Autodesk University

Where do I begin? In a nutshell, AU is a 3 day conference that consist's of Classes geared towards learning about the Autodesk software. If you didn't know, I am a drafter and in the Engineering field we rely heavily on these products. In my everyday "work" life I use regular Autocad and Autocad Civil 3D. I won't get too much into that though...zzzz.... I know, boring nerd tech stuff, which is funny because I'm SO not a techy person (don't even know if "techy" is a word that technical smart people would use). I have attended this conference once before, 4 years ago, and everything went way over my head. I really wanted to attend this year because I am so much more confident with the 3D program we use and so much more familiar with "terms" that they use and how our industry interacts with each other.

The conference is about 9,000 people big and there are so many sellers there that are giving away so many little freebies. Below is a glimpse of some of the things I received over the last 3 days. Free stuff is always fun right?!

BUT I don’t really care about all that. You see that yellow ribbon on my name tag that says “Certified Professional” ….yeah, that’s me . That’s what I care about. I have been working with this program for almost 15 years and have only “thought” about getting certified the past, maybe, 2 years. This year they were offering free certification tests so I finally decided to take the plunge the first night at AU. I was very confident walking in, hello 15 year’s experience and guess what …I failed. I was sooooo…… bummed! I was going to give up and pretend I never took the test in the first place but we were allowed to try twice. I seriously debated but decided “what have I got to lose”. So the second night I walk in, nervous as heck, and I passed!!

I took it slow, I triple checked my answers and even went back to questions that I was really stuck on. I never really thought of being certified as a big deal but I’m so excited I took the test and now I can confidently say I’m a professional…lol… silly, I know.

Besides the AU stuff we got to stay at THEhotel. All the rooms are suites so it was really nice. Unfortunately my schedule was jam packed so I didn’t get to actually enjoy the room (maybe I’ll get to take a swim in the tub before I check out on Friday). But my husband and Babe came along with me, so they took advantage of the room more than I did.

I can’t wait to get back to my regular schedule and catch up on my blog reading!

Random

1. I didn't have a chance to write my weekly "Weekend Goodness" post because I literally had the LAZIEST weekend I have had in years! Which is actually really nice because.....

2. .... I'm headed to Vegas today after work for a 3 day conference. I'm attending Autodesk University, Engineering overload! I'm really looking forward to it.

3. Have you ever had a Mary Kay facial?! I have had at least one before but this past Saturday (in between being lazy) my cousin and I had a Mary Kay consultant come over for facials and we were super impressed. I don't know if it's because there was only 2 of us that she had more time to focus on each product and more of the products, but what ever it was I was really happy and so was my face! Unfortunately I only bought the Microdermabrasion Set because I recently splurged on a straightener. But Christmas and my Birthday aren't too far away!

4. I don't think I have ever purchased anything online for Cyber Monday BUT today A Beautiful Mess is offering 25% off of their on-line e-courses and select Butter London polishes are $10 each PLUS free shipping! I wanted to buy all of the $10 bottles since I only have 2 of the selected colors but I resisted the urge and just picked 1 for me and 2 as gifts.

Today I'm linking up with Lowercase Letters for Miscellany Monday

Thanksgiving & Black Friday

Hosting Thanksgiving this year was actually kind of fun and not as stressful as I thought it would be. Then again my husband is the one that cooked the Turkey and the Yams. The night before I made the cranberry sauce, baked mini apple pies, cut all the carrots, and dipped the marshmallows. We tag teamed on the mashed potatoes and my sister-in-law made the Ham. We had a small gathering of people which was perfect for our first time.

So let me tell you about Black Friday. I had NO idea that so many stores were opening at MIDNIGHT Thanksgiving night. I don't know where I have been that I missed that but as soon as I realized it I had to pump myself up to make sure I didn't fall asleep. I really wanted to be one of the "first 100" in line at H&M but couldn't believe how many people were already there at 11:15pm. I'm pretty sure we were #200 in line. Anyway, we waited anyway because I knew exactly what I wanted. I found all my items in about 30 minutes and then spent an hour in line to pay! My husband and I came to the conclusion that younger people, like teenagers, are more likely to stay up late, rather than get up early for doorbuster's. It kind of sucked, I was really disappointed I invested so much time at one store. We went home right after that and then I woke up the next morning at 6:00am to hit up Target, Old Navy and Bed Bath and Beyond.....all of which were completely empty! I seriously didn't wait in a single line.

 My husbands family has a tradition of making Turkey Tacos the day after Thanksgiving and since only his dad and sister live the closest to us, we took all our leftovers there, ate everything (except turkey) for lunch and then my sister-in-law and I made the Turkey Tacos for dinner.....soooo..... delicious! You should try it next year. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

The Liebster Award

So this morning I'm reading through a post by Elise from Sunday Charm about the Liebster Award and as I get all the way to the end I notice that I'm the last name on her list for people that she Nominated. How awesome is she?! Thanks Elise! I have come across a few blogs with this Liebster Award and I love reading the random questions and answers. So here it goes:

 

 

If you receive this award, there are a few rules that you must follow...

·         Each blogger nominated must post 11 things about themselves.

·         They must then answer the 11 questions the tagger has asked.

·         Blogger then creates 11 questions of their own to ask the bloggers they decide to nominate.

·         They must choose 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers to nominate and link them on their blog post.

·         Finally, the bloggers must be notified of their award!

·         Oh, and there are no tag backs.

11 Things About Me:

1. I love to eat pizza with a fork and Knife.
2. I have prescription glasses that I wear "maybe" 5 days a year. and NO, I am not wearing contacts the other 360 days.
3. I have worked at the same company for almost 13 years!
4. Even though my husband and I are pretty good at keeping up with technology, we have phones that are about, or over, 4 years old.
5. I'd rather clean the ENTIRE house, before washing a single dish.
6. I can't whistle.
7. hate is a strong word, but I hate liar's.
8. I do not believe in superstitions.
9.  I have been in the back of a cop car once. did you know the seats are plastic?! (I might have to write a post about that. then again, the mystery of it is probably better than the real story)
10. I get so annoyed when people take profile pictures of me because I don't like my nose.
11. I bought my first car months before I had a Driver's License.

Questions from Elise:

1. Are you a morning or night person? Night. I HATE mornings.
2. What is your go-to date night activity? Date night's are so rare with a 3 year old but I'm usually satisfied with a nice dinner out.
3. Walmart or Meijer or Kroger or Marsh or Target? Target is my #1 spot!
4. Where are you planning on shopping first on Black Friday? even though I just said Target is my #1 spot, I will be in line at H&M first
5. Cat, dog or hamster person? I don't have any pets but we had a bunny that I LOVED so much and was seriously devastated when he died.
6. Are you comfortable singing in front of people? NO, but I will after several bottles of Wine and Sake... you don't want to know.
7. If you were an animal, what animal would you be? A Bird! I could be free to fly anywhere and everywhere.
8. What Harry Potter movie is your favorite? I'm going to say the first one because it's the only one I really remember.... I would really like to have a marathon though before I watch the last one.
9. What is your favorite family holiday tradition? Getting together at my grandma's house and tasting all the different foods everyone brings. I have 8 Aunt's, 8 uncle's and about 21 cousins (most of them with someone/married and have kids of their own) so that is always fun.
10. How many times a day are you on Facebook? usually once.
11. What is one gift/talent you wish you had? I REALLY wish I could play the Piano!

Questions for my nominees:

1. What do you like best about blogging?
2. If you could meet one famous person, who would it be?
3. Hot weather or Cold?
4. Are you a "fly by the seat my pants kinda gal" or do you "plan" everything?
5. Any New Year Resolutions?
6. What is your favorite accessory?
7. What is your biggest pet peeve?
8. Are you crafty?
9. Are you superstitious?

and because I absolutely can't think of 2 more question's, without feeling like I'm invading someones privacy, I'm going to steal these last few from Elise

10. Are you a morning or night person?
11. What is one gift/talent you wish you had?

And now, I nominate... (only 5 people) sorry, I'm breaking the rules. I don't actually "know" any other bloggers. But I'm going to attempt to reach out to a handful :)

 

 

Maggie from Sweet Peas and Lucky Honey

Rachel from Topaz N Pearls

Katie from Dusty Window Panes

Emily from The Life of Mrs. A

Kiana from Kiana Bates

Greatest accomplishment of 2012

By far my greatest accomplishment this year was buying a house! For as long as I could remember I have wanted nothing more in my life than to own my own home. I imagined my house would be so pretty and big and modern and perfect. But finding an affordable house like that in Los Angeles is pretty much impossible unless you can afford to live in Beverly Hills or Malibu or where ever there are fancy houses like that. Last year (right before Thanksgiving actually) after putting in several offers on houses,  we received a call that one of our offers, from a month before,  had been accepted. We were excited and confused because a whole month had went by and we kind of forgot what the house looked like. I do remember that it had hardwood floors and a billion (ok 6!) windows in the living/dining area that brought in so much sunlight. We waited 2 months in escrow and on Jan. 25, 2012 we officially got the keys!

(Yeah, I totally whited out our address there above the mailbox)

The first thing my husband and brother did was completely renovate the main bathroom, from floor to ceiling.

And my husband built me my own closet! I was NOT about to share a tiny closet with him.

Owning a house is such a grown up responsibility. We have learned so much this year about home ownership and look forward to the years ahead of us that we will spend here. It isn't the big modern house I had always dreamed about but it's ours and it's perfect (well, close to perfect). We have so much that we still want to do to it to make it our own, but all in time.

Today I'm linking up with Merrick, Janssen and Landen for Sister's share it all.

What i'm looking forward to this Thanksgiving

This year we will be celebrating Thanksgiving in OUR own home. I have to admit this was not my idea but rather my husband being persistent. I made it very clear that I didn't feel like cooking an entire feast, so he is volunteering to make the Turkey. One thing we are looking forward to as host's is that we can do and cook whatever WE want to. We both aren't too fond of stuffing or that cranberry jelly stuff so guess what, we aren't making it. I really want to try making a homemade cranberry sauce, anybody have a good, simple recipe? Also, I was hoping I would get to make these Accordion Potatoes with Rosemary and Garlic (because as I just mentioned, we can cook whatever we want) but my husband was like "what?! but I want mashed potatoes", what the heck! So I decided to make the accordion potatoes this weekend.

And although they were good, I agree that we should have mashed potatoes.

 

Besides the whole day of Thanksgiving, I'm looking forward to Black Friday (yes, call me crazy) But I have literally been putting together a list of items to buy "specifically" on this day, for our house, since February. Another thing I am really looking forward to is getting together at my parents house after Thanksgiving with my brother and nieces and nephews to decorate the Christmas Tree. A few years ago I decided to buy my parents a fake Christmas Tree because otherwise they just won't bother. So every year we have Marie Callender's Pumpkin Pie and decorate the tree with all the kids, I love it. Wish us luck on our first year of cooking for Thanksgiving! (I'm honestly a little worried)


Today I'm linking up with Kristin from Vignettes

Weekend Goodness

Friday - babe and I were reunited!
Saturday - it rained ALL day .... booo...
Sunday - Babe and I enjoyed some sun and did some thanksgiving/christmas gift shopping

I hope you had a good weekend too!

And in case you missed it:
Random
Dear Babe
Alone
Lionesse

Lionesse

Last weekend while shopping I walked out of a SUPER crowded Victorias Secret empty handed. As I walked out, there was one of those booths that sells hair straighteners and the girl offered me a free sample of their hair serum. Of course this is their way to lure you in closer and ask if they can demonstrate the straightener. I usually say "no thanks" while not even making eye contact. But for some reason on this particular day I smiled, took the sample and sat in the chair while she demonstrated away. I had just washed my hair a few hours earlier, so my hair was a little damp and the perfect amount of frizzy for me to really know if it was working. I was sold when she curled a section of hair, wet it with a spray bottle, moved on to a different section, talked a little and by the time the wet section dried ....it had dried EXACTLY the way she curled it! It didn't even get frizzy again after she wet it. 

So this is what I bought

My hair is really curly, I hate it! shocker!...People with curly want straight, and people with straight want curly. Why is that? I didn't even want to post a picture of how curly my hair can get but I did want you to see why I was so impressed with this straightener.

I washed my hair the night before and used a pea size amount of the serum before putting it in a braid. In the morning I just took the braid out and went from curly to straight in 16 minutes! It was a little pricey but seriously worth every penny.
What brand of straightener do you use? And does it work this great?

Alone

It's pretty late and I should be getting ready for bed but instead I decided to grab a cup of hot chocolate and rummage through some of my old things. One thing in particular, my book of poems.

I haven't written a poem in years but as a teenager, and even into my early tweenties, I loved writing poems. Nothing fancy, mostly silly love poems, maybe an angry teenage rant or two. But I love looking back at those poems and remembering what it was, at that moment, that made me feel a certain way, to write certain words. Even if it was a heartbreak or an argument, whatever it was, I can always look back on it.
Tonight is a little colder than usual and it's been raining for a while now. It's funny how much I can relate (right now) to this poem I wrote when I was 17.

Alone
the clouds were slowly coming
and I was all alone.
the rain was slowly falling
and I was all alone.
the night was slowly leaving
and I was all alone.
the day was slowly coming
and I was all alone.
the birds were slowly singing
and I was all alone.
the rainbow was slowly rising
and I was all alone.
the rose was slowly opening
and I was all alone.
the day goes by
and I'm still alone.

ok, maybe a little depressing but I promise I'm not feeling as sad today as I was the last few days. Plus, I'm about an hour away from Friday and that's always something to be happy about right. I hope you enjoyed my poem.
Anything you love to look back on to remember certain moments?

Dear Babe

The past few days without you at home have been the saddest days of my life. For the past 2 weeks you and your dad have been helping at grandpa's house and have only been back at home a few times. This past Monday as I was getting ready for work and you guys were getting ready to head back to A.V., you clung to me for a full 30 minutes, just wanting me to hold you and sing to you. I asked if you wanted mini pancakes and you said yes. As we were standing in the kitchen you asked (with the saddest look on your face) "mama, am I leaving". I said "Yes". You said "but I don't want to. I want you to stay with me". I started crying and held you so tight. I didn't want you to leave either but I tried to give you some words of encouragement, I told you that you would "have so much fun with auntie Ceci and snakey and aeris". I gave you your pancakes to go and told you how much I Love You and how much I was going to Miss you. I cried every time I thought about you that day, and the day after and even now as I'm writing this. It breaks my heart that you are not at the door, excited to open it for me when I get home from work.

 

You are a huge part of my heart and I Love you so much more than all the words I can write.

 

Random

1. I left my house almost an hour later than I normally do! And yet I got to work only 10 minutes later. Then I realized, oh Veteran's Day. So even though I don't get the day off, at least I can enjoy a day of traffic free commute.
2. I'm no Gardener, so since when do Roses bloom during the Fall?! I was super surprised to see this the other day as I drove up the driveway after work.

3. The girl I bought my straightener from this weekend couldn't believe I was Married AND had a kid. I said "and I bet I'm even older than you!". I hope I always look a lot younger than really I am.
4. And since I'm on the subject of my age, I have decided I'm going to have a big birthday party for myself come February (yes that's still a few months away) but I'm excited! I remember in 2009 when we first tried looking for a house, I called my cousin (a realtor) and said "we want to buy a house and I want to be able to celebrate my birthday dancing in it. So we have 6 months", well ... 3 months later we gave up because we were having ZERO luck. So now that we have our house, I am going to have a big party and dance my butt off!

 

Today I'm Linking up with Lowercase Letters for Miscellany Monday

Weekend Goodness

My weekend has been literally overflowing with goodness, No Joke!
It all started on Friday as I was scrolling through my Bloglovin favorites and I saw that Merrick posted Part 2 of Sew and Tell. She just had the cutest baby and decided to take submission's for sewing projects/refashions while she is taking a maternity leave from blogging. I'm pretty positive she did not discriminate against a single person that submitted something, but I was still SUPER excited to see my DIY Oversized shirt/sweater on her blog on Friday.
My cousin stayed with me for a few days while my husband was gone AGAIN helping his dad. We watched Girly movies and ate a lot of yummy food, nothing too exciting. We also got in a little shopping before she left on Saturday. While shopping I had every intention of buying a mustard colored coat I had been eyeing ALL week (and even tried on twice) but then I got distracted by one of those little booths where they straighten your hair. Needless to say, this is what I bought on our shopping trip

(more on this soon, in case you are interested)

After returning home with my one item, I went to check the mail .... I love getting anything that isn't a Bill or Junk Mail, so I was excited to get my monthly Birchbox AND my free Beauty bag from Target (pictured on the left, filled with little samples and coupons).

 

Then .... 15 minutes later, my boys showed up! Babe and I played out in the cold until I said "we need to go in soon, it's about to rain". He didn't believe me ...he said he couldn't see it.

We spent the rest of the weekend snuggling, kissing and watching movies (cheesy, I know!) but that's what happens when I miss them that much and they miss me. 

I hope you had a good weekend too!

And in case you missed it:
Handwriting
What did I do Today?
3 Projects in 30 minutes

3 Projects in 30 minutes

...And it only cost $2! I have been on the hunt for the PERFECT mirror for my vanity since February. Needless to say, I have not come across that perfect mirror. So I decided to go to the dollar tree and pick up something temporary. They had one style of a framed mirror BUT it didn't have one of those little kick-stands in the back for it to stand on it's own ... so I picked a different frame and quickly thought of 2 different projects I could make with the leftover pieces.
This is what I bought: (picture on the left)

These are the supplies I had on hand: (picture on the right) Glue Gun, Scissors, paint (in Vintage Gold), Black Ribbon and other various ribbon (btw, I did not end up using the pink ribbon pictured. I was still undecided at this point)

• First I took everything apart. Remove the glass part from the picture frame and remove the tape that holds the mirror to the frame.
• Plug in the glue gun!

Project #1: Vanity Mirror

1a. I painted one very light coat of the gold paint over the picture frame,  and a 2nd coat only over the area that was black. Let dry while creating project 2.
1b. Add the mirror and back ... all done!

Project #2: Dry Erase Board

2a. Cut 2 strips of Black Ribbon (mine were approximately 35" long)
2b. Lay down the ribbon, Lay the glass piece on top of the ribbon, with appox. 1" sticking out on the top.
2c. Put glue on the piece of 1" ribbon and fold over to meet the glass.
2d. Wrap the ribbon around the entire glass piece to come back up to the piece you just glued and glue the ribbon together. Repeat on the opposite side.
2e. Bring the 2 strips of ribbon together and tie in a bow ... all done!

 

I wish I had some fancy Black letter stickers but until I find some I just printed on plain white paper and stuck it behind the glass. I have to be honest ... I have NO idea how long this glue is going to hold this piece of glass, it's pretty light weight BUT I'm still a little worried.

Project #3: Earring Holder

3a. Take the other frame and mark it where you want your ribbons to run across. I wanted to add 5 ribbons and tried to space them as evenly as possible.
3b. Glue each ribbon at the location's you marked.
3c. Add earrings ...all done!
(I think I might go back and lay/glue ribbon along the back of the frame just to make it look a little neater)

I'm really excited about the finished products. Super simple, quick and functional. What simple projects have you completed lately?

What did I do today?!

Do you ever have days where you are just going and going and constantly doing something and at the end of the day you feel like you didn't do anything?! That's how I feel today. I went to work and got off at 2pm, like I do every Wednesday. I went straight to Target to grab a few things for dinner and dessert. Went home, picked up the living/ dining room, cleaned the bathroom, created 3 projects in 30 min (stay tuned for that tomorrow), cooked dinner, did laundry and the dishes. Yet I feel like I still have a million things to do. I think the time change might have something to do with it. I was so excited about it over the weekend because I couldn't wait for that extra hour of sleep BUT it's pitch black out when I get home from work at 6:00, it kind of sucks!

I usually feel better after a little snack but that didn't help either. I hope I snap back soon.

Handwriting

A few weeks ago Joelle posted about a handwriting Linkup that she had been wanting to put together based on 2 previous posts that she wrote. I read the other 2 posts and didn't really think anything of it at that moment. But as the day went on I really started to think how interesting it was that she keeps a sketchpad specifically for practicing handwriting. I personally have always thought my handwriting isn't half bad, cursive and printing. I would never think to "practice" perfecting it. So I decided to take on her challenge of writing a few simple things: my name & signature, blog name, where I live and a favorite song lyric.

Um, to my surprise, I actually wrote this 5 different times! And all 5 times it looked exactly the same .... not as great as I would like it to be. One thing that is interesting is seeing the 2 different types of writings together. If you look at her writing, the different types look like they just "match each other" (does that make sense?)

I hardly ever use cursive. And when I print, it's all caps, as you can see. Nowadays it's so easy to get lost in all of the technology that you lose sight of the simplest things, such as writing. I want to be able to teach my son how valuable good handwriting can be and so I will be taking note from Joelle and "practice" as much as can.

Weekend Goodness

This weekend I got to spend a LOT of quality time with my babe. My husband is helping out his dad with some clean-up/fixing up around his house, and therefore it was just the 2 of us hanging out. On Saturday we visited my cousin in her new house. Babe got to play with his cousins and we went shopping for a few things that she needed for the house. On Sunday we visited my parents and saw Brave at the movie theater. I know it's not playing there anymore but it is at the dollar theater! I love going to see movies like that, especially with a kid (just in case he falls asleep or doesn't like the movie). Luckily he loved the movie and only said he was tired once, about 5 min. before the movie ended. Sure enough he fell asleep before we even got out of the parking lot. We got lunch and spent a whole hour wandering around Wal-mart just to purchase a tiny vase that cost $1. Kind of waste, but whatever. Afterwards we spent the rest of daylight in my father in laws backyard.
I never really noticed before but some of the grass back there reminds me of a meadow.

It was really pretty back there today, I don't know if it's because the sun was setting or because I was really enjoying watching how happy my babe was running around with the dogs. Whatever it was, we both had a good weekend. 

I hope you had a good weekend too!

And in case you missed it:

Coffee Chat

Thanks to my Husband

Fear

Random

Coffee Chat

Good Morning, and welcome to November! I know I'm 3 days late but can you believe it's already November! I don't usually use a cup cozy when I'm at home but I did want to show off how talented my mom is. A few months ago I showed her a picture from pinterest and she said "oh, that's easy" and whipped up 2 of them for me. What a great mom.

Last night I put away all the Halloween decorations and got started on a few Fall decorations for our Home.

I feel like I'm a little late on this but living in L.A., I think I'm right on time. I was hoping to get a big fancy wreath, seems like everyone has one. But I decided to get a little crafty and use the supplies I already have. Wish me luck with that one because sometimes things are not as easy as them seem. For example: On Wed., for Halloween, I was a fairy and I tried "4 times" to make a floral crown. I'm happy with the way it turned out but it was a little flimsy. Hopefully my wreath turns out better.

(Me and my Sister in Law, sorry it's a little blurry)

 

Daylight Savings is tonight ... who else is excited about an extra hour of sleep!?
Today I'm linking up with Rags to Stitches. Thanks for stopping by.

Thanks to my Husband

A couple of weeks ago I "attempted " to hang some hooks for my rolls of wrapping paper and completely failed! The walls we live within are over 50 years old and as hard as concrete. But thanks to my husband ... I now have wrapping paper hanging in my craft closet:

 

These little suckers only cost $1 each. I think I have room to add one more (I know I definitely have more wrapping paper!)

 

Guess who has 4 new tires AND a shiny clean car?! My car is almost 8 years old but it feels brand new right now! Since I got a flat tire, we decided it was time to change all of my tires. I am so lazy when it comes to cleaning my car and it was really starting to show on the inside, with a few dust bunnies here and there. My husband thought I didn't notice he cleaned it but of course I DID...I know I didn't clean it.

 

You might think "what's the big deal, he's handling car issues", BUT my husband HATES my car! I bought it before we were married and the first time he drove it, he hit a curb and ruined my BRAND NEW rim. I was so mad and he hated it from that point forward. (although, after he got the new tires on and cleaned it, he admitted it was kind of nice).

 

For the past 3 Halloweens I have enjoyed making some part of my Babes costumes. (my favorite was this "Sparrow" Baby, that's a male fairy. I mean, how cute are his wings?!)

But this year my husband got super creative and made him an awesome boom box to go with his DJ Lance Rock costume.