Back To Blog – #InstaCatchUp

Hey everyone, Happy Sunday!

It’s been a while, a long while, since I put up a new post. I don’t have an exciting excuse as to why I disappeared, it was just due to work. We’ve gone through layoffs AGAIN, and we lost someone on our team. So I’ve taken on more work, and I’ve gone from treading water to full out drowning each day. It’s been tough to steal a few hours away to blog and do house projects. But I miss it and you guys, so I’m going to try and make a stronger effort to blog a few times a week again.

I’ll keep it short today and just share a few instagram pics that I’ve taken lately. You can click the link below to follow me on Instagram.

Follow @addisonshaw 

My little bug had a episode of tremors (a very mild seizure) a few weeks ago. There is nothing that makes me feel more panicked than realizing my pup is in trouble and I have to carry all 95 lbs of him down three flights of stairs and rush him to emergency because he’s can’t walk. It was terrifying. Of course by the time I got to the doctor, he was fine so I just looked like the crazy dog lady. They ran tests and he’s perfectly healthy, so hopefully it was a one time thing.

I’ve recently become ADDICTED to watching YouTube beauty videos when I can’t sleep at night. I love the shopping haul, monthly favorites, and empties videos so I can see what other people are buying and recommending. I love beauty products, but I haven’t invested much time into myself over the past few years. Apparently that’s over! I’ve been on a HUGE beauty binge lately. This was a recent Sephora, MAC, and Papyrus haul. That’s not even the half of it folks! Seriously, someone needs to stop me.

I also tried gel nails for the first time recently. I did these myself at home using a Gelish Mini Basix kit that I bought from Sally Beauty. I don’t know why I waited so long to try gel nails, I LOVE them! I took this picture after about 4 days, but they are still on my nails and it’s been nearly 2 weeks. I did do a little fill after a week to hide the grow out, but otherwise it looks amazing. The coolest part is that the silver polish you see in the French tips is not gel polish, it’s just regular Sally Hansen Xtreme Polish in Celeb City. Knowing that I can use my regular polish in a Gel Manicure has me totally hooked. I might do a tutorial on how I did the manicure in a future post, so let me know if you’d be interested in that.

Pretty flowers I found on Easter Sunday. They made me smile.

More beauty stuff…told you I was addicted. I scored a great deal at House of Lashes recently so I stocked up since they are my absolute favorite full lash strips, especially their Au Naturale collection.

Boredom ensued while I was waiting for my eye appointment last weekend. I don’t take pictures of myself very often, but here ya go.

Ok…I swear this is it for the beauty stuff…for now. I joined Julep Maven which is a monthly subscription box of nail polish…I mean, really…like it took much to pull out my credit card for that one. I do love that you get to preview the box each month before it ships. If you don’t like what’s in your box, you can swap boxes for a different one, or you can skip it completely and save your money that month. I used coupon code, JULEPVIP, to get my first box for just a PENNY! If the code no longer works, check out RetailMeNot for current promotion codes.

Alright, that’s it for today. I have a few furry houseguests right now, so I have to go hang out with my little doggie entourage. I hope you all have a great weekend, talk to you soon (I promise!).

My Favorite Moment of the Week & Grocery Challenge

I can’t believe it’s Wednesday already! I hope everyone’s week is going well.

I need to catch up a bit. So my favorite moment of last week was on Sunday. We had beautiful weather and my little pup and I took a long walk down a local trail.

For both my sanity and his mini waistline, we’ve started taking longer walks during my lunch hour (as often as possible). I usually have to work through my lunch so I’m trying to sneak away when I can, and zone out during a walk. It also gives me a chance to listen to a podcast or audio book. I’m really loving Jillian Michaels free podcast on iTunes right now, lots of great health/nutrition info. This past Sunday, Bubba went for his longest walk in a long time. Since I’m writing this on Wednesday morning, I can say he actually went even further on Monday. He was like a little energizer bunny.

We saw some beautiful scenery. I had no idea there was a large horse ranch behind the trail near my house, it was gorgeous.

On to the food. Last week I totally forgot about the Super Bowl [I don’t have cable, so I obviously wasn’t going to watch it], and went grocery shopping on Saturday with the rest of the world. BIG MISTAKE. The lines were crazy.  

The Budget: $40

I Spent: $38.82 (Henry’s, Trader Joe’s)

Leftover for the Piggy Bank: $1.18

 

The Goods:

• Rotisserie Sliced Chicken
• Broccoli Florets
• Shredded Mozzarella
• Frozen Turkey Meatballs
• Fat Free Sour Cream
• Cage Free Eggs [1 Dozen]
• Chobani Plain Yogurt
• Flank Steak [1lb]
• Mushrooms
• Organic Fuji Apples
• Carrots [5lb] – dog treats
• Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

I still had spinach, kale, and romaine leftover from last week so I skipped those in this trip, and instead focused on meat/dairy which cost more overall. I won’t need most of the above next week, so I’ll replenish the veggie stash on the next trip.

 

Tentative Meal Plan:

Monday: Quick Beef Stroganoff 

Tuesday: Ricotta Broccoli Stuffed Shells & Kale Salad

Wednesday: Honey Mustard Chicken & Veggie

Thursday: Leftover Ricotta Broccoli Stuffed Shells

Friday: Feta Chicken Burger & Veggie

Saturday: Sausage Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash [?]

Sunday: Tomato Soup Leftovers

 

Reader Question:

A couple of people pointed out that I seem to cook most meals, and asked if I’m making full size recipes or adjusting for just one person. Truth is, I cook 99.9% of my meals. I don’t eat out often, maybe 2-3 times a month. I love cooking, so it’s enjoyable for me to make food at home. To answer the size question, most of the time I make the whole recipe so that I can freeze the additional servings for future ‘freezer meals’. For example, The ‘Quick Beef Stroganoff’ recipe made 4 servings. I ate one on Monday night, I have one in the fridge for lunch this week, and froze the other 2 servings for future meals. I do the same for most recipes and love having premade ‘freezer meals’ ready to go throughout the week. Right now I have Chili, Tomato Soup, and Beef Stroganoff all ready to be heated in the freezer. The Feta chicken burger recipe will make 4 patties, so I’ll eat one on Friday and freeze the rest. You get the point.

I also do this with cookie dough. I like baking cookies…I do not like having 3+ dozen cookies in the house. So I will make a half/full batch, bake a few (like 5), then freeze the rest. For basic dough, like chocolate chip, you can scoop the batter into cookie size scoops onto a plate or cookie sheet and put in the freezer to set. Once frozen, you can put the frozen cookie dough balls in a bag and bake as needed in the future.

I mean, really…can you ever have enough cookie dough in your freezer?

2013 Principles [How To Be The Best Me]

I’ve been putting a lot of thought into if I wanted to set any goals in the new year, and took nearly a month to actually post something! Since I set specific goals around my birthday [30 in 30], I decided that I wasn’t doing any New Year’s Resolutions this year. No need to overwhelm myself with more goals when I have plenty to work on before my birthday in May. So instead of New Year’s Goals or Resolutions, I decided to focus on 10 principles to live by.

Once I wrote out the list, I realized that this isn’t how I want to live in just 2013…it’s how I want to live my whole life. I think most are self explanatory and you can certainly adjust them if you’d like to use a similar list for yourself. I think the one that probably needs clarification is, ‘Don’t Take Anything Personally’. I took this principal from the book, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book). It means exactly what it sounds like, but the author can explain much better than I as to why it’s so important. I praised this book when I originally read it in March 2012, and you can read more about my impression in this post. That book changed the way I live my life now, and I would recommend it to anyone that’s ready to listen to the message.

 

So there you go, that’s what I’ll be focusing on in 2013 (and beyond).

 

What would you add if you were making a [how to live your best life] list?

My Favorite Moment of the Week & Grocery Challenge

It has been very rainy for the past few days…and I’ve been loving every second of it! I love the rain and gloomy weather, and after a 110 degree summer, I adore these kinds of days. That photo was taken yesterday when I came home from breakfast, but it’s a tie for my favorite moment of the week. This past week was really good, and I’ve had a lot of favorite moments. I spent a girls day with my mom early last week where we went shopping and had lunch, and I cancelled my cable this week so I’ve been reading a lot more…not to mention the $130 back in my pocket each month. I achieved a 25 lb weight loss so I was able to get my 25lb reward, a new heart rate monitor. I picked up the white Polar Ft40F Women’s Heart Rate Monitor Watch(White) and am loving it! I meant to get this part of the post up on Sunday, but as I type this on Monday I’ve actually reached 30lb weight loss. I assign rewards to every 5 pounds so I also picked up the 30lb reward which was a new yoga mat, I chose the Manduka Black Mat PRO 71-Inch Yoga and Pilates Mat . These are things that I was saving money for anyway, but instead of just buying them a few weeks ago I decided to achieve a weight loss goal before cashing in.  I’ll do a separate post on the workout program I’m doing right now, but I can say that I’ve never felt better and am seeing MAJOR changes in a short amount of time.

Since I forgot to put the Favorite moment post up yesterday, I’m going to combine it with today’s Grocery Challenge post. I took a picture of the grocery haul this week, but apparently I deleted it. Bummer. Instead I’ll share a few pictures of recent eats. I don’t consider myself a food blogger so I don’t ever plan to post daily eats on a regular basis; however, I do tend to put health/food pictures up on my instagram account. You can follow me at @addisonshaw

Greek yogurt, blueberries, raw honey, and Quinoa Crunch [kind of like a quinoa granola]

Homemade Tomato Pasta Soup and Grilled Cheese

Wasa Toast topped with Avocado and Eggs along with a sprinkle of parmesan. So good!

Apples and Peanut Butter. I have to hide in the office when I eat this or my dog tries to steal it from me. Seriously, that pup has a peanut butter addiction.

Homemade Turkey Meatball Pizza.

Garlic Snow peas with a salad made of Shrimp, Avocado, tomatoes and Cilantro Dressing. Side of Wasa Toasts. I was going for a bruschetta type thing. It was AMAZING.

Spaghetti Squash Meatball Bake, cooked in pan instead of the squash shell.

 

This week…

The Budget: $40

I Spent: $36.64 (Henry’s, Trader Joe’s, Target)

Leftover for the Piggy Bank: $3.36

 

The Goods:

Ricotta Cheese

Cage Free Organic Eggs [1 Dozen]

Chocolate Croissants

Cilantro Salad Dressing

Whole Wheat Pita Bread Pockets

Kale

Organic Spinach

Organic Romaine

Broccoli Florets

Chobani Greek Yogurt [16oz]

Vanilla Coconut Milk [Half Gallon]

Colby Jack Cheese [about 1/2 lb from the deli section]

Sirloin Tip Steak [4oz]

Carrots [5lbs] – Dog Treats

 

I’m still using the Out of Milk app and loving it. It makes it so easy to keep track of items to buy throughout the week.

 

Tentative Meal Plan:

Monday: Spaghetti Squash Bake [pictured above]

Tuesday: Steak Fajita Pita Pockets

Wednesday: BBQ Chicken & Veggies

Thursday: Basil Tilapia & Veggies

Friday: Chicken Parmesan & Veggies [instead of pasta]

Saturday: Eggs & Yam Hashbrowns

Sunday: Homemade Chili [leftover from my freezer stash]

 

 

*Some links contained within this post are affiliates.

My Favorite Moment of the Week

Lately I’ve been doing a DVD workout series that takes about 30 minutes a few times a week. On Thursday, my pup decided that he was feeling left out. So in the middle of the ab work section, he decided to use me as a chair and proceeded to lick my entire face. Trying to push him away, in dog speak, meant it was play time. I ended up pausing the video and just playing with him for about 20 minutes. Laughing that hard works the abs anyway, right? [That was my favorite moment]. He was so happy to play that he grabbed my shoe, and ran around me in circles. Apparently his own toys just weren’t cutting it. The sweet moment took a bad turn when he then tried to kill the shoe.

 

In case your wondering…the shoe survived…

 

…as did the dog.

My Favorite Moment of the Week

It’s Sunday morning. ’m curled up on my couch with a big cozy blanket, a good book, and a warm chocolate croissant with a cup of tea. After a great night’s sleep, it’s the best way to spend a lazy morning at home. It’s the moment when all the stress from the week melts away. Where I can relax, breathe again, and enjoy a special moment of peace and pure happiness.

What makes it better…the 90 lb lab curled up on my feet, snoring.

Pretty much the perfect morning.

What is the best moment from your week?

Let’s Catch Up

Greeting from 39,000 feet, somewhere above Arizona! I’m currently flying from San Diego to DC to spend a week with family. This is my first time visiting their place since they moved cross country about 2 years ago, so I’m ridiculously excited. I didn’t even mind the crazy 3:45am wake up call this morning to catch my early morning flight. I scored super cheap roundtrip tickets through Southwest recently and the early morning flight time was the only option, but the inexpensive cost was worth it. It’s also nice that the plane is nearly empty so I have an entire row to myself! Hopefully that lasts when do a quick layover in Texas.

I really wanted to check in and apologize for disappearing the last few weeks. It was completely unintentional and I really missed blogging. However, the day job took over and then I got sick. The cold from hell knocked me out over the Thanksgiving holiday, I even lost my voice for the last week. Needless to say, it’s nice to be able to talk again without sounding like a life long smoker. It was bad.

Aside from work and being sick, not much happened around the house in terms of projects. I’ve been slowly deep cleaning my entire house and pulling items for donation. Essentially Spring cleaning in November.

Thanksgiving was low key since our family is small, but really nice. We had a delicious meal and then my mom and I bundled up for our yearly girls night out for Black Friday shopping. I ended up finishing almost all my Christmas shopping on BF this year, and per usual, I scored a bunch of great deals for me as well. We typically hit the Outlet mall first, but regular stores opened really early this year so we started at Target (and Starbucks – required to shop all night), then hit up the local outlet mall where we spent a few hours. Next we went to Sports Authority, then over to Dicks Sporting Goods, then (like the crazy people we are) we went past the mall. We ended up getting home around 3am and went to bed. Later in the day we went past Best Buy and Frys. I was surprised that it wasn’t that busy during the day at Best Buy, and they still had ‘doorbusters’ on hand. I was able to score the Dell monitors for super cheap and speed through the line.

So what did I get? (I did not include any item that is a gift for someone else, just in case they read this post.)

Best Buy:

• 2 Dell 24” Monitors (I’m working on the office remodel)

Target

• The Big Bang Theory DVD Season 5
• Girl with the Dragon Tattoo DVD

Crocs Outlet

• 2 pairs of Crocs on BOGO Free sale (I wear them when I walk the dog since he likes to dance in the mud on a daily basis and it destroys all my other shoes. While they aren’t my most attractive shoes, I can easily rinse them off when we get home without ruining them.) They cost me $10 each.

Adidas Outlet

• Dark Purple Cropped sweatpants
• White Hat

Banana Republic Outlet

• 2 long sleeve sweaters (Teal and Purple)
• Blue Dress

Fossil Outlet

• 2 long necklaces
• 2 watches (50% off, and BOGO 50% on top of that!)
• 3 bracelets

Cosmetics Outlet Shop

• Bobbi Brown ‘Beach’ soap
• Smashbox face powder

 

  

I’ll be back while I’m on vacation to share some of our adventures (I hear we may go ice skating!) and I do have an easy DIY project to share to dress up simple art around the house.

I think I might try to get a nap in on the flight since I can stretch out. See ya from the east coast!

Guess Who?

They’re baaaccckkk!

…and making themselves right at home. Poor Jake, if it wasn’t for that 90lb lab bouncing around, he’d own this house. Instead he hides on the top of the couch while the lab tries to figure out how he got up there.

The beagles are visiting for a few weeks so it’s a full house over here. Baxter is being a very kind host…so far.

It seems fitting that this weekend will be dedicated to working outside since the puppies will be around. With the the 100+ degree heat lately, the grass in my yard hasn’t done well. Even with watering twice a day, it burned. After a few weeks of trying to keep everything alive, I decided to let it go and find another option.

Lowes carries an impressive artificial grass by SynLawn and they recently started carrying pre-cut rolls that you can install yourself. This is perfect as I don’t want to pay for installation since my grass set up is a little different. If you remember, I have a yard covered with concrete so I’m working with DIY grass planters. I’ve done some research and it should be fairly easy to replace the real (dead) grass with the artificial grass over the weekend. It is a little expensive, but it doesn’t have to be replaced every couple months and doesn’t require water. It should end up saving me money in the long run and look nice year round. I’ll share more next week once it’s done.

[the small grass planter when it was first built]

I’ve also recently purchased a new toy, a Cuisinart Immersion Hand Blender in Raspberry for a secret little project I’ve been working on lately. I launched the interest list a few days ago, so I guess the secret’s out. I’m currently writing a recipe eBook that will be available in October, I’ll do a separate post to share more. For now, I’ll just say, if you like this apple butter, then you’re going to LOVE what I’m working on.

Oh, and this happened…

They are just too cute (and on sale/clearance).

 

What are your weekend plans? Anything fun?

 

*some links contained within this post are affiliate.

A Few Of My Favorite Things This Weekend

I’ve been staring at the screen all day trying to put this past weekend into words. However, my brain stopped working when I was forced into an early morning work call today, so nothing witty is coming to mind. So I’ll simply say that I LOVED this past weekend.

We’ll just zoom past work on Friday, because that is most certainly not awesome…but the project I worked on that night was incredibly awesome. I finally got around to cutting the mats for some art I bought a while back. I’ll do a separate post on these, but all three pieces are different and BEAUTIFUL. I went with a neutral dark grey mat to set off the colors. I can’t wait to show you the finished art wall. 

Thank you little puppy for the photo-bomb. I swear, that camera comes out and he just parks his butt right in frame.

Saturday involved a trip down to San Diego to pick up my 5K bib and drinks at a Mexican Restaurant. That Strawberry Margarita was delicious, as were the 3 bowls of chips we ate…ahem…before dinner. Carb loading at it’s finest.

Even though I had my phone in my hand for the entire 5K, I took a grand total of 0 pictures. I was too busy talking to my friend who did the 5K with me. For those keeping tally, that means I get to cross something off the 30 in 30 list. I’ve officially finished a 5K with a friend! Although I was a little bummed that we didn’t get medals, but I suppose the chocolate milk and coconut water was an acceptable replacement.

The rest of my Sunday was spent chatting with my friend and shopping with my mom. By the way, GAP has some really cute workout gear right now (and it’s 30% off online through 8/21/2012).

I picked up this top in pink, but hurry since it looks like they are selling out fast online.

I also picked up a Zoku Quick Pop Maker and Zoku Tool set . Both were on super clearance at JC Penny’s, and by super clearance I mean 50% off.

 

I spent the night at my parents house this weekend since it was closer to the 5K, and they could look after my dog while I was gone. Aside from getting to see them, there was the added bonus that they have air conditioning since mine is broken (in both my house and car). My puppy thoroughly enjoyed the visit, probably because he didn’t have to sit in front of a fan with a frozen towel on his head like he does at my house.

Today it’s back to the daily grind, but I’m on countdown. Four more days until I get a week off of work! It worked out for me to finally take a vacation. It’s great timing since I haven’t had one for about 9 months and I’m completely burned out. I can’t wait to sleep in and turn off the work phone.

 

What did you do this weekend?

 

 

*Zoku links are affiliates.

CSA Box #7 & Weekend Wrap Up

Where is this month going? I can’t believe June is almost over and I’ve barely had a chance to get any blog posts up. When not working, this month has really been dedicated to getting all those ‘homeowner’/adult chores out of the way, and I wouldn’t want to bore you with them anyway. I’ll spare you the numerous screens I repaired this weekend or the outlet covers I’ve swapped out. Oh, and not to mention all those little springy things behind the doors (my technical jargon for a door stop), yeah…I’ve been busy changing those out too. Turns out the previous owners were a little tough on their doors and busted most of the bumpers, and the ones that aren’t broken are missing altogether. For some reason they never ranked high enough on the ‘To Do’ list until now.

 

Not to worry, I’ve been making progress on a few other very important things too. I finally organized all my nail polish. ::sigh:: That’s actually not a joke, I built boxes to organize my nail polish which I’ll show you in another post. I also did some gardening and the Spare Bedroom moulding has finally been primed and painted. I hope to have the headboard up this week. Then I can move to the very fun task of ceiling fan shopping (why are they all SO ugly?).

So at the moment, I’m covered in paint (and hives, although that is unrelated to the paint) and I’m getting ready to put my shoes on for a run, so I’ll leave you with a few pictures from the weekend.

 

My local Farmer’s Market

The cute little Old Town that I visit every 2 weeks to pick up my CSA box.

 

Speaking of CSA…lots of green this week.

I think it’s time to turn some zucchini into Dark Chocolate Zucchini Bread…Yum!

…and some delicious berries

Baxter and I both dig into the CSA box like it’s Christmas morning. I go straight for the strawberries and he likes to split his time between sniffing the box itself and begging for carrots.

He’s just too cute.

 

I don’t want to give too much away right now, but the Spare Bedroom is making some serious progress. The brown wall color is going to change and new bedding/window coverings are in the works, but I LOVE it so far. That’s huge, since I’ve painted this room 4 times so far. Finally a design success for this room.

I also thought I’d give you a little update on the garden since a few of the plants are doing really well.

I’ve been eating tomatoes out of my own backyard this week, they are amazing. Sweet & delicious, and that’s coming from someone that doesn’t like tomatoes. I have an Early Grey 50 plant in harvest right now, and a Brandywine Pink that’s flowering.

This plant stumps everyone that visits. They always want to know what I’m growing in the trash can.

It’s Potatoes!!

I never did a how to on the potatoes since I didn’t expect them to survive. However, they have done incredibly well in the trash can (although I haven’t harvested yet, so we’ll see what they produce). They still have a month or two until they’re ready.

That’s it for the edibles right now, although I do have some herbs growing and I’m planting onions and zucchini next weekend. I also have some thriving succulents outside right now. This is my favorite.

 

Hope everyone has had a great weekend!