My Etsy Store - Coming Soon

I've decided to launch and Etsy store to sell holiday and floral wreaths that I make.  If you remember from a post awhile back, I decided to make my own wreaths when I discovered how much they are at Hobby Lobby.  (No offense Hobby Lobby, you know I love you) I've been making wreaths for my family and friends for awhile now and I have decided to try and sell them. 

I'm working hard to get my wreaths complete and up on my Etsy store ASAP.  I'll announce it here when I launch the site.  If you notice, I added banners for my store to the right column of my blog.  I would be honored if you'd add my banner to your site, but give me a little while to get the site launched before you do.  :)  Please check back soon!

Currently in October

So. . . what's going on with me in October?  Well just the usual - work, church, friends, family and fun.  :)  But here are a few more things.

Current Book(s):
So when I was reading too many books last month, I haven’t been reading much at all this month. I just bought the new Nicholas Sparks book (YAY) but I’m hesitant to start reading it because I have so many other books that I’m a portion of the way through. Hmmm. . . what to do?!

Current Playlist:
Lately I’ve been jamming to Van Morrison – one of my favorite artists ever. However, this past week the Christian group Shane & Shane was at my church and I was reminded of how much I loved their music during college – so that’s back on the table.

Current Color:
I’ve been really into purple lately. It’s all I wear and recently all I buy. I wonder why.   I've also been wearing Pamplona Purple.  What do you think?

Current Drink:
I’ve been loving me some water lately. I’ve never been a huge water drinker (mostly b/c I hate going to the bathroom that much). I’ve also never liked lemon in my water but over the past few months – water with lemon has become my staple.

Current Food:
Well Asian food has been a favorite of mine for a long time running. I love Thai food, Chinese food, Vietnamese food and I can’t get enough. I’ll eat Asian over American any day of the week!

Current Favorite Show:
It's still How I Met Your Mother – I mean, you read my blog, you know this about me.  :)

Current Wishlist:
Time and Sleep. I wish I could go to bed earlier and sleep through the night but for some reason I’m waking up like an hour before my alarm. I bet it’s that stupid dog at the house behind us. He starts throwing his metal bowl across the concrete porch at like 6am every day. Boy do I love that dog.  :|

Current Needs:
I NEED to finish making my wreaths. I’m opening an Etsy.com store for holiday wreaths ASAP and I need to finish my wreaths now!!! I’m running out of time!!  AHHHHH.

Current Triumphs:
Finishing about half of the wreaths I’ve planned to sell AND getting my store setup. Can’t wait to launch!

Current Celebrity Crush:
Justin Timberlake – ya know. . . if I had to pick.  :)

Current Outfit:
Jeans and a purple shirt (see above) and black wedges.

Current Excitement:
VACATION!!!! Don’t know where we’re going yet but we’re going!

Current Link:

LFT – If you’re not reading Lauren From Texas, you should. I actually used to work with Lauren at a company that shall remain nameless. We became friends but haven’t seen each other in awhile. Her blog is cute and funny and Lauren is an excellent writer. You’ll love her, I promise.




So, what have you been up to in October?

BCAF 2010

This past weekend, my friend and I want to the Bayou City Art Festival in Downtown.  I had been wanting to go to this event for several years now, but everytime I hear about it or think to look it up, the event had passed.  I was so excited to go, especially since the weather had been so nice for the last few weeks.  Turns out the day we went, it was back up to 90 degrees.  :(  Needless to say a cold beverage was needed.

I love art.  I love seeing what other people create.  It makes me hope that one day, in a future life, that I'll be a super cool artist who sells art at festivals and shows.  And if you're a millionairre you can have really cool and unique art pieces in your home.  But since I can't afford $700 paintings and $4,000 sculptures, I just took pictures. 

I recently got a new digital camera so I was very excited to try it out.  I can't wait to use my new camera for all sorts of events!  I will defintitely be posting more pics I take with my new camera.

Here are some of the cool things I saw at the festival.  I tried to make a slideshow but apparently Blogger doesn't have a slideshow for inside posts.  Anyone know how to do that?

This was a wooden sculpture - very cool!

These were some sort of decorative instrument

and very expensive, but really pretty.

A very cool painting.  The tree had words written on it and the birds were cut out with materials behind them such as

rulers and metal pieces. 

I call this guy a cute monster.  I think he's super cute.  The artist had these little guys carrying off yard gnomes and giving flowers and riding baking wisks.  It was super cool.



These guys were awesome.  They were bronze statues of different humpty-dumpty-esk eggs.  They all had cute names like a slutty egg named "Over Easy".  They were super expensive.  The big ones she had were $4,500.  These were probably my favorite items because they were so detailed and clever.

There were a group of these very colorful yard decorations.  They spun and moved around with the wind (I guess I should call them weather vanes).  I liked these alot because they were so colorful.  I didn't look at the price tag because I'm sure it would have had several zeros on it.

I have a lot more pictures that you can see on my flickr.

Have a good weekend.   - Bye

 

Ten On Tuesday: Working Out

It's been awhile since I've done a Ten on Tuesday so here goes!  This weeks questions were provided by Ashley. 

1. What does your work out schedule look like?
Almost non-existent.  For no reason other than my laziness and my TV habit.  I have time to work out, have a great gym only a few minutes from my house and I still only go about once a week or once every two weeks (SAD - REALLY SAD!)

2. What is your favorite machine to use at the gym?
Leg machines - I think I have chicken legs so I'm always wanting to tone my legs - it never works.  For cardio, I like the treadmill or the elliptical.  I don't like the bikes.

3. What is your favorite class to take at the gym?
I've never taken a class at a gym.  I've also never taken one of those boot camp things, my co-working is doing that and she can barely walk. 

4. Where do you shop for work out gear and clothing?
I just wear whatever.  I don't match and I'm not cute at the gym.  I buy most of my gym shorts at Target and just wear a t-shirt (preferably one long enough to cover my bum)

5. If you can’t go to the gym, do you have a favorite outdoor activity?
I'd like to say riding my bike, but I haven't been doing much of that either. 

6. What about a favorite work out DVD? If so, please share!
I have the Bender Ball at home and the DVD for that is pretty good.  My abs are sore for days!  I've been wanting to try the 30 Day Shred DVD, but I'm petrified to try it.

7. Are you more active now or when you were in high school?
I was way more active in high school.  I was in gymnastics until about 8th or 9th grade, then I moved on to tumbling for awhile.  I was on the basketball team off and on for years, and in high school I was on the powerlifting team - no joke.

8. How has your dieting/working out philosophy changed since high school?
I eat WAY more healthy now.  In high school it was ALL carbs, Dr. Pepper and Candy Bars.  Now it's one caffeine every few days, always grilled food (never fried) and I try to avoid candy - but that's almost impossible.

9. What do you do while working out– (i.e., day dream, read, listen to music, gab with a friend)?
I have to have music during cardio.  I cannot just walk or run with nothing to listen too, I'll start counting every second and it's excruciating.  If I have music or watch TV, I'm distracted by the fact that I'm on a boat - just kidding, I meant treadmill.

10. What working out resolution would you like to make for yourself this year?
I'd like to go to the gym on regular days every week.  Every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday type of deal.  I don't think it's too much to ask of myself to exercise two or three times a week.  I mean really, why am I so lazy?!

Cooking Class: 30 Minute Meals

This week, my best friend and I went to cooking class. Why you ask? Well because we wanted too and because we got a discount! We had a hard time choosing which class we wanted to take but since we both work full time and she’s a full time student, we decided 30 min meals sounded like the bees knees. (does anyone say ‘bees knees’ in real life?, I don’t)

It was a 3.5 hour class and we prepared 6 dishes! Two chicken, two fish and two steak. All of them were delish but some of them were less than my favorite. It was hard to wait for the first dish to be done because I was SO hungry and it smelled so good. So while the first one was baking, we prepared the second one, and so on and so forth. :)

We made the following dishes.
Baked Cod with Avocado, Shrimp, Cream and Cheddar Cheese
This was really good. The cream on top of the fish and the cheddar cheese baked on top was so good! The baked avocado was a good flavor too!

Sirloin with Bok Choy, Soy Sauce and Ginger with side of Coconut Rice
This was good. I think we added too much soy sauce because it was very salty. I think if it wouldn’t have been so salty, I would have liked it more.

Parmesan Fish Fillets with Avocado and Cress Salad
This was probably my least favorite. It was fish coated in shredded parmesan and pan fried. It was fine.

I had no idea what cress was but it’s an herb that has a unique flavor. I liked it a lot.

Chicken Goujons with Noodles
This was my favorite. It was an Asian-inspired chicken dish with spice, soy sauce, honey and cilantro – served over noodles.  DELISH!

Paprika Sirloin Steak Wraps
This was so delish. We put paprika and olive oil on the steak – that’s it! but it was delish! We also put cress and Greek yogurt in this wrap which made it really good.

Chicken Breast Baked in a bag with Cannellini Beans, Leak, Cream and Oregano.
This was fine. I think I would have added a few diff ingredients but it was a good recipe to learn because I can easily make it my own.

I’m so glad we went. We learned some things I never knew about cooking in general. Like, did you know that adding salt to you water makes the time it takes to boil increase? I always thought you were supposed to add salt before it boiled. . . but no!

Oh and she taught us how to tell if a steak is done by poking the steak and comparing it to a portion of your hand.  I had never heard of this but apparently it's a thing.  My husband knew about it.  (raised eyebrows)

We’re going to go to one other class and I’m excited to see what classes are offered next. Maybe one day I’ll be like a chef or something. . . or not.

Cheers!

Ladies Brunch

Awhile back, I was talking to my mom about how much I missed her, my sisters, and grandmothers.  Since my birthday was coming up (and I get whatever kind of party I want) we decided to throw a brunch for all the ladies of my family to get everyone together at one time.  We picked a date around my birthday and started planning.  I was so excited to do this because I had never really thrown a party like this before AND it was for all of my favorite ladies.  I enjoyed setting everything up and it what I wanted for my birthday was to spend some quality time with my mom, sisters and grandparents.

I found this inspiration board on The Party Dress and used it as a basis for our decorations.  I wanted to have something bright and fun.  I am so inspired by The Party Dress blog. From what I know, this is a party planning company. Almost daily, they post new ideas for seasonal parties, decorations, weddings, birthday parties, etc. They also include links to find out more about the things they are pulling together. I love scrolling through the weddings, parties and home sections.

I found these invitations from Dragonfly Papers on Etsy. 

I set the table with fresh flowers and each person had a name card, a paper flower and a cupcake at their setting.

 
The brunch consisted of an egg and sausage breakfast casserole, fresh fruit, deviled eggs, chicken salad sandwiches and of course cupcakes!
 
 

 
 
We had a really good time hanging out - just girls!
 
 

From left to right: My dads mom, my mom, her mother, and my dads aunt (she's like my grandma too!)

From left to right: The middle sis, the baby sis, and the big sis!  Yes the baby is the tallest of us all.

We had a great time!  It was so much fun to plan and setup everything.  We had an even better time just spending time together.  Unfortunately, we couldn't invite ALL of the special women in my life at one time. . . guess we'll just have to plan another party. . . with a bigger venue because there are alot of ya'll!