Wanna know more about me?

After seeing fellow bloggers have some fun with this, I decided to start a Formspring.me page.

Feel free to ask me anything. If it’s not an absolutely weird question, chances are, I’ll answer it!

I’mma be…crafty!

Back in December, I entered a contest with Team CAC (Christian Artist Crafters) on Etsy for a huge giveaway basket of items. I couldn’t believe it when I saw that I won one of the baskets! I was SUPER stoked!!

After looking at the haul of things I received, I thought it would be fun to kind of pay this generosity forward to my readers, but I had no idea how I was going to go about this.

About a week ago, That Wife blogged about Craft it Forward. She generously offered her readers a chance to receive a handmade gift from her, and I found out this weekend, that I was one of the lucky 5! YAY!

So, I’m going to Craft It Forward too! I’m totally stealing That Wife’s idea and making it a random drawing to readers.

A bonus? Not only will you get a handmade gift from me, but you will also get a gift from the basket that I won from Team CAC! I think it would be kind of fun-hoggish (yeah, probably made up that word) to keep all the wonderful handmade things I received to myself!

Here’s the deets:

• I’m randomly picking 5 commenters on this post to get a Craft It Forward package from me.
• If you enter, you should Craft It Forward to 5 other people as well. It’s a chain thing, yo. I’m not going to twist your arm to do it, but I think it would be neat to keep this thing going.
• Winners will get their stuff before taxes are due. That’s my personal deadline.
• I do a lot of crafts. You could get anything from a scarf, to an apron, to heck, maybe even some decorated cookies! Yup, I’m random like that. I might even ask the winners a little about themselves to get a better idea of what might be awesome to send them!
• I am by NO means a professional! That’s another reason why I’m including something from the Team CAC basket I won, just in case you hate my skills.

To enter, just simply leave a comment. Simple as that. This little nifty contest ends after I wake up from the king cake (carb/sugar) induced coma on Wednesday, February 17th!  You have PLENTY of time to enter!

Some kind of wonderful…

Three weeks ago, I remember walking into a dog boarding place to pick you up. Boy, did you catch my husband’s eye! Your picture was online, from an adoption agency called Yelp that helps to link great dogs to people who want a pet! Hubs thought you were perfect for us, and me being a dog lover, I was smitten too.

We brought you home, and you slept on my lap the whole car ride. I was sure you had to potty, but I remember the fosters telling us you couldn’t go outside for some reason. We had no puppy pads, so I went out alone really quick to PetSmart while the hubs watched you and held you. Poor thing, you couldn’t wait, so he tried to make you go in the bath tub. You were scared, so he put you down on the floor and you ended up going on the tile floor…no biggie.

I remember measuring out your Science Diet food (which we have changed out for higher ranked food since then), and watching you eat it faster than an alligator on a slab of meat. Competitive, I thought…I guess you and your siblings fought for food.

I remember afterwards, you started showing a little love for snuggling to my leg. Sigh…I think at that point I was in love.

You were pretty shy at first. I remember how you reacted to meeting my husband’s family. You were a little scared, hid behind me and the hubs, but ultimately showed your playful side. Typically, after 5 minutes of playing, you would put your paws up to be held and would fall asleep in my arms.

You got a little braver. You started to think that my hands were better than any chew toy around…OUCH!! Thankfully, peanut butter and a kong toy lessened that considerably.

I remember them spaying you at the shelter, and then I got to bring you home. You were loopy, and at first, hated the neck pillow that prevented you from playing with the spay incision. After a while, though, you found it to be a comfy pillow and fell asleep on my lap. I love these moments.

It was finally time to bring you to a vet. As I walked in, holding you with my 28934 questions that I had about being a good puppy mom, you started whimpering. You weren’t a fan of this new place, but eventually started getting playful after the nurse was done with the painful stuff (i.e. temperature taking…poor dogs).

One of the cutest things about you lately, is that you like to lay on your belly as I cook. You’re just watching, relaxing and just still learning about my husband and I’s lives. It’s so great!

I also notice that you’re little fears that you had at first are fading away, but at times, when you show some new ones, it’s great that you understand that we’re here for you. We really love you, Millie. I can’t wait to write about you more!

Here is Millie at this very moment…sleeping at my feet.

Mardi Gras!

My grandma used to be quite the wreath maker, so when I visited her house, she gave me a wreath that she had already covered in garland but didn’t want to finish, since she has 4 Mardi Gras wreaths already.

All I did was made a cute bow, using the BowDaBra (miracle worker, seriously) and a couple of Mardi Gras things that I found at Hobby Lobby! I really dig it…just don’t mind the door. We’re lazy bums who STILL haven’t painted our door yet.

I can’t believe Mardi Gras weekend is next weekend! Whoa!!

Cheap Cheap

I am the product of my parents, who are SUPER money savvy. Growing up, our house had one 25″ TV, and we thought anything bigger was just plainly excessive. I learned early on that Sears was THE place to shop for clothes, and only if Mom had coupons to lump with sales. Luckily for Mom, I hated still hate clothes shopping. I was cheap/easy to shop for…I just told her to choose whatever in a cart and we’d go on our way.

When I got older, I became the person who would water down my shampoo until the suds no longer existed. I never even thought to visit a make-up counter, because, well, Cover Girl was just as good for $5 (that has changed ever so slightly in recent years…just slightly). When it came to clothes, t-shirts and cheap jeans were the way to go. I trekked across campus in my Old Navy flip flops regularly.

I had a hard transition into the workplace. I would give serious side eye to pants that were over $30, and shirts? Why are they more than $10?!? I remember getting my first paycheck, which was leaps and bounds more than my college paycheck. I sucked it up and bought 3 pairs of work pants, and 5 shirts. It was a little over $300, and I almost choked. $300 for 8 pieces of clothes? What is going on?

I’m not what you would consider poor, but I am crazy crazy cheap when it comes to things like clothes and accessories. I can tell you I still own and wear blouses that I had for college banquets. In fact, I still own stuff from when I used to work at Lane Bryant, about 5 years ago. This is me and the LSU chancellor in my fantastic leadership days…gah I hate being at the bottom of the totem pole now!

See that shirt? I’m wearing that very shirt right now. It’s missing the top button now, and  I’m  just too lazy to care, so I wear a camisole underneath it. I can’t believe I’m admitting the extreme of my cheapness right now. That shirt was like, $30, but I needed a collared blouse for banquets and had no time to wait for sales.

I cringe at the thought of designer stuff. The thought of $80+ jeans, $300 purses, and $400 heels really frustrates me. I can’t get into it. Mainly, who the heck is staring at my shirt tags to see what I wear? I can get the good stuff at JCPenney’s for a FRACTION of the cost of something from say, the Ralph Lauren line at Dillard’s.

I can understand the women who think that it gives them a confidence boost, but honestly, I’m the klutz who spills salsa on my shirt at lunch. My Tide-To-Go stick gets more usage than my office pencil most days, so why spend excessive amounts of money on clothes that COULD get ruined and no one else knows about but me?

This weekend, I cringed when I handed over my debit card to pay for two pairs of jeans and a bra at Lane Bryant for $60. I needed jeans…my old ones wore down into making holes in the legs, but gah, I was really hurting at the thought of trying to keep up with my Drab to Fab promise this year. I’m sure this new wardrobe thing will be harder than I thought.

I’m sure I have some readers who greatly disagree with me, and that’s fine. I’d really like to hear your thoughts on why the label matters to you, though.

Also, any tips on how to get me to stop cringing at the thought of spending money on new clothes? It’s pretty bad..

Cheap Centerpiece!

I have been wanting to add some cute, classic centerpieces to our dinner table for quite some time. I was able to do this centerpiece for less than $20. I’m probably going to decorate it for every holiday too. I’m pretty excited!

Don’t hate on the iPhone pic!

This isn’t too fancy, but it’s pretty classic. I purchased two hurricane vases from Ulta, of all places, because they were clearancing out these vases because they were free with fragrance purchases around Christmas. Afterwards, they were both $6.99 to purchase!

Last night, I went to Hobby Lobby to buy some fabric (yep, I’m sewing now..can’t wait to blog about it!) and found these 2 candles for 50% off, as well as the marbles. Total cost? About $9.00…gotta love sales!

I can’t wait to dress these with some Mardi Gras ribbon and beads!

Forget customer service, just be “healthy”

You might not know this about me, but my first job was working in a grocery store. Winn-Dixie to be exact. I worked there for almost 6 years, starting at a menial cashier and then working as an assistant manager, mainly in the cash office. Talk about stress!

Anyway, I worked there and the store strived to give excellent customer service. It was company policy and my store manager took great pride in having high marks within the district. I remember them posting scanning speeds per minute every week, and it was like a contest to get about 20-30 items per minute. It was crazy looking back how silly I was…

At one point, Winn-Dixie tried to motivate us. You would get points for good scanning speed, high manager remarks and hours you worked. You could redeem them for  things like gift cards and other random items. I remember redeeming my points for a car emergency kit (which resides in my trunk still) and a Tae Bo video set. Haha…Tae Bo was the shiz!

Getting to the point, we were rewarded for doing our jobs. It was motivating to make it a point to give the customer the best service available.

Now, enter Whole Foods.

See, Whole Foods…you think great company, organic, wonderful customer service. They aren’t rewarding for that, though. They are gonna increase your employee discount at Whole Foods depending solely on your health.

That’s right, your health. More notably, your BMI, which is the WORST indicator of health! All employees get a base discount of 20% off  in the store. If your BMI is lower than 30, you can get up to 30% off instead! Oh boy…oh BROTHER!

I’m really mad about this. My BMI is 35ish and because of my weight, if I worked at Whole Foods, I would be considered an unhealthy employee and given less of a discount. I know I’m overweight, but this blog brings up a good point about BMI. Apparently, Johnny Depp’s BMI considers him overweight…sigh….he wouldn’t get his 30% off for sure then!

So, I hate to be extreme, but I’m pretty sure I’m not shopping at Whole Foods for a while. This policy just grates on my nerves and seems a little discriminatory, don’t you think? Thoughts?

Don’t Mess with New Orleans, folks!

Image source

This guy, Garrett Hartley is the most favorite guy in all of New Orleans right now. Why? Well, he kicked the winning field goal in overtime against the Vikings for the NFC Championship game.

Yep, that’s right folks. Hell froze over and if you look up, watch out for pig poop, because the sky is full of swine flying around…the Saints are going to the Superbowl.

Good for them. Really, I’m happy for them, but before I progress, I must express that I’m rooting for this guy right here on Superbowl Sunday. Sorry Mom, Dad, Bro, Sisters…I know I’m still disowned.

Image source

Anyway, I’d like to just inform you about the people of New Orleans. They are pretty strong-minded and full of tradition. You mess with tradition…you mess with them. So, for as long as I can remember, the cheer for the New Orleans Saints has been:

Who Dat?
Who Dat?
Who Dat say they gonna beat ‘dem Saints?

Shirts, bumper stickers and flags are adorned with “Who Dat?” and have been for years. However, when the Saints became NFC champs, the NFL decided that they would TRY to capitalize on this and give cease and desist orders to all small business owners printing “Who Dat?” on shirts, etc. The NFL claimed it was in the Saints trademark, and you can’t use it without official NFL permission or whatever.

Let’s just say New Orleans, heck, LOUISIANA was PISSED!

Heck, our own Senator urged NFL to sue him. Pretty darn sweet. Small businesses definitely didn’t keep her mouth shut about the issue either.

Despite not being a Saints fan, this issue really made me angry and really made me proud of my hometown for standing up to the big bossy N-F-L. Guess what? Turns out NFL has NO rights to “Who Dat?” and because of that, there are “Who Dat?” shirts being printed ALL over the area once again. Yay N’awlins!

Like I said, don’t mess with New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina, the NFL was just a small rain cloud in the Who Dat? parade that’s going on non-stop in the city right now.

Introducing Millie

Last Saturday was supposed to be the Yelp event for the hubs and I to attend. That Wednesday, I joined the Facebook group for Yelp! BR and that’s when we first saw Amelia. Amelia was listed as a terrier/Australian Shepherd mix, and I was like huh? I didn’t see either breeds in her, but I trusted the Yelp folks. Hubs was smitten.

Friday, I found this video on the Yelp Facebook group. It was a video of a news segment publicizing adoption day for Yelp. Guess who was on there? Amelia! I immediately called the hubs and told him that I bet Amelia is already adopted. She’s FAMOUS! The hubs had already been in contact with the Yelp folks about Amelia, so he called the woman he talked to and they said 5 families wanted her! Somehow, hubs convinced the Yelp folks to allow us to pick her up that Friday and adopt her!! After talking to the Yelp folks, we found out that the Facebook person made a mistake. She is a border collie/cocker spaniel mix. Now, I can DEFINITELY see those in her!

So, we went on a whim without meeting her and told them we wanted her! We went to pick her up, and when the foster parents brought the litter in a box, Amelia’s head popped up! So cute!! She was obviously tired, though, because she let me hold her for a good while while we finalized the adoption. When we took her home, we decided to call her “Millie”, because it was close to Amelia to where it would not confuse her, and it just seemed like a better fit to me.

It’s been a week already since we’ve had her and boy, have there been some changes!!

• On Day 1, we got her toys galore. She couldn’t keep them in her mouth, because her jaw seemed pretty weak. Well, Millie can pull and tug against me now and squeak the heck out of her toys. It only took 5 minutes to wear her out during playtime. Now, it takes almost 45 minutes!
• On Day 1, she nibbled on mommy’s toes. On Day 5, she bit mommy so hard that she broke skin. Bad Millie! (Yes, I’m trying to get her out of this habit by yelping and offering her a chew toy.)
• On Day 1, we couldn’t take her outside. Something to do with her booster shots, and now she sniffs, plays and resists on her leash. She pottied for the first time outside yesterday! C’mon Millie…momma hates puppy pads!
• On Day 1, she was very stressed and whiney. She now wags her tail like crazy and BARKS!
• On Day 1, she hated her kennel. She now walks in it when we have to go to work or when it’s bedtime!
• On Day 1, she woke mommy up every 2 hours at night to use the restroom. She does it every 4 hours now.

Girlfriend is kicking butt and taking names, for sure! Watching this puppy grow has been very rewarding and fun. I can’t wait to see what Week 2 brings. We love you, Millie!

Millie saying hi to everyone! I was making kissy noises…she thought I was weird.

Why yes, Mommy. I do love Animal Planet.

The victim of her first Nylabone. Knocked out.

Week 2 Update!

I need to apologize to all of you. NaBloPoMo will definitely not be happening this month, unfortunately. After adopting our puppy, which I’m working on a post about currently, I’m finding that my time needs to be devoted to her and my husband at home.

I did promise weekly updates on my healthy lifestyle, though, so here goes!

Before: 272
Week 1: 264.9
Week 2: 260.6

Weekly Weight Difference: -4.3 lbs.
Total Weight difference: -11.4 lbs.
Percentage: 4.2% lost

My exercise has been playing with the puppy and puppy proofing the house, room by room. We’ve been cooking almost every night now, so calorie intake is way more under control! I’m thrilled with these results so far, and I know I should take measurements, but I need to find my tape measure first!

How has this past week been for you?