what's on my mind this friday

Hey hey friends and happy Friday!  We only have a few more summer weekends left before school starts, so I plan to really enjoy every single one of them!  Today my little girlfriend is getting her haircut (she wants bangs like her momma!), and then we've got plans to hang with friends at the pool.  Yay for Friday! 

There are lots of things on my mind today, but because we're friends I'll keep this list short and sweet.  ;) 

1. Back on the 4th of July I hosted a casual little family cookout and served up some simple family-friendly beverage options.  

The lemon/lime infused water was so refreshing that I decided to keep a pitcher of lemon water in my refrigerator ongoing.  Every week I slice up a lemon or two and then just keep refilling the water; it's super simple!  I've been drinking a lot more water since I started doing this, and the bonus came when I found out drinking lemon water is actually really good for you!  I was doing it for the flavor, but now I'll be doing it for the health benefits. 

2. I was honored to be included in this reading nook contest, and I would really love your vote!  (There are prizes involved!) 

3. So I fell in love with this backpack for my horse-loving little girl......................

but she found this BMO (from Adventure Time), and the boy got this Star Wars backpack from Hot Topic.................why do mall stores have to have glass fronts?!  ;) 

(Yes, my son is wearing a Pokemon hat..........I can't make this stuff up folks.)

4.  In addition to the paleo recipes I share on the blog from time to time I also share super easy paleo meal ideas on instagram that never make it to the blog.  This is one of my favorite fast and delicious meals. 

I chop up a few slices of bacon (like maybe 5) and add them to a skillet.  Once the chopped bacon gets good and crispy I add a a couple of large bunches of kale to the skillet, turn the heat down a little, add some cracked black pepper and stir it around for about 3 to 5 minutes.  Then I empty all the kale and bacon into a bowl.  I add a little grass-fed butter (like 1/2 a tsp.) to the skillet and some minced garlic, let the garlic sizzle and then I add the raw shrimp.  I add a little dried parsley and a pinch or two of sea salt; and then I dump the shrimp on top of the kale and serve warm.  My kids gobble this up and I love that it only dirties one pan and takes less than 20 minutes to prepare!   

Feel free to follow me on instagram for more simple meal ideas!

5.  Last but not least, I'm sharing my fur baby story over at Cuckoo 4 Design today.  Julia runs a series called Living Pretty With Your Pets, and I was honored to be included.

If you've never been to Julia's blog before, you are in for a real treat!  Her home is beautiful!

Have a great weekend!  See you on Monday!

paleo banana chocolate chip muffins

Bananas are always on my grocery shopping list.  I use them in smoothies.  I make cookies with them, and I just plain old like a banana.  They remind me of my grandpa.  He would always slice them up and add them to my cornflakes when I was a kid.  Today I'm sharing my favorite paleo banana chocolate chip muffin recipe.  I'm constantly tweaking recipes I come across in an attempt to make a paleo version, and after a few trials and fails this recipe came up as a winner.  My kids LOVE these, and I never feel bad letting them have these muffins for breakfast.  They're packed with good nutritious stuff!

Ingredients

2 cups almond flour

3 tablespoons coconut flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

pinch of sea salt

2 medium size ripe bananas

1/3 cup of honey

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons coconut oil - melted

1/4 cup of enjoy life chocolate chips  - you can also add chopped walnuts if you like

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350.  Mix together the dry ingredients.  Mix wet ingredients together in a separate bowl then add to the dry ingredients.  (I like to use a hand mixer to really get the banana blended in well.)  Then add the chocolate chips last.  Line a muffin tin with baking cups and fill about 2/3 of the way full.  Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean.  This recipe will yield 12 muffins.

Enjoy!

diy {industrial} galvanized pipe closet rod

Every time I open my boy's closet door I smile.  I am so glad that I decided to just go for it and pull out all of the wire shelving!  Seriously, as soon as it was all down and I had an empty closet/ blank canvas to work with it was like a breath of fresh air.  Once the beadboard wallpaper went up I knew I wanted to counter the classic look with an industrial vibe, so after a quick trip to the hardware store I put up this galvanized pipe closet rod.

This was the easiest diy project I've done in a while.  I grabbed a 1/2" wide pipe that was just a little short of the distance between these two walls and two 1/2" floor flanges.  Then I grabbed a couple of pieces of scrap wood and predrilled the holes where the screws would attach the flanges.  I also predrilled through the wood into the wall in order to add anchors in the drywall.  I feel like that piece of scrap wood in addition to the anchors really helps to reinforce the rod.  It also gave me the perfect spot to attach a hook for belts and bags. 

Using a piece of scrap wood on both ends also helped me to work around the slant of the ceiling on the other side of the closet.  It's still very strong even with just 3 screws holding it up on this side, and you can see in the photo below that I used a thicker piece of scrap wood on this side for double the reinforcement. 

His closet is almost done (I know I take forever to finish a project!), and now I want to take the wire shelving down in every closet in the house!  I really love this industrial look!  

Are you a wire shelving hater?  Ever thought of using a galvanized pipe as a closet rod?  Look how cool it looks as a curtain rod - perfect for a boy's room! 

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