Sunday, March 30, 2014

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

Yes, I'm totally thinking of the song, and now you are too.


At least the person who ransacked the truck this week left our Sound of Music CD.  Clover would not have been happy if Maria was missing!  We have been listening to this for the last couple of weeks.  We love it.  Our favorites are 4, 5, 7, and 8.  Or Maria, I Have Confidence, My Favorite Things and Do-Re-Mi.

So without further interruptions (yeah right), here are a few of my current favorite things...

Pretty Flowers hubby surprised me with.  So pretty!  Love the bight colors!


Lip Products!  I kind of hoard these.  But here is the deal, They have to taste good.  Which is why I am pretty much only into glosses and balms.  I haven't found a lipstick that I actually like yet because the taste is just offsetting to me.  I know it goes on your lips and not in your mouth but some of it gets in your mouth and if I can't stand the taste then it is a no-go. 
 
Tiara Tuesdays!

A Trenta Black Iced Tea with Three Pumps of Raspberry!

Emergency gloss I keep in the truck.

Sally Hansen Gel Polish in Jaded with Karat Cake on the tips.  

Just found this tea and it is so yummy!  I love fruity iced teas!


In an effort to girly it up a bit, I have been taking baby steps in purchasing make-up.  I bought these two pallets from bh cosmetics.  I love the forever nude for everyday looks and I had on Galaxy Chic this weekend for a birthday party.
   
Love these!
 I also bought the Botanics Cleansing Cream.  I had been using some other stuff and just thought that if you used something that said "all natural" that it was gentle.  That is not always the case.  So I switched and love the cleansing cream.  I will admit that once I am done I rinse it off.  Then I top it off with some moisturizer.  My face has never been happier.


I finally got to use my gift card for Bath and Body Works.  I picked up some of the Hawaii line.  I love this one!  The smell just smells like Summer to me.  Not that it's Summer here yet.  I mean technically Spring just started.  That hasn't stopped the 80 something degree sunny days!

I have also become very addicted to YouTube lately.  Like loosing hours on it lately addicted.  Some of my favorites are Grav3yardgirl aka Bunny (beauty vlogger and as seen on tv tester), Nicole Guerriero (beauty vlogger), and Cutepolish (super cute nail tutorials).  I did mention I was trying to girly it up, right?

And just to finish it all I will leave my favorite song of the moment right here.




Hiking in January

These pictures have been on my desktop for two months now.  We took a trip to the Sequoia National Park and went hiking.  Winter has pretty much skipped most of California so the weather was wonderful for hiking in January. 

The trail is hidden behind the bathroom.  This is the only sign.

Baby Treeeeees!

Normally this is all under snow.  

There is a patch!

My husband's supplies for the trip.  Coffee, Jerky and gloves.

The lovely view coming home.  

My Bun Boner

I love long hair styles.  They are always so pretty and beautiful.  They just always seem to look great.  But I hate long hair on myself.  I think part of it is the fact that I was not allowed to cut my hair as a child.  Seriously it was down to my butt my entire childhood.  It was that long until I went to a friends house and cut it off when I was about fifteen.  I was going through a rebellious streak.  I thought I was going to be in trouble but it turns out my parents really didn't care.

I also don't like the weight on my neck.  It just feels so much lighter when it's chopped off.  So to get those great looking hairstyles with choppy short hair I have to use little devices and contraptions a long with a crap load of bobby pins.  Things like hot buns, which I have tired and worked with wet hair.  If you want to see a hilarious review of the Hot Buns, check out Bunny's on Youtube ( <--click the link).  The bun maker is what I used the other day.  I found mine at my local CVS.  Except I modified it a bit.  I unrolled it and cut it in half so it would fit my shorter hair.  It's the same concept as a sock bun.

Pony up, slide on bun maker, fold down hair, and pin the crap out of it.  I did this on a windy day and right before we went and saw Muppets (which was awesome).  I didn't wet it this time around and ended up with what I called a bun boner.

See it?

Boiiiiiiing!

Sometimes Things On Pinterest Work

Sometimes I find things on Pinterest and they work!  Most of the time they don't.  Like my Vinegar and Dawn experiment.  But these two things actually did and I was really happy.

First was the Pizza Balls.

    
You flatten out your biscuit and add some pepperoni and cheese then wrap it up to look like a ball.  I added salami in some of them.  I didn't have any before pictures because I was watching some cutie-pa-tootie kids and was too busy being responsible to take pictures of me making dinner.

I used my tortilla press for these which made it go pretty fast.  I didn't add the herbs on top because I wasn't sure if the kids would eat them.  They were still very tasty regardless.  And a big hit.  The pan was gone in minutes. 

The second one from Pinterest was also a kitchen tip.  I found this because someone had cross posted on Facebook.  It was about using your kitchen mixer to shred chicken.  So much fun, right?


Start off with some yummy cooked chicken.  Most of the time I make this in the crock pot but I had a busy day so I popped this in the oven.  It's chicken breast with a cup of salsa (newman's own) and some frozen shredded bell peppers and onions.

Action shot.

Ta Da!

This only takes a couple of seconds.  If you do it too long it will turn your chicken to mush.  So don't walk away!  I add my shredded chicken back to the salsa.  I also throw in a can of beans for some added yumminess.  Pro tip though:  Rinse your beans.  I went forever skipping that step and they always tasted weird.  So now I know better and I rinse my beans.  I serve this on top of some greens for chicken taco salad. 

And while I'm at it, I have to sport my apron.  

I want adventure in the great wide somewhere...


 

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Let's Do This!

Just because you are busy is no excuse for the lack of posting. 

I know.  I'm sorry.

It's alright, we forgive you.

Thanks guys!  I love ya!

There, now that we got that out of the way...I used to hate it when my favorite bloggers would go a stretch without posting.  Like how dare you have a life!  Right?  So, I have stuff.  I take a ton of pictures and when I am done I move them onto my desktop to remind myself to post.  Otherwise I forget.  My poor desktop is very jumbled right now.  So if you see like five posts in one day it's just me trying to play catch up.

So what am I doing right now?  Like right this second?  I am eating my oatmeal in my super hero t-shirt and my amazingly comfortable capri leggings I bought at the grocery store.  I've got a strange mix of Kylie Minogue and country playing on my digital jukebox ie Itunes.

So my super yummy oatmeal, it's like stupid simple and very yummy! 

1/3 cup of OLD fashion rolled oats (the kind that take five minutes).  Not the instant stuff, that stuff is gross.  Then add the same amount of water and nuke that in the microwave for 2 minutes (maybe less, maybe more depending on your nuker).

Then I add one tablespoon of the real deal maple syrup.  I know that stuff is pricey but I use it in my oatmeal and the flavor pay off is worth it and it lasts a long time since I only use a tablespoon.

Then add a tablespoon of flax seed.  It's healthy and I like the way it taste.  My favorite is the roasted kind from Trader Joes.  I can't always make it over there so I have some from the grocery store.  Still tasty in the oatmeal.  I also add about two tablespoons of sunflower kernels and a handful of almonds.  Mix and enjoy!

I just started measuring stuff since I am once again on myfitnesspal.  I tried some time ago with the recording but I am just not that organized.  So here we go again.  I am trying to stick to it a little bit better since I may have some sort of food allergy messing with me.  So hopefully this can help me narrow that down.  So, yeah I am over there if you want to come find me I am Jujulovies.  Keep in mind I just started so there isn't a whole bunch of info over there.

I am also slowly sipping on a cup of Veranda blonde from Starbucks.  It's hard getting up in the morning when I don't make it to bed til after midnight.  So I have a little help this morning.  I have also found a new Starbucks drink.  My old go to used to be a Venti Green Tea with 2 pumps of classic.  It's just sweet enough but not crazy sick sweet.  Yes Mcdees I am looking at you.  I order a Raspberry Ice Tea the other day and it was so sweet I couldn't even drink it.  Which is bad because I love me some tea.  So my new drink is a Trenta Iced Black Tea with 3 pumps of Raspberry (no classic).  It's huge so it's one of those drinks that last all afternoon.  My new favorite!  I should do a favorite post since I have found a ton of new stuff this year.  Maybe I will add that to the to do list.              

Monday, March 10, 2014

That Day Is Not Today

My baby, okay she really isn't a baby anymore, will be 6 in less than two weeks.  Here is my annual freak out blog post.

SIX!!!

I'm still shaking my head at the fact that I have an almost six year old.  I started using the "almost six year old" phrase last month to prepare myself for her birthday and the fact that she will no longer be five.  I am still not prepared.

That's more than one hand!

Her favorite book right now is called "If I could keep you little" by Marianne Richmond.  Well, one of her favorite books, she has a lot of favorites.  This one sticks out because when we first started reading it, it was one of my favorites.  Now that it's getting closer to her birthday I get a little emotional while reading it.  Especially at the end because Clover wraps her arms around me and says "Mom, I wish I could keep you just like this!".  Which I think means in her bed because that is where we snuggle and read and she is just like her Momma and hates sleeping by herself.

We as parents survived another year!  I think we are doing a pretty good job (ifidosaysomyself).  We started preschool and then started Kindergarten.  She went from ABC's to sight words to writing full on sentences.  We had parent teacher conferences and fun stuff like vacations.  We did a jog a thon and a marathon in the same year.  All of us are still standing and have all our digits.  I think we deserve a pat on the back.     

I know I sound a bit rambly.  My thoughts are unorganized and all over the place.  I know that this moment will pass but for me right now this is my Mommy moment.  You can click here if you want to read my Mommy moment from three years ago.  Remember when she was little?

I do.

She was a pretty happy baby (when she didn't have gas).  She had so much personality for something so small.  I know that there is a nature vs nurture debate out there.  But hands down I can tell you that this kid was born with it.  She was the one that was going to do things in her own sweet time and still does.  She wants to be confident that she can do it well before she takes the leap.  When she was 15 months and still not walking I was on the border of freaking out.  Especially since my friend's kids were walking before a year.  Once she was confident enough to let go of the couch, she went for it.  Then she started running everywhere and I really haven't gotten her to stop.  Same thing with the potty training.  All my friend's kids were all there and we were still in pull ups.  I started to get frustrated but then I had to stop and remind myself that it wasn't about me.  It was about her and her comfort level.  And really NO ONE asks on a college application when you were potty trained or when you learned your sight words.  So that is one comforting thought when you are on social media and all of your friends are bragging like new parents do and you are sitting in the back feeling like you are twiddling your thumbs.  Social media can be a negative influence to a new parent but that is a rant and rave for another day.

Oh you know all those things people say about redheads.  I have heard them all from a bunch of different sources.  Friends, family, random people on the street and strangers in the super market.  I had one lady stop me one time and remind me that "You know, people like to blame it on the hair but you know that's not it right?"  Yes, lady in the chips isle.  I know my kid is spunky and fiery.  She was born that way, and I do know that it's not the hair.  But it's still fun to blame it on the hair anyways.

And ohhhh the one I hate is "free spirit".  "She is such a free spririt!"  I can never tell if this is supposed to be a compliment or a back handed stab at the fact that my child doesn't care that she is fully clothed, she is going to jump in that pool anyways!  She is a kid.  Kids do unconventional things.  I don't have a problem with it.  It makes life silly and fun.  And we could all use a little more of that.

Even as an adult, I wish I could be more like my 6 year old.  She is so social, and I know she must get that from her Dad.  Definitely not from me!  She loves to talk to people and wants to be friends with everyone.  I can't help but be in awe of her.

I know that she is getting bigger but she still loves to snuggle and cuddle.  When she crawls into my lap I hold on to her real tight.  One day she will be too big to sit in my lap.  Or she just might not want to anymore.  But that day is not today.  I'm going to enjoy it while I can.  
       

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Since I Was In The Closet

I like to buy little things to add to a room to change it up.  The closet was no exception.  I bought a very pretty mirror like light switch cover (dang say that 5 times fast). 

See it's very pretty.  

Even Clover mentioned how pretty it was when she saw it in the closet.  Unfortunately I kept stabbing my fingers on it.  Every time I went to turn the light on, which is several times a day, I kept stabbing myself with the side of the cover.  I was kind of sad that I had to take it down but my fingers appreciate it.  

The new one is much flatter!

I switched the light on and was very happy with the way it looked.  And the fact that I didn't stab myself made me very happy. 

Nailed It, Martha

Can you sense the sarcasm?  I'm not really a big fan of Martha Stewart's product.  Gasp!  I know.  A lot of crafters enjoy her stuff but I find a lot of it to be over priced and the same quality of stuff that is already on the market.  For some reason I thought this time things would be different.  I noticed this sparkly shimmery stuff at the hardware store and then talked myself out of it.  Then around the fourth trip back to the hardware store I shrugged my shoulders and thought "why not?".

Oh look at that.  It's actually called Silver Shimmer.

The sticker looks a bit holographic and super sparkly.  I thought I would add some sparkle to my closet.  It's the closet so if it doesn't turn out I don't have to actively look at it.  

So yeah, it just looks gray.  NOT like the lid color.  There is a little bit of glittery action.  Nothing like the sample in the store.  Which was only about an inch square.  

This was one of those projects where the pay off just wasn't worth it.
 
Each shelf was painted with four coats of paint.  It looks alright.  I guess if I really wasn't happy with it I could cover it with contact paper.  Maybe I can find contact paper that actually looks like the sticker on the container?  Out of all the projects I worked on at least one of them doesn't turn out.  This one was it for this month I guess.

 

If You Give a Juju a Project - First Draft

If you give a Juju a project, she is going to need tools to use.

She will have to find the tools first. 

After twenty five minutes of looking for the tools, she will want to give up.

Until she finds the one tool that she needed, which will give her a second wind.

When she gets her second wind, she will start to work on the project.

Only to hit a snag and have to go back to the hardware store.

While at the hardware store she will find pieces to another project totally unrelated to the first project she was working on.

She will purchase those pieces and the one thing she needed for the first project. 

While she is out she will get food or a drink or a treat because working on projects is hard.

Once she gets said food, she will need to take a break.

Once rested she will want to get back to the project. 

She will work on the project until it is finished or until she is happy with the final results.

Then she will have to clean up the mess she made from working on the project.

While cleaning she will notice that she found something she needed for another project and will want to work on that one...

And then the whole darn thing starts all over again! 

Friday, March 7, 2014

Not Too Shabby

I made something pretty to hold my pretties!  So just warning you this post is pretty picture heavy.

Right now our house is chaos.  Everything is EVERYWHERE!  Usually I am pretty chill when it comes to these kinds of things but after a few weeks things just start bugging the heck out of me.  So during the construction/reorganizing I figured out that my currently jewelry storage situation was not working.  I have a very beautiful jewelry box that my husband got me years ago but it's more for long term heirloom storage kind of stuff.  I need something I can put my everyday pretties on.  Okay maybe I just need somewhere to put my growing collection of Lisa Leonard necklacesDid I mention I love her?  Oh yeah I think I have.

Knowing that I have a garage full of stuff I wanted to make something instead of buying it.  I was also feeling a bit on the creative side.

First thing I did was hit Pinterest.  Did you know that they are calling themselves a "Visual Discovery Tool"?  That just sounds so fancy.  When people asked you what you did all day you can say "Oh, I was using a Visual Discovery Tool."  That sounds so much better than "I just lost three hours on Pinterest".  So after spending a few hours using the visual discovery tool, I had a good idea where I wanted to start.

It took me fifteen minutes to find the frame amongst the mess in the garage.

Ribba from Ikea.

This is a shadow box I picked up from Ikea.  It's not super deep maybe an inch and a half maybe.  I took out the mat and the glass and threw the glass away.  I didn't have anything to re purpose it and glass around here is dangerous so I just just chucked it.



Then I took a break and went to my friendly local Orchard.  Or as I call it Osh.

I picked up some supplies.

I bought a dowel, some screw hooks, drawer pulls and some screw things.  Under ten bucks total.

The inner frame comes out of the large frame.  So I decided that I would just glue it in place so I wouldn't have to worry about it.  Then I spent about twenty five minutes looking for my hot glue gun.  I found it in a box of other boxes.  I don't know why it was there either.

So after that was all glued in, I got to painting.  I went with our wall color which is a very bright green.  Mint Shake from Home Depot.  I just used the sample that we bought before we picked the color.  Then the frame did this interesting thing.  The inner part of the frame did not appreciate the paint.  Which was just water based paint.  It would bead up and then when the paint was dry would peel off.  It only did this on the inner part of the frame.  The outside part of the frame coated nicely.
  


So while this was drying, Clover and I went and got Pedis.

So when I got home the frame was dry and ready for assembly.  This was one of those learn as you go projects.  I had a rough idea in my head of what I wanted but no concrete knowledge of how to get there.

Find Husband's drill and drill a hole every inch.  Add screw hooks.

I started at two inches because I had an interesting way I wanted to mount my new frame.  I didn't have any pictures of me installing the dowel because that was kind of a process.  It didn't work out the way I wanted.  I thought I could just hot glue that sucker in place but that didn't work.  So I hot glued it and then added two small screws to the sides to keep it in place.  Which defeated the purpose of hot glueing any of it since the screws held everything in place.  Oh well.   

While I was using the visual discovery tool to look up jewelry holders I found a lot with vintage knobs.  They were so pretty and I wanted to incorporate that look some how.  I didn't have any vintage knobs but Osh had some crystal ones so I went with those.  So here is how I show you how to turn your knobs into something with a screw end so that you can mount them into a wall instead of a drawer.  They come with the little bolt to screw into the back of a drawer.  I threw that part out.

It took me a while to find these but I did and they worked perfectly!

Ta-da!  Screw on the end!  I was very happy that these actually fit!  

I did buy two different sizes because I wasn't too sure which one would work.  Turns out that the first bag I picked worked just fine.  I placed these in the inside corner of the frame where I wanted to mount them and measure between the holes so I knew how far apart to drill my holes.  This part will make sense in the next few pictures.


Once again I used the drill to pre drill holes and hammer in some dry wall anchors.  This isn't that heavy but the closet is just sheet rock so I know that this isn't going anywhere.  If I do decided to put my holder somewhere else I have two decorative coat hangers in the closet.

Does it make sense now?

I used the drawer pulls to hold the jewelry holder to the wall.  It just rests on top of the two pulls and it is removable.

Look at how level that is first try!

I used the chrome color hooks but you can use which ever color you like.  I found them in white, silverish and gold.

Starting to load it.  You get the idea!

I LOVE the way this turned out.  I am so happy with it.  It's one of those things that just makes me happy looking at it.  Which I could use right now because like I said everything is everywhere!  Well except for my pretties.  They are right on their new home where I can see everything.