Nails, Nails, Nails

I haven't painted my own nails in YEARS and I mean YEARS. I can't even remember the last time actually. Between my friends, Michelle and Rachael, and Pinterest I've really been wanting to do my nails. So I asked for some nail polish for Christmas.

..and Josh got me some!

It's a great little Essie Collection
Cocktail Bling
Bobbing for Baubles
Bangle Jangle
Size Matters
Some of you probably seen my post of the great design Michelle did on my nails, Thursday night. I LOVED them, but me and acrylic don't last long together. So after losing one nail and her fixing it, I lost 3 more. =( Boo!

So I decided I'd paint them on my own.

I took off my acrylics and decided to use another of my Christmas gifts, which is perfect because we're going to a Pittsburgh Penguins game tomorrow night up in Pittsburgh. I'm SO excited.

I put 2 coats of the Cocktail Bling on which is like a gray. And did the little trick I learned from Rachael on her blog post to make them dry faster. Her trick? Run them under cold water for 20 seconds. It works. I swear. I was so impressed.

Then I took my tattoos and cut them to their smallest size so they would fit nicely on the nail. I was worried about them staying in place, but the "stickiness" of the nail polish allows it to stick without moving. Yay!

I used a small bowl of water and a washcloth to apply water to the tattoo for it to transfer. I did this for 30 seconds and they transferred perfectly.

So excited for the game!

Signing off,
Ida Jade

Not So Extreme Couponing..

I've had a lot of people ask me how I do my shopping saving.

So I decided I'd tell you my secret. Not that there's much of one, but it works for me.

First off I'll tell you my best shopping trip was:
$320 grocery bill
$160 after coupons and instore savings
.90 cents off/gallon on gas


Getting started is what takes a little time and patience, but at the end of the day I try to only spend 6-8 hrs on couponing bi-weekly. That's right, I shop every other week. So here's what I did/do.

What's needed:
- 3 Ring Binder
- Baseball Plastic Sleeves
- Scrapbook Cutter (I have the Cri-cut)
- Page Dividers

Step 1: Comparison Shop
When we moved to WV and I started couponing I took 10 of the items we bought most and compared the prices at the local grocery stores. I did this twice and one beat out the others both times. For me that grocer is Martins.

Martins offers Double Coupons Everday and Gas Points, so extra bonuses!

Step 2: Purchase Supplies & Organize
After purchasing the supplies you need, it's time to figure out what catergories you'd like in your binder. This is what mine are.

1. FREE
2. Produce
3. Condiments
4. Beverages
5. Sancks
6. Candy
7. Baking/Cooking Items
8. Breakfast
9. Canned Goods/Boxed/Packaged
10. Dairy and Bread
11. Meat
12. Frozen Foods
13. Paper Products
14. Cleaning Items
15. Air Fresheners
16. Cosmetics and Skin Care
17. Oral and Eye Care
18. Feminine Care
19. Hair and Body Care
20. Pharmacy
21. Pets
22. Office Supplies
23. Micellaneous
24. Coupon Policies

Step 3: Buy Newspapers

Buy the Sunday newspaper. I need to just subscribe to one so it's cheaper, but I haven't got there yet. When I first started couponing I bought each newspaper. Now, I get 2, but I really think I'm just going to get the Washington Post from now on. You'll have to judge for yourself which newspaper has the best coupons.

Step 4: Clip and Organize Coupons

Exactly as it sounds. Clip your coupons. You can use scissors if you'd like, but to be honest..I think it's a waste of time. Buy yourself a scrapbook cutter like the one I have pictured below. It saves so much time and it's super easy. I usually clip coupons while watching football on Sunday, but sadly the season is coming to an end.

Organize them before you get them in the binder. It saves time. At first it's going to be difficult, but once you know the different categories you'll fly through it.

File them into the plastice sleeves. Make sure you can see the expiration date.

Step 5: Pre-Shop
My "trick" is to shop directly out of the weekly ad. I try to never buy anything unless it's on sale and if it has a coupon that's even better. With Martins doubling coupons I end up getting things for cents or free sometimes (I'll say those are pretty rare though)

One other "trick" is..just because it says 2/$5, does NOT mean you need to buy 2. When you see deals like this it's automatic to think you need to buy 2, but unless it says differently you can get less.

I make my list and pull out my coupons. As you do this more and more you'll know what coupons you have so it won't be as difficult.

Step 6: Shop
As time has gone on I've become very comfortable with knowing the store. When I first started going it took me on average of 2 hours to shop. Now, it's more like 45 minuntes. I want to get it down to where I know what's in each aisle, but as with everything esle it'll come with time.

Step 7: Save, Save, Save
=) Checkout and watch your bill go DOWN, DOWN, DOWN. =)

Step 8: Get Rid of the Old
Every few weeks check the expiration dates and get rid of the old ones.


That's all! It's really not hard at all and while I don't get my bill down to cents per transaction; I'm also not spending 20+ hours couponing weekly. I don't even use the internet for coupons.

Hope this helps all of you..let me know how much you save!

Signing off,
Ida Jade

Pic of the Week: 4th Week of Jan.

I'm sorry my pic of the week is always Miss Ellie Mae, but how can you deny her cuteness? I took this while I was getting my nails done last night. Such a sweetheart.

Signing off,
Ida Jade

The Nail Diaries..

or so a new blog should be titled, haha.

My dear friend, Michelle, who dabbles in nail art..I say dabbles VERY lightly, has been offering to do my nails for quite awhile now. I finally took her up on it tonight.

We spent 3 hours laughing, talking, and watching Jenna Marbles  (she's hilarious, watch if you haven't seen her already) on YouTube, while she worked on my nails. It was great and I'm SO happy with the way they turned out. Take a look for yourself.

Just a small amount of her massive collection

Love them!! =)

Aren't they great?!
The best part, I could understand her the whole time I got my nailes done, haha!

Signing off,
Ida Jade



Waist Watcher Wednesday - Week #4

I am joining up with Rachael at You, Me, and Natalie for Waist Watcher Wednesdays.

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3


I am happy to report I've been on good behavior. My calories were under my intake goal everyday for the past week and I've managed to work out 3 days of the past 7.

I blogged about my Friday "workout" in which I taught dance all day and boy did that kick my butt. I didn't think I'd be able to make it to the gym for a long while because I was just so sore. So I forced myself to. Saturday, Josh and I went to the gym; him to work out and for me to tan. (Boy did that feel good on my sore muscles). I then signed up for my 1st of 3 free trainer sessions at the gym.

Monday at 4pm I walked into the gym for my session, legs still sore and began my consultation with my trainer, Shawn. Who by the way is really good at his job. Extremely knowledgeable and very helpful. I made sure to tell him about my extreme "workout" Friday and he made sure to concentrate on my arms, shoulders, back, abs, and chest instead of my legs.

I started out on the elliptical for 5 minutes, did some crunches on a ball, did some reverse crunches, planks, and a good bit of weight training. My arms by the end were shaking. It hurt and I pushed myself pretty hard.

I was planning all day yesterday to workout on the elliptical to give my arms a "break" because they were just so sore, but when I got home from the office I just couldn't motivate myself. Luckily my husband did. We ended up at the gym in the Cardio Cinema..which is phenomenal. They play a movie in a dark room on a projector screen with ellipticals, steppers, and bikes in it. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical.

Well let me tell you. I can barely bend or straighten my arms today, they are SO sore, but it's STILL a great feeling and I'm really proud of myself.

I'm taking tonight off, but I'll go back in tomorrow.

Stats:

Weight: 164 lbs  161.6 lbs
BMI: 24.7  24.2  23.9

Down 2.4 lbs I'm quite happy with myself. I think it's a huge part in just eating better. I'm only having pop when I have meal and just a small amount if I do. In between meals I'm drinking water like crazy. Which is way different than what I was doing a month ago.

Measurements:
Bust: 37"
Chest: 32"
Waist: 31"  30 1/2"
Stomach: 36 1/2"  35 3/4"
Hips: 39 1/2"
Thighs: 25 1/2"  24 1/2"
Calf's: 16"  15 1/2"
Upper Arms: 11 3/4"
Forearms: 9"  9 1/4"

If you'd like to join post here or link up with us over at You, Me, and Natalie!

Signing off,
Ida Jade

Pain is Weakness Leaving Your Body

Right?

Well than I'm pretty freaking weak.

Yesterday was the second day I've gone to teach at a local high school. If you remember or haven't seen the first post..it's here.

I was invited back to teach hip-hop this time around. A world different from lyrical jazz.

Thursday, I spent part of the day in my office, went to a meeting, mailed some things...pretty normal day. When I got home I got ready and headed to my favorite spot to choreograph (as of right now). When I got there I was expecting it to take me maybe 2 hours to finish the choreography, because I just was so nervous.

The song I ended up using was "Rock The Beat" - LMFAO. It's actually not much of a song, it's the 1st track on their album "Sorry for Party Rocking" and it's a prelude to the album titled song. It has a pretty awesome beat to it. You should look it up.

So I started off by doing some improv..the way I choreograph best and thought into what I wanted to create. In 40-45 minutes I was done. I impressed myself to be quite honest. It's a great feeling when this happens.

My obstacle from there was sleep. After a nice night in with Josh, trying to sleep was nearly impossible. I was ridiculously nervous. Why you ask? I've taught so many times before, I should be fine. Well I've taught hip hop before, but it was to the same group of girls for 3-4 years. They liked my style. I'm dealing with all new teens who know what they like and this is a genre they probably know most about, just from modern day society.

So I tossed and I turned and then my alarm went off. I got up and hubby got up with me. After I got ready to head out the door, he had coffee ready to take with me. Loved it! And off I went.

I stretched a bit ahead of time and when the first class came in. I introduced the song we would be doing and the fact that we would only use 8-counts for part of the song. One thing I've learned in taking dance, every teacher is different and you'll run into teacher who teach by 8-counts, sounds, and/or the music. I actually do a little of each, so I wanted them to really "listen" to the music and feel there way through it.

Everything went pretty dang well. My favorite was the reaction I got when I taught up to a certain point, we did it with music, and I continued on to the next step (which was my signature move and a HUGE step up in speed). I like to "add-on" before actually teaching it so they can see what's next and the speed of which it is done. I can't explain the sound reaction too well, but their eyes got wide and some of their mouths dropped. Haha! Such a great feeling!

We continued on and unlike I expected we just about finished the routine in all of the classes. I went to the water fountain in the locker room a few times after class and my ears were pretty delighted to what I heard. Majority loved the choreography and I also heard some "it was great - just taught too fast:". Aha! That's the point. They needed a challenge and I'm pretty sure I pushed them. Which again, is another great feeling.

Hopefully, I'll be back soon. I'll update you if I do. =)

Now back to the title of this post. I didn't think through the choreography with the fact that I would be doing it  over and over and over. In almost the very beginning we did a kick out, "dropped" to the floor with legs crossed, to turn completely around and jump up with feet spread apart. Uhmm..ouch. I did the movement/routine AT LEAST 25 times per class, if not more. There were 6 classes I taught in. That's the equivelant of 150 of those turns. Try it once and you'll understand my pain. By the very last one I did I could barely get my legs to unbend to "jump" up.

So I knew I was in pain from that. I was already hurting last night and after a big dinner..Josh and I made breakfast, yum! I slept for 2 1/2 hrs. I was exhausted! I woke up and could barely move. And after sleeping tossing all night, I hurt even worse. I can feel almost every muscle in my back, neck, and shoulders not to mention my legs, arms are killing me too. Talk about a work out!

Please tell me I made up  for not hitting the gym the past few weeks. I promise I'll be better if I don't have to deal with this amount of pain again. It actually hurts me to stand up straight, and bending down to get anything..yeah, that's not happening.

"Pain is Weakness Leaving Your Body"

Signing off,
Ida Jade

Pic of the Week: 3rd Week of Jan.

Surprisingly enough this past weekend on our way to PA, Miss Ellie Mae was on pretty good behavior. She's getting to like the spot above the back seats more and more. So I couldn't help, but take some pics of her. This is my favorite though.

Signing off,
Ida Jade

Tried It Out: Homemade "Ice cream"

Okay so it didn't end up being "true" ice cream it's a bit "ice-y", but we did this without looking at any recipes..just kind of went for it. This was actually more of my hubby's project than mine, but it was fun to do none the less and the results are quite yummy. So I thought I'd share.

What You'll Need
*Ice (lots of it)
*Blender
*Vanilla Extract
*Whole Milk
*Sugar
*Fruit (optional).. We used strawberries, blackberries, oranges, and even lemons

Fill with ice, almost to the top

Add about a cup of sugar (or less/more depending on desired "sweetness")

Fill with milk to almost cover the ice completely

Add some vanilla extract and blend until the ice is just about "gone"

Add your fruit or "flavor" and bend

Half way through the blending

We stored them in old cleaned out coffee cans

That's it! We ended up making:
*Strawberry
*Vanilla
*Blackberry
*Lemon
*Orange

Yum! Hope you enjoy!

Signing off,
Ida Jade

Waist Watcher "Wednesday" - Week #3

I am joining up with Rachael at You, Me, and Natalie for Wasit Watcher Wednesdays.

Week 1
Week 2

Okay so this past week was pretty bad, as far as calories and exercise go. Friday was my sister's 21st birthday, so we were in PA which means lots of eating out. Dang it! Then Monday was my going away party from the casino. So as you can imagine a lot of alcohol was consumed, in result so were a lot of calories. Boo!


The only exercising I did was dancing a bit on Friday, so I failed here to, but today starts a better routine since I'm gone from the casino.

Stats: They stayed the exact same again this week, which really really shocked me. Unsure about the weight still because I have yet to purchase a scale. This is changing today though. I'm swinging by Walmart on my way home from choreographing for the classes I have to teach tomorrow.

Edit:Weight: 167 lbs. (approximate)
Weight: 164 lbs. (actual)..finally went and got that scale
BMI: 24.7    24.2

Measurements:
Bust: 37"
Chest: 32"
Waist: 31"
Hips: 36 1/2"
Thighs: 25"
Calfs: 16"
Upper Arms: 11 3/4"
Forearms: 9"

If you'd like to join in post here or link up with us over at You, Me, and Natalie!

Signing off,
Ida Jade

Times They Are A Changin'

A lot is changing.

I talked about my new years resolutions in previous posts, but this is a bit deeper. I want to exceed all of those. I want to better myself in every way humanly possible. By the end of the year I want to know that my hard work has paid off.

I made the move two weeks ago to get things rolling by putting my two weeks in at the casino I work at part time. Now it was only part time, but the hours are what hurt me. I started sleeping in, not getting into my office until late, or just not going in at all. I've worked from home before, but lets face it...there is just something about working from home that makes you less productive.

So I will be in my office 5-6 days a week. That's my goal..around 50 hours a week. With Sundays set aside (for the majority) for my husband and I to spend together.

While working on this I will be working on organizing EVERYTHING. My life, my work, and my house. It's going to take A LOT, but I know I'll be happier and it'll make things SO much easier on a day to day basis.

One of the most important things that I'll be making time for is excercise. I got my gym membership two weeks ago as well and I've used it once and I have yet to use my tanning membership. This WILL change. I've found some more work out buddies so I really hope and think I'll be able to stick to it.

The last thing will be going to bed earlier. My husband has a hard enough time sleeping and most nights we go to bed around 1am if not later and that's even on nights where he has to get up for work by 4am. We don't do it on purpose, but it's habit from the days he's not at work. So I need to change, to help him change. Poor guy is sleep deprived half of the time and I feel partially responsible. I'm not saying I'll be up at 6am everyday, but I do wish to be up at the latest of 9am and in bed by 11pm. Maybe over time I'll wake up earlier than that, it's hard to tell. I just know this is a change that NEEDS to happen.

So I plan to update you all with my changes in my life and I encourage you if there is something you want to change about yours..start now. RIGHT now. Why wait? You want it to change, MAKE it happen.

Signing off,
Ida Jade

So Long, Farewell

Well tomorrow is my last day of work at the casino. It's been a fun 6 months. Wow, I really can't believe I've been there that long. Seems like my first day was yesterday. 

I've met some fantastic people there and I really hope to stay close to them. I'm planning on starting to play poker on occasion. Which reminds me, I need to figure out when I can actually go in to play without any problems. 

Last night was a farewell get together at one of the local watering holes. It was threw together pretty last minute, so I was surprised by the turnout. It was so nice to have everyone out together and to see everyone outside of the casino. Really hope to do that more! 

Here are so pictures from the night.

I'll miss all of you! It's been an absolute pleasure working with all of you!

Signing off,
Ida Jade

It was a Sick Night..

My Seester's Bday was Friday and we made sure it was one heck of a birthday.

Seester and me, ready to go for the night =)

We started out at Applebee's for dinner with friends and family and had a nice turn out of around 30 people. A good time was had by all, but the real fun came afterward.

Delicious Margaritas that my buddy, Nate, and I had..yum!!

We a headed back to the house to finish getting ready and pick up a few people who couldn't make it to dinner. Then we headed out to catch our party bus. Josh and I booked her a 24 passenger limo bus for the evening. When the bus pulled up, you could just feel the excitement in the air. Or maybe that was the bitter cold single digit temperature...either way.

We all loaded up and dove into to making our drinks from the complimentary "bar" and started on demolishing what ended up being around 100/135 jello shots between 11 people. We talked, we danced, we sang, we had one heck of a good time.

Cooler full of jello shots

Josh and I dancing on the bus

One of my besties, Denise, and I 

Hahah, seester and I having a great time

We hit some traffic on our way up there, but that was quite alright, it was barely noticed. When we arrived we headed right for Club Diesel where I had got us a few things for free the day before. I emailed them to see if we could wave the cover charges and in turn they also gave us a Champagne toast for Aleece, among a few other things.

We started out steady and then came the shots, haha! A good time was had by all and Aleece experienced her first tequila shot with me (my persona favorite). There wasn't a time all night that she didn't have a drink in hand.

We moved around a few different times and I wish we could have been there longer, but alas the night had to end at some point.

And now to be honest..I don't remember much after boarding the bus. Whoops! Aleece and I both ended up getting sick, but I don't think I would have changed a thing. It was a night to remember and I hope she had as good of time as I did.

Now I just can't wait until she visits us down here and we can go into Baltimore or something together.

Love you, seester!!

Signing off,
Ida Jade

To: My Seester

Yes..You read correctly..she's my sEEster.

Today is her 21st Bday and oh boy will it be a great one. She's in for a night of her life, that's for sure. No one could deserve it more.

When Josh and I started dating back in 2006, I never thought of what else I would gain. On July 31, 2010 I married my best friend and my other best friend became my sister. How freaking lucky am I?!

Now for those of you who don't know, don't read normally, or haven't realized..I am an only child. I grew up wishing for a brother or sister and come to find god gave me one..just in a different way.

There is no "in-law" attached to my sister. No, it's far more than that. Truthfully, I believe if I had siblings, I would love her more. The way we connect is quite outstanding.

So with this short blog post I want to say..


Happy Birthday, Seester
..I love you and couldn't imagine my life without you.

I can only hope to be there as much as she was there for me. Especially come her wedding on 7.13.13. Love you seester!

Signing off,
Ida Jade