A few weeks ago, my good friend Tiffany came over with her little baby boy, Nikolai (the same one who was milk crunk all weekend at the bachelorette!!) I snapped a few photos of the little dreamboat and my gosh, he sure knows how to make ovaries cry out...LOLZ
Tiff & Ro, you sure make cute babies! Love you guys!!!
What a little sweetheart hey!!
Happy Thursday!
-s.s.♥︎.
MY BESTIE IS GETTING MARRRRIEEEED NEXT MONTH! (Remember her wedding invite that we designed?) We had her bachelorette/birthday last weekend and had SO MUCH FUN. Rach wanted a low-key bachelorette so we planned her one that was low-key but PARTY PACKED....and by partying I mean eating chips in a hotel room because that is how we do partying :) It was her and the bridesmaids and baby Nikolai who was straight up sauced up on milk the whole time.
We started out by picking her up from her work dressed in #allblackeverything because that's how Rachel usually rolls...but obviously we had to add a bit of gold because a little gold never hurt anyone. I made her a killer and by killer, I mean super tacky necklace out of pipe cleaners.
We then enjoyed Rachel's favourite food (Noodlebox) and then got tattoos. KIDDING. I had a DIY planned for sweet awesome temp tattoos that read "I BELONG TO #CLUNGTOTHEJUNG. IF FOUND, TAKE ME TO DISNEYLAND. K. THANKS. BYE." but they didn't end up working...boo!
After dinnz we all went to the Inn at Laurel Point (my fave hotel in Victoria!) and had a great time eating chips, chocolate and laughing...lots of laughing.
The next morning, we hit up Jam Cafe where we all received food comas.
That cinnamon swirl pancake with cream cheese icing is TO DIE FOR.
After that we surprised Rachel with a trip out to a pottery studio in Langford. There we selected pottery pieces and got our painting on!
Rachel painted this incredible design on her piece and I decided to keep it real simple (aka I have no art skills whatsoever). I finished mine in 20 minutes...which was totally ok because it gave me cuddle time with baby Nikolai :)
It was so much fun celebrating the beautiful bride to be and I can't wait to stand beside her as she marries her love next month!!! Love you SILLY!!!!!
Be sure to check out their wedding hashtag #clungtothejung and I'll be back soon posting more wedding stuff!
XO,
s.s.♥︎.
One of my favourite things about long distance running is- the post run meal….yes. I'm Italian and I was raised to be OBSESSED with food. I can't help it, it's in my blood.
In some past fitness posts (here, here + here) I've shared with you some tips that help me keep fuelled in those long runs…but…I've been holding out on you. There's one more strategy that really gets me going in my final kms... ENVISIONING MY POST RUN MEAL.
When I'm tired and sweaty and cranky with two km to go, I just start picturing what I will be devouring as soon as I'm done my run and BOOM! all of a sudden, I have way more energy to complete the run! It works every time....every time.
But I've been realizing you just can't down anything when you finish a run. You need to put some protein back in your body! But guys...for years I've had a love hate relationship with protein powder. I know it's good for me but every one I tasted has been all ewh. ewh. ewh.
Until I got my hands on Bodylab's Decadent Chocolate Fudge protein powder. YOU GUYS. This stuff is goooood. And it's not like other protein powders that are designed to bulk you up. In Bodylab's protein powders are a bunch of awesome ingredients that help fuel lean tissue, rev metabolism and do lots of other great things! Bodylab was created by women and for women and JLo runs the show..HELLO! Sign me right up to get a booty like JLo's.
Because of the length of my run, I added a couple things to this smoothie, but the powder is good enough to have with just water!
ingredients:
instructions:
And I have some GOOD NEWS! The good peeps at Bodylab are giving you a discount code to receive 25% off your order AND free shipping! Just use the code ssheart25 at checkout. #booyah.
(Bodylab kindly sent me their products to try out but all opinions expressed are my own.)
Happy post run future smoothie eating!
xo,
s.s.♥︎.
Oh hello festival season!! I don't know about you but I'm experiencing mega festival withdrawal. It's been two years since Coachella. :(
Amazing music, sunny skies, palm trees...so wish I was there right now!!! But if I can't be there in real life, I can at least go online shopping and pretend I'm there riiigggghhht?
1. Floppy Hat
2. Black Tank
3. Glitter Water Bottle
4. Kimono
5. Fringe Purse
6. Denim Cut-Offs
7. Gladiator Sandals
How incredible is that floor length kimono? Sooo want it. And that gold glitter water bottle!! Ah!
Got exciting plans for the weekend? I DO! It's Rachel's stagette and we're all PUMPED! Can't wait to hang and celebrate the bride to be! Hope you have a wonderful one.
stay gold,
s.s.♥︎.
So remember when we talked about budgeting a couple of months ago? I shared why I started budgeting and how I got out of debt and today I'm sharing all about budgeting as a married couple. I'd love to say that budgeting is simply a THRILLING topic to talk about in your marriage but you all would know that I'd be straight up LYING. It can be fun at times, but at other times it can be just dreadful...because no one wants to be the one crushing the dreams and talking about money (or lack of) all the time. Money is a funny thing that can be used to make people distracted/angry/greedy/etc or it can be something that is used to glorify God. We try to make it the latter.
As I wrote before, it is very important to me to be accountable to every dollar I make. This was very easy for me as a single person with one debit card BUT add another person and another debit card and this can get a little bit tricky. This is where something like MINT sets you up for a win.
Before we got married, we sat down on mint and created a budget that we thought would work for us. With mint, you connect all your accounts and credit cards and then all your transactions start appearing. You can then organize those onto different budgets. Mint shows you where all your money is going.
I'd love to say every month, we're under or on budget but nope we're still learning. Some weeks I'm so busy I barely go on Mint and then all of a sudden I check and I'm all like OH MY GOSH WE HAVE $20 IN THE GROCERY BUDGET TO LAST US UNTIL THE END OF THE MONTH. Food is the #1 budget we go over in...ha.
We're not experts but here's the advice I have for you on budgeting as a married couple.
It's good to get on the same page as a married couple on where you want to spend your money. Is saving up for a house a priority? Do you tithe? And how much? (Ps. I'll be talking about tithing next week!) For us, tithing is a HUGE priority so we make sure it's clearly in our budget. Do you have a clothing allowance? Set the budget and be willing to compromise.
Be wise. Budgeting is all about living with in (and under) your means. But as a married couple sometimes you can get carried away with things (travelling, new cars, buying expensive clothes, house renovations). For us it's real hard to not dive into renos...our bathroom doesn't even have baseboards BUT we know right now we're not financially set up for that so we make do with what we have.
It's real easy to fight about money. Those fights are never worth it. Money comes and goes. Your relationship happiness should not depend on what is in the bank. Stressed about money? Make a plan, set a budget and stick to it. Determine to not let money come between your relationship.
above image taken by Amy Gary Photography
I'd love to hear your tips for budgeting as a married couple! Please share them in the comments :)
xo,
s.s.♥︎.
I'm Laura. Wife, mama, pastor, diy-er + chocolate addict who's just trying to change the colour on your mood ring. Thanks for stopping by, XO!
© 2017 S.S. Heart. All rights reserved. If you want to use a photo, please contact me for permission! Let's keep it real. xo.
