spring = reminder of His steadfast love!

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; 

His mercies never come to an end. 

They are new every morning; 

great is Your faithfulness! 

"The Lord is my portion," 

says my soul, 

"therefore I will hope in Him." 

Lamentations 3:22-24

 

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Okay, I know what you're thinking: "Pineapple upside-down cake sounds WAY too complicated for me!" But seriously... if you can bake a cake from a box, you can make this recipe from scratch! And I bet you already have almost all of the ingredients sitting in your cabinet!! Go check now!!

1. Gather your ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups sugar

1 stick of butter

1/4 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups milk

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

one 20-ounce can sliced pineapple

1 1/3 cups brown sugar

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3. Make the batter: mix together flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, 1/2 stick of butter, shortening, milk, eggs, vanilla, and 2 table spoons of the pineapple juice.

4. Melt the remaining 1/2 stick of butter in an iron skillet over medium heat. (If you're like me and don't have a cast iron skillet, a cast iron pot works great too!)  Swirl the butter around to coat the entire skillet.

 

 5. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the butter, making sure it's evenly distributed. Cover the entire surface with the brown sugar, but do not stir!

 

6. When the sugar starts to melt, place a layer of pineapple slices over the top. 

7. Pour the batter evenly over the pineapple slices.  (Don't forget to lick the extra batter from the bowl!)

8. Bake at 350 degrees for around 45 minutes.

9. Remove from oven when the edges start to pull away from the pot.

10. Run a knife around the edge of the pot to ensure the edges are good and loose.

 11. Turn your cake pan upside down on top of the pot, then quickly invert the pot, turning it upside down on top of the cake pan. 

12. There you have it! Pineapple Upside-down cake! It's that easy!!

*This recipe was taken from my favorite, Pioneer Woman.. Please check her out at thepioneerwoman.com. I know you'll fall in love!

Spring "wreath"

Spring is here! We didn't experience much winter weather, but I am sure glad to see 75 and sunny again! I spent several of my recent days off doing "springy" things, like planting an herb garden (more on that later!) and making a spring "wreath" for our front door! Today I'll share with you how to make a spring "wreath" that looks like this:

First, gather your supplies! All supplies may be found at any local craft store: Hobby Lobby, Michaels, or Joann's! (Don't forget to print a few 40% off coupons before you go!)

Supplies:

• large wooden picture frame (without glass or backing)
• floral wire
• pliers
• ribbon
• paint
• paintbrushes
• scissors
• wooden letter of your choice
• mod-podge
• tacky glue (or hot glue)
• small decorative items of your choice (I used a blank slate for a "welcome sign", some flowers, and a small bird!)

Next, paint your wooden letter whatever color you like! My sweet husband choose this nice shade of yellow for me!

I can't get this picture to turn the correct way, any suggestions?

Also, while you're painting, you can add a little "welcome" sign! If you're like me and happen to forget paintbrushes, just use Q-tips!

 

What until your paint has dried, then bring on the mod-podge. If you're new to the world of crafting and a little skeptical to purchase mod podge, like I was at first. Let me just encourage you- INVEST! It's the best stuff ever! A little pricey at first (that's why you have your coupon!), but once you use it, you'll want to mod podge everything in your house!

So, apply a thin coat of mod podge and let it sit! While it's drying, move on to the next step!

 

Begin to arrange of your decorative items around your frame before you start attaching them.

Next, get out those pliers and floral wire! Attach the decorative items to each other and to the frame with the floral wire and tacky glue (or hot glue). Sometimes this process takes a while to get everything exactly where it's supposed to!

If you made a "welcome" sign and a wooden letter, it is now time to add them to the wreath! (I may or may not have even used my husband's tools to hammer a nail to the backside of my letter "S" to assist with attaching it to the wreath!)

Finally, turn the wreath over and attach some ribbon for hanging! I just stuck some floral wire through the ribbon and attached it to the backside of the frame, like so:

Turn the wreath back over, you may need to do some extra "fluffing" just to get everything in it's right place. 

And viola! 

You have a spring wreath! 

Simple as that.

I would take a picture of this "wreath" hanging on my door because it's super cute, but it's raining outside and I am NOT willing to get off my couch to take another picture :)

Note: Since the Lord made us with only two hands, you may need to use your feet to help hold your wreath up while decorating it! If you're like me and have been extra blessed with a size 10 foot, you've got this part easily covered!

365 days of marriage

 WE DID IT! One whole year of marriage!!

Brady and I spent the evening several days ago reflecting over the past year; we even pulled out our "keepsake" box, filled with old pictures, drawings we made for each other, and maybe a sweet love note or two!

Here are some things we found:

1. A few cards from my friends at my bachelorette party, giving us some "marriage advice". Some things we feel like we've accomplished, others.. not so much.. like, "Invite Hannah over for dinner often!" (Sorry, Hannah!)

2. A list of questions Brady had to answer about me, I had to guess his answer to these questions in front of my friends at my bachelorette party... He recently stated that he would've changed some of his answers if he were given another chance now!

3. For our pre-marriage counseling, we had to make a list of reasons why we wanted to marry each other. We haven't looked at these lists since pre-marriage counseling, so it was fun for me to re-read all the reasons I wanted to marry Brady one year ago, and think about all the reasons I love Brady more today!

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Brady and I had a blast celebrating our first anniversary at Oliva's Italian restaurant, a Fort Worth local! When we walked in, all of the hostesses went on and on about how excited they were for us, and during dinner, we even had several people walk up to our table to congratulate us! One lady  told us that she thought that we were in high school, and Brady was taking me out to eat for my birthday! (I didn't have the heart to tell her that my husband is working on his Master's degree!)

Needless to say, we enjoyed everyone celebrating our first anniversary with us!

It's been a good year. I am more than excited to be on this journey of life with Brady, and am even more excited about celebrating many, many more anniversaries together!