My life is CRAZY...I'm working full time, planning a wedding, trying to become the healthiest me I can be, mother to 3 lovely dogs and 2 adorable cats, the list goes on and on. It is definitely hectic, and can be super stressful at times, but I wouldn't have it any other way!
I'm a 23 year old Business Systems Analyst planning a DIY-heavy wedding to the love of my life on 9 . 10 . 11. Other then wedding planning, I spend most of my time trying to stay in shape or playing with my 3 dogs...Gabby, Dudley, and Tyson. I hate cleaning and almost never go a day without wearing something purple, and I hope you can keep up with my ADD blogging style!
First, I made a flipping awesome pie to bring to Bryan's parents' house:
Seriously...how freaking cute is that? It was a cherry pie - and I don't even like cherry pie! But Bryan loves it, so I made it for him. And I actually got the idea for the star top from the packaging for a pie pan I saw in WalMart last year! And although it didn't cut well (it all fell apart) it was actually a lot easier than doing a tradition latice top so I definitely plan on doing this again in the future!
And we played outside in the sprinkler with the dogs:
I love this picture:
But this one is my favorite; I have no idea how I caught her mid-shake like this:
And I remembered to take a picture of my flowers:
And that picture is adorable because Tyson is standing on the edge looking up at me like "see Mom, I know I is not allowed on the pretty flowers!" hahahaha
And that's all for now - did you do anything fun for the Holiday Weekend?
So, I've officially not worn make-up for a whole week (in case you missed you, you can find my original post about facial detoxing here). At first, it was very difficult. But now, I may reconsider wearing make-up to work everyday. Seriously, getting ready in the morning is SO much easier if you don't wear make-up. Maybe I'll only wear it on special occasions - like for important meetings or something.
But anyway, before I show you the before/after pictures I have to admit that they don't look like there has been as much of a difference as I see in real life. The biggest reason for that is because whereas the flash didn't go off during the "before" pictures, it did during the "after" so my coloring is completely different.
Also, my period started the day after I started my detox. I don't know about you, but my face explodes when Aunt Flo comes to visit, so it is in much better condition than I would normal expect given the time of the month.
And third, but this is completely my fault, not wearing make-up just made me want to pick at my skin even more (no idea why) which is bad. You'll see I have a lovely little blemish on my chin that I didn't have a week ago and I'm willing to bet money that if I hadn't constantly been picking at it, it wouldn't be there anymore.
But, without further adieu...
I also have a feeling 1 week isn't long enough of a detox. Skin almost always gets worse before it gets better, and I think 2 weeks would have much better results. But, my 2 week detox will have to come another time because there's no way in hell I'm not wearing make-up at my bridal shower...which is in 2 freaking days!!!!!
And now, as promised, some random happiness...
1) I am taking a day off from work tomorrow! Woohoo! Because I'm flying up to Massachusetts today after work for my bridal shower on Saturday!
2) I'm wearing a really adorable outfit. The top I got at Kohl's for a steal because Kohl's is never not in the middle of a huge sale! And the necklace I'm wearing I actually got off ebay in a huge lot of vintage costume jewelry that I had bid on/purchased because of some brooches that I wanted. The necklace was just a total bonus!
3) There were no planned parenthood protesters picketing this morning. Any day that doesn't start with a massive picture of a dead fetus is a good day in my book!
4) My dog's are flipping adorable:
Seriously...is that not the cutest picture ever???
5) Cricutmachine.com is having a MASSIVE sale - and I look forward to wasting a good portion of my day browsing cartridges to buy since days where you're going to be traveling after work are the longest work days ever.
6) I have re-discovered my love for the band Kings of Leon. The entire "Come Around Sundown" album is flipping amazing but I really like the sound of "The Face"...
7) I made some pretty sweet cards for my Dad (for Father's Day) and my sister (for her birthday) that I'll get to give to them in person this weekend!
8) Did I mention I don't have to work tomorrow!?!?!
So, needless to say, although my facial detox wasn't as successful as I would have liked it to be, I have a lot to be happy about! I'll be MUCH happier once I'm on my way to Boston though - the weather isn't looking to great for flying this evening!
What do you have to be happy about this totally random Thursday morning?
Yeah, yeah - we all know I suck at remembering to link to my Weddzilla posts on the days that they go live! But this one is really cool (if I do say so myself), it's about the paper flower pomander topiaries (yeah, say that five times fast) I made over the weekend. And it can be found here!
And look, even Gabby tried to help out...
Personal Photo - She only likes to have her "good side"
photographed, she won't look straight at the camera!
Happy Belated Mother's Day to all the Mommies out there! I figured I shared my crafts and creations for the day we all spend appreciating the most important women in our lives!
First up, cards. I made all these using the "Wild Card" cartridge for my cricut (highly recommend that cart, it is really fun):
This one was for my Mom:
This one was for Bryan's Mom:
And these next two were for Bryan's Grandmothers:
We went to dinner at Bryan's Uncle's house, and for that I made brownie pops! Both delicious and adorable! I used this recipe for the brownies, then cut them into small brownie sizes and rolled each into a little ball. Then I dropped a ball in the chocolate ganache (from that recipe - it says to pour it on top, I skipped that so I could cover them at this point), shoved a lollipop stick in them, and propped them up in some styrofoam to solidify:
Then I decorated them with nuts, sprinkles, colored chocolate, or peanut butter, and put them in the lovely little structure I made (I used cardstock for the box base then wrapped ribbon around it and used my cricut to cut out some flowers. Then I painted a sytrofoam cone purple for the pops to be stuck in):
And then I wrapped the whole sucker up in plastic wrap for the trip to Byran's uncle's house. They were a huge hit!
And, because I have the best fiance ever, my babies (aka my dogs and cats) got me this lovely Mommy Day present:
I love pearls, and I absolutely adore this ring! Most definitely wearing it when we get married!
B. Bed size: King – anything smaller just wouldn’t cut it with 3 large dogs who like to snuggle!
C. Chore you hate: All of them?The worst is washing dishes because it ruins your nails.And no, I won’t wear rubber gloves, they make my hands smell and feel disgusting.
D. Dogs: aka my babies? Gabby, Dudley, and Tyson!
E. Essential start to your day: The first thing I do when I wake up is check my emails (on my phone).I know, it’s pathetic.But you never know when there’s gonna be a killer groupon, and if anyone left comments on my blog while I was sleeping it is a very happy start to my day (hint hint)!
F. Favorite color: Purple.
G. Gold or silver: Can I say white gold?
H. Height: 5'8”
I. Instruments: In elementary school I played the flute.I stopped because I was doing too many extracurricular activities and my band instructor flipped out.
J. Job title: Associate Business System Analyst
K. Kids: Only furbabies for now…other than the dogs, gotta give a shout out to the cats, Charles and Louie
L. Live: Pittsburgh
M. Mom’s name: Kathleen – good Irish name!
N. Nicknames: My family members call me Mandy (this is not an invitation for anyone outside of my family to call me that) and my father calls me Midgie (short for midget, because although I’m the tallest now, being the youngest sibling at one point I was the smallest).And Bryan calls me Babs because I call him Bunny!
O. Overnight hospital stays: Once – different story for a different day.
P. Pet peeve: I have so many if I listed them all I would sound like the biggest bitch in the world.But a good one for today is people that are in business/business casual attire and wear sneakers for their commute.There are plenty of comfortable flats out there people!Your bright white sketcher shape ups look ridiculous with that suit!
Q. Quote from a movie: “Do not fear death, but rather the unlived life.You don’t have to live forever, you just have to live.”That’s from Tuck Everlasting (movie/book) and I love it.
R. Right or left handed: Right – lefties are evil.
S. Siblings: Two older sisters, Rachael and Katelyn
Thats us mocking my mom for a face she makes in pictures to
make her cheek bones look more defined
T. Time you wake up: Around 6 basically every day.On a rare occasion the dogs will let me sleep until 7 on the weekends, but those days are few and far between.
U. Underwear: VICTORIA SECRET!I used to think buying expensive panties was a waste until I bought them and realized how worth it they are!
V. Vegetables you dislike: Raw carrots.Raw red peppers.Apart from that, I actually really like vegetables!
W. What makes you run late: The dogs/cats being adorable and snuggly so I don’t want to get out of bed.Realizing I have to iron my clothes (I have a new criteria for a good work shirt – if it is cute and doesn’t have to be ironed, it is mine).My hair being crazy and me trying to tame it until I give up and just pull it back into a bun.
X. X-Rays you’ve had: Teeth at the dentist, my spine (I have degenerative subluxation of my lower lumbar spine – aka I my spine looks like a ? from the side instead of an S), my hips after I got hit by a car.
Y. Yummy food you make: 95% of the stuff I make is yummy (what can I say, I’m a good cook).Topping my list would have to be raspberry cheese cake with a chocolate crust and my mom’s recipe for a Boston Crème Ring…yummmmm.
So that one cracked...it was still delicious!
Z. Zoo- favorite animal: To wear…zebra.Although I would never wear real zebra skin, I just really like zebra print.Favorite animal to just look at would be an elephant!They’re just so majestic looking.I’m actually wearing an elephant necklace right now (they’re supposed to be good luck).
It's a pretty crappy day today in Pittsburgh. It's warm, but it's also humid (my hair and oily skin do not enjoy humid) and rainy and just all around crappy:
Stolen from Weather.com
But, I'm looking might adorable today, if I do say so myself!
Bryan may suck at taking pictures, but you get the general idea! Here's a breakdown of my outfit today:
Skirt (Express) HIGH-WAIST HOOK-AND-EYE PENCIL SKIRT in Oxford Blue - bought on sale for $19.19:
As for the rants, whether you are pro-life or pro-choice you have to agree that the people that stand outside of Planned Parenthood with over sized posters of dead fetuses are taking it too far. Apparently, the protesters are doing "40 Days of Life" for lent so they have been in full force and I have to walk buy them every morning on my way to work. Protest all you want, but I do not need to see that graphic of an image at 7 in the morning. I hope someday when I'm pregnant if I get morning sickness I can get myself to vomit on their over sized poster. I understand that is childish and rude, but seriously these images are grotesque and there's no way to avoid them without walking 15 minutes out of my way! And I would say to them (after throwing up on their dead fetus poster) "Oh my God! I'm so sorry! I'm pregnant, and don't worry I'm keeping my baby, but that picture is just so graphic it triggered my morning sickness!"
And as for other Wednesday Radomness, cricutmachine.com is having an Easter Sale! Full cartridges starting at $17.95:
So, today there will be brand new content from me posted on Weddzilla, so go check out True Confessions of a DIY Bride! It's all about all my DIY plans, as well as all my DIY tools. For now, I will just leave you with an amusing sequence of events from this morning (what did people do before they had camera phones???):
Sorry readers, no Fitness Recap today, because it is the worst day ever (don't worry, you aren't missing much, I only worked out once and that was just running on a treadmill).
So, first we have to back track a little bit. A few weeks ago our furnace was making wonky noises, so fi called the furnace people and they said there's nothing really wrong with it but we're going to charge you a bunch of money anyway and change a setting so that it heats the house a little more efficiently. Yay for being a homeowner and getting charged tons of money for nothing.
Right after that, we started having issue with water draining out of our house. We kind of figured somehow a cat toy (or 10) got stuck in the drain, so first fi tried to snake it out. And he pulled out some cat toys, but it still wasn't draining. So this past weekend he called a plumber who pulled out a whole slew of stuff, and then found that there was a break in our sewer line. He then quoted $12,000 to fix it. Yeah, my Dad fixes stuff like that for a living, so if they wanted that much money I was going to buy my Dad a plane ticket, rent him an excavator, and throw him a grand just for fun and we'd still be able to get it done for a fraction of the cost.
Until fi remembered we had this warranty thing through the water company. So we don't have to pay to have it fixed, which is awesome, and they were scheduled to come today to dig it up.
Well this morning I was woken up by crashbamboom from the basement then ::blek:: from Tyson. Yeah, he threw up right on our comforter. And we can't wash it. Because our house doesn't drain water yet. Awesome. But what was the crashbamboom you ask? Yeah, that was our furnace blowing up again.
So let's recap, I have people coming to dig up our sewer line today, a vommitting dog, and no heat.
So fi called the furnace people and they said they could be here between 8 and noon. I said I'd stay and work from home, so fi could actually go to work (he had missed a few days this week dealing with the sewer thing already, and I think his head would have exploded if he had to face the furnace guy who said there was nothing wrong with our furnace a few weeks ago).
Then the sewer people got here and started digging holes with their mini excavator:
Yeah, I'm totally a creeper and take pictures of the men working
Meanwhile it is getting pretty cold in the house because, you know, we don't have heat. Well it is getting super cold in the basement (aka Cat Kingdom) so I made the decision to bring the cats upstairs. They didn't like that. Charles ran around hyperventilating (I tried to get a video, but couldn't get a good one) while Louie continually searched for higher ground until he found the highest ground in our house:
He was so pleased with his spot he basically started making love to it
Yeah, that's an Ikea cabinet we have in our kitchen. I have no idea how he got up there., But he's happy, so I'm happy.
Then I get the call that the furnace guy was going to get there soon. What the hell am I going to do with the dogs??? Normally when people are coming in and out of the house we let the dogs outside, but yeah, there's an excavator out there. My only option was to blockade them upstairs with a baby gate, like so:
Poor puppies!
And I was trying to pay attention so that when the furnace guy got here I would greet him before he rang the doorbell. Yeah, seeing as today is the worst day ever, no luck with that. As soon as he rang it Tyson jumped over the gate and came barreling down the stairs, and I just jumped outside to lead the furnace guy to the basement by the back door.
I then had to carry Tyson back upstairs and place him over the gate (for the record, he's like 75 pounds) but by this time the cats had calmed down:
Louie high on life for finding such an awesome place to hang out
Charles being a fatty in the sun
But then Charles decided it would be really fun to torment the dogs. Please excuse my baby voice (I can't help it when I talk to them, I swear) but look how pathetic my puppies are:
So yeah, that's my life right now. When it rains, it pours, right? Here's to hoping things get better...and they probably will because yesterday I received my crop-a-dile and I can't wait to play with it!!! More on that later though!
and I can't wait to play with it!!! More on that later though!
