What I’m Into {lately}

May 5, 2016 ~ Emily ~ 1 Comment

This is part What I’m Into (a la Leigh Kramer) and part What’s Saving My Life (a la Modern Mrs. Darcy). I hope you find something new or noteworthy!

Fam Bam

The whole fam getting ready to head out for #LoveLehighValley. It was special and humbling to serve as a family and with our small group!

The Great British Baking Show – My brother and his fiancé recommended this show while we were comparing notes on what we were binge-watching on Netflix. (Fixer Upper and House Hunters for us…) Utterly delightful. That’s the best way to describe this British-import baking competition. It’s beautifully shot with fun hosts, charming judges, and kind contestants.

Natalie Freeman, of Natalie Creates, introduced me to the Whoa, wait, Walmart? Instagram account. Bethany and Amanda just may help me conquer my dislike of Willy Waldo Mart. (Anyone else have nicknames for stores? Just me? Okay…) I have purchased at least five articles of clothing because of their IG.

I bought a Kindle! I had been reading my small collection of e-books on my iPad/iPhone and wasn’t thrilled with the whole experience. Then I subscribed to Modern Mrs. Darcy’s Kindle Deals newsletter and my resolve to remain Kindle free went up in flames. On my brother-in-laws recommendation, I didn’t do the cheapy thing and bought the Paperwhite instead of the regular. The backlit screen is so worth it.

This brings me to how much I love Amazon and their amazing customer service. I was waiting to purchase my Kindle until after I sold my iPad, so I was unable to take advantage of the electronics sale around Thanksgiving. Two weeks after I bought my Kindle at full price, Amazon put it on sale again. The aforementioned brother-in-law noticed and suggested I ask Amazon for a reimbursement of the price difference. I did. And they issued the reimbursement, no problem. And that is why I will happily buy all the things on Amazon.

Rachel Hollis of The Chic Site (a lifestyle website that is easy to get lost in). Her Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey (a fantastic podcast) was one of my favorite episodes.

The Lazy Genius Collective – I heard Kendra on Around The Table (another fun podcast). She was the inspiration for my 101 things in 1001 days. Kendra has a lovely balance of silly and serious. She’s also a hard core baker which makes me love her more.

Pinch of Yum’s Capsule Wardrobe – One of the best posts I’ve read about starting a capsule wardrobe.

Carpool Karaoke – I am mildly obsessed with carpool Karaoke. James Corden of The Late Late Show drives around with a famous artist and they chat, sing, and have shenanigans. I’ve watched Adele and Justin Bieber’s multiple times.

Burts Bees candles – Soy candles that smell delicious (I’m partial to Pinecones and Cinnamon and Sweet Basil). My only complaint is that the wick dies before the wax is gone.

I kinda love looking at other people’s wedding and family photos. I did a deep dive on Jenni’s blog and loved this family’s photos (I used to write with both Jenni and Callie at Kindred Grace).

My buddy Kat’s blog is endlessly inspiring me to write more, parent intentionally, and find more joy in my daily tasks.

I saw on Rachel‘s Instagram a genius idea to use your dishwasher as a drying rack. I’m really trying to keep on top of my dishes, lately, so I don’t end up with an overwhelming pile of that takes me ages to clean after the kids go to bed. Sometimes I end up with too many dishes for my actual drying rack which halts my whole process. I’ve been doing the dishwasher drying rack hack and it’s awesome.

Along those same lines, I’ve been making a concerted effort to keep my house in maintenance mode which requires actually putting things away where they go at the end of the day, not just shuffling the shaz.

I’m loving Modern Mrs. Darcy’s newish podcast What Should I Read Next. She talks books and reading and does a little literary matchmaking with a different person on each episode. AND Tim is going to be a guest in a future episode (insert JEALOUS emoji here.)

I could go on, but several things deserve their own post…

What are you loving right now?

Primitive Pleasures: September

September 30, 2013 ~ Emily ~ 4 Comments

Tomorrow is October? That means it’s basically Halloween and the end of Fall. Family visits and Thanksgiving will be here before I know it. then Christmas music and holiday lights will bleed into a frosty New Year, which means I’m about to have a baby. Just WHOA! While I regain a proper sense of time, please enjoy this list of fun stuff from September…

For the introverts and extroverts alike, don’t miss Susan Cain’s book, Quiet.

This bike/stroller blurs the line between want and need. I’m leaning towards need…

Such a sweet baby announcement.

I’m really missing Chai from Thomas Hammer this fall (which is regrettably caffeinated), but am consoling myself with David Rio’s Flamingo Chai – sugar free AND decaf.

Wanting to make this bookshelf quilt.

In love with the photo on my friend Lindsay’s blog post about finding beauty in brokenness.

So much truth in this post from Jen Hatmaker. And, who else is excited about her upcoming HGTV debut?

Forget Ikea’s Swedish Meatballs. Tim and I made Turkey-Apple Swedish Meatballs from Food Network Magazine over the weekend. They tasted like Thanksgiving dinner in a ball.

I would kill TIm if he ever did this to me. However, I would never be that close to a cliff. I would be lying flat on the rock hundreds of yards from the cliff… The rest of Devin Graham’s videos are pretty insane.

PS – Many of these goodies were culled from my time on Pinterest. You can follow me on Pinterest here.

I’m linking up with Leigh for What I’m Into.

Disclosure : Amazon Affiliate links included in this post. If you click through to Amazon, any purchase you make supports Primitive Roads.

Primitive Pleasures: July

July 30, 2013 ~ Emily ~ 11 Comments

Between house guests and getting past first trimester nausea, there hasn’t been much interwebbing for me (aside from Pinterest) this month. Despite the brevity of my list, I hope you find something enjoyable.

Happy Summer!

Read

One benefit of feeling less than perky is that I’ve had tons of time to read. I decided to reread the Harry Potter series and am now on book 6. One of my favorite bloggers (Katie from Cardigan Way) shares my affinity for Harry Potter and created one of her Lovely Lines with a quote from HP and the Order Of the Phoenix which I just finished.

I also read all three of Tessa Afshar’s novels. So good. I explain why here.

Watch

Tim (my youth pastor hubs) preached in main service a couple weeks ago on Psalm 13. He weaves much of our personal journey into David’s own lament. I may be biased, but it’s well worth a listen. You can also watch it on CDA Bible Church’s Vimeo account.

Strawberries

Berry picking is one of my favorite summer activities. A couple weeks ago I got to add strawberries to my list of berries picked. Some wonderful friends took me to Carver Farms and we picked over 60 pounds of strawberries. We made several batches of freezer jam (with the trusty recipe found inside boxes of Sure Jell pectin).

Three delicious ways to use extra strawberries:

Fresh Strawberry Bars I clipped this recipe from Better Homes and Gardens a few years ago. The base is a dense peanut buttery bar topped with strawberry jam and fresh strawberries.
You can’t go wrong with classic Strawberry Shortcake. My mom’s a wizard with biscuits and generally whips up a batch of lightly sweetened cream biscuits for the shortcake part. Martha Stewart has a good video tutorial on sweet biscuits. When I studied abroad in Italy, my host mom served strawberries macerated in both sugar AND a bit of lemon juice. Heavenly. The crowning glory of any strawberry shortcake is the whipped cream. Clouds of REAL whipped cream – heavy cream whipped with a tablespoon or two of powdered sugar.
Strawberry Shortcake Cake Yes, I’ve mentioned this Pioneer Woman recipe before. It’s that good.

For Fun

This could be the burrito I ate for dinner, but I’d like to think Baby Gardner is beginning to make an appearance.