A DAY IN THE LIFE....

.....Pics via my iphone for the past week....

Have you guys tried these?!?!? They are the PERFECT salty snack BUT low sodium....

 Showed y'all my Halloween mani....

Last Monday I cooked my tail off doing meal prep for the week and made the Chicken (what we got) Pie

Getting it on like a #girlboss does

Speaking of girl boss....went to my shop space and did a lil re-arranging 

and put the orange and halloween front and center! 

Studied my a$$ off....

Working on #HEALTHY meals and snacks! It's easy to eat this when it looks so pretty!! Presentation is KEY!!!

Tried something new....saged my home....it was time to rid the house of negative stagnant energies....

Got the kitties all ready for Halloween!!

Kids and I had the Fappula Frappuccino at @starbucks....a holiday tradition BUT def not my beverage of choice....

Another Halloween pic of cute kittens

FOODIE FRIDAY....MEAL PREP and HEALTHY SNACKS

We made it to FRIDAY!!! Woot Woot!!! 

You may (or may not) have noticed I have posted far fewer pictures of myself as of late....part of the reason is because I have taken less BUT another part is I have gained about 40 pounds in the last 8 months....could be stress, definitely diet, and partly health. The ONLY person that can control this is ME. Sometimes you have to reach that ENOUGH is ENOUGH point and I am FINALLY there. SO they say your body starts in the kitchen....

SO I spent a good 4 hours in the kitchen meal prepping this week!!! One BIG mess made for healthy options for lunches and quick dinners..no reason to grab "fast food" because it was quick - I already had my meals D O N E!!!

I prepped by taking everything out that I had in my fridge that could make SOMETHING...No direction, no specific "recipe" I just knew I wanted fresh, tasty and meats!
(I also made chicken "what we got" pie ie...whatever veggies we had in the fridge - leftover green beans, celery, I added lima beans {because the kids actually LOVE them} and made my own rue with sour cream, chicken stock, flour and butter because I had no cream of anything soup).

I try to maximize my time AND efficiency when I am in the kitchen....we carved pumpkins last weekend BUT I waited until Monday to roast the pumpkin seeds because I knew I'd have the oven on that day. Top left is Chicken what we got pie and obvi pumpkin seeds on bottom and right.

 A LOT of life is about presentation....when measuring and making healthy choices presentation is KEY.....

1/4 cup raw unsalted peanuts and a fresh cutie

1 medium granny smith apple, 2 tbsp peanut butter and a tbsp mini chocolate chips

I probably COULD have made my eggs ahead too (and made them into muffins instead) BUT to be honest eggs are NOT my favorite SO I'm easing my way into them!!

*Coffee with 2 tbsp Spiced Latte coffeemate

* 2 pieces of turkey bacon

*2 eggs with onion and 1 piece of turkey bacon cut into pieces

*1/2 sandwich thin round with 1 tbsp cinnamon sugar butter (because we all NEED a lil treat every now and then). 

If you are curious about WHAT I put in my meal prep containers let me know and I will respond and next time I post meal prep I'll list out what each contains! 

Buen Provecho 

MANI MONDAY....ORANGE, BLING, SKULLS and Er'Thing

It's MANI MONDAY time!!! I figured since next Monday is Halloween I better get my holiday nail on like NOW!!! 

 Black Polish - Elf - "Black"
Orange - Base of Sally Hansen Salon Manicure in "Fired UP" WITH "Wet N' Wild Fast Dry" "Orange" (that has glittery flecks in it) as an overlay
Black n Bling Nails - nails inc. London made with Swarovski Elements (bought these at Ross and have used a nail or two on each hand for MANY mani's - BEST but ever!!).
Skull Decal (in center of Black and Bling) - Girlie Nails from Walmart (YEARS - like 5 ago)
Tea Towel - Vintage

Whatcha think?!?! Aren't they spooktacular?!?!? Lemme see YOUR mani for #manimonday

TRY IT THURSDAY....Spooky Candelabra

I still go on Pinterest for inspiration. I pinned this style candles back in the summer and KNEW I wanted to try making them

What do YOU think they are made from? 

If you guessed toilet paper and paper towel rolls you were correct!!!! I drizzled the hot glue around the tops and down the sides to give the effect of melted wax....Then took them outside to spray paint them....

(I stuck bamboo kabob skewers in the cardboard to hold the rolls upright while spraying)

I found that the cheap-o .99 cent spray paint did NOT work....I had some line marking spray paint on hand (I think I got it from a shop and swap) and that gave AWESOME coverage).

Bought a few packs of battery operated tea lights from Dollar Tree (to make the tea lights stay I had to hot gue the inside of the tubes to make a lip for them to catch on).

I LOVE the way they turned out!! For $5.00 and some time I have a FABULOUS piece of all Hallows Eve decor!!!

THRIFTY TUESDAY....FALL THRIFT Store MAKEOVER

Tis the season!!! I have a few of these tile sets for sale in my etsy shop Click HERE to order https://www.etsy.com/shop/ObjectofMayaffection?ref=l2-shopheader-name

On a rainy September day I was inspired to change up my decor for fall! So I went to my fave-y place (the thrift store...I ENJOY the thrill of the hunt and the combing thru things to find just the right pieces). This particular day I was looking for new pillow covers and curtains. I hit the JACKPOT!!!! There were several looks I could've gone with (one included Robin's Egg Blue BUT I wanted more oranges).

HERE is my haul from that day!!!

Throw Blanket (upper left hand corner) - Got it for $2.50 (it just so happened to be the color of the day)
Cork Topper Jar- .99
Faux Fall Arrangement - (this was GORGEOUS and a steal) $2.99
The Striped Fabric is Ralph Lauren Pillow Covers - $1.99/each
This GORGEOUS pattern below is Euro Pillow Covers (it was a SPLURGE at $2.99/each for 3...I KNOW it doesn't sound like much BUT my goal was to do the makeover for under $10.00 for er'thing).

I always like to post a BEFORE:

(these curtains moved to the kitchen to replace the florals)

AFTER 

(I already had these bad birds from a few houses ago)

All decked out for Halloween

(the tutorial for the spooktacular candles will be up for THRIFTY THURSDAY)

No one can resist a cute dog pic!!! 

MANI MONDAY....Day Of The Dead Dia de los Muertos Nails

I am back to having FUN with my nails again!!! (My last job was wreaking HAVOC on them). This weeks mani is OPI and Di de los muertos nails. 

OPI - Can't Find my Czech-book (a PERFECT blue for fall...still light BUT not as summer-y as some blues). 

Day Of The Dead Skull Nails - Dollar Tree (last year I think) 

Dollar Tree has the BEST INEXPENSIVE faux nails -I always find a style I LOVE!!

OF COURSE I had to coordinate my mani with my glass!!! (just in time for #halloween BUT truth be told these babys are out all year!!!)

Couldn't resist another shot with my morning cuppa joe!

What mani are YOU sporting this week?!?!

MANI MONDAY....HAUTE Mess with Fingr's

HAPPY Monday friends!!! Hopefully it's a holiday for you and you get to enjoy! 

I LOVE a fun mani! 

Whenever I am out and see a fun pattern on nails, I grab them! Sometimes I use the entire set at once (as seen above) other times I just add a nail to two to each hand as an accent. I found these @FING'RS prints @dollartree (where I get most of my "fake" nails). 

With a name like HAUTE Mess you can't help but love them!!! And the colors and pattern are pretty fab too!!

The trick to making these nails look more natural is to file them down after application. Here you can see the left side is as they were out of the package and the right side is after they are filed down. It makes them look a lil more "natural".

While they look FAB they are a "press-on" nails SO they already have the adhesive on the back (which makes for EASY application). However not great wear. Because of the tacky glue they shift in place and I ended up removing them less than 24 hours later. They are a good "quick fix" but not meant for the long haul (UNLESS they didn't come pre-adhesive and you could use a nail glue). 

Do you guys have a favorite go to for at-home (fake) mani's?!?!?