Mondays are for Music V.9

My husband always teases me because he says that I sometimes listen to depressing music
I have to argue with this- I don't think it's depressing
Just because it doesn't have a bumping bass doesn't mean it's depressing- so there
Glad I got that off my chest...

Anyway- this is a song I discover on the alternative station on my television when Aubs was a tiny baby
I really like it and I hope you guys do too.



Today is your last day to enter the giveaway- So go now!

5 Things

Hey Guys!
It's Friday again so I am going to share some of the things that I am loving on this week.

Fresh Tomatoes

My Mother In-law just picked the first batch of tomatoes from her garden... yum! I am determined to plant my own garden this year so I can grow some delicious tomatoes of my own.

Pooh Bear

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I love this quote- it reminds me a lot of the one from "The Help" but with proper grammar. My mom also used to read us a lot of Winnie the Pooh when we were little so I love the pictures.

Bluum

I got my first Bluum package in the mail in the beginning of the week. If you haven't heard of Bluum, it's a company that sends you a little package of goodies once a month to try for you and your baby. They had a good deal on a 3 month membership on Plum District plus I had a $10 gift card from my Santa photos for the site so I got a pretty good deal on it.

Bubblegum Mini Skinny

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I love Baby Gap's mini skinnys. They look so freakin' cute on my daughter. They just rolled out their spring line with lots of fun colors and I pretty much want them all.

Wasabi and Soy Sauce Almonds

Blue Diamond Wasabi and Soy Sauce Almonds are amazing.I'm kind of addicted to these but my husband thinks that they disgusting. Then again- he won't eat sushi so he isn't use to wasabi.


I hope everyone has a lovely weekend! We have a friend in town and I think we are going boating so mine should be pretty awesome. Don't forget to check out the sweet giveaway that I have going on right now.

Wordless Wednesday: January Beach Days

Living in Florida can be tough sometimes.
The heat and humidity is almost unbearable 4 or 5 months a year
The elderly rule the roads
and
Every crazy nationwide story in the news is usually out of Florida

The upside?
Going to the beach to watch the sunset in January








Oh and have you checked out my giveaway?



Linking up with my usual lovely wordless Wednesday ladies
The Paper Mama, Baby Baby Lemon, and then, she {snapped}, Parenting By Dummies and Jenni from the Blog

Baby Wall Art Giveaway

Hi Guys!
I have a super fun giveaway for you this week.
My friend Jaime just opened her Etsy shop Fun & Love and
would like to give one of you a custom 12x12 canvas with all your babe's little details on it.

I mean who wouldn't want one of these pretties in their child's bedroom?



Want to win?
Click read more to enter.

Mondays are for Music V.8

To say this is my favorite song of the moment would be a complete understatement.
I am totally in love with it.
It's mine and Aubs current dance party go to song.
Aubs will even sing the "hey" in all the right spots- well most of the time.



Live Version


Why do I post music on Mondays? I love to find new music that necessarily isn't the only song you hear on the radio every time you turn it on. I also love sharing my finds with other people. I don't have a playlist playing on my blog because I honestly find them a little bit annoying. I like to listen to my own music while blogging or while browsing my favorite sites and it is a pain in the butt to have to scroll to the bottom of a page and shut off the music. Or if a blog posts videos and I have to find their music and shut it off before I can watch the video. Anyway- I just wanted to give
you a little background on why I set a day aside for music.

Scavenger Hunt #1

I have been meaning to one of these forever but I always forget and try to scramble at the end of the week and end up with photos that I don't like. This week I stayed on top of it and I'm hoping to do it every week from here on out. I chose a pretty good week to start too because Ashley made a big announcement in her scavenger photos today.

Sunset

We drove to the beach and watched the sunset last night with some friends. It was really pretty- we need to do it more often.

Black & White

Just a girl and her dog

Day in My Life

Having a toddler means tons of tiny clothes to wash and fold.

Four

The number four tile on the play mat. Thankfully not ripped up and throw in some corner of the house.

Colorful

I finally put the discovery stool that my parents got for Aubs for Christmas to good use. We are definitely making finger painting a standard activity around here.

5 Things

Nella's 2 for 2 Fund

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Blogger, Photographer, Writer & Mama- Kelle Hampton has launched the 2 for 2 campaign in honor of her daughter Nella who was born with Down Syndrome. All of the money raised goes towards raising awareness of Down Syndrome and provides opportunities for those with Down Syndrome and their families. Kelle is about $20,000 away from her goal of raising $200,000 by Nella's second birthday on January 22nd.

Hearts in Chicken Noodle Soup

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I saw this on Pinterest and I think it is an adorable idea, especially with Valentine's Day right around the corner. I also think that it would be cool to cut the carrots in all kinds of shapes and use it as a learning tool.

New Cell Phone Cover


I got a cover for my new phone the other day and I absolutely love it! Mallorie turned me on to Society6 and they have so many great designs to choose from.

Kitchen Closet Re-do

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We have this huge closet in our kitchen that just gets piled up with junk. This picture is my inspiration for what I would like to do with that closet. Our closet is about twice the length of this one so we would do half like this(but a little less fancy) and the other half with shelving for storage. We have a contractor coming by in a couple of weeks to help us get started.

Paper Roll


I've had my eye on a paper roll for Aubs for awhile down. The ones that I found online were $30 plus except for the one from Ikea. The only catch is that it wasn't available online from Ikea. So I finally drove my butt down there last Friday and picked one up. It was only $6.99 and $4.99 for the paper. Such a steal! It was super easy to put together too. We love it, my only regret is not getting it sooner.

Last put certainly not least-
The winner of the 200 follower giveaway is Jaime M. and she actually just started blogging so head on over and say hi!

Blah Blah Blah

After about 40 minutes of rocking and back rubbing my daughter is finally asleep. How long will she be asleep is really the question. As you have probably noticed, this ol' blog of mine has been a little bland lately. I have just been so tired and it seems like my to do list is never ending. There is an underlying explanation for some of these things which I promise to share with you some time soon.

In the meantime I am going to try to manage my time better so that I can publish some more quality posts. I love blogging and the community that comes with it so it really gets me down when I fall behind on it. I have a funny story that I am working on for you but my scatter brain is having a hard time getting out what I want to say in the way that I would like to say it. I think I need to find a nice quiet and/or peaceful place to write where my mind isn't being pulled in 5 million directions. It's a sunny 67 degrees out right now, maybe I should start taking my laptop outside during nap time and writing- that would probably help and maybe be inspiring as a bonus.

I also need to start taking more pictures. My in-laws actually got me a backdrop/lighting set-up for Christmas that I haven't used yet. Oh and that tripod that I showed you, still in the box. I know I know- kind of ridiculous. Even with out the fancy set-ups, I just need to start snapping away in general like I used to. At least I can admit that I have a problem, right?




This is my glamorous look lately. Glasses, no make-up and my hair falling out of a braid.


If anyone would like to share some tips with me how to keep on keeping on in the hustle and bustle of Mommyhood I would love to hear them.

Wordless Wednesday: Cousins

A few weeks ago we met my husband's brother and his daughter Lia at the park. It's really cool to see Aubrey actually interact with her cousins now. She is getting so big so quick that it's hard to believe. Her intelligence level has gone wild in the pastst few months and I love it.



This Aubs favorite thing at the park. I always put her on it when there are too many big kids on the merry go round. It's like her own personal one.





It's all fun and games until someone gets too dizzy and hits their head.


Lia lounging out in her Bieber t-shirt.
This was the day when I told her that Justin Bieber was a lot older than her and she said to me,
"Aunt Mal, those kinds of things don't matter when you're in love."
Yikes- she is going to be a handful.

Have you enter my 200 follower giveaway yet?
It ends tomorrow at midnight!

Linking up with my usual lovely wordless Wednesday ladies
The Paper Mama, Baby Baby Lemon, and then, she {snapped}, Parenting By Dummies and Jenni from the Blog

Mondays are for Music V.7

I kind of fell off from doing Mondays are for Music, sorry about that.
Now I am back with it and want to share with you one of my favorite songs of the moment.
My husband reactivated my Sirius XM for Christmas so now I have Alt Nation back, yay!
This song has been all over there lately, I also heard it on BBC radio.
Enjoy

Goyte- Someone That I Use to Know






Also if you didn't know, I am kind of a geek about the Hunger Games. I read the whole series twice while only reading one book in between. What does that have to do with music- pretty much nothing but the Taylor Swift song that was released that will be in the movie is pretty good and I wanted to share it with you. There is one thing that bugs me about it. Every time I sing it in my head I automatically warps into White Blank Pages by Mumford and Sons. Am I crazy or do they sounds similar at certain points.





Probably just crazy

5 Things

It's Friday again!
How was your week, mine was pretty good but kind of boring.
Time to share some of my favorite things of the week.

Flash Face

I rarely use my flash and this is one of the reasons why.
It makes Aubs do this "flash face". I kind of love it but it's not exactly frame worthy.

Words that Inspire

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I have always been a big fan of quotes and now that Pinterest is around I have full on access to them written in pretty script with pretty prints. You know who always pins the best quotes? Joanna
You can follow her Pinterest here.

Soup

We only get little glimpses of winter here in Florida. Today we are- it's a breezy 60 degrees. I take full advantage and eat soup for lunch whenever I can. Lately it has been Panera low fat chicken tortilla that I buy at Sam's Club. I also chop up half of a small avocado and put it on top with some low fat cheese. I really want to make my own so that I'm not eating all of those preservatives. I'm definitely going to try Karly's recipe some time soon.

The New NBC Thursday Line-up

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The hubs and I are big fans of Parks & Rec so we are super excited for new episodes. The bonus is that all the shows that night are good. We didn't really like Community but that's off now and Up All Night (which is hysterical) took it's place.
Oh and 30 Rock is back- woo hoo!

New iPhone

I finally got an iPhone. Yeah I know I'm a late to the game. Last year when we when to Verizon to get me one my husband and the sales guy talked me into getting a droid instead. The droid was alright but the pictures were crap and every time I listened to music my phone would shut down after 3 songs. So far I'm happy with the iPhone. Siri and I are already bffs.

I hope that you all have a fabulous weekend and don't forget to check out my Giveaway! It's a good one.

200 Followers Giveaway

Hey Guys!
I reached 200 followers through Google Friend Connect and I think that a giveaway is in order. I'd like to thank you guys so much for supporting my little blog, It really means a lot.
I have a few things up for grabs thanks to my generous ad swap buddies and my friends over at Bare Root Designs.

Have you heard of Petals, Lace and Pearls?
If you haven't then you should head on over.
Becky makes beautiful accessories using hand rolled flowers
and
gorgeous beaded necklaces and earrings
Becky also has a personal blog
where she writes about her adorable family, inspirations & DIYs
She is very generously giving one of my readers a $25 credit to her shop!



Etsy // Blog // Facebook

If you've been a reader for awhile you may remember me mentioning Bare Root Designs in the past
Bare Roots Designs is a small jewelry company by two lovely woman
Courtney & Kelcee
Read more about their story here
They are offering a pair their of gorgeous earrings to one of my lucky readers
Aren't these 2" gold dangles beautiful?


Facebook // Website

Last but certainly not least my new bloggy friend Annelise is giving away a large 200x200 ad space to one very lucky reader.
Aunie is the face behind her fun blog Aunie Sauce where she writes about her daily life, hairstyles and really cute nails designs.
Head on over and say "hi!"


Blog // Twitter

There you have it!
Three wonderful prizes to one Lucky winner!

Click Read More to enter.

Wordless Wednesday: Party Hat

Last week it was a knit cap
This week it is a Sponge Bob party hat
What can I say?
Girlfriend loves herself some headwear








Linking up with my usual lovely wordless Wednesday ladies
The Paper Mama, Baby Baby Lemon, and then, she {snapped}, Parenting By Dummies and Jenni from the Blog

Healthy in 2012

So far I have been doing pretty well with my resolution of eating better and exercising regularly. Last week I only managed to make it to the gym 3 days instead of 5. Some days it's hard for me to squeeze it in. The best time for me to go is in the morning. The problem with that is that all of my moms meetups and Gymboree classes are in the morning. This usually only leaves about two days during the week open that I am able to go in the morning. I can always go in the afternoon, which I often do. The glitch in that plan is that sometimes Aubs naps a long time and I hate going to the gym after 4 because it seems like I have to rush home to make dinner. I'm trying to get better at scheduling a crock pot meal for the days that I am busy in the morning so that I don't have any excuses not to hit the gym.

Another thing that I have been making sure to do is eat a healthy breakfast. Sometimes I'm not that hungry in the morning but I make myself eat something anyway. If I skip breakfast I usually end up starving by lunch and making poor choices on what to eat. Or I'll start picking at things and adding unneeded calories to my diet. I thought that today I would share one of the meals that I have been eating for breakfast for the past couple of weeks. I probably eat this breakfast wrap 3 or 4 times a week.

Ingredients

Pam Olive Oil
Small garlic clove- mined
About 1/8-1/4 cup chopped yellow onion
1/4 cup chopped bell peppers
2 egg whites
Black pepper to taste
1/4 cup low fat cheddar
A whole wheat low carb wrap

Directions



Heat a skillet over medium heat and spray with Pam. Add garlic, onions & pepper and saute for about 5 minutes. While these are cooking separate your eggs (unless you are using liquid whites) and add black pepper. Once the onions are translucent and the peppers are softened add your egg to the skillet. Since the skillet is hot the egg will cook in about a minute to a minute and a half. Once the egg is cooked through remove skillet from the heat.



Next take your wrap and place it in between two paper towels and cook in the microwave on high heat for 20 seconds. Remove from microwave and slide your eggs off of the skillet and on to the wrap. Then sprinkle your cheese on top.



Now roll up your wrap by folding in the ends and rolling tightly. Place rolled wrap seam down on heated panini press. Press wrap for about 2 minutes or until toasted.



Slice on a angle and enjoy!


I also have a winner for the Dondalee ring giveway.
Congratulations to Melissa from Hairbows N' More

Until We Meet Again

These are long over do, I know.
With the holidays and everything I got a little bit behind on my photo editing.
I miss Vegas already and I wish it weren't so far from me so I could visit more often.
We were actually planning on going back in February but there has been a little hiccup in our plans.
So it looks like it won't happen until 2013.
At least I've got some good pictures to look back on.

Planet Hollywood








Caesar's Palace


The Venetian






Excalibur


New York New York


Cosmopolitan