High Five for Friday #54 | Snowstorm Preparation

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // January 22, 2016 // 18 Comments

Welcome to High Five for Friday – hosted by me, Tif, Della, and Caitlin! If you want to know more, read about it here!

Did you notice? H54F is now going live at 8AM EST! That’s one extra hour to edit, finish up (or just write – which is totally fine!). Hope it didn’t cause too much confusion this morning.

This week’s featured blogger is Melissa from The Happy Little Hive! Her blog has an amazing collection of recipes, DIY projects, and home fun. Are you stuck with snow this weekend?? Check out her AMAZING recipe for crock pot vegetable beef soup. And I’ll definitely be curling up on the sofa this weekend with the adult coloring pages she found. Go swing over and say hello!!

So, how was your week?

1. Today we’re supposed to be getting a HUGE winter storm. It’s suppose to be a mix of snow and rain/ice until Saturday afternoon. When that happens, the whole area just completely shuts down. I did the usual run to the grocery store pre-storm on Thursday morning and bought, not milk and bread, but ingredients for cinnamon rolls and 7 layer dip. Priorities. Which begs the question – what do you stock up on before a big snow storm?

This whole meme is playing out right now on my local parent FB group! The South and snow!

2. Speaking of food, we finished up our 2 weeks of the Blue Apron service this week. It was fun to try some new recipes and have pretty food! Look out for a full review in a few weeks. But in case you didn’t see it on Instagram (*cough cough* don’t forget to follow me!) I posted the yummy dishes! Our favorite was definitely this butternut squash and poblano pepper soup.

Finished Butternut Squash and Poblano Pepper Chili! It was yummy but we decided it still needed a dollop of sour cream ? #blueapron #dinnertime #vegetarian

A photo posted by Katie (@ktcupoftea) on Jan 18, 2016 at 4:20pm PST

Followed by this yummy panzanella salad with apples and blue cheese.

This was a yummy Blue Apron winner tonight! A salad with toasted bread cubes, apple, potato and a simple dressing and blue cheese (I added feta for mine instead). A win!! #blueapron #vegetarian #salad #dinnertime #yum #dinnerathome

A photo posted by Katie (@ktcupoftea) on Jan 19, 2016 at 3:05pm PST

3. We are in full swing getting Elizabeth’s big girl room decorated! I’m actually decorating this room more than I did the nursery when she was born! HAHA! Her theme (ish… I’m not a huge theme girl) is shabby chic/garden. She picked out her own bed linens (I may have persuaded her a little) and we’re reusing some of my husband’s childhood furniture. We also set up her antique bed. She is in love! I can’t wait until it is all finished.

4. Will you also be stuck this weekend with the snowstorm?? Then might I suggest a binge-watching marathon of Making a Murderer on Netflix? We FLEW through that series in a matter of days. There were a few nights in a row where we stayed up until midnight (rare for us!) because each episode ended at a cliff hanger. Such a good series! Watch it, if you haven’t already.

And if you have seen it, here’s a list of crime documentaries to watch next!

5. Last week I saw that Caitlin mentioned she’s obsessed with Bullet Journals and was getting ready to start her own. I’ve been obsessed for a while but seeing her mention it made me reignite my excitement! I spent a TON of time on Pinterest scanning blog posts like this one! And then I stumbled on this FB group where all the chatter is about bullet journals. Even if you have ZERO idea what a bullet journal is, seeing how everyone organizes their days is fascinating!

And if reading about lists isn’t your thing, I’ve also been obsessed with scanning this FB group all about cleaning!

6. On the blog this week:

Menu Monday

The Everyday | Makeup Essentials – a video with a “that’s what she said” moment (thanks Whitney HAHA!)

What were you up to this week? Let me know!

I’m also linking up with Oh Hey, Friday, Meet @ the Barre, 5 on Friday & Diary of a Real Housewife

Loading InLinkz ...

The Everyday | Makeup Essentials

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // January 20, 2016 // 6 Comments

The Everyday Lip Colors | The Everyday Organization

Who’s ready for another installment of The Everyday? I love taking a peek at other beauty bloggers’ everyday makeup go-tos, so thought it would be fun to share my absolute favorite makeup essentials for everyday looks.

Word to the wise – if you record things TOO far in advance, you realize that some things change. This was the very first video I recorded when I developed this series. That was several months ago! And there are a few things that have changed when it comes to my Everyday Makeup.

First, you know I LOVE that E.L.F. smudge pot in Crusin’ Chic. I’ve raved about it in several videos and blog posts! It absolutely replaced the Maybelline Color Tattoo. And I finally used up that tube of Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser thingy, and I’ve instead been using the NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer in Vanilla for the last few months.

Surprisingly, though, everything else is the same almost every day. Wild!

Neutrogena Healthy Skin Foundation in Natural Ivory
Bobbi Brown Undereye Corrector in Light Bisque
Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Circle Treatment in Fair
Maybelline Fit Me Concealer in Fair
Milani Baked Bronzer in Glow
Maybelline Color Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze
Bobbi Brown Shimmer Wash Eye Shadow in Petal (similar)
Rimmel Scandaleyes Eye Liner in Brown
CoverGirl Lash Blast Volume in Brown
Revlon Colorblurst Balm Stain in Crush
L’Oreal Infallible Pro-Spray Set Makeup Extender Setting Spray

Have a favorite product that you HAVE to use every day?
What do you want to see next for The Everyday series? Let me know!

Menu Monday #63 | Trying Blue Apron

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // January 18, 2016 // 10 Comments

Happy Monday! If you’re lucky enough to have the day off today and are enjoying a long weekend, I hope it’s full of relaxation!!

We had quite the weekend here… I mentioned that Elizabeth got sick Thursday night, but otherwise seemed to be just dandy. Whatever she had was fast spreading, because my husband and I got sick at the EXACT same time Saturday afternoon, and suffered until late Saturday night. So yesterday we both spent the day on the couch, while Elizabeth watched hours of TV and tried to doctor us with her tiny pretend doctor’s bag. But we’re feeling MUCH better today!

This week’s menu is a tad light on menu items – there is a lot going on away from home at dinner time. Plus, this week we have 3 meals to try from the service Blue Apron. I’ve been vlogging the other 3 meals we received last week and plan on a full review after this week, but so far it’s an interesting service! But there are still a few days that require me to think of a menu idea or two.

Stay tuned NEXT Monday for a fun post on new recipes I tried that you HAVE to try yourself. I’ll be teaming up with Whitney from Come Home for Comfort and Whitney from Polka-Dotty Place to share our favorites. You don’t want to miss that!

Need more info for how I menu plan? Check this out!.

Monday:
Butternut Squash and Poblano Chili (Blue Apron)

Tuesday:
Cacciatore-Style Baked Eggs (Blue Apron)

Wednesday:
Apple & Blue Cheese Panzanella Salad (Blue Apron)

Thursday:
Sweet Potato Burritos with Avocado Salsa Verde

Friday:
Date Night

Saturday:
Friends Lunch

Sunday:
Food Truck Rodeo
(So excited for this!!)

Need more ideas for dinner?
Follow my Pinterest board – it’s where I save all of my dinner ideas!

Follow Katie | Cup of Tea Blog's board Good Eats | Dinner on Pinterest.

Linking up at Menu Monday with Org Junkie

High Five for Friday #53 |

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // January 15, 2016 // 23 Comments

Welcome to High Five for Friday – hosted by me, Tif, Della, and Caitlin! If you want to know more, read about it here!

A few quick announcements: High Five for Friday will be starting next Friday at 8AM EST! We’ve noticed a lot of other Friday link ups go live around the same time… why sign in multiple times a day to join a link up? And stay tuned next week for a fun change to the link up tool! We’ve upgraded 🙂

This week’s featured blogger is Holly from While I’m Waiting! She’s a wife and mother blogging about living life while waiting on God. I loved her post about actually living out the Konmari Method of tidying up. She also hosts the Waiting On.. Wednesday Link up! Don’t forget to check her out!

So, how was your week?

I had one of those weeks where nothing exciting necessarily happened, but there were several funny moments!

1. Tuesday evening my husband was working late, so Elizabeth and I decided to watch a movie. Elizabeth asked to watch Cinderella (good girl!) so I started to cue it up. As I was cueing it up, she told me: “Mommy, I watch Cinderella all my myself. You go, make food. Ok?”. Ummmm….. yes ma’am?

2. Another funny moment. Yesterday I had a meeting at my old company. I still do some work with them from time to time. After my meeting I was chatting with former colleagues, catching up. A manager wandered over to say hi, and looked down at my stomach. Clearly, I’m pregnant. No doubt. So he asked “what have you been up to?”. Now, I know he is referring to me being pregnant, but I thought I would be funny. My response: “I’ve been busy making babies.” KATIE!!!! The shame. The awkwardness. Ugh… seriously, friends. I don’t get out much, apparently.

3. Now that I’m pregnant, it’s easy to rationalize not buying any clothes. I barely bought any maternity clothes the first time, and I’m telling myself I don’t need much this time either. I’m now pregnant in different seasons, but really… when you’re home all day, you can get away with wearing the same thing all the time! That being said, my uniform right now is a pair of pregnancy jeans, a long sleeve maternity t shirt and various open cardigans. I just bought myself a really awesome knit and leather sweater jacket from Goodnight Macaroon and it arrived yesterday! Can’t wait to wear it! And it’s something I’ll absolutely wear post-pregnancy.

Leather Trim Cardigan

4. Did you catch last night’s H54F Hangout? We had a great time!! It was so fun catching up with Della, Caitlin and Tif, and a special thanks to all of you who watched, left comments, tweeted. It made for a fun time! Behind-the-scenes gossip – We were late getting it all started because of me. Right at 9:00, 30 minutes before our start time, Elizabeth wakes up and starts wailing. I run up there and she’s puked. All over. GROSS! So I spent the next 20 minutes getting her all cleaned up, her bed stripped, starting laundry, and then getting her back to bed. Then I came back downstairs, all frazzled and rushed, and couldn’t remember for the life of me how to actually START the hangout….. AND during the Hangout Elizabeth woke up a total of 4 more times, throwing up… poor husband hand to hold the fort down while I was downstairs. What a night! But at least we all had fun!

5. And perhaps it was announcement overkill, but I made a really chatty pregnancy update video for the ol’ YouTube channel (where almost 600 are subscribed!!). It was so gloriously Raw Rambley Katie that I barely edited it. HA!

What were you up to this week? Let me know!

Fellow bloggers – ready to join in the link up? Just write a blog post about 5 things that made this week awesome! Add your link to your blog post down below (make sure it’s your blog post, not your blog home page!). And then grab the H54F button to add to your post! And go visit at least 3 fellow link uppers AND this week’s featured blogger! It’s just the nice thing to do.

And be sure to tag your posts/pics on social media with #H54F! We really do try to make the rounds and like, comment, retweet, etc! It’s so much fun to support one another, isn’t it?

I’m also linking up with Oh Hey, Friday, Meet @ the Barre, 5 on Friday & Diary of a Real Housewife

New Year! New Hangout! | H54F Hangout

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // January 14, 2016 // 2 Comments

It’s time for another High Five for Friday LIVE hangout with my buddies Della, Caitlin and Tif! Super excited to be kicking it off in the new year!

Tonight is going to be full of chatter! We’re planning on talking about the highlights and favorites from 2015, all the mistakes we made and the resolutions we made (or didn’t make) for 2016. I’ve got my favorite mug on the ready for tonight!

So join us TONIGHT at 9:30PM EST for the LIVE Google Hangout!

Here’s how it will work.

At 9:30PM EST you’ll be able to watch a LIVE stream of me, Della, Caitlin, and Tif gabbing away!

There are quite a few ways to watch! You can watch right here, on this post!

You can also watch on Google+ or YouTube!

You don’t need a Google+ account to watch. BUT you will need one if you want to ask us questions live. But if you don’t have one, no worries! You can still watch LIVE! You can also tweet us questions or comments using #H54FHangout. We’ll do our best to scan!

If you can’t make it, don’t worry about that either! We will be recording, and it will be available to watch later, whenever you want.

We are so excited to have you join us at 9:30PM EST tonight!

« Older posts

Newer posts »