Balayage, from black to blonde

I've been dying my hair for about 3 years. I am a natural dirty blonde, but I've always loved how shiny brown hair is. It always looks so silky soft!  It started the week before we got our engagement pictures done. I really wanted to be a brunette for our wedding because that's when I feel prettiest (I've dyed my hair in the past), and I thought it would be weird if in our engagement photos I was a blonde but for our wedding I was a brunette :) I bought some medium brown dye from Sally's. It took two applications to cover my hair, and it. was. DARK. But, I had to stick with it. And I did, for three years. It looks so pretty for about two weeks after dying, but then my blonde roots start coming in, and they're SO noticeable. I felt like it looked like I was balding haha. 

oh the glamour of dying your own hair :)

 There's my beautiful roots...it probably doesn't help me at all that I take photos of my hair when I'm at my absolute worst haha

 I was browsing Instagram a couple weeks ago and a friend had liked a photo of one of their friends getting their hair done. It looked amazing! I immediately looked at all of the photos posted by this stylist and called and scheduled an appointment with her a couple weeks later, even though she lives 1 1/2 hours away. Her name is MacKenzie, and she works at Salon 804 in Traverse City. Here's her instagram.

You know how some things feel like they're meant to happen? This was. I didn't feel nervous in the pit of my stomach at all driving up to Traverse City that morning by myself. MacKenzie and I ended up having a TON in common! Rebecca, one of the heads of Teen Mania (I'm assuming Ron Luce?) had asked her mother to marry him but she didn't! She knew all about Teen Mania, her parents are planting a church in Traverse City, her brother is the worship leader (my brother-in-law is a worship leader!), our spouses both work with creating websites/computer tech-y stuff, we got married within a year of each other, etc. It was weird just how comfortable I was. I absolutely love when that happens because not everyone gets me. I didn't feel nervous when I saw how platinum blonde my hair got during the bleaching/toning process because she kept me informed during every step. Seriously, this girl is amazing.

Before:

After:

She cut about 3 inches off and added a bunch of layers. She also taught me how to curl my hair, which took her about 2 minutes (and it lasted all day and all night! Seriously! I'm sitting on the couch this morning and most of my hair is still curly!) compared to my 45 minutes haha. I'm excited to finally be able to do my hair cute! Oh, and should I note that she didn't use any hair spray? It was Redken Diamond Oil, so my hair is silky soft. Seriously. It's so worth paying someone who knows what she's doing.

 She left my roots alone and miraculously matched the tone of my natural hair color throughout my hair on top to make natural highlights. The rest of the toning process resulted in many different colors, so throughout my hair I've got reds, blondes, black, and browns. I was shocked at first because I am not one to be bold at all with colors in my hair, but now I absolutely love it :)

I don't quite understand this little part of hair why some didn't turn red. Oh well haha

 There's my roots! But see how it blends super well??? Like I said, she's amazing.

MacKenzie was happy I used professional grade dye and not from a box, but certain areas still didn't lift well. That just means more sessions, which I'm fine with. This first appointment only cost me $150, which is nothing for how light she got my hair! She thinks it'll only take 3-4 sessions, so about $600, compared to double that amount last time with my previous stylist who did the highlight route.

Yay for change!

Today has been such a great day. I woke up at 5:30am, drank a glass of water, and did my daily workout. Today was arm day, and I'd usually add a couple miles on the treadmill; however, my calves and heels have been pretty sore, so I didn't run today. After I worked out, I showered and then went and got groceries. I have found the absolute best time to get groceries is at 7am. There's only like 3 other customers, so I feel like I don't have to look great or smile or talk to anyone. I know that's kind of silly, but I always feel like I have to smile and be nice to people, so it's relaxing to not have to do that once a week haha :)

Tim and I are changing our meals, but just slightly. We've both gained weight this winter, and carbs are our problem. So, here are our changes:

Breakfast options each day: Protein shake; Eggs, spinach, avocado, and hummus on flatbread; ezekial bread or ezekial english muffins with avocado or peanut butter; overnight oatmeal in a jar with raisins, sliced almonds, chia seeds, maple syrup, cinnamon, and milk

Snack around 10am: Small bag of nuts

Lunch options each day: Tim: Turkey and cheese wrap, apple, V8 juice, then 3pm cliff bar
Emily: half can of salmon, carrots and cucumbers with dip, green juice, then 3pm fruit strip

Snacks:
Carrots and cucumbers with dip or hummus
Tortilla chips with salsa
Popcorn
Cinnamon tea
Strawberries, Blueberries, raspberries
Smoothie
Red kidney bean brownies (here's hoping they're good!)

Dinners include ground turkey, chicken breasts, sweet potatoes, and vegetables. I'm really trying to incorporate a lot more healthy foods. I think my big thing, however, is also eating too many healthy foods, meaning like four clementines instead of one or two, two servings of nuts, etc... I think if I cut back, that will help me a lot!

And I'm going to stay on track drinking water, 64+ ounces each day.

Tim has been sick the past couple of days, so when I got home from getting groceries, we decided to have breakfast in bed so he could rest. I made Fluffy Flourless Banana Smoothie Pancakes, and we both enjoyed them, especially with berries on top :)

I then took a NAP, which I never ever do! I laid my head on Tim's shoulder for just a moment, and then our cat came and laid by us, and I was a goner. I slept for about 45 minutes :)

The rest of today was spent relaxing even more. My friend Heather and I are planning a trip end of April 2018 to Paris/London, so I've spent many, many hours looking up stuff on Pinterest :) Tim and I cleaned up our house, did laundry and dishes, and made chicken, bacon, and avocado wraps for dinner (YUM!), then he watched some Magic The Gathering tournaments on twitch, and I started a new season of The Amazing Race.

Snuggling with my family is the best <3 Today was the perfect start to a new week!

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Goodbye 2016

2016 ended in the way it began, with Tim and I on the couch, barely awake :) It was a really great day. I woke up and worked out, went and got groceries (reminder to myself AGAIN to not go to the grocery store on a Saturday afternoon...too many people.), spent a lot of time on Pinterest, made some homemade bread soup bowls and broccoli cheese soup, and ended the year watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. I will note that I did make myself a cup of coffee around 6:30; otherwise there is no way I could have stayed awake!

We definitely ended the year right with two new recipes, which I will absolutely share in a future post because I am SO proud of how perfect they turned out! Seriously, even after having soup in them, the soup bowls still popped back out when touched. They were awesome. 

 Note, these are not burnt, but actually a deep brown, sound hollow when tapped, and are very fluffy on the inside.

 FIVE...FOUR...THREE...TWO...ONE!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

 We passed out shortly after that :) I woke up at 7am (1 1/2 hours later than normal!) and did my Sunday workout, which was a 1/2 hour Blogilates arm workout and then a 2 mile run. I'm now back on the couch rewatching Harry Potter (am I crazy or what haha) while I write out some goals for the year. Not a super exciting day, but a perfect day for me :)

Happy Christmas weekend

This is my favorite time of day. I am an early riser (5:30am), and I love being the only one awake. Besides my cat. There's something magical about this time of morning, with the tree lights on, my very favorite Christmas candle lit, and a Christmas movie playing while drinking my morning tea. 

This year I purchased a mini tree for our kitchen and decorated it with mini cookie cutters and gingerbread men. I absolutely LOVE it.

Christmas Eve movies included The Nativity Story and All I Want For Christmas while I looked up recipes for more cookies to make that we don't need but I wanted to make anyway :)

We made up a batch of our traditional sugar cookies :) Those are Tim's favorite cookies, and it doesn't quite feel like Christmas without them.

That evening I went to Christmas Eve service with my sister and her family. Chloe had just woken up from a nap-she was like this the whole evening hahahahaha, I just kind of plopped her down on the couch and she didn't move!

After the service, Tim and I opened our gifts. He bought me the Lunar Chronicles book series as well as Mastering the Art of French Eating, by Ann Mah. I'm so excited to start reading again!

Tim's parents bought us a bunch of stuff and shipped it to us since we ended up not going to Pennsylvania this year, including slippers, Muk Luk navy boots for me, a thin wool long shirt that you wear with leggings, pajamas, a stronghold wallet (I think that's what it's called), a running jacket, a duster, and Tim also got slippers, pajamas, and some clothes. 

I love this photo of Tim haha-it looks like he's wearing a red fur shawl! I had seen that mug on Facebook earlier this year and bought it immediately. He loves it :) We made some hot cocoa with marshmallows and watched Scrooged (until I fell asleep like 1/2 hour into it...it's because I get up so early I have the hardest time staying awake after snuggling under a warm blanket with cocoa!)

Christmas morning I drove to my parent's house for our traditional Christmas breakfast. This year my mom made egg casserole, and I made three types of muffins: chocolate chip, blueberry, and cranberry with orange zest. I actually felt pretty that day, thus the photo in my car lol :) 

We went to my nephew's Christmas program but he didn't want to wear the sheep costume lol, so Chloe wore it for a while :)

 Once I got home, Tim and I opened our stockings. I got a lot of things from BlueQ.com for Tim, including the below socks haha :) He got me a new card box and sleeves for our Final Fantasy card game. Then I bought a crap load of candy for the both of us.

We ate a bunch of sugar cookies and watched a Hallmark Christmas movie, aka I watched the Hallmark movie and Tim took a nap :) Rebecca, I'm going to let you either borrow the movie or you'll have to come watch it with me, it was really cute!

Katniss Kitty got a lot of fun things in her stocking, including a catnip carrot (see the last pic), some catnip mice, and catnip oil bubbles! We played for about 15 minutes with the bubbles!

After that it was time for our annual family photo. This year "Mrs. Claws" came and visited us from the North Pole because Santa ate all the Christmas cookies (thus why she had a catnip carrot), but she knew we always make extra cookies, so she made a quick trip down to get some :) :) :)

Meow-y Christmas, love the Finks

Day 2

Day 2 on our trip to Maine was my favorite, I think, even though I made a HUGE mistake that kind of ruined our afternoon...I'll explain later, but first, let me talk about our trip to King Arthur Flour! 

When I plan our vacations, I always search for unique places to go, and King Arthur Flour's Bakery and Cafe in Norwich, Vermont was one of them :) It is slightly embarrassing, but I was so giddy happy when we got there, I could NOT stop smiling, and I will admit I think I almost started crying??? There is something seriously weird about me haha. When I get to try new things, especially new food, I am ecstatic.

 Tim and I got there about 10 minutes before they finished serving breakfast, thank GOD!!! I really wanted to try their breakfast sandwich :) Tim got a mocha and I got a hot cider for our drinks, and we each got a breakfast sandwich. They don't have a ton of seating inside, but thankfully it was a relatively warm day outside, so we sat at a table in the fresh air :) This sandwich was everything I hoped it would be: a perfectly buttery and light bun with fluffy egg and cheese.

King Arthur also has a store, packed FULL of any type of baking item you need. I, of course, ended up being in one of those moods where everything I saw I was like, "Oh that's cool, but I don't need it", and I proceeded to walk out with only a mug, shirt, and a gift for a friend...oh well :) Oh, and I also walked out without my credit card. 

As I was checking out, I put my credit card in my back pocket with my phone. I NEVER do that, and a voice in the back of my head even said that it was going to fall out of my pocket, but I ignored it. We left the shop and drove an hour north to a cider mill. I got out my purse to pay for lunch since Tim and I rotate between who pays what, and it was my turn to pay for lunch. I'm so glad it was! If it wasn't, we would have made it to Portland before realizing I left my card behind. EVERYTHING was pre-purchased (hotel...etc) with that card, so without it, it would have been very very bad. I was able to call King Arthur Flour and they put me through to the store who said it was in their Safe. Phew! Because we had to go back to get my card, we had to miss going to Mount Washington Auto Road :( Oh well. I definitely learned my lesson. We'd like to take another trip to Vermont in the fall again anyway, so we'll just have to make sure we go then. Rather, Vermont and New Hampshire since that's where the road is :)

Croissants, coconut macaroons, cardamom twisted roll, air cookie? (or maybe cloud?), scones, and hot cocoa cupcake.  Everything was delicious. It'd be so awesome to work there!

The day still turned out great. We had Serial podcast to listen to on our way, and it was super interesting! I highly recommend a podcast for long road trips, especially Serial! We ended up getting to our hotel around 7 meaning it was still light out the whole time we drove, whereas we would have gotten there around 10 if we had gone to Mount Washington Auto Road. It gave us time to relax, especially Tim after a long day of driving-we ordered pizza and turned on American Pickers :)

This is my shirt I bought :) Besides accidentally putting it in the dryer when we got home and it shrunk a bit, I love it! Day 3 coming up!