weekend!

happy labor day weekend everybody!!

i've been slacking this week in the blog department, but i've just been taking all of my free time to enjoy our new schedule. i have to say, i'm loving coming home to dinner cooked by my wonderful, full-time-student husband! it's been a relaxing week for sure, and i'm hoping for a continuation of that this weekend.

surprisingly, we have no plans, which i'm sort of happy about. we're (finally!!) going to repaint our front door and have a fun dinner with the segura side of the family, but that's about all we have set in stone so far. i get out of work at 1 today and we don't have work or school on monday, so i'm ready to just be home and do nothing!

in honor of being unorganized and unmotivated in blogging this week, here are some random pictures :)

my first highway motorcycle ride last weekend!

looked through bridal portraits last night and was
reminded how much i love this picture! loved spending that pre-wedding
time with my mama!

donation boxes at work for our local animal shelter...yall go visit yours
and make some donations-i guarantee they need it!

august birchbox

this post is a little late, mostly because i got my august birchbox right before we left on vacation and didn't open it til last week. it seems to be a pretty good one though!

the goods

• juice beauty oil free moisturizer: used as my daily moisturizer before makeup for the past few mornings and i really like it! smells nice and isn't too heavy, which are the 2 major selling points for a facial moisturizer for me.
• tan towel self-tan towelette: haven't used yet but i can't wait to try! the odor is key so i'm dying to open it and see if it reeks of dha like lots of other tanners.
• harvey prince eau flirt-lavender pumpkin: tried this out yesterday...it's a lot lighter and fruitier than i normally choose, but it would be a nice summer fragrance. i still prefer something a little stronger that i know will last me all day. fun fact: the perfume is lime green which is kinda cool but a little unnerving
• n.4 high performance hair care prep & protect leave-in conditioner: i love leave-in conditioners, and this is a good one! i've already used almost half the bottle.
• coastal scents neutral mirage eyeshadow palette: used a couple of days last week and i like the colors! there's a bright pink that's a little harsh but otherwise i really liked it. i have already switched back to my usual eyeshadow set but i might use this one every once in awhile in the future.

oatmeal banana breakfast bites

my 2 breakfast go-tos are always a smoothie or special k red berries cereal. (switching out the cereal for grits lots of times in cooler weather).

i've been looking for a recipe that i can bake on sundays and eat throughout the week for breakfast, and i found a winner!

fit sugar has a recipe for vegan banana oatmeal breakfast bites that i made on sunday and have been eating this week. they're only about 70 calories apiece and are very filling, so they're perfect when i need a mid-morning snack or am feeling like my typical smoothie won't fill me up enough.

here's what you need:

• 2 ripe bananas
• 1/3 cup almond butter
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applsauce
• 2 tbsp milk (i used skim, recipe called for soy)
• 2 tbsp honey (recipe called for maple syrup but i didn't have any on hand)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup quick oats
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. preheat oven to 350

2. in a large bowl, mash bananas with a fork until fairly smooth. mix in almond butter, applesauce, milk, honey, and vanilla until well combined

3. in a separate bowl, mix flour, oats, and cinnamon. 

4. slowly pour the dry ingredients into the large bowl and mix well

5. drop spoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet (i lined mine with parchment) and bake for 12-15 minutes.

enjoy!!

back to life, back to reality

welllllll vacation is over. [insert sad face]

thankfully we had a really fun, relaxing week with family so i'm not too disappointed to be back at work this week. i'm also realllllly looking forward to fall coming up, so i don't mind this particular passing of time. 

side note: does anyone else think we should have more spring holidays? i love fall mainly for 3 reasons: 1-boots. 2-all pumpkin everything. 3-it kicks off the holiday season. fall is full of breaks from work and school, and spring only gets easter and memorial day. don't get me wrong, i love those holidays, but that's a long stretch of weird rainy weather to go through without any days off. just sayin.

i only took 4 pictures at the beach last week. my goal was to take a bunch, but it just didn't happen, mostly because i was taking a vacation from being attached to my phone in the first place.

here are the 3 good ones out of the 4 i took. 

back to work i go!

longest cornhole game i've ever seen + sweet clouds

went clamming and got 250!

clam bake...yum.

slackin

i have been seriously slackin this week...but here's what's going on in my world:

1. i've been packing for our vacation that's starting tomorrow literally all week. and cleaning. and being excited. and mostly being excited.
2. today is michael's last day of work before he starts school on the 19th! so happy for him and proud of him and will miss working with him so much!
3. my boss graciously gave us his tickets to tonight's first preseason panthers game of the year, in his suite. rawwwrr!! (that's a panther roar, clearly)

happy weekend everybody! vacation recap will be coming up next in about a week!

before & after - bathroom wall

happy friday!!

ever since we moved into our house last august, i've been looking for some wall art to hang on the wall above the bathtub in our master bathroom.

i love our bathroom and i especially love taking baths, so i really wanted that wall to be a focal point in the room instead of just another beige empty space. it's a really cool corner of our bathroom that also has a window, which i love, so i felt like it needed some extra decoration to make it special.

here's the before:

see? beige and boring.

every time i went in target or home goods i would look for wall art containing some of our bathroom colors (orange, pink, and blue) and never found anything i loved! i was about to give up when i went in pier 1 a few nights ago with my friend (hey frand!) and found this beauty: fresh poppies

it is so perfect! it has all of the colors of our bathroom in it, and it's a good size to center on such a square wall. i thought the original price was great ($29.95) but it was on sale for $23.96! can't get much better than that!

color!!

have a great weekend!