Click Chicks Photo Challenge // Selfies

Okay so I got this fancy new camera and I still don't know how to use it.  Ivy at Little Women Little Home and I have been following each other for years now.  I saw that she was co hosting a blogger photo challenge and I thought it would be fun to join in and force myself to get that camera out and shoot.  I've always loved taking pictures anyways.  Only one problem.  The first challenge is a self portrait and I literally hated every photo that came out.  I am super hard on myself and I know it.  I did them on my own with the timer.  The lighting was off, I forgot to put on lip gloss and I was in a hurry.  I almost gave up before I even started but here I am.  Cheese!! 

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My Camera:

Canon Rebel T3i

Girl Scout Cookie Time

I'm about to have another oh my goodness I'm getting old moment which sucks because it means I'm getting old but here goes.  When I was a Girl Scout cookies were only $2.00 per box and the ONLY way to sell was door to door to door and begging your mom take the form to pass it around at work.  Tagalongs were called Hoedown's and the Do-si-dos/Peanut Butter Sandwich were called something else.  My memory has faded but I think they used to be Savannahs.  Dulce de Leches, Lemonades, Thanks A Lot and bunch of others didn't exist, each cookie only had one name and Girl Scouts Inc didn't have a website.  That was a long time ago! Now they are $4.00, I don't even know if Girl Scouts have to pound the pavement anymore what with social media and e mail and half the cookies have an identity crisis.

Shortbread/Trefoils, Thin Mints, Peanut Butter Patties/Tagalongs, Carmel DeLites/Samoas

One thing that hasn't changed is that people still love them including me and my favorite one of all time is the Tagalongs/Peanut Butter Patties.  I'm a sucker for anything with chocolate and peanut butter.  If you're like me you might be wondering what's up with the double naming of cookies.  Apparently, there are two bakers for Girl Scout cookies now.  Little Brownie and ABC.  The name varies depending on which baker produced the cookie and the name you see on the box depends on where it came from.  I don't understand why they wouldn't just make them decide on a name and stick to it.  Can't they hold a meeting about that or pass a law?  Anyways.  Thin Mints, Peanut Butter Patties/Tagalongs and Shortbread/Trefoils are the only three cookies that must be made every single year and the others can be changed.  Good for us since we really like those.  We got all three.

For a while I didn't even know when they were being sold and kept missing out but now I have a co worker who sells for her niece and she lets me know.  Most of these went into the freezer so we don't over do it.  Turns out that we already had a box of Trefoils in the there from last year!  So yeah, we have plenty.  BUT if I just so happen to see a Girl Scout outside of the grocery store I might just so happen to buy another box of the Hoedown/Tagalongs/Peanut Butter Patties.  I really can't have enough of those.
    

Simple Valentine's Day Ideas

It's that time of year again.  Love it or hate it Valentine's day is around the corner so I thought I'd put together some simple low cost gift ideas for him.  My husband pretty much hates Valentine's Day but he acknowledges it for my sake.  We have fun with it, or maybe I should say I do, but we definitely keep it simple and inexpensive. 

I love this coupon idea.  It's simple, sweet and doesn't cost a lot of money.  You can make a personalized Valentine Coupon for anything you want at Treat.  Also, check out tinyprints for all kinds of really cute Valentine's cards or for any other occasion. Both are part of Shutterfly, the company I used to make my wedding album.

I found this cute little picnic set at World Market.  It might be too chilly to do this outside but who says a picnic has to be outdoors?  Your living room is perfect.  Just add champagne or wine and some candles and you're all set.  You could add to one that's already put together or make one up yourself.  It's something fun to enjoy together.

This one is perfect for the home brewer or just a guy that really likes beer.  Get him a 4 pack of personalized beer glasses at Red Envelope.

Or, you could just ignore the entire day altogether and save these gift ideas for a real holiday like your Anniversary or a Birthday.  Who needs a commercialized holiday to show love for your significant other when you already do that anyways?  I agree.  You don't, but I still think it's fun to do a little something anyways.

 

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Beyonce Bowl

I'm not a football fan.  Never have been.  I want to be because all of America is so obsessed with it and I tried but I just can't really get into it.  Five years ago I had no clue what a down was or what the hell they were throwing the ball and tumbling all over each other for.   I made it a point to figure it out so I could at least follow along.  It was that year the Patriots won like every game except the super bowl and because Tom Brady kept throwing the ball from down to down it finally clicked for me what was supposed to be happening.  For me Super Bowl Sunday is less about the game and more about watching the commercials, what gathering I'm going to and what food will be there.  Mj and I got invited to my girl friend's house where she had a nice spread of junky party food for me to stuff my face with.  There was that awesome zero calorie margarita mix that I mixed with Tequila.  Yes, zero calorie!  But I ate so many chips that even that couldn't save me.  I'll be paying for it at the gym tonight.  I sat there and watched the whole first half of the game but after that I got distracted.

[Pic Source:  via google images Getty Images/Christopher Polk]

I loved Jennifer Hudson's performance of America the Beautiful and Alicia Keys and her piano definitely did the National Anthem justice.  Beyonce's performance was AMAZING.  I wish I could move like her but all I got is the two step.  She dances and tosses that big hair around like no other.  The way she struts, that fierce look in her eye, that big voice and the way she rocks a leather leotard is mesmerizing.  She is so pretty and so talented that when I'm watching her I kinda wish I could be her for just a second to see what that feels like.  She puts her whole heart into a performance.  I've seem her perform live once and she's incredible.  I thought it was cool that she had Kelly and Michelle perform with her because I'm guessing she really didn't have to share the spotlight with them.  I loved hearing those old Destiny's Child songs and then she did Halo which is one of my all time fav love songs.  All those women stole the show. 

Then the power went out.  After this a lot of the girls at the party checked out.  My friend is totally obsessed with Beyonce.  The only reason she wanted a super bowl party in the first place was so she could watch the half time show with her friends so girls outnumbered the guys.  She made up all these Beyonce themed challenges so we could compete against each other for Mardi Gras beads.  The guys were like, WTF is going on, but I thought it was fun.  We were having a good old time chatting and carrying on for most of the 2nd half.  I understand that the 49ers did a good job of coming back and that it turned out to be a pretty exciting game.  Not that I saw a lot of it.  I was rooting for the Ravens to win because I wanted Ray Lewis to go out with a ring.  It doesn't bother me that he cries a lot before and after the game.  I think it's sexy that a big strong football player isn't afraid to show his emotions like that.  I'm glad they won but what I'll remember most about this superbowl is the awesomeness that is Beyonce and how bizarre it was that the power went out.

Confession Time

I confess that I'm not sure I get this whole Vine thing.  It's like YouTube but not?   It's like Instagram but not? And I keep hearing things about porn.  What's the point?  I mean, how many more social media outlets do we need?  I think there are already too many as it is.

I confess that I was really excited to reach 200 followers this week.  That's pretty much my benchmark for blogger success and I can blog happily ever after now that I finally reached it.  I officially no longer qualify for the damn Liebster award! 200 is a really nice number to run a giveaway for but since I just did two I'll wait until 250 which may or may not happen....but either way I'll be doing another 'cause they are so much fun.  Thank you to all my wonderful readers.  You are appreciated!

I confess that I got all excited about seeing my face on the cover of a magazine.  So what if it's fake!  It looks sort of real and sometimes we have to take what we can get.  C'mon, you know you want to!  Click here to live out your very own cover girl fantasy.  If you do one I'd love to see it.  Shoot.  I just might do it again!

Link up with Leslie @A Blonde Ambition

I confess that I'm terrified to do a legit outfit post.  How do those fashion bloggers and lifestyle/fashion bloggers do it?  Who is taking their picture?  How do they make it look so good even when they use their i phone?  I feel like an idiot when Mj takes my pic and it looks terrible when I try to do it myself.  And this from someone who has been paid to have her picture taken before.  I've got to find that confidence!  I'm slowly working my way up to it.  We'll see how long that takes.

4 lbs of creamy goodness

I confess that I bought a 4 lb tub of Peanut Butter for our family of 2 adults.  I LOVE Peanut Butter and I get anxious when we don't have any in the house.  We love PBJ's and love it on crackers.  So good! Mj is very heavy handed with it on his PBJ's.  It's expensive so I went generic and large because I know this store brand is good.  It was more economical to spend $9.99 on Von's brand then $5 on a small Skippy that we'd run out of next week.

I don't know about you but January felt very looong.  I kept checking my calendar in disbelief that it wasn't February yet.  Well, now it finally is and we have the Super Bowl, Valentines Day and President's Day to look forward to.  Have a great weekend everyone!!

Teen Mom 2 Dish

As if the girls of Teen Mom 2 hadn't already caused my jaw to drop enough there was a crazy discovery on this week's episode.  We already know that Jenelle's undying love obsession for Ke$ha means that she'd rather do long term jail time then miss her concert.  She'd also prefer to go to jail then quit smoking pot but since she got hauled into jail by her probation officer after failing a urine test she seems to be on the straight and narrow.  She's gone through about 2 roommates in as many months.  Three if you count her mom.

Source: mtv.com via CeCe on Pinterest

  Chelsea crying black mascara streaked tears
Poor Chelsea's little dog got attacked and killed by the neighbor's dog so she had to up and move.  She already has a replacement dog. She just took her last GED test and has been keeping her distance from her horrible ex but for the most part is chronically incapable of getting over him even though he treats her like crap.   I can't be the only one that's wondering what is going on with her shaggy poof of bleached blonde hair.  It looks like ramen noodles.  She also wears a TON of make up and should probably give the tanning a rest.  She's turning Orange.

Let's see...Kailyn cheated on a really great guy to try rekindling things with her baby's daddy.  That didn't work out.  She got lonely and somehow managed to get her ex to take her back then turned around and dumped him because she needed space.  Huh?  She's not allowed to move and take the baby to Florida so she moved into a new house instead.

Leah takes the cake for the most foolish one of all right now.  Will she ever learn?  She married the father of her twins only to be divorced within 6 months.  She was the one who cheated so she begged Corey to take her back and try again.  He refused.  After going on and on about how she rushed everything from getting pregnant, to moving in together to getting married and how she would never ever do that again she moved in with and is engaged to a man she's been dating for about 2 months.  The kicker however, is that she's already pregnant!!!  Oh, and after going on about how much she wanted to provide for her girls and have a career she dropped out of Nursing school.  Thank goodness she moved out of that awful trailer.  She actually wears more mascara then Chelsea.  It's really weird how they all picked up and moved at about the same time.

I liked the original Teen Mom group so much better.  Not that they didn't drive me nuts too.  Farrah annoyed me the most and Amber made me want to scream 90% of the time but I really liked Macy and Catelynn.  There is something about every single one of this new batch of girls and the horrible decisions they make that is very hard to watch.  Season one was good but I'm really sort of over season 2.  Mj stopped watching it a while ago and part of me wants to stop too but for some reason I can't.  A lot of people have claimed that this show glamorizes teen pregnancy but I personally do not see how.  With the exception of Amber the nightmare from Teen Mom 1 and Jenelle I'd say all of them have been really good mom's but their lives are total train wrecks!  They show how incredibly hard it is to balance school, work, relationships and life in general after having a child so young.  I'm not ready for a child at my age let alone theirs and there is nothing glamorous or fun about the crap these girls are dealing with.  Anyone else out there with a love hate relationship with this crazy show or is it just me?