Friday Favorites - October 4th, 2013

Good Morning and Happy Friday to You!!

I absolutely love reading other blogs who do a Friday Favorites so I figured why not jump on the bandwagon myself!!

Here are my first Friday Favorites!

1. This adorable little note pad! I found this at Bed Bath and Beyond the other week and thought it was super cute!! I've been on the lookout for something small that I could keep in my purse for when I need to jot something down and this was right on the money! Plus the proceeds from the sale went towards Breast Cancer Awareness...Win-Win!



2. Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte! Of course this is probably a favorite on a lot of people's list but I had to share! I waited until 10/3 to have my first PSL of the year!! It was delightful and made my morning start off with a smile!

3. Sleepytime Tea! I have been having trouble sleeping lately, for a few weeks actually so I've started a new regime this week and it's been working. I am in love with this sleepy time tea! This and some melatonin seem to help me fall asleep.

4. GoPicnic Lunches - I found out about this awesome site from Groupon. They had a deal one day and I figured hey why not try it, keep a few stashed at work for those days I'm running late or I forget my lunch! So far I've tried this Peanut Butter & Crackers one and loved it!!

It was pretty filling too because check out how much food you get (pear was not included in the box):

And on the inside of the box was a Suduko puzzle! I am pretty horrible at those so I didn't even try but I thought it was so clever of them...it was like an extra treat!! The Groupon deal I purchased was a sweet deal and I ended up with 9 different packs of these in all different varieties...don't be surprised if these pop up again on the blog :)

5. Last but definitely not least this little guy....It's from a Pin on Pinterest and every single time I look at it I cannot help by smile! This week has been a pretty stressful week so I like having this little guy to cheer me up! I mean how can you not smile when you look at this adorable face?

There you have it folks my first Friday Favorites!! I hope that everyone has a wonderful Friday and very fun weekend!!

Altered Race Shirt!!

When I first signed up for my 5k's (months and months ago) I ordered my shirts based on my old sizing...needless to say my most recent 5k shirt was HUGE on me!! I found an adorable idea for altering t-shirts on Pinterest and figured why not give it a shot!!

My inspiration can be found here. :o)

Aside from your shirt you only need a pair of scissors!! How neat is that! 

While Chuckles and his best friend Nick hung out watching football I got to try my hand at clothing designer!! :)

You will want a decent size area to lay out your shirt before you start cutting away at it!

You will then want to cut off a strip of cloth at the bottom, the sleeves, and the neck line. Take off as much in these areas as you like. I went down the less is more path since I really wasn't sure how short that would make it or how "skimpy" it might be.

Next up flip your shirt over and cut a deep V in the back. Go as low as you'd like but this will determine where you are going to wrap up the "straps". It will make sense once you get further down the directions...

Set your shirt aside and grab the piece you cut off the bottom of your shirt. Cut the fabric so it makes on long string, instead of the loop.

Lay your shirt back on the table and slide your long piece of fabric in between the back and front, placing it about an inch to two above the bottom of the V.

Then tie your string into a knot.

Wrap that string down the bottom of your V and back up again.

Tie into a really tight knot once you get to the last of your fabric string.

Cut off your excess fabric string.

Next up it's time to show it off!! From the back!

And the front!!

Don't I just look so hot on a Sunday!?!? :o)

I think I want to make the front more of a scoop neck and try and loosen the back a bit. It just feels a little awkward but I think it's all fixable! Overall I am very happy with the idea and hope to do it with another race shirt!!!

Random Questionnaire

Happy Long Weekend!! Ooops I mean Happy Labor Day Weekend!! :-)

I started out the long weekend (just admit it that's what most of us are excited about) on the right note and took Friday off work! Spent the whole day scrapbooking with Alycia and then had a Yahtzee throw down and froyo for date night!

And today we started off our day super lazy and slept in, then hit up Starbucks before planting on our butts in the mancave. But later today we are hittin up the A's game with a small group of cool peeps!! It should be a lot of fun and I can't wait...but since I've got some time pass I am taking it back old skool!! It's survey time people!!!

I've been really trying to blog every other day but since I don't have much to blog about today, no new recipes, no new crafts (well that I can share publicly yet! Working on some small gift items), and haven't finished my book yet, although I am loving it so far YAY!!

So here's a cute picture of Roxy

And one of Buster Roo

That's all the cuteness you will need for today :)

And now one of those damn surveys that everyone loved doing on myspace but that I recently saw on another blog!! Enjoy and have a great long weekend!! And I promise my next post will include more than just cute photos of our "kiddos" and random facts about me!! :-)


BREAKFAST

1. Favorite cereal as a child?

Hmm that's pretty tough since I loved lots of cereals as a kid...probably Cap N' Crunch Peanut Butter

2. Coffee or Tea? With milk or without?

Coffee in the AM, Tea at Night!! :) Coffee with creamer, tea with nothin!

3. The one food you eat most often at breakfast?

Bananas. I eat one almost every single day with breakfast.

Lunch Questions!

1. Sandwiches are generally considered a “lunch food.” If you had to choose between a grilled cheese and a peanut butter and jelly, which would you pick?

PB&J no doubt about it. You just can never go wrong with PB&J.

2. You can only put four ingredients in your salad (not including greens); what do you throw in the mix? Additionally, which greens and dressing do you pick?

Snapea Crisps (instead of croutons), olives, dressing, and ummmmmm cheese.

3. One food you can’t live without at lunch?

That's a toughie I guess I'd have to say applesauce. I love those individual cups of applesauce! They go with almost anything!!

Dinner Questions!

1. It’s the end of the day. You’re tired, hungry, and your fridge is empty. If a fast food (from a chain) is your only option, where do you go and what do you order?

Taco Bell. Mexican Pizza and a Soft Taco. If I'm eating fast food I'm going to Taco Bell, it's the only way I really like!!

2. TV/computer on or off while you’re eating?

TV - usually on since our living room and dining room are one big room, I'd prefer it off.
Computer - off unless I'm home by myself, then I might go on Pinterest or read blogs while I eat.

3. The one food you eat most often at dinner?

Broccoli  or Rice. We usually have both of those and then a variety of meats.

Dessert Questions!
 
Choose between these two American desserts: cheesecake or apple pie?

Chuckle's cheesecake. I love it!

Choose between these two foreign desserts: tiramisu (Italy) or flan (Spain)?

Tiramisu. It's so delish and I can't wait to have some real Italian Tiramisu.

Ice cream: cone or cup?

Cup, it's easier to add toppings when its in a cup :-P

Workout Calendar Results!

Well folks I've got one month down using a workout calendar, along with earning some extra cash!!

And I know the picture is probably super hard to make out but that's cause I scribbled all over it!!!!! Every time I worked out I would write down my mileage, time, a check mark, and a $!! If I didn't work out (a.k.a missed a scheduled workout) I put a giant red X and then took off $1 for each one I "missed".

.

Overall results were:

• 6 Missed Workouts
• 31 Completed Workouts!
• 17.52 Hours of Excercise!
• 49.06 Miles Ran!
• 29.25 Miles Walked!
•  173 Weight Watcher Activity Points (Week 1 = 49, Week 2 = 47, Week 3 = 51, Week 4 = 26)
• $25 in the Workout Jar!

I achieved my goals for the month of July!!!

I am very proud of all my workouts! I am not happy about skipping out on 6 workouts but this month was all about trial and error. Being how I wanted to really push myself and see how much I could do I feel like July was a success!! 

I loved it the first 4 weeks and then my body hit a wall! I definitely hit the "too much" zone and realized I needed to give myself a few more rest days in August! Plus I figured just because it's not on the calendar doesn't mean I can't still do something if I'm feeling up to it! 

Overall I am so happy with my workouts from July and feel so much more confident starting out August (yes I know it's August 10th but I assure you I'm on track and the calendar is on the fridge)

So here it is folks my August workout schedule!! Looks extremely doable with a few extra days that I can add in some fun excercise if I want to!!

 

 Yup, another wedding picture!!

Here's a close up of my schedule!!

I took the rest of the first week as a rest week. It was a bad week altogether and my head was not in the game, my body was tired and I just needed a break. But I am back at it and haven't missed one workout this week! In case you are wondering....those work outs in yellow are my optional. I discovered that some mornings I don't have the time to do that and it takes me about 20 minutes so now I'm using August to figure out if optional will work for me or not. 

So far this week I'm 0/2 but I'm confident next week I'll get back to them! I can't do it on my run days cause it's actually a lot of leg work and I don't want to completely kill my legs!

But this schedule still gives me my 3 run days and 2 days dedicated to walking Buster. I feel like most Sundays I'll want to take him any ways but I am trying out this schedule to see if those rest days help!! 

And here are my goals for this month! I am super excited about my goals!!

And since that picture is somewhat dark (my apologies) here they are:

• Run 55 miles
• Walk 35 miles
• Run my 5K in 30 minutes or less (yes I achieved this goal last month but this time I have a real race)
• 2 Full Body Workouts Per Week!! (already screwed that one up this week, but I'm going to try and fit one in Saturday AM)

And there you have it folks! So far this has been awesome! I'm motivated every time I walk into our kitchen. I think having this front and center has helped a lot and of course inspired me to want to put more inspirational items on the fridge like quotes!!

DIY - Picture Wall - The Easy Way!!

We have a really nice stairway in our house with ceilings that go all the way to the top of our condo. Meaning they are like 20 foot walls (I think, don't quote me but they are freakin tall) and a blank canvas!! We randomly have put up pictures since we moved in but never really took the time to decorate the wall nicely. It was quite a mess!

One Saturday Chuckles got invited to go to a San Francisco Giants game leaving me with the house all to myself! I ended up getting a "bug up my butt" (love that expression) and decided to fix our disaster of a stair way! I won't even show you a before picture...nope I won't it was a mess!

I took all of our photo's down on every single side of the wall and decided to focus solely on the center wall. I had ordered a bunch of wedding photos, including a 16 x 20 canvas, and we had already purchased a wall frame kit (6 months ago) that had been sitting in my scrapbook room.

I picked up an awesome tip from Pinterest (isn't that where all great tips come from) where you cut out paper size copies of all your frames then tape them up to the wall so you can play with the positioning of each picture before putting a million holes in the wall. And when I say a million I am not exaggerating (okay maybe slightly) but if you remove a couple photo's from my scrapbook room you can clearly see I am challenged when it comes to hanging photos! So this little trick made my life so much easier as well as my wall relatively hole-less.

Ugly ugly light fixture!

 Just make sure you clearly identify which frame is which paper!!

 

Then wait for your husband to come home and hang them for you. You could always do it yourself but Chuckles prefers to hang things himself. How sad is it that I can't be trusted with hanging nails and hammer while he's gone?

Notice the ugly fixture, cat perch, and white shelf.

The wall was by no means completed but it was looking so much better than before! I had a brilliant idea to make a cute sign to hang above our canvas picture. Originally I wanted it to say The Garcia's Est. 4-28-2012. Unfortunately along with my pitiful photo hanging skills I am challenged in estimating sizes on everything.

I did manage to get up The Garcia's and LOVE how it turned out. Yep I hand crafted that. It took me 2 hours to get it all put together but I also had to run all the squares through my cuttle bug. What you can't see is the awesome texture it added to my card stock! I ran a piece of black ribbon behind the letters and then secured it to the wall using push pins. Don't you love? I do!! Totally worth the time cause A. It was fun and B. It turned out perfect!!

Along with the sign I wanted a new light fixture. I have hated our stairway light fixture from the minute we moved in. It was hideous and very old skool! While I was hosting my Sister's bridal shower Chuckles hung up our new light fixture!! YAY!! We also removed the white shelf cause it was just taking up space in an already small space!

 

I am so happy and so in love with our wall! It truly is everything I wished for! Aside from missing the Est. 4-28-2012, which really is not big deal, it is more than I could've imagined! 

Some people might think it's weird to showcase our wedding photos, heck some people might even think it's conceited but can I help that we are so good looking that we want to stare at ourselves every day?? JUST KIDDING!! I get to do that in mirrors DUH!

And we actually got some items up on the other wall so we have just one wall to finish. Which I have a good idea for! I'll make sure to share once it's completed :)

I picked up these two signs at Kohls one day (bonus they were 40% off) and I loved them! I was worried Chuck wasn't going to like them but he knocked me off my rocker when he ended up really liking them! YAY!

You see this when you first start up the steps!

Seriously though we are so impressed with our wedding photos that it'd be a crime not to showcase them. Plus, not all of the photos are of just us :) 

Has anyone else used the awesome paper technique to hang their photos??

A Camping We Will Go!

This past weekend we were lucky enough to head out of town for a fun filled camping trip!!! We went out to the KOA in Cloverdale, CA with our awesome friends Angelina, Justin, and their daughter Bianca!! 

Just wanted to share a few photos of our fun weekend!! 

Here everyone is setting up camp!!

Since I pack the car and haul everything out from the car Chuckles is in charge of setting up the tent, as well as all the cooking!!

It was super windy when we got there, and ALL NIGHT LONG, so Chuck had to get Justin's help in setting up the final part of the tent, which kept trying to blow away!

Me and my Homeslice getting ready to be lazy while the boys took care of everything the rest of the night :)

After we got all set up, Justin started a camp fire and Chuck cooked up dinner. Burgers for us with pesto pasta salad and macaroni and cheese for Bianca!! Check out our new camping stove that we got as a wedding gift! According to Chuck it's AMAZING and so much better than BBQ-ing everything. Of course I'd have no idea cause other than toasting marshmallows I don't cook all weekend! :)

 Angelina and I super comfy in our camp chairs around the fair! Excuse the haze the wind kept blowing smoke everywhere!! It was such a nice relaxing night by the fire!!

All ready to start roasting marshmallows!!

The next morning we were all up bright and early! We were up around 7 cause A. A jerk in the camp spots below us was yelling at his kid and B. Once the sun came up it got super bright in the tent!!

Chuck immediately starting making us some yummy pancakes and bacon!!

And Angelina and I started the day off right with some champagne!!

The dogs did so well considering this was their first tent experience. We've always done a cabin when we've taken the dogs (or rented an RV like at Manchester Beach). They were all about laying in the dirt and Buster kept a watchful eye over our site!!

Saturday afternoon Angelina and I took Bianca to the pool which was so awesome!! We spent a couple hours in the water catching some sun while the boys chilled at camp. Then we all walked up to the store and got some ice cream to cool down!!

This was my outfit for our walk (hey we are camping) but everyone gave me crap for it! They even tried to get me to change my shorts but I had to rock them!! 

Saturday evening, once the sun started going down the dogs crapped out on us! Both were so pooped from fun activities!

I don't think Buster slept at night cause of all the noise from the wind but he sure crashed when we were relaxing at camp!!

Here is me and the hubs!! Yup I love saying that!! :)

Saturday night we had an AWESOME dinner of green beans, rolls, steak and pesto pasta salad!! Needless to say we were stuffed full from all the awesome food!!

You're never too old to play a childs game right?? While sitting around the camp fire we got to talking and the topic of Chubby Bunny came up!! Have you ever played?? Well you stick a marshmallow in your mouth and say Chubby Bunny. Then you keep adding marshmallows until A. You can't fit any more in or B. you can no longer understand what you are saying when you say Chubby Bunny!!

Justin and I were the two competing and he definitely won! Angelina had me laughing so hard (cause she was laughing at us) I ended up spitting all my out before I got my 6th one in. Justin got in 6 and attempted 7 before he lost it :) It was so fun though!!

Sunday morning we got up and got packed because it was going to be HOT HOT HOT that day! We had an amazing time camping though and boy did we get tan!!

Another fun camping trip at the Cloverdale KOA. Seriously if you live close to this area go check it out! We are actually going back in July for some more fun in the sun!!

Happy Trails Everyone!!

Raspberry Beer Cocktail

I was so excited to finally try some drink recipes I found on Pinterest the other weekend! Being Memorial Day Weekend we had 3 BBQs to go to and we were so excited to soak up some sun and hang out with our friends and family!!

Friday May 25th we went to my Sister in Law's house for a BBQ with her, her man and the kiddos! Since I know she's a ton of fun to drink with I figured I would test out a new drink on her! I found this one on Pinterest earlier that week and HAD to try it!

It's called a Raspberry Beer Cocktail and all you need is some Corona, Vodka, Frozen Raspberry Lemonade Concentrate and Raspberries!!

 

The combine the following: 1 cup of fresh raspberries,  4 bottles of corona,

1 container frozen raspberry lemonade concentrate, thawed, and
1/2 cup vodka.

I cut the above recipe in half cause I wasn't sure how much would fit in our container. By the way - helpful tip pour the beer in slowly otherwise half your container will look like this!

Next up, pour yourself a glass. Add in some ice cubes (if needed) and a couple raspberries!

And enjoy!

I loved this drink! It had a sweet taste but with a beer aftertaste! I really enjoyed this and can only imagine how amazing it would be on a hot day! I highly recommend you try this (if you are of age) and bring it to a BBQ or Camping or to a house party! It's a great summertime drink!!