Category: Personal / Information / Etc.

Favorite Ornaments + Some Holiday Decorations

Posted December 12, 2018 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 2 Comments

I’m here today with a simple post highlighting my favorite Christmas ornaments, as well as the overall decor of my house right now. I’ve loved Christmas as long as I can remember and have acquired at least one new ornament every year. My mom has a bunch of mine from childhood – including this HUGE picture frame of me that’s all glittery – packed away because she’s stopped getting trees for some Scrooge-y reason. In any case, all of my ornaments from my dad’s house (literally 100% Panthers ones) have made their way to me. At some point in my life I’ll have a second tree for just them! Without further ado, here are some highlights of my favorite Christmas ornaments and the memories attached to them. Tree & Ornaments We went to a local farmstand to get our tree right after Thanksgiving, and it was a nice way to spend Small Business Saturday! The people there were super friendly and we LOVE the perfect shape of it. Finn and Jake (from Adventure Time), a pizza, one of the Winged Keys from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, an ornament from book pages, an ice cream cone Panthers airplane with Santa, Lego cat, lounging snowman, WWE chair (from TLC set), Finn Balor WWE gingerbread man, homemade Elmo from childhood Marauder’s Map from Harry Potter, Lego Christmas tree, Tinkerbell, Christmas sweater, Kurt Angle WWE gingerbread man, Panthers bell, John Cena WWE gingerbread man Goofy from a trip to Disney, Tweety ornament from childhood, […]

101 Things in 1001 Days Update

Posted November 12, 2018 / Goals & Planning, Personal / Information / Etc. / 5 Comments

The Day Zero Project made it on my radar a few years ago when I started following Stephanie’s blog, Not Entirely Perfect. This project is where you make a list of 101 goals to complete in 1001 days, which is just under 3 years (2¾ years). It’s fun to plan out the goals you think you may have over that time frame because you can mix in easy one with more difficult long-term ones. So, I did make a list at the time and did… somewhat okay… with a lot of the goals. I ended up quitting because the goals weren’t related to my life anymore, with the move and other priorities shifting. When Stephanie posted how to make a 101 in 1001 list, I decided it was time to do it again. I think I’m ready to do it again now that my life is going to be somewhat settled in the near future lol. I started the list on December 1, 2018 so it will end on August 28, 2020. I decided to share my list here with you. Here’s my list on the website if you want to follow me or check in on my progress! Today’s post is the first update to my list with all progress made and immediate goals! 66 not started yet | 9 in progress | 26 completed In Progress Post challenge updates each calendar year during it | I wanted to post each year during the challenge with some of my challenge progress. So far so […]

How We Cut Cable

Posted November 8, 2018 / Media, Personal / Information / Etc. / 7 Comments

I’ve had this post drafted for a while (and by “drafted” I mean a post draft with zero body text and just the title of “How We Cut Cable”) – back in October 2017. We cut cable a few years ago and have had zero regrets since. I can count on one hand how many times I’ve wished for regular cable again in the past year or two. I’m here to chat about how we get by without cable! (To be clear: this post is not sponsored by anyone or any service, but the link below has a referral discount I’ll talk about later!) As you can see, we were still able to stream the World Series, football games, and seasonal faves! What we watch We watch the following things live each week: football games (and sometimes other sports, depending on the season) and wrestling. We needed to figure out how to watch the channels that those appear on, because a lot of other shows that we’d watch later can be found on Hulu or on channel-specific apps. Our wrestling shows happen on the USA network (and will also be on Fox in a year or two). Football games happen on CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN, NFL Network, and Amazon Prime, depending on the day of the week. Full disclosure: my team is based in North Carolina so I don’t often have the option to watch them on regular TV where I live. My dad has NFL Sunday Ticket, so we will go over […]

What I Wore Last Week

Posted November 5, 2018 / Currently, Lifestyle, Personal / Information / Etc. / 0 Comments

I really don’t consider myself to be a ~fashionable~ person, but I do try to put together good-looking outfits! The VAST majority of my closet consists of Lularoe or Honey & Lace (that was a long phase of my life and I acquired way too much – I don’t buy anymore but I still kept the stuff I liked!) and Old Navy. It wouldn’t surprise me if I went through and looked at everything in there, only to discover that literally 90% of my clothing came from those few brands. Old Navy will always be my first love though! I buy all of my pants/jeans/bottoms from them and most of my shirts (including sweaters, cardigans, basics, etc.) from there as well. I DIGRESS. I saw this fun “what I wore this week” post on A Little Bit of Emily and decided to do the same! We’re finally hitting cooler weather in Connecticut! I feel like it went from being super hot and humid, to just plain humid, to humid and rainy, to just rainy, and now it’s more cold and still sometimes rainy. It’s annoying because we love hiking and hanging outside in the fall, when it’s in the 50s or 60s, but everything has been so wet. In any case, I’m happy to be wearing my sweaters, scarves, and boots again! Monday October 22nd Since losing weight, I had to shrink some of my previously-air-dried clothing items so they would fit. I’m happy to have this problem! I wore […]

No Spend November

Posted October 26, 2018 / Goals & Planning, Personal / Information / Etc. / 5 Comments

I attempted No Spend April a few years ago and it wasn’t the most successful thing ever? I like the sound of No Spend November and genuinely think I can make this happen. My weddings are officially done for the year but I do have some general spending to do for next year’s weddings and Christmas. This November I am aiming to not spend money on myself at all and limit my spending on other people, food, etc. I just developed a monthly calendar that shows all of my expenses, so I’ll include that here. Here’s my plan of attack. Budget / Expenses I didn’t disclose the dollar amounts here but I put them in order from most to least expensive. Yes, my student loan costs more than my half of our monthly rent. I otherwise have various payments for my car, streaming services, and more. Student loan Rent for the house Car loan Car insurance Credit card monthly payments Internet Sling TV and Netflix Blog hosting Wrestling-related streaming services Dropbox Premium Weight Watchers Rules (1) Only spend money I have on hand – nothing goes on a credit card I actually don’t have many credit cards in general: one store card, one regular one, and a Paypal Credit account that I use mostly for airline tickets and other expensive items like that. I hope to not use any of my credit accounts and focus on using my savings from the month on paying them down. (2) Dining out is […]

Autumn Decorations and Adventures

Posted October 24, 2018 / Lifestyle, Personal / Information / Etc. / 0 Comments

I love September and beyond. Sure, summer is great, but I prefer not to sweat all of my makeup off immediately. My birthday, anniversary, and the start of football season in September bring me a hell of a lot of joy. I make big autumn plans and bucket lists every year, which usually involve many decorations, pumpkin picking, and other falltime activities around New England. I thought I’d follow up with you and share some of my decorations this year, as well as other autumn highlights and adventures! I also decided to work on the TBB Asks survey this month because it’s fall-themed (it’s supposed to be from the beginning of the month but oh well). I like all the fall colors, but I often dress in maroon/burgundy shades and lately some mustard! Apple cider should always be cold. LOVE it, especially when it comes fresh from a local orchard. Nope, I’m not a caramel kind of gal. I don’t like it when it’s all sticky (like on a caramel apple or in a candy bar), but I don’t mind something with caramel flavoring (like coffee). Hmm this should be tougher because I love all things pumpkin, but apple cider donuts are my freakin FAVORITE THING. They are so sugary and delicious. Our farmers market usually has a truck with fresh ones but they haven’t been around lately as much 🙁 I love long cardigans because I will mostly wear them with comfy leggings and a basic shirt underneath. In […]

My Go-To Trader Joe’s Shopping List

Posted October 19, 2018 / Food & Drink, Personal / Information / Etc. / 5 Comments

I have been loving Trader Joe’s for a long time, but the closest one in Connecticut was 40 minutes away when I lived there initially. When we moved to to Maine, there was a Trader Joe’s right down the street. I got used to shopping there for probably 75% of our groceries and reserved most meats and quick trips for the Hannaford within walking distance. I was sad to move back to Connecticut and leave my favorite grocery store behind but we FINALLY got one in the same town that I work in! In honor of this big milestone in my life (lol), I thought I would round up some of my favorite Trader Joe’s foods for you. I recently did a grocery store analysis to share if online shopping for snacks and non-perishables was worth it, and there were quite a few categories where surprisingly TJ’s was the cheapest option! One thing about TJ’s is that they rotate their stock seasonally A LOT. There are some things you can always find there, for sure, but a lot that comes and goes. They don’t have a full website of products either so I had to be creative when finding images. Most of these were taken by me in my many trips to the freakin store. Pita Bite Crackers with Olive Tapenade This is my number one go-to snack in general, let alone from Trader Joe’s. I would save up calories all day to snack on this at the end […]

A Day in the Life (10/5)

Posted October 8, 2018 / Currently, Lifestyle, Personal / Information / Etc. / 1 Comment

I’m taking a cue from lifestyle bloggers and vloggers who share daily vlogs about their lives for this feature! I’m not sure if it will be a regular things around here or not, but I always am fascinated by people’s daily lives and routines. I’ll be sharing various pictures and descriptions of a day in my life – what I wore, what I ate, where I went, what I did, and more. Let me know what you think in the comments! 6:30 AM – 9:00 AM I used to love getting up super early and having time to myself before work. That changed when we moved to Maine for a while because our schedules were really weird with Chris working nights and me working from home. I had to get back into the swing of having a commute and giving myself “me time” in the morning again. I have to get up at 7:30 to shower, get ready, and drive to work for 9 AM, so I like to get up anywhere during the “6:00 hour” to have as much time as possible to enjoy my morning. I went to bed somewhat early last night because I was uninterested in the TNF game, so I woke up at 6:30. I scrolled through my phone a bit and got out of bed at 6:45 to make coffee and cereal. Tis the season for Pumpkin O’s from Trader Joe’s! I ate my food in the kitchen while listening to the newest episode […]

Media Recommendations: If You Liked This, Try That

Posted October 5, 2018 / Media, Personal / Information / Etc. / 4 Comments

I love matching books and movies up with each other, providing recommendations based on other books you liked (if you liked this, try that!), and a bunch of recommendations from just one book. I was thinking about some of my other favorite forms of media and how I might be able to make recommendations based off those. Some of these involve podcasts that are popular with lesser known shows, or vice versa, so you’ll see how they can be mixed and matched. I also have a couple that couple podcasts with books, instead of just shows or movies. A Very Fatal Murder + American Vandal As a true crime podcast aficionado, I’ve come to realize that A LOT of them follow the same formula: incompetent law enforcement, botched investigations, suspects who aren’t taken as seriously as they should be (or vice versa), and the commentary on ~small towns~ / “it could happen anywhere.” I absolutely LOVED The Onion’s true crime parody podcast (complete with fake ads from products that will definitely remind you of stereotypical podcast sponsors). The show reminded me of every true crime podcast mashed into one, with the added element of parody and comedy. This is EXACTLY like Netflix’s AMERICAN VANDAL, where high school students investigate the very serious crime of penis graffiti on teacher’s cars (and the second season about the Turd Burglar). It’s another crime procedural parody and I loved every second of its insane humor. Clue + Deadly Manners I only saw the famous […]

Birthday Trip to Charlotte

Posted September 13, 2018 / Lifestyle, Personal / Information / Etc. / 6 Comments

As you may know from a couple of other posts, the fates were on my side when the football schedule was determined back in April. I knew my team (obviously the Panthers – if you don’t know that by now, what have you been doing on this blog for the past 4 years?!) would be playing my mom’s team (Cowboys) at some point this season. When the schedule was released, we learned our teams would be playing each other in the SEASON OPENER, ON MY BIRTHDAY, IN THE PANTHERS HOME STADIUM. Talk about the best effing birthday I could imagine. We immediately hopped on getting tickets (me, my mom, my stepdad, and Chris), and the rest is history. We headed there on Saturday the 8th and returned home Monday the 10th for a quick weekend trip to one of my favorite places, to do one of my favorite things, with some of my favorite people, on the best day of the year. Saturday September 8th We technically started our trip on Friday night, when we stayed overnight in Rhode Island to fly out of TF Green in the morning… very early morning. We headed to the airport, got some Dunkin, and boarded our 6:15 AM flight. We were nervous we’d be hanging around the city for hours without a hotel room but we got lucky – they had one available for us to check into at 9 AM! We freshened up and set out to explore a bit. We went […]