A Day In the Life of a Coffee Addict

New Home!

2011-10-27T21:45:00.001-04:00

Please join me over in my new blog home: http://acoffeeaddict.com/

Looking forward to seeing you there!!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

2011-10-22T16:15:00.001-04:00

Sure you might read the title of this post and thing - wow she's already in the Christmas spirit but nope - for me the most wonderful time of the year is the Food & Wine Festival at Epcot! I count down to it like Christmas that's a true store!!

We visit the festival multiples times during Food & Wine season where else can you try samples of delicious foods at small prices with small portions so that if you don't like you could just toss it in the trash - as you can probably guess though tossing food is a rarity with us crazy Taylors!

This week was our second visit through Food & Wine, it was a lovely week night stroll where we saw Sugar Ray perform and we ate some yummy foods! And not so surprising we are heading back to the Festival today with friends to enjoy the beautiful Florida weather and more deliciousness!

One of my favorite shots I've ever taken - EVER

This Italian girls loves her some Pasta and shrimp!

Front row for Mark McGrath and Sugar Ray

MMMMM Goulash!

Another favorite shot playing with the Vibrant Color setting on my camera

Delicious chocolate and coconut Cake from Australia

I think my plan for these photos will be to scrap them of course - I might put together a Smash Book wouldn't that be fun? And I will for sure put some of the amazing tips I learned during this weekends True Scrap event to good use. Stay tuned as I have A LOT more to say about True Scrap as well as new creations both in the scrapbooking room and in the kitchen and some fun we've had with our Halloween decorating! More soon...

Around My Desk

2011-10-17T08:29:00.001-04:00

Having fun creating photo strips with the Vignette App on my phone so thought I would give a small glimpse around my desk this morning!

Alive

2011-10-15T12:11:00.001-04:00

I am still here alive and and for the most part well. I have let so many other things get in the way of blogging and crafting and cooking but I'm here and I'm back on track. It helps that this is my absolute favorite time of year there is something about the Fall that just inspires me. The weather is getting nicer, the holiday season is kicked off, there are so many yummy foods and amazing craft projects that just need to be done so it makes me happy to be back in action now that Fall is in full swing.

I kicked off Fall festivities with a quick trip to New York and New Jersey. The reason for the trip was so I could be Godmother to my dear friends Bob and Shannon's new bundle of joy Raiden. While I was traveling up North I spent a couple of days with my cousin and best friend Denise. Being with Denise reminded me how much I love the City and city life. Walking to the store and getting our hair done, and going to parks that did not have rides and lines and gift shops but instead had trees and leaves and walking paths. One day we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and it was dreary and rainy and I was wet but happy! And Denise made me feel so welcome that I'm already trying to figure out when I can get up there again!

Denise on the Brooklyn Bridge

It was windy and wet and fabulous

Beautiful!!

Aahh yes real and delicious NY pizza!

Me and Denise in the park

In Jersey I got to spend time with Bob and Shannon and all their children - how fun! I wanted to smuggle the kids home with me. The Christening was beautiful and Shannon and Bob really went above and beyond making me feel welcome and comfortable in their home.

The Christening

Me and the adorable Piper!

My Godson Raiden

Willow and Amelia

So glad I got to spend time with Diana and meet Amelia FINALLY!

Now that Fall is underway and the weather is cooling off here in Florida we are going to be out and about much more and I will be blogging much more. I apologize for my absence but I will ask you my readers to hold me accountable and see that I don't disappear again! More soon...

New Recipes!!

2011-08-28T22:39:00.000-04:00

It sure has been a while since I pulled out new recipes and did some major cooking but today felt like just the day to spend in the kitchen. I've had a lot on my mind and cooking and baking relaxes me so I spent a beautiful Sunday cooking my little heart out and made not one but three new recipes and all were very successful!!

First up - Found this recipe for Nutella Banana Bread on Pinterest! You can find it here. How can you go wrong with Nutella and anything really? But this bread is so yummy and moist!! Hopefully my co-workers will feel the same as some of this is coming to work with me!

Next up were Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies - I found these on accident doing a quick search for peanut cookies and when I saw these and saw that I had all the ingredients it was like dying and going to heaven!! And wow these are a hit with the husband!! He told me to just go ahead and add them to the cookie rotation for the holidays!! You can find the recipe here.

Then for dinner I tried a new Rachael Ray recipe - Pasta Carbonara with Corn and Chiles - however you may note that there is no corn in this photo and you may ask why? Ummm I forgot to buy corn!! I don't know what I was thinking I made a list and everything and then got home and oops no corn but let me tell you what this dish was still super delicious SUPER delicious! Mike and I both enjoyed it. I used fresh fettuccine, you can find the recipe here.

Ok there you have it three super delicious new recipes! If you try them let me know!!

Viva Las Vegas!!

2011-08-28T20:41:00.000-04:00

Since we've been home for a week now I thought it was time to do a little Vegas trip recap!

Cocktails and sequins what Vegas is all about right?

We had such a good time. Arriving in Vegas always feels a little like going back home as I've mentioned in the past my family has shared quite a few big celebrations in Vegas and I have spent a lot of time in Sin City so it has that wonderful homey feel to it when I see those first slot machines in the airport and then step foot on the Strip for the first time.

My beloved Bellagio

While in Vegas, we ate, drank, spent time with family, shopped and something that I've never done in Vegas before - WON MONEY! Not a lot of money you don't get rich playing penny slots but it was awfully nice to fund a couple of shopping trips and to come home with some spending money!

boy we ate a lot in Vegas!

Me and my dad in Vegas

Loved getting time with my mom

The big reason we were in Vegas this time was to celebrate the wedding of my cousin Kevin and his now lovely wife Trish. Growing up Kevin was more then a cousin, he was and has been like a big brother to me so it was very special sharing this big day with him. And it was a beautiful day and wow did they serve us a ridiculous amount of food!!

Mom and Kevin!! Love this picture of the two of them

The newlyweds and their super cool cake!

Me and Mike at the wedding

I also got to lay by the pool with mom, do some crafting and go on wedding appointments with my sister. We packed an awful lot into a few days and now just 29 weeks until we get to go again!!!!

Pool Time!

Pages from my Smash book!

Started the book in Vegas added photos when I got home

Quality time with mom and my sister. A rare picture of us together!

Crafting on Vacation

2011-08-17T12:09:00.001-04:00

Before heading to Vegas mom and I talked about doing some crafting while on vacation together. So we agreed to bring our Smash Books and yesterday while lounging by the pool we added fun memorabilia and journaling to my pages. I will add some photos when I get home but I love that I have a jump start on documenting our trip!!

Viva Las Vegas!

2011-08-15T10:34:00.001-04:00

A lot of big moments have happened here in Vegas; got engaged, got married, celebrated family milestones like my dad's 70th birthday. My family vacationed in Vegas all my life so it is no real surprise that when I step off that plane and out into the warm desert air I feel at home.

This trip we are also celebrating a milestone, my cousin Kevin is getting married. We stayed up talking to Kevin and his very soon to be wife late last night just enjoying the excitement of this city and the week ahead!

I will try to most a few blogs this week so stay tuned!

A Week in the Life Days 6 & 7

2011-08-02T20:23:00.000-04:00

Playing catch up and putting the last two days of Week in the Life together in one fun and fabulous post!!

Saturday:

Woke up way too early after a late night - this will become a theme later on in the day!

Walking Hooper at 7AM

The best part of early morning walks - Hot Air Balloons

Getting Gas

Heading out for the day!

This place was delicious! (Good choice Tanya)

Mini Golf with Tanya and the boys - man was it hot

The little sleep, the hangover and the heat did not agree with me I was couch bound the rest of the day

This was our very bad but yummy dinner!


With my guilty pleasure on TV

Sunday:

I felt a lot better after waking up Sunday morning - maybe because I slept most of Saturday!

Starting the day off right

Cuddling with Hooper is a great way to start the day!

Holden's new favorite spot

Heading out on a little solo shopping spree

Lane Bryant!

Letting Ms. Amy mingle with the other kids


So far Banky likes her the best

And there we have it one week in my life! Now I just have to put together the album and get all the stories and photos the way I want them. Hope to start posting that this week! Wish me luck!!

Hope you enjoyed the journey as much as I enjoyed sharing it!!

A Week in the Life Day 5 - Part 2

2011-07-30T09:19:00.000-04:00

Ok now that I've shared with you our fabulous Friday night I thought I would share some of the details of the rest of my Friday.

Weekly weigh in - down 1.8 pounds and according to Wii Fit I'm 24 WOOHOO

Off to work!

Dropping off Mike

Heading into the Warehouse

Paneras for lunch with Lisa!

Heading to pick up Mike

Bob Evans for dinner - there goes the 1.8 pounds I lost

polishing nails and doing hair and makeup with Claire

Love this picture

Having a photo shoot

I am loving Week in the Life this time around - still taking less photos but I'm writing everything down and capturing a lot of really special moments I can't really complain. I have to start figuring the format for when I put this book together. I know I want to use an 8 1/2 x 11 binder but do I want to use one or two photos and tell a lot of stories OR do I want to do what I did last time and use photo collages and snippets of journaling? Hmmm decisions. Of course a lot of the folks working on this project already have their format in mind but that's not the way I roll haha!

I'll be back later with today's recap!

Week in the Life Day 5 - Part 1

2011-07-30T09:07:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the delay in my Day 5 post - had a rather late night!!

I'm so glad I got to capture a night at The Lucky Leprechaun with the gang. I love being a "regular" somewhere, making new friends, drinking beers and singing (even though I'm terrible I've yet to get thrown off the stage!) Without a doubt it's the people I'm with that really make Friday nights fantastic!

Claire - Fabulous singer, designated driver and all around SUPER Friend

Rockin' Robin - Queen of Karaoke, amazingly talented and super fun

Aimee & Brian - AKA the love birds!! Adorable in that vomit inducing sort of way

Claire Bear

Good times with good friends - you can' buy memories like these

The sister act


Claire, Aja and Me - Having a blast because we just can't help ourselves!

Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of our buddy and fabulous bartender Mark - most likely because he doesn't stand still long enough to snap one! And this particular Friday Chrissy was unable to make it as she's on a very long road trip but we called her and let her listen to Claire singing so that added to the fun!!

A Week in the Life - Day 4

2011-07-28T22:02:00.000-04:00

Today I took the least amount of photos so far this week, partially because work was so busy and I was doing stuff I couldn't photograph and partially because after clothes shopping I was bummed out so basically just came home and sat on the couch - not really a lot of photo taking opportunities there. But here are some of my favorite shots from today.

Skipped the morning walk in favor of cinnamon coffee

Off to work

Mike takes out the trash

beautiful sky this morning

Ready to start the day

Mike gets in the car after work and is on his tablet

Shopping adventure after work

Our favorite shopping location

More laundry!

Beginning to introduce Amy to the other animals


Ending the night with a little Bejeweled Blitz of course!

I'll be back tomorrow for more Week in the Life goodness!

Week in the Life - Day 3

2011-07-27T22:18:00.001-04:00

Here we are day 3, I think so far I've taken the most pictures today so I'm pretty proud of that. I do find it hard to take pictures while I'm at work for a few reasons; 1. I don't want my co-workers to think I'm completely insane (though I have a feeling they know I'm halfway there) and 2. A lot of what we do in our area is confidential so I'm limited to the where and what I can take pictures of but I am making the best of it and having a good time doing it. So here is a glimpse of day 3 during this week in my life.

5AM time for my 2+ mile walk

Time for pills

Off to work though I look like I'm going to school here!

Gloomy morning

Working on Week in the Life writing

Typing up notes

Coffee and my ipod get me through the day

Still gloomy out as I head home.

A little Words with Friends as I wait for Mike

Visiting with the Little One

Chinese food for dinner!

Laundry

Blowing out my hair

Crafting


And this week's layout for the MotherLOAD class

Stay tuned! More to come tomorrow!

A Week in the Life - Day 2

2011-07-26T22:51:00.000-04:00

This is going to be short but sweet as I spent most of the evening with my Super Friend Claire - didn't take any pictures but what a good talk - just what I needed.

So in looking at today's pictures I notice I spend a lot of time in the car to and from work, dropping Mike off, picking Mike up so here are a few shots of my travels!

A Week in the Life - Day 1

2011-07-25T20:58:00.000-04:00

So here we are the first day of A Week in the Life. Let me start off by saying that this project is really important to me this time around as my life is so much different then it was the last time I worked on and completed this project.

What's so different you might ask?

Well for one - I have a job!

And a desk

And fabulous work friends!

I can't wait to take photos of more of my co-workers this week - they have all been so supportive in all my crazy projects I come in with - in fact they hardly laughed at me as my camera sat on my desk all day ready to snap photos at a moment's notice!

What else is new? Well this little girl is worming her way into our hearts and completely taking over the guest room - meet Amy!

Of course as much that may have changed some things stay the same - such as my love and well honest to goodness addiction to coffee! These days I stop just about every morning at 7-11 for a very large blueberry coffee - DELICIOUS!!

Hmmm What else is the same? I'm still hopelessly addicted to bath and body products, hair products and makeup of course!

There you have it a quick little review of the first day in a Week in my Life! See you tomorrow for even more photos!!

Gearing Up

2011-07-24T18:03:00.002-04:00

Took a quick (and fun) shot of my camera before it gets put to work even more then usual around here. You see tomorrow I will be once again documenting my every move as I take part in Ali Edwards A Week in the Life project.
I'm excited to get this project underway, I had so much fun with it the last time and so much in my life has changed that I think now is the perfect time to capture it.
I plan to share photos and stories here and will also show off the completed project. In addition to A Week in the Life I'm also continuing work on Lain Ehmann's MotherLOAD course on Big Picture Classes. It has been an amazing experience so far.
I have to say I am feeling creative, inspired and motivated lately so stay tuned!

Amy, Amy, Amy

2011-07-24T17:18:00.000-04:00

So strange that my last blog post I stated I was listening to Amy Winehouse as I was creating in the craft room and here we are less then a week later and Amy Winehouse has passed away. Such a shame that such a magnificent talent could not overcome her addictions, it is such a shame that we will never have another Amy Winehouse album and so very very strange that she's all I was listening to last week.

You will be missed Ms. Winehouse

Crafting+Music = A Happy Girl

2011-07-19T16:17:00.001-04:00

I'm hanging in the scraproom, crafting, cleaning, writing and coming up with ideas. Got a little Amy Winehouse playing on the ipod so all is right with the world!

Craft Update

2011-07-13T21:53:00.000-04:00

So some of you might be wondering what I've been up to during the period of time that I seemingly abandoned my blog, but I promise you I've been creating up a storm.

I participated and completed Layout a Day in May. I don't know what it is about Lain's prompts that keep me motivated day after day for an entire month but she does it and does it so well!

So here are some of my favorite May LOAD layouts!

A layout about Easter

One of my favorites, it was a great day but I had fun with the layout too

Me and Claire - my Super Friend

I had fun with this one playful pictures, playful embellishments

It is really fun getting pages done, telling stories, letting my creative juices flow. Will post many more layouts very soon!!

She's Back

2011-07-12T18:00:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts but your favorite coffee addict is back and ready for action!

Fun with Photography!

2011-04-03T13:13:00.004-04:00

As you might recall Mike got me a cool new camera for my birthday and I've been trying to figure out the settings, and play with it as much as possible and I've been trying to just develop a better eye for great photos and just document everything - I know you are probably thinking "don't you already do that" but I'm really trying to grow as a photographer and not just take a crazy amount of pictures that I won't ever or can't really use.

Thankfully the fabulous Katrina Kennedy started the amazing site CaptureYour365. The prompts Katrina provides and the fabulous inspiration I've been finding in the gallery and message boards are really helping me look at things differently and take more interesting photos.

Here are a couple of the newest photos that are my favorites - at least for right now!

2011-03-31T16:47:00.005-04:00

Way back in January when I was in the midst of my week long birthday celebration I mentioned that one of the super fantastic presents that my husband Mike gave me were tickets to see Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes on the Jay & Silent Bob Get Old Tour! After all this waiting it was finally time for the big show!!

Now because Mike is awesome and tomorrow is the 11 year anniversary of when we started dating we turned tickets to the show into a little mid-week getaway! Yesterday I worked only half a day and then we headed to the Royal Pacific Resort over at Universal and checked in and kicked off a much needed 24 hour escape! The hotel is beautiful, we had a great room, we explored, we had drinks, we laughed. We had an absolutely spectacular meal at Emeril's - I mean seriously spectacular and after dinner we took our full and happy selves over to Hard Rock for the show!

Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier kicked off the show with an hour and a half Smodcast recording! Hysterical! I laughed so hard!! Then the next hour and a half was Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes - also hysterical and at parts a little sad but a magical evening! After the show Mike and I strolled back to the hotel in the pouring rain, we laughed and talked and went over our favorite parts of the show and the evening as a whole.

This morning we woke up to tornado warnings - WHAT?! I've probably mentioned before I am absolutely petrified to drive in the rain and the weather forecast was grim and had the rain not letting up until much later tonight. So we took our time getting ready for the day and checking out and then had a fabulous breakfast at one of the hotel's restaurants it was nice and relaxing and then hand in hand we walked and explored the hotel, did a little shopping and then I made a command decision - We're going home! As much as I would have loved to stay at the hotel I knew we had to get home too. So off we went, picked Hooper up from my friend's house and then came home. Sure I had a white knuckle grip on the steering wheel most of the way but we made it safe and sound and have not moved from the couch since! The fur babies have taken turns coming to cuddle with us I guess even though we were only gone over night they missed us!

I hope all my Florida friends are safe and sound as it is still absolutely pouring rain out there!

Wasn't I Cute?

2011-03-13T11:44:00.002-04:00

One of the major perks to having my mother take part in the February Layout A Day was seeing the layouts she created using old family photos. Mom has had these photos in those old school magnetic albums for years and years and they were starting to yellow and fade and just weren't being showcased the way they deserved.

Enter LOAD and mom used photos rich with family history and came up with some truly incredible layouts and no I'm not saying that just because I happen to be the focus of this layout!

LOADs of Fun!

2011-03-12T19:52:00.005-05:00

I am embarrassingly late with this Layout a Day (LOAD) recap but to say that it was amazing just falls short somehow.

I'm proud to say that I completed all 28 layouts in the 28 days of February and I'm even prouder to say that my mother also completed all 28 layouts!! It was so much fun seeing how mine and my mom's takes on Lain's prompts differed and it was nice seeing my mom could create spectacular layouts in a few hours instead of a few weeks (haha!)

My biggest challenge this time around was working, not only was I getting used to my role at work but I was transitioning to full time and still trying to make time for laundry and exercising and having fun once in a while. Thankfully my husband took care of every meal during the month of February so I did not have to worry about that!!

One night in particular I thought I was going to throw in the towel - I worked a 12 hour day, got home around 8:30PM and the challenge was to use ribbon in a way you don't usually use it. ACK! Ribbon! I don't usually use ribbon on pages at all for some reason I am - no scratch that - was scared to use it. So I thought forget it I won't put together a layout with ribbon I just won't follow the prompt but then Lain announced that if you used the prompt you could win a Jar of Ribbon from www.ribbonjar.com! Well who am I to pass up a chance at a fabulous prize?! So while waiting for one of our meetings to start I was chatting with my boss about this challenge and we started sketching ideas. I sent a quick text to the husband asking him to print out a few photo options for me and when I got home this layout was created:

And thank goodness it was because I was extremely thrilled to find out I was the winner of the jar of ribbon!!! So today this super stuffed jar of fun arrived!!

I'm also happy to say that since using ribbon on the layout above I've used it several more times - who knew using ribbon on a layout could be so much fun!!! And now I know where I can stock up!!!

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T21:04:00.003-05:00

Wishing you all a very happy Valentine's Day!
I hope your day was full of love and happiness!!

The Halfway Mark

2011-02-14T20:31:00.007-05:00

I recently shared how I was getting ready for February's Layout a Day workshop, I mentioned how excited and nervous I was and here I am on day 14 and I'm 14 for 14!! Not bad considering full work weeks, not feeling well last week, Valentine's Day Celebrations and various other obstacles lately but here I am I have 14 layouts done, 14 stories told, 14 memories captured!! Am I in love with every layout - nope, but have I challenged myself - yes I have! I've been following the prompts that Lain provides and some days I truly love what I've created so I thought I would share a few of my favorites here! Can't wait to hear what you think!!

The other great thing I was excited about for this round of Layout a Day was my mom joining in the fun and guess what? She's up-to-date on the challenges too and she was nice enough to email me a few of the photos so I could share them with you too!

Birthday Week!

2011-01-30T14:08:00.009-05:00

What a fabulous week full of good times, good friends and lots of birthday celebrations!! To say that I was spoiled this year for my 34th birthday would be a severe understatement.

It started Saturday with breakfast at Whispering Canyon Cafe with the Rockin' Rockwells. Cynthia's birthday is right after mine so we thought a little joint celebration was in order!!

What I didn't know while we were breakfasting that the Rockwells along with my husband and many of my friends were all in cahoots to throw me a fabulous birthday party on Sunday!! How exciting to have a bunch of my close friends here to hang out, eat and just have a good time together. I was really blown away by everyone who came and those who helped Mike pull the surprise together!

The party was the tip of the iceberg as far as Mike was concerned cause he always bought me a fabulous new camera - so you'll be seeing lots and lots of pictures here of some of the fun I've been having with my new baby! Mike also got us tickets to see Jay & Silent Bob at Hard Rock Live!! I have to wait until March for the show but I'm totally excited about it!

Thursday was a little birthday celebration at work! Cake and Ice Cream YAY!! Work has been amazing, busy, non-stop sometimes, fun, creative and full of really great people I could gush all day but suffice it to say I'm very happy there!

Thursday night I took a little break from celebrating my birthday we went to dinner to celebrate Dave's birthday! We had a fabulous dinner at Columbia with Monika and Dave and it gave me a chance to walk around Celebration taking pictures!

Friday was my annual birthday outing with Ruthy! We started the day with a character breakfast at Animal Kingdom, we had VIP seats for the Festival of the Lion King, we rode rides, walked around, won prizes and then headed to Epcot for more fun and then came home and had pizza and played Wii!

See just like I said I was totally spoiled this birthday but after a week I think it's time to end the celebrations and get back on the diet bandwagon and work out regularly and focus!! So until next year's birthday adventure...

LOADing Up

2011-01-24T10:00:00.005-05:00

February 1st I will begin my third Layout a Day run by the super fabulous Lain Ehmann! (Have I mentioned how much I love her?)

Layout a Day or LOAD as we call it has truly been a life changer so I am super excited to start another round. But this time around I'm also a little nervous because this will be my first time doing LOAD with a job! I am trying to take what I've learned in previous go rounds in order to put together a game plan for February's LOAD. So here are a few things I'm trying to do in order to prepare.

Think about photos I want to use and stories I want to tell - I don't print these in advance because I'm never sure what size photo I want to use but knowing what photos I want to use helps.
Keeping my craft room clean and organized - this has been a challenge for me in the past but I'm happy to say that lately I've been doing a good job at cleaning up after myself.
Stocking up - I stock up on adhesive and cardstock these are the only two items I will run out of during LOAD
Throw out the idea of perfection - totally a mental thing but possibly the most important. Not every layout will be perfect, not every layout will turn out the way I thought it would but every layout will be one more I've completed, one more story I've told and that's good enough for me.
Don't over plan - I do the basic prep for LOAD because I like to use Lain's prompts, I keep an open mind and allow myself to be guided on the journey!

Hopefully these tips will help you prepare for your LOAD journey! Let me know if you are joining the adventure and what you do to prepare! One thing I'm super excited about for this LOAD - my mom is joining in the fun as well - hopefully she loves it as much as I do. I think it will be super fun for us to do this together, a nice way to connect even though we live far apart.

Ready to read more about LOAD? Follow some of my LOAD family for a little blog hop:

Lain www.layoutaday.com
Danielle H. scrappindanielle.blogspot.com
Margie www.xnomads.typepad.com
S snapsandsnippets.blogspot.com
Lisa lisahausmann.blogspot.com
Laura www.mom2nick.typepad.com
Rosann brooklyngirlnextdoor.blogspot.com
Gayle lifeonlilypadlane.blogspot.com
Jennifer atthebluebarn.blogspot.com
Heather www.heathersdragonsden.blogspot.com
Tere terecontodomicorazon.blogspot.com
Niki thepaperpeddler.blogspot.com
Janet www.khashabfamilymusings.blogspot.com
Lee thelinarstudio.typepad.com/embracelife
Junelle www.yes-and-amen.com
Julie www.juleshollis.com

2011 Wish List

2011-01-10T20:28:00.003-05:00

Ok so I'm a little late posting these but every New Year's Eve Mike and I sit down and write our wish list for the year ahead and by sit down, I mean I force Mike to write this list and stare at him until he writes something!

So here you go the 11 things we each wish for in 2011:

Danielle

1. Lose more weight
2. Go on a cruise
3. Finish rough draft of novel
4. Create, create, create
5. Take better photos
6. Keep in better touch with family and friends
7. Run a 5K
8. Succeed at work
9. Read more, play on Facebook less
10. Be Happy
11. Finally get pregnant

Mike

1. Cruise
2. New Car
3. Make progeny progress
4. Promotion
5. Get organized
6. Start Blog
7. Online Photo Store
8. Finish Harry Potter Audio Books
9. Get off soda - again
10. Start Working Out
11. Not be killed by wife (I can only assume this last was because of the glares he was getting!)

There you have it! I will be sure to keep you posted on how we are doing through the year - wish us luck!!

Weight Loss Check In

2011-01-01T10:40:00.006-05:00

I will be perfectly honest and tell you that during this holiday season I have not eaten as well as I should have, not only was I not counting my Weight Watcher points but i was not following the doctor's diet either and I've paid the price believe me. But throughout the season I have continued to workout and have some super healthy eating days and as of tomorrow I will be back to 100% strict dieting! I did want to take some time to show off my progress a little bit.

In August the doctor scared me and I started dieting, changed my eating habits, drank much less coffee, steered clear of white foods and started Weight Watchers. I had a long way to go and wasn't sure I could do it.

By September I had already taken off several pounds and was noticing differences in how my clothes felt and how I felt - more energy, more motivation, more stamina. I was pushing myself in my workouts and finding new and creative ways to make meals.

In December (the 31st be exact) I weighed in to find I am down 39.7 pounds from the day I saw the doctor! I need new clothes, I have SO much energy, I can do lunges without my knees hurting, I can run longer, I can walk farther. Overall I feel great! I still have a ways to go but I am proud of the start I've made!!

*note* In all three photos I'm wearing the same type of shirt and pants - they are the same brand and size just different colors.

Goodbye 2010

2010-12-31T18:23:00.003-05:00

(I'm sorry I could not get this photo larger but if you click on it you will see it just fine)

Another year is drawing to a close so I took some time to go through our year in photos. Wow we sure do keep busy here in Taylor Town! This year has been filled with so many good times, good friends, good food, visits with family, love and laughter.

I've reconnected with old friends and sadly had to say goodbye to some toxic relationships which is never an easy thing but often a necessary one.

We welcomed little Amelia into the world, and made new friends, I got a fabulous new job and lost 39 pounds. There were birthdays and holidays, outings and hours of playing games and watching movies.

I joined Layout a Day for the first time this year and then did it a second time and I'm already signed up for my third round! I joined ScrapHappy, I created, I took tons of photos, I wrote, I read, I ran, I did yoga, I decorated, and cooked and ate.

Overall I have to say 2010 was a pretty great year and in looking back I'm reminded that there was more laughter then there were tears, there were more hugs then cold shoulders and more moments I hope to always remember rather then moments I wish to forget.

Here is hoping that 2011 is filled with as much happiness, love and laughter. I wish you all my friends, family and faithful readers a happy and healthy end to 2010 and a beautiful new beginning to 2011!!

Tonight Mike and I are ringing in the New Year with food and movies - how will you be ushering out 2010?

More soon...

2010 Books & Movies

2010-12-31T15:19:00.002-05:00

This year I did not read as many books as I usually do nor as many as I would like to - I could blame starting work but the real culprit is that I am struggling to get through The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice - now this will probably make me incredibly unpopular but this is the second Anne Rice book I've read and I am just not a fan so needless to say should I make it through Lestat I will not be reading another Anne Rice book.

There were however books I read and absolutely loved - now these are just a few top picks I read others that were enjoyable but these are the stand outs:

Fly Away Home - Jennifer Weiner - This quite possibly could be Weiner's best book yet which is saying a lot because I absolutely love everything she writes and that includes her Twitter and Facebook updates! She just really created rich characters, and took real life situations and ran wild!

The Shining - Stephen King - I'm a huge Stephen King fan I read more then one of his books each year and I've been madly in love with some and disappointed in others but regardless I can never deny that this man can write!! I LOVED The Shining! It is a lot different then the movie but not in a bad way at all.

A Few Good Eggs - Julie Vargo & Maureen Regan - This book was a life changer, it is all about the battle with infertility and it really opened my eyes to a lot of different issues, a lot of questions to ask doctors and it made me feel better knowing some of what I'm feeling is normal and I'm not 100% crazy. The one downside is reading all about the next steps in our journey it made me less inclined to continue the medical route - we'll see.

Ok let's switch the focus to movies! This year we watched a lot of movies via Netflix, we watched some old movies, some new movies and lots of TV shows but this blog is to focus on the 2010 films we saw which there we saw PLENTY of! There is no way I could talk about all the movies we saw in depth so like the books these are juts the highlights!

Turns out that Leonardo DiCaprio was in two of my favorite movies this year - Shutter Island and Inception. Holy cow do these two movies make you think! They were both well acted and there aren't enough good things to say about Inception one of the top movies ever! I have said for a long time that Leo is more then a pretty face (though boy is he pretty) these two movies for sure showed off his acting chops!

Toy Story 3 blew me away - you are watching an animated film about toys and yet you forget you are watching animated toys, I was on the edge of my seat, I laughed, I cried and just loved this movie. Another fun animated movie - How to Train Your Dragon, super cute! Of course don't tell Mickey Mouse I don't want to be fired! haha! We also just saw Tron:Legacy which I did not love but you can't love them all right?

Now you know I love my Twilight so of course we saw Eclipse - it was my favorite of the books and so far for sure my favorite of the movies. We also saw and loved Iron Man 2 and was totally caught off guard by how much we loved Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - WOW! Such fun and RED - totally loved that film.

I was one of the few people that I know of that loved the movie Remember Me, just an emotional movie and I truly enjoyed Burlesque - is it the best movie I ever saw? No but was it enjoyable?Absolutely.

Now there is a tie for my absolute favorite movies of the year one is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1 - WOW did they nail this one or what? Brilliant! They put it together amazingly well, splitting the book into two movies was a great idea and they picked just the right split point. In fact the husband and I hope to watch all the Harry Potter movies and then go see Deathly Hollows part 1 again!

My other favorite movie of the year happens to be the last movie we saw Black Swan - haunting, beautiful, extraordinarily acted, and again you leave the theater thinking, working things out, talking about it and I love movies that generate conversation after.

So there you have it books and movies I loved in 2010! Happy reading and movie watching in 2011 and please let me know if you have any book or movie suggestions!!!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-28T11:57:00.006-05:00

Ok so this Merry Christmas Post is way late but I hope everyone had a happy and healthy Christmas!

There was a lot of hustle and bustle here in Taylor Town as we hosted both Christmas Eve and Christmas day!! What fun we had! And so much food! My baby cousin Louis - who is no longer a baby was here for a few days with his girlfriend Jen, they were for sure among the best visitors we've ever had and we're happy they live closer now so we can have them here again.

We had the same cast of characters for both Eve and Day, we ate lots and lots of yummy food, we laughed harder then I've ever laughed before, we played games, we opened presents, we ate some more, we were treated to live violin music and we took photos of course! It was a pretty magical couple of days and reminded me how blessed we are to have friends that are becoming more and more like family so close by!

Now I had started writing this post yesterday but got interrupted by a knock at the door, I assumed it was a delivery of some kind but when I opened the door I found my cousin Kevin and his fiance Trisha standing on my door step! I was beyond excited - and I may have even yelped a little when I saw them! And those stinkers called Mike and set the whole surprise up in advance!!! We had a wonderful day enjoying some of the Christmas decorations at some of the Disney resorts and we ate lots of leftovers and just talked and talked and talked! It was so great catching up with Kevin and Trish in person!!

So now I'm trying to get up and running on all of my year end posts before this year ends so stay tuned. Will also have a few more Celebrating the Season page updates so keep an eye out for those as well!! Merry Christmas!!!

Celebrating the Season Pages Update

2010-12-23T10:40:00.003-05:00

Oh goodness where have I been? I've been enjoying the season of course! Well that and working but to be perfectly honest, work has been awesome and doesn't feel like work I have projects and to do lists and notes (Lots of notes) but I LOVE doing it! Just got a brand new desk and I've set it up and got it organized and I'm starting to take ownership of some of my responsibilities! I can't go into too much detail about my job - haha makes me sound like a spy right!! But let me tell you I have never felt like such a part of something so darn special and dare I say Magical before!! That being said I'm currently home on Christmas break until January 3rd and I'm equally excited about that!

Ok so this is a long overdue update on some of the pages for my Celebrating the Season Book - I have been taking so many photos and capturing some very special moments. Looking through these photos I am reminded how super lucky we are and it eases the feeling of that something missing that I tend to feel. We are just living a very full life right now!

How sweet is this?

of course I have to capture the cookie making process!!

Wrapping presents!!!!

Our complex holiday party!!!

Can't wait to hear how you are all spending this holiday season!!

Ice, Ice, Baby!

2010-12-14T21:47:00.004-05:00

We are really experiencing all of the fun events around Orlando this holiday season and we are sharing them with some of our nearest and dearest!

Saturday night we headed over to the Gaylord Palms resort for ICE! with Monika and Dave! We do this every year and have so much fun in our stylish blue parkas we walk through the chilly exhibit taking pictures and giggling.

After ICE! We headed for some dinner and then for our present exchange here in Taylor Town. It was a super fun night with super great friends!

Magical Memories

2010-12-12T17:52:00.004-05:00

Friday was truly one of those perfect days - we did some shopping very early in the morning, I had lunch with a friend that I really have to make sure I see more often and I got some stuff done around the house, so at the time of picking Mike up from work I already felt accomplished and I was in a very happy mood.

Now our plan for Friday night was to take a walk around Epcot which would have been pretty nice but when Mike got in the car he informed me that a co-worker had two tickets to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party that she couldn't use and gave them to us! I was beyond excited I had been asking Mike for weeks if he thought we could go to to Very Merry but we had decided to skip it this year and that kinda bummed me out so I was thrilled to be getting to go!

We arrived at the Magic Kingdom, ate dinner at our favorite counter service restaurant Pecos Bill's and then we set out to enjoy the party! My absolute favorite part of the evening was meeting all 7 Dwarfs in one place at one time!! It has been something I've wanted to do for a few years and was like a little kid waiting in line. We enjoyed hot cocoa and sugar cookies, we watched the fireworks and the parade and a couple of the special holidays show. We walked around and enjoyed the snow on Main Street and even did some of our Christmas shopping. It was super duper fun I didn't even mind that I was freezing to death! I think the cold made it feel more like Christmas time!

Celebrating with Friends

2010-12-06T15:55:00.006-05:00

Things have been hustling and bustling here in Taylor Town, we have been decorating and planning and going out for fun holiday outings with some of our favorite people! I'm still adjusting to working while not letting home life slide and I'm getting pages done in my Celebrating the Season album. It has all be going super well most of the time!!

Since the last post we had a fabulous evening at Hollywood Studios with Lacey and Claire to see the Osborne Spectacle of Dancing Lights! It was so much fun and I loved getting out with Claire and Lacey I hope to have a lot more fun outings like this one in the future!!

We also did a huge amount of Christmas shopping over the weekend. Wow was Downtown Disney busy! I love me some shopping but I am not a huge fan of the crowds but we got lots done. Also this weekend we went to the Celebration Farmer's Market we met up with Cynthia and Marie and watched Aimee and Claire play some Christmas music on their violins it was beautiful. We bought more goodies too - now I know why I don't bring Mike to the Farmer's Market more often I think he bought baked goods at every booth that offered them haha!!

Now for an update on my album pages! Hope you like them! I am loving this project just as much as I did last year and really trying to keep it simple and tell stories of the season - how am I doing?

Celebrating the Season!

2010-11-28T21:51:00.008-05:00

Wow Christmas has exploded here in Taylor Town! We are really going all out decorating this year. My poor husband spent two days getting the lights on the little porch tree to work but he did it and now we have two decorated trees filled with ornaments, bells and bows! I love pulling out the tree ornaments, unwrapping each one and remembering where they came from, the stories behind them and the memories linked to each one. I find perfect spots on the tree for each item and I will now spend the rest of the holiday season staring at my tree, savoring every moment that it is up.

As if a tree on the porch wasn't enough Mike also put up lighted garlands, which he added more lights to of course and he added flowers and then the item on the porch I'm most excited about - The Animated lighted Deer we bought today!! So cool!! It was a weekend long project but well worth it I think now we just have a few final touches to put up inside the house!!

Yesterday aside from all the decorating we also spent the evening at Sea World with Monika and Dave. It was so much fun. They have amazing Holiday activities going on! Great shows, and their Sea of Trees which is beautiful and then my favorite the Polar Express ride! It was so much fun! We of course took lots of great pictures and had a wonderful evening all together!

Today aside from the decorating I enjoyed a lovely girl's afternoon with Claire, we had breakfast and browsed the Farmer's Market where i picked up some Christmas gifts so I'm excited about that. Then when I came home Mike and I headed out shopping for more decorations and some little gifts! We are definitely making progress!!

And now a look at the first two days of pages in my Celebrating the Season scrapbook. Yesterday got extra pages because it was so full of goodness. I will do today's page tomorrow sometime and be sure to share them with you as soon as possible! Until next time won't you share with me how you are Celebrating the Season?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2010-11-26T23:27:00.005-05:00

Today is the day that we started putting up all of the Christmas decorations and it's the day I start my Celebrating the Season scrapbook (AKA Ali Edwards December Daily) I took tons of pictures of the process!

First thing I did this morning was put all the Thanksgiving decorations away and then we started pulling out box after box of Christmas decorations. For a while it looked like we were packing up to move that's how full the living room was!

Mike did a great job putting lights up on the porch, we reached a little snafu when it came to the tree we are putting on the porch and we are working on getting all the lights to work so we can decorate it. I have our stockings up and some really cool wall decals up.

The fur kids had a good time exploring all the boxes they are so curious - luckily they are also so adorable.

Tomorrow morning I will print some photos for the first page of my scrapbook - I will be sure to post photos for you here!! We have more festive activities planned for tomorrow and hopefully we'll finish the decorating! Hope everyone had a wonderful day!

A Super Fabulous Thanksgiving!

2010-11-26T23:17:00.005-05:00

Yesterday we had a beyond awesome Thanksgiving! So much fun hanging out with Cynthia, Marie, Lacey, Claire and Aimee! We ate a lot of yummy food of course and then we hung out talking about absolutely everything and laughing harder then I have in a long time!!

Here are a few highlights! I totally can't wait to scrapbook some of these photos!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

2010-11-25T10:57:00.002-05:00

Good Morning everyone!

I sure hope everyone's Thanksgiving is off to as good of a start as mine is! I took myself on a 3 mile walk this morning and there is no better way to start a Thanksgiving then walking as the sun rises. I was so inspired by the brilliant colors in the sky this morning, the hot air balloons floating over head and then coming into the house and being greeted by the leftover smells from last night's baking extravaganza and my sleepy husband getting out of bed to start his day of cooking.

I won't lie, this time of year I always feel a little sad because as each year ticks by I am reminded that we still don't have a child, no matter how hard we've tried, but this year I feel happier because I'm pretty darn thankful for all we do have. We have our four fur babies who cuddle and snuggle and bring us so much joy even when they misbehave. The fur babies are getting used to having mommy work but it has been making them extra cuddly in the evenings and I don't mind that too much!!

We are also thankful for our close friends who are always there when we need a helping hand or shoulder to cry on. I look forward to today when we share our Thanksgiving with some of the greatest people we know. The five gals coming over today started out as neighbors grew into friends and now are really part of our extended family they are fantastic in so many ways!!

I am so incredibly thankful for my family. I can't be with them today but with the help of email, facebook and skype I never feel too terribly far away and even with the distance my family has been so incredibly supportive on my weight loss journey. Especially my cousin Denise who encourages me and yells at me when necessary I couldn't have lost 36.4 pounds without the support!!

This year I'm also thankful for my fun and exciting new job. Good things truly do come when you're not really looking! I'm getting used to a new schedule and getting household chores done in the evenings but I'm loving every minute of the day at work and I'm happy to be out meeting new people, challenging myself and being a part of something so awesome!

I'm thankful for my husband Mike - where would I be without him?? Lord knows. He's currently slaving away in the kitchen making an awesome holiday feast, the house smells so delicious! Today and everyday Mike takes good care of me. Knowing when I needed not to work, encouraging when it was time to go back, loving me even when I'm unlovable and thinking I'm beautiful even when I look like a big mess! I'm so very lucky to have this man in my corner!

Today for sure is a day to remember what you are thankful for, to enjoy the time you get to spend with loved ones, and of course to eat your weight in mashed potatoes and stuffing haha! I hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving! Be safe and be healthy!!!

Tune in tomorrow I start my celebrating the season scrapbook (AKA Ali Edwards December Daily) I will be sharing our happy holiday traditions, outings, celebrations from now until January 1st!! Would love to hear everyone's special holiday traditions!

December Daily!!

2010-11-16T21:37:00.004-05:00

I'm in the holiday mood and I just can't help myself partly because everything is so decorated down here and there is already Christmas music playing in the Disney parks and I just get sucked right in. But partly I'm in the Christmas mood because I've been working on my December Daily foundation pages. Some of you might remember that I did the Ali Edwards December Daily project last year only in typical Danielle fashion I make more work for myself and I don't just do a December Daily album but I start it the day after Thanksgiving and go straight till New Years Day! You can find out more about Ali's project here. It's a fun project though and I'm super interested to see how this year's album differs from last year especially now that we have so much new fun stuff going on like that little thing called my job!!!

So I thought I would share some of my favorite foundation pages with you tonight. I have over 20 pages ready to go but these are my top picks. I will get the rest done over the course of the next few days - I hope! Then once I start the project I will post here daily or as close to daily as I can manage updating on all the fun holiday activities and some of my favorite things about the holiday season!!

Can't wait to hear what you think and maybe you can share with me some of your favorite holiday traditions! Also looking for new fun things to add!

Visitors!

2010-11-11T12:03:00.008-05:00

Howdy Everyone! Happy November!! For those waiting for your prize I'm sorry for the delay but I hope to get everyone's goodies sent out this weekend. The delay in shipping were happy reasons for me first I was getting ready and having a blast with my sister, Andrew and Caroline. We had so much fun!! We ate super fabulous foods, we went to lots of theme parks, took super fun photos and just had a great great time. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the trip.

Aside from the visitors I have been busy GETTING A JOB!!! I know can you believe it! After three years of focusing on trying to get pregnant I've decided it's time to go back to real life and I got very lucky and a job just sorta found me!! I am beyond grateful for this opportunity and can not wait to sink my teeth into a new role and just be out among real people on a regular basis again. I will be working part time so I will still have plenty of time for blogging and crafting! I start on Tuesday so wish me luck that the three years off hasn't left me so far out of the loop that I can't learn new things!! haha!

More soon...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

2010-10-31T20:55:00.004-04:00

Happy Halloween boys and ghouls! I hope everyone is having a wonderful and safe evening!

The last few days have been super fun here in Taylor Town! We kicked off the Halloween festivities on Friday at our annual complex Halloween Party! We hung out with all our friends so that was so much fun. I love that we have friends that live right here with us so we can hang out and have a blast all the time.

Then Saturday we headed to Mount Dora with Monika and Dave, ate dinner at a super cute French Cafe and then went on a Ghost Walk which was a riot. It was a total blast and the weather was perfect and it was just a fun night out!!

Today Mike made some amazing chili and Cynthia and Lacey came over to eat yummy food and watch the new Nightmare on Elm Street - it seems that I now enjoy horror movies - it's a very strange and recent phenomenon but we've watched several horror movies over the last few months and I haven't been scared at all and I've enjoyed them quite a bit! So we enjoyed the movie, made jokes, giggled and chatted. We had yummy Halloween themed desserts and the graveyard pudding was mostly diet friendly just the cookies and the pumpkins were not on the program so it was nice that I could actually eat something!

We once again didn't get a single trick or treater oh well maybe next year? I'm sure the candy won't go to waste!!

WINNERS!!!!

2010-10-30T09:53:00.002-04:00

Happy Halloween Weekend everyone!!!!

Just wanted to announce the winners of my Hauntingly Huge Giveaway!!!

I decided on 3 fabulous winners and they are:

Lisa

Sandy

Cre8tive

Congratulations ladies! And please contact me with your address so I know where to send your goodies!!!

It's Recipe Time!!

2010-10-27T20:59:00.002-04:00

I realize it's been a while since I posted a new recipe. Now that doesn't mean I haven't been cooking around here but with the new diet and the restrictions not every meal is all that exciting. But this week I've been filled with energy and I've been super duper productive so today I went through a few of the recipes on my to be tried list and decided on Roasted Pork Chops with Polenta from Real Simple magazine. You can find the recipe here.

I am not a huge pork chop fan but these were yummy and juicy and I just love roasted tomatoes so that really was a big selling point. I made a few little changes I used much less oil adding olive oil pam instead and for the polenta I used reduced fat gorgonzola instead of the gruyere, not that I don't love gruyere cause I totally do but I had the reduced fat cheese at home. I also threw in a little bit of garlic and low fat butter spread. Let me know if you give this recipe a try!!

Don't forget the big giveaway!!

A Hauntingly Huge Giveaway!

2010-10-26T21:22:00.004-04:00

This mess is too big and too deep and too tall
We can't clean it up! We can't clean it up at all!

Dr. Seuss - The Cat In the Hat

This is what my scrapbooking room looked like this morning. Clearly it was beyond a disaster I couldn't even walk in there let alone work! And because I couldn't work in my scrap room the dining room table was quite the disaster as well!!

After 7 hours my scrap room looked like this!! Amazing right?? There are a few more touches I want to give to the room but I actually can work in there. I have a table! I have room to move and everything is pretty well organized!! It feels great I pretty much want to just stand in there and look around!!

So now that you see my great accomplishment let me tell you what this means for you my amazing readers - another giveaway!!!! I have a giant pile of goodies including lots of Christmas paper and a whole box full of rubber stamps! I will pick at least 2 but quite possible 3 winners on Friday and all you have to do is leave me a comment telling me your favorite thing about Halloween, be it a memory, tradition, costume, trick or treat!!! GOOD LUCK!!

Yesterday I...

2010-10-26T21:04:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I woke up early, did yoga, took Mike to work and walked 2 miles!

Yesterday I weighed in -down another 2.8 pounds bringing my total to 30.5!!!

Yesterday I dressed in grown up clothes.

Yesterday I navigated my way to and around a location I wasn't totally familiar with and I didn't get lost or need any of the maps I brought with me!

Yesterday I went on an interview for the first time in a very long time.

Yesterday I took myself to the movies as a reward. I ate popcorn in the dark and laughed and cried while watching Life As We Know It.

Yesterday I felt
Grown up
Independent
Happy
Alive

Right Now

2010-10-24T10:09:00.004-04:00

Working on my Layout a Day challenge for today and I realized it has been quite a while since I posted a Right Now Blog post - so I thought this Sunday morning would be the perfect time to do so.

Right now I am sipping coffee and watching shows we DVRed this week and my TV tray is stacked with books and magazines and notebooks and odds and ends.

Right now Mike is also sipping coffee while playing on his computer (what else?)

Right now I'm watching Alyssa drink from the water bowl in her funny way.

Right now this is what the dining room table looks like - I'm not proud of it but it's a victim of Layout a Day that's for sure!

Right now Hooper is trying to get us to play ball with him

Right now Holden is napping on a dining room chair and I really don't know where Banky is, hiding in a closet I'm betting.

Right now Alyssa is following me all over the house as I snap pictures.

Right now the patio door is open and we are enjoying the nice morning.

Right now I'm completely stressing about the job interview I have tomorrow! I barely slept last night and I don't see much sleep in my future so please wish me luck!!

Layout a Day Update!!

2010-10-21T13:13:00.015-04:00

I am so happy to report that so far I am having another successful Layout a Day! I have created 20 for 20 layouts (today's layout is currently a work in progress) and I've learned so much about the stories I want to tell, the stories I have to tell and what great ways there are out there to tell them. I truly don't know how Lain comes up with these prompts because they are fantastic and the community she has created is incredible full of inspiring and wonderfully supportive gals. So if you haven't done one of Lain's Layout A Day Workshops you absolutely should!

Ok all the gushing aside here is a little peak at some of the pages I've created this time around!

More Fall Goodness!

2010-10-07T21:56:00.005-04:00

What is it about the Fall that makes you want to run in the kitchen and bake and cook? Doesn't that happen to everyone? It most certainly happens to me! The other day it was so beautiful out that I just threw the patio door open and I decided to bake cookies - many many cookies! The draw back to baking all these cookies is that I can't eat them but I happily gave them away and Mike is doing a good job at eating them. I made a new recipe Double-Chocolate Cherry Cookies that are in the new Betty Crocker Fall Baking book, Mike tried to talk me out of buying another new cookbook but I showed him a couple of these recipes and he threw the book on the conveyor belt so it's pretty good that I decided to bake for him right away.

Now I may have mentioned once or twice how much I love pumpkin anything and some of you might remember how last year I posted about the pumpkin shortage and I spent all of last Fall stockpiling cans of pumpkin. This week there was a press release that the pumpkin shortage is over and that cans of pumpkin will be back on our shelves soon! In order to celebrate this very happy news I made Weight Watchers Tuscan Pumpkin-White Bean Soup - you can find the recipe here. I had a lot of points left that day so I topped the soup with some reduced fat blue cheese crumbles, so delicious!! There is just nothing like cooking in the Fall!

Stay tuned for a Layout a Day update!

7 Years!

2010-10-06T16:24:00.004-04:00

It's amazing how fast seven years fly by but then looking back you see just how much you've packed into that amount of time. Seven years ago today Mike and I were getting married in Las Vegas surrounded by our closest family and friends and since that magical day we have packed a lot into our seven years of marriage. We've shared laughter and tears, we've moved, we've danced and held hands. We've traveled, gone to the movies and watched a lot of television. We've gained and lost friends and pounds and experiences. And through it all we did it together side by side. I no longer wonder where we'll be by the next year I'm just thankful that we'll be enjoy the journey together - I sure am glad I married my best friend!

The above layout is today's project for Layout a Day!

And So It Begins!

2010-09-30T22:19:00.003-04:00

You may remember back in May I took part in Lain Ehmann's Layout a Day workshop. It was my first time taking on such a huge scrapbooking challenge and it changed me not only the way I scrapbook but the way I look at the things, and I met some super fabulous people so it was without hesitation that I decided to jump in for the October round of Layout A Day!

This time around we'll be focusing on story so I've pulled some pictures of stories I've been meaning to tell and I loaded up on supplies and tomorrow we start! I'm eager, excited, and a little nervous too. I have to make sure to make the time to scrap even when we have guests in town, even when household chores call my name and especially when I feel like I'm out of ideas or not in the mood but I am also going into this knowing that I've done this once before so I can do it again! And how amazing will it be to have 31 layouts complete before heading into the holiday season!! I can totally do this!!

Falling in Love with Fall

2010-09-27T20:35:00.007-04:00

Every September I start my love affair with Autumn! I love this time of year; I love decorating and baking pumpkin treats, I love celebrating Halloween and Thanksgiving and our wedding anniversary, I love the Food & Wine Festival at Epcot and I love how sometimes the weather gets a little cooler - not cool really more like less humid - sometimes!

This year I started my Fall decorating early, I have been just so inspired to decorate and we have some great visitors lined up for the Fall so I wanted to make sure everything was ready and looking great.

Now I start off my decorating by putting out a bunch of more generic Fall items and then add spooky Halloween touches, on November first the Halloween things will come down and the Thanksgiving specific items will go up! I love this process and the last week I've been getting everything just the way I want it and every time I head to Michael's, Joanns or Target I end up with a new item to add to my collection so basically every room in our place is decorated!

Enjoy a little sneak peak and check back because I'll be adding photos of new items as they go up!

Shaking it Up!

2010-09-25T18:04:00.004-04:00

I love our apartment, we have more then enough room and it's a great complex but sometimes I look around and want to shake things up. I want to redecorate, reorganize and just add fun and funky touches. So recently I brought up one of my funky ideas to Mike and just like that he sprung into action creating our photo wall.

Aside from a couple of photos I want to change out I am loving this! I love how we mixed and matched frames with scrapbooking layouts and canvases. This has become my new favorite spot, I just LOVE looking at it!!

Welcome to the World Amelia!

2010-09-24T18:24:00.002-04:00

I am so ridiculously thrilled to welcome baby Amelia into the world! She is the new born daughter of our dear friends Diana and John - actually they are much more family then they are friends!

Diana and I have known each other for a long time and we've been through a lot together since we met; breakups, makeups, health issues, family issues, weddings, birthdays, and after we moved to Florida I was worried that we would drift a part or that we would miss out on the important things in each others lives but thankfully that has not happened! And now with all this wonderful technology we've been able to keep in better contact then ever! Diana sent me up to the minute text messages while she was in labor! If that's not a true friend I don't know what is and since they've been home we've hopped on skype and chatted. Nothing is better then sitting chatting with one of your best friends while watching her baby sleep in her arms. I'm so glad with everything we've been through I am able to share this part of her journey with her! Now I just have to get up North so I can hold that little baby!!

Your Aunt Danielle loves you Amelia don't you ever forget that!!

Happy Birthday Mike!

2010-09-16T16:36:00.004-04:00

Today is my fabulous husband's birthday! Of course being Mike he really didn't want to do anything or celebrate in any special way and this year I obeyed his wishes - sort of! I did make him red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting - I dyed the the frosting blue so that the cupcakes were the same colors as Optimus Prime of course!!

I will continue over the weekend to spoil him and try to convince him to celebrate. To let him know how special he is to me, he makes this house a home and he makes us a family, he works hard to take care of us and I want to celebrate him in return so hopefully I can get him to be a little less stubborn!

In the meantime I hope my sweetheart has the best birthday ever and I hope all of his birthday wishes come true!!

Before My Eyes

2010-09-11T09:15:00.002-04:00

Nine years ago today the world changed. The city I then called home changed and I like so many people changed.

I remember the events of 9/11/01 as if they were yesterday, I remember the message my father left for me as he was stuck in Newark airport, I remember the chill I felt as my sister told me she saw the towers fall, I remember the walk from mid-town to downtown, the group we normally commuted with stuck together though we were far from the laughing group we usually were. I remember how my mother hugged us when we finally made it home from Manhattan and I remember the nightmares that haunted me for months afterward. I remember the fear I had in commuting and how for a long time I refused to step on a subway alone and thank goodness for an understanding boss and my dear friend Greg who made sure I didn't have to be alone.

I know the world will never be the same but I hope we learn, grow and stick together. I hope to feel safe again when traveling, I hope to be able to be in a crowded place without suspiciously watching people but I want to never take things for granted and I never want to forget how quickly everything can change.

I hope you will always remember all we lost today and never take for granted all you have.

See Ya Summer

2010-09-10T18:47:00.002-04:00

Labor Day Weekend has come and gone and this is the time where everyone says goodbye to to Summer, the kids head back to school, vacations are over and its back to business as usual!

For me saying goodbye to Summer isn't quite as traumatic, for one living in Florida we still have weeks (maybe months) of warm weather ahead - there are still days in the pool and trips to the beach waiting for us.

Another reason I don't mind saying see ya to Summer is that I love the Fall! Fall to me means pumpkins and Halloween, it also means our wedding anniversary and usually the time of year we take a little trip.

Sure we had a great Summer; we swam, we barbecued, we spent time with friends and family but with the end of one fantastic season bring the beginning of another!

See Ya Next Year Summer!

Heading Down to Healthy Town

2010-08-31T22:02:00.003-04:00

A month ago I had a bit of a health scare, thankfully it wasn't serious but I was scared enough to go to the doctor which is a huge deal for me since I usually do everything I can to avoid doctors.

What the doctor had to say was pretty interesting - turns out that the pills I thought I was taking purely for fertility purposes I really needed to be taking for other reasons. I have come to find out that I am insulin resistant so when I stopped taking the pills it caused me all sorts of problems, I'll spare you the details. The doctor went on to explain that though what I have is not diabetes if I am not careful it can turn into diabetes - ACK!

I left the doctor shaken up. The doctor said it was imperative that I lose weight and follow a special diet. This diet is very limiting, I can't eat anything white so that means for the time being this Italian girl can't eat any white bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and I have to avoid sweets! *sigh* I can have whole grain or whole wheat bread and pasta for breakfast or lunch but never for dinner...

In addition to what I call the Dr. Diet I decided I should also join Weight Watchers to limit my calories. So When I got home from the doctor I signed up for Weight Watchers online and weighed in - the doctor had already weighed me so I was mostly over the shock of just how much I weighed. Of course I noticed the numbers on the scale going up and up and up. Of course I noticed that I was buying larger and larger sizes in clothing but none of that had the same impact as the doctor telling me I was on the brink of diabetes! It was eye opening to say the least!

Though at times it has been rough and going out to eat has lost a bit of its fun for me and my trip to Ohio was like a long list of what I can't eat, like mom's cheesecake (talk about killer) I am proud to report that in the four weeks since the visit to the doctor I have lost 13.6 pounds! I've been eating exactly the way I'm supposed to, following both the Dr. Diet and Weight Watchers and exercising just as much as I can. I still obviously have a very long way to go but I feel good and I'm taking important steps to a happier healthier me!

Summer Lovin Guest Blog by Mike Taylor

2010-08-29T09:35:00.008-04:00

I hesitated to ask my husband Mike to guest blog for me since it's not really his thing and he's so busy at work I didn't want to give him another thing he has to do but he jumped in and put together this fun Summer Lovin' blog! Enjoy!

I’m not really one for blogging outside of the occasional good old fashioned rant. In fact I have started and stopped several blogs before anyone even knew they were out there. So when my wife of nearly seven years who has been blogging successfully for the past two years steady asked me to put together my thoughts for an entry into her summer lovin’ series I really couldn’t say no.

The topic at hand, I have to say, does not come naturally to me. I don’t love summer. I’m a native Floridian, and for the first 25 years of my life I thought summer was a 325 day event proving that hell really could exist on Earth. For those who live here, or visit often, you know what I mean. Still, surely there at least 5 things to be happy about.

So here we go… countdown style.

Number 5: People stop trying to get you to do stuff outside for no good reason.

This is a big win for a homebody like me. I’m not a fan of the outdoors in Florida. Big guys don’t do well in the heat and humidity. During the summer, when the sun reaches weapons-grade heat and the storms start rolling in, everyone seems to get on my page about finding indoor alternatives to meandering around theme parks, playing sports, and taking day trips that would be perfectly pleasant in any other climate beyond tropical.

It’s not that I dislike doing any of those things I just don’t like to sweat my butt off before the activity even begins.

Number 4: Movies, movies, movies.

Make no mistake I enjoy me a good movie. Heck, even more than a good movie, I enjoy a good ‘bad’ movie. Summer seems to bring the biggest crop of my kind of movies. The further from reality the movie is the better.

Don’t give me a legal drama. If I want to see that I would hang out at the courthouse.

Romantic comedies, well, they better be darn funny.

Give me that big-budget, aliens, magic, monsters, and super-powers flick every time in a nice dark, cold theater full of like-minded geeky people sucking down $10 sodas and $20 candy. That’s a darn good time.

Most summers we find ourselves seeing at least one movie a week between May and August.

Number 3: A little something I like to call the ‘teleanticipatory condition’.

Summer comes and all of your favorite TV shows wind to their season finales. Soon after they are replaced by teen dramas and second rate reality shows that even the networks admit were not good enough for the regular season. I’m not a 14 year old girl. I don’t care about Making or Breaking the Secret Life of the Pretty American Teenage Liar. I’m not saying there is nothing on, but True Blood and Rescue Me hardly fill out a viewing schedule for a TV lover like me.

Basically, summer TV is lacking, so we look ahead to the fall, TV’s promised land.

Will the shows I love continue to develop as I feel they should? Will the show that let me down last year make the best of avoiding cancellation and redeem itself? Will one of the many new shows I’ve been reading about be my next fixation? Will the new cartoons keep my inner child happy?

It’s the teleanticipatory condition.

Number 2: When it rains, it pours.

One of the great things about Florida is the weather. I don’t mean the cloudless skies, highs in the 70s kind of weather in the brochures. I’m talking about the real Florida weather.

Simply put, typical Florida weather consists of daily thunderstorms yielding lightning strikes in the hundreds or better, inches of horizontal rain causing a white-out of your neighbor’s house while your house stays dry as a bone, wind gusting and blowing through every tree like a wall of force, and the whole phenomena is come and gone in about 30 minutes.

Ever since I was a kid I’ve loved looking out my window and watching these intense displays of precipitation. Only now I don’t feel so inclined to run outside afterwards and sit in the mud. Too much laundry.

Number 1: B-B-Q!

Okay, I know this one seems like it runs totally against #5 above, but I don’t care. I love to Barbeque. The hot coals crackling, the plume of fire heating the metal surfaces, the smell of smoke and lighter fluid mingling with dry rub and basting sauces. Ah, that’s the stuff.

I think, despite the modernization of contemporary grilling, there is something very primal and ultimately satisfying about using a simple fire to cook your food. It seems somehow pure, like it is the way we were meant to prepare food.

I know there are a lot of people out there who don’t like to eat animals. More power to you. It just means more chicken thighs, burgers, ribs, steaks, chops, and hot dogs for me!

Crafting with Mom!

2010-08-23T15:17:00.004-04:00

Every time I visit my parents me and mom plan to craft, and though we always go shopping for craft items we never actually sit and get projects done - until this visit that is! The day I arrived mom and I visited Archivers and bought goodies and then the very next day we went to mom's local scrapbooking store and bought even more goodies and then the wonders of wonders - we got back to the house, settled into mom's fabulous scrap area and got to work!

We each created a layout for a challenge on Let's Scrap using Cosmo Cricket products. It was so much fun working with mom, bouncing ideas off each other, chatting and laughing. We took pictures while we worked, and played with photos and paper and stickers and helped each other with our embellishment placement and journaling! We both based our layout on the same sketch and I always love to see how different layouts look even though the sketch and products were very similar!

Mom's layout! I love that she used a photo of herself! And all the fun embellishments and mix and matched title fit the silly photo!

I took my layout in a different direction a little more romantic and girly! I paired the Cosmo Cricket papers and embellishments with some Girls Paperie Embellishments they added the absolute perfect touch.

As if putting together these layouts wasn't ground breaking enough the next day mom and I followed Lain Ehmann's tutorial from her guest blog post and went crazy decorating notebooks! We had so much fun with this project! I have a feeling I will be churning these out for the holidays I think they will make amazing stocking stuffers!

one of mom's notebooks - my favorite of the bunch

one of my notebooks. I went for girly and cutesy to use for grocery lists - of course I had to include the coffee cup!

my notebook using very cool Graphic 45 papers! Love this! Not sure what I'll use it for yet but I love to look at it!

Mom's super cool notebook. She did hers first and gave me good ideas :)

So yes I was a bad blogger and I forgot to post on my blog's anniversary but I was crafting!!! Stay tuned more exciting posts coming your way!!

Guest Blog by Lain Ehmann!

2010-08-12T22:03:00.012-04:00

I am beyond excited to introduce today's guest blogger! She is none other then superstar scrapbooker Lain Ehmann! She is the genius behind the Layout a Day workshop I joined in May and Scraphappy.org! Lain always leaves me inspired and this post is no different!! Enjoy!!!

Well, I don't know how things are going at your house, but around here, we're gearing up for back-to-school. On one hand, that makes me pretty excited (I get my life back!). But on the other hand, it makes me more than a little nervous. We've got to clean out the dressers. We've got to buy new shoes. We've got to get twelve 6-packs of washable gluesticks. We've got to order books, order backpacks, order lunchboxes. Where is my notepad??

Ahhh... here it is!

And here's how you can create a super-cute notebook to collect all your end-of-summer, back-to-school errands and notes.

1. Grab a plain ole' notepad. Mine was 5x8, and it was even half-used-up! Doesn't matter. We'll make it cute. ;)

2. Trim a piece of patterned paper or cardstock to slightly longer than your notepad (in my case, I trimmed it to 5x9").

3. Adhere the "extra" flap of the patterned paper over the top and to the back of your notepad. Use lots of adhesive!!! (I don't recommend using a gluestick -- especially the washable ones you bought for your kids' school supplies!)

4. This is what the back will look like. Not too exciting, but hey, it's the BACK!

5. Crease the top of your cover so that it will flip up easily.

6. Start embellishing! I used my scallop border punch to create a cute little edge.

7. Keep embellishing! I added a bottom strip of patterned paper, some ribbon, a button/paper flower, and some letters. It's adorable, if I do say so myself!

8. Make your notes. Go shopping. Breathe deeply. Smile. Ahhh... isn't that nice?

About the author: Lain Ehmann is a blogger (and scrapbooker) who dedicates herself to educating and liberating scrapbookers via online inspiration, education, and fun. For a copy of her Super-Secret Fast Scrapbooking tips, visit her at www.getscraphappy.com.

Summer Summer Summertime - Part of the Summer Lovin' Series

2010-08-10T22:24:00.007-04:00

Since we are very close to this blog's second anniversary and in honor of the Summer Lovin' series here at A Day In The Life of a Coffee Addict I asked some very special people to guest blog. First up is my gal pal Gabby! Gabby and I met many moons ago while we were each planning our Vegas wedding - we met on a wedding planning site and totally hit it off it was Gabby's quirky sense of humor and all around geekiness that won me over.Then we both ended up living in Florida so we get to spend time together doing fun things like going to Disney and being silly! Gabby is one of the super cool hosts of PotentialCast - a podcast dedicated to one of my favorite shows of all time Buffy The Vampire Slayer - take a listen here.

When I was a young pup, I used to look forward to summer. Thanks to the loads of free time the break from school would allow, I would be able to enjoy swim lessons at the Colonie Town Park, endless hours of bike riding adventures with friends in the dense woodland area behind the suburban neighborhood where I grew up, vacationing at The Cape, and a house filled with family and friends as my Dad grilled burgers & hot dogs on the Kenmore gas grill that was a permanent fixture in our backyard. Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Those were the salad days!

As years went by, summer lost all of the positive meaning behind it and became a six-letter dirty word! Summer was nothing but the season where I was confined to my tiny cubicle in the bowels of an office building ala Fox Mulder. Meanwhile, everyone else on this great BIG blue marble was out in the fresh air, running wild and free, enjoying sunshine, time with friends and family, and (above all else) freedom!

In the past few years, my negative view of summer has changed quite a bit! Although, I remain a fan of cooler months (and cooler weather in general), this season does indeed have some redeeming qualities. You know what? Summer ain’t half bad! As a matter of fact, some of my favorite events take place in the summer and I look forward to them all year ‘round! What are these things I look forward to? Well, since you asked nicely I would love to share my top 5 list (in no particular order) with you!

5. My husband and I were married in the summer! We were also married in Vegas in August on a 110 degree day. It was a glorious day where we were surrounded by a small group of family and friends that we hold dear. The night was filled with drunken post-wedding antics on Fremont Street. Le sigh.

4. The only thing that I love more than hanging out with friends is hanging out with friends in theme parks. The only thing that I love more than hanging out with friends in theme parks is hanging out with friends in theme parks while celebrating STAR WARS WEEKENDS! Every June, our group of three heads to “The Studios” to spend a Saturday of eating naughty food, enjoying frosty beverages, having our photos taken with Star Wars characters and getting away with being silly (in public) and acting like a kid!

C. The house in upstate New York, where I grew up, was missing one important thing that every house here, in northern Florida has. If it wasn’t for this one little thing we would all surely wither and die or drown in a pool of our own sweat. If it wasn’t for the brilliant invention of the central air conditioning unit, summertime happiness would be impossible to achieve. (Odds are that I would also be a resident of Alaska and not a Florida transplant.)

B. One of my new favorite things is not really new at all BUT it surely is new to me. Recently, I have discovered the joys of talking to friends via Skype. It’s AMAZING! Thinking back to the “good old days” if we wanted to contact friends who lived far away we needed to put pen to paper and wait days or even weeks until we received a letter in response. (For the kids out there: Back in the 70’s and 80’s every home had a phone. Today you know it as a “landline”. There were no cell phones with unlimited long distance. HECK! There were no cell phones! Long distance calls were insanely expensive and you could only talk to one person at a time. OH YEAH! Also, every home did not have a computer. This is shocking news. I know.)

Today, we are constantly plugged in. Everyone has a computer (or access to a computer) and a smartphone. Everyone has a Facebook page and a Twitter account. These friends made via online social networking are real people and having the chance to speak with one (or many) via Skype is a total blast! Also, every time I video chat I pretend that I’m Judy Jetson. (For the kids 2.0: I will not explain this reference as it will just make me sad. Google it!)

1. Television is awesome and I love it! Whether I’m sitting on my big ol’ bootie on the orange sofa watching it or experiencing the “joys” of housework the boob tube is on. I love dramas, comedies, travel shows, made for TV movies, documentaries, procedurals and (especially in the summer) reality shows. SWEET SASSY MOLASSY! HOT DIGGITY DOG DIGGITY! Trashy summertime reality shows are the best, especially Big Brother! It’s appointment TV on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. We record Big Brother After Dark on SHO. I’d fork over the “cabbage” for the live feed BUT I have a job that I need to go to in order to make money, keep a roof over our heads and food on the table so I refrain from becoming a member. If I was a member all I would do all day long is watch those fascinating creatures scheme, play humiliating games and fall to pieces while in the confines of their IKEA furniture filled house of two way mirrors.

The list could go on and on expressing my newfound love of summer. I could also go on and on writing about fond memories of summers past, but I think that the great Fresh Prince said it best:

“If ain't broke then don't try to fix it and think of the summers of the past adjust the base and let the alpine blast.”

Now ain’t that the truth?

Summer Lovin' Part 2

2010-08-09T20:37:00.005-04:00

This Summer I've been in love with reliving my childhood at the Walt Disney World Parks!

First the Magic Kingdom brought back my beloved Main Street Electrical Parade. Sure, I love the Spectromagic parade, but what a thrill it was sitting on the curb and hearing the music of this parade I grew up with. As soon as the lights went out signifying the start of the parade I got chills and of course my sappy self teared up a bit. I loved sharing this with Mike. My one wish was that we could see this parade in cooler weather and my wish was granted, Disney spread a little Pixie Dust and announced that they are extending the run of the Main Street Electrical Parade!! So don't be surprised if you see many more photos of this parade in the future!!

As if bringing back the parade wasn't enough this Summer Epcot brought back Captain EO with Michael Jackson! Mike and I went one night to see it and I was SHOCKED to find out that Mike had never seen it!! This was another attraction that I grew up with here in Orlando and I loved it just as much now as I did when I was a kid. Naturally I cried both because Michael Jackson was a genius and is gone but also because there is something very emotional about going back in time like this, remembering sitting in that theater with my parents and sister and an assortment of friends and relatives over the years, remembering times gone by. But I'm happy to say with it's return I'll be making new memories! Not only did I get to see it with Mike but also recently saw Captain EO with some of my high school friends Brenda and Maggie.

Since I've focused this post on Disney Summer Magic I have to add another fun thing Mike and I always do during the Summer - The Summer Concert Series at Epcot! Some years we hit more concerts then others but this was the second year we went to see the Bon Jovi cover band. No they are no replacement for Bon Jovi but they are fun to watch and it always makes for a nice little date night with the hubby!

Look how wonderfully sweaty we are!

One last little sharing before I close - I put together this quick fun layout with some of the photos from the night we went to see the parade! Can't wait to hear what you think!!

Cooking and Creating!

2010-08-01T21:35:00.005-04:00

Don't you love feeling inspired? Lately (after that much needed reboot) I am feeling so inspired. Maybe it is the yoga I've been doing almost every day? Or maybe it's the fact that I've been cleaning and organizing my scrap space? Whatever it is I'm enjoying it!

I've been doing a lot of writing and planning out so many projects, we've tried out fun new recipes and I've been taking pictures and just trying to really enjoy and think creatively every day.

This Summer I've been heading to the Farmer's Market with my friend Claire and recently I found these gorgeous tomatoes so it gave me the perfect opportunity to try Rachael Ray's Herb Butter and Goat Cheese Linguine with Fresh Tomatoes - you can find the recipe here. I loved how all the fresh herbs in this dish, really turned out nice but we didn't love the way it reheated.

The day after I made the pasta Mike took over in the kitchen and make Chicken Schnitzel with Mustard Sauce from Food Network magazine - you can find the recipe here. He paired with the chicken with potatoes au gratin, he didn't use a recipe and it didn't matter because this whole meal was outstanding! I'm wondering if it's to soon to ask Mike to make it again!!

Recently I put together two new layouts. One was inspired by Lain Ehmann, she put together a great tutorial here, so I ran with it. I changed my layout to 12x12 because that is my preferred layout size. I printed a quick self portrait I took and a few sheets of coordinating paper, ink, the extra large flower which I just folded in half and the large jewel. I put this page together in under thirty minutes just as Lain promised!

The second page was for a challenge on Let's Scrap but it is a subject I've been really wanting to document. Mike does such a great job on the porch garden so I went out and had a little garden photo shoot documenting all of Mike's hard work and then I used some of my favorite papers - Basic Grey's Nook & Pantry along with coordinating stickers. I'm so happy with how this turned out and I'm glad to have captured this in the pages of my scrapbook.

And The Winners Are...

2010-07-31T21:26:00.002-04:00

First I have to thank all of you for commenting and visiting my little corner of cyber space! I love sharing ideas, thoughts and projects with you and I loved hearing about Summer memories and traditions you have all given me such great ideas!!

I put everyone's name on a slip of paper, folded them up and put them in one of the many Tupperware containers I have and my sweet hubby picked the four winners out of the container and so without further ado the winners are:

Sheila: A fun summer tradition we like to do is in my birthday month (aug) we
rent a pontoon boat and gather up the kids and grandkids and spend the day on the lake--always alot of fun--thanks for having this fun giveaway ♥

Mary: Summer Tradition - we really don't have one.. but you got me thinking. I think starting next year we will have a picnic with all family and friends, for the 4th of July.. this is one way to get them all together. thanks for this question. you just started a tradition for us. :-)

Tanya: We love to drive over to Grills at the Port to eat and watch the cruise ships and boats. Actually, we do this year round, not just in the summer, but I really want some of your stash, hahaha!

Betty Anne: Wow great giveaway Danielle. My favorite summer memory is having a family reunion at the cottage we used to go to as kids. I had a treasure hunt just like my Mom used to do with us each summer only this time it was with her Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren. It brought back so many great memories.

Ok gals email me your mailing info at DaniNYC12677@gmail.com and I will get these mailed out as soon as possible!! I hope you will share with me some of the projects you create with these goodies!

The Great Summer Stash Giveaway!

2010-07-28T10:05:00.004-04:00

Lately my scrapbooking room has gotten completely out of control. So out of control that I can't actually scrapbook in there! I go in and pull out supplies and then take over the dining room table to actually work and put pages together. So I thought it was time to take action and take back my scrapbooking space!

I started to go through items, making tons of piles, finding products I had totally forgotten about, finding immediate inspiration in other items, but then found products I purchased for very specific projects that I've long ago completed and I also found items that I had several of so I started another pile - A Giveaway Pile!!

A few weeks ago I was very lucky to win a giveaway on the lovely Curious Key blog and after receiving my amazing package of goodies I was inspired to host a giveaway of my own. So in celebration of Summer, in celebration of you my awesome readers and in celebration of being able to see the table in my scrapbooking room again I give you The Great Summer Stash Giveaway!!!

Just leave a comment on this post sharing your favorite Summer memory or Summer tradition and I will randomly select 4 lucky winners! Each will receive a package packed with goodies from my stash! I will choose winners this Saturday!

Here are a few photos of some of the items! GOOD LUCK!

Rut or Reboot?

2010-07-15T21:51:00.009-04:00

You might remember that in May I joined Lain Ehman's Layout a Day workshop and I scrapbooked like I never scrapbooked before.

I scrapbooked old photos

This photo was taken in the mid-80s

and new photos.

These photos were taken only 4 days before the layout was created! I almost never get photos turned into layouts this quick!

I told stories I've been waiting to tell and showcased loved ones.

Got to show off pictures from my cousin Denise's visit!!
And I got to tell this story which has been a part of me for a long time

I tried my hand at digital scrapbooking

and did a page with no photos.

Through it all I learned quite a bit about myself and my scrapbooking style. Then May 31st rolled around and Layout a Day ended and since then I have done absolutely no scrapbooking! Did I run out of stories? Ideas? Energy? I sure didn't run out of supplies!!

I started to seriously think I was just deeply stuck in a rut, but then I noticed that Mike and I were getting out and doing things. I was spending more time gathering inspiration from blogs and magazines and doing all that made me realize it isn't a rut I'm stuck in just a reboot. I'm getting out, enjoying time with friends, taking tons of photos as usual and gathering tons of inspiration. I've been focusing on other life things too like doing yoga ever day which has been a reboot for my body and soul. I've been working big time on this little blog and I have huge things in store including guest bloggers and giveaways!

And just like that I'm out of my rut fully rebooted and ready to create and that's just what I did tonight!

These photos were taken just over the weekend - for this layout I used a sketch on Let's Scrap. It felt good to pull out my papers, glue and distress stickles again!!

Summer Lovin' Part 1

2010-07-12T12:55:00.010-04:00

Sometimes I take things for granted, sometimes I don't take advantage of all life and the world around me has to offer and oftentimes I let laziness and fear stand in my way of doing things that I know I would enjoy. I am working very hard to change these patterns and I'm doing and experiencing more so I thought a fun way to showcase some of these experiences would be to show what I'm loving about Summer right now! I will probably do this a few more times before Summer is over and then start again with a Falling for Fall series. I hope you enjoy the things I'm loving about Summer right now!!

1. Iced Coffee - especially made at home with Starbuck's iced Via made in my reusable Starbucks cup!

2. The beach!! Oh my gosh I love that we are going to the beach this Summer and I can't believe that we let years go by where we didn't go at all. This year we managed to get there once on our own and once with Monika and Dave both times were so much fun and so special and we have more happy plans to go to the beach in the future!!

3. Buying fabulous fresh vegetables at the Farmer's Market and then using them in fabulous recipes like Rachael Ray's Summer Vegetable Pasta!! I bought the zucchini at the Celebration Farmer's Market one Sunday morning with my friend Claire and I used fresh corn and we were so happy with how this recipe turned out. It's light and flavorful! A great Summer recipe to have in your back pocket.

4. Making new friends! Believe it or not I can be shy about talking to new people and I've been doing a lot to break out of my shell a bit and we've gotten to know many of our neighbors and they have turned into friends and it has been fabulous!!!

5. Yoga! I've been trying to do a little yoga every day this Summer - I spent a lot of time doing yoga before Mike and I got married and like so many things I let it fall to the wayside, I've happily taken it back up and it feels great!! I also get a kick out of how the fur babies play with the yoga mat!

Stay tuned for more Summer Lovin'!

A Super Fabulous 4th of July

2010-07-09T15:16:00.005-04:00

I'm not sure it would have been possible to have a better 4th of July celebration then the one we had! Sure it rained and our outdoor barbecue turned into an indoor fiesta but that was the only, and might I say very small, drawback to the entire day. We got together with some of the most awesome people, I mean seriously we are very lucky to call this group not only our neighbors but our friends!

Of course we had so much food that would could have fed most of Central Florida but what can you do when you get so many people together who like to both cook and eat haha! Mike made probably the best ribs I have ever tasted in my life - I can't share the recipe because very simply there wasn't one he just made it up as he went and wow he did an excellent job, he also made barbecue chicken, hamburgers and hot dogs. I added potato salad to the mix, I had never made potato salad before but I think I got the hang of it pretty quickly. I used several potato salad recipes as guidelines but adding my own touches here and there and nothing was really measured. I used red potatoes, sour cream, mayo, chives, bacon and cheddar cheese - I was going for that baked potato vibe! I also made coleslaw for the first time - I made Tyler Florence's Savoy, Lime and Cilantro Coleslaw though I didn't use savoy cabbage I did everything else the same, you can find the recipe here. Wow it came so yummy, even Mike liked it and he's not real big on coleslaw! I was so proud of these dishes but probably my favorite thing I made for the 4th of July feast were these delicious lemon cookies I found in a Rachael Ray magazine - you can find the recipe here. Oh my gosh they were super easy to make and so so so so good! They will be added to my regular cookie rotation I assure you. So that sounds like quite a lot of food already doesn't it? Then we had spicy beans brought by Mara, chicken and fantastic pasta salad brought by Cynthia and Marie, cupcakes from Kathy and Nikko and cookies from Sheryl! And I know I'm leaving out some dishes!! We were eating leftovers for DAYS! And that is so not a complaint!!

It was just so nice having our neighbors here, it was laid back, we laughed a lot and chatted and really got to know one another. Hooper loved having so many people to play with especially Lacey who he absolutely adores - but then again who doesn't I should only be so lucky to have a daughter like her someday! It was fun playing cards with Cynthia and Marie and then to top off the evening we went outside and Mike shot off fireworks! Of course it was raining but we still managed to have fun and what a way to end the night snacking with gals! The next day we took some leftovers over to Claire who I am so happy to be spending more time with these days. I can't say enough how lucky we are to have the neighbors we do, to have these awesome holiday parties with, to hang out by the pool with and just to know we have great people around that we can turn to - it is very comforting. So needless to say our 4th of July was a blast and I see many more fabulous gatherings in our future!

*note - 4th of July embellishments added to the photos are from House of 3*

More Then Meets the Eye

2010-07-09T13:52:00.004-04:00

Before Mike and I got together I would have never figured I would not only go to a Transformers convention but go willingly and actually enjoy it!!! Those of you who know Mike, know that he collects Transformers, he's seen every episode of every one of the cartoons, he has the animated and live action movies, he knows everything there is to know about all the characters which is both cute and a bit scary! And those of you who have been to our apartment know that he has a huge wall lined with shelves filled with figures - he has over 300 figures and more then half of them are on display in our office - so when Mike told me that the BotCon was going to be in Orlando - and not only in Orlando but at the Dolphin Resort just ten little minutes from the house I knew we had to go!

Leading up to the convention I seemed way more excited about going then Mike was but once we got there Mike went from booth to booth telling me where each character came from, how much the figures were worth, which figures he had as a kid or still has (I find it kinda hard to tell one from the other) and which figures he was hoping to pick up. I loved listening to him talk about this and I was trying hard to do math in my head to see how much I could get for his collection haha!

It was a great day, taking silly pictures and just spending time with Mike doing something he loves - goodness knows I drag him to enough Danielle things.

want!

2010-06-26T10:27:00.001-04:00

The Great Grilling Summer

2010-06-23T16:48:00.004-04:00

Five years ago we moved into this apartment complex and right from the start Mike wanted to head outside and grill using one of the complex grills. I don't know why I fought him on this but fought him I did, I thought - "ew everyone uses those grills, how will we know they're clean?" or I whined, "ugh then we have to bring the food in and out, in and out, sounds like too much work" and we had this discussion over and over again over the years until Memorial Day 2010 when our awesome neighbors planned an impromptu barbecue and I saw Mike's eyes light up at the thought of *gasp* grilling! So I caved, Mike marinated chicken, grabbed his case of grilling tools and we headed out side for an afternoon around the grill and the craziest thing happened - I had a blast! Now maybe it was because our friends/neighbors are just that awesome (which they totally are) or that all the food was so delicious (which it absolutely was) or it could be the obvious fun Mike was having while manning the grill, I didn't hear him complain that he was hot, even though sweat was pouring down the poor guy's face. He just loaded plates with perfectly grilled food and we all ate and enjoyed the afternoon. So since that afternoon I deemed the grills perfectly acceptable to use!

The use of the grills opened a whole new world of recipes for me, ones that I had overlooked or pushed to the bottom of the stack until that day we had access to a worhty grill and now that day was finally here so one day I headed to the store early and got the fixins' for some grilled chicken for dinner Grilled Buttermilk Chicken to be exact - I found the recipe on RealSimple.com and you can find it here. And since we were going to be grilling new and exciting dishes I had to find new and exciting sides so I caved and made Giada's Italian Caesar Salad with Polenta Croutons - I had the recipe in one of her cookbooks but you can find it here. Now I will warn you that salad is a lot of work - not the dressing part that's a dream but the polenta croutons was an all day affair and I realized quickly why Mike does all the frying in this house! But it turned out delicious and the extra effort was worth it!!

Right after this grilled chicken dinner we turned around had a Friday night grill night with our friend Leslie - another fantastic evening with friends and another load of deliciously grilled food and I've gotta tell you when the weekend rolls around now and Mike looks at me and says "well we can throw stuff on the grill" I no longer cringe, wince, sigh or moan but instead smile and say "sure why not!"

cheers to Friday!

2010-06-11T18:01:00.001-04:00

King of the Grill

2010-06-09T18:18:00.001-04:00

Mike doing some grilling

Count 'em 1,2,3

2010-06-02T12:32:00.005-04:00

Three! That's the number of recipes I have to share with you today on my poor neglected blog.

The first we made on the night of the Lost series finale - which I absolutely loved by the way! For dinner that night Mike and I decided to make something new and fun so we made Buffalo Club Sandwiches, this is a recipe I pulled from a Rachael Ray magazine but you can also find it here. We just made two small changes, one we used regular bacon and not peppered bacon and two we used sour cream instead of creme fraiche. This sandwich was delicious though messy, it was one of those sandwiches that once you pick up and start eating it's pretty hard to put it down.

The next two recipes are for delicious baked items! I don't know what happened this weekend but I suddenly got the big time urge to bake! So Sunday evening I whipped up Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake - I found this recipe here - on Rachael Ray's website. These were super easy to make and super yummy to eat. We enjoyed them out by the pool with some friends.

Then Monday morning I made the best blueberry muffins I have ever tasted (if I do say so myself) I made them to bring to our little Memorial Day barbecue we had with our friends/neighbors and then Mike brought the rest to work and he said they were a big hit. I found the recipe on Allrecipes.com and you can find them here.

I am still coming down off a very successful Layout a Day workshop - I will recap that in another post! For now enjoy the recipes and Happy Summer!!

Delicious New Recipes!

2010-05-11T18:50:00.005-04:00

Since I've been a bad blogger I have not one but two recently tried recipes for your viewing pleasure!

The first was one of Rachael Ray's famous burger recipes, it appeared in a recent issue of her magazine and she also made it on her daytime television show and I knew I had to make the Adirondack Red Wing Burgers. These were absolutely delicious. You can find the recipe here. The only change I made was I left out the dill but only because I thought we had some in the spice cabinet and it turned out we didn't. Next time I'll remember to pick up some. I loved the addition of the relish on top and using an English muffin instead of a bun. YUM!

The next recipe I made just tonight, not even two hours ago! It is appropriate that I made this particular recipe on the night before my dad's birthday because this sauce is one of his favorites!! I made Penne Alla Puttanesca. This particular recipe was featured in the May 2010 Food Network magazine but it is one of Mario Batali's from his new book which I will most definitely be getting! Another funny thing about Puttanesca sauce - when my mom used to make this for my dad when I was a kid I would never eat it. I didn't like anchovies, I didn't like capers, I didn't like olives and I didn't like anything with red pepper flakes - oh what a difference twenty plus years makes because tonight I absolutely loved everything about this dish. It was so yummy and quick and easy. You can find the recipe here. It is from the Martha Stewart site but I checked it against the recipe that I pulled out of the Food Network magazine and they are the same. The only thing different I did was I didn't use salt packed anchovies and capers they were packed in oil because that's what they had at the grocery store. I also used kalamata olives and since I just decided to make this dish right as I was leaving to pick up Mike I didn't soak the capers over night either. I soaked them and rinsed them while everything was cooking and it tasted pretty delicious.

I have been a busy bee working for the past eleven days on the Layout a Day workshop I joined. I'm having so much fun creating layouts every day. I wake up and check out what the challenge is for the day and then I start creating. So far I've tried new things, told stories I've been meaning to tell and I'm meeting some new online friends. I haven't finished my Week in the Life album yet but I will be sure to post pictures as soon as I do. In the meantime here's a sneak peak at a couple of the layouts I've done over the past eleven days.

2010-05-01 18.35.04

2010-05-01T18:35:00.003-04:00

2010-04-29 17.46.31

2010-05-01T18:35:00.001-04:00

A Week in the Life Final Day 7

2010-04-27T10:52:00.004-04:00

I'm late posting Sunday's recap but yesterday I was exhausted after being up all night thanks to some pretty intense storms we had and I some how hurt my back and I can't even describe the pain I was in. Thankfully thanks to a pain pill and twelve hours of sleep I'm feeling pretty great today!!

So Sunday I rolled out of bed around 9AM, my fabulous husband woke up with the dog and walked him bright and early both days this weekend! First thing I did was work out and it's a good thing I did cause once my butt hit the couch there was no getting it up!! I lost a pound between Monday and Sunday so I'm happy to report that! Mike made one of his yummy breakfasts and we watched a bunch of DVRed shows. I had thought I would cook dinner but the later it got the less motivation I had to find a recipe and go grocery shopping so we just ordered some Papa John's pizza and we watched the Dead Like Me movie and then a movie I just happened to find on Netflix called I'm Reed Fish - very cute film. Then we watched a Justice League cartoon movie - I was sold because David Boreanaz did a voice so I could happily listen to that hunk all day long!

Now that the project is over I have to put together the album. I love the album I did back in 2008 but I want to try to make this book look different - we'll see how it goes!! I also decided that I will keep documenting (in writing) what I do each day. I think by writing everything down I get more done, I eat better and I will have a better picture of what my life is now. Plus I started using this super cute notebook for the project that is not even close to full so now I can finish filling it. I will be back hopefully tomorrow with some photos of my started album!!