Hey-o! It's Friday!

Here's what I loved about this week:

1. I only had to work four days. Yep, for the first time ever, our district has Good Friday off and I'm loving it. I'm going to the gym, the derm's office for a check up on my skin, and gettin' my nails did. Word.

2. The boyfriend and I get to share the three day weekend off  - which is a rare occasion in this house. We plan on working on planting some flowers, dying Easter eggs, and maybe seeing American Reunion.

3. Ebates.com. I use Wallflowers from Bath & Body Works to make my house smell like I clean all the time and needed to purchase more. I decided to look online to see if would be cheaper and lo and behold it was with a coupon code. Just as I was about to purchase a commercial for Ebates.com came on and I decided to try it. Basically you shop through their site and then you get money back. Pretty cool! And I got a $5 bonus for signing up.


4. My blog got a bit of a facelift thanks to Jodi @ MooandPuppy Paper Shop. Jodi needed some help winning a bet and was offering free digital scrap paper for helping her win. I was able to choose some beautiful rainbow paper packs from her shop. I used her Rainbow T-Lines paper to change up the background which then made me want to make a new header and then a new Pinterest button.

{Rainbow Chevron Digital Paper - MooandPuppy Paper Shop}

5.  The absolute silliness that was my week. All week long I thought it was next week - literally showing up for meeting on Monday and Tuesday that are scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday. Why would I high five that? Well, since I stayed late Monday and showed up early on Tuesday I had extra time to get ahead and create some awesome lesson plans for the rest of the week and next. While I was not happy waking up at 5:30 in the a.m. on Tuesday it made things just a little easier and that's always good in my book.

Have a great weekend!

P.S. I'm linking up with Lauren over at From My Grey Desk for her High Five for Friday party. Head on over and check things out and celebrate your week too!

This week, I sat down and actually planned out all the meals for the week and even went grocery shopping on Sunday. I even printed this cute meal planner from IHeart Organizing - it was simple and perfect!

It felt great to come home after school each day and already know what to prepare and have everything on hand. How have I not done this sooner?!

One of the recipes I made this week was the bomb.com (do people still say that?)

It was found on Pinterest on one of the many marathon, procrastinatory pinning binges that have become my weekday nights. What is it about online grad school homework that makes you not want to do anything but what you're supposed to?

But back to the crazy good recipe, it's known as Penne a la Betsy from The Pioneer Woman (who I am quickly becoming a big fan of). Basically, it is some garlic, onion, tomato sauce, heavy cream, white wine, and basil that come together with some penne noodles to  really blow your mind. The first time I tasted the sauce I immediately thought I didn't make it. It was like restaurant good.


It was quite the production to make, at least at our house it was. When it came time to add the wine (why I wasn't drinking any already, not quite sure) we realized we still have not purchased a cork screw. No problem I thought, just Google "alternate ways to open wine bottle".

Which then lead to this scene.


Needless to say we weren't successful and had to pause cooking to run to the store to pick up a corkscrew and a new box of penne because I had already cooked the noodles and lets just say noodles are food not meant to be "rested"

Anywho, I highly recommend trying the recipe out for yourself, you won't be disappointed.

Have you tried any new recipes lately? Ever try something from Pinterest that was a total flop? (I am just waiting for the Pinterest fail blog to pop up**). Tell me about it!

** Someone's already on the ball, check out PinterestFail

It is super annoying to get all ready for one of your favorite tv shows to come on, all comfy in your spot, snack and beverage all ready, only to turn on the channel and see this:


@#$%! I had huge plans to watch some Dair action on Gossip Girl after a 6 week hiatus and DirecTV you spoiled my plans. Not my favorite way to end a Monday but all shall be right tomorrow when the episode is available online.

How was your day? Hope you didn't have a case of the Mondays (name that movie!)

This week flew by which is always fine by me. Here's five of my favorite things from this past week:

1. I ordered this bag from Layla Grace over spring break and it finally arrived on Monday. I love it. It is WAY roomier than I anticipated but it will be perfect for the spring/summer.

2. After visiting the derm over spring break and trying new medication my skin is nearly psoriasis free, which is hasn't been in almost 5 years. I now have white patches of skin instead of scaly, dry yuckiness which I will take any day.

3. My good friend, Jody. She has just been the absolute best this week helping me deal with having one one car due to the boyfriend having quite the accident on Saturday night (something I'm definitely NOT high fiving about!) I'm glad to have such a great friend in my life!

4. Refunds. Tax refunds. Insurance refunds. I love when money goes back into my pocket.

5. Weeknight BBQs. Nothing better than to relax with friends with a good burger and cold sodie. I'm definitely learning that I don't need to wait until the weekend to have a little fun.

Have a great weekend!

P.S. I'm linking up with Lauren @ From My Grey Desk for her High Five for Friday link party. Go check it out or write a post of your own!

Glitter makes everything better. One of my final projects of Spring Break was to make some pretty glitter eggs I saw over at Sew and the City


I couldn't find smooth Styrofoam eggs like the ones in the tutorial but happy to report the textured ones work just as well. My dining room table looks pretty happy with the bright, new placemats I purchased from Target. I think  I have been to Target every day this break...sometimes I just can't help it! I never like spending a ton of money at one time on stuff for the house, two pillows one day, placemats the next....my bank statement looks like I'm one step away for needing an intervention from being a Target addict.

And check out my new turquoise glass. I visited a new consignment shop out by my parent's house. It was small but had some nice items. Snagged this beauty for $10.

Well it's back to the grind tomorrow and usually I feel renewed after a break but with the nice weather and breezy schedule I've been keeping I'd rather stay on break. Only 45 more (school) days until summer!

That's "I Like Friday" for those that didn't stumble through 3 years of high school Spanish like I did. But it's true, I do indeed enjoy a good Friday.

Here are 5 things in no particular order that I am digging this week:

1. The gym and I have become friends again. As I type this I am getting ready for "Butts and Gutts" class - sore midsection and glutes hurrah!

2. Craftiness. I have been killing it this week in the craft department but haven't shared much on the blog. More to come about the fabric covered boxes ( a la Jen Jones at IHeart Organizing) that I'm working on.


3. The 5% I save at Target every time I shop there. Check out these cute pillows I scored. Regularly $19.99 but they were BOGO 50% off this week plus the 5% off making them $14.24. Boo-yah!



4. I got my Cardinals season tickets this week, yippee! More like 10 games but that is way more than I've ever been to in one season before. And did I mention that were a present from Mom and Dad? So we get to see the boys of summer for free...all summer. :)


5. I just discovered Spotify this week. How have I been missing this awesome FREE online streaming music service that has over 15 million songs? So far seems way better than Pandora. My go to songs right now are "We Are Young" by Fun and "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye.

I'm going to enjoy my last weekend of spring break with some more crafting, spring cleaning, and grad school work. Doesn't sound like much of a break does it?

Have a great weekend!

P.S. I'm linking up with Lauren over at From My Grey Desk for her High Five for Friday link party. Head on over at check it out!

I can't believe it has already been one year since getting the keys our abode. I remember closing like it was yesterday...how nervous I was signing all the papers, getting the keys, and the crazy whirlwind that followed.

Chris and I were a little too focused on buying furniture, picking paint colors, and finding friends to help move our stuff to take any day of closing pictures which totally bums me. Heck, Chris moved the sold sign within 5 minutes of walking in the door! Oh well, I still took plenty of pictures from that first week (actually the house inspection) of when it was mostly empty while we painted.

The blog has been an awesome record keeper of almost everything we done so far, from painting the mauve counter tops...

To installing a new kitchen faucet, painting the kitchen (and the guest bedroom and the entire first floor.)

We celebrated our first holiday (Easter), our 5th (dating) anniversary, had our first house party, and put up our first Christmas tree.


And we tackled the outside too - mostly with paint but we definitely made it our own.


And surprisingly a lot more. No longer should I complain about our house looking like we just moved in after seeing all the tasks we've completed in one year. It may not be an overhaul but hey, we are beginners and we have time on our sides :)

Here's to many more house anniversaries - looking forward to how we will continue to grow!