(first published on blogspot on March 14, 2014)

Happy Friday!! I wanted to join in on the link up Davida is hosting for Green foods for St Patrick’s Day. The rule was to get creative and not use green dye in the food, instead make a green food recipe with something that is naturally green.

        My first thought was spinach cupcakes. Ever since I started watching Cupcake Wars about a year ago, I love going to cupcake bakeries to try new flavors and always want to be able to make some of the awesome cupcake flavors that I see on the show. However, making cupcakes rarely happens for me, because I still much prefer cookies.
        Anyway thanks to some googling and Pinterest, I found some recipes for spinach cupcakes that I thought I could adapt, but then after Davida’s post on Wednesday using avocado, I woke up Thursday morning wanting to make avocado cupcakes. My family thought I was crazy, but I thought it would be delicious (besides there have been stranger ingredients used on Cupcake Wars).
         First let me say that I can’t take full credit for this recipe. I adapted from this recipe I found online. The only changes I made were less oil (1/2 cup instead of 3/4), using almond milk instead of regular milk and adding a few handfuls of spinach to the mashed avocado when using the food processor.

The cupcakes taste great, but they felt a little too oily, so if I make these again, I will probably use less oil or milk. They still looked nice and green for the holiday though!

 

I then made some frosting. I went with a different frosting than the one in the other recipe. Instead I used a lemon icing frosting which tasted really good with the avocado in my opinion.

 

    And there you have the finished product! A little moist, but still delicious! Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

(first published on blogspot on Feb 28, 2014)

Well today I got laid off from the first full time job I had after graduation. I have to say, I knew it was coming. I’ve been there for just over a year and a half. Since starting there I have learned and grown a lot. When I graduated college, I still had no idea what I wanted to do, but I needed money, a job and experience. I was lucky enough that once I started looking and getting calls from recruiters, I had a job in less than 2 weeks and that was pretty good, considering the economy. I took the first job I was offered. I thought about it when I was offered it, like should I take it just because it is the first job. I knew that I needed experience and they were willing to train me in the tasks I’d be doing. Little did I know, I would just be emailing and calling people for things I didn’t understand and still have a lot of down time. However, just a couple weeks into that job and a position in the accounting department (where I wanted to work) opened up. I applied and had the quickest interview ever and got the job!
         I started in the accounting department answering phones, sorting mail, pretty much non stop, but I loved it!

           I loved learning something new everyday from the questions people had when they called in. I loved being busy and I always found happiness in the little things like Disney stamps on the mail that came in.
          Our company was growing at a rapid rate at that time and in January 2013 I was given the opportunity to move over to do more accounting related tasks, such as reconciling and writing journal entries. I was excited to be learning even more! The first few days with my new position were a bit overwhelming with all the stuff I didn’t know, but over time, I got better at the tasks.
          The best part about my work though, was my co workers! I felt so lucky to have the most amazing co workers and the best manager. I will definitely miss them the most.
           However, as I said in the beginning, I knew this was coming. We haven’t had that much to do in a while and things were really slowing down. So for the past couple months I have been actually getting ahead by searching for jobs and also apartments.
           As I was driving home this morning after just 2 hours of work, I was thinking about what I would do with my time. I have really wanted to develop my blog more and get my own domain name and design it. Now I have the opportunity to spend time doing so. I mention I plan on getting an apartment and well there is a lot of stuff that I don’t need sitting in my current room, so it is time to clean that up. I haven’t mentioned on my blog, but I would really like to get my yoga teaching certification. Once I move, I hope to find a studio that I like and do this. I have been itching to travel and get out of town and now I don’t have to worry about if I have time off to do so. I know I will worry about money, so I will try to find people to stay with, but I do hope I can get away for a bit and also spend time with my best friend who just told me she was induced today to have her baby! I can’t wait to meet her baby girl!
          So I’m taking this time as an opportunity to go out and find another job that I love, learn some more and work on some dreams of mine! As they say when one door closes, another one opens. I’m excited to have this time to explore some possibilities for myself and my future. From the name of my blog, it’s just another bridge to cross in life as I also continue to work on these bridges!

(first published on blogspot on Feb 18, 2014)

Well it’s a Tuesday, but feels like a Monday since I didn’t have work yesterday. Luckily I didn’t, because this happened….

 

    What started as a 1-3 inches of snow prediction on Sunday night, turned into a 4-8 inches of snow on Monday morning. Luckily most of this came in the afternoon after I ran some errands and then I spent the afternoon inside eating, watching some of the Olympics that we recorded and preparing some food for the week. After all that I finally went outside to shovel and also had some fun.

    Yep I did a bridge in the snow, which is really hard with a winter jacket on. Also I was in the street doing this, as you may see the tire tracks. Hopefully my street will be plowed by the time you read this, but my street is kind of a last priority seeing as we are a dead end street.

      I also took a lovely photo with my sister. We are so cute together!! 

       Anyway I also wanted to link up with Becky, even though she is on vacation this week and I’m so jealous she gets to lay on the beach and I’m stuck here in snow…can this endless winter/snow please end soon?!?
       Even though it was a snowy weekend, I did treat myself to a few things.


    
    Firstly, I order a new workout tank. I ordered it online so it’s on it’s way. I got this tank top in blue last month and honestly it’s so comfy, ever time I have it on, I don’t want to take it off. So I figured I’d get the other color as well so that I have two and it was still on sale and free shipping!!

source

     I also went to a new class this weekend, which I mentioned yesterday, Aerial yoga. I do consider that a treat since I do not belong to the gym where it is held and therefore costs me extra money. I probably will not go every week, but I am planning to go next week.

       Since I had the day off yesterday, I treated myself to a hair cut. I think the last time I got a hair cut was last May. I typically get a hair cut once a year now after I’ve been staring at my split ends for a while. So I got three inches off and now my hair looks nice and healthy. I also always have my hair dresser straighten my hair. When it curls up it will be a bit shorter, which always takes some getting used to, but I love seeing the ends of my hair straight again!

         That ends my few treats from the last week. Enjoy your day and drive safe if you have a lot of snow where you live.

(first published on blogspot on Feb 17, 2014)

Happy Monday everyone!! This was a great weekend and still going today, because I have the day off for President’s Day!! Thanks to all the presidents for this day off and my work for deciding to give the day off, seeing as it is an optional holiday. My weekend was not too eventful but it was a good one, so I’m linking up with Katie for another Marvelous in my Monday.

 Friday, I went out to lunch with my co workers. I usually tend to avoid going out to eat since it is more money but we ran out stuff for salad and I didn’t feel like going to the store on Thursday night. Lunch out with my co workers was fun though and perfect for Valentine’s right? I love my co workers! I also brought cookies to work for the holiday. 

     After work I went straight to babysitting so some parents could go out for Valentine’s day. Some time with kids and getting paid for it, both are marvelous to me!     Saturday, I went to the Chicago Auto Show with my dad and sister. It is the Nation’s largest auto show! I had never been before even though I’ve lived in Chicago all my life (except for college years), so it was cool to go this year and see all the cars. It was also my sister’s first time and we both enjoyed it. Rather than writing about it, I will show you through photos instead. 

Thanks to Dodge for taking this lovely photo of me which also entered me into a contest to win this car, but I’m sure my chances are pretty slim. I love the photo though.

 

my sister and I at the zombie apocalypse cars

 

race car that came right from the race so it hadn’t been cleaned before the auto show

non car related but a pic with 2 of the girls part of the ice crew for the Chicago Blackhawks. Since I just saw my first Blackhawks game last month, I thought this was cool.

 

Lots of woman talking about the cars

race suits

 

sitting in a race car, I’m definitely not a race car driver

 

 

   So many cars, so many people and just a HUGE place! My feet were pretty tired of walking by the end of the day. My fitbit told me I got my 10,000 steps for the day after all that walking though, so that was marvelous as well. I love it when I meet my goal!       Once we finally made it back to the car and drove home from the auto show, I made a salad for dinner and went on my computer, which then turned into a not so marvelous night when I learned that my disk drive went bad on my new computer. Luckily I’ve only had it for 3 weeks so there wasn’t too much new stuff and my boyfriend’s friend who built it was able to recover my new stuff. The disk drive is under warranty and hopefully I’ll get a new one soon.  

        Sunday was a day to cross off some “to-do list” items, such as a run to Target. While driving to Target I witnessed an act of kindness, as I was approaching a traffic light and noticed a car in the middle of the intersection. My first thought was “what are they doing?” but then when I stopped at the red light, I saw a guy run over to the lady in the car in the middle of the intersection and realized the person’s car broke down there. He talked to her, telling her what to do and pushed her car out of the intersection as his wife and child waited in their car on a side street. It put a smile on my face to see this act of kindness today and know that there are some great people out there. Being a busy intersection I would have worried about her being hit by another car, so I am glad that one guy was able to help out and at least get her out of the intersection.          Once I got home from running errands, I started some easy crockpot chicken for the week, since I like to have quick meals ready to eat when I get home during the week. When I plan ahead and cook some things on Sunday, I definitely eat better during the week instead of grabbing the bag of pretzels to munch on.         Later in the afternoon, I went to my first Aerial yoga class at a local boxing/crossfit gym. It’s a small gym and I have to say being that it is generally a boxing gym, it just smelled like sweat as you walked in. Besides that though, the aerial class was just me and 2 other girls. Seems like the class is always fairly small, which is nice because then the teacher can assist you. It was pretty fun and the time passed by quickly. It was interesting how you were doing yoga, such as warrior 1 and 2 poses, but the bent leg was hanging on the silks. Sometimes it was tough to balance. We also used the silks to do some jumps which worked our arms and abs. Then for the last few minutes, usually called shavasana in yoga, where you lie on your back, close your eyes and relax, we laid in the silks, like a hammock or cocoon and just let it hold us. It is really relaxing. I wish I had one in my room to just sit and read in LOL. I plan to go again next week.    That’s all for my weekend. Not too eventful but was perfect for me. Since I’m off work today, I made a haircut appointment (way overdue for one) and a routine dentist appointment. Then I will be enjoying the house to myself. My sister was supposed to be off school today, but it’s a make up snowday for her. Hope you have a great day whether you are working or off today.