Monday, January 27, 2014

A Different Kind of Make It Monday

Good Morning everyone! I hope you all had a wonderfully relaxing weekend and are staying warm in this extra chilly weather. The colder it gets the more I want to stay in bed with a cup of coffee and a good book or movie.

Instead of staying in bed though, I woke up early to start a week of subbing for middle school art classes. While I'm not the most artistically inclined person, I'm really excited for this week. One of the projects I'll be helping the students with is a reverse glass painting. I found a photo on Pinterest that I want to hang so I decided to use it for the base of this project.

I've really enjoyed working with the students instead of just moderating them. It makes me focus on using all those silly things I learned in Grad school, which will really help when I start teaching full time. It also makes the day so much more enjoyable!

While I was working with one of my classes some of the girls helped me get caught up on their project. So far I have the first two steps of the project complete and am ready to transfer my design to glass.


The lettering was a little difficult at first. Because I'm painting on the backside of the glass, I had to make sure I reversed the letters so it would read correctly when I hang it.



I'll keep you guys posted with how it goes! I'm really excited to see the finished project and hang it, letting the light shine through! If you have any tips about painting on glass, send them my way (anything to help me look good, haha!)

What have you made lately or feel inspired to make? Pictures welcome and encouraged!

Monday, January 20, 2014

Make It Monday: Round 2

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you're all relaxing and enjoying the long weekend.

Today's creation was inspired by, of course, Pinterest. I have so many recipes on there that I want to try I had a bit of a hard time choosing. However, a friend of mine made the request of more "whisking" for the blog so I wanted to make sure that was part of today's post. Here we go!

I chose a Blueberry Almond Flour Muffin recipe that I had pinned about a month ago. I've been playing around with the Paleo Diet lately and I thought this would be a nice go-to recipe on hand. Plus, I already had the almond flour and needed a recipe to help finish it off. 

This recipe comes from the blog Uncreatively Conscientious. I was very happy to see that most of the ingredients are basic pantry staples. It also included a recipe for both blueberry or strawberry muffins, which I thought was helpful as well. Here's the recipe I used:

Blueberry Almond Flour Muffins: From Uncreatively Conscientious

2 C          almond flour
3              eggs
1 1/2 Tbs  brown sugar
1/2 tsp      baking soda
1 Tbs        apple cider vinegar
dash        salt
1 tsp       vanilla
1/4 C      overripe banana, mushed (about half a medium banana)
2 Tbs      applesauce (unsweetened)
1 C         blueberries (fresh or frozen)

I didn't have any applesauce on hand so I substituted greek yogurt instead. 




It was so hard for me to wait for them to cool down. The kitchen smelled amazing and I was forcing myself to keep busy until they were just warm enough. The texture was perfect! They hadn't dried out while baking, which is something that I noticed happens when using almond meal/flour. The only change I might make to this recipe is to add some lemon zest. They just needed a little something more and I think that would really bring out the flavor of the blueberries. Although, I may just want to add lemon because that's what I grew up with. My mom makes incredible lemon blueberry muffins! They don't last long, because they're just too good not to inhale.


I couldn't wait to enjoy one with a mug of coffee! I kept the "berry" theme going and brewed a pot of La Crema Coffee Co.'s Blackberry coffee. It's absolutely delicious and just enough sweetness for me. Definitely was the best choice I made to start my day :)

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Weekly Workout Highlight

Happy Hump Day everyone!

Now that the polar vortex has passed, I hope you all have thawed out and are looking forward to the upcoming weekend!

As I mentioned in my last post, I want to start highlighting different workouts each week. For my first workout review, I guess we can call it, I'm focusing on a new DVD I actually received for Christmas.


I come from a pretty large family. My Dad is one of eight so needless to say we have a lot of people to celebrate the holidays with. Every Christmas we have a gift exchange that I always look forward to! It's very similar to a Secret Santa. Each person writes down three things they would like for Christmas that are under $25. This year my cousin picked my name and I was absolutely THRILLED to receive the great gifts she put together for me. One of the gifts I was given was the Jillian Michaels' Shed and Shred DVD. I am a HUGE Jillian Michaels fan so I was pretty pumped to try one of her workouts.

SoI was finally able to try the DVD this morning and here's what I think :


If I know anything about Jillian Michales it's that she doesn't mess around! This workout completely follows suit! I was well prepared to sweat it out this morning, but I didn't know just how quickly I'd feel the burn, haha. There are so many great things about this workout: you choose how long you workout for, a half hour or an hour long routine. She includes a warm-up and cool-down (something I definitely need to work on including when I hit the gym). My favorite thing about the DVD though is that there is never a dull moment. She includes everything from cardio intervals to kickboxing to yoga to weight training. I wasn't able to complete the full hour and a half workout, but I was definitely sweating like crazy by the end of my 45 minute session.

I can't wait to try the DVD again, after I recover from today's shred session! If you have any workout routine suggestions please leave a comment. I'm always trying to switch things up!

Monday, January 6, 2014

Make It Monday- First Edition

Good morning everyone!  Hope you're all staying warm and safe this chilly morning.

As part of my New Year resolution, I'd like to start adding some regularly themed posts to this blog. Each Monday will focus a recipe or craft that I've found and attempted. The goal here is to start taking advantage of the many wonderful things I find and want to recreate. I'm also hoping to feature a weekly workout on Wednesday. I've been trying out so many different workouts and would like to share my thoughts on them for my own review and to help out anyone who's looking for a new routine. Lately I've heard a lot of people asking about how to stay motivated while working out. I tend to stay more interested in keeping up with my fitness routine by switching it up (however, with this weather, even that approach is losing its appeal)! I'm most excited about my plans for my Friday posts. I would like to start featuring a friend who has made fitness a new priority in their life every Friday. If you would like to nominate some one please feel free to leave a comment!

So for today I'd like to focus on a new smoothie recipe I tried yesterday.



I found this recipe for a Pear Berry Weight-Loss Smoothie on FitSugar a while ago and have been wanting to try it out. I varied the recipe just a tad though since I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand.

This is what I tossed into my blender:

  • 1 cup unsweetened vanilla Silk Soy Milk
  • 1 cup frozen raspberries
  • 1 med. pear, chopped
  • 1 cup baby spinach
  • 1/4 cup Chobani vanilla non-fat greek yogurt
  • 1/2 teaspoon  ground flaxseed

I was very surprised with how much this recipe made. I probably could have split it into two servings, but I was trying to follow the FitSugar recipe as closely as I could. I think my favorite part about this smoothie was the tangy taste of the raspberries. They helped reduce the sweetness of the milk, yogurt, and pear, which gave it a great flavor. I think if I would have had a kiwi on hand that would have been a great addition as well.

I definitely want to try this recipe again, but I may make a few minor changes. I wasn't thrilled with using a whole pear in the smoothie (it took up a lot of room in my blender) so I think I may just use half of one next time. I'm still not sure about using an avocado in my smoothies either. I really like to use milk to make a smoothie creamy since I have a hard time getting enough calcium and I don't know if I'd like the texture of the smoothie with the avocado in it.

If you try the recipe or use your own adaptation of it please let me know what you think!

The rest of this chilly day will be spent trying out a Jillian Michaels' DVD I received for Christmas before braving the cold to head to work and run errands.

Stay warm and cozy today!