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Conscious Christmas

While the joy of the holidays is taking the world over, I have been thinking about ways in which the holidays can be used for causes.  Mass consumerism takes many people over - just go to Best Buy on Black Friday to confirm that statement - but there are some chances to get thoughtful gifts that give back to those that made or sold them.

I am planning to take some time this season to put more meaning into my gifts through crafts, buying locally, and buying through The Little Market. I am hoping that by sharing my plans here on my blog it will reach others and encourage them to do the same.

Don't rush through the holidays and buy the flashiest gift on the shelf.  Put some time aside shop online through the sites I have listed below or go shop to shop and buy from your own local shops and craftsmen.  I am certain you will find thoughtful and unique gifts for your loved ones.

Global Shopping!

Global Goods Partners (GGP) and The Little Market are great starting points from the comfort of your home.  Click on their links to learn more about their mission and how your purchases here help others. 

Get out of your house, office, car and enjoy some good old fashioned window shopping. Go into town and shop!  Go to a local crafts fair or restaurant and buy buy buy! Support your neighbors this holiday season and bring a little extra joy someone's way. 

How will you make sure your Christmas gifts give back this holiday season?

What to do with all of those leftovers!

After hosting our first Thanksgiving at our house, my husband and I learned a valuable lesson.  Force everyone to take the food they brought home with them!  We were left with 6 pies and every single side dish along with a mountain of turkey.  The wine and beer leftovers - we welcomed those of course.

So, I began my search on the internet to figure out what we could do with everything else.

The pies I have nothing for you.  Throw them out, eat them or have someone else eat them.

Everything else - here is what I came up with - give it a try! (If you are eating healthy do not eat this, make it for someone else)

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees

2. Using a casserole dish (if you have any clean ones handy) place a layer of left over stuffing on the     bottom. (Spray first of course!)

3. Next layer your vegetables

4. Add your cranberry sauce

5. Add turkey

6. Add gravy

7. Top off with mashed potatoes

8. Bake for 35 minutes

Keep in the fridge and reheat until you are done eating it. This will hopefully clear some fridge space for you. 

CAUTION: This will clear space in your refrigerator but not space around your waistband, eat with caution this still contains as many calories as if you ate it separately!

How unhealthy can you get?  Enjoy!

Christmas Crafts

'Tis the season to be crafty!

I have been bitten by the craft bug lately and could not have a day off from work and not do something productive.  Lucky for me it is the holiday season and there is an abundance of craft opportunities.  I decided to ease myself into crafting this season by making two wreaths and turning our front door into Frosty the Snowman!

All 3 of these projects were easy and cheap very important details this time of year. For you novice crafters - these are for you! I hope the craft bug finds you like it found me.

Funky Family Letter Wreath

Supplies:
(1) 14 inch grapevine wreath
Holiday picks 
Wooden family initial letter (thin and cheap is fine) 
Acrylic Paint (I chose red & green and will soon add white)
Paint brush
Circular sponge (or you can free hand your circles)
Colored twine (I chose red)
Hairspray

Instructions:

1. Paint the background color of your letter and set aside
2. Break your holiday picks a part. The larger designed ones I left together, you can see them in the picture with the fruit and drums etc.  The others I broke apart.  
3. Stick them into the wreath tightly so they decorate the right side of your wreath and feel as though they are locked in place.
4. Place circles on your letter, make sure it is dry. (I free handed mine and will be going back over them to smooth them out. Let dry. 
5. Drill (or like me have your husband or handy person nearest to you) drill small holes in the top and bottom to use your twine to tie the letter to the wreath.
5. Spray with Hairspray so your guests are not continually attacked by glitter whenever they visit you!

Funky Family Letter Wreath

Crazy Christmas Bow Wreath

Crazy Christmas Bow Wreath

Supplies:
1 straw wreath
50-90 bows (medium & large)
Hot glue gun
1 funky bow or ribbon to make your own bow!
Ribbon
Twine

Instructions:

1. Leave the straw wreath wrapped in the plastic wrap it came in. (Bows will stick better)
2. Remove backing from bows and stick to the plastic covering the straw wreath. Hot glue bows that do not seem to stick well. (You can cover only the front and inner circle or you can use more bows and cover the back as well.) I only covered the front and inside circle because I liked the country effect the straw wreath gave showing on the side for our back door. 
3. Make or unwrap your bow.  Here is a blog on how to make your own bow!
4. Use twine to tie the bow to your wreath.
5. Measure the length of your door from where the wreath will hang from to where you would like the top to be. Cut your ribbon double this length (add extra if you'd like to tie a nice knot at the top) String the ribbon through your wreath and tie at the top tightly.  Hang and sit back in your own glory.  Heck poor yourself a glass of wine, well done. 

Snazzy Snowman Door

Snazzy Snowman Door

Supplies:

(3) 8.5x11 pieces of black construction paper
1 piece orange and brown construction paper
A small piece of fabric of our choice
38 inches of ribbon (approx.) of your choice (measure your door and add half)
Hot glue gun
Tape

Instructions:

1. Holding the black paper horizontally cut a straight line a few inches down. Then Turn the paper vertically and hot glue together (This will make your top hat)
2.  Cut your ribbon 9 inches long and only an inch or two wide.  This will make the belt for your hat.  Cut a little more fabric to make a bow
3. Hot glue the fabric along the rim of the top hat you made (the fabric should be long enough that you hot glue it to the back of the hat not the front) Grab the remaining fabric in the middle to make a floral shape and hot glue to the side of your belt.
4. Cut seven large circles out of the black paper roughly 4 inches diameter (these will be your eyes) & mouth)
5. Cut 3 circles roughly 3 inches in diameter (these will be your buttons)
6. Cut a triangle out of the orange paper roughly 3 3/4 inches at the base and 5 inches on each side (this will be your nose)
7. Make your pipe out of the brown paper,I free handed mine at about 6 inches long
8. Tape the eyes, nose, mouth, buttons and pipe onto your door
9. Tape your top hat to the top of the door.  (Make sure it is high enough so that it is not hit when the door opens and closes.)
10. Cut your ribbon to the length of your door and tape to the door
11. Use your remaining ribbon and scrunch it into a neat looking bow and hot glue together
12. Hot glue this bow you made onto the ribbon already on the door
13. Have another glass of wine, you are done!

Happy Holidays to all! Please feel free to share with others.

Raising the Bar (Barre)

I have found myself getting very frustrated with individuals who I notice make excuses all of the time. And from that I have done some self reflection and I noticed that I do it from time to time myself. I have decided to raise the bar for myself figurative and literally.

There are little ways every day that we can challenge ourselves and many areas where we can easily draw up an excuse to not do something or get someone off of our back. I invite you to take some time as we head into the holiday season to notice when others do this and when, more importantly, you yourself do it!  I invite you to observe when others make excuses as it is sometimes easier to see flaws in others then ourselves. Once you see this in others, take some time for your own self reflection and try to catch yourself when you do it.

Maybe you decide to sit for "5 more minutes" before changing laundry. Or maybe you want "5 more minutes of sleep". You may decide that you will just do the dishes tomorrow. You may also say to yourself (or others) that you will start the gym tomorrow or go to a fitness class tomorrow.  Challenge yourself to not wait and to do it. Get up wash those dishes, go change the laundry, get out of bed when the alarm goes off and you know, what the heck maybe go get gas before your tank is on E!

I am challenging myself in this as well. And for my beginning steps I am signing up for the "Raise the Barre" challenge at Barre N9ne.  Hence, the inspiration for this post. The holiday season is an extremely busy season for many and with that comes time for eating, drinking and being merry.  Along with that comes very little time for self care, health, chores and relaxation.

I am raising the bar for myself this holiday season to keep challenging myself even during a time where it is easy and acceptable to make excuses - and you know what? I challenge you to do the same!

Book Reviews!

Many of you know I am in a book club and I thoroughly enjoy reading. At our last book club meeting we took some time to review the books we had read and discussed in the past year.  We had a blast drinking wine, eating appetizers and revisiting some of our favorite and least favorite books in the past year.  I wanted to share them on here for anyone looking for some books to read as we near winter!

There are five of us in our book club which we started up four years ago.  We have had other members come and go which, we enjoy but, the five of us have stayed strong.  

Below I have listed each book & author, as well as the month we read it, and whose choice it was. Below that, I have given a star rating from each book club member.

★ - Maximum of three (3) stars
ㄨ - Did not read book or unknown rating to date

Language of Flowers by: Vanessa Diffenbaugh
October, 2012   KD's pick!

KD  ★★★
BF   ★★☆
ES   ★☆☆
AP   ㄨ 
DS   ㄨ 

The Casual Vacancy by: JK Rowling
December, 2012  AP's pick!

AP   ★☆☆
BF   ☆☆☆
ES   ★☆☆
KD    ★★☆
DS   ㄨ 

Comfort & Joy by: Kristin Hannah
January, 2013  BF's pick!

BF   ★★★
ES   ★★☆
KD    ★☆☆
AP   ★★★
DS   ★★☆

A Prayer for Owen Meany by: John Irving
February, 2013  ES's pick!

ES   ★★★
KD    ★★★
AP   ★★★
BF   ★★★
DS   ㄨ 

The Paris Wife by: Paula McLain
March, 2013  KD's pick!

KD    ★★★
AP   ★★☆
BF   ★★★
ES   ★★★
DS   ★★★

Born to Run by: Christopher McDougall
May, 2013  AP's pick!

AP   ★★☆
BF   ★☆☆
ES   ★★☆
KD    ★★☆
DS   ㄨ 

Carrie & Me by: Carol Burnett
June, 2013 BF's pick!

ES   ★★★
KD    ★★★
AP   ★★★
BF   ★★★
DS   ★★★ 

Founding Myths by: Ray Raphael
July, 2013 ES's pick!

ES   ★★★
KD    ★★★
AP   ★☆☆
BF   ★★☆
DS   ★★☆

So there you have it 2012-2013 book choices!

We are presently reading Life From Scratch by: Melissa Ford (AP's pick!) & The Husband's Secret by: Liane Moriarty (DS's pick!).  Be sure to check back for reviews.  

Have you read any of these books?  What are your thoughts?

How do you take care of you?

As I was deciding what to write about for my "comeback blog" I came up with many ideas.  Will this post take my blog in a new direction, will it reflect on how well I have been doing with my New Year resolutions, or will it be a rambling of random thoughts. In the end the topic that comes up in so many different forms each and every day came shining through.  Mental Health.

How do you know when you are burning out?  How do you know when you have reached your breaking point?  How do you know when you are emotionally exhausted?

More important then recognizing when you need a break or help is what you do for yourself when you know you need that break.

I believe that people need an outlet.  For me, my outlet changes from time to time.  Today, driving home from work - burnt out for various reasons - I talked to my husband (some may call it venting), I rocked out to the radio, I got in front of the slow cars and I went to book club.  And, now here I sit, writing this blog with a clear conscious, no sense of anxiety and ready to take on the world!  Or just restart my blog - same difference.

After spending time with friends, family, coworkers and students I have noticed how many people are approaching burn out or they break down and keep going.  What good does this do for anyone?  Instead of finding their outlet, they take their anger out on the wrong people or tasks or inanimate objects. The smallest comment, slide glance or snicker can send people spiraling. Taking some time to listen to yourself (your inner being) and connect with what you need hopefully can help  you to stay on track.

So, this blog isn't to tell you what to do or go on and on about the stellar job I have been doing in my New Year resolutions. Or for me to pretend I am expert on this topic.  It is to give you a moment to pause and reflect on what makes your happy.  And remember to always take time for you, get back to who you are and do your best to not get too lost in stress and anxiety.

Fit & Fab 20's

I'm baaack!  Okay so I missed a month of blogging but, I thought about it...

At any rate tonight I wanted to write about being fit and fab in your 20s.  Since I still have a couple of years left in my 20s - it fits. If you have read my previous posts you know that for 2013 I set goals for myself to improve my overall health and lifestyle.  For the most part I have been sticking to all of them and it has made a difference.

For the next 60 days I have signed up for the BarreN9ne Challenge.  I have committed myself to attending barre 3 times a week and changing the way I look at my health and my fitness levels.  I know many of my friends are trying to make big changes in their lives as well and I think we can all do this.  Our generation has a gift.  Fitness and health has reached a national low and there are so many opportunities and resources for us to begin to turn this around.

The tricks 
1. Find what works for you. I tried a lot of options: joining a gym, jogging, zumba, yoga etc.  Some of those I still love and some are just not for me (aka just joining a standard gym).  But barre is for me!  I like it, it challenges me and I see results - you need to find something that works for you.  Do I suggest trying barre...OF COURSE but you may not get hooked like I did and that is okay.  Do not get disheartened if you trying something and it doesn't get you motivated.  Try something else.

2. MOOOOOVE - seriously.  I set a resolution to walk 10,000 steps a day back in January. I still try every day.  It makes a huge difference in your overall health to just walk.  If you don't do anything else walk around.

3. Buy cute clothes.  I am serious. Save the money for it and treat yourself!  Even though you "plan to lose weight" and don't want to buy new clothes, just do it.  You will feel so much better about yourself in your new lulu and you will work harder. And if you buy something really cute you might even look forward to getting ready to work out!

4. Drink water.  I am sooo bad at this. I am always dehydrated always.  I have made an effort to drink water all day long. I now carry a water bottle with me every where I go.  Sometimes when you think you are hungry...ready...you are actually just thirsty!  Talk about wasted calories. Get a water bottle you like and bring it with you wherever you go.  Buy one with a filter if you are not able to always be near a filtered water system so you have no excuses.

These steps have made such a difference for me in the short amount of time. I am sleeping better, my skin is not dry, and I am losing weight.  It's not a struggle anymore. Making healthy decisions has started to become an everyday part of my life. And I hope you can get there too!

SECRETS TO MY SUCCESSES SO FAR 2013

Things have been busy so far in 2013 and thanks to my 2013 New Year Resolutions I have been busy and it has been great!  I have lost 10 llbs., I have lost inches, I have regained friendships, made new ones and strengthened others.  2013 has been fun so far and I believe if I keep up with the habits I have created for myself, it will only continue to get better. People are often looking for the quick fix to life or the miracle solution to problems, I do not have that. Although, I am happy to share what has worked for me and hope you can use some of my tips or be inspired to create your own habits for 2013!

Health & Fitness
Mike bought me a Fitbit.  Such a small gadget has made a huge difference in my choices.  The Fitbit makes you aware of how many steps you take in a day.  I set a goal of 10,000 steps per day.  Some days I achieve this goal, some days I take more than 10,000 steps and some less.  Just wearing the Fitbit and knowing it is counting my steps has helped me notice how many lazy choices I make in a day.  From driving to my office (I presently live on campus), taking the elevator (to the 3rd floor), not gong for an errand or to visit someone or do a chore because I am relaxing.  These choices add up.  Since January, I walk to my office every day and do not take the elevator.  I take opportunities I would have skipped to see people or run an errand.  And I do chores when they need to be done and I no longer say "I will do this later".  The Fitbit has been the key to 2 of my resolutions - stopping me from making excuses for myself and MOOOOVing!

The other key to my health & fitness success is barre class!  At the end of 2012 beginning of 2013 I bought a Groupon to Barre N9ne and it has been life changing for me.  As a former dancer who is 10 years away from my fit dancer days, this class has been perfect for me.  And I have introduced it to 5 or 6 of my friends already who also love it.  The class is perfect for women, it tones the hard to reach areas and you will very quickly see inches melt off with just 2 classes a week.  I have made a personal goal to go to barre two times a week and I have been able to achieve that.  My coworker also goes twice a week and we both feel empowered every time we leave class and cannot miss a session. After a month of going my wedding dress is already too big!  And I hope by the beginning of summer I will have to exchange it for two sizes down, and based on how well barre class has gone already I think that will be easy to do.

Lifestyle
Taking things as they come and trying to look at things positively is easy to say and not always easy to do.  This year I have really focused on taking my time when faced with different situations and have tried to think them through before reacting.  I have had some success here and work has been much better for me with that attitude. I am not 100% at this but I have noticed what a difference this attitude can have in a day.

My trucker mouth has not been cured yet but I do notice when I curse and have good friends who call me out on it.  This is one that will be brought to the front of the list now that the others seem to be going so smoothly for me!

Reaching out to friends and letting them know I am thinking of them or making plans to see them has also been a huge source of positive energy for me.  Even the smallest interaction such as, a Facebook posting has helped me feel closer to my friends and led to making plans with one another. I would not say I am channeling Yes Man but, if I do not have a reason not to try something new or go out with a friend I no longer say no just to veg at home, unless I really need to.

Crafts
It has only been one month but I have gone over my goal with 2!  I made a gift for a very close friend of mine who moved to Texas for her job.  It meant a lot to me to do something nice for her as she has been a very important person in my life for a long time now.  Giving something you have made and put a lot of thought into to someone is an amazing experience and was exciting to give and I could see in her eyes how much it meant to her.  Make Pinterest your best friend and try to do a couple of things from there every few weeks!

If I can do it, you can too!   Feel free to share my blog with others in hopes it inspired you and hopefully others.

Happy Nemo Storm 2013