Winner of the Adagio Wicked Teas Giveaway & Quick Halloween Craft!

Thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway!

                                                                     The winner is......

                                                         CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

                                            More Halloween goodies  content to come :-)

                                                                    Blessings,
                                                                         Jill

5K Race, Visiting Our Girl at College & Potato Soup & Beef Stew!

Hello everyone! :-)

Fall is finally beginning to show itself here in the South and just in time for Kathleen's 5 K race last weekend. She beat her time from last year and came in second place for her age group. We are so very proud of her. She is currently training for a half marathon!!

After the race we took a nice long ride up to see Hayley at Appalachian State! We've been missing her and we had a great day!

Kathleen really misses having her around! If you like to see my first vlog on YouTube about our weekend you can watch the following video :-)

                               I started another great book that is super hard to put down!

Can start to see some changing leaves, although due to the drought most have turned brown and fallen off the trees quickly. :-(

Since the evenings have been cooler I made a potato soup and beef stew that were a big hit! You can see how I made them by watching my latest YouTube video I posted today :-) I have really enjoyed building my channel and I think it will be nice to look back on through the years. I only wish I'd started sooner; especially when the girls were young so I could watch them grow up on camera.

        Hope you are enjoying the weather where ever you are! :-) Have a wonderful weekend!!!

                                                                       Blessings,
                                                                            Jill

Halloween Wicked Teas From Adagio & Giveaway!

October has arrived and Halloween will soon be upon us with cool, crisp air, sweaters, bonfires and eerie nights! ;-)

Adagio teas has sent me this wonderful Halloween tin with 6 different teas to try!

They all smell so amazing!

Even better..... they will be sending one of my lucky readers their own free Halloween Wicked Tea set as well with my giveaway and a few rules to enter :-)

                                  You will receive the 6 tins of tea in this cute little box!

Inside along with the tea tins, is a paper describing each tea and each flavor. Among the tins are 2 teas that are caffeine free! Perfect for relaxing and unwinding after a long day!

These little tins are loaded with yummy tea leaves and so delicious. I love the fact that they are reusable too! Can make fun crafts out of them for your little ones or just use them to store more tea leaves when these run out! :-)

                                                              Aren't they so adorable?!

                     This list is perfect for describing each tea and how long to brew the leaves.

I used my tea cup with the strainer to brew mine and this one is the candy apple concoction. So delicious!!

So how can you enter the giveaway???

1) Be sure to follow Adagio teas on social media, either Facebook, Twitter or Instagram!

2) Then leave me a comment below letting me know that has been done and why you'd like to win these teas. (Extra entry)

3) Be a follower of my blog.

4) Check out my YouTube video that explains in more detail about each tea. Then like the video and be subscribed to my channel. (Subscription needs to be public so I can verify :-)  Thanks! Video posted below.

I will be drawing names and announcing them here on my blog and also through another video on YouTube! I'll then be contacting the winner through email to get your full name and address so Adagio teas can send you your goodies! :-)

                                          CONTEST ENDS OCTOBER 17 TH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                         Good Luck!!!

                                                                          Blessings,
                                                                                Jill


*I received these teas free from Adagio teas in exchange for my honest review & to do a giveaway for my readers. All opinions are my own*

                                                                     

September Days

"By all these lovely tokens, September days are here, with summer's best of weather and autumn's best of cheer"

Helen Hunt Jackson

Though the calendar says September it is quite warm here in the South still.... 

So the other day Kathleen and I drove into town to enjoy a snowball which always brings a smile to our face and reminds us of home in MD,

I've enjoyed watching my butterfly flourish this summer, home to butterflies, hummingbirds and more!

          Lots of sunshine, but I am ready for the cool breezes and the warm sweaters and bonfires.

Oddly our ducks decided this was a good place to put their egg.... or another critter may have left it there :-)

Jerry picked one of these knock out roses for me to enjoy inside. I placed it in a small vase Kathleen painted for me when she was younger. Makes me smile every time I see it.

I've been doing quite a bit of baking and enjoy sending treats into Jerry's work on occasion. His co- workers seem to enjoy it too! ;-)

          These pumpkin apple muffins were so delicious! Definitely will be making them again!

Lots of meal planning and food prep since we are back to regular schedules. I've been posting quite a bit on my YouTube channel lately and a lot of my recipes etc. can be found there. We also redid Kathleen's bedroom and Jerry made her a loft bed. I'll link those videos along with my food prep videos down below if you want to check them out :-)

Also had a little time to catch up on some reading. I took Kathleen to the library the other day to select some books for reading since her Lexile reading level is very high.  I found this author, never read her books before but they are really good! I finished this one and I'm now reading The Other Woman also by this author. They are suspenseful and well written and hard to put down!

I hope your summer is off to a great start! Here are a few of my most recent videos. Thanks for watching! Enjoy the rest of your week :-)

                                            Chicken & Pineapple bake with lemon muffins!

                                                   Part 1 of Kathleen's room makeover :-)

                                             Part 2 of her room redo and making the loft bed

                                                                            Blessings,
                                                                                 Jill

Review of Masters Teas

As a long time tea lover, I have always enjoyed sampling new types of teas. When I was once again contacted by Adagio teas about their new website and their new Master Teas; I just had to give them a try! They also graciously included a free tea for my birthday which was a nice surprise! You can read my previous review of Adagio teas here.

To visit their new website Master Teas please click here

I was able to choose a wide selection of teas and enjoyed trying several of them. They always offer free shipping on their website and their customer service is wonderful! This is one of the teas I chose to try and you are able to choose a sample or a larger amount of any of the teas. It is called Jun Shan Yin zhen tea. It's a yellow tea with with the taste of toastiness and soft muscat grape like fruitiness.

Our Mission Statement: 

The intention of Masters Teas is to share the finest, freshest specialty teas direct from the farms where they grow. We invite you to get to know the artisans who tender them and learn their stories. It is not necessary to be a tea connoisseur to enjoy these exceptional productions, as we intend to offer as much information as possible to help you on a journey of tea discovery. Masters Teas is proud to offer you our 2019 fresh-from-the-field teas the moment they arrive. Each offering is a limited edition, small-lot production. 

(Credit: Master Teas website)

That is another thing I really enjoyed about reviewing their website and selecting my choice of teas; you get to read about the individual and how the teas are made.

The leaves are very rich and full of flavor. I have a tea cup that I just love that you can brew a cup of tea in and easily remove the leaves when finished.

The key to enjoying the rich flavor of these teas is to use really hot water and let it steep. I let mine steep about 15 minutes to enjoy the full effects of the tea. The website also lets you know how high and low the caffeine contents are in each of the teas and also what the flavor is like.

My tea cup comes with a lid to hold in the heat and to let it steep, plus its nice for keeping it warm afterwards too and then you can take it off and set the tea leaves container in it so it doesn't leak all over the counter. I found my cup on Amazon if you are interested in finding out more about it you can click here

As you can see it is a nice rich brew and I enjoyed drinking the teas plain, but you could add milk, cream or sugar or honey to them if you choose too. I just really enjoy the natural flavors of the teas. :-)

If you enjoy drinking tea and are looking for a good quality blend, I highly suggest checking out their website and giving them a try. They have a quick delivery also and their customer service members are more than happy to help with any questions you may have regarding the teas or how to brew them.


                                                                           Blessings,
                                                                                Jill


              * I received this product in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own *
                                                     *Affiliate links were used in this post*

Wrapping Up the Summer

On the 26th of August I was most blessed to celebrate another birthday. Jerry and Kathleen made me this cake and we had a quiet celebration together. I really missed having Hayley here to celebrate with me. If they could just stay little..... although I will say having only 4 candles on the cake was quite nice.LOL  :-)

It doesn't feel like fall yet here in the South.... still very warm so I haven't quite felt like dragging out the fall decorations just yet ;-) Kathleen has done a wonderful job with all the things she's planted this summer. Her pepper plant is still producing!

Flowers are still popping up around the yard, always a joy to see :-). We may get a bit of wind and heavy rain from Dorian so not sure what to expect or if it will shift its course.....time will tell but we are prepared as we can be.

We currently have 5 ducks to love as our pets, but this white one here is the only one left from our original older group that we had when we first moved in that came with the house. She's a sweetie and keeps up with the others really well. I call her momma as she takes the others under her wing and it's great to see them all hanging out together.

We took Kathleen shopping at Justice the other day to get some things she needed and I think Jerry was having more fun in there then she was, lol. She was like "dad.....!" LOL. We told him these actually looked pretty good on him! ;-)

Hayley came home for the weekend with a friend of hers so we took her out for some of her favorite pizza. This was one of their slices! Crazy big!! It reminded us of one of our favorite pizza places back "home". I miss her a ton!

This quote is so very, very true... we spend our whole life raising them, then feel a bit lost without them. Thankful I still have time to watch Kathleen grow up.... when she goes off to college will be even more heartbreaking.

I've been busy making more videos for my YouTube channel and here are my latest ones. I have many more planned and putting the final touches on one of our DIY's :-)

                             In this one I share grocery hauls at Lidl, Harris Teeter & Target :-)

Then in this one I share a recipe for a quick dinner on busy nights, along with a homemade lemon cupcake recipe. In this one you get to see Jerry and Kathleen trying the cupcakes right fresh from the oven :-)

Hope you are all having a wonderful week and those of you in the midst of Dorian you are all in my prayers and thoughts.

                                                                      Blessings,
                                                                           Jill

First Day of School & New Videos on YouTube

How can it be possible already that my oldest is off to college and my youngest has just started 8th grade?? This year she started the 26th of August, my birthday..... the house was pretty lonely this year.

Kathleen is on a good team it seems for learning and being challenged academically so we are excited about that. We enjoyed meeting her teachers the other night. She truly loves to learn and already has goals set out for the year.

                        My beautiful young lady, so proud of her and all she has accomplished.

Now for me, just trying to get back into a normal schedule at home. Hard to do this week, lol. Especially getting back up super early as I've always been a night owl and enjoy staying up real late and now have to try to go to bed by at least 11:00 pm! :-)

I have lots of plans for my YouTube channel so should have some extra time to work on more videos. I will post the links here and on my Facebook page and Instagram while I am building it.

                               Recently I posted a video making my favorite banana cake. :-)

                      I also made one of me making Pasta Fagioli Soup, which was so delicious!

I appreciate your support as I build this new channel. A big thanks to you who are already watching, I really appreciate it. There are many great YouTubers out there so I know it will take some time to get my channel off the ground and recognized. :-)

                                                          Enjoy the rest of your week!

                                                                       Blessings,
                                                                            Jill