#Clearproof

Hey guys! Today, I have an exciting post for all of you. I was asked recently if I would like to take part in the Mary Kay Clear Proof Voxbox program. Of course, I just had to say yes!

The Clear Proof Acne System has 4 steps; a facial gel, toner, treatment gel, and oil free moisturizer. This system is meant to target and control acne without drying out skin.

Clear Proof Clarifying Cleansing Gel

"A clear cleanser that deeo ceanses skin to remove dirt, excess oil and impurities. This salicylic acid formula helps reduce shine and unclogs pores to help you achieve clearer skin."

Clear Proof Blemish Control Toner

"A salicylic acid-based formula helps remove dead skin cells to help keep pores from clogging and prevent new pimples from forming. This toner cleanses skin completely to help tighten pores and appear less noticeable to give you healthy, clear skin."

Clear Proof Acne Treatment Gel

"A lightweight benzoyl peroxide product that penetrates and clears pores to target bacteria and visibly reduce a pimple's redness. This highly effective cream absorbs quickly to help reduce the number of acne pimples, allows the skin to heal and prevents new breakouts from occurring."

Clear Proof Oil-Free Moisturizer for Acne-Prone Skin
"A fast-absorbing, lightweight, non-pore-clogging formula that helps provide the balanced hydration your skin needs. This formula helps control shine and excess oil to leave your skin feeling nourished and healthier."

I am very excited to start using this. My acne has been acting up recently on my chin and forehead so I hope this works to clear it up. I'm going to use this for 30 days, and give you all an update then.

The Mary Kay Clear Proof Acne System retails for $45.

 

"I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes."

Ocoee River Whitewater Rafting Trip

 This past weekend I was able to check another item off my 30 before 30 list!
Whitewater rafting!!

I had been wanting to go whitewater rafting for a long time, but when my boss went and told these amazing stories about her trip I knew it was time to go.  So M and I took off on our little whitewater rafting adventure. 

I had heard a lot of good things about the Ocoee river and it was decently close to home.  And I must say the drive there was beautiful!  We went with the Ocoee Adventure Center and our Guides name was Gator Man.  He told that he had been rafting for 25+ years and was known for rafting the Ocoee on an inflatable Gator raft from walmart.

They haul the rafts on top of school buses like so.  It's really neat to watch them unload and load these rafts.

 This is where they let your practice before you actually get on the rapids.  They show you basic moves like "forward two" this means paddle forward two times and "Hot Tub" which means get down in the middle of the boat.

This is where we put in at.  In front of a 45 foot waterfall.  I took these pictures after our trip. When it was our time for our trip,  too much water had been let out of the channel and this place was wild!  You can tell how high the water was where the concrete is wet.  At the bottom, where the rafters are standing was covered in about a foot of raging water! It was all we could do to walk our raft out to get into it.

This is where we started, you can see all the rafters at the top waiting their turns to go.

Im in the middle there, and you can tell my by face, I was having a blast.

and then.....

we flip the raft....

 We was rushed downstream in class four rapids hitting rocks and waves over and over.  According to our guide we was out of the raft for about a quarter of a mile.  It was one heck of a ride.  No one was injuried, other than several bruises and a few scrapes!

Thankfully, we was pulled back into another raft, our raft was retrieved along with our paddles and we was able to continue our trip.

Despite our little accident right out of the gate, we had a blast and would go again in a heartbeat.

Easiest way to Clean Windows!

We recently added an Sunroom on to our house. And I must say it's pretty dang fancy. It's officially our most favorite room in the whole house. I think the cats actually like it better than we do! I'll post more on the Sunroom later.

Right now I want to take about cleaning all those dang windows! 13 of them at that! I absolutely hate cleaning windows, not that I like cleaning anything. Cleaning is actually one of my least favorite things to do, so I'm always looking for tricks to make the job a little easier. I found this super easy way to clean windows on pinterest and thought I would give it a try.

So all you have to do is mix equal parts water and vinegar, take a microfiber and wipe your window down. Then take a dry microfiber and wipe it dry. TA-DA your done! My favorite part is you don't have to even worry about streaking. It will not streak!!

I must have this...

I am dying to have this book! Anyone who would like to send me a copy, please go ahead!!

 

If you follow any quilting blogs, you have probably seen the Farmers Wife Quilt Along.  I just ran across this during some online down time and I'm obsessed.

 

Camille's squares are where it's at

 

Those colors! I love how ever block is different.   I'm going to have to break down buy a ton of fabric, and that book, and  start quilting all these blocks!

March Flowers and April Showers

I finally jumped all in, and decided to order some April Shower charm packs after weeks of drooling over them.  I'm new to quilting and sewing and was kind nervous about ordering these and not being able to make anything nice out of them.

 

 

 

I have been following @danaquilts on instagram and feel head over hills for her mini quilt she made using April Showers fabric, so I'm going to try to replicate.

 

So here goes nothing! Anyone want to share some quilting tips?!?!

St. Louis Supercross

A few weekends ago, Dex and I went to St. Louis for Supercross.  This was our second time going and we loved it!  I actually got way more into it this year and found myself cheering on the riders.

 

I thought it would be awesome to have a panorama of the track and the dome, but as you can tell I'm not the best with panorama pictures!

We had amazing seats! We couldn't see the whole track but what we could see we could see really good.  We spent almost the entire day at the arena watching the riders practice and we had pit passes where fans could get autographs. 

 

We didn't do a whole lot with the pit passes because that place was absolutely packed. You could hardly walk around let alone see anything.  But I did catch a glimpse at these little cuties and got Dex to find us a spot for a closer look.

These little guys got to race on the track, sign autographs and do everything like the pros. They were so cute. You could tell they were getting tired of signing autographs pretty quick though!

Once we got back to our room we were exhausted.  But it never fails, I got sick off the hot dog from the arena and was up nearly all night.  I swore I would never eat another hot dog again!

We came home the next day and I planted my Cherry tree and new Grape vines!  Hopefully I'll have my own little orchard one day.

Yeah Im that person...

I'm that crazy cat lady...

Prepare for some Cliff love...

Everyone has a gallery wall, so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and make a small gallery wall over my sewing table.  This is the first thing I have made. Gotta keep my number one love front and center haha! 

I have a super busy week this week with work, some school stuff and taxes eek! Hopefully I'll get some down time where I can actually get some stuff on my to do list done!

What's on your schedule this week? Working on any new projects?

Linking up: Craftomaniac Monday 

a little appreciation.

lets talk about appreciation. it seems like it is hard to come by now days. I appreciate what I have and what I am provided with and I appreciate what I am given but I believe majority of people will agree with me when I say, I sometime fall short on showing my appreciation.

sometimes saying thank you is plenty, but sometimes an act of kindness would be more appropriate.

let me tell you a story...

a super sweet lady I work with called me up one day wanting to switch work days with me. it was going to put me working an extra sunday and to be quite honest I really didn't want to but I hated to say now. I really liked this woman and appreciated working with her, so I agreed to switch days.

this past sunday was the day I agreed to work for her. when I arrived to work the charge nurse gave me an envelope and told me she thought it had something in it so not to loose it. I had no clue what it was where it came from or anything. I thought maybe a previous patient brought it buy but had no clue where they would have gotten my last name from.  when I finally got time to open it, I found a thank you card and a gift card.

I think I nearly hit the floor when I seen it was from the lady I worked with. it was such a sweet sweet random act of kindness. to me in this situation a thank you was all that was needed to show her appreciation but she went above and beyond. it just makes me smile to see what a great person this lady is and I wish the world could be more like her.

this is something I never want to forget.

Scentsy Discontinued items! 10% off!

 

It's that time of year again, time for the spring/summer scentsy transition.  Lucky for you, everything is 10% off this month!

  Are your favorite scents on this list? If so, you need to hurry before they go into retirement for good. They are 10% off during the month of February and then they'll be gone!

 

Visit my Scentsy Site and order yours today before it's to late!

Fridays With Cliff

 

If you read my last post you already know about my valentines day gift.  If you haven't, well I got a new camera lens!  This is one of the first pictures I took with the lens and I must say I am in love!!  The clarity is perfect! 

this man right here is my baby, cliff.

 

 

I'm a little obsessed, almost cat lady obsessed. He looks mean in this picture but I just woke him up!  He's laying a old quilt my grandmother made me, which combines my two favorite things.  Quilts and Cliff! 

 

I hope to make posting beautiful pictures of Cliff a regular occasion. 

My valentines

Low and behold I had to work on valentines day, never fails but no big deal because I had Saturday off. 

Me and my man had a nice laid back valentines that involved dinner, grocery shopping and a night on the couch. Yes we are that 50 year old couple. 

We did however get each other some gifts that we wouldn't typically buy for ourselfs.  I got him a big nice toolbox which came with a slightly funny story. 

You may remember a few posts back where I posted about my car being frozen over. Well I went to buy his gift only to realize my trunk was frozen shut and I couldn't get it open to bring the gift home, so that night I took him to the store so he could bring his gift home. So we get out to the car with it and it won't fit in his car either.  We had to take it out of the box and put pieces in the back seat and trunk to get it home!!!

On Saturday I finally got my gift which involved chocolate, a hobby lobby gift card and a new camera lens! 

50mm f1.8 I absolutely love it! The colors are so much more vivid than my other camera. 

That sums up our valentines, pretty simple. 

Help, I can't make up my mind!

Cutting my hair has always been a huge deal to me!  Right now I have a long straight cut with one single layer in it.  I just feel blah about it!  I need a new style!  Here's some styles I'm loving.

 

I follow these two lovely ladies on Instagram and I am loving there hair styles.   Kate's hair style (the first picture) is my absolute fave, however I suck at styling my hair.  Blow dryer and straightening iron is about as far as I go with styling plus all the products make my head spin.

Kayla's hair looks just so simple and easy. Looks like bad hair days would be virtually impossible.

I have no clue who this is or where the picture originated, I found it on pinterest.  My hair basically already looks like this, but it so dang cute!

I love this cut, but my hair is naturally straight so it'll probably never look like that.

I can't make up my mind people!!!  How would you cut your hair??

Dear Friday

Dear Friday.....

....thank you for taking your time to get here.  Every three weeks I dread seeing your arrival because I know I have to work the weekend, but thanks for taking your time.

....thank you for the sunshine and blue skies after such a dreary, icy week.

Dear Weatherman....
....no thank you for the very likely chance of snow that you are calling for tonight.

Dear People of Bowling Green....
....your welcome for the good laughs at my expense.  Yes that's an inch of ice on my car, and yes I could only carve out a considerable small hole for my driving ability.

Dear ice on my car....
....thanks for making my life a little more difficult.  Thanks to you my trunk is frozen shut, I wasn't able to get the boyfriends V-day gift, and my car dinged every time I hit a bump thinking you was open.

Dear man who tried to clean off the snow on my car...
...Thank you for trying to be helpful, however it's not snow it's an inch of ice.  It won't be coming off any time soon.

Dear Rilee...
....It's a very good thing you are such a cute dog and I love you very much, otherwise I would like to wear your butt out for tearing every single piece of garbage in the trash can to shreds.

Dear Red Lobster....
.... keep the cheddar biscuits coming tonight.  I'm prepared to embarrass my self.

Dear Raylan Givens...
.... I can't wait to see your beautiful face tonight on justified.  I know your just a character on a TV show but I'm pretty sure I love you.


Dear Friday, you definitely have been eventful.
 

On this Thursday in February

Today, on this Thursday in February....

....I spent another day at home in the snow with my fur babies

...I slept in til 8:45 I didn't want to wake from my dream where I was Ava Crowder from Justified

....Finished my first block for my dwell quilt.  It took a ridiculously longer amount of time than I expected and I sliced my finger wide open on the process. 

...played in the snow by taking pictures and trying to get my car out of the driveway.  There was an inch of ice on my windshield to unthaw. But I got my car out of drive ice way without any problems at all.

...fixed breakfast for supper and ate way more than I'm proud of

And tonight I....

....plan on spending my night cuddled up with Clifford, watching Sheldon and reading.

One thing I will never understand....

One thing I will never understand is how time can fly by you so fast.  It seems like yesterday it was  a New Year and now we are already into the second month.  I am sure this year will fly by just as fast too.

I made a list of goals for this year and posted here.  One of the goals was to obtain my BSN degree which should be completed by the end of the year, God willing.  This program has been entirely online and I must say has been a breeze up until this point.  However with this class setting up observation hours has proven to be difficult. 

Thankfully some people have returned my calls and now I only lack sitting up one day from having my clinical plan completed.

Also to stay on track, I decided to make some goals for February to help me stay on track.   It's really starting to feel like my blog is nothing but a huge list of goals! Oh well it keeps me motivated.  So here it goes..

Goals for February
1. Write 8 Blog Posts
2. Gain a total of 200 followers
3. Read one book
4. Piece a Quilt
5. Transfer Home Video VHS tapes to DVD's

Recipe Review: Monkey Bars

I found this new awesome recipe, or what I thought was a new awesome recipe and wanted to share it with everyone! The other day while cleaning up the kitchen, I was faced with the option of using my browned bananas for something or just throwing them away

 I hate to waste food so I looked for a recipe that would be great for my too ripe bananas and stumbled across a little something called Monkey Bars! I actually lost my recipe I was using but this recipe by A Girl who Ate Everything, is the exact same thing only she calls it monkey squares.

 

I will give this recipe a 4.0/5. I love them, I nearly fell out of my chair after first bite. But then they just sat on the counter and sat on the counter and no one would eat them.  So I assume the only person who loved them was myself. 

 

This recipe is copied directly from A Girl who Ate Everything and I take no credit for this recipe, I just tried it and wanted to share it!

 

Ingredients

 

Banana Bread Bars:

• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 1 cup sour cream
• ½ cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 ¾ cups (3 or 4) ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Browned Butter Frosting:

• ½ cup butter
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
• about 3 tablespoons milk or half and half

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour 10x15 jelly roll pan or line with parchment paper (for thicker bars use a 9x13 pan). Beat first four ingredients until creamy. Blend in bananas and vanilla for one minute. Add dry ingredients and blend for one minute. Stir in nuts and spread in pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown. Cool slighty until warm but not hot and frost with Browned Butter Frosting (recipe below).
2. For the Browned Butter Frosting: Heat butter in saucepan over medium heat past the melting point until it is boiling and a delicate brown. Remove from the heat and immediately add the remaining ingredients. This should be thicker than a glaze and thinner than frosting. Using a spatula smooth over the top of the Monkey Squares immediately. The frosting will be easier to spread once it's on the warm bread.

 

So I'm on to my next recipe, with a stick of butter in my sweatshirt to speed up the "room temp process".  And no I can't stick it in the microwave :)  

Books to be read in 2014!

Hello from snowy Kentucky! I’m enjoying a nice lazy Friday filled with blogging, cuddling with my main man, Cliff & just spending some time relaxing after a crazy week! This is complete bliss, minus the frigid temperatures outside!

I recently completed my second book for my goal of 12 books this year.  I have a really hard time trying to pick my next book when there are so many books that I want to read.  So what a great idea it would be to go ahead and make my list now!

So here it goes:

1. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

What it’s about: Libby Day was 7 when her mother and two sisters were brutally murdered in an event known as “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” She testified that the person responsible for the cruel acts was in fact her 15-year-old brother, Ben. Fast-forward about 25 years and Libby is approached by the Kill Club, a group of people obsessed with solving notorious crimes. They believe Ben was wrongly accused, and she is eventually sucked into the investigation to uncover the twisted truth.

2. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

What it’s about: A tumor-shrinking medical miracle bought Hazel a few years of time, but she’s a terminal time bomb, suffering from stage IV cancer. At a support group for her illness, she meets fellow cancer survivor Augustus Waters, a boy who pretends to smoke cigarettes and has a prosthetic leg. With a shared obsession for the novel An Imperial Affliction and a similar sense of sarcasm, the two fall in love, despite their inevitable fate. John Green’s story is honest and hilarious, exposing the fear, anger, and sadness that accompanies a terminal illness.

3. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby

What it’s about: Four people come together on New Year’s Eve on the roof of Topper’s House, a London destination known as the last stop for those who are ready to end their lives. The story is told from four distinct points of view, filled with second chances and regrets. Despite its somber topic, the book balances the provocative and the hilarious, and mixes in intense and moving moments.

4.Divergent by Veronica Roth

What it’s about: In a dystopian Chicago, society is split into five factions based on personality type (Dauntless, Amity, Erudite, Abnegation, and Candor). When Tris Prior finds out she doesn’t quite fit into any one faction, she’s declared Divergent, a dangerous revelation she must keep secret in order to survive. Once the Choosing Ceremony begins, Tris must decide to either join her family or follow her own path. The book is completely captivating and will keep you up at all hours of the night until you finish.

5.The Giver by Lois Lowry

What it’s about: Everything is perfect; diseases have been eradicated, everyone is equal, and society is under control. Each person is assigned a position by the Community, and 12-year-old Jonas has been picked as the “Receiver of Memories.” Only “The Giver” knows the truth of the past, and he must now pass that information down to Jonas. This book has often been described as the first YA dystopian novel (in correlation with the current trend) and it shows that a utopian society has its downsides, like a lack of personal freedom.

6.This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper

What it’s about: Judd Foxman’s father just died, and on top of that, his wife Jen had an affair with his boss, which recently became painfully public. Judd is forced to sit Shiva and spend seven days and nights with the dysfunctional Foxman clan, facing confrontation and dealing with old grudges.

7.Wild by Cheryl Strayed

What it’s about: Twentysomething Cheryl Strayed lost her mother and her marriage all in a short amount of time. Four years later, with nothing to lose, Strayed took an 1,100-mile solo hike along the Pacific Crest Trail in order to deal with her catastrophic past. This honest memoir is filled with suspense and humor, a journey worth the read.

8. Hopeless By Colleen Hoover




















9.Losing Hope By Colleen Hoover





















10. Hollow City By Ransom Riggs

11. The Pact By Jodi Picoult




















12.Barely Breathing by Rebecca  Donovan