Super Full High Five for Friday w/ a Recipe!

WHAT?!?! It’s Friday again?!?! I haven’t posted in 11 days, nor done a High Five post all month!!!! UNACCEPTABLE!!!

Time to make up for that with a super full High Five for Friday which includes some stuff from the last 3 weeks!

1.  Last weekend I went to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. It was A-Mah-Zing! If you’ve never been you should go. It was the first weekend for the Christmas decor, and it was stunning! It also really put me in the holiday spirit. I’m going to write a post all about the trip instead of trying to put it all into this one.

Tricia and me at her Bachelorette party. I forgot to get a shot of us at lunch.

2.  The weekend before that, I had lunch with one of very best friends Tricia. She lives just north of Indianapolis so we met halfway in Columbus, IN. We went to their downtown area, which was adorable, but should have a sign when you enter that says “Closed on Sundays” because nothing was open except this burger place. We ate there and it was delicious, but I was disappointed there wasn’t more open.

3.  Blake’s cousin is getting married next month and his aunt is throwing a shower for his fiancé this weekend. I’m going to be making her gift, and I’m really hoping it turns out well. I can’t quite get a read on her, so I don’t know if she’ll appreciate a homemade gift, so… we’ll see. I bought enough stuff to make a duplicate one for me, because I’m super excited for it, and if it works out the way I envision it in my head I’ll post a tutorial, not that it’ll really be difficult, since I’ve waited until the night before to even put it together.

Old pic of my sis and I. It's sad that I don't have any recent shots

4.  It’s a big birthday month! I’m betting it’s because Valentine’s Day is 9 months earlier. My sister turned 33 and my niece turned 14!!! It’s so crazy to me that she’s so old already, and it makes me sad that I don’t get to see her nearly enough. One of my girlfriends turned 28 earlier this week and is having her party tonight. Sadly I won’t be able to go, but I got her a gift and an awesome card to make up for it. (I love picking out cards!) Two of my coworkers also had birthdays earlier this month and another one of my girlfriends is due any day, she’s already 9 days late!

5.  Little tid-bits: I went shopping earlier this month where I got a fabulous broach and cute shoes. I also made some yummy Chicken Tortilla Soup last night. It was so easy! (Recipe below) Has anyone been into Target since they put all their holiday stuff out?!?! I’m in love and wishing I had endless amounts of money to spend there, but sadly, I don’t. I did see an adorable wreath in there though, and I plan on making one of my own soon. (I think I have a wreath obsession!)

So that’s a very quick summary of some of the fun things I’ve been doing this month. I love this time of year, but it’s also very busy and makes it hard to post. Does anyone else struggle with time management in Nov and Dec?

Recipe:

Easy Chicken Tortilla Soup (Crockpot)

1 carton of Pacific Organic Tortilla Soup Starter

1 container of corn “salsa” (I get the container in the produce section of my Kroger. It’s basically corn, onion, peppers, and spices. It’s not very liquid, which is key)

2 large chicken breasts (Frozen is fine)

Shredded cheese and Tortilla chips/strips for garnish (Optional)

Put it all in a Crockpot and cook on low until chicken is cooked through. Shred meat. Serve with some cheese on top and tortilla chips/strips.

I told you it was easy. I put my chicken in the Crockpot frozen at 6:30am before going to the gym. It cooked all day until I got home from work until 5:30/6:00pm. I just took a wooden fork to the breasts while they were still in the pot to shred the meat, it was so tender. It was simple, yummy, and super satisfying on a cold night. I used sweet potato tortilla chips (try them if you get a chance, they’re very tasty) so the meal was also gluten free, just in case you are celiac or don’t eat a lot of gluten. (Neither one of us is Celiac but we’ve been talking about going gluten free/low gluten after the holidays, so I’m testing new recipes and foods for that)

Does anyone have some yummy easy gluten free recipes for me to try? Easy is key for me. 

Be sure to check out Lauren's link party for more H54F fun!

Pre-Halloween H54F

Happy Friday everyone! It's almost Halloween and I'm loving it! Are your costumes ready yet?

1. The weather was absolutely amazing this week! (Of course, it's turned to crap today and will be cold and gloomy all weekend and into next week)
2. The leaves are so amazing this year, I can't stop taking pictures of the trees! (The last two years it's seemed that we've gone from green to dead with little to no color, so I'm loving it this year)
3. I think we'll be carving our pumpkins this weekend! (I love toasted pumpkin seeds)
4. We're doing a big family dinner at my MIL's house tomorrow, and I get to introduce everyone to my favorite burrito recipe! (My mom makes them, and they're heavenly! I'll probably end up sharing the recipe, but for right now I'm hoarding it)
5. Our friend Sara just moved into a new place, so she's hosting the Halloween party this year, tomorrow night! (We'll be going after dinner, of course. Read on to find out what we're going as)

Be sure to check out Lauren at From My Grey Desk for more High Fives!

It's that time of year again!!! The time when you get to be crafty, creative, and play dress-up, some of my all-time favorite activities! This year, is a little lack luster compared to last year, for a number of different reasons, mostly poor planning, but I think it should still be enjoyable. Our costumes are usually a combination of store bought items and DIY, which makes it super fun for me. I know it's corny, but my husband and I usually do "couples" costumes. We didn't start off that way, but I think a pirate party made him realize that we're a much cuter Halloween couple when we actually look like we're matching in some way.

The first year we did it, I went as Princess Peach and he was Luigi, because he's just so much better suited as a Luigi, so we told everyone we were having an affair on Mario. (Sorry, no pic from this Halloween to be found) Our first year in AZ I had a girlfriend in town and he was chaperoning a school dance, so no cute outfits that year, but the next year we were both chaperoning so we had to do something fun. We were pursuing the costumes when we found an muscled Captain America jumpsuit, which Blake just had to have, so we went with a super hero theme. Unfortunately, I had a hard time finding and feeling comfortable in most of the options I found in stores. While we were out to lunch the next weekend I saw a girl wearing a cute mighty mouse t-shirt and it hit me! So my super hero costume was born and I went as Mighty Mouse, which was super easy and super cute, and for a while one of my favorite costumes.

I was super excited when we moved back to KY and were going to be able to go to our friends' Halloween Parties, since his new school doesn't do a Halloween dance. For those who don't know the hubs and me, we're pretty dorky, and love comic books and BBC, so the next two years' costumes should be no surprise!
Meet our version of the Green Hornet and Cato.

Followed by our all-time favorite costume, so far... Dr. Who and his T.A.R.D.I.S.!!!! His costume didn't require much work, but I made mine from scratch and loved everything about it! It was so fun to make and super comfy to wear. (For those who are not aware of who we are, the Doctor is a human looking alien who travels through time and space in a ship called the T.A.R.D.I.S. So yes, I was a space ship, technically, but watch just a few episodes on Netflix, and not only will it all make more sense but you'll be hooked!)

This year, Blake's doing a historical zombie walk for his kids at school, which has resulted in our costumes being Zombie Cesar and Cleopatra. I've made these costumes as well. Like I said, not as exciting or fun as last year's but I'll be sure to share the finished product anyway.

What are you all going as for Halloween? I love hearing other's ideas for costumes!  

Reaching for H54F

It's Friday again?!?! Man this week flew by. I guess that's a goof thing, right? Except I had a fairly uneventful week, which means I don't have much to high five about. Oh well, here goes nothing!

1. My hubby's been telling me to dress up every day this week for a surprise, but I have no clue what it is! (Of course nothing's happened so far, but today he told me not to look at the bank account, because he knows I do that daily, it's a compulsion from being in charge of our household budget, which means he purchased something from somewhere that would give away the surprise. I'm super excited to see what it is, and why I have to be dressed up for it)
2. It was a double plant adoption week for me! (I told you it was a pretty uneventful week. The tropical one will go in the house and the mums will go in the garden) 
3. I talked to my sister the other night! (I miss her so much, but somehow our conversations tend to be spread out over weeks or even months. I think it's probably because we were never very close growing up, partially because we're pretty far apart in age, almost 6 years, as well as we're at very different stages in life. But it always does my heart good when I get to talk to her so that was a yippee for the week)
4. I managed to run all three days for the full amount of time this week, and Blake's promised to run with me tomorrow! (This could end in one of us being very annoyed, but I love that he supports me enough to set that fact aside)
5. I've been researching food a lot this week and I'm excited to try out this whole freezer meal planning thing soon! (I know it's nothing new, and I've certainly made some foods that I freeze, but I've never really done the all out prep once and have a full week or more of meals ready to go thing. Although, with it getting cooler outside I see some freezer to crock-pot cooking very much appealing to me.)

Sorry no pictures this week, but my hubby just surprised me at the office to take me out so no time. Have a great weekend and check out Lauren's blog for more H54F! 

Mid October H54F!

Another week down and time for some high fives! I can't believe we're already almost half-way through the month!

1. I had an amazing time last weekend with some college girlfriends! (You can read all about it here)
2. Yesterday was my MIL's b-day so we're taking her to eat at Toast on Market and to see the Princess Diana collection at the Frazier History Museum!
3. I made a new fall wreath, finally! (I have a tutorial ready, I just need to get the pictures together, so look for that to come out this weekend)
4. The hubs won some tickets to Actor's Theater of Louisville at Mercy's annual walk today! (I love going to the theater and our Actor's Theater is an amazing venue)
5. We took our second test in my accounting class and again I got the highest score in the class! (Of course, this was followed by no one sitting next to me in class this week, sad face) 

Hope everyone else had a great week! Do you have any big plans for the weekend? I'd love to hear about them. Be sure to check out Lauren's site for other H54F's and have a great weekend!

PS: I've created a button, which is super exciting for me, so be sure to grab it from the side bar! If you let me know that you did I'll be sure to come over and grab yours! (That just sounds silly if you don't know what we're talking about, Haha!)

Also, I've updated my training schedule with what has actually occurred so far... I know I've been really bad about actually running on Saturdays, as well as I wasn't very motivated this week, and it shows. But tomorrow's and new day and Monday starts a new week to get back on track. 

A New Color Palette & H54F!

First, I know I just created this blog, and I know I just changed the look of it at the end of last month, but I was feeling like the color palette was too springy, and believe it or not, it was conflicting with my happy for fall mood every time I looked at it… So I changed it to a more fall inspired palette of navy, mustard and red. I love this color combo, by the way, especially for clothes. I promise I’m not going to be one of those people that change their blog a billion times, but I do like the idea of changing the color palette of the blog with the seasons. If you liked the purple, teal and green, don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll be back next spring. If anyone’s a fan of either, here are the palettes I’ve used. When you have them just as large swatches they actually look much brighter and not quite right, but if you plug in the color code I’ve included you’ll get the same colors as what I have in the banner.

Fall:

Navy (000066)

Mustard (ffcc33)

Red (cc0000)

Spring:

Teal (00ffcc)

Green (99cc33)

Purple (663399)

Second, It's FRIDAY!!! Which means it's time for another High Five For Friday post! I'm linking up to Lauren. Be sure to check out From My Grey Desk for more H54F, and have a great weekend!

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1. Tonight I'm throwing a "Spa Party" for some girlfriends! (It'll be a great way to start the weekend off right)
2. Sat was Kesha's baby shower. The theme was "Little Man" and it was adorable with little bow-ties and mustaches!
3. I finally figured out how to get my training page to look a little better, and while I need to work on actually running on Saturdays, it feels great to have made it through my first month and still be sticking with it!
4. I'm so looking forward to spending the weekend with some college girlfriends! (I don't get to see them nearly as much as I wish I could)
5. Inspired by my blog's new fall color palette I did a little shopping for a cute outfit to wear this weekend, as well as, I picked up some fun items for tonight's party! (Of course, I forgot to take a pic of my buys, but it consisted of some red jeans that I'm so excited to wear)

A Quick Tutorial & H54F!

So, remember last week’s H54F, when I showed a pic of the Mercy Wreath I made for my MIL? Well here’s the tutorial I promised!

What you’ll need:

Not Pictured: Glue Gun & Glue Sticks

*I love these straw forms because they’re a good size and super cheap. I usually can get them at Joann’s for less than $2.00 each, usually closer to $1.00 since I have the Joann’s app that always has coupons for 20-50% off my purchase. I’ve used the Styrofoam forms before but they were more expensive for the size I liked, the Styrofoam smells bad and melts under my glue gun, and if the wind knocks them off your door hanger they can shatter!

*I just grab whatever’s cheapest. You can usually fine the Red Heart Super Saver yarn in every color and on sale at either Joann’s or Hobby Lobby for less than $3.00. One package will cover the whole wreath form and leave enough left over to either do another wreath or even make a scarf!

*These leopard print Poinsettias were 40% off at Hobby Lobby. Add a few gold accent sprays and I was instantly inspired to make a Mercy themed craft with them.

Making your wreath:

Decide which side of your wreath will be your front and which will be your back. (If you’re using the straw form I used, be sure to leave the plastic ON! I don’t like risking tearing the plastic so I also don’t take off the sticker tag, which means that, for me, the side that has the sticker on it is my back.) Start by adding a dab of glue to the back of your wreath and attaching one end of the yarn ball. (I usually start on the sticker.) Then simply wrap your yarn around the form adding a dab of glue on the back of it every few inches to help the yarn stick in place. Make sure you push the yarn tightly together with each pass so that none of the wreath form shows through. This is a somewhat tedious process, but if you sit down in front of a move and just work while you watch you’ll probably get done around the time the movie is over.

Once you’ve made it all the way around you can always do a second quick pass to add depth and texture.

Now figure out where you want your decorative items to go. With the straw forms you can sometimes have an area that was over or under stuffed so you end up with a wonky area. That’s usually where I decide to put the decorative items since they’ll cover up the flaw. Remove the excess stems from your flowers and sprays, or, if they’re really thick and hard to cut, tightly roll them up so that they can be tucked under the flower itself. Play with how you want them to lay. Once you get it the way you want it simply hot glue everything directly onto the wreath. The nice part about items from the fake flower section is that they’re usually made with wire so you can mold and play with them to get them just right even after you’ve already glued them on.

Finally, determine where the top of your wreath is and add a hanger to the back of it. I just tuck some more yarn folded in fourths and attached it with a big dab of hot glue.

Hang up and admire your new wreath, which probably cost less than $10.00-$15.00 to make, depending on how expensive and how many decorative items you put on it.  

And last but not least… High Five for Fridays!!!

1. My daddy’s coming in to visit this weekend!
2. We went to the premier of Looper! (I liked it, but the jury’s still out on Blake’s opinion)
3. We had a good day down at NuLu Festival watching all the little kids dance to the Jake Parker Band! (It was funny because you would have thought we were at a kids concert they loved them so much but they do mostly Rock n’ Roll. Our friend Jake is the lead singer)
4. I gave my blog a new look and posted twice this week! 
5. It feels like fall! (I potted some mums and finally potted all the plants that were sitting on my porch)

Medusa Face & H54F!

Wow! The week kind of got away from me! I started a Photoshop class Monday. I’m taking it at Bellarmine, as part of their continuing education program, for my job, but I’m super excited to use my new skills for great personal photos as well.

Sadly, Tuesday, I realized that I don’t think any of the other students in my ACC 201 class like me. The problem is, most of them are significantly younger than I am, and they figured out that I’m the one who the only 100% in the class on the first test, so I think they think of me as the know-it-all. I’ve also discovered that I think I may suffer from a case of “Medusa Face.” For those who don’t know what that is, it’s something that occurs on a lot of people, my husband included, in which their normal, staring into nowhere expression, looks like they’re angry, even though they may be thinking about nothing at all and in a perfectly fine mood. I never thought I had such a face, but as I’ve gotten older and lost my sweet little girl appearance that I’ve had most of my life so far, I think I might be gaining such a look. Since the class is mostly lecture based, there’s no reason for me to have any sort of expression on my face, thus, when my fellow students look at me they think I’m pissed and don’t want to talk to me. The hubs says I’m never going to see them again, since it’s just a community college, pre-req class, before I transfer to the university to complete my CPA program, so I shouldn’t care what they think, but the truth is, I’ve never had any kind of social awkwardness before in my life, and suddenly I’m in a situation where I don’t know how or what people think of me and I don’t know how to react. I know it’s silly, but it’s a strange feeling for me to feel socially awkward. Of course, my hubby, who is fairly socially awkward at all-times, don’t tell him I said that, claims that the more socially awkward a person is the more genius they posesJ! So, maybe the fact that I’m grasping the accounting concepts so easily is a sign of my growing accounting genius, and therefore more social awkwardness is ahead. Hmmm, don’t know how I feel about that. Anyway, it was a fairly uneventful week after classes were done, and I spent way too much time on Pinterest. However, it wasn’t a total waste, as I started cleaning up my “likes” a lot! You see, I hate the way the Pinterest app is on my phone and I-pad, so I usually just “like” something instead of re-pinning it, with the intention of re-pinning it when I’m on a real computer; however, I’ve not been good about re-pinning those likes, so I currently have more likes than pins, with a lot of duplicate likes. So, I’ve been re-pinning my likes, and then I’ll work on cleaning up my boards, getting rid of repeat and bad/bogus pins. If you want to follow me, I’d love to have you!

And now…H54F!

1.  I made a Mercy Jaguars wreath for my MIL’s office door! (She works in the development office at Mercy) **Super easy to do tutorial coming ASAP**
2. Tonight is Kat and Josh’s wedding! (The cute little card I got for them)
3. I started doing Fat Mum Slim’s September photo-a-day challenge! (It’s been so much fun, and I highly recommend it)
4.  I booked our flights to Denver for Thanksgiving!
5. I got a fun new necklace at Target!

New Pages & H54F!

First, I really need to work on this whole blogging regularly thing. In my defense, I had family visiting from Colorado last weekend, and I’ve been super busy at work, so not much free time to write. There are also some major appearance changes I want to make, but I won’t have the time to play with that for a while still. Can that count as something crafty when I finally work on it?

Second, I’m really happy with where I got with the my gardens, but I still have a long way to go before I can cross anything off my list. Cooler weather and extra $$ are what I’m waiting on to move forward more with that project.

As for the whole wreath thing, total bust! It started out ok, but after adding it to my door and it being there for two weeks it’s become a sagging, pathetic mess. I wasn’t overly thrilled with it to begin with, so I’m just going to start over and instead I’ll post that project. Sorry if you were waiting on that.

Now, for the “big reveal”: I’ve added new pages at the top of my blog for easier navigation! There are still more to come, but for now, I have a “Our Home Sweet Home” page, where I’ll post pics of our home and the changes we’re making to it. Example: Instead of overloading this post with pics of the gardens, I’ve just added some before and after pics to this tab.

I’ve also created a “30 before 30” page, where you can see my list of things I want to accomplish before I’m 30, and my progress as I complete them. Keep in mind it’s for a 2 ½ year time frame, so a lot of the items are very broad. I’m working on creating a way to blow-out those goals into little “mini” goals that’ll be accomplished over a shorter period of time, but I have to determine the best way to present that, so it’s still a bit of a work in progress.

I’m learning that blogging is not nearly as easy as I thought it was going to be. I don’t know about you, but now that I’m putting parts of my life out there for all to see, I find myself thinking about things a lot more, which can be both good and bad, and worrying a lot more about how I present things to you all, and how it’ll reflect on me, also both good and bad. I am enjoying the whole process though, which is good, because that means I’ll keep it up.

Now for some “YAY!” stuff. A lot of people in the blogosphere are doing this thing called High Five for Fridays! It’s basically a way to reflect on your week and focus on 5 positives. I’m a fairly optimistic person, so this really is right up my alley and hopefully it’ll start to put me on a regular posting schedule. If you blog and want to link up your H54F posts, or see others who have linked up, check out From My Grey Desk.   

1. I got the highest score in the class for the first exam of the semester in my ACC 201 class!
2. I’ve made it through another week on my new miniMarathon training schedule (more on that later) and since I’ve started I’ve only missed one workout!
3. The Broncos had an awesome win in the first game of the season. Even though I was sad to see Tebow go I love having Manning on my team!
4. The J-Town Gaslight Festival starts tonight! It’s not anything to travel here just to go to, but it is a great way to spend an evening, and it tends to provide some creative inspiration, which I always love.
5. It was plant adoption week at work!

Explanation: I work for a retail property management company, and our office is located in one of our own office buildings, where there’s a continual rotation of plants in the lobby. Every few months, or so, the old plants are swapped for fresh new ones and the old ones are brought up to the office to be adopted and taken home. They rarely have the same color or type of plant back-to-back, so I have a great collection at home. Some of them live inside, and some can be planted in the garden. It’s a great, free way to keep my house full of plants, which I love! This particular guy will be inside and will probably only last 6 months, at most. For some reason I just can’t manage to keep this particular type of plant happy for longer than that. I blame the plant, since the rest of my house plants are normally pretty happy.