Category Archives: Beauty

Wednesday Reminder!

Good morning!

Here is your friendly reminder that it is Wednesday!! Trust me, this is the week that I really need a reminder of what day it is today!! I thought I would share just a few pics from my nature walk last night! It is trying so hard to be Spring here, but it is unfortunately, it is still really cold, and there is snow in the forecast for later this week, so I am not sure what all that craziness is about!

Spring I am sooooo ready for you to get here! Sunshine, warmth, everything in bloom, you coy sexy thing!!!  😉

Oh, and before I forget! A reminder that tonight is the meeting of the Chunky Dunker’s Club!! I will try and have our post up by 6:30 this evening, then the comments section will be open for all of your discussions! I can’t wait to hear how everything is going!!! I will see you this evening!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS day!! 😉

Tonight’s Night Sky!

Good evening, once again!

I just went on a nice little nature walk to go take some pictures, and thought I would share a few pics of tonight’s sky this evening. It looks like a storm is coming, and they sky is just so pretty! ENJOY!! 😉

Aren’t those skies just beautiful??? I am waiting for those clouds to open up and just start pouring!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Sunday Evening Update!

Good evening!

Ok, so I realize this morning I said it was Saturday – WHOOPSIE!! That was just wishful thinking on my part, I am sure!!!

Jason threw his back out today, so all of my semi-grandiose plans changed to just minor, stay-at-home kind of plans, which has still been pretty good!! I have spent some time working on editing the pics for my Look Book. It is going to take me much longer than just one day, but I am soooooo excited to see it when it is finished!! I promise I will take pics and post them when I am done!

That is it, I got nothin’! I think my brain has taken a mini vacation! So until tomorrow…

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

 

 

Saturday of Fashion!

Good morning!

Today, it is time to get creative!!!

I am spending my Saturday morning putting together my own personal fashion, Look Book!! This is a 3 ring notebook of pics of all sorts of things about fashion. Clothing, outfits, hair, makeup, shoes, accessories – all sorts of pics that I hope will inspire and influence my own personal sense of style. So, I am set up with scissors, rubber cement, tons of white cardstock, and over a year’s worth of collected pictures, and cutouts from various fashion magazines!!! I have been collecting them for so long, and the stack was getting precariously high, that I figured I had better do something about getting them put into my look book, or else the whole stack was going to end up in the rubbish bin because I am sick of it all sitting there and not being used. The very thought made me feel ill, so here I am dealing with the seemingly never ending stack by putting it to good use!!!

I will place them into a three-ring notebook organized by tabs:

  1. Outfits – maybe Day, Work, Evening, Formal???
  2. Clothing
  3. Shoes
  4. Jewelry
  5. Other Accessories
  6. Lingerie
  7. Outerwear
  8. Hair/Makeup/Nails/Skin Care

I am not sure what else, this is a living work in progress!! So, once I am finished it might look COMPLETELY different then what I envision now! I will keep you posted! When I am finished I will make sure to post some pics so you can see too!! 🙂

Have a FABULOUS morning!!! 😉

A Productive Morning!

Good morning!

Whew! This morning has been VERY productive!!! Last evening, I had purchase a book called “The Artist’s Way Morning Pages Journal” by Julia Cameron. Well, you can go read for yourself what that is, but basically it a guided journal that instructs you to tap into your inner-self by writing 3 pages of your thoughts first thing every morning!! For someone like me who seems to constantly be writing, that was a lot harder than I could have imagined!!! You are not supposed to “cheat” and type out the words, you are supposed to be engaging your whole self while you are being tactile with paper, pen, and writing your thoughts out long hand. Well, about a page and half into my writing this morning I was dealing with some serious writer’s cramp!!! All of my years of computer programming is catching up with me because my carpel tunnel is apparently just out of control! However, what came out on paper, kind of surprised me, and I can see how doing this exercise every morning, for the prescribed 12 weeks, could be VERY eye opening to what is going on inside of you. So, when I finished my third page, I had this strange sense of calmness, relief, and accomplishment. When I was finished I reread everything I had just spent the last hour writing, and I am not sure I would call it writing, but it is definitely a true representation of how my brain thinks, and my mind wanders from one topic of conversation to another. I think this Julia Cameron knows what she is doing, and I can’t wait to see what I discover about myself in the coming weeks!! I will keep you posted!!! 😉

Next on my self-appointed to-do list this morning was to get my taxes filed, both federal and state. Check and Check!! This was a lot more time consuming and more expensive than I was expecting, but it is done, and they are submitted, AND I am getting a nice return – WHOO! HOO! But, not that it is done, I am feeling very much at peace. I think balance might be something that may just be achievable!!

Next on my list is take Jason over to his truck, which is at his sister’s place, so he can go get some work done, and then I am going to take myself for a walk, and maybe watch a movie with the kiddos! We will see, I heard that they hadn’t watched Tangled yet, and now that Uncle Jay-Jay has bought it for me, and I LOVE IT, I thought it might be fun to share it with them!!! TOO FUN!!!

That is it for my plans today, but I know that after Jason is done working, we are talking about going out on a date! That should be fun!!! I may have to call our friends Dawn, and Erin and see if they are up for a get together!!! So, we will see where the rest of today leads us!!

Have a FABULOUS morning!!! 😉

A Thought Provoking Quote!

Good morning!

I stumbled upon this quote this morning…

“The one piece of advice I can give you is, do what turns you on. Do something that if you had all the money in the world,you’d still be doing it. You’ve got to have a reason to jump out of bed in the morning.”
~Warren Buffett

This quote has got me really thinking! What would I be doing if I had all the money in the world? Gosh, I think I KNOW who I am, but why is this such a hard question for me to answer?? 

I love:
∙         Blogging
∙         Antiquing/Treasure Hunting/Shopping
∙         Decorating
∙         All things photography
∙         Fashion
∙         Magazines – but this might tie back into my love of photographs???
∙         The idea of traveling

I would be in ABSOLUTE HEAVEN if there was a way that I could combine all of these things into my life/career!! DIVINE!!! Let me know if this triggers any ideas!! 😉

What would your answer be? What would you do if you had all the money in the world??? I am curious!

Have a FABULOUS morning!
~Christina

A Taxing Kind of Morning!

Good morning!

Having meditated before bed last night, which in turn caused me to fall asleep faster, I woke up early this morning raring to go!! I’ve decided that I needed to gather my tax papers so that I can file my taxes! I was sure I had a fail-safe plan when I chose a location to “stash” all of the random incoming papers, so as not to lose them, but unfortunately there must have been some kind of a hiccup in my plan, because I am missing two very important papers! Dang! It is going to cause me to have to serious spend some time this evening looking for them!! Oh well, that will teach me!

As I continue to think about where I could have placed those tax papers, I look around and see a couple of stacks of things that just need to be donated, or even tossed in this room! I am sitting in our spare room, which has kinda become a craft room/office/mini library. As you may already know, I go through phases of cleaning/purging/using this room, and other times this room stays completely closed up and unused all together! Sad, really! and what a waste of square footage!! My office is talking about having us telecommute on a more permanent basis, since desk space is becoming a rarity at work right now, which means that this would be the room that I would have to work out of. In it’s current state, I am not sure that would be possible! Not to mention, this chair is not meant to be sat on for long periods of time!!! I think what I am trying to say, is that I have got to keep making this room more of a priority to get FINISHED!!! This room could be such a SWEET spot!! I will get on that!! 😉

As for work today??? Well, I am going to have to be a little more focused in my tasks otherwise I will have a repeat of yesterday, where I had gotten a lot of work done, but they may not have been the BEST use of my time! I have some big assignments that a lot of people are waiting for! I am hoping to knock one of those out of the ballpark today and into the hands of one of my customers!!! That would make for a GREAT day!! 😉

I am going to run and set myself up for a LEVEL 10 day!!! as for you…

Have a FABULOUS day!! 😉

Spending the Night With Ruby!

Good evening!

I am needing some chearleading to stay on the straight and narrow with my fitness plan this evening, so I am spending some time watching some Ruby!! I love that girl! She is just such an inspiration to me, and I just hope that I can finally start seeing that blasted number go down on that scale. This episode is the one where she realizes her dream of going camping for the first time! I love this episode, and I just ADORE camping!!

I must tell you, Jason makes camping soooo much fun! I love the zen, the quiet, the peace, and being in the great outdoors! I just love the whole experience of camping!!!

Anyway, back to Ruby and getting back on my own wagon of getting fit! I did do some Kaizen actions today, and I really do want to share them with you today!!

Kaizen actions:

  1. I have drank about 2 liters of water today
  2. I had a healthy breakfast
  3. Walk two blocks to and from lunch today
  4. I had a very vegetable heavy lunch today
  5. I literally took a break just to breath when things got a little stressful at work this afternoon
  6. I did some extra walking after work today
  7. Had a large salad with dinner
  8. I took some time after work to have a really GREAT laugh with my sweetie – a few times tonight!!
  9. Throughout everything I have done today, I have really tried to keep perspective and remain thankful for the blessings that I do have
  10. I did some stretching before going to bed
  11. and I did a 10 minute meditation to get me ready for going to sleep.

So between seeing this list, and the inspiration of watching Ruby making progress, I know I can do this – little by little. Ruby reminds me to not give up on myself – that I AM WORTH IT!! and that I can wake up every morning and find it inside of myself keep taking my baby steps!! God bless you, Ruby!! You keep going girrrrl!!! I know I will!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Note to Chunky Dunkers: If I can do this, so CAN YOU!!!! Don’t give up on yourself!! GO CHUNKY DUNKERS!!! 😉

The Sweetness of Doing Nothing!

Good afternoon!

I am doing much better today!! I am still taking it easy and taking care of myself, but the worst is over! Thank goodness!! 😉

Anyway, I am taking some time this lovely Saturday afternoon to watch the movie Eat, Pray, Love, and I know I have spoken about this movie before, but I am trying to look at it with new eyes. I still think the movie is by no means as good as the book – hardly any movie ever is, but the movie is still a feast for the eyes!!! I have never wanted to go to Bali before, but now I may have to add this to my Life list. I love the spirituality of the author’s story. The complete breakdown and break apart of this woman’s life to discover who she truly is and what she truly wants. You do not know how many times I have dreamed about doing this with my life, but the idea of living without Jason in my life is so foreign and something I don’t EVER want to experience. HOWEVER, I could totally get on board with cashing in all of my assets, quitting my job and taking time to roam the world. Jason would be a GREAT traveling partner!! We would journey through Ireland, tour England, eat our way through Italy, make the rounds in France, marvel at Russia’s architecture, hula our way through Hawaii, and then take some time to explore our own continent.

At one point in the movie, Liz, our main character says, “I want to go some place where I can marvel at the world.” I want this too. I want to be in awe of this great place God has blessed us with. Sometime I watch travel shows, and am AMAZED that these GREAT places are actually on the SAME PLANET that I am on!! I HAVE GOT TO GET OUT THERE!!!

Liz says, “I remember an old catholic joke about a man who spent his whole life going to a church every day and prayed to the statue of a great saint begging “please, please, please, let me win the lottery.” Finally the exasperated statue comes to life and looks down at the begging man and says “my son, please, please, please, buy a ticket.” So now I get the joke, and I bought three tickets.”

Another part of the movie that really hit home for me:

Luca Spaghetti: “Americans. You work too hard, you get burned out. You come home and spend the whole weekend in your pajamas in front of the T.V.”
Liz: “That’s not far off, actually.”
Luca Spaghetti: “But you don’t know pleasure. You have to be told you’ve earned it. You see a commercial that says: ‘It’s Miller Time!’ And you say, That’s right, now I’m going to buy a six pack. And then drink the whole thing and wake up the next morning and you feel terrible. But an Italian doesn’t need to be told. He walks by a sign that says: You deserve a break today. And he says, Yes, I know. That’s why I’m planning on taking a break at noon to go over to your house and sleep…with your wife!”
Giovanni: “We call it “dolce far niente”, the sweetness of doing nothing.”

At one point in the movie they talk about what is your word. What is one word that describes you wrapped up all in one word??? This is not the same word that you would use to describe what you do for a living. I am not sure how I would answer that! Right now that might be….hmmm…dreamer. I would LOVE it if that word was TRAVELING DREAMER! Ok, I realize that is more than one word! but I’m just sayin’!!! 😉 Maybe I had better do a little more soul-searching to try and decide what word would describe me!!

As I spend some more time just enjoying this movie, and not psychoanalyzing it and me to death I hope that you all have….

A FABULOUS evening!!! 😉