Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Happy Tuesday Hearts

Happy Tuesday all!!!

Since I have an oddball work schedule, I usually end up working Saturday, and getting Tuesday off in exchange. And I MEGA heart weekends, therefore, I heart Tuesdays!! Please forgive my momentary week-day off gloating, and delight in the fact that, come Saturday, I'll be inside working all day long..

Moving on.

Something I'm starting to realize more and more is that weekends (or, in my case, Tuesdays) are a whole lot less fun when you're a grown-up. I miss those childhood weekends where there were no errands to be completed, no house-cleaning, no worries... Just friends, and endless hours spent outside in the sun... Love.

Lucky for me, if I get my grown-up responsibilities done, there will be some outdoor fun with a friend this afternoon. With any luck, my day will look a little something like this:
  • Do dishes (Is it bad that we currently have two days worth on our counter? Don't judge!)
  • Make chicken pot pie to be put in oven later for dinner (Maybe do some more dishes...)
  • Vacuum (It's been nearly two weeks since my newfound enthusiasm for this - where does time go?)
  • Visit my grandparents (AKA the g-pad!)
  • Play tennis! (Fingers crossed today is less windy than last Tuesday...)
  • Watch the Canucks game (They have a chance to sweep the series tonight!!! Woot woot!!!!!)
Some work followed by lots of fun stuff. I think I can handle that ;)

I'll leave you with a few things I'm loving right now (and will be chatting more about soon):
  • Quick overnight oats with strawberries (yummy!)
  • The DIY Canucks tie I made the BF to wear to work today (pics to come)
  • Dried peaches (why have I never seen these before?)
  • Planning/hosting an Easter dinner for friends (dessert ideas?)
  • Pricing out a few mini-vacay options for next week :D
  • Brackets (What can I say - I'm too chatty for single phrase bulletpoints... Oops.)
Here's to productive days all around.

XOXO Ely

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Major Overestimation

General Freezing Cold reporting for duty!

This morning the BF and I joined in a local walk for MS. I wore shorts. In my defense, the sun was out. Then it kind of wasn't. And that's why I'm currently sitting here cuddling myself warm while the boyfriend makes up for lost weekend sleep. We are the very definition of exciting. Jk.

Actually, I'm turning the cuddle/defrosting time into a chance to figure out the coming week's meals. We're going to do a giant grocery shop this afternoon, and then settle in for the Canucks (they're leading the series against Chicago 2-0!!!!!!) game at 4:30, of course. And the boyfriend says we're going to do laundry... If I try to forget that hard enough, maybe he will too?

Well, it's back to meal-planning and sitting dangerously close to the electric heater for me.

XOXO Ely

P.S. - Any crazy good dinner ideas for bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts? The boyfriend bought two of them yesterday for more money than I care to think about right now, and I have no idea what we're going to do with them...

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Working 11 to 7

One of my jobs is a casual position where I get maybe 15 hours a week scheduled, and then they call me when they need extra help.

Originally I was scheduled to work from 3 to 7 today - not the longest shift ever, but I was looking forward to getting some cleaning done and perhaps even vacuuming again (if I could manage to vacuum once a week that would be crazy-awesome). Now I've been called in to work at 11 instead, and since I never say no to extra work, it's going to be a long day.

Weird work times throw my personal schedule off in a major way. I can definitely feel a difference in my energy levels when the times that I eat my meals changes. For instance, today I'll have a big breakfast and a snack before work, then I'll probably have a small lunch at 1:00 and then a larger snack around 4:00. Then I'll wait until I'm home at 7:30 to have an actual dinner. I think this is double-ly tricky because there aren't too many healthy options at work, so I usually end up eating "junk" food at work (always with orange juice though!)... Something to work on. I think a little bit of preparation could go a long way on these sorts of days.

In other news: My Canucks are playing their first playoff game tonight!!!! They were the number one team in the NHL this year, so hopes are high for the playoffs. They're versing Chicago in the first round though... And things have not gone well against Chicago in the past. Let's just say I cringe whenever I hear Chelsea Dagger.

Go Canucks Go!!!!!!!
So that's what I'll be doing tonight. I'm excited to see if everyone is in the playoff spirit at work today!

Do any of you watch hockey? It sometimes gets a bad rap, but I grew up watching it, and it's really amazing what the players can do on skates moving at such high speeds. I've even got the BF hooked on it now!

XOXO Ely

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Tennis! And a Salad?

I hope I'm not over-estimating the weather again...

A friend and I are going to attempt tennis this afternoon! It will be our first time out this season - I want to say we'll be a little rusty from not playing all winter... But I don't think we're quite skilled enough to develop rust. Lol.

I had an early lunch to prepare for our intense tennis game (we always get made fun of because we don't actually play games... but isn't tennis more about chatting anyway?). Lunch was an amazing salad. And believe me, those are two words I never use in the same sentence. To say that I am not a salad person would be an understatement. Logically I understand the value of a salad. But the chopping of ingredients scares me. And lettuce is so dry... I won't bore you with any other excuses, just know that, before yesterday, the last time I ate a salad was probably Christmas time. Not counting potato salad or coleslaw, because when there's more mayo than veggies, I'm not really sure something can qualify as a salad... Lunch today definitely qualifies.


This salad was full of nutrition (and I didn't even need to chop anything!). It had mixed lettuce, dried cranberries, cheddar cheese, apple slices, and balsamic vinaigrette. The dressing was one that I bought a few summer's ago (it's Kraft and it's crazy good), but due to my lack of friendship with salads, it has been lost in my fridge for a while. And it apparently expired over a year ago - I choose to tell myself vinegar and oil can't really expire. Right?

I'm racing to get to tennis by 1:30, but since I'm sure I'll be a bit late anyway, I want to share a few weekend purchases with you. They all make me feel happy every time I see them and they were all fairly inexpensive. Low guilt purchases rock my socks off!

This yellow scarf was $9.95 and will add a pop of colour to tons of outfits that I already have. Super fun!
I tend to forget about accessorizing with jewellery... But this bracelet was only $12.95 and it has an adorable elephant charm on it. Add in the cute jingling noise it makes while I type at work and I'm sold. Adore.
These blue (sort of fish-shaped) dishes were too fresh and inexpensive to pass up. They perfectly match the colour scheme I'm using in the new apartment, and were only $1.50 each. I was sold.
It's amazing how a few small purchases make life feel a little more luxurious. I'm a huge fan of bright, fun new things for spring. The boyfriend, on the other hand, is scared everytime I walk in the door with another shopping bag... But how can one be expected to resist such lovely things? It's like the stores know my weakness(es?)... Hehe.

Hope you all have fantabulous afternoon plans too!!!

XOXO Ely

Up the Mountain We Go...

(To the tune of "To Grandmother's House We Go," obviously.)

Sunday afternoon was interesting.

Interesting being the most positive adjective I could possibly choose to describe it. Unfortunately, I’m not really kidding.

It all began in the morning when we decided to plan an adventure. Our plan was to enjoy what, at the time, appeared to be a partially sunny day by going for a hike. The plan was to climb a local mountain (though the term “mountain” might be an exaggeration… it usually takes about 40 minutes to make it to the top). The plan was to treat ourselves to a green juice refuel (serving the duel-purpose of cleansing our systems from Saturday night’s greasy ate-too-much meal) as we did our weekly grocery shopping post-hike. Well, you know what they say about plans… We seriously got laughed at on this one.

To start with, by the time we left the apartment for our Sunday adventure, the slight amount of sun that had been present in the morning had managed to disappear. No worries. We’re in shorts. It’s a little chilly. No problem though… We’ll definitely warm up once we start hiking.

And right in the middle of that thought is about when it started to rain. Whatever. We’re tough (haha). We’re from the West Coast. A little bit of rain won’t slow us down. We continue to delude ourselves (the clouds seem to be getting darker…) as we embark on the drive to pick up my brother (AKA our hiking hostage).

First sign of things to come; the brother is wearing jeans. Who wears jeans for a hike? The boyfriend joked that we shouldn’t even let him in the car. I secretly thought maybe jeans were the right idea. My legs were already freezing. And take my word for it; Goosebumps, pale winter legs, and short running shorts are not exactly the most attractive look.

Moving on.

The next portion of the story is where things start to look up. Someone was clearly teasing us. The rain appeared to have stopped, or the trees above us were taking the brunt of it. Either way, we were dry. So sure, the trail was still quite muddy… And no one else there seemed to be wearing shorts (we must have missed the hiking in comfy-looking knit sweaters memo…). But it has stopped raining, and when you have curly hair like mine, that’s really the best you can ask for. Seriously. Going out in the rain is one of my worst fears. No lie.

It would be great to end the story there with a happy ending still in sight. It can easily be imagined from here that it got sunny, we made it to the top (mountain conquered!), and then enjoyed some yummy, well-deserved, over-priced fruit drinks... Yeah... Not so much.

Instead, right about as we reached a height on the trail where we actually had a semi-decent view of the ocean below, the boyfriend had a major slip. He fell on his hip and scraped up his elbow and arm really badly. And being the well-prepared hikers that we obviously are… No band-aids. So that was kind of the end of our adventure.

But only kind of. Because, on the way down, I started to smell something gross (I won’t elaborate on this for your sakes). I continued to smell this unpleasant aroma when we got in the car. Ewww. It was pretty clear at this point that someone had stepped in dog poo. Boo. (Side note: Rhyming is awesome!) After performing a mandatory shoe-bottom sniff (bad visual, I know) and a highly dramatized freak-out about the car upholstery (not by the boyfriend, of course), we got that mess (literally) sorted out.

And then we went home to regroup (or mope?). Without our yummy juice. Without groceries.

We’re telling ourselves that at least we didn’t turn around because we couldn’t physically make it up the mountain after a winter of relative inactivity… And we actually feel slightly, slightly better thinking of that.

So that’s how my Sunday went down. Did you get up to anything interesting? The sun keeps tricking me into thinking that summer temperatures are here… They’re not. Anyone else get into any mini-battles with spring?

XOXO Ely

P.S. - The injury turned out to not be too bad (just a few scrapes and bruises) so you can bet we’ll have another attempt soon. And in the meantime, you can bet we're laughing about this one!

Thursday, April 07, 2011

Hearts

Good morning lovelies!!

Spring seems to have finally arrived here... I think I've caught the spring cleaning bug. Change is in the air for sure!!! And it's inspiring some hearts on this day before Friday (What is Thursday if not the day before Friday?).

I currently adore:
  • Opening the apartment doors and windows to let fresh air and sunshine-y warmth in
  • Attempting curly hair styles that feel a lot less stuffy than my normal flat-ironed style
  • Vacuuming away all of the dust (and hopefully some of the allergy symptoms I've been having)
  • Finally purchasing a sunscreen that can be used daily before make-up (Btdubs, Aveeno's new Smart Essentials cream with SPF 30 smells AMAZING!)
  • Making a concerted effort to take my vitamins (multivitamin/vitamin B12) and drink tons of water
  • Getting outside more!
Not sure about the exact execution of that final point, but I envision it taking the form of evening strolls, Saturday hikes up a local mountain, afternoon tennis matches, and perhaps even the start of a running plan? Sounds like pure amazingness to me.

One final heart: The idea of a spring refresh not just applying to your home, but to yourself. Pretty pink nails, new eyeshadow, a brightly coloured scarf, maybe a bit of self-tanner cream (Would it end horrifically if I try to use 3-year-old lotion? Does that stuff expire?)... Just thinking of these things makes me smile uber much.

Only 3.5 hours until I'm done works and can head out into the sunshine!

XOXO Ely

P.S. - The gallery wall from Friday turned out differently than I had planned... Not badly, just differently. I will post pics ASAP. And the shopping hasn't happened yet. Fingers crossed that changes ASAP too!

Friday, April 01, 2011

April Showers

Yikes.

It seems that I can't escape the fact that April has arrived, and the one-year mark of completing my University degree is looming. Seriously, whether watching morning TV, checking out my favourite blogs, or having my sleep interrupted by someone calling out "fire" from the kitchen, it has been made pretty obvious that today is April 1st (AKA April Fools' Day). Another month gone, another "what am I going to do with my life" moment rapidly approaching.

Side note: I would like to put it on record that if you think there's an emergency, whether you know it's April Fools' or not, you have to react. Therefore I was not actually fooled. That is all. Moving on.

It's shaping up to be another rainy spring day here, which works out pretty well since I still have a few hours of work to get done from yesterday. I'm super tempted to put off the work in favour of starting a kind-of-sort-of gallery wall that I have envisioned for our new apartment... Or going shopping for a new pair of boots (or some fun spring clothes?)... But I should probably (definitely) do the work stuff first. Then play. If all goes according to plan, by tonight I should have all my work finished, some project pics to post, and maybe a purchase or two (or five...) to share.

Happy Friday!!!

XOXO Ely

P.S. - I'm in search of a fun, easy Friday dinner - ideas?