The party was fairy tale themed with a complete pink immersion! Debbi (Katie’s mommy) and Cassie (Katie’s sister) did a great job coming up with ideas for this party. Cassie even created a baby jeopardy game, it was such a cute idea! One of the categories was ‘Celebrity babies’ and Katie’s grandma picked that one… The look on her face when Cassie asked the question was so cute!

The welcome table.

This was the welcome table. It had a fairly tale book that guest could sign and write Katie and Sarah a little message. It also had a few other games on it.

Each centerpeice was a stack of books with a vase of flowers on it. There were also small candles.

Here are thoes treats I was raving about earlier!

The frosting on the strawberry cupcakes tasted just like strawberry ice cream!

There was also a candy buffet.

Here is a group shot.

The favors Debbi got were addorable! Little moon bookmarks!

The baby shower was so cute and whimsical. Debbi and Cassie really did a great job, I know I had a great time!

Cassie, Katie and Debbi

isn’t my future family-in-law cute!

Oh, in unrelated news I got my CBEST results and… I Passed! I know it is an easy test but I’m still happy. Now I just need to wait for the official results in the mail and my substitute teaching application is complete!

For the basket I took tool a ribbon to create a tie around the basket, the I had Greg cut me a tiny piece of wood and spray paint it with chalkboard paint. On the chalkboard I wrote ” Princess Sarah’s Royal Bath Kit” ( it was a fairy tale/princess themed shower)

I then stocked the basket with some bathtime essentials:
Hooded towel
Baby wash
Baby lotion
Baby oil
Baby q-tips
Wash cloths
Nail cutting kit
Hair brush kit
Bath time themed frame

I then arranged the basket in a cute pattern and wallah Bath Time Kit ready to go.

I am kind of disappointed that I didn’t get a better picture, but the day of the baby shower was super busy!

I love how useful and practical this gift can be, these items are a must for any new mommy!!!

Here is Katie with the gift.

This idea is completely customizable too, it can be a diaper kit with changing essentials, or a feeding kit with bottles and feeding essentials or even a baby travel kit with all things needed to take baby from here to there!

Hope this helps if your stumped for a cute gift idea for the next baby shower you’re attending!

]]> http://theresabridget.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/diy-baby-shower-gift-bath-time-kit/feed/ 0 walshtheresa Katies baby shower 006 Katies baby shower 123 http://theresabridget.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/hearts-on-a-rope-a-tutorial/ http://theresabridget.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/hearts-on-a-rope-a-tutorial/#comments Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:47:12 +0000 Theresa Bridget http://theresabridget.wordpress.com/?p=1318 ]]> I am sure by now you have at least heard of pinterest, personally I have developed a huge love affair with the site. There are so many amazing ideas, but I do have to say, as more people have joined, the quality of pins has slightly declined. ( I have came across a handful of nude images which should not be on the site)

Back to amazing ideas though, a few weeks ago I found this idea of a couple and strung around them was a rope of hearts. I thought the concept of being “tied up by love” was cute and decided to make my own heart rope. Since I’m such a nice, amazing, thoughtful person ( I sound like Glinda from wicked don’t I?) I will share with you how to make the heart rope:

Materials:
Ribbon, twine, rope, metal… Basically some type of material to be the string.

Construction paper, scrapbook paper, cardstock
Again basically some type of paper

Heart shape template  ( I got a wooden heart at Michaels for 29 cents)
For this I recommend the template to be flat, this will allow for easier tracing.

Pencils (for tracing)
Scissors

Steps
First layout how you are going to trace the hearts to make sure you are getting the most out of your paper.

I had to up the saturation of this image to show you the trace. Be sure to trace very lightly.

Next trace the heart shape on the paper.( a variation of this step is to print a heart outline on your paper choice rather than trace, but I didn’t want to take the time to set up that template or

Here is my heart that I used to trace. I picked it up for 29 cents .

Then carefully cut out each heart. Slight variations in heart shape is fine.

After all hearts are cut depending on string type determine how to string your hearts.
For twine I recommend a small hole at the top on the heart. For ribbon I suggest two slits and then slide the ribbon through almost like sewing.

For the heart rope I had, my rope was the closest I could find to twine, but it had a metal spine. It was also very thick.
For the hearts I cut a small hole, just large enough to string the rope through.  I also varied the placement of the hole ( moving form left to right to center)

Lastly I strung the hearts and was done!

Here is my creation in action:

Tied up in love

Great as a hanging prop too!

I was happy with the tiny touch the heart rope adds!

Great for engagement sessions!

This works great as a prop, backdrop or even streamers for a party!

Oh and make sure to “pin” this if you like it

Anyway last Friday it was ‘date night’ and rather than going out we were both in the mood to stay in, so it became craft night/ Movie night! I had a few $1 picture frames that I picked up a while ago and never did anything with. So we went to Michale’s bought 3, 59 cent pain bottles and came home to craft!

Greg and I put on ‘In Time’ and started crafting.. needless to day Greg didn’t get around to crafting… Next we watched ‘Money Ball,’ both were good movies, but I think I liked ‘In Time’ more. Money Ball was great but ehh, I’m really not an A’s fan, I love my Angles Baby… One thing I loved though the year that this movie takes place in… was the year the Angles won the world series hehe

On to what I crafted…

The first frame I made was one for Katie’s Shower the next day. I was giving her a bath time kit, so I though a cute final touch would be a bath themed picture frame. I painted the frame white added a cute little ducky and a blue streak and tada. I think it turned out really cute!

I also made a blue and white picture frame for myself. I used a scrapbook stencil that I had to create the heart pattern. I really like it, I just have to decide if I want to hang it off a ribbon now.

The whole time Greg and I were crafting, Sheldon was moving from my lap to his. He is the cutest thing!!!

I made one final picture frame, it is for Sarah also. I am still trying to think up a way to use it during our maternity shoot this weekend…. Any tips?

I guess I could have done a mini tutorial for these… but I’m pretty sure you know how to apply paint and wood. Be creative, I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

I have to say, I love date nights like these! Yeah, Greg and I spend a lot of time together, but a lot of that time is spent on our computers doing homework and such. On nights where we shut down and just watch a movie together or craft, they really are the best!

Oh, sorry for the quality of the pictures… I didn’t want to whip out my camera so my iphone camera will have to do!

I have NOT felt like myself lately. I don’t know what has been up with me this week, but I have had no energy, no motivation and have been in a funk. I am kind of down on myself because I have not lost what I wanted this week. Initially I was down 2 pounds then I went up 3 and now I’m down 1. Confusing huh? Overall since last week I have lost a pound… not bad but, I have been working my butt off running and eating right. I didn’t pig out over temptation weekend and actually stayed in my calories, what I actually think it is, is that I am not eating enough calories. This week I have found it really hard to get in my calories (mostly due to lack of motivation) and thus I have days where I am running 6+ miles and eating 1000-1200 calories… I need to eat more if I don’t want to mess my body up more than it already is…

Tonight my funk was really bad, so I decided to put on some songs and dance spazout to the music. It was fun and therapeutic. I tell people I don’t like dancing, but that’s not true, what is true is that I CAN’T dance. I am the epitome of white person dancing. Thus you will never see me dance in public… but if you are over and I’m watching glee or something of the nature you might just see the spastic white dance come out. Greg has seen it and he can assure you that it is hilarious.

Well I’m going to go have some peanut butter, vanilla cupcake goldfish and almond milk for desert. YUMMY!

I have a 3 or 4 mile treadmill run scheduled tomorrow… I’m going to try to make it 4 so I can already be at 10 miles for the week, but it depends a lot on my feet (they have been acting up)

Oh and I have a tutorial coming up on photography props.. I actually have it written, just need to find the pictures.

Here I am right before the race

Just beware, this post may have a little TMI for some people, but it’s my blog, and I’ll post what I want to.

So the day started off at 5am, I got up, got all my stuff and took off. I forgot breakfast so Greg and I had to stop at a grocery store, I got a protein bar and a banana. As we got closer to the beach, the traffic really started to get bad. The marathon started at 6:45 am so people were getting there for that. So we arrived and were told parking was full and we would have to go down the beach to find parking. We ended up driving all the way to Magnolia, about 1.90 miles from the car to the starting line. We parked and then everything ( as if walking 2 miles to the starting line of a 1/2 marathon wasn’t enough) went down hill. I started to get dizzy and had horrible cramps, like want to crawl into a ball and die cramps. I also started to get really depressed. I couldn’t stop crying for 15 minutes, and kept telling Greg to take me home… ( can you guess why? Hint it has to do with me being a girl) I just knew the day wasn’t going to be good, we finally got out of the car and headed down to the start line. I had a shotbloc, drank some water then lined up about 5 minutes before we should have started… then I waited, and waited, and waited, 50 minutes after the start time we finally got going. By this time it was 9am and getting hot. I started off steady, keeping a 12 mile per minute pace for the first 4 miles. Then I encountered hills, lots of them. I kept it steady adding a minute to my pace, but I was feeling better than I did earlier in the day. I kept going was in my happy place, then mile 6 came… I was out of water on my little bottles, but the water station was in sight, but they had run out of water… I mean at this time I was at about a 13:30 pace, so there is no reason to not have water! So I sucked it up and kept going, at the next water station right before mile 8 ( I think) I got up to the water station, and two boys were splashing each other with water (WATER THAT WAS FOR RUNNERS), I ended up getting splashed, which I was NOT in the mood for, so I kept running without water again… Then as I reached the turn the reason I was in a bad mood and emotional struck… I pretty much gave up at this point… I found a porta-potie took care of it… tried to jog a bit… but yeah I was not having it… I actually  started walking and texting Greg about how much I wanted to quit… from mile 9-12 I walked and maybe jogged about .75 miles of the way… I just was NOT having it… I was hot, I was grumpy, I was sad, and I was in pain… When I got to mile 12 I jogged my way to the finish and to a time of 3:20:50…& then today.. I am in pain and swollen like no other… Two weeks again when I ran 11.5 miles, the next day I was fine, not pain, no foot pain, no swelling, I was great… Add a period and another 1.5 miles and I feel like I can’t walk.. My legs are sore, my back is sore, my pinky toe is on pins and needles (still). Yeah overall not good.

I am keeping my head up high and just looking forward to the OC half in 3 months.

So let get to the race, I don’t know exactly how I feel about Surf City, I mean it was okay but there is A LOT of room for improvement!!!

Here were a few of my cons:

Don’t have stations run out of water… when I was running mile 7 had no water, I guess the truck hadn’t come to replenish it yet. Which sucked.

There was a huge delay, want to know how bad… Before I was even at a mile, the male finisher, was crossing the finish line…

I was about the 3rd corral to start, and we were already 50 minutes behind… Which meant it was so hot!!!

The volunteers were really annoying (well just a few) there were a few boys throwing water and water cups at each other and I got hit with the water, with the day I was having, I was just NOT having it!!!

So, if your still with me here, I want NEED  you to keep me on training tack this time. In 3 months when I run the OC marathon, I WILL break 3 hours and I WILL feel great afterwards!

Oh I trained today… 25 minutes on the bike and 41 minutes on the treadmill
. I did intervals going from 4.0->5.5 and threw a few two minute 6.0 and 6.5 intervals in there. Like I said I am determined to run faster!!!

Today also marks t-3 days until the ½ marathon! I am getting excited, I want to be at the finish line and see my time already! I didn’t feel like running outside today  so I decided to have a gym day today and it turned out to be pretty good. I started off on the treadmill for 25 minutes going through 4.5/5.0/6.0 intervals (in all honestly I probably only did 3 minutes at 6.0). I then went and did some circuit training, if you’re familiar with 24-hour fitness it is their 24 minute circuit. It felt great lifting some weights, but boy are my arms weak!!!! I finished up with a different treadmill and did hill training at a 4.5 pace. Overall good workout if I do say so myself! Tonight Greg and I also went for a little walk, nothing big just 3 miles around the block, burnt a fair amount of calories though

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I also made my super yummy 300 calorie pasta lunch. I love this dish so much, the flavors are amazing! I made it differently than last time though. To make it healthier I added some asparagus and took out the meat (I’m not really a meat fan anyway). I also topped it off with an iced passion tea, yum! Non-sweetened of course.

The sauce is a combination of spinach, onion, bell pepper, asparagus and the vodka sauce. I put it all together and then sauté it in a pan. It doesn’t look super appealing at times, but it sure taste amazing!

In other food news, I have found the perfect snack! I tend to make low calorie meals (in the 200-350 calorie range) so my snacks are normally around 150-200 calories. I take a skinny cow light cheese wedge (35 calories), 6 triscuits (120 calories) and 4oz of vanilla almond milk (45 calories). It is the perfect size for a snack that will hold you over between lunch and dinner!

& tonight Greg and I are making round steak (his choice), asparagus, and baked potato. Should be yummy and all at 366 calories.

If you would have told me that I would be losing weight eating pasta, potatoes, steak ect, I would never have believed you. I think it’s a lesson to us all, that you can lose weight without eating only salad! All in all what I am doing is not a diet at all; it really is a lifestyle change and that is why I think I am going to be successful this time.

Also for those wondering, here is what my meal plan looked like today:

Breakfast:

40g of oats

1 teaspoon brown sugar

108g of banana (the fruit varies)

Calories: 261

This breakfast will typically keep me full for about 4-5 hours and gives me a lot of fuel for my workouts

Lunch

2oz Whole Wheat Pasta

Classico Vodka Cause ¼ cup

Spinach

Asparagus

Onion

Bell Pepper

Calories: 288 calories

Dinner

Asparagus

Broccoli

Baked Potato 200g

Beef Round Steak 4oz

Calories 366

Snack

1 tablespoon peanut butter

Triscuits (6)

Laughing Cow Light

Almond Milk  (4oz)

Post workout:

Yogurt

100 calorie pack almonds

Total calories 1405! Which is right where I want to be since I burnt 711 calories today.

I snack a lot! I get full fast on my 300ish calorie meals and snacking throughout the day helps me feel like I’m not being cheated. Snacking works for me, just be careful though, I measure everything out meticulously if you eye stuff your calories are most definitely going to be higher!

Sunday Funday… ha I lured you in with an awesome title, and all your going to get is some boring jibber jabber But you already opened the page, so at least stick with me…

What is it about the weekend that makes eating healthy about 10X 100X harder than eating healthy on a weekday? Today was not as massive of a fail as yesterday, but it wasn’t a huge success either. I ate about 1600 calories today when I was shooting for 1300. I had one too many trips to the peanut butter jar, and just one, or two, or three too many sweet treats. It is sad because I substitute a treat for a meal, when that isn’t the healthiest, but I just can’t help my sweet tooth!!!  This week I am going to be on the lookout for popsicle makers and turn my passion tea into popsicles, so hopefully that will help with cravings. As I write this I’m drinking a cup of green tea to help start my week off right…

I did have one mini success today: I made a 330 calorie pasta dish! I mean when Greg and I cook pasta, we cook pasta. It is the one thing he could eat everyday for the rest of his life. Now normally I give him free rein in the kitchen, but since I’m trying to control my intake I helped out today and measured everything out. It was actually surprising to see how much pasta 2oz really is….  A lot more than I was expecting. We also had this amazing spinach chicken sausage from fresh and easy that is just 90 calories per link, and they are decent sized links. All in all it was a low-calorie pasta dish that was immensely satisfying!

Look at that yummy-ness!

Doesn’t that look good? Here is scoop:

2 oz of whole wheat pasta

1/4th a cup of Classic vodka Sauce

1 Spinach Chicken Sasage cut into small pieces

Cook, Mix, Eat, no guilt

In other news, today I am exactly one week from my half marathon! Ekk, I’m getting a bit nervous, but I think I am ready and if I go at training pace I am set to break my PR.  After this half marathon I am going to start speed training, I want to get my pace down to 10:00 so that when I run my next 5k in April, I can have a 30 minute time (I’m factoring in race day adrenalin to help boost my speed). I’ll let you know how that training goes. I’m thinking my goal for next year is a 9 minute pace for a 5k. With weight loss it should be more than attainable. Now that I think about it, I should probably add run a 28 minute 5k to my 25-by-25 list.

Other than running, I had a great day with my pups, they are just too darn cute!!!! I also had a few friends over, we watched The Hangover 2, which although I saw it in the theater, I was a little to inebriated to remember much of it. It’s a great story, you should ask about it sometime!

Sorry, but they are the cutest puppies ever!

Oh, on a side note, a lot of traffic ( and by a lot I mean about 5 people per day) have been searching “Sheldon Cooper weight gain” and getting my blog… now to me he looks the same as always… My Dr. Sheldon Cooper on the other hand now weighs in at a whopping 12 pounds!

He is getting the Corgi Body. I love it!!!

Look how big my baby is getting!!!

Alright, I guess I have bored you enough for one post.

(So do you find it harder to keep track of calories on the weekend? Any tips or tricks you use? Let me know in the comments bellow!)

I prowled discount sites today trying to get a good deal on a hair cut. For a while now I have desperately needed a good hair cut. (The last time I had my hair trimmed was in June and that was just my bangs, my last actual hair cut, hair cut was over a year ago!) While I love my long hair it was brittle,

I found a deal on groupon for this place called Circa 96. For $23 you got a hair cut, wash, treatment and massage. I also had $10 in groupon credits so I got the whole deal for $13. If $13 was good enough, the cut was amazing and my stylist, Noriko,  spent an hour washing my hair, and massaging my head and shoulders (BLISS!).  The whole time I felt completely comfortable, Noriko constantly asked if the style was going the way I liked it and gave me some great hair tips! She took my dead, lifeless hair and made it soft, put together and light as air! The experience was amazing and while I typically jump around from stylist to stylist, I think I have found one I just might stick with! While the price isn’t the cheapest around, they seem to have lots of deals and special offers, so I will have to keep an eye open for that. If you are looking for an amazing hair cut in the Orange County area check out Circa 96, I loved it!

My 'Before' Hair

It seems okay in the picture, but don’t let looks fool you. The ends were dead and frayed.

My After Hair

It isn’t the best picture, but there was so much wind and static that I couldn’t get a good picture of my hair…

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After the cut Greg, who patiently waited for me the whole time, and I went for lunch/dinner at Wahoo’s, it has been so long since we had it and it was just as yummy as I remember! I got the kids fish bowl, I absolutely love Wahoo’s rice, it’s just so yummy and when you add salsa to it, swoon! I did have a big scare at Wahoo’s, when I grabbed my camera to take a few shots of lunch unknowingly didn’t put the lens on right…. When I tried to take a picture, I couldn’t get the F/stop or shutter to change. I freaked calmly turned my camera off, then took the lens off and put it back on (it was this step when I realized I didn’t have the lens on right). After lunch we headed to target to pick up a couple things for dinners this week… pasta sauce, whole wheat pasta, and measuring spoons!

Yummmmm

The top is the normal fish bowl, and the very bottom is my creation. I take Greg’s cabbage and salsa and mix it all together for yummness

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Despite my best efforts on the diet front, I ended up binging today. Not as bad as I normally binge however, so I guess that is a win… I had a bite of twix dipped in peanut butter (SOOOOO GOOD), a piece of toast with peanut butter, and an Irish cookie. I wanted more but ended up stopping myself. Honestly I could have ate so much more, probably to the point where I was sick. I have begun to realize that binging is where my weight has come from, if I control my binging, I control my weight.  I tracked what I ate today, including my binges and am still in my calorie range for the day–Thankfully, but knowing my body I will probably wake up tomorrow 4 pounds heavier :/ Maybe I just wont weight myself tomorrow… I actually think that might be more helpful.  I went 15 days without a binge and blew it, but tomorrow is a new day though and a new longer binge free streak starts! I really have no idea why I binged, I have been eating well and leaving calories for tiny indulgences…

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Lets end on a good note… Do I have the cutest puppies in the world or what!?!?

Here is a better hair picture, but I really don't like how I look in it.

Ah, I love my Sheldon!!!!

Before I get to the topic at hand let me catch you up:

I once again have NO idea what to do with my life. Well I do, I went back to school this semester to take credential classes so I can apply to the credential program next semester, but I mean I changed what I want to do again…<– but isn’t that what being young is all about?

I still have no job! Sad face. I mean I like all the free time, but I miss money. So far I have applied to about 15 jobs that I qualify for and nada! I have applied to about 10 that I don’t qualify for and nada, but I expected that.

My parents got a new puppy. A mini aussie, Sheldon is a bit jealous. Personally I like Sheldon more But I might be a little bias.

I have an photoshoot Monday–very excited about that! (MONEY!)

I lost 5 pounds!

On to today… I wanted today to be a lazy day so bad, but alas having two puppies doesn’t allow for that. I also tried to push off my run, but that little nagging voice in my head kept telling me GET YOUR BUTT OUT THERE! So I did… The whole time I was running though I kept thinking, I want to be done, I want to be done. I also put off running so long that it was about 76 degrees out–yuck! I also ran at a horrible pace: 14:10, which would be okay if it was a long run, but it was only 2.25 miles. I did the same run yesterday in 21 minutes, so I was pretty disappointed with my run today. My mind really kicked my butt today. On the eating front though, I did pretty well. I ate at least 1200 calories had no urge to binge (unlike yesterday where I wanted to shove anything edible into my mouth!) and ate very healthy.

I wasn’t very hungry when I woke up so I ended up having a late breakfast that was more snack like than anything. A medium apple and one tbsp of peanut butter. Peanut butter is my newest addiction! I just love the taste and it’s crazy to think that I have ate it everyday and still lost weight! I mean, did you know you can eat peanut butter and still lose weight? I didn’t know that! I used to avoid it like the plague! I then had a small lunch consisting of a Luna bar  and orange and then a small Lean Cuisine around 3pm. For dinner I ended up making a small baked potato, some grilled chicken and broccoli. It is crazy how much food you can eat for such little calories when you portion everything out right! I even had enougth calories left over for a skinny cow ice cream! Yeah all of that for 1269 calories!!! Don’t believe me? Let me break it down:

Breakfast:

Skippy Reduced Fat Peanut Butter 1 TBSP|   90 Calories

One small apple| 63 calories

Snack

Luna Bar Oatmeal| 180 Calories

Orange (2) 173 Calories

Lunch

Lean Cuisine 290 Calories

Dinner

Chicken breast 3 oz| 125 Calories

Baked Potato plain 200 grams| 186 Calories

Broccoli 1/2 cup| 12 calories

Desert

Skinny Cow Cookies and Cream bar| 150

For a total of 1269… I am shooting for at least 1350 per day, but it is hard… What I ate today filled me up, As I write this I’m still full, so I guess as long as I’m not hungry I should be fine.

Greg came over after work which allowed for me to get some homework done while he played with the dogs which was nice. I also was able to run to the store and pick up some things to make rice bowls tomorrow. I also briefly studied for the CBEST which I am taking in a week. Anyway that was my day. Pretty uneventful. Sorry for not pictures, I’m just to lazy to send them from my phone to computer then upload them…  I promise tomorrow there will be pictures! Pinky promise!

Side note, I’m thinking of creating a completely separate weight loss blog… any ideas on the name?