blog.  That my family can practice our faith and religion, my children will be able to have an education, and that I have the opportunity to shape my future.  So thank you to all of those service women and men who have served our country!

If you're firing up the grill up today and want to make something that is easy, delicious, and healthy then you gotta make these Feta and Spinach Turkey Burgers. These are perfect if you're watching your carb intake, or trying to eat healthy.

Easter and Spring Themed Succulent Terrarium and Fireplace Mantel

Easter is right around the corner and at my house I try my hardest to make it look somewhat festive.  I think last year was the first time I purchased some Easter/spring decorations I bought on clearance after Easter.  So this year I knew I wanted to keep that tradition up but add some subtle Easter decor throughout the house.  I'm not a huge fan of decorating the ENTIRE house for the holidays and spending hours doing it.   That's a lot of pressure and takes up a lot of time.  One of my favorite stores is Cost Plus World Market because they have such a fun and eclectic decor, ethnic foods, stylish house ware items.  You can spend hours there.  When I decorate for the holidays I like to keep it simple, and my rule of thumb is keep the holiday decorations to only 2-3 areas in the home.  Like the front porch, my entry way to the living room, and fireplace mantel in the family room. 

One of my favorite things is to bring the outdoors in.  We love plants in our family and anyway I can add a bit of greenery in our house, I'm all for it. That's why I thought it would be really fun to create a seasonal terrarium where I add things to it during each holiday to make it festive. 

Traditional Crusty Irish Soda Bread

I know St. Patrick's Day was earlier this week, but I want to share with you one of my favorite quick and easiest bread to make, and it just happens to be Irish and delicious.   This traditional Crusty Irish Soda Bread recipe I received from a friend several years ago is my go-to bread when I don't have time, which is becoming more the new normal.  It seriously takes 60 minutes to make and bake.  It's quick, foolproof, eggless, and in the end makes the perfect crusty and dense bread perfect for slathering butter and jam, dipping into oil, making sandwiches, toast, and anything your heart desires!

The Easiest Homemade Coconut Syrup Recipe

My Grandma Kathy on my mom's side has a recipe that is above all recipes.  It's a staple when we have waffles, pancakes, french toast, and crepes.  Breakfast without this recipe isn't the same.  It's rich, delicious, flavorful, takes your breakfast to the next level, and sadly it's not low in fat or sugar.  I wouldn't eat it everyday, but I do consume it on those special occasions.  I'm introducing you to the Easiest Homemade Coconut Syrup Recipe.

DIY Velveteen Bow Tree Topper Tutorial

Our tree has been decorated for a couple weeks now and I haven't put a tree topper on it yet because I don't have one.  I didn't want to spend any money so I did the best thing I could do was to diy own!  I saw this Christmas tree from the talented Kristen from The Hunted Interior and loved everything about it.  I've had this picture in my mind for a while now and thought of how I could incorporate this into my Christmas tree.  A couple nights ago at 10 p.m. when I getting ready for bed, I thought a big velvet bow would be the perfect touch to our Christmas tree.  With this simple and easy tutorial you'll be able to create this stylish tree topper bow for your sophisticated looking tree, wreath, garland, or make lots of bows to scatter them throughout your Christmas decor.  I love how it turned out!

Minted Christmas Cards and their new blog, Julep!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Minted.com.  All opinions are 100% mine.  

Have you heard of Minted.com?  It's not the place where they make money or where you can purchase delectable mint truffles.  Minted is one my favorite places to get inspiration for holiday cards, business cards, and party decor. McKay, Amelia, and I finally got our family pictures taken this year, I knew this year was the year we HAVE to do Christmas cards.  I checked out Minted holiday cards, and I loved most of them.  Check out my favorites below!

After much consideration, thought, and going back and forth many times.  I dwindled it down to my top four.  Which one do you think I picked for our Christmas card this year?

1. Minimal Band Holiday Photo 

 2. Modern Yuletide Holiday Photo

 3. Pebble Dot Christmas Photo

4. Bold for the Holidays Holiday

You'll just have to wait and see.  

Just recently Minted started their own very indie blog called Julep, where they post a ton of great inspiration for weddings, parties, diy, and making life more beautiful.  This is my kind of site!

I found this tutorial on how to make your own typography cookies!  What a fun gift this would be for neighbors, friends, and family.  I could see these cookies on top of a cake, string them up as tree ornaments, ice them with the kids for Santa and his reindeer, or just enjoy the beauty of them and then eating them with a cold glass of milk and sitting by the fire.

Here are some of my other favorite posts from Julep: 

Winter Wedding Backdrops

Decorating with Plants

Thanks Minted for supporting Fry Sauce and Grits!

The Six Worst Christmas Songs of All Time

When it comes to Christmas music, I think that things are black or white.  It's either good, or it's terrible.  I think we all dread hearing certain songs on the radio every Christmas Season.  In an effort to raise awareness, I decided to make a list of the worst Christmas songs ever.  I would like to suggest our culture divorce itself from these terrors.

6. "Hey Santa" - Wilson Phillips

Don't get me wrong, I love Wilson Phillips, but this song is pretty much atrocious.  And that hat?  Really?  I think we could get by without hearing this song ever again.  

Holiday Gift Idea: DIY Genealogy Fan Wall Art

Getting a gift for parents, grandparents, or any loved ones for birthdays, anniversaries, and for the holidays can be really hard.  You want to give them a priceless gift that is something they're going to cherish and not throw away in six month, right?   I have the perfect and priceless gift idea for your loved one.  How about giving the gift of family by creating your very own stylish genealogy chart or fan where you can display, proudly, your family and heritage!

Thanksgiving Tablescape Roundup

I have always wanted to host a Thanksgiving dinner in my own place, and so I decided a while ago that 2013 was the year!  It's not like I'll be 9 months pregnant and still working. Sometimes I wonder what I was thinking, but alas, I am still excited!

I've been searching the web high and low for some Thanksgiving tablescape ideas.  I want something simple and easy to clean up.  But, something that looks nice!  And since I don't want to be standing over the sink washing my china with my newly formed swollen cankles, I am looking at paper good options as well!  Who says Thanksgiving can't be casual and chic?!

Here are a few ideas I have stumbled across that I thought might give you some last minute inspiration. Remember, Thanksgiving is about reminding ourselves of our blessings from God, the people we love, and of course the food!  Tablescapes are not that important, so keep it simple.

A Festive Fall Front Porch on a Budget

I'm going to get a little personal here.  The last couple months have been really stressful for my McKay and I.  McKay's job has been in jeopardy because of the nationwide sequestration.  With several rounds of layoffs at his work and more to come,  McKay and I have felt so uneasy about his future and the need to have a more stable job so he can finish his masters and support Amelia and I.  The good news is McKay has been offered a job with a government program where they allow him to go to school full time, pay him salary, and they pay for school!  This is a huge blessing, but there's one crappy stipulation, it's a significant cut to his pay :(

We've had to have some serious heart to heart talks about our finances.  We even thought of moving out of our home and renting it out for a couple of years to save money.  Even though that would save us money we just didn't feel right about that option and plus I would feel overly territorial about someone else living in my home, worrying about whether or not they're keeping it clean, and thinking about someone sleeping in my bedroom (it kinds of creeps me out).

We'll be able to survive, but money is going to be really tight for the next couple years.   It's hard to be at a comfortable stage of your life then being forced to feeling like a poor college student again.  You feel like you're taking three steps backwards.  After weeks of feeling mopey and "my life sucks" kind of mood, and dealing with some health issues (it's been a rough week).  I've realized that this isn't the end of the world.  Many people go through set backs in their lives and this one will be such a small one in the grand scheme of our lives.  We're extremely blessed and have SO much to be grateful for.  This new opportunity is going to get McKay through school, have a stable job, and allow him to be home more.  Not many families in our area do have options, and I need to remember that.

I'll stop my whining now.

My friend Allison from Cupcake Diaries asked me to be apart of her series of 30 Days of Halloween where each day she features a blogger creating something Halloweenish.  You can go here to learn about the series and see all of the other awesome Halloween ideas you can use this year.

Anyway, I really, really, really, wanted to dress up my boring front porch this year for Fall/Halloween for Allison's series but needed to do it on a VERY small budget.  I was pretty skeptical I could pull it off.

I set a budget of $5 and promised myself I wouldn't go over it and I'm happy to say I was able to stay on that budget!  It wasn't easy.  I wanted to get a few new fall decorations I saw at various stores, but I stuck to my guns and bought only what I really needed.  Everything else I used I already had in my house, found in the garbage, borrowed, reused, painted, and grew to get this front porch looking festive.