Twee Poppets Tuesday Tag-Along, June 1, 2010

Linking up to Twee Poppets Tuesday Tag Along again today! I apologize for the lack of updates over the weekend, but I'm in a work marathon, and my next day off is June 9th, which is also the same day as my friend's c-section appointment! I'm all excited to be an "auntie" again!!

Tomorrow is our weekly Girls Night Out with my friends, and I'm trying this recipe from Bakerella! I was told all we need now is wine and sweets. Granted mine won't look as nice as these I'm sure, as I work tomorrow, and only have about 2.5 hours to prepare them! Picts to come of my attempt!

If you're stopping by for the first time, HELLO! :)

Check out Twee Poppets to link up!

Blog Hops Ahoy!

 

Friday is a great day for blog hops! I'm always looking to make new connections, and for new blogs to read for entertainment and inspirations!  

If you are visiting from any of these, HELLO! Thank you for coming and looking around my blog :)

Wedding Dress Blog Tour

I was going down my blogroll catching up on some blogs. I went to check in over at Tara's View Of The World, and noticed a blog post called the Wedding Dress Blog Tour, (Mclinky at Shasher's Life), and decided it would be fun to join in, especially with our 1 year anniversary creeping up!

Without further ado: Here's my wedding dress! It was worn on July 10, 2009, in a Chicago suburb. It rained that morning, but it cleared up by noon!

I absolutely loved my dress. I was comfortable, and felt like a princess at the same time!

Simple and to the point. I went in not even wanting any lace on my dress, and upon seeing all the all lace dresses, I completely changed my mind. 

I am keeping my dress. I don't have the heart to sell it. It's hanging in the closet in our spare room right now, I should probably take it to get it preserved..actually..probably should have done that a while ago!

So there you have it! Care to join in the Wedding Dress Blog Tour? Click Here for the instructions and McLinky!

Photo Of The Day

Not much to update on - So I bring you my current favorite photo!

Such a happy boy....

Twee Poppets Tuesday Tag-Along, May 25, 2010

Linking up to Twee Poppets TTA again today! More and more blogs keep showing up on it, and I love me some reading material! 

Current projects : Sorting through all our STUFF to see what I will be putting up for sale at our garage sale at the end of June. Setting up an appointment to get my hair done. Heading to the chiropractor in a few. General cleaning. And of course, the desk is still a work in progress. Although it's almost done. Need another trip to Home Depot :)

In A Yellow House - Photo Challenge, May 26th - Your Town

Joining in the fun of the In A Yellow House photo challenge!

This weeks theme is Your Town - Some thing or place unique to your city or state.

I've decided on this picture:

It's not my specific town (although I did live there for a year!), but I LOVE this clock tower that they put up relatively recently, compared to the area surrounding it. 

The Twilight Saga Eclipse Official Full Trailer (HD)

 

Anyone else really excited? I actually saw my first preview on TV the other night, and my hubby laughed hysterically when I rewound the DVR to watch. I'm very much looking forward to this out of all the movies. Eclipse was my favorite of the series :)

Cancelled TV Shows

With all the finales to the shows I watch wrapping up over the next couple weeks, I decided to take a peek and see which series won't be returning for the fall season. I have to say, it makes me sad. 

FlashForward on ABC is being dropped! I love that show, and cannot wait to watch the finale, but it's going to be bittersweet now that I know there won't be a second season. I know not many people got into that show, but me and my hubby loved it, and watched it religiously. I guess there is nowhere left for them to go plot wise though :(

Also, Melrose Place on the CW won't be returning.  Granted, this show wasn't so great. Tons of drama yes, but it was also kind of boring at times. Had I not watched from the first episode, I probably wouldn't have gotten sucked in. I really would have liked to see an actual ending to the show though, not just a mediocre finale.

IN happier news however, the following are shows that have already been renewed! And a lot of my faves are on that list.

Bones, Glee, 90210, Vampire Diaries, CSI, Greek, & Dexter

What TV shows do you like? Any recommendations? I have 2 to replace now :)

In A Yellow House - Photo Challenge, May 19th - Black & White

 

This week the challenge is black and whites, and again I had trouble choosing a photo! I think I'm just indecisive these days really! In the end, I chose those one:

This was taken at a beach in Michigan City, Indiana. (Hopefully we're going back later this year) I love the beach!

Twee Poppets Tuesday Tag-Along, May 18, 2010

Joining in the fun again!

Not much going on tonight. Got home from work an hour ago, trying to figure out what to do next with my desk project! Can't wait to find some more fun blogs to read!

Winner :)

Riley's photo from a few posts back won the photo challenge over at In A Yellow House!!

He will be so excited to know that his humiliation was for the greater good :)

Or he will just sleep, and be excited tomorrow. Oh dogger how I love thee :)

INTRODUCING

The Desk! It's here at last. One big old computer desk, CHECK.  It is going to be a huge project for sure!

Check out that dust! And the lovely bubbles my dear nieces spilled all over the top of it. Definitely in need of some new drawer pulls and knobs. One is broken, and the rest are just ugly!

Here it is after a good scrub down. Which is all I could do today, since I just got home from work 20 minutes ago! I'm glad I started cleaning it before I went to work, or else it would have taken much longer. With the help of some water and some disinfectants, the bubbles and dust are no more. 

Next step: PAINT!

Hopefully I will find some time next week to paint it up all nice. Then comes the fun parts!

Excitement!

So tomorrow while I am at work, my hubby and my cousin are going to pick up the old desk at my mother's house that will become my craft/sewing desk after I fix and clean it up! They are under strict orders not to do anything to it, as I want before and after pictures of this process!

Is it sad that I'm this excited over this?

In A Yellow House - Photo Challenge, May 12th - Pets!

Another Wednesday another photo challenge over at In A Yellow House

This week the theme is pets. This is a tough one for me, because as we've all seen now, I'm pretty much obsessed with taking pictures of my dogger. I love him wayyy too much!  After much debating, I've settled on one of my favorites of Riley. It's from his adoptaversary this past April, and it makes me smile.

He wasn't really down with the party hat, but this shot was just oh so adorable!

Hop on over to In A Yellow House and join in on the fun!

Makeover!

Alas it has arrived! My blog makeover!! I love it love it love it! Huge thanks go out to Strosgirl Designs for not only a great blog layout, but a great experience as well. If you're thinking about changing the look of your blog, go check out Strosgirl Designs! You won't be disappointed!

In home news....we've been stuck with a piano in the office since we moved into this house. Apparently, it's impossible to get rid of a piano without paying someone to take it away. I tried giving it away. I offered it up for free on Craigs List...tried to sell it at a yard sale. NOTHING.

We finally got fed up and me and the hubby pushed the bad boy out to the garage. I am very excited about it! Now we can bring in my desk that I plan on turning into my crafting/sewing table! Now I just have to recruit my cousin with a truck to take me to get the musty old desk out of my mom's garage. The desk itself looks like it has been through a warzone, but it's solid, and has cabinets. I've got big plans for it. Once it's ready, It will make its debut, and then I will have the space I need to focus on the bajillion craft projects just waiting in my massage room/spare bedroom.

And how are YOU doing? :)

Gluten Free Quick Chili!

I used to hate cooking. I really did. Since getting married, for some reason I love it! It would be a lot easier if my dear sweet husband wasn't such a picky eater. He complains about everything. Drives me batty! He's sleeping right now (he works overnights, but tonight he is off), and dinner is cooking and should be ready by the time he wakes up! I love chili. And spicy foods. So I figured I would share my chili making with you!

This is an adapted recipe from the Celiac Sprue Association website. I however, did not make this batch gluten free, as I didn't have gluten free tomato sauce in the house! Gluten Free tomato sauce is super easy to find if you need to use it :)

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

1/3 cup milk

1 medium onion (I used a white one), chopped

1 14.5 oz can tomato sauce

1 16 oz. can of kidney beans

1 T. chili powder

That above ^ is the recipe directly from the website linked above. The following are what I add to my chili.

1 green bell pepper

1 red bell pepper

1 orange bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

I like my food to be colorful, I'm sure just using one kind of pepper would be delish too!

1 can diced green chiles

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 T. crushed red pepper

1 or 2 green zucchini

This time, I added some frozen corn into the mix. And I always double or triple the amount of chili powder used.

 (See how colorful? Fun!!)

Directions:

-Saute onion and ground beef in a large skillet until browned.

-Drain the excess oil

-Add the remaining ingredients (I usually put the remaining ingredients in a large pot and then move the meat and onions into it. With all the added ingredients, it's a bit much for any skillet!)

-Simmer 45 minutes to 1 hour

-Enjoy!!

Twee Poppets Tuesday Tag-Along, May 11, 2010

I've decided to participate in Tuesday Tag Along again! I found so many great blogs last time I couldn't resist!

We took Riley to the vet for his 1 year appointment today! He was such a good boy. He sat, let them do the blood draw, and do all of his vaccines and boosters without a fuss! Even the vet was impressed. So mommy and daddy went and bought him a new toy. He's very excited and not paying attention to either of us now!

I'm actually cooking a meal tonight. I'm making my Gluten free chili again! Perhaps I will take some picts and throw the recipe up here once it is done!

Big exciting blog changes are coming soon! Thanks to Strosgirl Designs!

I look forward to finding new blogs to follow!

hitsthespot.etsy.com

A couple weeks ago I won a blog giveaway on:

Sharing Savings With You  for some delicious looking Truffles courtesy of Hits The Spot.

(Thank you again both of you ladies!!)

After discovering I won, I was given my choice of what kind of truffles I wanted. 

My options were:

Truffle Flavor (inside): vanilla or chocolate
Truffle Coating (outside): milk, white, mint, peanut butter, or colored white chocolate
Drizzle: milk, white, or colored white chocolate.

I wound up choosing chocolate truffles, dark mint with milk chocolate drizzle. I'm hardcore about my chocolate as you can see!

They arrived the other day and I was blown away by everything down to the product packaging! And I loved the touch that the personalized sticker added.

I couldn't wait to dig in, so I opened one up and it was heaven. The truffle melted in my mouth, and had just the right amount of mint! Not to mention they looked great!

I'm trying to take my time on them, but I have a huge feeling I will be ordering from Hits The Spot whenever I am in need of some seriously delicious sweets! Go there and check out her shop. Guaranteed to make your mouth water!

In A Yellow House - Photo Challenge

I am seriously excited by the number of photo challenges I can find on blogs! I decided to play along with another one:

In A Yellow House

The challenge this week was for food photos, so I decided to just pull a photo from a few months back to share for this week, since it's late, and I'm lazy...;)

Plus I love how the lighting turned out in this picture! And it reminds me that I want to make my 3-Bean Ravioli Minestrone soup again soon....

Mega Swagbucks Friday!

Are you using Swagbucks yet??

 

I just recently got into it after reading a lot about it over the blog-averse! It's free to join. I've already gotten $10 in amazon gift cards just for entering swagcodes and doing internet searches! It's pretty fantastic. Fridays are the Mega-Swagbucks days where over the course of the day they give out approximately 40,000 swagbucks! To get yourself a $5 Amazon.com gift card it's 450 Swagbucks, which does not take long at all to stack up to! They have a lot of other prizes to choose from and sweepstakes you can enter with your Swagbucks as well.

Just figured I would share. You can click the image above to go to the site if you wish to sign up!

Shoes are a girls best friend!

Finally it's happened! I have an ENTIRE WEEKEND Off of work. This hasn't happened in a really long time! After work I went out bowling with my friends (averaged a 136 over 3 games, 157 highest game) It was nice, I haven't been bowling in over a year, and usually when I go out with friends I'm worried about how I'm going to feel waking up for work the next morning.

Today was also payday. I love payday. Remember those dresses from one of my old posts for the wedding I'm going to in June? Well I've decided on wearing this one..however it being a long dress and me having short little legs, I needed a pair of heels that were more than my normal 2 inches high!

Then I found them...

Hopefully the color is accurate. I found these on AMI Clubwear's website for $16.99. With a 30% off coupon code. So $23 including shipping (which was HORRIBLY priced at $12) Not a bad deal. And I don't really have any colored dressy shoes. They are all black or red. Literally. Except the ones I wore to my wedding. Those are white.  Plus... the open toed-ness of these shoes gives me a good argument to go get a pedicure!

Hellooo Blogger Friends!

I'm entered into a travel photo contest to win a new camera bag (it's badly needed!)

I could use some votes, if anyone is willing to help! Only one of the 3 photos has votes so far, and it's not mine! haha

I'm photo #3 - Almost Paradise

Travel Photo Contest

All you have to do to Vote is leave a comment stating the number and name of the photo you are voting for, and be sure to include an e-mail address so they can make sure nobody is voting more than once!

Thanks!

Simplicity Photo Challenge : Flowers - Blog Hop!

I found a great site called Simplicity on the Tuesday Tag-Along, and found a photo contest! I love photos, so I really enjoyed looking through the pictures that have already been submitted. So I figured I would throw my hat into the ring!

Here's my submission!

Taken May 2009 at Chicago Botanic Gardens

"Music is What Feelings Sound Like"

For as long as I can remember music has played a huge part in my life. I remember being a youngin, no more than 10 I would guess, and being on the playground with two of my friends that lived in the same condo my father is now, and we would sing sing sing. Then when I hit 4th grade, I decided to join band. I tried out all the different instruments. My parents were rooting for the flute or the clarinet. I was torn between the trumpet and the trombone. I wound up choosing the trumpet. I remember thinking they were a little disappointed in my decision. As it turns out, they were just gunning for the quieter instrument. 

I loved my trumpet. I played it all day every day. And I was GOOD. I mean GOOD. Once I hit middle school, I was placed in all the bands. The sixth grade band, concert band (7th and 8th graders), and the jazz band (extracurricular, practiced before school in the mornings). I got solo after solo in the songs we were playing atthe school concerts. I won solo contests, and had medals and trophies galore. I had never seen my parents more proud of me. I picked up playing the french horn, and the keyboard bass as well. Just couldn't get enough music!

Then it happened. In 8th grade, I got the dreaded braces. The trumpet players kiss of death. Playing hurt so bad that I wound up finishing out 8th grade, and leaving band behind to enter high school. Once I got to high school, I opted for choir, since it didn't hurt to sing.

This all being said, I found a connection with music, and to this day still love finding new music!

Some of my favorite bands?

Damien Rice (#1 - love to pieces!)

Iron & Wine

Terra Naomi

Tsunami Bomb

Bright Eyes

Postal Service

Death Cab For Cutie

Stray Cats

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

I just got my iphone a month ago, and have yet to load a full aresenal of music on it! 

Anybody have any suggestions or recommendations on bands or artists they love and can't get enough of?

I'm all ears. I'm craving something new!

Tuesday Tag-Along 5/3/10- Hosted by Twee Poppets

I've decided to take part in Twee Poppets Tuesday Tag-Along Blog Hop this week!

For those who haven't visited here before, welcome! I am Mrs. Camera Happy. I'm relatively new to the blogging world, but have been getting more active in it recently! I look forward to new blogs to read and comment on :) Thanks for visiting!

Dress-Tastic!

A few of you Nesties out there probably remember me hunting for a dress a week or so ago, and I came up with this super cute one :

Which I still adore and will for sure be able to wear repeated times!

But I found such a great dress, that I wound up buying another one. It was on clearance at JCPenney as well for $44.99. I had a $10 off a purchase of $10 or more mailer come in, so I used that, getting the dress for $34.99. Can't beat that! Annnnd here it is. I know it's dressier than I need, but it's so pretty that I had to own it!

 Color me excited!!

Revlon Photoready? Count me IN!

I've never had perfect skin. When I have no breakouts, my skin tone is very uneven. My skin is very inconsistent as well, so it's just a PITA in general.  Then I heard about Revlons new PhotoReady makeup line, and wanted to try it. So I took my $2 off coupons from the newspaper, and went up to Walgreens to get it. It wound up being Buy 1 Get 1 50% off. Which led to me buying both the foundation and the powder. (spent about $16 total)

I'm kind of insane about reading reviews about products before I buy them. And I was sad to find mixed reviews for this. Some people really hate it, and some people swear by it. But I'm a makeup junkie, so I couldn't resist trying it out for myself!

The bottle itself is a very generous size, and it has a pump on it, which I love! The product has a little bit of shimmer to it, but I barely noticed it at all once it was on. The foundation is smooth and lightweight. Doesn't feel sticky at all. It advertises as " Complete Coverage", which I agree it has, but it manages to do it without looking totally fake and caked on.

All in all, I love this product! I've been using it for about a week now, and plan to continue using it.

A New Baby Is Always Exciting!

Been a busy few days! It's really nice to finally have a few to sit and relax, after catching up on some much needed sleep!

Baby Luca came into this world on April 28th at 8:02 AM. 8 lbs, 3 oz. and 20 inches long. I'm so excited for my best friends to finally have the baby they have been trying for for 3 years now :) I'm also excited that he was wearing a Chicago White Sox onesie when I arrived :)

There he is! The lil peanut! I love his little smushy face!

We may be doing his photoshoot today to get some pics for his birth announcement, but we will see how mom, dad and baby are doing first, since they just went home last night.

Still waiting to hear back on the job I applied for a couple weeks back. The meeting that was supposed to be last week Thursday, got moved to just this past Thursday. My fingers are still crossed!

Riley got to play with the hose again the other day. MAN how he loves that hose. It was nice and hot out, so we figured let's let him have some fun!

Can't wait until we have the yard fenced in! Hopefully this spring :)