I love December Resolutions.

My first month of my Happiness Project went pretty well! Most days I felt really good after checking off that I had followed all of my resolutions but some days, I really didn't stick with my resolutions and it made me a bit unhappy with myself which is the opposite of what I'm trying to do. I realized I have a lot to work on when it comes to seeing things in a positive light instead of jumping to "I SUCK I CAN'T BELIEVE I DIDN'T RUN OR MAKE AN EFFORT TO NOT EAT A LOT OF CANDY TODAY." That being said, December's resolutions focus on trying to be more positive -- which is something I already knew I had to work on. 
Obviously, once November has come and gone, it doesn't make sense to just forget about those resolutions and just move on to a new set. So, in addition to this month's resolutions, I will also be sticking with November's as well. 

Here's a mini-recap of my November Resolutions:

1. Go for a run or do a 20-minute workout routine 
Not making excuses (or maybe I am) but November got pretty busy toward the middle and end of the month which actually made it really hard to fit in a run or a workout. The good news is it's on my radar now that I can go for a run instead of pin on Pinterest and I've been running more frequently. Running makes me happy - even if I dread it and Pinterest sounds more fun at the time - and remembering that will hopefully keep me running more often/whenever I can.
2. Stick with Weight Watchers
Thanksgiving week made life really hard and I got extremely off track. The rest of the month was easy. In addition to Weight Watchers, I started participating in a fun, little weight-loss challenge called Diet Bet (here's how it works). I started the first week in November and it ends this coming week on December 6th. It pushes me to stick with Weight Watchers and eating right even more -- but makes it fun to do it. Also, money. 
3. Walk + talk 
I got pretty cray and bought a $1.99 pedometer app for my iPhone called "Moves" and it has made me addicted to walking (or as I like to say "stepping"). It's pretty ridiculous but apparently you should walk 10,000 steps a day if you want to be considered "active" -- oh and I want to be considered active. The most I've walked is around 4,000 and that was a lot of walking so every day I try to walk as much as possible so I can beat my "All-Time Record." That's life. 

4. Say no to sugar
This gets easier as time goes on. Sometimes I just want a mini Crunch bar with breakfast though. I'll never be able to say no to sugar forever. It's all about portion sizes for me. 

December's Resolutions:
1. Think of the good that will come out of it -- even if there doesn't seem to be any good at all. This is especially important for me to do at work. 
2. When in doubt, say something positive -- I sometimes have this fight in my mind, especially within the last few months, where I know that I could say something positive but what comes out of my mouth is something negative. I want to make the effort to say something positive when I feel like I definitely have the choice to be positive or negative and hopefully it will become a habit (like it used to be for me).
3. Smile, smile, smile -- I've heard/read in several articles that just the act of smiling, even when you're alone (creepy, I know) or there's no reason to at that current moment, can make you feel positive and happy. I try to do it in the car sometimes when I can feel my road rage getting out of control and it really does help so I want to do this more often - especially in situations that I consider to be "negative."
4. Truly compliment someone else (and myself) -- something else I've had to fight in the last few months is the urge to say something negative about someone/something or insult them. It started happening by default when I was struggling in September and October of this year and that's really not who I am. In an attempt to get back to positivity, I'm going to make the effort to truly (not a forced one) compliment anyone/something/someone on a daily basis. I say "(and myself)" because as I talked about in my first Happiness Project blogpost, I'm not very fond of myself sometimes. I think in addition to complimenting those around me, I need to also take the time to compliment myself. 
5. Read at least one positive quote a day -- I've always been a fan of quotes in my "adult life." Whenever I'm feeling especially icky or mad, I'll Google "positive quotes about ______." Then I read a few and it will usually bring me back to feeling pretty decent. Cheesy, right? That being said, I think it would be helpful for me to read quotes that make me feel good on a daily basis, instead of just when I'm not feeling great. Super cheesy on a daily basis. I think it'd be fun to keep some sort of journal or Google doc (I'm addicted to Google docs) with all of my favorite quotes! 

I love being thankful.

I'm thankful for:

• Torrey Smith's wife's tweets during Ravens games
• a boyfriend and best friend that take my half-birthday very seriously
• a best friend who has the same sense of humor as I do 
• really nice, super great Chili's employees
• the same teal scarf I wear every day because #fashion
• warm walking-weather into mid-November
• safe rides home late at night without deer friends out-and-about trying to hang with me
• times when I have mature conversations with my 8-year-old sister, Brooke
• my warm, comfy bed - every night when I go to sleep I think about how thankful I am for my 4 layers of blankets
• Anthony Allen's tweets about Maury
• the fact that people think of me when they see/hear "#yolo"
• work friends that get my life
• the nicest, sweetest, cutest doggie ever
• a supportive family, best friend, and boyfriend that all help keep me happy and smiling every day
• a younger sister who still thinks I'm funny even though she acts like she hates my life on Twitter
• online shopping - it makes me very happy hehehe
• a job - one where I work with fun people who like to do fun things 
• daily routines 
• a hilarious boyfriend that makes me laugh even when I don't want to support the weird-o things he does sometimes 
• never worrying that I'm going to be alone because of the great people in my life
• Pretty Little Liars - even if it is very frustrating
• my team 

I love weekends.

This weekend I:
ate way too many mini York peppermint patties. Paul started eating them in the past few weeks and now I find myself strangely addicted to them when I used to think they were stupid. 
spent the last hour of my work week with a meeting that consisted of Bohs and sushi. Probably the best + only way to spend the end of that crazy week.
bought lots of new things at Target -- totally unusual (not) -- including dry shampoo (finally) and the best (and cheapest) eyeliner pen. Shout out to Jackie for the recommendation on eyeliner -- I'm really excited.
hung out at my house + watched football with my bff and boyf. This is really great (and unusual) because I rarely hang out with both of them on a Sunday afternoon and even more rarely (probably terrible english, whoops my bad) at mi casa. 
started running again. Hey sore legs. Ouch. Feels good to be back at it, though, as it always does when I start running again after a long period of time without running anywhere ever.
got sleepy at Starbucks with Shannon. Just doesn't seem right, AM I RIGHT? The lighting in the Starbucks near my house makes me FALL ASLEEP while I drink my drank. That's life, I guess. I did get a new pretty Christmas cup - yaaay!
watched Paul play on his iPad. #iPad

I love happiness projects + November Resolutions.

“When I thought about why I was sometimes reluctant to push myself, I realized that it was because I was afraid of failure - but in order to have more success, I needed to be willing to accept more failure.” - Gretchin Rubin

After a pretty rough October for me and deciding to finally buy the Happiness Project in audiobook form so I can listen to it to-and-from work, I've decided to do my own little happiness project.

For those that don't know, The Happiness Project is a book in which Gretchen Rubin, the author, spends an entire year dedicating the time and effort to 'resolutions' each month in an effort to become even happier than she previously was. I, myself, consider myself a fairly happy person - even after the rough month I just had, just as she describes herself as being before starting her project. And just like she mentions in the book, I have acknowledged that I can be a happier person and that I'm the only person that can make that change. 

I know I could be more positive, happier with myself and more confident, less judgmental, more loving to the people in my life, etc. and that if I were these things, I'd be happier overall. 

Unlike Gretchen, who basically logged out her entire year and knew what each focus would be each month, I don't have that. I don't know if I'll do this for an entire year and right now I only have about 3 months worth of things I'd like to work on.  Ideally, I would start this in January because it's the mark of a new year - being that most "resolutions" come into play on New Years' Day - but I don't think that I can't wait until then I feel like I need to start now. I feel motivated to start now so I'm just going to start at the random month of November.

My November resolutions focus on becoming a healthier and more active person -- as if it were actually January 1st except I'm going to try to make this a lifestyle change (everyone's favorite buzzword when it comes to eating better and being more active, hahaha). I don't like to admit this to people that I'm not close with, but for those who don't know, I struggle with feeling confident about the way I look when it comes to my weight -- no matter how much I'm told that I look good. It's been an issue with me for about 8 years now. It started out terribly where I was young, not the brightest, and doing all the wrong things to stay thin and has now gotten to the point where I feel like I'm able to make smart and adult-like decisions. However, I still have a tough time sticking to a 'plan' when it comes to losing weight (and maintaining it) and getting to a weight where I know is good for me and my confidence. 
In a perfect world, I wouldn't start off focusing on this but it is something that is unfortunately very important to me and I know will give me the confidence to move forward with my other goals and resolutions in months to come. 

All of that being said, here are my November Resolutions.  
I keep these in a chart where each day, I check off whether or not I was able to stick to that resolution -- all in hopes that that will encourage me to stick to it!
1. Go for a run or do a 20-minute workout routine -- no excuses! 
2. Stick with Weight Watchers -- it truly is the best. I get embarrassed to say that I use it most times because I feel like I don't need to lose that much weight so people probably think I'm crazy to use it but it really is super easy and it's a way to keep myself on track without tracking my calories because I hate counting calories. I can also eat whatever I want basically which works for meeee! 
3. Walk + talk -- make an effort to move around more at work and at home because I have a terrible time being alive/active once I get home from work and I should make an effort to get up and walk with coworkers to lunch or just around the office. I don't need to be glued to my chair at work or my Macbook @ home
4. Say no to sugar --  most of the time. 

At the end of each month, I'm going to try to make a new blog post updating on how it went and what my new resolutions will be for the next month! Wish me luuuck :)

I really (don't) love juice cleanses.

Some may remember two months ago when I decided to try to lose a few pounds before Shannon's wedding (in order to fit into my bridesmaid dress...yup, that was my life) by going on a three-day juice cleanse. I posted several Instagram pictures of my juices when I first got them and a lot of people wanted to hear what I thought and how it was. 

Welp, it was horrible. It has taken me two months to write this because it's taken me two months to get over how awful it was, haha.

It seemed like an amazing idea. I love juice. I could easily drink juice nonstop for three days. I read up for weeks before trying to find the best (and the cheapest) ones based on reviews on other blogs, etc. I finally made a my pick -- the BluePrint Cleanse (Renovation). They had great packaging and the juices seemed decent. I found several awesome blog reviews of BPC, so I went for it. I spent $225.00 on 3 days of juice. 

Here's a little, mini-journal of what I went through. 

Day 1

Juice 1: Made my breath smell horrible - or so I thought. Wasn't the best way to start the day but it could have been worse. Drank it during a morning meeting so it got real warm and gross. The last few sips made me want to vom but I made it through somehow. Felt really accomplished.

Juice 2: Sounded amazing. Thought it would be one of the better ones. then I smelled it before I drank any of it and wanted to die. The first few sips are very minty...too minty. But the more I drank it the more I liked it.

After Juice 2: I was pretty alert and awake and not hungry and not wanting food immediately after. I felt kind of light and air-y and the mint taste stayed in my mouth for a bit after so when I was drinking water, it tasted really weird. After about 30 minutes of finishing, I started to feel tired and sleepy. An hour after that, things escalated quickly and I wanted real food for the first time all day. I became extremely hungry, heard a coworker making food in the microwave and thought I was going to die. At around 2:00pm I started to crave weird foods like tomato soup - the kind that they served us in our cafeteria in high school that was just water-y tomato juice. 

Juice 3: Same as juice 1 - my LEAST favorite. So yucky the second time around. It was a rough afternoon. Where's the pizza?

Juice 4: Really spicy. No joke about it being spicy lemonade. I had to drink it through a straw but that helped get it down. I still avoided it for about 45 minutes and then right before work, I just chugged it to get it down. It was not fun times.

On the way home, I felt a bit lightheaded again and kind of grumpy for the first time all day.

I got home, saw brownies on the counter, and wanted to die. 

Juice 5: As I started drinking it, I heard the ice cream truck. Never wanted ice cream so badly in my adult life. It hurt my heart. Ouch.

Juice 6: Clearly the highlight of my day. It was actually normal -- but it was chunky. I honestly thought that if the rest of my juices were like this one, I could maybe actually do it for the remainder of the cleanse. 

Day 2

Juice 1: Attempted to drink Juice 1 after waking up feeling sick to my stomach. Had one sip, almost got sick. Took a 5-minute break and came back to it. This time I tried to drink it while plugging my nose (because that's supposed to help me not taste it...right?). Couldn't do it. Went to the kitchen at work and threw it away. 

After Juice 1 (or the sip I had of it), things went downhill extremely quickly. I couldn't even think about drinking Juice 2...but I tried. 

Lunchtime rolled around and it was time for Juice 3 (same as Juice 1) again. Couldn't even look at it so I decided I just wouldn't drink any more juice that day. I wasn't going to break the cleanse, but I wasn't going to drink any of that juice either. 

Spent most of the afternoon with my head on and off my desk, looking exhausted. My lovely cubiclemates agreed that I looked pretty awful. Around 4:30, I really, honestly thought I wasn't going to make it. Decided that I was going to get a salad from Panera - just a regular ol' salad with tomatoes and cukes - nothing else. 

Got to Panera, decided I wanted a baguette too. Why not, right? Got home, ate my salad, went over to the kitchen and there were those same brownies that I saw the evening before and wanted so badly. I felt so sick to my stomach (as I did all day) but I knew that eating something more was going to feel really great. So I did it. I ate a brownie and never looked back.

So, that's that. So awful and horrible tasting that I actually gave up after 2 days and threw the rest of my juice away. I couldn't even give away. No one wanted it! Still, even two months later, I will randomly be sitting at work or in my car and I'll get a whiff of Juice 1/Juice 3 and want to gag. Forever punished. 

I love weekends.

Hi again, blog. Long time, no see! 

This weekend I:

visited Nick + Shannon (hehe, the Barrs) @ their new apartment finally. We got Chick-fil-a, drank pumpkin beer, and lol'ed. Best times. Can't wait for the Fantasy Football draft @ their place next weekend with so many snacks and so many pumpkin beers and me probably not getting a good team but still being really excited about it. 
celebrated my mom's birthday by taking her out to lunch @ Beck's with Catie - finally. We were only a month and a week late. Sowwy, mommy. John Mayer was our waiter (there's a waiter at Beck's that looks exactly like John Mayer) and the child/baby expo was going on outside on Main Street so it was amazing people watching from our table. Saw some cops on Segways and robots requesting high fives so that was pretty great, I guess. 
stopped by Gyspy Systers. Sigh. It's a really rough life because I want literally everything in there but then I get so overwhelmed by wanting everything and end up walking out with nothing. It's not right and it's not fair to anyone - especially myself.  I need to go back again soon and buy a million candles. And some purple feather earrings for football season :)
hung out with some neighbors that moved to South Carolina but stopped by for the weekend on a trip up to Syracuse. Hi, Momos! They brought some peaches from SC that might be the best peaches I have ever had...ever. So perfect. 

I'm going to try really hard to start posting more and making fun things and baking good foods so get excited! Hehehe. Lots of fun things coming up! 

I love Shannon('s birthday).

Happy birthday, Shannon! It's your golden birthdayyyyyy. Weeeeeee. Here are 24 reasons why you're awesome. 

1. You're the best. 
2. You've got nice hair. 
3. You've got a nice cat - see what I did there? Your cat is friendly - I can't deny it. 
4. You make me laugh more than anyone else. You make everyone laugh because you're hilarious and ridiculous.
5. You're so friendly. Actually friendly. I'm not saying friendly because you say friendly. You're actually friendly. 
6. You make people feel great. Thank you for that. How did we all get so lucky to have you in our lives? Not sure but thanks for that too. 
7. You are very generous. 
8. You're a good walking partner. Walking forever. 
9. You're good at making cupcakes. And also eating them with me. Cutcakes.
10. You are good at talking about Ed Sheeran. And Zac Efron. 
11. You love Disney as much as I do. Probably more but I appreciate you helping my love for Disney grow. I can't wait to go to Disney World with you and cry with you over Wishes. Cry is an understatement. I think we'll be sobbing - or at least I will be. You're the only person that I could ever do that with.
12. You're extremely understanding.
13. You love sports as much as I do. Mostly football. But baseball is okay too because Mannnyyy Achadddooo.
14. You love food as much as I do. Talking about food while we eat food.
15. You have a great taste in restaurants. Example: you love Chili's.
16. You are still friends with me even if I'm A. Also, I'm A. 
17. You remember everything. 
18. You are great at sports. 
19. You're awesome at school. So great at grad school right now. 
20. You try to see the best in everyone. 
21. You love Christmas so much. Happy Half Christmas Eve.
22. You're my blog's biggest fan.
23. You have some road rage in you which I can appreciate.
24. You're an amazing friend to me.

I hope you have the best day ever. Can't wait to celebrate with food. The only way to celebrate. 

I love(d) my four-day birthday weekend.

My birthday was Thursday. I'm 24 now. I had the best four-day birthday weekend. I'm a lucky gal. I'm also old (or getting there). Here's to hoping year 24 is as good as this weekend was!

During my birthday weekend, I:

• went to Chili's for my birthday lunch - it doesn't get much better than that. Shannon + I had the most energetic waitress (whose name was Lindsay - that's some birthday magic right there) and I basically yolo'ed on appetizers and Blue Moon. Best life.
• broke a plate or two and ate the best nachos and drank the best sangria at my birthday dinner with Paul at Cheesecake Factory. So yummy + so clumsy. 
• got a birthday shout out from my favorite NFL player on Twitter - Anthony Allen. I think I laughed so hard I cried for about five minutes. Seriously - anyone who knows me, knows I love the sht out of him. I was so happy. 
• ate the best birthday cake of all time - triple layer banana cake with peanut butter + cream cheese frosting. Mmmmmmm.
• made the trek down to Bethesda for dinner with Shannon + Catie. I love Bethesda. So many stores and great restaurants and most importantly of all - Georgetown Cupcake.
• made the tipsy mistake of purchasing an entire dozen of cupcakes. Why? I wish I knew. I can't eat 12 cupcakes on my own. That's not true. I probably could but I don't want to be sick everywhere (TMI or...?) and/or gain 10 pounds overnight. I learned that I shouldn't be going into a cupcake shop while tipsy because this is going to happen and it's just not a good idea.
• had my first frozen yogurt of the season. Also, it's worth noting that I ate gummy bears for the first time in a long time on my froyo - ugh, I love them. Such an addiction to gummy candies + Twizzlers lately. I'm a child. 
• spent the last afternoon of my weekend at the Fine Art + Wine Festival in Sykesville. Sangria, getting to see the new GypsySysters store, spending time with fun people. It was the best way to end my weekend.
• decided to commit to being a part of a football league with Shannon, Nick, Paul, etc. Should be good if all goes well!

I love May goals.

A while back, I was coming up with six goals per month. After a couple months, I noticed that the number of goals I was actually accomplishing was going down and down and down (and down and down and down). I went from doing six goals, to three, then doing zero. 

Goals are back, though! I wish I could call them "challenges" because that's more accurate. For example: since January, I've had two fairly huge "challenges" for myself. One was to go without Starbucks for as long as I possibly could. I went a whole 47 days without it! I think I broke the addiction because I think I have only gone twice since I broke. It's really exciting for me. 
The second challenge I had was to go as long as possible without drinking beer. I was just curious to see if I could go without it - but I'm not sure where I was going with that because clearly I need it. I attribute my love for beer - that has developed over the past year - to the pounds that have been added to my body. I guess what I learned from my 20 days without beer was that moderation is probably better for my life than no beer at all. Lesson learned.

Anyway, here they are!

1. Run 40 miles in the month of May
This shouldn't be too hard if I can stick to my running schedule. I've been able to easily run 2.5 miles -- which is huge for me. So if I can keep that up and throw in a couple 3 mile evening runs, I should be good. I'm excited! 
2. Organize my closet.
Here's a before picture for you. 

What a hot mess. It's gotten worse and worse over the last year - since I started working full-time. I have no time to clean it. That's a lie. I do have time, I'd just rather watch the previous night's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon than clean my closet out.
3. Make cake pops. 
Yup, this is actually a goal. I finally have all of the supplies to make cake pops - thanks to Shannon - so I need to do it. Pretty great goal.

I love(d) April.

I want to start off by thanking everyone who donated and helped me raise a (grand) total of $440 for the Maryland SPCA through the March for the Animals. I started out with a goal of $300 for this year which was around what I was able to raise last year. Of course I hoped to raise more than that but I never thought it would happen. It really means a lot to me (as I probably told you when you donated) so thanks times a million.

The walk itself was pretty great (after a fun morning of realizing Sasha had TOO much exercise the day before and was limping all morning because she was sore, haha). It was a chilly + windy morning which was kind of a bummer but I ended up getting pretty sweaty after having to pick Sasha up towards the end of the walk. Nope, I wasn't picking her up because she was sore still - she was actually fine the entire time. It was because at the end of the walk, there's a ton of vendors and a million dogs wandering around that are about 3x her size, haha. She can't handle it. She gets really timid and weird and won't walk - she'll just stand there. So I had to pick her up in order to get through the end of the walk without it taking 2 hours. Or rather, Paul and I had to take turns carrying her. Teamwork, haha.
One of the best parts of the walk was Art Jones hanging out at the "finish" line. He's huge. I should've chatted but I was too scared - typical life. Anyone even remotely famous intimidates me too much for me to go up and talk. What am I going to say to him? "You're awesome you're a Super Bowl champion let's go hang out at Hightopps come on let's hang out tell me what Flacco talks about in the lockeroom tell me all of the secrets." I'd say that all in one breath. That'll go over well, hahaha. Yeah...so didn't talk to him but got close to him and that's enough for creepy me.

More highlights from April:

• My dad's birthday - he's the best! Got him a card from Minted - I mentioned it a previous post but look at it (above). It's awesome. He liked it, of course. How could you not? 
• Two O's games in one month? Best. 
• Got my first Birchbox. I'd give it an 8 out of 10. The box it came in was probably the best part about the entire thing. I'm going to give it another try this month and see if it gets any better!
• Started running a lot more and worked up to being able to run an actual 5k (or 3.2 miles) without a problem. Here's to hoping I can do that next weekend at the Color Run! 

I love things lately.

Okaaaay. The title of this post isn't entirely true. The past week and a half have been a little bit on the rough side. If I'm being real, last week may have been the worst week I've had in years - so that was fun. Really great times. Luckily, this week is better and the good news is only two days until the weekend!

Instead of whining (and trust me, I could do it) about how incredibly annoying things/events/people/life was/were last week, I'm going to update you guys on some of the positive things that have been going on! 

I enjoyed Paul's birthday. I think he probably did too. We went out to his favorite restaurant - the fancy, magical Olive Garden - but went to the new one in Owings Mills which was surprisingly amazing. It's so new and nice and our waiter was kind of an a-hole but I didn't mind because he just did his job and didn't try to be too obnoxious - and I respect that, haha. Other than dinner, we didn't do a whole lot on his actual birthday - Sunday. Mostly just hung out with Sasha - which is enough fun on it's own, haha. We could have just done that the entire day. I love birthdays. Mine's next! Can't wait.

The weather has been amazing. I wish I had a better word to describe it but I don't want to go to thesaurus.com to look for another word and end up using something cheesy. I'll just stick to amazing. Traffic has been a hot mess (infuriating) disaster the past week and a half which is confusing but the best part about it is: I get to (kind of) be outside during my weekday. I like to think it's the traffic gods giving me a chance to enjoy the nice weather before heading inside to sit at my desk for 8 hours. Thanks, traffic gods. Love ya.

I do love me some new apps. Thanks to Kayleigh from Elliot in the Morning and her Instagram, I found the Nike Running app. This thing is the best. Not only does it track how much I've run/ran but it yells nice things at me while I do it. Well, not really. It just tells me how fair I've gone and my pace, etc. I like to think she's trying to motivate me and I like that. I run on a treadmill and didn't think that running apps could track how much I've run but I was wrong - this one can! I'm sure it'll come in handy once I start running outside too! I'd highly recommend it!

I've got a lot of work to do coming up. Doing a lot of thinking about my future - which is something I tend to try to not think about. Gotta do it sometime, I guess. 90% of me thinking about my future has been questioning "how soon in my life can I make cake pops because I'v never made them before and that needs to happen?" Things are getting serious, obviously. 

I love these things.

1. Minted -- sure there are plenty of sites where you can make customized cards with pictures, etc. but this place has free shipping. And it's easy peasy. And everything is so quirky like Zooey Deshannel. And I made the best birthday card for my dad on it.
2. Charm City Puppies' Easter-themed new puppy pictures. Seriously?
3. Finding out a new, less expensive and BETTER way to clean my make-up brushes. I had been using this weird concoction for months and it smelled SO BAD and it didn't work that well but I'm new to make-up brushes so I thought it was the only way to do it. Shout out to Pinterest.
4. Puppy Weather. Best app ever or best app ever? 

Also, HI. Woodbine Hotine's EP release show (and Benn's last show with WBHL) was announced and it's super soon. Come. Their new stuff is so good. It's only $5 and it's going to be great times. Here's some more info.

I love Etsy forever.

My typical Saturday morning: browsing around Etsy + favorite-ing items + putting them in my cart to buy when I'm feeling wild one weekday evening after work.

I've discovered a few things (and by a few, I mean 1,000+) that are super adorable and worth sharing! I'm not sure if you're aware, but Etsy has a TON of amazing things that I feel like not a lot of people know about! 

Here are some of my most recent finds that I'm having a hard time not buying: 

1. Chevron earrings in seafoam, $7.95

2. Merci postcards, $18.00

3. Wild and free tank, $28.00

4. Macaron sampler , $22.50

5. Grey chevron mini-lanyard, $7.50

6. Confetti birthday card, $2.90

7. Foldover clutch, $32.00

8. Watercolor funfetti iPhone case, $33.00

I love that food is the highlight of my life.

This week has definitely been a week. It hasn't been completely horrible but it hasn't been fantastic. Lots of stress (hi, work life), lots of ouch (hi, sore muscles from running more), and lots of sad life (bye, REEEEEEEEEED).

However, it is worth noting that I took a chance at the grocery store on Sunday night and tried yogurt that I wouldn't normally buy and it was one of the best ideas I've ever had. If you're at all interested in the type of yogurt I eat, I'll tell you. I normally only buy the honey Chobani and I eat it for breakfast every day when I get to work. And because I eat it for breakfast every day, I have a hard time seeing yogurt as something that can be eaten for dessert.
I guess I was feeling pretty yolo and wanted to live it up so I tried one of the dessert-y Chobani Flips...the almond, chocolate chip, coconut kind and it was incredible. 
After a rough day (oh, sigh) and the sad news about Ed Reed, I decided to try it and it seriously brightened my life and made me feel a little bit better. That's how I live, though. Typically food makes my life a lot better, hahaha. No shame.

It's also worth noting that at least March Madness has started. And at least Jacoby on Dancing with the Stars. Am I right?

I love St. Patrick's Day.

The days leading up to St. Patty's Day, I knew I wanted to make Lucky Charms cupcakes. But...all of the recipes I found were either gross (they used the yucky cereal part for a 'crust' for the cupcakes - barf) or too simple and didn't seem festive enough. So I came up with my own way of making them that made them more festive without being disgusting.

I bought:

• white cake mix
• a box of Lucky Charms - the smallest box available
• white icing
• green food coloring for the icing 
• green crystal-y sprinkles

I made the cake mix as it was supposed to be made according to the box, dumped a bunch of the marshmallows in and folded them into the cake batter, then put them in the oven! 

The icing was obviously just green food coloring and the white icing which I just mixed in a little mixing bowl. 

Then I decorated them with the green icing and more marshmallows.

That's it! The worst part was having to dig into the bag of Lucky Charms to get all of the marshmallows out. That took the longest.  But I think they turned out awesome! They're basically Funfetti cupcakes but with the marshmallows as the sprinkles.

I went with friends to Chili's - surprise! - to get food and drinks. Nothing flashy but it was really fun and they got to eat my cupcakes post Chili's.

I love weekends.

This weekend I:

• felt like I was VIP at Chili's with Shannon. Hilarious. If there's a wait, they don't even ask for my last name - they know it, we get seated before other couples that got there before us, we get the best booth in the restaurant, and we get to sneak back into the kitchen to say hi to Dan. (There's your blog shout out, Dan!) Also, shout out to Sean - you're the best. Chili's is probably my favorite restaurant and I don't care if that makes me uncool, hahaha. I love it.
• laid around like a big lazy lazy lazy and watched a lot of winning by the Caps and the Terps. It felt great, though. After last week's hot messiness, I needed to do nothing and just feel like my life was organized and good again. I also spent probably about 30% of the weekend trying to plan fun things to do in the spring because I am 110% over winter right now. 
• went wild in the picture frame section of Target. I'm really into buying photo prints on Snapfish lately. Reeeeeeally into it. So...I bought a lot of picture frames to put up in my room. I'm also about to go wild on Etsy and buy some quote prints. Excited!

Side note: look at what the Maryland SPCA put up on their Facebook Saturday afternoon. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  

Here's a link for you to click on so that you can hopefully donate at least $5.00. Even if only 7 people donate $5.00 each, I'll be at $100. That would be really awesome! 

I love J. Timb.

This past work week was one of the worst weeks I've had in quite some time. Why? Did something horrible happen? No...nope. Nothing horrible happened. I can't think of one bad thing that happened all week - other than traffic, maybe. And at this point, I don't consider that bad, really. Just normal, haha. 

Why was it so bad then? I had a serious case of Negative Nancy-itis and I could not shake it. Nothing was bad - but I was able to make anything bad in my head just by putting a negative spin on it. FUN. One of the most frustrating things for me is being in a negative mood/grumpy mood and not being able to get out of it - no matter how hard I try. It actually ends up making my mood even WORSE because I'm mad I can't change it. That's my life.

I was starting to get really wild and out of control by Wednesday evening -- not even some online shopping and a run while watching Ellen could help me at that point (WHATTTT?).

And then...Thursday morning at 10:00am happened. 

After a lot of anxiety (hey, Jackie) and stress and finding out (the hard way) that apparently our work computers hate it a lot if you try to buy tickets from Ticketmaster so they won't let you order them, I was able to get Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z tickets at M&T for me and Paul! Ahhhhh yessssss. We're way at the very top, in the back - usually where we sit for Ravens games, haha. But that doesn't matter! Tickets weren't that expensive and I get to see my crush that I've had since elementary school in real life again and be in the presence (it kind of counts...even if I am really far away) of Jay-Z. 

After this, my brain and my week got good and life is normal again. So, just want to shout out to the Ticketmaster gods for hooking me up with being able to buy tickets under $100.00 so I could afford tickets. Thanks a lot. 

Oh, and P.S. - feel free to click here and help me raise $$$ for the little puppies and kittens.

I love weekends.

I've felt so unproductive the past few weeks/weekends but this weekend I feel like I finally got my groove back.

This weekend I:
brought my bangs back to life. They've been missing for probably the last 2 months and I'm so happy to have them back. My face isn't the same without them. I need them in my life. My stylist/hairdresser laughed at me because I was so excited about her cutting them, haha. She said, "it's the little things in life." Holla. Except bangs are not little things to me. They are everything.
hooked myself up with a new purse. Finally. FINALLY. I have been using the same one for probably two years and that's not very girly of me. I'm so picky about my purses/bags which is the main reason why it's taken so long. I'm also cheap and can't afford all of the nice ones that I actually do want. Either way, I went to Target and found the perfect one. It was only $30.00 (the cheap-o in me was so happy) and it's just perfect. Again, it's the little things in life. But purses are kind of big things, right?
celebrated my BFFs new kind-of job (or field placement) by going to Chili's. Chili's is the perfect place to celebrate. And you know what? It got her a free molten cake. Where else could you get free food/dessert just because you're celebrating something? PROBABLY NO WHERE. Chili's is the best. 
watched some of the NFL combine with Paul on Sunday morning. Hilarious. Google "Mike Glennon" and TELL ME HE DOES NOT LOOK LIKE HE'S 16 OR 17. He's my new obsession because I'm going to love laughing at how young he looks. Can't wait til he gets drafted. He'll be the new Anthony Allen. Or maybe not. No one can replace Anthony Allen in my life. But this Mike Glennon kid already has me lol'ing. I've got a weird sense of humor, I guess.
played (more like watched) baseball with Shannon, Nick, Paul, and Steve. I'm definitely not very sportsy. I try (sometimes). Can it be spring already so I can be outside and not be whining about the wind/how cold my hands are?

If you haven't donated and want to, there's still plenty of time! My Fundraising Page.

I love 5ks + animals.

Christmastime craziness + work ridiculousness + being lazy because it's winter and cold weather and snow make me lazy + Disney vacation life + being astronomically (yeah, it was that bad. I don't think I've ever used that word in a sentence before) sick have kept me away from blogging for the last 2-ish months. But I'm going to try really hard to update a lot again!

A lot has happened but luckily (or is it lucky? I graduated college) for everyone that reads this and doesn't care about any of my life recaps - in which case, you should stay away from my blog, I have a horrible memory and can't remember anything that happened (in detail). So...instead, I'm going to talk about two things that are coming up that I'm really looking forward to.

It took indecisive me about 2-3 weeks to decide I was ACTUALLY going to do it, but I registered for my first 5k and it's the Color Run! I'm doing with some of the same lovelies that I spent my SuperBowl night with (AHHH RAVENS AHHHH WORLD CHAMPS WHAT'S UP). They've already seen one bad side of me - the side where I drop all of the bombs (F bombs, etc) and make up inappropriate insults (like Kaeperbitch) - so I'm excited for them to also see the side of me that's sweaty and gross too! Bonding. Obviously, I'm also pumped about just getting to do my first 5K and it being the "happiest 5k on the planet." I started running again today. Doing a mile has been my speciality for years so stepping it up to 3.1 miles might be a challenge but I'm excited about it! I gotta get myself in shape anyways so it works out. 

Remember last year when I first started this blog and blogged about the Maryland SPCA March for the Animals? Did you hate that I would always talk about it and ask for you to donate $$$? If so, I'm really sorry because here we go again, hahaha. 

Here's a link that will take you where you can donate: My Fundraising Page.

Please donate? Please? For me? For Sasha? If you don't do it now, be grateful that I'll give you other chances via Facebook, Twitter, etc. over the next few weeks! 

It really is for a good cause. The Maryland SPCA is the greatest. And a big bonus is if I get to my goal of raising $300, I'll buy Sasha an adorable costume to walk around in (TBD)! Last year there were a few beagles dressed up as sharks. COME ON. Imagine the pictures. 

Last year, my goal was $250.00 and I'm pretty sure with the help of a lot of really great people, I exceeded that. Please donate and just imagine Sasha (possibly) in this costume: