What I’m Loving

I haven’t done this link up in a very long time, or so it seems. So here I am, linking up with the fantastic Jamie at this kind of love.

I’m loving my Clarisonic!

I am so in love with this. My face has never felt cleaner in my life. It’s a worthy investment for sure.

This workout video from BodyRock

Looked easy enough… kicked my booty in 10 minutes!

Loving these shoes…

Loving these mixing bowls:

They have lids and a plastic grip on the bottom. Best investment of money ever!

Loving Keystone and my new snowboard boots.

They have pink fur inside

Speaking of pink… I’m loving my red hair color

Sorry for the weird facial expressions. I feel silly taking photos of myself and the sun was in my face!

oh… and it was windy!

I’m loving this camera bag:

 

And as always, I’m loving this man!

What are you loving today?!

13 for 2012 ;-)

I wrote this huge post… and then I realized that you all don’t need to know the nity grity details of every. single. goal. I have made this year. So here is a list:

1. Read more. The first goal is to read at least 2 books a month. I love reading, and realized that I haven’t done very much of it lately.

2. Plan our trips better. We love to travel, but have been slacking in the planning department. Which usually means our trips are very last minute and thrown together. So this year, we are going to plan for it more… oh and step one is to open a Savings account for travel.

3. Become a better photographer. I love photography, really. Working in the field has also opened my eyes to how much there is to learn. So this year I’m doing Project 366, committing to shoot in manual only, and learning how to better my shots.

4. Watch at least one documentary a week. I love documentaries, I love learning about history, I love learning new things. A friend of mine posted a link to the Top Documentaries. These are awesome, there are hundreds of documentaries and most are totally free to watch. No downloading needed.

5. Become healthy. I’ve been healthy, and in general I am pretty healthy. But I’d like to get rid of the jiggle in my thighs, and tone my arms and butt a bit more. I really just want to create a healthier lifestyle for the husband and myself.

6. Do house chores throughout the week. I am one of those people who always leaves everything for one day in the month. This includes, vacuuming, cleaning, grocery shopping, laundry, dusting and so on to just one day… and this one day ends up being the worst day of my life as I run around the house trying to do 12 loads of laundry, clean out the fridge and vacuum the floors. So, in 2012… I am going to attempt to get things done throughout the week and not waste my weekends.

7. 30 for 30 Challenge: I’ve been meaning to do this since I started this little bloggity of mine. I found Kendi’s blog and fell in love with her and the idea of using the items you have in your closet. I have a shopping problem… however I need to get it under control… so I am challenging myself to do the 30 for 30 for at least 1 month in every season.

8. Work out at least 3 times a week. I need to get back on the workout path. So I have decided to reward myself. Every workout I complete, I put $5.00 in our travel savings account. Three workouts a week is $15.00, that’s $60 a month… and if you are as good as me at using a calculator… it’s $720 a year. Which can go a long way when it comes to vacations… and only if I’d work out 5 days a week…

9. BUY a house and move. While this is more of a need rather then a goal, I’m putting it on here because it’s one of the many things on our bucket list. We’ll most likely be moving at the end of May beginning of June and will have our very first house bought by this time.

10. Be a better blogger. The last few months of 2011, I sort of dropped off the face of the earth, or at least the bloggy world. This is totally due to my lack of organization these past few months. I’m never disorganized, but apparently there is a first of everything. So, this year… I will blog at least 5 times a week. welllllll I will try!

11. Be responsible with money. I am awful with money. Really… the more I have, the more I spend. The worst thing is that the hubs is kind of the same way. We spend a ton on travel. Any time we have a few extra pennies we book a trip, or buy a new car or a new computer, or a new TV or… you get the idea. SO, this year, we’re trying to be responsible without really giving up our travel. So we’re cutting back on TVs, computers, anddddd sadly shoes.

12. Clean out our belonging. We have a lot of crap. Most of it in boxes, sitting in the basement of my parents’ house. We need to clean it up, get rid of things we don’t want to move. Sell the furniture off before we move into a new house. I refuse to move things we don’t want or want to replace with us.

13. Be happy.

Project 366: Week 2

Day 8 was Grocery day. I actually made a list and shopped from it. To make things better, I made everything I planned to and didn’t run to the grocery store for anything all week. Day 9 was my first encounter with a Green Monster. It was okay. I might have putt a little too much peanut butter in it.

Day 10 was Chicken Burrito Bar night. I tried to make this a bit healthier and it turned out delish according to husband and awful according to me. I usually flavor the chicken with a tomato salsa and season the beans more. Day 11 was the first snow storm of 2012. It was an awesome day to sit at home, sip tea and work away.

Day 12: Hubs took the day off and we headed out to the mountains for a Thursday of snowboarding. Keystone had just gotten fresh snow, it was about 38 degrees and no one on the slopes. It was pretty close to heaven.

On Day 13 I decided that I wanted to make some creme brulee. It turned out amazing! Finally Day 14. Mammoth home opener and the retirement of Brian Langtry’s #6 jersey. How ironic that our team wins by 6 points?!

6 for #6

For those of you who have been following along since the beginning of this little bloggy you know that the sports I follow are hockey and indoor lacrosse. Yesterday, was the season opener for my team, the Colorado Mammoth!!!

It was also the retirement ceremony for Brian Langtry. One of the greats of Lacrosse history. His number 6 jersey was raised to the rafters to forever be immortalized in the Mammoth history.

This is what the Mammoth site had to say about Langtry _Source:

The Colorado Mammoth retired the #6 jersey of Brian Langtry and raised it to the Pepsi Center rafters on Saturday evening in an Opening Night pregame ceremony. Langtry joins lacrosse legend Gary Gait as the only two Mammoth players to have their jerseys retired by the franchise.

The Massapequa, New York native played for the Mammoth from 2003-2011 and retired in October as the team’s all-time leader in goals scored. He is also second in franchise history in assists and total points. But, said Mammoth President & General Manager Steve Govett in his address, what he appreciated about the pesky right-hander above all else extended well beyond his scoring marks.

“It’s Brian’s passion that I admire the most. There are no secrets with Brian; he would rip his heart from his chest to play the game of lacrosse.”

Langtry, 35, was joined on stage by his wife, children, mother and brothers. On the field for the ceremony were students and faculty from Challenge School, the school in the Cherry Creek district where the retired lacrosse player teaches.

Shortly after the Washington (D.C.) Power franchise relocated to Denver in the summer of 2002 and became the Colorado Mammoth, Langtry earned a spot on the roster when he wowed coaches and front-office staff at an open tryout. Following the team’s inaugural season in 2003, Langtry was named the National Lacrosse League’s Rookie of the Year.

In 2006, he scored 10 points and five goals in three playoff games, culminating with a Champion’s Cup victory and the organization’s lone NLL title. He holds franchise single-game records for goals (9) and points (13), which the forward achieved in a March, 2008 game in Portland. The 2009 campaign was the best of Langtry’s career, as he led the team with 38 goals and 79 points.

Nine months ago, in a must-win in Edmonton, the team’s vocal leader joined an exclusive club as he reached the 500 career-point plateau. His bronze medal-winning performance at the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships last May would be the last box lacrosse game Langtry would ever play. The Mammoth announced Langtry’s retirement in October; on Saturday night, the organization immortalized the star.

“You people, I played for you, I love the fans of Colorado,” said Langtry.

To the great pleasure of the fans at the Pepsi center, the Mammoth kicked the Swarm’s butt by a nice 6 points! How ironic that on the night we honor one of our amazing players, we win by exactly the number he proudly wore on his jersey for 9 years!

Project 366

Since it is a Leap Year, I thought it would be right to make the original Project 365 into 366. There is something I love about leap years. Maybe it’s because they only happen once every 4 years, or the fact that my paternal grandfather, who I never met, was born on a leap year and almost on the 29th. However, I have big plans for this year and a good gut feeling that this year will be epic.

For 2012, every Sunday I will post pictures of the week that past. So here is the first week of the year!

We brought in the year with some delicious food and drinks. I spent the second day of the year trying to exchange a pair of pants for jeans, and ended up with my very first pair of jeggings… which I am now in love with. Period.

I dedicated the third day of the year to doing laundry. One of my goals this year is to do laundry on a weekly basis and not leave it until we literally have no clothing to wear to start washing. So I washed, dried and folded about 6 loads of laundry. On the fourth day of the year, I decided to get my tennis shoes on and do some cardio. OHHHH and did it feel good to get back into the working out!

On the 5th day of the year, the hubs, my brother and I went to see Sherlock Holmes. We had a Groupon for a large popcorn and a ticket at the Movie Tavern so we decided to make it a dinner and a move. Had some greasy bar food and enjoyed the movie! Day 6 of the year was filled with a ridiculous amount of work for me, so when everyone got home we ordered pizza, opened a few bottles of wine and played Munchkin. Which may or may not be one of the funniest games.

On day 7 of the year. I went to brunch with a good friend of mine that I have known for about 13 years know. Which is the majority of both of our lives. She’s practically a sister… not to mention that she is dating my brother in law, so our life long joke of being sisters may actually become reality. We had some delicious tea, scones and English pies at a little tea shop called English Tealeaves. It was fantastic.

What did you all do this week?

Shoot in Manual

I’ve got a list of resolutions/goals that I’ve been working on. I’m trying to make them as detailed as possible. Ensuring that I set plans and make outlines that will help me achieve them by the end of the year. I’m also diving them in sections and possibly color-coding them… that may or may not be my OCD kicking in.

However, the one thing I know will be one of my major goals this year is improving my photography. My Christmas gifts were all related to photography, which made me realize how much support I have from my husband, parents, in-laws, siblings and friends.

One of the first things I started doing and have done for the past 7 days has been to take a photo a day as part of my Project 366. I think there were a great number of bloggers and people who did Project 365 last year, and I thought it was a great way to document a year in our lives. I might just continue to do it for every year. Every Sunday, I’ll post the pictures from the previous week, with short descriptions.

Within this umbrella of improving my photography skills is also the need to learn more about my camera and it’s manual settings. While I already shoot in manual and without the built in flash, there is so much to learn about photography. This is where shoot in manual comes in.

This is really simple, I’ve taken a pledge to only shoot in manual for the year of 2012 and learn all I can about my camera. When you sign up you get tips and tricks from Mark Cafiero (my boss, professional wedding photographer and founder of Chimpsy) on how to step out of the little green box and go manual!

I’m not doing this as part of my job, as my job doesn’t really require me to take photos, I’m doing it because I believe that I have a great deal to learn about this art form, and I know for a fact that shooting in manual has already improved my photography a great deal!!!

So, if you feel so inclined, I invite you to join me in the Project 366 as well as shoot in manual!

Hope you all are having a great start to your 2012! I’ll be back tomorrow with photos of the week and Monday with my list of resolutions.