Amateur

This post is long overdue! About two or so months ago Karen (Matt and Ingrid's mom) mentioned that Matty wanted a Death Star pinata for his Star Ward birthday party and asked if she thought Spencer and I could figure out how to make one. I said sure, despite the fact that I'd never seen Star Wars nor did I have a clue what the Death Star was . . . I had some sort of recollection of Spencer doing a paper mache in college, so we wouldn't be completely in the dark. It was a little time consuming but easier than one might expect. We had so much fun that we have a few other paper mache projects lined up. :)

Here are some pics . . .











Spencer also put together these crazy detailed Star Wars origami-type things for the tables. What an amazingly talented/determined guy!

In My Own Eyes

I have now had Pink Eye four times in less than a month. It's not the worst infection that a person can have, but it sure is annoying! Especially when you give it to yourself! How does one give them self pink eye you ask? Let me explain. First you contract the bacteria from some outside source. (I'm not sure where I picked this up the first time, but I did). Then you go to the doctors to get yourself some eye drops or cream as the case may be. Everything clears up and you think you're home free. Except for a week later when you wake up with your eyes crusted shut and realize you must have used your make-up too soon. This is when you clean everything out, get new brushes, etc and think you're fine . . . but you're not. You wake up with pink eye for the third time in two weeks. You get serious and replace everything you could have possibly used in those goopy eye days. Things are going great it's been almost two weeks since you've been hit with an infection. You're slightly annoyed because you've just spent so much money replacing your make up, but what do you do? You get over it. Until you wake up a fourth time to find that you'll need help from a warm wash cloth before you can fully open your eyes. Not fun!!!

A word to the wise. If you ever get pink eye, don't wear make-up for at least a week! It doesn't matter if you're not contagious any more, wait. When you think it's gone get disposable applicators, put them in your make up only one time, apply, then throw away. Do this for a few days, just to be safe. Trust me, the package of applicators will cost a whole lot less than replacing your entire make-up supply!

Video 03.12.09

Anyone with a Facebook account will get kick out of this . . .

Two

On the off chance that you don't already have it . . . Oh and when it says tomorrow, it means March 4th, which depending on when you read this could be TODAY! ;)

Giving Up

One of my New Year's resolutions for 2009 is to give something up each month. The idea behind it is that hopefully after the month is over I will have proven to myself that

1-I can live without something, and
2-that the thing I gave up really isn't as great as I once thought it was.

For example, in January I gave up fast food.


I had come to rely too much on the convenience of the drive-thru. I generally make the healthiest choices possible when eating fast food, but it's still not the best habit to form, so I gave it up cold turkey. It was so much easier than I thought it would be! Sure it took a little extra planning and/or effort, but I did it. If I needed something quick I would go to a grocery store (and make a healthy choice) or Subway (because I don't consider Subway "fast food"). The healthy habit has stuck and I've only been to a drive thru once since then . . . with a friend, I might add! :)

Now for my current goal. Working and living in an environment with young children pretty much guarantees that you have easy access to treats whenever the craving strikes. And that is dangerous! So this month I gave up candy and desserts.


February probably isn't the easiest month to do this, especially around the 14th, but that's one of the reasons I chose it. The other reason is because, let's be honest, 28 days is more realistic than 31! Again, it has been a lot easier than I had anticipated, but it's been incredibly difficult too, especially when making homemade truffles with Spencer and our friend, Renee. My mouth was watering like crazy! (Don't worry, there is one of each kind of truffle waiting in the freezer to be sampled in March). It is going to be hard not to let sweets creep back into my diet on a regular basis, but I really think I can do it!

I have a few ideas of what I can do, or rather not do, in the coming months . . . eating in the car, snacking throughout the day (other than designated healthy snacks of course), fried foods, and maybe, maybe even do a month where I give up chocolate in all forms (fyi, there are chocolate breakfast foods that are not considered dessert). But I'm struggling to come up with something for next month. You see, I'm planning a fantastic little road trip with my former roommate, Allyson at the end of March and I would hate to eliminate any option of edible goodness that we could enjoy between DC and Boston. I'd also hate to not meet my goal, which is why I'm having such a dilemma. I still have five more days to come up with something good . . . Suggestions are welcome! :)

P.S. Big thanks to google images! Also, sorry about the over-use of parenthesis.

Video 02.13.09

The awesome little skier in this video just happens to be a little boy I know and love . . . Matthew! :)



He is so stinking cute!!!

Change

After a year and some of wanting to do it, I finally made the appointment and my hair is now purple! Okay, so not Sydney Bristow purple, but there are definitely purple highlights in my hair. I knew I wanted to change my hair a bit, but I was hesitant because as soon as you get me in that chair, I'll cave and have the stylist chop all my hair off, and I didn't want to do that. I decided that I'd be strong and just do it! And I did. It's purple and I love the style!







I got it done at this salon in DC called Bang. It's kind of random, but I'd been talking to Spencer about what I wanted to do with my hair and he saw this girl at TJ Max who had that hair. He asked her where she gets her hair done and she tells him she's a stylist at this salon. He immediately called me and gave me the info. It took about a month for me to actually set up the appointment, but I'm SO glad I did!