Work It !

One of the thousand New Year's resolutions that I have for 2015 was to workout at least 4 to 5 days a week. And I am happy to say that I have been to the gym/exercised several times since the new year has begun. To be honest, I am sore all over & I feel like I may never be able to lift my arms above my head ever again! I also feel like a square peg in a round hole. Going to the gym tends to give me a bit of anxiety- probably a mixture of feeling self-conscious & not sure if I look as ridiculous as I feel. So on a positive note (another resolution), I am hoping with time it'll become part of my routine. That the weight will come off & I will feel better about myself. And that exercising will become an important part of my life that I love rather than dread. 

So I thought what better way to love working out then to have some awesome workout gear. Just recently, I picked up some really comfortable workout pants from Walmart (yes, Walmart!). They were inexpensive & I surprisingly really like them. I also really like the quality & comfort of workout pants from A&E & Victoria's Secret. Both stores have a wide variety for all body types. 

All Sources

When Target was having their sales, I picked several flowy, breathable tanks. They are very similar to the ones above from Gap. For me, other than comfortable pants that don't ride up your ass every five minutes, having a good fitting sneaker is also super important. For me cardio is my forced best friend right now, so I need a good pair & these Nike's are both amazing & fit so well! 

The past few days have been semi-easy to get to the gym because I have been on vacation from work. So my plan is to go to the gym straight after work during the week, so I need want a cute bag to lug around all my crap to & from. These Vera Bradley ones are so colorful & spacey. I definitely have my eye on the two prints above. 

Other than some awesome workout gear, I am really needing a playlist to get keep me going while I am exercising. So what are you go to jams for when you work out? 

Let me know below... 

Friday Favorites

I cannot get over all of the amazing housing decor that is out in stores right now. It truly is times like this that I wish I had a money tree in the backyard (in a safe, secured, invisible box that noone but myself could touch or see). I feel like the more I put myself on a budget, the more I want to spend. And the closer we get to building a house, the more I want to shop. Currently, we're saving for a large down payment, so we can build a new home. So that doesn't leave much leftover to have fun with. 

I have so many ideas for our future home that it makes me so excited & giddy inside. I have basically purchased everything for our bedroom, which you can see here. There are only a few more things that I need to buy but I have plenty of time. 

Currently, I have been on the prowl for decorations for our living room. I am obsessed with pillows, especially fur ones. For Christmas, I got six of these pillows & I cannot wait to use them. I plan on using a few in our bedroom, so I am looking for a few more for the couch. I found these two from Anthro that I am in love with. I am keeping my eye out for them to go on sale & keeping my fingers crossed that they don't sell out in the meantime. I am also loving this gorgeous throw- isn't it amazing?!

Anthropologie

We haven't made a definite decision on which model home that we want to build yet, but we do know that our new home will have a glass shower unlike our old home. So that means no more shower curtains in our master bedroom; therefore I have to have some cute, colorful/patterned towels & bath mats to dress it up a little. Also these stools from Serena & Lily, that I have been wanting so badly for the longest time & I definitely have to have them for our new home. They would be a perfect fit in any bathroom & a perfect little spot to place your towels. 

Serena & Lily || Anthropologie

There are a few little knick knacks that I am loving that are super fun! Before we sold our home, I had a large variety of plants that were flourishing. I definitely have a green thumb, so this cute tree stump planter sparked my interest. 

If you all have been following my blog, then you know I am loving gallery walls. I thought these wooden/painted letters would look great on one of them. I plan on having several like we did before (my husband is thrilled!). And these coasters are gorgeous, who the heck wouldn't want to have them!?

As you can see I have found lots of things that I am dying to shop for, so I think I will finally spend my Christmas money on some of these goodies :) 

Hope you all have a good weekend. 

Resolutions & Goals for 2015

This year has truly flown by faster than any other year before. And I will be honest, a lot of the resolutions that I planned for 2014 didn't really happen. Every year, I always have the best intentions on changing things in my life & do this & doing that; but life takes the reins.

This year I want to start fresh. Away from negativity, being impatient, always wishing my life away & putting things off until the next day/week/month/year. I want to find the positive in things, learn to be patient, be at peace with the pace of my life & enjoy the moment without constantly stressing & wondering, and I want to have goals & actually accomplish them & not put off until forever. 

Here are some of my resolutions and goals for the new year...

1. Find the positive in things, even when they downright suck! 

2. Make time for friendships and rekindle old ones. 

3. Workout at the gym at least four to five times a week.

4. Buy & build a new house. 

5. Have more date nights with my husband. 

6. Go on a relaxing vacation. 

7. Lose weight & keep it off. 

8. Try not to let the small stuff stress me out.

9. Drink more water & less soda. 

10. I would say get pregnant, but this one is up to God!

11. Send more snail mail.
12. Blog regularly with some new creative posts.

You're probably thinking, damn this bitch is crazy!! I know it seems like a lot but I figure if I have a lot of them there is a better chance that I will follow through with roughly half of them. I truly have a feeling that this year is going to be a amazing year for my family & friends. I am praying that this year brings good health, wealth, a new house & hopefully, God willing, a little baby Raulerson. 

Happy New Year to all of you :) 

Our Christmas Recap 2014

Christmas has come & gone.. and it is another year of waiting for my favorite time of the year to come. This Christmas, just as always was wonderful. I love spending time with family and enjoying everyone's company. On Christmas Eve, we had a small dinner at my moms house. Every year she makes Italian foods, the stuffed shells are always a huge hit! After dinner my mom, sister, husband and I open our gifts for one another, which is always fun! Oh yeah, Beary girl opened some gifts too & she loved each & every one of them. 

Don't mind the baby gates, they are to keep the dryersheet-sock-lovin'-fur-ball out of our rooms.

On Christmas morning we watched the Christmas Story for the millionth time (my husband loves it!) and watched Beary girl play with her toys before we set out for a busy Christmas Day. We went to my K's moms house for an early lunch & opening gifts. And then we went to my Auntie's house for dinner, drinks (My uncle & husband played bartender) & lots of laughs. 

My crazy sister & mom- weirdos I tell ya! 

Now it is time to put the gifts away & take down the Christmas decorations until next year. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Decorations

The count down is on... Can you believe that Christmas is just days away?! I feel like the holidays this year, as every year, have flown by. This year was a little different for me, since we sold our house. So all my festive decorations are piled high in our storage unit. 

Luckily, my mom loves to be festive just like me, I got to enjoy her super cute decorations. And I decked out our little space with some lights, mini Christmas trees & my favorite prints from Garvin&Co. 

There are so much about the holidays that I love & I will be sad for them to be over until next year. I personally, think that our homes are much more cozy when they are decked out in Christmas decorations. If it were up to me, I would keep them up all year long. 

So what are your most favorite Christmas decorations that you wish you could keep up all year?

Lovely & Oh-So-Pinteresting- Christmas

There are so many aspects of this season that I love. Decorating homes, festive Christmas trees, yummy holidays cookies, and the wonderful cold weather. Everytime I look at Pinterest, it always puts me in this dream land. Dream land full of white, fluffy snow & cold breezy air. On one hand, I wish that Florida had a snow white winter. And on the other, I am thankful that I don't have to deal with snow & all the clean up. And if I ever want my fix, all I need to do is look at these beauties on Pinterest.

 

One of my very favorite parts about Christmas time is decorating the tree. When we had our house, we had two Christmas trees because I could never decide on one particular theme that I wanted to go with. I called them the "Hallmark Tree" & the "Pottery Barn" tree. I loved them so much! Last Christmas, I went shopping the day after Christmas & scooped up about fifteen different ornaments from Hallmark. They were all on sale, so it was definitely worth it- I can't wait to use them next year!

Yummy cookies & festive drinks are something else that I look forward to when the seasons rolls around. This year I am determined to find a good gluten/dairy dessert that doesn't have a thousand ingredients & doesn't taste like cardboard. Until then, I will drool over the some delicious gluten/dairy filled goodies that the rest of my family will be indulging in. 

So what are some things that you love about the Christmas season!?

All sources can be found here.

Cookies Galore

Today, my mom and I decided to start our Cookie Baking Marathon & I would say we were pretty successful for one day. It is times like this that I truly love being at home, so I can enjoy these moments baking up a storm with my mom. My mom's plan was to make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies & Pecan Crescent cookies. We ended up making over 6 dozen of the oatmeal chocolate chip & they look scrumptious! As for the pecan crescent cookies, we made the dough & are going to work on them tomorrow tonight. (If you want the recipes for these, let me know in the comments.)

Since I am unable to eat any of the cookies that everyone is most likely to bake for Christmas. I decided to choose some of my own gluten and dairy free cookies that I wanted to make, I decided on Lemon Meltaways, Chocolate Crinkle cookies, & Sugar cookies.

We baked over two dozen lemon meltaways using this recipe. I love any & everything lemon, so I added a little more zest & lemon juice then the recipe called for. It was definitely a good idea because these are one of the tastiest cookies I have had in a long time. I also made them into tablespoon little blobs, instead of slicing in the log. This modification did not affect the time cooked at all. 

As for the chocolate crinkle cookies, I used this recipe from Williams-Sonoma. I followed the recipe from top to bottom. They were super easy to put into balls, cooked well & look super delicious. This was the first time trying this recipe & I will be honest, they are super dry. I am not too sure what to add to this recipe to make them moist- if you have any tips, send them my way. Overall, they were easy to make, smell good & moving past the dryness..the flavor is tasty. 

Tomorrow we will also be making some sugar cookies. I bought lots of Christmas cookie cutters at Target a few weeks ago & I cannot wait to use them. I plan on decorating them with some simple homemade icing. If you follow me on Instagram, I will be posting some yummy photos of them tomorrow. 

So what are some of your favorite cookie recipes that you use every season? Do you have any gluten & dairy free ones? 

Leave comments in the section below, I would love to hear all about them :)