Strawberry Kiwi Smoothie

Recently bought strawberry protein powder instead of my usual chocolate or vanilla flavors. Just trying to shake things up a bit (pun intended).

Also found a kiwi in the fridge! And have a cooler/easier way of peeling it.

Just three ingredients. I'd use 2 kiwis if I had another.

Slice the kiwi in half

Take a spoon and place it as close to the skin as you can.

Dig in and move the spoon around the inside skin to "scoop" out the green part.

Perfect round halves without the hassle of using a knife.

Combine, mix, drink up.

I downed this after the Spartacus workout.  I read somewhere that you can actually eat the peel of a kiwi...if you just scrub off some of the outer fuzz before.  Sounds unappealing, but I'd try it next time.

Thanksgiving Desserts

I was pretty excited to bake/make a few desserts this year.  Perfect opportunity to try new things.

Starting off with the healthy dessert...Mudpie.

This is all you need: cocoa powder, coconut flakes, ripe bananas, a little salt.
Blend well.

Spread on wax paper and refrigerate overnight.

Spread coconut whipped cream on top and add some optional coconut jelly cubes.

 The whipped cream was made by leaving an opened can of unshaken coconut milk in the fridge for 2 nights. 


Onto the next dessert...Chocolate covered cake balls...or Truffles.

Mixed only 4 ingredients: vanilla cake mix, condensed milk, sugar & vanilla extract.
Roll into bite-sized balls. 

Cover with melted chocolate chips.

It was not easy/fun to do this, but definitely worth it.

After refrigerating overnight.

 And last but not least (since it was my favorite)....Peanut Brittle Cookies.

I cheated a bit for the sake of time.

Place Snickers piece inside.

Wrap it up and top with crushed Snickers. 

15 minutes later.

This is half the amount I made :)

Overall, good food + good company = great Thanksgiving. And I give my thanks for these things everyday.

Spartacus Workout

There are times when you have a good workout and leave sweaty, hungry, and excited to eat breakfast.
Then there are times when a workout goes beyond that and you almost feel like throwing up.  I love the latter kind (no more than twice a week) because it kicks up the intensity, is fairly quick, and feels great after cooling down.

This morning I did the Spartacus Workout.

I have a fitness loyalty to this Trainer Josh guy.

50 seconds exercise, 10 seconds rest, 3 circuits, 2 min rest between circuits.

1. Goblet squats

2. Mountain climbers

3. Single arm dumbbell swings

4. T stab pushups------ add a weight here to make it harder

5. Split jump lunges------this one kills me

6. Dumbbell row

7. Dumbbell side lunge

8. Single arm dumbbell plank row

9. Forward lunge with dumbbell rotation

10. Dumbbell squat overhead press

To make it easier at the gym I downloaded this interval timer app called Seconds Pro.

Now I can save all my circuit training/HIIT workouts. There's also a robot lady voice that reads the exercises to you.

Eye Shadow

There are not a lot of opportunities for me to wear crazy eye makeup (or feel comfortable wearing such).  These opportunities may be costume parties, Halloween, and...concerts! Especially when the concert will have crazy lights and colors everywhere.

I started watching youtube videos so that I could learn some basics.  And maybe I won't have to ask other females to do my eyeshadow anymore?!

Apply blue and gold.

Optional star.

For this next one, I actually tried copying this youtube video but my colors didn't come out as vibrant (lame comparison).

Gotta buy some MAC products.

Apply yellow, then pink, then purple (but neater than how I did it!)

Optional dots.

I think I know what to buy on Black Friday now (3 days away): a good makeup palette!

Whether it's on sale or not...I'll still need it.

I wanna be the person doing other girls' makeup!

Knee-high Socks

My love for knee-high socks comes right after my love for leg warmers.
It's like the coziness of a sock extended...not to mention, more warmth for these upcoming, dreadfully cold months!

this actually comes in a pack of 3 

perfect for boots

elegant

cuter color than above

with platforms

silly

secret garden

knit

storybook

don't care if i'm not a teacher, i want.

So many to choose from.

Pouring Paint Art...yikes?

It was recently my very good, old friend's birthday.  "Old" as in "earliest", not as an adjective to describe her.  She showed this awesome painting video to me and so I decided to replicate it as a birthday gift for her. 

First bought a wooden jewelry box (3D triangle?) and little wooden add-ons.

Gallons of paint!

Glued the circle on top of the box and painted everything black.

Let the pouring begin!

It's like a trippy paint waterfall!

Ta-da!

After this I stopped, although I wanted to keep going since it was pretty fun to pour paint and watch it.  

I wasn't quite sure what would happen....

Would gravity keep pulling the paint until nothing was left?

Would it miraculously know that I wanted it to just STOP after my last pour?

I don't know. 

I just left it the corner of our living room for a few days to dry....

This is what I came back to...

:(

It looks like molten lava poo.

Needless to say, I was upset.  

What started off as a fun, colorful project ended up looking like every color puked all over the other colors.

Was I to throw away my less-than-expected project??

Nahh. That option's for quitters.

I quickly tried thinking of ways to revamp it.  

Something needed to stand out against the darkness.

And so I went over the box with silver quotes.

They're about friendship.  Call me cheesy, go ahead.

  

My friend and I have written quotes/lyrics on other items before (aka denim jeans) so it fit a previous theme.

Glued the flower on the inside.

Then decorated with some pearl stickers.

I placed pictures of the process in the box so that my friend could see the before and after.

I kinda like the new, vintage-y, dark, lava look.

Note: Do NOT use tempura paint if recreating this.  

If I ever obtain enough acrylic paint I'm going to redo this.