2017 Most Anticipated New Releases

Last year I posted about books that were being turned into movies that I was excited about, but this year I’m much more excited to just to get new books to read. During my research I didn’t see a whole lot of books that were being turned into movies for 2017 so I figured this would be a better list. Plus this year I ended reading an all-time high of 70 books! I hope to keep the streak going in 2017 with these new releases.

Frostblood by Elly Blake coming out January 10, 2017 is the debut novel for Blake and I actually received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley. I could not put this book down and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great YA to kick off your reading in 2017. This book hasn’t even come out yet and I can’t wait to get my hands on the next in the series.

 

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas coming out May 2, 2017 is the third book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series. I just finished the second book, A Court of Mist and Fury, and was blown away at how good this series is. Sarah J. Maas is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors as I’m also catching up on her Throne of Glass series.

 

Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han coming out May 2, 2017 is the third book in the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series. The first book in the series was our book club choice for April of this past year and typically I don’t love these kind of books, but this series is adorable and I’m so happy that Han decided to write a third book for it.

 

Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth coming out January 17, 2017 is a new sci-fi book that sounds like everything I loved from Roth in the Divergent series. While I have heard some not so good things about this book on BookTube, I’m willing to give this book a chance solely based on the fact that I loved the Divergent series.

 

Kings Cage by Victoria Aveyard coming out February 7, 2017 is the third book in the Red Queen series which I absolutely loved. I actually broke my own rule with this series and bought the kindle books instead of waiting for them to become available at the library so I know I will more than likely have this book day one.

 

Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller coming out February 28, 2017. This is the debut novel from Tricia Levenseller and I am really intrigued by the description of this book. When the ruthless pirate king learns of a legendary treasure map hidden on an enemy ship, his daughter, Alosa, knows there’s only one pirate for the job—herself. Leaving behind her beloved ship and crew, Alosa deliberately facilitates her own kidnapping to ensure her passage on the ship, confident in her ability to overcome any obstacle. After all, who’s going to suspect a seventeen-year-old girl locked in a cell? Then she meets the (surprisingly perceptive and unfairly attractive) first mate, Riden, who is charged with finding out all her secrets. Now it’s down to a battle of wits and will . . . . Can Alosa find the map and escape before Riden figures out her plan?

 

Spindle Fire by Lexa Hillyer coming out April 11, 2017 is the first book in a duology darker retelling of Sleeping Beauty with two heroines. I absolutely love retellings and this one sounds so interesting. Aurora has a half-sister, Isabelle, who is trying to find Aurora’s prince to wake her from her sleep and save the two kingdoms.

 

Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh coming out May 16, 2017 sounds somewhat like a Mulan retelling and has me very interested.

 

 

 

The End of Oz by Danielle Paige coming out March 14, 2017 is the final book in the Dorothy Must Die series which I devoured at the beginning of last year. The concept of this series is that Dorothy has gone mad with power and has destroyed Oz and our main character Amy must take her down. Can you tell I really like retellings?

I’m sure there are more books coming out in 2017 that will have me excited, but for now these are the top ones on my list. Since I had such a successful reading year in 2016 I’m hoping I can get to reading all the new releases on my list in 2017.

December Disney Dare

I meant to post this way sooner then today but honestly completely forgot until today. So there are still 20 days in this month to participate and I’m going to try my hardest to watch as many as I can! I’ll be honest there are some Disney movies that I’ve never seen for one reason or another and I’m hoping with this challenge that I can cross a few of those off my list. I’m lucky to have a husband that tolerates the never ending Disney moviethon. I’m currently watching Beauty and the Beast so what better time than now to post.

The Dates: Runs from December 1, 2016 through December 31, 2016

The Dare: To watch as many Disney / Pixar animated films as possible!

The Details: This is a low-key challenge for all the Disney lovers out there so you can feel free to set your own goal or aim for one of our tiers:

1 – 4 films – Moana (Newbie Disney Fan)

5 – 8 films – Aurora (Rather be Sleeping Disney Fan)

9 – 12 films – Stitch (Crazy for Disney Fan)

13 – 16 – Ariel (Disney Film Hoarding Fan)

17 – 20 films – Rapunzel (Diligent Disney Fan)

21+ films – Snow White (Ultimate Disney Fan)

The Deal: Films that qualify for this challenge encompass all of the animated Disney and Pixar films.  Live action films and Marvel films do not count for this challenge.

Look out for my recap post on January 1st to see how many I’ve watched, I’ll be honest I’m hoping to at least get to Stitch! You can also join in on the fun on twitter and instagram by using #disneydare.

Winter Candle Dupes

Apparently I only like to blog during the holidays! Sorry for the long absence, but I do have some holiday themed posts coming your way this month and who knows what will happen after that. Today I wanted to kick off the month of December with everyone’s favorite…candles! As much as I love candles I have been extremely hesitant to spend the money on Bath and Body Works this year and have been looking for cheaper alternatives that are just as good. Just like last years fall favorites, Walmart has once again stolen the show. Their 3 wick candles are by far the best of the “cheap” candles you can find. Their candles are only $4.95, you cannot beat that price!

Spreading Holiday Cheer smells like all the sweet candy in the world. I am absolutely obsessed with this one and have been burning it none stop. I may even go back and get a couple more to stock up. The scents used in this candle are citrus, berry and ginger.

Ice Skating in the Park reminds me so much of a scent from B&BW a couple years ago and this is a good one to pick up because it’s not just holiday themed and you can burn it well after the holidays have ended. This one actually reminds me of the smell when walking into a country Christmas store that I’ve visited with my mom. The scents used in this candle are spearmint, peppermint and evergreen.

Winter Sleigh Ride is another one that isn’t technically holiday themed, but all I can think of is Christmas songs when I say the name of this one. I feel like this one smells like a Christmas tree, but not as strong as most tree candles are. The scents used in this one are woods, balsam and pine.

There were a ton more to choose from, but I tried to control myself. I would say run to your nearest Walmart and pick up some cheap candles! I found mine in the holiday section instead of with the candles.

Fall Favorites

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. The changing of the weather, the colors changing on the trees, snuggling under blankets and watching Halloween movies. Basically I love being a basic white girl, no shame in my game! Before I jet off to Disney to enjoy Halloween at the most magical place on earth I figured I would share my fall favorites with you guys.

First I have these amazing pumpkin wine glasses that I made myself for super cheap, I’m talking dollar tree here people! I’ve gone to a couple paint nights over the past year and absolutely love them, so when I got an email that they were doing wine glasses now I was super excited, but then I saw the price tag of $45 a person and quickly figured out that I could totally make these on my own. So my sister and I painted pumpkin wine glasses while watching the best halloween movie of all time Hocus Pocus. If you guys want to see a tutorial on these wine glasses let me know as I am planning on making different ones for each holiday!

During fall I love lighting fall scented candles all over my house to make it smell even more festive, usually I get bath and body works candles but I’ve been feeling pretty cheap lately and I actually found these candles at Walmart for $4.99. The best part is that they smell AH-MAZING. This is actually the second round of candles in these scents because I’ve already burned through the first ones I bought and I just needed more.

Fall clearly calls for a dark lip and nail and my 2 current favorites are Revlon Bold Sangria and NARS Cruella. I actually got the NARS for free from Sephora for my birthday so make sure you are signed up for their rewards and you can snag it for yourself. Revlon Bold Sangria is a great color for fall because unlike some other colors that I’ve tried it’s not so dark that it looks black on your nails, this comes out as a great deep purple on your nails that I am absolutely obsessed with. (Not pictured is my close second favorite of OPI Black Cherry Chutney.)

The number one fall favorite/must have trend that continues from last year is the blanket scarf. I grabbed mine last year from Target while they were having a sale on their scarfs and I think I paid around $10-15 for mine plus I didn’t have to wait for shipping. There are tons of boutiques that sell these scarfs online and they are great for layering and making an outfit of jeans and a tshirt really pop. I want to buy one in every different color scheme out there.

I hope you guys have a great Halloween and I can’t wait to share my Disney experience with you guys!

In the Kitchen – S’mores Fudge

Ever since saying that I was coming back I haven’t been able to work on the blog at all! Of course the charger for my laptop would break as soon as I decide to come back & I’ve been working crazy hours at work and haven’t been able to bring it in to get fixed.

The weekend of my birthday we went to Boston for the dessert expo and I was super excited because the website made it seem amazing, plus it touted the world’s largest s’mores bar. In my head I was picturing macarons, cupcakes and all kinds of toppings I could include on my s’mores. Unfortunately it took us longer to drive there then it did to walk around the expo. And the s’mores bar had one bowl of graham crackers and chocolate. We also paid for valet parking so we were really disappointed, we were hoping to turn the day around and go over to lawn on D which was right outside the expo but it was closed for the day for a private event. We weren’t the only people disappointed in the expo and I would advise anyone thinking of going next year to steer clear as it was a total waste of money and time.

Even though we were disappointed in the s’mores bar at the expo I do have a great s’mores fudge recipe to share that is perfect for anyone who can’t sit around a campfire roasting their marshmallows to perfection.

Ingredients

• Graham crackers
• Chocolate chips 1 bag
• White chocolate chips 1 bag
• Sweetened condensed milk 14 ounce can
• Marshmallow Fluff ½ cup
• Vanilla extract ½ teaspoon

Directions

1. First line your pyrex dish with wax paper and then put down the sheets of graham crackers, this will be your base.
2. Melt the chocolate chips in small saucepan, once melted add half the sweetened condensed milk as well as the vanilla.
3. Once chocolate is smooth, pour over the graham cracker crust.
4. Next melt the white chocolate chips, once melted add the rest of the sweetened condensed milk and the marshmallow fluff.
5. Once this is smooth pour over the hardened chocolate layer.
6. Let this set in the fridge overnight and then cut into pieces for everyone to enjoy!

Back into the Swing of Things

It’s been a little over a year since I last posted here, and my how life has changed! I never intended to leave the blogging world, but then life happens and you get so caught up in it that you forget to sit down and post it all. To write down everything that has happened since I last posted would take forever so I’m going to give you a quick recap:

• moved into my new house
• got divorced
• sold my new house
• started living my life for me
• started dating a great guy
• got a new apartment

Obviously that’s a lot for a little over a year, but somehow I’ve managed to survive and even live a better life than before. I’ve missed blogging terribly and have even had several people ask me when I was going to start posting again, but the timing never felt right. I made a promise to myself that I would only do things that I really wanted to do and that I really enjoyed so I decided that I would only come back to blogging when it felt right to me.

The other day I got an email from a fairly well known yogurt company asking me to create a blog post using their yogurt in one of my recipes and it made me realize that I needed to get back to what I love doing. On top of that I hadn’t really been baking or crafting since I moved, but then recently I started getting back into the things I loved and that I normally posted about. This, combined with the email from the company, and the constant support from my followers really pushed me to come back to blogging.

So bare with me while I get back into the swing of things, and while I spruce up the blog! I’m so glad to be back and thank everyone that waited for me to come back and also checked on while I was away.

Humpday Confessions

I confess that we move Friday and I am still packing!

Also I have not been to crossfit since Saturday because I have been crazy trying to finish packing and I am seriously just so exhausted by everything going on that I feel like I haven’t slept in months.

I am getting a little sad to be leaving, we’ve been here for 5 years and put a lot into the house.

But I am super excited to be in my house and do whatever I want!

I confess that I was a little bit excited to be home while it was still light out so I could record a little house tour of our current house before we move out. It’s probably much smaller than you’d expect, but somehow we made it work.

 

Weekend Wrap-Up

This weekend went by way too fast! I need a day to recover from everything. Friday I went to crossfit after work and then decided to come home and start packing as much as I could, but got sucked into a movie once dinner was ready. We went to bed around 2 am and had to be up and at crossfit by 9 am the next morning.

Saturday we went and worked out in the morning which sucked because my knee was being miserable and locking up when I was trying to do things during the workouts. Then I headed home got changed and went to Goodwill to drop off bags of clothes from packing. I never realized how much I had that I never wear or that doesn’t fit me anymore, I’m ashamed to say that a lot of it still had tags on it. Then I picked up my friend and we headed to the mall, I had to exchange a bra at VS and ended up picking up a sports bra from there clearance which honestly still wasn’t very cheap. I also had to pick up all my supplies to make the wedding dress cupcake dress. Then it was home for the rest of the night to make 60 cupcakes.

Sunday I woke up early to frost all of the cupcakes and then headed to my friends mothers house to throw her bridal shower. The shower went perfectly and we couldn’t of asked for a better day. I ran around all day and my feet were killing me by the time I got home. Thankfully Mr. H packed a lot while I was at the shower, but of course he packed things he wasn’t supposed to. We made dinner and then decided to go for a boat ride with my dad and his girlfriend. I get a little sad thinking about how we won’t be able to just walk down to the lake and hop on the boat, but in reality we are only 1 minute down the road and can just drive over whenever we want. I planned on packing more last night, but was so exhausted that I passed out by 9pm.

This week I need to pack everything because we have the final walk through Thursday and then closing Friday and we both took Friday off to start moving everything as soon as we get the keys. I hope everyone has a great week & hopefully I can make one more post before the move!

In the Kitchen – French Macarons

I have always wanted to try my hand at making French macarons, but always been a little scared since they can be so fickle. Thankfully I found Food Nouveau and read and watched all her tips to make the perfect macarons. Of course I was impatient while they were in my oven (which takes forever to cook anything) and I pressed a little too hard on some of the shells.

Following her directions I used Wilton’s “rose” gel food coloring to make my macarons this beautiful pink color. For my filling I used my leftover white chocolate frosting which was out of this world.

Some tips for making macarons:

• The egg whites need to sit in your fridge for a day or two before you use them so think ahead!
• After baking the macarons & filling them they need to sit in the fridge for another 24 hours
• You have to be very precise when measuring the ingredients so you should be using a scale to make absolutely sure!
• You have to double up your cookie sheets so keep that in mind to the amount you want to make

Ingredients

• 90 gr egg whites (about 3)
• 30 gr regular granulated sugar
• 210 gr powdered sugar
• 125 gr almond meal

Directions

1. Take your egg whites out of the fridge and let them come to room temperature
2. In food processor finely grind the powdered sugar and almond meal together for a minute.
3. Sieve the mixture into a bowl so that the larger pieces do not pass through, those can be thrown away. Place this bowl aside.
4. Using your cold stainless steel bowl start beating your egg whites and medium/high speed. Once your whisk starts leaving marks and your whites are bubbly you can add a tablespoon of granulated sugar
5. Continue to beat and slowly add the rest of the sugar over the next minute. Continue to beat on high speed until the whisk creates stiff peaks.
6. Add in your color and slowly fold from the bottom of the bowl to the top.
7. Continuing the folding method you want to start folding in the dry ingredients slowly, making sure there are no pockets
8. Double up your baking sheets and line with parchment paper.
9. Pipe your macarons onto your baking sheet and let sit for an hour to dry out
10. Halfway through, preheat your oven to 300 degrees
11. Bake for 12 minutes, after 12 minutes continue to watch your macarons as you don’t want them to burn. You can lightly tap on them and if they are firm they are ready.
12. Let them cool on a rack, once at room temperature you can add your filling and put them in the fridge!

7 years with the Mr.

Today marks 7 years that Mr. H and I have been together, so I thought I would tell the story of how we came to be! Our mutual friend set us up, every Wednesday night Mr. H and his friends would go out for wings so our friend told me that she had someone she thought I would like and that I should come to dinner with them. We added each other on myspace and talked a little on the phone before we met. The night we met for dinner he walked in the door and all I could think was “oh my God that is the worst leather jacket ever” (side note we still laugh about the jacket) We spent all dinner talking to each other and I barely touched my food, which is a huge deal for me. We instantly hit it off and it felt like we were the only 2 at dinner even though we were at a table of 10. After dinner we wanted to keep talking so we went to a nearby 24 hour Dunkin Donuts, which apparently they did all the time. We kept talking until I got a phone call from my dad asking where the heck I was, I looked at the time and it was 3 am, I had a flight out with my family in the morning as we were going to Disney for a week.

While I was in Disney I was texting him and he never responded to any of my texts so I was getting pretty upset (he had a nextel and DID NOT text, I had to buy him an iphone for him to finally start texting) One night I was sitting in the hotel room and got so excited because he came on AIM, (I had a sidekick, wow all of this sounds so old!) we talked for literally 2 seconds before he said it was his brothers birthday and he had to go have dinner. So basically I sat there thinking there is no way this guy actually likes me because girls are stupid and read way into these things. 

When I got back from vacation we planned on going out on a real date and I almost cancelled because I was so sick, but we went and he didn’t want to tell me where we were going because it was surprise. He ended up getting lost and had to tell me where we were going and I had to call my dad for directions. I was a stuffed up, coughing mess and could barely hear anything so I was basically screaming the whole time. I was shocked when he paid for dinner and he opened my car door for me and I also told him that no one had ever done that for me before. We went to his friends house to watch a movie, but I started falling asleep so he took me home. He walked me to my door and I said “you don’t have to kiss me because I don’t want to get you sick” and without any hesitation he kissed me and I instantly knew I had a boyfriend. We parted ways and I ran upstairs to tell my sister that I basically had a boyfriend now. And the rest is history I guess.

Now if you actually read all of that then thank you! Now I’m going to spam you with  pictures throughout our relationship!