Hello and Happy Thursday! I know I’ve said this everyday this week but I can’t believe it’s 4 days until Christmas!

It’s also the last Happy Hour Link Up of the year which is crazy! As usual, I’m linking up with Holly (big shout out, because it’s her Birthday today! ) and today I’m sharing an easy recipe for Christmas!

I shared about my Annual Cookie Exchange a few weeks back and its time to share my cookie! It was legit the easiest thing EVER and who doesn’t want an easy cookie to make?!

I made Christmas Kringle Cookies – you could make these for any time though and just switch up the food coloring choice 🙂

Ingredients:
• 1 box vanilla (white) cake mix
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tub (or 3 cups) Cool Whip
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Red & Green food coloring
• 1⁄2 cup powdered sugar

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Sil-
Pat.

2. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the cake mix, egg, cool whip and vanilla.
The dough will be thick and sticky.
3. Divide the dough in half and place one half in a second bowl. Add a couple drops
of red food coloring to one bowl and a couple drops of green food coloring to the
other bowl. Mix the food coloring into each half of the dough. Add more food
coloring as needed, until your desired color is reached.
4. Put the powdered sugar into a small bowl.
5. Use a small cookie scoop to portion the dough into the bowl of sugar. One scoop
at a time, place the dough into the sugar and roll it around until it is completely
coated. Place the dough ball on your prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the
remaining dough, leaving 2 inches between each cookie. (seriously, the cookies
spread A LOT).
6. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the cookies are set. The center of the cookie
will still be soft, that’s ok!
7. Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes.
Carefully transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

And that’s it.. so easy!! I would definitely recommend making some of these – they were a hit!

What are your go-to favorite recipes for the holidays? I can always use more that are easy 🙂

Kristi

Hello and happy Thursday!

Thanksgiving is 3 weeks from today and I’m linking up with Holly for a good happy hour to share some Thanksgivingness!

We don’t necessarily have a lot of “traditions” aside from eating as much turkey, mashed potatoes, corn and bread as possible.  We switch holidays every year with both our families – if we’re with my family for Thanksgiving, we’re with Logan’s for Christmas.  The next year – we reverse and do the opposite holiday.

Sometimes it’s hard when our families live about 3 hours away from each other but we make it work!

The last few years have been a bit trying for personal reasons but I like to make sure I count my blessings especially during Thanksgiving!

This year we’re with my in-laws for Thanksgiving (my family for Christmas) and that means we’ll head on over to Logan’s Grandma’s for the day to eat, watch football and peruse all the Black Friday ads!

I’m a big Black Friday shopper – not one who stands in lines outside before a store opens shopper but I love going out in the atmosphere and finding some good deals!

We usually go the weekend of Thanksgiving to find our Christmas tree as well.  This is probably my favorite part 🙂

What are some of your Thanksgiving traditions?  Do you shop or do you stay in all weekend?!

Kristi

Hey hey, it’s almost Friday!

I am still in disbelief that it’s October and pretty soon it’s going to be Halloween! I swear, time just flies by!

I’m linking up with Holly for our usual Thursday to share some home fall decor.  Now, usually I’m on the ball with this one… come September 1st, I’m pulling it all out BUT with our long trip and weddings we’ve had last month… I’ve been slacking!

So I’m here to share just a little bit of fall decor for your Thursday so grab your coffee, PSL or wine glass (I’m not judging!) and let’s get chatting!

Welcome to our home…

Our front porch is usually one of my favorite areas to decorate.  I figure we don’t have a lot of guests all the time but we do have a lot of people drive by!

I recently, in the last few months traded out our front table and picture collage out for this cute bench and coat rack! I love all things Magnolia so adding a few pumpkins to the wreath just made sense 🙂

My wine rack is always decked out for the season!

And I just love this little Pumpkin Spice corner in the kitchen! Oh yeah… and those Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl muffins are so so good… definitely give them a try if you love pumpkin!

The last area I’m sharing is our TV stand… I can’t wait for the day we have a beautiful fireplace mantle to decorate but for now, I’ll settle for the TV stand (ignore all the cords! I keep telling Logan to move those but you know… men!).

I’m such a nosy person and I just love seeing other people’s homes and how they decorate/live! Anyone else like that?! Isn’t it just so fascinating?!

Hope you have a great day!! Thanks for reading along!

Kristi

Happy Thursday!!

I am linking up today Holly over at Osborn Extravaganza to share what our favorite fall recipe is – so grab a cocktail or your pumpkin spice latte and let’s chat!

Crockpot recipes are my jam! I’m not a big meal planner and I don’t cook as often as I should BUT I love a good crock pot meal! I linked a few here and here .

Today’s favorite? Chili.

Logan found this recipe a few years ago and it’s been our go-to (aside from our favorite White Chicken Chili)! There’s quite a few ingredients but it’s oh so good!

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground beef chuck

1 pound bulk Italian sausage

3 (15 ounce) cans chili beans, drained

1 (15 ounce) can chili beans in spicy sauce

2 (28 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with juice

1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste

1 large yellow onion, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

2 green chile peppers, seeded and chopped

1 tablespoon bacon bits

4 cubes beef bouillon

1/2 cup beer

1/4 cup chili powder

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon dried oregano

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce (e.g. Tabasco™)

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon white sugar

1 (10.5 ounce) bag corn chips such as Fritos®

1 (8 ounce) package shredded Cheddar cheese

Recipe:

1. Heat a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Crumble the ground chuck and sausage into the hot pan, and cook until evenly browned. Drain off excess grease.
2. Pour in the chili beans, spicy chili beans, diced tomatoes and tomato paste. Add the onion, celery, green and red bell peppers, chili peppers, bacon bits, bouillon, and beer. Season with chili powder, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, oregano, cumin, hot pepper sauce, basil, salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika, and sugar. Stir to blend, then cover and simmer over low heat for at least 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
3. After 2 hours, taste, and adjust salt, pepper, and chili powder if necessary. The longer the chili simmers, the better it will taste. Remove from heat and serve, or refrigerate, and serve the next day.
4. To serve, ladle into bowls, and top with corn chips and shredded Cheddar cheese.

The prep time for this is about 30 minutes and it takes about 2 hours to cook and you’re ready to go!

Perfect for game day or the cooler fall days we’re starting to get!

We’re headed on our vacation, oh so soon so I might be a little MIA over here for a bit (shocker, right?!) but i’ll be sharing pictures from our trip over on my FB page so if you’re not following along – hop over there 🙂

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Kristi

Hi, remember me?! The girl who used to post semi-regularly and has now been non-existent for the last 2 weeks?!

I’m linking up with Holly over at Osborn Extravaganza (have you seen her new cute little boy?! If not, go check him out!) for just a little bit of chit-chat today!

I thought i’d share a little bit of my life lately since I’ve been gone so long!

Our weekends have been insane and they won’t start clearing up until October… which makes me want to cry! I mean for real… didn’t I learn anything last summer with “saying no” to everything?! Ugh.. Alas.. this is what we’ve been up to:

We spent a weekend in Eau Claire for a golf tournament Logan was in… It was two days and he tied for 2nd out of 10 teams! Score!

While he golfed, I hung out with my Mama and SIL.

We’re only somewhat “matching” ha!

We went out for drinks at Cowboy Jacks – it’s new to EC and their atmosphere is really sweet on the river! We have them in the cities, but they don’t seem nearly as fun!

After drinks, we ate out at Milwaukee Burger and their cheese curds are always *heart eyes*!

We spent time at a few wineries as well that weekend! My favorite winery is Autumn Harvest in Chippewa Falls and it’s the only winery where I actually really liked EVERY wine I tried! My SIL was surprised since she felt the same way after trying some 🙂

I mean, for real… so often, I only like 1 of the wines and the others make me not so happy! Of course, after a few glasses I’m not as picky!  

Autumn Harvest had a Customer Appreciation Day going on and had little animals you could hold, pet and feed! The little piglets were only 5 days old and so sweet! We went to a few greenhouses that have cute little shops before heading to lunch with my Grandma at the mall – it’s the only place in EC that has Rocky Roccoco’s and i’m obsessed so we always need to stop by there!

I clearly haven’t seen sun in all that time we’ve been busy, huh??

We had our annual Crawfish Boil this past weekend and it was a hit as usual!

We had friends come from near and far! We were so excited to have these folks above visit for the day and night! Their little boy is seriously the sweetest. Even though we don’t see them as often as we’d like, he still loves being with us and snuggling 🙂 

We saw friends we haven’t seen all summer long!

We had my SIL in town for the whole weekend and it was so great to have some quality time with her the last few weekends! We watched movies on Sunday on the couch before she left (as well as rented one on Friday) and it was just so much fun! We’re already counting down until we see her again!The spread was huge per usual and it was just so nice to chat with everyone.  It’s fun to get everyone together and just eat some good food, play some fun games and drink some great Sangria 🙂 #priorities

Doesn’t that crawfish just look so yummy!? Thanks to Katie for remembering to take pictures 😉We don’t have our new siding up yet (in case you didn’t notice those pretty holes in the back) but hope to have it done soon!  We’re going with a whole different color so I’m excited to see how it turns out!
My SIL went to the Sculpture Garden in Minneapolis this past weekend as well. I’ve always heard about it (I think everyone has seen the spoon and cherry!!) but never been so we thought we’d give it a try!  I’m not going to lie… it wasn’t all that great! I thought there would be more sculptures but we did see a sweet Bride and Groom doing a first look 🙂

We went to breakfast at Eggy’s Diner right by the Garden and treated ourselves to some Mimosas!  Or in our case, champagne with a splash of OJ! 🙂

I’m hosting a Lips N’ Sips party tonight with my girlfriends and am excited for them to try out the product! When I first started selling it, one of my girlfriends (I’m looking at you, Meagan :)) suggested having a quick girls night so they could all give the colors a try and decide color(s) they love!

I started this little venture (you can read about it here) a few weeks ago and it’s insane how much has been selling! This product definitely speaks for itself and it helps when it’s something I believe in and love!

I got my SIL and MIL (amongst so many other!) hooked and my Mama is trying hers this weekend! If you’re interested in learning more or watching my Live videos – you can join my FB group here.

Hmm that’s been our life lately! I’m hoping to be back to regular blogging and will share about my Lips N’ Sips party tomorrow on the blog as one of my favorites from this week! 🙂

Thanks for sticking around through my delay in the blogging world!

Kristi

Helllllllooooooo (imagine Mrs. Doubtfire’s voice)!

I’m linking up late with some of my favorite bloggers to discuss just about anything!

Today’s topic: Lipsense!!

I mentioned on Friday that I drank the kool-aid and I’m officially hooked! I signed up to be a distributor and am so excited to start this.  Can I just say… I have NEVER done something like this before (I usually think it’s a waste of time!) – and don’t worry, it will be minimally mentioned on the blog since that’s not what this little space is all about – but I wanted to share it with all my gals who are always so supportive! 🙂

I’m totally the girl who loves a bold lip color (shocker, right?!) but i’m also the girl who is worried about having lipstick on my teeth (somehow it happens) or it seems to rub off in the middle and I’m left with almost just a liner! I mean, it looks ridiculous unless I’m constantly checking the mirror..

BUT ladies.. this lip color stays on ALL day! I went out on a limb and ordered Kiss for a Cause (a bright pink) and I’m so glad I did!  I mean, put it on at 6 am before work and it’s still on and looking great at 6 pm – without reapplying the lip color! It’s just crazy and I’m definitely on board after that!

Again, I’m not trying to push anything on any of you – just throwing it out there in case you haven’t tried it or have and are looking at starting their own little stash 🙂

If you’re interested in following along while I make a fool out of myself with live videos (does anyone look good in those?! ;)) and pictures of the lip colors while I try them on daily, leave your email below and I’ll add you to the closed group on FB!

Alright well.. if you’re still reading, cheers to you!! 🙂 And thanks for listening to me vent about my new adventure!!

Hope you have a fabulous Tuesday! I’ll be back tomorrow sharing what I’m keeping from my NSale purchases 🙂

Kristi

Heyyooooo, it’s Thursday which means it’s a day closer to the weekend AND if you haven’t entered the giveaway on my facebook page then get to it!  The giveaway ends tonight and the winner will be announced at 7 pm CST!

Also… the #Nsale started this morning for cardholders but you can still take a look to make note of what you might need/want. Let me know if you want me to do a blog post about my favorite items!

Now, moving on…. I’m linking up with Holly for another edition of Happy Hour and we’re discussing our favorite summer beauty products!  So grab your margarita coffee and let’s get chatting!

In the summer, I use minimal make up because hopefully I’ve got a little bit of a tan…

but if not, this is  my favorite…

Favorite self tanner: I’ve mentioned this product before but I really love how natural this tanner looks! Much better than some others out there with no streaking!

Favorite “foundation” : I use this instead of actual foundation (I get the medium) and I use my handy dandy make up sponge to put it on!  If I’m feeling up to it, then I put on this concealer.  I tried so many concealers and this is definitely my favorite and will remain a “must have” to me.

Favorite Bronzer: hands down. They have a travel size if you just want to try it too!

Favorite mascara: I have this weird thing with my eyes that I’m clearly allergic to something! In college, I used Maybelline and had the worst allergic reaction so ever since then I use this one since it’s hypoallergenic!

I always have lip gloss on as well!  MAC lip gloss and lip stick is my usual “go to” but I just got Lipsense in and I’m loving that it stays on ALL day!

Favorite volume products: If i’m being honest… I wash my hair every 4-5 days (don’t worry, I still shower the other days!) and that is thanks to this dry shampoo!  It’s the only shampoo on the market that cleans your hair while helping absorb any grease! I am fortunate (?) that my hair doesn’t really get greasy but this helps create volume!

Another product I love to put on my hair after I curl it… is this bad boy! It really does help keep volume in my hair along with some curlers 🙂

Want to know the best part about every product (minus my mascara)?  They’re all offered in travel sizes at a lower cost if you want to give any a try!

MY other beauty products fluctuate depending on the season/holiday but these are all constant!  What are some beauty must haves for you?! I’m always looking to try new products!

Kristi

 

 

Happy Wednesday!! Sorry I’ve been so MIA lately but it’s been kinda busy around these parts! Make sure you scroll to the bottom for an EASY and fun gift card giveaway to Nordstrom!

I’m linking up with Shay and Erika today for an edition of Workin’ It Wednesday!

This month’s topic is to share a weekend in the life, but guess what?! I share those almost every week 🙂  To recap the last few weekends, you can check out some recaps here, here, and here from January!

We spent some time with my in-laws recently and celebrated one of Logan’s cousins who graduated high school in June.

We even got to spend a little time with my sister and niece which is always a favorite of mine!

We also like to hit up craft/art fairs on the square!

I bought the cutest sign ever from this shop at the fair and can’t wait to show you it hung up! 🙂 Now to make my husband do that since my pictures never hang straight when I do it myself!

One more thing before I go… As you have probably noticed – the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale starts tomorrow for cardholders and I’m giving away a $100 gift card over on my facebook page so you can shop the best sale and it’s super EASY! You simply must “like/follow” my Facebook page and share the post! Easy peasy! 🙂 The winner will be announced tomorrow at 7 pm so get on it!!

Kristi

Hello and Happy Tuesday!

Today, I’m linking up with Andrea for another edition of Show & Tell Tuesday – we’re sharing our favorite grown-up parties!

We don’t have parties too often but the ones we have are a blast!

For the past 3 years, we’ve held an annual crawfish boil… the first year, involved this…

And unfortunately, after that it just involved crawfish, shrimp, corn (etc) and some lawn games! Ha!

Crawfish boils aren’t quite a “thing” in Minnesota so it’s always something people love attending!

My other favorite party is my Cookie Exchange party that I held this last December!

I mean… what’s more fun than pajamas, cookies and Christmas games?!

Nothing in my book…. as long as it’s with these fun girls!

Throw in a fun photo booth and you’ve got yourself a party 🙂

I’m hoping to turn this into an annual party!

What are some of your favorite grown up parties?!

I’m thinking of throwing a fun “favorite things” party this summer and I just can’t wait!

Kristi