Happy New Year!

Yes, I am still alive.  No I haven't posted in a REALLY long time, and I can't say I've made any New Year's Resolutions that say I will blog more in 2012.  Personally, I don't think my life is too exciting right now, and I don't have a lot to blog about!

Keith and I did get a new camera over Christmas (a Sony Alpha SLT a35 DLSR), so I am hoping to adventure into (extremely amateur) photography.  Right now, we have 5,000 pictures of our dog, Charlotte, who is gigantic now, by the way.  Hopefully with the planning of a couple trips and such this year, I'll have some nice photos to share with you.

For right now, I'll leave you with this one:

Happy New Year!

Budget

School is back in session, and while I absolutely dread when I wake up and see the clock that says 5:30 and I know I only have 30 minutes to sleep, I'm ok with returning to work.  My students this year are chock full of attitude, so it'll be interesting.  

On another note, Keith and I have put ourselves on a budget.  We are really wanting to save up some money for trips and other miscellaneous things, so I'm using Mint.com to help keep track of everything.  This website is great, because it lets you synch all of your online bank and bill info and put together different categories for budgeting.  So far, we are over budget on a ton of stuff, but we are still trying to figure out how much we actually need per month as opposed to what we are frivolously spending.  It has really put into perspective how much things cost and how bills and such can suck money up like no other.  Like $75 at PetSmart for dog food, a new collar for an ever-growing puppy, and a harness to help when we take said ever-growing puppy on walks - these things add up!  

What a nice, new collar you have, my dear Charlotte!

I'm really hoping we'll get to saving more money so that we can go on vacation next summer and not have to worry too much about being uber-frugal.  Hopefully September will go better in terms of staying under budget!

Happy Anniversary!

I am a couple days late, but I wanted to wish my husband Happy 2nd Anniversary.  We've had an awesome two years, and we are looking forward to many more!  I am so lucky to have married my best friend, and I don't know what I'd do without him!

My puppy is growing so fast!

Charlotte is 13 weeks old!  Time flies, and she is getting bigger by the minute!  She is trying to chew on everything, but I think her and I are getting along better.  She doesn't try to attack me quite as much (attack as in jump at me with her mouth open, not in a vicious way, just a puppy way), and she will actually cuddle with me on the couch.  She eats like there's no tomorrow, and doesn't even bother to chew her food.  We have to feed her in little portions so she doesn't inhale her food to quickly and get the hiccups.  She is still adorable, but she is starting to look less baby puppy and more adolescent puppy.  The vet says she's doing great, and that he thinks she's going to be a big girl. 

6 weeks old

13 weeks old

Slowly but surely, our living room is looking less empty.  We recently purchased a new chest of drawers to go on the wall with the window, and I must say the whole wall looks so much better with the curtains and the new furniture.  The picture of the curtains is terrible, but I keep forgetting to take a picture of them when it's darker outside.  The vases on the chest of drawers are from Crate and Barrel, the baskets from Bed Bath and Beyond.  The chest itself is from Roommakers.  The curtains, like I said before, are from Z Gallerie.

Table Rock Lake

At the end of June, my family and I ventured south to Table Rock Lake, in Missouri.  We had an awesome time, and even though it was hot, it was a ton of fun.

We spent most of the time on the lake, but ventured to Silver Dollar City for one day.  Being there takes me back to my childhood.  The sights and smells have been consistently the same since I can remember, and it is such a comfortable place to be. We always travel down into Marvel Cave, where it is a nice 60 degrees all year round.  Yes, in this picture I am wearing a sweater.  I brought one to Silver Dollar City, knowing it was 100 degrees out, but also knowing that I would get cold in the cave.

The best part of this vacation was learning to wakeboard.  It's my new favorite thing to do.  I've been skiing since I was like 8 or 9, and had a bit of trouble two summers ago trying to wakeboard.  My dad got a new boat that is more wakeboarder-friendly, and everyone was able to succeed in getting up and staying up.  I'm still work on the whole jumping off the wake thing, but I hope to get their eventually!

Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

My first REAL craft project

I have been wanting to make the wreath that my good friend Ashley, aka The Domestic Wannabe, made a while back.  I fell in love with this wreath when I saw it (I don't know if I told you that, Ashley), and after a long, failing search for a door wreath, I decided to try it myself.  I didn't start it right away because frankly, Domestifluff, where Ashley got the idea, made it out to seem very intimidating.  She said it took her 12-15 hours to make the whole wreath.  I was NOT blessed with that kind of patience.  But I had time this week so I figured I could do it in parts if it turned out to take me that long.  

I ventured off to JoAnn Fabrics to buy some purple felt, made from recycled plastic bottles, an added bonus, and some other necessities (like fabric scissors, because I haven't had a need for them!).  I came home and got to work.  I took Domestifluff's advice and followed the directions from maya*made on how to cut out felt circles.  I used a lid from a Ball canning jar and a white stamp pad to stamp out the circles.  I'm pretty sure this advice is why it took me 4 HOURS instead of 12 HOURS!  It was totally not as hard as I thought it would be. The worst part by far was cutting out the circles.  My wrist was killlllllling me by the time I was done.  I didn't count, but there were at least 200 circles total.  I stopped for short breaks, but the OCD in me made me keep going until I finished.  I couldn't find a ribbon I liked to use to hang the wreath, so I seriously used the handle from a Chipotle bag, and it worked perfectly.  I'm not going to go into the step-by-step, as Domestifluff does an excellent job of that, so check her out if you're interested in making one yourself.  Here are some horrid iPod photos.  The color is terrible; the wreath is a dark purple, I promise.

 My ink pad, circle, and felt with my circles traced on it.

When I had this much done, I was inspire to make a Christmas 

wreath using red felt and green ribbon.  Let's see if I get that into fruition!

The wrist was hurting a bit...

 

The Finished Product! I love it, and I am proud of myself, 

because I've never considered myself very crafty!

P.S. - Ignore my ugly white door.  It's patiently waiting to be painted a lovely shade of green to match my new curtains.

Things I'm Loving Right Now

So I usually devote my posts to what I am doing, not what I'm thinking, so I decided to change it up.  For my sake if no one else's.  Without further ado, my post "Things I'm Loving Right Now," because I didn't even know if I could get my list to 10.

1. My puppy - Although she attacks and bites EVERYTHING including my toes, fingers, legs, nose, etc, I love her to death.  She has taken to sleeping on the air vents to keep her brown fur nice and cool.  It's freakin' adorable.  Oh and look at her, in a life jacket.  Seriously...

2. Natural Foods - I am a huge proponent of eating natural/organic, and while it is more expensive, I try to buy everything natural that I can.  I hope someday to raise my children with the same idea that you should stick to healthy, unprocessed foods and stay away from things like Little Debbies which come from who knows where (yes I ate Little Debbies growing up, I don't judge, it's just my choice).  This idealistic view does have some drawbacks, like my organic cereal being called "hippie crap" or the other comments I get.  But I know that what goes in my body is good for me, and that's what matters.  If you aren't sold on the idea of natural foods, watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.  While I tried to eat natural before his show, he made it all the more important for me to select foods that don't have a bunch of technical, chemical-sounding names in the ingredients list.

3. My new curtains - I have been looking all over for curtains for my living room.  The wall has a large window, and it looks naked.  I've literally been looking for curtains since we moved in, to no avail.  I picked up a lovely set at Z Gallerie while shopping with my mom and grandma.  I haven't gotten them up yet, but I'll post pictures of them actually in my house when they are up.

4. My vegetable garden - Even though I have no idea what to do with my veggies once they are grown, I am stoked to see how they come out.

5. My neighborhood - I love seeing people out and about, kids running around playing, everyone just enjoying the summer.  I especially love my little toe-headed neighbor girl, who was deathly afraid of Charlotte but could not help following us up and down the street saying, "Is she going to bite me?"

6. Friends - I've gotten to hang out with my very pregnant friend Emily lately, and I realized I miss her!  We've been friends forever but I don't see her as often as I would like.  Also, my friend Meaghan is moving to town as I am typing this. I am super duper excited to have her closer!  I love my other friends too, but these two get a special shout out.

7. Fruit smoothies - Ok, so I made these and my husband loved them more than me, but it was an easy evening snack.  I used pineapple, apple, orange juice, and organic vanilla yogurt.  Add a little ice and throw it in the blender. It was yummo, but I think I needed to puree it a little more. I guess I am not a fan of pineapple tidbits in my smoothies, even though pineapple is my favorite fruit.

8. These blueberry muffins - I had to stop making them because they were making me gain weight.  They are seriously to DIE for.

9. Summer - Being a teacher, I still get to enjoy summer, and I am loving it.

10.  My husband (saving the best for last) - He is seriously the best husband ever.  He insists on getting up with Charlotte, sometimes twice during the night, because he knows that I need more sleep than he does to function.  I also still miss him terribly when he is gone, and he makes me so happy I don't know what I would do without him.

So there you have it.  Ten things I am loving as of right now.