Wedding Bells

Ryan and I shot this wedding in May. Beautiful location, beautiful people. 

Goals for June

My goals for May were fairly well executed, although I did hit a few bumps in the road. Let's recap....

1. Plant Garden: finally done. After many rainy and windy days, the garden is in the ground. I feel like I've accomplished something huge here. My plants lived in pots for far too many days. 

2. Train for 5k: Major fail. I managed to get myself a nice concussion about half way through the month and haven't gone for a run at all. Let's try again.

3. Do yoga 3 times a week: I practiced yoga very consistently the first few weeks before I took a nasty fall. I'm back on the horse once more and feel that I conquered this one and hope to continue. Yoga is good to my soul. 

4. Bake/Cook something once a week: I did! Being on my new diet, I have an arsenal of hundreds of recipes. My slow cooker and I are becoming best friends. Also, a vegetable steamer is truly the best invention known to mankind. 

Banana Oatmeal Bread.

 

Slow Cooker Vegetable Soup

 

5. Sign up for Sewing Class: Fail. We are poor. I just didn't have the funding this time around and hope that June will change that. I have a wedding shoot coming up and hopefully a bit of that can go towards taking this class. 

Now onto the goals for this new, beautiful month!

1. Read a novel. Treat myself in a book that I can get lost in. 

Source

2. Train for 5k and continue to do yoga as much as possible. 

3. Organize all closets and cupboards in my house. 

Source

4. Sign up for sewing class and reorganize our art room. Make it really usable. 

Source

5. Start photography blog. I have some business opportunities coming up. Just got my business cards a few days ago! 

Happy June. This month is full of good things: recording the hubby's record, vacation on the beach, wedding photography, etc. 

Day in the Life

My days off are usually far from having actual days off. Generally, I like it that way. I like to get my hands dirty and be productive. Here is a small snapshot of my Friday....

8:00am: Roll out of bed, make some coffee, make some breakfast. This is usually the point where I check my emails for the first of the day, our bank accounts, read a few blogs, and catch up on my favorite decor sites. 

8:45am: Write my Morning Pages. These are an important part of my everyday routine, they are based out The Artist's Way. They have changed my life. Seriously. This is where I map out my day and my current goals. 

9:30am: Yoga or some other cardio workout. It's good for my soul. 

10:30am: I get ready....in one long, continuous stream of motion. Shower, make up, hair, pick up the house, do the dishes, fold some laundry, read some more blogs. 

11:30am: Get ready for a photo shoot. On this specific day I was off to do some real estate photography. 

My Jo Totes Bag

My parents are selling their house. Bittersweet. 

1:00pm: Meet a friend for coffee. My favorite. 

2:00pm: Swimsuit shopping. (Cue horror music!) Actually this time around was just about the easiest swimming suit shopping excursion known to man kind. 

3:00pm: Plant myself down at the computer once again and edit, edit, edit, edit, edit. 

5:30pm: Work on the garden...or what's there of it anyways. 

6:00pm: Cook dinner. Wait for my man to come home from work. 

8:00pm: Drinks with friends. Good music. Good times. 

A perfect friday. 

(All images are my own) 

Another Step

Some of you may know this and some of you may not. Last fall I went on the HCG diet. Highly controversial and fairly insane, but I still did it. I lost a lot of weight in the process. Was it worth it? In some ways -yes, in some ways- no. Have I kept all of the weight off? Most of it. Will I ever take myself through that torture again? No way. The second round I became so sick and I feel like my body still has damage from that diet. 

*If you're on that diet, go for it. If you're not, that's probably a good thing. It works, but it sucks. (That's my two cents.) 

So, I've taken another step to reach my goal. Weight Watchers. I tell you all this to hold myself accountable and to also state that the first week I've been on it has been wonderful. For those of you that don't know what the diet entails, you can eat pretty much what you want as long as you stay within your daily points. My OCD mind loves the ability to track everything online or on my phone too. This feels much safer. I feel much healthier and fully believe I will make these results stick this time around. 

Breakfast is still my favorite meal ever. 

I also plan on posting some recipes during my endeavor to the change the way I eat and take care of myself. I made this one on friday. Piece of cake and only 5 points per serving. Awesome. This recipe is specifically from Weight Watchers.

SLOW COOKER: RED BEANS, SAUSAGE, and RICE SOUP

Ingredients

	1 clove(s) (medium) garlic clove(s), minced
	1 medium red onion(s), chopped
	1 stalk(s) (large) celery, rib, chopped
	1 medium green pepper(s), chopped
	15 oz canned kidney beans, dark-variety, rinsed and drained
	14 1/2 oz canned diced tomatoes, undrained
	9 oz cooked chicken sausage, andouille-style, cut into bite-size pieces
	1/4 tsp dried thyme
	1/4 tsp black pepper
	6 cup(s) fat-free chicken broth
	1 cup(s) uncooked white rice, converted-variety recommended

Instructions

• Place garlic, onion, celery, bell pepper, beans, tomatoes with their juices and sausage in a 5-quart slow cooker. Add thyme and pepper; stir well.
  
  
• Pour in broth and rice; stir again. Cover slow cooker and set on high power; cook for 4 hours. Yields about 1 1/2 cups per serving.

Notes

• We recommend converted rice because regular long-grain rice can become mushy in slow cooker recipes.
  To turn up the heat, add 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper with the thyme.
  Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It turned out to be quite good.