Them Cookies Dough aka My Side Hustle

If you didn't know...I also have a cookie business on the side!

I started taking cookie orders back in February and have been going ever since. While I have only had time for small orders, I have enjoyed every minute of it! The most recent orders  I have filled include Harry Potter and Goosebumps Cookies.



Below are some of the other designs I have done so far:

I love that my middle school dreams of becoming a pastry chef are somewhat becoming fulfilled through Them Cookies Dough. Keep up with all things cookies by liking the Them Cookies Dough Facebook Page.

LYSM Kelsey

$40 Grocery Haul

New Month, New Me... at least that's the goal!

I am trying very hard this month to create a lifestyle plan that will work best for me...basically, I need to do a better job of eating at home and saving money!

I wanted to share one way I plan on doing both!

Last Saturday, I went to the grocery store with a game plan. I planned out all my meals for the week and was determined to only spend $40 && That's exactly what I did! Below is a picture of everything I bought.

Shopping list:

• 2 Green Bell Peppers
• 4 Sweet Potatoes
• 2 Yukon Gold Potatoes
• 2 Red Potatoes
• 1 Roma Tomato
• 1 Apple
• Sm. Broccoli Crown
• Fresh Green Beans
• Chicken Fajita Strips
• Polish Sausage
• 2 Carrot Cake & 2 Coconut Cream Pie Larabars
• Grapes
• Mushrooms
• Panko Bread Crumbs
• Vegetable Oil Cooking Spray
• Reduced Fat Shredded Cheese
• Minced Garlic
• 1 Vanilla & 1 Coconut Chobani Greek Yogurt
• Squash & Zucchini
• 2 Carrots
• Baby Spinach Bunch
• Head of Cauliflower

So far, I have made Orange Chicken Nuggets & Egg Muffins! The egg muffins have been comin' in clutch this week for breakfast everyday.. I highly recommend making them!


I will confess, no one is perfect. I did purchase lunch twice this week - one is justified in that Friday was my friend's last day of work and we went out to lunch...and went to happy hour on Thursday...

But other than that, I have done extremely well not spending money this week and still have food left over from the haul to start this next week!! (mainly because we had pizza in the office three days this week..shhh. don't tell my trainer)

What are some of your favorite easy, mainly meat free recipes?

LYSM Kelsey

back at it again

whoa nelly furtado...so much has happened since I last wrote a post on here (because it has basically been a year). highlights below:

highlight #1 -moved to a new apartment

My lease was up and the place I was in was a bit too big for the boys and myself. I am now in a super cozy 1 bedroom apartment and I love it. It has its little issues (because it was built in 1984), but I love it none the less. My favorite part is the mantle and the boys favorite part is the patio (they love watching the birds and rolling around in the dirt). We have a nice view of the pool, but the mailboxes are inconveniently far away. Other than that (and fighting for two months with the office to fix the air conditioning), its a wonderful little place :) I am loving decorating it, but still feel like it's not 100 yet. I'm itching to rearrange soon, so we will see what happens with that!

The mantle & bedroom 

The boys enjoying the patio

highlight #2 - got a new job

An opportunity presented itself for me to move into a position at Texas Tech that aligned more with where I want to go in life, I applied, and GOT IT!! I couldn't be more excited about my new job and all it entails! I have clicked so well with all the staff. We joke, laugh, and have fun..but most importantly get the job done and provide awesome events for the students at Texas Tech. I can't wait to see what the future holds, the students I will get to work with, and the impact I will make in this position.

From left to right: Troy & I with Raider Red, SU&A staff at Night at the SUB, & Meeting Johnny Quinn

Bonus highlight: I was selected at the recipient of the 2016 Matador Award (whoop whoop!) I will be recognized at a lunch on November 15 #WreckinEm

LYSM <3 Kelsey

a little inspiration

I love this quote so I decided to quickly doodle it before going to bed tonight. 

♥Kelsey

keys

Ever since I was little, I have loved key chains. I'm sure in the massive memory box of childhood wonders that resides in the top of a closet at my parents house is my magnificent key chain collection. From a stuffed white tiger key chain we nick-named "friend" to a pooping pig key chain I got from the pig races at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. This love has continued on to adulthood. (As you can see below)

And while it may seem like a random assortment, there is some sense/meaning to this mess beautiful array that is my current set of keys.

The key fob - I have had this on my key ring since my junior/senior year of high school. It is special to me because it was made by 3 kids I used to babysit. Two sisters and a brother. They each had a role in making the key fob. The oldest would sew the fabric onto the strap, the second would clamp the metal clasp on, and the youngest would add rhinestones. The rhinestones have since fallen off, and the fabric is kinda dirty, but having that key fob on my keys has been super convenient when I am looking for my keys in a cluttered purse. 

Proceeding clockwise, are my work keys on a Lumpy Space Princess (LSP) key chain. My ex-boyfriend and I won matching Adventure Time key chains from Dave & Busters last summer. I still kept mine because LSP is a sassy confident princess, which is what I should feel at work, but more on the nicer end of sassy. 

NEXT - car keys...not very exciting.

Following are the random store reward things I happen to have on my keys. I feel like as a key-set owner, you are obligated to at least have one of these. Mine include: Petco, CVS, and Wendy's...kinda random. Funny thing is, I rarely use them because half the time I just tell them my cell phone number.

& Finally, my apartment and mailbox key on a stag key chain I purchased at Tuesday Morning during a random adventure to that marvelous store. The sense behind this is that I associate a stag with being proudly displayed above a cozy, warm fire. That to me is home hence why the stage resides with the house key. 

As you can tell, I tend to associate things together even when its something as silly as a set of keys. I know some people could care-less about this but I like it and like my world to have some sense of connectedness. 

things that remind me of my childhood

Do you have those random things that remind you of your childhood? 

For me they are Red Hot Candies and Orange Jello. 

"Why Red Hots?" you may ask. 

Well....

TTU University Student Housing hands out these super cute "Red Hot Raider" bags of Red Hots and today I opened a bag that I received at a training. As I began to eat them, I couldn't help but think about elementary school. Every year, around Christmas time, we would always make milk carton and graham cracker ginger bread houses that we would then decorate with various candies and treats. Every year, I would always take a few horse animal crackers and stick a red hot candy on their noses and proceed to place them on the roof of the house. I thought I was so clever because I utilized the horses and red hots to make little Rudolphs for my milk carton gingerbread house. Of course, I would ever eat them because the were "too spicy". 

 Isn't this so clever? 8 year old Kelsey would think so

Now for the Orange Jello Story... 

When I was about 2 or 3 (my mom can confirm my age), it was splash day at the day care I went to. Little did I know that this day would make such an impact in my life. Our daycare had a kiddie pool FULL of  orange jello, sugar free obviously. For some reason, I thought this was the best thing ever! Imagine the feeling of playing with a massive amount of jello (I have a weird thing for different textures). Ever since that day when I make, see, or eat Orange Jello, I always think of that one splash day almost 22 years ago.

Here is a picture of that exact day. I can't tell if that is the Orange Jello pool behind me or not, I sure hope it is because that would make this picture so much better!

 Look at that sass!

pinterest ideas that are great in theory

As I was casually pinning yesterday, I came across a pin that I immediately pinned because it was Disney Princesses and cake poops pops. Two wonderfully magical things. But after thinking about it a little bit, I began to imagine how tedious it would be to cut out each individual princess for it only to be thrown away post-consumption of the cake pop. In reality, I would most likely only cut out one Belle, because she's my favorite, and call it a day. Also, I have never had any luck with cake pops, so why would I begin to attempt this. And, don't even get me started on having to create all those different chocolate coating/fondant colors for the dresses. Oh, and you pay for the download of all the princesses, its only 75 cents, I'll let you decide if its worth it. I appreciate the concept because it is super cute and creative, so, I guess I'll keep it pinned in the off chance I actually want to attempt this one day. Would you attempt this pin?

 

The original pin links to this Etsy shop