Stuff I Ate

Hey guys! Well, this post is a few days late but it's here! I'm trying to get back into the hang of taking pictures of my meals and haven't been doing a great job but I have a few pictures to share with you. I've also been doing better with my sleep this week but I've been oversleeping a little and therefore rushed in the morning… also making it difficult to take pics. But, I managed to get a few so here they are!

This is a Caramel Apple Overnight Oatmeal Smoothie from Running With Spoons that I had for breakfast one day (I found it on Pinterest)! The flavor was DELICIOUS but the texture was a little off for me. It wasn't super smooth, even after adding more almond milk but I LOVE the flavor so I'm probably going to turn this into a hot oatmeal and eat that for breakfast. YUM!! Oh and the only change I made was to switch the chia seeds out for ground flax seeds.

This is a chopped salad that I purchased when I was out running errands on Thursday night. I got it from Fairway and it wasn't chopped as fine as I like it but it was good nonetheless. It is romaine, carrots, cucumber, chickpeas, sun dried tomatoes and asparagus. I topped it with a red wine vinaigrette. 

This was leftover takeout that I had gotten. It is steamed tofu with broccoli and I topped it with a few spoonfuls of a spicy garlic sauce. Very yummy.

Finally, this is a terrible pic but I've been eating lots of oatmeal lately. It is definitely my favorite winter breakfast and this is my favorite way to eat it. It has cinnamon, a little stevia and banana. I'll probably add some ground flax seeds in the future because they are so good for you and has a nice nutty taste. Yum.

So that is some of what I ate this week! Hopefully each week I'll get a little better at taking pictures of what I ate and you'll have a more well rounded idea of some of my meals. 

I've been trying to figure out a good posting schedule and my favorite schedule that I've come up with so far would be the following:

Monday: Plan With Me - I'll show my new (empty) spread for the upcoming week so you can get an idea of the rough outline and also show how I designed it. I'll also show the finished spread from the previous week to show how it filled up. Is this something that you are interested in? 

Wednesday: What I Ate Wednesday - Either show a full day of eating from the day before or a collection of meals over a few days (whatever I can get pics of) to get back into the habit of doing food posts.

Friday: Fun Friday - Bring back that Fun Friday post I did on my previous blog! I loved these posts and I could do things like weekly favorites, my favorite pins from the week and other things like that.

Does this sound like a good schedule to you and are these posts that you would want to read? Let me know in the comments below :)

Hope you all have a great weekend!

My Planner Layout! Jan 4-10

Hi you guys! Check it out, ANOTHER post! I know the year is young, but hopefully I'll be able to keep up with these posts. Today's post is going to be a peek into my brand new Erin Condren Life Planner! I love lists and planning and organization so using a planner as a form of stress relief is perfect for me. And as you know from my New Years Goals post, this is one of my biggest goals of the new year. So I thought it would be fun to show you my planner and how I decorate it and what my days look like. Keep in mind that my post in the beginning of the week will look quite bare as I plan each day the night before but I will try to remember to show you what the layout looks like at the end of the week.

So for those of you that don't know what the Erin Condren planner looks like, I took a picture of next week's empty spread because I forgot to do it for this week before I decorated. It is a vertical planner so each column is a day of the week. There are three rows and can be divided up and organized however you like it. I've seen it done hundreds of different ways but I'm not a fan of clutter so mine will most likely be very clean and minimal. There is also a side bar on the left side for miscellaneous things and a bottom bar that can also be used in many ways.

The Erin Condren planner has different color combinations pre-selected for each month. You don't have to follow them but for this week I decided to use the monthly colors which is that tealish blue color and tangerine. This is what my overall spread looks like. As you can see it is very clean but still colorful and decorative. 

I took separate pictures of each page so you can see what it looks like up close.

So this is what the first half of my week looks like. I'll explain how I split it up because it is hard to tell in the beginning of the week.

The top row is where I record my work hours, the blog posts that I want to put up that week and where I am going to track my reading. There will also inevitably be space to add more in. I only have "to do" lists for days that I have off because the likelihood of me getting much done on days that I have to work  isn't as high, haha. There is space to add small "To Do" lists up there if I need to though.

The middle row contains "To Do" lists on my days off (I try to be very productive on my days off) and decorations on my work days. This is working for me right now but if I find that I end up needing those "To Do" lists every day I'll make that change.

The bottom row is my health/fitness section where I have my daily meals and my workouts. I am filling in the days I plan to workout at the beginning of the week and will fill in what I actually do after I go. In addition, I can always add days if I feel like going for bonus workouts :) I still haven't decided on a workout schedule so this week looks sparse but I'm going to see how I can best fit the gym into my work schedule and plan my future workouts better based on that. As you can tell I didn't plan my meals for today in advance but I am not as concerned about planning for my days off as I am for my work days. 

In addition, in today's bottom bar you'll notice that I was going to go buy some stuff from Michael's but after consideration I decided to hold off and save the money for now. I have the canceled sticker going across and I'll assure you it DRIVES ME NUTS that most canceled stickers you find on Etsy are spelled incorrectly and that the one that I had is spelled incorrectly but I used it anyway.

Finally, for my side bar I have a bullet list of "Tiny Tasks" which will probably actually just be a list of things I want to remember such as books I want to find or meals I want to make for the next week. Under that I have daily habit lists. Two of them are for tracking my sleep in two different ways: How long it takes for me to fall asleep and how much sleep I get. I'm hoping that the fall asleep time gets earlier and the hours of sleep gets longer as the year progresses but we will have to see. In addition, I'm awful at remembering to take my vitamins and medication so I have a visual reminder for that as well.

Here is the second half of my week! It is pretty bare right now but you'll see the difference at the end of the week when I take more pictures. 

I apologize for the quality of these pictures but I took them with my phone and as much as I tried to fix the color it still looks pretty terrible. I'll try to take better pictures from now on but hopefully you get the idea!

I am not affiliated with Erin Condren at all, this is my first planner and I found out about it on Youtube and it just seemed like a nice way to relax each week. These planners are a bit pricey but in my opinion it is worth the investment. I got $10 off of my first purchase by using someone's referral code (every person gets a referral code when they sign up) so if you are interested in purchasing one for yourself, let me know and I can give you a referral code so you can get $10 off as well!

I hope that you liked this post! I know it is weird to post about your planner but I'm enjoying it and wanted to share! I'll share some of my favorite sticker shops and ways to save money on your stickers down the road.

I hope that you are all having a great 2016 so far! As you can see in the pictures above I have a What I Ate post planned for later this week so stay tuned for that!

*Edited to Add: I am already wishing I had "To Do" lists on the other days so that is definitely going to change next week! The more I think about it the more I realize I'm not as lazy as I think I am, ha!

New Year's Resolutions/Goals

Hey you guys! Happy New Year! I'm getting back into the swing of things here ;) Still hoping to get into the habit of 2-3 posts per week so I'm starting off well! I figured that discussing some of my goals for the new year would be perfect for my first post of the new year. I have a few goals for the New Year and the common theme is basically I just want to feel better… physically and emotionally. I have felt pretty crappy the past few months and I really just need to make the time to take care of myself. So here are some of the things that I'm focusing on in the New Year!

Eat Clean and Healthy!

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The first thing on my list that is constantly something that I am working on and focusing on is my nutrition. I'll do really well for a while then I'll get lazy and fall into the processed food habit that I tend to favor when I don't feel like doing anything. I really need to make sure that I focus on unprocessed, whole foods and primarily on produce, legumes/beans and unprocessed fats. I would like to try to cut out oil to see if it makes me feel better. I always feel at my best on a produce heavy diet so I'm going to focus on that and hopefully it'll help me feel better.

Fitness!

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When I first started my blog I was a total gym rat and LOVED working out. Over time things changed and I left the gym I was currently in and had a hard time finding the motivation to get into a new place. I had joined other gyms but went zero times and made excuses that it was too far and I just wasn't comfortable in them. The bottom line was I just didn't like the gym and lacked the motivation to work out at home. I decided that I need to get over it because I miss the way I felt when I got done with a great workout so I joined a brand new gym that is about 5 minutes from my house and I'm so excited! I plan to start off working out 3 days a week at the gym and maybe add in a yoga class if there is one that works with my schedule. I know I will need to start off slow but I plan to build up the intensity of the workout as my fitness improves.

Sleep!

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Sleep has been a major issue for me in the past 6 months or so. I rarely can fall asleep before 2:00am and my body clock wakes me up around 6:30-7:00. I average 4-6 hours a night on a daily basis and this is nowhere near enough sleep for me. I'm exhausted all day every day so I am going to try a few things to help me get to bed earlier. No phone, no tv, no kindle fire (basically, no blue light) for at least an hour before bed. The blue light from your devices are said to have an effect on your sleep so I'm going to give it a try. In addition, the next goal I am going to discuss is partially to help with sleep.

Read!

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When I was a kid I read ALL THE TIME!! Now that I'm older I never make time to sit down with a book. I've decided that I need to change that and make some time to read. I think that reading before bed would be the perfect way to help me sleep better and to keep me off of my devices. I'm actually planning on getting a new library card next week so I can take out books for free and I'm really excited! I would love some book suggestions as well! I favor non-fiction and biographies so if you know of any good ones please leave in the comments below!

Using My Paper Planner!

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I've mentioned over the past few posts that I made the investment in an Erin Condren Life Planner for 2016 and I couldn't be more excited to use it. I did my first spread last week and I am in love with it. First, I am going to be using it to stay on top of these goals on a weekly basis with a visual representation of each one. It's going to keep me organized and it is going to help me with my budget. Most importantly, it is going to be a big source of stress release for me. I know people think it is kind of stupid to sit and decorate a planner but in addition to making it visually appealing, the main thing is that it is the best stress relief I have in my life at the moment. That hour I take each week to sit down and decorate and plan the upcoming week makes me calm and makes me happy and even if I don't look at it at all during the week (which is not the case, I sit down each night and fill stuff in) that is worth it to me. In addition, the planner is no longer just a planner… it is a scrapbook and a journal as well and I'm so happy I started to do it. I do plan on doing a post on my weekly planning with next week's spread so look out for that on Monday! I think posting my weekly spreads will help me be accountable with my goals as well. Is this something that you are interested in reading?

Budget!

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My final goal for the year is to be more mindful of my spending and to create a budget. I'm pretty good about spending and I am proud to say that I currently have zero debt (and the only debt I ever had was student loans) but I want to be more conscious of my saving. My main goal is to save a bunch and get on a good savings plan and create the habit of putting more money away each month and the key is obviously less frivolous spending. I plan on using the monthly views in my planner solely for budgeting and I plan on showing you that at the end of February (I already wrote in numbers in January so I'll show you a figureless February!). I have a pretty good grip on setting up a budget so I'll just have to make sure I stick to it ;)

OK friends, that's all I have for you today! I hope that you all had a very happy new year and that you are all doing well! What are some of your goals for 2016? Share below - with your book suggestions ;)

Vitacost Haul and a Gift

Hey everyone! I know it has been forever, as always, but things get crazy this time of the year. You all know that though. This week is equally crazy because I'm watching the fur babies and as relaxing as you would think that is… taking care of now 6 animals (we added a fish and crab to the mix) is really time consuming. Anyway, I'm here to share with you my very first Vitacost haul! I heard about Vitacost from a lot of different people so I decided to make a purchase because there were a few things that I wanted… and then a few things that just got added to the list ;)

Here is the entire haul!

So this was the first reason I placed the order. I have heard of people using this to sweeten oatmeal and to add flavor to things like coffee, tea, smoothies and banana ice cream so I decided to try the chocolate and vanilla creme flavors! I will definitely let you know how it is!

This was another major reason for this order being placed. I am desperately low on Vitamin D (I'm pretty sure my levels are in the single digits at this point) so I needed to find a pretty good dosage of it in a vegan form and wouldn't you know it, here it is! I had never seen a 5000 iu dose before… when I took them years ago I took the 2000 iu dose. I think I'm going to do this dosage every other day and hopefully it should help and this bottle will last me 4 months.

I saw this and was intrigued by it! This is xylitol gum and from what I've heard xylitol is actually good for strengthening your teeth. It is vegan, gluten free, and non gmo so I decided to give it a try! You had to buy at least two so I got two spearmint packages since that is my favorite. Again, I'll let you know how this is!

I basically added these to my cart to get free shipping. It was either purchase a few more things to get free shipping or basically pay the price of these things in shipping and why would I do that?! I have heard that Justin's Vanilla Almond Butter is by far the best flavor so I figured I'd get a few individual packets and give it a try! I was also intrigued by these Mary's Gone Crackers GF Everything Pretzels. Hopefully they are as yummy as they sound.

Finally I had a gift I just had to share with you! My family and a lot of my friends and I decided that we would forego a gift exchange this year and we basically just buy for the kids now. I do still trade with a few of my friends and my family does a secret Santa kind of thing so we only buy for one person instead of everyone. I got mostly gift cards which is great but my friend gave me the adorable owl mug, owl coasters and box of chocolate flavored teas pictured above! How cute are these?! The mug is definitely going to be my work mug and I'm so excited to try these teas! And the coasters were purchased in Ireland when they went on vacation! I am so in love with all of it, she knows me so well! There was also a book about planning a trip to Disney because we decided we need to go there for a vacation sometime soonish ;) Thanks girl!

That's all I have for you today! I hope to be back with a resolutions/goals post for the New Year! I will probably post it after the New Year (maybe this weekend) but I definitely want to get it up to share with all of you.

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe New Year!

Happy Holidays from Delilah!

Hey you guys! Ever since Thanksgiving I feel like I've been going a million miles an hour. Does anyone else feel that way? I haven't had a chance to get to anything I've been planning which has been annoying me but there is nothing I can do about it so I just have to let it go I suppose.

I did do a little photo shoot with Delilah for her holiday card this year and thought it would be fun to share a few of the shots with you! It is crazy to see how big she is getting. Anyway, here are the pics for her card this year! I don't know which they chose or what the card will look like but here are some of my favs :)

She's so silly :) She was fairly cooperative this year and taking silly pictures certainly helped. I hope you guys like them! I don't know when I'll be able to get my next post up which is annoying but come the New Year I'm really hoping to be able to buckle down and get on a more regular posting schedule. Ideally I would like to do a What I ate Wednesday post, one day for crafting/DIY/gift idea posts and one day for planning and budgeting posts. Those are my new years resolutions for this blog :) My new Erin Condren Life Planner is supposed to arrive this week and I can't wait! It starts in January so the first spread I'll be sharing is my New Year's spread. I can't wait!

Hope you are all doing well and that my beautiful niece brightened your day :)

Changes Are Coming!

Hey you guys! I hope that you are all doing well! I am so so sorry that I haven't been around much. Truthfully I've been dealing with some stuff behind the scenes and I've been kind of trying to figure out where I want this blog to go. Clearly I'm not interested in it as it exists right now. I wanted to pop in today to let you know that even though I have not been posting recently I have been working behind the scenes. I've been working on carving the right path for myself in this space and finding the content that will make me happy and keep my interest in addition to being useful and helpful to you. I think I've finally figured it out and I'm really excited to revamp and reveal to you.

I have decided to focus on the two things that I have been focusing on most recently… my creativity and practicality. I've been working on becoming incredibly organized and I am moving my life into a planner. I am starting to plan out every week of my life to put it in front of me. This way I am aware if I am out of balance… whether it is out of balance in my diet or the balance between work and my happy place, it is right in front of me. In addition to the planning, I'm working on a budget system for 2016 so I can start to save my money for my future. Obviously the holidays is the worst time to work on this but I plan on having a system in place for the new year. I plan on sharing my planner with you, how I try to balance everything and most importantly… how I decorate it! ;)

I love to create, I love to give and I love to share my ideas. This blog will combine all of these things. I will share with you my favorite DIY projects (and working with the budget, they will be affordable!), my favorite gift ideas and any creative projects that I have on my plate. It will include the DIYs, cooking, photography and all of the things I do to get my creative energy out. I am a very visual person, I love color and I love pattern and I love to work with these things. I'm just going to make sure I share them with you now!

I do not know what my posting schedule will be as of right now because the nature of the content is more time consuming since I have to create, photograph and figure out how to explain everything to you. I do plan on getting into some gift ideas and quick DIYs after Thanksgiving to give you some ideas for holiday gifts and some fun tricks to save money during the holiday season! As I get more into these posts it will become more clear exactly how it will all go in the future.

I'm so incredibly excited to be changing the path of this blog and to be able to share my ideas and my life with you. I try to be an open book and I hope that you all enjoy the change that I will be making! I will be back soon! I'm just trying to wrangle my thoughts into a cohesive posting schedule that will make the most sense. I will be back to share that with you soon <3

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October Favorites!

Hey everyone!! I'm back with another monthly favorites post. I don't have a ton of favorites this month but I thought it would be nice to pop in and at least post a few things for you! What have you been enjoying this month? I can't even deal with how much pumpkin stuff is out now! I love pumpkin but this is craziness!

Anyway, here are the favs!

So I feel awful because I don't have the source to credit this picture but I saved it a while ago and I had to share it with you! I saved it because it makes me laugh my ass off when I need a good pick me up. The caption was "best photobomb ever" and I just can't deal with how adorable and hilarious it is. If anyone knows the source please let me know and I'll add a credit!

Fall sunsets are the most beautiful sunsets of the year. They are always so colorful and beautiful and I just love it when the sky is s colorful.

This was our Halloween tablecloth!! We got it at Target and I freaking love it. You all know I love my skulls so it was really fun to look at this tablecloth all month... and yes, we've had it all month!

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I know you are looking at that picture and you are thinking, "what the hell is that thing?!" I have been debating getting a solid shampoo bar from Lush and this last trip to Florida was the perfect time to do it (have to keep those liquids in check!!). I decided to try the Lullaby Shampoo Bar and it is officially my new favorite shampoo. I was really concerned about how well it would lather and whether or not my hair would feel clean and it was amazing! It is also really gentle on your scalp which is perfect for me since my skin is sensitive on my scalp. I very highly recommend this shampoo! Each bar costs about $10 but they last 80-90 shampoos which I think is definitely a great value!

I have been shoveling salads in my face like a crazy woman this month! I don't know why but I have been craving them like crazy but I'm not going to fight it. I could be craving worse, right? The one above was mixed greens and romaine, carrots, cucumber, grape tomatoes and chickpeas. I later topped it with red wine vinaigrette. So good!

This Cashew Macadamia Delight Trek Mix from Trader Joe's has been a favorite snack this month. It is basically my favorite nuts and dried fruit shoved in a bag so I can just shove them in my face. It is cashews, macadamia nuts, pineapple, cranberries and almonds. It's so good, definitely a highly recommended snack.

Finally, we have Halloween! We had exactly 0.0 trick or treaters come to our house (at least that is what was told to me... I had to work) but Delilah did pretty well! She was the cutest Ninja Turtle ever and obviously I have a few pictures for you!

She's hilarious, I love this kid so much. I still can't believe how big she is getting. She is going to be 5 next month. The time is going too quickly!

I hope you all had a nice Halloween! Enjoy the rest of your weekend and hopefully I'll be back sooner rather than later ;)