Weekend Festivities

I had a great weekend this week! For starters I got a new job!!! YAY! I'm so excited and so happy to have something to do now! Who knew that unemployment was boring? haha

Anyway, since I officially accepted the position on Friday my weekend was FANTASTIC! Here are some things I did!

Friday we went out to dinner for my Mother-in-Law's birthday! 

 Dinner was delicious! I had the filet medallions! YUM! I will definitely get those again when I go back! For her birthday, the hubs, me, SIL and BIL all decided to take her to give her a private tour of a vineyard with a tasting and then out to dinner downtown! She absolutely loved the idea! We can't wait to actually go and of course I will recap it here on the blog!

Saturday was St. Patrick's day! We didn't do much. The hubs doesn't celebrate it and neither does his family. That makes me sad because it was always a huge deal with my family. But hey, everyone has their own traditions. This just isn't one of theirs. But the hubs and I did go do a little shopping! I got my new toms!!!

 I love them they are so comfortable! I think I need like 100 more pairs!

Sunday was another low-key day. Just kind of hung around and relaxed. 

How was everyone's weekend? Did you guys do anything special?

Dr. Seuss theme 1st Birthday!

In 6 days my niece will be turning 1!! OMG I can't believe how quickly this year flew by. I still remember the day she was born like yesterday! It seems like it was only 1 month ago.

Anyway, I have been helping plan her 1st birthday party, which will be held later this month. I love planning parties and was ecstatic when my SIL asked for my help. She decided she wanted to do a Dr. Seuss theme and as soon as she said that I made a pinterest board! LOL I started pinning right away! Here are some of the design ideas that we will be using.

So you can tell that we're going with a red, white and blue theme! It's going to turn out sooo cute...but in the mean time I have lots of crafting to do! YAY!!

Have you ever planned a 1st birthday party?

What I'm loving Wednesday!

 

I'm loving Red Carpet Manicure. The hubs got this for me for my birthday and I was beyond excited! I love me some new beauty products...especially nail polish. If you haven't heard of it before, it's a at home gel manicure kit! I've only had a gel manicure 1 time! My wedding. Other than that, it's just too expensive for me to justify. Yes I know it lasts a long time, but I'm cheap I guess. But I tried it and it lasted a good 2 weeks! It would have lasted longer...but I'm antsy and wanted to change my color! LOL Anyway this is what it looks like:

I'm also loving these red Toms!  I think I'll be spending my b-day gift card on these!

I'm loving this owl umbrella holder! My BFF posted it on pinterest (Are you following me?) but it was one of those pins that go nowhere! I have no idea where it is from..but I LOVE it. Maybe one of you knows?

I'm loving this print! So freaking cute!

Last? I'm loving this beautiful weather!!! It's been so nice here in MD! Yesterday I think we hit 80 degrees!!

What are you guys loving today??

Sewing Projects: The Melanie Bag

So in my last post I mentioned a purse I made and I figured I should probably show you a picture of it! I'll be honest, it wasn't exactly easy. However, it wasn't too hard because I did finish it. It is the second project I made since learning to sew and I'm really proud of it!

sewing pattern

Isn't it beautiful??? I LOVE it! I want to make 1000 more in so many different patterns!

 Sorry for the crappy iphone pic, but it's all I use. It's really a shame that I have  DSLR and rarely use it! LOL

Anyway, I think it came out pretty good considering that I'm still a beginner! The hardest part was probably matching up the fabric and sewing around the curves! I swear curves kill me! My mother-in-law did help me, but only a tiny bit!

So do you guys think I should sell these? Would you buy one?

P.S: I have a job interview on Thursday! Fingers crossed!!!!

Changes...

I now will have plenty of time to blog! YAY!!! I'm sure you are happy...but wondering why? Well I am unemployed. I found out the last week of February that the company I was working for was eliminating my position as of the end of the month. I really couldn't talk about it until now though. I was still processing what had happened and how I was going to move on.

To be honest, it completed effed up our plans. The hubs and I were planning on buying a house really soon. We had already looked at a bunch of houses. However, we didn't put in an offer on any of them. Thank God! OMG our life would have been awful had we actually bought a house. So now that I am unemployed, we can't buy a house until I get another full-time job. I've decided that I want to stay in the education field, but get back into teaching. While I did enjoy my previous job, I definitely missed teaching. I want my own classroom again with students. So that means that I have to wait until the summer to find a teaching position. Good thing is that schools are already starting to recruit teachers for next year. So it really worked out perfectly...the timing at least. I never thought I would say that, because I was pretty bummed that we wouldn't be able to get a house now. But, that doesn't mean we won't ever get a house. It's just delayed temporarily.

So what do I plan on doing between now and next school year? Well I'll be starting my own etsy shop! I absolutely love to sew...and found that I'm pretty good at it once I got a sewing machine for Christmas. I figure I should use my ability to sew and sell things! I'm still deciding what to sell...it will probably be purses because I LOVE making them! Be on the look out for a post about it!

Project 366

I've seen project 365 last couple of years and I've wanted to try it for a while but since I'm a slacker I never did it! Well this year I'm definitely doing it!

Source: fatmumslim.com.au via Amanda on Pinterest

I've been good so far. So here are the past 2 weeks....

Day 1= me :)
Day 2= Breakfast...I know I'm bad...McDonald's. But it was so delicious!
Day 3= the hubs!
Day 4= okay there isn't a pic...my bad LOL it was letter box...i didn't have anything to take a pic of!
Day 5= the shoes I wore...love them!
Day 6= something that made me smile: the hubs commented on my post...made my day!
Day 7= Favorite: Mac lipstick!

Day 8= The sky...this was at like 8 am before it got cloudy and rained :(
Day 9= Daily Routine= my makeup...do it everyday
Day 10= Childhood....I took my niece's glowworm!
Day11= our bed...my side at least
Day 12= close up...Jinx!
Day 13= in my bag...it's messy!
Day 14= what I'm reading...Catching Fire...so far so good!

Promise I'll be updating this every week :)

101 in 1001: Updated!

Now that I've started blogging again I thought I should update my 101 in 1001 page. The funny thing is I haven't actively been completing the tasks...I know, I'm a slacker. But, I still did complete some! 

So what have I done?

1. Move closer to family

I completed this is May when we moved up to MD! This was the best decision we ever made and I couldn't be happier! It's just so nice to be closer to family and not feel so alone anymore.

11. Go to the dentist 

Okay so this one I definitely completed unintentionally! I absolutely hate the dentist! I honestly will only go if I HAVE to. I know it's awful, but I don't enjoy the pain and would rather my teeth be left alone! LOL But I knew I had cavities and they started acting up...so I was forced to go. :( It wasn't a bad experience at all...actually pretty good. But now we moved and I don't know any nice dentists! Guess I'll have to find one because I'm going to try to go ever 6 months to get my teeth cleaned.  

19. Learn to sew

I completed this last month! My MIL got me a sewing machine for Christmas! Best gift ever! I have wanted to learn...but of course needed someone to teach me! Back in October I planned to learn, i bought fabric and found a pattern and was going to make a dress for my niece using my MIL's machine. Well life was busy and I never got around to it. But when I got the sewing machine for x-mas, I was all over that dress! I finished it in one way...with a TON of help from my MIL. But my niece has worn it!! Now I'm working on a purse!

46. Get my Maryland teaching certificate. 

 I completed this when before we moved. I knew that if I wanted to get a teaching job, I would need to have my teaching certificate. I was worried that I would have to take the praxis tests, because in Florida we took a different test and I was worried my scores wouldn't transfer. But they did! I had no trouble getting my MD certificate! When that happened it was more validation that moving was the right choice.

48. Save at least 50 dollars per paycheck once I have a full-time job. 

When I was working Part-time in FL it was impossible to save any money. All our money went to bills. When I moved up here, I got another part-time job. But it soon turned into a full-time job! Once I had a full-time paycheck rolling in, in July,  I was able to save $$$!

49. Pay off all my credit cards

The hubs and I completed this last month! I will write a more detailed post about how we did it...but we followed a plan and were able to pay off all of our debt in 6 months!! It feels so good to log into mint.com and see $0 credit card debt.

68. Go on a hike

This was one of those unintentional completed tasks! When we moved up here and had NOTHING to do, we decided to exercise more. That's where taking the hike came in! Basically I completed this in May! Now it wasn't a hardcore hike or anything...but it was a walk in the woods!

85. Buy a new lens for my DSLR 

I didn't really complete this one on my own. The hubs bought it for me, but I did ask for it for X-mas...so I'm counting it as completed! I got a 50mm 1.8f for x-mas and I LOVE it!!!!

91. Do one activity on the cruise that is out of my comfort zone. 

 This one was never actually completed because we got jobs and weren't able to go. But I didn't want to leave it on the list as if I were going to complete it. I'm pretty sure we won't be going on a cruise between now and when this ends!

96. Give up Starbucks for an entire month.

When we had NO $$$ I was forced to give up Starbucks. But I actually didn't miss it too much after a week. I just made my own coffee at home :) I since have started drinking it again :)

95. Read 10 books (1/10)

It really should be 2...but I've been reading The Help FOREVER!! But I did start and finish The Hunger Games in about 3 days! OMG I loved it and am now reading the 2nd book in the series!