and the lesson is ...Read ALL the directions before proceeding

Last night I really spent some time going thru the upstairs bathroom closet in order to find something fun to use and to blog about, after debating over several items I came up with the Forstyler Original Hair Twister, I bought this about 6- 8 months ago and totally forgot I had it and so when I saw it I was super excited because I have been wanting to do something different with my hair. I thought it was a great way to review something, use something I already had and get a new cute style for my hair. I pulled the box out of the closet and read the directions.

Simple Instructions, It is 5 steps, what can go wrong? 

After what I considered very careful review, I jumped in the shower and washed my hair, I was ready to start twisting... I am a directions girl, so I had my box right in front of me, following step by step by step... I combed my hair and separated into 4 sections just like step 2 suggested.

Washed, Comber and Separated into Sections. 

Then I pulled out my blow drier and was going to attach the twister

The Famous and Fun Forstyler 

Yikes, this isn't going to fit 

..... and that is when I realized that this wasn't going to happen. Little did I know on the other side of the box there were some instructions that I needed....

Probably should have read these before beginning, and before purchasing.  Live and Learn  

My blow dryer is bigger than 2 " . There will be no twisting tonight or for awhile, I have 2 great blow dryers, I don't want to spend any money on a blow dryer that is less than 2 inches, just so i can have some twists. Ok Ok, I actually do want to buy a blow dryer, I want to buy anything and everything whether I need or not. My no shopping plan isn't going well at all. I have done horrible lately and I am not sure why. I had some stressful days last week and I maybe it was because of that or maybe it was the PMS I am experiencing, I don't know, but I do know I have a problem and it needs fixed and all I can do is keeping trying to get better, I wake up everyday and tell myself today is day 1 of no spending. I know one of these days I will get thru a full day, a full week, a full month with out spending unnecessarily. I hope it comes sooner than later, and Yes!!! I am trying hard, but just like an addiction to food, gambling or some other unhealthy thing, it is real and I am working on it. Now back to living off the closet.....

I noticed the stack of magazines I have piling up and delved into reading a few, it  was a simple, impossible to run into any snags, task and I actually got 3 magazines read. I found this article on eye make up and I decided I want to try some crazy eye liner ideas.  

I really love all of these ! 

Tomorrow is a new day and I'll find something else new to try in the closet, this time I will do my homework before getting all involved, speaking of getting involved and doing homework, I have decided to try the Leptin Diet. I have been struggling to lose weight and my hormones have been totally out of whack lately so the next 3 or 4 days I will continue to research in order to start the diet on Monday Oct 26th. I will keep you posted along the way. 

One last picture for your viewing pleasure... the love of my life, my sweetie pie, 17 yr old girly cat, Miss LunahB, she hasn't been feeling well the last week or so so I have been extra loving and attentive to her lately. 

Snuggling under her blanket!  

Happy Sweetest Day (Ohioians

I am from Ohio, born and raised and I have always celebrated sweetest day, well I should say I always celebrated if I had someone to call my sweetie. It is so weird when you met someone from a state that doesn't acknowledge the Hallmark Holiday and when you mention it or talk about it, they look at you like you are so odd, it is like they are from a different planet rather than a different state than you. I say, what is wrong with taking a day and making it a special day to celebrate a couples love!!!  I am quite sure I am in the minority though. 

Will and I don't see each other much. Usually just on Sunday, Monday evening and a few hours on Saturday before he heads to work, normally we don't do much on Sunday, we tackle projects around the house and relax and watch TV, occasionally visit his parents, but yesterday in observance of Sweetest Day and  the fact that we were needing  a date day, we went out and did stuff, you know like adults do.. ha ha.. we went and saw the movie "The Martian"with Matt Damon (I loved the movie!) then we went to dinner at the Olive Garden  (Food was Delicious!). It was a great Sunday!!!  I was sad that it came to an end. :(  

I didn't have a chance to blog much last week but I did want to show you a few things. Last time I did blog, I showed you a few items I was going to use from my basket of cosmetics I found when digging thru a closet and I wanted opinions on how you think they looked, if they were worth the time and effort. I have those pics for you today, so here they are....  

The Three Items I tried on were  E.L.F. Tinted Moisturizer,

This may be my latest beauty buy, at only $3.00 it is a steal and it contains sunscreen, Win Win! 

  Bellapierre Cosmetics P.I.N.K. Lipstick and Glitter Mascara by E.L.F.... Maybe I am just not a good critic, but I loved them all! I think they looked great and they all did a great job, I was not unhappy at all with my 3 random picks.

OK, so the Mascara was hard to see on my darker lashes but I loved it anyways!

I love this color and I thought for sure it would be way to dark for me 

What a great product! 

 

Maybe it would be more noticeable on blonde lashes??

Here are my result pictures, my before and after. I am not a model, or a photographer so my pictures are very amateur, to say the least. I do think its funny how clear and soft my skin looks in these pictures when the truth is, I suffer from pretty bad Roscea.

Before pic #1

Before pic #2 

Before pic #3 

After pic #1 (Lipstick, Moisturizer and Mascara)

After pic #2

After pic #3 (trying to show you my glitter mascara!) 

Tuesday Tuesday.. I just found this post in my Draft Folder, not sure why it didn't publish...

I didn't do as much last night as I wanted to but I did get into one closet and found a basket of cosmetics that I am going to tackle tonight. I have some pics of the basket and I am going to take a few items and mess around with them tonight.

All kinds of fun stuff.  :) 

I already see a few things I am excited to try!

I plan on experimenting with items I am not comfortable with. 

Ill get some feed back from you guys on what works and what doesn't.


I also worked on my bracelet last night. 

I have a few pics for you all to see, it is in the beginning stages so It will be cool to show you the progress I make on it. 

That is it for now, I know its not much, but trying to get healthy is taking a lot of time, good news is, I walked a lot yesterday and ate healthy for the most part so I am doing well and hopefully my triglycerides will come down when I test next time!   :)  

Happy Monday

Monday's are usually the worse day of the week,  for a lot of  people Monday is the beginning of the work week, and after a weekend of fun, nobody wants to go back to work. However, we need to start thinking of Monday's as the beginning of the countdown to the weekend, with out Monday we cant have Friday or Saturday or Sunday. So with that being said, CHEERS TO MONDAY!!!!

I had a great weekend, I had 1/2 of a vacation day on Friday and did a lot of cleaning and organizing. I  spent Saturday doing all kinds of fun things-  I got some work done on my bracelet (I'll post pictures tomorrow), I got a bunch of coupons clipped, I worked in the yard, got tons of items dropped off at the consignment stores and I even had time to hang out with Lu Lu, my baby girl isn't feeling great, she injured or has something going on with her back/hip area.

There is no denying that Saturday was a great day, I even stayed up late and watched my new favorite series " Playing House"  Sunday was even better than Saturday, I went grocery shopping and saved about 67.00 and Will and I went to a work function of mine, it was a Cleveland Browns Steak Fry.

It was good! then we went to the Hard Rock Casino and spent some money, I should say, we lost some money... But we had fun. The night ended early for me, as I hit the hay around 8:30 and fell fast asleep very quickly. I did get up and take a walk in the neighborhood around 5:30 am this morning, so going to bed early did pay off.  I joined DietBet a while ago, all I had to do was lose about 6 lbs in 4 weeks and I am struggling so badly, I have until next Tuesday to lose it and I am going to do it, or at least I am going to try real hard to do it... Wish me luck!

The one thing I haven't done yet, is really dive into the closets, I think I am just feeling a little overwhelmed and I keep making excuses to not do it. I think I find something to clean or an errand to run so I don't have to do it. Which is odd, cause I want to do it. I just don't want to fail at it, I want it to be successful and I am afraid. I am going to put my fears aside and start to find stuff to work on, crafts, projects, etc. and I am going to start tonight.

So real quick before I say bye for now, I have to tell you a little change I made to the "No Spending Rule," I have decide, I can spend, but I cant use a credit card and I have to only use what I have budgeted... Deprivation has never been a good idea....

OK so bye for now, see you all tomorrow -with pictures of projects! Yaaaaaa!!!!

slacker slacker

I have been slacking a lot lately, I haven't blogged, I haven't crafted, created, or lived off the closet. I haven't had much time to be honest, plus I have sorta lost my driving force.  I am not sure why. I did want to check in real quick and let you know I am still here, just not doing much. Next week will be better..  :)  

Weekend on its way! Yeahhhh

I am so glad today is Friday, this week has been very long and exhausting, mainly emotionally exhausting, some what physically exhausting, regardless I am ready for the weekend.

 I don't have a lot of plans for the weekend, I am going to do a walk for the Alzheimer s Association on Sunday Morning and I am going to get my nails done (it was an old groupon I had) on Saturday and of course my weekly cleaning and errand running but that s about it. I really want to get started on some more craft items as gifts but we will see. I never seem to have enough time in the week to do all the things I want to do.  

On a more positive note, I am doing great on my eating healthy and getting out and walking plan, I am down 6 lbs total and I am feeling pretty darn good. I had dinner with an old friend this week and she was telling me about seeing an acupuncturist for infertility issues and I am thinking i may want to do that too, I would do it for my anxiety but she really sold me on the idea. Ill keep you posted on what I decide!  

One of my favorite sayings, It doesn't relate to the weekend of crafting or saving or being healthy, but thought what the heck.  

OK I am sick of it....

I am so tired of starting stuff and not following thru, its so frustrating to me. I hate that about me. I need to be held accountable. I need to make changes. Today is day 1, yes I know I have said it before, but this time is the last time. I am done being a failure. With that being said, I am back to exercising, eating healthy and not spending insanely. 

I guess my final thought on this topic is Enough is Enough. Its time to focus on things that make me happy, like living off the closet!  :)  

The weekend was pretty busy so I didn't get much crafting / creating done, i did get one of the closets cleaned out and I found a few items that I forgot I had so this week will be spent making gifts.

The one thing I did get around to doing was making a couple apothecary jars for my bathroom. 

I am also going to work on making a doggy bed for my furry niece Rue. I am not super confident with this project, as I really don't know how to use my sewing machine, but I figure it cant be that hard, right? 

Hip Hip Horray its Friday!

Yesterday was an awesome day, I got to visit Kaitlyn on Campus, I got to see where she goes to school and where she works, we did some shopping, some walking and some hanging out. Kaitlyn's drive never ceases to amaze me, she is married, has 2 beautiful fur babies, lives over 2 hrs from any family, goes to school full time, works part time and never once skips a beat.

She went straight from college, obtaining a Bachelors degree, to law school and is now earning a teaching certificate, during that time she got married and had her appendix burst inside her body... The sweet girl leaves her house at 6 am in the morning and most days doesn't get back home until 9 pm. The amazing part is that 99.9% of the time she is happy and positive and and the .1 % of the time that she isn't, she usually is just tired and quiet. She truly inspires me and reminds me how easy I have it. Although she is 17 yrs younger than me, I wanna be just like her when "I grow up".

So after visiting her yesterday, I came home and did pretty much nothing. I am just now starting to feel better and decided to take it easy. This weekend will be filled with lots of crafty fun stuff, and I will make sure pics and ideas are posted. I am digging into the closets and I feel good about it.

On a quick side note, yesterday was my mom and dad's 47th wedding anniversary.

Unfortunately for my family, my father passed away in 2013. My heart felt heavy yesterday, I miss my father so much every day and I long to see him one more time every day of my life. As I get older and I think of him, I truly understand how misunderstood he was. I wish I could go back in time and make life easier on him, I am not sure how I could have done that, but in hindsight, I would have done anything I could to make him happy. I love you dad, may you continue to rest in peace. Thank you for being my dad.

Sooo Tired

I woke up feeling well enough to go to Columbus for work today. I was there by 7:30 am and was home around 4:30 pm, it is a 2 hr drive so not bad at all. On the way home, I could barely keep my eyes open, due to the health issues I have been dealing with, I have only gotten about 4 hrs of sleep a night lately, I am  hoping to God that I get 8 hrs tonight. I am going to go to Findlay to see my niece tomorrow and I cant wait. Love that girl! My sister, Kaitlyn's mom, Kellie and I are supposed to go, Kel texted me earlier and told me she wasn't feeling well. I have a feeling I'll  be going  alone. :(   I am not in the mood to drive 2 hrs alone, but opportunities are limited. 

I am not sure I'll get any crafts done tonight. I did get all the glass washed for the apothecary jars, but getting something done, may be a stretch.

I submitted my pictures for my DietBet. I have to lose 8 lbs in 25 days, so doable.  I paid 35.00 to play and if I lose the 8 lbs then I get my money, plus some back.  

Shopping was great today, well  lack of shopping. Go me! I bought nothing

Sorry for the short post peoples, I love you all but I cant stay awake, let alone think to type and explain my  projects.

Sorry! again... :(

My goal is to post something Monday thru Friday, but  last Friday was insane busy and this week is starting out not so good.. :( but I did do a few things using items out of the closet and my eating is going well, now if I could just get my over all health on track, I would  be batting 500. 

So I am sorry, I didn't mean to fall off the Blog Wagon again but life interfered.


The good news is, other than seriously needed items, and using some gift cards, I have not shopped for anything. Oh well I do take that back, I bought some Jamberry's, I really fell in love and I needed a pick  me up and I decided I needed to be rewarded for sticking to the low carb/sugar eating "BRING  DOWN THE TRIGLYCERIDES" plan. And they are sooo cute, they are monsters.

Jamberry Monster Mash

  Sorry the picture is a little blurry but you can see how adorbs they are. 



Last Friday my friend Julie and I got together to paint, we had done a lot of the Paint Nite / Wine and Canvas events and decided that we could  do a painting with out paying 45.00 so we bought some supplies and found a painting we both loved (we are both animal lovers, Hint Hint) and went to it. The end result was magnificent if I say so myself. Mine will be given away as a Christmas gift, to who is a secret, in case they are reading. :) 

Someone special will receive this painting from me for Christmas!

I really want to make a few Apothecary jars and some bracelets, plus I need to fix Will's niece, Riley's bracelets, I made them for her when she was 6 and now that she is 12 she needs some length, I am going to get creative and add something fun. I am not sure when I will get to all of this stuff. Like I mentioned above, I have some health things going on, nothing serious, more of an annoyance and nuisance.

Ok I gotta go make some money, see you all tomorrow (maybe, maybe not... I need to travel to Columbus for work, hopefully  I can, health stuff, So I cant promise a post)

P.s... I weighed myself.. I am down 3 lbs! 

Day Four

Today is day four of taking my eating, exercising and not shopping/spending serious... and I am slowly getting excited about it.   Yesterday for dinner, I had something that I normally would never eat, I had a piece of fish, a big portion of broccoli and carrots. It feels so good to eat healthy, well minus the undigested , nagging stomach ache feeling I have had since I ate at 6 pm yesterday  :(  Needless to say I didn't overly exercise, I did get in about 9,200 steps and stayed close to 1200 calories, so I don't feel to horrible.

I made an awesome fall wreath to hang on my front door yesterday and I also created my new Facebook page. "Stacie's crafty creations". Well my little sister created it, now I have to maintain it and get a bunch of crafts listed on it to sell. We will see....... 

Tonight after work I am going to treat myself to a massage, I bought a Groupon months ago, way before I started living off the closet, and  had tried several times to schedule it but could never find a good time. I don't know how much living off the closet Ill do tonight, I have a list of items I need to get done, due to a very very busy weekend, but maybe I'll sneak something in... I have a basket full of cosmetics I want to start using, and trying out, so maybe I will document some of the items I have and  do a few before and after pictures. Ill give my opinion on what is keep-able and what is trash-able .

I am going to attempt to make "mocked mashed potatoes" for dinner tonight, you replace cauliflower for the potatoes, it makes it healthier for someone like me who has high triglycerides, I need to severely reduce if not eliminate, sugar and carbs from my diet. I also am making my friend Julie and her family Gluten Free Banana Muffins. I am going to her house tomorrow night for a girls night in, we are going to attempt to paint a picture we found and she always feeds me a super healthy dinner, so I thought I would treat her to some muffins!  I will have pics of both the mashed cauli and muffins posted tomorrow. 

I also had an idea that I want to try in the next few weeks - you know when I am not busy working, creating crafts and gifts, eating healthy, working out, blogging, cleaning, etc....   haha. Anyways, one of the first posts I made on my blog were some pictures showing you all the closets I planned on living off of. The one closet was the master bedroom walk in closet and let me tell you it is packed to the rim with stuff; my idea is to take 4 of 5 items of clothing and pair them with different shoes, jewelry, scarves, jackets, accessories, I want to take a few pictures with different items and then post the pics and let others decide what looks best, get some feedback and suggestions on what looks the best and other idea on what would work the best.  I really like this idea, I think I will definitely do this.... but now I am having another thought......

I wonder how many people have blogs that nobody reads, I am sure I have nobody is regularly reading mine and at first I thought, "how sad" but then I thought, this is for me really, not anybody else so what is the difference and I made peace with my lonely lil blog, ok ok ok  I cant lie, I secretly wish 1,000.000  people would read it.. regardless if I want a million readers or not, if nobody does read it, I guess my idea about reader feedback is not going to work...  :( Booooo  

Off to work, my fabulous friends....  see you tomorrow! 

Shouldnt this feel better

So last night and yesterday were really good days, I felt like I stuck to a healthy eating plan and I got a lot of exercise in and I also went to the dentist and came back with a good report, No Cavities! Yeah me! 

 After work I spent a lot of time doing things that needed to be done, I got some cleaning done, and I also got some crafts made for Christmas! Woohooo. 

Why don't I feel better, I feel overwhelmed, not crazy excited as I thought I would. I guess all things take time... right?  I wont give up on my healthy eating and working out, I cant take a risk dying... I will continue to live off my closest's. I am pretty disgusted with how bad my finances are... I found a bunch of jewelry patterns and plan on creating some jewelry this week and next week. I also plan on making some fall wreaths to possible sell. I actually made about 4 wreathes already but gave them to family.

I made 4 of these Fall Owl wreaths for family.  

 I am going to create a Facebook page for my crafts and jewelry so I can advertise and hopefully sell stuff.  I also started coupon-ing, like extreme coupon-ing.... I am hoping I can save money and use some of my budgeted grocery money to pay off debt. 

So for now I will leave you with a few pics of the Christmas Ornaments I made yesterday, these are for my older sister and her boyfriend for gifts. I still need to add some ribbon but I am storing them in  a box until Christmas time and didn't want the bows to get wrinkled . 

Feeling good

I felt that mentally yesterday was a good day, I made 1000.00 worth of payments toward credit card debt, I wish I could say I was close to being paid off in full, but I am not even close to being debt free. I had an altercation (maybe not really an altercation, but a situation) with my little sister Hollie. I loaned her money to buy a new (used) car, and I had to mail the dealership a check, I barely have enough in my account to cover the check when it clears; the agreement was that when she got paid she would be a certain amount in my account weekly. She gets paid Thursday night / Friday morning. I expected money in my account on Friday morning, but since she works midnight shift I know that sometimes it is hard to get up and get to the bank, so when the money wasn't in my account I wasn't mad at all,  I just told her to put it in on Saturday. On Saturday I got a text from her saying that she incorrectly set her alarm and she didn't get to the bank, I still didn't get mad, I told her to just make sure she got there on Monday. Yesterday when the money still want put into my account I was mad and I was harsh and aggressive, which I didn't enjoy but if the check clears for the car and I don't have enough money in my account, I am going to be the one who has to pay the consequences. I checked my account this morning and the payment is in there and I feel bad, but I also feel taken advantage of, and I don't like that feeling. When I tell someone I am going to do something for them, I do it. I put my own wants/ needs aside and do what I need to do. I guess I expect everyone to be like me and I know that's impossible, but I feel like if someone knows how I am, they should do what makes me happy.  

I need to work on this!

So enough of the negative stuff, I hate being negative and "talking bad" about others, especially those I love, but I guess venting or getting issues off of my chest is a good thing. 

I did really well with my eating plan yesterday. Will (my boyfriend) made Chili for dinner, he did such an amazing job, it was so good, and healthy. I have been so emotional and insecure the last few weeks, Thank you Hormones!!!!  just living with me is probably a chore for him, so when he made us dinner I found it to be very super sweet. Don't get me wrong, Will helps out a lot around the house, him making Chili wasn't a huge milestone, it just was unexpected and very helpful.  I was able to work out when I got home instead of having to cook.

I am really struggling with how to find time to do all the things I love. I have no idea how moms do it. I am not much of a social person, so "going out" doesn't even get in the way of doing stuff. I just guess I have too many hobbies? is that possible? I tried setting up a schedule so I could "fit it all in" but geesh, I felt like doing the things I love turned into more of a chore than fun, I don't want it to be like that. So here are the things I am trying to fit into my life... Crafting / Jewelry Making, Reading, Exercising / Working out, Relaxing, Visiting with Family and Friends (when I said before I don't go out, I meant I am not one to go to bars, etc.) Volunteering, and last but not least, the occasional "being pampered"  (last week when I fell off the wagon, I may have purchased a few groupons for manicures, pedicures, etc.) On top of working 40 hrs a week plus 15 hrs commute time, and taking care of the house and grocery shopping, errand running, etc. I just cant find enough time to do what I love. Any suggestions on how to make it all work???

Will and I - 2010(ish)