A Little Ulta Haul

Maybe that should read an Awesome Ulta Haul or an Epic Ulta Haul! Have I mentioned before how much I love Ulta? I believe I have but just in case I will reiterate, I LOVE ULTA!! And you wanna know when I love them the best? When they send me a 20% off coupon of course. And you wanna know when I love them even more? When I have gift cards of course :)

Ok enough with the annoying talk, lets get down to business. I will tell you a secret, I always get Ulta gift cards for Christmas (mostly because everyone knows how much I love that place) but I never use them until I get my January 20% off coupon, that way I get more makeup (nail polish, shower stuff, beauty supplies etc...) for my buck. This week was that week! I always go and just grab whatever I want and drop it into the little shopping bags that they provide(scratch that, those bags are not little, have you seen those things? They are like a bottomless pit) and then spend the next 20 minutes walking around the store muttering to myself about what I can get with my gift cards and what I should wait on. It's quite a hilarious process! So anyways I had epic amounts of gift cards and my 20% coupon in hand and off to Ulta I went and this is what I ended up getting;

I am so happy with everything I ended up getting, and I only paid $13. As you can see this is all high end makeup so that's a pretty good price!

 

The Mint Collection from Lorac, came with this super cute, super shinny metallic bag.

I decided to get this simply because I am in love with the mint shadow, it is such a beautiful color and very understated.

I love kits like this, because they let you try products that you never have before without breaking the bank purchasing the full size versions.

I am a big fan of too Faced and have been wanting to try their lip glosses for awhile. What a perfect excuse!! This color is gorgeous, its called; Pillow Talk and is the perfect muted taupe brown color.

You remember my obsession with Mascara right.

The girl at Ulta suggested I try the too faced blushes and so I did! This one is called Cocoa Rose. Its a dusty pink color, perfect for adding a touch of color during the winter months.

I'll admit I got this one simply because of its name; "Who's Your Poppy" LOL. Poppi is what I call my grandfather!! The color however is beautiful, a sparkly coral with an undertone of brown.

This is the Matte Eye palette from Too Faced, and it has some very pretty colors in it. I love the Vintage Violet color (Middle row bottom) It is the perfect shade of purple, not too overpowering, yet pigmented enough to pack a punch.

The Romantic eye palette from Too faced is so gorgeous, I wore this today and I got so many compliments on my eye makeup! Its subtle but smokey at the same time (if that's even possible) yet not overpowering. LOVE IT!!


I am so happy with everything I got. Only problem is, is that when you go to this store, for every one thing you do buy you see three more things that you want. Thank goodness for coupons!

 

Laters!! 

Recipe of the Week!

Here is a little secret, I love sweets hence the 30 extra pounds I am lugging around. When I started getting healthy I knew I would have to give things that I love, but were bad for me, totally up. However, I need a little fix every once in awhile. So I have started looking for healthy alternatives to some of my favorites. One of those favorites being Lemon Bars! I love these things because they taste sour and sugary at the same time, like your suckin on a giant sour patch kid! So over the weekend I went in search of a healthy way to make these tasty little morsels, and I found one that satisfied my sweet tooth without cancelling out all the calories I had burned on my run. Not only that but they were super simple to make, only two ingredients, and they are only 150 calories per bar (as long as you don't make like haft the pan one bar!).

Better for you Lemon Bars:

1 Box Angel Food Cake
1 Can Lemon Pie Filling (I used sugar free or no sugar added)

• Mix ingredients together in a bowl
• Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes
• Dust with powdered sugar once cooled
• Enjoy!

These babies were very yummy, although I will admit that they are more "Cakey" than original lemon bars, still they satisfy the pallet.


Give it a try this week! Laters!

Steph's Tidbits:

• Remember that stress I was talkin about yesterday? Yep, its still here :( Curse you Higher Education
• Baseball is starting soon, we are down to less than two weeks till pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training!! WAHOO!!!!!!
• Went to Ulta yesterday!! Oh man oh man did I get some AWESOME stuff. Stay tuned for a Haul post!!

Just a little Stress..... And a Birthday Wish

Okay so today I am dealing with a little stress, which I hate. College is complicated, and sometimes its down right confusing. Not the subject, although lets admit it that we all have faced a subject where the whole time we were just like "HUH?". No I am referring to the enrollment process, the financial aid, the purchasing of books, all that "other" stuff you have to do when it comes to college. Sometimes it can really suck when you have to make all these decisions yourself, is this really the right class? Do I really have to pay $250 for that book? What should my major be? What do I wanna do with the rest of my life? Usually I have all of that stuff figured out, but then my school will throw me a curve ball and I am all like "WHAT? I just woke up give me a minute here". So today I am dealing with trying to finish scheduling my last semester at this school, although at the moment it looks like it might not be, and figuring out the best course of action for after I am done. Heavy things to deal with so early in the morning :(

In other news I forgot to mention that yesterday was my sisters 25th bday!

 

Oh yeah! She is totally rockin a pink Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles top in that picture. She was cool way before it was cool, to be cool (LOL). Happy B-day lil Sis! 



Workout of the week!

Did you make it to 1,000 jump squats? I did! and my legs were so sore, but I know in the long run it is totally worth it. You burn a little over a 1/2 a calorie with each jump squat, that means you burned an extra 500 calories last week! Woot WOOT!!!

Okay so this week I am going to give you a full 7 days to complete the 1,000. I cheated a bit today, the first slip I pulled out was actually Bicep Curls, but lets face it I am way too lazy to be carrying around a dumbbell all day, so I went with my second slip which was.... wait for it, wait for it........ Incline Push ups! You can do these baby's anywheres, against the kitchen counter, a wall, the stairs, I even bang out a couple against the bathroom sink when I am brushing my teeth. I prefer to do these suckers against the stairs but will utilize any space in my house. I will even admit that one week when I did these before I was totally inspired and even did them against my car as I was waiting for the gas to pump. You should have seen the guy at the other pumps face, he was all like "what the heck is that crazy over there doin"  and I was all like "yo what's up, I'm just over here crankin out some Inclines", Priceless!

Here is a picture for proper form:

 

You should aim for something that is about waist high, but if you use something higher just make sure your feet are farther back. I've got 100 under my belt already, so get up on these and see if you can beat me to 1,000!

 

Laters!! 

Sunday Movie Magic....

Seen any good movies lately??

I have been watching a TON of movies lately. I guess I should clarify that statement, I don't watch T.V. and even the shows that I do watch (which are as follows (in no particular order :);

• Glee
• Pretty Little Liars
• Grey's
• Face Off
• Once upon a Time

Even these shows I don't watch when they air, I TiVo everything and then watch them when I can't sleep at night (weird right!). So when I am done with work or am working on homework or just filling in time I watch movies. I own a lot of them (223 to be exact, YIKES) but I rent movies or stream them, from Netflix (I have both the DVD and streaming). We also have a redbox right down the road from us at the grocery store I shop at so it makes it simple easy to get one for the night. That being said I seem to be going renting crazy lately and have watched a ton this week (it was a light homework week!). Here are some of the ones I have seen, maybe I will start reviewing movies on here(!);

• Casa Di Mi Padre- now let me tell you, I am a HUGE Will Farrell fan, my stepfather and I love anything this guy is in, that being said I was totally disappointed in this movie, it wasn't even funny. Although I was impressed with his Spanish language skills !
• The Trouble with the Curve- this movie had me at Baseball (I absolutely love any movie about baseball on principle alone) but this movie also had Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, and Justin Timberlake in it. I was surprised how much I loved this movie. It really is excellent, and although Justin wasn't fantastic, its enough just to see him acting next to Clint.
• Premium Rush- Excellent!
• Looper- This movie was good but I could hardly focus on the story when I was so distracted by Joesph Gorden-Levitt's face, something went seriously wrong with the makeup here.
• Dark Shadow- Horrible, poor Johnny Depp :(
• TED- Hilarious (if you like stupid funny) but I was impressed my Mark Walhbergs acting, surprisingly good!
• Frankenweenie- A very cute movie about a boy who can't stand to be apart from his dog, so he brings him back to life after he dies. This is a stop-action movie much like my favorite movie of all time "The Nightmare Before Christmas"

I haven't really seen anything in theaters recently, I have been super busy (is there an echo? I feel like I say that all the time). But I am going to see Lincoln tonight with a friend, a little late yes but better than never I always say :)

I hope you guys have had a fantastic weekend! I can't believe its over already, I always feel a little melancholy on Sundays. But its a beautiful day here in NY and I am all done with homework and am going to the movies tonight so I have a serious smile on my face!

Laters!

P.s. See all that hair.... is soon to be gone, like all of it. Okay not all of it, but 90% of it. :)

Away We Go....

GOOOOOoooD MornING!!!

Don't you just love Saturday mornings!! The prospect of the entire weekend lays before you, so many possibilities, so many adventures to be had. Unless your me of course... and you have a group project to complete (to which no one wants to contribute), so you'll spend your entire Saturday trapped in front of your computer trying to finish.... GRrrr. But that's okay, it just means that I will be able to take the time to reorganize my room, something I love doing! Be on the look out for organization videos and posts coming soon, I have decided that I will dedicate one post a week in the month of February to organization.

Hmmmm.... so what should we talk about today? I know lets talk about upcoming plans and you guys can chime in with some of the upcoming plans you might have.

Lets see; did I mention I am graduating at the end of this semester? May 11th to be exact, and my mom and stepfather are both (hopefully) making the trip down here. I am so excited! It feels as though I have been going to school for the past 25 years and to finally be almost done is super exciting.

I am running a 10K second weekend in May. I am a little nervous about this but I am currently running 3.5 miles 4 times a week and 5.5 miles one time a week so I think by May I should feel confident that I wont embarrass myself with my running ability.

For memorial day weekend my mom and I are planning on meeting up in Toronto for a Blue Jays game, we are staying at this beautiful hotel right near the stadium and plan to spend the three days checking out the city. I am super excited about this one since it means I can check one more stadium off the list, so far I have been to 5 of the 30 major league stadiums, and hope to check off 6 more before the summer is over, since I am not sure how much longer I am going to be on the East Coast. So far a lot of things are happening in May... Hmmm I need to make some plans for other parts of the spring. Oh wait..

Last week of March I have a weeks worth of vacation and I plan to drive over to Washington for a day or two (to see a Nationals game!!). Other than that I have a whole lot of class and school stuff planed, oh and a full time job, which can make for a very busy schedule.

So what have you guys got planned?

Laters!!

Nutribullet Goodness...

Well Hello there again, happy Friday!!! WAHOO!!! its FRIDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY!!!! (I actually hate that song, but LOVE the Glee version!!)

Anyways I have something interesting to tell y'all about today. In my quest to maintain a healthy lifestyle I have stumbled upon an ingenious invention (actually a friend told me about it, she's so smart :). The Nutribullet is this little blender that has become my new best friend. Did you know that 2/3 of Americans don't consume enough fruits and vegetables? That includes Children. And while I knew all along that in order to lose weight I needed to add more veggies and fruits into my diet, I was not prepared to sit down and eat an entire bowl of broccolli with each meal. Then I got the nutribullet, and now I do have veggies and fruit with each meal! I even have the kids (you remember those little people I told you I nanny right?) have a cup with breakfast, and while they aren't beating down my door to make one for them, they do like them enough to not complain each morning. So here is the deal, for $100 from Target (or Walmart, or Amazon.com or wherever) you get the system, a cookbook (which I have never used), a fruit and veggie guide, and a nutritional planner. I haven't used the cookbook simply because I am not motivated enough to get the book out pick a recipe and then find all the ingredients, instead I simply open the fridge, toss some ingredients on the counter and then proceed to toss them in the cup, and bam baby a nutrismoothy. Here is what I did this morning (I hope you guys appreciate this since it took a lot of motivation to stop and take a picture of each step, when I could have finished quickly and then been sitting on my butt with a cup of coffee, trying to wake up instead :)

Step 1: Gather ingredients. I used whole (organic) spinach but you could use Romaine or Kale or whatever your favorite leafy veggie is, frozen strawberries, frozen peaches and flax seeds.

Step 2: Place a handful of spinach into the cup, I typically do one small handful for the ones I make the kids and 1 1/2 handfuls when I make my own

Step 3: Add frozen (or fresh) fruit of your choice. Typically I use fresh fruit but the kids (and I) like them when they are cold so we have been using frozen quite a bit lately. Try to add the medium size and small fruits first.

Step 4: Add the large fruit last, this way it will be on the top closest to the blade and therefore chopped up more efficiently

Step 5: Add Flax seeds. Flax seeds are so good for you, they are a good source of fiber and omega 3 fatty acids. See this article for information on its benefits; http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/whattoeat/a/flaxinfo.htm

Step 6: Add water. Add to the max line if you want a more liquid drink or below it for a thicker drink.

Step 7: Attach blade lid, invert and insert into base. Blend until everything is mixed.

Step 8: Enjoy!

The great thing is that these are totally customizable, whatever you have on hand or you enjoy the most you can use. We really like them when they have blueberries, Kiwi or mango's in them. Now I know this looks totally gross, but that's just the color speaking to your brain saying, " hey I'm green so I must taste disgusting" but its not true, these are really good, and so good for you. If its too hard to get over the color, put it into a colored glass so you wont notice as much (I do this for one of the kids who can't seem to get past the color yet). Depending on how much veggies you put in, this can have as much as 1 1/2 servings of veggies and 1 to 2 servings of fruit. We typically put an Avocado in as well, since those too are extremely good for you, but we were out this morning. Give it a try, you just might enjoy it and your body will thank you!

Steph's Tidbits:

• I started my final semester of college last week!! The light at the end of my tunnel is bright and beckoning me forward!!!
• I am loving this new season of both Once upon a Time & Pretty Little Liars. Glee not so much (I miss Rachel and Kurt singing last night they didn't utter a single note :(
• I have been taking a kickboxing class at my gym for the past couple of weeks and I am starting to notice a difference in my running stride (in a good way) its amazing how good cross training is for your muscles!

P.S I am up to 845 jump squats so far this week! How many have you done?

House of FAB!

Have I mentioned my new favorite thing yet? No, well allow me to introduce you to the website that will change you life, scratch that Pinterest already did, didn't it? So then I guess this will change what you wear on your feet. Justfab.com.

I am in LOVE with this website (and no they are not paying me to say that, I simply buy a ton of stuff from them and want to share my obsession with you people, if there is anyone even reading this :). They have the most amazing shoes, all high quality, designer picked. In fact Kimora Lee Simmons is the president of this company. When you sign up you fill out a little survey about your shoe preferences (as if I have a preference, if its goes on my feet I love it). Then each month you get a closet, if you will, on their website that has some shoes that fit your preferences and you can purchase one of those or choose from the hundreds of other styles that they have, each costs $39.99 with free shipping! You earn points for each purchase and 350 points gets you a free pair of shoes (Holla!!). If you don't feel like purchasing simply decline by the 5th of the month and you wont be charged. Forget, and you get a member credit to pick anything. So I guess there is the downside, you do have to remember to get on there and decline before the 5th of the month but lets be honest if you can remember to buy tampons each month you can remember to log on to this amazing site. I have been in love with this sight for the past 5 months or so and have purchased like 7 pairs of shoes, because they are always having a sale (right now its buy one get one free, and I do so love that word FREE!!). These are the ones I purchased recently;

 

So anyways, blah blah I love this website and then I see a commercial for a new show on Style network called "Kimora: House of Fab" and I had my mind blown because its a show about this website, like behind the scenes stuff and I very nearly died right there, because now I can take my obsession to the next level! Last night was the first episode and while not extremely entertaining, it was interesting, and they do some cool things during the show:

 

Seriously check out this website you will die of happiness!!

 

Happy Shopping!!

 

p.s. Anonymous comment will no longer be posted. If you have something to say, then take responsibility and put your name on it.

Workout of the Week.....

Here is something else new we are going to do, "A workout of the week". So aside from the running, which by the way I have continued to do even though its colder than the Antarctic here in NY, I have been choosing one workout to do each week and then completing 1,000 during the week. Think Jumping Jacks, Push ups, Squats etc. Here is how I choose:

Way back in December I wrote a ton  of different exercises down on sheets of card stock, and then cut them into little slips, and put them into a small jar (as you can see I used Halloween candle holders :)

Then each day whenever I am thinking about it, or I walk by the jars I pull one out and do whatever it says, then transfer it to the "done Jar" (Yes I did get this idea off of Pinterest, what can I say I'm addicted) Once all the slips are moved to the done jar I plan on rewarding myself with a little "You DID IT" prize, perhaps a new pair of shoes?? (I need a new pair of shoes like I need a hole in the head but this seems to be working in the motivation department!). Back to the workout of the week, whatever is the first slip I pull out on Monday becomes my workout of the week. My goal is to do at least 1,000 during the week, but with simple things like jumping jacks I try to do 1,000 a day, that's 7,000 jacks in a week (that burns about 1 pound worth of calories in case you were interested!!). So this weeks workout just so happens to be Jump Squats. I wont subject you to a demonstration a'la fatso over here but here is a picture of proper form:  

 

Whenever I am waiting for something, like the microwave, or my Nutribullet to finish blending, or new pins on Pinterest to load, then I bang out a couple (I aim for 10 to 20 each time). This is a simple way to add more movement into my day and works some serious leg muscles. Give it a try this week, you'll be amazed at how much more workout you can get into your day!

 

Happy Squatting!! 

Recipe of the week!

So here is something new we are going to do. I, like many of you, am obsessed with Pinterest. I always see these amazing recipes that I totally drool over. But since I am sticking to this healthy eating thing I have been lookin for ways to turn some of my favorites, into healthy alternatives. So here is my first fortay into the healthy cooking world, Baked Tacos. Now the original reciepe calls for 2 pounds of ground beef, which you can use if you want, but I don't eat red meat so I used ground turkey instead. The recipe is as follows:

2 lbs ground meat (again you can use ground beef, turkey or chicken)
1packet taco seasoning
1 8oz can tomato sauce (or taco sauce if you use a taco kit)
1 16oz can refried beans
Shredded low-fat Colby-jack cheese
Toppings of choice
10 hard shell tacos

1. Preheat oven 400 degrees
2. Brown meat in skillet. Drain off excess liquid. Mix in seasoning, sauce, and beans. Heat over low heat for a few moments till everything is mixed.
3. Spoon into bottom of shells and place in a shallow baking dish. Once all shells are full sprinkle cheese over mixture in each shell.
4. Bake in oven for 10-12 minutes or until cheese is melted. Top with favorite taco toppings. ENJOY!!!

Now I am not a big fan of tomatos or olives or anything really on my tacos, so what I did was place 2 tablespoons of the meat mixture into the taco and after I took them out of the oven I packed them full of romaine lettuce. It was so good. I was a little hesitant since it seemed like an extra step in the taco making process, but they were SOOOOO good! And the plus side is that the baking toasts the shells and they dont break apart when you bite into them. So give it a try this week, you just might find a new favorite.

And So the New Year Begins a Bit Late....

I have so much respect for those people who can keep up with their blogs (and post relevant things everyday) and still lead normal lives, I seem to not be one of those people. I have alot of catching up to do and I promise that one of my New Years resolutions was to do just that.


Stay tuned cuz its about to get good.....!!