Planner Thoughts

Anyone a planner girl or guy?

I want to be a planner.  A better planner.  An organized planner.

So I need a planner system.  Functional but also pretty.

Something I look forward to using every day.

I have an LV Agenda PM.  Pros, it is small.  Cons, it is small.  I am going to start there with some printables and see if I can make it work for me.  If not I will size up.  Not to big though because I do want something to throw in my purse.

Here are a few of my initial attempts were made to be crafty and organized.  It was short lived but it helped so it is about building the habit.

The planner community is insanely wonderful.  All of the creations and spreads.  It is the perfect mix of craftiness and organization.  Looking forward to this adventure.  Not trying to go broke doing it either.  Let's see if I can put my Cricut to use (post on the Cricut is yet to come).

Winter Knitter

Yes another winter is upon us which means the knitting needles are out.  Actually, I wanted to teach myself to crochet so I have done a couple of crochet projects as well.

So far I have completed:

2 Pavement Scarves (crochet)- pattern link
The brown one is my first attempt at crocheting.  I was very please with the turnout and decided to make another for a gift.

 

Works in Progress:

Ten Stitch Blanket
Easy knit but this will take forever.  I needed so instant gratification hence the chunky quick scarves above.




Entrelac Scarf
I think I have mentioned that I am the slowest knitter ever.  This scarf is taking me forever.  About an hour for each row and I am only halfway done... deep sigh.

Zentangle What?

The postman dropped off the fall non-credit schedule of classes for the local community college a few days ago.  Now that I am an emptynester I have been seriously considering some personal enrichment courses because guess what, I actually have some time on my hands.  There are so many different courses to take and I put stars by quite a few of them that sounded interesting.  One in particular caught my eye as I perused the drawing section.  

As a quick tangent let me explain why I typically skip the drawing section.  Well it is because I suck at drawing and consider myself the most artistically uncreative person in the world.  In my former mindset (thanks to a discussion with my coworker) I always had the perception that drawing classes were for those who could already draw, and were super artsy, AND creative, AND could pick up their tool of choice and create an immediate masterpiece.  Flawed thinking.  They have the classes so you can learn. They teach you techniques and how to see things and how to do things and drawing-y stuff.  Duh!!!  These geniuses even have intro level class for people like me.  My flawed thought process has been corrected and the drawing section looks like some pretty cool stuff.

Back to the course catalog.  I saw a class called Introduction to Zentangle.  What in the world?  What intrigued me first was I had never even heard this word in my life.  Then the description talked about inspiring creativity and developing mindfulness.  Me-oooh-oooh-me-me-please-me!!  Sounds like a perfect basic start.  Me being me I googled it and yes I am going to give it a try.  Doodling!!  I am going to learn how to doodle.  Probably the most basic start EVER!!

The class isn't until Oct 2 so I may do some YouTubing and give it a shot before that.  But I can at least say I am excited to try something completely different in an area that I have never explored before.

 Yay me!!  I am learning that I don't have to be an expert at everything.  I am learning that just trying something new counts for something.  Excited.

EDIT:  3 hours later and I just checked 2 books out of the library and am probably going to order some supplies.  

PREPARE FOR ME TO UNLEASH ME INNER CREATIVITY

$50 of Hair Products

Always more hair stuff to buy.  I am not a product junkie however I go through ebbs and flows with my hair care regimen.  This is terrible because it has led to inconsistent results.  Recently I was talking to another natural lamenting about how I haven't found my holy grail products.  She recommended trying a whole product line a time since the products are made to work together.  Makes sense.

My first product line in this experiment is As I Am.  I had used the Double Butter previously and liked it so I figured let's start there.

4 products.. FOUR  came to $49 and change.  Tears, but its an investment.

Here is my haul:

Twist Defining Cream

DoubleButter Cream

Leave-In Conditioner

Coconut Co-wash

1 month later I an thrilled there is a good amount of product left in each of these. 

The jury is still out on these.  While I am not disappointed I am also not jumping for joy that I have used these.  I am going to give it a little more time before I make a final judgement on any of these.

Until next time,

TakiJ

Anybody Out There

Wow... has it really been this long since  I have posted something.

YEP

Happy New Year!  Better late than never.

In all seriousness I have missed my blog.   Blogging was always a fun outlet for me and now that I am in a different place in my life I thought it would be a good time to start it back up.  A lot has happened in the past few years.

So what's it going to be about.... anything, everything, something, and nothing.  Just sharing my journey with you in hopes that maybe you find something useful to help you with your journey.

It appears I have lost my signature.  I will get around to creating a new one.

Until then,

Takij

Finished Something- Glacier Bay Scarf

Finished a scarf that I started last year.  I decided I wasn't allowed to start anything new without finishing something.  This pattern was pretty simple.  It seemed to initially take forever but once I remembered the pattern and got back into the swing of things (a year knitting hiatus makes you rusty)  it was smooth sailing.

This is the Glacier Bay Scarf knitted in Red Heart Super Saver Mulbery Mix.  I lot of k2tog and yo but it makes for an interesting zig-zag piece.  To the scarf collection it goes!!

Neutral Eye Go To

Okay, here they are.  The swatches from the Hard Candy palette I got for Christmas.

Can you see the colors on my skin?  Perfect for when I want a light touch of eyeshadow but don't feel like anything bright.  Definitely great for work as well.

No Flash	Flash

Sorry for the crappy presentation.  I have forgotten how to do this blogging thing!  I just remember how fun it used to be so I am giving it another shot.

My Natural Hair- Week1

WEEK 1-  2/21/2015- 3/1/2015

Straight flat ironed hair, what do  I do with this.  Not much.  I got it done on Saturday and wore it out until Monday.  My Monday night workout pretty much had me back to natural in the middle and still smooth around the edges.  Ponytail time, or since the cut I will say pigtail.  Yep, smoothed it out in a pigtail for the rest of the week.   I contemplated just reverting all to natural but I wanted to start fresh with some new products as well.  So until Saturday, what my wash day was it was a pig tail.

In the mean time I stocked up on my goods (posted here).

THE WASH PROCESS:

Sectioned into 4 sections

Light finger tangling with coconut oil

Cowash each section with Tresemme Naturals

Detangle each section with Denman Brush

Apply Aphogee Keratin 2 Minute Reconstuctor and put on plastic cap.

Left in for Approximately 10 min while I took my shower

Rinsed each section and ran Denman through it

Applied Alikay Lemongrass Leave-In Conditioner to each section

Applied Design Essentials Naturals to Each Section

Applied the magic potion oil to each section.

Each section was twisted with a clip on the the end to air dry

THE STYLE:

After a few hours of drying I put a part in my hair and put about 10-12 twists through out using As I Am Twist Defining Cream .  A few pieces of hair were dry not still damp so I spritz a little water as needed and let it dry.  After drying, mostly air dried but had to do 15 min under the hooded dryer since my daughter was anxious to get out of the house, I rubbed some coconut oil on my hands unstwisted and fluffed.  

THE VERDICT:

My hair feels good.  Definitely not as much hair on the shower floor.  I think it is because of the cut but am not sure if it is because my hair was coming from a flat-ironed style.  We'll see next week.  The ends look 20 million times better and I am so glad I decided to get it cut.  The strange thing is it doesn't look shorter.

Hair Products Haul

Yaaaayyyy... new products to try.  I got my hair cut last weekend and wanted to start fresh with new products.

Here is what I got:

Denman D31 brush- Amazon
Hair clips- Sally's Beauty Supply
Wide Tooth Comb- Sally's Beauty Supply
Bobby pins- Target
Combs- Target
Magic Potion chock full of various oils- my hairdresser
Spray bottles- Target
Tresemme Naturals Conditioner- Target
Design Essentials Natural Daily Moisturizing Lotion- Sally's Beauty Supply
Aphogee Keratin 2 Minute - Sally's Beauty Supply
Alikay Naturals Lemongrass Leave-In Conditioner- Target

A Little Hard Candy

I go through phases with make up.  From absolutely nothing daily to full face for about 1 month.  Full face for me is only eyes, lips, and some foundation.  I can't do all of that everyday.  Lately I have been trying to find that middle ground though.  You know, just a lil' sumthin' sumthin'.  For me that middle ground is lipgloss and eye make up.

These Hard Candy items were either gifted to me or by me.  The Hard Candy Top Ten Eyeshadow Collection in Feelin' Blue belongs to my daughter.  Can you tell how much she has used it?  I gave her this palette ages ago and it pretty much remains unused.  The colors look wonderful however, I know I don't gravitate toward blues and she obviously doesn't either.  The goal here is to watch a few videos and rock out an amazing blue eye sometime this month.

The brown set is one that was gifted to me by my daughters.  They know I love makeup and they also know I keep it basic.  This neutral palette is right up my alley. The kit came with some other goodies as well.  I will give the mascara and eye crayon a try as well as the eyeshadow.  Bronzer may be a little to advanced for me right now though.

Knit It- Chunky Monkey Boot Toppers

Who doesn't love boot toppers?  Exactly!!!  I must have looked at a ton of patterns but I finally settled on one that would incorporate a new technique for me-- CABLES.  Who doesn't love cables?  Exactly!!

This was a quick gratification project using bulky yarn that I knitted over the course of 2 days.  The pattern can be found on Ravelry.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken with Sautéed Spinach

Bacon makes everything better is what I have heard.  All the fancy, smancy bacon wrapped recipes around.  For a while I have been wanting to try one but I decided to wing this one.

Initially, I just wrapped the bacon around the chicken and let it cook.  My next bactch I decided to cook the bacon until it was relatively done but still flexible enough to wrap around the chicken. My wrapping technique leaves something to be desired but I wrapped it around and threw it in the pan, let the chicken cook and ta daaaa.




Sauté some spinch and make a halfway decent presentation.  The girls liked it.  Liked it enough to eat at least.  I will try this again.

Salt and Vinegar Kale Chips

Admittedly I am very bored with food.  Yes, yes, I know food is not here to entertain and please me but to serve as a source of energy and nutrients for my body to function.  The problem is I get bored eating healthy because I don't have a variety of healthy recipes in my arsenal.  Armed with a ton of kale in my refrigerator I was determined to do something different.  I did hear mention of Kale Chips a while ago so I was up to the challenge.  A quick Pinterest search yielded options galore but who doesn't love Salt & Vinegar potato chips.  Salt, vinegar, olive oil and kale.  Easy peasy!!!

So get your ingredients mix them up to you liking put it on the pan and bake.  This is really something that is a purely to your liking type deal.  Experiment to find what you like.  Flavor, crispness, type of kale, etc.  It was fun having my girls come taste and give the "not-quite-thumbs-up-but- let's-tweak-this" approval.  If that is really and approval.  They helped and we determined a bit more vinegar and more salt would be fine.  These shrivel up quite a bit as you can so so pack as much as you can on your baking sheet but make sure it is still only one layer.

We even burned a batch causing the smoke detector to go off so keep a close eye and check often.  One minute does make a difference in hearing your smoke detector go off.  This is going to definitely be made again!!!  Probably a lot.

I can't wait to try with Old Bay, Curry, Chile and Lime.  So many options.

WELCOME 2015

Happy 2015 everyone!!!! Another year has passed with ups and downs, joys and disappointments and everything else that goes with this journey we call LIFE. Looking back, 2014 was great and as I look forward to this year. I am excited for all of the greatness and potential it holds as well.  Wishing all of you the best 2015 ever!

No Excuses

Trying to stay focused.  Trying to stay motivated.  I am not going to lie it has been tough.  Food is so yummy.   My bed is so cozy.   After a week of yummy-ness I felt horrible.  Tack on the fact that I wasn't going to bootcamp either.  Seriously, I was sluggish, not focused, and felt an overall mess.  Thursday night I laid in bed, awake, feeling guilty because I know better.  I recommitted to making myself as healthy as possible.

 Bootcamp on Friday, bootcamp on Saturday, and uh oh-- kickboxing cancelled on Sunday.  That's where it is easy to do nothing.  In order for me to stay committed I did my own tababta workout which turned out to be pretty good.  Not all kickboxing moves but enough to get my heart rate up and burn some calories.

Chopped Salad!!!

I like salad.  I really, really like salad.  I like the concept of chopped salads thanks to Subway.  Every since I watched them make one I have thought about getting one of those "things" they use.  A pizza cutter does work actually.  But I revisited the idea yesterday and thanks to Amazon Prime I had a nice new "chopped salad thing" also known as a Mezzaluna Chopper.  Yaaaayyyyyyyy!!!  Of course I had to make a salad tonight, hungry or not.  I got a little anxious and forgot to take a pic right after I chopped the spinach and chickent.  I also added some lettuce and cucumbers.  Easy. Easy. Easy.

Google Goodies

Fun Google Goodies from a user group meetup.  Who doesn't love freebies!!

Snow :-(

We have gotten a healthy dose of snow over the past couple of days.  I do NOT like snow whatsoever but it is something I just have to deal with.

Let me tell you what... I ordered the Sorel Caribou in 2004 from Zappos for a whopping $39.30.  Best investment ever.  These boots do not fail and knowing what I know now I would easily drop the going rate of $140.00 for them.  My feet have never been cold or wet in them.  They are my go to for shoveling snow or being in the cold for prolonged periods.

If you got snow, stay safe out there.  The roads will be slippery and no doubt there will still be dummies trying to drive as if there was nothing on them.

Shoe Haul- Zappos

Can you truely ever have enough black shoe options in your closet?
Boots, and booties, and heels oh my!  With a small clutch to add to the purse section of my closet as well.

Boots- Jessica Simpson Audrey
Booties- Jessica Simpson Aggie
Heels- Nine West Rocha
Clutch- Big Budda Adriana

Reviews to come.

Live It Up!!

It has been quite a hiatus and I have missed you all.  No guarantees this will be back to the days of old where I was posting more frequently but I just wanted to drop in.  I miss the outlet of blogging.  It is like a mini vacation during the day where I can just zone out of everything and write about whatever is on my mind.

What is on my mind.  Thanksgiving has come and gone.  Black Friday has come and gone.  And here we are at the 1st day of the last month of the year.  What a year it has been.  The goal for this month is try and pack as much awesomeness into December as possible.  Spending time with family and friends.  Trying new things and living life to the fullest.  Truth be told that should be the goal every month but sometimes we lose sight of what is important.

My November photo recap!!

1- Thanksgiving deserts
2- Cute Turkey cupcakes made by my niece
3- Mashed potatoes!!!
4- Pens for Holiday Mail For Heros
5- Awesome tea when I was sick and coughing beyond belief
6- Granola in a bowl + Driving = FAIL
7- Another driving fail
8- Wiping off the dust..again.
9- Turkey chili recipe from a friend.  Better the 2nd day.


Well Happy December everyone.  May you have an enjoyable month and holiday season.