Weight Watchers…

Helloooo! Sorry for the lack of updates- I've been pretty busy with finals for two of my business classes, a ladybug invite order AND Weight Watchers! ßThat's right… I joined Weight Watchers on Sunday! I am having a BLAST on it! I really don't know what took me so long to join! Last year as some of you know, after I gave birth to my daughter in January, I went on a major "diet". I started counting my calories, drinking only water and exercising and I was able to shed off about 70 pounds. (When I gave birth, I weighed in at 215 and I got down to 144). Well, when my husband lost his job in January of this year, I just sort of quit. I had no motivation to get back on the treadmill or really watch what I was eating. My mentality was always "this bag of chips is not going to make a difference, it's just one". Well guess what? That bag of chips turned into a cheeseburger, then into a bowl of cereal and before I knew it, I had gained 10 pounds back. So for the last month I seriously would wake up and tell myself "today is the day, I'm going to start counting my calories today" and it NEVER worked. I started to get really frustrated with it and finally on Sunday morning I just prayed and asked for guidance and some willpower to be able to do this. Then I came across the Weight Watchers website (I have been doing my research on them for quite some time, but never actually went all the way in) and just decided to give it a go. They are running a good promotion, 3 months for $55 and then $17.95 each month after that. That is A LOT better than the initial quote of $39 a month I was given at one of the locations. To me, if I pay for something I feel like I have to get my money's worth (I think we are all like that though!) so I just felt that I now had an obligation and you know what? IT'S WORKED! I know I'm barely on day 4, but I'm already down 5 pounds! When I joined on Sunday, I mentioned it to my husband who is so supportive and I asked him (jokingly at first) if he would follow the plan with me. He said he would think about it. Then I went to get my nails done, came back and he said he would! So we signed him up Sunday night and HE is down 6 pounds already!!! I think the coolest thing we've gotten out of this so far is the fact that I can see how it's changed both of our eating habits. It's amazing that this one program has been able to open our eyes to what we were truly eating and now my children are benefiting from it as well! Since we are buying more fruits and veggies, the kids (who don't really have much of a sweet tooth anyways) are now snacking on mostly grapes and baby carrots instead of asking for Hot Cheetos or Doritos (my ALL TIME weakness). I'm definitely loving this and the change it's brought our family. My husband and I are having a great time sitting at the computer and calculating points, it's so much fun to watch him go in and update his points religiously. The only regret I have now is that I didn't join earlier!

 

So anyone out there have any experience with Weight Watchers? Good, bad? I know you do! Let me know! I would LOVE to hear your advice about good snacks that would work great, and maybe pass some recipes my way!

 

J

500 Follower WINNER!

Hey guys! Sorry this is a day late! :( Thank you SO much to everyone who entered my giveaway! I wish I could give a cartridge out to every single person out there but in a few weeks I will be having a giveaway of Peachy Keen Stamps (The kid's WIDE EYED assortment!)

The winner of the Wrap it Up cartridge chosen by Random.org is..

CRICUTLVR!!

Thanks for playing girl! Send me an email and I will get that cart out to you asap! :)

New blog button!

Hey guys! My good friend Abby just designed me a blog button! It has my two favorite colors (pink and black) and CUPCAKES! :) It's right underneath my About me...So if you'd like, feel free to post it on your blogs! Remember, you guys have until tomorrow night to enter my giveaway! :)

Minnie Mouse cake!

Let me say, I work A LOT with Mickey Mouse images because my children are obsessed with him and Minnie Mouse, so bear with me! LOL

I am EXHAUSTED! It's midnight and I just finished putting the finishing touches on what looks like a VERY simple cake, but to me, I'm amazing! :) I made my own marshmallow fondant using my new Kitchen Aid Mixer my hubby surprised me with today (THANKS BABE!) and I started baking at 6pm! lol I will post the marshmallow recipe sometime later, i'm soooo tired now!

But I wanted to show you the pictures of the VERY FIRST CAKE I've EVER covered in fondant. I LOVE it! I never knew fondant was so easy to use!! You obviously know I used my Cricut Cake to cut out the images, I used Mickey font for the Mickey head and Mickey and Friends for the bow. I know I should have used two different colors for the fondant and the bow, but I have no more energy! I promise I will post some better stuff later on this week! :)

Oh and I wanted to show you the mess that is now my kitchen thanks to this tiny cake. BUT OH SO WORTH IT :)







And here is my kitchen AFTER. YAY. :)

Cricut CAKE!!!

Here is my "unveiling" video...please excuse the camera being all over the place. I was trying to do it one handed and it didn't work. LOL



WOOHOO! I don't think I have ever been so intimidated by a machine because A) I'm not a baker and B) I'm not a baker! LOL. I can bake the good chocolate chip cookie and mix some cake mix but let me tell you, originally I've been saving up for a laptop but I think I might want a Kitchen Aid mixer instead! This machine is so much fun! I managaed to cut out my son's name in cheese and some Mickey Mouse sugar cookies so far. I will say that it is trial and error and I can see where some people could get frustrated. When I first put the dough in there, it just went everywhere. So my husband Chris thought that maybe if I roll out the dough on the mat, place the mat in the freezer for about 40 minutes, then cut out my shapes that it would work. And it did! Then of course, I couldn't unstick my cookies so he suggested we freeze them for an additional 10 minutes and guess what, they came right off! PERFECT! I'm going to be baking my son some Mickey Mouse cupcakes for his birthday next week so i'll make sure to post those. In the mean time, I'll brag my little Mickey cookies and son's name cut out in cheese :)

Time for a GIVEAWAY!

YAY! I am SO beyond excited right now! Thank you to everyone who subscribed to me and those who have been following me for awhile and those sweet friends who posted this on your own pages! J I'll be honest with you, when I first started blogging, I was a regular on a mommy message board and all the cool moms had a blog. I figured I'd give it a shot but apparently I wasn't a cool mom or I just didn't have anything interesting to say since I had 1 follower for months, and that was my husband! LOL So then I really started to get into my Cricut and just scrapbooking pictures of my newborn daughter at the time and thus, changed my blog to something I was actually passionate about. I quit the mommy messageboard (they could be SO mean over there!) and instead hopped over to the Cricut MB and the rest is history. LOL (Sorry about the big ol' speech!)

 

Anyways- I promised you all a Wrap It Up giveaway so you guys have until Sunday, March 27 to leave me a comment on either this post, or my actual giveaway post to be entered! (If you already left me a comment, you don't need to comment again…but if you post this on your own blogs or FB page let me know so that I can add your name twice!) Oh and duh, ya need to be following! ;) And that's it! I will be drawing a name on Random.org on Sunday night and announcing the winner Monday morning J

 

**If you live outside the US and you win, you will be receiving a gift card**

 

THANK YOU GUYS SOOOOOO MUCH!!!

Best of Pixar- Day 1!

First off, thank you to everyone who left such sweet comments on my blog hop this weekend! I read them all and I promise I will get back to each one of you! :) I love having so many friends on here!! I'm 11 away from 500 so i'm thinking I will be giving away that cartridge very soon! :)

This weeks marks my BEST OF PIXAR challenge week! (I'm starting a little late...oh well!). I am going to post a project with this cartridge every day for this week, in honor of my son who is turning 5 next week! He loves Finding Nemo (as do all my kids) and this cartridge is just beyond adorable!

For today's project, I made an A2 card and wanted to use Nemo as my focus. I cut an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of kraft cardstock in half, then scored at 4 1/4". I used some light blue cardstock and cuttlebugged it with Swirls to have an "ocean" effect then added some brown twine for The Twinery. Nemo was cut out at 4". He's not assembled perfectly but I still think he is so cute! The stamp "great catch" is from Pink By Design's stamp set "Oh Boy!".





Have a great Tuesday!! :)