My Reasons For Being MIA This Week

My apologies for my lack of blogging this week.  I had a series of unfortunate events, which kept me busy and computerless.  Anyways let me share with you what happened this weekend.  
So you know my lil baby angel of a pup, Dragon? 

Well she wasn't so innocent and perfect this weekend....

Phil and I went and got her a new kennel that was pretty much double the size because she was outgrowing her other one.  Well apparently my dog is smarter than who ever created this kennel because she got out while we were in Indy for the day.  She went hog wild while we were gone, I swear she acted like a teenager while her parents were away. I'm pretty sure she threw a party and invited all the pups in the neighborhood over.  Guess what folks?  It happened again on Monday while we were at work!
Things Dragon consumed/destroyed: A bra A hat The Kennel Box Mouse's Thundercoat My power cord to my computer  2 separate gloves The hallway rug The couch in the family room The ottoman Phils work bag Her collar A Thomas Jefferson Book

Dragon had mixed reviews on Thomas Jefferson's, The Art of Power.

To top it off she also peed all over the place.  I was not a happy Momma!  

On a serious note though Dragon suffers from Separation Anxiety.  Shelter pups often require extra work because a lot of them come from some pretty nasty previous homes.  Dragon was dropped off at the shelter a week before we adopted her. The man that dropped her off was clearly her previous owner but said he just found her because Dragon escaped and went back to find him.  The guy then proceeded to kick the crap out of her.  The Humane Society almost called the police on him.  I was seriously heartbroken when I heard this and I immediately felt like I needed to bring her home and just love on her to the max!  So this whole separation anxiety thing hasn't been easy.  She hates, hates to be alone!  She follows me everywhere I go because she just wants to be around me.  If I'm in the shower, she's right there with me, if I am cooking in the kitchen, she is right there with me, she could be dead asleep on the couch in doggy dream land and if i get up to get something, she is right there with me.  Phil and I have gotten her a ton of toys to occupy her and keep her busy but this weekend I think she just about had it in her kennel and wanted out.
I called around because she needs to learn that its okay to be alone while we are at work.  I called a lady who specializes in dogs who have Separation Anxiety but I am still waiting to hear back.  In the mean time, Dragon starts Doggy Daycare tomorrow!   I'm pretty nervous about it because I hope she will get along with all the other pups!  The first day she gets tested  to see if she is cool enough to hang with the other pups or if she has to play alone in the corner, which will pretty much be devastating.  They have a webcam and everything so I can keep on eye on my baby and make sure she is playing nice with others. Gosh, I'm so nervous over a dog on her first day of daycare I can't imagine what I am going to be like with a real kid!  Please wish Dragon luck on her first day of daycare tomorrow! :)  Check my twitter tomorrow for updates on how Dragons first day went if I don't get around to finding a computer to blog about it (Still no power cord, boooo)!  

Meet My New Friend Kristin

First off I just want to say that I am so glad it is finally Friday, I swear this week has gone by slower than a turtle trying to cross the road.  But I'm more happy about Kristin hanging out on my blog today!  Kristin is my new friend that blogs over at Crumbs and Curls.  She is the cutest thing ever and we share a love for food!  Kristin blogs about all things beauty, fashion, baking, and crafting.  Lets face it I'm not the craftiest person, so I most certainly look to Kristin for some great new projects to attempt.  So sit back, drink some wine, after all it is Friday, and get to know all about my new friend!  

 

Q & A

1. Where are you from/where do you currently live?  I am a born & raised Jersey Girl, I am from the Jersey Shore (nothing like that awful show!) about a mile from the ocean, in a tiny town called Spring Lake Heights.  I now spend most of my time at school which is in Villanova, PA (20 minutes from Philadelphia), & spend school breaks, some weekends, & summers at home in Jersey.
2. Tell me about your blog.  My blog is mostly about beauty, fashion, baking/cooking, & crafting.  Although, from time to time I like to throw in things about my life & myself so people can get to know me.
3. Guilty pleasure? Keeping Up With The Kardashians & watching E!  News instead of the real news.  My dad makes fun of me for both.
4. Last thing you brought.  A poster for my apartment at school.
5. What pin board do you pin to the most? My 'My Style' board, but my 'Beauty' board is catching up!  Pinterest is just filled with amazing ideas.
6. If you could get on a plane tomorrow & go anywhere, where would you go?  Paris, I've wanted to go for as long as I can remember, but every time  I get the chance to go, something messes it up.
7. If you could eat one thing for the rest of you life what would it be?  This is hard because I love all different foods, but I would have to say gluten free pasta because you can do so many different things with pasta.  Though, if I wasn't allowed to do different sauces with the pasta, I would say peanut butter because I am obsessed with peanut butter!
8. What is your favorite item of clothing or accessory?  A vintage belt that was my Great Aunt's, who passed away.  It is a leopard pony hair belt, with a big gold buckle from Bloomingdale's.  My Aunt was so, so fashionable & the belt is not only amazing, but it means so much to me since she is gone.
9. What's the story behind your blog name?  I knew I wanted to write about beauty, fashion, baking/cooking, & crafting, & I wanted the name to convey that.  Also I thought an aliteration would be fun to use in the name. 
10. What's your favorite book?  A Walk to Remember, it's also my favorite movie.  They have both been my favorite for years, & I have read & watched it a million times.

Hello Meghan's readers, its nice to meet you!  Today I'm going to give you a little taste of Crumbs and Curls.  Meghan & I have talked cooking before, & I know she enjoys it like I do, so I thought it would be fun to share one of my favorite recipes.  Everyone who knows me, knows I'm obsessed with peanut butter, & peanut butter cookies are my favorite.  I have two different recipes that I use, one for basic old fashioned peanut butter cookies & the other is the one I am going to share with you, this is the one with the Hershey Kisses.  These cookies are delish, & combine my two favorite things: peanut butter & chocolate, double win!  They are so yummy that when I make them I have to give some away so I won't eat them all.

Ingredients:

-48 Hershey Kisses or chocolates of your choice (in the picture it was Valentine's Day, so my friend & I used Dove Chocolate Hearts)

-1/2 cup shortening (I want to experiment & see if you can sub coconut oil in for the shortening to make it a little healthier)

-3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

-1/3 cup white sugar

-1/3 cup brown sugar

-1 egg, at room temperature

-2 tbsp. milk

-1 tsp. vanilla

-1 1/2 cups all purpose flour*

-1 tsp. baking soda

-1/2 tsp. salt

*I am wheat intolerant & my sister has Celiac Disease so I always bake with a gluten free flour mix that I made myself instead of all purpose flour.  The flour mixture is made of corn flour, oat flour, coconut flour, & an all purpose gluten free baking mix (usually whatever one I can find).  I put all of the different flours together in a bowl & mix them until blended, sometimes I have to do this in a few steps since it makes a lot.  When I am done mixing I put the new mixture in an airtight container & use that in place of all purpose flour.

Instructions:

-Heat oven to 375 degrees.

-In a bowl stir together flour, baking soda & salt. 

• -In a separate bowl, beat the shortening & peanut butter until well blended. 
• -Add the white & brown sugars, & beat until fluffy. 
• -To the mixture add the egg, milk & vanilla, beat well. 
• -Gradually beat the flour mixture into the peanut butter mixture.
• -Shape dough into 1-inch balls, & place on ungreased cookie sheet.
• -Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned.
• -When you remove the cookies from the oven, immediately press a chocolate into center of each
• cookie.
• -Then remove the cookies from the sheet & transfer to a wire rack, allow to cool completely.
• Makes about 4 dozen cookies.
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  Meghan thank you so much for letting me take over for the day, it was so fun!
  
  
   
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It's Thursday So I'm Throwin it Back: Freshman Year Addition

Freshman Year Addition     

I thought I would take everyone back to my first year in college.  6 years ago, gosh I can't believe it's been that long! Anyways, 6 years ago after packing up my life in a car and not before stopping at my best friends/sisters to cry my eyes out and say goodbye, I headed to the wonderful State (The Black Hole as I refer to now) of Rhode Island to attend Johnson and Wales University.  I had not even visited the school but all I knew was I wanted to get out of my small that I lived in all my life in Upstate, NY.   I majored in Travel and Tourism Management, at that point in time I really loved it and got really good grades.  But lets be real, Freshman year was all about making new friends and going to parties and you bet that's exactly what I did.   

My freshman dorm and roomie!

                 

  This is Molly, she was my first friend at JWU.  She lived in the same dorm as me.  She is loud, short, and crazy just like me and you would think that would make a perfect match in a friend.  For some reason after pledging in the sorority we kind of lost of friendship, which makes me really sad because she was my first friend at college.       

Me, Amy, Jenn, and Tori

  I will never forget this picture or this night, well okay I remember about half of this night and then its all kind of blurry.  This was the night that I met my soul mate best friend.  Amy and Jenn were in my major and we had a lot of the same classes together.  The girl on the right, Tori, this was my first time meeting her and she hopped in the picture and I was like yo chick, who are you and get out of the picture.  Okay I really didn't say that but I thought it.  I'm so glad that she did because she turned into my best friend for life.  We even have matching tattoos. 

  Forever Anchored. 

In the winter of 2007 I became part of the pledge class Alpha Betas with 6 other amazing girls!  After several long and amazing weeks of pledging I got to wear my Alpha Sigma Tau letters.

Crossover Night, February 17, 2008! 

Freshman year was one of the best years of my life.  I couldn't have asked for a better freshman year experience.  I met my best friend and soul mate, became part of an amazing sorority, experienced a lot of "firsts", partied hard, and laughed even more. 

     

Weekend Highlights: My First Cross Off!

What was a weekend of nothing planned turned into one of the best.  It's funny how that happens, those random spur of the moment trips that turn into memories you will always have.  This is part of why I love blogging, getting to document my life.  Though I missed out on a music festival back home, check out Two Thirds Hazel (My IRL Best Friend), she blogs about this hippie fest, I actually  didn't miss it as much as I though I would.   Highlight Number One:  Dragon swam for the first time!  It was seriously the funniest thing.  She dove head first into the pond and came back up and had that "Oh Shit" look on her face.  It was priceless, really!  I'm so mad that I missed taking a picture of it.    

Highlight two:  This view.  Philly and I headed up to Lake Tippecanoe for the weekend.  The weekend involved lots of dancing and singing, night boating, cider beer, swimming and good time with friends.

Highlight Three:  Being on the Lake.  This reminded me a lot of home.  I'm surrounded by lakes back home in Upstate NY, I live in the Finger Lakes region.  Seriously its gorgeous and we are nicknamed Ithaca is Gorges. :)  

   Highlight Four:  I got to cross off my first item on my list!  Number 23, Skinny Dip!  Not what I thought would be my first item on this list but hey, it ended up working out!    

This is when things started to get crazy fun!  And yes there is a lil pic of me holding my suit to prove I completed 23!

  Highlight Five:  Saying up till 3am.  I seriously cannot remember the last time I stayed up passed 3am, I know its really sad!  I swear though as soon as I turned 23 my ability to stay up late just stopped!  

      Highlight Six:  Sunshine!  It's been one of the rainiest summers so It was nice to finally get some some Vitamin D.  

  Highlight Seven:  Having my first Family trip.  Yes the dogs got to come along!

Dragon thinks that Mouse is a chair.  

That concludes my amazing weekend with my Bf, pups, and friends.  Oh and I am super depressed that it is over, Monday go away!

Boxing, My Monday Pick Me Up!

Nobody likes Monday mornings, especially me.  I wake up and say all sorts of cuss words, drag myself to the bathroom, and force myself to take a shower, hoping that it wakes me up enough to drive an hour to work.  The worst part of it is, I don't even have a coffee maker and that needs to change real quick. This also doesn’t help my Starbucks addiction.   Monday evenings on the other hand, total came changer.  Why do I love Monday evenings you ask? One word, Boxing. 

Boxing has been my saving grace since I moved from Indy to my small town.  I must admit that I don’t love the town I live in, there just isn’t a lot to do for someone my age.   I do love living with my boyfriend and this is where his company is, so for now I deal with it and am trying to make the best of enjoying this town till we can move.  Two nights a week, I get together with a great group of girls and box for an hour or so with our Trainer, Mario.

 I like to be fit but I have never actually enjoyed working out, until now.  I even used to teach an Outdoor Fitness Class last year which I thought was one of the better group workouts out there.  But Boxing is better than a cup of Fro-yo and that’s sayin something. I punch out all my stress and it get’s me all sorts of pumped up. It has even motivated me to start my 60 day ab challenge (No. 76 on my 101 Things in 1001 Days) and I enjoy going to the gym now and that’s just crazy talk. I'm sure you thinking do I ever get hit?  No, I'm not into the whole lets get my face busted kind of thing.  We do get the occasional o'l tap on the face if our arms aren't up to teach us a lesson. We punch into Mario's gloves and we act like somebody could hit us at any time. Next week he is putting on a buddy suit so we get to practice hitting on different areas of the body.  Obviously, I am stoked about that!

I also have a special place for boxing because my Grandpa Bud boxed in the Army and he passed away when I was young.  I didn’t get to know him a whole lot, other than stories and what I vaguely remember of him.   This has been a way for me to remember him and take part in something that he enjoyed.  

I'm insanely in love with Boxing!  Its fun, its a kick ass workout, a great stress reliever,  and extremely motivational.  Has anyone else tried boxing and do you love it as much as I do? Or have you found a workout routine that you really love?  I'm always up for trying new stuff and if you are looking for a new workout you gotta try Boxing and let me know what you think!

This is me by the end of it. Completely worn out and cant' move my lil arms any longer.

Puppies, Champagne and a hair cut!

Friday


Since I've been with Phil, weekends are our thing.  We haven't spent a weekend apart, unless he was out of town for work.  Last week was such a lonnnggggg week.  I work as a Project Administrative Assistant at an Architectural Firm and things are really picking up, but it isn't making my days go by faster.  When Friday finally arrived all I wanted to do was eat, drink a glass of wine and plop down on my porch.  That is exactly what I did.  Phil purchased a grill about a month ago and absolutely loves it, I call him the Grill Master.  I'm not even allowed to touch it but I'm okay with that because it means I don't have to cook as much!  Anyways, he grilled up some BBQ chicken and shrimp for shrimp cocktail, and I sauteed up some green beans.  If you have never been to St. Elmo's I highly recommend it.  They have the best Shrimp Cocktail and they even sell their cocktail sauce because it's that good.  It cleans your right out, it's the kind of sauce where you have tears and nose drippings down your face and you totally make weird faces while your eating it.  

Friday Night relaxing.

Saturday

Sleeping-in just doesn't happen anymore, I remember the days of rolling out of bed at 12 just in time for lunch.  Now I'm lucky if I can sleep in till 8.  The pups don't sleep in so therefore I don't sleep in.  Phil and I decided to go let the dogs run because we were heading down to Indy for the day.  We live about an hour in a half north in a smaller town.  Phil's parents have about 5 acres and they go cray cray.   Dragon tries to keep up with Mouse but she last about 5 seconds and then falls to the ground.  Cutest thing ever. 

Proof of Dragon taking a rest because she can't keep up with Mouse.

Lil clip of the pups.

I drive an hour and 10 minutes every 10 weeks to get my hair done.  I have serious trust issues with hair dressers.  I've had too many bad experiences and I finally found one that I love so yes I will drive that long just to have my hair done.  Her name is Brenna and she is seriously the shiiiit.  I told her that I want to grow my hair out, which is number 84 on my 101 things in 1001 days.  So together we made a plan for growing my hair out.  I always say I want to grow it out and then it gets to that point where it hit's your shoulders and flips out and I break down and chop it off.  Drives me nuts!  It's at they point right now.  She showed me how simple it is to just curl my hair, mess it up a lil and it should help with my flip out trauma. 

If you live in Indy and need a good place to get your hair done you must check out Salon Orange Moon and ask for Brenna!

Hair foils on hair foils.

Next stop on our day trip to Indy we headed to visit friends that were moving.  We figured they would need a break from all the unpacking, so what popped some champagne and hung out for a few hours with there BIG dogs. 

Emmy and Ralphy!

Last stop on our trip we went and had dinner with Megan and Eric.  I used to work with Megan at a Chiropractic Office when I lived in Indy.  She met her man on Match.com just like Philly and I.  Actually, she's the one that gave me the idea to try it out so really I owe her for introducing me to it.  They are getting married in November so I got to chat about all the wedding plans with her, wedding talk is always fun! Plus I got to eat some strawberry shortcake, my favorite summer dessert.

The Megs and my new wavy hair!

Sunday

Since the girls have been so good we got them some new toys. Dragon got a pink squeaky toy elephant (would you expect anything else?) and a Kong feeding toy.  It is supposed to make them work for the food and mainly just keeps her busy.  Mouse needs some help with her oral care, so we got her a deer antler, apparently they are good for the teeth!

Well my friends, It's Sunday which means it snuggle times with Philly and the Pups.  We got sucked into the first season of the Sopranos so I've got a date with my couch! 

My First Blog Ever

I’ve been meaning to start a blog for quite some time now but I couldn’t pin point exactly what I wanted to blog about.  I check out others blogs on the daily, my best friend/sister as we call each other, has a blog and I was browsing one day and saw this list of 101 things in 1001 days.  Oh my god, I have to do this! Why must you ask? Well here’s a little back story as to how I got to this point.  A few months ago my best friend from college spent some time in Thailand and it simply stole her heart and she wants to pack everything up and move to the land of smiles.  Then I started talking myself into the idea of spending 6 months or so there myself, why not?  Well, I would be leaving behind my handsome boyfriend and our two dogs, Mouse and Dragon.  I haven’t found that one thing in my life that I love to do.  I do know that working is not my passion, I'm the farthest thing from career driven.  I just don’t know what I love nor have I really ever done anything for me and that’s why this trip sounded perfect. 

I talked to the boyfriend about it and at first he was totally for it and was like go that sounds amazing, wish I could go with, blahhh, blahhhh…Until I was dead serious about it, he didn’t quite take to the idea and said well what about our relationship?  That’s a really long time, I mean he had his concerns as would anyone and we had our share of emotional conversations regarding this topic aka me bawling my eyes because that’s what I do.   I know if I went on that trip I would come back as a different person, no matter what.  Coming back what would happen to our relationship?  That totally scares me because he would miss out on a big adventure that was life changing for me.  At the same time I struggle with the thought of not doing something because of a guy, especially a guy I’m not married to, life is too short not to follow your dreams.  After much thought and I mean a lot, pretty sure it consumed my brain, I decided not to pack my bags and move across the world.  I'm by no means ready to make that kind of decision, nor am I ready to leave Phil and my pups for that long. 

So this brings me to the list 101 Things in 1001 Days, I thought that by writing a list of 101 things of places I want to go (Thailand is on the list, we will see what happens with this), goals I want to accomplish, challenges I want to undertake, adventures that tickle my fancy, and simply holding myself accountable, this might be a good way of doing something for me.   Why not make this as an excuse to finally start blogging and have this be a fun way to document my journey.  I hope to learn more about myself and find the things that I love to do.  Thanks for joining me on this crazy ride, buckle up, oh and grab a glass of wine because who knows what can happen!

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