I found myself missing the blog this week, as I haven't had the chance to spend much, if any time unwinding on here. So without further adieu, I give you a brain dump for Friday. L tried to feed our precious angel spam earlier this week, and as you can tell... she was not a fan. This spiraled into a series of unfortunate events which ended up with her getting sick. I then, unknowingly put a pile of my clothes on her sleeping ottoman, and she let me know what was up by taking number two's where she shouldn't be. After four days of pulling my hair out and going crazy from constantly cleaning and scrubbing I put two and two together and discovered that I had made her mad and she was teaching me a lesson... lesson learned. Note to self... don't takeover "her" spots. 

I had another Christmas party on Tuesday. A little late, I know... but it was so wonderful to have the crew all together and happy with a drink in hand! We celebrated at "Causeway", located right across from the garden and reserved the entire top floor for our crazy souls. We had a gift exchange in which I excitedly walked away with some Ulta goods and cash while others walked away with booze and blow up dolls. These cats are crazy, I tell ya. What a crew!

Like every other person and their mother, L and I went to see American Sniper, and were left beside ourselves. I was the one secretly trying to hide my tears in the theater. Even though we went on a Wednesday night, the show was still practically sold out! The movie was intense and very moving, and I barely recognized Bradley Cooper who had put on 40 pounds in 6 weeks for the part... unbelievable.

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L, being the financial advisor that he will someday be, talked me into opening a brokerage account and investing. Yikes. I have to say... I'm a huge scaredy cat when it comes to playing with my money like that. I don't know the slightest thing about stocks and investments and was on the verge of tears when I saw the money transferred out of my savings. The mutual fund that L had me put my money in will probably stay there for at least a year, and if I lose a single penny I'll be crying (as of today it was up $35! ...but he said that it will probably go back down, lots of fluctuating). I'm not good at this whole risk taking thing with money. I'm hoping it does well.... as it is my house fund!

I may or may not need to invest in this book.
After working out nearly dying in front my laptop yesterday at home using two wine bottles as dumb bells for day 1 of Jillian's 30 day shred, it came to my attention that it was time to revamp my workout regime so I went ahead and purchased P90x3 yesterday! I'm terrible... absolutely TERRIBLE with the whole working out thing. I've been making a monthly donation to my gym since July, and plan on canceling my membership today. Honestly, my lazy butt hasn't made it out to Government Center lately (a whopping 10 minute walk), and there's no sense in paying for a membership I don't use. The gym that I am currently a member of is like a Planet Fitness so believe me, I'm not investing much... however, the only thing I ever do when I am was there was mess around on the elliptical for an hour so I don't think I'll be missing much. What I'm most excited about with P90x3 is the 30 minute workouts! This girl does not have time for those 60 and 90 minute ones. I'm hoping that with the shorter workouts, I'll be more motivated to do them knowing that they're only 30 minutes, AND it's even something that I can do in the mornings before work. (HAAAA --- okay, someone please reference me back to this post in a month. I'm not exactly famous for working out). Anyways, if I actually stick with it and make it more than a week and hopefully the full 90 days, I'll try to post before and afters/updates! Wish me luck!

Getting toned is the ultimate goal here, so if these guys can do it... so can I!
AND... not to get too involved in sports politics... but we're going to the Super Bowl!!! Deflated balls or not! When it comes to deflate-gate I think it's safe to say, we (and I think I can speak for every Pats fan and New Englander out there) really don't give a f%$! If there are consequences, so be it... we would have won regardless, and are just proud to see another great team represent us. This game against the Seahawks is going to be a good one, both teams are tough and will bring their A game to the Super Bowl!

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Have a wonderful Friday friends, and an even better weekend!!

Younique 3D Microfiber Mascara

I was recently offered the opportunity to try out Younique's 3D Microfiber Moonstruck Mascara, courtesy of Rachele Sweetser. Younique is an organic cosmetic line that is talc and paraben free with many of their products even being gluten free and vegan. I have heard such positive things thus far about this product that I was excited to try it out for myself. The product arrived in a case similar to a glasses case with two different tubes included inside.

The first tube is a transplanting gel which contains collagen and ensures the fibers stay put longer, while the second tube consists of the natural fibers. The fibers are what attach themselves to your eyelashes providing increased volume, length and thickness.  You begin by applying a coat of your preferred mascara. 

Next, you'll apply a few coats of the transplanting gel. Use the wand to help shape your eyelashes and generously coat them with the gel. This will also help keep the lashes moisturized.

The fibers are applied next by gently swiping them on your lashes, helping them adhere to the gel.

Finally, take the transplanting gel and swipe a second coat over your lashes.

Please excuse my lack of lower lashes... I have none, nada, zilch.

One of the fun perks about this mascara is that you can easily add more layers for a more dramatic look. By swiping the end of your lashes with more of the fibers and then again with the gel, you can extend the length. The mascara is also sweat, cry proof, and water resistant, however I was easily able to remove it with my makeup remover.

Go ahead, give these 100% Green Tea and Collagen lashes a go, they are a must for anyone who wears mascara! The company is predominately based on presenters doing virtual Facebook parties through their hostesses, so if you are interested in trying them out for yourself you can buy them here for $29. If you give them a try and do not feel as though they are meeting your expectations, the company has a 14 day love it or money back guarantee. With Valentine's day right around the corner these are the perfect accessory for your date!

Thank you Rachele for giving me the opportunity to try these out for myself, I love them!

Has anyone else heard of/tried Younique's 3D mascara?

Friday Roundup

I tackled trying to take the tree down the other day and ended up making a huge mess! Our building requires us to use tree bags to transfer trees in and out so that we don't leave a trail of needles on they're clean carpets. Well, I had no tree bag so I created my own out of saran wrap, multiple trash bags and tape. In other news, the living room is cleaned up and all of the Christmas decorations are almost all put away. Loving the fresh palette. 

New year, new eating habits? HA, what a joke. I tried. While these foods do taste delicious and make me feel so much more energized I find myself miserable without my beloved Cape Cod kettle cooked chips. I'm still doing well with it (mainly because my healthy food is all readily available), except for the part when I hounded a brownie and ice cream at work because I forgot I was eating healthy and the time (yesterday) when I made a special trip to the market to buy ingredients to make a cookie cake. fail, fail, double fail. 

It's finally starting to look and feel like winter around here with snow flurries and freezing temps. I am really REALLY starting to appreciate the fact that my wonderful landlord pays for heat. We've been bundled up in our flannels battling it out in cards. Last year we paid for electric heat and found ourselves in the high hundreds these months just to heat out 12 sqft. bathroom.  

 In other news, I'm itching for a workshop so that I can build these adirondack beauties out of wooden pallets.

...AND I'm taking this on as my project of the month. Fridge perfection!

Enjoy your weekend and stay warm!

Hello, 2015!

Happy New Year, I hope everyone had the best of times celebrating! Ringing in the New Year was pretty low key for us again this year as we found ourselves on Jersey's coast playing cards and eating our weight in oliebollen and appelflappen with family. Oliebollen (fried dough with apples and raisons served with powdered sugar) and appelflappen (which is basically a cross between apple pie and donuts) are fun Dutch traditions that we indulge in year after year right before New Year diets start to kick in. I had 9 in one sitting, where's my award?

via As always, we had our traditional polar plunge into the river New Years day in which I did not take part in this year because I'm a big wimpy kitty baby whiner. My brave sisters, and other family (including my 9 and 11 year old cousins) went for it while I sat on the sidelines freezing into a sculpture. Brave souls. I did it last year, does that count?

I told myself I wan't going to make goals this year because I hardly ever keep them, however I do have a list of things I would like to do more often. Home: That's my word of the year. I'm a BIG homebody and could just sit around in my neighborhood all day and I would be happy. I want to spend more time shopping at the cute little boutiques, noshing on the infamously amazing Italian food, meeting more of my neighbors, playing cards with a plate of cookies close by and staying up all night watching movies. Being home gives me such a sense of comfort and allows me to be on my own time. Simplify and organize: I want everything in containers and would love to get rid of everything that I don't need or wear. From hanging frames on the wall to deleting the overly excessive amount of pictures on my phone, I want everything put away, simple and organized. Spoil ourselves: We work our butts off every week and need to do more things that we love. I'm talking more ski trips, eating ice cream for dinner, and taking time off to explore this beautiful city that we live in.  Save money like it's going out of style: I know I say this over and over again, but we're creeping up on some of the most expensive years of our lives... life adds up! Happy New Years friends! Sending lots of love, happiness and health your way to start off another amazing year. Happy 2015! It feels straight up weird saying 2015... I'm mentally not in this year yet.

2014 in Review

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE! I can't believe that twenty-fourteen is all wrapped up, and that we are hours are way from a brand new year!  Here's what 2014 was all about! 2014 started out freezing cold with a polar plunge into Egg Harbor in Jersey. But hey, I knocked something off of my 30 by 30 list. We scored with some winter weather allowing us to ski, ski and ski some more during the early months of the year, and when it warmed up I built a table just for fun (which is going to end up at the Goodwill because we have no place to keep it), and went adventuring outside of the city.

In the summertime we flew out to Ohio to celebrate the nuptials of some lifelong friends, and met up with some family members from the Netherlands in Jersey. This also happened to be right around the time I moved out of my beloved first apartment in Boston, and into our new place, one street over! Come August first, we celebrated our one year Bostoniversary!!

In the fall my family traveled to Bar Harbor to celebrate two very important people and play in Acadia National Park... Breathtaking! I also finally went to my first Red Sox game, and took real estate classes and a test to be a MA real estate agent! We can't forget other exciting highlights like the purchase of my baby fiddle leaf fig (I can't wait for it to grow), apple picking and wine tasting up the coast, spooky Salem days around Halloween, or just simply Indulging in some seriously delicious pumpkin cookies!

We had our first snow of the season (which was probably our only snow too) in November, and I got super lucky when I got to see all of my siblings and both parents over Thanksgiving. We purchased the most darling Christmas tree in all of the land and decorated it all up and L and I celebrated both of our birthdays in early December as well as celebrated everything Christmas - here, here here and here. We wrapped our year up with an amazing once in a lifetime ski experience at Wildcat, which was followed by a week long Christmas vacation of visiting with our loved ones.

It was such a busy and great year and we have so much to be thankful for. Looking forward to 2015!! I hope that everyone has a happy and safe New Years Eve!