Will be the link up for Bling Bling show us your ring! 
After a ton of tweets that were so upbeat and positive about the link up, I went ahead and got the linkup for this already!


If you are on twitter, I tweeted the button I made in Photoshop so be sure to drag it and save it on your post (if you want)


You can share your engagement story or any story about your ring good or bad! 
IE The proposal, if your diamond has even been "lost" or broken
or no story about it at all is okay too! 




Single ladies--
 you are MORE than welcome to share your "Dream ring" or a ring you have been eying that you really like! 


How else is the boy going to get the "hint" right? heheh

I just thought this linkup would be a fun way for other bloggers who aren't engaged or close to, to get an idea of what types of rings are out there, without having to be embarrassed to look inside a jewelry case or being bombarded by those pesky Jewelry sales associates! 

If you can, share the deets about your ring! 

Shape, cut, clarity, etc etc. 

Ring Bling

So A day or so ago, I tweeted randomly about hosting a link up where bloggers would show off their engagement ring/wedding ring and possibly mention in their post where they place their ring every night..

 Note: pinterest image not my ring!

So my question for you bloggers is, would you link up? Should I host it? 

Thoughts please! 

Operation Skinny Bride

I think getting engaged was a good thing not only for Mister Wonderful & I, but a nice gentle wake up call that I really need to get back on track and head to our gym 5 days a week, if not more. 

Why don't I go every day like Mister Wonderful? 

2 reasons : laziness (hey let's face it! I'd rather lay on the couch and read your blogs than hit the gym!) 

and reason #2 is just pure tiredness from teaching all day then after school art. I'm usually exhausted. 

Really I just want to lose 7lbs--that's it! I know some of you are like really? that's Nothing! Should be a piece of cake right? 

Eh....

For this chick? Not so easy! 

A while back MW and I did the whole Paleo diet for 2 months and it was HARD! No carbs no bread no nothing. I never really saw a weight difference. If you've never heard of the Paleo diet, click here to read more about it! 

But...

This is where MW pipes up and says that I was doing "good" on it and had I worked on my consistency with going to the gym, I probably would have lost more weight! 

My lowest weight ever that I can recall

 was: 110 

in High School

Here I am in 1999 (Junior in HS) and at 110 lbs 

Ironically I only remember my weight from this year, bec it was the year I gave blood at school and they weighed me and told me my weight (and that was with clothes on!!) 

This is me in July 2009

(and the guy in the picture is just a FRIEND!!! lol He owned a boat, and thus a bunch of us would always get to go to the Yuma River on really hot days! This was also the year before I met Mister Wonderful

) 

The first time I really noticed weight gain/change in my body 

Age here: 27

Weight: 128

This was me in 2010

This is me WITH MISTER WONDERFUL in Vegas! 

Weight here: 130

UGH!!! 

This is me today:

Brace yourself!!!!!

I had Mister Wonderful take these!

Current weight: 131

yeah. 

Gross right? Well it is for me. It's not what I "should" weigh even though technically if you look up someone my height which is 5'8" in case any of you are wondering...

I'm actually in the bracket of what someone my height and age is suppose to weigh..

odd...

How I still fit into my size 28 jeans and size 4 pants from Express and Limited I don't know.

Clearly my weight gain is all in my sides aka SADDLE BAGS. The worst place to gain it! 

So what would I like to go back to?

See picture below!

Rewind to 2006-2008 (my glory years hahah)

Weight: 124-126 lbs

PERFECT!

I am so sorry if I grossed some of you out with all these bathing suit pictures of myself. I am not a vain person, as most of you who follow me know I don't post pictures of my self all that often on here. 

They were not "easy" to post, and definitely putting myself out there. 

I know many of you will say size 4 is small! 130 is small! All true statements, but for someone that was 124-126 to jump up to the 130 range 

it's a size difference, and thus makes me feel very, "heavy" and need to realize that I am going to have to be one of those girls who has to WORK to maintain my weight...that my early 20 days are over! 

My DIY Projects/How Pinteresting Wednesday

It's Pinteresting Wednesday!!!

*picture belongs to MeohMy blog! :) 

I have had this picture saved for over a year wanting these zinc letters. 

They are sold at Anthropologie for  98.00 a PIECE! Yeah, how about them apples!?! 

On a teacher's salary, I can't really "spend" that for fun per letter. So I thought there has got to be some other way! 

Enter Hobby Lobby.

 I picked up CHIPBOARD letters IDENTICAL to the zinc letters and for a 1.99 a piece, they were a steal in my book! 

I've had this spray for a few years now. Not sure if it's from Walmart or Michaels. I'm sure you can pick it up at a lot of local stores. 

Anyway, spray the letters at a good distance. Chipboard absorbed the paint very well. Let dry for a hour outside.

Okay so how does one attach chipboard letters to their walls? 

I picked up some little claw looking thingys at Hobby Lobby as well and they nailed right into the back of the chipboard with no problem. Chipboard is so light, I knew these would do the job just fine! 

 And here's my version!!! Tah da! 

 I really liked how it looks, just like the fancy anthro letters! 

Ok moving on to another pinterest pin I've had pinned for a few weeks. A blog I have followed for a long time is where I first saw this (House of Smiths) She's so crafty! 

See my pin board on Pinterest if you you need directions (link to pinterest is on my right side of blog) it's under "Make it" board! 

Gotta be honest and say these weren't EASY to make. I have a good color printer, it even has it's own photo slot for 4x6 photo paper. BUT....

I went ahead and printed these at a local CVS (what a nightmare) and RIP OFF! 

You need a minimum of a 2x3 print to fit in these bulbs and that's even cutting it to close (As in to big)

All printing places IE TARGET< WALMART>WALGREENS etc etc do NOT print prints any smaller than a 4x6

It was Dec 23rd when I made these, so there was no way I could send the prints away via an online company just to have a 2x3 made. (they'd never get here on time with all the extra stuff in the mail for the holidays)

What CVS does offer is wallets to be printed, but in like MASS quantities of 9 on one sheet. 

For reals? I am going to have to pay for all these wallets when I only want one? Yup. 

GRRRR

The Bulbs are from Hobby Lobby (since Michaels was sold out of the plastic ones) I really like that I got 4 real LARGE glass bulbs and for cheap! 

The berries are from Michaels. 




And as for my last pin...


This was on pinterest, and I thought to myself, "ya know, that looks really yummy, I'll ask mister wonderful to cook it for us for dinner sometime!"

This is Mister Wonderful's version 

It was delish! 

 I NEVER post recipes, (I don't do the cooking in our house that's MW's job I just get dish duty!) 
So if y'all are interested you can find the recipe *HERE

Be sure to link up with Michelle over at the Vintage Apple!

The eve of a Christmas Engagement!

If you follow me on Instagram or twitter or facebook, then you know the news already! 

This Christmas eve, a few hours before midnight mass, Mister Wonderful proposed and I happily said YES!

So the story goes...

The tradition in my family is that on Christmas eve, we are allowed to open one Christmas gift on the eve of Christmas, the the next day we open all the gifts. I asked MW if he wanted to do that. He agreed. I picked out a photo book I had made of our Ohio/Chicago summer trip printed by Shutterfly for him to open. I had been dying to see how the book turned out, and had not opened it out of it's original packaging since it arrived! 

Next it was my turn. I was sitting on our black leather couch wondering what he was going to give me. Seeing how I KNOW that he hadn't used an INCH of tape or wrapping paper for the whole month, so I had no idea what he was going to give me. 

He just said, "Aspen go give mommy her Christmas present"

So Aspen comes bounding off his lap and into mine. I was like Oh goodie doggie kisses and with some dog breath is my gift sweet! 

really I didn't know what he meant by sending her my way. 

I just looked at him and said how is Aspen my gift? 

MW says, "no babe you need to look for it--it's on her"

at first i kind of panicked? what's on her?

Then as I felt up around her harness, there was this gorgeous ring attached to her name license and bell. 

I was in shock. He got down on one knee and said how much he had been thinking of doing "this" (proposing) for a while now, and wanted to know if I would marry him?

I kept asking are you sure? are you for real? Are you serious? I think those were the 3 things I kept repeating at first! 

He said he knew how much Aspen meant to me, and how he wanted her to be a part of the special moment, and I think I began to tear up then!

I couldn't stop staring at it all throughout midnight mass. 

I've waited 29 years to meet my soulmate, and contrary to belief, that old saying You know when you know? It's SO true. I knew very early on before Mister Wonderful moved from Ohio to AZ to be with me, that he was "the one". 

So that's the story friends. We did the best we could capturing our "Moment" with just as as the Photographers since both of our families were out of state for the holiday (his are in Cleveland mine are in Colorado.) 

I know NOTHING about weddings, planning or anything of the sorts, so any advice you bloggy buddies can shed would be GREAT! 

And for the basic questions....

No, no date has been 'set' but MW actually wants to try to be married over THIS SUMMER. 

Yeah you read that correctly. THIS SUMMER. CRUNCH!

Not sure if we can pull that off.....

We DO want to do a destination wedding via Hawaii. 

Reason is very simple:

We don't want a big wedding. 

We don't want to get married in a catholic church (even though MW and I are VERY CATHOLIC and attend church every Sunday) we don't feel the need to attend YEARLY pre marital classes (to each their own don't judge!) 

I never really blog about MW and my relationship on here, simply because people often raise an eyebrow when I tell them (only when asked) that MW and never fight. We get along totally fine, we don't let little pet peeves pick at us or ruin our relationship. Everyone just says oh your day will come, you'll fight eventually. Um...

It's been a year and a half and no, really, we don't fight. Like ever. 

Anyway, back to the Hawaii deets....

The main reason we also pick Hawaii (rather than St. Martins or Fiji)

Hawaii is IN STATE so my lil ole Grandma doesn't need to get a passport to see her grand daughter get married. 

We WANT our families to be on vacation with us. I know a lot of people escape their family and lives on a Honeymoon. We want ours to be there for some of it! 

MW and I have never gone on a REAL vacation.I don't consider going home to IL or OH a vacation. 

We both want a REAL destination as a vacation. 

Well friends, those are the details!

Has anyone gotten married as a destination wedding?

Have any of you gotten married in under a year engagment?

How does one get their hair and makeup done for a destination wedding?

TIPS PLEASE!!!!

Movie Review!

Anyone venture out to the movies this holiday weekend?

I asked Mister Wonderful to go and see NEW YEARS EVE with me!

I really liked the movie Valentines Day, so I thought this would be right up my alley!

While the movie does have an "all star" cast, it didn't have the same spark as Valentines Day did! :( 

I thought the story line plots weren't as linked as well as Valentines Day was. Ashton Kutcher, Jessica biels, Ludacris were not the SAME roles as they were in Valentines Day, so that threw me off.

I thought it was cheesy when Lea Michelle from Glee sung in the elevator...

That's all I can say about it! I'd wait to rent it! 

Speaking of new years eve, who's got their dress all ready for the big night!?

I ordered this beauty from ASOS! 

Can't wait to wear it!

Have a holly jolly Christmas!

Blog world has officially SLOWED so I think that's my cue to sign off as well for a while! 

Have a terrific Christmas Everyone! God Bless!