Your Whims Wednesday #230 {And Features}

Time for another Your Whims Wednesday Party!

Your Whims Wednesday

Here are some of my favorite from last week's party!

DIY Copper Pipe Fall Wreath by Love Create Celebrate
 
 
Cocoa Snickerdoodle RumChata Martini by The Party Fetti Blog
 
Candy Corn Amigurumi by Creatively Homemade
These cute little guys are a dieter's best friend - no calories! Make some fun Halloween decorations with this free candy corn crochet pattern.
 
Nutella and Banana Indoor S'mores by Unusually Lovely
 
Leather Cuff Bracelets by Happy Girly Crafty
 
Thanks to all who linked up! Grab a button if you were featured :)
 
Featured on My Girlish Whims
 
Now... onto this weeks party!

I show off my girlish whims weekly on my blog, and now I want to see yours with 
Your Whims Wednesday!

Guidlines:
1. Link up as many projects as you would like: as long as it is one of your girly ways, you can link it! I'd love to see crafts, recipes, style posts, etc. Anything and everything feminine :)
2.Please add my button (code at the top of this post) to either your blog post or somewhere on your blog. 
3. Take a quick moment to comment on at least one other entry. We we all love comments!! 
4.I'd love if you would follow me as well :)


Your Whims Wednesday #229 {And Features}

Time for another Your Whims Wednesday Party!

Your Whims Wednesday

Here are some of my favorite from last week's party!

Pumpkin Mousse Cookie Cups by The Rebel Chick
Pumpkin Mousse Cookie Cups Recipe
 
Easy DIY Fall Wreath by To Simply Inspire  
Easy DIY Fall Wreath - Make this beautiful wreath in 15 minutes
 
Neutral Fall Mantel by Dandelion Patina 
INSPIRING FALL DECORATING RIGHT HERE! This rustic neutral fall mantel is the perfect mix of farmhouse and industrial style. Perfection from the chippy white window to the wooden tobacco baskets. Fall mantel inspiration from dandelionpatina.com #farmhousestyle #rustic
 
Apple & Gouda Grilled Cheese by Domestic Superhero on Just us Four
Apple & Gouda Grilled Cheese is perfect for fall and those granny smith apples! Savory and delicious! 
 
Upcycle Maple Leaf Candle Jar by The Perfect Storm
 
Thanks to all who linked up! Grab a button if you were featured :)
 
Featured on My Girlish Whims
 
Now... onto this weeks party!

I show off my girlish whims weekly on my blog, and now I want to see yours with 
Your Whims Wednesday!

Guidlines:
1. Link up as many projects as you would like: as long as it is one of your girly ways, you can link it! I'd love to see crafts, recipes, style posts, etc. Anything and everything feminine :)
2.Please add my button (code at the top of this post) to either your blog post or somewhere on your blog. 
3. Take a quick moment to comment on at least one other entry. We we all love comments!! 
4.I'd love if you would follow me as well :)


Your Whims Wednesday #228 {And Features}

Time for another Your Whims Wednesday Party!

Your Whims Wednesday

Here are some of my favorite from last week's party!

Colorful Fall Fabric Pumpkins by Flamingo Toes
Easy Fall Fabric Pumpkins
Nectarine Sangria by Made with Happy
Happy Sangria | Red WIne Sangria Recipe with Nectarines | www.madewithHAPPY.com
 
Pumpkin Apple Struesel Muffins by Delightful E Made
All of your fall favorites in one delicious breakfast treat!  These Pumpkin Apple Struesel Muffins are wonderfully moist, with big chunks of apples baked inside with a delicious streusel and glaze on top.  Bakery quality muffins right at home!
 
DIY Gold Striped Vase by 24 Cottonwood Lane 
Striped vase Cover
 
Fall Chalkboard and Pumpkin Bunting by Clean and Scentsible
Fall chalkboard and cute pumpkin bunting! // cleanandscentsible.com
 
Thanks to all who linked up! Grab a button if you were featured :)
 
Featured on My Girlish Whims
 
Now... onto this weeks party!

I show off my girlish whims weekly on my blog, and now I want to see yours with 
Your Whims Wednesday!

Guidlines:
1. Link up as many projects as you would like: as long as it is one of your girly ways, you can link it! I'd love to see crafts, recipes, style posts, etc. Anything and everything feminine :)
2.Please add my button (code at the top of this post) to either your blog post or somewhere on your blog. 
3. Take a quick moment to comment on at least one other entry. We we all love comments!! 
4.I'd love if you would follow me as well :)


Your Whims Wednesday #227 {And Features}

Time for another Your Whims Wednesday Party!

Your Whims Wednesday

Here are some of my favorite from last week's party!

Strawberry Banana Oatmeal Bars by To Simply Inspire
Strawberry Banana Oatmeal Bars - No refined sugar and all natural ingredients! Perfect healthy snack!

Coco-nutty Sweater Acorns by Dandelion Patina
coconutty sweater acorns by dandelion patina

Cotton Wreath by Ella Claire
DIY Cotton Wreath_3

Chilli Garlic BBQ Ribs by Lemons for Lulu
Baby back ribs slow roasted then grilled and coated in a spicy chili garlic sauce! lemonsforlulu.com

Modern Triangle Wall Art by Made in a Day
 Geometric Triangle Wall Art tutorial madeinaday.com
 
Thanks to all who linked up! Grab a button if you were featured :)
 
Featured on My Girlish Whims
 
Now... onto this weeks party!

I show off my girlish whims weekly on my blog, and now I want to see yours with 
Your Whims Wednesday!

Guidlines:
1. Link up as many projects as you would like: as long as it is one of your girly ways, you can link it! I'd love to see crafts, recipes, style posts, etc. Anything and everything feminine :)
2.Please add my button (code at the top of this post) to either your blog post or somewhere on your blog. 
3. Take a quick moment to comment on at least one other entry. We we all love comments!! 
4.I'd love if you would follow me as well :)


My Best Summer Yet: Enjoying Life after Weight Loss

I've blogged about my weight loss journey from the start but I will admit that I have gotten a little more quiet lately about it on the blog. To be honesty I'm a bit of an instagram addict these days (hah!) and use that to document most things, but today I thought it was time to do a new blog post sharing a few pictures (ok maybe more than a few hehe) of my summer and talk about why this summer has been so enjoyable for me.


First and foremost, as an update, I started trying to lose weight in January of 2014. I'm a little over a year and a half into this journey and have lost about 92 pounds to date.  I'm still working towards hitting the big 100 pounds gone but I'm still really happy with where I am right now. 

I had hit about 50 pounds down by the end of last summer so I was already way down from my heaviest weight but still had a lot of progress to make (I started at 246 pounds so 50 down still put me at 196 pounds).  I've been working hard since last summer though and I have literally been looking forward to summer since WINTER TIME! I knew that by the time summer rolled around this year I would be more confident than I ever have been and I could just not wait to put a freaking bikini on and ENJOY MYSELF! :)
 Well, for the first time in my 24 years of life I wore a bikini this summer and I enjoyed it every time!!!

 I have to say that I do not think that your appearance or weight should dictate how happy you are as a person as a whole. Obviously I am not that vain ;) I've always been a happy person even when I was heavy but since losing the weight I literally feel like I am a completely new girl and I'm happier now than I ever thought possible!!! Being so much more happy and confident has lead to me seriously having a BLAST this whole summer.

It helped that I had some fun events planned throughout these last few months but that coupled with my new outlook on life has led to so many fun memories I thought I would share a little bit of what I have been up to!


This summer I was lucky enough to go down the shore with my parents I think...four times total! They have a large RV that they park at a campground outside of Ocean City New Jersey which is where we vacationed every summer growing up.  I got to go down for a few weekend trips this year and had a blast.  One of the reasons why I loved going? Running on the boardwalk!


My parents are active so they would ride their bikes every morning while I ran on the boardwalk near the ocean.  One of my favorite things!!! On one trip I ran all the way from our campground over the bridge into Ocean City and then ran on the boardwalk for a total of 11 miles. I was so proud of myself! 

My husband is not a big beach person so he only came along for one trip ;)

I got to hang out with my sister and neice on another weekend trip, and had two weekends alone with my parents as well.  It's fun to be able to spend time with family in a relaxed setting like that, I had so much fun shopping, laying on the beach, and just hanging around the camp ground cooking some yummy meals and then drinking wine :)

Besides going to the beach with my family I had a few other weekend trips.  My husband had an awards banquet for Civil Air Patrol in Gettysburg in May. We made a weekend out of it and went out with friends and did some sight seeing (read: wine tasting) and I had fun having an excuse to dress up in a fancy dress!!

Summer time is also wedding season! I spent a weekend in the Poconos for one of my friends bachlerette party.  I was nervous going into it: it was a whole weekend at a house in the middle of no where with like 14 other girls I didn't know (I only knew 2-3 of the girls going) and I thought it was going to be so lame.  It ended up being a BLAST and I made so many new friends!  We had fun chatting, drinking (of course), relaxing, and even doing a little crafting!

We had two wedding weekends to go to as well, one out in Pittsburgh for our good friends Brad and Bree

And one out in Lancaster for our friends Alex and Katie.  This was the first wedding we went to and I forgot to get a picture WITH my husband.  Hahahah! I made sure to correct that when we went out to the wedding in Pittsburg!

I also had a quick trip to Florida earlier in the summer in June when I went to visit Cousin Corporation that I already blogged about.  Worth mentioning one more time though because of how awesome it was. BEADS and FLORIDA. Come on now, you are really talking in my love language now!!!

Right after my trip to Florida I had a long weekend beach trip planned with some of my college girlfriends.  I felt so spontaneous on this trip: I was supposed to drive down on a Thursday night after work with one of my other friends.  Only bad thing about doing it that way is that I wouldn't get there until super late at night on Thursday and the weather for the weekend was looking terrible but Thursday it was GORGEOUS. So Thursday morning I show up to work and had a pre-planned meeting get canceled and i thought to myself....why don't I just leave now??? I talked to my boss who OKed me taking an extra day off and I left the office and drove right down to the beach!!! This may not sound like the craziest thing in the world but I've never driven myself alone down to Maryland so I felt super impressed with myself and enjoyed some time on the beach Thursday in sun before I could get into the hotel.  It was so worth the spontaneity!

Of course it was amazing to see my friends who I only get to see once a year for some as well. <3

I spent a decent amount of weekends at the beach, but surprisingly enough the one vacation we took for a full week was actually at a LAKE! We went with my in-laws down to Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia and I was a little worried going into the trip how much fun it would be since I'm traditionally a beach girl! Well, turns out that beach or lake doesn't make that big of a difference to make me happy.  I brought along a big pool float and inflatable drinks cooler and on the days where it was sunny I would row myself into the middle of the lake, read my kindle and have a few drinks! It was perfect :)

And last but not least...I did a fair amount of wine tasting this summer as well!!! These were my purchased from our weekend trip to Gettysburg:

We went on a weekend trip to a friends cabin in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE Pennsylvania (seriously. The cabin did not even have running water.  THERE WAS AN OUTHOUSE I HAD TO USE) but luckily there were a few wineries in the area so that made up for the no running water thing just a LITTLE bit.

Tried some new wineries with friends that we met on a cruise a few years ago and keep in touch with at least once a year ever since!

Caution: wine tasting can lead to smooching ;)

And we even fit in some quick wine tasting on our trip out to the wedding we went to in Pittsburgh. My new motto is there is always time for wine tasting :D

Whew.  So there are about four months of condensed pictures of all of the fun things I've done. Hah! Seriously though. I'm sitting here typing this on Monday night after the long holiday weekend where we spent time with friends and family having cook-outs, hanging out and just having fun and I literally feel so blessed in life now. Yes, I still would have had fun doing all of these things if I was 90 pounds heavier but I am SO GLAD that I spent the time to make my health a priority and get fit because I know that I feel happy and confident in myself as a person now and that has made every experience this summer so much more enjoyable.

Summer maybe almost officially over now but I really am looking forward to starting a new season and making more memories with my new outlook on life!!