. awesome quote .

I was on the phone with my aunt today, and she told me a quote, or saying. Her brother, my uncle told her, and she told me and now I'm sharing it with you!!

Don't quit before the miracle

I love this so so much! It makes total sense. Right now I am hating my job, but what if I make awesome friends, or get another job offer from a customer? I can't quit before the miracle. Those that know me will probably know what I'm going to say next, but once I've saved up enough money...I will most likely get it tattooed, because this is something that I need to be reminded of every single day..plus I love tattoos, ya'll know that :)

Hope ya'll like this as much as I do!

xoxo E

. workout Wednesday .

Ok ...I'm not sure how I did it, but my weight as of this morning is

151.8!!! :)

This whole doing a workout DVD is not cutting it for me right now. I'm too lazy and lack discipline. I just got Netflix and I was watching a documentary called "fat, sick and nearly dead", I highly reccommend it. Now what this guy does is drink juice for 60 days. He juices all his fruits and vegetables and lives on that for 60 days....I can't remember how much he lost, but it was incredible! Now I really don't have that much weight to lose or flab to get under control, but I think I'm going to give this a go. My sister is selling me her hardly used juicer so hopefully I can get started next week!! I'm going to do it for 10 days first, and see how i feel. After the 10 days, I'll probaby have a regular breakfast, like eggs and an english muffin and juice for the remainder of the 60 days. I will be keeping up on how that goes, maybe daily, mabye weekly, but it sure is going to be a challenge.

I will still be walking Izzie for an hour a day, which hopefull will merge it to running. And I'll also be doing ab ripper I'm thinking on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Now go, watch this documentary and be inspired!!! :)


xoxo E

. today I... .

Threw myself a pity party...yep, you heard it right. A legit 5-minute-non-stop-sobbing PITTY PARTAYYY. I know we all must have these moods and to keep this blog honest, here is my reason why :)

First up, the good news, which coincidentally is also the bad news. I got a job...at McDonald's!! Now I'm very grateful to have a job where as a lot of other people are unemployed. I have applied probably at for over 25 jobs, made follow up phone calls and NOTHING, nada!! Even applying at McDonald's was hard, this is not the type of job I thought I would have at 26, or ever for that matter.

Not only is it kinda incredibly embarrassing to work there, it pays next to nothing. I'm extremely blessed to have parents who are supporting me thru this sucky time in my life but there are days when i just can't ask for money..like today. Today was my parents birthday (yes they were born on the same day, a year apart) so today was NOT the day to ask them for more money (my mom will probably feel bad, but please don't feel bad! it was your birthday)So I got some gas and then I had to do what for me was unthinkable...I bought Izzie wet, canned dog food at the gas station. I'm sure its perfectly fine to feed that to Izzie but I'm not used to having so little money that I have buy her $0.99 cans. It was just a sad thing for me to do, I try to give her the best of everything because she didn't have a say in choosing a good home so she will not suffer for it.

Any who, it's just a lot harder then I thought to be back here. My friends are all gone, most of them I don't even talk to. I just didn't quite imagine my summer to be like this, and sometimes I wonder if I made a mistake by moving back here. I know there is a reason for everything and I'm trying to see the good things. In my opinion there are a lot of things that aren't going the way I would like them to, but I have also been blessed beyond belief.

I have an unbelievably amazing family, awesome friends and a God that loves me no matter what. I think there is a lesson for me to learn here and at some point I will realize what that lesson is!

But for now, I'm over my pity party..it was fun for the 5 minutes it lasted :) and I'll leave you with my 2 favorite bible verses:

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"

Philippians 4:13

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight"

Proverbs 3:5-6  

I'm going to keep my head up high and pray that a new job will soon open up for me! Remember all the blessings in YOUR life! Oh, and please tell me I'm not the only one who throws myself a pity party!!

xoxo E

. the ABC's of me .

This is just something I had seen on another blog for a lazy day where you can't think of anything productive to say :)

A - Age: 26

B - Bed size: Queen

C - Chore you dislike: Putting laundry away. The other day I was searching around my closet looking for key pieces of clothing that I just could not find. I was about to call my mom (you know how mom's just know where everything you own is, no matter how many times you move??) to ask her if she knew where my stuff was. I had a heap of laundry to do and after I washed load 1 (of 3..oops, waited a little too long) I went to put it in the dryer and I open the door and what do ya know...there were all the clothes and towels I had been looking for for oh say 3 weeks! I don't mind doing laundry but I guess I forget to put it away sometimes :)

D - Dogs: Uhm...I don't think anyone who reads this blog does not know I have a dog because I talk about her an obnoxious amount

E - Essential start to your day: A shower...I feel so much better, refreshed and ready for the day

F - Favorite colors: Pink & grey

G - Gold or silver: Silver...or white gold or platinum, but I'm not a fan of gold jewelry. My watch is gold & silver but that's to make sure it matches with everything

H - Height: I'm 5'6

I - Intrument you play(ed): I played the flute when I was younger, I wanted to play the harp originally, but that was way to expensive, so the flute it was. I can still play some stuff

J - Job title: Student...for now

K - Kids: Nope, not yet. I can't wait to have them!

L - Live: I don't really go out much to bars or live music places

M - Mom's name: Tammy Sue

N - Nickname: E..I had this nickname for a long time and it kinda stuck

O - Overnight hospital stays: None...and I'm planning on keeping it that way, unless its for a fun reason, like having a baby!

P - Pet peeves: people chewing loudly. Or people crunching ice cubes..ahh, can't stand it!

Q - Quote from a movie: "Whoever said orange was the new pink, is seriously disturbed" Elle Woods, Legally Blonde

R - Righty or lefty: Lefty

S - Siblings: A younger sister, Lynne, 24

T - Time you wake up: 10ish, if I don't have to set an alarm. Sleeping in is the best thing ever!

U - Underwear: GP all the way :)

V - Vegetables you don't like: Peas, corn on the cob (corn in something I can do but not in large numbers), and brussle sprouts

W - What makes you run late: Not hearing my alarm..happens a lot! Also my hair not cooporating and Izzie not wanting to go into her crate (which makes me have to chase her around the house)

X - X-ray's you've had: Chest, leg, arm

Y - Yummy food you make: Cheese fondue, cakes, cupcakes

Z - Zoo animals you like: Any and all! I love all zoo animals



xoxo E

. coin purse tutorial .

{ coin purse I made from scratch }

I've had the past few days off from work and it got my creative juices flowing. Now that I'm back in NY there are the lovely toll roads that I have to take to get places, and my change is always floating around my car, so I decided to make a coin purse to keep in my car with my change in it so that it's always handy when I need it!
This is going to be tricky because I don't make patterns...I just do. So here it goes:
I used 4 types of fabric that I had laying around. The green is a cotton blend, the pink was kinda see thru so I lined it with 2 pieces of white cotton and then I used brown fleece to make it more sturdy. For the measurements, I kinda just played around with it.


The pink polka dot fabric: 1 piece of 3 inches wide by 5 3/4 inches long for around the purse...I only did this on one side, I didn't wrap it all the way around.(I know that's a weird measurment, but I accidently used the centimeter side of my tape measure..which made it 14.5cm). The 2 pieces of white fabric I used to line it with are the same size. And for the top part, I used the same measurments but cut out 2 pieces
The white cotton fabric: Cut 2 pieces of the same size as the pink one if the fabric you chose is too see thru!
The green flowery fabric: 2 pieces of 5 3/4 inches wide by 10 1/2 inches long (I played around with the lenght because it seemed to long to me. I didn't want to have to reach my whole arm in it to get change out, so I think I cut of maybe 3 inches after I assembled it)
The brown fleece fabric: Same measurments as the green fabric.

1. Start by cutting your fabric. Make sure you iron out any creases because this is hardly impossible once you've assembled it.

2. Iron about 1/2 inch in to make kind of a roll seam so you can more easily attatch it to your base fabric

3. Put the band of fabric where you like it and top stitch it as close to the edge as you can.

{ I put a little name tag on it that my mom found and used to put on all my clothes so I knew which was mine. I thought it was a nice touch to add it to this }

4. Once you top stitch your band, top stitch the entire fabric, so that your green and brown fabric are attatched. Once again, stitch as close to the edge as you can

5. Then put the right sides in and stitch it all around EXEPT FOR THE TOP! Leave the top open!

6. Then take the bottom and put the sides together so that it creates a point, sew a straight line and cut off the extra

7. Turn your coin purse right side out so you can kinda see what it looks like



8. Sew the 2 top band pieces together on both sides

9. Take the band fabric and put the right sides together. Make sure the seams line up. Pin it, and then stitch it together

10. Then fold the access to the inside. I think the top is close to an inch, so I cut off some of that access fabric. Make sure you open up one of the sides, so that you can put your ribbon in there (probably better to do that first, rookie mistake by me :) )

11. Then sew on the outside. This is kinda tricky because its pretty tight and it takes some patience

12. Time to put your ribbon inside the top part. I usually put a safety pin in the ribbon so that its easier to guide it thru the top.

13. YOU ARE DONE!! :)

If you have any questions or need some more explaining..please email me and I'll try my best to help you out!!

{ personalized }

Hope ya'll enjoyed this tutorial!! 

xoxo E

. 10 day you challenge: 1 picture .

This pictures is one of my favorites of myself

{ taken in 2009 }

Well that wraps up my 10 day you challenge. I had a lot of fun participating in this!!

xoxo E

. throwback Thursday .

Remember when:

I brought home baby Izzie :)  (2008)

Eek, this day was a long awaited day for me. I had thought about adopting a puppy and looked when I was home for the summer, and I found the perfect one...she was a king Charles cavalier, unfortunately she had a very hefty price tag and I would have to fly around the world so that was too expensive. When I came home after summer, I still had a month before school started. I got stood up by this guy I talked to all summer long and then seemed like the best time to start looking. I went to the pet store to ask how I could get a puppy (I had no idea where to even start looking for one, maybe that was a sign I wasn't ready). They suggested I buy the local news paper and look for an ad. There was only 1 ad for puppies...black puggle puppies

Funny side story, when I lived in NYC in 2005, I cut out an article about puggle's and how popular they became and what they were and stuff. Funny to think that 3 years later I adopted a little one...she was meant to be mine :)

Well, I called the people and they had 2 little girls left, that was all I wanted..a girl. So I got their address and a drive that should have taken me maybe 10 minutes, took me 45 minutes (another sign that I wasn't ready maybe?). Once I got there they picked up one of the girls and she was the cutest...she licked my nose and fell asleep in my arms. I asked them how much she was and then left to go to the ATM and run to walmart to get a collar for her. And then it was time to take her home!!

{ baby izzie, 6 weeks old 3.5lbs!! }

When I got her home the reality set in. I just paid a lot of money for this tiny creature and was totally unprepared!! All I bought her was a collar...and she needed so much more then that! I went back to the pet store and I bought so much stuff it was almost as expensive as Izzie was.

It was so much fun to play with her all day. Night time turned to be quite the challenge. I set up her crate and got it all comfy for her. She whined and whined and I tried to tough it out, but i would take her out and lay her on my chest so she could feel my heart beat to comfort her and it worked. She would fall back asleep and I would carry her to the crate and she would sleep for an hour or two and whine again. I think I did that twice, and from there on out, she slept in the bed with me...and still does (tiny confession: we spoon, she's baby spoon and I'm big spoon)

According to the Legally Blonde trivia track it costs over $14.000 to raise a dog..jikes! She's the cutest and I cannot imagine my life without her! She has been with me thru my darkest days and will lick my tears when I cry, which makes me smile :)

It gives me such anxiety to think something would happen to her, and I rather not think about it. In my opinion Izzie will never die, and it makes life a lot better!

I took millions of pictures of Izzie when she was a puppy, and I loved going thru them on my computer. The first day of spring break I drove down to VA to spend time there, I got there at 5am. I parked my car in my sister's driveway, behind the house. When I got up I went to grab something from my car and I thought it looked funny but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I stood in the backyard with my mom when it hit me...my car got broken in to!!! In the midst of getting to VA after a 9 hour drive, I forgot to lock my car doors and someone took my laptop, my navigation system and my camera. I called the cops and they sent someone to take fingerprints, but I never got my stuff back. Looking at the pictures of baby Izzie made my heart melt all over again and now all I have is 2 pictures that I posted online on a puggle website. It makes me so sad and I think about it all the time...I will never get those pictures back.

All in all, its been an amazing 4 years with Izzie...on July 21st I became a doggy mommy. It's been a wild ride, but I love her. She's the cutest and there isn't really any denying it!

We shall proceed with the doggy photo dump:

{ baby Izzie playing with the cord of my camera }

{ Izzie in her doggie hammock, in the backseat }

{ driving her favorite past time }

{ graduated from Puppy Class! }

{ sleepy time }

{ this is what happens when you leave a full trash bag laying around...doggie heaven }

{ She LOVES her peanut butter }

{ It's love }

There is the story of how Izzie came into my life...best time of my life :)

Xoxo E