Popeye Would Be Proud

I LOVE smoothies! I have one almost every day. There may be a day here or there where I don't make one; but it's pretty safe to say every day! In fact, my Magic Bullet is on its last legs! It doesn't work quite how it's supposed to. That's going to be a sad, sad day!

The one in the photo is one of my favorite kinds. The Husband always wrinkles his nose at how much spinach I put in it. But I love me some green smoothies!

So here's how to make it! For a lack of a better name:

Strawberry-Banana-Orange-Spinach-Vanilla Smoothie

5 Strawberries (Green tops and all! With the spinach in it you won't even notice them.)
1 Banana
Spinach (I like a very generous heaping handful but that might be a bit much for some people!)
Orange Juice
Vanilla Yogurt (Enough juice and yogurt to reach the consistency that you like.)

Blend them really well together and there ya go! Rich in Vitamin C and Iron.... yum!!

I think I might share a few more of my favorite smoothies in the future! What's your favorite smoothie combination?

Time Flies By When You're...

What? What? Where did January go?!

One of my main goals for this month was to get better organized in all aspects.

I started with meal planning.

I printed these free calendars from a site online. And found a bunch of new delicious recipes off skinnytaste! We were in a serious dinner rut so I was hoping if we planned a new recipe to try every day it would help us get out of it! And it did!

We found ourselves very busy in November and December so this month we tried to spend more time together intentionally unplugged and undistracted from other things. Putting together a wacky Dutch puzzle was a good way to spend time together and talk.

 
 

I found myself wanting to start some new projects the past couple weeks. So I made one of my sister's a clutch out of this awesome glittery 80's fabric someone gave me. Ah! I love this material!

I've been really trying to cut back on my obsessive coffee intake! Instead of way too much cups of coffee through out the day, I've been trying to just have two cups of specialty decaf coffee drinks and then just water for the remainder of the day. I may just be replacing one bad thing with another, but we'll see!

Obedience training goes well until it comes to the couch and Kudjo's need to cuddle.

  

  

  

Butch has found a loop hole---watching from a chair right next to the couch. 

  

Or he just looks so cute and cold that we wrap him up in a blanket and he has a nap. He buried himself deeper in there.

  

  

If I had to pick a favorite season based only on cute accessories, I think winter would have to be right up there! 

  

Another thing we did together was went out for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants when I was a child. 

  

(Excuse the toque head! Plus I'm in a bad need of a haircut!)  

It was nice to go out and do something together! We hit the rental store on the way home and finished the evening with a movie night. 

I'm hoping to get some "Spring Cleaning" started soon but I'm afraid to start a list! Maybe I'll just start in one room and rotate around the house. 

Liebster Award

I was nominated for two! One by The Belgian Girl! And one by Tennessee Red Thank-you!!! Click on the links and say hi to these lovely ladies! 

The Ever-Changing yet ever so simple rules

1. List 11 facts about yourself
2. Answer the 11 questions the blogger who nominated you left
3. Ask 11 new questions for those you nominate
4. Choose 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers to nominate
5. Go to each bloggers page and let them know about the award
6. Thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog

11 Facts:

1. I brush my teeth with my eyes closed. Not sure why but it feels weird when I make myself open my eyes and brush.

2. I have come a LONG way, but sometimes I still have germ-a-phobe tendencies. Let's not talk about the time my puppy threw up on my blanket and I sobbed for half an hour. 

3. I LOVE 80's music! 

4. I don't usually like them so I haven't made brownies in YEARS. We realized yesterday when Jon was baking a pan, that in the almost seven years we've been together, we have never made them. 

5. I have double jointed fingers so it makes me self conscious when I take pictures of my hands. (like the photo in previous post)

6. I love to read but am very fussy about the book. So it takes me months to choose my next read. Once I start the book though, I have to finish it in less than two days. Even if it means staying up most the night reading.

7. I love eye shadow. I think I need every shade. 
8. I once dented my tooth on my guitar. I wish I had been doing something cool like rocking out but unfortunately I was simply carrying it.
9. I don't enjoy going to the theatre to watch movies. I hate the whole experience. So I usually just wait till it's out on dvd. 
10. I can't stay in one place for too long  (usually at about 2 years I start feeling antsy) before I want to travel or move somewhere else. 
11. I would love if I got paid to travel around the world! 

Questions from The Belgian Girl

The 11 questions for my chosen-ones:

* What do you want to accomplish in your life? Ooo good question! Above everything, I want to reach the end of my life having impacted people for the better. I want to have made real connections and genuine relationships. If I can do that, I will feel accomplished. 

* What are you studying? Currently I am not studying anything. (If you follow my instagram you'll see I did some "light" accounting reading lately) I have 4 years of college though! Where I studied mostly Psychology, Literature, Biblical Studies, And Business. I like learning so I tried to soak in everything I could! 

* Marilyn Monroe or Audrey Hepburn? Audrey Hepburn

* Favourite Movie? You've Got Mail and When Harry Met Sally

* What is the weirdest thing you like?  Sandwiches with peanut butter. PB and cucumbers, PB and chocolate quik mix, PB and bananas. 

* Heels or ballerinas? Heels

* What is your favourite trend of this past year? I really like the addition of peplums to this past year's fashion trends. It's a silhouette that is flattering to a lot of people.  

* If you could choose, who would you look like? I think Kristen Bell is adorable! 

* What is your biggest dream? I would LOVE to meet Betty White. 

* Your favourite spot in the world? This is hard to answer. The world is big and I haven't seen much of it! 

* Your favourite meal? Fettuccine Alfredo

Questions from Tennessee Red

1. What is your favorite color? What about your favorite color combinations? Any reason why? My favorite color changes. For years it'll be one color and so anything I buy is. Then it changes to another color and I buy things in that shade. My closet is like the era of my favorite color choices!

2. Give me a few lyrics of a song that you feel describes you. I suppose I'll have to put a few lyrics from a song that has been my "theme" song since high school.  And without knowing the whole story it's probably going to come across weird but here are a few lyrics that I like the most from it:

Bitch -- Meredith Brooks

"When you hurt, when you suffer
I'm your angel undercover
I've been numb, I'm revived
Can't say I'm not alive
You know I wouldn't want it any other way"

3.  Why did you start blogging? I started years and years ago on livejournal and have skipped around on various blogging networks since. I started blogging as a way to journal. I enjoyed getting my thoughts out onto screen and I loved making connections with people and realizing other people thought like me! 

4. Tell me about your best friend. I usually give the predictable my-best-friend-is-my-husband. Which is true! But I'll tell you about another of other best friends. Her name is Lindsay and we met our first year of college. She was my roommate and has been my best friend ever since!  We've only lived near each other for 10 months but for the rest of the 8 years we've kept in contact by texts, emails, and fb. We might be separated by three provinces but our friendship isn't defined by location. I carry a piece of her in my heart all the time as without her I wouldn't be who I am today.

5. Do you have any regrets?  I've tried to live my life with the intent of no regrets. I don't always make perhaps the best decisions but every one has helped make me who I am today. And given the opportunity, if I went back in time, I would probably make the same decisions again. 

6. What is a food or meal that you can cook amazingly well? Any recipes you recommend? One of my favorite recipes to make is Sweet and Sour Hamburger Sauce. I did a post about it before on a different blog but when I transferred it over to this one the photos didn't show! But the recipe is here.

7. Who is your favorite character from a book? Why? I've read quite a bit but I can't say that I have a favorite character. 

8. What is the thing you're most proud about in your life? I'm quite proud of my etsy shop. I work hard on it and I love creating items for it! 

9. Are you more of an extrovert or introvert? Would you prefer to be one or the other?  I am a huge introvert. I think sometimes it comes across as snobby. But really I'm just shy.

10. What are the features on the sex (or sexes) you prefer, that you'd consider attractive? Arms and eyes are the two things I notice first. 

11.  One random childhood memory. One day when I was in kindergarten it was after school and time to go home. My outside shoes weren't where I left them; but what I was convinced was an identical pair but a bigger size was left in a different place nearby. I refused to wear them because I was sure they weren't my shoes. So I missed the bus and they had to call my mom. When she arrived my teacher and the principal were trying to convince me to wear the shoes. My mom was finally able to change my mind. After that day, my name was always written somewhere on my shoes. 


I'm supposed to choose 11 bloggers to pass this on to but I never know who enjoys doing these. So instead I'll say check out those two ladies' blogs and look over there ===============================================> 
and check out some of my favorite blogs to read! 

It's The Small Things

I probably say this every winter, but I feel like the weather this year has been really random! This last weekend we had cold weather. It got down to -30C! And a few days earlier last week we got a lot of snow. A guy at Jon's work measured it at 15 inches. We measured and  we had 20 inches in total on the ground. The snowblower has been very temperamental this year. A driveway that would normally take 1 1/2 hours last year takes almost 4 this year. R.i.d.i.c.u.l.o.u.s! So we've been just doing the bare minimum--- from the road to the house and parking spots.

It's a tough decision to jump in over your head

On our snow day last week I happened to look outside during the day and saw the snow plow had gone by and pushed a lot more snow into the entry of our driveway. *Cue my dislike of winter building up and up* There was seriously no way Jon's car would be able to make it in! In fact, I was thinking if he lowered the window to his car, he would have been able to set his coffee cup right out on the snow bank. I decided to fight my quickly becoming worse bad attitude. I bundled up and marched out to the shed ready to go head to head with the slow snowblower. And what do you know? I couldn't get it started! So I grabbed a shovel and stomped even harder to the end of the driveway, ready to take attack the offending snowbank. But it was gone! One of our neighbors had come by with their snowblower and removed the snowbank at our driveway entryway! That might be a small thing, but to me it's a big deal! We've lived here for almost two years and we don't know our neighbors and they don't know us. We'll wave and smile and they'll stare and glare. So finding that someone had taken the time to remove the snowbank made my day!

Excuse the chipped nail polish! This was the snow on the ledge of our patio!

Fueled by their good deed, I started shovelling the driveway. I was only going to do a small area; just so Jon could drive the car in. And we'd worry about the rest later. I've shovelled maybe a 4 foot area and a truck stops on the road. To make a long story short, ANOTHER neighbor with a blade on the front of the truck, plows our driveway! I was so happy for the help! Sometimes it's the small things that can make someone's day!

The One About The Goals

Birthdays and New Years; the two times of the year that always make me really introspective. As I never seemed to be able to get my blog post where I evaluate my life published after my birthday,  I thought now would be a good time to write them down.

Goals always seem more motivating once they are there reminding you that they aren't checked off yet! I really dislike the term New Years Resolutions. It makes me feel like I have one shot to succeed and all other results are failure.  So I prefer to think of them as goals.

To recap my goals for this past year click here

So how was the year? AH-mazing! 2012 definitely brought it!

A few highlights:

Health- I passed the 20 pounds lost mark this year! I bought new clothes in December that are 3 (allmoossttt 4) dress sizes smaller than the ones I bought last December!

Progress photo from July 2011 to July 2012

Travel-  I flew to Vancouver for a quick trip and then later off to Panama!

Shop- Exceeded my hopes and goals for this year! I could not be more delighted! It brings me so much happiness!

Craft Fair! 

Finances- We continued working on paying off our loans/debt. Our one car called it quits so we added this beauty to the family!

Goals for this year:
Health- Continue eating healthier, working out more, and lose more weight! This time next year I plan to be really close to my goal weight!
- Less coffee. Earlier bedtime!

Finances- Keep paying off debt and saving for a house!

Blog- Post more!

That's not a very long list! I'll have to keep thinking! With as great as this past year was I don't know how 2013 could be better! But I'm looking forward to it! Whatever it may bring!

What's on your list for 2013?