I know i've said it before, but i need a lifestyle change.

Okay, I've said this many times, but don't we all?
"I need to be healthier."
"I want to be skinnier."
"I want to feel good about myself."

And then I would go on with my life like I never even told myself these things. I mean, it might stick for maybe a week. And it doesn't help that I think I have practically NOOOOO metabolism. Ugh.

But now I really  have to do it this time! I had a wake up call....

My little brother was going around at Thanksgiving snapping random pictures of people and asking them "How do you want to be remembered?" (Not for any reason, he's just weird like that), but this is what I got:

I don't know which view of myself is warped... this one or the one I have when I look in the mirror.

I mean, this could be just bad luck, but its still the fact that at some point in time and from some angle, this was the image of me. Fat wrists, puffy cheeks, and a chin that you couldn't distinguish from even my double chin.

Ugh.

When I look in the mirror, this isn't what I see! I see things like this:

Of course when you see things like this when you look at yourself, you would think you were healthy! Damn, I look hot there! I'm not going to lie. But it also took many times of taking pictures of myself to get something that good.

Unfortuantely, I'm pretty sure that's not what the rest of the world sees, and its probably somewhere in between these two extremes...

Regardless of what I really look like, the point is that my brother's camera caught that picture.. and like I said, at some moment from some angle that is what I looked like and it is unacceptable anymore. I've made excuses for too long.

I'm not sure what my plan is yet, but I'm going to Texas in exactly a month and how nice would it be to be able to enjoy my vacation and think "I'm 10 lbs. lighter", that would make it so much better. Granted, 50 lbs. lighter would be ideal, but that's not exactly healthy in 30 days.

Any suggestions?

Music madness monday; no. three & Tip tuesday; no. fourteen

Okay, so this holiday must have really thrown me off! But I guess its better late than never right? And let me tell you, this week's song was a hard one to find. So, last week, we had "Annie, You Save Me" by Graffiti6 and this week we're going to do "Save The Robots" by Members of Mayday. It sounds so neat!

But first, our Tuesday Tip:

Save time by not filing the corners of your nails after you cut them. The source I found said that filing the corners actually weakens the structure of your nail!

& Now back to our feature presentation. :) 

Too busy for inspirations this week. :(

I'm sorry to say, that with the holiday this week, I just didn't have time to spend too much time looking at things I wanted! So unfortunately there will be no Sunday Inspirations this week, but expect it back next Sunday with a vengeance!!

The weekender; no. three

Hey everyone! Welcome to The Weekender #3! I've got some great projects for you to check out. For some reason, this week's theme for me, seemed to be projects of a larger scale. Anyways, I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

Summerland Cottage Studio

Holiday Sparkle...

Three Boys

High End Look For Less- Antique Buffet

If Life Was Like A Cupcake

My Shoes Redo 

A Thoughtful Place

Map Dresser 

Funky Junk Interiors

White Twig Chandelier 

It's freakin' friday; no. 2

<a href="http://yourworkistodiscoveryourworld.blogspot.com/search/label/friday"><img alt="bloghopbutton" height="200" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1307/5188648574_061fbbde73_m.jpg" width="200"></a>

Welcome to my Friday Blog Hop for making new friends in bloggy land! Because last week was so successful, I decided to come back for week #2. I know that with the holiday, blog hoppin' might be kind of slow, but I'll hope you take a moment to link up anyways!

First & foremost, I would like to introduce you to this week's featured blog I Am Jewelz. Please make sure to stop by and say "hello" and follow, and let her know who sent you!

I don't want there to be too many rules, but as always, there needs to be order. So:

1. You must follow my blog in order to join the blog hop. It's like going to someone's house and eating their food, but you're not even friends with them! So please, follow me via GFC, when putting your link in the blog hop.
2. Provide the link to your main blog site. One of these days, I'll do a blog hop for more specific sorts of posts, but this one is a general blog hop for meeting new people around the blogging community.
3. You must put my blog hop button somewhere on your blog. If you're new to this, most people people put theirs in a specific post, but you can put it somewhere else if that's where you keep your blog hop buttons. It just has to be somewhere.
4. And if I feature a blog, please follow that blog as well. Obviously, there is no featured blog this week, with it being the first week... but its kind of like a giveaway by joining, and then reward is being featured. So this last one is not required, but its definitely greatly appreciated.

UPDATE 11/26: Sorry everyone! I had the post scheduled to post at midnight, but it didn't for some reason... hmmm... I'll extend how long the blog hop is open for though!

Trendy 

Treehouse  

{fix-myphoto}

I played around in Picnik for this photo. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do though.

First, I played with the local contrast to add a little more depth. Then I adjusted to temperature and saturation to give their skin a little bit more color, since the water was making it look a little blue. I also cropped and rotated the picture about 8 degrees to zoom in a little bit more. Finally, I added a little bit of softness and cropped the corners, and that's it!

Simple banana bread

I made some really simple banana bread for the first time ever, and let's say that I'm darn proud. This means, I want to share my recipe with you! You can find the original recipe at Simple Recipes. For the most part, I followed this recipe to a T.

The reason I liked this recipe is that you can truly make it with things you already have at home. We had some bananas that were too ripe to put in the breakfast bar at work, so I took those home with me, and everything else I already had. I hope you enjoy! (Oh, and check out the website above for some great variations.... from peanut butter to Kahlua!)

Ingredients:

• 4 ripe bananas
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cup flour

Steps:

1. Mash your bananas, and then mix with the melted butter. A wooden spoon works really well for this.
2. Add your sugar, egg, and vanilla; mix.
3. Add your baking soda and salt; mix.
4. Add your flour last, and make sure to mix well.
5. Pour into two mini loaf pans until pan is 2/3 of the way full. If you have enough extra batter, you could always fill a third loaf pan.
6. Bake at 325 degrees F for about an hour. (I started at 25 minutes and kept adding time in 10 minute increments. I'm not positive the exact length of time, but I would say it was about an hour)
7. Let cool before slicing.

This recipe really tasted great. I think the only thing I would change for next time is that I would use only three bananas, instead of four. The banana flavor was realllyyyyyy strong. Everyone else that tried it said it tasted great though!

The winner's circle

It's official... My CSN giveaway has finally ended (Just in time for Black Friday, I might add!) and I would like to congratulate Esther for her win!

 

Esther, I'll be sending you an email to verify your email address. Please respond within 48 hours of me sending it, in order to collect your winnings. If you don't respond, I'll have to give it to someone else! <3

Thanks to everyone who entered! Hopefully I'll have some more great giveaways in the future!!

 

Non-alcoholic drink recipes

At work, I found this brochure book thing on the counter. At first I was excited because it says Drink Recipe Book, and then I read the important part.. "Non-Alcoholic". Oh well. 

Anyways, this brochure book thing was published by AAA, in hopes to prevent drunk driving. Drunk driving is bad... got it. Now I want to share some of the yummiest looking recipes with you!

Chocolate Fluff

• 2 ounces of Half & Half
• 5 scoops of chocolate ice cream
• 2 tablespoons of Pur Java Honduran Dark Roast Essence Coffee
• 2 tablespoons of Irish Cream Coffee Syrup
• 1 tablespoon of Hershey's Special Dark Syrup
• Whipped Cream

Place all ingredients, except whipped cream, in a blender. Blend on puree setting until thoroughly mixed. Divide contents between two decorative cocktail glasses. Garnish with a dollop of fresh whipped cream.

Lime Egg Nog

• 1 quart of egg nog
• 2 tablespoons of 100% lime juice
• 4-6 drops of green food coloring

Blend ingredients of 3-5 seconds until well mixed. Pour in a glass rimmed with green sprinkles and garnished with a fresh lime slice. Serve with a wide straw. Makes 6-8 servings.

Festive Holiday Cosmo

• Ice
• Grenadine
• 2 ounces of club soda
• 1 ounce of orange juice
• 1 ounce of cranberry juice
• 1 ounce of pineapple juice

Combine orange, cranberry, and pineapple juice in a blender. Top with club soda and a dash of grenadine. Add ice and blend. Serve in a martini glass. To garnish, use a cookie cutter to cut stars out of a lime and lemon peel and let them float in the glass.

O'Minty Creme Frost

• 4 cups of mint chocolate chip ice cream
• 1 cup of apple juice/cider
• 3 tablespoons of sweet condensed milk
• 10 ounces of apple jelly
• 3 drops of mint flavor
• 4 Oreo cookies
• 1 cup of water

Put all ingredients, except for cookies, in a blender until well mixed. Add Oreos and pulse. Pour into glasses. Possible garnishes are ginger ale for fizz or 1/2 an Oreo on the rim of the glass.

There were more, but these were the most delicious looking. I wont tell if you add a little sumthin', sumthin'.... ;)

Creative Reuse

Hey there everyone! I have another guest post for you all. This one comes from Heather from  My Work of Heart. Her blog is amazing and is very volunteer-oriented. I hope you enjoy her post on Creative Reuse.

I'm very much a fan of "Creative Reuse". I try my hardest to be eco-friendly in everything I do, but especially when it comes to crafts. Another thing I'm passionate about is volunteerism. I do a ton of volunteer work for various organizations, including FriendsLikeUs.org, SoldiersAngels.org, OpGratitude.com, and many many
more. Recently I've been working with a school for Friends Like Us. The kids have been reusing construction paper and making cards for kids with cancer. For our MikksKidKrusaders.com OpGratitude.com Drive, we've been trolling thrift stores and creative reuse stores for extra cards, samples, and gifts for the soldier's care packages.

But I decided to do something extra fun for my adopted soldiers from SoldiersAngels.org So off I went to the Long Beach Depot For Creative Reuse (www.thelongbeachdepot.org). The owner, Lisa, has become such a
great friend of my family. She's a visionary, a community advocate, and her daughter is one of the most creative people you'd ever meet! Their store always gets odd and ends, a mish-mash of items. So I knew
it'd be absolutely perfect for my Creative Reuse Christmas Card. I wanted something interesting, fun, and unusual.

First thing I did was get a piece of cardstock from a pack of Christmas cards I had purchased for our drive. I cut that down to 4x6 inches, to make it easier.

Next, I had gotten a card with samples from a 2000 Gift Wrap Collection. I took four pieces from that card and cut them down to 2x3 inches each, to make a very patchwork, quilt looking card. Then I taped the pieces to the card.

Last, it was time for embellishments. I chose a red paper frame, topped by a gold star, then put a beaded snowflake embellishment onto the card.

Voila! Instant homemade Christmas card, made entirely from reused and upcycled materials.

Each card should have your own special touch. Each card can be as unique and different as you are. Have fun, and let your creativity flow!

-Heather
My Work of Heart

Last chance to enter the csn $35 giveaway & Creative share wednesday

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a chance to win a $35 gift certificate from CSN Stores. They have a lot of amazing products, and I don't think there is a person out there, who couldn't find something they from their store.

Last Chance To Enter!!!!!

 

I linked my crocheted lanyard up at Trendy Treehouse for their Creative Share Blog hop! Head on over to check it out, as well as some other great projects!!

I'm desperate for a new job

Okay, okay... Now don't get me wrong. I can't complain too much, because I'm posting this from work. But I am really in need of a new position, and here's why:

• First and more importantly, I am sick and tired of working 3rd shift, and it doesn't look like I'll be able to get moved any time soon. I just want to sleep at night again!
• I need to make more money. I'm only making minimum wage, which in Ohio is $7.30/hr. If I was flipping burgers, I would have no room to complain. But before I moved out of Toledo, I worked at another hotel, doing the exact same thing and making $9.50/hr. The reason for our wages here, is that our manager is just plain cheap. I just can't afford to live on that! Even when I am lucky enough to get some full-time hours, I wouldn't be able to afford to move out of my mom's house (and I really don't have too many bills. I am currently paying out less than $400 for my car payment, car insurance, and cell phone).
• Slap my hands for saying this, my management in this place is a joke, and I'm just sick of it. Things are never consistent. Some people get punished and others don't. Gossip is HORRIBLE here, even among management. And there's just too much backstabbing going on. It's a fend for yourself environment, which would be fine if it hadn't forced me to develop some personality traits that I'm not too proud of. (I hate having to make other people look bad just so I don't get in trouble for something!)
• And finally, I'm driving 30 minutes to work... and with winter coming, I'm just not in the mood to do that during a snow storm. Enough said.
• I'm about to graduate. I know that an Associate's isn't much, but it has got to qualify me for something, right? I don't need any sort of degree to work here, and I don't even think the hotel manager has a degree in anything... this place is just bringing me down.

So I've been sending cover letters and resumes out like crazy. Unfortunately, I don't get too many opportunities to follow up on them, because of my sleep schedule (which, I take the blame for... I should wake up and make an effort to contact these companies) but I haven't heard back from a single one, and I've applied to dozens of companies. Oh wait, I take that back... Kohl's wanted me to be a seasonal cashier. I quite honestly, don't even remember applying to Kohl's.

So check out this resume I typed up tonight. Its for a customer service representative position at an insurance firm. I really feel like my cover letters are just so extremely bland. Am I doing something wrong? Do you know of any ways to spice it up? I want to stand out!

tip tuesday #13

I love to use face masks, no matter the time of day! But especially in the morning. The benefits from the mask make your skin look absolutely amazing, so why go to sleep? And wearing it in the morning really doesn't take any longer than it would normally take you to get around.

Here's what I do:
I shower and wash my face like normal.
Then I put my hair in towel to get it out of my face, and put the mask on.
I'll do some random tasks to get around... brush my teeth, get dressed, fix my nail polish... and then after a few minutes and most of the mask has dried, I'll start drying my hair. Sometimes I'll go as far as to completely style it.
I then pin my bangs back and away from my face, and rinse my face off, and then finish my skincare routine.
My skin then looks good as new! :)

Homemade Lanyard

I have my first little tutorial, although it might not be very useful if you don't know how to crochet. Although, I will say that crocheting is really easy to learn. I taught myself by watching various "how-to" videos off of the internet, and now I'm addicted!

This product is really good for those who are just beginning. It's quick, and quite easy. Plus you have a lot of freedom if you want to practice using different yarns and stitches. However, the one I made is really quite basic. You will notice that there is a lot of flexibility in this pattern...

So, here's what you'll need for this lanyard:

 A latch/keychain. I got this one off of an old lanyard that I 

didn't want anymore.

A medium weight yarn. I used this Simply Soft by 

Caron. It's one of my favorites.

A 4.25mm Crochet Hook. This is

also the same thing as a size G hook.

Yarn Needle

1.  Ch. 5
2. Sc in 2nd chain from hook. Sc in each chain until end. (should be 4 sc's, making 5 stitches total).
3. Do this for the length of of your lanyard. I'm not sure how many rows I did for sure, but I would say its about 100.
4. Slide your lanyard onto into the D-ring of the latch. Slip stitch the ends of the lanyard together. I found it helpful to change the direction your hook is facing (so that it's towards you, instead of away from you). And then when you slip stitch, make sure to pull through all the stitches, which will be about 5.
5. Cut and finish off your lanyard, and weave each end up the sides of your lanyard with a yarn needle.
6. Cut off a generous amount of yarn (about 6 in.) and use the yarn needle to weave this yarn through the section of the lanyard above the D-ring, so that the D-ring doesn't slide around your lanyard. When I did this, I wrapped half the yarn section around one way and then cut off the end, and then wrapped the other half around the other way and cut off the extra. 

 Finished Product!