Recipe 

• 1 tsp cinnamon 
• 1/4 tsp cardamom spice
• 1 tbsp coconut oil 
• 1 tbsp  maple syrup
• 1 cup pecans

1. Place Silpat on a baking sheet. Set aside
2. In a pan over medium-high heat, add the pecans, coconut oil, maple syrup, and spices.
3. Stir everything together with a wooden spoon and heat for about 5 minutes, everything is completely combined, and nuts are coated. ( Continue to stir to avoid burning. ) 
4. Transfer nut to the lined baking sheet, separating nuts. 
5. Allow cooling until hardened and place in a storage container for up to a month. 

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I would like to first thank everyone for all of the love you've shown with my 2018 garden. Even if you didn't leave a comment. I'm Thankful! I had no idea that my garden posts would receive so much interest. Thank you! I am beyond grateful for how my garden turned out this year. As prior stated, in prior years I didn't have much success with my vegetable garden, especially with tomatoes and pepper plants. It was really hit or miss. Though my original goal was to plant a fall garden as well. I'm content with how well my summer garden turned out that I'll just start planning now for my garden for next year. I harvested so many peppers and tomatoes. It honestly was beyond my wildest dreams. The only reason I gave planting tomatoes another shot was due to the limited amount of options that we left. When I went to purchase my plants, and the nursery was having an amazing sale. It was honestly one of the best garden decisions that I've made to date. I also tried hanging tomato plants just for the heck of it, and it worked! You can really grow tomatoes upside down. How cool is that?!

The Mister was also very impressed with my garden this year as well. The only tomato plants I've had success with in the past were cherry tomatoes. Which were perfect for my garlic, tomato, and avocado open sandwiches. No complaints here! However, I just wanted a little more, I wanted to make fresh sauces, salsa, and soups with tomatoes fresh from my garden. I'm so happy that I didn't give up. Gardening is trial and error, and I just love every minute of it.
I'm excited to possibly start planting some tulips for next spring. I planted them when I originally moved into my home. However, I haven't catered to the idea since. I also would like to start working on planting garlic for next year as well. I would love some type of fruit plants. However, I was told by some gardeners that you typically do not eat/pick the first year of harvest. So we shall see.



Anywho, Do you have a garden? Do you plan on starting a garden? 

Happy Monday!

I hope everyone had an amazing weekend. It officially feels like fall in my state. I can't wait to enjoy a warm cup of apple cider of course with whipped topping with a dash of cinnamon. It's my favorite! Our weekend was super low key. Michael had a couple of away football games which he was excited about. I didn't do much cooking this weekend though. Just lots of planning, and a little bit of self-care time. I plan on sharing my final 2018 Garden Update, make sure to stay tuned.

Anywho, how was your weekend? 

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I have to be honest with you guys. I never tried a London Fog Latte ( Earl Grey latte ) until this year. As many of you know, I love lattes, and I look forward to trying new ones, with Chai lattes being one of my favorite. It wasn't until I was on my blogger friends Katrina Instagram feed that I decided to learn more about it. If you know me, when I'm excited about something, I want to try it immediately or at least as soon as I can. Thankfully I had earl grey on hand and decided to give it a try. I was so pleased with the flavor combination. I can't even describe what it tastes like. However, I will say that it's now one of my favorites.
This recipe is super simple to make on hand, I use Earl Grey Tea bags and I typically will make the recipe on a whim, not much prep work required. I've gotten to the point where I don't even have to measure the ingredients anymore for my lattes, and I will say that I'm becoming pretty accurate. I hope the next time that I made that latte, I'll have vanilla sugar on hand to garnish it with.

Are you a latte fan? 

London Fog Latte ( Earl Grey latte )

Recipe 

Ingredients

• 2/3 cups boiled water
• 2 Earl Grey Tea Bags
• 1 Cup Milk
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 Tbsp Maple Syrup

Instructions

1. Brew earl grey tea and steep as directed in your favorite mug. 
2. Warm milk on the stovetop on simmer or medium high (do not allow to boil, once it comes to a simmer, remove from heat).  
3. Remove tea bag from a mug. 
4. Add remaining ingredients to milk or add warm milk to a french press and froth. 
5. Enjoy Warm! 

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Simple Ways to Stay Organized While Traveling
If you're new to my blog. One of my favorite things to do is travel. I love traveling. All aspects of traveling. Even if it's traveling to our neighboring states. One of the things that I've learned about traveling is how important it is to stay organized. Of course, no one wants to spend their precious moments on vacation looking for stuff when you should be enjoying your travel adventures.

Simple Ways to Stay Organized While Traveling

Itinerary
I can not stress enough how important it is to plan. This comes from trial and error. Last year while visiting the UK. I had a list of places in which I wanted to visit. One needed a reservation, I literally waited a couple of days prior to returning home to visit this location and it was completely booked. The living life on a whim will not always work. Even if you have an itinerary in mind, a simple check to see how far in advance some places require bookings will save you time and money.
Ironically, during this same trip, I wanted to check out local thrift stores. I waited until the last minute to check and see if they had any sale dates. Unfortunately for me. One of the thrift stores had a sale the day in which I was arriving, and the second place was unfortunately closing and had a fill your bag sale. I missed out on both of those sales, a simple social media or on-site search would have been a big help to me with fine tuning your itinerary.  If you're not big on creating an itinerary. It's just so important to have an idea of what you might be doing during your travels from, restaurants, to shopping, and sighting seeing. Have a list of places, and know if it's in walking distance or if you have to take some type of transportation to reach the location.

Clothing
When traveling I use space saver bags. They come in handy, and trust me they work! I also travel with Ziploc bags and plastic store bags to house my soiled clothing. During my travels, I've learned to plan out my outfits for the day and try to pack in advance. It's also helpful to create a packing list. I prefer to combine entire outfits, i.e undergarments, accessories, top and bottoms. If it's possible, I try to have each outfit for each day labeled in a Ziploc bag. I also lay my clothes out the items the night before for my flight and every night for each outfit. If I know I'm going to be doing multi-outfit changes. I have each outfit on the hanger the night before and pack the item once I'm done wearing it in my soled bag. If you're traveling with your family or alone. It might be a great idea to invest in a mesh laundry basket to have in a designated area where soiled clothes belong, and all you have to do is place the meg bag in your luggage prior to leaving.

Emails/Social Media
Unless social media and emails are part of your job while traveling. I would highly suggest having a designated time that you check emails. First thing in the morning/prior to bed? This will assist you with not having the struggle of returning to "real life" after your adventure. I highly suggest creating a running to-do as well. This list can be helpful for during and after your travels. Do you need to set a reminder on your phone to check into your flight? Do you have to reschedule a meeting once you return home? Do a brain dump, prior, during and after your trip with items that need to be completed.

Routines
It's so important to have to stay on track with your routines. However, maybe it's a great idea to create a routine for just your travels. Do you plan on taking a long walk on the beach or going hiking each day? Do you plan on watching the sunset each night while enjoying a cocktail? Create a routine that works for you and your lifestyle to stay organized during your trip.

Important Doc's
One of the worse things in the world is not knowing what you did with important documentation during your travels. I screenshot all of my itinerary and reservation information. Yes, in a perfect world your wifi would be working perfectly. However, while traveling let's consider worse case scenarios.  Looking for a piece of paper that houses your reservation information or misplacing your phone that has all of the reservation information can very well happen. Try to keep important documents in multiple locations. Like copies of your passport and ID, Hotel/ rental car information, and even your flight information.

Do you have any travel organization tips? 

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Attire Breakdown