Ham & Rice Casserole

Happy cold day! Here in Northern Illinois we got dumped on with several inches of snow Sunday night, yesterday we had windchill temperatures in the -50s and today we're still close to -30 with windchill. I've had more days off from school this week than I've actually been at school. I wanted to share one of mine and Austin's favorite comfort dishes. It's definitely not the healthiest but it is SO good. I remember my mom making this growing up but I would never try it (for those of you who don't know - I was an EXTREMELY picky eater) but she gave me the recipe a few months ago and now we make it about twice a month. Its a quick and easy weeknight dinner!

The measurements I'm sharing are for a two person serving (8x8 dish) but could easily be doubled to feed more - that's how my mom always made it! 

What you're going to need for this recipe includes: 

2 cups cooked brown rice

1 can cream of celery soup 

1/2 can of green beans (drained)

1/2 cup heavy cream or half & half

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 cup grated parmesan 

1 T minced onion

1/2 T mustard 

Diced ham (personal preference on amount)

pepper to taste 

Side note: I use the Trader Joe's frozen brown rice (1 package) instead of making my own - it's just easier and quicker for weeknights! You can definitely just cook your own brown rice.

Melt together the soup & heavy cream. Heat until just about boiling.

Add in the cheese, onion, pepper and mustard. 

Add your rice, sauce, ham and green beans (almost forgot mine here) to the greased casserole dish and mix them all together. Sprinkle the french fried onions right on top and throw it in the oven! 

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees

2018 Recap

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Austin and I rang in the New Year at 10:30 last night and went to be early...most exciting 23 year olds that I know. But I have to admit, it feels pretty good not being hung over today and I'm kinda looking forward to getting my office organized. Every year I like to put a post together looking back on the year just for myself to be able to reflect on the year and to have a place that I can always go to, to look back on. This year though I noticed a lot of people using Instagram stories to do the same thing which I loved being able to look at everyone else's year in review and made me even more excited to do this post! I hope you enjoy reading all about my year because to me it sure was an exciting one!

JANUARY

In January this year I started nursing school which was super exciting! I started a two year BSN program meaning I was accepted after completing I want to say like 60 hours of gen eds (basically an associates) and will graduate after two years with a bachelors in nursing. For the most part - I love nursing school. Yeah it's hard but being around people all the time that get it and that share the same passion as you is so nice and so fun. 

FEBRUARY 

I feel like February is always kind of a dud month. It's always cold, snowy and there is nothing exciting going on. We celebrated our three year anniversary this month but didn't really do too much because of school (we usually go out of town or something). We also started remodeling our main bathroom. 

MARCH

March was a little bit more exciting! I passed my first eight weeks of school which meant that I got to participate in the White Coat Ceremony and move onto clinicals and direct patient care. This meant in March I also had my first days of nursing school clinicals which were on a medical surgical unit. At the end of March we celebrated Ella's (our niece) 3rd birthday! 

APRIL

Hmmm another uneventful month. Let's see I learned that the operating room is not for me and chopped off about 10 inches of my hair...that's about as exciting as it got. 

MAY

May wrapped up the first semester of nursing school! Whooohoo! Such a good feeling to have that under my belt. We finished up our bathroom renovation (https://baileycollette.blogspot.com/2018/05/bathroom-renovation.html) just in time for Hannah and John to come visit before the left for Asia for the summer! 

JUNE

This was another eventful month - now that school was done we had so much free time. I went to my first Cubs game, took a trip to Tennessee (Austin's first trip to the farm) for Father's Day and ended the month in Grand Rapids, Michigan! I made a short video while we were in Tennessee which I will link here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnkE85kov60)

JULY

July was such an exciting month! I took my first trip out to Colorado to visit Kit while she was working there for the summer. I loved it! I stayed at a hotel right on the lake and got to kayak and relax while Kit was working. Then when she wasn't working I hung out with her at the ranch! At the end of the month we took our family trip down to Florida. This year we decided to go to Ft. Myers instead of Panama City just for a change of scenery and AUSTIN AND I GOT ENGAGED!!!! Best trip to Florida by far. I made a video of our trip that I will go ahead and leave the link to (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foZNhTGBkGc&t=24s) 

AUGUST

Back to school.

SEPTEMBER

This was a busy month of school of social stuff I feel like. In the beginning of the month I participated in the Alzheimer's Walk with my school which was a lot of fun and is a condition that is super close to my heart. Then at the end of the month my family participated in a bike bar crawl which is exactly what it sounds like..you ride your bicycle while bar hoping (tons of fun - didn't fall this year) all while raising money for hospice. 

OCTOBER

October was just a busy month of school - I feel like October is similar to February in a way, there is never really anything going on. We spent my birthday getting our engagement pictures done and then went shopping and out to dinner!

NOVEMBER

November was another busy month of school. Got hit with a blizzard (haven't really had much snow since), celebrated Thanksgiving..that was about it! I did get to see Ash over Thanksgiving break which is always a treat since we don't get to see each other very often! 

DECEMBER

I officially passed my first year of nursing school!! For a little bit this semester I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it but I did and that's all that matters. I've been enjoying my break and spending time with family. We even took a trip to Tennessee to visit my Grandpa.

I'm excited to see what 2019 brings! I'll be graduating nursing school and getting this wedding planned!

Skin Care Favorites

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great 4th of July! It was super hot here in Rockford so I spent my day inside relaxing until Austin and I went to watch fireworks with his sister, Josh and our niece Ella. It gets more fun to take her to fireworks every year because she gets it just a little bit more. This year when smaller fireworks would go off she would yell "that was a bad one" it was so funny. What made it even better was she had headphones on to help with the noise of the fireworks, so she couldn't really tell she was screaming. 

Anyway, today I wanted to share with you my favorite, go to skin care products. Luckily I have never had acne or super difficult skin but I do break out from time to time and it does tend to get dry and oily during different times of the year. As many of you may know my mom became an esthetician a few years ago and since then I have changed the products that I use - based on her advice. My mom uses Bioelements products in her services, so that is what I use at home for the most part and I have loved every product so far! 

I would recommend if you are having severe problems with your skin to see a dermatologist - I am just sharing the products that I like and what has worked for me personally!  

Bioelements is a professional line of skincare products that does not contain any artificial color or fragrance, no parabens, diethanolamine or phthalates - basically their products do not contain the stuff that will irritate your skin. They have so many different products to customize your skin care needs.

To begin my skincare routine, I always start by washing my face. At all times in my shower you will find two (at least) different face washes - a gentle one and an exfoliant. I like to switch between the two every time I wash my face or if I've been sweating or just feel really dirty, I'll go ahead and use my exfoliant! I love this gentle face wash from Green Envee. It is very smooth and calming on my skin. I have always been a fan of St. Ives products! I tend to switch between this green tea scrub and the Apricot one, although I have the oatmeal one under my sink to try next! The green tea and apricot one both have enough scrub power in them that I feel like they leave my skin refreshed, clean and get all of the dead cells off but at the same time doesn't completely strip my face and leave it irritated!   

After my skin is clean I like to use some sort of toner. Lately I've been using the Mario Badescu Rosewater. I absolutely love the smell of this and think it just helps my skin feel really hydrated and fresh. I spray this on before I put on any moisturizer but I also use it as a setting spray for my makeup or just throughout the day if my face is feeling dry or hot!

I have finally found a spot treatment that my skin responds too and I have stuck to it for a solid year or so and that is the Breakout Control from Bioelements. This is a benzoyl peroxide product - which I have read that many people either respond to this or salicylic acid, so if you're not responding to one product try another! 

I have two moisturizers that I alternate between because during the summer my skin tends to get pretty oily and during the winter my skin gets SUPER dry. For the summer I love using Beyond Hydration from Bioelements. It's such a weird moistuizer becuase it is almost a gel and right after you put it on it almost feels like it dries you out but after a little bit your skin bounces back but doesn't get too greasy. During the winter months I stick with my Crucial Moisture. This one is pretty thick and keeps my skin from getting dry patches. 

About three nights a week or so I like to use this Skin Editor product which is a leave on exfoliator. THIS IS AMAZING and probably one of my favorite favorite products. It leaves my skin soo soft and the smell reminds me of a chai tea latte (win win). The Kerafole purge mask is my go to mask. I aim to use this once a week and every few months will do a 7 day purge where I do the mask for 7 days in a row to purge the toxins from my skin. This mask always leaves my skin soft and with a little glow! 

I am a HUGE preacher of sunscreen in the summertime. Especially when it comes to my face, whenever I'm going to be outside I always have it on my face. This one has always been the one that I go back to! I have repurchased it again and again! It goes on nice and smooth, isn't super thick and doesn't leave your face super greasy! 

Well if you're still reading, thank you thank you - I know that was a long one! I just love skincare and have really gotten into it since my mom has started working in the field. I know most of my readers are local, so if you are and are interested in getting any Bioelements products or more information you can check out their website https://www.bioelements.com/ or contact my mom on her skincare facebook page https://www.facebook.com/relaxsimplyskincare/ she uses Bioelements in her services!

Bathroom Renovation

We finally finished our main bathroom renovation! Austin made my bathroom Pinterest board a reality and I couldn't be more obsessed. It turned out perfect. Unfortunately I was too busy with school to be much help with this project - all I really did was help make decisions and work on the decor details, Austin did all of the hard work. We're so glad to have this bathroom done. The only thing that still needs to be done is were going to have the bathtub sprayed and resealed white, but that probably won't happen for a few more months and I couldn't wait that long to share!

This first photo is the photo from the listing when we bought the house - the very starting point of this bathroom.

If you've seen any pictures of our home, you know we tend to stick with gray, white, black and wood colors... so we didn't stray too far from that in the bathroom either besides from throwing in a pop of navy.

Finding all black hardware can be really tough. All of our towel hooks and toilet paper holder are from Amazon. Our shower head and tub faucet are both Delta but the sink faucet is Pfister. The only thing we didn't get black in the shower curtain rod and that is simply because we already have this one and just didn't feel like buying a new one yet.

We decided to add in an in-the-wall shelf with the same granite as our counter top in the shower and I love how it turned out - I can't wait to put one in our master bath shower!

We found our light fixture at Lowe's and it is actually oil rubbed bronze and not black but it looks black enough and it was super super hard to find a black light fixture that we liked and fit but this one was perfect.

The jars and the "scrub a dub dub" sign are both from Hobby Lobby and the picture frame is from Home Goods and the print I bought from an Etsy shop, OrchardBerry. I think my shelves turned out so cute against the DIY shiplap wall.

Austin made the "shiplap" wall out of plywood, which he just nailed up then painted white. He actually used nickels to make sure the spacing stayed equal. He made it seem like a pretty easy process (like he does with everything) and I think it definitely pulled this whole bathroom together.

Picking out tile for this bathroom was super difficult for me. I was really worried about it clashing with the counter tops and I worried about the bathroom being too busy but at the end of the day I am very happy with our choice! I tend to leave final decisions up to Austin - because of his job he sees so many kitchens and bathrooms, he knows what will looks fine and what won't.

Wedding Day Emergency Kit

Long time no blog! I am so excited for today's post! I wrapped up my first semester of nursing school yesterday, so I finally have time to blog again and I'm so happy. I have so many ideas for posts over the next couple of months while I'm on break. We're finishing up some projects at the house currently and have a few trips planned over summer break! I figured this would be a good post to start with for the summer since wedding season is beginning and this is always one of my favorite gifts to give.  I've tried to post about this before but the photos never turned out how I wanted them to, so I just kept saying "okay I'll do one for the next wedding," and here we are. Being 22, and having friends who are older than me, means that most of my friends are just starting to get married which is super exciting because weddings are definitely one of my favorite things. This gift idea is perfect because for one I just love giving gifts and two I love travel size things (doesn't everyone?). I'm guilty of being a gift giver repeater on this one but I will say every time that I have given this as a gift it has been different! The thing I love about this gift is it's a great idea to give to someone that you've been friends with forever or someone that you just met! It's great because you can change what you put in the bag and change the bag itself to customize it for the bride (and to fit your price range). Over the years of giving these I have found that the best place to usually find a bag is TJ Maxx, they always have a good selection at a great price, or Target. It can sometimes be tough to find the clear bags but you could put the items is any type of bag, box, or anything really!

Some of my favorite things to put in these little emergency kits are of course bobby pins because someones hair always gets messed up between getting ready and the start of the ceremony, tissues because someone's mom always starts to cry, a shot of the bride's favorite to ease the nerves, band aids for blisters, and a nail file always comes in handy.

Some other things that I have put in other bags that may come in handy: mini scissors, Benadryl (especially for outdoor weddings), a couple of granola bars/trail mix, a gift card for coffee,  safety pins, lint roller, hand sanitizer, mini sewing kit, feminine products and eyedrops. 

It would also be super cute to put all of the items in some sort of travel bag as a gift for the bride to use on her honeymoon trip! 

I think this is just the perfect gift and a gift that any bride would appreciate getting. I gave one to one of my best friends last year and we kept it with us the day before the wedding while we were setting up and the day of...we used stuff out of it so many times!