A visit to my desk at lunch time

Taking a break from all the Halloween hoop la for a second and focus on another issue.

Yesterday as I was eating lunch at my work desk it kind of dawned on me just how much I have bought into and have changed my eating to a more clean and healthier one.

This is my desk at lunch:



And the break down:



The miracle green juice is my newest healthy food venture and I am so in love with it. It's sooo good. It looks weird, which I kinda like, and it tastes great. I just need to learn how to make it myself. Loving the Larabars too. It sounds like my name and its very simple in ingredients. Plus I won a contest they were having and I got a Larabar prize pack and t-shirt. Yep, that is all it takes to seal my loyalty people. A cute t-shirt.

Pretty healthy lunch there, no? I always ate pretty healthy my whole life. My mom probably hasn't been in a McDonalds for food (besides an occasional fish sandwich during Lent) in well over a decade. Her healthy food perspective kept me away from a lot of junk food. Then there was college where I was stuck with the foods put in front of me from the cafeteria. I'm pretty sure I lost weight during that time instead of gaining the freshman 15 and I think my parents were actually concerned about me being underfed.

And then I graduate and moved out to my own place. And things started to change a bit. I was living near the love of my life and then we got married. And I think I found a little "happy fat" along the way. Life was good and comfortable and so was the food and couch time :)

I'm not trying to shed a crazy amount of weight, I just want to feel healthy. It amazes me how after a hard work out you just don't want junk food at all. It doesn't seem appealing in the slightest bit. Maybe because your body is moving away from that or maybe because you just don't want to imagine how much harder you will have to work to burn it off :)

I have to be careful not to get too extreme since this is a part of my personality that has a tendency to come out in a lot of areas in my life.

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The voice in my head sounds an awful lot like Bravo's Jackie Warner which at times is great but at other times makes me feel like I can't do enough. It's all a balance.

How do you maintain a healthy balance? Are you totally upset that I'm talking about veggies and health foods during the biggest candy week of the year? :)

Wednesday's Wednesday Wisdom

What is your favorite part about Halloween?

Halloweentown

Starting around the middle to end of September I start preparing for my favorite holiday. It all started with a little movie:

Yup, Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas made me LOVE Halloween. Before that I always kinda liked it but lets be honest, scary was never my cup of tea. I'm a total chicken. I can't even watch the Wizard of Oz without thinking about the nightmares that it gave me as a kid. But enough with the issues that should have me in therapy. Let's talk Halloween and my version of Halloweentown.

I love decorating for Halloween. I love the bright colors and the shabby chic Halloween decorations that focus more on harvest and autumnal colors then it does on bloody guts and gore.



My Halloween decorations mainly consist of bright orange pumpkins, black cats and Nightmare decorations.


My Nightmare Before Christmas shrine, complete with Halloween tree.



Besides being a quirky and unique story about the holidays and constantly starting conversations about whether or not its a Halloween movie or a Christmas movie (I think its both) it also happens to be great for double holiday decorating. Most of the decorations work for both holidays. Maximum effect, minimal effort. Always nice.

By the time it actually gets to Halloween the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack is firmly on a constant rotation stuck in our heads (This is Halloween, this is Halloween..) we have to fight to keep little Miss Wednesday off the candy corn (told you she was a Halloween cat) and I have a great justification for all the candy I've been consuming.

The best Halloween decoration I could ever have.

Candy, color and some creepiness? Sounds like the perfect holiday to me.

Do you love Halloween? What's your favorite part?

Monday Morning Brain Dump

- Every Monday morning has gotten progressively harder lately. It's kinda crazy and hard to believe that is possible.

- Excited about Halloween. Much better and more interesting Halloween focused posts to come this week. Hang in there with me!!

Are you excited about Halloween?

Book Worm

The blog has been taking a back seat lately, things have gotten so crazy busy here with pet issues to traveling to craziness with my "real" job ( the full time one) and then keeping up with my side business (the creative, fun one). I have a whole stack of books that I'm really anxious to get through right now but I haven't had the time. Which is a bummer because I'm a total book worm.

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Growing up one of my favorite things to do was go to our public library. I was lucky that I lived in a place that they had such a nice library for kids. They had a great big kid's section of books, toys that you can check out, and special programs every month. They also had a book reading club where once you read a certain number of books you won a free tote bag. Guess who still has her tote bag. Yup, this girl. And then of course there was the Book It! program at Pizza Hut. I wish I kept my Book It pin, that thing was loaded up with stars.

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I really do love reading and still love when I find a book that is just sooo good that you can't stand the idea of putting it down. I came up with a list of books that I've really enjoyed recently. This isn't every book I've loved, just the more recent ones.

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I really loved this book. It was such an interesting story. I grew up in the winter home of Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey circus so a book about the truth about the circus was pretty interesting even if it doesn't always paint them in the best light. It was also interesting how they mention Ringing Brothers in the book. They are turning the book into a movie which makes me excited and nervous. Reese Witherspoon is in the movie and happens to be one of my girl crushes so that is very exciting. The guy from the Twilight movies is also in the movie which makes me less then thrilled. I'm sure I will see the movie I just don't have my expectations up to high with this one.

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You really shouldn't be able to buy or borrow this book without a box, and I do mean a FULL box of tissues coming with it. I really loved this book. It's a big book and I still got through it in no time at all. It's such a good story about friendship and how relationships change. I HAD to call my best friend after reading this book because it made me miss her so much and also appreciate the awesome friendship that we have.

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Classic chick lit book. I have read all but Emily Giffin's most recent book and this one was my favorite. She has a very easy reading style and while the storyline can be predictable I still like her books. Also being made into a movie.

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I really enjoyed both of these books. She has a great writing style, one that I found myself just floating through the books with ease and being really disappointed when the books ended. I wanted to know more in each story. The two books are separate stories and characters. I was really bummed when I saw that she only had these 2 books.

So read a good book lately? Got one that you just really love? Are you a book worm too?

Wednesday's Wednesday Wisdom

What kind of non-sense have you gotten into lately?

Who is Wednesday?

Monday Morning Brain Dump

What is on my mind this Monday

- I thought I was overwhelmed last Monday. Ha! It's double since then. I can't believe how crazy this month as been.

- I also can no believe how fast this month as gone by. The second to last week in October already? I still haven't watched The Nightmare Before Christmas yet this year. Who AM I?

-Had a great trip over the weekend in Green Bay, WI. Loved all the passion for their team up there. I also loved their accents. Too funny.


Does it feel like the month of October is just flying by for you also? Are you able to keep up?

Homecoming and Campus Memory Map

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This weekend is the homecoming weekend at the University of Florida. I didn't go to UF ( I went to a little college called Florida Southern College, Go Mocs!) but I did work for UF and live in Gainesville for 4 years. My honey was in school there and I so I followed. I guess you could say I got my MRS degree when I was there :)

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We won't be anywhere near Gainesville this homecoming weekend though, we are heading out of town and going even more north. UF always has a ton of great homecoming activities. It's a great school and a great college town.

One of the projects that I've done with my illustration design business was a campus memory map. The idea behind it was to capture all the characteristics and landmarks about the city that you went to college in along with the memories that are unique to your personal college experience.

Wonderland Papers Etsy Shop


Let the Gator Growl!

Did your college town have any special landmarks or land mark locations Any really great homecoming memories?

Wednesday's Wednesday Wisdom

What are you reaching for? Have you noticed the "flowers" in your life lately?

Who is Wednesday?

Fashion Plates...or not

Did anyone else play with this great toy from the late 1970's-80's? I didn't have one but my older cousins did and of course when it belongs to your older, cooler cousins its like its sprinkled with some kind of "older kid" fairy dust and you get to be on their level when it gets handed down to you. Or maybe all of that just happens to me. Moving on...

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I'm pretty sure that I didn't like this toy because it had anything to do with fashion, I know that my fashion etchings didn't come out looking ANYTHING like the model above. I think it had something to do with staying inside the lines. I had a problem with that. It's safe to say that fashion has never been a major priority in my life. Don't get me wrong I like pulling together a cute outfit and having everything "go together" perfectly, but for me this tends to be my exception instead of my rule. It's fun to get dressed up but when given the choice I'm always much more likely to be found in yoga pants or my rolled up jean capris and a long t-shirt and maybe a cardigan and always flip flops/sandals. I don't match my purses to my outfits. I wear the same pearl earrings almost every day. Why? Because its easy and I guess if it really mattered to me then I would take the time. My actions show that it doesn't.

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Another issue that I have with fashion comes down to those price tags and more specifically those name brand label tags. I'm a pretty firm believer that we don't dress for ourselves or even the men or significant others in our lives. Women dress for other women (and gay men's) approval. Anyone else with me on this? This may not always be the case but when name brands and new trends are involved I think this is most often the case. We seek the approval and recognition of our good taste in other women (our peers). People like to be accepted and like to be liked. Nothing wrong with that unless you start buying things you can't afford all to impress someone that you shouldn't have to work to impress in the first place. I gurantee that my husband will not be more impressed with a bebe skirt over a Target skirt if I look good in both of them. A lot of times the outfits that he compliments me on (and he does a good job of giving compliments freely and sweetly) are the outfits that I didn't really think were all that special. So much for being on top of the trends and InStyle magazine, right?

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I admit that there are times when I do fall into this "dress to impress" trap, and I do think its a trap because it never feels good to be constantly trying to prove yourself to someone else, especially when in this case the proof of evidence involves plopping down loads of cash to be wearing the right jeans or the right shoes. I have a theory that a lot of this pressure comes from the crowd you are in. All my girl friends aren't the label/ brand name type. It's great when you get a good deal on it or get it as a gift but it's never been a requirement in our closests.


So where do you stand when it comes to fashion? What parts of fashion matter to you? Are you a fashionista?

Monday Morning Brain Dump

- This is a short post because it's been a looong weekend (and not in the good 3-day weekend kind of sense). The week ahead is crazy busy also so posting might be light this week.

I hope you have a great Monday morning!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

So besides fall being the beginning of cooler weather, lots of yummy pumpkin flavored treats, pretty fall leaves and Halloween, it also means something else that makes me love the fall season like no other.

HOCKEY SEASON!


I love hockey. It's my favorite sport to watch. For people that might not know me too well this could seem like a head scratching kind of fact. Hockey is a pretty brutal, rough sport that is played in the cold weather and on skates. I'm a Florida girl (born and raised, which technically makes me a Florida Cracker) that isn't tough or aggressive at all and can't skate one little bit.

But I still love hockey.

And being from the unlikely hockey location of Florida my team is the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Wearing my Tampa Bay Lightning jersey

I could attribute my love of hockey to the fast paced nature of the game (the reason I'm generally bored with baseball is because it moves soooo slow) the fact that they can all skate really really well (have I mentioned that I can't skate at all? ) or maybe its because I am a pretty peaceful, laid back kind of gal and I live vicariously through all those hip checks.

I just like it. A LOT.

Apparently I love it so much that I have to point out Canada,
home of hockey, when I'm at Epcot.

I actually learned all the words to "O Canada" just because it seemed like something a hockey fan should probably know, sounds good, eh?

Cheesing it up at a Lightning game

While I am all about my team I get excited about all types of hockey. Including Olympic hockey and the amazing run that the American team made this past spring.

This was me during the gold medal game.
As you can see I was a little into the game.

I miss you Stanley (Cup), please come back soon!

So do you have a fall sport or just a sport in general that you are crazy about?

Wednesday's Wednesday Wisdom

When you grow up who do you want to be?

Who is Wednesday?

Time for a Commercial!

Time to interrupt all the witty blogging for a commercial!

This blog is an extension of my Etsy shop, Wonderland Papers.

My Etsy shop has been primarily based on wedding maps for save the dates, invitation suites and guest bags.






I love creating wedding maps and projects for my clients. The personal side, helping someone else achieve a creative goal, is my favorite part of the whole process.

Wedding Relationship Map - Reception Decor

Friendship Map - Bridesmaid Gift

College Campus Memory Map

Detailed Hand drawn map

Simple hand drawn map

I've started to branch my shop out and getting into logo and brand design for small businesses, photographers and fellow Etsy shops. All my work always starts as a hand drawn sketch before getting a boost from digital skills. It's a great balance of old skool drawing and new media.

Feel free to check out my shop! Wonderland Papers

Got any Etsy shops that you love?