Life through Instagram

I've been really busy studying for exams and moving out! So, for today's post I thought I would share a few photos from instagram to give you a glimpse of my life the past week and half! I will be back in the swing of things with the blog later this week! :)

I finally got to eat at the Corner Bagel, they have the best bagels in town! I got blueberry with strawberry cream cheese and Michael got sausage, egg, and cheese on a salt bagel.

 Life with my car is an adventure, luckily it was an easy fix this time! :)

 The blog hit 2,000 views last week, I was proud of this! :) 

I took the love language test online. I already took it 4 years ago, but I wanted to see if it changed. However, it didn't change. I'm still even between quality time, words of affirmation, and physical touch!

 You have to try the new m&m's Chocolate Trio, they are to die for!

We moved out of the apartment this past weekend,  it was pretty sad. I will miss it!

 Here is a picture of Michael and me when I moved into the apartment and the day I moved out.

 Michael and I were bored yesterday, so we had a little photoshoot. haha

How was your weekend? I hope you have a great Monday! :)

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Find Rest in your Stress

I am reminded this week how easy it is to let the hustle and busyness of life take hold of you. Often, during these times, we forget to pay attention to the important things like reading the Word, spending time with the people you love, and taking time to just sit in peace. I am thinking specifically about all the college students out there taking their final exams this week and next. I am in the same boat as all of you and I've let all my final projects and papers get the best of me lately. I've found myself talking rougher and snapping more. I'm a worrier. I like to say I inherited this from my mother. What's funny is my worry doesn't help the outcome. It just makes me feel worse. So, this week I am placing my stress and worry on the only One who can sustain me. If you are having a busy week like me whether you're a mom, teacher, student, or worker, I want to encourage you to dwell on these verses. Jesus can help you overcome your stress! :)

"Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28 


"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33


"Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved." Psalm 5:22

2 down, 2 to go!

It's a bittersweet week around here as we finish classes, start exams, and move out of the apartment. I will officially be done with my sophomore year of college on Tuesday! (Can I get a woo hoo!) Then I head back home for the summer! The saddest part is moving out of the apartment and leaving my sweet roommate, Elizabeth. We were reminiscing this week about how we met and it made me laugh to think about how God knows our plans much better than we do. Elizabeth and I met the summer after 9th grade at the Gauntlet retreat through NewSpring Church. I went on a whim because family members attended that church. They encouraged me to go to meet new people and get away from home. I was placed in Elizabeth's room, along with 6 other girls who soon became my very good friends. Throughout high school I went to visit this group of girls. We went to proms, dances, and other Gauntlets together. I had no intention of coming to school here until the last month of senior year. Liz and I didn't room together until this year, but I honestly could not have asked for a better roommate or friend. We often talk about how we would have never guessed when we met 5 years ago that we would be roommates one day. For fun, I thought I would share some old and recent pictures of us!

Happy Wednesday! :) Have a great day!

"Remembering Sunday"

Recently, I've been obsessed with some of All Time Low's songs. I've been listening to them nonstop! "Remembering Sunday" is definitely one of my favorites. It's off their album, So Wrong, It's Right. It features Juliet Simms, whom you may have seen on Season 2 of The Voice. I love her voice in this song. I think she adds a lot to it. I personally love Alex Gaskarth's voice too! Enjoy! :) It's just the song. There is no music video.

When you don't have any vases on hand...

My sweet boyfriend brought me flowers last week and I didn't have a vase here at the apartment to put it in. So i came up with my own vase and I don't think I'll ever use a real vase again! This DIY flower vase is so cute and rustic! It's also cheap and easy! I used an old cream soda bottle and covered it in twine.

Take an old glass bottle, I used cream soda. Then put water and flowers in it. 

Next, start at the top and wrap the twine around the bottle. To make it stay at the top, make sure you completely cover the starting point; as you see above and below.

Wrap the twine all the way to the bottom of the bottle and use glass glue to hold it. If you don't want to buy glue, you could also use tape! 

There you have it, a cute DIY flower vase! Next time you don't have a vase handy, you could quickly make a great one like this out of things you have around the house. If you do not want to use twine like me, you could also use yarn or ribbon. Have a great day! Come back soon! :)

Gooey Snickers Cake Dessert

I was in a baking mood this past Saturday and I wanted to make something really good. I've had brownies and ice cream a lot lately so I wanted to bake something different and new. I decided to use cake and Snickers ingredients. The result was amazing! I based my recipe off of Picky Palate's cake bars. I love her cake bars so I used her base ingredients for the cake part. The rest of the recipe was mine! It's warm, gooey, and great with a glass of milk! Oh, and it's super easy too! Just the way I like it! :)

The warm caramel and peanuts made this recipe come together so well. You could add chocolate syrup on top too! 

Ingredients:

• 1 box of marble cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
• 1/2 cup of butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup of caramels melted (or use a jar of carmel topping)
• 1/2 cup of chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup of peanuts
• 1 can of Eagle brand condensed milk
• 1 1/2 Snickers bars 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Then mix together butter, egg, and cake mix. Spread the dough on bottom of greased pan. Spread chocolate chips and peanuts on top of dough, then drizzle caramel on top. Next, cover the whole pan of ingredients with condensed milk. Last, break up Snickers bars and place on top of everything evenly. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

Enjoy! Feel free to share the recipe with the buttons below!

Rainy Days

Every time it rains, I immediately think of this song. I've loved it for years now. "Banana Pancakes" by Jack Johnson makes me happy, especially on rainy days when I don't feel like doing anything. It's a really mellow and relaxing song! I thought I'd share a few things I think about when I hear this song.

1. When I first met Michael and he told me he played guitar; this was the first song I asked if he could play. His answer was a yes! :) I've always loved the guitar picking in the beginning of the song and I wish he did it in this video!  
2. I've never had banana pancakes, but pancakes are one of my favorite breakfast foods. I prefer to eat mine with chocolate chips! :)
3. It's currently the alarm clock song I wake up to each morning.

So yeah, it's pretty great. Here's a video of him playing the song live! I hope you like it, if you haven't already heard it. 

The Joy Stealer

My favorite blogs are usually family/ marriage blogs dealing with Christian themes. I'm not a mom, I'm not married, yet these bloggers' words draw me to read every time. The reason I love reading their posts dawned on me the other day. Their posts are real. They are entertaining, witty, but underneath all the funny words everything they say brings truth to my day. They talk about things I'm dealing with right now. So today I wanted to be real with you. I wanted to tell you about things I've been struggling with because maybe my words can help you. I saw this picture on pinterest the other day and I loved it so much I saved it as my background. It originally came from the blog, Two Things in Common. The blogger is going through a Bible study in the book, Calm My Anxious Heart; a book about contentment.  Lately I have been struggling to find contentment in my life, which is odd because that is one area in my life I always thought I did well.  I've been finding myself complaining and not feeling good enough in certain areas of my life. Honestly, nothing dramatic has happened to even make this occur. It's just me. I've let stress and other people's opinions rule my day and it's really gotten to me. I've found myself just going through the day feeling unhappy and not understanding why. I've realized that the root of my unhappiness has come from comparing myself to other people. When I do that I'm always going to seem inadequate. There is always going to be someone more successful, prettier, and better than me. Complaining and comparing yourself to others will always steal your joy. Every time. I loved this picture and I wanted to point out some of the highlights because it's just too good not to share.

1. Never allow yourself to complain about anything- not even the weather.
Complaining doesn't help any situation. All it does is make you feel worse!
2. Never picture yourself in any other circumstance or any other place. 
She added, "Be where you're at". This is one of my dad's favorite quotes, and I've found myself failing in this area lately. Oftentimes, with all the technology around us, we get so caught up in what everyone else is doing. We look at facebook, twitter, instagram, words with friends, etc. In the end, we waste valuable time doing these mindless things instead of spending time talking and being with the people we are around.
3. Never compare your lot to another's.
Like I said before, when we compare ourselves to others someone will always be greater. In the end this steals our joy!
4. Never allow yourself to wish this or that had been otherwise.
The past is the past, there is no reason to dwell on things that you can't change. Focus on the life God wants you to live right now.
5. Never dwell on tomorrow, remember that tomorrow is God's, not ours.
This is the most comforting point because it makes me realize that there is no reason to stress about the future or things to come in my life. God is in control of it all.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

I hope my words can bring truth to your day and that when you find yourself complaining or comparing your situation to others, you realize this will only steal your joy and happiness. Focus on today, and do not stress about things to come. There is always something to be happy about each day. As the title of my blog says, "Celebrate the Day". "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Pslam 118:24

Coffee love.

via: Google

Are there any coffee addicts out there? I am definitely classified as one. If you've been to my About page, I briefly talked about my coffee obsession. My love for coffee started at a young age when my mom let me take sips of her morning coffee. It was a treat to take a sip because her coffee was 50% sugar, 40% creamer, and 10% coffee. I'm not kidding about those percentages. It's disgusting to me now, but it's the only way she will drink it. A Starbucks was built in my hometown when I was in high school, so I started drinking coffee often. Pretty soon, I became obsessed. One summer I went there every day, so by the end of the summer the people who worked there memorized my order. When I started college last year my reliance on coffee grew. I thought I was going to die without a Starbucks, but I found out the drinks at the coffee shop at my school tasted just as good. I was happy but it also caused me to waste a bunch of money, too! I drank coffee at least twice a day during my freshman year. Coffee woke me up in the morning and helped me stay awake to do school work at night. It got worse this year when Michael came to school with me. He is also equally obsessed with coffee. We drank coffee three to four times a day during the fall semester. Especially in the winter, when it's cold, all I want to drink is coffee. I've cut down to one to two times a day this spring, but I still drink diet sodas throughout the day. This kind of defeats the purpose of cutting down on caffeine. Oh well!

This is my favorite mug, Michael gave it to me last month!

This Christmas I bought myself a Keurig and I love it! It's helped me spend less money at coffee shops, too! My favorite kind is Folger's French Vanilla. Do you have any drink/food obsessions? I know Michael's mom drinks caffeine-free Diet Coke every day. If you're a coffee addict like me, what is your favorite flavor/coffee brand? I would love to hear your response! :)

The Blessing Jar

My roommate, Elizabeth came up with this creative, beautiful, wonderful idea. It's called the The Blessing Jar. Since the beginning of the year, she has been writing down different blessings that have happened to her. There is no schedule and she doesn't do it every day. She just thinks of something that has been a blessing, writes it on a piece of paper, and puts it in the blessing jar. How amazing is it going to be when she opens up the jar at the end of this year and sees all the ways God has blessed her. I thought it was so awesome, I wanted to share it with you. I'm making one for myself as well! :) Here are pictures of her jar. You can decorate it any way you want. I honestly think it's a super cute decoration to add to your night stand and it will remind you to put the pieces of paper in before you go to bed. You could paint the jar, but stickers (like Elizabeth's), tie ribbons, anything you want. It's so cheap and you can pick any jar you want. I will post mine when I finish it, but don't worry I already have some blessings written down. I want to encourage you to make one of these, I think it's a great way to see how God has answered your prayers through the year. I also think it will help us realize how blessed we truly are, even on rough days when it's hard to see it. The jar can be a reminder of how God is with us through each day we live. It's a cute and creative decor idea too! :)

I love the GOD is Great, GOD is Able sticker! It's so true and fits pefectly with the idea of the jar! :)

Have a great day! Feel free to share the idea with the buttons below!

For the love of photography.

Photography brings me joy. It always has. Ever since I was a little girl, I've always enjoyed taking and looking at pictures. There is just something special about documenting and getting to look at different parts of life. My walls are always covered in pictures, usually of people. I also like taking artistic pictures not of people, like the ones I'm showing you today. It's just so fun to me, I hope you think they are as cool as I do. Here are a few photos I've taken the last couple months. I won't take all the credit for taking all the shots, Michael came up with some of the ideas and took some of the pictures too. A couple of these photos are just random ones I took that I thought looked awesome. Enjoy!

I loved this shot with the cobbled stones! This was taken in downtown Williamsburg.

One of my favorite photos, looking down the railing to the wine cellar.

Happy Friday! :) I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Creamy Hot Fudge Sauce

My nana has been making this hot fudge sauce for years. It's seriously the best hot fudge sauce I've ever had. After making it I soon realized what ingredient made it so awesome, and my hips definitely didn't appreciate the information.  The amount of Sugar brings this sauce together perfectly. It's so easy, and in my opinion, worth all the calories! Try it out on anything you like. Personally, I've used it to dip strawberries in, on top of pound cake, and of course on brownies and ice cream as you see in the pictures. Also if you don't eat it all in one sitting, you can leave it out over night and warm it back up in the same pot on the stove the next day! :) I honestly think it tastes even better the second day because I like the sauce really thick. 

It's an easy recipe and you won't regret making this delicious hot fudge sauce!

      Ingredients:

• 2 squares of semi-sweet chocolate
• 2 squares of unsweetened chocolate
• 1 cup of pet milk
• 1 1/4 cups of sugar
• 2 tsps of vanilla
• 4 tbsps of butter

Melt chocolate and milk slowly in a double boiler on medium heat. Stir mixture continuously, then take off stove once chocolate is melted and add sugar, vanilla, and butter, and stir everything together. Makes 8 to 10 servings.
I bet you have all the ingredients in the cupboard right now! It's so simple, be sure to whip it up next time you enjoy some ice cream or on any dessert! :)

Personalize Your Picture Frames!

 Happy Wednesday! I've had a thing for frames lately, actually I think I just have a thing for frames in general. I love pictures, and I'm always trying to come up with creative new ways to display them. I found these frames a couple years ago and gave one of them to Michael as a Valentine's Day gift. I first ordered his frame, and then decided I wanted to buy one for myself too! :) They make great gifts, perfect for a wedding! I think personalizing gifts just adds something special! I found mine at giftsforyounow.com and Michael's at personalizationmall.com. You can get them off Etsy too! All the sites have other great decor items and other gifts you can personalize as well. I've ordered personalized ornaments off of personalization mall and they turned out so cute!

 This is mine, I love how cute and girlie it is with all the hearts!

 This is Michael's frame, on the side is the verse, 1 Corinthians 13:4, a verse about love.

 You could even personalize it with children's names, or anything you like! Let me know what you think! :) Do you like personalized gifts as much as I do? I would love to hear your comments!

Check out my other ideas with frames:
Window Picture Frames
Frames and Circle Mirrors

Easter Recap

Today I thought I'd share my Easter weekend with you! It started out with my brother and grandparents coming into town and led to dyeing eggs on Saturday night! Dyeing eggs has been a tradition in my house since we were kids. We still wake up on Sunday morning for Easter baskets, and my mom even had an Easter egg hunt for us on Sunday afternoon, with money of course! I had a great weekend with my family and enjoyed celebrating our risen Savior! Take a look at the pictures! 

We got creative and did lots of different designs on our eggs this year!

One of my personal favorites :) 

All of our eggs together!

After going to TrueNorth Sunday morning, Michael and I went to his parents' church to go to the service and take pictures with them!

Michael's sister, her boyfriend, and us! 

After both churches, we headed back to my house to eat Easter lunch and take lots of pictures with the family!

I was so glad my brother got to come home for the weekend!

They were so cute in their matching polos from Hollister! 

It was great having the whole family together to celebrate!

I hope you had a lovely Easter weekend! Come back tomorrow for some decor ideas! :)
Kayla