Fall is my favorite season, but here in Texas, the heat lasts until early October. One of the easiest ways I’ve found to help me feel like it’s Fall is to decorate with autumn-themed pillows, light a cinnamon candle, and wear a cute tee shirt. If you can related, here are some ideas for you to try!
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Please note the above pillows and candles are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I do earn a small commission. The good news is that it won’t cost you any extra! The tee shirts are available in my Etsy store.
Today I’m going to share with you my favorite dog toys! Our dog, Cooper, is a lab-shepherd mix, and he loves chew toys. We’ve tried many different chew toys, but he destroys them within a few days! If he doesn’t have a toy, then he will start to eat my stuff, like blankets, pillows, table legs – in short, anything he can get his mouth on. So I started on a mission to find the longest-lasting dog toys, and I’m sharing my findings with you. I found some amazing toys that have (so far) last 1.5 – 2 years long and are still going! That’s absolutely astounding, considering that Cooper destroyed a Kong toy in a just few days.
The first one isthe M.C. works Mango Dog Toy. It even smells like a mango! This was the first one we found, and we’ve had it for nearly 2 years now. Cooper did eventually manage to bit off the smaller end, but that’s about it.
After trying and loving the Mango Dog Toy, we searched for more and found this pineapple. It is about 1.5 years old and still wholly intact!
We also tried a toy that is also considered a toothbrush for dogs. The exact one we still have is no longer available but the one below is very similar!
Please note the above are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I do earn a small commission. The good news is that it won’t cost you any extra!
These toys are loved by Cooper and have added sunshine to my life because it makes me happy to see Cooper enjoying his toys and also because my furniture lasts longer. I know you will enjoy them too!
Whenever my hubby and I are cooking meat, our go-to seasoning is Paleo Powder – Pink. This stuff is to die for! Every time we use it, we are in heaven. Our guests rave about this seasoning and immediately ask what it is and where they can get it. I’m not being paid to share this; this is my personal opinion. But I love it so much and want everyone to get the chance to enjoy it too! If you want to try this, go to my link below:
This is day 1 of my focused effort on improving my health and fitness…emphasis on “focused effort”. I’ve lost a few pounds here and there over the years, but not with any significant focus or effort. At my highest weight, I was 236 pounds. When we planned a trip to Hawaii, it inspired me for a short period of time, and I lost 12 lbs. 12 lbs was a good start, but in hindsight I also know I didn’t really make consistently good choices and likely could have done better. I don’t say that to beat myself up. Progress is progress! But I also know that it was a half-hearted effort, and I want to challenge myself now to be more intentional and more consistent.
That Hawaii trip was 11 years ago (August 2010). A few months later (October 2010) I was diagnosed with PCOS (which I likely had for years before the official diagnosis) . A few years ago, I was also diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, like my father and his mother before me. COVID-19 has caused me to take a deeper look at my health as we see that people with health challenges don’t always fair well if they get COVID. As a 48-year old mom to a 7-year-old, I want to be around for a long time, and I can feel the toll that my age and my health are taking on my body. I don’t sleep well (shoulder pain, trouble falling asleep, have to get up to pee multiple times a night). I have bad knees and ankles, partly due to past injuries, but I imagine my weight hasn’t helped with that either. I’m always tired, yawning even in the afternoon. I feel stressed regularly. I struggle with depression on occasion. All of this takes its toll on me, but I’ve also started to (finally) see the impact it all has on my relationship with my husband and with my daughter.
I’m working on taking off my blinders to really look at myself and the choices I make. What kind of example am I to my daughter? What kind of relationship do I want to have with my husband? Do the choices I make align with what I want? Relationships require effort to maintain and grow, but I struggle with having energy to do that.
I want to be more intentional with my choices. I want to have energy after my work day to spend meaningful time with my hubby and daughter, and also have energy to explore my own interests too! Next steps:
Step 1: I started meeting with an integrative medicine doctor earlier this year. The doctor has put me on www.ozempic.com to help my blood sugar. (Note: this is not an ad; I’m not being compensated for mentioning this product.) I see the doctor in a few weeks to see the results of my most recent blood draw. Since starting Ozempic, I’ve lost 7 lbs. This is about 3.5 months without any significant changes to the type of food eat. What has changed is how much I eat, and that’s because of Ozempic (not because of any will power on my part). If I eat too much in general or too much fat or sugar, my body starts to feel nauseated. It’s training me to recognize how much I can eat. I’m still getting plenty of food, but then I definitely ate too much prior to starting Ozempic.
Step 2: Set goals. My immediate goals are these:
Eat healthier – be more intentional and be more consistent.
Increase my fitness. Start by doing these activities more frequently:
Swimming
Walking the dog
Riding our exercise bike
In the long-term, I hope to improve my health and my fitness using the following as measurements:
Regular blood work
In particular, I’m focused on my A1C, my fasting glucose, my cholesterol, my vitamin D levels (which have been low), and my C-reactive protein (which has shown high inflammation).
Weight loss
As I create a consistent exercise routine, I will measure my progress there as well.
How many laps am I swimming in the pool
How long can I tread water
How far do I walk the dog before tiring
How far am I cycling
I invite you to join me and follow me on this journey! I would love to hear what your journey looks like and what goals you set for yourself – both short-term and long-term!
I was inspired to make Baja shrimp tacos this weekend and scoured Pinterest for ideas and inspiration. Since I grew up in California, shrimp tacos with a delicious sauce were something available at most Mexican (or Texmex) restaurants. They are easy to make, although in this instance I put in a little extra time and effort to pickle the vegetables, but even that is pretty easy and quick! These tacos also can be made with fish instead of shrimp and will be equally delicious.
This recipe makes 6 tacos.
Ingredients:
6 flour tortillas (I used low-carb tortillas), warmed
1 lb raw shrimp, defrosted (My shrimp were not labeled with a count, but I’d guess there were 35-45 per pound.)
1 tsp. chili powder (I like Gebhardts)
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
Handful of Cilantro, chopped
1 tomato, diced
1 avocado, sliced
1 lime, quartered
Pickled Onions (see recipe below)
Pickled Cabbage (see recipe below)
Baja Sauce (see recipe below)
Step 1:
Make the pickled onions and pickled cabbage (see recipes below) a few hours ahead at a minimum. It would be even better to make the day prior. Alternately, you could choose not to pickle them and instead serve diced onions and sliced raw cabbage.
Pickled Onions:
1/2 of a red onion, thinly sliced
1/3 C. Apple cider vinegar (alternately could used white vinager)
2/3 C. Water
1 tsp. Sugar
1 tsp. Kosher Salt (do not use table salt for pickling process)
Add vinegar, water, sugar and salt to a sauce pan and heat over medium heat. Stir to dissolve sugar and salt. Once those are dissolved, add onion to vinegar mixture in sauce pan and let it cook for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, turn off heat and pour mixture into a glass bowl or glass jars, e.g. mason jars. Cover, then place in fridge to marinate (minimum of an hour, but preferably overnight).
2 tsp. salt – use kosher or sea salt; do not use table salt when pickling
Place the cabbage and onion into glass jars, e.g. mason jars, or into a glass bowl. Mix the vinegar and other ingredients in a glass bowl. Then pour vinegar mixture over the cabbage. Cover and place in fridge to marinate for a least a few hours, preferably overnight.
I used the Spicy Curtido recipe here for inspiration, but chose not to include carrots or jalapenos, and used less onion. Also, I found that I needed to increase the amounts of vinegar and water to cover the cabbage and onion, but that likely could be because I used a glass bowl versus using mason jars.
Step 2:
Make the baja sauce (see recipe below).
I used the Chipotle Crema recipe here for inspiration, and I used sour cream instead of mayonaise. I also used a hand-held blender so that I have less equipment to clean!
Step 3:
Rinse and dry the defrosted shrimp. Mix together the chili powder, garlic salt, cayenne pepper, and black pepper in a small bowl. Sprinkle the chili powder mixture over the shrimp. Heat 2 tbp. of oil in a saute pan. Once the oil is heated, add half of the shrimp to the pan. Cook 1-2 minutes per side until shrimp is cooked through. Place cooked shrimp on a plate and then cook the remaining shrimp.
Step 4:
Make tacos! My husband’s favorite trick is to put the Baja sauce on the tortilla before adding shrimp, cilantro, tomatoes, pickled onions, pickled cabbage, sliced avocado, and a squirt of lime. I do that plus add more sauce on top!
Step 5:
Enjoy! Feel free to use paper plates (like we did) for easy clean-up! 🙂
I’m in love with our new dining room color! It is the happy ending of a water leak from our upstairs bathroom. As part of the house repair, the dining room and kitchen both needed to be repainted, and the painters kindly offered to paint any color we wanted, even if dining room would be a different color from the rest of the house, and for no extra charge! We had picked out this color many months ago, but then we started working on our masters degrees (yes, both of us on separate degrees!), which left little to no spare time or desire to spend a weekend painting the dining room. It’s no surprise we took them up on their offer and requested this blue color. It’s amazing the depth it’s given to our dining room.
Turquoise is a color I’ve been adding in small ways throughout our main living area (kitchen/family room/entry) I love mixing spots of turquoise in with warm colors, like red, yellow, green and brown. It adds balance since it’s a soothing color, and I personally just happen to adore the color turquoise!
Instead of having a runner that is on the middle of the table, add the runner at the end. Side note, the word ‘Blessed’ is grey but doesn’t stand out enough against the blue, so we will be spray painting it white!
We’ve mixed prints with the rug and the curtains, yet the red chairs, green table runner, and blue walls, pull them together by picking up and emphasizing their color similarities.
I hope you are inspired to add a little sunshine to your life by trying a new color in your home!
Welcome to the Hello Love and Sunshine blog! I’m excited to have this creative space to share ideas and explore new and favorite topics. Since this is my first post, I will start off with a favorite topic, which is fashion. While I say it’s a favorite topic, it’s more like a love/hate relationship. I like the idea of having coordinating outfits every day, but often tend to default to my ‘uniform’ outfits. It’s good to have those defaults when I’m in a hurry or don’t have the energy to think about what I want to wear. My goal these days is to find some creative options that I can treat as defaults while still feeling put together creatively.
An item that I’m just starting to love is leopard print shoes. I never knew how versatile they could be! Here are some ways you can pair with leopard print shoes:
An all-black outfit (e.g. dress or pants and top)
A brightly colored top with black pants
Maroon, tan or black top with dark denim jeans
Denim jacket and white tee shirt with black, olive or khaki pants
Black or tan top with red or pink pants
Seeing some themes? Leopard print shoes are normally some combination of black and tan or camel. These are neutral colors and pair well with bright colors or other neutrals. My one suggestion is not to mix prints. Use solid colors in your outfit and have the shoes be your print. Here are pics to illustrate, featuring the Margan Pump by Essex Lane.
Let me know your favorite in the comments!
The best part? You can use the same concept with other prints, such as zebra, floral, etc. For me, now that I know what outfits I have that go with my leopard print shoes, those can be a easy default option for me and yet still be add some creativity to my day.
My challenge to you: Add a little sunshine to your life by being creative with your wardrobe one day this week.
