Friday Favorites: Getting Ready for Summer, New Cookbook and Movie Night Fun

Happy Friday! This first week of May has me excited for summer and I was motivated to get things done! Around this part of the Midwest, it seems like we went directly from winter to summer….but I’m not complaining!  Today, as usual, I am sharing my favorites of the week and I am linking up with Erika, Narci and Andrea for Friday Favorites. I’ve got a lot of fun things to share with you!

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New Cookbook

You might have caught me mention my new cookbook on Facebook and Instagram. Even though I love all things Chip and Joanna, I hesitated to purchase Magnolia Table because I didn’t know if the recipes would be too hard or would be things I would want to make. However, I am so glad I got it! The recipes are easy and uncomplicated although, I need to admit, are not exactly the healthy meals I usually cook. There is a lot more cheese and butter than I’m used to. The desserts look amazing and I can’t wait to try some of them!

What has really drawn me into the book is the anecdotes Joanna shares about her approach to making meals for her family. She pours her heart into what she makes and really wants to provide meals to her family that they will be talking about for years to come.

As I mentioned last week, I’ve got a few picky eaters and it’s so easy to get frustrated with making meals for the family when you know the kids won’t always eat it! After reading her cookbook, I’ve done a little reset. I’m feeling inspired to find meals my family will love and will crave long after they leave the house!

So far, I have made one of her recipes for a Grilled Salmon and I think I will try out her guacamole recipe this weekend for Cinco De Mayo!

Getting on Track for Summer

You might have noticed I had a little healthy theme going this week on the blog! First, on Monday, I shared big list of simple and healthy Lunch Ideas for Moms! As moms, it’s easy to put our own meals on the back burner…especially breakfast and lunch! My goal this month is to make sure to eat a good breakfast and lunch instead of grabbing for the kids leftovers! 

Speaking of goals, on Wednesday, I shared my healthy goals for May. Summer is just around the corner, so I’m motivated to do a little more working out, eating healthy and saving some money!! Summer is filled with lots of good food and drink and a lot of fun activities. So now is the time to get in shape in more ways than one!

Photo Collage

We had the most exciting mail this week with the arrival of our yearly photo collage poster! I was a little bit behind getting this poster made, but better late than never!!

These posters are so easy to do and are a great way to use photos from the phone! Just a note if you order from this site, the uploading process TAKES AWHILE! I always forget this when I’m uploading my photos and get nervous that the site isn’t working!! It takes a good hour for 100 photos to upload…just as an FYI. Other than the loading time issue, creating a collage is SUPER EASY! You can rearrange the photos (that are automatically filled in) and you can personalize the text too!

I always order the 16 X 20 size collage and I use these inexpensive IKEA frames! Since I don’t have an IKEA nearby, I ordered three of these frames at a time. I just used my last one, so I’ll have to reorder another batch for next year!

We hang these on our stairwell and every single day one of us stops to look at the pictures. It’s fun to find new pictures each time we look at it!

Wallpaper Project

This week on a whim I decided to try my hand at a peel and stick wallpaper project in my daughter’s room. There are so many pretty wallpaper options at Target, especially the Opal House collection. However, I wasn’t able to find a Opal House paper that worked for my daughter’s beachy vibe room, so I went with this option. The wallpaper is SUPER EASY to apply to the wall and is so forgiving if you need to pull off and start over.

However,  in our particular case, the process is a little tricky because her room has a lot of angled ceilings. Ugh!!

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I wasn’t able to finish the entire wall yet, but I will be sure to show you the finished project! This project is on my weekend to do list–we will see!!

Movie Night Fun

Finally, I’ve talked before about our family tradition of weekly movie nights. We were recently given the chance to try Kernel Season’s Popcorn Seasonings and so I decided to make our last movie night a little more festive. Movie nights used to always be on Fridays but now with our schedule that’s not always possible. So we make it any night of the week that we are all available!

My kids were SO excited to try all the different flavors of these seasonings. Everyone got to pick what they wanted and some of us even mixed and matched our flavors. You can buy an 8 pack of minis, so you can see which ones are your favorites!

Sometimes the hardest part about movie night is deciding on a movie that everyone wants to watch!

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That wraps up my week!! I’m excited for a nice weekend which hopefully includes a lot of time outside!! Have a great weekend and see you back here next week:)