Drink More Water

One of my new year's resolutions this year is simply to drink more water. I did a little research last week and it looks like the recommended amount of daily water consumption for someone my size is about 75 ounces. That didn't sound too bad to me...I thought. I started keeping track of how many times I refilled my water bottle at work...twice...and I barely drank any out of the third bottleful. So I drank maybe 35 ounces. And that was on a day that I was trying to drink more than usual.

I have an idea to try to drink more. A fruit infuser water bottle. Here is the one I got from Shopko. I am going to try the first day with lemons, and maybe strawberries another day. This bottle holds 24 ounces, so if I can drain it 3 times I'll be good! Wish me luck!

New Living Room Decor

On new year's day, Jake and I repainted our living room. We went with a mellow sage green, with the vision of a hunting lodge in my head. I love how the green turned out and it looks great with our dark brown leather and wooden furniture.

Today we hung up Jake's deer antlers, one set on each side of the TV, and plan to refinish Jake's dad's shotgun to hang between those, directly above the TV.

I also rehung the quilt rack on the largest wall with the intention of hanging a "lodge" looking quilt. I don't want to get a quilt that is overly theme-y with actual animals and pinecones on it. I just want to find a quilt that has lots of plaid and deep greens and reds.

The only one that I have found that I kind of like is this one from pinterest. What do you think? Will it go well with the theme?

Another Baby Blanket

My friend, Jen, had her baby shower today. I made another faux chenille baby blanket. Here is my original post on how to make this type of blanket.

Jen's baby's nursery is polka dots in blue, brown, and touches of green.

 

Applesauce Cookies with Caramel Frosting

Brandi had the winning cookies at my Christmas Cookie Exchange. Here is the recipe she used.

 

 

Oh my gosh...these cookies were so good! I'll have to make a batch once I'm off weight watchers.

Peppermint White Chocolate Chip Cookies

For my Christmas Cookie Exchange last month, I made Peppermint White Chocolate Chip Cookies. I got the recipe on Pinterest, linked here.

I procrastinated and couldn't find the Peppermint M&Ms at my local grocery store, so I instead crushed 6 candy canes in a blender and added them to the dough.

I really enjoyed these cookies and will be making them again at Christmas time.

2012 Christmas Decor

I'm a little late with this post, but I still want to share my Christmas decor. 

 

I went a different route with my tree this year. I usually have a hodge podge of all of the ornaments that I've collected since birth. This year, I only used red, brown, and white ornaments from my collection and added red bead garland as well as red gingham ribbon. I loved it except for the topper. I bought that snowflake topper in 2011 after Christmas because it is rustic metal and it was cheap, but I'm not in love with it. As always, we got a REAL tree, but this one we bought from the Optimist Club instead of cutting down our own. Cutting one down is fun, but it's hard to find one so perfect and full.

 



Here's the living room all decked out.

 

 

We took down all the decorations this weekend and repainted on New Year's day. I can't wait to share photos of the new living room soon!

2013 Resolutions

I think it is fitting for my first blog post of the year to be about my 2013 resolutions. I'm not one of those women who set a resolution each year, but this year I have a lot of goals that I have been thinking about recently, so I'm falling into the peer pressure and publicly setting those goals as new year's resolutions.

1. Lose weight - I've already gotten a head start on this one. I joined Weight Watchers last week. I did WW a couple of years ago and lost almost 30 pounds. This time I have a certain weight in mind that I want to get down to, which would require me to lose about 18 pounds. I'm not planning to be quite as strict with the program as I was last time, but having a healthier diet and getting a little exercise will be a big change from the past year.

2. Keep a clean house - I made a nice little list of the "chores" to do each day of the week, just about 30 minutes of cleaning each day to keep the whole house cleaned weekly. I don't expect that I will follow that list perfectly everyday...obviously there will be days when I am to busy to clean or am just not in the mood to clean...but I am hoping that I will take the initiative to complete those chores on a different day.

3. Drink more water - Seriously, I don't drink enough water.

4. Less technology - I'm certainly not addicted to technology, but I do end up checking email/facebook/pinterest at least 4 times a day...before work, on lunch break, right after work, and right before going to bed. My goal is to cut it down to checking all of these only once in the evening.

5. Save more money - I already have a set amount of money that I put into my savings accounts each paycheck but I'm going to double that amount.

6. Blog more - I'm jump starting this goal by doing the 31 Days Challenge again :)

Happy 2013!