30 in 29

been feeling a bit too much like this lately


Our budget around here has been a little tight and I don't go outside when it's under 60 degrees so lets just say there hasn't been a lot of exercise going on around here. I'm joining a gym tomorrow, thankfully the university gym is in our budget but a pain in the (*^% to join. A few years ago I did a 30 miles in 30 days challenge and it was great. I lost 10 pounds that month, maintained my exercise and felt great. So this year I'm going hardcore and doing 30 miles in 29 days :) lol, to fit it into February.
I'll probably do some motivational posts on Mondays to get me pumped and do a tally on Fridays just to keep things going. I'll mostly be exercising monday-thursday and maybe some on Saturday with the pups. I'm thinking I'll just do 2 miles a day 4 days a week- that's 32 miles. That way i'm not pushing too much, but just enough and getting into the swing of things! Wish me luck!!

Have any motivational/reward suggestions?

oh Monday- can I hide under the covers from you?

rockin' out to new music from http://ilistentoeverything.com this morning- making it more than bearable especially when Jay Z. and Kanye come up on the playlist

Valentines wreath

a tad blurry



I had some boas laying around from my bachelorette party and this was a great way to use them. It makes me giggle a bit when looking at it. I combined the boas with a hanging sign I've had for awhile with no good place to put it- I used to have big thing with fish decorations. This guy is a cutie. My little puppy, Haplo, joined in with me and helped decorate. He likes feathers :)




it's a little much for our neighborhood but the husband says the over the top-ness of it will be just fine for the few weeks before valentines day. Regardless- I think it will make coming home from long stressful days at work even more delightful :)

Sending a little love into the universe

I just can't say it enough- I love my husband. He is adorable and handsome and so intelligent. He is continually impressing me and making me laugh. I don't know what I'd do without him.
He has been looking for a job recently and it hasn't been easy. But this week he has blown it out of the water! Two phone interviews, two in person interviews and one next week. My baby is kicking ass :) He's off on an interview right now and I couldn't be more proud. Like beaming over here.
So, I'm sending a little love to him through our mental connection of love and I'm sending some love to these fabulous companies that should totally hire him. Because he's amazing :)

Thrifty Thursday

We've just started the coupon hunt around here about a month ago and this is our best score yet. Over a pound of oatmeal and a four pack of lightbulbs. We got this deal by combining target printable coupons with newspaper coupons in conjunction with Target sales.




That's Right!!! I paid just 31 cents. I see a bright future with lots of oatmeal cookies, oatmeal bread and....got any oatmeal baking ideas? Deal ends Saturday- go grab yours!

Tuesday Tutorail-Drab to Fab in two steps

step 1-start with your in great shape but faded out mess:



step 2- ghetto style it because we don't all have cricuts (do we?) duct tape and cardboard cut out:


add a $0.97 can of spray paint:


and voila! a like new doormat!

okay- so it's not perfect, but we gotta start somewhere. Next time I'm doing a harlequin style a la Ballard designs but for now this is enough of a pop at our door and after a day it was worn in and looks perfect.

Valentines decor

"vows, young couple, man and wife"

It's time! Yay for the month of love and hearts and ushy gushy-ness and flowers. bring it on!!
I don't usually decorate much for Valentines day, just a little something here and there. This year I added a few extra touches that I'm really enjoying. Everything centers around my favorite Penguins. These guys are adorable. I found them at an antique store in Winston-Salem years ago and they are hands down my favorite decoration of all time. Their 'fur' is made up of tiny little beads and yes, that's hand-knitted scarves around them. I was just passing through Winston so I've never been back to the store, but boy was it a gem. What a find. This is my main table that you see when you walk into the house, since we don't have a fireplace I decorate it as I would a mantle. Which is fine by me, I love this little table. Here is the before picture of what I had up in January, although I thought about taking it after I started taking things down so it's missing a few items but you get the gist...




And here it is ready for Valentine's Day- that precious penguin family isn't going anywhere! I added fleece hearts and xox to their scarves, made a simple frame insert and then worked on the vase filler. I found these wonderful vine branches off the side of the road and spray painted them white. I just love the inter twining and twisting. Then I cut up a romance book from Goodwill into hearts, glittered the edges of some, burned the edges of others for some depth and circled some lovey (sometimes dirty-hey it's just me and my mister) words, ya know things like "perfect bride," "i will love you forever," "wedding" etc. Total cost about 1.50 and it is perfect for me-simple and romantic. I like the basic red and white . oh, and the heart is from Michael's last year after sale. gotta love it :)