it was a monday kind of day

Well friends, today was for sure a Monday.

Work was quite busy for me. Our office is going through a lot of changes and transition usually requires some extra work. I am sure things will get better; it's just getting there that is the hard part.

Hubby also had a rough day. He worked 15 hours (he is such a dedicated nurse!). Needless to say, he is pooped too.

So now that we are both finally done with work and home together; we are going to relax and turn off our brains for the night.

We just wanted to be sure to stop by and say hello!

I hope your week started off well.

Who's ready for Halloween?? Me, me!!

5k for united way

Hooray hooray! We finished the 5k! [it rhymes - ha!]

Okay, sorry that was a little corny.

Anyway, you may remember I mentioned here that I started to train for a half marathon. I have been running 3x week for the last few weeks. I decided to do at least a couple races before the big one.

This 5k was the first step. I have to be honest, it was harder than I thought. It probably doesn't help that I don't love running (yet) and I am not a big fan of participating in competitive running.

The more I think about it, the more I realize I am totally forcing myself to enjoy running. Some days I am successful and some days I am not. It would be so easy for me to just stop running. I am guessing that I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

BUT I am not a quitter (i have to keep reminding myself of this). I am going to continue to push forward and I just pray that I survive. haha!

Oh and even though I didn't place in the race, I won a door prize. It was a coupon book for Chattanooga, which is pretty cool. We decided to go out to dinner to celebrate and we were able to use a coupon from the book :)

sugar cookies make everything better

My hubby had a pretty rough day at work on Friday.

Because I am such an awesome wife (atleast I try to be), I decided to surprise him with a little sweet treat when he got home from work.

Please don't judge me for using pre-made cookies. I was very limited on time and I will admit that I am not the best dessert maker.

I love cooking and trying new recipes, but for some reason I just never got the baking thing down.

So anyway, I followed the very complicated instructions and got these little suckers baking away. Once the timer beeped I took a look and my instincts told me they weren't quite ready. I left them in about two minutes longer and voila! They looked perfect.

Of course I had to sample one (or two) before my hubby got home, just to make sure they were as good as they looked. And they were.

Hubby was very surprised and quite pleased with this special treat I had prepared. He said that it made him feel much better after such a hard day at work.

Mission complete :)

Happy Weekend, from both of us!!!

i did a d.i.y.

I've actually had this project done for a little while now, but I am just now getting around to posting it.

I follow a few design blogs and I am always quite inspired by all the DIY projects. Instead of just buying expensive pieces to decorate our home, I really wanted to start finding cheap pieces and fancy-ing them up. So here is my very first DIY!

For this project I followed the instructions found here.

I started with two frames I found at a discount warehouse store.

First I did one coat of primer, followed by two coats of spray paint. I let the frames dry completely in between each coat.

After the last coat was dry, I glazed the frames to add a special touch.

And ta-da! I ended up with two fantastic frames for my prints.

I found these awesome prints here.

What do you think??

I had such a fun time doing this project and it really made me feel good about my creative abilities and I appreciate these frames more than plain old store bought ones. I have never really thought of myself as an artsy person, but completing this project has really inspired me to do more DIY projects. I already have my next three planned!

it's business time

old navy top, cardigan from target, h&m skirt, betsey johnson tights via tjmaxx, rocketdog shoes

This is who I call Professional Amber™.

For the last couple months I have been working on improving my work wardrobe, and I'd have to say I am doing quite well. I was pretty excited to throw on a pair of tights with this outfit. Although I want to look professional at work, I like throwing in a little twist - the tights were my twist today.

Have you ever seen the show Flight of the Conchords? If you have, then you are familiar with the song Business Time (which is currently stuck in my head). If you haven't, then you need to get with the times and check it out. It's funny because this particular song has nothing to do with actually working. It's about "working," wink wink. So maybe I need to find another song to have in my head to get motivated and be productive at work.

Do you have any tips to being super productive?