Back to the Basics

I am in no means a person who wants to be Au Natural.  But since starting my journey to good health last year, I've been studying and reading a lot of labels.  Not only food, but the products I use everyday.

I've already started making my own laundry detergent, and I LOVE it!  So quick and easy to make, and it really does work without all of the fillers commercial detergent have.

The next step is making my own lotion.  I have combination skin.  My face gets really oily, but my hands and the rest of me gets really dry.  Probably because I shower in too hot of water...but I digress.  

Most lotions contain chemicals which could cause more harm then good to your skin.  

I found this book while searching for homemade lotion recipes

I can't wait to get my dry, cracked little hands on this book.  Perhaps some birthday gifts in the making???

Do you have any homemade beauty secrets?

2011 and What's in Store

Been a while since I posted...I know call me a slacker.  I've been doing a lot of thinking about what I wish to accomplish this new year.  For the past few years, especially in the scrapbooking community, there has been a real frenzy going about summing up your year in one word.  I decided to have one for 2011:  Changes.  Here are some of them I plan to make or continue making this year:

Lose Weight: I've already started with that one in 2010.  I plan to continue my journey with BeachBody programs like P90X, and soon to be INSANITY!!  With those tools at my disposal..I can't go wrong.

Source

Get Organized: This being my year for changes, I'm going to take the tools necessary and get my house organized.  That means, purging things that aren't needed, used, or have been sitting forever in boxes or in other "storage" areas.  One closet, space, and room at a time!


Be more Creative: I hope to find the time to hone in on some other creative skills I may or may not have.  I would love to get my sewing machine out more and make clothes for Melody.  Perhaps even some awesome gifts for others. Ultimately would be a fabulous "Puff Quilt" following the tutorial at HoneyBear Lane.  Maybe even have a homemade Christmas next year with all the gifts given being made from me!

Find Time for Romance:  Loney and I will celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary in May. Being parents you don't really have the time or energy to spend time with each other, remembering why you fell in love in the first place.  That will change this year.  We will have more "US" time even when things might be a little crazy.  Date night once a month, and maybe a weekend or two away from the kiddos sometime during the year.  There's some awesome ideas here at The Dating Divas.

Connect with Friends:  I love the fact that in this day and age I'm able to find old friends and make new ones.  Places like Facebook are a lifesaver for a mom at home with her kiddos.  I hope to be able to meet some of the online friends I've made at Faithsisters.com even those I've connected with from BeachBody.

I think that should be a good start to strive for this year.  Making even small changes will make this year the best yet!

What are your goals?

Merry Christmas

Awesome Sale

Check out this awesome deal from Simple Girl Scraps!  You can find her designs at Faith Sisters.

Flooded

A pre Christmas disaster has happened.  I was hoping to have a nice relaxing week getting things ready to decorate for Christmas this weekend, no I'm not so sure.

We were eating dinner next door, and were over there for over an hour eating then playing some Mario Kart Double Dash.  Loney needed to use the restroom and decided to head back home.  Well, he comes back saying the toilet had clogged up and then overflowed while we were gone.  I was thinking, oh well it can't be that bad.  It happened about a month ago before and it didn't get too bad then.

Well, I got the kids ready to head back home and when I walk in, the site was not what I wanted to deal with at all!!

As you can see, it extended all the way to our kitchen sink...about 6 feet out.  After further inspection I noticed as I walked around the corner I was leaving prints all the way to our kitchen table.

We got the shop vac out and got as much sucked up as we could before Loney needed to get ready for work.  I would have continued on, but working the wet vac is a 2 person job since the hose is falling apart.  One person to man the sucking of the water, the other to hold closed the holes in the hose on the other end.

Needless to say I've got a busy few days trying to dry all this up.  If worse comes to worse, we'll just cut out the carpet down to the concrete.  We were planning to tile in that area anyway, this might just speed up the process.  I pray it won't come to that because I'm not sure if I up to the mess and cold concrete when I should be enjoying getting things ready for Christmas.

I could look on the bright side and be greatful it was just water and that the sewage didn't back up.  I think I'd be sleeping in a hotel room as we speak if that was to have happened.

First Feature

I had my first layout featured at the Sweet Shoppe Blog.  I created this layout at the beginning of the month, and I'm honored that one of my favorite designers chose it to show the scrapping community.

 

Krystal Hartley created this kit along with Scrap Kitchen designs.  The kit is called The Very Thought of You, and it is completely stunning.  I used a template from Fiddle Dee Dee Designs from the Fuss Free Leaving you in Stitches set.  I'm blessed to have "met" these two wonderful talented women.

You can see what she said about me and the layout HERE.

P90X Results

Well, it's been just over a week since I started my second round of P90X.  So I thought I would post my pictures from the first 90 days so you can see my progress.  I lost a total of 16 inches during the whole 90 days.  Not quite up to what I lost with Power 90, but combine them both and I've lost a total of 33.5 inches since April.  Not too shabby I'd say.  I have dropped from a size 22 pants (could fit into a tight 20 with the right cut) to a size 15/16.  I haven't been that size in nearly 11 years.

I can see some subtleties which is better then nothing at all I suppose.  I'm not giving up though.  I've worked too hard to do that. This new round of P90X is the lean version.  With more cardio I'm hoping to lose more, since I won't be buffing up my muscles as much.  Not that it's a bad thing.  Just need to get some more inches off. Wanna see my progress since starting in April?  I know you wanna!!  Here you go:

I feel amazing, and what's more, as I'm making a difference in my life I'm also inspiring others.  I signed up as a BeachBody coach because I want to help others in their journey.  You're not alone.  I never thought I would make this kind of change in my life, and BeachBody has played a huge part in that...so why not pay it forward. Even though I still have a ways to go, I'm on the right track.  Nothing can stop me now.