Back in 2011, Kelly took a trip to Islamorada, FL for a friends wedding and even posted about it!

This spring, we followed her suggestion and visited a post hurricane Irma Florida Keys for a week of fun in the sun.

We stayed at a rental house on the Islamorada Key, fished for tarpon and amberjack, snorkled with some amazing sea life and drank rum.

Stay tuned for road trip recipes and recommendations from Colorado to the Keys, our fresh caught fish, key lime pie finds and favorite rum in the Keys. Plus a whole post of Hemingway Cats from Key West!

When an American actress actually marries a member of the British Royal Family, needless to say, every American girl watches. Growing up, every girl watched William and Harry and daydreamed about being as elegant as Diana and becoming a princess. Well, on May 19, 2018, for one very special girl, this dream became a reality.

Just as we were excited on April 29, 2011 when William married Kate Middleton, a commoner, today we toast to Harry and Meghan!

I made more of our Royal Scones to celebrate this wedding and added some Fortnum & Mason Royal Blend Tea from London to sip on during the festivities. For more about the food from the Royal Wedding check out this article from Readers Digest.

Instead of getting up at 2:30am MDT, I watched the re-run coverage on BBC America to see all of the festivities. For an American, it really was fascinating to watch the grandeur that the Royal Family shows for a special occasion. From her Givenchy dress, to Oprah, George and Amal Clooney and David and Victoria Beckham watching in the crowd of guest, it really was a spectacular event. Every guest seemed so happy and honored to be a part of this day.

The main highlights for this Royal Wedding for me were seeing Prince Charles step into a very important role of walking Meghan down the aisle. After the tabloids made a mess of the bride’s father not coming to the wedding, it really was heartwarming and tear jerking to see Charles welcome her into the Royal Family from a very fatherly standpoint. This wedding really emphasized the importance of family and love with the beautiful sermon from Bishop Michael Curry to William being his little brother’s best man.

For me, seeing her in the dress was really what everyone was waiting for and while some have said it was “boring”, I can’t disagree more. Knowing the dress is Givenchy, it does bare striking resemblance to the classic gowns the Hubert De Givenchy used to design for his favorite muse, Audrey Hepburn. The classic simplicity was beautiful and understated and let the veil’s intricate design shine though. The cathedral length veil included the flora from every Commonwealth country and a very important California Poppy to reflect where Meghan is from.

(cr:REX/Shutterstock)

What did you think? Did you watch? Do something special to celebrate? Have a favorite part? Anything you would have done differently?

Congratulations to the happy couple!!

Winter is here in Colorado and its time for flaky, dry skin again! YAY! Well, not really yay…

Its time to add some permanent fixes to your skincare and here is a great addition.

I have started trying to find ways to use more organic, natural and chemical free items as much as possible. This scrub is made out of two simple ingredients; salt and sugar! Simply use this in the bath or shower to remove dead skin cells and keep your body feeling soft and perfect all winter long. It is especially great on the bikini line and underarms to prevent razor bumps.

Homemade SUGAR SALT Scrub

Ingredients:

3 cups Epsom salt

2.5 cups brown sugar

10 drops essential oil (optional). I used Jasmine on this batch

Takes 5-10 minutes start to finish.

In a large bowl, mix Epsom Sal & Brown Sugar together until well blended. Add desired essential oil and mix. Store in an airtight container to prevent brown sugar from clumping.

Finally, I like to keep my scrub in a small jar by the tub and refill it as I use it. Whatever you use to store your new scrub, just make sure that its air tight s the brown sugar doesn’t harden. You can find a glass jar with a scoop at Hobby Lobby for under $5.

I get about 5 uses out of one small jar and about 30 uses out of this mixture. I estimate that this costs about $5.00 to make. I buy my Epsom salt at Costco which makes the price even lower!

Use to scrub head to toe in the bath or shower, especially before shaving or applying self tanner. Follow with your favorite lotion or oil.

If you’re like me and when you went to grab your brown sugar and it was a giant rock here’s what to do:

Place hardened brown sugar in large microwave safe container. Place the brown sugar and another small microwave safe container with water in the microwave (this is to add moisture back to the sugar). Microwave for 3 minutes. Break up the brown sugar brick in the bowl until it is back to original granulated consistency.

Happy Scrubbing!

On a hot summer day, there is nothing quite like a cold sweet popsicle. There are so many versions, but I love this lightened up version of a mint chip ice cream bar made with greek yogurt. I am still perfecting things a bit, but this was a solid first try. I like the dark chocolate shell hardened with coconut oil and the lightness of the mint. I may try adding some fresh mint in the next version (maybe steeped in the milk). I don’t love adding food coloring where it isn’t needed, but you could make them a fun green color if you wanted. 🙂 One things that is interesting about these, is that the greek yogurt makes them substantial enough to be filling. I used a Zoku mold, just their traditional version that goes into the freezer to set up. Enjoy a little piece of summer!

Kelly

Mint Chip Greek Yogurt Pops

Makes 6 – 8 Pops

**All opinions are my own and I was not compensated to promote any products mentioned. These are just things I love to use in my kitchen!

Everyone is so busy now-a-days with duel working households, endless tasks and chores, the list always seems to go on. We are certainly no exception. BF and I both work and have our own activities keeping us busy. We also try to exercise and eat healthy. Just keeping the two of us fed for a reasonable amount of money and time invested often seems daunting.

We often talk about eating healthy and that there is a triangle you get to choose from: healthy, tasty and affordable. The caveat is you can usually only pick two. We are doing our best to work all three in as often as possible, but that takes planning. The best way we have found to stay on track is to plan our menu for the week and create a shopping list prior to our weekend errands. We sit down together and talk about the schedule for the week and what we would like to have.

I usually have some new recipe I have been wanting to try (usually inspired from my Pinterest boards). I also plan to have things that complement each other so I can cut down on the number of things we are making, for example rice with two meals or leftovers with lunch. We then make a list of what to get at the “regular” store and what to splurge on at Whole Foods. We seem to stay much more on track when we have a plan and don’t do as much impulse buying.

I am also working much harder at paying attention to coupons. I think you can get sucked in to couponing and end up buying things you don’t need, but for those things you buy anyway it is great if you can save a little. This week our store was offering a coupon for 10% off your groceries if you got your flu shot. So for a flu shot that was covered by my insurance, we saved more than $10 off our groceries…those things really do add up! I have even gotten pretty good at remembering to bring my own bags, which is now something we pay for in our town. I feel really good about myself when I remember bags and coupons!

You can see from our scribly menus that our system is not fancy, but it works for us. The latest menu goes on the fridge and we work together to make it work for the week. We often shop on Saturday and I prep on Sunday. That usually involves roasting chicken breasts and prepping veggies. I try to make sure we have things that are easy to pack for lunches (probably where we save the most money from this system). Mary, Ali, Geff and I recently had an all day cooking extravaganza to create some meals for the freezer…lots more on that to come…it has been so helpful to have soups and sauces, even ready-made meals on hand. It is so nice to be able to pull something out and know where it came from. Sometimes the best laid plans don’t work out (like when I forget to defrost the fish) but for the most part this helps us a lot! Do you do something similar? I would love suggestions!

Kelly