Homeward Bound

Ah..... so relaxed.  On an impromptu trip home to Tulsa this past weekend I got my fill of family, friends, and relaxation.  With this unemployment finger tapping me on the shoulder every second I sit at home searching all over the Internet for a job, I had to get out. Get home. How lucky that I found a decently priced flight last week and on top of that my sister would be home at the same time! Family reunion!!!

My favorite part about us all being home at the same time. Mani's & Pedi's.  Hollar! Even better.... my mom was loving on the massage chair so much she threw in a stone massage.  I've never had one of those before and definitely recommend it for those of you who love pedi's like me :)

Happy Monday my lovely little readers.  Hope it was a good one!

Awkward & Awesome

Yes Mia is doing EXACTLY what it looks like. She is acting like a dog.  For those people that don't like cats, they are JUST like dogs and this is proof!

Awkward:

• Dancing at my friend's engagement party with the BF and when he spun me he forgot to CATCH me! So I ended up on the floor in front of the entire party.  This should do it alone for the awkward moments of the week. 
• Watching the 49ers play on Sunday with the BFs family and not thinking before speaking I ask, "Is that a body bag on the field?" As the medics get the gurney for a player that was stuffed inside what looked like a body bag to me.  Clearly I need to watch more football. 
• Almost biting it big time two times in less than a minute due to texting and not watching where I was walking.  Definitely need to watch out for stairs. 
• Mia licking out of the toilet and me forgetting and giving her kisses.. Bleh.

Awesome:

• My friends.  Especially those who are helping me get through this hard time being unemployed and helping me find other great opportunities.  I love you all you are amazing. 
• I am actually going back to Tulsa this minute. I found a cheap flight somehow early this week and off I go.  Although I am having to fly to OKC and drive with my sister to Tulsa for over an hour.  Oh well. It's worth it. 
• Doing my first giveaway of the year - that is always awesome!!! Enter now!
• Walt cooked me a yummy dinner last night! Yes I know I am unemployed and should be cooking for him - but it's only fair if we take turns right? 

 

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Giveaway Time....CLOSED

So it's been quite some time since my last giveaway, with the moving, job hunt etc I kept myself busy.

Time to change that!

The sweet Alana from MAKE PIE not war Etsy shop has been kind enough to offer up her services. I have actually purchased two amazingly simplistic and AWESOME necklaces from her shop over the past year for both myself and my sister for her birthday gift this past September.

What's up for grabs you ask?

Alana's awesome "Say My Name - Initial" Necklace.  You pick what color and what initial you want! So gift it to yourself (you selfish person you... ha!) or gift it to someone else for their birthday, Valentine's Day or just because they are a great friend!

                 

Pretty great, right?!?

Ok... here is how you can enter for a chance to win this awesome necklace:

Mandatory: You must be a public follower of A Candid Life.  Leave a comment of who you are trying to win the necklace for.  If your email is not linked to your profile, please include that as well so I can notify you if you win.

Extra Entries: Leave a separate comment for each please. If left in one comment it will only be counted once. Sorry Charlie.

• Follow me on Twitter
• Tweet about this giveaway.  Include my @CandidLuLu and #Giveaway
• Example: Really make sure someone knows you, check out the initial necklace @CandidLuLu is giving away {link to this post}
• Tweet about "Make Pie not war"
• Linking them to her page: http://www.etsy.com/people/makepienotwar and include @CandidLuLu in your comment
• Add "Make PIE not war" to your favorites on Etsy.  It's the little heart at the bottom left of this page. Let me know if you have any problems. 

You have until next Thursday, February 2 at midnight MST to get entered.  The winner will be announced Friday morning so be sure to come back and see if you were as lucky as you were feeling!  Good luck my friends! 

I See. You See.

To brighten up the little funk I've been over the past few days I thought what better to base today's theme on then "color."

Color always brightens my mood and makes me happy. I get into funks where I just wear black, white, and grey and realize it days afterwards because it was reflecting the mood I was in.

So color it is.

My picture came from our new "dinner club" we are forming at my friend Rachel and Annie's house.  Rachel hosts the blog Reckless Abandon Cook that I love and get a lot of recipes from.  Since basically none of our friends really know how to cook more than a baked chicken or pasta, we have challenged Rachel to teach us some of her cooking magic. Tonight it was cod with some orzo.  Both new recipes for me! It was light and yummy and your should definitely stop by her blog to check out the recipe!

As for Meggy, she went to what she is known for best.  Her amazing fashion sense.

A colorful closet is a happy closet (in my book).  This is my new skirt to add to my already colorful closet.  You'll have follow my blog along to see when and how I wear it! ;)

Do you all get in a better mood when you wear colors???

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Awkward & Awesome

Awkward:

• Standing in line at the unemployment office. Awkward in every sense.  Especially when weirdos try and talk to you. 
• Learning what Missouri's maximum unemployment pay is.  Let's just say that I am so happy I do not have to support a family on it.  It shines a whole new light on unemployment for me. WOW. 
• Taking Lucy, the BFs dog, on a run at the park and on the second lap around she stops to take a poop.  I instantly freaked out because it was right in the middle of the path and I had no plastic bags.  Naturally I pulled her off the path to stop her and she ended up sprinting the other way to catch a squirrel and I slipped and fell on a piece of ice. Awkward having the lady I just passed see me wipe out. OOOPS. 

Awesome:

• Making the AMAZING tasting cheese fondue appetizer for the BF this week for the first time.  Not only did I get everything timed perfectly, it tasted amazing.  Thanks little sis for the awesome fondue set.  My thighs will thank you later in life! 
• Being in Colorado with Walt's family.  It's so nice to go over to his parents house for family dinner when my family is back in Oklahoma and I'm missing them so much.
• Taking Kara to her first hard core Yoga class.  I am slowly trying to prove to people it IS a work out.  I actually sweat more doing yoga than running 4 miles... weird. 
• The BF sent me beautiful flowers to brighten up my days(s) and my apartment.  What a sweetie. 

 

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What If Wednesday

What if we could hear what our pets were thinking/saying?

I'm pretty sure Mia would be saying, "Get this huge dog outta my house!"

I brought over the BFs dog, Lucy, who is a Springer Spaniel, after a long run today to see Mia's reaction to a bigger dog since she has only been around small happy dogs to this day.  Just as I expected.... she was NOT happy.  Her hair literally stood up higher than I'd ever seen it.  Lucy just sat there staring at her I'm sure thinking, "What's your deal cat, I'm not going to eat you I just want to sniff you... you kinda look like the squirrels I was just chasing at the park."

Maybe I should be a pet psychic... I feel like I'm pretty good at reading what my cat is thinking :)

Hope you're all having a great hump day Wednesday!

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Fish Tail Braid Tutorial

After many requests I figured it was high time to show this.... It's awkward, self made and amateur but hopefully someone gets something out of it.  Feel free to email me with any questions at lmajor9 (at) gmail.com.

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Awkward & Awesome

Awkward: 

• When I get done working out and my cat comes and sits on my lap to start licking my arms - Sicko
• Trying to do the tutorial that I am posting tomorrow - I am better suited on the other side of the camera... guess you will just have to come back and see! 
• Pretending to like football and watching it with all guys - four hours of that sport is just too much.  I'm considering trying to figure out what exactly half the stuff they say/do means! 
• Phone Interviews.

Awesome:

• Finally getting the BFs Christmas gift a Burberry Watch which I am currently obsessed with! We ordered it right before Christmas for full price and due to complications had to re-order it to find out that it was actually on SALE! Heck ya! If you love it like I do call Nordy right away before they sell out!
• Having 4 interviews in less than a week - Thank God the ball is finally rolling!
• I may possibly be selling one of my photos on a website! That means I'd actually make money from a photo.  That means I'm one step closer to being known for my photos. Heck I'll take it if ONE person buys it!
• I get to ski in Vail this weekend - Pretty pumped to have some good snow and gets some more runs in at the start of the season. 

What If Wednesday

I've been doing some thinking. I'm going to try out a new theme for Wednesdays (hopefully this goes over all and suggestions are always welcome). The theme being "What If" Wednesdays.

I find myself constantly giving "what if" scenarios.  I get weird faces most of the times because a lot of my "what ifs" are random and off the wall.  Some make sense and make people (myself included) think for a minute.

So to start today's theme, due to the the abundance of snow we received last night (2-3 inches my butt), a thought came to me.....

What if I was to get completely snowed in at my house

What would I eat since I hadn't gone to the store in about a month? How long would it take before I went crazy?  Maybe I would just take an Ambien and sleep off the entire day hoping someone would finally come dig me out. What would you do?

On a different note, Meggy and I weren't able to do our ICUC yesterday due to family matters, so I wanted to share with you mu Full Moon shot I got that I was going to post yesterday.

Check it out you can actually see the shadows (or whatever those are) on the moon!

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Blow Me Over Why Don't You

Over the holiday's I was reached out to by a representative from Missiko to see if I'd be interested in trying out they Hana Air blow dryer and give my opinion.  Obviously I jumped at the opportunity.  I love trying out new things!

To make this quick and easy to make your decision if you want to buy this hair dryer, I figured it would be best to break it out to a list of pros & cons.  I'm a huge list maker so I figured myself and everyone reading would benefit from this approach.

Pros:

• This blow dryer has an insane amount of power! Drying my hair in half the time it typically takes (15 minutes down to 7 minutes)
• Extremely long cord, 12 feet, I mean I could walk around my house with this thing.  Well not really but you get the point
• There are 3 heat settings in addition to a "cool" button
• There is a low and high blowing setting.  I used high on most of my head, and then recommend using it on low if you use a round brush like me and don't want your hair flying all over the place
• It has a 2 year warranty - yes please. Most of the hair dryers I have used to date have been purchased at Target (Conair) and typically last me about 2 years and then run down eventually

Cons:

• The high fan speed knots my hair more than normal.  I have A LOT of very fine blonde hair so had to go down to the low fan setting to avoid getting overly tangled
• Cost.  If I was rich {which we all know I'm not} I'd happily purchase this blow dryer.  It is on SALE right now for $194.99, a 42% discount which is pretty awesome
• When using the highest heat, I'd use it farther from your head.  I got a bit too close and fried some of my hair - absolutely my fault as I've done this before.  Just though a friendly reminder to use caution on such high heater blow dryers

Overall, I would say this is a pretty amazing hair dryer. Anything that eliminates the amount of time I have to put into getting ready gets my vote. So if you are like me and measure everything you buy on a CPW/CPU (Cost-Per-Wear/Use), you will get yours money's worth. 

To learn more about this hair dryer please go here. Also, you can check out some of their other products on their website. Lastly, they also sell Chi Straighteners and curling irons as well. 

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Teach Me.

So this year I stumbled across this blog called "From Me To You."

I LOVE this blog. There are always unique photos I can look at to get inspiration to continue to practice my photography skills.  Recently I've become intrigued by her cinemagraphs. I lied, this is not recent, this has been an ongoing. Every time I see her post one of these I am always in awe on what beautiful pictures they are and how in the world she does it!

Anyone else ever heard of a cinemagraph? Me neither.  Well not until I Googled it, determined to figure out how to do a photo like this myself. My Googling got me here while "From Me to You" also shared some juicy deets. While I am still trying to figure out how to get this to work, I thought I'd share it with you in my exploration phase.

Has anyone tried this photography technique before?  Feel free to send it to me and I'll share it with everyone.

Pretty cool huh?

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Awkward & Awesome Kitty

You read me right. Kitty.  Cats can also be awkward just as humans can believe it or not.....

Awkward:

• The fact that my kitty, Mia, managed to climb into the fridge as I was making dinner tonight.  The fridge shut behind her and she was VERY lucky I thought I saw her walk in there before it shut!
• Even more awkward, literally two minutes later, I was switching out my laundry and turned to my dryer to put more clothes in and look who I found! A second attempt at kitty suicide! 
• Sitting in my house ALL day job searching online - this is about the least amount of fun one could have.  Writing endless cover letters is a job in itself.  Don't' let anyone say anything differently.  You're just not getting paid - blah!

Awesome:

• That same awkward kitty is also very awesome - no longer waking me up meowing anymore in the middle of the night. Now her problem is cuddling too much and waking me up!
• I'm officially in the interview process - so better than sending out cover letters and resumes to no man's land and never hearing back! Cheers! 
• Vampire Diaries starts tonight - yes I am a 16 year old wanna be and am in love with this show. But mostly the hot guys!
• My trip to Winter Park with my friends was absolutely AWESOME! Lots of fun and funny memories to have. 
• Finally getting back into shape - well sorta - when the dog I was running with today was sprinting ahead at full speed and I was dying... didn't feel so in shape. But we did make it almost 5 mile

 

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I See. You See.

New Year. New Pics.

With 2012 already three days in {amazing isn't it?} Meggy and I are blowing full steam ahead with our ICUC pictures.  Now, here is the kicker, to keep it up we are ALWAYS looking for more ideas and themes for pictures.  Think you have a good idea? Shoot an email to lmajor9 at gmail.com or post a comment!

So back to the reason why you are here.  The theme! Today's theme is but of course related to NYE.

For me, as I talked about yesterday, I had an amazing time in Winter Park with my friends! After vegging on lots of junk food, and drinking non-stop I am ready to kick my working out into full gear.  Today was my first time to work out since before Christmas and BOY did I feel the weekend running on my back! Anyone else having this problem getting back into the swing of things?

As for Meggy, let's see how she brought in the new year shall we?

My last purchase of 2011 were new Kate Spade booties (on sale, too!) which I promptly wore that night with my NYE outfit.  I like to think I started the new year with my best foot forward (and toting around a newborn).

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Happy. New. Year.

Here we are in 2012.  One year later after starting my very first blog.  I'm so glad I started this, giving me an outlet to speak my mind and share my fun stories with all of you. Thank you for being here with me and for following along.

Now, for a quick recap of my NYE weekend...

Seven friends and I headed to Winter Park, Colorado after renting a house on VRBO for the weekend.  Kara came up with this great idea this Summer when of course no one in their right mind is thinking about  their NYE plans, and got an AMAZING deal!

We got our fill of Catch Phrase, Jenga, Guesstures, beer pong, and card games.  So all and all A LOT of celebrating and caching up.  The whole weekend overall was a huge success.  Low key and a blast!

I hope you all had a great New Years and wishing you all the luck in the world in 2012!