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Have a wonderful weekend!

Link Love 2-26-16 |  Misselainious blogI hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Can’t believe it’s already the end of February!

Have you heard of this amazing app/website?  (I know it’s been around a while but it’s still so innovative and cool.)

I’ve always wondered what goes on before those celebrities look all glamorous on the red carpet…sounds crazy!

Such an insightful personal story about what wanderlust will cost us (and she’s not talking about money).

A Bachelor’s Degree for $1,000?  This Kickstarter has me intrigued.

I tried this salad recently and it was so yummy!

A beautiful bag with a mission for more than just carrying your stuff.

Super cute and easy DIY.  Gonna need to make myself one of these!

Posted on February 26, 2016 by |

Night to Shine

Night to Shine | Misselainious blogLast Friday I attended prom for the first time.  Waiting till my 20’s was well worth it and I had the most amazing time at Night to Shine.  While I don’t have any prior personal prom experience to compare it too I still think it was the best prom night ever.  This was no ordinary prom.  This was a prom to celebrate people of all ages that often get overlooked.  We celebrated people who often don’t get a night to shine even if they should.

There were blue, silver, and white balloons and crepe paper streamers.  Silver stars were spun up above our heads and twinkle lights lent their magic.  A red carpet was rolled out and the guests were decked out in their finest.  Fluffy pink tulle spilled out over wheel chairs and glitter was abundant.  Some men wore jaunty hats.  There were spiffy suits and curled hair.

Have you ever been some place and known so fully that you were meant to be there?  That was Night to Shine for me.  There’s a part of me that wants to hold these memories close and sit with them in awe but there’s also a part of me that wants to share the complete and utter joy that was pulsing in that room.

There’s something magical about a room filled with people who are mostly all strangers but are there for one common cause.  When was the last time you celebrated someone (and I don’t mean birthdays!)?  When was the last time you clapped to cheer someone on?  These are the questions I’ve been asking myself and the conclusion is that I want to do it a whole lot more.

I’ll never forget the moment I had on the dance floor with one of the Queens for the evening.  Her buddy for the night was pushing her back and forth on the dance floor in her wheel chair and I asked if I could dance with her.  She grabbed my hand and we swayed back and forth.  The music was loud and the dance floor was packed with people who were having the best time of their life.  My lovely dance partner and I couldn’t really communicate but when I bent down to tell her that I loved to twirl I could see the laugh forming on her face.  When I asked her if I could twirl with her then her face said it all.  So there I was in my pink chiffon skirt twirling with a woman in her wheel chair (thanks to her buddy helping me) and it was indescribably perfect.  We didn’t need to communicate with words because the joy spilling out all over was enough.

Two of the queens gave me the biggest and best hugs at the end of the night.  Even though my feet were sore from dancing in heels all night it was beyond worth it.  When all of the buddies for the night crowned their guests queens and kings of the prom I knew a little bit better what heaven was going to be like.  I walked away from my first prom knowing this a little more, that Jesus loves people and that when we show others that it makes any day or night a time to shine.  I’m already looking forward to the one next year!

{If you would like more information on Night to Shine check it out here at the Tim Tebow Foundation.  And if you just need some joy look through the #NightToShine on Instagram. (Here’s the coverage of our event (there were 200 on the same night!) on the local news.)

Posted on February 24, 2016 by |

Quotes

Quotes | Misselainious blog 2-19-16“Entertaining seeks to impress.  Hospitality seeks to bless.”  Jen Wilkin

“Femininity is not just lipstick, stylish hairdos, and trendy clothes.  It is the divine adornment if humanity.  It finds expression in your qualities of your capacity to love, your spiritually, delicacy, radiance, gentleness, dignity, and quiet strength.”  James E Faust

“Around here, we don’t look backwards for very long…we keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”  Walt Disney

“Adulthood is like looking both ways before you cross the street and then getting hit by an airplane.” (author unknown)

“With this Christian vision of marriage, here’s what it means to fall in love.  It is to look at another person and get a glimpse of what God is creating, and to say, ‘I see who God is making you, and it excites me!  I want to be part of that.  I want to partner with you and God in the journey you are taking to his throne.  And when we get there, I will look at your magnificence and say, ‘I always knew you could be like this.  I got glimpses of it on earth, but now look at you!'”  Timothy Keller

Posted on February 19, 2016 by |

3 Ingredient ???

3 ingredient chocolate mousse | Misselainious blog -2 3 ingredient chocolate mousse | Misselainious blogHaha friends this is a total blogger confession moment.  Here’s the deal.  During Christmas time I made this amazing hot chocolate.  I accidentally left some out all night and the next day it was this decadent mousse.  So I thought, “Yay a happy accident I can use as a recipe on my blog.”

I measured everything out and mixed it all together and stuck it in these cute little tea cups my Yia yia gave me and left them in the fridge to become mousse.  The next day I eagerly checked them and lo and behold it was like thick hot chocolate.  Hmmmm not what I was expecting. Trying to be optimistic I figured it was just the wrong type of coconut milk so I tried again.  And I failed again.  Then I realized I should try using coconut cream because surely that should work.  I ran to the store and bought a really over priced can of coconut cream and tried a third time because “they” say third time is a charm.  Nope, nada, ain’t happenin’.  Talk about a comedy of errors!  First it was hot chocolate and then it was a really runny pudding of sorts and the third time a slightly less soupy pudding.

So if you want to try some hot chocolate and NOT mousse here’s how to accomplish that:

1 can coconut cream/milk
1/4 cup coco powder
2 tablespoons honey

Put half the coconut cream in a bowl and the other half in a sauce pan on low heat.  Next mix in the coco powder with the cold coconut cream until well blended.  Then gradually add to the warming coconut cream in the pan.  Once that is whisked in stir in the honey until dissolved.  Put into some cute cups and enjoy!

Also don’t worry….all that chocolate pudding/hot chocolate/whatever these three ingredients make hasn’t gone to waste.  Just to my waist. 😉  We’re happily eating way too much chocolate over here!  Everyone that has tried it likes it even if we’re not quite sure what to call it!  Maybe I should leave it out next time?  Have you ever had any cookie comedies?  I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!

Posted on February 12, 2016 by |

Have a relaxing weekend!

misselainious link love 2-5-16

I hope you all have a nice weekend! I’ll be resting and watching Super Bowl 50. 🙂

Hmmm so if I want to get smarter I guess I better start doing this….

Yes, this is a post I found on a blog from 2010 but it’s too cute not to share what this wife does.

This kids hysterical laugh will definitely make you smile!

I promise you that you’ll want to play an instrument after you watch this.  And it’s one of the reasons I love being a piano teacher!

SO stunning! This makes me extra excited to watch the gymnastics in the summer Olympics this year! 😀

Four smart shopping habits of Parisian women.

Oooo this looks tasty and surprisingly simple.

Posted on February 5, 2016 by |

Quotes

Misselainious_quotes1-29-16“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.”  John Lubbock

“There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.”  Brene Brown

“The more that you read, the more things you will know.  The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”  Dr. Seuss

“The way to do a great deal is to keep on doing a little.  The way to do nothing at all is to be continually resolving that you will do everything.” Charles Spurgeon

“We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense.  We pray when there’s nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all.”  Oswald Chambers

“Perhaps to be able to learn things quickly isn’t everything.  To be kind is worth a great deal to other people…Lots of clever people have done harm and have been wicked.”  Frances Hodgson Burnett

‘The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.  The beauty of a woman is seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.  True beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul.  It’s the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows and the beauty of a woman only grows with passing years.’  Audrey Hepburn

Posted on January 29, 2016 by |

Have a delightful weekend!

MisselainiousLinkLove1-22-16Hope you all have a fun and relaxing weekend!  Enjoy the link love below. 🙂

My mouth just started watering. YUM.

Are you guilty of these common fashion mistakes?

Did you have a dream job as a child? When I saw this organization was accepting applications I almost cried. DREAM JOB.

These large scale art installations are completely mesmerizing.

So maybe fairy-tales are real. These Disney landscapes and structures were inspired by real places.

My mom and I loved reading the snippets of this love story and seeing the incredible art creations that illustrate each “page”.  (You have the advantage of being able to read all of it at once.)

Posted on January 22, 2016 by |

Quotes

Quotes1-15-16Have a nice weekend everyone! Here are some quotes in case you’re in need of new ones for social media posts. 😉

“How beautiful a day can be, when kindness touches it!” George Elliston

“There is no definition of beauty, but when you can see someone’s spirit coming through, something unexplainable, that’s beautiful to me.” Liv Tyler

“A little kingdom I possess, where thoughts and feelings dwell; And very hard the task I find of governing it well.” Louisa May Alcott

“If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope of advance.” Orville Wright

“If you don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great.” John Piper

“No evil dooms us hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from.” George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)

Posted on January 15, 2016 by |

3 easy sunflower butter snacks

Sunflowerbuttersnacks-5 Sunflowerbuttersnacks-2 Sunflowerbuttersnacks-3 Sunflowerbuttersnacks-4Sometimes it’s hard to find quick and easy snacks that are healthy AND taste good.  Enter sunflower butter!  My go to snack has always been fruit but recently my doctor told me I needed to really up my protein intake. So after thinking it through I came up with these 3 quick and tasty sunflower butter snacks.  None of them have more than 4 ingredients!

Celery Logs

You’ll need: freshly washed celery, sunflower butter, dried cranberries (I use fruit juice sweetened ones), and cinnamon.

Instructions:  Take your celery stick and cut into 3 inch pieces.  Next spread a generous amount of sunflower butter in the dip of the celery and top with dried cranberries.  Sprinkle on some cinnamon and you have a refreshing little snack!

Banana Treats

You’ll need: a banana, sunflower butter, semi-sweet chocolate chips or Baker’s chocolate (that’s what I used), and some honey.

Instructions:  Peel the banana and slice it into ¼ inch rounds.  Spread a dollop of sunflower butter on a banana round and top with another banana slice.  Place on a baking sheet and stick in the freezer till they are slightly firm.

In the meantime place a ½ cup of the semi-sweet chocolate chips (or several squares of Baker’s chocolate and some honey to taste.  I did about 1 tablespoon) in a double broiler to melt.  If you don’t have a double broiler (I didn’t) just place a saucepan on the stove with about an inch of water in the bottom and bring to a simmer. Then place a metal mixing bowl on top so that it just touches the water.  The chocolate goes in the mixing bowl until melted.

Once your chocolate is melted pull out the banana rounds and dip one side of them in the chocolate.  Then place them back on the baking sheet and put in the freezer till the chocolate hardens.  Make sure you don’t use an overly rip banana as the taste intensifies in the freezer.  You can cover them and store them in the freezer for a few days but once you eat one I doubt they’ll even make it back to the freezer!

Crispy Squares

You’ll need: rice crispy cereal or rice puffs, sunflower butter, and honey.

Instructions:  Line a small bread pan or bowl with plastic wrap and set aside.  Next place one cup of rice crispy cereal in a mixing bowl.  Heat ¼ cup sunflower butter and 1/8-1/4 cup honey in a saucepan stirring until combined and warm.  I used ¼ cup and it was really sweet so next time I’m going to use less.  Then pour the honey and sunflower mixture over the rice crispy cereal until evenly coated.  Finally place everything in the pan and cover and place in the fridge until it sets up.  You shouldn’t need to leave it in longer than 15-30 minutes.  Slice and eat!

It’s a bonus that these treats are gluten free, dairy free, and nut free.  I hope you enjoy these quick and easy treats!

Posted on January 11, 2016 by |

Enjoy the weekend

LinkLove1-8-16I hope the New Year is starting off beautifully for you all! Enjoy the weekend!

Do you “name” the year? Last year my word was Present…I’m excited to see what this year’s word will be.

Super chic calendars here and here. (You’re going to have it all year so you might as well like how it looks…)

Easy, delicious, AND nutritious breakfast? I’m intrigued. (I kinda want to try it hot too.)

Two birds with one stone: clean out your closet and help others at the same time.

Gulp. Trying to decide if I’m down for this challenge. Are you?

Posted on January 8, 2016 by |

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