Author Archives: kellynotkatie

Four Years in Dallas!!!!

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Last week marked FOUR YEARS since I moved to Dallas! Which is crazy! How has it been FOUR years already?!?!?!? I feel like so much has changed and happened since I first moved here in 2015.

I actually have friends now (which it isn’t easy to make new friends when you move to a brand new city and know zero people there)!

My sister and her family live in Dallas now, too!

I like my job now (it took a while and it wasn’t great for a long time, but now it’s seems amazing)!

I finally found a church that I LOVE and got really plugged in there!

I’ve had lots of friends come visit – I love showing people around and giving my world-famous Kelly tour of downtown Dallas!

I’ve lived in 2 apartments that were 1 street apart!

Here’s some of my favorite snapshots from the last 4 years – I’m so excited to see what year 5 has in store! I’ve explored so much of the DFW area already, but there is still so much more that I need to see and do and try!

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Five for Friday #49

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Hello and happy Friday, friends! I hope that you’re as excited for the end of the week as I am! Who am I kidding – of COURSE you are! This was a slower week for me which I am very thankful for, and I have a few fun things planned for the weekend, which I’m excited for! Since it was a slower week, I’ve done a lot of cleaning and a lot of crocheting which has been great. I am making a baby blanket for my sister’s newest baby (due in May!) and I, as usual, am very far behind in the process. Having a few nights to just sit down and relax and focus on crafting has been just what I needed.

Here are some of the fun things that have caught my attention recently!

one || The entire world is obsessed with the KonMari method of cleaning out their closets and their homes and I just need to make sure that Gilmore Girls was all over this trend years ago.

Great. Now that you know that very important fact, here’s a great guide to STARTING the de-cluttering process a la Marie Kondo.

two || Love this post about being single in your 30s. It was honest and hopeful and worded really well as another single person in my 30s.

three || This poster of A Pop Culture Guide to Proofreading Marks is hilarious.

four || A sweet coworker gave me these amazing earrings and they’re definitely my new favorites. I’ve been obsessing over tortoise shell jewelry recently and so you know I was excited when I got these!

five || One of my favorite artists has a new flower collection and to promote it, she came up with an adorable spring “flower-scope.”

2019 Book Bingo – March Update

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It’s time for more books, y’all!!!! I read 3 mediocre books over the last few weeks and got to add them to my super fun 2019 book bingo board! But seriously, I’ll go into more detail in a sec, but these books were just ok. If you’ve read them, too, then I bet you’ll agree with me. If you haven’t read them, then you can just keep that going. I’m reading a few books right now that I already like SO much better, so that’s nice for a change! But I can’t share those with you just yet, so for now let’s dive into the books I just finished!

For a book set in NYC, I read Social Creature. It was a really interesting concept for a book, the plot was pretty unique, but I just don’t love how it was executed. This story is like a modern-day version of The Talented Mr. Ripley (kind of… that’s not exactly true but it’s what Amazon said) about a toxic friendship filled with fancy parties, the NYC elite, friendship that turns into obsession, and a girl that gets in way over her head when her friend dies. And while the author did a good job incorporating modern technology into the story, it just seemed SO FULL OF PLOT HOLES. It ended in literally the only way that “made sense” but I spent the entire last half of the book thinking “well that isn’t realistic” or “nobody would actually do that” or “if the police look into this she is toast because she hasn’t covered her tracks AT ALL.”

For a book with a pink cover, I read (well I listened to) The Glitch. If a book is labeled as “deeply hilarious” and “laugh-out-loud funny” and “riotous” I would expect to laugh at least once. Not even out loud. Just a small giggle here or there. Did I giggle at all during this book? Sadly no, I did not. I thought this book about a tech mogul who thinks she has been visited by the younger version of herself would be awesome but I was honestly kind of bored during most of it.

For a book written at least 10 years ago, I read The Little Stranger. This spooky story about a country doctor tending to a family living in a huge estate home in post-WWII England was by far my favorite of the three I read. I kind of hoped that it would have been a little scarier/spookier, but there were quite a few moments that had me on the edge of my seat! This book was made into a movie last year and now I want to go get it from the library and watch it ASAP!

Birthday Thoughts

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My birthday was almost 2 weeks ago, which means that I’m now 31! While this isn’t a *big* one to celebrate, it does mean that I’m solidly in my 30’s now, and that seems like a big deal. I’ve heard so many people say that their 30’s are their favorite decade to be in, and I already agree! My 20’s were fun, but the last year was just even more fun and fulfilling and full of growth and I just loved it!! With everything that I did and everything that happened, I tried to be really intentional about taking stock of what was going on and using it to become a better version of myself. Here are some of the things I learned (or re-learned) while I was 30 and hope to bring into this next year of my life, too!

Find things that make you happy and then do those things.

For me last year, there were a lot of things that made me happy! One of those things was travel. I swear, it felt like I went all over the place. I spent time in Texas (obvi), Tennessee, Florida, California (twice!), Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, and I loved every second of it!

Another thing that made me happy was just being creative in any way shape or form. This looked like baking, crafting, playing music, painting, and more. I may not be the best at everything I try, and that really used to bug me, but now I just see it as practice and am happy that I got to create something just for me while enjoying the process.

Don’t let silly things bring you down.

Sometimes life gets you down and it’s allowed, like when you don’t the job you were interviewing for or you rear-end someone and have to spend a good chunk of your money buying a new car. But sometimes life gets you down and it’s just silly stuff that you don’t need to worry about! A lot of this for me used to come from comparing myself to others, and this year I don’t know what it was exactly but it just didn’t seem to be an issue anymore. And thank goodness – it’s so much nicer to not deal with that!

Invest in the friendships that matter.

This year had a lot of ups and downs when it came to friendships. There were fun trips, great phone calls, a few hard conversations, making up for lost time with some, and letting go of others. But I spent a lot of time trying to be intentional with the friendships in my life that really matter, both new ones and old ones, and I feel like it really showed. I am so blessed to be able to have people in my life that I’ve known for years and years that I can get deep with, and on the flip side I met some incredible women over the last year and have had a blast getting to know them and call them real and true friends. I seriously can’t wait for this year to invest in these friendships even more!

Always find the silver linings.

It’s not easy in the moment, but there’s usually an upside that can be found in every situation. And sometimes you won’t be able to see it for a while, and that’s ok. Just know that it’s there and you’ll find it eventually. A good example of this is back in March of last year, I applied for a new job. And I wanted that job SO BAD. And I told everybody about this job and just how badly I wanted it. And I was qualified! I was SO qualified! I did all the interviews and made it to the final two candidates, and then I didn’t get the job. And I was a little bit devastated. And a little bit embarrassed (mainly because I told so many people about this great opportunity that I now didn’t get to have!) But months later, I heard that the position I was up for turned out to be not what they originally described and the person who got the job was miserable, and I felt so lucky that I didn’t get stuck in that bad position. And even better, the job that I stayed with got even better and I got to do some really great things because of it! Silver linings!

It’s ok to celebrate yourself.

You don’t have to wait for someone else to celebrate you – just go ahead and do it yourself! Did you totally rock a presentation at work? Tell your friends over a celebratory dinner! Did you meet a goal that you worked really hard for? Awesome – take yourself to see a movie! Have to work on your birthday? Blow up a bunch of balloons and get a cupcake and decorate your hotel room just because you want to! It’s ok!

It’s never too late to learn more about yourself.

2018 was the year I became OBSESSED with the Enneagram. It helped me know myself so much better, it’s actually kind of crazy. What I love about the Enneagram is that it’s not just another personality type test and it doesn’t just tell you how you act, but it goes into the root of WHY you do certain things and how to become a healthier version of yourself. I plan on doing a full Enneagram post as some point soon because I’m still obsessed with it, but in the meantime go read up on it if you don’t already know your number! I’m a 2 with a 1 wing which probably sounds a little bit crazy, but just go with it.

I’m actually really really happy being single.

Which is something I never thought I’d say, but here I am saying it! A friend and I made a pact together last year that we’d spend 6 months being intentionally single and really focusing on other important things, mainly our relationship with God and getting involved at church. Those 6 months showed me so much and I really learned to not just tolerate being single, but to ENJOY it! I definitely still want to be married someday, but I tell you what I’m having a whole heck of a lot of fun in the meantime.

Getting involved is a good thing.

Like I just said, I spent the first part of my 30th year being really intentional and jumping into community. I decided to do this in 2 ways: getting really involved in my home church and finding an organization I cared about to volunteer with. I was going to church already, and I was doing things here and there, but actually diving in and REALLY getting involved changed so much and I can’t believe what a difference a year makes. I joined a bible study and met some of the best women from all stages of life that give the best hugs. I started serving at church and love getting to see friendly faces while doing so. I joined a life group and love getting to encourage them and be encouraged by them. I started volunteering with a professional women’s organization and get so much more out of it than what I put in. Find a way to get involved and I promise you won’t regret it!

Whole30 Products I Can’t Live Without!

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You guys, sometimes cooking is hard. And sometimes cooking ends up in disaster. Like this one time during my first Whole30 where I tried to make my own sugar-free BBQ sauce. It was hard. It was a disaster. 0/10 – would not recommend. So during my most recent Whole30, I decided to save myself a little bit of time and effort and buy certain products and it seriously saved my sanity!

While I was cooking up a storm, there were a few key products that to me were worth a little extra money since they would be saving me so much time and generally making my food that much more delicious. (And honestly, delicious food is a MUST when you can only have like 5 things. I joke. Mostly.) I wanted to share some of the best things I bought and used – let me know if you have any must-have items that you buy when you’re trying to eat healthy!!

Primal Kitchen Mayo

While mayo is extremely easy to make (and I’ve made it numerous times), sometimes it’s just nice to *not* make something. This mayo tastes SO GOOD and is worth it if you’re short on time or don’t have any eggs at home. I bought their chipotle mayo for a specific recipe and it was delicious, and I doubt that I could have mixed in the spices as well as they did!

Waterloo Sparkling Water

When you can’t have soda or alcohol and you’re used to having lots of soda or alcohol, normal still water just won’t cut it. I’ve had La Croix for years and years and it’s great and all, but then I tried Waterloo. Specifically the Watermelon flavor. WHOA it’s a game changer! It’s definitely a splurge but it might be my new favorite beverage of all time.

Tessamae’s Salad Dressing

Salad dressing is another thing that I tried to make during previous rounds. I did… ok. Honestly, I didn’t really try that hard… but I don’t really eat a lot of salads, so it was ok! But for some reason this round I made a lot of recipes that used salad dressing, so this was the perfect option. My Whole Foods had a TON of their flavors and I highly recommend the Avocado Ranch!

Tessamae’s BBQ Sauce

How many times do you need to hear me say that I FAILED at making my own sugar-free BBQ sauce? One more? Ok. It was terrible and did not taste good and I still ate it because #budget and it was just miserable. This was the best money I spent during the entire Whole30.

Tessamae’s Ketchup

Same with the BBQ sauce above, buying sugar-free ketchup is the way to go for me. I don’t think I even tried to make this because I just knew that it would be a failure and not worth my time. Just go to Whole Foods and get you some. It’s worth it!

Applegate Bacon

This is a no-brainer. You have to have bacon!! Or at least, I do! My mouth is watering just thinking about this savory, delicious bacon right now. I really tried to only have the bacon when I made scrambled eggs for breakfast because it is definitely on the more expensive side, but it made my breakfast meals so much yummier!

Snap Kitchen

Ok so this really isn’t a food staple that I buy and keep on hand during my Whole30, but knowing that I can go there and grab a Whole30-compliant meal on the go is SO AMAZING. You can eat them there, but it’s more common to take it with you and eat at home or at work. It’s expensive, but it’s SO convenient! Sometimes a recipe doesn’t turn out or you just need something fast, and I’m so glad that I have this healthy eatery so close to me!