OFF TO FREAKIN DISNEY WORLD!!!

Okay, I am just a "little" excited. I have been planning our vacation to Disney World for at least a year. It's always just been "talk" and clicking on the Disney website dreaming about going. Now that it is here, my excitement level is out the roof. Cody hasn't had a proper vacation since a month before he went to basic training, December 2010.
Guess what vacation that was? .....Disney World!!! Post HERE.

Things are way different now. We aren't getting the food plan, we are packing a huge cooler with fruit and veggies. We have our boxed SILK soy milk, trail mix and homemade Lara bars. Going to Disney eating Vegan style is way different then eating at the park. We froze some food to thaw out there, we bought a rice cooker with a timer so dinner can be ready for us when we get back to our room and lots of microwaveable stuff! (BOCA Burgers) It's not fine dining, but it's way better then spending over $500 on the Disney food plan and not eat Vegan or healthy. :)


We have 25 duplicate Vinylmations figurines to trade at the park! Very excited about that!
Can't wait to see what "new to me" Vinylmations I bring home!


I originally wanted to do a VLOG today. Time though is my enemy. Just not enough hours in the day. I love when bloggers do VLOG'S and you get to see them for real. I hope to do this before the end of the year. While I am on vacation I do have scheduled posts, including some guest posters! So please do still visit!! It's going to be a lot of Disney, thought I should warn you. I thought it would be fun to keep the theme going while I am there. Needless to say, I plan to take a sh*t ton of photos while I am there. I am already stressing about whether I should use my Iphone for certain shots or my Canon. LOL I am such a picture nerd. There are so many beautiful things to photograph there. Cody is going to be annoyed with the amount of times I make him stop so I can snap a photo. ;)


I hope you enjoy all my posts while I am gone and hopefully I can do some updates also along the way! We are driving over 1,800 miles to get to the "happiest place on Earth" and I will love every moment of it! I will be back right at the beginning of October. Sorry that I will miss all your lovely blogs! I will try not to over do the Disney pictures and posts of my vacation when I come back! I am thinking a post about each park and hopefully a "What I Wore" at Disney post! Let me know what you would like to know about Disney and I will try to tell you all about it!

BE BACK SOON!

My Favorite Pins #3

Some more pins that I felt were worth sharing with you....


Click the numbers to visit the link!
1 Chickpea Burgers \\ I gotta try these! We love chickpeas and this burger version looks very yummy!
2 Funny Alice Pic \\ Don't we all just want to escape to our own place sometimes? That's why I blog. :)
3 IKEA Salt Lake City \\ Goes Solar Power Baby!! Awesome! VIA Bless This Mess
4 Pitbull \\ I miss working with Pitbulls at the animal shelter! I want one. They are so sweet.
5 Colorful Room \\ Okay, I need a house. I want to paint. This room is so my style.

You can view all my Pinterest boards HERE.

Sponsor or Swap in October

Since I am leaving on vacation in a few days and I will be gone while everyone is emailing each other and trying to setup their October sponsorship! It's going to tuff for me next month! If you are currently swapping with me and have my button on your blog, please feel free to let me know if you want to keep swapping. :) I would love to do that. I have added many new sizes to my BANNER PAGE in hope that it will make it easier for swapping!

I will still be able to check emails, so don't be discouraged. I just am not going to be approaching people this month for swaps because I simply don't have time, SO DON'T BE SHY! :)

I offer 3 sizes:
LARGE: $12
250x250 // TOP AD // only 2 available
Guest post: promote your blog or business!
You can also host a giveaway if you'd like!

MEDIUM: $6
250x125 // UNDER LARGE ADS
The ad's will be shuffled every time the page is refreshed for better exposure!
I will feature your blog or business in a "meet my sponsors" post.

SMALL: $4 or SWAP BUTTONS
250x80 // Your ad will be placed underneath the medium ads.
They are shuffled every time the page is refreshed.

I don't care if you have 0 followers or 3000! I want to help promote everyone! We all start somewhere. Need stat's and other things? My pageviews are anywhere from 550 - 800 a day. How or why it varies so much, I do not know. ;) With that said, I would love to have you here on my little corner of the internet. Please visit my Sponsorship page for FULL DETAILS!!!

4 Simple Goals (Before 2013)

Just typing 2013 in my post title seems strange! If you haven't seen it yet, a lot of bloggers are sharing 4 Simple Goals that they would like to accomplish before the end of the year. It all started over on A Beautiful Mess! There are guidelines, so head over there to read them before you decide to do it. Sharing it on your blog almost makes you HAVE to accomplish your goals!!



The goal is to be able to blog about your accomplishments and at the end of the year you get to reward yourself!
My reward will be a nice dress or outfit from ModCloth!
I always go to their website and drool/daydream about having something from their website!
Great thing is I'm going on vacation in less then a week and I really will get to start my goals refreshed! :)


My exercise routine for the entire year of 2012 has been very disappointing. I did some off and on but just never stuck with it. All I want to do is stick with a Pilates routine. I would like to do it for 1 hour a few days a week! Why is this so hard?? A lot of that has to do with the item #2 listed below. Even though I am doing well with my biking, I feel that Pilates would help reduce my stress level!



Holy Crap, I gotta work on this!!! Most of this is referring to my blog. I spend way too much time on my computer. I have decided to NOT do design work for other people anymore. It was a tuff decision to make, but necessary. My life has become just sitting in my chair on my computer. I enjoy it, but it's too much right now. I have gotten better about scheduling my blog posts ahead of time and only designing posts a few days a week. My other problem is not feeling like I have enough time to read all the blogs I love. I feel guilty when I can't stop by and leave comments often enough. :(
Any suggestions????? (PLEASE!)

A big goal of mine for next year is to climb the Rocky Mountains on my bike! I still have a hard time with pedaling up hills and powering through them. I am also still breathing through my mouth too much. There is a trail that I failed at horribly back in July and I hope I can bike it next month! Challenge myself to some HILLS! I dread the winter months and not being able to bike much. I gotta get out there next month and bike some more!!! This goal of course is weather permitting!!



Maybe this goal seems odd? Since I moved away from Ohio, my parents and I don't talk a lot. Pretty much just on Facebook and I find it very sad. It makes me upset often that I don't manage my time better and call them. I know that if I would take the time to pick up my phone and DO IT, that my overall happiness and stress would improve. :) Time flies and I don't ever want to take them for granted.

If you decide to do this challenge please leave me a comment and link!
I would love to read them!!!
I think I can achieve my goals! I want a dress!

Make sure to head over to A Beautiful Mess to read the original post!

Garfield & Friends 1988 // Birthday Card 4 My BFF

One of the many cartoons I grew up watching was Garfield & Friends! I remember being so excited every time it came on. If you watched it like I did, you may remember Blinky The Clown depending on how good your memory is. Blinky The Clown had his own special Birthday song he would sing. In the episode below you can see and hear it! It's pretty funny.


My friend Cam and I used to always call each other on our birthdays and sing the whole song to each other. It was pretty funny and it's always been an inside joke between us for over 15 years now. I decided to make him a card for his 30th Birthday! You get creative when you live far away and are mailing things to people! I hate buying store bought cards anyways. I just stand there staring at the selection for what feels like an eternity.



I used to be such an "artist" back in the day. Garfield actually was one of my favorite things to doodle and draw!
I think I need to add drawing & painting to my to do list for the winter months....



I found an image of Blinky The Clown doing a Google image search and free handed the drawing.
The hardest part for me was getting the happy birthday to fit!
Oh yeah, my best friends nickname is actually Spam. LOL



I think it turned out cute. It was so relaxing to draw! It's a hobby I need to pick back up.
I think people are only getting handmade cards from me from now on! :)
I wish I could see the smile on his face when he opens it!

Biking Colorado // Round 2 // 43 miles

I hate posting so many biking posts so close together, but unfortunately we just really started getting into. Going from riding a few miles in "normal" clothes and no water, to wearing spandex and a Camelback with 2 litters of water in it and doing 43 miles in one ride is HUGE FOR ME. I'm not bragging, I'm determined. I found this amazing thing that fits me so well. It's a great workout and my every day stress level has been reduced already. Buying a road bike has been a great investment for me. Over the weekend we finally went riding with our friends for the first time. I was nervous to bike with more experienced riders. It went really well and was a real blast! It if wasn't for them I don't know if we would of ever gotten into biking....


I took the above photo of Dan & Kara racing each other and Cody is behind them.
I was brave enough to get my iphone out and attempt to take a photo.
It's very hard and I don't plan to do it again. LOL Risking dropping my phone is too scary!!
Something I love about biking is you never know what you are going to see!
There was a huge group of cows that crossed the trail...

There is a beautiful garden along the side of the trail where volunteers come and plant flowers and vegetables.
Below you can see how they used old glass bottles in their garden! What a cool idea....

It was really a big deal to me to take photos of the garden because I know the cold weather is on it's way!
Summer is over and I wanted to capture these beautiful flowers before they died.


A week ago I didn't think I could do 25 miles, then a week later I did 43 miles!
It just goes to show that you should never say that you CAN'T DO SOMETHING!
Anyone can do anything with the right amount of determination!
You may not be into biking, but I bet you have something in your life that you want to accomplish!
I plan to ride exercise bikes and do Pilates all winter long. My goal is to be able to climb mountains next year!