Wedding Invitations

The wedding is less than five months away!  I can't believe how quickly time has flown by!  I've been debating on whether or not we should do our own wedding invitations.  After seeing the costs to have them done other places, we decided to print our own.

One day while shopping at Hobby Lobby, I looked at their DIY wedding invitations and found some that I loved.  I showed Kevin and he liked them too.  The kit includes 25 wedding invitations & envelopes and reply cards & envelopes for only $19.99 (for some reason they are listed at $24.99 online, but were only $19.99 in the store).

They are much cuter in person, but you get the idea.  You can find them here.

I decided I would keep my eye out in case Hobby Lobby had a sale on their wedding merchandise.  As luck would have it, my mom and I went to Hobby Lobby on Saturday night and all of their wedding stuff was 50% off!  You can imagine how disappointed I was when there were only two boxes left of the invitations I wanted.  We asked an employee if they had any more, and they said no.  But, they said they could write me a rain check that would be good for the sale price.  So, we bought the two boxes they had, and got a rain check for the rest.  I'm just waiting to get the phone call saying they are back in stock so I can go get the rest!

On our trip to Hobby Lobby, I also got our cake topper and unity sand at 50% off!  Craft stores like Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Jo-Ann Fabrics, etc. are great places to look for wedding stuff, especially when they have a sale ;)

Do you have any money saving wedding tips?

Get Healthy, Not Skinny: Workouts

This is post #2 for the Get Healthy, Not Skinny link up I'm participating in.  My first post explained my story and my goals for this link up.  Today, I'm talking about my current and future workout plans.

My fiance and I had been really good about going for walks (with the dog) once and sometimes twice a day for about 2-3 weeks, and then winter hit.  I live in Michigan, and our winters can be pretty unpredictable sometimes.  We had two days of rain and 50 degree weather, and now it has been snowing for several days, and is supposed to continue for another day or two.


Kevin and Admiral playing in the snow this weekend.

Admiral loves playing in the snow :)

The cold weather and snow makes it hard for us to go out and walk, so my cardio hasn't been what I want it to be.  I don't have a gym membership (don't really want to pay the big $$ for one right now) and we don't have any cardio equipment at home.  So right now, my cardio is pretty much non-existent.

I have been doing the workouts I find on toneitup.com every once in a while.  They are super easy and don't require any gym equipment, except maybe a couple light weights.  My goal is to do at least one of these workouts every day.  They aren't time consuming and only take maybe 20 minutes to complete.  I'd love to do one before work and one after work, especially on days we don't go for walks.

Once the snow starts going away, I want to get back to walking at least once a day.  My ultimate goal is that my walks turn in to runs.  Even though I hate running, I love how I feel after a run.  I hope that by putting these goals in writing, I'll hold myself more accountable.  Head over to Cherish's blog to read about other bloggers who want to get get healthy.

I'll leave you with some more pictures of Admiral playing in the snow this weekend.

Saw It, Pinned It, Did It: Valentine's Printable

I am in love with printables.  They are a super easy way to add quick, cute decorations for any holiday or occasion.  I don't have any Valentine's decorations for my house (although I've seen some super cute things from this link up that I might have to make), but I wanted something valentine-ish to put up in my living room.  So of course, I headed to pinterest to find a cute Valentine's printable and I found this great pin:

Source: theviewfromfiveten.com via Ericka on Pinterest

There are so many cute ones on this site, but I choose this one:

I printed it out on cardstock as a 5x7 to fit my frame.  I cut it out, put it in my frame, and ta-da!  Easy Valentine's Day decor!


Photo collage on my living room wall.



That is Kevin's Fantasy Football Trophy next to it...he INSISTED that the trophy go in the living room.

Head on over to the Saw It. Pinned It. Did It. link up that Katie and Steph are hosting to see other great pinterest projects from other bloggers!



Get Healthy, Not Skinny

You might remember one of my New Year's Resolutions was to get healthier.  With my wedding coming up in just 5 months, I want to look and feel great!  Not to mention, I'd love to feel more confident in my bathing suit on the beach this summer.  I found this really great Get Healthy, Not Skinny link up that I think will help hold me accountable for getting healthy.

I've been a little nervous to share my "story" on here, but for the sake of getting healthy, I thought I'd do it.  And maybe there are others out there who can relate.  So here it goes...

First of all, I don't think I'm fat and I'm not intentionally trying to loose weight.  My goal is to get healthier, get in better shape, and get toned.  If I loose a few pounds in the process, great.  If not, that's fine too.  For me, it's more about how I feel, not about what the scale says.

A little background:  Not to sound conceited, but I've always been pretty thin (except when I was a baby...man, did I have some rolls!).  It's just my body type.  I've always been involved in sports and have been playing them since I was in first grade: basketball, softball, cheerleading, volleyball, and track.  When I got to high school, I could only do one sport per season, so I did basketball, cheerleading, and softball (all four years of high school).  I also took a "fitness & wellness" class my junior & senior year of high school, where we got to work out in the gym for the class hour.  All during high school I was working out anywhere from 5-7 days a week and sometimes more than once a day (fitness&wellness class, practices, games, conditioning, etc.).  Since I was working out so much, I didn't pay attention to what I was eating, and I would just eat whatever I wanted.  It didn't matter so much then because I was burning so many calories with my work outs every day.  My senior year of high school I was in the best shape of life.

Cheerleading in the early days. (I'm in the back, first one from the left...I'm a "base")

Varsity Softball Team (I'm sitting on the ground with my hands on my head)

After high school, I went to a local college (no sports teams) and worked.  I played some church basketball during the winter for a couple of years, and some slow-pitch softball during the summers.  However, my exercising was no where near what it was in high school.  And my bad eating habits continued.

Playing slow-pitch softball

After I finished college and moved out on my own, I really started noticing how out of shape I was.  It wasn't  what the scale said, it was how I felt.  I wasn't as fast (running in softball) as I used to be.  And I wasn't as confident with my body like I used to be.  My body wasn't "toned" like before.  The first apartment I lived in provided a gym membership, so I tried to go to the gym once or twice a week.  I did that for a while, but didn't keep up on it like I should have.

Really need to get back to snowboarding as a winter exercise activity!

Fast forward to today.  I'm getting married on June 29.  I want to look and feel great on my wedding.  I have become more aware of what I have been eating.  My fiance and I don't go out to eat as often as we used to.  We are better about cooking meals at home and eating healthier snacks.  We've been going on walks more often (although this cold and snowy winter weather is not helping our outdoor activities).  I joined the Love Your Body Challenge on ToneItUp.com.  I won't lie, I haven't been doing the challenges as I should, but I have found some great, quick, easy, and fun workout routines that I've been trying, and hope to incorporate them more in to my every day routine.

I'm hoping this Get Healthy, Not Skinny link up that Cherish is doing will help motivate me and keep me accountable for getting healthy in time for my wedding day.

Birchbox v. Glam Bag

You've probably seen one of my posts about my monthly Birchbox.  I've been receiving Birchboxes for about six months now, and I've always been happy with them.  I recently heard about something called Glam Bag from Ipsy.  It's the same concept and price as Birchbox, and I've heard people say they really like it, so I thought I'd try it out.  I received my first Glam Bag a couple weeks ago and I LOVED it!  Great samples, and big sized samples too.

Comparing my January Birchbox and Glam Bag, I would say I liked my Glam Bag better than my Birchbox this month.  I think I received bigger and better samples in my Glam Bag.  On Ipsy's website, you can see past glam bag's, and when I compared those to my past Birchboxes (here, here, here, and here) I felt like the samples in the Glam Bags were better, so I decided to cancel my subscription to Birchbox and just receive Glam Bag.

Here are a few of the differences I've noticed between the two:

- Birchbox gives you points for various things such as referring friends, posting reviews of products, and buying products.  You can redeem the points for $$ to spend on Birchbox's website.  From what I can tell, Glambag does not do anything like this.

- When you sign up for Birchbox and Glambag, you fill out a short survey/profile about yourself.  Birchbox tries to send you samples that fit your likes, skin type, etc.  It seems like all Glambags are the same (for the most part), so they aren't necessarily created to your specific profile.

- Birchbox comes in a box each month and Glambags come in a little makeup bag each month.

Overall, I think it's just personal preference about which one is better.  For me, I decided on Glambag, although I've always been happy with Birchbox too.

Do you subscribe to Birchbox or Glambag?  What do you think?  Do you subscribe to anything else like these?

Saw It. Pinned It. Did It: DIY Grout Cleaner

Today I'm linking up with Katie and Steph for Saw It. Pinned It. Did It.  And I'm featuring some DIY grout cleaner!  How un-exciting, I know.  But let me tell you, it worked!  I was cleaning my bathroom this weekend and realized how gross and dirty the grout was on the tile floor.  I'm embarrassed of how dirty it was, but for the sake of SI.PI.DI., I'm showing you.

I remembered pinning some grout cleaner on one of my pinterest boards, and since I had time, I decided I would try it out.

Original Pin:

Source

The original "recipe" called for ammonia, but I didn't have any, so I just skipped it.  On the website of
the original pin, it has the original formula and also a halved and quartered version. Since my bathroom was pretty small, I used the quartered version:

1 3/4 cup water
2 Tbsp baking soda
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp ammonia (I didn't have any, so I left this out of mine)
1 Tbsp vinegar

I mixed the ingredients in my spray bottle and found an old toothbrush that I would use to scrub the grout (they make grout brushes for this purpose, but I didn't have one). I sprayed some of the cleaning mixture on to the grout lines and let it sit for a few seconds and then started scrubbing away with my toothbrush.

After I scrubbed one row, I wiped it away with a clean towel. And boy was I impressed! My grout lines weren't perfectly clean, but they were wayyyyy better than before! It didn't take me too long too complete my entire bathroom: probably only 30-45 minutes.

Here are some before and after shots of my bathroom floor tiles:

Before

After

The top half has been cleaned and the bottom half has not...you can really see the difference!

Now every time I'm in the bathroom, I stare at the floor in amazement of the clean grout (is that weird?). I'm hoping to do this on kitchen tile grout this weekend if I have time. I think my kitchen grout lines are more dirty than my bathroom was, so I can't wait to see the results when I finish!

The Facts of Me

Have you wanted to know some weird interesting facts about me? Well good, because today I am doing a fun link up with Whitney from I Wore Yoga Pants to Work called The Facts Of Me. I hope you enjoy reading these little tid-bits as much as I enjoyed thinking of them :)

- I tend to eat my food one item at a time. For example, if I have ham, potatoes, and green beans on my plate, I will eat all of my green beans, then all of my potatoes, then my ham. I don't mix it up, and I usually save my favorite food item to eat last. Weird, I know. 

- I also don't like my food to touch each other. I'm getting better about this. If my mashed potatoes touch my ham, I can live with it. However, on Christmas, my little cousin had a pickle and jello on her plate, and they were touching and I couldn't stand it. Again, weird, I know. 

- I love my dog like he is my child. I didn't know I could love an animal this much.  I mean, how could you not love that adorable furry face?

- I played three sports all four years of high school: basketball, cheerleading, and softball. And yes, I consider cheerleading a sport. 

- I LOVE football. It's my favorite sport. Baseball is a close second. I'm a huge Detroit Lions and Detroit Tigers fan. 

- I love getting a good deal shopping. I can't justify paying full price for things when I know I can find it on sale later, or find something similar for cheaper somewhere else. I love a great deal :) 

- I'm a little bit of a neat/organization freak. I can't stand when things are out of place or dirty (just ask my fiance). However, if you ever come to my house, you will see that this is a constant work in progress, and my house is far from organized or perfectly clean. 

- I'm addicted to Pinterest (you can follow me using the link on the right side of this page) and Diet Dr. Pepper.

- I love *NSYNC.  I was heartbroken when they broke up.  I'm still convinced that I'm going to marry Justin Timberlake.  It doesn't matter that he's already married and I'm getting married in 5 months...does it?

Ok, I think that's enough about me for one day. Hopefully I haven't scared you away. Thank you Whitney for hosting this fun link up today!