I completed my Resloution.. kinda

On Dec. 31 of 2010 I made the resolution that I will be mistaken for Jessica Alba. In other words.. I will lose the chub. I'm not a little girl, at 5'9" I tower over every female in my family and my structure is not petite in the least. So people say I hold my weight well, but it's bull. When I got pregnant with Raphael I put on 65 lbs. The day I delivered him I was 235 lbs. It seriously makes my stomach turn to type that. Let me also add here that this is really hard for me to talk about because my weight has bothered me my whole life. After I had my beautiful boy I dropped 20 lbs, you know baby+water+breastfeeding. And in the months following I slowly dropped 10-15 more, but by Dec 2010 I was hovering around 200 still.

Dec 24th 2010

                   I hate this picture so much, but for documenting purposes I suppose I can suck it up.

Well, I decided that instead of going on any diets or exercise plan that I was going to take tiny baby steps.

I would make better choices. Thats it. Thats the foundation of which all the weight loss will melt away from. And I did. Less fried food, less food period(my portions were way out of control), and you know little tweaks like that. The progress was slow but by April 2011 I had lost 15lbs. 

That month I had a horrible gall stone attack on which I was advised to remove my gall bladder immediately, but since I like all my organs in my body where they should be I decided an even more drastic diet change was in order. I googled up some guidelines on how to eat with gall stones and basically its low/no fat and low cholesterol. SO... NO fried food, NO fat diaries, no eating after 8:30, no processed food, no fatty meats, no cream sauces.. basically everything that made me happy. But, as I was cooking more and making my family eat how I was eating we were discovering that food can still be SO GOOD and healthy. I bought this cook book The Best of clean Eating which has the most awesome recipes.  Between May and Oct I lost 20 lbs more.

Oct 2011

Then in Oct My brother Matt and I watched this documentary Forks over knives. It goes into detail about how some Doctors are curing things like diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, even cancer using only a whole foods plant based diet. It's really amazing to see how we have made ourselves sick with animal proteins found in meat and diary. I suggest everyone at least watch it to see what incredible things a plant based diet can do for you. So after we had a family discussion we decided to transition into a plant based diet. Basically vegetarian to put it easily. And thats where we are now. We still eat meat when we want but 80% of our meals are meatless and we hope to totally transition over. The Forks over Knives website has a ton of cookbooks that are easy, I mean EASY to follow. I even made a vegetarian breakfast for my dad on Christmas morning and he said, "This is Awesome." So coming from my dad... Thats a major win.

Dec 26th 2011

So this is me last night getting ready to go out. I now hover around 155lbs.  And all that with ONLY diet changes. I haven't climbed one stair, walked one mile, or done one crunch. This is me changing ONE THING AT A TIME. Thats how you make lasting changes baby steps. My resolution for 2012 is not to hit the gym X amount of times, or work out X days a week, but just to be more active. I want to do something outside with my kids everyday and if not than something active inside. It's gonna be a challenge but little by little I will get there. I hope to lose 15 to 20 more lbs. and be the healthiest I've ever been. Heres to a healthy 2012!!

The Apple was better than the orange

I just got home from seeing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I will spare you my take on the film but what I can't stand , what makes my eyes roll far back into my head is when people say, "the book was better." OF COURSE YOU LIKED THE BOOK BETTER! Reading unlocks the door to the best movie theater you could ever visit. The one in your melon. The visuals are the strikingly real, like a memory. A picture that is painted so deep in your mind, you feel as if you're a character in a story that unfolds around you. Now... someone then decided that the images that came to life in their head were so AWESOME that everyone should see it that way. And they get a bunch of people together and they may take some creative liberties or painstakingly try to give life to every word but they make a film for all to see. Maybe you like it.. maybe you don't but it's a story retold... in another medium...sooo its not a book...it's not trying to be better than a book. Its a movie...it's not a book. Do we get that? Its like if I painted a picture about lyrics to a song, and someone whines, "I like the music better." SO from here on out the next time I see a movie adapted from a book, and you say the book was better, I give myself permission to kick you in the shin. That'll be better than the police report.

Hi Chair!

If you have a kid or two you've gone through the high chair phase. And if you haven't.. well don't you get all giddy over it. Its really a stage that I won't miss. Sorry! I won't. If you enjoy every crumb and wet sloppy bite to be thrown on your floor, painted onto the tray, massaged into the baby's hair, and stained on the clothes, then by all means savor every second. I for one hate the clean up of baby and floor and everything within 3 feet of the highchair 5 times a day. The best part is we have Jr. dining with us in the dining room... which is carpeted. Insert image of me on my hands and knees picking smushed raisins out of the carpet. Its easier to feed them while you eat and if I just put him in the kitchen, then I can't eat with the rest of my family. So I need something to put under the high chair right???

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It's the baby industry puking up their attempt at decor.

Why do they insist on making everything for baby care an eyesore. I found this round clear one but it didn't seem to be large enough. In my search I came across something I didn't even think of... hello.... OFFICE CHAIR MAT!!!

Andre cut of the weird rectangle tongue and we have ... the square.

I'm still going to have to wipe down that mat 5 times a day but the carpet won't get all crappy so thats good. Until I can get those amazing hard wood floors of my dreams ( which won't be till long after Jr. is out of the high chair) This will do ;)

A place for everything and everything untangled..

Mirror from Target $12.00

Blingeez wall sticker Jewelry Organizer $9.99

An accessory fitting room...... priceless....

no more knots.. thank god.

Stairway to Heaven

In my quest to find a desk for my room I found a few that I really fell in love with. So much even that I randomly storm into different rooms in the house and stare intensely to see if that room could use a desk. I came across this beauty at Crate and Barrel.

I love how light and airy this feels. You get storage space and a workplace without a big bulky piece. The downside is the price tag. $399.99 Not ridiculous, but not in my budget. So I hoped over to overstock.com and found this piece for $79.99

If you don't want the whole desk you can just use this piece, BUT the lovely part is they sell the desk and the other side so you can have the set and each piece is $79. They didn't have white but you could always keep checking. So don't be surprised if in the future I have a desk in my kitchen, I'm staring hard in there right now.

Raphael's Gabbalicious Party

The party plowed through this weekend and it was a success. The remnants of the day are still littered around the house. And don't even mention the backyard. It looks like a post apocalyptic playground. Paper, bubble wands, pinata pieces strewn around. haha. I promise I will clean the backyard before this weekend. I posted pictures of the party to my facebook already, but I'll throw some up here.

The cupcake stand was one of my favorite pieces to make and this is so simple and fun for anyone. You need to buy this Dessert Tower.

I bought some scrap booking paper and cutout large circles and taped them to the platters

Then I bought ribbon (and you can use thick or thin) to wrap around the edges. You can glue it or tape it. I taped mine

And you have your custom dessert tower, any colors or theme you want!

I ordered the door sign, The Happy Birthday banner, and the goodie bags from this nice woman on Etsy. Unfortunately, it seems her shop was closed down. A lot of people selling Yo Gabba Gabba stuff on Etsy have been getting their shops closed down due to copyright issues. Which is sad, she had a lot of cute stuff, all kinds of themes.

The Characters on the cupcakes I also got from Etsy. The shop is called Sweet and Edible. She does everything and anything, her work is amazing.

All the other decor I made. I did order Giantic Muno from the party supply store. Anyone in the market for a 6' cardboard cutout of a monster??

Honestly this party was better than Roman's 1st bday, but I have to explain, how that was mommy's first time trowing a party and my planning and decor skills have improved since then. Its ok I have many birthdays to make that up to him.

Just another Day

Sooo I decided that trying to Blog everyday was a little ambitious for my schedule. haha. I will tone it down to the more doable once a week. Ok? good. Well again, as you know, the count down is on for the Yo Gabba Gabba party. I came across this little checklist a while back and now when I'm having a party or get together this is always my go to. I always get, "Oh Nicole your house is so nice and clean! .. How do you do it with your kids?" little do they know, it takes a week if not 2 to prepare.  WEEKS PEOPLE!! Drop by unannounced during the week, and my house and I look like the junk lady from Labyrinth.

  So heres my little helper...enjoy...if you enjoy cleaning.............I don't.

How to clean for a party

Frame it

Coming up on Raphael's birthday I've been running around getting my decorations. So I wanted to share with you one of my favorite party investments. Frames. You can do so much with frames. For Roman's 2nd birthday I bought 4 plain black frames to frame these beautiful vintage Mickey posters around the party.

A year later I co-hosted a bridal shower and I used them to frame the bride and groom's initials. I made the "J&E" out of two different wrapping papers.

This year we had a baby shower at my house and again I did the initial thing made out of wrapping paper. The baby's initials are "A E F"

You can do photo collages, character posters, letters so many things and it really brings a unique element to the party decor. A few black frames and I use them over and over.  

Roman & Raphael's great room makeover of 2011 pt.2

Hi guys. You probably already know I didn't post this week at all because on Sunday I had a fierce gallstone attack. It wasn't the worst one I've ever had, but it wins for longevity, starting at 3:36 a.m. Sunday morning and ending somewhere around 10p.m. Sunday night. The pain was up and down but never gone, and of ALL DAYS on the day of the room makeover!!! I was keeled over just pointing Andre and my dad in the right direction. I literally did the reveal to Roman, videotaped it for 5 min (took no pictures) grabbed my purse and zoomed to the E.R. The rest of the week I've been basically bed ridden, feeling like I was in labor for 19hrs. on Sunday. But today I was able to take some pics and really, it turned out just as I imagined it would and couldn't be happier!

Heres a quick before, it was just a Toy Story room with his crib (that he never used) turned toddler bed

annnnd After!! 

Heres the breakdown..

This is the Bedding (Walmart)  and the sheets (Potterybarn)

Somewhere for Roman to put his favorite bedtime books!

above the closet

framed comic pages

The PotteryBarn throw pillow, we already had this storage bench in his room. Its great because its upholstered and I don't have to worry about sharp edges.

I also kept this storage unit, I mean you can't have enough storage

but don't you love the picture?!

New in the closet units

and I labeled em. Roman is very organized...thank god

Andre's favorite part of the room.. the new electronics

Don't mind the yellow stripe, it was shelf.. gonna fix it

Spiderman swinging from above

The new dresser and lamp

Roman was amazed, he pretended to be Spiderman for about 5 min before anyone could communicate with him. But he tells me everyday that he LOVESSSS his new room. All the pain was worth it.