I love goal lists.

At the end of January, I decided I wanted to have goals every month for the rest of the year. So, on February 1st, I made my list of goals that I'd want to accomplish my the end of the month:

• Remember to be myself.
• Go to Hightopps in Timonium. 
• Decide on a permanent blog name + make blog public.
• Walk often + eat good.
• Read more.

After looking on Pinterest, I found a tutorial for a do-it-yourself goal list on cornflower blue studio's blog. I thought it was adorable and a more exciting way to display my goals for myself so I made one! Due to my bad memory and inability to stay on top of things unless I have constant reminders, I need something like this to keep track of the goals I set for myself. It also helps me get use of my Post-it notes that I have so many of because I'm obsessed with them.

I love weekends.

This weekend I:

• had my very first skinny margarita. I think it's my new favorite. I think I'm going to order it all the time even though I feel like it should be less money because it's less calories. That makes sense, right?
• baked chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing that had mini chocolate chips in it. Chocolate chocolate. Chocolate. 
• watched high school kids sing a lot better than I ever could.
• went for a run + did pilates for the first time in a (very long) while.
• made a cute-looking goal list - I'll post later this week on that!

I love crafts.

I decided to be crafty on my day off on Monday. I haven't crafted in over a year-ish (seriously crafted) so I have to slowly but surely get back into it.


I definitely started off pretty slow...but I made a headband out of an old white t-shirt that I'll never do anything with. I think I was going to eventually tie-dye the shirt but I'm almost 100% positive that'll never happen and so I figured I better use it so it doesn't go to waste!


I found the tutorial here - Tripping Over Joy. I made mine a little thicker than the one she did which was an accident but I like how mine turned out. I have this gray belt/headband that I got from American Apparel a few years ago for a lot of money (It was around $10 - that's a lot when you're cheap like me, hahaha.) and I'm mad I spent any money on it because this is just a better version of it and it was basically free because I'm using a shirt I'll never actually wear. Pretty great!


Here's the finished product:

I love baking again.

I was kind of sort of adventurous last week and attempted to bake something wild and crazy that I'd never baked before. I used to be adventurous all the time with baking. Before last fall, I would bake whenever I had spare time - it's an awesome way to pass time + an awesome way to eat a lot. I really used to consider it my "hobby" because I didn't really have any other "hobbies." Then, I got super busy with my last semester at Stevenson and then super busy with life (or just Disney World) and then super busy with working. Baking is something that really makes me happy - especially if the results are good and not horrendous (if they are, I'm ticked off and swear a lot and tell myself and my family that I'll never bake again, hahaha. Life.)

With the help and emotional support (that I needed because I was a hot mess with cookie dough all over my hands, etc.) of my buddy, Shannon, I made Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies and aside from the fact that I definitely put way too much dough around the Oreos (which were chocolate creme filled - yum) and so they took an additional 5+ minutes to bake in the oven, I think they turned out pretty awesome!

Here's the recipe courtesy of Sprinkle Charms. 

I love the weekend + really long posts.

Thank goodness for President's Day. Who doesn't love three-day weekends? They’re like mini Spring Breaks. They’re only one day longer than regular weekends but for some reason, I think of them being extra long breaks from real life. I spent this weekend eating and drinking and eating and napping and eating more and crafting a little. Swell. Here's a little recap of my weekend minus Monday. 

Friday Night

Shannon and I went to Hightopps Grille in Timonium for dinner. I was impressed! I love going to new restaurants. It feels like such an adventure. An awesome adventure with amazing food involved aka the best kind of adventure.

The prices were kind of high – which I was confused by until I got my food. I ordered nachos because they were one of the cheaper items on the menu and when they came out, I was freaking out. Biggest plate of nachos I’ve ever seen and they were incredible and I wanted so badly to finish them but not even I could do it.  

Saturday

I spent the day literally doing nothing. I watched Daily Grace videos for hours and napped in my bed. I never have days like that. I really mean it…never. I always feel the need to be doing something and being productive but on Saturday, I let myself relax and I didn’t feel bad about it, which is awesome. Spent my evening and night with Paul drinking margaritas and driving around town (well, being driven around town. I don't drink and drive!) How…romantic.

Sunday

Breakfast with Paul is one of my favorite things to do – especially when my sweetie-pie darling little sister, Caaaaitlyn, is working and gives me really mean looks while I eat my bagel. It’s the best way to start off the day. Truly. Sundays are pretty great. 

I'm spending the rest of my weekend (or just Monday) crafting and trying to be crafty. Crafts crafts crafts.

I love hanging out in a Snuggie.

Thanks to S. Glascock for taking this wonderful Instagram'ed picture of me with the third love of my life in a Snuggie on Friday night. We party hard.

I love Valentine's Day + Macaroons.

This year for Valentine's Day, I got Paul macaroons - something he's been obsessing over for a while now - from Sweetsarahshop. Shout out to her for not only making the best macaroons ever (and I mean ever, they're cute and small and amazing) but also being the nicest Etsy shop owner I've ever dealt with (super on top of things and got back to me really quick whenever I had a question)! Everyone should check out her shop and buy some macaroons or any of her other goodies. I promise it's worth the money!

I love learning to have patience (with myself).

Last Monday, I started my first full-time job. Of course, I’ve had jobs in the past – Panera Bread, Kohls, etc. – but nothing substantial, important, salaried, etc.

I like to think I’m a pretty patient person – with everyone BUT myself. I’m not sure what it is about me, but I can’t stand when I don’t get something immediately or quickly. I get extremely frustrated and want to cry for days, hahaha. (This explains why I struggle to learn guitar when my boyfriend, Paul, teaches it as a part-time job.)

I just can’t stand being a beginner at things I want so badly to be good at from the start. So, the first two weeks of my new job were a little bit hard on me.

Luckily, I have people that that will help me focus + remember that I can’t always be good at things from the start (if I could, I would probably be super human and I probably don’t want to be that because then I’d be a super weirdo – aka weirder that I already am). These past two weeks have really taught me to be patient with myself. If I can do it for everyone else (or for most people) then I should be able to do it for me me me me me. Just saying. 

In a creative writing course (my first) in my last semester at college, I watched my professor cheerfully talk about her blog and I found myself wishing I could do something creative and fun like that and truly enjoy it. In addition to that, one of the big things I got out of the class is that you should write how you want - not how you think others want you to write. 

I'm glad I took the course + had that professor because without it/her, I wouldn't have decided halfway through the fall of 2011 that starting a blog was something I really wanted to do. 

So, for the next few forevers (years, months, days, who knows!) I’m going to be updating this blog a couple times a week. I'm probably going to have DIY projects that I (try to) make/do, food that I bake and cook (and eat), updates on my (sometimes) exciting life, and other fun things that are hopefully as fun for people to read as they are for me to write about.

:)