What I Wore Wednesday -- DownEast Edition

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to take part in a bloggers night out at the local DownEast Outfitters. It was super fun to go around the store and check out all of their cool furniture, home decor and of course the clothes. I also loved meeting other bloggers. I felt completely out of my league as many of the women had business cards and very well-established blogs. It was such an honor to be at the same event.

I did receive a $25 gift card to DownEast and I put that to good use right away as I did some clothes shopping. One of my favorite things about the clothes at DownEast is that they are super cute and as an added bonus I was grabbing the XXL and XL sizes when I ended up needing larges. It was pretty  nice.

Here are a couple of the pieces I ended up buying.

I absolutely love this top! It was a little more expensive than I would normally pay, but the way it made me feel it was totally worth it.

Lace is totally in right now and I couldn't pass up on this cute little top. In the store they had it paired with a yellow cardigan and I couldn't resist the combination.

As you can tell I can't get enough of my Old Navy skinny jeans and my favorite brown boots! I would seriously wear them every day if I could make it happen. They make me feel so confident :)

Thanks for stopping by. Just as a note -- I wasn't paid by DownEast for this post (I did receive the $25 gift card at blogger night), I just really love my new clothes!

Friend Making Monday -- Personal Thoughts

1. How old would you feel if you didn’t know how old you are? Most of the time I feel pretty young so I would say in my early 20s (I’m really in my early 30s). I would love to have the knowledge I have now and go back and really be in my early 20s. I would do so many things differently because I am more mature now. According to the gym my body feels like it is 34 so I definitely need to work on that aspect of things.

2. Are you the kind of friend you’d want to have as a friend?  I hope so. I try really hard to be a good friend and I desperately long for friends that I can do stuff with. I think it’s hard when I feel like the people I am closest to live far away from me. I have friends where I live now and they are good friends, I just feel like sometimes I try so hard and something is missing.

3. Look back at the last year.  When did you feel most excited about something in your life?  I was definitely most excited when I was traveling last year. I went to so many places and saw so many incredible things. It really made me want to focus more on my personal finances so that travel would be more of an option in the future.

4. Have you ever been with someone and not spoken a word, only to walk away thinking that was the best conversation ever?  No …

5. If you won 100 million dollars Monday, would you continue doing whatever you usually do on Tuesdays? I would definitely need a day or two to let it sink in. Being that it is so close to the end of the school year I would definitely finish off the year, but then I might seriously consider being a stay at home mom for a while. I know DC doesn’t think I could ever do it, but it was just me and the kids the last few days while he was out of town for work and I know that I could definitely make it work. I love teaching and I wouldn’t want to give it up forever, but I’m missing so much of my kids’ lives while I’m away each day.

6. What would you do differently if you knew no one would judge you? I’m not sure. I feel like I put myself out there a lot and there is nothing I’m holding back on because of a fear of being judged.

7. Share something you do differently than most people. When I bowl I step with my right foot first. This means when I go to release the ball my right foot is also forward. This is completely wrong because it should be your left foot forward so you don’t hit your leg with the ball (which I don’t). I don’t know why, but I have always bowled that way.

8. What’s one thing that you really want to do that you’ve never done? Like Kenlie, I really want to swim with a dolphin. I’m always too cheap to do it any time I’ve had the opportunity. Someday, maybe when I win that $100 million, it will definitely be on the top of my list. I also really want to hold a koala bear. I know that they are not the nicest animals, but they have always been my favorite.

9. If you had to move out of state right now, where would you move? That’s a tough one. My first thought would be San Diego because we have family there, but I don’t think I could permanently live there. If it could be in state I would say more up by the SLC area because my friends and family are up there. All in all, though, I don’t want to move anywhere (except maybe to a bigger house!). I am completely happy where we live now.

10.  What is the one thing that you’d like to change most about the world?  I would want to change the emphasis on material things and help me realize that making memories and spending time together is more important than anything physical that you could own (I need to work on that one myself!).

Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s questions!  Don’t forget to go to  All the Weigh and link up in the comments! 

Friend Making Monday (on Thursday)

Hi everyone! Yes, this is me blogging about a week late! It is spring break and things have definitely been crazy! LD had a soccer game last Saturday and then on Sunday I packed up the car and the kids and headed to visit my family about five hours north of where we live. It was a good visit, but it is definitely nice to be home in our own environment.

Now that we are home, though, EM seems to be sick. I took her to the doctor this morning and he said that she has some sort of infection and he is treating it like it is an ear infection. She has had a fever all night, but it seems to have broken so we’ll see how we do tomorrow.

Anyway, now onto Friend Making Monday (on Thursday night!). Better late than never, right?

 

1. What did you eat for dinner last night? We pulled into town about 8 so I talked DC into taking us to dinner at a Japanese steakhouse. I had fried rice, chicken and steak. I also had that for dinner tonight as leftovers.

2. If you could make one food calorie-free for the next year, What would you choose? That is a tough one! I’m think I would make yogurt and all of the toppings that go on it calorie-free. It’s not like it’s that bad for me, but I eat it more than I probably should. I would also add Kool-aid to that list of calorie-free things!

3. How often do you go to the grocery store? Usually just once a week, but it seems like lately I haven’t done a big shopping so I’m going more frequently.

4. Do you make a list before buying groceries? Usually yes. But if I’m just running to the store I don’t and then I end up buying more than I planned.

5. List three things that can always be found in your kitchen. Cheerios, bananas and milk.

6. How often do you clean out your fridge? Not as often as I probably should. I usually do it when we get back from a trip.

7. Do you ever use a slow cooker? If so, will you share a recipe? Yes, I do! This is my absolute favorite Chicken Noodle Soup -- http://www.creativelydomestic.com/2010/10/guest-post-crockpot-chicken-and-noodle.html

8. How often do you try new recipes? It depends on the month. We haven’t tried anything new recently, but with it being spring break I am going to try to create a meal plan that has some new ideas in it.

9. What is the most delicious meal(s) you make? I really love the tacos that DC makes. We have them most Sundays and they are really delicious.

10. Share at least one thing that is currently in your kitchen even though you don’t like it. I have mayo and mustard in my fridge. I despise both of them, but I went through a phase where I was making a lot of deviled eggs and mayo and mustard are necessary evils.

What I Wore Wednesday

I can't believe it's already Wednesday again! Time sure is flying by. I snapped a couple of pictures this week that I wanted to share of my outfits. I have recently gone to Forever 21 a couple of times and I am so excited about feeling more confident in my clothes and own skin.

 

 The black boots are from a shoe store in the mall. I think it's called Forever Young shoes. I bought them back at Christmas.

The black pants are a size too big from Maurices.I'm hoping just to get through this winter and then next year I can buy some smaller clothes.

I am a tank top on underneath from Old Navy and then the floral top is from Forever 21. I absolutely love this shirt and the fact that it doesn't look like something I would normally wear.

 

One of the local clothing stores, Christensen's, was having a sale a Toms and I couldn't help myself. I desperately needed new black flats so I went classic and got this pair. I love them, but they definitely take some breaking in time to get to that comfortable spot.

I decided to start breaking in my new shoes on Monday. One of my favorite things about them is the fun pattern inside! I think they are elephants.

The black pants are a different pair from Maurices that are too big. These ones are also super long so I rolled up the bottoms and they looked pretty cute that way.

I have a black undershirt on from DownEast Basics and the top is from Forever 21. Again, this is nothing like I would normally wear, but it was fun. I kinda wish I was about an inch or two longer in the front though.

Spring Styles with Downeast Basics

If you've been following my blog at all I think you know that I've been trying out different fashions on myself and as I'm becoming more confident with my body I'm becoming more confident with  myself and general.

So enter the Spring Styles with Downeast Basics Pin to Win Sweepstakes!

How awesome would it be to win a $500 shopping spree! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE me some Downeast clothes and $500 would go a long way. Make sure to go enter to win by doing all of the steps on the graphic below. 

GOOD LUCK! :)

THANK YOU and Friend Making Monday

I just want to start by thanking everyone that stopped by my blog over the last weekend from the Scrapbook Steals blog hop. I had seriously never received so much positive feedback and it felt good to know that people were actually seeing what I had created. So THANK YOU!!!

Now on to Friend Making Monday! If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section at All the Weigh so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. 

I've said it 100 times before, but I seriously LOVE Mondays just because of Friend Making Monday. Here are my responses to this week's topic.

 Almost Spring

1. What do you love most about Spring?  I’ve never really been one to have a preference of one season over another, but I am really appreciating spring this year. It has been so cold this year where I live and I’m just looking forward to milder temperatures.

2. If you’re lucky enough to have a Spring Break, what will you do to enjoy it?  Working in a middle school there is always the countdown to different breaks and the countdown to spring break is on! Last year I went to Paris and Italy. I don’t think anything can top that right now (until next year when I go to Dublin, London and Paris!!!). I’m just taking it easy this year – heading up to visit my family that is about five hours from here. Then I am going to just relax at home.

3. What is your favorite flower?  I love carnations. I’m not sure why, but I think they are just pretty. I like how you can change the color of the flower too by adding food coloring to water. Reminds me of being a kid.

4. Do you have a garden?  If so, what do you grow?  I tried to have a garden a couple of years ago and it was growing, but nothing came from it. I was disappointed. I don’t think the soil here is very good for gardening.

5. Share one thing that you hope to accomplish during Spring.  I hope to accomplish some spring cleaning and just getting myself more organized. I have lots of projects I want to work on, I just need to find the time.

6. Do you do Spring cleaning?  We have never officially done spring cleaning, but I am constantly trying to get my house cleaner than it is. It’s difficult having two kids who haven’t mastered cleaning up after themselves. This morning LD cleaned the cat box though so it’s a start and we will continue working on it.

7. What is your weather *really* like right now? {Just b/c it’s almost Spring, doesn’t mean that it feels like it for some of you.}  It is absolutely perfect right now. Over the weekend it reached the mid-70s. I think it is supposed to be in the 60s today. It rained overnight and smelled wonderful this morning when I got up.

8. Share one photo that you’ve taken during the month of March.  I finally went to City Creek up in Salt Lake over the weekend. We were pretty much just in and out (just bought some things at Forever 21), but it was still neat to see how much they’ve really revitalized SL.

You can't really see it, but this is EM in the above ground walkway and in the background is the Salt Lake LDS temple. It is really beautiful!

This is me, EM and my mom in the same spot.

9. What’s your favorite thing to do on a sunny afternoon?  I’m not sure. I feel like I spend so much time indoors. I definitely need to get outside more.

10. If you could spend the day doing anything in your city, what would you do?  I would like to do more hiking. There are so many cool places in southern Utah that I haven’t experienced and I am determined to do so. There is a spot called Fat Man’s Misery that I want to try to see if I can fit through it.

Scrapbook Steals Blog Hop

I am so happy and excited for today's blog post! I am honored to be part of the Scrapbook Steals Blog Hop! Scrapbook Steals is my favorite scrapbooking ideas blog and web site! I love to grab some great deals and participating in mid week mojo is a fun way to get some new inspiration for layouts.

I had the opportunity to work with Love My Tapes washi tapes and I can honestly tell you that I really do LOVE them! They are super easy to work with and the uses for them are absolutely endless. 

I had never used washi tape before so when they arrived in the mail I wasn't sure what I was going to do at first. But then the ideas just started coming and I couldn't wait to start adding washi tape to every project.

The first project I made was this tile. I went to Home Depot and bought a piece of tile for a $1 and then grabbed some paper from my stash and the fabulous washi tape. I decided to pull out the spray adhesive for this project so that I would know that the paper would stay down. I really love how the washi tape looks under the varsity letters DIXIE. The color is absolutely perfect and looks like it was just part of the paper. The blue washi tape at the bottom added a fun extra touch.

My next project I decided to wrap some washi tape around pencils. This was definitely an experience of trial and error. I had seen pencils wrapped in washi tape on Pinterest and wanted to give it a try, but I didn't see any tutorials that gave  me a critical piece of information -- how to wrap the tape.

The first time I did it I tried wrapping the tape around the pencil kind of in a spinning motion. It was really hard to get the pattern to line up and I would get about halfway down the pencil and then it would start to bunch up. 

The next time I tried it I did small strips around the pencil and that just became too much hassle.

The way that I actually found for it to work was to do long strips the length of the pencil (about three pieces).  This was also crucial for the sharpening of the pencil. The other ways were eaten up in the pencil sharpener and just didn't work.

Because the washi tape is somewhat thin if you don't want any of the pencil color to show through either do a couple of layers or use a pencil that is the same color pencil as your tape.

My final project was a card for St. Patrick's Day. I just ran the washi tape along the top of the card under the word "lucky." I love how the embossed paper underneath gave the same texture to the tape. Super easy project and I love the awesome little pop of umph to the card.

 Thank you so much for stopping by my blog! Feel free to become a follower and come back in the future. 

Make sure you check out Deborah's blog for your next stop on the blog hop :) and don't forget to go back to the Scrapbook Steals blog to enter to win an awesome prize!

If you've gotten lost along the way here is the whole line up for the blog hop:

scrapbooksteals.com

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