I hope you're sitting down for this...

Not only am I writing my second post of the week, but (drumroll please!) I had a salad for dinner! Hahaha ok that's really not news, except I don't eat salad 360 days of the year. I called my dad to get his INCREDIBLE vinaigrette recipe (he's ruined me for any other salad dressings!) and in order to convince him to give up the recipe, I had to promise I'd blog about my salad eating adventure :) 

It's kind of sad when you eat so few vegetables that a salad is a blog-worthy event. That's why I've been focusing a lot more lately on eating as healthy as possible. I've actually been eating a lot of fruits and vegetables this week, and I'm really enjoying it! I was able to grab some really great berries and bananas on my last shopping trip, and fruit has become my go-to snack food this week, instead of candy or other junk food. 

Honestly, this was one of the tastiest salad's I've had in quite some time. I got a salad kit on sale at Meijer a couple days ago and miracle of all miracles, I managed to remember there was lettuce in my fridge before it went bad! Here's a picture of the super yummy salad kit that I will definitely be buying again:

As you can probably tell from the label, it came with a packet of walnuts and dried cranberries, which just made the whole salad extra super delicious. I even put a cute tablecloth on the table and sat down at my dining room table to eat tonight, something I don't do too often. I had some sweet tea to go with my salad, too :)

Overall, it was a pretty delicious and filling dinner! I think I'll be doing this again quite a bit in the future! :)

Yay! A new post!

My wonderful Grandma has been reminding me a lot lately about how much I've neglected this blog. I finally had something exciting to post about, so I thought I'd break my blogging dry spell! Today at work I got the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers delivered to me, thanks to my sweet, sweet boyfriend :) Not only are they gorgeous, they smell wonderful too! And of all the days to send them, he sent them during what was one of our first real "snows" of the winter (without even realizing it!). Such perfect timing! Here's a look at the goodies I received today...

Aren't they so pretty?! Now all I have to do is figure out a way to ensure that Emma can't get to them. This apartment is short on "safe" spots when it comes to Emma. I'm sure I'll figure something out - in the meantime, back to my homework pile!

Oh the shenanigans...

She's growing up too fast. How do I know this? Because she's grown to be big enough to jump up onto my living room table and cause problems suddenly. Exhibit A:

She's started stealing my tea lights and is now carrying them throughout the apartment. What will she get into next?!?!

It's never as simple as you want it to be...

I'm going to blame my mother. She's always complaining about how she can't sleep at night because her brain "won't shut up" and she just can't turn her creative ideas off. Here I am, just trying to clean up my apartment, and trying to get organized for when my boyfriend comes home next week, and a simple thing like writing down my work schedule turned into an hour long creative process.  I had the idea that since Brian will only be home for a couple of weeks, it would be helpful for both of us if he had a copy of my work and school schedule for the duration of his stay. I figured it would make planning our time together easier since I have to share him with his family. ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS WRITE MY SCHEDULE ON A CALENDAR FOR HIM. But of course, once I opened up the calendar template in Microsoft Word, I had to make it cute, and color code it, and use a cute font (this particular font was a free download from this website). I probably spent at least 15 minutes creating this wonderful calendar, and even printed on both sides of a sheet of paper so he wouldn't lose one of the months I printed out. But I had so much fun creating the calendar that I couldn't possibly stop at his departure date. I continued to type my work and school schedules into the calendar for as far ahead as I knew it, and I printed out a copy of it for myself, even though I have a calendar hanging in my kitchen. I decided to paste this fancy new Word calendar to the back of a calendar page so it would be on display next month, but before I pasted the new calendar on, I decided to dig through my (ridiculously large) pile of scrapbook paper to see if I could make this project even cuter. The final result ended up looking like this:

Because I had so much fun wasting an hour when I have a list a mile long of things that need to be done in less than a week, I've decided to do something similar with all of my recipes to make my recipe book a little more exciting! That project will probably wait until after Brian is gone, unless of course I decide to waste more time this weekend :)

Fabric Covered Canvas Keyholder

I decided to get crafty this week and make something that I saw online. I actually found the inspiration for this project on Pinterest (see my link over to the right?). It was super easy and really fun. The hardest part for me was deciding which fabric to use from my mom's stash! I wanted something that wouldn't clash with my decor (i.e., my hideous couch). My mom pointed out that there is nothing in this world that doesn't clash with the couch, so I should just pick something I like and that way whatever fabric I chose wouldn't clash with my future, more stylish couch. With the help of my sister, I was able to finally decide on a fabric to use. It's been about 5 days and I still love it :) I added a little something to the design by picking up some small wooden letters at the craft store and painting them before I attached them with some E6000. The end result turned out looking like this...

It's a key holder that goes by the door! I attached a simple picture frame hook the the back of the canvas and stuck a nail in the wall, and it worked out great! It was incredibly simple to make, and (not including the time it took me to pick a fabric) it took me about 15 minutes to put together! It's very handy to have hanging on the wall - I never have to run around frantically looking for my keys before I leave anymore!

Shopping Organic on a Budget

This week I had to cut my grocery budget by about 30% due to some unexpected bills that came my way. I was freaking out a little at first, because that meant I had to buy enough food to last two weeks for about $60. You can easily get enough "junk" to last two weeks on that, but I've been really concerned with what I eat lately and I'm trying to buy as much organic food as possible. I don't know if you've noticed, but organic is certainly not as cheap as my former diet of cheez-its and pasta :) With some careful planning and price comparisons, I was able to buy everything I needed for a grand total of $65! It wasn't all organic, but a majority of the items I purchased were. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to buy some of the organic and grass-fed meat that I had wanted to buy, but hopefully I'll find a way to fit that into my budget next time. I ended up getting 2 1/2 lbs of ground beef, a large roast to make in the crockpot, ingredients for hummus, a few boxes of organic pasta, two boxes of organic cereal, two gallons of organic milk, one lb of organic butter, fruit, condiments, organic applesauce, and (mom, prepare yourself) a head of romaine lettuce. It turns out that Meijer has a fairly large selection of organic food at a pretty reasonable price! I plan on making enchiladas, tacos and a delicious roast as my "main meals" for the next couple of weeks, all of which will last through several meals for me. I was lucky enough to be able to buy almost all of my dairy products organic, and animal products are what concern me the most. If you're wondering why organic is such a big deal, you should really watch The Future of Food, Food, Inc and Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution.

In other news, Emma has learned a lot this week! She learned how to unroll a roll of toilet paper, how to climb my new curtains, and my personal favorite, how to hunt a wall air conditioning unit. I wish I was kidding.

I'm still trying to figure out how to keep her from chewing on electrical wires (bitter apple spray doesn't seem to deter her). She's a lot of trouble sometimes, but she's also a lot of fun. I just love her to death and can't imagine not having her!

Meet Emma!

Ok. If you followed me here from my last blog, you know I don't have the greatest track record with actually posting regularly. I'm hoping that will change with this blog :) I was shamed into blogging again at a recent family gathering. I guess if I don't want to get picked on, I shouldn't start picking on others for their lack of recent blog posts ;) This blog is going to be all about the adventures I have living on my own....

 (like how I've learned to kill all my own bugs - yuck!)

 as well as my new obsession with eating organic,

and of course, my adorable kitten, Emma :)

I've only had Emma for two weeks, and already she has changed so much since I brought her home! She's gained at least a pound (thank goodness- she was so skinny that first weekend!) and she's learned more ways to get into trouble than I ever could have dreamed of. Currently my biggest training hurdles are keeping her from leaping into my fridge every time I open the door, and keeping her from trying to eat every meal I make for myself. She's a crazy little bundle of energy, but I love her to death! She's so good at keeping me entertained! Stay tuned for more excitement! :)