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Hi, hello, how are things?

It has been a crazy whirlwind since we moved. Between unpacking like crazy, getting things set-up in the house and just in general, getting used to our own space again, we’ve just been busy…busy…busy!

I had these grand plans to decorate the house for Christmas the day we moved. You guys know how much I love the holiday season, and us having a brand new house was definitely motivating to get the decorations up.

Well….this was the extent of our Christmas decorations.

Since we were living with my in-laws for the past few months (with a very small amount of our belongings), it was like Christmas Day while we were unpacking. I honestly forgot about 1/3 of the things we owned, which makes me think that I could definitely declutter a bit. Time for a garage sale, right?

It took Millie about a week to get settled in when we moved. Our new house is larger than our previous house, so I think she is still adjusting to all of the rooms she has to “guard”. One thing that didn’t change for her was that our sofa + blanket = bliss.

While Christmas was a whirlwind (it really didn’t feel like Christmas happened), I did have a lot of fun shopping the after-Christmas sales. Of course, I had to buy all sorts of new Christmas decor (hi Hobby Lobby and Target!), and I also attacked the Lush buy one get one sale. It’s the only time of the year I buy from them, because I’m cheap.

A few months ago, I purchased a Nespresso. While I’m a huge fan of Keurig, I’m frequently visiting coffee shops for a $4 espresso drink. When the Inissia went on major sale (I guess this color was being discontinued?), I had to get it. Y’all…why did I wait so long to buy this? Around the holiday season, I mixed a little eggnog with my espresso and it was heavenly! I love it!

Y’all may remember that my sister and I signed up for the half marathon last year. While the half marathon wasn’t in the books for me, I was able to transfer my registration to the 5k. I didn’t train at all, so I walked most of the race. I was slow, but I finished. 🙂

As far as house pictures go, I promise I will be sharing pictures very soon! I thought it wouldn’t take very long to unpack everything, but oh man…I was SO wrong. We’re getting there though…slowly, but surely. 🙂 I think we’re about 90% done!

Hi y’all!

I guess I should catch y’all up on a few things that have been going on. Y’all will probably realize just how unadventurous my life has been lately!

(FYI, this was taken in a parking lot…wasn’t driving)

Earlier this year, I was starting to freak out over the amount of gray hairs that were happening, so I went with a drastic change: RED. As you can see, my hair is no longer red. Now, don’t get me wrong…the red was gorgeous, and I loved the way it looked on me. However, the maintenance was crazy…I had to do it every 4 weeks, otherwise my blonde roots would look gray and well….NOPE.

So, I went back to a salon to go blonde (as you can see in a glimpse of that picture), since there was NO way I could DIY bleach my hair…and oh man…it took 5 hours to go back to blonde. It was worth it…it’s good to be “back”!

Pumpkin everything is back in stores, and while a lot of people are like ENOUGH PUMPKIN…I’m sitting here like…more please? 🙂 H actually found that cookie butter at Trader Joe’s…he knows me so well, right?

Earlier this fall, my work had a happy hour. It was at a beer-centric bar, and my sad self was trying to like beer, but it didn’t happen. I don’t think I’ll ever like beer…I’m weird.

Thankfully, I later found out they offered mini bottles of wine at the bar, and I was a happy camper. Helloooo, mini bottle of Prosecco! I felt like the little creature in Finding Nemo who is all about the bubbles. 😛 I need to repurpose this mini bottle somehow…I just think it’s adorable.

Currently, I’m working on my first knitted stuffed animal. Knitting the pieces of the toy isn’t so bad. I’m mostly intimidated by the assembly after everything is knitted up. I’m REALLY hoping it comes out as cute as I’m imagining, because I’d love to make more of these for gifts.

I know I mentioned that we’re building a house, so I thought I’d show y’all how things are progressing. I’m super excited that things are really starting to move along. It seemed like the land grading/foundation took the longest, but now that our house is more than a large concrete slab, it’s just so great to see the next steps happening.

I’m especially excited to eventually see these tiny samples come to life in our house…LOVE.

I hope y’all have a good weekend!

Happy Tuesday, y’all! I hope everyone had a nice, long weekend. 🙂

As you may have noticed last week, I made a couple of changes around here. A full re-design of my site! I love how much cleaner the site looks. What do y’all think?

Anyway, I mentioned in my previous post that I would explain some life changes at a later date, and now that things are settling down for me/us, I’m so excited to get back into blogging again!

Sometime last year, we started casually house-hunting again. I know…we’re professional movers by now, right? We just moved four-ish years ago haha. Well….we started thinking about the future…with kiddos and out of town family and just in general, something bigger. Our house at the time was really nice, but ultimately, we decided to keep our eyes peeled.

After about a year of searching, a couple of close calls for potential houses and well, just exhausting home visits in general, we decided to build a house. We signed the dotted line and then listed our house, thinking we’d have a little time anyway before it sold. Well, our house sold after being on the market for a few hours. Funny how that works, eh?

So, we hustled to pack all of our stuff (holy cow, we had a LOT o’ stuff), and we were out of there by the next month.

(Isn’t it sort of crazy how different a house looks when it’s almost empty?)

Anyway, we’re now between houses (as I call it) and just watching our future house take shape. We’re hoping to be all settled and moved in soon (I can’t wait to show y’all the kitchen!).

Hey y’all!

It’s been a while since I last blogged, and I’ll be honest..with life as hectic as it’s been lately, I just couldn’t get behind the computer to unwind and just…write.

Heck, I haven’t even baked much lately. I’m sure my and my husband’s coworkers are missing the baked goodies. Ah well…I’ll get re-motivated again. 😛

Since it’s been a while, I figured I’d update y’all on what’s going on with my life lately.

About a month ago, my local yarn shop was holding a sale on select yarns (by the bag full). I lucked out with some gorgeous, vivid yarn at the shop, as well as a great needle bag for $5 each. I also splurged on some colorful speckle-dyed yarn by Madeline Tosh. I just adore it, and I think I’m going to attempt to make something similar by yarn dyeing again using some wool yarn that I have in my stash. 🙂 I think a lot of people in my family/friends will be getting something handmade as a part of their Christmas gift this year.

The weekend after Mardi Gras, my sister and I did another 10k. It wasn’t pretty, but I crossed the finish line. I ended up making running skirts for us, using this tutorial. It wasn’t that bad to make these (and I’m really out of practice on my sewing machine), and they came out SO cute!

Here we are at the starting line…it was a nice day for a race, but like the last 10K, I have a lot of training to do before I’m in race shape again.

Speaking of races, I went to a local running store and purchased new Ravenna shoes. I loved my Brooks Ravenna 3s, and after another fitting, it seems like I’m loyal to this shoe. It’s really a great one for me…lots of cushion and support for my overpronating self.

It’s finally feeling like spring out here…weather is in the 80s, it’s raining like crazy, and well, there’s also crawfish season. I’m so loving places that offer all you can eat crawfish, and one of our local casinos, L’Auberge, offers it every night (through April 4th). We went one night really early in the season, and because of low supply, they ran out before we got in. I ended up tweeting about how bummed I was, and they ended up comping the next meal for us, which had crawfish a-plenty. (Great customer service!) I was also told that they are definitely getting the supply taken care of now that crawfish are more plentiful, so we shouldn’t face that issue again. We’ve been a few times since the first incident, and every time…there’s crawfish like crazy! It’s not that bad for $25/person, either, when you consider the fact that you can eat as much crawfish as you want. 🙂

This past weekend was so much fun. In south Louisiana, we have parades the weekend of St. Patrick’s Day. It’s sort of similar to Mardi Gras parades, but the prized throws are beads, undergarments (yep..haha!), Irish Springs soap, Moon Pies, cabbage, potatoes and carrots. I can’t wait to make some stew with most of the vegetables that we caught!

Also, since St. Paddy’s Day is right around my birthday, I just had to try Sucre’s Paddy Cake (top left). It’s essentially their king cake, filled with salted caramel and chocolate. OMG. Best birthday cake EVER. I’m going to have to make this a tradition, for sure!

Hope y’all enjoy the rest of your week!

Is it just me or is it really hard to resist holiday make-up sets? I don’t even need any make-up. I own more eyeshadow palettes than I care to admit, and I ran out of room in my organizer for lip glosses. The holiday sets are just so darn pretty!

I’ve been back on the weight loss journey, and I keep thinking back to when I was 70 lbs. down (which was April 2013). I don’t know where my willpower went, but if anyone sees it, can you please tell it to head back to Louisiana? I’m going to really need it (especially) these next few months!

Why is it still in the upper 80s outside? Just walking from the parking lot to a building makes my hair stick to the back of my neck. SO GROSS. I’m over it. (Although I’m sure I’ll be begging for 90 degrees in mid January…) We’re supposed to be getting a “cold” front this weekend, and I’m totally forking out my boots…even if the cold front makes it 70 degrees or something silly like that. I’m ready to knit a cowl (or 10).

I pre-ordered the iPhone 6 Plus a couple of days after the pre-ordering opened, and I’m just itching to get my mitts on it. I’m actually sort of bummed with the phone I have right now. At the time, AT&T was offering a $200 gift card trade-in deal for my old 4S, but it was only valid until 9/30. Sadly, when I went to order, I found out that I wouldn’t receive the phone I wanted to purchase until November…that’s right…NOVEMBER. The rules at the time stated that it needed to be traded in by the end of September, so I dug out my 3GS and activated it (to take advantage of the trade-in on my 4S). It’s crazy how much slower my 3GS is vs. my 4S. Erg. First world problems! (Oh, and I kept saying at the time, because apparently a couple of days later, AT&T changed the trade-in offer to be valid as long as you pre-ordered before the end of the month, regardless of how long it took for the new phone to ship out.. Just…my….luck.)

These cupcakes…ugh. I totally want to make a batch. However, I’m worried about the lack of willpower (see 2.), because I’m fairly sure I’d eat 3 of them and regret it 30 minutes later. Actually, I probably wouldn’t regret it, because those cupcakes are worth it :-P. ::sigh:: (See the mental dilemma?!) Getting back on the weight loss wagon is hard work, y’all!

It’s been a while since I rambled about random things going on in my life. I’m having one of those evenings where I just felt like writing, so here I am.

This past week was our fifth wedding anniversary. I can’t believe that it’s been five years already! I can’t wait to see what the next five years will bring. It’s been a crazy five years…we became homeowners, parents of a furbaby, and have been for each other during quite a few doses of “good and bad”.

To celebrate, we decided to have a mini vacation over the long weekend and drove to Houston. It was so nice to have a nice dinner date and just enjoy each other’s company with no stress or worries. I even splurged on a new purse and passport wallet at the Kate Spade outlet! So fun!

I’ve been baking a good bit lately, and I was pretty stoked to discover that Amazon carries a 32 oz. size of vanilla paste (vs. the 4 oz. I tend to purchase at kitchen stores) for just under $30! I love using vanilla paste from time to time in baked goodies and especially in frozen treats.

I was recently sent these chocolate bars from Chuao chocolatier to sample, for a review. So far, the S’mores bar is a favorite of mine! I really like marshmallow with chocolate, and when you add in graham cracker? Holy moly! It’s so good! I also gave the sweet and salty bar a try, and it’s such a simple bar. I love the hint of salt in there, because it really brings out the flavor of the chocolate. 🙂

Recently, the office I work at had their company crawfish boil. It was such a nice day, and it makes me so grateful to be in a job that I 100% love. It was wonderful.

On a random side note – as a food blogger, I just had to take a picture of this crawfish display. Usually everything is thrown on newspaper, but I found this display to be so nice. I wish I could have taken that pirogue of crawfish home with me. 😛

A couple of weeks ago, I found out that I won a case of Sabra hummus on Cooking with Books‘s blog. I’ve been eating hummus like crazy, and I recently discovered how much I love hummus in wraps. I usually just eat hummus with carrot chips or pita chips, but with all of this hummus in the house, I’m looking for more recipes to use up this tasty spread. 🙂

My nephew recently had his first communion. I found myself scrambling around the house for appropriate gift wrap for what we got him (I was assuming bright, colorful patterns wouldn’t be super appropriate), and I remembered my favorite/simple way to wrap a gift is with tissue paper and yarn. 🙂

I tend to have quite a stash of tissue paper, because I usually raid the Christmas section for colorful tissue paper after the holidays on major discount. I know I’m not the only person who does this. 🙂 I also try to find generic wrapping paper in the Christmas section, and while it’s a bit hard to sift through the clearance rack of Justin Bieber Christmas paper and other random character wrap, I usually luck out with a couple of rolls. 😛 I’m way too cheap to pay $5 for a roll of wrapping paper during the year.

 

Hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Disclosure: I was sent chocolate bars at no cost to me for a review. I also received the hummus at no cost to me, as the winner of a giveaway. All opinions are 100% my own.

1. Well, life has been a bit hectic lately. Some great changes are happening in my life right now (thank you, 2014….2013 stunk a big one!), and I’ve just been so busy getting ready for these changes. I can’t exactly explain what the big news is, but I will in a couple of weeks (hint: it’s not a baby). 🙂

2. Yesterday, Millie received her last BarkBox. I purchased a 3 month Groupon for her for Christmas, and she has LOVED everything that has been included in the box. I’m thankful that the toy included in every box wasn’t what we like to call a “5 minute toy”, meaning it’s shredded to bits in under 5 minutes. She also loved all of the treats that she has tried so far from her BarkBoxes. 🙂 We probably won’t continue though, because she still has about 10 bags of treats unopened, and she has a whole basket of toys. This gal is beyond spoiled. 😛

I took a picture of her when we got the shipment. You can’t tell in the picture, but she was in the middle of barking at the box. She doesn’t like boxes very much (she was found in a box as a puppy…poor thing), so she refuses to grab anything out of boxes and she won’t go anywhere near larger boxes. No worries…she got a treat and the rope toy a few seconds later. I just wanted a picture of her with her last BarkBox. 🙂

3. Last weekend was the Mardi Gras Mambo 10K. I’ve heard great things about the race, and at $25, it was a no brainer to register. I have to admit, I went into this race thinking it would be no big deal. I mean, I did a half marathon the month before. However, I haven’t gone for a single run since the half. Since my strength training program says to avoid cardio in the first month, I didn’t run at all. Big mistake..it’s amazing how quickly I lost my endurance and also, I had leg day at the gym a couple of days before….my hamstrings were on fire after mile 2. 🙁

4. Confession: Valentine’s Day candy (heck, ANY holiday candy) on clearance is my weakness. I totally purchased 6 bags of candy (I know…crazy), but I’m super proud of myself for not going over my calories with all of this candy in the house. I’m learning that two small pieces of chocolate is enough for a snack, and a good trick for me to make it last is to freeze the chocolate. It takes longer to melt in my mouth, so it feels like I’m getting more than two small pieces of candy. Totally a mental thing, but it works for me. It’s good to have some semblance of willpower back. 🙂

5. Last month, my husband and I went to a local shoe store to get him some new shoes. There was apparently a big clearance there, and we had a coupon for an extra 50% off clearance, so we figured it would be a great sale for him to stock up on shoes. We didn’t see that it was for ladies and kids only, though. 🙁 While I wasn’t planning on getting any shoes before we got there, I couldn’t resist after seeing the prices. I purchased $190 worth of shoes for $50. I’m really excited about rain boots, which were $12 after coupon…my dog will NOT use the facilities in the rain without me standing out there (boo), and sinking in the mud in nicer shoes is not fun at all. Yay for rain boots!

Also, yeah…black flats…those are work staples. I’m not coordinated enough for heels, and frankly, at 5’10”, I really don’t need the extra height. 🙂

It has been quite an odd week in Louisiana. It has snowed twice within a week, and I’m just a tad bit tired of the cold weather. Remind me that I said this when it’s 110 degrees outside in a few short months.

1. I became THAT runner. My car now has a 13.1 on it. As cheesy as it is, I think I earned it. 🙂

2. I’m falling more and more in love with Trader Joe’s lately. These chocolate covered powerberries are amazing. OMG..and they’re healthy, right? So I can feel no guilt at all for eating the entire bag over the course of three days? Great!

Also, my addiction to their dried mango is nothing short of ridiculous.

3. Here’s evidence of the snow. This was just the start of when the snow started last night, and I couldn’t help but take a picture of the paw prints. It took Millie a little while to understand what this snow stuff was, but after a while, she was running through it like crazy. 🙂

4. This tank top just gets me. OMG. I just had to get it for my upcoming 10K, and while it’s a little tight right now, I think I’ll be OK in a few weeks for the race. Weight loss motivation? I’m gonna wear the heck out of this in the summer for my runs. 🙂

5. I’m completely loving this song. I mean, it’s probably because Idina is singing it. I need to babysit someone’s child so I can watch this movie in the theater without being judged. I haven’t been this excited about an animated movie since “Princess and the Frog”! I just love Disney. 🙂

1. Um…OMG…Christmas is 13 days away. I mean, don’t get me wrong…I’m ridiculously excited, but I also don’t want Christmas to just come and go. I could listen to Underneath the Tree on repeat 490834 times right now.

2. I got my very first Kate Spade accessory last week. While I love my Otterbox, I wanted something a little prettier. Is it blonde of me that I had to YouTube how to open the phone cover to put my phone in? There were seriously no instructions in the box…I felt like a doof, but I really didn’t want to break the case.

3. When we were driving home from Thanksgiving, my husband and I both noticed how pretty the lake we always drive by from Baton Rouge to New Orleans (Lake Pontchartrain) was. The picture probably doesn’t do it much justice, but this normally murky lake looked like water in the Caribbean. I know it had something to do with the sunset reflecting off of the water, but oh man, it was gorgeous. It made me long for another Caribbean vacation…..

4. This is probably the only Christmas project I can show y’all right now (since I’m making gifts and family tends to read the blog from time to time). This afghan was ridiculously simple to make, and it’s so cozy. I will say that the size 50 needles aren’t as natural to knit on, but man, projects knit up SO quickly! It took me longer than 6 hours, but it was a casual knit. I think I’m going to make a couple of these for gifts in the future.

5. Does anyone else own this palette? I bought it a year ago or so, and I’ll admit, it hurt a little to spend $50 on eyeshadow. However, I find myself constantly surprised by this palette. I feel like every eyeshadow looks amazing on me, and all of the colors look great together. I can’t say it’s going to look amazing on everyone, but for me, it’s perfect.

6. I know I haven’t done Training Tuesdays in a while, but I’m in week 7 of training for my half marathon. I have to run 7 miles this weekend (gulp)…I still can’t believe my race is a few short weeks away! Eek!

1. This past weekend, my husband and I had the opportunity to attend the naming ceremony for the Carnival Sunshine. The Sunshine is a ship that had a multi-million dollar renovation, and it was making it’s US debut in New Orleans this past week. This is the first time we’ve ever attended something like this, and we had a wonderful time! As many of you may remember, we went on a cruise last year with Carnival and we had a blast. We enjoyed it so much that we’re going on a cruise on the Sunshine as well, and we cannot wait! We could use a vacation after the year we had. :-\

They also had the Saints game on the big screen….now THAT is the way to watch a game (along with a punchy rum drink with a cute umbrella). 🙂

Oh, and do you want to know how to gain a ridiculous amount of weight in a day? Run 5 miles, and then eat a dinner like this. Whew…I wanted to eat nothing but carrots the next day!

2. If you’re from the New Orleans area, you probably nodded your head so many times while reading this that you now have a headache. Am I right?

3. This was a whole handle of vodka. Well, it was a whole handle of vanilla extract. It took me two years to use it…..you think I have a baking hobby? Maybe a tad… Another handle of vodka is being made into extract at the moment, and it should be ready any day now. I couldn’t have planned that better if I tried. Ah, holiday baking!

4. Do you LOVE holiday movies/shows as much as I do? I don’t know about y’all, but this Holiday TV Guide is going to be printed and take permanent residence on our table next to the sofa.

5. That rope toy? I’m pretty sure that’s something dogs dream about. I wonder how our dog, Millie would react….hmm…maybe Santa will leave this for her since she’s such a sweet girl. 😛

Disclosure: My husband and I attended the Carnival Sunshine naming ceremony at no cost to us. There was no blog post required, but we had such a great time, I thought I’d just share how it went!