Feel Good Friday 28

Hello friend, I am glad you are here for my favorite day of the week.  Fridays used to be filled with excitement for the weekend, and now they’re filled with excitement that we don’t have to homeschool for a couple days, am I right?  As you know, each Friday, I share with you some of my favorite things that have helped me get through the week in a positive manner, as well as products or brands I believe in for what they’re doing to make a difference in the world.  I’ve got some good ones for you today, so buckle up, buttercup. (This blog uses affiliate links, and I am also an Amazon associate.  I earn a small commission through qualifying links, and I truly appreciate your support.)

Bags with Purpose

Upcycled for Hope is a local to me brand, which is an offshoot of DeLeo textiles. Aware of the fact that textiles are the fastest growing component of the landfills, DeLeo decided to do something about it and they now use their waste fabric to create beautiful totes and pouches like the one in my photo above.  However, it doesn’t stop there!!!  The sales of these bags supports Take It Away,  a nonprofit which supports the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.  When you purchase a bag from Upcycled for hope, you help prevent our landfill from growing, and you help support finding a cure for CF.  My friends at Upcycled for Hope and Take It Away are also offering my readers 10% off with code CASSIE.  These bags are beautiful, well made, and carry so much hope and purpose.  Please note that only a couple of each style are made since they are fabricated from remnants, so your bag will also be unique! Click here to shop.

IGTV Series Kick-Off

This new series is something that has me SO excited!  It’s been a dream of mine for a while to host my own interview style podcast because I adore listening in on deep insightful conversations.  That isn’t happening just yet, but I took a little leap in that direction, and upon the encouragement of friends, decided to start an IGTV series called Wednesday Wine Down where I chat live with a different inspiring instagram friend every Wednesday at 5 pm.  I am saving these lives as IGTV so you can tune in any time.  This past Wednesday was my inaugural episode, and I interviewed the friend who gave me the kick in the pants I needed, Natalie from Home Ec.  She is an insanely creative and talented designer, and in this conversation we dig into where she gets her inspiration from, what she’s doing to pivot her business right now, as well as what she’s doing with her family to have fun at home. (Her “We Don’t Live Here” story series is my favorite!) I hope you will check it out.  I’ve got a full lineup into July, and I can guarantee you some great conversations, deep thoughts, and lots of laughs along the way.

Inspiring Author

 

Last week I listened to one of my favorite podcasts, and the episode featured a rocket scientist.  To be 100% honest, I was not all that enthralled about the guest because I just didn’t see how I would relate to a scientific genius.  I WAS WRONG!  It was, by far, one of my favorite episodes and I’ve now started listening to the podcast of that very rocket scientist, Ozan Varol. His is called Famous Failures, and so far so good.  I truly love hearing stories of failure because it’s what comes afterwards that makes them magnificent and shows the possibility. This failures are famous because the person who struggled got back up and tried again in a new way. Anyhow, he was on the podcast talking about his new book, Think Like a Rocket Scientist, and I found his words so accessible and inspiring that I shared on instagram and talked about how I was going to get his book when Chris was back to work.  Well, he really appreciated me talking about his book and him, and he is sending me a copy!  I am so excited to read it, and so grateful for the introduction to him and his insight.  I will be sure to fill you in on it after I read it, but I highly recommend you check him out on one platform or another.

Quick Healthy Dinner

Chris has been talking about spring rolls for a couple of weeks.  About 3 or 4 years ago y neighbor had me over and taught me how to make them and roll them, and it was much easier than I imagined.  This past weekend, I dusted off my rice wrappers (metaphorically speaking, we bought some new ones) and made Chris’ wild spring roll fantasies come true.  What can I say?  I live to serve. With spring rolls, you can really put any fresh veggies you want inside, and I kept it simple with carrots, cabbage, pepper, mango, and avocado, and I added shrimp to some. It had been a while since I made these, so the photo above is not documentation of my finest rolling work, but they tasted great anyhow.  I made a peanut dipping sauce to go with them, loosely based on this one, but I replaced the agave with honey.

A Humorous Book

My parents bought me this book the last time they were able to visit, and a friend of mine mentioned how much she loved it recently.  After finishing Get Out of Your Own Way, I was ready for a lighter fictional read and decided to read this one next, and so far so good!  I am only about 1/4 of the way into it, but it grabbed me right away.  It’s an interesting story told in a humorous manner.  The main character is awkward in the most relatable way!  I will be sure to let you know more about it when I’ve finished, but for now, I am highly recommending it.  Chris mentioned that he could tell how much I was enjoying it… I’ve been reading him lines and laughing out loud! 😉

Healthier Sweet Treat

I have just one more thing I want to share with you today, and that is a recipe I tried earlier this week.  My kids love their desserts… let’s be honest, I do, too!  With the birthday cake just about gone, I decided that we needed a cleaner dessert around the house and turned to my go-to tried and true website for healthier desserts. Chocolate Covered Katie has never let me down, and we’ve tried many of her recipes over the years.  (This one is our absolute favorite!) For some reason, bars were sounding pretty darn good to me at the time I was cruising her site, and I landed on these “Unbaked Cooke Dough Bars” and, as luck would have it, had all the ingredients here.  I made them the other night, and they are delicious!  I used part peanut butter and part almond butter, but if you don’t want peanut flavor you could just use almond butter.  Either way, they are a delicious after dinner treat!

Well, my friend, I don’t know about you, but I feel like things are starting to really look up.  Actually, just writing down these positives in my life each week for this post uplifts me.  I write these to help give you some positivity, but in the end, it actually makes me feel really good to share and to see all of these things I have to be grateful for in one place each week.  Thank you for allowing me to do that! Have a beautiful weekend and a wonderful Mother’s Day.