Category: Personal

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30 Day Challenge {Lake County IL, Photographer}

Do you follow me on Instagram? If you do, you likely noticed some interesting pictures lately of my kitties’ paws. This past month I wanted to do a fun little challenge for 30 days, although I realized after I started that March has 31 days not 30…go figure.

So why do a 30 day challenge?  Simple…I wanted to take time everyday to notice the little things in my life.  All too often we are running from place to place, going to bed late only to get up early, constantly adding “to-do” items on our ever growing to-do list and never really taking a moment to notice the little things in our life. We start to take things for granted and while I don’t mean to be a downer…sometimes those things won’t always be around.  Life is about learning to juggle the conflicting priorities and I felt like I needed to push my reset button. I am known to consistently over extend myself and take on too many things.  The end result typically has me in tears to my husband while we figure out how everything that needs to get done, gets done. I’ve started to realize that sometimes the things I make priorities in my life aren’t meant to be priorities and instead I take things for granted when I shouldn’t…typically my poor husband is the one to get the raw end of the deal in those types of situations. But as life only gets more complex we need to realize to take a moment and notice the little things around us.

So how did my 30 day challenge go? Well I am proud to say that I completed it…all 31 days! But the real question is what did I learn from my 30 day challenge? Well, I learned…

  • Prince loves to sit on the bed in the morning, while the most beautiful sunrise will come streaming in on him as he dangles his little paws over the bed post.
  • Chip loves to sit next to his toys that he will typically brings to me in the late afternoon, and then drop them in the bedroom doorway.
  • Prince is much more adventurous with where he will go and always wants to be near me; when he’s not sleeping.
  • Chip is much more adventurous with how he stands or curls up or sleeps, in respect to the position of his paws.

I know…I imagine you are saying to yourself “Great, but I really don’t care about this lady’s cats.” So let me go just a bit farther, and tell you this… My big light bulb moment…I learned, that spending 5 extra minutes on just myself, laughing with my husband and playing with my cats, didn’t cause the world to come to an end…I didn’t miss any big deadlines, or miss any big meetings…instead, I would push forward and say that I gained happiness and joy for taking some time out of my day to make myself the priority.  So from this crazy little 30 day challenge of taking pictures of my cats’ paws I came away realizing that taking just 5 – 10 minutes a day for just yourself will bring with it great personal reward.

So, what’s next? Another 30 day challenge? More cat photos? Honestly…I’m not really sure. Maybe I’ll take the day to think about where to go next.

In the meantime…have you done a 30 day challenge?  Of any kind? What did you learn from it?  If you haven’t done one…try it out…let me know what you plan on doing and I would love for you to reach back out to me after your 30 days and let me know what happened!

And lastly…before you go…take a peek at my 31 days of kitty paws.
(Also, don’t forget to follow me on Instagram @kate_fredrick to see what might be next for me…)

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Great Banana Bread Recipe {Lake County IL, Photographer}

As I start the new year I always want to cook more and so I figured I would start the year off with a classic and share it with you!  Who doesn’t love a good banana bread recipe? Plus, I’ll admit my husband likes to tease me because I have a kitchen-aid mixer yet very rarely use it so this was the perfect opportunity. And I always tend to have bananas laying around ready to be used for banana bread…they just don’t stay ripe for very long!

Where do you go when you need a good banana bread recipe?  PINTEREST!  Once I saw that this was Martha’s recipe…I couldn’t resist and had to try it out.  It ended up being great and even my husband loved the result!

 

Perfect banana bread

by Martha Stewart

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature, plus more for pan
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups unbleached plain flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (about 3)
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional; I didn’t use them)
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan; set aside. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, and beat to incorporate.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the butter mixture, and mix until just combined. Add bananas, sour cream, and vanilla; mix to combine. Stir in nuts, and pour into prepared pan.
  3. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Let rest in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool.
    Recipe © 2012 Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Mr. Chip + His Favorite Toys

Growing up did you have a favorite toy…something you couldn’t live without?  How about your kids…do they have a favorite toy? My husband and I don’t have kids (yet that is) but we do have two little fur babies. Chip is the newest addition to our family and he is all about the toys. He brings them everywhere he goes and they are scattered around the house…now that I think about it, it is almost as if we have children with the fact that we are picking up toys all the time!  There is one very strange thing that Chip does with his toys…he constantly deposits them in his food dish.  In the morning if I happen to find the food dish empty of food there will be about 3-4 toys in place. I wonder if Chip is paying for his meal or just loves to have his toys taste like his food…either way it’s turned into a game to see what Chip has left in the dish.  If you connect with me on Instagram you can see some of the morning deposits left by Chip in the food dish. Beyond the food dish deposits there is one toy that Chip takes all over the place with him…his Fish.  I find this fish upstairs, downstairs, on the couch, under the couch, in the food dish, in the bed…you name a place in our house and the fish has likely visited it.  This fish is the perfect little size for Chip and I will admit it’s kinda cute when you see a cat carrying around a stuffed fish in his mouth. It can ALMOST make you forget how upset you were at Chip when he woke you up at 2am to play. Regardless, it’s cute to see how a cat can have a favorite toy just like a little kid.

As I write this I can hear Chip coming up the stairs with a toy in his mouth…guess that means it’s play time!

What are your kids or pets favorite toys that they take with them everywhere?

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Dress Shopping

This weekend was an exciting weekend for me, my mom and my little sister.  We went wedding dress shopping!!!  My little sister is getting married this summer and I couldn’t be more happier for her and her future husband.  Who knew shopping for a dress would be such an emotional journey?!?!  It was so amazing to step back and watch my little sister look over each dress searching for the one she’s dreamed about since she was a little girl.  It only took us two stores and about 15 dresses until she found “THE ONE”.

The dress you put on and compare every other dress to…

The dress you put on and realize you aren’t a little girl anymore…

The dress you feel your heart skip a beat in…

The dress you put on and get tears in your eyes when you realize this is the dress you are going to start your future in…

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Weekly Jump Start July 29th

 

I love the start of a new week!  The empty calendar just waiting to be filled, the possibilities of accomplishments to be achieved, and the moments of joy to experience.  I know how the statistics say that the most heart attacks happen on Mondays and that all too many people dread the start of a new week.  I challenge you this week to embrace the fear and think of the opportunities you will have!  You can’t run away…life will always find you.  Instead, face it with a smile on your face, you never know what will happen.