Just a quick post...

Something for my mental health:  Organizing and list making!! The hubs and I made a chore chart to help to handle the increased TLC needed to keep our home happy and CLEAN. 

Something for my physical health: 

Elliptical today!!

Learn something new:  

Well it's not something I'm happy I learned but while logging my calories today on myfitnesspal I learned that the Chips and Salsa from Chipotle, while good, are NOT worth nearly 600 calories!!  Fortunately I only had half but I definitely regret not checking before eating them!! Yikes! 

Reflect on my day: 

Productive! As usual I still have items on my list but I have a plan to tackle them this weekend. :) I think I will sleep quite peacefully tonight! 

Photo of the day:  Ok so I didn't really think about this one today... And probably no one cares but I bought these cute little laundry baskets at the dollar store today (part of home organizing) along with these blue laundry bags with a little drawstring. In the future I may see some better laundry liners when we start painting but I think they are adorable. Just ignore the mess in the background!! 

Ok I'm off to bed! See you tomorrow!! 

The first entry of 2014

Well... it's a new year!  I can feel it... this is a big year for me.  This is the first year of my life where I am not: 1) moving  2) changing jobs  3) making a life change (buying a home, getting married, etc) or anything else related to craziness.  I FINALLY have a little stability in my life.  Hooray!

So perhaps my resolutions for the last couple of years have been a little ambitious- trying to do any amount of life changing when my life is already changing like crazy is probably a mistake.  Which is why this year is all about sitting back and appreciating life.

I have divided my goals/resolutions into weekly and daily goals.  They are quite broad-- but the nice part about this is that, in a busy week, I can find the small things to appreciate instead of a goal like "lose 10 pounds per week" which requires 2-3 hours of fitness per day.  HAHA.  Like I could ever do that!  If there is anything my 30-some years on this earth have taught me about myself it is that I tend to set ambitious goals for myself- and am often disappointed when I don't exceed them.  So here it goes:

Daily goals:
  1) Do something for my mental health
  2) Do something for my physical health
  3) Learn something new
  4) Truly reflect on my day with no regrets
  5) Take a photo-a-day (which will not ALL be cat pictures... I promise!)

Weekly goals:
  1) Strengthen my connections with others (friends, family, colleagues, etc)
  2) Do something creative, no matter how small
  3) Define and then work towards a long term goal

Now, most of you might say that you all do a lot of these things without thinking about it but as I said, it's all about the little things this year for me.  Remember that Ferris Bueller quote, "Life moves pretty fast... if you don't stop to look around for a minute you might miss it"?  I'm pretty sure I used to write that on my binder in white out when I was younger.  The funny part is, I was so young back then I never really realized the significance of what that meant.  Result???  Fast forward 15 years and now here I am returning back to it.

Speaking of appreciating the small things... I had off work today on account of the "polar vortex".  The snow is piling up on our lawn.  I'll probably never get tired of taking photos of our back yard covered in snow.  This one below (and yes, this is my photo of the day!) was taken from our second bathroom upstairs... it's perfectly centered over our yard.

I had to take it quickly because my little cat Shane loves to jump up and crawl out- yep, even if it's freezing and snowing.  She is the epitome of curious!

Speaking of, it's probably time for me to feed the kitties and think about dinner for myself-- so I will leave you with my goals of the day.  

Something for my mental health:  Writing this blog entry!
Something for my physical health: Day 1 of p90x3- felt like I was going to vomit and reflected on how I cannot wait until my flexibility comes back.  :)  
Learn something new:  Kind of nerdy but I was reading about recent guideline changes for elevated cholesterol.  What can I say, it helps my work life!
Reflect on my day: My favorite part of my day is about to occur-- the hubs and I are taking the Jeep out to run some errands and buy some things for our home sweet home.  I love doing daily, ordinary things with him.  Especially since I am usually working Tuesday nights.  
Photo of the day:  See above.

I welcome anyone who wants to join me in my daily and weekly goals!  

See you tomorrow!

Now Trending... Overnight Oats!

  Happy Labor Day weekend everyone!  Hope everyone is having a wonderful and safe holiday.  This weekend has been turning into less of a restful and more of a super productive weekend... BUT being organized sometimes helps me get MORE rest so I suppose it will be good for me anyway. :)

  This weekend I have been doing some MAJOR packing and organizing of my life and our big move coming up quickly!  I cannot believe we only have 3 weeks until we settle on our new home and MOVE.  (Ok I admit, I was about to write 4 weeks and then checked my calendar for accuracy and had a little panic attack when I realized I was one week off!)  3 weeks??  Holy muffins that's close!

  Anyway, in an effort to continue blogging but also packing (which means less crafting... *sniffle*) I figured I would share something that my dear friend Melissa introduced to me the other day when we were getting our hair cut... OVERNIGHT OATS!!!

  As a Pinterest junkie I am kind of ashamed that I did not jump on this bandwagon earlier but hubby and I went to the grocery store today and I can now announce that I am READY.  For those of you who don't know about this wonderful phenomenon, allow me to elaborate....   Overnight oats is oatmeal made the night before and placed in your fridge for easy access in the morning when you are running (late) out the door for work.  Most recipes call for not only rolled oats but also chia seeds, Greek yogurt, and a fun little flavoring to mix things up and keep you fuller for longer.  Personally I cannot make plain oatmeal in the morning because I am guaranteed to be starving by 10am.  (Yes, even if I finish my oatmeal at 9:59, ha).  With the extra ingredients like yogurt and chia seeds I'm hoping I can at least last until lunch!

  Since I was trying something new I figured what other ingredient would be perfect than Nutella!  I used to have this stuff when I was a kid... I remember everyone in school being jealous that I had a "chocolate sandwich" for lunch.  The combination of chocolate and hazelnuts have a long history in our family but a very short lifespan in our home.

  Anyway, my first attempt at overnight oats was a delicious success!  I combined rolled oats, chia seeds, plain almond milk and 1 Tablespoon of Nutella, shook it like crazy (in a mason jar.... OF COURSE) and placed in my fridge overnight.  This morning, I added just a tiny bit more almond milk since Nutella in the fridge gets a little stiff and VIOLA!  Chocolatey hazelnutty goodness.

   Ok, the owl timer was in no way involved in the overnight oats process but he was a gift from my sister (we love all things cute and adorable)... and adds some color to the photo!

  I have to admit, I was a little hungry afterwards so I ate a banana with my meal as well to help fill me up.  I'm thinking that once I start adding the yogurt and perhaps some flax seed it will bulk up the "full-ness" factor.  I've already pinned a ton of other recipes... I'm thinking of adding banana and peanut butter to my next one!  See my Pinterest site for other ideas... under my "Healthy Bites" board.

  Since I am still new to this whole regularly blogging thing I'm still trying to figure out how to actually post a recipe in a format that I like.  If anyone wants the exact amounts I used and doesn't want to look the recipe up on my Pinterest board let me know in the comments section below.

  Well, I'm off to do a little more packing and organizing!  Have a great rest of your holiday weekend!

 

A Smile for Tuesday

Ok, I truthfully have nothing "crafty" to add to this entry but I was looking through old photos and came across this adorable picture.  I hope everyone is as optimistic as this little turtle today!

Happy Tuesday!

Crafting 2.0

  Okie dokie so it's been awhile.  In fact, I was actually about to start a completely different blog-- and was in the process of thinking of a good "crafty" name when I said to myself "Self!  You already have a perfectly good and sadly neglected blog!"  So why start a new one when I can add to this??

  Life is crazy but super happy right now.... my friends are all about to get married or married and starting to have kids... it makes me so excited!!  It's also equally as exciting that with weddings/engagement parties/bridal showers/baby showers come opportunities to be creative for the people I love.  Hubby and I also bought a house and will be moving in one month exactly which means I'll finally be able to make some of my cute little home decor projects that I've been pinning on Pinterest.

  With me FINALLY having stable hours and reliable job I can at last start to integrate fun back into my life.  :)  So with any hope, I'll be able to maintain this blog a little better and post various crafting projects.

  One of my most favorite things to do lately is go to BYOB painting classes where an instructor shows you how to paint something that you can bring home that night and display on your wall.  In fact, a nearby ceramic studio owner and I were talking about those classes and she mentioned she wanted to start having more of them... and actually asked me if I wanted to teach one!  I still haven't taken her up on it, mostly because of time reasons but I'm thinking that I can start using some of my free time to decide on a painting and actually teach a class.  I've never done anything like that before but it seems like it would be fun!

  It is this invitation to teach a class that caused me to start thinking about an idea that's been sort of brewing for a little while.   Now that my friends and I are older and establishing ourselves in our new lives, we are sort of past that go out/bar scene that used to be so much fun during college.  We love getting together and catching up and chatting.  That's the nice part about those painting classes... you go with a friend and catch up, sip some wine and munch on a couple snacks.  Perfect evening.

  Well since I feel like I am always thinking of little projects to do and it seems like everyone is enjoying "DIY" projects lately and had a thought.... what if a bunch of us hosted a "craft night" every month or so?  It would be a chance to get together, make something fun and useful, and catch up on life.

  Last weekend, I joined a couple of friends to make these cute hand painted stemless wine glasses which I had actually made awhile ago and posted on Facebook.  The girls who commented on them wanted to make them so we finally set a date to get together and paint.  The glasses were from the dollar store and the paint and brushes I already owned so it was pretty inexpensive for everyone and was such fun!  Since I had already painted my stemless wine glasses I actually painted another set of dollar store glasses to give as a gift.... they were cactus stemmed margarita glasses.  They turned out great!  (I forgot to take a photo... whoops!)

  Here are my stemless wine glasses:

Yes, they are on top of our bar right now (hence the Stoli Razz in the background).  I love them!  Technically they are supposed to be top rack dishwasher safe but I haven't wanted to chance it so I always hand wash them.  The hubby is trained to do so as well. :)

  I think these glasses make a great housewarming gift or perhaps bridal shower gift depending on the couple!

  My next favorite new project/craft is based off of something I saw for $80 on the Red Envelope site.  I rarely buy stuff off the site but love perusing it for project ideas.  I think the item was a print on canvas or something... but I figured why not HAND paint on canvas?  Seems more special to me.  This gift is actually still sitting in my home waiting to be mailed so if for some reason you are reading this Christine... here is the first half of your wedding gift tee hee!  Hope you like it.  :)  Excuse the poor photo... it was dark outside when I took this hence the glare.  I also have an iPhone 4s so my camera isn't as amazing as the iPhone 5.

This gift has so many possibilities with color, etc and it was a lot of fun to make!   I think my next one will be an eggplant purple background with maybe light blue birds.  Or yellow.  We shall see!  Any color suggestions are appreciated.

Lastly,  I have been snapping pics of my crafts on my phone lately and haven't done anything with them so I figured I'd share a couple here.  This tray below was actually at the ceramic store where I may be teaching the painting class.  The owner is super sweet and my friend Tamara and I had a ton of fun painting our ceramics.  Tam made a beautiful Chip N Dip bowl which she uses regularly (in fact we used it the other day during our wine glass painting!).  My tray is obviously only for around Christmas but I couldn't resist the cute little penguin cartoon that I found online.  The only problem is I hate covering him up!

And lastly, two paintings that I did with my friend Brittany and (once again) Tamara!  (I think she is fully addicted to all things DIY- hooray!)  The first painting is of boathouse row in Philadelphia.  I think both paintings look great and it's cool how much variation is between mine and Brittany's.  In the background you can see some of the other paintings that have been done in the studio... I've had my eye on that Van Gogh Midnight Cafe painting for awhile!  One of these days....

 This second one is continuing on the Philadelphia theme with a sunset cityscape of the City of Brotherly Love.  In the foreground is the famous clock tower with William Penn on top!  This painting was a TON of fun to do and again, both turned out great.  Also note that Tam and I totally match with her red dress and my red top.  :)

Well I suppose it's time to get back to my weekend of packing.  I am attempting to have a large amount of packing completed (well actually ALL of it) before we settle on Sept 24th.  Soooooo exciting!!

Happy weekend everyone!!

Ode to the Greatest Meal of the Day

We've all heard the saying... "breakfast is the most important meal of the day."  It is also my absolute favorite meal- yum.  A day without a good breakfast is not a good day at all.  (And a good breakfast without coffee is sad... which reminds me I need to turn on the Keurig!)

So, as I am sitting in our new apartment sipping my low calorie orange juice and eating my home made breakfast sandwich I am writing this entry about some amazing looking ideas to spice up breakfast and make it even more exciting.  (Ok, so I definitely ate all my breakfast already... next to an insufficient breakfast the worst thing is a COLD good breakfast... so I'm actually sitting next to my empty plate writing this entry.)

Those of you who know me personally know that I am not the world's greatest cook.  It's not that I cook bad things.... I actually don't cook much at all!  My now husband LOVES to cook and I love eating what he cooks so it usually works out well for me.  :)

Husband's fatal flaw is that he is, in his own words, "not a breakfast guy."  *sigh*  He will go to a diner and order a sandwich for brunch.  (My belief is that if a place serves breakfast food 24/7, you get breakfast food.) :)

Husband's redeeming quality is the fact that although he does not eat eggs/breakfast food... he still will make it for me in limited amounts.  It was through him that I made my first incredible breakfast discovery.... chives in eggs.  YUM.  Have you ever tried it?  Brings your eggs (or egg whites) to a whole new level.

After this discovery I went searching on the internet for other ideas to elevate my breakfast experience... I've found a lot of great ideas from various blogs and my new favorite cookbook, "America's Test Kitchen" (also introduced to me by my hubby).

The first amazing breakfast idea is from a blog called Eat Yourself Skinny.  The girl who writes it has some great recipes and also puts a healthy spin on many of them.  You can find the specific link to the recipe here.  How adorable are these??  (I'm also a sucker for well presented food.)  I especially love this idea because you can expand to other meals of the day... how about a snack of egg or chicken salad in a tomato?  YUMMY.

This next recipe is far from healthy, however, I love the concept of a make ahead breakfast.  One of the suggestions out there for those of us with ridiculously busy schedules is to take a Sunday and cook a bunch of food that can be stored and reheated through the week in order to save cooking time on the week days.  Many people do this for dinner but can you imagine starting your day off with a piece of this incredibly tasty baked french toast casserole recipe from America's Test Kitchen?

(I can... mmmm)  It's also perfect if you are having a large amount of people over for the weekend.  I couldn't find the exact test kitchen recipe online but the picture above and this recipe are from a blog called "CUL-I-NAR-I-CA-TION."  Let me know if you make this recipe sometime.... or perhaps invite me over for a bite. :)

Speaking of To-Go breakfast... I also love looking for variations on the breakfast bar.  Don't get me wrong, I will eat a peanut butter crunch cliff bar and a banana for breakfast if need be, but there is something about taking a little piece of homemade goodness with me to start my day that makes me just a little happier inside.  For this, I go to the blog of one of my sorority sisters, Anne, who is currently finishing up her schooling to become a registered dietician.  Her website, fannetastic food is so much fun to read... even those of you who don't know her can probably get a sense of what a positive and energetic personality she has!  This Almond Butter Banana Bar recipe is one I have been dying to try for quite some time... and hopefully by next weekend things will have officially settled down and I'll have the chance to do just that!

(The best part about Anne's blog is that she loves photography as well... 

so her food pictures are even more tasty looking!)

Well I suppose that wrap things up for me for now... I'd love to know what everyone's favorite breakfast meals are (during the week or weekend!)... thanks for allowing me to share my most treasured meal of the day!!  Have a great rest of your weekend everyone!

Love always,

Michelle

Life As A Mrs.

Sooooo much has happened since my last entry... I am now officially married, have honeymooned, have started a new job, moved into a townhome and I couldn't be happier!

The wedding was incredible, the hubs and I had an amazing time... and the honeymoon was some MUCH needed rest.  Photos to follow on another day... hopefully some of the teasers from my official wedding photographer will come out in the next week. :)  For now, we have a large amount of photos that our guests posted to our shutterfly account (thank you so much!) which I've already looked at 1 million times.

Since it is late, I'll leave with a couple of photos... as I said many more to come.

My father and I before the ceremony...

Our beautiful sunset dinner on the beach.... part of our honeymoon package!

And of course, a pic of the new Mr. & Mrs.

Yay! :)  

Have a great rest of your week everyone!

Love always,

Shell