A Case of the Monday's

I am not usually a Monday hater, really I don't normally mind them. Tuesday is always my worst day of the week.  Seriously think about everything horrible that has ever happened in your life, it was on a Tuesday.  Today is Tuesday for me just a day early. 

If there is one thing I hate the most in the world it's getting up early.  Seriously I hate it.  I don't sleep very well at night and the very early morning hours are when I get my best sleep.  Trust me I have tried everything to sleep better but after 33 I have resigned myself to terrible sleep.

I had to be up early this morning to get some work done that couldn't wait until after I took the puppy to the vet.  Then we went to the vet dropped the little boy off to get fixed and then the little man got car sick.  Of course he did because that's the kind of day it was starting to be.

Then I messed up swim practice time and go there an hour early.  Which messed up the time I needed to get the dog.  So in the hour we had to kill we rushed to get the dog and then rushed back to drop little man off at swim practice then rushed home to drop the dog off because its about a million degrees outside.  Then right back across town before swim practice was over. 

Let's just say I did a lot of driving today.  I also managed to go to the bank, get lunch and get the little dog's nails clipped at the groomers.  In all the chaos I realized that I really need help!

Usually my mom is here to watch the little man while I work.  However she has gone off and decided to take a vacation for a week away from us.  Clearly right now everything is going to hell in a hand basket.  I'm not sure it would be possible for the house to be any dirtier. 

So I decided to do what any woman would do in this position.  I turned to Pinterest.  Because it is totally impossible to be upset when on Pinterest.  Here is proof:

Thrifty Thursday

So I decided to start a new feature here at Lovin Livin In 'Luma, Thrifty Thursday.  I have been reading so many good blogs lately about thrifting and repurposing that I decided to jump on the band wagon.  When I was a teen everything I wore came from a thrift store.  I had the best clothes ever! Seriously ever! I was also much thinner then and could wear almost anything. 

But thrifting isn't just about clothes, I really want a new office chair.  The chair I have now is from Ikea and is hot pink.  It does not match the rest of my Shabby Chic office at all.  So I have been on the hunt for something I can refinish to match. 

I went to the local Goodwill on a mission for a new chair.  And of course they had next to nothing. Only a set of wood chairs that didnt work and a broken office chair on wheels. 

I did however strike gold in the tshirts with this baby....

I only paid $2.99 for this awesome Lagunitas shirt.  If you dont know Lagunitas is kinda a big deal around here being our hometown brew and all.  And I love this one where the Lagunitas dog is actually a puppy. 

Maybe next week I will find that chair I am looking for.

New Look

The new look is here and I have to say that I love it! Seriously love it.  All I want to do is sit and look at it all day long.  I'm so happy with it, can you tell? Pretty new blog inspires me.  What does everyone think?

Make Over Time!

I'm very excited the blog is getting a make over! I just put my order in for a new background. The current one is so uninspired. I can't wait until it's all done and I can share it with everyone!

Destiny

I know its late and I am usually more organized than this but I had a bit of an off day yesterday and it crept in to today. I have been having a bit of trouble lately getting motivated and something happened yesterday that threw me for a loop.

Let me start at the beginning: In April I ended a four year relationship with the only man my Little Man has known as a father figure.  Little Man's biological father has never been in the picture and when I met the man he now calls dad I was so happy.  I thought for sure he was 'the one' I allowed him into our small family and let him get close to both of us.  As a single parent I am very guarded with who meets my son.  Its just easier that way.

Unfortunately things didn't work out in this fairy tale and I had to end it. It was mutual however I was forced to be the bad guy and be the one to walk away.  In the end we were both so unhappy that it was a huge relief when it was finally over. I was literally walking on air when it was finally finished because I felt I could be myself again and finally realized how much I had been brought down in the end.

Fast forward a couple of months and reality hit.  It hit hard. I realized that I was 32 and no closer to an actual grown up relationship and although I had been in a relationship for 4 years I was no less lonely. The relationship was a long distance one and I spent most of the time alone. Regardless of being alone I had still lost my best friend. My boyfriend was the one I shared everything with and truly thought of him as my best friend.

When June hit I went into a depression.  I could feel it coming on and tried my hardest to not fall victim to it but eventually I got tired of fighting it and just went with it.  I literally didn't leave the house for days. I tried my hardest to be as happy as possible for the little man but I just couldn't bring myself to leaving the house and going back into society.

Finally about a week ago some friends came over and started to rally around me and forced me out of the house.  Knowing I had great friends to stand behind me I felt like I could do it and pull through.  That is when fate starting throwing things at me.

First my mom calls me from the store and tells me how she saw my high school boyfriend and his new wife and kids. If that wasn't bad enough in my lonely state she has to go on and on about how she wished I had married him.  Fine fate is cruel I told myself go ahead remind me about being a spinster forever I will try and move on.  But then Sunday happened.

I decided that it was time to leave the house again and do something. Since it has been warm here I decided to take the Little Man to the swim center. We met our very good friends who have two girls the same age as the little man. 

While we were I saw a man I have been waiting almost 7 years to see again.  It was an old boyfriend, but not just any old boyfriend, the old boyfriend. The one that I always thought I would end up with. The one I loved the most out of any boy I had ever known. And who was he with? That's right his wife and kids.

But that is not the worst part, the worst part was where he pretended he didn't really remember me.  I guess he was trying to play it cool for the wife but it was devastating to me that I couldn't at least hug him Hello.  I thought great why is fate throwing me being alone in my face again.

We left the swim center after a full day of swimming and I thought "That's it I'm taking to the house again and possibly the bed." Because how can one person endure so many slaps like this. I feel so alone and here I keep seeing people I was once happy with happy with someone else.

I started really deeply thinking about why I saw this man and why the other boyfriend came back into my life at this particular time. They both live very close to me so how was it that I hadn't ever seen them before.  Then it hit me, something just clicked inside.

I didn't see these men because fate wanted to rub in my face that I was alone, I was being shown that these doors were closed to me.  I had always tucked both these men in the back of my mind as back up plans. You know if nothing else worked out I would be reunited with either one of these guys.

I have realized now that this isn't my Destiny.  These men didn't work out because that's not how my life is supposed to turn out. Honestly when I figured this out it was such a relief. 

The second I figured out that the door was closed on my past I felt as if the door to my future and my Destiny opened up before me. I really feel now like something great is going to happen for me, even if it's not a man. Maybe being single is what I am supposed to be, but if it is there is a reason for it and soon I will find that reason.

Its also freeing to realize that there is a plan for me and to know that there is nothing I can do to hurry it up. No amount of stressing or wanting it to happen sooner will make it happen.  The door is open for me, now I just have to walk through it.

Birthday's and High Hopes

So today is my mom's birthday (Happy Birthday Mom!) and I had such high hopes for the day.  We went to breakfast which was nice and I made her a cake for after dinner.  This is where I had the highest of hopes.  I wanted to make something similar to the cover of Sugarlicious.

She loves flamingo's and I thought what a cute cake I could make for her and I would just add more flamingos and nix the gnome.  In my mind the cake looks exactly like the one on the cover.  Here is what it looks like in real life.

Not nearly as tall or as grand as the professional one.  But not an epic fail either.  Every time I make something I always feel like those 'Nailed It' pictures on Pinterest.  You know the ones where they show what something is supposed to look like and then a picture of just a hot mess. 

Like this:



I don't know if my aspirations are too high for my skill level, or I don't have the right tools, or I'm not as artistic as I want to be.  Maybe the problem is that I just need more practice.  Maybe the writers of all the cookbooks I covet started out like me.  And maybe their first cakes weren't perfect either. 

Either way I am still going to continue on and subject my family to my trials because most importantly I love at least trying.  And maybe on my one year blog anniversary I will have made something worthy of the pros.

Cheap and Easy Art

I just found the greatest website ever! Its called Tagexdo.  Have you heard about it? If not check it out, its amazing!

It turns words into a beautifully arranged shape. I know that sounds weird let me explain: Take any words, like a song or a speech, and enter them into Tagexdo.  Then you pick a shape like a heart or a thought bubble and the program spits out a nice printable piece of art. 

This is sounding weird let me just show you. I did this one with the lyrics to the Taylor Swift song 'Hey Stephen'.

I love it! Especially the part where Stephen is the biggest word. (The little man's name is Stephen, that's why I chose this).  From there I just printed it out and stuck it in a frame I got from Ikea and put it on the wall in my office.

I have been looking for some wall decorations for my empty office walls but with a budget of $0 I haven't been able to find anything.  This is perfect! And when I get tired of this one I can just hop back on the site and print out another one.

Ok one more example then I will let you get to your creations.  I used the lyrics to 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' for this one.

Linked up here:

My entry into the Share It Link Party at The Winthrop Chronicles is sponsored by Appliances Online and their best Range Cookers.

Exciting Day!

Today is a very exciting day! Why you ask? Because today is little man's first every swim practice with the swim team.

About a year ago he started taking private lessons from the coach of the team.  He over came some really big obstacles, he was afraid to put his face in the water.  But now he is a big man on the swim team.

Last week his coach said he was ready so I immediately signed him up.  I couldn't be a prouder momma if I tried.  Now instead of a soccer mom I have become a swim mom.  Which is great because I love swimming. I am so glad that I was able to pass my love for the water on to him.

Now to get out my big slow cooker cookbook.  I am going to need it for quick dinners after practice.  Someone is going to get very hungry, very quickly.

The most inspirational member of my family

I have to introduce you to a very important member of our family.  My four year old Chihuahua, Turbo.  Turbo is not your typical Chihuahua, trust me.  He is not yappy at all, nor is he mean.  He is the sweetest boy you would ever want to meet.

I mean really look at that face, and the tongue hanging out just a little.  Precious!  Now you may ask why is Turbo such an inspiration.  Well let me tell you his story:

I had been thinking about getting another chihuahua, I had one before the little man, for about 6 months.  Almost every weekend we would go to the pet store and look at the rescue dogs.  But I never found one that seemed to be right.  Then one Saturday almost a year ago my mom called me to come down and take a look at this Chihuahua she had found. 

I was skeptical when we drove down and I saw him.  He was soo tiny, only 6 pounds.  I didn't know how well he fit into our family.  But I took him for a walk on a leash and he was beautifully behaved.  I thought ok this is it this dog has chosen us. 

On that first walk I noticed he had a small limp.  It was almost unnoticeable it was so slight, I called it the hitch in his giddy up.  I inquired to the rescue about it and they said that he was surrendered to a vet and the people that owned him had said he was hit by a car.  They wanted to have him put down. 

The vet took x-rays but didn't find any trauma.  So he was sent on to the rescue. We were assured that he had no problems and that we could talk to the vet and look at the xrays ourselves.  Since he was in no clear pain and since the hitch didn't seem to bother him I took him home.

Over the next few months I walked him a little at a time to build up his stamina.  After about 2 months the hitch was all but gone.  We took him back to the pet store one day when the rescue was there and they were amazed at how well he was walking.

I just realized this is a long story.  I will have to break it up.  Come back another day to find out just what makes Turbo so inspirational.

Cloudy Days and Birthdays

I know that I live in California and I shouldn't complain. But its cold today and overcast. Its not really what I would call a beautiful summer day in July. I have had a jacket on all day. Since it's depressing outside I'm staying in under the covers and on Pinterest. It's a good thing that Friday is my mom's birthday. Now I have a mission for my pins. Since it's so gloomy outside I am going to find something nice and cheery to make. I love this cake but I wonder how much my mom will like it.



Since there are only three of us I would only make one layer.  Any more and I would go into a cake coma.

Now here is an easy cake that I know my mom would love.



Although I have been wanting to make this cake for awhile but haven't found the perfect occasion yet.  Maybe Friday is the day.



I guess since I can't make up my mind it's back to Pinterest I go.  Any one have any suggestions or words of wisdom for me? I get so overwhelmed by my love of cake.

Breakfast

My whole life I have been told "breakfast is the most important meal of the day". I have never bought into it even though I know I should. I know I should eat a good breakfast. When I do I feel fuller longer and don't snack at night.

Here is my problem: I hate breakfast foods. Seriously the thought of bacon and eggs first thing in the morning makes me ill. I don't like cereal very much either. So my breakfast is normally coffee and keifer. And only recently did I add the keifer. Since I am not a big breakfast person the poor little man has been destined for a life of cereal mornings. Good thing he has his grandma to make him bacon and eggs on the weekends sometimes.

Well yesterday morning was different. When I woke up something inside me said "today is the day that I get stuff done!" Have you ever had those mornings? Its like waking up from a fog and deciding to be super productive for no reason. I didn't need a reason I just went with it and the little man benefited.

We had a box of waffle mix in the cabinet and some sausage links. Today is the day I told myself, today we have a good breakfast. I went to mixing up the waffles which is super easy, btw. Seriously 3 ingredients then you pour it in the waffle maker. A couple of minutes later, fluffy golden waffles. The sausage browned up quickly in our cast iron skillet. Here is the finished product that took about 10 minutes to make.

After it was all said and done I felt so silly that I cant take 10 minutes out of my morning and make a nice breakfast, even if the little man is the only one who eats it.  Seriously how long does it take to cook an egg? Two minutes?  This is going to be my new goal for the summer: get into the habit of making breakfast so becomes a routine by the time school starts again.  No more cold cereal mornings around here.

Bic Soleil Savvy Razor Review

I had an opportunity to try out the BIC Soleil Savvy as part of the Bzz Agent program.



Here are my thoughts:

The Soleil Savvy comes with one razor handle and 4 disposable razor heads. The handle is very comfortable and has a good grip and cushion.  The razor head is very nice with 4 blades which makes for a close shave.  While this razor is a bit more expensive than disposable razors, you get what you pay for.

I have to admit I shave my legs every day.  Seriously every day.  I cant sleep if my legs are prickly. Yuck! As you can imagine go through razors pretty quickly.  I loved the BIC Soleil Savvy it made my legs nice and smooth and not at all dry which most disposables tend to do.

The downsides you ask? The razors are sharp! I did nick myself once with them.  It was small but still a nick.  I dont usually nick myself since I am a bit of a pro at shaving my own legs.  The only other downside was that I went to Target to get more and they did not carry them.  I found it a little strange that a major store like Target wouldnt have them.  Maybe it was just my Target but I dont like going to 12 different stores for simple products like razors. 

Disclosure: I recieved a sample product of BIC Soleil Savvy as part of being a BZZ Agent in return for a review.

The dog days of summer

I'm pretty sure this is the exact definition of that saying.

This is Indy, short for Indiana Jones. Three weeks ago I adopted him from a rescue for the little man. It was love at first sight. Indy went right over to little man and laid down in his lap. I thought every boy should have a dog. In my mind I had romantic visions of them camping in the backyard and digging in dirt together. You know typical boy things. Our house was going to be a scene straight out of Where The Red Fern Grows.

Unfortunately I didn't factor puppy into that equation. While Indy is a great dog he still chews and is working on being house broken. My house has been turned upside down. But since they are both so cute together I will suck it up and wait this period out. I know it will be worth it. Because happiness always trumps poop right? If it didn't no one would have babies anymore.

Cheetos

Ok I have to share this with everyone that I can because I think it's so darn cute.  The little man had to write a poem in school about something he loved.  This is what he came up with:

Not everything he brings home is a gem but this one I framed and is now right above my desk in my office.  I love it so much!

Granola

I made amazing granola with a recipe that I adapted from the book Homemad Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making by Alana Chernila. First let me say how very much I loved this book.  Seriously the recipes were great and the stories behind each one were even better.

I have wanted to make granola for years, I don't know why it always sounded like a fun time.  So finally I decided to go to the store and gather the things I needed.  It was time.

The great thing about granola is that you can literally put just about anything you want in it and it will still turn out amazing.  The recipe from Homemade Pantry called for sesame seeds, I couldnt find any at the store so out they went and I think it tasted amazing still. The original recipe also called for unsweetened shredded coconut and since I had sweetened on hand that just had to do. 

Here is my modified recipe:

 - 10 cups old fashioned rolled oats
 - 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
 - 2 cups sliced almonds
 - 1 cup shredded coconut
 - 1 1/2 T ground cinamon
 - 1/2 t salt
 - 3/4 C canola oil
 - 1 cup syrup
 - 1 1/2 T homemade vanilla extract (its easy to make, find the post here)


       - Preheat oven to 250
       - Mix together all dry ingredients in a LARGE bowl.  Seriously 10 cups of rolled oats is alot
       - In a smaller bowl mix together the wet ingriedents.
       - Pour the smaller bowl into the LARGE one and mix together so that there are no pockets of dry or wet.
        - Line two cookie sheets with parchment or wax paper.  Parchment works better but we only had wax paper and that worked just fine.
        - Bake at 250 for 30 minutes, stir and rotate the sheets.  Bake another 30 minutes, stir and rotate again.  Bake for 30 more minutes for a total of 90 minutes of baking time.
         - Enjoy and try not to eat it all in one sitting.  Trust me it will be hard.

The dry ingredients:

The wet ingridents, it was hard to mix oil and syrup together to get them to combine right. 

Everything combined together:

The very yummy finished product:

See how easy it is to make your own? Its like stew just start dumping stuff in from your pantry. Its bound to be good.

Linked at: Six Sister's Stuff,, The Prudent Pantry

County Fair

I know the fair was last month but I have so many things I want to share and some are old so please bear with me.
The great thing about living in a small town is the county fair.  Something we look forward to every year.  Probably my favorite thing is finding out what bands are coming.  This year there was no one I was even remotely interested in seeing, however in years past we have seen Bret Michaels and Smashmouth.

The little man's favorite part of the fair is of course the rides.



This year I we finally got to upgrade to bigger rides.  By next year we probably wont even go over to the kiddie section.  I got him to go on the Tilt-A-Whirl which used to be one of my favorites.  Now it just makes me a little ill.  I think the operator saw how green I was getting and thought it was funny because it felt like the longest ride ever!

My two favorite parts of the fair are the concerts, which I didn't partake in this year, and the food.  Who doesn't love awesome deep fried goodness.  I got the deep fried veggies, because they were veggies I know they were healthy right?

The worst part of the fair? The games.  What a racket, which of course we had to do because when the little man sees stuffed things he must win them.  Good thing he had money from his Nana that he could waste himself. Normally I wont give him money for that.  This is what $6 got us this year.

I do have to say that it was a good fair all and all.  The best part? Getting to spend the day with the little man.  That's my favorite part of any day.



Free $2 Amazon MP3 Credit

Amazon has a promotion going on right now for a credit for $2 in the MP3 store.  Go to Amazon and enter the code HEARTMP3 and you will get a credit of $2 instantly added to your account.  Right now Amazon has some amazing $.25 Summer Songs. Which means free music for you!








I just downloaded Blister in the Sun by the Violent Femmes for free!

Homemade Vanilla Extract

There is nothing easier in the world than making vanilla extract.  Seriously once you see how easy it is you will never buy it again.  It involves very few ingredients and takes almost no time to assemble. Here is what you need:

 - A clean jar with a lid (I used an old Rose's jar because I liked the embossing)
 - 3 whole vanilla beans (tip buy them at Cost Plus if you have one they are cheap there)
 - 1 cup Vodka (the cheaper the better)

Split the vanilla beans down the center and scrape out the vanilla.  Add the scrapings and beans to the jar. Pour in the vodka.  Put the lid on and give it a good shake.  Now is the longest part of the process let sit in a cool dark place for 6 to 8 weeks. The longer it sits the stronger it will be.  That's it now you have vanilla extract for all of your baking needs.  And if you run low just add more vodka to the bottle and let it sit again. 

Here is my extract after I added more vodka.  It will need to sit for a couple of weeks until I can use it again but you can see it already has that beautiful carmel color. 

Oh and we will all pretend that I actually removed all of the label from the original bottle. Linked up at:

Gardening For The Kids

When the little man was born I had grand visions of a beautiful backyard that looked as if it came straight from the pages of The Secret Garden. Of course the minute I brought him home reality set in. When he started kindergarten I finally felt it was time to work on the backyard and start him on a path to respecting his food and the hard work that goes into bringing food to the table.

This year I went back to my grand plans and of course fell short. I took on too much too quick and most of my plants failed. I do think that even a failed garden is a good learning experience.  It shows that even with hard work not everything turns out.  Not every seed you plant grows and its how we react that teaches the greatest lessons. And its ok to pull up what didn't work and start again.

I did manage to mostly pull off one project I was excited about: the bean tee pee.

The great thing about the bean tee pee is how easy it was to build. All you need are some 6' poles, I used 6 but next year will use 8, string to tie the top and some pole beans.  First mark out a spot to make the tee pee then push the poles into the ground in a circle leaving a large space to enter the tee pee, bring the poles together to a point at the top and then tie with the string.  Plant your beans around the poles and water.  Its that easy for you to create a play place for your kids. 

I will make it bigger for the little man this year by adding 2 more poles so that he has some space to play around inside.  As you can see the back didn't grow in the way I wanted it to but I am happy however that I did get it to grow in some spots.  There is a ton of clay here so next year I will also need to import more soil to get a better result.

Here are the first beans of the season. After I picked them the little man couldn't wait for more and promptly ate them.  I did however get him to wash them first.

Holiday Plans

Am I the only one with no firm holiday plans? I read recently that this is the busiest week of the year to vacation.  And here I sit in my awesome garage office with no plans for tomorrow.  I dont even have any menu ideas.  Which is odd for me because I almost always have at least a dessert idea to try out.

We were invited to Stinson Beach for the day tomorrow however I dont think I am up for the drive or the crowds.  The one fortunate thing about fireworks plans for us is that we dont have to leave our front yards to get a great view of the fireworks.  We live really close to the fairgrounds where they are shot off and can just walk into the middle of the street and watch them. 

I knew Pinterest would be a good source of inspiration.  I just started following Bird's Party boards and am now inspired!




I have been a follower of this blog for awhile now and it never occured to me until just this very second to follow her on Pinterest.  So glad I did!

Ok now that inspiration has struck it's time to start planning and making some calls to see who wants to come celebrate with me and the little man.