Leap Day

Well this has been an interesting Leap Day. Both good and bad.

We'll get the depressing part over with.
I found out today that 3 awesome people died recently.
1) Keeter- my high school French teacher. Not Mrs. Keeter, Keeter. Her favorite phrase was "because" as in "because I said so" She was definitely one of the major reasons I kept up with my French and eventually studied abroad in France. I couldn't believe it when someone had mentioned she died. :-(
2) Christine D.- Also a teacher from my school system. I believe she was a 3rd and/or 5th grade teacher at my elementary school, and some of my friends had her. But I also got the pleasure of working with her for a year. She recently had a baby boy, and in fact she is really young. I knew she had some health problems, but it is still very shocking. My thoughts are with her co-workers and family.
3) Although he is not as awesome as the two above people in my eyes, he was definitely still a part of my childhood entertainment. Davy Jones from the Monkees died of a heart attack today. He was only 66. That's pretty young. Just more shocking news.


Okay, now the positives.

My former college roommate posted a picture of the last Leap Day, which was our senior year in undergraduate. And it was U of I's most famous of holidays "Unofficial" (Stands for Unofficial St. Patrick's Day). It's basically an excuse to run around drunk all day. It was a nice reminder of the 'earlier days' and it is additional inspiration to live young! (it's hard when your live-in boyfriend goes to bed at 9pm because he wakes up for work at 4:30 am) We're bent on taking a tropical vacation soon!

I also was amazing myself and got up off my ass to do my 30 Day Shred work out. I gotta get sexier for my tropical vacation. 3 weeks. I know if I keep it up I'll notice some changes. I'm not looking for actual 30 day shred. I'm just looking to tone up a bit, have my pants fit better, and get into the habit of sweating every day. I just have to keep it up.

I've also been changing my skin and makeup routine a bit. I'm still trying a bunch of different skin care options, but I"m already seeing some change with my Neutrogena Stress Control Scrub. Again, I need to get sexy for my vacation. And for life. If anyone has any favorites or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment below :-)

I did reward my working out with an Ulta purchase. I got a bunch of free stuff, so I'll probably post my haul when it comes in :-) Of course I cannot reward myself all the time with spending money so I need to find some other motivation. Apparently intrinsic motivation is not enough for me. I might have to use stickers.

I also have an awesome Speech activity that I did a few weeks ago, but I'll make a separate post for that later.

Happy Leap Day to all. Celebrate by taking a leap, doing something different and live young!

Adventures in cooking!

So I have to say, I've been a pretty awesome house girlfriend. I've been turning out some awesome food lately. But, alas, I cannot take all the credit, for I mainly got my recipes elsewhere. Like on Pinterest. That being said, I'd like to sum up the awesome recipes from this week and share their awesomeness with you!

When I first saw these cheesy baked eggplant pizzas I was drooling up a storm. And I had a giant eggplant burning a whole in my fridge. I wasn't sure how Mark would respond to them either. Let me just say these were AWESOMELY good! And they were fairly easy too! Mark couldn't stop eating them. We ate the entire tray. The breadcrumbs give it a nice crispy texture and the sauce and toppings meld well with the eggplant base. We didn't even miss the pizza crust! I didn't have any spinach around at the time, but we used some Italian sausage and green peppers. I would imagine any pizza topping would work well!

I have to say one of my new food obsessions is asparagus. I find it is best when grilled or simply roasted with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. I tried simple roasted asparagus from The Wicked Noodle. Simply delicious. And easy. Cannot go wrong! I highly suggest trying it on the grill too! I served these sticks with some baked potatoes and easy pork chops! Definitely an Americana meal!

Last, but not least, my crock pot recipe for the week. You know a recipe is good if you can't wait to eat it again the next day for lunch. The best part? Easy! And I had all the ingredients at home already! Chief in Training's lime chicken tacos were to die for! The chicken was juicy and flavorful and the corn gave it a little crunch! We made burritos with some cilantro-lime rice. Yummy! I was a little worried at first because I had double the amount of chicken that needed to be cooked so I doubled the recipe before I had ever tried it. I am so glad I did. Now I have some chilling out in the freezer next time I need a quick meal.

I plan to make more crock pot meals more often. Easy clean up. No hassle. Delicious.

I think all of these recipes will make it into the "meal rotation."

Any amazing recipes you have found lately??

January and such

Happy New Year everyone!
I hope everyone had a fun 2011 and that you're all ready for 2012.

Quarter 2 at Northwestern has begun, and so far so good.Tuesdays and Thursdays are stupid-long days (8am-6pm, not straight, but I am there all day). Lucky for me Wednesdays and Fridays only have 1 class, although I'm in the car longer than in class. It is what it is.

Now for updates on my resolutions!
-I actually went to the gym yesterday. I didn't do a great job working out, but I am a little sore, so that means I did something good! The main thing for me is that I actually got off my ass and went. Now I just need to continue.

-house, not as clean as it could be, but I should be by Friday *fingers crossed*

-Something I didn't include before, my book reading goals. Last year my goal was 65 books and I officially read 55 books ( about 5 of those are audiobooks, just to clarify) This year I'm hoping to read 50 books. School, unfortunately, takes away from both my time to read and my desire. I'm already a little behind, but it's been a crazy few weeks.

-Now for the really exciting one:
Birchbox! Here is a picture of what I received in my January box


Items in the box:

• Juicy Couture- Juicy Couture perfume sample
• Miracle Skin Transformer: treat & conceal (light/medium shade)
• VMV Hypoallergenics: Re-everthing Eye Serum
• Zoya Feel Collection in Megan (lavender-gray color love!)
• 'wichcraft granola (great snack for in between my classes)
• Birchbox magnet (to the fridge with you!)

I'd say it's a pretty good sampling for $10. I've heard a lot of complaining about people getting things they don't really want, but the Birchbox people can't read your mind. They can look at a little at your "beauty profile" but it's still all pretty much a grab bag.
I have heard great things about the Zoya polish and I was so excited that I have already painted my nails

I think half the fun of all of this is waiting for the box and speculating about what you might get. There are some fun communities out there that chat about it. I like it so far, I hope it continues to impress!

A Very DIY X-mas cont., Plan B

Well, I was going to update you all about my very DIY Christmas, but magically all my pictures disappeared from my phone. This has happened before, so I'm not terribly worried. They'll be back.
I do, however, have a picture of my homemade bread (which is delicious and surprisingly easy, by the way)

Regard:

And in case you want to get in on some of this deliciousness yourselves, here is the fantastic blog that I found the recipe on.

And now for my Plan B. My New Years Resolutions.

• I'm doing well in grad school so far, so I'd like to continue that.
• My house is clean (except for the guest room...) and I'd like to maintain that. I'm getting plenty of inspiration from Organizing Made Fun
• I hope for increased will power. I am not going to make a resolution to work out more or eat better, that will never work. I only hope to increase my will power so that I may have a wish to up hold this more than I do now. Which is anything. I might bring back my incentive stickers. And require boyfriend to hound me about these things. 
• And finally, I'm thinking I might make the resolution to try out Birchbox. I never know what make-up/products to buy and I always like trying new things. It seems like a good trial option, and it's only $10 a month. It'll be a nice treat for me every month. I'll let you know how it goes.

What are all of your resolutions? 

A Very DIY Christmas: Day 3

Yes, yes, I know. I skipped Day 2. Sorry. I babysat yesterday. And went out to dinner. And bought supplies for today's DIY project.

Today's DIY project originally comes from Eddie Ross (via pintrest)

I successfully made a homemade wreath. And it only took about 2 hours and about $9.
Here are the supplies:

• 8 tubes of dollar store ornaments (I only used 7 tubes worth)
• 1 wire hanger
• 1 roll of wired ribbon (I couldn't decide between the two, I also suggest a opaque pattern)
• 1 glue gun (I used about 1-1/2 sticks)

*Note* In the future I would probably suck it up and get regular ornaments/ shatter proof ones, I got what I paid for at the dollar store.

Step 1: Make the hanger round

Step 2: carefully open the hanger up (it's easier than you would think)

Step 3: Gather ornaments and hot glue tops to ornament

I put them in a bag so the glitter didn't get everywhere, right away...

A little dab will do.

Step 4: slide ornaments onto hanger

Step 5: Voila!

It took about 80 ornaments. I used the hanger hook as the door hook. Unfortunately, my wreath could not stay on my door :-( There wasn't enough room between the door and the glass "screen" door.
I hung it outside, but we'll see if it lasts. The hooks on the ornaments are pretty cheap and break easily. I might have to bring it back inside.

It was a really easy project and I'm really happy how it turned out. Perhaps over the summer I shall seek out garage sale ornaments to make a fancier one.

Now, off to the store so I can start the baking frenzy! (and more babysitting tonight, but I think I'll bring some gingerbread for them to decorate!)

Happy DIYing!

A Very DIY Christmas: Day 1

Mark took the day off today and told me he decided I should have a real tree.

So off we went. And we came back with this darling tree.

Cute no? I'm waiting until the branches drop before I start decorating. And lights. We might score some for free from Mark's dad :-)
Now I just have to figure out where to get a cheap, round table cloth, so I can get a tree skirt going. Also on the list today, X-mas cards. Unfortunately, I will not be DIYing these, but I AM planning on making adorable labels :-)

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get to the dollar tree to get some ornaments for a wreath. Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures of my projects.

The next week will be filled with gift-making.
Does anyone have any ideas for DIY gifts for men? I always have trouble finding something for my dad.

Here I come a waffling

So Mark and I recently bought ourselves a waffle maker.
BEST. DECISION. EVER.

We made some delicious regular waffles the first time.

But today we made...

That's right. Cinnamon Roll Waffles.
With Cream Cheese Icing.
So Delicious.
So Easy.
1 can cinnamon rolls (w/icing)
1 waffle iron

That simple.

Apparently you can waffle just about everything.
Like brownies, grilled paninis, hash browns, etc.
I am excited to start experimenting with waffling things. I think Mark is too.

Yay for my waffle iron!