Saturday, July 29, 2017

Yummy Grilled Sweet Corn Recipe


Yummy Grilled Sweet Corn on the Cob

We were so happy to see our old Sweet Corn Stand out in the country had opened up again! We were even more excited to pick how we were going to cook it!
We decided to toss it on the grill and I thought I'd share how we did it!

Ingredients: 
Sweet Corn
Butter
Salt 
Pepper

Additional Stuff:
Aluminium Foil
Grill
Tongs
Tray

  1. Gently pull the husk down from the ear of corn exposing the corn silk.
  2. Remove all of the corn silk from each ear of corn.
  3. Once you finish removing the corn silk from each ear of corn, you can prepare the corn for grilling by adding additional seasoning if desired.
    1. We chose to taking a stick of butter and run it up and down the ear of corn and sprinkles lightly with a bit of salt and pepper.
  4. Once you have seasoned the ear of corn to your liking, gently pull the corn husks back up one by one sealing the entire ear of corn with its original husks.
  5. Wrap each sweet corn with aluminium  from top to bottom the best you can.
  6. We cooked ours on our gas grill on medium heat for 40 minutes. 
  7. You will want to use tongs to handle the corn and while your checking to see if it is done.
  8. A good way to see if the corn is done beyond visual is by taking something pointy and poking at the kernels . If they give little to no resistance then they are done. You will also notice the more you cook them the more aromatic they will become.
  9. When they are done and cooled off, remove the extra husks serve and enjoy!
Possible seasoning ideas are (but definitely not limited too):
  • Spread a mix of butter, minced garlic and salt on the corn before grilling then wrap and grill as described above.
  • Spread a mix of Cilantro, mayo or butter, Lime juice, and chili powder on the corn before grilling then wrap and grill as described above.
  • Spread basil pesto mix on the corn before grilling then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese before serving





Friday, July 28, 2017

My Secret to fluffy Scrambled Eggs


I love scrambled eggs.
I love them plain, with cheese, with bacon or ham mixed in, and sprinkled with salt and pepper. I used to add milk to the mix because that is how I was taught to make scrambled eggs. I have swapped out my milk for a dollop of sour cream in my scrambled eggs mix and I have not looked back! I can not taste the sour cream, but I can taste the results! The addition of the sour cream to the eggs allows them to cook evenly and retain moisture resulting in them being deliciously fluffy! Give it a try! 

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Quick and Easy Beef Stroganoff Recipe


I was in a pinch one night for dinner. I had never made any version of Stroganoff before but my mom used too. I had always had it with beef chunks opposed to beef hamburger was all that I has and it turned out fantastic! Here is my quick and easy recipe!

Ingredients:


  • One bag of egg noodles 
  • 1/2 to a pound of hamburger (depending on how much you beef you prefer)
  • 2 cups sour cream
  • 2-3 cans of cream of mushroom soup (depending on how much of a creamy mushroom base you want, I used three because my husband loves it extra creamy and I like it either way)
  • Dissolve the appropriate amount of Beef bouillon according to the type you have to make 2 cups of beef broth.
  • 1/2 cup of Parmesan Cheese
You can always add these for a different spin to this recipe:
  • Mushrooms
  • Peas
  • Onions
  • Diced Potatoes
What to do!?
  1. I start first by filling a large boiling pot with water 1/2 way
  2. Add the beef ( as stated, I used hamburger)
  3. Boil the beef until it is fully cooked while chopping it into tiny crumbles with a plastic spatula.
  4. Once the beef is cooked and chopped , add your bag of egg noodles. 
  5. Add the 2 cups of beef bullion that you have made on the side
  6. Once the egg noodles are done cooking in the boiling beef water, add the Cream of Mushroom Soup, Sour Cream, Parmesan Cheese and let continue to cook and melt together whole stirring and folding in all of the ingredients.
  7. Lower the heat to Low Once the meat, noodles, and additional ingredients are thoroughly mixed and continue to stir. 
  8. Once you feel all of the ingredients are thoroughly mixed , remove from heat and  let cool before serving.
This dish can be a main course served with traditional bread and butter or easily used as a side dish.




Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Chicken Pillows Recipe



"Chicken Pillows"

When I had my first child, my cousin in law come over to make us dinner for our first night home. She made something she found on Pinterest called Chicken Pillows. She told me how she made them but I had nearly forgotten by the time I went to make them myself. Since then, I have perfected a version of my own that I will share!


Ingredients:

4 tubes of Crescent Rolls

I used a tray of 10 chicken breast tenderloins

1/2 cup sour-cream

2 cups of shredded cheese, your choice of the flavor. I used Colby.

1 box of cream cheese

1 can of cream of chicken soup

2 table spoons of chopped garlic

Directions:

  1. Boil the chicken tenderloins until they are cooked thoroughly. 
  2. Drain the excess water from the chicken with a strainer and put it in a large mixing bowl. 
  3. Add the cream cheese, shredded cheese, garlic, cream of chicken soup, and sour cream o the bowl with the chicken in it.
  4. Use a hand mixer on low to mix all of the ingredients together until it is thoroughly mixed with the chicken shredded and blended among the other ingredients evenly blended. 
  5. Unwrap the crescent rolls and instead of separating them into the triangles, separate them into squares by leaving two triangles together to form the square. 
  6. Place the squares one at a time on greased cookie sheet . 
  7. Place a scoop of the chicken filling into each square , enough that you will still be able to fold over the edges of the crescent roll.
  8. You will need to take each corner of the crescent roll and fold it over the chicken filling until all gaps are sealed. 
  9. Now you need to flip the chicken pillow over so that the seams you made with the pastry and place them on the cookie an inch apart as you go. 
  10. I managed to fit 6 pillows on each sheet .
  11. Place them into the oven at 300 degrees and bake them until they are golden in color.
Options:
  • Brush lightly with garlic butter
  • Serve with chicken gravy poured over the pillows




Pizza soup Recipe!


One of the struggles I have with making dinner every night and having kids is:
  • Finding something that my husband and I like to eat
  • Something that is as healthy BUT TASTY as I can
  • Something my 3 & 4 year old will eat. 
  • I struggle finding something different! 
Eating in every night can get bland and dull when ts the same pile of recipes you find yourself pulling from. I often scour the internet and dig through all of my recipe books trying to find the perfect recipe that is affordable, one I could easily replicate, and toddler approved. I jumped for joy when I found a pizza soup recipe that seemed to hit all of these spots. The kicker? It is delicious and was easy to make!

I'm not a person with a lot of time and I am kinda finicky myself. Many recipes I found used different meat options but I like using the Jimmy Dean type breakfast sandwich that comes uncooked in a plastic tube sealed at both ends. Other recipes used organic chicken sausage links, smoked sausage links all diced up etc. I wanted to use sausage that was more like the sausage I like on my pizza, so I went with the breakfast sausage so I could mash it up in a frying pan easily.

I am not a fancy cook. I like to make tasty things but make them fast and simple. I am more efficient than fancy due to limited time and I am sure I am not alone in this. That can be good and bad, but is what it is!

Ingredients
  • 1 Tbsp minced Garlic
  • 1 small chopped Onion
  • 1 chopped Bell pepper
  • 1 tube pork breakfast sausage
  • 2 tsp Basil
  • 1 tsp Oregano
  • 32 oz ( you can find this in low sodium) veggie broth
  • 1 28 oz can tomato sauce (you can also find this with no added salt)
  • 1 can diced tomatoes ( you can find this with no added salt)
  • 1 can of sliced black olives ( I used two smaller cans because I love black oilives)
  • 1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese
  • Serve with a side of whole grain toast or homemade bread
Instructions
I used a largish pot and poured in the container of veggie broth, four small 4 cans of tomato sauce into the pot. I then cracked open all of the canned ingredients and spices and tossed them in. I let them heat up together on medium heat while I cooked the sausage in a separate pan. While the sausage was cooking I diced up the onions and the green peppers and tossed them into the pot. When the sausage was done I added it into the soup ( you can drain it if it is too greasy of-course .) I then added the Parmesan cheese . I let cook until the green peppers and the onion were cooked all the way through.

When the soup was finished, I poured it into soup bowls and garnished with shredded cheese, oyster crackers and served with some home made bread on the side. My Husband said that the crackers and cheese garnish really made it taste like Pizza Soup. The kids enjoyed dipping the bread in the soup and we liked piling some of the "toppings" in it too. This pizza soup is easily one of my favorites now!

Suggested "toppings" :
Mushrooms, pepperoni, ham, etc. I also thing it would be delicious to pour the soup into oven safe soup bowls and baking some mozzarella cheese over the top.

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

My daily #BrassyBlogJulyChallenge post! Topic: "Bullies & Opposition" "Bully?" #3 Sometimes we're the asshole.


During my #BrassyBlogJulyChallenge I will continue to explore the topic of "Bullies and Opposition" chronologically. I will also be covering times where I feel I was the asshole in the story. I am a firm believer that we are all assholes in life, we just take turns.



One of the earliest times I feel I was a jerk to someone was when I was in third grade. There was a girl named Sheila who was always picked on. During recess I saw a couple of boys pull her off of the monkey bars. I immediately felt bad her. She landed with a thud and her glasses had fallen off of her face. I had just got glasses myself and knew what a pain they could be if they got scratched up. I ran over and handed her glasses to her and held out my hand to help her up. Sheila took my hand and stood up. In my mind I thought our exchange went well and we would cordially part our ways. Sheila then looked at me and shoved me to the ground. I was shocked. I had just helped her out of this same situation and this is how she repays me? I want to say that I gracefully got up and walked away chalking it all up to some weird wiring in her noggin, but I didn't.  I stood up, and shoved Sheila back on the ground as I had found her. I could have been "the bigger person" but I wasn't. I figured I would leave her just as I found her and vowed never to help her again.

Looking back on it, I think she may not have known how to respond to someone being nice to her. She may have been so used to being on her defense that any act of kindness  shown to her was foreign to her. She may have seen my kindness as a weakness allowing her to even her scales by letting the negativity pass from her to me. Who really knows. I do know that I handled that situation wrong in hindsight, I mean come on. I was only 9. I have always struggled with not handling situations with an "Eye for an Eye" mentality, and I can see that was present even in my younger years.

My take away:

  • Not everyone is in a place to accept help or want help.
    • People react differently to negative and positive behavior for a multitude of different reasons, many we may never know and kids are no different.
  • Be kind without the expectation of having it reciprocated. 
    • Sheila did not ask for my help. My kindness did not have to reciprocated. I should have just helped her up and maintained my intent to help without expecting her to appreciate my help.
  • Everyone responds to situations differently.
  • Sometimes people do not know how to accept kindness because it is very foreign to them.
  • Kids can be assholes

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

My daily #BrassyBlogJulyChallenge post! Topic: "Bullies & Opposition" "Bully?" #2- Karma. When Tables Turn


I remember one of the first times I ever encountered the typical playground bully. I was in 1st grade. I was on the play ground playing with GI Joes with my first "Boyfriend" Andy. We were under the swings building barracks in the dirt.  Andy was smaller than most of the boys in our class. He was a dreamy little guy with bright blue eyes, dirty blonde hair and covered in freckles. He wasn't very outspoken, but he asked my little 1st grader self to circle yes or no and I circled yes because he had tiny gel caps that turned into dinos when soaked in water. Ha ha, I loved those things! Who am I kidding, I still love those things!
So there Andy was, minding his own business when all of a sudden he is lifted up into the sky by a beast. I watched in horror as this creature spun in circles with Andys little body raised above its head like it was a feather. When it was done spinning, it tossed Andy forward and Andy landed feet away with a thud. Andy didn't move, he was face down on the ground. It happened so fast because neither of us were paying attention to the Godzilla of a boy that roamed the playground! Godzilla boy had a name, it was Josh. Josh was a wall of a boy with a head of bushy loose curls and big features from head to toe. I was convinced that his hands alone could cause some sort of eclipse! One thing Josh did not have was my amazing jean jacket and my bad ass leather ankle high boots with little tassels and a metal tip on the toe. I was stylish and dressed for battle at a young age!
Picture boots like this , but tan with tassels and handy little metal tips.

I looked at Josh and then Andy and sat down my fist of plastic soldiers. I marched over to the playground Godzilla and put him to the ground with one swift kick to his meaty left leg. My mother always told me , " The bigger they are the harder they fall!" and I finally saw the truth in this with my own eyes. Andy was not the typical boy who would have been bothered by a girl taking down our mutual enemy. He actually appreciated the assistance and we carried on with out GI Battles everyday in peace while Josh limped around for a week with a bruise so big it probably could have eclipsed the sun. Andy Continued to be my BFF for most of my grade school years along with some other awesome boys and girls of course, but he was always my favorite. Our mothers would watch us sledding out Andy's dining room window and laugh at our process.To this day mine loves telling the story of me being the one to pull Andy up the huge hill of snow in the sled. I guess I have always figured that each of us were made with our own unique sets of talents, strengths, and expertise. His was supplying me with foam dinos capsules and I was the one skilled in taking down bullies and providing winter transportation up hill. What seemed entirely normal to us had both moms watching the roll reversal with laughter . Andy later moved away and we lost touch until the power of Facebook came into play decades later. Andy grew up to join the army and get married and have two adorable freckled babes of his own.

Now for Josh. The playground bully. The tidal wave to our peaceful beach. The pee in our lemonade. This wasn't my last run in with Josh, but I'll save them for a later post. I went to a small school and was stuck with that little jerk from kindergarten to graduation. Tables turned for him as the years went on. He continued to grow and grow taller, but then he started to grow wider. Kids started picking on him once we were in high-school and the bully now was the one being bullied. Because bullies are such jerks, they typically lack real true friends. They might have a few spineless shallow types who join forces with the bully because they enjoy the lifestyle, the protection, or because they prefer to stay on the bullies good side than their bad side. Who knows. There are probably plenty of reasons people align with jack-wagons like that, and since I'm not one of those people I cant honestly give an accurate reason for the "Why?"

Once we hit high-school , Josh found himself a nice little spot with the group of kids that lived in the same pair of Jnco jeans, farted on lighters and set their asses on fire , and drank bottle of food coloring so when they got wasted later that their vomit was the color of their choice. That group was in interesting group. They were friendly, entertaining, but he was the underdog in the mix now. He was more like their mascot now. They would use him to be their clown. Dare him to do stupid things to himself so they could laugh at him. He was no longer a real person to them, he was their lap dog. Their jester. The physical bully of my childhood was now being bullied mentally in his later years. To many it was poetic justice. I have an eye for eye streak in me, so that side of me was all about the Karma that was kicking in. 
Ladies and Gents! I present Jnco Jeans! Do you remember these? Ff you went to high-school in the mid to late 90's you might! 


As we made our way through each year of school, we change and morph. Our circle of friends change. Our interests change. Our footing in one social circle shifts and we find our self in an entirely new one or even spread across 3 or 4. That is where I was. I had my hands and feet in every social circle I fit into. I was a social butterfly of the highest order! I ignored and still ignore these sort of boundaries and barriers . I would have it no other way, but it is not always easy to master for everyone. It wasn't that easy for many, and it still wasn't easy for Josh. I could tell as we got closer to our junior he was growing tired of being the clown. His grades were failing. The only friends he had used him for shits and giggles. He started to pull back and chose more and more to go it alone instead of where ever he was welcomed. He started doing what many of us did, we started to mature. Our interests changed. We started looking back at where we've been and tried to figure out where we were going. He started to feel remorse. He started offering apologies to those who were still around that he had been a tool too. One of the girls he had tormented actually had left school because of her own harassment , harassment he would join in on daily. It appeared that this playground bully was leaving his cocoon and seeking a new beginning, which always works fantastically in the movies, wasn't looking to work out so well in real life. There wasn't uplifting music in the back ground. A flash mob didn't break out in the cafeteria with all of the students letting down their guard to hug and dance in harmony. There was the annual winter fest dance approaching and he didn't have a date. For obvious reasons he actually never ever attended a dance let alone ever had a date. 
Now, I had mentioned that I went to a small school. When I say it was small, it was small. We had 50 kids in my graduating class and all of us graduated. Many of us went to school with one another from kindergarten all the way to graduation. You might assume that is a cake walk. It wasn't. You couldn't just blend in with the crowd or swap social circles or friends at the drop of a hat when your friend pool was actually the size of a mud puddle. If you were the nose picker in 4th grade you were still called the nose picker in 10th grade even if you stopped picking your nose in 6th grade. 
I think that is something that we often forget as we make our way in and out of the chapters in our life. Often times our reputation does precede us and can feel like a heavy wet blanket we have to climb out from under. If you are lucky, someone may decide to lift the blanket so that you can climb out from under it with little to no struggle...but I wouldn't count on it.
It was a week before our Winterfest dance and anyone who wanted a date to it was running out of time. My girlfriends and I liked to go in a group of 5 to 6 in our early High-school years because it just felt weird going with people we've known since kindergarten. This dance ended up being entirely different that year because I actually attended it with Josh. Believe me, My friends were just as shocked. When Josh asked me to attend his first dance with him I had my reservations as you can imagine. He had a horrible reputation that followed him for obvious reasons. I had to really search hard for any redeemable qualities to justify a yes rolling out of my mouth. He was sweaty, nervous, awkward. He couldn't make eye contact. He knew he was taking a big chance asking one of us to go with him just as much as I knew I was taking a big chance going with him. It wasn't that I was worried about my reputation. That ship sailed when I embraced green glitter lipstick and holographic rainbow boots in a small country town. It was more of a trust issue. Could I trust him? The person who was trying to be? Could I forget how he had tormented everyone of us individually or with his friends? Would he be such a huge downer on my night of fun? Would I be stuck by his side because no one else would want to hang around him due to his history? I decided to go with him. I decided to give this bully a chance to continue down his path of change. The only thing I had to lose was perhaps a night of fun with my girls. I had seen enough change in him that I felt I would have been just as much of a jack-wagon to not toss him a key to free him from his reputation prison. I would have wanted someone to do the same for me.  

My Take Away?

  • People can change if they want to change.
  • We don't owe anyone a second chance
  • Second chances are circumstantial in my book. It all depends on the who, what, where, when and why.
  • If you feel someone has put in the time and attention to warrant a second chance, approach with baby steps and gauge how you feel during the process. Some people are great manipulators and see kindness as weakness. Listen to your gut instinct, not your heart.
  • I was raised to treat others the way I wished to be treated so that plays a large part in how I interact with others to this day. I find that it is more than a cliche, it is a compass for my actions.
  • People change as we grow and roll with life and it's punches. 
  • Sometimes we change for the best and it is hard to change how people perceive us. That is something to always keep in mind. It may have taken you 10 negative actions to dig you into the hole you're in but it can take more to dig you out. Think before you act.






Saturday, July 8, 2017

The #BrassyBlogJulyChallenge is here! Topic: "Bullies & Opposition" "Bully?" #1- Bullies come in all shapes & sizes with varied awareness.


Bully #1:
I am approaching my #BrassyBlogJulyChallenge chronoligically, so what better place to begin other than kindergarten? Her name was Sabrina. Adorable name right!? If by adorable you mean "robs your desk cubbie to break your crayons and eat your paste", then you are correct! DING DING DING! We have a winner! The first "bully" I remember encountering was a girl in kindergarten named Sabrina. She sat next to me in our classroom and for some reason she decided to reach into my desk daily to break my crayons and eat my paste. Granted we were 5, but you didn't see my 5 year old booty busting into desks to break crayons and eat paste! I would go home every day and complain to my mom about this horrible little girl who stalked my desk. Sabrina would wait for me to leave so she could eat my paste and break my crayons. When you are 5, and your desk doesn't have a lock...what are you supposed to do in order to protect your belongings?! I hated finding all of my crayons broke and my paste empty . Not only did I look like the weirdo who couldn't color without breaking her crayons but I also looked like the weirdo who ATE THEIR FREAKING PASTE! I was always having to borrow paste and color with broken crayons. Something had to be done.

 No one would listen to my complaints...so I did the only only thing I could think of. I swapped out my crayons and paste with my neighbor Margies crayons and paste and then replaced them before she sat down. As brilliant as that scenario played out in my 5 year old head, I actually made the situation a lot worse. In hindsight, I clearly see the error in my passive aggressive solution ! My 5 year old self felt it was a brilliant solution until Margie peered into her desk that morning to find her crayons broke and paste consumed. Yes! I WIN! My crayons and paste were safe! I had tucked them in the back corner and placed Margie's up front for Sabrina to have her way with!  Well, I thought I won until Margie looked at me and accused me of doing it!



The down side was that Margie thought I was the weird paste eating crayon breaking 5 year old! Obviously that did not work as intended! I went back to allowing Sabrina to break and eat my art supplies while waiting for conferences to come. I wanted to show my mom who this little beast was , the one who decimated my stuff daily. 

Well.. conferences came and I was ready to point out the evil little tormentor to my mother. I was pretty sure that once she laid eyes on this little monster I would feel vindicated. Sabrina showed up to conferences with her mom and I pointed her out to my mom. My mother went over and introduced herself to the crew and immediately made friends with my paste eating neighbor and her mom. NOTHING was handled. She took one look at this tiny little girl with curly back ringlets and bright blue eyes and acted as thought I was over reacting. She said, " That was the bully! She's like a foot shorter than you!" 
Bullies come in all shapes and sizes!

The truth is, when it comes to bullying.. size isn't a factor and in this case Sabrina was just a little girl with a paste eating addiction and an odd hatred toward crayons. She didn't have hateful feelings toward me. In reality, she most likely had bizarre looking bowel movements from all of the paste she was eating...On the flip side, this made me realize that we can be bullies without realizing it.. I learned at a young age, opposition and bullies can come in all shapes AND sizes with varying degrees of awareness. As a parent, I will never discount my child's complaints regarding something that is bringing he/ her distress. Looking back, I just needed to ask my neighbor with the paste addiction, "WHY!?" instead of sacrificing poor Margies Crayons and paste...


My take away?
  • Bullies come in all shapes and sizes.
  • Some may not be aware they are causing anyone distress by their actions. 
  • Don't discount the validity of someones reports of being bullied and ill treatment based on what you see or think. Just because it doesn't seem possible to you doesn't mean something is not happening.






















Friday, July 7, 2017

The #BrassyBlogJulyChallenge is here! Topic: "Bullies & Opposition"

The #BrassyBlogJulyChallenge  is here! 
Topic: "Bullies" & Opposition. 
I'm choosing to approach this challenge chronologically, concentrating on 
"How I've learned something from each one I have encountered."
I have seen many blog challenges pass my social media feed and to be honest blogging on the "reg" is often a challenge for many of us on it's own! I know it is for me! I always feel the itch to express myself. Sometimes it is through 140 characters on Twitter. Sometimes it is through an art project I have decided to tackle. Sometimes it is in the form of a letter i crumple up and never send. Sometimes it is when I stub my toe and yell "shitassholedietable!" in the privacy of my dining room at 7am... but this time I have decided to tackle a theme in my life AND my half ass blogging. Opposition. The "bullies". The resistance, hostility, and antagonism that has molded me, tested me , and has shaped me for the good or the bad into the person I am today. Not everyone is wired to look for the silver lining in a bad situation. Some have the ability to do so but not the desire to do so. I can only speak for myself in this journey but I welcome you to join me regardless if you ave blogged before or not. In my opinion, life is about learning and we have more material to learn from when others join us. I will be approaching this challenge chronologically, so I am pretty sure traveling back and revisited circumstances will prove to be an entirely new experience for me all together. 

I have chosen to create this blog challenge because:
  • I feel it is something that everyone can relate to on some level. I have learned a great deal about myself and those around me through my experiences with the bully type beings who have come and gone through my life.
  • I personally feel that there is something valuable that can come out of the worst of situations. This of-course differs greatly depending on the person and the situation and their values, but as I stated these are my experiences. 
  • I think sharing our struggles, no matter how trivial or serious, can help someone in some way and that is enough for me.
  • I think it is important for people to see that no matter where, who or what we are in life, we can always find ourselves fighting some sort of battle with some sort of villain. Sometimes that villain is outside of us, sometimes it is "inside" of us, and sometimes we are the villain whether we realize it or not.
This blog challenge started as a personal one for me.  I started writing my first two posts and soon realized it wouldn't hurt to invite anyone who feels inspired to share their own voice right along with me!

How long will this challenge run? I am going t be honest. I am a commitment-phobe so just the idea of  blogging and blog challenge is a challenge enough for me!

 BUT! 
In the spirit of challenging myself to move past certain barriers is a goal of mine. A topic like this is kind of hard to set a number to because I plan to share from my heart and mind. This will evolve organically. 
BUT!
For the sake of those who like nice neat ribbons to mark the finish line, the challenge end date will be till the end of July to allow for those who join us late to still be able to join us in sharing, learning, growing and working though the various forms of opposition we have faced, are facing, and continue to face. 

I have never hosted a blog challenge. I have never successfully completed one. 

BUT!
Everyone has to start somewhere so this is my starting point. 

I welcome you to join me in whatever capacity you feel comfortable doing so. 

I will be tagging my posts on social media with #BrassyBlogJulyChallenge and whatever Hashtag best describes my post. 

Everyone will approach this challenge from their own point of view and I think that is going to be the beauty of this challenge! We will all put in our own experiences and hopefully be able to pull , grow, and learn from the brave bloggers choosing to share in this challenge with me.

I'm ready to get started and I welcome anyone who wants to join in !
<3 Esme