Since we’re approaching our three year mark of when Bittersweet Babes launched, I figured I should reintroduce myself.
Hi, I’m Hannah. I recently turned thirty, am married & have two dogs. I’m a full time work-from-home employee who’s also an introvert so I rarely leave my house. I like to say I’m in “My Hippie Girl Era” and my key advice for being happy & content is drink your water & mind your own business. My current obsessions are:
I’m currently reading the “I’m a Therapist and my Patient…” series by Dr. Harper; which is honestly shocking to myself. I read a lot for work so picking up a book is outside of my norm. My husband and I have a life motto of “You can’t take it with you”; so if we want it, we buy it. But let’s be honest, we really focus on building our savings so we’re not buying much. Additionally, I'm a daily user of Duolingo where I'm relearning Spanish. I’m also using Duolingo to learn Korean which is not going well. That's me in a nutshell.
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So babes, if you didn’t read my last blog post, here’s the tea. I blabbered for a little while about leg hair and how it helped me discover my authentic self. But that leaves me with one question, “I love myself, now what?”
Honestly, I don’t know. I can’t write a cute little “how to guide” about living your best life. But I can share what loving my authentic self has done for me. And be prepared, it’s been a shitshow. Up first, I learned I don’t have to give any f*cks. Why do I have to lower myself to fit into your world? I don’t; so why am I stressing over “XYZ isn’t talking to me”? Why do I have to care about what your opinion is of me? Once again, I don’t. When you get into a mentality of putting yourself first, I swear your life is about to change. I stopped giving any f*cks and started thinking about what’s best for my life. I cut out negative energy and my overall happiness increased. Next, once I loved my authentic self I was able to see my worth. Not just as a human in this world or a wife to my husband. But my worth to have friends. Once I truly knew myself, I was able to connect with others on deeper levels. I was able to step out of my comfort zone and make actual lifelong friends. To truly embrace yourself doesn’t just mean loving yourself but it allows you to gather love from others. It strengthens relationships. This past year alone the communication between my husband and I improved because I finally allowed my heart to love my messy self. Damn, deep shit again. I hope you didn’t think we were done yet. Loving my authentic self has pushed me out of my comfort zone. And I’m talking holy shit what did i just agree to? It has made me want to leave my house which for an introvert is scary. But it’s exciting and nerve wracking all at the same time. It’s made me want to sit and listen to nature. It’s made me want to pause and soak in every little detail. It made me appreciate life so much more because I’m so amazed by everything around me. How green it is in the late spring or how bright it is in the winter from the snow glistening. I’m mesmerized that I stepped so far out of my comfort zone that I want to experience life. I want to travel and learn new languages. There’s so much I want to do that I’m overwhelmed with ideas and dreams. && I know what you’re thinking, “she said it was a shitshow.” And trust me, it has been.. During this learning and self discovery, I also learned I have the worst luck. If it’s going to happen, it’ll happen to me. It might as well be a curse. We bought a car, four days later on our way to Florida it broke down. We went to Tennessee and our brakes started smoking and we had to get those fixed. We went to Tennessee again and my husband's truck broke down. Literally the worst luck known to man but I don’t let it get me down. I just laugh it off because I know to expect something crazy at any given time. Life is a beautiful shitshow. That’s what loving myself taught me. Embrace the chaos and you might see something a bit magical. Okay, I’ll admit it first.. I suck. Bittersweet Babes launched almost two years ago and by far, I’m the most inconsistent babe. I won’t lie and say “I’m shocked” because honestly, I’m not. When it comes to writing blog posts, I struggle. I’m not a writer and my biggest issue is determining something to write about. This is the food & fun page but lately, it’s not been fun.
So like every new year, we get a fresh start. Therefore to kick off this fresh start, I decided to reintroduce myself because the Hannah I am today, isn’t the same Hannah I was two years ago. So hiii, I’m Hannah. A twenty nine year old, married loser. Ha! Now I’m not saying being a loser is bad but this is where my story starts. Over the past year I’ve done a lot of self discovery. Trying to figure out who I am, what contributions I’m making & what goals I want out of life. Have I figured those out yet? Hell no. But I do know who I am. Hannah, a happy little hippie. Now I’m not saying google the definition of hippie but I will share how I came to this mindset. In 2020 our world was rocked with a plague and by 2021 we were still recovering. But during that time frame in my life, I started rethinking about what made me happy, what flaws I struggled with and overall, what would I need to do to fully embrace self love. Wow, what a deep thought for someone who literally flies by the seat of her pants. To figure out this whole self love aspect, I started by “going natural.” I stopped wearing makeup, I stopped cutting my hair, I stopped applying heat to my hair, and the biggest change I made was I stopped shaving my legs. (Wow, I know!) Why you may ask? Because my biggest insecurity is facial hair caused by PCOS. If I can’t accept facial hair, then what can I accept? Leg hair. Is it an insecurity? Yes. Do I let it be? Fuck no. Once I embraced allowing myself to have hairy legs, any other flaw I saw wasn’t a big deal. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having body hair and I support any woman with their life decisions. But this is my story about how I grew to accept myself and it started with leg hair. Sometimes when you move your focus to another area of your life, the minor details that currently weigh you down, dissolve. Biggest insecurity? Facial hair. How to overcome it? Stop shaving legs. Our society tells us it’s not okay for women to be hairy and the pressures of media, friends and even family can make you feel like you have to look a certain way, act a certain way and to be frank, fuck that. I wasn’t placed on this planet to fall into society standards. I was made to be the unique imperfect human I am. So the journey began and it isn’t a “one fits all” journey. It’s not a year long self discovery. It’s a journey that I’ll be on for the rest of my life. 2021 was the year I discovered the authentic Hannah. The Hannah who gives zero fucks, the Hannah that has a backbone, & the Hannah that is truly happy. My journey started because I stopped shaving. Damn, what a story. If I had to ask one question from you, it would be: “Do you love your authentic self?” The self that sits at home at night once everything is removed? The self that isn’t compared to “influencers”? The self that doesn’t have a filter on? If not, that’s okay because this isn’t going to happen overnight. But I hope my little journey can inspire you to start your own. It’s the end of the summer and i am so thankful. Ha! I’m very much a basic bitch when it comes to fall. I don’t know if it’s because I’m an October baby but there’s something about fall that speaks to my soul. Maybe it’s because I’m an introvert and fall symbolizes coldness is coming and validates my need to stay home. It could be the comfort flavors of pumpkin spice, soups and hot coffee. Or it could be my favorite holiday falls within fall. I mean who doesn’t love thanksgiving? Give me all the food. But before i dive deep into fall, i want to tell you a humbling story that happened to us recently.
Let’s set the scene: it’s the hottest week of summer. You work from home in a little office with your two dogs by your side. You shut the office door so it does get a little warmer but nothing to make you sweat. Maybe strip away the blanket on your lap or the sweater you’re wearing. Then at nine thirty in the morning, you get overwhelmingly hot. Sweating and don’t understand why. So you ask your husband in the other room if it’s hot to him. That’s logical, right? Maybe you’re just being a hormonal woman and are overheating because the office door is closed. So you open the door and realize it’s still really freakin hot. So you check the temperature and notice it’s 74° which is a bit higher than normal but maybe not high enough to make you sweat. So you wait it out hoping it’s just a fluke caused by the summer heat wave. Hours start to go by and the temperature continues to rise. Slowing approaching 80° and then eventually 85°. You change the filters and notice the air isn’t blowing super cold but the AC unit has been going all day. You know the AC unit can’t be going out because it’s only a year old. So you do the logical thing, call the person who installed it hoping it’s a simple fix. Sometimes it’s easy to get overwhelmed in hot situations, sometimes it’s hard to think logically when you’re overheated & overwhelmed. But sometimes, you just have to set up all the fans you own in your basement and ride out the wave. If you ever get yourself in a situation out of your control, i hope you don’t panic & remember to spray off the outside AC unit every 3 weeks because pollen will destroy it. Ha! On the real note, we survived the hottest day of the year without any working air. Sometimes you’re put in situations to see how you'll react. To show you that you can handle anything thrown at you. To humble yourself. And to remind yourself, you got this.
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So i know it’s been a hottttt minute since i wrote a blog post. I don’t know about you but once winter hits, I’m in a deep hole of no inspiration. No inspiration to craft, cook, hell leave my house. But since 2021 hit I knew I had to do something to get me out of the 2020 blues. What better way to get you out of a spunk than to start fresh with a new healthy meals. We were constantly ordering out, eating carb heavy dinners and snacking on m&m heavy trail mix. Something had to change. So my husband and I decided to cut carbs or try our best too. We’ve changed every meal and it’s because of one cookbook, Cook Once, Eat all Week by Cassy Joy Garcia. Y’all, she created 26 weeks worth of meals that are low carb, gluten free and super easy to make. So far we’ve had all three main meals for week 24 and week 8. I love this cookbook because it’s pushed me to try foods way out of my comfort zone and every recipe we’ve tried so far has been so good! The meals take 20-30 minutes to make if you cook it all one day like the book says. Or if you’re like me and make each meal that day from scratch, it takes about an hour. I don’t mind it because it gives me time to myself, peaceful, enjoying the moment. Mental health baby; you have to take care of you. Go get you a cookbook, you won’t regret it.
I hope you love this recipe as much as i do! Sugar cookies are such a great tradition because you can get so many different cookie cutters! Sugar Cookie Cut Outs
INGREDIENTS 3 cups all purpose flour 2 tsp baking powder 1 cup sugar 2 cups salted butter 1 egg 1 ¼ tsp vanilla Combine flour and baking powder. Cream sugar and butter then add the egg and vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture. *The dough sometimes will be crumbly, if so knead dough with hands. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes Royal Icing INGREDIENTS 4 tbsp meringue powder Scant ½ cup water 1 pound powdered sugar ½-1 tsp light corn syrup Mix till combined. Hey y’all! Today i wanted to share about our Babe Box. To start the babe box is a quarterly subscription box that has hand picked items that we love for the season. You can check out the Sweet Buys page for more details about pricing! The idea for a babe box came to me on a whim. I love making handmade decor, such as cute little banners for my house or shelf decor. But I didn’t love the commitment of having all this stock just sitting in my house. Trust me, it’s been two years & I still have boxes of signs I’ve made. Tie this into my mom's love for paper items, i knew we could create something special that represents all the babes. So the babe box launched for Fall 2020. Kadie came up with our slogan for the box and we found items we loved to share with you. We’re gearing up for the Winter box and this box is jammed packed with handmade items you can use or split up as gifts. Add a little coffee gift card and you’re golden. Here’s a little sneak peak of what our winter box will look like. ;) *Fun Fact: No two boxes are exact matches. We use different fabrics so each box is truly unique just like all our babes.
Cookies are such a great option when sharing snacks. We provided two cookie options at the Bittersweet Bash, all individually wrapped because of Covid. TOP SECRET: So I actually baked cookies for my sister-in-law's wedding a couple weeks ago, and to kill two birds with one stone, I made up extra cookie dough and froze it for the Bash. The cookies turned out so yummy! Enjoy these recipes of the cookies I made. Chocolate Chip Cookie BlissMilk Chocolate Milk Dud CookiesThis past week I celebrated my twenty eighth birthday and it has me thinking about what I want this year to be like. To be honest, i really don’t know. But i do know i want it to include more adventures with my husband, spending more time with my family, home improvements, and lots of love.
I hope this year is filled with less stress because we all know we could use less stress with how 2020 has been going. I hope this year I learn more about myself and who i want to become. I hope i set crazy goals for myself that push me out of my comfort zone (Bittersweet Bash is a prime example)! But most importantly, I want to learn to say no. I’m the first to volunteer for a project when my plate is already full. I want to be okay with putting my needs ahead of others. I want to be okay with saying no, I can’t take that on. I hope this year helps me find my voice. I hope this year is filled with so much joy. I know I have a lot of hopes and dreams for this year but I hope you can find your tribe with us. Bittersweet Babes has pushed me so far out of my comfort zone, it’s kinda scary. But it’s been so worth it. If you do not have a tribe of women who truly support you, I hope you can come to the Bittersweet Bash next weekend and find like minded women and become a part of our tribe. Call it a birthday wish. XOXO Hannah |
MEET THE BLOGGERHi y'all! Welcome to the Food & Fun page! Whether you're looking for a new recipe or want to start a new project, this page has all the tips & tricks for you. I hope to inspire you to be creative & can't wait to see what you make!
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