The Big 22

This past Tuesday I turned 22! Weird I feel like I should atleast be 25 by now. Since Jess works late every weekday we decided to celebrate my birthday the Saturday before. He made me breakfast and helped me clean our house and then my wonderful family came over for dinner and dessert that night. Jess bought me this fantastic camera for my birthday!

 of course we would love to have a $3500 Digital SLR camera but who can afford one of those?? Actually apparently a lot of people can because it seems like everyone has amazing cameras these days! But on our budget this camera ROCKS! 

Me and my sisters on my birthday

 On tuesday my mom, Kourt, Kristen, Olivia, and I enjoyed a birthday lunch at Nielsens.

 Love her. She is growing up too fast!

 And we couldn't leave without enjoying a strawberry banana concrete.

To...Die...For!

My birthday ended with a fantastic massage from Jess. Massages are all I EVER want. So thanks Jess for sacrificing your time and energy on me :) 

Ok on a side note. One of my New Year Resolutions is to finally be brave enough to start up my Etsy Shop. Don't know what Etsy is? Well that's very unfortunate for you.

Etsy is a website where all things handmade or vintage can be sold. 

You can buy just about ANYTHING on Etsy and they have some of the most talented sellers on there.

Click Here To Check It Out 

So far this month I've been spending countless hours researching how to start up a successful shop and mostly I end up admiring other peoples work and convincing myself I am going to fail. 

But I read 2 things yesterday that helped me get back on my feet.

Marianne Williamson - Our Deepest Fear is that We Are Powerful Beyond Measure

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

I'm sure you have all heard that quote before but it makes me so happy every time I read it

The other quote isn't really a quote but just a fact that I needed to realize...

"Not everyone is going to want to buy your product. But that's OKAY. Finding your target market is about finding the people who appreciate you for who you are and what you do. These are the people who need somebody like you to bring a little handmade goodness into their life. These are the people who want to buy everything you have to sell. And these are the people who will go out of their way to tell their friends about you."

So on that note please stay tuned for the opening of my Etsy Shop. My goal is to launch it over spring break!

Until then.. please admire some of the Valentine's Day goodness from Etsy

   
Click Here To Shop Snowbella

Click Here To Shop Inkspot Workshop 

Click Here To Shop 12 Legs Curiosities 

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

...2010...

..So many wonderful things happened..

 Marriage was definitely the highlight of the year :)

 ..We moved into our first apartment..

 Biggest bummer of 2010

was discovering we weren't alone in our apartment

anyone else get lucky with the bed bug epidemic!

I don't remember anything great about the summer because it mainly consisted of trying to get rid of the stupid bugs

...Moving on...

In August we were so happy to get into our 1st home

 In October we put up all new blinds! Hurray!

 We also planted a garden, hoping to keep it alive

...Overall we did pretty well...

 ..Halloween..

..Thanksgiving..

both were fantastic

But we had the most fun during

CHRISTMAS

blurry picture of our tree, but it was fun decorating!

 

Jess surprised me with the giant mirror for our house. Obviously the mirror part hasn't come yet but he made the frame and it is beautiful and has amazing detail up close. I love it

 Christmas morning we went to my parents house to open gifts

These girls are the life of every party!

And they L.O.V.E. their grandma

 Love her cheesy-ness

 

Kate is growing up so fast and couldn't be cuter minus the attitude when you try to take her from grandma

Kristen found these insanely cute pj's and I can't get enough of the reindeer slippers 

Payne and Kelli joined us with their bundle of joy Brielle

Merry Christmas 2010!!!

 December 26th was Jess's 27th birthday

Hope he had a decent birthday since it was one day post christmas and on a Sunday :)

 ...2010...

..great year..

...2011...

..here we come..

My New Babies

This Christmas Season has brought 2 new babies into my life.

The first is my new niece 

BRIELLE KATELYN ADAMS

 She is already a month old and so precious

The second baby belongs to Jess and I

it will arrive in 4-5 weeks

and we couldn't be happier :)

We ordered it from the great Cortate Furniture 

Its a feather down couch, aka a cloud :)

Merry Christmas to us

I'm Thankful For...

Thanksgiving Break!

Yes indeed I am so thankful for this magnificent break from work.
Jess and I have had a busy but fantastic weekend. Thursday we started the holiday morning off with 20 minutes of P90X plyometrics... hoping it would help us feel better about eating ALOT in the upcoming hours. The video is an hour long but we always last about 20 minutes.
We enjoyed a delicious meal at my parents house and hung out there for a few hours. Later we scoped out all the black friday deals wondering if there was anything REALLY worth losing sleep over.
We found an ad for a couch at JCPenny for like $3,500 OFF a couch. Really? is that possible? We decided to check it out. We woke up at 3:30 A.M. and went down to check it out. It was a nice couch but we have a feeling that stores lie about the "original" prices so that the "sale" prices seem amazing and therefore making everyone feel they NEED to buy it!
So we didn't get the couch and went back home to sleep.
Friday we spent the day buying Christmas lights and putting them up.
I was the official light holder and hook holder
Jess did all the dirty work and put them all up, including a few scary moments on the roof.The final product!
Today I told Jess he HAD to go shopping with me since Christmas is in a few weeks and his birthday is the DAY after Christmas...
So he was such a trooper and last 2.5 hours and we got lots of great stuff for smokin deals.
Oh and we also went back to look at the couch and it said the original price was now $1,500 less than it was yesterday... LIARS!

We also found stools at JCPenney for our island in the kitchen.
3 for $80 plus we got $15 off for spending 75 or more.
I love Thanksgiving Weekend
Thanks Jess for putting the stools together!

Vegan... One Whole Week!!!

Well Jess and I have successfully survived week #1. As usual he is doing much better than i am, I gave in on Friday and had ranch on my salad, but justified it because i got a SALAD instead of a philly cheese steak which is what I really wanted to get. Amongst the recipe FAILURES this week I did have a few victories.

I found the recipe for cafe rio/costa vida's lime cilantro rice. Thank you Sis. Romney for posting this in 2008, took me FOREVER to find it.

cafe rio{ish} rice
4 cups water
2 cups rice (not instant)
4 teaspoons chicken bouillon
4 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 bunch cilantro
1/2 onion
1 can green chilis (or equivalent of fresh)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
juice of two limes
finely mince the cilantro, onion & green chilis. bring water to a boil & add all ingredients. simmer covered for 30 minutes. 

of course i made a few adjustments to fit our specific diet but it turned out yummy. 

i decided to try whole grain's whole wheat tortillas. they were GROSS.
I also made some delicious Pico to go on the burritos

Ingredients

• 6 roma (plum) tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 red onion, minced
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
• 1/2 lime, juiced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 pinch garlic powder
• 1 pinch ground cumin
• salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Stir the tomatoes, onion, cilantro, jalapeno pepper, lime juice, garlic, garlic powder, cumin, salt, and pepper together in a bowl. Refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving.

 Today has been a GREAT day because for the first time since we got married I finally weigh one pound LESS than when we got married. 

Hurray for little victories.

Hurray for diets that work :)

Vegan... Day 4

Well, we've made it to day 4. Jess is doing much better than I am, I guess he has more motivation than I do :) After the success of my spanish rice recipe I found on allrecipes.com I got a little too excited and tried another adventurous meal I found on there. It was called Vegan Bean Taco Filling. The reviews were good and it seemed pretty basic but I HATED it. Jess was nice and said he liked it. I think it was the combo of cumin, paprika,cayenne pepper, and chili powder. Way too many spices and I even 1/2ed what recipe called for. After making that I've been a little bummed that I can't think of anything good to make. Obviously I could wrap stuff in a white tortilla or eat white bread but that would defeat the purpose of being healthy :) So tonight I made whole wheat spaghetti and put Trader Joe's Basil Marinara Sauce on top. It was yummy. Tried making a salad but have no salad dressings that don't have any dairy in them so it was gross. blah... 

And I feel bad packing Jess's lunch with gross dinner leftovers but he is such a trooper and is fine with anything. Tomorrow he is taking a tomato and vegan mayo sandwich on homemade wheat bread (Thanks Kristen!), spinach almond salad and some fruit! This boy has already LOST 10 pounds since being married (so not fair) and now he is going to wither away! 

On a semi happier note, we watched a mind blowing documentary called FOOD MATTERS the other night. amazing information to know and for anyone who cares about their health and well being should take the time to watch it. Very interesting. 

That's all for now.

I can't wait for Thanksgiving so I can eat delicious food that I didn't have to cook myself. 

Vegan WHAT!

For health reasons, Jess has decided he would like to go on a vegan diet for two weeks. Being a vegetarian for any length of time always sounded impossible to me but being VEGAN (no meat, milk, eggs, butter, etc)

sounded straight up insane. But to support him I decided to try and eat the same as well. Since I am the one in charge of grocery shopping, packing his lunches, and cooking dinner, this sudden change was slightly stressful to me. I ran to the grocery store and bought as many vegetables as i could find. We just started yesterday and so it was a pretty miserable day.

Breakfast: Oatmeal with fruit (i HATE oatmeal)

Lunch: Red mashed potatoes with no butter or cheese... sniff sniff,

spinach almond apple salad w/ raspberry vinaigrette.

Dinner: Brown rice and broccoli with teryaki sauce.

Today was fast sunday so we fasted and surprisingly we didn't get very hungry till around 2:30. usually we are dying by 11:00. On Sundays we go to my parents for dinner and usually indulge in delicious meat and potatoes etc. but to save us the grief we decided to eat before we go. I decided to make spanish rice which is new for me. I found a good recipe and I must share because it tasted amazing! To you it will probably just taste like normal rice, but when you eat tasteless vegetables for a day and then fast all morning it was pretty much HEAVEN! 

SPANISH RICE

Prep Time: 10 min. Cook Time: 30 Min

 Ingredients:

1.   Tablespoon canola oil

2.   1 cup uncooked white rice

3.   1 onion, chopped

4.   1 clove garlic (minced)

5.   1/2 green bell pepper, chopped

6.   2 cups chicken broth (I bought the vegetarian broth powder from SHAR'S)

7.   1 (10 ounce) can diced tomatoes and green chiles

8.   2 teaspoons chili powder, or to taste

9.   1 teaspoon salt

 Directions:

1.        1. Heat oil in a deep skillet over medium heat. Saute onion, garlic and bell pepper until onions are tender.

2.        2. Add the uncooked rice and let it brown for a few minutes.  

            3.Stir in chicken broth and tomatoes. Season with chili powder and salt. Cover, and simmer for 30  minutes, or until rice is cooked and liquid is absorbed. 

 It was amazing. Really. I'm in love. I also made some bean dip and we ate it with Trader Joe's "Reduced Guilt" tortilla chips. Also a must have, they are so good.

I must say it was easier today than it was yesterday and I'm having less sugar cravings strangely. I feel like i have a little more energy and of course i feel skinnier, but the scale says nothing yet :)

Welp, that's my only update for now. I'll be posting our meals and if the diet is helping Jess have more energy and help him with his headaches. 

I sure hope so :)