Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend. Mine was family-filled. Really, just Saturday, but it was all day Saturday.

Due to the fact that I had to get on the road to meet up with my family way too early for a Saturday morning, I decided to take it easy on Friday night and even attempted to get to sleep early. So, I propped myself up in bed in my sea of pillows with my book and decided to rest early and hopefully fall asleep early. Is it just me, or is it every time that you try to go to sleep early it’s as if everyone knows and tries to stop you from sleeping? Long story short, my phone kept ringing, and each time I would jolt awake and not be able to fall back asleep. I had to be up by 6. I made it to the family adventures in time, don’t worry.

The entire family (almost 20 of us) went out for a family dinner to a Chinese food restaurant. This place is known for their duck – they serve up to 300 whole ducks a day – but being a vegetarian, I ordered vegetable fried rice. Needless to say, I wasn’t full by the time dinner was over. But, my mom and dad had a gigantic piece of my favorite chocolate cake at the house for me. How horrible is it that after dinner I came home and ate half of m chocolate cake? Does it make it better that I only ate half and not the whole thing? Either way, I did it, and it was delicious.

Now, I literally spent the time with my whole family and extended family all day and night, so you can imagine, I needed Sunday to recover. My friend and I got smart. We decided to make the most of what could be a lazy Sunday: We grabbed our yoga gear and yoga water bottles and went to a 9 a.m. yoga class. What a way to get motivated for the day. I spent the rest of the day preparing food for this week’s breakfasts and lunches. I am ready for the week!

We are getting near the end of January. Have you kept your resolution for a full month? I am especially interested in those of you who chose to save more money. What are you doing to save more money and how is it going?

Every day and I am bombarded with emails from my favorite stores. It takes everything I have not to look at all of them and shop every day…because who doesn’t like 30% off? I also joined several groups to receive emails about discounts on places and things going on in the area. Of course, I will never stop clipping coupons and saving them in my coupon holder for all of the hard copy coupons I get in the mail and particularly for the grocery store.

In addition to coupons, I have just been better about not purchasing things I don’t need, keeping up my coffee savings account, buying things on sale at the grocery store, and making sure to use what I have in the house before I buy new food items that will go bad. Tell me what your plan is and how it’s been going.

I am a very lucky girl. Just about every Friday I have the luxury of getting together with some of my girl friends for lunch…not just any lunch…sushi. This is our special time together. It’s a guaranteed hour of fun with unbelievable food. My friends and I try everything possible to not talk about work on our Friday lunches. So, naturally, we talk about what we have planned for the weekend. My one friend talks all about what she will do with her husband and 2 girls, another friend generally talks about planning her upcoming wedding, and another friend generally talks about how her husband encourages her to study for the graduate classes she is taking but how she wants to go out and enjoy herself. We have a great little mix.

Our favorite topic is discussing how great it would be to leave work on a Friday evening, go home, lay on the couch, and figure out what to order for dinner so the most time off the couch we would have would be to open the door for the delivery man. Since this never happens, it’s a nice dream to share with good friends who are all just as busy as the next.

These dreams got me thinking…why can’t we have a night in just for us? Why are we always hustle and bustle and on the move to get something done. Which has led me to my next life decision: this Friday, whether I am alone or with friends, I will grab that large bowl fill it with popcorn and MnM’s and eat a delicious and balanced dinner of salty and sweet and either watch whatever TV is on or watch movies…because we all deserve a night in. Anyone want to join me?

One of the greatest parts about having your own place is hanging whatever you want on the walls. Also, you can organize your place in so many different ways when you can hang items on the walls.

For Christmas I received a few new pieces of art for my wall. I am excited to hang my new art on the walls, but dread the actual hanging. I always have a hard time juggling holding the nail steady, swinging the hammer while trying not to hit my fingers. When I hang the picture, I realize the nail is in slightly the wrong place, so I try again. When all is said and done, I have bruised fingers and several holes in the wall. I just found the new InstaHang eliminates the hassle and potential injury.

InstaHang allows you to hang your picture, posters, and mirrors on your wall in one simple step. By using the InstaHang you just need to push and the peg will go into the wall. The InstaHang peg holds up to 10 pounds, so you can hang virtually anything you might want!

So now you can enjoy your empty walls and all of the potential they have. The InstaHang will help you decorate like a professional without the hassle.

In keeping with a New Year’s resolution theme, I thought today we might talk about another popular New Year’s resolution favorite: saving money.

There are lots of ways to cut back and save. I have been finding more and more little shortcuts that allow me to save a little bit of money, but do not make me feel like I am missing out on life and things I enjoy. For example, I now have a travel coffee mug. I have not given up my favorite little independent coffee shop coffee, but I have cut down from 5 days a week to 2 days a week and I brew my own on the other 3 days. Is it saving me millions of dollars? No. But, I am putting $3 into a “coffee savings account” every time I bring my own coffee to work in the morning. Let me tell you what, $3 three times a week is $9 a week – multiplied by 52 weeks in a year equals $468 savings every year! I’ll take it!

There are many other ways to save some extra cash throughout the year. For example, heating cost in your house. Instead of raising the heat every time someone in one room gets cold, you might consider something like purchasing a mini metal fireplace heater to warm up that room a little more without raising your energy bill by raising the heat in the whole house. Also, don’t think of that spare change and “useless.” Save those pennies and you’ll see
how much they add up. You can even make it easier by using a sorting bank that will sort your coins for you into coin wrappers so once it’s full you can take it to the bank and fill up your bank account!

What other ways can you think of saving money for your New Year’s resolution? Happy savings!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas weekend! I hope it was full of family, friends and food…lots of all three! But, now that Christmas is over and 2011 comes to an end, we have end of the year work to get done, and New Years resolutions to make and stick to for 2012!

New Years resolutions are tricky entities. We make New Years resoltuions because we want to make a change in our lives…we have the best of intentions for our New Years resolutions, but somehow our want to make a change becomes a burden or too difficult and we fall off our new wagon and back into our old ways. For 2012, let’s make a real change – let’s stick to it! The goal of the 2012 New Years resolution is to follow through – so make your resolution something you truly can do! Don’t set yourself up for failure. If you’ve never worked out before and you want to lose some weight, don’t make your resolution to hit the gym 5 days a week and go on a super-strict diet 7 days a week. Start with smaller steps, such as Cook healthy meals at least one more day a week and exercise at least one more day a week than before. This way, you’re able to accomplish your goal and you’ll be setting yourself up for easier success. If you like to stay active but you’re too busy to hit the gym, and too cold to go running outside, take the plunge and purchase that elliptical you’ve been looking to buy but never did!

This year, take the time to really think about your New Years resolution for 2012. Make a change in your life that you believe you really can make without feeling guilty. Make your New Years resolution right for you this year!

It is now less than 2 weeks away from Christmas. Have you purchased all of the gifts you need to buy this year? Has any person or item slipped your mind and you need ideas fast? Now is crunch-time! Make a list, check it twice, and be sure you don’t forget someone important to you. I have made my list below of some of my favorite stocking stuffer ideas. Check out this link for even more stocking stuffers

1.

Personalized Pendant Necklace

2.

Personalized Stainless Steel Charm Bracelet

3.

GPS Cup Holder

4.

Manicure Set

5.

Micro Touch Max

As I drive and walk around the city, I always look at the Christmas decorations. I Get it from my mom. I always loved driving around with her, looking at the lights people had put up on their homes for the holiday season. So far this year I have come across a few great Christmas decorations and I thought I might share my top five favorite Christmas decorations with you. In no particular order, you can find my list below.

1. Solar Powered Christmas Lights

2. Solar Christmas Path Trees

3. Outdoor Pre-Lit Reindeer

4. Polar Bear with Lights

5. Giant Lighted Poinsettia

One of the coolest things happened to me the other week. I waited this long to tell you all about it because I wasn’t sure about it myself. But, it’s pretty cool, and I think you all can appreciate this reuniting story.

I opened up my email and found I had a message from someone I didn’t know via a social networking website. For some reason, normally I delete these types of messages, I decided to open it and read it…and I was thrilled to read it. It was a girl who I haven’t spoken to in 20 years who found me by my name (I do not have a picture of myself posted). She took a chance, and sent me a message. I must have read and re-read this very short note a million times over…I knew EXACTLY who she was without even looking at her picture. I sent her a message back and gave her my personal email address and just hoped she would get back to me. I literally waited by my computer to see if she would write back. She did! The night before Thanksgiving, I saw she wrote back—this time she sent me a surprise in her letter—a video of the two of us from when we were 8 years old! I laughed out loud for the full 2 minutes of the video (soundless). I dragged my mom out of the kitchen and away from her pie dishes that needed to be filled with pumpkin pie over into the other room and made both of my parents watch the video with me. I easily watched the video half a dozen times…laughed every time.

I am so excited to be back in touch with my old friend from so many years ago! I know so far we are “pen pals” and send emails back and forth, but I am enjoying getting to know her again. It has also given me a great conversation-starter and I can prove to my friends who know me now that I was, in fact, always camera shy. Have you reunited with anyone recently? How did you reconnect?

Now that Halloween is over and you have these pumpkins, what are you going to do with them? I have come up with a list of things to do with your pumpkin now that it is no longer a decoration for Halloween. And don’t worry, for those of you who have already gutted the pumpkin to make jack-o-lanterns, I have come up with some ideas for your pumpkin too! Here is a list of ten ideas for your post-Halloween pumpkins:

1. Plant the seeds next year to grow your own pumpkin.

2. Bake the seeds – they taste so good on their own or in salads for added crunch.

3. Make some pumpkin puree to bake some delicious dishes like pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, etc.

4. Chop the pumpkin, combine with other hearty vegetables and potatoes in a roasting pan with olive oil and spices. Roast in the oven until fork tender-so good!

5. Plant flowers in the shell of the pumpkin. Then after a few days, plant the whole thing together in the ground.

6. Imagine using a pumpkin shell as a serving bowl at a dinner party! Use a large hollowed out pumpkin with ice to chill a bottle of wine, or a small pumpkin to serve dip.

7. I recently learned that pumpkins can enrich soil, so you can bury your pumpkin in your garden or in your compost pile.

8. Use the shell as a bird feeder–cover with peanut butter, coat with bird seed and watch the birds flock!

9. Feed deer–apparently they like pumpkins.

10. Launch them! At the annual Punkin Chunkin event in held in Bridgeville, Delaware pumpkins are launched with various contraptions for prizes. Check it out if you haven’t seen this before!. You probably don’t want to build a hydraulic pumpkin launcher in your back yard, but you can come up with fun neighborhood safe ideas. Pumpkin baseball, anyone?

What are your ideas for pumpkins?