Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Tara Tuesday: Florence+the Machine

You ever get tired of your iPod?  You know that point where you keep hitting the “skip” button and then you look down and realize you’ve skipped like 200 songs?  That tends to happen to me every once in a while.  However, Florence + the Machine has been a bit of a remedy for that.  I never get tired of their amazing music.  They’re not necessarily a new artist or anything, but they are completely underrated!!  The album “Lungs” started my love affair with them, and their most recent album “Ceremonials” simply continued it.  Florence has such a great voice and a unique personal style.  It’s like a breath of fresh air. Haha.

Some of my favorite songs include…

No Light, No Light  (probably my favorite song of theirs!!) 

There are many more, but those are just my personal favorites!  Also, just for fun here is a cover they did of the Drake song “Take Care.” It’s actually quite good :)  Hope this inspired you to do a quick, little iPod makeover!!



See you guys later,
Tara.

1 year Blog Anniversary & Giveaway Winner!

Today is the 1 year anniversary of my very first blog post!  Lots has happened in 1 year and I love being able to look back on all of my posts and reminisce about each one!  Thank you for following me and reading my little blog:)  It really means a lot to me.  My goal is to inspire just one person or spread a little bit of knowledge that you may be interested in.  I treated my blog to a small facelift this month with a new banner and background. In celebration of my blogs 1 year mark I had a giveaway going on...
 and the winner is...
LEAH YANDALL!! Congrats girly and thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway! Leah please send me your home address to tia_ann7@yahoo.com, THANKS!
Happy 1 year A cup of T!!
Love, T

Other Bloggers on craft night..

Remember this?
Well My Girl Thursday posted pictures of other bloggers who crafted with us that night! Click here to all the other lovely cameras that were created that night! Such a nice surprise to be one of the lovelies featured on such a great blog!
Happy Creating!
Love, T

Monday, January 30, 2012

Sometimes Sweet:Clean Eating Challenge..

Danielle from Sometimes Sweet is challenging her followers to eat clean for a week!  There are about 40 other bloggers on board with the challenge.  Of course I jumped on considering Johnny and I are already doing this most of the time now.  I figured I would learn a lot from other bloggers and build my recipe collection! I'm not 100% at it yet but I am making small changes like trying to get away from "diet" foods and go for healthy foods.  Lucky for me I have always had an interest in healthy eating so these changes have been very small.  Click here to see her post about the challenge including great clean eating recipes.  See all the other bloggers partaking in this challenge here
As I was reading her blog and clicking away on the other bloggers participating I found my new favorite place for recipes..The Gracious Pantry.  If you are at all interested in a clean eating diet you MUST favorite this blog now:) I think I will try out her clean wheat pancakes first!  I plan on posting a wrap up of the week of clean eating with ideas and recipes for you!  If you have good tips or suggestions please feel free to comment!
Happy Clean Eating!
Love, T


Becca is Having a Baby:)

Becca is not just one of my best friends but one of my favorite people in the entire world.  We met about 5 years ago in nursing school and have remained close since.  You ever meet someone and just "click?"  That's how we were! We have been through a lot together, spent countless nights watching Forensic Files marathons, I even flew on a plane for the first time with Bec by my side (we were headed to Hawaii so that made it easy to do) we were in each others weddings and now she is going to be a momma.  I'm so happy for her and her husband for the new edition to their family coming very soon.  She had a sweet little baby shower on Sunday and she was glowing:)  Such a pretty shower!


She got a tone of goodies! 
My favorite thing she registered for is this grass bottle dryer!  It's pretty awesome.


Congrats Bec!
Love, T

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Bloglovin

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Longtime No Run..

So I haven't visited my friend the running trail lately and decided to pay him a little visit;) All bundled up with my music in hand I took off. Ready set..dang I forgot my ear warmers. I thought how the heck can you forget something so important? A sign it's been too long since I have ran in the cold! I was feeling it about 10 minutes in when my head started pounding from the cold air running through one ear and out the other. I didn't let that stop me I was too excited to be running outside;) So I turned on Pandora and tuned it to the pop fitness station and started running. BTW did you know Pandora has workout stations? Yoga, heavy metal lifting and many more! Pretty good idea! Anyway I ran 3 miles in 28 min which I was content with considering all my running lately has been indoors and Johnny and I still had to do our P90x2 workout for the day:/ I am planning on running a spring half marathon so I better get to stepping!
Happy Run!
Love, T

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

I've never really minded to grocery shop but now that we have a few more options other than Wal-Mart I have started to really enjoy it actually.  Target,Wal-Mart and The Fresh Market are probably my most frequently shopped places for food however we have also been going to Aldi and most recently Elbert's for some things.  While I wish I could buy all of my grocery's at places like the The Fresh Market and Elbert's financially it's sorta not realistic but when it comes to meat and produce I don't care to spend a little extra.  I rarely eat meat other than turkey and chicken but since Johnny and I have been married I have learned to give a little in that area if we get "good" meat:) So after all of that  babble about grocery shopping I have a super yummy and healthy recipe for you to try: Quinoa Stuffed Peppers.  I have made these before with brown rice (which you can do) but I am trying to use more quinoa so I substituted it here!  This recipe makes either 2 main dishes or 4 side dishes.
You will need...
1/2 lb ground beef or turkey
2 bell peppers (choose any color)
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 can rotel
1 medium diced onion
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, basil to taste

Now you are ready to start cooking!
Preheat your oven to 350

Start by cooking your meat and quinoa (follow the box instructions) and start a pot of water to boil your peppers in shortly..
Cut your peppers in half, scrape out seeds and slip them into the pot of hot water and keep them in there for about 5 min (if your want the peppers to be extra soft wait until the water is boiling to put them in)


When your peppers are soft set them in a baking dish.
Your meat should be done so set it aside in a bowl. 
Chop your onion and cook it with garlic until soft.

When soft add meat, rotel, cooked quinoa

Time to fill your peppers o yeah and top them with cheeeese!

Bake for about 10 min

While you wait..attempt to take a picture of your lovely handmade apron, when that doesn't work well recruit your other half to help you out..even if they huff and puff:))

OK now they are done!! Amazing how a mini photo shoot will pass the time!

Enjoy!
Happy Cooking!
Love, T

ps. watch out for hungry kitties swarming below you..waiting for a treat:)
please o please..

really? you're gonna lick your lips..

poor kitty he thinks he's starving, looks pretty well-fed to me:)



Friday, January 27, 2012

Giveaway Time!!

Giveaway Time!! On the 31st of this month my little blog will be 1 year old!! So In celebration I am going to do a giveaway to one lucky winner!! I will announce the winner on my blogs birthday:) Go ahead enter..you may just win!

You will win a pair of darling rosette earrings AND a lovely handmade hair bow by me:)

To Enter:
1. Follow my Blog
2. "Like" my Facebook Page
3. Share this on Twitter or Facebook
Please leave 1 comment for each entry and you email address in case you win:))
Winner will be announce January 31st!
Happy Sharing!
Love, T

Blogger Craft Night

The other night I was about to watch Kentucky play basketball and I was checking my favorite blogs and came to My Girl Thursday's reminder post about craft night with Elycia! Craft night was about 30 minutes in but I wanted to try to catch up anyway.  I ran into my craft room, grabbed out the supplies I needed and got caught up:) Crafts trumps basketball on most days.  Such a fun concept, to craft with others online.  If I had twitter it would have been almost like hanging out because they chit chatted and read comments from others, it was totally fun.  They are planning to do more sessions like this in the future so add their blogs to your favorites and keep an eye out!  What did we make at craft night? Well this cute little camera of course:)



Wanna make one too? Click here:)
Happy Crafting!
Love, T

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Liebster Blog Award

As I was checking my email today I got an email that I had received the Liebster blog award from Running with a Glue Gun, so sweet of her! So everyone please go over and check her blog out!




This award is given to bloggers with less than 200 followers, in the hopes that it will bring many new friends/followers.

Liebster is German and means 'dearest' or 'beloved' but it can also mean 'favorite'. The idea of the Liebster award is to bring attention to blogs with less than 200 followers. So, I am passing this award on to five other bloggers. Please stop by and visit them.

The Rules are:

1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2. Reveal your five picks for the award and let them know.
3. Post the award on your blog.
4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the blogshare-other bloggers.
5. Finally and the best rule of all..........have fun and spread the love!

I'm passing this award onto the following blogs.
Please click on the links and check them out!
1.Sookie Says
2.Threadesque
3.Poor Pitiful Pearl
4,Lazy Explorers
5.Katie Did It

Happy Awarding!
Love, T

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Date Night

Since I enjoy cooking and Johnny doesn't mind to help we rarely eat out.  Of course eating in is a big way we try to save money. This had become pretty difficult after moving to Evansville where there is basically any restaurant you can really want or crave.  When we lived in a smaller town it was easy to stay in since there wasn't many places I even liked to eat.  We had our first date night since the beginning of the year a couple of nights ago.  We decided to go out to eat at at our favorite German restaurant, the Gerst Haus.  It was super tasty and the atmosphere is always fun.  I got the Turkey Ruben and red cabbage topped with a nice German beer.  It always makes going out to dinner more of an occasion when we don't really ever go:) It was nice to get out for a night.  Top the night of with a movie and I say it's a great date night!
before dinner:)

I was super excited to wear my $5 cardi I got at Target:) 
A Violet Bella necklace always sweetens up an outfit!

after dinner:)
Happy Eats!
Love, T

Monday, January 23, 2012

Blog Fabulous: Talk 2 the Trees

I'm sure some of you have seen her beautiful work on etsy or even follow her blog already if not you're in for a special treat:)  Rachael is the adorable artist behind Tree Talker & Talk 2 the Trees.
Meet Rachael...


Tell us a little bit about who Rachael is.I'm a compulsive creator. I'm either painting, sewing, knitting, taking pictures, or blogging. I honestly can't sit and not do something. Even if I'm watching a movie! My hands must always be moving. I currently live in Utah, though I'm often drawn to traveling, so I don't plan on staying in Utah for too long. I live in a small basement apartment with my two stinky dogs and a little corner of a studio. We make it work and have lots of fun despite the tight space.
On the rare occasions that I'm not creating I go on adventures with my boyfriend and the two dogs. We explore abandoned houses, water parks, and of course play in the canyons.
 
What can readers expect when they visit your blog Talk 2 the Trees?A bunch of beautiful randomness. I try to post every day, sometimes twice a day! I post photos of my daily life, my puppies my creations, and my inspirations. I always keep things positive and as beautiful as possible. Even when I'm going through a hard time myself, I never let my blog be a negative space. The Internet is already full of ugly and terrible things, talk2thetrees will always be the opposite.
 
I am a huge fan of your etsy shops, What is your favorite thing about creating pieces of art for others?I mostly create for myself, and put it in the shop for someone else to buy. My walls are full of paintings, and as one sells, I replace it with another. I would never paint anything that I wouldn't hang up in my own house.
I do love custom orders. Right now I'm only accepting custom pet portraits. When my little Mowgli passed away last March I could barely paint. The only thing I wanted was Mowgli, so I painted a picture of him. The painting sits by my bed and I get to see it everyday. It brings a smile to my heart, and peace to my mind. Knowing that I can give that to someone makes me happy.
 
Where do find your inspiration for such creative pieces?Trees and nature have always been a huge inspiration to me. Whenever I'm starting to feel blocked, I know I need to get out and explore. I know I need to focus on something else, like photography, or even poetry.  I'm also very inspired by odd things, such as cemeteries, old antique books, and tarot cards. Anything creepy and out of the ordinary.
 
Do you have any tips for readers who are interested in learning to knit or sew?
When it comes to knitting and sewing, be prepared to mess up. Sometimes it's okay to start over a knitting project. Sometimes it's okay to pick out stitches while sewing..
but if you are ever sewing late at night, and it's not working.. don't argue with the sewing machine. The sewing machine is always right. Sometimes it's best to just ignore it until it can behave. :)
Happy Meeting!
Love, T

Lunchtime!

Happy Monday yall!  This past week I made two tasty sandwiches I would love to share with you.  Both super easy and a change from PB & J!  Since quinoa seems to be all over Pinterest lately I bought some knowing I would find many uses for it.  So we also had a yummy side of quinoa dried fruit salad with both sandwiches.
Sandwich number 1: Tuna salad..
Mix together..
2 cans of tuna
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
light mayo (amt depends on your preference)
1/4 cup relish
1/4 onion minced
salt, pepper, dill, parsley &garlic to taste


Stuff it inside a wheat pita pocket and enjoy!

Sandwich number 2..Grilled Avocado & Cheese
You will need..
light butter
wheat bread (2 slices)
avocado
1 slice pepper jack cheese

Start by lightly greasing your pan, lay 1 slice of buttered bread down followed by cheese & avocado



Top with second piece of bread and grill both sides until light brown


Cut in half and enjoy!


Interested in the quinoa dried fruit salad? Click here for the recipe

I made a few changes to the recipe because I just used what I already had:
I used slivered almonds instead of walnuts
Left out the apples & green onions
I used tomato and basil feta cheese
Now that I know I like this I will try the walnuts and apples next time!

Happy Lunchtime!
Love, T


Sunday, January 22, 2012

DIY: Bird Suet Cakes

While I was visiting my parents yesterday mom and I decided to use up some old ingredients around her house to make homemade suet cakes to fatten up the birds.  I believe these will do the job! You can find all sorts of recipes online but we just went with what she had available. 
What we used...
crunchy peanut butter
lard or crisco
bread crumbs (we just used old bread and threw it in the blender)
corn meal
sugar
craisins
oats
i got mom that sweet little bird basket for Christmas from this cute shop
Add the peanut butter and lard together in equal parts in a medium saucepan, melting to liquid (do not boil)
Add all other ingredients to the blender and mince into small pieces, pour in large bowl

Pour liquid mixture over dry and mix well

Flatten into plastic containers and place in freezer, it you plan on placing them in a suet feeder be careful not to make them too thick! you want them to be able to fit:)


Place in freezer and just cut a piece off as you need it

Feed the birds..you know you wanna:)

Happy Feeding!
Love, T
ps. If you have a kitty I bet he/she would love to watch the birds eat through the window:)

Just ask this guy:)