Another week in review with Pieces of Happy

So it hasn't been that much of a busy week, but some things have happened that I wanted to share! So I'm linking up again with Kenzie at Chasing Happy for her Pieces of happy link-up.

(I know I do a lot of these and not so much anything else, but that's mostly because I like to spend all my time with this little family!)

(p.s. I'm spending most of my social network time on Instagram and Twitter!They're the easiest to play around with on my phone. So if you want more from me, or want to see things first, I'd suggest you follow me! I usually follow back too.)

1.) I guess the first thing would be that right after I wrote my last post for the Pieces of Happy link-up we went out and bought a Wii U at the PX! I'd never played on one before, so it was pretty awesome. I love my hot pink controller! (Alex surprised me with it! And no one has to fight me for it, because they don't want it.... hah!)

After that I decided to celebrate our Mario victory by baking a Yoshi chicken pot pie.

2.) I started (trying) to teach the kiddo how to crochet. We've gotten so far as chains, so while she chains, I crochet little outfits for her stuffed animals to keep her motivated.

So she made the chain necklace and I made the dress from this pattern.
She has made two chain necklaces so far! I am so proud of her :) Going to try teaching her single crochet soon. I hope she's up for it!

3.) We play outside enough, but finally our apartment's pool opened up so we were able to have some fun in the sun and swim!

I got a horrible sunburn though because I put my sunblock on too hastily and forgot to re-apply it. Oh well, I will pay the consequences, but it won't stop me from going in again, especially now that we have these adorable floaties!

We got matching rafts from Target

4.) Yesterday I finally faced the music and got my hair cut! I found a place that was cheap with good reviews and I was not disappointed! It still looks good day two!

5.) Finally, the last thing I have to mention is ALONE TIME! You don't really realize how much you valued it before (even though I spent the whole day, every day, alone before the kiddo came to visit) until it's GONE! But I have gotten enough of it this weekend to get me through the next week. (Even if it was just doing dishes while listening to Pandora radio, lol).

So what were your Pieces of Happy?

Week recap and Pieces of Happy

I almost decided not to link up with Kenzie at Chasing happy for her weekly link-up of Pieces of Happy this week, because there wasn't that much great about it, but it ended well so I changed my mind :)

The first part of the week went fine, I had all our meals planned out until the 4th because I figured we would find some bbq somewhere and Alex's grandparents were visiting after so I figured we would eat out a lot... well I was wrong.

But before that, we did go to one of the coolest parks here in the Monterey Bay area: The Dennis the Menace park. It's fun for kids and grownups who still act like kids (aka: me)
 

The slide in front of the sun-shaped bridge was the BEST. It's covered in rollers. So much fun. The three of us went down it a bunch of times. 

On the 4th we did go to the last hour of a celebration at the Courthouse here in Monterey. The two of us girls were all dressed up patriotic, but Alex only wore a blue shirt which we had to convince him to change into, lol.

Before we left I busted out my 3D glasses I got from the dollar store a while ago. How cool is this?

The kiddo was holding the glasses :)

And here I am in all my RWB glory! haha. It felt a lot less awkward being at the park where people were dressed way more crazy than I was. Lots of old ladies smiled at kiddo and I though, and that made us feel much better.

So we shared some grub (what was left anyway), got a balloon dog, and enjoyed some great live music!

Then, and probably the best part of the day, we went and saw Despicable Me 2!!! Love that movie! 

After, we stopped and picked up some pizza for dinner. The rest of the night was boring because we didn't want to drive an hour and back to see fireworks. We ended up watching them on tv, and looking at some from the parking lot. Not too impressive for a 4th of July.

The next day I made the three of us delicious French Toast for breakfast. Then we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with the marine's grandparents. It's a great place to go to, and I'm sure will be another post if I ever get around to looking through all the photos I took, lol.

There were SO MANY PEOPLE. The queue wasn't full, but it was enough to feel a little bit anxious once we got inside and had to fight the crowds of people who don't know how to properly form lines... Oh wait, this is Pieces of Happy... I'm not supposed to be negative... Well, I loved seeing all the exotic fish, especially all the Jellyfish!

After that we went down Cannery Row and stopped into Ghiradelli and got some chocolate that we have yet to dig into.

Yesterday was Fisherman's Wharf day with the family. I love going in the shops and seeing all the "wares" lol. I got my mom a ton of new and different flavored saltwater taffy from a couple of the candy shops. I tried one that was maple bacon.... YUM!

It was also fun to look out into the bay and see the seals or sea lions playing around the boats.  

Today, I'm just ready to relax. Now that I don't have to deal with the crowds of people any more (because there were a lot of them) this little family and I can just chill out and maybe do a little shopping, lol. We've got Chicken Pot Pie filling in the crock pot and hopefully it will be a good day :)

So what are your Pieces of Happy? Did you enjoy the holiday? If you're in a different country, how was your Thursday? lol

From Junk to Jewelry! and Pieces of happy

I haven't done a Pieces of Happy linkup in a while, so I thought I would today :)
But first, I have some things to show you! 

My parents have been going to a Goodwill outlet store near Seattle and some garage sales recently (more on that later) and they have been sending me a TON of stuff! This time I ended up with a bunch more neckties, some other stuff I'll get into later, and some jewelry supplies I was really excited about. I ended up making two necklaces within a couple of hours of getting it!

This first one I was so excited about, I could barely get through the rest of the package before getting to work! I mean, come on. It's RAINBOW DAISIES. The funny thing is that these gems were off of a pair of shoes! Can you believe that?

I ripped apart and linked back together a pair of earrings I wasn't wearing (and have had since high school) to make the chain, and the clasp was from another necklace I wasn't using. I might end up making it longer because I can't stand short necklaces, but until then it's not so bad as-is.

This second one I was also dying to make when my mom first sent me a picture. The cat is ceramic and it was hard to find a loop to fit it without going to the craft store, but I did it! The chain was that way when I got it in the package, and a perfect match for the cat!

Some crazy cat lady must have been donating all of her cat jewelry because let me tell you, I have a bunch of it now. And I don't know what to do with it yet.

I hate to admit it, but I do need to take a trip to the craft store in order to make any more pieces because I am running low on good clasps and jump rings that I can salvage from my other jewelry.

Anyway, here are my pieces of happy for this week:

1.) Alex took pictures with me on Sunday and dressed up even though he was being a stick in the mud, and didn't want to kiss me in front of strangers :P At least we got a few good pictures and I got to wear my new dress!

2.) I made my delicious Chili-Crusted Chicken recipe Monday and it was just as yummy as I remembered! I also made and ate lemon cupcakes with lemon frosting for the first time (box mix and pre-made frosting) and I found out that I love it! The only problem with that is now we have too many cupcakes, and only two people who shouldn't be eating so many calories in this house. I've made a huge mistake. (AD fans raise your hands!) Oh and we watched the season premiere of True Blood! Sexy vampires, can I get a hell yeah?

3.) Same day, we celebrated our 5 year anniversary! We didn't really do anything special, it was just a regular night except for the cupcakes.

4.) Yesterday: got a big care package from my parents which always makes me feel loved. I miss them so much.

5.) My two "new" necklaces!

6.) We watched the season premiere of Futurama! If you don't know, I'm a huge Futurama fan, and it is killing me that it's coming to an end. I quote it all the time, and even Alex doesn't understand all of my references. Oh and I am aware that I am watching premieres the day after they actually premiere, that's DVR magic in action kids!

7.) This weekend we'll most likely be going to the San Fransisco Zoo, which will hopefully be as awesome as I think it will be.


So that's my Pieces of Happy for the week. What are yours? Join me in the Link-up with Chasing Happy!

May Flowers Everywhere

For the Pieces of Happy Link up with Chasing Happy I decided to write it a little different, so bear with me.

You know how the old adage goes, and there doesn't seem to be a lack of spring flowers in my neck of the woods. Not only am I crocheting a bunch of them for my cousin's wedding, but I'm also reading this book: The Language of Flower by Vanessa Diffenbaugh.

I was drawn to this book immediately. When I was younger, I too had a fascination with the meanings behind flowers as the narrator does. As I grew older and started looking at the "grown up" books on my parent's giant bookshelves, I found a book about the meanings behind flowers (actually it was named "the Language of Flowers" too) in a beautiful purple hardback. It quickly became one of my favorites to go back to reading whenever I felt the need. There was even this little booklet I found that had a similar theme and I would take it with me everywhere and hide it places so that it would never get thrown away. It was my own special treasure. I don't think I ever really learned anything from them though.

Reading this book has brought back that spark that I had back then. I love the idea of subtle meanings behind things whether it be flowers, colors, or song lyrics. While I may not be able to relate to the narrator's life in the foster care system, I can relate to her enthusiasm to learning about the meanings behind flowers and using that knowledge to help others relay their own feelings. Plus the story is pretty interesting too. I have yet to finish it, but so far so good.


Then I took a couple of trips to Pacific Grove after watching some movies in the IMAX in Cannery Row. If you don't know about the beautiful purple flowers there... you are missing out. They are called ice plants, and when they're all blooming at once it is really spectacular. I read somewhere that they were planted to attract butterflies. Here are just a few of my pics from the outing.





The ice plants had started to close up when I got there near sunset.

See those big mounds of what I call Starfish Plants in the second picture? Turns out they are actually called Aloe arborescens, and unfortunately I missed out on something freaking amazing that they do which can be seen here. It's called fiery Aloe spikes, in case you needed any more motivation to click.
Pacific Grove is truly one of the most beautiful places in Cali. (Well, as far as I've seen!)


Of course, I didn't forget that I mentioned I was crocheting a bunch of flowers for my cousin's wedding. There will be another post all about that though, so I'll leave you with a teaser pic.


Her wedding colors are brown and green.

So yeah, basically I just want to say that the beauty in nature is one of the things I am most thankful for this week/month. Without it, life would be a bunch of suck.

Also: Iron Man 3.

Especially the part where RDJ dances.


Cue me melting because now I have a huge lust crush on him just for that little dance. I don't think I paid attention to the rest of the movie, I'm sure it was good. (JK, I did and it was better than good.)

We also got to see Alien in the theater on Wednesday. It was a one-night only thing and the marine even changed his duty day because he wanted to see it that badly! I had only ever seen it once before, and I'm glad the last movie in the franchise I watched was Prometheus. It helped the original make more sense even if it wasn't that great ;) (You can't cut a freaking alien baby out of you without crying and/or dying! That just doesn't happen. No woman is that strong. /rant)

So that's pretty much what I've been up to lately. The month is going by waaay too fast, and this week was blah. So other than working on the project and occasionally getting out of the house it's been a lot of watching shows and cleaning around the house.

Is it weird that as a whovian I am more excited to watch Orphan Black than I am to watch Doctor Who?! I feel bad, but the plot is so interesting, I can't help it! Anyone else share my feelings?

So what are your pieces of happy for this week? Join me at the link-up!

Thanks for stopping by ♥

Happy Pieces

Today I'm linking up with Chasing Happy and writing about my pieces of happy from this week

1.) I am happy to be blogging again even though it is a challenge. It's a challenge that I need to get me motivated!

2.) Every time I see my new blog name it makes me feel so incredibly happy! 

3.) I got a birthday package from a bestie who I haven't talked to in a while because of life. It was nice to know she's still thinking of me and it definitely was a great opener for us to start catching up again.

4.) The marine took me out to dinner Wednesday for my birthday. We went to Tarpy's Roadhouse which sounds kinda dorky, but is actually pretty semi-fancy. The chili-crusted chicken I had was delicious both as dinner and as leftovers the next day.

5.) Ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins... and the leftovers.

6.) Flowers from my parents and the card they sent me! It was a Hello Kitty card with a "candle" that lights up when you open the card. You blow on it and the light goes out and it sings you a song! Probably one of the best cards I've ever gotten.

7.) The card from my grandparents, especially this part: "Sept we will be married 65 yrs, and Happy living on the same place. We are thankful for our years together."

8.) Alex's presents for me that came in the mail today! He got me two new Threadless T-shirts making my collection a total of 7. I am a lucky girl :)

The dino one is my favorite!

9.) I'm happy that the meatloaf I made tonight turned out great despite the fact that I was missing several ingredients and I used a couple of new ones. It was an experiment gone horribly right!

10.) I almost forgot about the new couch we ordered that was delivered this week! We had been sitting on a broken futon for a year because we were sort of broke and also too lazy to go out and look for a new one. The new couch is the best couch we could have asked for... and on sale. Another plus!

11.) Being absolutely blessed for the wonderful people in my life and their support. ♥

The great thing about this link-up is, even if you start off with just one thing you can think of that's good for the week, many more will follow. I probably could have put ten more in there if I kept going at it.

So do any of you have something happy to share? Join me in the link up! :) Or maybe next week.