Tuesday Topics: Six Items

Overall I realized I am a pretty neutral person. 

If I use colors in design I seem to tend towards blue.

Clothes I think are the one place where I use my colors!

How do you bring color into your life?


I look on the bright side.
For one I get fun things like this picture
You guys totally have to get one too!

And I am just glad it isn't Monday anymore!
Happy Tuesday!!

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Chicken Enchilada Dip Roll-Ups

Football season is upon us!

When a big group of our friends got together for a Fantasy Football Draft Party, I knew the arsenal of recipes needed to be pulled out for the party. There are just so many good ones and I love any excuse to make fun finger foods!

Enter the Chicken Enchilada Dip Roll Up!

In a world of too many dips atop of too many chips, I have a way to eat a dip with your fingers!

Plus this one as a dip just kinda looked like vomit, but I PROMISE it is SOOO YUMMY!

Please try this despite my terrible endorsement skills...

It is a lot of different ingredients (for this kitchen newbie), but still easy to make!

Ingredients:

2 eight oz. packages cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cups cheese

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 teaspoon garlic, finely minced

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon coriander

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded 

1 can of Rotel, drained with juices reserved

Cilantro to taste

tortillas

Directions:

Mix cheeses together until blended.

Add all remaining ingredients using the remaining Rotel juice as needed to thin mixture. Mix well.

Cover and put in the fridge for an hour.

Go watch an old re-run of Grey's Anatomy (okay not required but that is what I did...)

Take out of the fridge, place a heaping spoonful onto the tortilla and spread to the edges.

Roll and cut into slices.

And just eat those pesty ends cause they don't look nice and you are hungry. (or at least I was...)

Awesome part? They are good both cold and hot!

What is better than that?!?

Oh and speaking of that Fantasy Football Party...here is my lineup for this league.

Football girls out there, what ya think?

I am in two leagues this year.

Both hard leagues but I am hoping to kick some butt!

QB: RGIII, Joe Flacco

RB: Arian Foster, Steven Jackson, Ahmad Bradshaw, BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Fred Jackson, Ben Tate

WR: Wes Welker, Jordy Nelson, Miles Austin, Andre Roberts, Greg Little

TE: Brandon Pettigrew

D/ST: Packers

K: David Akers

Have a good week everyone!!

My Beautiful Wedding Memory

So I am a pretty lucky girl. Wanna know why? Because I know some pretty cool people. 

Enter Jamila. 

She is one of the nicest girls this side of the world and is a SUPER talented artist.

So naturally, I hit her up!

Now quick back story. I had a wedding photographer who turned out to be very unprofessional.

She said I would get a box with pictures, a bunch of different sized and framed pictures for memories, and all nice and edited.

Well .... she did not.

Instead I got the digital copies 6 months after my wedding (un-edited) 

I got a couple pictures which looked like she sent them to the local Quicky Mart to be printed

And most of those pictures were cropped terribly.

(Mostly cutting off my head...yeah that bad)

Oh and not a lot of pictures either since she didn't seem all too interested taking them day of.

What a nightmare.

But I did have some good pictures and I knew I wanted a really cool way to remember and really capture how happy Kevin and I were that day getting married.

Am I still mad about my photographer? Yes, but I don't want to think of that forever.

So this girl decided to turn her frown upside down with the help of my girl Jamila!

So here is a picture of Kevin and I that she took.

Here is what Jamila turned it into.

She captured our essence, our happiness, everything I wanted out of that picture.

She gave me something that has made me so happy and brings positivity to my day.

Everything I remember feeling when that picture was taken.

Jamila gave me my most cherished way to look up above my desk and remember my wedding day.

With her high quality materials and beautiful work, I know it is something I will not only be able to love forever, but it will last forever as well.

( I wanna find a cooler frame-less frame for it! )

I highly highly HIGHLY recommend Jamila and this will not be my only purchase.

Oh and remember how I told you she is super nice?!

She donates a percentage of profits to Breast Cancer Solutions.

Check her out {here}

You can give her any type of picture you want!

She also sells her original artwork. Check her out guys! You will not be disappointed!

Oh and she is giving you guys 25% your TOTAL purchase of a portrait! 

(originals not included and not in conjunction with any other offer)

Use the code LIFELOVE and you are good to go!

Check her out!

Jellywell // Society 6 // Tumblr // Facebook // Pinterest // IG // Twitter // Wanelo

Turn up the AC

Here in AZ the summers are super hot. With that in mind, Kevin knew he wanted what I like to call a new toy for the house. It has actually proved to be very beneficial in saving us money.

Note before I dive into this, I was not compensated for the review of the specific brand of thermastat we used, although I do highly recommend it.

There are many types of programmable thermostats that regulate the temperature of your home based on time of day, turning off when you aren't there, etc...but these things need to be programmed. 

So we installed our new Nest thermostat (which I have affectionately named Nester). He is a little pricy but is easy enough for me to handle while being complicated enough for Kevin.

So Nester allows you to program him from your phone of computer. This makes it nice for people with schedules that may be unpredictable. (that would be me.) So what I most often do when I finally get off work is tell me app on my phone to have the temperature where I want it by the time I get home.

And believe it or not it listens to me!

So this is saving me money. I like money.

Oh and the installation. Yeah Kevin turned off the electricity, connected a bunch of wires (looked like he was  Jack Bauer on 24 disabling a bomb). Then he snapped the thermostat into place and BAM we were good to go.

Tuesday Topics: Seven American Cities

One of my biggest goals in life? To visit every state in the United States. I wanna explore our beautiful, beautiful country that we are all so lucky to live in!

So far, here is where I have been:
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona-Tucson, Phoenix
Arkansas
California-San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles
Colorado-Fort Collins, Vail, Denver, lots of other little towns.
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida-Fort Lauderdale
Georgia
Hawaii-Kauai
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico-Pretty much every city in the state
New York- New York City, Buffalo
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio- Cleveland, Columbus, Sandusky and some of their surrounding areas.
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas- El Paso, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Lubbock
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

Clearly I have a lot of work to do. Now that I am blogging I wanna meet you all in my travels so let's make sure that happens! :-)

Some cities I have my eye on?

Salt Lake City, Utah
My husband has some family in the surrounding area and I would love all the skiing! I just have always wanted to try Utah!

Any city in North or South Carolina (this counts as two since it is more than one city!)
Seriously I wanna try it all. I don't know why but I have always thought of those two states as awesome states. I hope one day when I visit, I am not let down!

Cincinnati, Ohio
The only big city in Ohio I haven't been to!

Minneapolis, Minnesota
Mall of America and some nice cool weather? Count me in!

Boise, Idaho
Seems like a picturesque town I wouldn't mind visiting!

And so many more....

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So Long Carpet!

When we moved into our house, there was green carpet. Now the carpet photographs way more green then it actually is, but we knew we wanted hardwoods, which meant pulling up the carpet.

Plus we knew the previous owner had cats...and we didn't figure that out from her telling us that. (ew...stinky!)

First we yanked up the carpet in the corner to free it up from some of the nails in the tack strips around the room holding it in place. It wasn't holding it very tight so Mr. Muscles was able to pull it up no problem!

Under the carpet was the pad which was very lightly glued to the concrete subfloor.

Then manly man rolled it all up and put it on the patio in the backyard and put the carpet up on Craigs List. You will be shocked at how many people buy old pee tinged carpet my friends!!

Then we were left with the tack strips on the perimeter of the room. What a pain in the butt! Kevin had to really pry at those. The wood with those scary looking nails sticking straight up kept splintering making a huge mess. Took 2 minutes to get the carpet up and an hour to get those stupid tack strips up and cleaned up.

Looking a little better already! 

Things on my mind...

Random post warning....

K. You have been warned...

I can't wait for fall. Cooler temperatures and some winning Denver Football? What more can a girl ask for?!

I made it through hump day! This weekend my in-laws will be in town.

Last but absolutely not least....

Happy Birthday to the best dad out there!

I love and wish I was able to spend your birthday with you!

Happy Thursday everyone!
Tomorrow I will be starting posts about Kevin and mind's house journey!
FINALLY!

Reading is Love

I love to read. I remember finally giving in and reading The Hunger Games and loving it! I found a great quote from the author, Suzanne Collins:

"You know what's sad about reading books? It's that you fall in love with the characters. They grow on you. And as you read, you start to feel what they feel - all of them - you become them. And when you're done, you're never the same. Sure, you're still you, you look the same, talk in the same manner, but something in you has changed. Something in the way you think, the way you choose, sometimes, even the things you say may differ. but it all comes down to the state you go to after a nice novel. The after-feeling. It's amazing, but somehow, you feel left alone by that world you were once in. It's overwhelming. but it makes you sad. Cause for once you were this, this otherworldly being in...neverwhere, and then you suddenly have to say goodbye after a few weeks from when you read the last page. When you've recovered from that state it's just...quite sad.




This is true.
I love, love, LOVE reading.
What are you reading right now? 
Any suggestions for me?
 Right now I have been exploring the girly genre of Emily Griffin. I wanna read more of her books. A girly read after a serious day at work is a welcome distraction.

I do also like more serious books.

Tuesday Topics: Eight Photographs of Nature

I love taking pictures of nature. So beautiful. I will let the pictures do the talking today.

San Diego

Colorado from a Plane

Outside of Austin

Mountain escape outside Tucson

Tucson--heart

Hawaii

Niagara Falls

Estes Park, Colorado


Have a happy Tuesday everyone!

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Oh my Hair (Review)

I was contacted by Misikko to do a product review for the Hana Air Hair Dryer.  The dreaded task of drying my hair is almost as bad as ironing clothes. Not quite as bad though I guess...I don't make my husband blow dry my hair, but I do make him iron! It retails for $194 and the reviews online were amazing. 

So I said yes...

And it turned out to be a good decision!
Oh but try taking a picture while you are blow drying your hair.
Not easy to get a good picture...

Here is how I will lay it out....a pro/con list.
Rory and I like our pro/con lists...

PROS
Very powerful: Now this I could see being a con for some people. But for me, someone who wants to get their hair dried in the quickest amount of time possible and style it later with the flat iron, (since I don't know how to style it while blow drying) it becomes my biggest pro
Good Temperature settings: Their difference between Hot and Warm for me is just right!
Long Cord: Good for navigating around that husband of mine on busy mornings! One day I hope all the cords will be retractable though since I never know how to wrap them well.
The Cold Button: You don't have to hold it in to keep it going! Bam!


CONS
Cost. I am cheap. What can I say...
No Retractable Cord: I wouldn't be able to have that long cord if I had this, but this is a feature I have always wanted.


Well the pros outweigh the cons big time!
I also have "virgin" hair which means it has never been dyed so it is also very important to me to keep it as healthy as possible until the day I do dye my hair!
Who knows if it is really healthier for my hair but I feel like it isn't frying it.

What kind of hair dryer do you use?

Happy Friday!

What a week! Here are some things that have made me happy this Friday!

one. 

Today is payday! Can't complain about that! Work has been going great! Busy but loving it!

two.

Speaking of work, the girls at work and I are all running in order to look hot! I started running on Wednesday and hope to keep it up with all the girls at work! It is nice to have a group to keep us all accountable.

I don't even have to change my shoes! LOL

three.

I can't wait to party it up with my girl Ali, but I am so sad it is because she is leaving me to go to Boston. Greener grass on the other side for her. Literally! Tacos and wine tonight and party tomorrow! Oh and working with her something pink and exciting!

four.

I got a new phone. It is a Galaxy S3 and I am IN LOVE! I have never loved a phone ever and I am just in love with this phone. It is fast, pretty, shiny, and I actually got to order a cute girly case for it!

Mock up of my new phone case!

five.
My beautiful sister got her senior pictures done and I got a sneak peak.
She is super critical of her look...
...but she is a teenager.

I say BEAUTIFUL!

Linking up with five on friday! 

Have a happy Friday everyone!!

Going to Get Married!

Here are some of my getting ready pictures:

The girls:

I have no idea what we are doing here but it makes me laugh!

The Guys:

There was some drama with the hotel we were getting ready at as our honeymoon suite and my getting ready room had some flooding issues, but I remained calm and all was well! I was just excited to see Kevin!!