Food + Drink

For me, the best part of summer is the food!  There is so much great food in season right now.  I’m loving the fresh watermelon & strawberries!

It would be so fun to go berry picking!  Check out this site to find local berry picking areas!  There are also a ton of roadside stands out there right now.  Just take a drive to the country & follow the homemade signs to find the freshest produce!

Once you’ve picked your berries, it’s time to make them into jam!  Check out my cherry jam post to get the best recipe ever for small batch jam!

Summer is also the time for BBQ’s!  Check out my post about what to bring to a summer potluck for perfect sides to make!  You can even check out my “Potluck Food” Pinterest Board for more ideas!

If you’re into desserts, you can always make my pineapple upside down cake!  It’s guaranteed to be a crowd pleaser!

If drinks are more your thing, check out my 10 drinks to make this summer!  If that’s not enough, check out my “Drinks” Pinterest Board with 1,600+ more ideas!

Fairs + Festivals

Fairs & festivals are so much fun this time of the year!  This site has a good directory of all the fairs & festivals going on!  Also, Facebook & the local newspapers always have the latest on what’s going on in your area!

With the 4th of July coming up, there’s also going to be fireworks!  Doing a quick Google search of “Fireworks near me” yielded tons of results for fireworks displays!

Pools + Beaches

With the weather warming up, it’s time to hit the beach or the pool!

Here are 50+ of the coolest pool floats ever!

Yard Sales

Aaand it’s finally the weekend!  Here’s another installment of ‘link love’, my favorite internet finds of the week!

When I was at a yard sale a couple weeks ago, I scored an incredible deal on a huge box of silk flowers.

I need some summer wreaths for my front doors & thought these flowers would be perfect for the project.  I bought 2 wire wreath forms & got started…

Happy Saturday!  Here are the blogs & links I’m loving this week:

Our neighbors first introduced us to the stevia plant. I immediately became OBSESSED! The leaves tasted super sweet & I could grow this fantastic plant in my yard! Count me in! I bought 3 plants & was ready to go…

Except I didn’t really know anything about stevia. How was I supposed to cook with it? How could I preserve it? What exactly is this plant that I now have 3 of? So I hit up Pinterest for all the answers & it didn’t disappoint.

Stevia is a natural sweetener in different types, including liquid, powder, and whole leaf. The taste and concentration of each type can vary, with liquid stevia being the most concentrated and whole-leaf stevia being the least. Some kinds of stevia may have a bitter aftertaste, so choosing a brand known for its good taste is vital. Ultimately, the best type of stevia depends on personal preference and intended use.

Here are some more facts about stevia:

I made this ridiculously easy Cherry Jam using a recipe I found over at Dessert For Two!  There’s only 2 ingredients & if I can make it, anyone can!

Here are 3 shows to watch in June 2017!

Happy Saturday!  I hope you’re having a great weekend!  Here’s the links & blogs I loved this week!

Blogs I Followed:

- Damask Love
- Heather Christo
- Minimalist Baker
- Oh, Ladycakes
- The Novice Chef Blog
- Tip Junkie
- Umami Girl
- What I Wore 

Links Loved:

- Citrus Vinaigrette Salad Dressing – I love the idea of homemade dressings & this looks simple & easy to make!

- Frozen Blackberry Limeade – This looks soo good!  I should have added it to my summer drink list!

- 4 Easy Ways To Use Leftover Pasta – I love the reheating tips in this post!

- Making Your Own Homemade Condiments – I’ve never really thought about making homemade condiments, but these recipes make it look so easy!  Homemade ketchup for the win!

- No More Unused Space: How To Fit More Storage into a Small Bathroom – I love these storage hacks!

- Orange Mango Rum Punch – This looks so refreshing!  I love all of the fresh juice in this punch!

- I Tried 7 Pinterest Gardening Hacks For Beginners – I love that this is Pinterest IRL.  I’m now also totally inspired to create a Pinterest-worthy garden!

- 5 Breakfast Parfaits You’ll Love Waking Up To – I want these parfaits for breakfast every single day!

- 10 Simple Meals For Summer – These are such great looking meals!

- 10 “Fixer Upper” Kitchens That Will Make You Want To Move To Waco – These kitchens are absolutely gorgeous!

- 20 Easy DIY Bathroom Ideas [step by step] – I love these bathroom DIYs!

- 12 Surprising Things You Should Be Cooking On The Grill – Mind.Blown.  There’s so much more to grilling than hamburgers & hotdogs!

- 26 Ridiculously Easy Ways To Seem Like A Better Cook – With these tips, I’ll be a chef before I know it!

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Here’s a recap of what happened on the blog in May!

Netflix Picks | May 2017
Once again, I didn’t watch hardly any of my picks for the month!  I’m still loving my May picks, though & one of these days I’m going to binge them!  I did watch a ton of The Blacklist this month & binged the entire season of Girlboss.

25 Mother’s Day Gifts Under $25 // Handmade Mother’s Day Gift Ideas

Mother’s Day was in May & I shared two posts.  One was handmade gifts & the other was gifts under $25.

I loved trying to find awesome gifts under $25.  I also thought the handmade gifts were really neat!

Link Love 14 // 15 // 16 // 17

The ‘Link Love’ posts are still one of my favorites to put together!  There are so many blogs out there putting out such great content!  There were actually so many great links this month that didn’t make it into the posts!  I’ve been putting some of the ‘extras’ over on my Twitter.

Speaking of Twitter & social media…I’ve been posting a ton of things on social media lately.  Twitter is such an easy place to share links & quirky tidbits from my life.Sergio

I did a little photoshoot with my parents’ pony, Sergio!  He’s the cutest little thing.  My parents’ other pony just had her baby on Wednesday, so expect another baby photoshoot soon!

Spring Blooms // Spring 2017

I took so many pictures this spring that they had to be divided into 2 posts!  I love going out & randomly photographing things.  It’s so fun to bring them together in posts like this.

Summer Potluck Ideas // 10 Drinks To Make This Summer

I did a couple of recipe roundup posts this month.  They were both inspired by my Pinterest Boards.  I’m currently working on making some of the drinks from my ‘10 Drinks To Make This Summer’ post to share on the blog soon!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

The fact that I only made one blog recipe this month was sort of disappointing.  I really love my ‘Best Thing I Made This Week’ series & can’t wait to bring it back!

DIY Raised Garden Beds

My last post of the month was a tutorial on raised garden beds.  I really enjoyed writing this.  After we remodeled our entire house, I stopped doing DIY projects for a while but this easy project reignited my passion for DIY!

There you have it!  May in review!