How to Say I Love You...Without a Hole in Your Wallet

Valentines Day is around the corner. Seasonal isles at the grocery store are stocking the shelves more often everyday. There are lots of people who freak out about their plans for that night. What they are going to get their loved one?? Chocolate?? Diamonds?? ( they are a girl's best friend ;) ) What they are going to cook for dinner?? Where they are going OUT for dinner?? 

But sometimes we don't need all the hustle and bustle that February 14th has to offer. Sometimes we don't need the commercialism of it all. How about some good ole' fashion "good deeds"? Some more of the usual "I love you's" during the day?

Valentines Day shouldn't put people into a panic. It shouldn't stress you out. It SHOULD be full of caring, pretty much like what every single day should be like.

So some simple ways to say I LOVE YOU...

FOR HIM

<3 Surprise him at work or school with a homemade lunch and eat it together in between two of his classes.

<3 Organize his dresser drawers. In a way where he can find what shirt he may be looking for.

<3 Watching a movie that night that he likes and one he maybe has not seen in while.

<3 Has it been awhile since some "alone" time together?? A little evening delight. ;)

<3 Leave some notes in the car when he drives to work.

FOR HER

<3 Have the house clean by the time she gets home from work or school.

<3 If she has been stressed out lately, a nice FULL body massage.

<3 Watching a chick flick that she really enjoys.

<3 Breakfast in bed is always fun.

<3 Leave a love note for her if you leave before she gets up.

<3 Take her out somewhere where you can see the stars and turn music up in the car and dance outside under that stars

Now I'm definitely not saying I'm against the flowers and chocolate. I'm all for that, but sometimes it's the simple gestures that mean the most.

This is the most adorable video. I love it!

Don't forget if you want to send me one of your date night ideas refer back to this post! I need a few more ideas! It can be anything :)

Also enter the giveaway! It's small, but it's free!

150 Count Giveaway!! Starbucks Gift Card (Closed)

In a previous post I said if I got to 150 followers I would do a giveaway! 150 has been reached so the giveaway begins! It's a small one, but it's my first and I'm excited about it! The giveaway begins today and it will end on February 8th. You must be following my blog and then enter away! The prizes are a $10 gift card to Starbucks and a personalized printout, which will be in a frame!

Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Spring Must Haves! for me :)

Come on sun! Hurry up and get on closer to the Earth. I'm beyond ready to some rays in my life. With those rays comes white pants and color!

Anthropologie

Anthropologie

I'm not all for the candy corn look, but I love the top!

H&M

Shabby Apple

Hallelu

A super cute boutique from my hometown! Obsessed with their clothes. Floral blazer? Yes

Kate Spade

J. Crew

Hallelu

Express

Love this simple look

New York and Company

Nordstrom

LOVE LOVE LOVE! May have already ordered this....

Looks like yellow will be my color this year!

Not Cool Robert Frost

I'm sure many of you have already seen this video or not. If not, now you will :)

"If life is a game, aren't we all on the same team?" Is this really the first time any of us have heard these words? Why did it take a kid to tell us something we all should have known already? But no, it definitely couldn't be that simple. Heaven forbid we all work towards the same goal. It is much better for us to split ourselves into groups (I won't say parties in fear of being politically incorrect) and fight against each other. 

Of course I understand that competition leads to advancement, but would it be so hard to incorporate the good ideas of the losing team as well? Isn't that what being on the same team is all about? Taking everyone's strengths and rolling them into a winning effort? But what am I saying? We could never trust such a simple opinion, no, we leave those kinds of big decisions up to much older, much "wiser" men. After all, it seems to be working great for us right now. "If we're all on the same team, let's start acting like it."

"What if Michael Jordan had quit?" How very true it is that we can never know our potential until we get there, and then, sorry to burst your bubble, it won't be our potential anymore. Yes, sadly, hard work is the only way we will ever make anything of ourselves. It is "the road less traveled." You don't have to. 

In fact, I would imagine you could have an extremely easy life taking the easiest way and only doing those things which have clear outcomes. Go ahead and see where it gets you.

 On the other hand, if you decide to become something nobody believes you can, you will be the kind of person Kid President is describing, and you will fight the "rocks, thorns, and glass" "like a boss!" Let me know how it goes!

The Spin Game??

Let me just say right now that we were forced into this!!

Ok not really, but it did take a little convincing at first. Dallin has 2 brothers and their wives and a little sister that also live here in Provo; so we were all hanging out together this past weekend. Thinking of games to play, Kiersten (D's sister) suggested we play the spin game. I'm not really sure if that's the name, but might as well be. The rules are...

You tell the spinner how many seconds

and

You try to step on the spoon once your are done spinning

With more explanation...we all did 1 minute (60 seconds). When spinning that seems like forever. You hold the spoon, or in our case a spatula, above you head and stare at it while you are spinning. Once the time is up you drop it and just tap your foot on it. Doesn't seem that hard right?? WRONG! It is much more difficult that it looks. It seems so silly as well, but I've have not laughed this hard in a long time. You honestly have no control over your body and it's just weird!

Just take a look for yourself...this is mine and D's go around with this so called "spin game"

I would just like to say, I did not purposely flail my legs up like that..it was the spinning gravity motion or whatever!! If you are brave enough to try this out, I will not judge you for doing it by yourself in your living room ;) I recommend carpet!

Song of the Week

Here is my song of the week! This is also my new Zumba cool down song :)

Enjoy!

Freebie on a Friday

So here is a simple Valentine's background. It's not much, but I thought it was cute :) Hope you like it! I will be making some more soon!

This one for your wallpaper:

This one for your locked screen:

To Download:

Click here and click on the "download the large" size of the photo, set as your locked screen photo, and you are ready to go!

Then, click here and do the same to get the background image for when your phone is unlocked.

Enjoy!

Oh hey!

Do you ever feel like people are staring at you? In the grocery store? In your car while driving? And you're thinking to yourself, "umm hello?? what are you looking at??"..for me it's in my snotty, I'm better than you voice. Ok, no I don't think I'm better than anyone else at all. Then again, am I the one that is staring at them? And are they wondering the same exact thing, 

"what is her problem"? 

So I had this happen to me today. I was in a store and this girl would not stop looking at me. Again I'm thinking, what in the world are you looking at? Who knows, maybe I started it and she is wondering the same thing. Then it just started getting strange. Come on chick, I know I've got a cute outfit on today, but really...

She then starts walking towards me, and I'm wondering should I walk away from her or act like I don't see her. Good grief. I then hear, hi Jessica..."ummm what?" I turn and there it is, the light bulb, the explanation to it all. I know her! Happened to run into someone I have not seen in so long! How cool! 

In the future, whether he/she is someone I do not know and they have the stare going on, maybe they just think I'm a hot mamacita, having a bad hair day, or they do just recognize me, I won't be so quick to use my snotty voice :)

Don't forget to send me a date night idea. Refer back to this post!

Brittany Hatch Photography

Today I'm going to introduce you to someone I think is just darling! Her name is Brittany Hatch and she is super cute and super nice and I just LOVE her photos! The pictures to me are just so clean?? No idea if that makes sense, but they are just good pictures. I honestly just want to brag on her a little bit and share some of the photos that she has taken!

Oh I just love them! And this is perfect for those of you who live in the Utah area! ;)

You can contact Brittany through her website by clicking HERE!

Or go to her Facebook page and check her out HERE!

And thanks again to Brittany for allowing me to quickly share her talent with everyone!

Southwest Salad

This semester we are trying to eat healthier. We've been good so far. Last night we had a late dinner and I was trying to think of something quick and easy I could put together. How about a salad?! Pulled the lettuce out and got it all out on the plate. Chopped up some carrots, cucumber, and tomato. Then! It came to me! A southwest salad! We had some Hidden Valley Southwest Chipotle, then added some Cuban black beans, corn, bacon bits, and tortilla strips! :) There you go a southwest salad. It was delicious!

Ingredients

-lettuce

-cucumber

-carrots

-tomato

-corn

-cuban black beans

-some sort of chipotle dressing

-bacon bits

-tortilla strips

MIX IT ALL TOGETHER!

YUM!

This is not my picture :( I forgot to take one, but mine definitely look very similar!

Simple, quick, and easy!

150?!

Some of you might know..but I only started my blog this past October and I love it! I enjoy reading comments. I enjoy following other blogs and meeting new people! I feel it's a get-away for me to come into the blog world and read blogs and just relax. I'm seriously so thrilled and amazed that I have come to 125 followers!  Now, I've seen other blogs do this before and I love the idea! If I can get to 150 followers I will do a giveaway! Haven't decided what exactly, but it will be awesome! Possibly make another sweater like this one that I made for myself? Who knows!? 

I've got some fun posts coming up. Can't really give anything away yet, 

but I'm so excited and can barely hold it in!

Thanks so much for the follows so far!

Date Night Ideas

So Valentine's Day is approaching us. I don't get all crazy about it. I don't expect rose pedals all over the ground, hearts falling from the ceiling, or even my pancakes cut into the shape of hearts. I like simple things. A love letter, maybe my favorite flowers of the table, or a dinner we usually don't make. But I do love fun date nights, whether it's February 14th or September 9th (any random day). 

I have been taken on some fun dates! 

Basically what I'm getting at is...if anyone is interested in e-mailing me your best date night or best date night ideas, I want to do a post of just those ideas :) So e-mail at jmmcgill45@aol.com by February 1st (next Friday)! I'm excited to hear some ideas! Keep the ideas for couples because I have another surprise post coming for date nights for girls only! Like a girl's night out for V-Day! Should be fun!

Excited to hear from some of you!

Change of Things

Hi there! So as you notice there has been some changes to blog! Done by yours truly :) Hope you like it!

Let me know what you think!

Did you know???

Did you know...

A little salt sprinkled into the frying pan will prevent splattering??

Dipping your bacon in cold water will stop it from becoming "curly"??

Storing cartons of cottage cheese upside down; it will keep twice as long??

You will get more juice from a lemon if you warm it slightly it the oven??

Once an onion is cut in half, you rub the leftover side with butter and it will keep longer??

A few drops of lemon juice added to whipping cream helps it whip faster and better??

A few potato slices added to the oil will keep doughnuts from burning??

Brown sugar or bread won't harden if an apple slice is placed in the container??

A small amount of baking soda added to gravy will eliminate excess grease??

For juicier burgers, add a stiffly beaten egg white to each pound of hamburger?? 

The darker the flesh of a fish, the higher it is in calories??

Just some fun kitchen facts :) You may or may not already know these! Thanks Wendy Carter :)

NC vs UT

I would like to point out that it is FREEZING in Utah, just in case no one else noticed. I miss being home every single day. Especially because of this weather. I don't handle the cold very well. I want to cry every time I get in the car and the steering wheel numbs my hands! Now...don't get me wrong, Utah is gorgeous, but it's not the beach. This past weekend back home it was in the 70's! The 70's! Like is Wilmington trying to frustrate me? My friends were laying out at the beach while I was trudging through the snow in this ice cold tundra. Alright, not really..just watching my balance as I "trudged" across our non-plowed parking lot. Oh the life of living at the beach.

But hey who doesn't like wearing cute hats?!

Stay warm y'all!

Accessories can be Unique!

Hello! So this is Gentri, from Gentri Lee and she has become one of my favorite bloggers! And this is such an awesome post she has done for me! 

Hello lovely readers! My name is Gentri and I am the blogger behind Gentri Lee (obvi). I am here today to show you a few unique ways to wear accessories. Lets take those everyday accessories and make them new again!

First, I love long necklaces. One way I like to wear them is dripping down my back, just like Chanel did in the 20's.

Next, I love a great bow. But sometimes they can feel juvenile. So I love taking some menswear inspiration and clipping those little hair bows under my collar.

I also love wearing the bows behind my top knots. What a way to dress up those buns!

One of my favorite accessories is a square silk scarf, and my favorite way to wear it is tied on my head like a turban. You can see how I do that HERE.

We've all got those floral stretchy headbands lying around, but I don't love the way they look on my head. So naturally, I decided to stick them under my collar. Added that pop to the outfit that I needed.

If you go to almost any vintage store, you're sure to find some old fashioned lace collars. I loved the way it took this winter-y dress and made it light enough for warmer weather.

Lastly, I love a good funky sock, but no one really sees my socks. So I added them to some cropped pants + some ankle booties for a fun pop to the outfit.

I'd love to know if you try any of these! They're just a few ways I like to mix up my accessories!

I also love making new blog friends, so please stop by my blog sometime and introduce yourself!

Love,

Gentri Lee

6 months and still going

So yesterday mark our 6 month anniversary! Half of a year! Wow! We are basically naturals! Ha..far from. It has definitely been so much fun though! You know, just playing house everyday. We celebrated last night by going to the Jazz vs Heat game in Salt Lake City. Went with some good friends and had ourselves a good ole' time. D supported the heat (Lebron), but I wore my Jazz gear. Jazz won! 

So we are just a goofy couple! We are always cracking jokes and laughing. It's nice we can laugh at each other's jokes. Or at least make it believable that we find each other funny. I couldn't live without laughter! It makes you live longer, or something... :) Nothing better than some favorite candid pictures!

This picture really cracks me up. D and my younger brother.

Pretty sure I'm regretting my decision right now...just kidding!

Haha...his face says it all

He's a dancer.

Ohhhh pictures...

Be back soon!