HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!!!

Happy Friday Everyone!! I hope you have some fantastic Memorial Day weekend plans set in place for your three day weekend!!! I myself will be heading to the beach for a fun weekend of beach camping, can't wait to get the weekend started and soak up some sunshine!!!

Here are some fun reads to get you through the rest of your Friday!!!

Summer Music Playlist for your weekend!

Tasty Margarita Popsicles for keeping cool!

Eight Easy Ways To Spread HAPPINESS!!!!

Haven't picked up your summer swimsuit yet?!?!

When Celebrity's Become Positive Role Models

I must admit I have found myself drawn to celebrity gossip every once in a while and I always feel ashamed of myself, because I feel like intelligent educated women should have better information, and reading materials they can fill their time with! However for once I am proud to say that I have been more than intrigued by the current buzz about Angelina Jolie.

Before you walk away from reading celebrity buzz ask yourself this, do you have any family or friends that have experienced a form of ovarian or breast cancer. If you answered yes then you need to pay attention to the brave decision Angelina Jolie made once she had a genetic testing in which she found a gene that has an 87% chance of breast or ovarian cancer. Jolie's mother had passed away from cancer, and because of the current preventative strategies that we have now she was able to get genetic testing, which led her to find a gene that increased her chance of cancer to 85%. Once Jolie found this out she made the decision to get a double mastectomy (breast removal). This lowered Jolie's chances of getting breast cancer from 87% to 5%!! Of course the genetic testing Jolie received was very expensive and getting breast removal was costly as well, but props to her for being brave enough to just get those boobs removed!

I know the rest of us lower income folks can't get the testing Jolie had but it is important to get checked as often as possible and to do monthly self breast examinations if you have breast cancer in your family.

Click this link to read more about Angelina's story. 

Convinced My Husband Tim Fischer Is The Same Person As Phil Dunphy

“I'm a cool dad, that's my thang. I'm hip, I surf the web, I text. LOL means laugh out loud, OMG: oh my god, WTF: why the face” –Phil Dunphy
Ever since I first started watching Modern Family I have thought from day 1 that Tim is Phil and my opinion has not changed, the more I watch the show every new episode the character Phil will do or say something that reminds me of Tim. Here are just a few ways in which Phil reminds me of Tim! (and if you know Tim at all you will know what I'm talking about)

• Tim and Phil are both two very laid back people.
• Tim and Phil have a very endearingly child like attitude, Claire refer's to Phil as "The Child I Married", I can relate!
• Tim and Phil both have a serious case of Coulrophobia (FEAR OF CLOWNS) it's almost hard not to laugh when Tim is around a clown, because he quite literally freaks out very similar to how Phil freaks out in the show. 
• Tim and Phil are always in a good mood and tend to find joy in everything they do!
• Tim and Phil are both very goofy!
• Tim and Phil have very personable way of relating to people Tim will often treat you like you're pals before he even knows you well and will start calling you by your nicknames when he hears them for the first time. Phil is the same way and creates "cool" things like "manshakes" to relate to people. 
• Tim and Phil both don't plan things out! And both have to avoid getting in trouble with their wives for lack of planning! 
• Tim and Phil both like to have any excuse to break out their dance skills!
• Tim and Phil are both very competitive so much to the point that Phil will often beat his son at basketball games without any remorse. 
• Tim and Phil both have a great enthusiasm for life!
• Tim and Phil both have a sensitive side as seen in many episodes of Modern Family Phil will choke up during emotional moments very similar to my husband Tim. 
• Although we are not parents yet I believe  I got a taste of what type of parent Tim will be just by watching Phil on modern family. I think he too will refer to himself as "the cool dad" and have the parenting style of "Peeranting" which is the style of of parenting where you are both a friend and a parent. And when it comes time to step it up as Phil did during the episode where Haley gets kicked out of college I believe that Tim would also say something similar to "This is real life Haley not an excellent movie" (referring to legally blonde)

Such a Fun man I married!

The Cool Dad

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY WEEKEND!!!

Yay for friday and for going home to spend the weekend with Mom!!! Let's talk Moms what are 5 things your mom passed on to you, maybe unknowingly, maybe something you noticed yourself saying  (shoot I'm just like my mom), maybe something that you absolutely love! Here are my 5:

1. Family is everything = family time is so important my mom made sure that we were always together for big events or just for weekends off. Family time kept us close!
2. Dinner is at the dinner table = even when we were busy (you know that season of life where you go from practice to practice) my mom somehow managed to get dinner on the table before my dad headed off to teach his night classes and after getting home from sister's practice while at the same time sending off the children in her daycare. That wonder woman I don't know how she did it. Dinner at the dinner table was such a big part of my life and it was the time were everyone stopped slowed down and checked in on how things are, how our days were, what's new etc. 
3. My ability to somehow lose things (keys, cell phone, wallet, purse) = we laugh when my sister or I lose our keys because we know we got that from our mom! I can't even count how many times I had to delay heading out the door 10-15 minutes because I couldn't find my keys. (and don't bother telling me about those key finders or about those key hooks I've tried all those tricks and have somehow still failed miserably). 
4. A love for working with children = After growing up in a home daycare environment you would think that after years of having little kids invading my personal space (my room during teen years), or waking up at 6 or 7am during my summer vacation to a crying baby, would make me want to run and scream when it comes to being around kids, but just the opposite happened I pursued a career to work with children just like mom! 
5. A positive outlook on life = so this one is still a struggle for me but I have adopted the ability which I know I got from my mom to be able to stop amidst the stress and say I can get through this. My mom has always had a positive attitude even when life got super stressful she would say I'm not going to worry about it I know it will work out! She is the best can you tell I love her. 

What are some things mom passed on to you?

Also since it is an I don't care Friday I have posted some fun links!
Here are some fun reads for your fun friday enjoy!

"10 Signs You're Not As Young As You Once Were!" (for those born before 1985)

Beautiful way to honor your mom!

Paintings of Historical Figures and what they would look like today! So funny!

People who are nailing this parenting thing!! so awesome!

DIY Mother's day Homemade bath salts! for those crafty people that have time!

How to Dress like a French Woman! 

Throwback Thursday! Betty and Veronica

Ok so all of you instagram people know what throwback thursday is right? Well I'm adding a little throwback thursday post for today.

One of my favorite things to do when I was oh about 11 or 12 was to lay out on the beach and get a tan like I was too cool for school while reading some "very cool" comic books (hehe or so I thought turns out comic books are pretty nerdy). Did any of you out there read the Archie Comics? I was obsessed with Betty and Veronica! I loved reading about them fighting over Archie and couldn't wait to be a teenager and have my own boy drama and have a fun group of friends to spend time with at the beach! LOL what a nerd. Personally I was more of Betty girl, hair up in a pony tail ready for some fun! and had very little Veronica in me, flirty fashionable and spoiled rotten.

Any dorky obsessions you had when you were that age?!?!?

Miss Fix It Take a Back Seat!

How do you know when to put the tools down and just let your man fix it!

I feel like it's a fine line you walk as an independent woman between knowing when to just back off and the let the hubby play with the tools. 

Why do I even have this dilemma, you wonder.

Well it's like this, some of you may not know that Tim was my first boyfriend, love etc. We started dating when I was 24 which means, I had 24 years of working out my own problems. After I finished college I had my little career going and was enjoying life as a young single independent woman, I was making money paying rent for my own little apartment, if something broke in my place I would often pull out the tools myself, there was no one for me to call and say "babe I need help" I had to fix things on my own before I met Tim, and I LOVED it. I loved getting my tools out and figuring out different parts and successfully putting things back together, what a rush! 

Since then I have been wondering if that is still appropriate, considering I now have a man that also likes to use tools and fix things. Should I buy into our stereotypical roles and give up my love for being a Miss Fix it? Do any of you other married or dating women have this problem or am I the only weirdo out there??? 

SUM SUM SUM SUMMERTIME A Here we come!!!!

Anyone else out there looking forward to summer?!?!?! for some reason this has seemed like a long winter am I alone in that feeling we somehow survived all the storms this year brought and are now on the horizon of a hopefully SUNSHINE filled summer, and I just can't wait!

Buying Original Art 101

I am one blessed girl, I have had the privilege of growing up in a very creative family. My dad is a professional artist, and is amazingly talented, my mother is also a very talented a creative person as well, and so is my sister! We all love to paint, draw, sculpt, make crafts, I pursued a career in Art Therapy which makes complete sense to me having grown up in the midst of the creative emotional experience. One thing that has been instilled in my from the time I was a young girl growing up watching my dad pursue his dreams and passion for creating fine art, is the passion for buying and selling original art.

So here are my reasons for why YOU should consider owning pieces of original art. 

1. They are ORIGINAL, meaning that you won't go to target or Walmart to the framed art and see the same thing you have hanging on your wall. 

2. You will probably be one of the only people who own that piece, so chances are you won't go to a friends house and see the same exact thing on their wall, that's the beauty of originality. 

3. Although deciding to buy original art can be a little anxiety provoking, if you don't know anything about art, my advice is throw that anxiety out the window and just consider what you look at and love  and take that home (remember beauty is in the eye of the beholder). 

4. Sure there are many famous artists out there who are well known and you may feel like super cool to be putting a print  of this famous artists work in your home because maybe one day someone who studied art will be super impressed by it, but come on your old enough that being cool shouldn't matter but rather being original and showing off what you found at your local art walk is so much more fulfilling. 

5. Think of it this way, you are a treasure hunter on the search for something unique and incredibly beautiful to hang or to display in your house. When you find your awesome treasure it is so much more exciting to show it off than to wait for someone who recognizes a famous artist's print sitting in your home. 

6. It's really more affordable than you think, chances are you already know someone who is a really talented artists, maybe they are in art school now help them out by offering to buy a piece from them, they probably will give you a friend discount anyways, plus you are snatching up a piece of their work before they become too famous for you to afford their work. 

7. Other ways of finding affordable art is by attending art walks every city has some type of art walk google your local art walks most of the time the art at art walks are original one of kind (not prints). You could also check out your local community college, most likely they will be having a student show and sometimes you can purchase art work from students for a very affordable price. 

8. If you have cash to burn head to your local galleries there are always amazing beautiful pieces in galleries, just keep in mind that when you buy from a gallery the artist probably will only get 50% of what you paid for the piece, if you know the artist in the gallery consider contacting them to buy directly most likely they will sell the piece to you for much cheaper than the gallery considering they would get 100% of the profit. 

So there you have it support your local artists and give them a reason to continue to use their talents to give us something incredibly beautiful to look at! 

Here are a few pictures of some art that I fell in love with at the recent Art Walk here in Little Italy! (p.s. I wish I would have posted this prior to that art walk, because it is the BEST art walk I have been to ever, and the largest one in Southern California, if you get a chance to make it out to it next year I highly recommend it)