Happy Giveaway with Madeline Wood Apparel

by SayHelloBlog, in category Photography

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What better way to celebrate Memorial Day than with a Giveaway? One lucky person will win this beautiful blouse (color or black and white) that comes from Madeline Wood Apparel.  Madeline Wood is a local designer from Denton, Tx.   I am really loving her latest creations from her spring collection. You can check out her website here and her Etsy store here.

In order to win follow Madeline Wood Apparel on Instagram here, then leave a comment below on which you would like to win, the blouse in color or black and white. Also let me know what size you would like, small or medium, that’s it!  The lucky winner will be contacted May 30th.

Here are a couple of my favorites from her website, so beautiful and carefree!

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Union Square Greenmarket, NYC

by SayHelloBlog, in category Travel, United States

 

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Teaching is wonderful and traveling in the summers is fantastic! If you keep your living expenses down throughout the year, summers can prove to be quite exciting. Last summer I went to NYC to visit a friend for awhile. One of my favorite things to do was to walk through the Greenmarket at Union Square. The tents take up most of the square but walking around is a lot of fun. It gets quite crowded at times but it’s worth it. It is open Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 8am to 6pm.

 

Next time you are in the city go check it out!

 

For more information on events and local growers check out www.grownyc.org

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In the Studio with @Em_Fitt

by SayHelloBlog, in category Photography

 

 

 

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This weekend my good friend Emily (who is more like a sister) came up to do some promo photos for her fitness blog.  Emily is a great example of a woman stepping out of her comfort zone to create a business that she is passionate about.  She has put in a lot of hard work and is still in the process of getting her fitness website and business up and running.  It is very motivating to be around her.  She is constantly coming up with new ideas, new recipes, and new workouts for her clients.  I am very excited to be working with her.  I even jumped in for a few shots, “Em Fitt style”

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Emily’s motto is Live Life Fitt!  She definitely is an encouragement to me to be healthy and fit in my day to day life. Check out her photos and inspiration on instagram as @Em_Fitt.

Art and Wine Night

by SayHelloBlog, in category Photography

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Some nights you need to stay in.  To be honest, teaching leaves me feeling like most nights I need to stay in.  I love to go out occasionally, but most nights I actually end up on the couch.  Friday nights are the nights I crash, and if I decide to go out, I leave Saturdays open for that.  This past Friday was no different, I was exhausted from the week, but it just didn’t seem right to do my normal thing of crashing with Psych and a pint of Coconut Ice Cream (which sometimes I turn into a coconut shake, I will post the recipe soon!).  I was of course tired, but I wanted to break out of the routine.  Luckily I have an amazing friend who felt the same way.  She came over and we went through my craft shelves.  Pretty soon we were half way through a bottle of wine, 90’s alternative (aka the Dawson’s Creek soundtrack) while surrounded by an assortment of colored pencils, markers, and stamps.  I have to be honest, this may have been my favorite evening this year, it was so nice to relax and be creative while sharing the evening with a good friend.  This I will have to do more often!

Here are a few photos from the evening.  I even got creative with my hole puncher and added a bit of ribbon to one of my planters.

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Next time you have some free time and are tempted to just chill on the couch, get some wine, turn the music up and raid your craft closet and I promise you will be more relaxed than if you stayed on the couch.

Apple Cinnamon Rolls

by SayHelloBlog, in category Recipes

rolls1Everyone falls in love, right?  Let me just say I completely agree, because I am in love with cinnamon rolls!  I have been for sometime.  Nothing beats homemade though, nothing, not even Cinnabon! Homemade is great, and somehow just tastes more wholesome than store-bought. I am not going to lie, if I don’t have time to make homemade I make store-bought, but I prefer homemade, who doesn’t?

I don’t have a recipe for you, but just some tips when making cinnamon rolls.  When rolling out the dough, I lay down plastic wrap and sprinkle it with flour, then there isn’t a mess to clean up.  You can use any cinnamon roll recipe off pinterest and just add one granny smith apple.  I cut the apple in tiny pieces and add a little lemon juice, it keeps the apples from turning brown.  Then I just add the apples on top of the cinnamon/sugar mixture, then roll!  I save a few apple bits to put on top of the cinnamon rolls before baking.

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I am not going to lie, these things are amazing!  I could eat and eat and eat them!  If you have never made homemade cinnamon rolls, they really aren’t hard! The recipe is simple and you can whip it up pretty quick.  Now you can even find yeast free recipes on pinterest, but I really like using active yeast, I like how well the rolls rise.  So yummy.  For icing I use my own recipe, 2 tbs butter, 1/4-1/2 cup of powdered sugar, and one or two tbs of milk (or add milk till its spreadable consistency).

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One Potato Two Potato Sweet Potato Four!

by SayHelloBlog, in category Food, Juice and Smoothies

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If you are like me, you are always trying to figure out a way to be a little more healthy.  Juicing seems to be a craze right now, so it’s hot hot hot to juice.  If you are trying to decide whether or not to juice, by all means juice!!! There has never been a better time.  The internet is bubbling over with recipes for juicing.  I have discovered, a really good juicer too, sweet potato!!!  Here is a link to some of the benefits: http://juicing-for-health.com/basic-nutrition/healing-vegetables/health-benefits-of-sweet-potato.html

So now my weekly veggie-store run, always includes a few sweet potatoes.  Why do I love them?  If you clicked on the link above you know just how good they are for you, but also they juice quite a bit of juice!  It’s a great base to your juices.  I love adding green apple and orange to the mix!  The recipe I use is pretty simple, scroll down for last photo to see it.

 

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Butternut Squashiness!

by SayHelloBlog, in category Recipes

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I recently had a conversation with a friend about food.  It was really just a last minute chat we had as I was leaving her house but she mentioned that lately she has been making some butternut squash soup, puts it in a blender and has lunch for the rest of the week!  Well, if you’ve read what I wrote about being single and cooking, you can only imagine I jumped on this.  It sounded simple, and I am in desperate need of a new simple recipe because there is only so much taco soup and green curry this working girl can eat.

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So when I say simple I mean simplicity. Basically buy a couple of butternut squashes, cut them in half, scoop the seeds out (thought they were so pretty I wonder what they taste like toasted), drizzle olive oil and add a little salt and pepper.  Cook them for about 40 minutes on 350.  Take them out, scoop out the flesh and put in a blender.  Add a little chicken broth to the desired consistency and blend.

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Really that’s all there is too it. You can always add other things like fresh herbs, onion, garlic.  But I ate it as is with a little everyday seasoning from Trader Joe’s and some cayenne pepper (I love the added spiciness).   It made two meals for me.  I was thinking next time I might cook up some sweet potatoes and add them to the mixture to add a little bit of a different flavor.

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