High Five for Friday

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // February 6, 2015 // 15 Comments

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

This week’s featured blogger is Heather from My Little Happily Ever After! Her blog has an awesome collection of all things wonderful! Don’t forget to check her out!

Here’s what I was up to this week:

1. Anyone just get to the end of the week, wondering what it was you did??? That’s me this week. The week definitely ended up in a blur. It really feels like a Wednesday today, not a Friday! Of course, I haven’t really felt the TGIF feeling for a while…

2. We hosted a Theology in Medicine discussion group at our home on Wednesday. My husband has been a part of it for several months now. Thankfully, they are a Drinks and Appetizers kind of group, not full on meal! So I whipped up my favorite carmelized onion and goats cheese tarts from Trader Joe’s, threw together a cheese plate, and baked some chocolate chip cookies! Easy! (I snapped some pictures, but my husband got “delete happy” with our camera and deleted them all hahaha!)

3. I had a work meeting this week at my old company. I still do some consulting for them, from home, but this week I needed to do some process training, and we decided it was easier to do it if I came in. While I like most of my old coworkers there, I did get the heebee geebies walking in! But it was fun to strutting in there, thinking “Bam! Consultant coming through!”.

4. Elizabeth hit a few firsts yesterday! She gave me her first hug, unprompted. It was so sweet!! It was then quickly followed by her first clear “no” when I asked her to give me another hug. Breaking her mother’s heart so young.

5. I feel like every week deserves a little “What I’m Watching” round up! This week I became OBSESSED with watching Dance Moms. Don’t know why that show, all of the sudden, is so fascinating to me, but it’s sucked my week away. Netflix put up a small collection of episodes, and once I finished that, I felt incomplete somehow. Admitting to watching trashy TV feels freeing, somehow.

Fellow bloggers – ready to join in the link up? Just write a blog post about 5 things that made this week awesome! It could be 5 memories/highlights, 5 pairs of shoes you wore, 5 “good job” comments you got, or 5 pieces of chocolate you scarfed down when no one was looking. Add your link to your blog post down below (make sure it’s your blog post, not your blog home page!!). Then be sure to link back to the link up by grabbing the H54F button!

Don’t forget to visit your fellow linkers and say hi!

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

Resolutions | One Month Update

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // February 3, 2015 // 15 Comments

Since we’re already one month down in 2015, I thought it was a good idea to revisit my resolutions for this year. You can read more here, but I’ll tackle it, cliff notes style.

For the home:

Cut back on frivolous spending – did really good in January! Only had one random “browsing” shopping trip to Target that didn’t yield too many wild items. It could have been much worse!
Read more. I need to finish the one book I’ve been reading for months before I can really tackle this. I can’t read more than one book at a time!
Actually learn how to bake a good pie – Haven’t tried this yet….
Send handwritten notes to friends and family throughout the year – I got the Christmas thank you notes done! Next step is to draft a list of people to send random notes to, and divvy them up throughout the year.

For Elizabeth:

Be more patient – don’t think I’ll ever truly complete this…. but I’ll keep trying!
Organize more activities – We were doing really well up until last week! I definitely notice better naps on days when there are more activities and outings.

For Myself:

Get better at applying eye shadow – ha! There are good days and bad days…. and yesterday was a bad day. I realized one eye lid is more wrinkly than the other. Crease Central!
Find the perfect “not quite everyday but natural enough to be everyday” foundation – I almost bought the new L’Oreal Infalliable foundation when I was at Target. But I’ll hold off on this resolution until I finish a few other foundations I have stocked up.

For the Blog:

Get back to YouTube – I had a big recording day last week. Now to edit!
Take better pictures – I’m getting there!

How are you doing on your New Year’s Resolutions? Or did you skip those this year?? Let me know!

Linked up with Tuesday Talk

Menu Monday #37

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // February 2, 2015 // 2 Comments

Happy Monday! Hope you didn’t stay up too late watching the Super Bowl!

This week on the menu, I’ve got a lot of picks from my husband, including his favorite Mexican Pizza and a Thai dish. I also brought back our favorite butternut squash and black bean enchiladas! I saw it poke out of my recipe box and couldn’t resist making it again. It was on the menu almost every week for a while!

For more information on how I menu plan, look at this. But if this is your first time reading a Menu Monday post, this is where I post what we’ve got on our dinner menu for the week. And, as always, I have links to as many recipes as I can reference. Some, though, are just “open a can” or “microwave that”, or my own DIY.

Monday:
Mexican Pizza with Salsa Roja & Cilantro Pesto
(From Fields of Greens cookbook)

Tuesday:
Eggplant Parmesan Casserole

Wednesday:
Indian Cashew Curry

Thursday:
Spicy Basil Tofu

Friday (Soup Night):
Onion Soup with Red Wine & Tomatoes
(Similar recipe here)

Saturday:
Roasted Butternut Squash and Black Bean Enchiladas

Sunday:
Taco Salad

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

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // January 30, 2015 // 26 Comments

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

This week our featured blog is Becky at BYBMG! Her everyday, casual fashion looks are something I definitely identify with and love!! Swing by and say hi!

Here’s what I was up to this week:

1. Can’t let another Friday go by without saying THANK YOU to all who have been linking up with us for the last 4 weeks (shocked!). I’ve had such a wonderful time stopping by all of your blogs, leaving comments, and getting to know you. So thank you for linking up with us each and every week. We hope you’re having a fun time too!

2. I have been quiet on the blog this week! I managed to get only two posts in (Menu Monday and 11 DIY Valentine’s Day Cards) this week, plus today’s…. shameful. Just shameful. I suppose the positive is that I was busy with housework? I’ve mentioned before that when I get in a groove with one of my main responsibilities, its best to just keep doing it, until I loose my gusto.

3. I did something super glamorous – getting our cars’ tires rotated. So 2 trips to the tire store. But all was not lost! One of those trips involved a walk across the parking lot to Target. I snagged some fun stuff!

I found the cutest rain coat for Elizabeth. Once we tried it on, she wouldn’t take it off!

4. Not sure what this has to do with my weekly round up, but I was pretty bummed to learn C. Wonder has closed down!!! I was rounding up my girlfriends for a quick “going out of business” shopping trip, but learned our local store was already closed! Say what??? Why didn’t I snag those cute bee loafers sooner?

5. Confession – Elizabeth watches TV. There. I said it. Specifically, Daniel Tiger. It’s so cute! But while she may enjoy it, it’s mainly for my own benefit. This made the rounds around Facebook this week, and it made me laugh! 25 Reasons I Let My Kid Watch Daniel Tiger

Don’t forget to visit your fellow linkers and say hi!

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

11 Fun DIY Valentines from Pinterest & Etsy

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // January 29, 2015 // 8 Comments

Anyone else DIY challenged? I always aspire to actually do fun Pinterest-inspired projects (anyone remember this failed promise blog post?) but either loose my motivation OR begin the project, only to find it’s beyond my limited skill set.

Enter these 11 really cute, really fun, and EASY DIY Valentines. You could tackle these in an afternoon! And a few of these you can totally just order, completely done, from Etsy, which is the best kind of DIY!

Aren’t these so sweet?