Window Shopping March [Linkup]

Rules for Linkup:

1. Browse Etsy for new, fun, bizarre, or crazy things.
2. Linkup and share what you found.

That's it!!

Here's what I found.

Shop these, left to right: OliveYewJewels necklace ($49) / UrbanCheesecraft DIY cheese kit ($10)  KBShimmer nail polish ($8.75) / RichwoodCreations rolling pin ($40)  

AnnabelleEveDesigns wreath ($54) / LucyLovesThis tea towel ($15.55)

Shop these, left to right: LuciusArt print ($49) / ItsCosmatic shorts ($49.99)

LaLisette card case ($25) / InspiritVintage school desk ($147.72)

RTreeCreations place card ($50) / thecupcakekid ceramic mugs ($60)

Be sure to linkup below.

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Next Wednesday there is going to be a super fun linkup that Kate and myself are hosting.

We want to learn more about the many Faces behind the Blogger. So get ready for that.

March Recap

March has been an absolutely beautiful month besides all the dang snow.

March marked the beginning of spring and I am still awaiting that spring feeling outside.

It was also the month that the Hubby and I have been together for 8 years.

Then finally this weekend we have Easter to celebrate and a brake change on my car.

Besides everything that March has to offer, this is what happened on my blog this month.

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The first weekend of March we were not messing around. From the beer tasting to getting our Jeep stuck in some mud. Yup, it happens to the best of us.

I shared my most requested recipe yet and I absolutely understand why.

Chit Chat Thursday Vlogs featured part 2 of our house tour as well as my spring cleaning tips.

You learned how to get free Starbucks. That also made you realize I watch a lot of TV.

I went shopping while singing Thrift Shop through Goodwill. The clothing I bought was worn during a 5k Shamrock Beer Run on St. Patrick's Day. And now I am listening to the song while typing, again!

I finally got back into scrapbooking again and did a page from our trip to Santa Cruz years ago.

I think every single blogger just about had a heart attack when Google announced the end of Google Reader. Then people died twice when they thought GFC was going too. My thoughts were expressed.

My little puppy turned four and I celebrated by making her homemade dog biscuits.

Favorite Weekend Pictures

one/two/three

one/two/three/four

What was your favorite post of mine this past month?

**This Friday is the Window Shopping Linkup. Browse Etsy.com and show us what you found!

**Also, there is another super fun linkup coming soon thanks to Kate.

*Linking up with Diana @ Nanny to Mommy for Thumping

March Week Four Meals

Is it springtime yet? The answer is yes but it doesn't feel like it.

Are you getting sun and warm weather where you are?

I guess I will just sit here with my Nutella hot chocolate in hand and sweatshirt on my back.

Then I can day dream about a warm spring break destination.

Not only do I love the warmer weather that spring brings but I love having cookouts.

But we have yet to go buy a grill since we moved in December.

What is wrong with us?

Since we will not be grilling out any time soon, here is what we are eating this week.

What are you eating this week?

**This Friday is the Window Shopping Linkup. Browse Etsy.com and show us what you found!

**Also, there is another super fun linkup coming soon thanks to Kate.

The Midwest Blows

Today's post was going to be a recap of what adventures happened this weekend.

But, this happened instead.

Central Indiana, as well as other areas, got hit with a huge dusting pounding of snow.

The midwest blows this winter season.

I will be sitting inside all day with the fireplace on and blanket on my lap.

How was your weekend?

*Linking up with Carissa @ Lowercase Letters for Miscellany Monday

and I love Bloglovin' linkup.

Dog Biscuit Recipe

Tuesday was my little baby girl's 4th birthday.

Baby girl = puppy!

I, of course, had to make her some kind of dessert to celebrate. 

I mean what would a birthday be without dessert?

So I looked all over for doggie treat recipes because the treats from the store just don't cut it.

Being a dog of the 21st century, she has to have some kind of dietary limitations.

You know, the guests you invite over to dinner and they tell you 1 hour before arriving that they 

are on a dairy free, gluten free, vegan diet? Happens all the time.

Well my little puppy does not do well with dairy so most of the recipes with yogurt cannot be made.

Also, I have an allergy to bananas and we rarely keep those in the house. 

So those recipes that call for banana cannot be made.

With all those limitations, I found it hard to find a recipe to make. That is when I decided to make my own recipe. I wanted to share that recipe with you incase any of you dog lovers want to treat your pooch to a yummy snack!

All you need is:

Mix it all together and pick out whatever shape cookie cutter you want.

Then bake and you are good to go.

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Dog Biscuit Recipe

Ingredients:

- 2/3 cup old fashion oats

- 1/4 cup dried parsley

- 3 Tablespoons peanut butter

- 1 egg

Directions:

- Heat oven to 300 degrees

- Mix all ingredients together in a mixing bowl

- Cover a baking pan with tin foil and spray lightly with cooking spray

- Fill any shape cookie cutter half way up or about 1/4 inch thick

- Bake for 30-40 minutes or until deep golden brown

- Allow biscuits to cool completely

Happy Birthday patient princess.

Spring Cleaning Tips Vlog

Yay! It's Chit Chat Thursday.

For those of you that do not know what Chit Chat Thursday is, I record a vlog every other week

about any and all topics. If you have any ideas for next time, please let me know.

Yesterday marked the first day of spring. 

I don't know about where you live, but here it is still freezing.

I can be happy though because the sun is shining.

There is nothing worse than cold weather and a cloudy sky.

This week's vlog I wanted to talk about spring cleaning.

How appropriate!

I am going to share my tips to spring cleaning.

If you have any topics or ideas for my next video, leave a comment.

Also, don't forget to subscribe to see videos before they are posted here.

The picture is again out of focus. Sorry.

I have some open sponsor spaces. Be sure to look for the promo code.

5k Shamrock Run

I might be slightly addicted to running 5k's. But not just normal 5k's because that is for wimps.

I like the get muddy, drink beer, and/or maneuvering obstacles.

The Shamrock 5k Run did not let me down in any way.

It was such a blast and I would love to do one every weekend.

I could do without the post bar hopping though. Shit show?!

Many people have never heard of a 5k Beer Run before and you might be one of them.

Let me tell you, it is worth every kilometer to drink those 5+ beers.

Let's relive Sunday all over again right now.

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The race started at 10am which is really not that early but to drag my butt out of bed to run when it is less than 30* outside is a tough one. We got to the park in Downtown Indianapolis early to check-in and start drinking some beers. This is the lovely group we ran with.

Hubby, Myself, friend, friend, friend, friend.

We all, along with everyone else, showed up in our best St. Patrick's Day attire and a good attitude.

The countdown to 10am came. We grabbed our beer, cheers'd to a great race, and hit the road running.

I was #27 right up front.

There was a break every kilometer of the run for another drink of beer. 

Who needs water stations?

I felt like I was running in the Chicago Marathon. Beer tables were set up every kilometer and as you ran/walked/crawled by, staff was handing out beer cups for people to chug and run off.

But I guess in a marathon you would be drinking water.

"Grab those beers, babe!"

We finished the race strong with an amazing time of 35:50. 

I mean we didn't trip over our feet, we took our time drinking the beers, and no one from my group puked. I don't care what our finishing time was because we had a blast.

The Hubs and I grabbed our final beer from the run and took a picture.

Clearly the finish time is not the above time mentioned because we had to go grab that beer for the picture.

We all ran with smiles on our faces and beer in our belly.

Great times.

Thank you to everyone at Fun-races.com  for throwing a great event!

March Week Three Meals

I would like to start this post with a big Happy Birthday to my fur-child.

Her Fourth birthday will bring her lots of snuggles and a day full of being spoiled.

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Now let's move right into what will be cooked up in my kitchen this week.

I am very excited by this one and it might just be my new favorite meal.

This is still Hubby's favorite meal.

recipe here

Restaurant Steak with Rice and Greens

Notice the rice kick this week? I had no idea how much rice we would be 

consuming until I made this post. Oh Well!

What's for dinner tonight at your house?

*Don't forget, you can now follow me on Bloglovin'*

Let me know so I can follow back.

Recovering

While I lay low recovering from the 5k Shamrock Beer Run yesterday, I want to share with you how my weekend went via pictures. But first a little preview from the run.

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Friday the Hubs and I relaxed all evening. I made a really simple dinner, we watch some DVR'd shows, and also put on a face mask. 

We stocked up our fridge for a weekend full of festivities. 

Shouldn't everyone's refrigerator look like this?

Saturday we went and picked up our packets for the race on Sunday.

These were the shirts they gave. I think they are pretty darn festive.

To finish Saturday out, we went out to dinner and of course ordered green beer and fried pickles.

A weekend full of St. Patrick's Day parties is not complete unless you have some green beer.

Sunday was the big day. The race began at 10am but more about the race later this week.

After the race, we walked a few blocks and started bar hopping.

We had a blast. 

How was your weekend?

The End of the World without Google Reader/GFC

Ahh... the world must be coming to an end. This is what I saw on twitter Wednesday night.

"...the end of Google Reader means GFC too?"

"Drink every time someone says 'Google Reader' or 'Bloglovin'' today."

"I'm over here just randomly signing up for feeds because I don't know what to do with myself."

"It's unfortunate that Google Reader will be closing on July 1st..."

"Goodbye Google Reader, hello Bloglovin'..."

"Boo no more GFC & Google Reader as of July 1st. How do you follow blogs?"

"For real? OMG!"

"...I'll be devastated."

"...such a pain."

After reading through a whole bunch of crazy bloggers freaking out I knew I needed to do some research. You all were acting crazy, don't deny.

After much research I still have no idea what, if anything, is going to happen to GFC.

But, Google Reader will be no more come July 1st.

My guess why so many of you are mad, frustrated, or angry is because you will lose your GFC follower number as well as a possible decrease in page views. To me, the GFC follower number means absolutely nothing to me. 'You're only saying that because you don't have that many followers. Us bloggers with over 1000 followers do not want to lose that number.' If you just thought any of that in your head, you are insane. But I will be upset if my page views declines drastically.

Now I have never used Google Reader and honestly I didn't know there was a difference between Google Reader and GFC. To many non-blogger followers, the loss of Google Reader will definitely challenge things. They will have to find another alternative to the original RSS/Google Reader. 

For example, I just added the 'follow by email' gadget to my sidebar. That way my posts will be sent directly to your email inbox without having to do anything else. 

Or you can sign up with Bloglovin' like everyone else. I jumped on that bandwagon too just so I can get familiar with it in case anything does happen with GFC.

Lastly, you can just sign up with Skimr, which is an RSS reader that is super simple to use.

All you have to do is enter the website you want to follow and it has a similar format to Google Reader. However, if you want the author of the blog to know you are following them, Skimr is not a good option. Go with something like Bloglovin'. 

I will be using Skimr from now on because I like the format of it. I will also use 

Bloglovin' so all you wonderful bloggers know I am following you. 

Even after using both of those, I will keep GFC until the death of it. 

If you follow me via Google Reader, I would appreciate it if you continued to follow me either by email (check sidebar) or Bloglovin'. Leave me a comment below letting me know you followed via Bloglovin' so I can follow back.

At the end of the day, life goes on and we must adapt to the changes. 

But I do not think GFC is going anywhere! Just yet.

Am I an automatic hipster because I am blogger?

Or because I wear these glasses and am a blogger?

Santa Cruz Scrapbook Layout

I have been seriously slacking when it comes to scrapbooking.

I absolutely love scrapbooking but it takes time and inspiration. Plus it also helps if you already have your photos printed off rather than waiting until you want to work on a layout.

Well I finally found a layout to use from a trip about a year ago.

I can't believe it takes over a year to actually put a page together.

One of my favorite and only things I loved about living in California was being about 2 hours away from everything. We went to Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Monterey, Carmel, Yosemite, and so many more places. I am a sucker for a beach though and loved Santa Cruz.

Even when my mom came to visit us in California, we made it back to Santa Cruz.

We never got a chance to actually go swimming while there. Probably because it was freezing.

I had so many flashbacks while I was working on this page. 

I could taste the salmon bites from our favorite restaurant. I could smell the warm, salty air.

I could feel the warm sand between my toes.

I want to go back!

Any other scrapbookers out there?

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I'm gonna pop some tags...

Getting ready for the 5k Shamrock run this Sunday and I found myself getting some green clothing from Goodwill. As I walked into the store with my friend, all we could think of is 'poppin' tags'. 

You know, the Thrift Store song? 

Yes I am listening to the song while I type this post.

But do you even know what it means to pop tags? I had to look it up!

I know there are a ton of fashion bloggers out there that feature thrift clothing. I am just not one of those shoppers. I only find myself in Goodwill when I am in need of something specific. 

Like ugly sweater party or halloween clothing or any type of themed party.

Don't get me wrong. Your Goodwill might certainly have designer labels or clothes that still have the original tag - but there is something about seeing underwear in the kids section that were donated.

Ewww face!

I did not end up buying any underwear, shoes, or hats from Goodwill 

but I did find some green attire for the Shamrock run.

Perfect, right? I found the Irish girl shirt and Pink zip-up for myself and found a green and white zip-up for the Hubby. Our friend picked up some bright green pants and shirt. 

Clothing is just not enough for us when it comes to a festive run. 

We ran into Target to pick up accessories.

Now that our uniform/outfits are all picked out, it is time to train.

I have been fitting in as much running and cardio as possible.

I just need to practice while drinking beer.

Didn't I mention that it was a beer run?!!

Do you or have you shopped at a thrift store?

March Week Two Meals

Sunday really threw me all off schedule, just like most other people.

It is crazy how only losing one hour can make a huge difference in your schedule.

So I am blaming Daylight Savings Time for my lack of a post yesterday.

Although we lost an hour on Sunday, we were granted with beautiful weather in the Midwest.

Now it was not 80*, nor was it sunny, but when the temperature reaches upper 50's-low 60's you can crack the windows open and play outside. That is exactly what we did. We were also able to get a 2.5 mile run in with our friend for practice since we have a 5k this weekend.

Enough with the weekend talk because I missed my post yesterday. 

Let's get into what food we are eating this week.

Pesto Chicken and Rice Casserole

recipe found here

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

recipe found here

What's for dinner tonight in your household?

*linking up with Melissa @ The Life of a Not So Ordinary Wife for GFC Blog Hop.