Gracefully Gracie

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Reviews You Can Use: Lunchblox

Reviews You Can Use: Lunchblox

With back to school sales in full swing and some children having already started the new school year, lunch box options are everywhere. And even though I’m long out of school, I still pack my lunch (and sometimes dinner depending on my schedule) everyday so I’ve tried many of them. My favorite has to be the Rubbermaid LunchBlox. I have two sets of the entree ones that come with multiple…

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Making a House a Home: Flower garden

Making a House a Home: Flower garden

One of the things I wanted to accomplish after purchasing my first home with my husband last fall was renovating the flower beds. We have a long flower bed that goes down the side of the house, but it was looking fairly shabby. It had some fern-type bushes, which weren’t bad, but they were suffocating in about a foot of mulch. If you look in the first photo, you can see the mulch line on the…

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Baking With Buddy: Homemade Black Raspberry Ice Cream

Baking With Buddy: Homemade Black Raspberry Ice Cream

Really this blog post should be titled “The Three-Day Homemade Black Raspberry Ice Cream,” because that is legitmately how long it took to make. Seriously, if you think you’ll make this to satisfy a craving, get in your car and go get some Breyer’s from the grocery store because this is not an immediate gratification thing. However, if you’re ready to muster up every ounce of patience you have…

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Baking With Buddy: Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins

Baking With Buddy: Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins

I love blueberry muffins. My mom used to make them for me as a child and I think that’s where the love affair, okay maybe slight obsession, started. There’s nothing better than a warm blueberry muffin with melted butter. Having gone gluten free a few years ago due to stomach issues, my obsession got a little harder to satisfy. I can’t just go by a bakery or the grocery store and buy blueberry…

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Baking With Buddy: Richie's Turkey Meatloaf

You’re likely wondering who is Richie and what’s so fabulous about his meatloaf? Honestly, I have no idea who Richie is, but his meatloaf recipe is amazing. This is absolutely one of my favorite recipes, plus my husband loves it.

Here’s the recipe, which I stumbled upon years ago via food.com:

Ingredients

1 lb ground turkey breast

1/3 cup quick-cooking oats

1/4 cup nonfat milk

1 egg, beaten

1/3…

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Buying your first home

The back of one home we looked at. It had an unfinished basement, which Ron liked. However, in the end it lacked the character we were looking for.

In August, I was promoted at my job which required a relocation. Ron and I had been looking to purchase our first home anyway, having rented for almost four years, so this sped up the process. And while buying your first home is an exciting endeavor,…

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Things I'm obsessed with: Soap.com

If you haven’t been to the blog before, or just somehow missed it, I’m someone who doesn’t like to overpay for things. I like a good bargain and I also try to use as few chemicals as possible. I watched “Chemerical” a few years ago, which is this documentary about how your household cleaners and hygiene products are full of chemicals that are harmful to both you and the environment. If you find…

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Baking With Buddy: Salsa

Baking With Buddy: Cinco de Mayo Salsa

Cinco de Mayo is tomorrow and I have to work so tonight is the night for salsa making. I love the word “salsa” and can’t say it without a thick Latina accent that’s reminiscent of a telanovela actress. Also, there may be some Zumba tossed in there, too.

On to the salsa making! Here’s the recipe, discovered via Pinterest of course:

Restaurant Style Salsa Prep time: 10 mins Total time: 10 mins…

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Baking With Buddy: Crockpot Cheeseburgers

In browsing through Pinterest, I found a new recipe–Crockpot Cheeseburgers. While I was a little turned off at the thought of using Velveeta Cheese (I’m fairly certain there’s nothing even remotely close to actual cheese in there), I figured I could get through it this one time. So I whipped out my crockpot, easily one of my favorite kitchen appliances, and it was on to cheeseburger land.

The…

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Amazon, what are you doing to me?

I’ll start off by saying I’m a loyal Amazon shopper and I have been for years, even back in the early 2000s when it was really limited to basically just books. As a college student, I signed up for Prime using the student discount and continued to renew it without pause. However, recently my renewal hit a snag.

Like most Amazon shoppers, up until recently I had a variety of payment methods linked…

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Reviews You Can Use: Dessange Oleo Miracle Replenishing Three Step System

Recently, I had the opportunity to test out the new Dessange Oleo Miracle Replenishing Three Step System. It consists of a shampoo, a conditioner and a leave-in replenishing oil treatment, all designed to replenish dry, damaged hair. It’s easy to use, starting first with the shampoo and conditioner and then applying the treatment and the bottles are made to look very high-end, with a mix of golds…

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Follow my blog with…

<a href=”http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/13851857/?claim=5ybnbx8dc3j”>Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

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Baking with Buddy: Crockpot Corned Beef and Cabbage

Baking with Buddy: Crockpot Corned Beef and Cabbage

Let’s talk corned beef. First, let’s talk about how hard it is to find corned beef, not only the day before St. Patrick’s Day, but also the day before a rare St. Patrick’s Day snowstorm. After driving to various grocery stores, I finally found what I was looking for, but I really do suggest if you’re going to try this around leprechaun time shop early!

With that out of the way, let’s get into the…

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Baking with Buddy: Slow cooker chicken philly sandwiches

Baking with Buddy: Slow cooker chicken philly sandwiches

A few months ago when I was in the midst of packing, I got to that point where cooking was tough. The spices were packed up, most of the cookware was packed up and the boxes were quickly taking over every available space in the apartment. Enter the crockpot–the “my apartment is packed up because I’m moving” meal savior. Wanting to keep up with my quest to try new recipes, I stumbled across this…

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DIY: 50th Anniversary Shadow Box

My husband’s grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last summer and when we were planning our wedding, I heard that they didn’t have a copy of their wedding certificate. Now, honestly, I have no clue where ours is and it’s only been a little over four years, but I was able to hunt theirs down at the local courthouse. To avoid misplacing it in a box somewhere, I created a nice…

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Crockpot Pineapple Chicken

I’ll start off by saying I’m not a huge fan of pineapple, but this recipe wasn’t bad. It actually didn’t turn out that pineapple-y. My guess is the soy sauce mellows out the fruity flavor of the pineapple.

I found the recipe via Pinterest and it comes from “Moms with Crockpots:”

Crockpot Pineapple Chicken Prep time 5 mins Cook time 6 hours Total time 6 hours 5 mins   Author:…

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Less than 10-minutes, under $10 Valentine's Day wreaths

I ended up working a lot this week and didn’t get around to making Valentine’s Day wreaths until today, yep Valentine’s Day. Luckily, they’ll make an easy transition to spring since they aren’t overly holiday-ish. To keep things simple and easy, being that I was on a time crunch and all, I combined pre-made embellishments with rustic-style wreaths.

The wreaths I picked up in the dollar section of…

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