Motivated For The 18th Time

Today is November 6^th, 2013. Back in early October I hit -30 lbs. And then I started observations in the mornings and tutoring in the evenings. In between…school and work. I had no time to make myself any sort of food and for the last month 75% of my meals have been drive thru. Also, with the exception of one visit, I haven’t been to the gym in a month and a half. I’ve been too scared to weigh myself, but I’m pretty certain I’ve gained 15 lbs in the last month. My schedule has been kicking my ass and my weight is suffering because of it.

This past Monday, I woke up motivated like hell for like the 18^th time. What inspired this motivation? Not fitting into my jeans again, I’m back up a size in shirts, and a friend who is totally going beastmode at the gym and posting little video clips of workouts on instagram.

I went to the gym yesterday, did some running, and gut workout…since I don’t have abs yet, and squats. Man. I am hurtinggggg today.

I’m finally done with observations and although school is still crazy, that month break was all that I’m cool with. Time to take control of my life again and finish up this weight loss thing I started. Well not some much finish, because it’ll be a life long struggle, but to hit my goal and maintain.

I’m still not ballsy enough to post my current weight for the internet to read…instead, enjoy some motivational quotes courtesy of pinterest.
 
Have a bomb.com Wednesday everyone :]
P.S. Don't forget about that giveaway I'm part of! Have you entered yet?

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New Bookcase

So…I’ve kind of had an empty corner in my bedroom since we moved into the crack house this summer and for the last week my mind has been obsessed with adding a bookshelf. I’m still in the age range where Ikea furnishings are acceptable but was torn between that and a DIY pinterest project that was actually inspired by Kelley's coffee table! The only thing that kept me from going the DIY route was the wood crate things were only available online and I wanted them at my home ASAP. I was doing a Target shopping trip and came across a bookcase the perfect size and was more affordable than the one I had seen at Ikea…so boom, impromptu Target purchase!

I love pinterest and all the beautiful craftiness inspiration that it provides. Here are some bookcases that I loved!

Love the clean & organized look this has!

So pretty!

Flowers were a must have for me!

Photos!

Something that I had to include were the 3 old school cameras I own! I couldn’t wait to display those :] The couple of autographed baseballs I have from Joba Chamberlain and CC Sabathia made the bookcase also. What I didn’t have…books. I totally overestimated the number of books I own, so this fall I’m on the hunt for some to fill it with actual literature instead of junk. It's still under construction, but this is what we're looking at now...

Let's break down each shelf

Top shelf includes a DIY vase and some fake flowers, because I don't have the money to constantly replace dead real ones, and a "birthday bitch" headband Lime and Chels gifted me with on my 25th birthday. First shelf down we have some books on the top left...The Hunger Games trilogy and WTFO in both paperback and hardcover :] In front of those books is the first vintage looking camera, a Nikon something or other. The middle of the shelf is an empty picture frame for a photo I haven't printed yet and it sits on top of some cute handmade cards I got and totally love from World Market! The right side of that top shelf has the CC and Joba autographed baseballs which sit on my small collection of baseball books including a baseball roadtrip guide gifted by my friend Anna, Derek Jeter's "The Life You Imagine", and "162" by Steve Melia which tells the story of a dude who went to ALL of the Yankees games [home AND away] back in like 2011.

Second shelf down is a little more boring, to your left you see a black empty photo box, textbooks I couldn't sell back, and a mason jar with a silver glittery skull sitting on top of a pile of red glitter. I paid too much for that thing, but I love it.  

Shout out to my Yankee Stadium wall decor that I got for like 60% off!
Thanks for the heads up on that Marcus :] 

The middle shelf has some more books, including my 1st Chicken Soup For The Soul book from like 7th grade, my AUTOGRAPHED Lauren Conrad book, LA Candy, and book 5 of 7 in the Harry Potter series. In front of that is 2 decks of cards that haven't been used for like 7 years, and a film developing canister. Back in high school [and 2 weeks of college] I took a photo class where we had to develop our own film and print our own pictures using darkrooms and chemicals. It was legit my favorite class and the developing was my favorite part of the entire photo process! Moving on, next to that you see a super legit accordion Polaroid camera. Hey Ya! Last but not least, some middle school and high school yearbooks and "textbooks" which were sheets of paper bound with that coil binding thing. Oh and another photo-less frame.  

Last but not least...well least for now since they're so bare, the bottom two shelves. I ran out of books and cool stuff to display.  2nd to the bottom we have 2 super [kind of] rare Stonewall Brew bottles that I took from the Beerfest event I volunteered at. There's a cool story behind it, which makes them potentially valuable...so I took them. My last of 3 cool vintage hipster cameras, a Cannon something or other, the last of 3 empty frames, and a CLAM ticket book! I got these for my friends a couple Christmases ago and had my super talented friend Alma paint over the lame cover. It includes some of our favorite things! Bottom shelf is empty. Sad face.

Welp, that's it. What do you think? Anything I should add? What about book suggestions?!! HP is at the top of my list, and the Lauren Conrad beauty book but I can't really think of anything else. Let me know what's up.

Happy Tuesday kids!

Dark Chocolate Merlot Cookies

Remember when I made chocolaty goodness like a month ago? Finally blogging about it :]

I help my mom clean a house every other weekend and the lady we work for has a cabinet full of wine! She is super sweet and gives us a few bottles every now and then, but unfortunately it's merlot and I can't really put down any wine other than muscato.

A few weeks ago she gave us like 6 bottles of merlot and 2 of chardonnay so I'm kind of scrambling to find recipes to use the wine in!

Dark chocolate merlot cookies were on the list. I haven't posted a recipe in a while so for anyone that's new to reading my blog, you should know I'm hopeless in the kitchen, so every time I try a recipe, it legit is a disaster waiting to happen.

I found this recipe on pinterest but tweaked it a little...I made just under 3 dozen late one night and among a family of 4 and within 30 hours they were gone, so I'm gonna say this was a success.

What you'll need:

1.5 cups of all purpose flour

1 cup of cocoa powder

1.5 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of baking powder

0.5 cups of softened butter

0.5 cups of granulated sugar

1 cup of brown sugar

2 medium sized eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

0.5 cups of merlot

8 ounces of good quality of dark chocolate

-Pre-heat the oven at 375.

-Mix together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, and baking powder, and set to the side. 

My favorite part of baking other than eating the final result is mixing the dry stuff. I think it looks so pretty! Hahaha.

-Mix together the granulated sugar, brown sugar, and butter until the mixture is "light and fluffy" and then mix in the eggs, vanilla extract, and merlot. 

As a rookie baker (...or whatever you'd call me) the "wet" mixtures always make me a little weary and am convinced that I will end up with some kind of sweet soup concoction that I'll have to throw out instead of in this case chocolatey goodness. I'm still working on trusting all these internet recipes, because I don't know what stuff is supposed to look like. 

-Add the dry ingredients you've already mixed into this wet batter and stir together. 

-Chop up your good quality chocolate and mix it into your batter.

                                           

                                                        

Originally, I purchased that Godiva bar thinking it'd be enough, but it wasn't so I ran over to Sprouts and grabbed what I thought was dark chocolate...instead I purchased this:

I didn't realize it had hazelnut and dried currants [I'm gonna pretend you all know what that is because I have no clue] in it, but it gave the cookie some extra flavor and some crunch.

Marty Mess-up: cocoa powder, and then decided that it'd be too rich so I added more flour, and then decided it had lost the sweetness of it so I added a little cinnamon sugar mix. Don't add any of the extra stuff. Stick to the numbers and steps above and you'll be good to go. 

-Butter a cookie sheet [I used a cake pan because for some reason I thought the batter would run some...it didn't] and dollop about 1 teaspoon of the batter about 2 inches apart. I was kind of messy with this so do whatever works for you

-Bake at 325 degrees for about 12 minutes or until they set but are still soft. Pull the sheet, let it cool. I had some left over chocolate crumbs, so I sprinkled that over the cookies as they were cooling.

Once they're done...enjoy!

If you follow this recipe, or the original one...let me know how yours turn out!

Weekend Update: All Sorts Of Blah

Mondayyyy. You have arrived. Meh. This weekend had so much potential, but ended up being a little lackluster.

Thursday: Yep, we’re starting with Thursday. I worked all day and then headed to a Relay For Life meeting. This will be my 3^rd year doing it, and it’s crazy how big the event has grown in our little town. 1^st year was 2011 and we had like 5 teams, 2^nd year totally blew up and we had like 18 teams or something AND raised like $40,000 for the American Cancer Society. The event is still 2 weeks away and according to the website, we have 20 teams and have about $39,000+ raised. Super cool! My team captain is my best friend’s mom so I got to the meeting a little early and raided her fridge like the good old days. We talked about what is gonna happen at the relay and what our team has planned…should be an awesome event.

 

This walk is for the AmericanCancer Society , an organization that raises money to fight ALL cancer. The Relay For Life is a 24 hr walk where teams participate and each team must have at least 1 person walking at all times. Ideally, there should be 20 people walking the course at any given time. Even at 3:00 am! I've kind of sucked at raising money, so I’m pitching it to my readers :] If you've got an extra $5, $10, $20, or even $100…throw it my way! It will be greatly appreciated!

Friday: Remember how I was super excited for Tim? He kind of did not impress. We left town a little late, encountered traffic, missed our exit, more traffic, tailgate, strongggg honey jack & coke, found an InCahoots group that brings speakers and line dances in the tailgate lot before the show, completely missed Love & Theft, caught Brantley Gilbert’s last 2 songs, searched through the masses for friends, didn't find them, and mostly chilled through Tim's set. My problem with Tim was he played a lot of new music I didn't know. I guess that’s my own fault for not being a true fan. Loved the last 20 minutes of his set which was where he played everything I knew! Chilled in the parking lot and waited for traffic to die down, saw a chick dance on the roof of a car and secretly wished she fell…no luck. Mexican food. Sleep.

Chelsea with the photobomb.

3 amigos <3

Let's take a second to appreciate the growth of my hair! Left is 2 summers ago (I think?),
baby piggy tails, right was at Tim Friday night.

Saturday: Worked in the morning, 3.5 hour nap, unpacked my bedroom stuff, hung art I've collected in the last year, caught up on SYTYCD, sleeeeeeep.

Yankees Stadium

Jack's Mannequin and Something Corporate autographed lyric posters. 

1 more off the 100 things to do before you die list! #33.

Sunday: Did laundry & ran errands with my mom. Purchased bedroom curtains. Bought cinder blocks to put on the corners of my bed frame to raise it. Got the idea from pinterest! I bought the wrong size, had to make another trip to HD and buy the right size which raised my bed about 10 inches. Now I’m kind of scared I’ll fall off! Pictures soon once my room is completely done!

Wasn't a boring weekend, but nothing too exciting.

My Super Bowl Dessert!

Mondayyyyy! I see this kid ride his unicycle to school every Monday and Wednesday and it makes me a little happy :]

Hmmm. I never ever thought there’d be a day where I blog about food…that I’ve successfully made!

I am the world’s worst cook. I can manage to mess ANYTHING  up. Brownies from a box to hard boiled eggs. Anything.

Anyways…I’ve been wanting to make this dessert from Pinterest which comes from this blog for a while so I figured Super Bowl Sunday would be the perfect opportunity!

I went shopping, and positioned them perfectly for a photo-op once I got home. I got a little eager to bake that I tore off and threw away the cream cheese boxes before I realized I should probably have them for my picture!

So the recipe is for “plain” churro cheesecake bites, but I wanted to spice it up a bit and make some sort of strawberry variation! Thanks to the help of my BFF Sara [who is the most legit chef ever] I concocted my strawberry cheesecake filling for one sheet, and then the regular cheesecake filling for the other.

Strawberry Cheesecake Filling

2 bricks of softened cream cheese

3 diced strawberries

1 tsp of vanilla extract

½ cup of sugar

1 egg

First blend the cream cheese and strawberries together to make a strawberry cream cheese.

 It didn't turn as pink or red as I'd hoped.

Then throw in the vanilla extract, sugar, and egg. Blend together to have a soft cream cheese filling. [Regular filling is the same exact thing, minus the strawberries.]

Marty mess-up: I put in a tbsp instead of tsp. Not HORRIBLE…but not the recipe. Lol. I have to put in more cream cheese into it to compensate!

Churro Cheesecake Bites 

Strawberry cheesecake filling
2 cans of crescent rolls

½ cup of sugar

2 tbsp of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees for 20 minutes

Lay out 1 can of crescent rolls into a pan. Pour the filling over the crescent rolls leaving the sides of the crescent rolls uncovered. The consistency of the filling should NOT be runny. Lay the other can of crescent rolls over the filling and then connect the sides of the top and bottom crusts together. Note *you’ll have to do some shaping of the crescent rolls to fill over the filling, but it’s not too tough!

Then mix the sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle ½ of it over the pre-cooked dessert.

Throw in the churro cheesecake and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes of a golden-ish brown.

Marty mess-up: After 15 minutes or it baking, I realized I forgot to drop temp to 350 degrees. I dropped it to 300 to even it out. I kind of burnt it a little. Oops!

After it’s cooked, pour the remaining half of cinnamon sugar and let it sit for an hour or until it’s cool and cut into “bites” and you now have a legit awesome super easy-ish dessert :] All of the bites were gobbled up before the game even started, so I’ll take it as a good sign!

Sorry if I messed up any cooking terms and you don't understand. Like I said, I'm pretty clueless about anything having to do with the kitchen! If you're confused...revert back to the original blog with the recipe!

30 DAY CHALLENGE: DAY 24

Day 24 – A recipe.

I seriously suck in the kitchen. I can pretty much cook cereal, quesadillas, and grilled cheese. My culinary experience has expanded since Pinterest, but not so much... here's some stuff I've made from my food board and highly recommend!

cheesecake stuffed strawberries

merlot sangria

drunk gummy bears

cinnamon roll crust pie

garlic cheesy bread

30 DAY CHALLENGE: DAY 17

Day 17 – Your favorite website.

Facebook. duh.

And I'm sure any other 20 something female would say...

Pinterest.

This is totally my situation. On all accounts. 

But one of my favorites is totally the LA Photo A Day. Like 4 years ago I became infatuated with Los Angeles and used to go like once a month, sometimes twice for a year. I don't go up there as much, but this website makes my heart a little happy every time I miss it. Here's the "photo of the day" from a couple of days ago. They pull them from people's flickr accounts!