Things I Love Thursday V.8

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1. USA WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS. Oh my gosh, these ladies. They are my ultimate heroes and they are all just so awesome. Look at them. They are powerful and the poster girls for fitspiration. Maybe one day in the far, far, far future I can be as great as they are. :)

2. Men's swimming. Oh goodness. I want all of them

3. I saw this on tumblr and just burst out laughing. I've been laughing ever since.

4. Finally got my last piece of furniture for my new place... my beautiful couch came in yesterday!

What are you loving this Thursday?

wallet feng shui

You read correctly. Feng shui can happen for your wallet. Don't believe me? Just take a look at the many articles for how to harmonize your wallet. A simple google search will lead you to thousands more articles to read. It's amazing! I decided to work on my wallet to feel more ~at ease~ with my money. Also, I'm feeling super insecure about my finances, and anything that helps me breathe easier is great to me.

Here are just a couple of my favorite feng shui points, compiled from the many articles I've read to prepare my own wallet!

1. Pick a money-making color.

Shown are my new (left) and old (right) wallets. Coincidentally, both colors seem to correspond to "wealth" in chi-freeing terms. Look for bold, royal colors to bring more money into your wallet.

2. Have all your bills facing the same way.

Supposedly, if you show respect for your money by having them facing one way and right-side up, then the money will respect you and be plentiful!

3. Keep one special piece of money in your wallet.

Keep the special piece and never spend it. It'll bring the wallet luck!

4. Do not keep receipts in there!

It brings bad chi, which is a big no-no! It's like keeping enemies wayyyyy too close.

Do you have any favorite ideas involving money (besides having it)?

tunes for your tuesday: 70's jams

For some unknown reason, I've been rocking out to the 70's lately. Maybe the old music from the Olympic Opening Ceremony did it for me? Who knows, but I thought I should share the wealth as best I could! :)

What are you listening to this Tuesday?

Back to the Blogosphere

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I'm baaaack!

After an exciting week traveling 17 hours from Pennsylvania to southern Arkansas, I'm ready to come back to blogging. :) Thank you to everyone for sticking with me and my random (but thankfully short!) break.

I start my new job today! I'm now working with a pretty big agriculture company, thus the big move to rural Arkansas. It has its perks and downfalls, just like every new place. I think I'll get used to everything in time, though. The big thing for me is that I am literally 3-6 hours away from any of my friends! It's scary, but I'm pretty excited to start this new adventure in my life.

The couch and an end table still haven't come in yet, but I'm hoping once my house is totally finished, I can show y'all some photos! It's weird moving from the "college kid" phase to the "young adult" phase in terms of decorating and organizing an apartment. I'm not too thrilled in decorating my house in neutrals as opposed to the bright pinks and oranges I'm accustomed to, but I'm trying to not be so much like a kid. It's HARD, let me tell you! There are still pieces of my colorful flair around the house, but it's not the pink room of random from my college days.

I've been grocery shopping and new work clothes shopping and random fun things shopping. Sometimes it feels like the getting ready never ends. My to-do list looks like a massive, scribbling bit of trash. Oh well, I'm hoping everything will fall into place smoothly after my first week in town and on the job!

Get ready for me to come back to the world of blogging! I have some things planned and I'm excited to continue writing and reading what everyone has been up to! :D

PS. I am completely invested in these Olympics. I cannot get enough, especially of Men's swimming, boxing, and gymnastics. Yuuuum!
PPS. Was anyone else compeltely amazed when hundreds of Mary Poppinses descended and beat Voldemort?! I was rolling on the floor laughing when I watched it.

Hope you have a great Monday!

Weekend Update! v.5

Coming back to one of my favorite link-ups! :)

Friday: I spent the whole time not doing what I was supposed to and hanging out with my dog and cat. Lame, yes. But this was my last weekend with them! Anyways, I drank a couple glasses of wine in the evening and just generally avoided anything I was supposed to do, like clean and pack!

Saturday: I helped my dad cook Chinese food (really, it was me watching him) and helped with making panna cotta. It was soooo good! I'll have the recipe up here for everyone sometime soon!

Sunday: My mom and I were supposed to go to a Pirates baseball game, but we just weren't feeling it. Instead we looked at furniture at Ikea and bought some new work clothes. We came back home in the afternoon and I finished packing while we watched a couple movies. A pretty relaxing Sunday, minus going over the billion of things that I need to do in the upcoming week.

I also want to take this time to tell y'all that I will be moving this entire week! I'll try to update as much as I can, but if I can't I should definitely be back for Sunday. Thank you to all my new and old followers for understanding and I look forward to coming back and blogging regularly!

How was your weekend?

sunday funday with caesar pasta salad

Have you ever been to Cheddar's? One of my favorite dishes there is the Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad. I mean, I am in love with it. I eat the whole thing whenever I order it. One day I turned on the Food Network for some background noise and lo & behold... a similar recipe was just being shown!


I grabbed this recipe from Sandra Lee. For the record, I'm not a fan of her; she's a peg above Rachael Ray for me. But once in a while, she does get little smart ideas for good recipes. Add some romaine lettuce and cooked chicken, and you have the same Cheddar's dish!


For this recipe, I used the whole 16 oz. box of pasta instead of half. So, if you decide to cook the whole box of pasta, just double everything. I used dried parsley flakes too, so half that if you don't have fresh (dried has a more powerful flavor than fresh). I also seasoned the majority of it by taste instead of precisely measuring. Word of caution for lemon-haters: it does have a nice tangy lemon flavor. I love it, but some people don't. I think you can forgo the lemon or just add the zest and it'll taste perfectly fine. :)

What are some of your favorite pasta salad recipes?

fashion friday: summer shoes

Welcome to the first installment of Fashion Friday! But really, it's going to be mainly "what Megan likes right now but is too poor to buy." I'm just living vicariously through Polyvore.

High heels / Seychelles shoes / Seychelles shoes / Poetic Licence shoes / Seychelles shoes / High heels

I'm obviously obsessed with modcloth's shoes right now. I would love to have a perfect summer-y heel to run around in. I wish I had all of these shoes right now!

What summer shoes are you loving this summer?

Things I Like Thursday V.7

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1. Finally got my new glasses! They are all shiny and beautiful and smart looking and awesome. Plus they're beautiful Vera Wang. :)

2. Dancing in the rain (even in a white shirt... honey badger don't give a shit.) is needed every once in a while. Don't worry, I made sure the lightning stopped before going outside.

3. Seriously, this blog will always make me laugh.

4. I appreciate any gifts given to me, and I got a lovely housewarming gift from my friend Kim. Even though I'm going to miss her a bunch, I'll have something to always remember her by!

What are you liking this Thursday?

the art of de-stressing.

It's getting close to me moving down south for my job; in about 6 days I'll be 17 hours and 1,066 miles away from my family. If I told you I wasn't scared, I would be lying. I'm scared out of my wits! Pile on the fact that I'm stressing over packing everything, getting myself down there, dealing with movers, and making sure everything goes well before my first day on the 29th... I'm freakingggg outtttt. But I've been trying to not get myself hyped up, so here are a couple of my de-stressing ideas that have helped me out these last couple of days.

1. Paint your nails! I recently polka dotted my nails using this tutorial that is designed to be soothing and relaxing. I feel like it helped me, and I ended up with super cute nails.

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2. Take a relaxing bath. I know everyone says to take a bath and you'll relax, but if you add something extra like dried lavender flowers or small drops of rose oil will add something to a nice soak.

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3. Clean! I love cleaning and it let's me put my mind on something else.

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4. Meditate. This seems super zen of me but I love meditating (especially after yoga, another relaxing activity!) and it helps me clear my mind. Stress and anxiety are all linked to the mind, so letting go of all of the problems for a couple of minutes can really heal you.

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What are some of your methods of relaxing?

tunes for your tuesday: soothing

FINALLY figured out how to embed a music player on my blog! Jeez, do I feel like an idiot for having it take this long to figure it out. I'm quite HTML/basic-computer-skills-other-than-typing illiterate.

Here's something a little soothing for everyone on their Tuesday. All of these songs should be safe for work. Enjoy!




What are you listening to this Tuesday?

The Sunday Social

I decided to take a break from stressing and getting anxious over moving, so I'm doing this link-up after seeing Sami's answers! Happy Sunday!




1. What is the best trip you've ever been on?
France, hands down! I went with my French class during the summer of 2007 and it was soooo much fun! We went all around the country and even stopped in Switzerland for a bit. It was quite the adventure with ups and downs, but mostly ups!

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2. What is your best idea for a girls weekend trip?
This is going to sound super cliche, but DisneyWorld!. The whole place just seems more magical when you're with your friends.

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3. What is your best idea for a couples trip?
I would say NYC, because there's really something for everyone there and SO. MANY. ACTIVITIES!

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4. What is the best vacation on the cheap?
Any place that I can stay with friends!

[St. Patrick's Day in Savannah, GA with my best friend Stefanie!]

5. What is the place you most want to visit?
Japan! I've always wanted to go and it completely fascinates me. There's so much culture and history mixed in with modern, and I heard that it's so different from the US.

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6. What are your vacation necessities?
Good wine, great friends/family, and a camera!

What are some of your favorite vacation adventures?

Things I Like Thursday V.6

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1. I am definitely a kid at heart, so I was so happy when I got the Adventure Time Season 1 DVD! I was at Wal*Mart picking up a couple of random things and I just decided to get it. $20 is awfully cheap for some good television episodes!

2. Have you ever tried Red, White, and Blueberry tea by Stash? Oh my God, so good. Especially mixed with some all-natural honey!

3. Mmm, I can't get enough chocolate strawberries. Yay!

4. I didn't lose internet Monday from that malware stuff, so that's something to celebrate!

What are you loving this Thursday?

tunes for your tuesday: New Downloads

Before I left for my trip last week, I downloaded some new songs for my iPod. Here are some of the favorites that I got!

What are you listening to?

Weekend Update V.4

Another blog hop! I'm also going to take this moment to apologize for being MIA and having my blog posts be somewhat sloppy. I ended up going on a last-minute road trip with the family to Wisconsin to visit my grandpa! He had a fall a week before we got there so it was a visit + make sure Grandpa is comfortable trip. He seems to be getting better.

So I'll be back to commenting and blogging like normal! :)

Friday: After visiting Grandpa in the morning, my parents and I went wine tasting while my little brother drove us around! It was really nice going around and some of the wines were deeeelicious (I love the strawberry chocolate one)! Afterwards we went to my uncle and aunt's place for some steaks and Western movie watching + beer drinking.

Saturday: We left around noon after saying good-bye to everyone. It wasn't a bad ride back home, but we did drive the full 12 hours and got home around 2 in the morning. Let me tell you, Ohio is THE most boring state to ever drive through. Bleh!

Sunday: Woke up early and spent the day cleaning. I only have two weeks left until I move so I have to go through EVERYTHING. It's a huge pain in the ass. But homemade coffee cake and Daisy make cleaning up not so bad! :D

What did y'all do this weekend?