30x30

Day 6 was devoted to 

fulfilling the quest for the perfect white shirt.

This crisp clean beauty was a thing of perfection 

hanging there on the thrift store rack.

I feel like I have been searching for this shirt for a life time,

although I really only looked for a few minutes.

#wherehaveyoubeenallmylife

The white button down can be paired with so much,

and something about it instantly made me feel sexy-ish.

See what I wore here!

It was the perfect blank canvas for my new Firmoo glasses,

and my new Lorna Ruth gold glitter earrings!

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Oh man...single digits now.

Day 9...eeeek only 9 more days until the big

THREEEEEE OHHHHHH!

Day 9: Make something yummy.

So the hubs an I are starting a three week cleanse after my birthday, 

(I want birthday cake...hence 'after')

but for the past few weeks we have been making a change in our diets...

to sort of ease our selves into it.

We love food.

We are a snacky family.

Because of those two facts one of the biggest changes 

in our previous diet was the elimination of of processed snacks.

NO more junk food.

While we are not going crazy just yet,

we have been making that change.

So, today I made humus...instead of buying it.

Sort of a play on a 'My New Roots' recipe.

Roasted Golden Beet Humus

Ingredients: 

1 cup of roasted golden beets

1 cup dried garbanzo beans

1/2 a large lemon

3 tbsp of olive oil

2 tbsp Tahini

1/3 cup of pine nuts

salt & pepper

Step1:

Pre-heat oven to 350°

Follow instructions for soaking and cooking garbanzo beans.

Meanwhile chop beets.

In a large mixing bowl drizzle raw beets 

with a splash of olive oil and sprinkle with salt. 

Spread into a single layer on a baking sheet and cook for 30 mins.

Step 2:

In your food processor

(or bowl if you use an emersion blender like me)

Combine all of the ingredients and purée. 

And enjoy! Serving ours with celery sticks. Yum.

If you want to follow us on our journey to clean, we will be blogging about it.

By the way honey, we will be blogging about it. Smiles!

If you are interested in joining us on our journey here is a link to the cleanse!

I am so excited because all of the recipes are written by one of my favorite blogs, 

My New Roots!

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Day 16 was dedicated to friendship.

My initial plans for an over due skype date with my best friend.

I really miss her more than I am able to cope with.

Then the age old adage:

"make new friends, but keep the old.

some are silver and the other gold."

came into play.

This has always been one of my favorites.

I was blessed as a child and teen.

I had more best friends than anyone could imagine.

I changed school many times throughout my adolescence, 

which really gave me the ability to meet so many wonderful women.

And thanks to the powers of social media 

I am able to keep in such close contact with many of them.

But back to the silver lining.

While I did not get to skype with Jess,

Our wonderful friends the Tidwell's decided to throw a last minute shindig.

It was decided that it would be a fun relaxing evening 

with children scampering and parents actually getting to talk to other adults.

Trey, with his absolutely charming Tennessee way, made us ladies some delish coffee.

And the kiddos....well they all got very sandy.

I am still finding sand in between the boys toes.

The evening wound down with a bonfire and roasted marshmallows.

The boy caught his on fire, but it was Ay O.K.! 

His new friend, Maxwell, came to the rescue.

It was great to see all the kids being so independent and awesome.

I just love all their littler personalities maturing.

It was a perfect perfect evening!

Thank you again Tids' for hosting all of us! 

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Day 17 was declared 

"Ashyr Day"

I told the boy that he could pick 3 things to do.

Anything that he wanted. To an extent.

That sweet little boy of mine could only think of one thing.

Playing with one of his best buddies, Tosh.

(I had honestly expected him to come up with some elaborate plan 

to get me into a chuck e cheese.)

So, he informed to that he wanted to have a picnic at the park.

Check.

He wanted to play at the park with Tosh.

Check.

And he would "tell me the 3rd thing later."

His day went on with playing and laughter.

As the day got later and later I anxiously waited for him to "let me know" 

what his 3rd thing would be.

As I tucked him into bed and kissed him good night, he said:

"Mommy, the 3rd thing that I want to do for 'Ashyr Day' 

is go to Legoland...with Tosh...Right now!!!"

Nice try kid. Nice try.

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When I told Brenda that I wanted to spend Day 19 going to a "u-pick farm",

 I had a vision of laboring out in a field.

So you can imagine my confusion when I pulling into a strip mall plaza 

that she had suggested for our family outing.

As soon as the initial shock wore off I saw that sweet strawberry car,

and I knew Brenda would never steer me wrong.

The Girls U-Pick Strawberries had all the kids screaming with excitement.

You enter through the country store that is stocked full of 

yummy fresh baked goods and homemade ice cream.

The shelves are full of "cracker barrel-esque" gifts and trinkets.

Local canned goods and hot sauces, gum balls and pop guns,

 needless to say our head were spinning.

When you step through the back door you are greeted by a beautiful garden filled with the squawks of hundreds of birds in the rescues sanctuary, turtles munching heads of lettuce and donkeys poking their noses at you.

All of this is surrounded by a back drop of strawberry pathces and cherry tomato plants.

And the kids were off.

No one was even that disappointed that the strawberries were not ready to be picked.

Laughs and giggles were interjected between each joyous pluck of a juicy red cherry tomato. 

These were the fruits of our child labor.  

We all had such a great time. 

The store even sells my favorite hard to find hot sauce, 

so need less to say, we will be back!

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Day 20. Oh how I love thee!

Nothing makes me feel better then a fresh haircut!

And there is no place better to get that bush wacked then...

Some think that I am crazy for driving 3 hours to get my hair cut,

but if you have ever been to Alchemy then you know exactly why it's worth it.

Best stylists ever!

I started my grooming session with a nice frosty beer.

My crazy mane had grown out of control, but my old friend Michael fixed me up nice!

Thanks again to all the staff at Alchemy for making Day 20 perfect!

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Webster Flea Market! Ah day 21...

It's sort of become a pre-birthday/MLK day tradition to hit up Webster.

It's one of my happy places.

You can find random art.

Pretty little things.

Lots of vintage.

And TONS of toys.

Lucky for me, the boy loves it too.

Side note:

This year the boy and I made a list of three things each that we were looking for.

We both found everything...gotta love that!

I'll share soon on a thrifty finds.

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Day 22 was devoted to one thing! A mantra for 30. Sweet and simple. Not a resolution or a goal...just a way to live!

"Do More! Waste Less!"

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Yesterday's 30x30 was one that I was not looking forward to.

(yes-I am a day behind now... I figured it was going to happen eventually)

The hubs loves scary movies...like really loves them.

Me on the other hand...terrified.

But, knowing how much it meant to him I wanted to really plan a scary movie date. 

One where I didn't try to immediately fall asleep on the sofa.  That's my normal defense against scary movies.  Not this time. This time I would "watch" the entire movie.

I mean, I am almost 30...time to grow up and face my fears.

To ease my pain the hubs set up a cozy little floor fort with popcorn and all.

We snuggled on with our hearts racing, his with excitement, mine with fright.

As the opening credits started to role I kinda thought for a half a second that I might enjoy this movie.

The soundtrack was starting off awesome and the cinematography was very cool.

Well, I made it about 10 second in before my face was buried in my hands and I was trying desperately not to hear the screams and shrieks booming from the surround sound.

I made it through the entire movie.

Most of my time was spent hiding from the gore. 

And the hubs rewarded me when it was all over with a

high school style make out session.

Moral of the story:

I hate scary movies.

But I love making that man of mine happy....

and I love making out. haha

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While today's 30x30 wasn't a complete failure, it has been a giant pain in my ass!

I have been lusting over these graphic sweaters that are popping up all over the place.

And then I saw this DIY on Curbly! 

Love that site!

So today I wanted to make a cross stitch heart long sleeve shirt.

While I started this little project with great intention, 

I quickly realized that I didn't have the correct size needle.

Then later on in the day ran out of thread.

So another day, you will see it done.

Need to catch up on the past 6 days? Here you go.   

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Today was Tech Free day in the 30x30 house.

The boy and I we with no TV, no computer, and no phone.

And well, the truth of it is, I cheated a little bit.

You see, the light in the American Apparel dressing room was way to cool to not snap off one picture.

So I did...and then my 3 year old yelled at me to "put my phone away."

Honestly, the entire day (which felt like the longest day of my life) was WAY harder than I expected.

I didn't miss our TV being on at all. 

I loved that we listened to records all day, because we couldn't turn the computer on.

I felt like a crack head trying to kick a habit with my phone,

and we completely lost track of all time and spent 3 hours at the park.

Would I do it again.  Sure.

Anytime soon? Probably not.

But, it was a great big eye opener to how much I/We depend on social media.

Lesson learned.

Follow the rest of my 30x30 list here.

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Today's 30x30 was to go for a family hike...well due to time and work constraints we actually did this last week.  I know I am cheating on my own project, but oh well.  You may have remembered seeing this picture on Instagram.  Here are some of my other PG favorites.

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Today's 30x30 was to do a photo shoot.

It was full of fresh squeezed lemonade, bright herbs, live music and lots of laughter. 

This one is kind of a three parter, so you will have to stay tuned for the rest of the details.

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Today we started the 30 day count down to my birthday.  Putt Putt was the first activity on my list.  It just so happened that Uncle Matt was here to help teach the boy the fundamentals of mini golf.

As it turns out the kids a natural.  He might even be better than me.

The hubs spent a lot of time in this position in between swings....

hunting down my rouge golf balls.

It was a wonderful day of golfing even though I lost miserably.