Music // My Top 10 Songs of 2012.

I cannot believe 2012 is almost coming to an end. Seriously, where has the year gone?! Anyways, here are my top ten favorite songs that have come out this year (they are in no particular order). I had a really tough time narrowing them down because there were so many great ones this year. When I love a song, I tend to play it on repeat on Grooveshark for about a month. What were your favorite songs of 2012?

1. David Guetta "Titanium"
2. Calvin Haris "Feel So Close"
3. Fun "We are Young"
4. Katy Perry "Wide Awake"
5. Carly Rae Jepson "Call Me Maybe"
6. Gotye "Somebody that I Used to Know"
7. The Wanted "I Found You"
8. Taylor Swift "I Knew You Were Trouble"
9. Fun "Some Nights"
10. The Lumineers "Hey Ho"

Currently.

>> Spending the holiday's in Calgary, Alberta. We arrived on the 23rd and its been in the -20 range the entire time. So far, we have only ventured outside twice. The first time was to get to the car, from the airport. And the second time was going out to visit some family. Apparently its only -3 today, so maybe we will go outside and enjoy all this snow and take some photos!

>> Cursing the dermatologist that decided I needed to have a mole removed on the 18th, one day before my birthday and five days before our holidays. Normally I visit the plastic surgeon to have moles removed because he stitches them up nicely and I don't need to worry about open wounds, etc. When I visited the dermatologist this year, he found one along my side, which is normally covered by my bra. He wanted to remove it so I thought I would give him the benefit of the doubt that it would be fine. HUGE mistake. I can't wear my bra without putting a band-aid or something on it to protect it. However, it turns out I am allergic to every piece of sticky thing that we put on my skin. So annoying!

>> Watching lots of new movies. We've been pretty lazy these past few days, which has been kind of annoying because I really want to venture outside, but its been too cold. As a result, we have been downloading a bunch of new movies to watch. Last night we watched Pitch Perfect and the night before we watched Ted. Both were pretty funny. 

>> Enjoying finally getting back into my blog. The past few weeks were crazy hectic with work and getting ready for the holidays. I've neglected my blog for too long, I'm sorry. Right now I am trying to get caught up with a bunch of unread posts from you all. I am also reading Blog Inc, which is giving me some great new ideas that I hope to follow through with in the new year. I really want to tap into my creative side and see what I can find...!

Pretty Palette.

via

I love this photos, and I love this color palette. So pretty!

What I'm Listening To.

I’m amazing when you’re beside me 
I am so much more

It's going to be a white Christmas...!

Merry Christmas Eve!! 

Blog Inc.

via

One of my favorite birthday presents was this book, Blog Inc. I have only read the first few pages, but so far, I love it! If you don't already own this book, I highly recommend that you jump on over to amazon, here and purchase it!!!

Twenty-Nine.

Source: picship.com via Chelsea on Pinterest

Today is my 29th birthday. Eeek, I am getting old!! 

Last night, D and I went out for a nice dinner to the Keg. With the crazy week that we have ahead, it was really nice going out just to the two of us. Tonight, my parents are taking us out for Sushi. Yumm! 

I will still probably be MIA for the next few days or so as we have multiple other family dinners this week before we head out of town. Hope everyone is having a GREAT week!

Free Holiday Coupon Book.

via

I have been searching high and low for some free printable holiday coupons. My search turned up few options, most of which weren't anything spectacular. Only one really stood out from the rest.

What You Need

• Holiday coupon template 
• Scissors 
• Small hole punch 
• Ribbon, cord, or twine
• Marker or pen

For instructions and to download the template, jump over to Natalie's blog, Johnny in a Dress, here. 

If you have found any other amazing templates, please let me know!  

It's Almost Friday.

I cannot believe it's almost Friday. Seriously, where has the week gone. Work is very busy and by the time I get home, I am exhausted. Maybe its the weather (rain, rain and more rain), or maybe its because I am working six days a week. Either way, I am beyond exhausted; all I want to do is sleep. I have been totally MIA from my blog this week. 

Monday

Worked all day, came home, made dinner, and went to bed at like 10 pm.  

Tuesday

Worked half the day, stopped by my parents house, came home, watched Hart of Dixie (best episode ever!), made dinner, and went to bed.

Wednesday 

Worked all day, rushed home, got dressed and went to my work's Christmas party, came home, and went to bed. 

Thursday 

Worked half the day, went to the chiropractor, waited over an hour for my appointment (was not impressed), stopped by my parents house, came home and picked up my boyfriend, stopped by the mall for some Starbucks and to pick up some Christmas presents, came home, made dinner, watched TV and now finally on my computer. 

We leave next weekend for two weeks, so this weekend and next week are going to be NUTS! I will apologize in advance for my lack of posts, and lack of replies! 

Music // What I'm Listening To.

I belong with you,
you belong with me,
you're my sweetheart I belong with you,
you belong with me,
you're my sweet

Recipe // Homemade Garlic Bread.

Ingredients

French bread loaf

Butter

Minced garlic

Parmesan cheese

Parsley

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cut the bread into slices, approximately 1 inch thick and place on baking sheet.

3. In a small dish, melt butter (I normally use about 1 Tbsp for 5-6 slices) in the microwave. 

4. Mix together the minced garlic, Parmesan cheese and parsley with the melted butter. 

5. Put into oven for approximately 5 minutes until toasted. 

I love this recipe because its so simple to make and its super delicious! I normally eyeball the ingredients depending on how many slices of bread I decide to cook. For just the two of us, I normally only prepare 5 - 6 slices of french bread for a meal, using maybe 1 tbsp of butter, 1 clove of garlic, a spoonful of Parmesan cheese and a pinch or two of parsley. 

What I'm Listening To.

Once upon a time a few mistakes ago
I was in your sights, you got me alone
You found me, you found me, you found me
I guess you didn't care, and I guess I liked that
And when I fell hard you took a step back
Without me...

Yesterday.

I only worked 4 hours. As much as I would love to work full-time, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, I really enjoy sleeping in and having afternoons off. I think in the new year I may start looking for a new job because I am finding working 2 part-time jobs, 6 days a week, is wearing on  me. 

I had my monthly chiropractor appointment; I really don't know what I would do without him! Last week I had some blood work done and noticed on the report that one of the things was flagged. I have yet to hear from my doctor, but took my results to my chiropractor and he told me exactly what I needed to do to. 

I went home to visit my dog. As much as I love living with my boyfriend, I do miss living at home because of this handsome guy below. To help my mom out, I normally stop by the house once or twice a week to visit with him. 

I managed to get some Christmas shopping done, and even managed to wrap two presents to put under the tree. I am almost done buying presents for my family here, but still have to shop for D's family. His parents told us not to get them anything, which I refuse to do, and I haven't the slightest clue what to get his nephews (age 4 and 6) because they already have TONS of toys! 

I didn't turn my laptop on. I thought about it, but couldn't be bothered to walk over to the table to use it. Instead, I spent the evening relaxing and watching TV (specifically, Hart of Dixie). 

I am currently obsessed with Hart of Dixie, I don't think I have admitted this yet. I think its probably my top favorite shows that I am watching. The best part, my boyfriend will even sit down and watch it with me! 

I Can't Wait Until...

January 13th, 2013 -- the season 2 premier of GIRLS! If you haven't watched this show before, I recommend that you start, ASAP!

Fettuccini with Rosé Sauce & Chicken.

Ingredients

Olivieri Rosé Sauce, 600 ml
Olivieri Fettuccini, 350 g
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Directions

1. Cut up chicken breasts into small pieces.

 2. Stir fry chicken pieces in approx 1 tbsp olive oil. When chicken is cooked, add rosé  sauce and let simmer.

3. Cook pasta as per directions on the package.

4. Mix sauce with pasta, and enjoy!

Olivieri pasta sauces are probably my favorite because they make cooking dinner so simple. I am not a huge fan of this sauce by itself, but find adding some chicken (and maybe a splash of white wine for flavour) makes for the perfect sauce!! We used to eat this meal at least once a month, but haven't had it in almost a year mainly because the grocery store replaced the Olivieri sauce with their own brand of sauce. I tried the store brand once, and will never buy it again. Enjoy!

Monday Motivation.

Source: sayingimages.com via Chelsea on Pinterest

What's Your Back-up Plan?

Many people hear all the time that they should back up their images, but they never get around to it because they either forget, or think that a computer failure could never happen to them. Have you ever experienced this? 

I have learned my lesson the hard way, twice.

With all of these recent natural disasters occurring these past few months, backing up my photos has been one of many things on my mind. What happens if there is a BIG earthquake or a fire in the building where I live? Yes, I know, in the grand scheme of things, they are just photos; but nonetheless, I would still be upset I didn't do something more when I had the chance. At the moment, I have all my photos on my laptop, most of them on my external hard drive and some on my boyfriends computer, and a few of them backed up onto my Flickr account.

Although the main purpose of Flickr is to share you photos, this online service allows you to safely store the original file you upload -- providing you have purchased their Pro account. The cost is very reasonable, $24.95 for one year, and it removes any upload or storage limits. It also lets you save and access the very large resolution files. For these reasons, I have chosen Flickr as one of my main back-up plans. The downside is that I have a very large photo library and the process of uploading my photos is very time consuming.

Althought Flickr seems like a reliable service, I have my concerns over Flickr's parent company, Yahoo. I don't think it would be a bad idea to look into other alternatives. However, I suspect they may all cost significantly more than $24.95 per year. I don't mind spending a little more than I currently am, but am not prepared to drop a couple hundred per year. Until I figure out another plan, I guess I will continue to back-up my photos to Flickr.

Do you currently back-up your photos to an online service? What's your back-up plan?

My Weekend via Instagram.

I work six days a week, so my weekends are fairly low key! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

I Love My Online Friends 'GFC' Hop.

I am super excited to about today because I am co-hosting the I Love My Online Friends 'GFC' Hop. This is an awesome blog hop that I have been linking up to for quite some time now. Blog hops are a great way to help network your blog and to meet some amazing ladies in the process. For more information on this fantastic blog hop and guest hosting, please read >> HERE.

Well, are you ready? Let's go hopping!

RULES FOR THE HOP.

1. Please follow your host and the fab five on Google Friend Connect (GFC).

Tami @ The Things We Find Inside

Whitney @ Something Brought You Here

Maria @ This Life's Beautiful Moments

Erin @ Three Six Five

Chelsea @ Life Unpublished

Kera @ Nugget On A Budget

2. Link up your homepage and start hopping around. Remember, this is a blog hop, you've gotta do some hopping in order for it to truly be worth your time. When you get a new follower it's always nice to return the favour. Visit their blogs, leave them a comment and/or return the follow.

3. You are not required to, but it would be great if you could tweet/like/pin/share this post and/or grab the button and share it on your blog. The more people that see this hop, the more blogs for us to visit and the more followers we gain.

Happy Hopping!

<center> <a href="http://www.thethingswefindinside.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="The Things We Find Inside" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5X_QLZkKN38/UI2nkC5Pp_I/AAAAAAAAEqQ/C966VyF2XDo/s1600/fb2.jpg" alt="The Things We Find Inside"/></a></center>

Full Moon?

Full moon tonight? Not quite. After my day today, I would have thought it was, but it's not. Not for another 4 days at least.

This is what happened to me today....

#1. On my drive to work, there is this little bridge that is under repair. The city has some traffic lights set up on either side to control the traffic through the one lane. As I approached my red light, there were two vehicle and a bicycle in front of me. However, the first of the two vehicles was at least two car lengths onto the bridge so that traffic coming from the opposite side could not drive though. Our side had a red light, so I have not idea what was going through his head and all I could do was laugh at the idiot. 

#2. The work computer continued to get the blue screen of death today, and would then crash and tell me there was a boot drive error. I have no idea what happened to it because it was working fine on Wednesday. All I know is that it wasn't me who broke it, thankfully.

#3. Driving home from work, I was approaching an intersection. Keep in mind, there is a bus two cars behind me, there is a bus stop is just before this intersection and a side road just after the intersection. So ... I am approaching this intersection, the light is green, the car coming the opposite way appeared to be turning left to go down the side road, but nope ... he has stopped right in front of the bus stop, blocking me from driving in my lane. Seriously buddy? WTF are you thinking? It was dark out so I shined my brights on him to see what the hell he was doing, and if he was okay -- he appeared to be fine so I passed him and later noticed in my rear view mirror that he was backing up to get out of the way of the bus. 

#4. I am a few blocks away from my house and this pedestrian wearing all black decides to run IN FRONT of my vehicle to cross the street. He is lucky that I saw him and slammed on my breaks because otherwise he would have been a hood ornament. And, it would have been 100% his fault. Didn't his mother teach him not to J-Walk, or to look before he crossed the street? I hate to admit it or even say it, but if people can't be bothered to look before they cross in the middle of a busy street, they deserve what ever consequences may come their way and should realize it will be their fault. 

Needless to say, by the time I walked in the door, and to only find out the shopping hadn't been done like I had asked, I immediately put my cranky pants on. I was not impressed and not in the mood for any BS. Thankfully they didn't stay on for too long...! :)

Friday's Letters.

Dear blog friends, I hope you all had a fantastic thanksgiving..! I thought it was about time to get into the spirit of the holidays, so I wanted to share a photo of our little Christmas tree that we just decorated. Dear blog, I'm sorry I have neglected you this week. I've been taking some time away from the computer to relax and catch up on some much needed sleep!! Dear body, I am so ready to start feeling better, hopefully soon. Dear boyfriend, why are you so challenging to shop for this holiday season. Dear bank account, I'm sorry, the next month or two is going to be very expensive! Goodbye savings!

Favorite Finds.

If you haven't already noticed, I am becoming more and more addicted to sharing photos via instagram. I am not sure how I stumbled upon this fabulous find, but I am sure glad that I did. 

Have you seen these patterns in people's photos on instagram? 

Top Left: via Top Right via
Bottom Left: via Bottom Right via

When I first saw these patterns blended with images, I was in love and had to find the app that would allow me to do the same. The only clue that I could find was a common tag in all the photos: #ndpatterns. I searched and searched iTunes and the internet for the app that would create these cool patterns. In the process, I may have dropped a few dollars here and there in the app store, maybe even a few too many that I didn't need to.

Thankfully, late Sunday night I figured it out. It wasn't an app I was looking for, it was a website. A website that offers instagram pattern images, for free. If you want to check them out for yourself, head on over to nealdieker's website here. There are two packs you can download, and they are both free! 

I absolutely love the idea of blending your photos with these cool patterns. The below image is something I quickly threw together. 

Perhaps I am behind the times with this whole image blending trend; if you are curious how its done and what apps to use, leave me a comment and I will share in another post!

Hope everyone is having a fantastic week.

Sunday Confessions.

One. This is my first time linking up with Sunday Confessions. I have been meaning to for awhile now. 
Two. I have somewhat neglected my blog this week. I am sorry. But it has been nice not staring at a computer screen, especially with the way I have been feeling this past week. I think I have sorta got the pain under control and am being pro-active next week by booking appointments with my family doctor and massage therapist.
Three. I have already started my Christmas shopping and have already spent way too much on one particular family member. Dad, you better like the present I got you! I also have no idea what to get my boyfriends family, especially his nephews. One is 4-years and the other is 6-years old. I want to get them something fun, but educational. Hmm... 
Four. I have been really lazy the past few weeks, okay months, with not exercising. In my mind, my excuses are justified, but in reality, I have been really lazy and should push myself more. Maybe in the next week or two I will. 
Five. I was talking to my mom tonight and she was telling me that she splurged and went and got her hair done at the salon. I am tired of my hair and have no idea how to style it any more. No matter what I do, I don't like it. 
Six. I just got my drivers license renewed the other week and my new one arrived in the mail this week. The photo is horrible. Absolutely horrible. When I did my hair that day, I had bangs but in my photo, I don't have any. What the heck? 

Sponsor Love.

I wanted to officially introduce the lovely ladies that have been swapping buttons with me this month, and most of them in October and September.

Anyways ... I must say, they are all very amazing and I love following their blogs! If you have a spare moment or two, please head on over to their blogs and see just how amazing they are! 

Kerri @ Life Always
Blog

English @ Be Freckled
Blog // Twitter // Pinterest

Britta @ The Boots Parade
Blog // Twitter // Pinterest

Kelly @ Kelly Elizabeth
Blog // Twitter // Pinterest // Facebook // Bloglovin

Kristen @ A Day in the Life of Me
Blog // Twitter // Pinterest // Facebook // Instagram // Bloglovin

Elizabeth @ Moonlight Goodbyes
Blog

Rachel @ Rachel Roaming
Blog

Beatriz @ Daily Living In Geneva
Blog // Twitter // Pinterest // Instagram

I have really missed...

... this sharp, shock like pain in the side of my face. It hasn't bothered me much over the past year, thankfully, but for whatever reason it has returned. Back in the summer of 2010, I managed to damage the nerve in my face and ended up with Trigeminal Neuralgia.  For approximately five-months I dealt with this pain because nobody could figure out what it was. Long story short, I managed to get the pain under control and it hasn't bothered me much over the past year. Perhaps its this cold, winter weather that has triggered it; either way, I am not thrilled about it being back. 

... spending a ridiculous amount of money on prescription drugs. The only medicine that helps with the nerve pain is VERY expensive. To keep the pain away, I have to take one pill three times a day. The below $ amount is only for 17 days, and its for the smallest amount of mg's per pill. If my doctor decides to increase the dosage, which I suspect will happen as the weather continues to get colder, I'm looking at $200 for a month. Not cool.

** I haven't actually missed the pain and spending ridiculous amounts of money, I just needed to rant about it. 

Yesterday.

How to Survive a Cranky Day.

Source: mindbodygreen.com via Chelsea on Pinterest

We all have cranky days. Right? 

Some days when I wake up in the morning, especially if I am feeling overtired, I will often find myself feeling cranky for most of the day. When I am cranky, I am also easily irritated by stupid little things that I should know better than to let them get to me. I really don't like it when I get like this because I find myself taking it out on the ones I love -- I'm sorry boyfriend..!

I recently discovered a few insights from the MindBodyGreen website on how to deal with my crankyness in a positive manner, without damaging too many relationships along the way. I found these tips to be very helpful, so I thought I would share them.

6 Tips to Survive a Cranky Day:

1. Notice how you feel, be the observer and watch the emotions flow through you and how they affect you physically.


2. Avoid judging yourself.


3. Don't pretend to be happy and put on a fake smile, that only suppresses the feelings, bottling them up causing you to have a massive blow up at someone who least deserves it. 


4. Avoid people as much as you can. 


5. Go into the backyard or the nearest park and scream and yell. 


6. Say thank you.

The first three tips describe me to a tee...

1. When I am overtired and cranky, it really affects me physically. I get headaches, I'm clumsy, and my muscles tense up which in turn triggers the neuralgia to flair up in my face. And when my face flairs up, it triggers even more emotions. Knowing that my negative thoughts affect my body has been a huge help because I have learned how not to let myself get to that point. But, I am not perfect and sometimes I do let my cranky behavior get the best of me. 


2. When I am irritated, I am always really hard on myself. As mentioned, when I am overtired, I can become very clumsy, especially when cooking dinner. Over the years, many fingers have been burned, and dishes or food have been dropped. When this happens, I curse and always blame myself for anything that goes wrong. Learning not to judge myself is something I still need to work on. 


3. Massive blow up, oh yes. That usually happens after number two. Thankfully, when I have these moments, my boyfriend is really amazing and knows how to calm me down and make me feel less cranky so that I can get past it. 

To read more about how to survive a cranky day, head over to the full article here. I found this article to be very insightful, so I highly recommend that you read it. 

What do you do to survive a cranky day?

Moving all ads to Passionfruit.

I don't know why I didn't do this sooner...!

For the sake of my sanity, I have decided to move all of my current ad swaps to passionfruit. Why? It's free and it's simple ... Passionfruit takes care of all the mundane details (for example, it automatically rotates your ads for you, do I need to say more?) so I can focus on the important stuff.

For those of you who didn't swap ads through Passionfruit, I have manually imported your ads. Thankfully I kept past email correspondence and knew when we started swapping ads. I hope you don't mind that I have made this switch.

If you are thinking about signing up, I recommend you read this tutorial from Heather at Just Love.ly -- it really helped me because I had no idea I could import ads, etc. I would also be more than happy to help anyone get set up with Passionfruit. 

Thank you all for swapping ads with me!