Film Friday

Todays Film Friday pick is a new movie called The Book Thief, it's about a young girl living in Nazi-Germany and the movie spans the entire WWII. This young girl is sent to live with a new family because her mother was a communist and on the run. The new family has a wonderful father and a stern but kinda mother, the little girl becomes obsessed with books but sadly the Nazi's start burning books they believe have a negative effect on German culture, like H.G. Wells! The family ends up hiding a young Jewish friend named Max, for about 3 years. And the young girl has to try and keep it a secret even from her best friend 

I don't want to say too much about this movie because it is so good and such a moving film I don't want to give anything away. I highly recommend this movie to everyone and their mother, but I will warn bring tissues, I was a total wreck sobbing at the end of the film.

I hope you all enjoy this movie as much as I did and still do as I have watched it 3 times this week so far.

Throw Back Thursday

Todays Throw Back Thursday is from Christmas 2004, I was 18 and this was my first Christmas away from my family. We moved into the condo on December 18th and so we didn't have a lot of furniture, let alone a christmas tree or any supplies to make a christmas dinner. We instead went to the beach, which was strangely packed for Christmas day, and stopped at Taco Bell on the way home. At the time we only had  1 love seat, a bed, and a tv, but we didn't have cable so we watched Lost In Translation for the ten thousandth time (it was the only DVD we had). I would chalk this up to being the worst Christmas I had ever had mostly because it wasn't like Christmas at all it was more like a regular day. 

Steve Madden Slippers

For those of you who have followed me on YouTube, you know I have the hardest floors known to man. I have Travertine Tile throughout my entire condo, which at the time of installation was all the rage and thats why I fell for it, but in reality I should have stuck with the tried and true Hard Wood Floor. Because of my need to stay on trend my knees and ankles have suffered these past ten years walking day in and day out on these terrible floors. There is a custom in Hawaii that you don't wear shoes in the home, intact very few people wear slippers in the home either, but because of my floors I needed something. Don went to the store about a month or so ago and surprised me with a pair of comfy slippers. I was so excited to end the day without pain in my knees, ankles, or feet, but sadly most slippers are intended to be used in colder climates and are faux fur lined or sheeps wool lined and these were no different and I was hot all the time. I went online to maces to see what assortment they had without much hope of finding what I wanted...until I saw these Steve Madden Flip-Flop Slippers (click for link)!!!!
These are so amazing they are nicely padded to provide the extra comfort I'm looking for, they are flip-flops so I'm not over-heating, and they were on sale for $11.99!!! I was sold the only question was what color do you get Black, Pink, or Yellow? I played it safe and went for black but now after receiving them I have decided to order the other 2 colors to have on hand for when these give out.
I only have one negative on these slippers and it's not really a negative, but I am a 100% solid size 7 and I feel like because of the thickness of the cloth used for the string part (not sure what its called but the part that goes in-between the toes), they feel a tiny bit small, so I would recommend going up 1 size for optimum comfort.
I will link the other slippers made by Steve Madden and sold by Macy's here.

TV Tuesday

Photo: SocialMeadiaToday.com

So I thought I would start doing Tv Tuesday and Film Friday where I give you a review of what I have seen that week. This week is all about Scandal!!! I have to say this is by far one of my favorite shows and I only started watching this month.
What ended up happening was I ran out of my "normal" shows and was desperate for something, I had been avoiding Scandal because I thought it was another Law & Order type show, which I was like "Been there done that". I finally got it on iTunes because there was nothing else and after the first 10 minutes I was so hooked, Don and I stayed up and watched the entire first season in 1 night!!! After that we moved on to the second and once again in one night watched the whole thing. After finding out that Season 3 was on hiatus until February 29th we decided to take season 3 slow and only do 2-3 episodes a night so we could make it to the 29th. Well I have 4 more days until this show comes back and I am dying for more.

So now a little Q&A:

What Tv Show have you watched most this week?

Scandal

Who's in it?

Kerry Washington, Guillermo Diaz (Weeds), Scott Foley (Felicity), and Joe Morton (Eureka)

Whats it about?

A woman named Olivia Pope, she works in Washington DC and her company helps clean up the messes politicians get them selves into. She also worked on the campaign to elect the president.

What do you like about it?

The drama and intrigue, this show is written by Shonda Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy), and boy did she deliver on this one. Her style of writing has always been very dramatic and lovesick at the same time and this show is no different.

What do you not like about it?

I'm over the love triangle they have been playing that since season 1 and it's like "it's been three years he's not leaving his wife for you...move on" (thats what I yell at the tv while watching this lol.

Would you recommend?

Most defiantly, this show is so good and it will constantly keep you guessing. (Note: how much do you love that Vice President Lol)

I AM So SORE!!!!

Today was my first day back in a "real" gym in about 4 months!!! And you know what, I AM SO SORE!!! I absolutely hate myself right now for allowing myself to fall so far behind. I literally walked into the gym and did the elliptical for 17 minutes,  (yes 17 minutes not 15, not 16, but 17, lol), and I knew when I left there I would be sore tomorrow but I didn't know I was so out of shape that I could be lying on the ground outside because I hurt too much to open the sliding glass door and go inside. 

In fact I hurt so bad as I lay here typing this and having already taken 3 Tylenol, I'm thinking a screwdriver would be amazing right now, not an actual screwdriver the drink, I'm not quite suicidal yet :) I'm taking this as a lesson learned, and that lesson is don't stop going to the gym for four months and then you won't feel like your dying! 

To then add insult to injury I am so exhausted Charlie and Louis have decided we should go to bed at 12 and wake up everyday at 5 am on the dot, Don of course sleeps through the whining and the sitting on your chest and head, so I get up walk them and beg them to at least let me rest on the couch which so far they have decided doesn't work for them. I am hoping if I do a REALLY long walk before bed I can get them to sleep until at least 6 but we shall see.

 So that is my blog-rant for tonight, just thought I would fill you in on my sob story...Night-night.

Thank You, Matthew

Today I received a package in the mail from my 8 year old brother Matthew, it contained 2  Valentines Day gift bags, 1 for me and 1 for Don.

In Don's gift bag was the Bath And Body Works, The Forever Collection 2-in-1 Hair + Body Wash Midnight For Men, (wow that was a mouthful). This mens body wash smells amazing it kind of has a slightly spicy smell to it similar to Old Spice, but much more subtle.

Then it was time for my gift bag and it was packed full to the brim.

The first thing in the bag was this Bath And Body Works, The Forever Collection Forever Midnight Shower Gel.

Next out of the bag was Bath And Body Works Hand Sanitizer in Fresh Sparkling Snow, and this smells amazing!!!!!

Then came this amazing Car Freshener and Freshener Fragrance Refills.

This is the Freshener in Cheetah.

Here are the oils I received I will list them all individually below…..

Sweet Pea

Fresh Cotton.

Mahogany Teakwood.

Lavender Vanilla. 

Peach Bellini.

This is my little brother Matthew, he also makes YouTube videos which are short vlogs and short Minecraft videos and he would love if you went over and subscribed!!! 

What I Did This Weekend

If you follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram you know that I recently got a new puppy named Louis, I will doing a proper blog and video introduction for him just like I did with Charlie, but with a new puppy in the house it meant more toys, which meant my house looked a wreck all the time. For those of you that have followed my YouTube Channels you know I'm a bit OCD and want everything neat and organized and if it isn't then I don't sleep well at night, almost like the clutter is taunting me calling me out of bed to clean it up. So I found the coolest doggie toy box on Etsy and ordered it immediately. Sadly a few days after my order I received a full refund with a note saying they only shipped to thee continental United States, which irritated me because why couldn't they say that in the listing. After I dealt with my anger, I decided make my own doggie box similar to the one found on Etsy, but mine would be better because I could build it to the same height as my entertainment center so it looked like a set.

     So I sent Don to the hardware store with the understanding 

that if he got everything I needed cut to size I would build it. It was actually really easy to build you need four walls a bottom and a top so I just screwed the walls together, then screwed on the bottom, and then attached the top with 2 small hinges. I then painted the entire box black to match my furniture. Then came the hard part, how was I going to get that nice rounded hole into my box like the one we saw on Etsy? Thats when Don went back to the hardware store and bought a jigsaw, when he came back with it he cut the hole in the box for  me because I was to scared to do it (we were going to add the smaller holes to create the paw print but decided we actually liked it this way better). 

I then painted a white doggie bone onto the box which was a lot harder than I thought because I was doing it free-hand (I didn't want to order a stencil and wait for it to come in), after I got the bone done I wrote Charlie and Louis' names on the box in the white bone area but after looking at it for a while I decided I didn't like it as it too was done free-hand but it also made it look a little cluttered. 

After all the paint was dry I moved the box into place and put all the toys in I also placed the box onto a small throw rug so that the screws in the bottom wouldn't scratch the floor when the box was moved for cleaning. All in all it took me all weekend to make the box and get the toys put away but in the end it was worth the time and effort put into it. Also it ended up costing only $25 to make and $10 of that was the black and white paint, I didn't count the jigsaw because we have other projects we are using it for so we would have bought one anyways. 

The dogs love the new box because as they pull toys out of the bottom I put them back through the top so they are getting new toys every time they pull something out of the box. 

Before 

Before (I would but the dog blanket over it when people would come over).

Painting the bone.

Painting the bone.

After (I only use my Macbook Pro in the living room and when I travel, otherwise I use the iMac so I decided to store the Macbook onto of the toy box rather than on the entertainment center like before).

After

Unboxing: Shark Lift Away Pro Steam Pocket Mop

As many of you know my entire house is tiled, now when we chose to go with tile it was due to the fact that we didn't want carpet and travertine was the "In" thing at the time...looking back 10 years later, what a mistake. Not only is it hard walking on this day in and day out, but it also needs to be cleaned constantly. If I could go back and do it again I would go with wood floors because its softer to walk on and you layer with padding underneath as well as it doesn't have that dull look to it that natural stone has. 

I really hate mopping with a traditional mop because it just moves the dirt around the floor, and the swifter products are great but the disposable pads shred against the grout lines, so after a lot of research I purchased the Shark Lift Away Pro Steam Pocket Mop.

I chose this particular mop because of my affinity for sanitizing as well as its something that can be used daily without all the drama of pulling out 20 different things to get the job done, I also liked that it can be used as a handheld steamer as well. 

I will do a proper review of this after I have had it a little bit longer (I am at 6 days right now and use it daily). 

See Unboxing Video Below.

These are all the accessories that come with it you get:

2 reusable cleaning pads

2 garment steamer bonnets

1 garment steamer 

1 garment steamer bristle frame

1 filling flask

1 direct steam nozzle

Filling Flask

Garment Steamer

Garment Steamer Bristle Frame

Direct Steam Nozzle

Mop Handle

Mop Head

Cleaning pads & Garment Bonnets

Removable Handheld Steamer

Instruction booklet & OptionalAccessories Page