2nd Bedroom

So, I know you are just DYING to know how that second bedroom organization is coming along...

well, there's a reason why I haven't updated in two months.

It looks basically the same.

Remember this picture and how my life is looking right now. Well, you would think it would be nice to have an organized second bedroom, but the fact is, I am trying.

I've abandoned the thoughts of a nice, neat, and organized room, but am now moving towards the plan of a room to store the bins of wedding stuff, honeymoon stuff, and packing up gifts we've received. After a few bridal showers, I'll be able to assess what we can sell and what we need to store. So for now, we are keeping things in their boxes, with the exception of the Keurig, that puppy is getting used daily!
I HAVE made progress in the room though and will share!

That is what the side of the room looked like before. I moved our DVD shelf inside of the closet and moved Brandon's guitars to the other side next to his drum set.
That is where I set up the metal shelf with my bins.















I painted the wooden tags with chalkboard paint and hot glued them to the outside of the baskets. I now have a basket for hot glue, fabric/yarn/ribbons, Brandon's papers, wedding information, and photos.
This has been very helpful for a place to keep things I need frequently. I also keep my wedding binders on this shelf and I have purchased a few clear bins to start keeping things I've collected for the wedding (frames, shoes, garter, corks...)

So, while I've given up on having this fabulously organized room, I just want a space to store bins of our crap!

We will know Brandon's residency match in 20 days!

Pinterest Party & Valentine's Day

I've wanted to through a Pinterest Party forever and I finally pulled one together! I hosted a Valentine's theme party and I was able to have it at my friend Sara's house.





 
Each person was required to provide a "Pin-spired" meal, either dessert, appetizer, or drink and I would buy the supplies for our craft.







The craft I found was a Red Topiary Tree from Classy Cutter. You need 6 inch styrofoam balls,clay pot and paint it white, wooden dowel, florist foam blocks, red crepe paper, and pearls. 

We ended up not finishing our craft, partly because we started our craft a little late, and because you have make a zillion rosettes from the crepe paper. We got about half way done and will have pinterest party part two next Wednesday to finish. 

Some of the yummy treats:

Strawberry & Angel Food kabobs

Funfetti Dip

Now, my own decorations. I love having a mantle that I can decorate for each holiday, can't wait until my future one is a little bigger! And I love that I got to continue using the mercury vases from my Christmas decorations.

I'm loving the look of banners, and still have a love for printables.

I purchased red burlap, white felt, and twine from Hobby Lobby for my "lovely" banner.

Don't you just love, love?

Cut out a triangle from the burlap, cut out a heart from the felt and lightly glue down to burlap. I tried to sew the twine through the burlap but the burlap started to come apart, so back to the glue gun.

oh CORK!

One decoration element from my wedding I am willing to pre-share is CORKS!Now, originally I believed myself, my friends, and my family could drink their way to my crafting needs..definitely not. So, I looked to my new wedding best friend: Etsy

Two of a Kind Supplies supplied with me 200 perfect corks. Some with wine stains, some without, and little to no cork damage on almost all of them.

A few even had some hidden gems, like this one, a cork from the year we met. So perf!

I purchased the letters from Hobby Lobby, pulled out my glue gun and got to work!

For this project, I probably used in total, 150 corks. I absolutely LOVE how it turned out and the fact that we can use it again in our future home. Either when we get our own, big ole bar, or because our his last name starts with an "A" we can use the "A" for decoration. 

Things are slowly, but surely coming together. All the little things are starting to pile up and I have to admit, my brain is feeling overwhelmed between work, school, and wedding planning. But nothing but great things ahead and I know it will all come together in the end! And the end is near!

Cleanse Day 2 & I cracked.

Day 2 is tougher.

I got a late start again this morning, so good thing I pre-made my shake, it was even yummier with the raspberries and it was easy to eat on the way to work. I will for sure be making this for my breakfast beyond the cleanse.

Again, I got really hungry around 10:30 when I'm usually eating a morning snack, luckily I teach from 10:30-11:45, so my hunger was masked by keeping busy with the kids.

Lunch: I think the school lunch gods are against me, today was buttered noodles, the butteriest, cheesiest, carb-tastic meal. And I had to pass. I also had to sit in the cafeteria with the kids today...imagine, sitting around all those peanut butter sandwiches, pretzels, chips.... it was really hard.

My shake tasted fine, but it was harder to take down. I got half done and now have it sitting on my desk, hoping to eventually finish it.

Right now, I'm thinking of quitting after today. 2 days of a cleanse sounds pretty good to me.

We'll see how the day goes.

One of my students brought in King Cake and we had a Mardi Gras party...I may have snuck a small, very tiny piece. Ooops.




Alright, I caved. While the cleanse was fine, it made me feel like I would go overboard on my next meal. I literally felt like I could eat a whole pizza or considered going to McDonalds, not necessarily from hunger, but lack of carbs. This feeling was the EXACT opposite of what I wanted from this cleanse or what I wanted from my new healthy living.

I have been fast food free for a month now and only had soda once every two weeks. I didn't like that I was considering cheating or that "I deserved" McDonalds. 

So, I had my last shake at lunch and on the way to night class I stopped at the gas station and got a lunch-able and a diet Snapple.

I then restocked on my veggie burgers, lean pockets, and fruit.

In honor of Fat Tuesday, I did get Chipotle on the way home (chicken bowl, with brown rice, black beans, pico, cheese, lettuce, and a little sour cream)

Back to my regular healthy living. I lost inches and pounds not because of a cleanse or fast diet, but because I worked really hard for 4 weeks, and that's what I'm going to keep doing.

Happy Lent to all and good luck! I am keeping myself fast food free, but also NO MORE soda, not even once every few weeks.

Cleanse Day 1

I started the Dr. Oz 3 day cleanse and detox this morning. My stomach has been bothering my lately and I think this will be a really good way to cleanse out my system of all the toxins and build up and restore my body.
I printed off this sheet and went shopping. The website claims it's $16 a day and in the comments from others they said they spent around $50. I don't know where these people were shopping but I spent $80!












Night before:
I cut up the cucumbers, celery, spinach leaves, kale leaves, and lemons and separated them into Tupperware according to the amount that would go in a shake.

I pre-made the 2 breakfast drinks and the 2 lunch drinks and put them in my fridge.

Day 1:
I started off in the morning with my detox tea, the slice of lemon really gave it a sweet taste.
When I was shopping I couldn't find Stevia...and figured I was fine without it.
My plan was to eat the breakfast drink before I left, but I can never get up on time, so I ate it on the way to work, while packing away my lunch and snack (breakfast) drink.

Breakfast:
The breakfast drink was pretty tasty. When I was shopping I couldn't find any fresh raspberries and completely forgot about purchasing frozen ones, so I substituted with a cup of blue berries. I'll make sure to pick up frozen ones after work today.

I usually have a morning snack with my students around 10:30..so about this time I was starting to get hungry and really craving some carbs.

Tips:
I was confused about the "supplements" so instead I just purchased capsules and are taking all three every day.

I am continuing to drink the same amount of water I was prior (10 cups a day). I believe that will be fine and keep me full. 

Lunch:
I was pretty hungry, but the lunch shake is rather large; it's the size of a 32 oz tumbler. I found drinking it through a straw was the easiest way. It went down just fine, and the cucumber made it very refreshing. 
But OF COURSE today was Bosco Sticks for lunch, so while my coworkers were eating cheese filled bread sticks dipped in marinara, I was sucking down liquefied cucumbers and celery stalks. {{honeymoon, honeymoon, honeymoon}}

Tips:
Keep it cold, mine had been in the fridge all morning, which made it very easy to drink. Because of how large it is, it was a lot to eat, but I knew I would get hungry later, so I forced myself to drink the whole thing.

Feeling full now, but really wanting some carbs....

3:15---I am feeling the hunger..ready for my snack, only 45 more minutes to wait

Snack: At four, I had my afternoon snack, the favorite drink. Now while this isn't necessarily my favorite, it was easy to make. Hoping it'll fill me up till after I work out.

Tip: They say make your favorite shake, but some of the ingredients were only enough for the specific shake, i.e. the lunch shakes each need a cucumber, the grocery list only has you buy three cucumbers...so no making another shake unless you buy more.

Dinner: I made to Title Boxing and by the end I was ready for "dinner." This shake involved cayenne pepper, which I read in a blog adds a little kick...and BOY it sure did! I was really worried for this meal because it involved the pepper and coconut water (which I find disgusting!) but again surprisingly tasty..minus the "kick" at the end.

Tip: I ended up having to make a night trip to HyVee because I was out of blueberries and never bought raspberries. Having the full amount in my shakes really changed the color and I'm sure they will be even yummier!

Tomorrow's meals: Breakfast, lunch, snack, & dinner!

All in all today wasn't bad. I'm definitely missing my carbs, I could go for a pepperoni pizza right now and it was hard to turn down all the snacking opportunities. 

But for real, nothing taste as good as skinny feels and after a month of working out consistently, and almost completely changing my diet I can proudly say that my body is changing-- 

inside and out!

I told myself it's not about the number on the scale but how I felt and my goal was to lose some inches instead of pounds. I measured different parts of my body (3 places on the thigh, and around my waist) on January 2nd and measured again at the first of February and I have lost 1/2 inch in every spot!

So cheers to healthy living!

Now..onto my DETOX Bath.

  

Slacker

This is the beginning of the post I originally drafted a few weeks ago and never finished:

After Tuesday, my mood turned around. Still discouraged, but I had good things to look forward too. 

I did choose a salad and apples with peanut butter over grilled cheese and tomato soup...that took will power.

Then, I had a pretty fantastic fiancé surprise me Wednesday with flowers, a balloon, and treats for my students for my birthday a day early.

He really is pretty great.

We got our very first wedding gift in the mail, it's so exciting to see the fun stuff a head with our wedding planning. And I'm so obsessed with our fantastic Keurig from my Aunt Paula.

I celebrated 26 with a good day at work, many birthday wishes from loved ones, and to top it all off I got to see and try on MY wedding dress for the first time, my wedding shoes make the length perfect, and I scored an awesome deal on a gorgeous belt. 

{thanks again to my awesome future S.I.L.}

And this is me finishing it:

February has come and the reality of my crazy busy life and whats to come or do is settling in. This picture clearly states the busyness of my life summed up in my living room! I spy.....

Brandon left for Guatemala last week and will be there until the 23rd. So far, it appears it's been all play and no work, site seeing and hiking volcanoes. 
He is missed terribly when he's gone, but I've gotten used to being home alone and the dog helps with the loneliness. 

I'm planning on picking up my recent blogging slack, I have some projects, decorations, and planning to blog and many exciting things are to come!

Tomorrow I am starting the Dr. Oz 3 day cleanse, will blog about the experience
Wednesday I'm hosting a Pinterest Party with a few of my gals.
 
Happy Sunday to all and enjoy this wonderful week of love and a little words of wisdom from Kid President.