Lovin' The Weekend Blog Hop

Welcome to Lovin' The Weekend Blog Hops with your co-hosts:

Karen from Tots and Me, Rena from An Ordinary Housewife and Angie from Snack Cups and Smiles.

Thank you to every one who has stopped by, whether this is your first visit or you have been a faithful ongoing participant! 

We would love for you to stop by each of the co-hosts and follow us, then feel free to add your links to any or all of the following linkies.

 We also randomly choose a Featured host each week from the Lovin' The Readers linky. This week we are featuring Caroline from Love, Caroline Blog.

Here's what she has to say:
"I'm a lover of all things DIY, fashion, food, and God. I'm always trying new things and I love to share about my craft adventures, new style, fun recipes and inspiring scripture.

I started my blog in early December 2012 after I had followed some blogs and decided that I could do what they were doing too. My goals for blogging our to have fun, inspire people and to share with others what I love."

Don't forget to link up to the Lovin' the Readers Hop if you would like a chance to be a Featured host next week. Please comment with a way to contact you, especially if there is not an obvious way mentioned on your blog. We would love to include a little write up about you and your blog in the next week's Lovin' The Weekend Blog Hop post, including a link to your blog. And you will get to include the linky codes on your blog. Sound fun? We're looking forward to getting to know our readers better.

Here's how this blog hop works. We would appreciate it if you would follow Tots and Me, An Ordinary Housewife and Snack Cups and Smiles. And please don't forget to visit our Featured Host. If you no longer have GFC please follow in some other way. After that there are three different linkies you can link to. Whichever one you choose to link to, please grab that button and share it on your blog (the codes are on Tot's and Me's sidebar). We'd love it if you could tweet or in some other way share about this blog hop, the more people who know about it, the more potential visitors and new followers of your blog. We'd love to meet some new friends this weekend.  

Some people are more interested in just increasing their numbers, while others really want people who appreciate their blog and want to keep up with their posts. So, there are two separate blog hop linkies. 

The third linky is for you to link up your giveaways.

If you are interested in increasing the number of followers to your blog via GFC, Linky Followers, email, Twitter, Facebook or Google+ link up here. We will follow you back if you follow us (just note which one you are linking to):

If you are interested in gaining followers to your blog who will read and comment and truly find an interest in your blog, link up here:

If you have family friendly giveaways to link up, here's your spot. Please make sure to include an end date for your giveaway.

We are so glad you stopped by. Please leave a comment if you link up and we will be sure to stop by and follow back.

Don't forget to check out my "Blog Hops" page for other great blog hops!!

H54F: Fear is a Choice

Happy, happy Friday! They're has been a lot going on this week. 

1. Went to see After Earth yesterday and loved it! I love adventure movies and I loved the theme of the movie that fear is a choice. It relates back to my post on Wednesday Bless The Lord

2. Made a necklace out of washers and love how it turned out!

3. My sister made this cool mason jar soap dispenser. I've been seeing them all over Pinterest and she made it only about 20 minutes!

4. My camera bag is ready for my new camera!

5. I bought the canon 60d and am so excited! It was a really good deal and I'm so glad I was smart and waited a little before I bought it.

Have a great weekend!

Summer Beach Style

1. Striped Red and White Maxi Dress Forever 21 $13.80
2. Black Espadrilles Old Navy $23.00
3. Black Shoulder Bag H&M $14.95
4. Black Aviator Sunglasses H&M $9.95
5. Natural Straw Hat H&M $9.95
6. Blanc Essie Polish Target $7.79

It's been really warm in Texas and all I can think about is staying cool. I've gone to the pool a couple times this week but I really want to go to the beach. I'm all about cute maxi dresses for summer and hats to keep the sunburns far away from me, and of course sunglasses. I'm also crushing on the trend of wearing white polish. I wore my toes white once, way before the white nails trend started and think it is a cute fresh look for summer. To hold all my goodies, I've been attached to shoulder bags the past couple years. They're easy to carry and can fit everything I need in them.

Hope y'all are staying cool and I would love to hear some of your favorite beachy looks!

Bless the Lord

 

Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits--  who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,  who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,  who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

 Psalm 103:1-5

In times where so much trouble is happening, fires in California, tornadoes in Oklahoma, bombings in Boston, riots in Turkey it's hard to remember to praise God. But no matter the time, there's always pain and suffering occurring, but God is there and he has given us so much. Psalm 103:1-5 clearly shows why we should praise God and how to praise him.

We should praise God because he forgives our sins. I sin every day and I'm so glad that I serve a gracious God who is willing to give me another chance. We should also praise God because he heals all our diseases. I'm constantly hearing stories from people of God's grace in sparing their lives when they had a terminal illness such as cancer. Although people still die from diseases, God promises to heal us when we enter heaven and be spotless and beautiful. We should also praise God for redeeming our lives with his never ending love and compassion. As humans we're not perfect, but God still loves and helps us when we struggle. He's always there by our side and promises us that he will come to our rescue when we have fallen too far to pick ourselves back up. We should also praise God for satisfying our desires with good things.

God gives us what we need and renews us when we need it most. These are only a few reasons to praise God with all that you are but there are countless other reasons that God deserves our worship. Matt Redman wrote a song called 10,000 Reasons that is based off of Psalm 103: 1-5. I love 10,000 Reasons and am always so blessed when I listen to it and I know that I'm praising God when I sing to it too.

I hope that you take some time today to praise God and to thank him for all he's given you.

Touch of Summer

 

 top: Target Similar

jeans: Forever 21 Similar

necklace: Gift

bracelet: Icing

headband: Icing

shoes: DSW

I'm all about the peplum this summer, and I'm really getting my money out of my navy peplum top from Target. It's a great piece for summer and helps me even out my bad farmers tans from wearing t-shirts and going on too many bike rides. So, here's to more peplum tops, a great summer and an even tan!

I've also been really crushing on my boyfriend jeans. They're cute, versatile and actually keep me cool since it's over 90 degrees in Texas. Along with my peplum top, and jeans I've been wearing my leather flats out like nobodies business. They're super comfy, (at least I think so) and really accent my outfits.

What We Wore, Made and Read, Wardrobe Wedensday, Your Whims Wednesday, Doing You Well Wednesday, Dress For the Day, Fresh Fashionista,Wordless Wednesday Bloggers, The Pleated Poppy, Rolled up Pretty, Because Shanna Said So, Tucker Up, Transatlantic Blonde, This Girls Life Blog, Taingamala, Whatever Works Wednesday, Penniless Socialite, Casual Chic Mom, Two Thirty-five Designs, Lily Among Thorns, Watch Out for the Woestmans, NQTY, Fancy Things, Fashion Informant, Keeping It Casual, Get Your Pretty On

Vegan Gluten Free Brownies: Um Um, Yum

My mom's really big on eating healthy and last week she tried out this gluten free vegan brownie recipe and let me tell you it was deeeeliiiiciooous! We had a bit of a taste test and made both the gluten free brownies and regular homemade brownies with chocoa powder. We had about 10 people try out both brownies and everyone said that both the regular and vegan gluten free both tasted great and that it was hard to tell the difference between the two.

Here's how my mom made them.

Ingredients:

• 1 15 oz. can (~ 1 3/4 cups) black beans, well rinsed and drained
• 2 large flax eggs (2.5 T flaxseed meal + 6 T water)
• 3 T coconut oil, melted (or sub other oil of choice)
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder (the higher quality the better)
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• heaping 1/2 cup raw sugar, slightly ground or pulsed in a food processor or coffee grinder for refined texture
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• Optional toppings: crush walnuts, pecans or semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Lightly grease a 12-slot standard size muffin pan (not mini).
3. Prepare flax egg by combining flax and water in the bowl of the food processor. Pulse a couple times and then let rest for a few minutes.
4. Add remaining ingredients (besides walnuts or other toppings) and puree – about 3 minutes – scraping down sides as needed. You want it pretty smooth.
5. If the batter appears too thick, add a Tbsp or two of water and pulse again. It should be slightly less thick than chocolate frosting but nowhere close to runny.
6. Evenly distribute the batter into the muffin tin and smooth the tops with a spoon or your finger.
7. Optional: Sprinkle with crushed walnuts, pecans or chocolate chips.
8. Bake for 20-26 minutes or until the tops are dry and the edges start to pull away from the sides. I found mine took about 25.
9. Remove from oven and let cool for 30 minutes before removing from pan. They will be tender, so remove gently with a fork. The insides are meant to be very fudgy, so don’t be concerned if they seem too moist – that’s the point. Plus, they’re vegan so it doesn’t really matter.
10. Store in an airtight container for up to a few days. Refrigerate to keep longer.

Now go give it a try and don't take my word for it. Let me now how yours turn out! ;)
To find more recipes like this one, go to the Minimalist Baker
 

H54F: Visitors

Happy spanky Friday y'all! Hope your week was as exciting as mine!

1. In honor of D-Day, which is June 6, my family and I watched the Longest Day with John Wayne, aka Marilyn Morrison. Very long, intense, surreal movie.

2. My cousins came over and we have spent last night watching the Longest Day and playing Apples to Apples. Best, funniest game ever!

3. On top of Apples to Apples, we played a lot to bs, known as Peanut Butter in our house, and spoons. In general tons of card games.

4. Due to 90+ degree weather, my Canadian water bottle has saved my life this week. I've gone on several bike rides, played tennis, went on nature walks and have always had my trusty water bottle to quench my thirst.

5. Due to the unruly sweet tooth in my family we couldn't resist making brownies. We made gluten free, I'll have to share the recipes on these soon, and the chocao brownies we made. Both we're super good!

And there is my week! 

p.s. I'm co-hosting the Bloglovin Blog Hop so don't forget to come on over and link up!

Bloglovin' Blog Hop

Welcome to bloglovin' and blog hopping Thursday once again!  We are so happy to be joining together to bring you the  bloglovin' Blog Hop to help grow our blogs.   It's always a great idea to have many ways for friends to follow your blog. 
Each week we rotate one other social media to follow.  This week we are adding your blog and Google+ along with bloglovin'!  Friends can hop on over to visit your blog.   
A huge thank you to everyone who joined us last week.  We hope you made some new friends! 

Please follow each hostess, and leave us a comment so we can return the follow!   Please follow you hostesses and visit other at least 3 or 4 other links!  

We would love to feature a co-host each week, so please send one of us an email if you would like to be a co-host.  We would love for you to join us!

Please link up your bloglovin' follow link.  To find your URL, just click on your follow by bloglovin' button.  Copy and past the URL link.  That's all there is to it!  

Thank you so much for joining us!  We hope you make many new friends and followers each week.  

Not mandatory, but we would love for you to share our blog hop button.    That's a great way for us to all gain new friends. 

Hostesses:

                                                          

Becky @ Your Modern Family                                   Doreen @  HouseHoneys  

                                                                       

                                          

     Kathe @ Kathe with an E                                      Kathy @ Life on Lakeshore Drive     

                                               

Suzan @ Simply Vintageous                                    Tammy @ One More Time Events   

                                                                                                                                        Caroline @ Love, Caroline   (Co-hostess)

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Favorite Summer Pieces

1. Orange and Pink Color Block Dress Loft $44.88
2. Brown and Tan Wedges TJ Maxx $29.99
3. White Watch Target $14.99 
4. Cream Necklace Forever 21 $2.80
5. Brown Handbag Nordstorm $24.90
6. Orange It's Obvious Essie Polish Target $7.79

Here are some of my favorite finds from my favorite stores! Target of course is my all time favorite store, but I love Forever 21 too! There has been a lot of color blocking this dress season and here's a dress I found at Loft that is perfect for summer! It has the perfect color scheme of pink and orange and is really calling my name. Also, the brown and tan wedges are looking really cute and comfy for summer. They'll go with everything and I love the wide straps that really accent the wedges. I also found some cute accessories. The watch, necklace, and purse are very cute, fashionable and would go great with tons of outfits in my closet. Lastly I'm all about lasting nail polish that leaves a statement and Essie Polish does just that!

Would love to hear about your favorite stores and favorite trends for summer!

Linking up with: BlogLovin, Aloha Blog Hop, GFC Blog Hop, Friday Blog Hop, Friday Fancies, FFF, Casual Friday, Friday Chaos, Find + Follow Friday

10 Blogging Tips

 via

Here are 10 of my own blogging tips that I've learned from my last few months of blogging.

1. Reply to comments the right way
Reply to your comments through the e-mails you get with their comment not on your blog. I though I had to reply to my followers on my blog and later found out I was ignoring my followers comments by replying in the wrong way.

2. Don't be a no-reply blogger
Make sure your not a no-reply blogger. For the longest time I though bloggers were ignoring my comments until I found out I was a no-reply blogger.

3. Turn off word verification
Go to setting-posts and comments-and click no on show word verification. This helps readers not want to comment and increases your comments.

4. Have social media
I put this off for the longest time and just a couple weeks ago created a Facebook Page for my blog. I have a pinterest, instagram, twitter, bloglovin, and facebook page now to share my blog with others and increase my readers.

5. Meaningful posts
I never really struggled with this too much, but make sure the post is relevant to your readers so they will want to come back to your blog.

6. Have an About you page
Make sure to have an about page so readers can learn about you and really feel connected to you. I've gone to many blogs and have not been able to find an about page or have found a page that didn't really say much, so make sure to have a clear about you page.

7. Contact page
Second to having a clear about you page is having a contact page. It's really hard for a follower to contact you if you don't have your e-mail on your about you page or better yet a contact page.

8. Label your posts
Have a labels (tag) section on your blog so your followers can pick a topic to look at. i.e. have a tag labeled recipes for your readers to be able to find other recipes that you have made and shared on your blog.

9.Similar posts link
Have a link with popular or similar posts so your readers can look at other posts that a majority of your readers enjoyed. I got link-within for my blog to show similar posts to my readers.

10. Button Swap
To share your blog with others, make your to swap your blog button with other bloggers. It's easy, free and helps you make new bloggers friends.

Linking up with: Blog Stalking Thursday, Thumping Thursday, Blog Lovin' Hop, Look What I Got, It's Ok Thursday, Thankful Thursdays, Thankful Thursday F4, Show and Tell