What's Going On?!

I've been getting a lot of "where have you been" messages. I've been super busy and unfortunately neglecting this blog. My life has done a complete 180 in the past few months and it's great but I haven't had much time for myself let alone to blog. Here are some updates...

Apartment ;; As you know we moved into an apartment. We moved in with a guy named Phillip. He already had the apartment and we're renting it with him. He's really sweet and great with Lexi so I'm very happy that we're here. I love the whole complex. There is a huge walking path that goes around the whole complex. There are walking bridges that go over this huge pond and 2 gazebos. There are tons of frogs and there is a duck that lives in the pond. Lexi loves to go feed the duck, we do it almost every morning. There is also a building in the center of the complex with a huge room with a big flat screen, couches, and a fire place. There's a computer lab in there and a workout room in there as well. If you haven't seen the pictures, read my "apartment tour" post, it has a bunch of pics in it. Even though I miss our old house, we're finally settled in here && Lexi finally called it "home", which made me so happy. She had a little trouble at first and kept asking to go "home" (to our old house) and she'd get pretty upset but she's comfortable now && happy with our new place. Overall I'm happy with our move && it's nice to see that we can do it on our own. It's great to prove all the idiots that thought we couldn't do it wrong as well. ;)

Skinny Bitch Mode ;; I think I'm going to do a separate post with my diet && workout routine but I did want to mention this here. I've been working out 6 days a week. I wasn't huge or anything but I wasn't proud of my body like I used to be. When I was younger I could name 20 things I loved about my body off the top of my head. If you asked me to do the same thing within the past couple years, I wouldn't even be able to name 1. I miss my flat tummy && tight abs. I miss my toned legs && thighs && especially my toned booty. ;) I wanted to be proud of my body again so I decided enough was enough && I was going to really watch what I eat && start working out again. I've been eating a lot healthier;; lots of fruits && veggies && I've been juicing as well. I drink a lot of those Naked juices, eat protein bars before I work out, and I've been cooking at home so I can watch the calories. I can still eat the things I like, I just need to exercise portion control. I try not to eat when I'm bored anymore && I don't eat close to bedtime. I'm really proud of my workouts. I switch between the treadmill, elliptical, stationary bike, weights, and floor exercises. Between the treadmill, elliptical, and bike I do about 7 miles each workout. Not only am I looking better, but I feel a whole lot better as well. I took some "before" pictures on the first day of my new diet/exercise plan, and I'm going to take pictures every month so I can see my progress. In a few months I'll post them so you guys can see how I'm changing too.

Family/Friends Time ;; We've been spending a lot of time with family and close friends lately. Family is #1 to me and we've been doing a lot of family activities lately. In the past few weeks we've gone to a family dinner at my dad's apartment, went to the DuPage Children's Museum with Tom's brother && sister-in-law, and went to the Abbey Farms Pumpkin Patch in Aurora with Mike && Jenny. Also a month ago my friend Jacqui that I've known since I was very young gave birth to her first child, a little boy. We went to see her in the hospital and meet the baby. :)

Work ;; Tom's been busting his ass on the daily && I've been home with Lexi && babysitting for my friend Brittany's son Adrian to earn some extra money while I'm looking for a full time job. I've also been doing my online surveys like crazy && focus groups as well. I've been writing articles and trying to sell them on Constant Content. I have a few people interested in a couple different pieces I've written so we'll see who the highest bidder is && hopefully I'll make some money through that website because we could always use it. Most of the articles go anywhere from $30 to $100. Hopefully one of mine will sell soon!!

Halloween ;; I have really good memories from when I was young with my mom doing all kinds of fun stuff with my brother && I for every holiday. I want to do the same with my kids. For Halloween we've made Halloween cookies, made Halloween cupcakes && decorated them, and yesterday we went to the pumpkin patch. Lexi loved it, we picked out a big pumpkin, went on a hayride, ate apple cider donuts, Lexi went in one of those bounce houses, and did a corn maze. We went with Tom's brother && sister-in-law (Mike && Jenny),  who are also Lexi's Godparents. Today we're going to carve the pumpkin that we picked out yesterday. We already went costume shopping and Lexi decided that she wants to be Minnie Mouse so now we just have to go back && buy the actual costume.

Potty Training ;; I'm happy to say that Lexi is full potty trained!! She has known how to use the potty for quite some time now but we still had her in diapers just in case. She's been wearing big girl undies now for almost a week && only had 2 accidents the first two days && none after that, not even at night!! I'm so proud of her. She really caught on quick && it makes things a lot easier (and cheaper!) for us.

Nevaeh is 5!! ;; My first born, my beautiful princess Nevaeh is going to be 5 in just a couple days. I'll write a blog post on her birthday (October 26) but I wanted to mention that we've been getting her birthday stuff together && I am in total shock that my little baby girl is already going to be 5. It feels like I was just holding her in my arms and waking up at crazy times of the night to feed her... Time flies.

Here are some pics:

Jacqui and I

Lexi, me, && Jacqui

Mommy && baby

Jacqui, Daniel, && I

Lexi playing at the DuPage Children's Museum

Lexi and I at the museum

Lexi && I in the "Bubble Booth"

Lexi at Lou Malnati's next to Aunt Jenny

Me && Tom at Lou Malnati's

Family dinner/card night (Tom, Lexi, me, my aunt && uncle were also there, just not pictured.)

Adrian && Lexi in the gazebo in our apartment complex

Lexi && Adrian enjoying their Halloween cupcakes

The Halloween cupcakes we made

The Halloween cookies we made

My Pretty Princess <3

My little gymnast-- gold medal for best handstand && blue ribbon for holding onto the bar the longest!!

 I promise I'll make more of an effort to blog. Make sure you comment if you're reading my blog, even if you don't have a Blogger account! I see that I have tons of page views and I get tons of messages but not many comments. Don't be shy! haha. ;) I'll write again soon!

xo, Sarah

Raiding Grandma's Closet

This post should've been done about a month ago, but I've been so busy && just haven't gotten around to doing it. Anyway, about a month ago I went to my grandma's house and helped her clean out her closet. Surprisingly she actually had a lot of cool stuff. I'm all about being original and unique and having your own style, so this was right up my alley. There were a lot of really great brand name items as well as some vintage pieces. My grandma let me have what I wanted and then gave the rest of the clothes that she didn't want (or never wore) away. Here are my 3 favorites:

 This was my favorite of everything I took home. It's a loose fitting knit sweater with gold specks. I'm going to do an Outfit of the Day with this when I wear it because I already know what I want to pair this with. There are so many options for a sweater like this. You could belt it in the middle, wear it with boots && leggings, etc. It has 3/4 sleeves so even though it's a sweater, it's still very light and breathable. She bought this at Macy's.

 This skirt is fitted on the top && more loose on the bottom. I love the length. I have a ton of shorter skirts but not many that are this length. I also love the print, it's an abstract print and in some places you can see little flowers. It's very cute and I can see a few outfits being made around this skirt as well.

 This is a dressy but casual top that I got. I wanted to take a picture of the print close up because I think it's so beautiful. If you look closely it's a cherry blossom print. I love the color, it looks great against my skin tone (or any skin tone, really) and this top can be worn casually or you could easily dress it up by wearing it with a belt in the middle or even pairing it with skinny jeans and heels. I can see myself wearing this a lot.

My grandma gave me a few more things but these were my top 3 favorites of the bunch. I'll try to do an Outfit of the Day whenever I wear these next, or maybe I'll do a separate blog post showing different looks for each outfit. We'll see. Thanks for reading!! :)

xo, Sarah

September Favorites

I'm going to jump on the "Monthly Favorites" bandwagon (finally!!) and start sharing my favorite products for each month. Some might be new products, some might be products I've been using for a while, but they're all products I've used a lot throughout the month. Not all of the products are beauty products, most are, but it can be anything; music, movies, tv shows, hair products, makeup, clothes, etc. These are my favorites from the month of September:

Loreal Collagen Moisture Filler Day Moisturizer SPF 15

I bought this in August but I've been using it a lot more often this past month. I have oily/combination skin, and a lot of moisturizers make my skin super oily. This moisturizer does a great job at moisturizing my skin, but doesn't leave behind an oily mess. It smells great too!

Physician's Formula Summer Eclipse Bronzing and Shimmery Face Powder in Starlight

I've used this bronzer a few years ago, and it used to be my go-to bronzer. I recently purchased it on Amazon and fell in love with it all over again. It gives your skin a nice shimmer, but it doesn't overdo it. It makes your skin look healthy and glowing. I used this everyday this past month.

Maybelline Volum' Express Mascara (Mega Plush) Washable-  Very Black

I am obsessed with watching YouTube beauty gurus, and I have seen so many of them rave about this mascara. While I was at Walmart a few weeks ago, I decided to pick it up and try it for myself. I really like it. The brush is great, it does a really good job of separating your lashes and lengthening them. The only downside to this mascara is that it says it's washable but it's extremely hard to take off, and the bottle dries up quickly (the mascara seems a bit drying as well). It does such a great job making my lashes look on point that I can get past it's downsides. ;)

Clinique Color Surge Eye Shadow Duo in Beach Plum

I got this as part of a free set with a Clinique purchase. I love the whole Clinique brand as a whole, they have yet to make a product that disappoints me. I love these colors- the plum color works great as a crease color and I use the gold as a lid color or a highlight color. I will definitely repurchase this eye shadow duo because I've used it almost every day this past month.

Tarte Deluxe Primer Trio

I bought this primer trio off of Amazon a couple months ago, and have been using it almost everyday since. I already blogged about this primer trio so I won't say much more about it, but I do love it and have been using it a ton lately.

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Charm

I bought this from Target this past month because it was very close in color to my Revlon Lip Butter in Creamsicle. I put this on my lips first and then I put the lip butter on top. Love it!!

Revlon Lip Butter in Creamsicle

I've already blogged about this one too so I'm not going to say much, but I wanted to mention it in my favorites because I use it almost every day. It makes my lips SO soft and smooth, I don't know what took me so long to get into the Lip Butter craze!!

Remington S5500 Digital Anti-Static 1" Ceramic Flat Iron

I've had this flat iron for a while but I wanted to mention it in my favorites because I use it almost every single day. I use it to straighten my hair, curl my hair, make waves in my hair... and this lil guy is durable. I can't tell you how many times I've dropped it, and it still works great without a scratch.

Gatorade- Lemon Lime<3

I know this is random but as many of you know I've been in #SkinnyBitchMode lately && I've been dieting and trying to work out as often as possible. I get bored of drinking just water, so I drink Gatorade and reduced calorie Gatorade. They are delish, refreshing, and have very few calories. What more can you ask for?!

The Sopranos Complete 6 Season Set on DVD

In the month of September I've really gotten into the Sopranos. We own the complete 6 season set on DVD. My fiance always tried to get me to watch it but I never wanted to. Finally this past month I decided to give it a chance && now I'm hooked!! I went through a season in 2 days!! I can't stop watching it. So of course I had to include this in my September Favorites.


That's it for my favorites for the month of September. I'm going to start doing this every month. What are YOUR September faves? Comment below and let me know!! :)

xo, Sarah