Inspired

Man I'm inspired to like make a new blog and actually put some effort into it. Get a cool design, care about my grammar, take cool pictures. I just always see these blogs that are what the non-lazy part of me wants my blog to be. I mean like I've said before, this is more of a public journal. I'd probably move to a different website if I were to do that. Because I would probably keep my same "handle" if it's called that. Possibly. I may change it, but I have no idea what to. I'm gonna think about this. It could be a while.

I need to take better pictures on my instagram too.

On another note, I haven't been doing so great in the diet department. I'm not too upset with myself though, because I planned for it to be that way on my birthday redo, which was much better than the first, by the way. I had some indulgences, but now it's time to jump back on the old healthy horse. We're actually kind of low on fruit and vegetables, so I'm hoping I can make it at least 2 days without having to go shopping. It's kind of fun going grocery shopping once a week. I mean we don't have a set day or anything, but we tend to go once a week. Our pantry is becoming very bare, which I'm happy about. Because when you think about the kind of stuff people store in their pantries, it's usually the unhealthy stuff like pasta, crackers, and chips. Man we have so many condiments! We actually do use most of them, but there are also one's we don't use. This includes steak sauce, some sweet and sour sauce, a meat and fish sauce, honey mustard, and a crap load of hot sauce. I mean yes I do enjoy the hot sauce, but I don't use it very often. And it I had to guess I'd say we have around 12 bottles. About 8 of them are really skinny maybe 4 oz at the most. It came in this set Daniel's mom got us for Christmas, which I appreciated since it was consumable.

I've started wanting to be more minimal in the clothing department again lately. I read this article today about wearing 10 basic clothing items. I didn't quite do that. What I did was go through my pants and shirts and do a quick "is this one of my favorite things". If I hesitated I put it in a different pile. The article suggests putting it in storage. I didn't do that I simply took everything off the hangers and folded the rest and put them on the shelves in my closet. I'm going to try and wear what I have hanging, occasionally pulling the stuff on the shelves. I'm hoping this will help me realize what I wear and don't wear. I mean a lot of the stuff I wear is stuff that I don't necessarily want to wear. I wear it because I've worn all of my favorite things and haven't done laundry yet.

My birthday was a bust :(

Not because I didn't get any cool presents or nobody remembered or anything, but I got sick as a dog :( I went to this soup and salad place called Sweet Tomatoes. Last time I went there I get sick also, but I was hoping this time would be different. Nope. This time I ate a salad and literally started to feel that horrible, horrible feeling in my gut 10 minutes after swallowing it. That pain (which I ingested at around noon) would end up staying with me literally until I went to bed at midnight. By that time it had subsided a little bit, but was still present. Man it was horrible! I ended up throwing up in the cvs parking lot on the way to get pepto bismol. Then again once we got home literally in the yard cause I couldn't make it inside. NEVER AGAIN will I eat there!! I don't think my stomach can handle salads or something. Cause that's the 3rd time I've puked from eating a salad.

What really sucks is all week I was so stoked to go to this awesome Pub called Old Blind Dog in Atlanta for dinner. First off the only friend that said he originally could go ended up getting caught up at work. And second I could barely even eat it hurt so bad! All I wanted was a beer and some good food. I ate half a sandwich and maybe a 4th of a beer. Ugh I don't even want to think about it.

All that did though was make me thankful for the days I'm feeling good like today. I feel much, much better. Also I'm thankful that I have an entire weekend off (that I asked for) to possibly go to six flags (if it doesn't rain) with friends and have a good time. I need it after yesterday. I can't wait for the weekend!! :)

Ugh

I'm feeling so down. All because Daniel and I started talking about music. He was talking about his favorite band, which got me thinking about mine The Sound of Animals Fighting. I just get mad when I think about it. They came out with 3 albums, then dropped off the face of the earth. I really feel like it's like being in a relationship. It reminds me of 500 Days of Summer. You fall in love with someone and then they drop you, like you never happened.

I try not to think about the band much. Maybe I'm crazy, or selfish. It's just when something is so good, and makes you feel a certain way, you can't help but be attached to it.

Just writing

The weather is being weird. It feels like winter again for a day. But I'm sure it'll be warmer tomorrow. My birthday is on Wednesday! Still have no idea what I want besides a tattoo, but I don't think we can afford that right now.

I didn't work out today. I would've liked to, but my shoulder is so sore for some reason. I really don't know why it would be sore. The only thing I do to engage my shoulders is plank. I also do this weird video from blogilates involving laying on your back and doing a bunch of pelvic thrusts, which could possibly be it, but who knows. I'll just try to eat healthy today. I ate a couple bad meals the last few days. It sucks, because most of the time when I've been eating bad lately it's been to get food out of the house. (Atleast I know my willpower is still there!) Daniel won't let me throw the food out. We still have 2 boxes of triscuits, some packaged pasta (sauce included), french fries (which I won't eat Daniel wanted those), some battered fish, 2 cans of vegetarian canned chili (which wasn't very good, we have some rice. I bought white and brown, the white for Daniel. But so far we haven't used it. I really thought we would for some reason. I'm sure there's other stuff we have too.

I'd like to significantly cut back on the amount of carbs I've been eating. Mostly bread. I've been trying to cut out dairy when I can too. So I stopped buying greek yogurt, and I've been eating oatmeal instead. I bought two boxes of not really good for you oatmeal that I'm trying to go through. After that I'd like to buy steel cut oats, but we'll see. I really haven't been eating any cheese. I'll have a little bit of milk in my tea sometimes. I've been using cinnamon A LOT. It's supposed to help you lose fat. I'll put it in my tea and oatmeal. I've been trying to drink green tea too lately.

I've been looking at boards on Pinterest labeled "Summer". That's really my motivation. It keeps me going imagining how I'll feel when I'm not self conscious at the beach or poolside. I can't wait to make healthy decisions. I know that sounds weird, but I feel like people eat bad in the summer. Ice cream, cook outs, freeze pops, McDonalds. Cook outs and beer will be a weak spot for me, I know that. But I'm just thinking about how whenever I go to Florida I always feel like crap! All we eat when we go is fast food when you want to look your best. I'm saying no to that feeling.

Photos

Living room at night. Too much sun exposure during the day.

What the living room looks like normally

Dining room. I love our beer signs.

The forever green bunch of bananas

Kitchen counter. There's some raw Georgia honey on there. There's tea and oatmeal in the canisters. We almost never use that Keurig.

Dishes in the sink, pretty average.

Like these pictures of people actually living?

Laundry room with some art :)

View from the stairs.

My office/workout/craft/makeup/whatever room

And during the day.

Our precious kitty Theo sleeping.

Dayshot of laundry room. I love leaving these "people actually live here" touches.

Trader Joes' Simplicity

We went to Trader Joe's today as a fun Sunday thing to do. I love that place. I wish it weren't like 30 minutes away. We mostly bought some seasonings. We got like 4 including a Himalayan salt grinder thing. We also got some beer, I got some organic tofu (it was seriously only a dollar something!), turkey burgers, blueberries, strawberries, quinoa, lentil chips, and some organic green tea. I would've got more produce, but we don't really need any at the moment.

What I love about trader joes besides the fact that a lot of it is organic and cheap, is that it's so simple! The store itself is pretty small, and they have a small selection to choose from. Sounds bad, but it is so awesome. Grocery stores are so overwhelming! Even Whole Foods is really overwhelming. But TJ has anything you would need in a small area. I just love how simple it is. The prices are also amazing, like I already said. I really wish it were closer because I would do all of our shopping there.

We also tried out this place called Which Wich, which was a sandwich place. It was really cool you pick a brown paper bag which has the ingredients listed on it, and you pick what you want to put on there. They have so many base options. I got a black bean patty with lots of veggies. It was the perfect size, really good, and healthy! There's one in Buford, so I think we will definitely be going back there.

I think I've finally broken the habit of eating horrible. I mean I'm nowhere near health nut, but I really have been enjoying eating healthier! I just got to the point where I really could not stand how I looked and felt. I hit a breaking point. I'm glad I did, because I feel great now. I haven't hit my goal yet, but I'm getting there. It makes me really happy, because it's something I've wanted to do for a long time. I've pretty much kicked my soda habit. I only say pretty much because I've been drinking diet soda with vodka or rum, when I have a mixed drink. Which I really haven't even been having very often. But that's the only time I've been drinking it. I haven't even been craving it, which is weird. I've had a bottle of diet coke in the fridge (for rum) for like a week and a half or so now and haven't touched it (except for rum). It's probably flat by now. I've just been drinking water, hot tea, and the occasional cranberry juice.

I wouldn't be surprised if all the fruit I've been eating has been satisfying my craving for soda. Cause that used to be the only "sweets" I would have, since I don't have much of a sweet tooth. But man, did I crave soda all the time. Even fast food I really haven't been craving. The way I feel afterwords prevents me from wanting it.

Anyway despite being a dreary, rainy day it was a pretty good one. Wish I had more than one day off a week so we could do this more often.

Plateauing

I think I'm starting to plateau. It doesn't help that I've been unable to say no to alcohol the last two nights. I haven't been eating as good. The night before yesterday I had two (tiny) turkey burgers and a giant sweet potato (probably more of 3/4 of it). But it had a bunch of ketchup and pickles :( I gotta start getting better about that. I usually work out in the morning, but I haven't this morning because I started my period and I'm really not feeling up to it. I don't have to work out every day right? I'll just work out tomorrow since I have to work a double today.

It sucks because I feel like I should still be losing some sort of fat and I don't think I am. I really wish I had a scale. I mean I have definitely been eating better and working out, so you'd think that'd be enough to lose a little. Maybe I have and just don't notice. I've just gotta stick to that jump rope I guess. I was planning on that anyway. But I didn't do it yesterday, because the day before I jump roped for a while. Therefore, my muscles were really sore yesterday. I could hardly walk let alone jump rope. It was weird though cause only one leg hurt. The other one was fine, but it was doing the same amount of work so who knows. I'm proud of myself though kind of (Cause I did end up drinking a crap load of beer). Daniel really wanted to get a pizza or something unhealthy, but I talked us out of it and we got one of those hot rotisserie chickens and ate some broccoli with it. Better than eating a pizza with all the beer.

You know what, I think I am actually losing fat. It's just slowly and I'm not noticing it. Cause I just looked in the mirror and I could tell. I'm just proud of myself for starting so early. I started in the beginning of march I believe. I still have the rest of April and May which should be plenty of time. Especially since I'm gonna start doing that jump rope (cardio burns fat). (I've used it 2/3 days I've had it already).

I really need to start eating even better though. Like no carbs when I eat vegetables, less oil, no crazy condiments (some, just low carb). Apparently, carbs are really where it's at when it comes to gaining weight. Even moreso than fat apparently, which I'm shocked by.

My breakfast really wasn't super healthy today. I had a rather big bowl of honey bunches of oats with almonds. But I really wanted to finish it to get it out of the house. Omg I bought these bananas like 5 days ago and they're still not ripe! I put them in a sunny spot in the house so maybe that'll work. It sucks cause I've eaten some snacks I didn't want to when I could've had a banana instead. I guess I know for next time. I thought bananas took like 2 days to go from green to yellow. Apparently not.

I've been trying to drink more green tea. It's supposed to speed us your metabolism. I'm gonna try putting some cinnamon in there today, cause that's supposed to help too. 

Simplicity

The world is so complicated today. Does anyone else get overwhelmed by it? I know I do. Pinterest, prime example. There are so many recipes, workouts, things to craft, clothes to wear, things to DIY. It's quite overwhelming to me. I just saw a pin for jello fruit roll ups. I mean I don't know, maybe I'm just lazy. Sure Pinterest has lots of good ideas, but how do you pick which ones to do?

As you know, I've been eating healthier lately. I haven't been super healthy, but definitely, definitely an improvement. I watched two documentaries yesterday. One about juicing, and one about being vegan. Both very interesting. I'm not saying I want be a vegan, but I went to Kroger today and bought some vegetables. I mean I have been buying them, but seeing those documentaries helped give me an even greater appreciation for vegetables and what they can do for your body. I'd like to start eating them more, but I mean you gotta take it slowly and learn what works and what doesn't.

Converting Back

Moving into this house has been a big change for me. For like 3-4 years I spent time gathering all the information I could about minimalism and devoted way, way, wayyy too many hours hemming and hawing over what to get rid of. It was very obsessive. And now I'm kind of reverting back to how I used to be. I'm still trying to keep our household mostly minimal, but I'm not trying that hard.

It's very weird adjusting to. I know nobody is saying I have to revert back to a normal lifestyle, but I want to and have been. Don't get me wrong, I'm not buying whatever I feel like, we're just buying more of what we need. We didn't need all this stuff before because we weren't home owners. We're not buying useless things. We're just buy things when we run into the situation in which we need them. I'm getting too sleepy to finish this blog. lol.

Need to post photos

I've realized my blog has little to no pictures on it. I'm gonna have to start posting pictures of the house and stuff. I finally have a place that I'm proud of and can call my own.

Yesterday we bought a set of patio furniture that seats 6. There was a great deal on it, $299. Most of the stuff that seated 6 was close to $500 or more. It's not the cutest set they had, but it works. We needed something that all our friends could sit at. So a friend couple of ours picked up the set for us since it wouldn't fit in either of our cars and helped Daniel put it together while I was at work yesterday. We ended up having a cookout and invited one other friend. All around a pretty great time.

We're making mine and Daniels dreams come true. Even though Daniel and I both are introverts, we both love to entertain. A lot of the reason we both wanted a house was just so our friends would come over more often (since they hardly did in the other house) and (hopefully) give them a good time.

Man this is nice. I just came outside cause it was chilly earlier. I love to spend my mornings outside. I get that from my mom. It's so nice to be greeted by the sun. When the summer comes I'll definitely be spending my breakfasts out here a lot.

I want to paint the outside of the house so bad! There's one house I recently noticed in the neighborhood with a scheme I like. It's like a greenish tan (light hints of green) and dark shutters close to black. I'm thinking about that with an ORANGE door! I've seen it done and it can be really cute. Right now the door is red and ugly. So it wouldn't be a huge change. I'm just not really a red person. The shutters are red too.

I added some pictures I found on google. I'm guessing they're not going to post where I want them to since I'm using my iPad.

What I really want to do is go for a drive and look at house color schemes. I've looked online but I haven't found anything great yet. What I'm inspired by are craftsman style town houses (or homes but I almost think the town houses are cuter). I don't think there are any like that in Lawrenceville, but I know Suwanee and Buford have them. Maybe I can convince Daniel to do that today.

Warmer weather

I always get really giddy as spring comes around. I always plan on what I want to do that spring/summer. This year I'd like to go camping, go to six flags, go to Florida, lose weight (which I've already started), plant a garden in our backyard, and possibly paint the exterior of the house. The first four are my priority.

I'm not usually a summer person, but I'm wondering if it's because I've never had a summer where I've felt good about my body. I usually hate wearing bathing suits and shorts. I literally go most of my summer in jeans. I'm hoping to change that this year. I'm tired of wallowing in self loathing and feeling sorry for myself. That gets you nowhere! I feel like I'm starting to see results. Which is awesome since the last couple days I haven't been eating that great. We made cupcakes (to get them out of the house). Daniels mom slipped the box of cupcakes in our food to bring over to the new house even though she's the one that bought them. I felt bad throwing them away so I made them. Also Daniel had me pick up two boxes of pizza Saturday night. I should've said no, or got chinese,or just one box. I've also been drinking beer too :( but hey! I'm not giving up! I can't wait until the pizza and cupcakes are gone. I thought about bringing the cupcakes to work, but I decided not to. They'll probably be the last sweets I eat for a while until my birthday cake this month :D

I'm getting very excited. I'm one of those people that loves my birthday, and I always end up having a really good time. I don't know what I want to do this year yet. I wanted to go to six flags, but I don't know if everyone will be able to afford it. I'll just have to think about it. But I hope to be in pretty good shape then! I've got to get better about my diet slip ups and willpower. Well I'd love to write more but I've got to go to work :(

Just relaxing

I just took a way too hot bath with a couple Guinnesses in me. Not a good combo. Still trying to cool down a little bit, but I'm really relaxed which is good.

I'm proud of myself. Lately, I've been working out a bit and eating better :) and actually sticking with it. I've had a few slip ups here and there, but that's ok. You can't only eat healthy food, you'll go crazy. You've got to have a couple soul fulfilling meals. My logic which I'm hoping I'll stick by is "Don't give up." Think about it. Most people after having a binge (when previously eating healthy for a short time period) will give up, because they failed that once. But you can't let that knock you down. If you eat a crappy meal or two, continuing to work out and eat healthy will overcome that.

What's got me motivated is summer. I HATE dreading summer or pool parties because of how I look and feel in a bathing suite. Not having that feeling is worth the waking up earlier to work out and continue eating healthy throughout the day. I'd love to know if I've lost any weight, but we don't have a scale. And honestly, I think I'm gaining muscle which weighs more than fat. But I think I have lost weight. Maybe not a ton, but some. I've pretty much cut out soda. I really haven't had very much and if I have, it's been diet. I've been drinking water and tea mostly. With some cranberry juice and beer thrown in there. For breakfast I've either been eating 2 clementines (or cuties) and a banana, cereal (off brand honey nut clusters or whatever it's called) with a banana, or oatmeal. But mostly the first two. I'm gonna try to remember to buy greek yogurt next time we go shopping. With some berries. Either blueberries or strawberries. I know fruit is supposed to be "healthy", but not in high amounts. Apparently oats are supposed to help speed up your metabolism though. Weird.

I miss carpet

I never thought I'd say it, and I'd never tell Daniel, but I do. These floors are pretty to look at, but are a pain to keep clean. They've actually been really stressful, because we're having to clean the house way more than we would've with carpet. Oh well. Live and learn.

I've been getting overwhelmed with how empty the house is. I know crazy right? We're trying to decorate slowly.

Another thing is the wall colors. I'm not sold. In fact I know I want change. This will definitely happen slowly. I thought I wanted white, but man it shows dirt like crazy. And not only that but since this house is a little older and dingier, everything looks yellow. Like the sinks are very yellowed and the showers. The trim is yellowy. I'm mad at the previous home owners, because I'm pretty sure they painted it that color rather than leaving it white. All the trim and doors need to be painted. It's literally driving me crazy. Perfectionism/OCD is very hard to deal with being a homeowner.

Happiness

Right now, I'm writing from my backyard. I'm just sitting on a blanket enjoying the warmer weather. It's been so nice. I went for a walk today while Daniel was at work. For exercise, and to scope out the other houses in the neighborhood. I hadn't been down the other street before today. I was happy to find out that our house was one of the nicer ones in the neighborhood. The other ones were nice too, but they weren't really kept up. I do think our house and shutters need to be painted, but the house had a certain charm about it that the other ones didn't. Maybe I'm just a happy homeowner.

I want to decorate so bad! But we can't really afford to right now. I've been thinking about whether I should do an accent wall in my "girl cave" or not. If I did, it would probably be a pastel color. I would do either orange, mint green, or light pink. The decorating thing is really difficult! Even deciding on a style. I want to mix scandinavian with contemporary/"classy", homey, pops of color, and feminine. Doesn't seem easy. I'm gonna try to do it though.

All I keep thinking about style wise is like the homey town houses/apartments you see with the pumpkins outside in the fall and cute wreaths. I keep imagining the smell of cinnamon. I'm imagining oranges and reds. Sounds like fall, but there is a certain feeling I'm aiming for our house to be. Right now it's none of the things I described. It'll just take time. I wanted to go to hobby lobby today and buy some fake flowers (probably hydrangeas or dahlias if they had it) for my girl cave to put on the desk. Real flowers would be better, but I can't afford those.

I'm excited about my new up and coming style. I've kind of always had a thing for it though. It's weird whenever I do something to my room (in the past)/house that I think is my style (scandinavian) I've always been really ocd about it and never satisfied. But when I make the weird purchases that I kind of buy on a whim, I actually end up enjoying those better. Like those orange place mats we bought. I've really liked the way those look. I bought a lamp from target the other night. It was originially for a living room, but we didn't like it in there. It's got a brushed metal silver base with a floral shade with mustard yellow, teal, and hints of black. Pretty feminine, I really like it though. Originally I wanted to do an orange theme in there, but I have a feeling I'll go crazy with orange for the rest of the house,

Sorry for my absence

Since we've moved in we've barely had a day to just sit and relax. We've also found a couple tv shows we've been enjoying together that's also been making writing difficult. But everything's going great. We finally got a second cat, but long story short we're actually taking her back today. She was just too much stress right now. There's so much to write about, but it would take so much time so I'm not going to bother.

Since we've been starting to settle in, we're starting to look at decor. Well I have. I can definitely tell that my taste has changed. Before I wanted no decorations, just plain clean lines everywhere. But I've lived in it a week and I can honestly say it's not what I thought it would be. I've grown bored of it already. Sure I still like dark stuff, but I'm actually starting to want more color. But I'm very happy about this. Like yesterday for example, we bought darker orange with hints of red place mats. Something I never even thought I would buy, then when I do buy it it's in orange. But I like it! It actually makes me happy. Lately I've been into a more classy style again. I kind of go back and forth between Scandinavian and "classy". Oh just a side note, our house is IMPOSSIBLE to keep clean :( dark floors and dark furniture surprisingly show everything. Needless to say we will probably do carpet in the next house. But anyway, you know those houses where you just see the kitchens with wine racks, olive oil, seasonings. That's what I'm talking about when I say classy. Whether it really is or not, I'm not sure, but that's the style I'm referring to.

So world market has that style. I love that store, I just wish we could afford to buy anything we wanted out of it lol.

I just am really surprised for some reason that the scandinavian style has made me slightly depressed in a weird way. Maybe cause it's hard to keep clean, maybe cause it's boring, I'm not sure. Maybe I'm just growing up, or maybe it's just a phase, but right now, it's not doing it for me as is. I'm sure after we start to add some real decor I'll feel better.

Down

I have been feeling down literally the entire day and I really don't know why. Maybe I'm just tired of waiting for the house. I think most of it is the shock that the money we had for fixing up the house and furniture and stuff is getting spent. Yeah, I think that's what it is. That and the fact that Daniel has expensive taste.

vglgh

Last night I cut my hair about 1.5-2 inches. It was somewhat spontaneous. I probably should've just spent the money and got it done professionally, but I couldn't wait. My hair was tangling so bad and I couldn't stand another day. (sounds dramatic, but I really couldn't) But MAN, does it feel healthier. it's so much softer and you can actually see the waves in it. It's crazy how taking off a couple inches or so can make the rest of your hair so much more shiny and healthy. I'm happy with it for it being free.

Man I really wanna start eating better! We've been eating so bad lately. Cause we haven't gone grocery shopping since before we got the house. I'd really, really like to start running once we move in. The neighborhood is for the most part a figure 8, so it's perfect for it. I just had a super carby/fatty dinner that I'm kind of regretting.

Man I'm so tired of playing this waiting game! First it was getting the keys, now it's waiting for the floors to get done so we can move in.

Bummed

I can't remember if I wrote about this or not, but the floors aren't starting until Friday :( That means another week we won't be able to move in. I know it'll be worth it though, but I'm tired of waiting!

Today, we went over there and we brought over most of our kitchen stuff. That made me happy and feel a little better about the floors. We also cleaned the cabinets and stuff before. However, it didn't make much of a difference. So we bought the no-slip stuff that covers the bottom of cabinets. We bought 6 rolls and that only covered about half of the counter space. So we'll have to buy more. We also went ahead and replaced all the outlet covers and light switches since most were either grimy, painted on from the previous owners, or poor quality.

We're going to go to ikea tomorrow to start looking at furniture. I pretty much know what I want for the most part.

Photo Info

So I tried typing in my last post, but it wouldn't show my text. I couldn't be bothered trying to figure it out. Those pictures are the work being done on the house. Not really in any particular order. They're in a order in the folder it uploaded from, but for some reason uploaded in a different order. I couldn't be bothered to fix it, so I'll let you figure out the order of them.

We finally finished painting today!!! It feels really good. Well, the trim isn't done. So all the bright white that got painted can't really be appreciated until the trim and doors are painted as well. Because now, it's very obvious how old the paint is and looks very yellow.We met with the floor guy today too! He's coming out to measure at 11:30 tomorrow. So he should be able to have it done next week! I'm getting so excited. I can't wait to finally move in!

Photos