Tasty Tuesday: 12 Kitchen Hacks

I am so sorry about getting this up a day late. I thought I had published it but I guess I saved it instead.

So I was looking on Pinterest and I found some awesome Kitchen Hacks, so I thought I'd share! Some of these I already use, some I am definitely going to try out. 

12 Awesome Kitchen Hacks

1. Shred chicken breast with a stand or hand mixer. 

(Use this. Makes shredding so much easier and faster!)

2. Use your pizza cutter to cut your herbs.

3. Skip Having to Turn Roasted Veggies in the Oven.When roasting vegetables, preheat the oven with the baking sheet already inside to avoid having to flip foods halfway through.

4. Tired of buying a whole bushel of fresh herbs only to use a teaspoon and then watch the rest go bad until you need it a week later? Next time, freeze rosemary — or basil, parsley, or oregano — and olive oil in an ice cube tray. Just pop one in the pan when cooking.

5. Keep Your Cutting Board From Slipping. Don't let your cutting board slip as you cut by adding a damp dishcloth underneath the board. 

(You can also cut a piece of no-slip shelf liner and place under your board as well.) 

6. No time to boil water. Use your Keurig. 

( I also use this for steaming my face before doing a face mask.)

7. Cook bacon in bulk quick by baking it in the oven. 

(Use this and it cooks the bacon perfectly and very fast!)

8. Weave bacon into squares for the perfect B.L.T.s. 

9. Is your baking soda or baking powder still good? Test it out. Using old baking soda or baking powder that is no longer effective will ruin your recipe. To test baking powder, just mix a teaspoon into half a cup of hot water. Does it bubble? Yay, your baking powder is good to use! If not, replace it before you get started. And what about baking soda? Mix a quarter of a teaspoon into 2 teaspoons of vinegar. Once again, you should immediately see bubbling. If you don’t, the baking soda is no longer effective. Baking soda is rarely labeled with an expiration date, so this is super helpful to know! (Haven't tested but definitely going to try!)

10. Tired of your bananas going bad before you get to eat them? Wrap the top of your bananas with plastic wrap and they’ll last four to five days longer.

11. Alton Brown Method of Hard-Cooking Eggs: 325 degrees for 30 minutes. Baked eggs are better because they are less sulfurous (smelly) and the texture of the finished eggs is creamier.

12. Lather a moat of PB around the J for a drip-free PB&J sandwich.

(Can not wait to try this out!)

Be Kind, Be Beautiful, Be You-Ashley

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Manic Monday: August 29th - Sept. 4th Target Dollar Spot Planner Layout

Goodness, it's been a heck of a Monday, thank God for my planner! It's only been a week back to school and both kids have strep throat!

Last night I did my weekly planning. I enjoy planning and decorating on Sunday nights. For me it is a lot like my makeup time, it's my de-stress time. This week isn't too terribly busy but lots of little things that need to be done.

For those that don't know, I plan in a Target Dollar Spot planner. I used purple washi I found in the Target Dollar Spot for $1, to cover up and fortify the holes and to also cover up the days. The sticker decor and push pin stickers I used are from The Dollar Tree. And the dots are from Wal-Mart, I do believe they were $1.84. For the paper clips, I used the ones I made, as well as the headband wrap. I love this spread so much! It's so bright and colorful and makes me smile!

Without further ado, here it is!

I cut the rainbow in half. 

I hope y'all have an amazing week ahead. 

Be Kind, Be Beautiful, Be You-Ashley

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Beauty Tid Bit Thursday: Full Face and Green Smokey Eye Tutorial

Thursday I did a look inspired by Victoria Donelda,click here to go watch the video it's stunning! If you'd like to watch my Get Ready With Me on Periscope (click the links) Part 1 and Part 2. I will list and link all products I used. 

*I am not affiliated with any of these companies.*

*Face*

*First off start with a clean fresh face.

*Then moisturizer: Pond's Rejuveness Anti-Wrinkle Cream. Let your moisturizer soak in for about 15mins before applying any other products.

*Primer: Smashbox Photo Finish

*Foundation: Maybelline Matte and Poreless in shade 222 True Beige with a damp beauty blender.

*Concealer: Hard Candy Glamoflauge in shade light apply with a small flat brush under eyes, down the nose, triangle on the forehead, and chin. Blend out with a beauty blender.

Small Flat Concealer Brush

*Powder: Elf HD Powder in shade sheer. I do a light bake under the eye and set T-zone. I do not dust off till I am finished with my eyeshadow. 

*Eyes*

*Eye primer: Elf Eye Primer I do not use or recommend the sealer end of this duo. Blender out with your ring finger.

*Set with an eyeshadow for a base color close to your skin color. I used my Makeup Revolutions Affirmation Palette shade Vow with an Eco Tools Full Eye Shadow Brush.

Eco Tools Full Eye Shadow Brush

Makeup Revolution Affirmation Pallete (Vow) 

*From the same Affirmation palette I use Hope to start in my crease. To deepen it up some I also used Time. I used a l.a.b 2 Just Blending in Brush to apply both colors. Blend blend blend! To blend I use my Morphe M330.

Makeup Revolution Affirmation Palette (Hope)

l.a.b.2 Just Blending in Brush

Makeup Revolution Affirmation Palette (Time)

Morphe M330

*Now for the fun! I used my Morphe 35S palette. Applied the shimmer green all over my lid. With a no name flat shadow brush. Blend out with Morphe M330.

Morphe 35S

No Name Flat Eye Shadow  Brush

*In the crease with the l.a.b 2 blending brush I used my Morphe 35B palette. Blend blend blend. 

Morphe 35B

* With a small dome no name brush use the black from the 35B palette and dab a little in the outer v. Now blend like your life depends on it. (hahaha) 

Morphe 35B

No Name Dome Brush

*Add a brow bone color. I used Positive from the Affirmation palette.

Makeup Revoltion Affirmation Palette (Positive)

*Eyeliner: Elf Precision Liquid Eyeliner

*Mascara: Too Faced Better Than Sex

*Lashes: Kiss in style Shy. I also use their lash glue.

*Face*

*Wipe away any bake and fall out.

*Bronzer: Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Matte Bronzer applied with Sigma f84 Angled Kabuki

*Blush:Makeup Revolution in New Rules (this blush is so pigmented you only need a tiny bit.) I use my Morphe M510 barely swiped across the blush. 

*Highlighter: No. 7 Skin Illuminator (pink) dab on the high points of cheek bones, nose, above the eyebrow, and cupids bow. A tip I learned from Victoria Donelda use your beauty blender to blend your highlighter in and it melts into the skin to leave such a beautiful glow! To top it off just because I love a little extra glow. I also use City Color Contour Effects 2 the highlight from that palette. I use the same Morphe M510 brush to apply. 

*Now for a little tip I picked up from Wayne Goss. Use a blending face brush (I use Real Techniques Face brush)

and pick up a tiny bit of powder and start buffing it all over your face. This locks in your makeup. It doesn't leave you looking cakey. If you will swirl in one direction and back the other direction (I hope that makes since) it also fills in your pores to leave you looking flawless. 

*Lips*

*Lip Exfoliator: Elf Lip Exfoliator

*Lipstick: Urban Decay Vice Lipstick in shade Naked

Waalaa! All finished! 

I hope you enjoyed this beauty tid bit. If you have any questions or would like for me to help you with a one on one please feel free to email me anytime at notyourordinarybombshell@gmail.com.

Be Kind, Be Beautiful, Be You-Ashley

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Whatcha Reading Wednesday: The Curse of The Bruel Coven Book Review

So sorry about getting this up a day late! Hopefully, now that I am feeling my 100 again life will get back in order! 



"The Curse of The Bruel Coven"

By: Sabrina Ramoth

Genre:Young Adult, Paranormal /Witches, Fantasy, Mystery, Fantasy/Magic

Paperback, 184 pages

Published June 3rd, 2016 by Exit 80 Publishing

When secrets from the past collide with the present, the consequences may be deadly. Vivienne Davenport is an ordinary teenager—at least, she thinks she is. Then the untimely death of her mother reveals a family secret. She's adopted . . . and her real mom is a witch. The truth only complicates Vivienne's life further. Buried deep within her family’s history of magic is a deadly curse that has plagued them for generations. When her birth mom disappears, Vivienne must tap into her suppressed powers to save her long-lost mother—and herself. Can Vivienne become the witch she needs to be? Or will her newfound powers prove too much for her to handle? Only one thing is certain: She will soon learn that all magic comes at a price. 

This book started out a little slow but gained momentum after a few chapters.  Yes, it's your typical YA book, but it kept me turning the page. It is a short and fast read, the story itself goes fairly quick.  I was very surprised at the lack of love interest but, it was really refreshing.  I really enjoyed Sabrina's descriptive writing style. I really could picture every scene  in the book. They way she describes the New Orleans witch/magic vibe is exactly the way I picture it. I would recommend this book for sure if you are into paranormal YA books. It is a great beginning to the series, and I can't wait for Sabrina to publish the next one. 

Add The Curse of The Bruel Coven On Goodreads

Buy on Amazon or Barnes & Noble

*I received this book from the publisher for an honest review from Netgalley.*

Be Kind, Be Beautiful, Be You-Ashley

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Tasty Tuesday: Hamburger Stew

With fall right around the corner and storms moving in, Soups and stews are a staple in our household. Even though it's still summer we had a cool front move in that brought some serious storms our way. Stew sounded so good. It's quick and easy, bonus it's really budget friendly.

Hamburger Stew

Ingredients

2lbs ground beef (chicken, turkey, pork will also work)

2 cans green beans or frozen (which is my preferred)

2 cans corn or frozen (which is my preferred)

2 cans carrots or frozen (which is my preferred)

2 cans of potatoes or frozen (which is my preferred)

2 cans diced tomatoes

2 cans tomato sauce

Salt

Pepper

and other desired seasonings

Instructions

Brown meat in a large pot. Season with salt and pepper to taste and your other desired seasonings. Mine are always salt, pepper, garlic, and onion. Drain off grease if you have to much. 

Open and drain all cans. Add all veggies, diced tomatoes, and sauce to the pot with the hamburger meat. Add some water to thin out to your desired amount. I like mine a little thick. Taste and adjust your seasonings. Bring to a boil. Turn heat down and simmer on low for at least 15 mins the longer you have in your schedule to let it simmer the better. Stir occasionally. This stew gets better with time, the longer you let it simmer and leftovers are soooooo yummy!! Top with cheese and a slice of cornbread and dinner is ready! 

I hope you enjoyed today's recipe. What is your favorite soup or stew? Or what is your go to fall recipe?  

Be Kind, Be Beautiful, Be You-Ashley

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Blog Schedule

Hey, I just wanted to give y'all a quick update of the new schedule I worked up this weekend.

So from now on....

Manic Mondays will feature planning and or an organization tip.

Tasty Tuesdays will feature a recipe.

Whatcha Reading Wednesdays will feature book reviews and other book-related posts. 

Thursday (still working on the name) will be beauty related

Friday (still working on the name) will be family and life updates and other what not blog posts. 

If you can help me with names for Thursday and Friday I will give you a shout out for the amazing help! The first ever Tasty Tuesdays post will be up today!

Be Kind, Be Beautiful, Be You-Ashley

Newsflash....I'm fat!

I'm not really sure how to start this blog off. So I'm just gonna start. I am currently writing this from my hospital room! Whawhawha.....Monday I struggled to breathe all day, so I came to the er. Long story short I was admitted. Woohoo! NOT!!! I seriously have the best nurses in the world, though. And I absolutely love this hospital!So it's kinda fitting that I had wanted to write about this and now I am being admitted for it. But anyways on with the story.  This is gonna be a long one so go grab a drink and a snack sit back and relax. 

Ps. I apologize now if some of this doesn't make 100% sense. I am having serious brain fog from lack of oxygen all day. I am going to try my best to reread this several times. 

I will start off by saying I am in no way writing this for sympathy. I am purely writing this for awareness purposes. And for that little twerp on Periscope. And to all the little twerps that like to hate on me. 

Yes, I'm fat, I know this! You don't have to tell me this every day. I can see myself in the mirror. It's no surprise to me. Not to mention you feel the need to tell me every time you see me, I got the hint! You say you want to me, ummm hello, news flash you calling me fat telling me I'm fat and I need to lose weight does not help me!

1st let me say this I have always been a big girl. I will ALWAYS be a big girl. Yes, I would like to loose the weight but I by no means want to do it to "look good" I want to loose it to be healthy. Even though I am fat I am happy and I still LOVE MYSELF. I am still BEAUTIFUL! I have been working on losing the weight but it's not an easy process when you have my health problems. 

I fight every day to breathe. I I also have severe asthma, Copd, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. I am constantly on steroids to open my airways. Unfortunately, steroids caused me to have steroid induced Cushing's syndrome. Here is a snippet from a Cushing Website. Click the links if you'd like to read more.

What is Cushings? Cushing’s syndrome occurs when the body’s tissues are exposed to excessive levels of cortisol for long periods of time. Many people suffer the symptoms of Cushing’s syndrome because they take glucocorticoid hormones such as prednisone for asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and other inflammatory diseases, or for immunosuppression after transplantation.

Others develop Cushing’s syndrome because of overproduction of cortisol by the body. Normally, the production of cortisol follows a precise chain of events. First, the hypothalamus, a part of the brain which is about the size of a small sugar cube, sends corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) to the pituitary gland. CRH causes the pituitary to secrete ACTH (adrenocorticotropin), a hormone that stimulates the adrenal glands. When the adrenals, which are located just above the kidneys, receive the ACTH, they respond by releasing cortisol into the bloodstream.

Cortisol performs vital tasks in the body. It helps maintain blood pressure and cardiovascular function, reduces the immune system’s inflammatory response, balances the effects of insulin in breaking down sugar for energy, and regulates the metabolism of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. One of cortisol’s most important jobs is to help the body respond to stress. For this reason, women in their last 3 months of pregnancy and highly trained athletes normally have high levels of the hormone. People suffering from depression, alcoholism, malnutrition and panic disorders also have increased cortisol levels.

When the amount of cortisol in the blood is adequate, the hypothalamus and pituitary release less CRH and ACTH. This ensures that the amount of cortisol released by the adrenal glands is precisely balanced to meet the body’s daily needs. However, if something goes wrong with the adrenals or their regulating switches in the pituitary gland or the hypothalamus, cortisol production can go awry.

Cushing's has caused a host of other problems. I now have adrenal insufficiency (or “Addisonian crisis”). It is the inability to maintain a blood pressure (“shock”), dehydration, and electrolyte (sodium and potassium) abnormalities.  It may also be much more subtle, with nothing more than fatigue. This is why I have to keep myself stress-free as much as possible. Cushings has also caused early onset of Osteoporosis. Therefore I wake up every day in horrible pain. I have to be care and watch what I do so I don't hurt or damage myself in any way. 

So yes going and doing workouts would be great but right now it is nearly impossible. I do try to walk some but that's about as much as I can do right now.  I have cut back on what I eat and trying to eat Ketogenic Diet as closely as I can. Which, by the way, has helped as I have lost a few pounds! Woohoo!!!  

So yes, "Why don't I just lose the weight?" It's not the simple for me. Even though I know you'll never read this I hope you find it in your heart to be nicer to people who are fat! Because maybe just maybe they aren't fat because they are lazy and eat to much maybe just maybe its out of their control. You also asked me "Why do I spend more time on myself putting on makeup instead of losing the weight?" Well, as you've hopefully read I am working on it and it is a very slow process. And the main reason why I spend time on myself is because ummm I'm an adult and I can! But for real though it is my meditation time. My time to relax. I enjoy makeup. I make me feel better and when I feel better then I want to get up and get out and work on myself. Yes, I'm fat but I don't have to look frumpy and fat. I try to have some class and wearing makeup makes me feel pretty and put together. 

I try to be pretty positive and don't let those that are rude online get to me, but for some reason or another, I couldn't shake this one. My main focus for this blog post is to bring awareness to invisible illnesses. I have more than my fair share of them. Bring awareness to body shaming. Bring awareness to bullying. Please stop the hate. Not just to me but to everyone. Kind words go some much further than negative words. 

Be Kind, Be Beautiful, Be You-Ashley

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My Newest Little Addiction

So sorry about not having a post up yesterday. I was too tired from staying up way too late Wednesday night all for good reason, I promise! 

Wednesday I went to visit my Mawmaw and Pawpaw and have dinner with them, as well as visit with my uncle that was in from Georgia. My Uncle is an amazing guitarist and while we were there he taught Kord a few chords on the guitar, which he was excited about. He has been practicing every day and wants to learn more! It was a very nice visit, I really miss getting to visit more often with my Mawmaw. As a kid, I was over there just about every day. I have always been close to my Mawmaw We all joke around that I'm the favorite grandchild out of the 7 grandkids. (We all know it's true, though! haha) 

Anyways, back to what this story is all about. After the visit, we had to finish up school supply shopping for Cadence. So we took off to Target. Stopped off at the Target Dollar Spot and picked up the supplies I needed for my new planner! Yes, that's right, I said it, P L A N N E R!!!!! I am so beyond excited to join in the planner community and finally stop forgetting to do things and forgetting dates and appointments! I picked up the binder and the inserts plus a couple of washis. I didn't pick up the page flags inserts because I had heard they were not that great of quality. My Target didn't have the best selection of planner stuff so I will have to go back when the new dollar spot products are out. So after picking up the rest of Cadence supplies, we headed off to Dollar Tree. My Dollar Tree was seriously lacking in the office supply and sticker/craft area. I couldn't find the gel pens and there was no washi! Ugh really was not happy! I did, however, get some adorable stickers, paper clips, reminder flags, and double sided tape. Everything from Target and Dollar Tree including Cadence's school supplies came in under $30! Woohoo for thrifty shopping! 

Came straight home and got started setting it all up! I was not happy with how flimsy the dividers were so I ran them through the laminator. After a couple failed tries and cutting mistakes, I am somewhat happy with the finished project. I also made a pocket for the front. Not happy with it but it works for now at least until I can find my scrapbook paper. 

Bonus to being a headband and bow maker, I have supplies running out of my ears and had all the supplies to make adorable paper clips! Woohoo!!! These were sooooo much and came out so cute! I can't wait to make some more. 

 

Thursday I spent the morning filling in the dates and decorating it. For a beginner with not much in supplies, I am really happy with the way it turned out. 

August Monthly Layout

August 18th -21st weekly layout

August 22nd - 28th weekly layout

I also made a cute little charm out of an old necklace, earrings that I was missing the other one, and some special keychains. I am absolutely in LOVE with they way it came out! It may be my favorite part of my planner. Although the bows are a very close tie to my fave. 

Well, that's it, my finished baby! I am so excited to share my weekly and monthly layouts with you. They will be going up on Sundays/Mondays. And if you're interested in planner DIY's let me know in the comments and I will try and post some as tutorials. 

I hope you all have a splendid weekend.

Be Kind, Be Beautiful, Be You-Ashley

Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a post! Leave a comment I'd love to chat with you! And as always if you can't get enough of my fabulousness you can join me on any and all my social media. They are all linked below.

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