Fun Fridays!

Wow, already Friday again! I totally lose track of the days when I'm on vacation! (that's a good thing, right??)

Here's what's on tap for this weekend:

• Hitting up 2nd Beach in Newport to try and avoid the heat today (temps are supposed to reach the high 90s, maybe even break 100!!)
• Spending time with the puppy of course - I can't believe we've had him a whole week today!!
• Going to a friend's wedding which is sure to be an awesome time!!
• Giggin' it up with the band on Saturday night!
• And Sunday looks totally free!! Maybe an outing with Mars??

Don't forget to link up at Jen's blog!

What I'm Loving Wednesdays!

I'm loving so many things today!

Don't forget to link up at Jamie's blog

First off, I'm absolutely head-over-heels loving this little guy, the newest addition to our family:

His name is Mars and he is a 9.5 week-old German Shepherd and just the cutest thing ever!!

The cats aren't sure what to make of him yet. He's been so good with them too - just sniffs them, and clearly wants to play!

Venus finally venturing out after 2 days of hiding! She'll go up to him when he's either asleep or in his crate. I have a feeling it's gonna take awhile for her to get used to him!

Ok, I could go on and on and on about the puppy, but I'll leave that for another post!

Here's what else I'm loving today:

I always seem to eat better in the summer - probably because there's more fresh produce available! I found this salad dressing last year and it's definitely one of my summer favorites! A little goes a long way, so I try to only use the serving size. It really is delicious on peaches, too!!

They make a bunch of flavors, but the Poppyseed is the only one I've ever tasted. I have a bottle of Ranch in my pantry but I gotta use up my Hidden Valley one first.

I love Sephora - especially their "impulse buy section." You know, where all the fun trial/travel sizes are. I could literally spend hours just checking out all the bins of stuff near the registers. And that's exactly how I found the product above. Ok, well I wasn't browsing around the trial sizes for hours, but you know what I  mean.  I got this 2.5 oz size for $5 and I am in love with the scent!! It's coconut and vanilla, but it also reminds me of fresh baked goods - yum! Granted, that's not everyone's cup of tea, but for me, it works!  It's super moisturizing and I love that it's paraben-free and made with organic products. When this stuff runs out, I will definitely be snagging the larger size and maybe even the perfume roll on. 

Here's a link to the whole product line (Pacifica) at Sephora

The last thing I'm loving today is the iPhone app, Fooducate. 

I actually discovered the app before I knew there was a blog by the same name.  I use this app everytime I go food shopping to be sure I'm making the healthiest decisions.  I love that you can compare items, get alternatives and that it saves your history so you can go back and review an item from your last shopping trip. I feel as though I'm becoming an informed consumer and learning a lot about the additives in food.  It's amazing sometimes to scan what you think is a "healthy" food choice, only to find out it's loaded with artificial sweeteners or ingredients on the FDA "toxic list." So now my grocery trips are about twice as long, because I'm scanning nearly everything that goes into my cart, but it's fun and I feel better knowing I'm spending my money wisely instead of on processed crap!

That's what I'm loving today! Happy Wednesday!

Movie Mondays!

Saw this over the weekend with a friend - hysterical movie!! It's a little slow in the beginning, but then it picks up and keeps you laughing til the end. The cast was fantastic - I loved Jennifer Aniston's character, which was a complete departure from her usual roles. Charlie Day (the actor below Jennifer) was probably one of my favorite actors in the movie. I can't remember if I've seen him in anything else, but he was really funny. 

If you need a good laugh, go see Horrible Bosses!!

World Cup Fever

I'm not a soccer fan by any means and I didn't watch the World Cup yesterday, but apparently the Obamas did:

Found this on FB and just thought it was a really neat picture.

Target Tuesdays!

One of my favorite blog hops!

Here are some of my latest Target finds:

Got these great beige/black striped cushions for my "new" patio set (blogged about it here)

Here's another picture of them on the chairs (taken at night with my iPhone so I apologize for the quality)

They show them online as 2 for $27 but I bought mine for $14.99 each in the store. They are very comfy and the perfect size for my chairs! Easy to clean (water rolls right off) and supposedly they are fade resistant too!

Got this pitcher on clearance for $3.24, marked down from $12.99! I used it this past weekend for some tasty sangria - perfect size!

On an unrelated note (but kind of related, because these are also a summer item!), I got these funky wedges for under $18 on a recent Target trip. I had been spying them for months (I think they showed up in stores at the end of March?) but wanted to wait til they went on sale. They are the perfect height for me (I'm 5'8" and I don't always like to wear super super high heels) and extremely comfortable!

Ok, that's all for now! Link up at Tara's blog if you want to join in

Fun Fridays!

I am totally slacking on my blog lately!! I can't believe it's been a week since I last posted!!

First I want to share some pictures of a few projects I worked on this week with the help of my wonderful parents!!

They came over on Wednesday so my Dad and Brandon could finish putting insulation underneath our 3-season porch. While they were slaving away in the 80-degree heat, my Mom and I were working on beautifying the porch itself. The porch had kind of turned into a dumping ground for furniture and odds and ends.  We decided to move the futon from the guest room onto the porch and we put my old mattress and frame into the guest room. So now our guests can sleep on a real bed when they come to visit!

Not the best "before" picture, but you get the idea.

And I switched out the dark brown duvet cover for a lighter one - it is summer after all!

We used an old duvet cover for the futon so the mattress underneath stays cat hair free!

Luna approves! (Doesn't it look like her outstretched paw is giving a thumbs up??)

We had 2 sets of tables and chairs out here before and decided to just keep one and my Mom happily took her set back!

My plan is to take the coffee table from the living room and add it to this room. Or maybe just a smaller, low table - who knows! The possibilities are endless! I am already envisioning this as my new reading room!

I also need to finish stringing my sets of small white lights around the curtain rods - hopefully this weekend!

The other project, that has been about a year in the making, was to refinish some patio furniture. Last summer I worked at a pool & patio store and at the end of the season, there was a table and chairs set that needed to go back to the manufacturer, because the paint had started to peel (The people that owned this set before me lived near the ocean. Salt water + certain kinds of paint = peeling!) The manager said it was mine for free as long as I could get someone to transport it to my house!

Here's a before picture of one of the stationary chairs.  (The set came with 4 stationary chairs and 2 swivels).

(They had to spray paint them with white "X's" so they couldn't be sold again)

We scraped the chairs that were peeling pretty bad - mostly on the arms/seat. I used an attachment on Brandon's drill

Here's a decent "before" picture of the table:

A before pic of one of the swivels:

You might be able to see a slight difference in color between this chair and the one above. That's because I had started to spray paint it with a brown textured paint. The more I looked at it, the more I hated the color. So I switched to shiny black instead and here's the result after 1 coat:

 I bought 12 cans of glossy black spray paint at $4 each and we've only used 6 cans so far. I think this whole project will come in under $40 if I do a 2nd coat on the table/chairs. Not bad for a free patio set!

This picture was actually taken from inside the porch looking out, because it's raining today, but I realized I never took an "after" picture of the table, so I had to improvise :) If you look closely, you can see there's an inner circle in table - it's a Lazy Susan!! Such a great feature! I can't wait to add the umbrella/base I bought a few months ago, that is, once it stops raining!

Ok, so now back to our regularly schedule blog hop! I'll keep it short:

• Tonight I have ANOTHER gig with the band - that's 5 in 8 days!! It'll be nice to have 2 weeks off before our next show :)
• Tomorrow morning I am running my first 4.8-mile race! Monday I ran my first 4-miler and was pretty pleased with how I did, even tho I was a complete sweat-ball when all was said and done:

• Tomorrow afternoon we have our nephew's 6th birthday - I can't believe he's already 6! When he was born, I was in Ireland with my parents on vacation and I remember calling Brandon long-distance to find out if his sister-in-law had the baby yet. Time flies!
• Sunday we're having a little cookout with friends - so far the weather seems pretty good! Can't wait to have them try out our "new" patio furniture too!

Happy Friday everyone!!! Don't forget to link up at Jen's blog!

Fun Fridays!

Happy Fourth of July Weekend!!!!

This weekend is full of music, running, and relaxing!

- Tonight will be full of music as I have a gig with the band at a local fair (we're the headliners - woohoo!) and we'll be playing there again next Friday!

- Tomorrow looks to be full of relaxing since there's nothing on the calendar!

- Sunday will be a combo of relaxing and music: hanging out with the hubs for most of the day, then a 3rd of July Fireworks gig with the band!

- Monday will be a combo of running and relaxing: I'll start my day with a 4-mile road race and then head down to Plymouth, MA for my grandma's annual 4th of July party - can't wait!!

Don't forget to link up at Jen's blog!