September Favorites

Can you believe that September will be over in only a few hours? It's going to be Christmas before we know it - 86 days for those of you who are counting :o).


A few of my favorites from this month:


*The weather. We didn't have a hot summer by any means but I'm always ready for the cooler temps. We've had some pretty cool temps the last couple weeks and I LOVE it!


*These little mousse cups. 60 little calories and really good.


*The leaves changing colors on the trees.

*Ghost Whisperer and The Vampire Diaries. The only two shows I watch during the week where I sit and only watch the show. Normally I'm on the computer, reading, or doing numerous other things while the TV is on.

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*Pumpkins and mums coming out in the stores.

*Wearing sweaters & sweatshirts.

Weekend Recap

I started out my weekend by watching a little of this on QVC Friday night....
and making some of these for a baby shower....

On Saturday we went to Sioux Falls to do some shopping. All we bought was 4 pieces of scrapbook paper. Pretty exciting huh? We ate at the Olive Garden for lunch...so good! We spent part of the day at my sister-in-law's place. We had an awesome supper there and some really good cake too!

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On Sunday I started working on a craft project (sorry about the sideways pic)....

and we did some fall cleaning. Five bags worth of stuff to donate to Goodwill!

We had planned to pick pumpkins in the afternoon but it was just too windy. We stayed home instead and watched The Soloist. I made some really good chicken & dumplings soup for supper. You can find the recipe here, it's a lower calorie version.

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I've kind of been avoiding posting about this but I'm finally at a point where I'm proud of my progress so......

My friend Nicolle and I became weight loss buddies a month ago. We've been emailing each other back and forth to share tips, recipes, and encouragement. It's really helped having someone to talk to! I've lost 11.2 pounds since we started 4 weeks ago, and have lost exactly 20 pounds since July. I might lose a little faster if I didn't eat at places like Olive Garden, but I've been taking every Saturday (or Sunday, or both) off. It's helped me from feeling deprived and keeps me going. :o)

Some fall and muffins

Well I hadn't planned to be away from my blog so long. Things have been really quiet around here lately so I haven't really had anything to share. Sometimes quiet is nice though.

I went to our local Garden this past weekend. There were lots of signs of summer around yet...

But there were lots of signs of fall too....

There were lots of crunchy leaves to step on too as I walked around.



And in honor of fall starting tomorrow and our awesome, cool weather today I decided to try the super easy pumpkin muffin recipe I found.

The ingredients:

Dump everything together and mix (that's 1 cup water). Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes

The result:

It's a low calorie recipe I found here (nutritional info listed too). Mmm...they are so good! Some reviews said something about tasting just like pumpkin pie. I wouldn't go that far, but they are definitely tasty :o)

TV

I'm so ready for the fall TV season to get started! I'm tired of reruns and I miss my Ghost Whisperer and The Biggest Loser. There are a couple new shows that I'm excited to see too. Hopefully they don't get cancelled if they're good. I hate when you just get into a show and they cancel it.

Glee--FOX--Starts on the 9th.

Ok, they had me hooked when they used Somebody to Love Me by Queen in the commercial. LOVE that song!

The Good Wife--CBS--Starts on the 22nd.

Ohh, love that slap.

The Vampire Diaries--CW--Starts on the 10th.

So Twilight-esque. I guess The Vampire Diaries is based on a series of novels written by L.J. Smith. The series was originally a trilogy published in 1991. Interesting.

August Favorites

I decided I'd start highlighting a few of my favorite things of the month at the end of the month. Here are just a few of my favorites from the month of August. They were not only some of my favs, but they were all either cheap or free!

Ok first off, I'm loving Old Navy. I got this shirt for $5 and a couple others for $6. For a girl on a tight budget who desperately needs school clothes, this was such a treat!!



I got this little guy from an Etsy seller, Saints N Sinners. I love it and I really love that it was free! I used my youdata money to buy it.

I bought some new nail polish about a week ago. I don't normally paint my fingernails (mostly cuz I'm horrible at it!) so I just buy the little cheapy bottles to paint my toenails with. Well I had a $1.00 off coupon for some Sally Hanson polish so I ended up paying 50 cents for this bottle.

I really like the color (it's on my nails in the ring pic, it kinda looks black in the pic though). I've been really into purple (and green and gray) lately. This one has just a little shimmer to it too.

This little gem came in the mail over the weekend. I joined MyPoints awhile ago after Nicolle mentioned it on her blog. I just accumulated enough points to turn in for a reward so I chose a Bath & Body gift card. I can't wait to use it!

So 2 of my favorite things this month were absolutely free. You can't beat that!