Weekend Wrap Up!

This Memorial Day weekend was PERFECT! It was filled with amazing weather, great friends, lots of laughs and relaxation. It was a true Pure Michigan weekend spent up north at Houghton Lake, my oldest best friend Brianna invited me to come up north with her to her boyfriends cabin, a few of our other friends have cabins up there so it always end up being a home away from home. It's so nice to get to relax with friends and not have anything to worry about and no plans in sight. We did everything you could think of, went for boat rides, 4 wheeling, zip lining, singing and dancing, yummy summer drinks, and so much more! It was a perfect simple weekend! Here are a few pictures:

{The Sand Bar}

{Boats}

{The Lake}

{My friends dog Lucy :) }

{Water Toys}

Cards to Send

Lately I've had the urge to make cards at home to send out. I love the way they look and getting to make them just seems like a fun project. I've always considered a home made card more thoughtful than a store bought one, and by making them at home it would be more exciting and much cheaper. All it really takes is some paper supplies, ribbon, glitter, etc. Anything you can put on a card. I want to make some over the weekend when I'm not working. I will share them with you once they are made. Here are some I've found while looking for ideas.

{Love these, they are simple and can be used for any occasion}

Featured Blog!

http://daydreamfrenzy.blogspot.com This blog is written by a young girl that is a student at University of Texas. I love her style, her outfits and her thoughts! Check out her blog!!

{The Writer RACHEL}

Summer Summer Summer Time

There is nothing better in the summer than relaxing on a warm night out by a bon fire with a drink in your hand, your best friends around you and bringing back old memories while creating new ones. This past weekend what the first one of the summer in which I actually got to do this, my sister and I went to our friend Heather and Nichole's house to sit around the fire, drink a few beers and just relax :)

{Yum - I can only bring myself to drink this in the summer}

{Fire}

{Yummy Yummy S'MORE :) }

Uncle John's Winery

I live in a small town in Michigan which is pretty much put on the map by the cider mill better known as Uncle John's Cider Mill. It is the perfect place to spend the day in either the summer or the fall. In the summer they have craft shows and other events going on that are all family oriented and each year they add more and more. In the fall it is the best place to go for cider and doughnuts. You can even watch all of it being made. There is also a pick your own pumpkin patch, hay rides and a corn maze. Recently they have added a winery to the mix, my sister and I went to visit our friend Nichole at work there on Monday. The winery is beautiful, once you go inside you can nestle in and try up to 6 of the delicious wines and hard ciders they have. Visit the Winery here.  Here are some pictures:

{Me sampling the Hard Apple Cider}

{Sample Glasses}

{Part of the Winery Bar}

{Yum}

5 Things!

This past weekend has been a crazy busy blur but with great people, great weather and many adventures! I plan to share them with you all as soon and my phone and computer decide to communicate again! In the mean time I was spending my traditional hour a day on Pinterest this morning and felt as if I was just falling in love with everything I saw so I decided to share a few things I have found:

{Love this eye make up for going out}

{This bad just scream summer and take me to the beach}

{I love this dress for dressing up with some heels and a necklace or down with a belt}

{This outfit is perfect for summer}

{I will take all of these please - J.Crew}

Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake Cupcakes

Today as I was bopping around my daily blog checks I came across a recipe far too delicious to not share with you all. It is a little time consuming but great for any occasion or for a bite size snack! I love any type of cupcakes and I also usually make brownies as cupcakes so I get the perfect portion! Here is the recipe for Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake Cupcakes: (click the link to go to the source)

Ingredients:

For the crust:
1½ cups graham cracker crumbs
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
3 tbsp. sugar

For the raspberry swirl:
6 oz. fresh raspberries
2 tbsp. sugar

For the filling:
2 lbs. cream cheese, at room temperature
1½ cups sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 325˚ F.  Line cupcake pans with paper liners.  In a small bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and sugar.  Stir together with a fork until well blended and all the dry ingredients are moistened.  Press 1 tablespoon of the mixture into the bottom of each cupcake liner.  (I like to use a small drinking glass to easily and evenly press the crumbs down.  One of Andrew’s sippy cups works wonderfully.) Bake until just set, 5 minutes.  Transfer to a cooling rack.

{Finished Product}

Iced Coffee at Home

There are tons and tons of Iced Coffee recipes out there but I'm going to share mine with you too. There are tons of changes you can make depending on what you like but here are the basics:

{Step 1:} I usually take a regular sized drinking glass and fill it about 1/4 way full with crushed ice. 

{Step 2:} I put chocolate syrup on top of the ice just until it is covered.
(This step can be skipped)

{Step 3:} I fill the glass to half way with either milk or creamer,

(Your choice of both)

{Step 4:} Fill the rest of the way with cold coffee, stir and ENJOY!!

This usually works out well for me because my parents make coffee early in the morning and leave some for me, by the time I get around to drinking it, the coffee is cold so it works out. If you want to make it right away and your coffee is still warm you can still do all of the steps it just usually melts your ice right away but you can always add more. Enjoy!

Good Morning Sunshine!

I finally feel like I am part of this world again! The last few days I have been a bump on a log in my room fighting this awful cold, turned stomach flu, now congestion. Lovely (NOT!) I could only get up to force myself through work and grab the next tissue box I needed. But today I feel MUCH better. I woke up and could breath out of my nose and my mind just started racing with all of the things I've neglected the past few days. So today I have the day off (YAY!) and I am going to spend the day tying up ends and breathing in some fresh air and eating everything in sight because I haven't had much of an appetite the past few days. Here are a few pics of my joyful morning:

{A pretty flower from my parents garden}

{Fruit for breakfast}

{My 3 day long to do list - the one is the picture was seriously neglected}

{Catching up on blogs}

{Yummy homemade Iced Coffee}

Charming Charlie

Quick before I leave for work I wanted to share a fun website with you! It's called Charming Charlie, it is full of great accessories, they have everything from shoes to bags to super cute jewelry! Priced for any type of budget. They have great summer colors! Check it out! Here are a few pieces I love from it:

{Love love love this}

{I love all the summer colors in these wedges}

{Gorgeous!}

A Blank Canvas

Today on my break at work I ventured over to hobby lobby in search of small canvas' I found packs of two 8x10's for only $3.99 so I grabbed a few of them, bought some new colors of paint and a new white paint pen. I got home from work and got to crafting, I painted 3 out of the four of sure to what as pictured below. I'm not sure what I want to paint on them just yet so I keep trying things out. One of the best things about painting on a canvas is, it's so easy to paint over things and start over :) Here are a few pictures:

{Painted Canvas'}

{New Paint Pen}

{Paints!}

{Love the bright colors!}

Summer Goals!

Every Summer I like to make goals, however they rarely make it through the summer, so I am going to try again! This time they are simple, ones that make sense and can actually happen...here's the list!

• Have fresh flowers in my room each week
• Work out 3 times a week
• Save money (I fail at this every time)
• Make me time to do crafts 
• Blog everyday :)
• Experiment with cooking more!

It's a good start for now, I will keep you updated on my progress. I have accomplished having flowers in my room for the week! I bought some this morning: 

{Love them}

{So pretty}

Perks of being home!

As I said earlier I have moved home for the summer, back to my parents house which I really don't mind. I get to see my puppy everyday, there is always food here and it is always clean, well cleaner than my house at school that is. There are little things I love about being home, here are some one them!

{Puppy aka Mika!}

{My own touches to my room}

{I am much organized at home}

{Old dried flowers in a vase on my desk}

{All of my things are out and not in boxes!}

Sephora!

Yesterday my boyfriend and I went to Detroit to stay the night so he could catch an early flight home this morning, on the way we stopped at the 12 oaks mall in Novi, which is a personal favorite of mine! We went into Sephora and I as always fell right back in love, this is the closest one to me and it is an hour away. I browsed around and bought a few things, Joined the rewards program and got a free sample. I got a cleansing pad, which is always recommended to me by my sister Jenny, it is great for digging in deep to pores. I also got a small size of Clinique lotion, I used this a lot in high school and decided to give it a try again!  :)

{My purchases}

{Love it}

{Up Close}

Let the summer begin!!

I must first apologize for taking a week or so off from posting, I was soooo very busy wrapping up the semester, getting ready for summer and thinking of LOTS of things to blog about in the future. Last week seems like a whole cloud of tests, studying, eating out due to no time to cook and saying goodbye to friends.

I just finished my 4th year of college (with a 4.0 eeek!) and although I'll be taking a victory lap, many of my friends graduated this past weekend! Time flies when you're having fun is no lie! A few of my friends are making big moves and leaving the state. It's impossible to say goodbye to friends you've had since middle school so I prefer see you later! I wish them all the best of luck I know they will do great!

So to sum up my last week here are some highlights:
I took exams, Packed all my stuff to move home, Did a little summer shopping, Went to a going away party, Made some plans for summer, and Sent my boyfriend home to New Jersey for the summer :(

Those of you who don't know my boyfriend Matt is from New Jersey, I met him here at school but he obviously would rather spend summers at home after being away for the year. So it's so of like we are in a half long distance half not relationship which is not easy! But we manage, have for almost 2 years :)

Time to share with you my ideas, plans and thoughts for summer! Stayed tuned!