Summer Treats | Fitness Friday 9

Oh wow, where did this week go lovelies? I am just getting home from a full day of friends and activities when I realized I hadn't uploaded my Fitness Friday post for today. Oops! I'm sorry about that, I meant to upload this morning. My fault, no excuses! 

Happy Fitness Friday, Lovelies! Today I wanted to share with you my favorite trades for treats on a hot summer night! You know when you are craving that sugary and sweet treat to quench the thirst of a busy day or just something to relax after a day in the sun but don't want to splurge on sugar loaded ice cream or other desserts, yes? Well, here are a few things I have started as trades for these occurrences.

Recipe 1: Take a cup of raspberries and 70% dark chocolate chips. Take a chocolate chip and place it in the center of each raspberry then place them in the freezer in a cup, bowl, bag, tray, basically however you want to store them.

Recipe 2: If this recipe were a beauty product it would be sold on high street and you all know I am not one to endorse things like that but I can't resist because this next treat is so delicious. My grandma and I make ice creams in the summer and the great thing is you can control what goes into it. So if you have the means and motivation, go out and buy and ice cream maker and blend together a delicious blueberry ice cream. Just remember to make the smart switches in ingredients for it to really be healthy.

Recipe 3: This is the simplest of them all but my ABSOLUTE favorite! Buy a giant watermelon and cut it up into slices. Then put them in bags and put into the fridge and eat when you get that sweet tooth at midnight. (: I love love love this. It is so refreshing and sweet and the perfect end to a summer day!

Thanks for reading! Tune in Monday for a new post and Wednesday for a vlog. I apologize for the lack of a post on Monday but I got a stomach bug and was pretty much down and out for the count on Monday and by the time I got around to it it was Wednesday but something will be up this Monday for sure! And the lack of vlogs was because I had uploaded 4 the week before!

Thanks,

XOXO,

Gretchen

Vacation Vlogs

Hello, hello, hello my lovelies! What a week this past week has been, in an amazing way. I spent the week in North Carolina visiting my cousin and spending a whole family vacation there. Friday was our last full day which is why there was no Fitness Friday but I did vlog so you all could come on my adventures with me and my family. It was an amazing trip and I could not be more blessed to have such a loving, fun, and nurturing family. I am also putting together a post with details of the outfits and swim suits I wore on the trip to go up by Tuesday morning at the latest. Sorry it might not get up tomorrow. Here are all the vlogs in order. 

Enjoy,

XOXO,

Gretchen

Girls-Night-In/Spa Night

Hello lovelies! My sister from another mister, Jordan and I filmed a girls-night-in/spa/pamper night video and we absolutely had the best time. 

We took a little shop at Target to get some new beauty products to try. I had heard great things about the individually packaged face masks in the past but wasn't one to take the risk of buying them but while in France a friend had brought some and I tried it out and loved it! 

So, Jordan and I found the que bella Bath & Beauty face mask which were $2. I picked out the deep cleansing aloe vera cream mask  because as you can see in the video my face was breaking out in quite a few areas. I also love the feeling of a face wash or a mask clearing out my pores and by the title this sounded to be the best choice for me. It was. 

We then ran the bath to be about to our ankles and put in some Bath & Body Works bubble bath in Coconut Lime scent. We soaked out feet, put on our favorite songs, and let the mask do it's magic for 20 minutes. Then we rinsed our faces, moisturized, I used the Dr. Renaud Pairs Cream Nuit. To finish this portion of the night we picked on last song and danced in the bath tub.

It's not a spa without candles and an ambiance, so we lit candles and picked out some Disney songs and sat to paint our nails. I picked a turquoise & Caicos by Essie  and Jordan went for the classic nude/beige color by Covergirl. Once our nails were finished we popped in a film and cuddled up for some relaxed movie watching to end our night. 

Thanks for reading. I hope this can offer you a few options of things to do/use on your next spa night whether it be alone or with your best friend or you sister or your mom or a group of 10 girls.

XOXO,

Gretchen 

20 Question Tag

I filmed a short (but actually long) video to make up for my absence. It is the 20 Question Tag! Thanks for your support, always! I hope this will give you some insight to who that girl behind the blog really is :)

XOXO,

Gretchen

3 Pool Side Summer Snacks | Fitness Friday 8

Hello lovelies! Welcome to yet another Fitness Friday. Today I wanted to give you 3 pool/beach side snacks that are on the healthier side of things. They are all easy to make or package up and grab out of your pool or beach bag during those long days by the water. Speaking of water, also make sure you are drinking lots of water this summer so you never feel thirsty. Everyone says it but it's true, drink water before you are thirsty. I've already had a scary summer dehydration mishap at a water park and therefore cannot stress enough to drink water! I apologize for the lack of photos in this post also. I

1.  Celery, peanut butter, and craisins
 I slice up celery all the time and eat it so why not slice it and throw it in my bag in the morning as I head out to the pool? JIF now has individually packaged natural peanut butter which is not the healthiest you can get when it comes to peanut butter but it does simplify things when rushing out the door. Raisins are the traditional topping for celery and peanut butter but I prefer the flavor of craisins but the calories are a little higher. Although, craisins do contain a lot of necessary nutrients and vitamins.

2. Bell Peppers with hummus
I feel like this is becoming a no-brainer for some people, especially in my area, and I am falling into conformity by loving it too. My favorite food is bell peppers; I could eat them with every meal and do some days. Hummus is very popular around where I live and for good reasons. It has health benefits and is low in fats and calories even though it is a topping. These are also easy to pre-cut and package to throw into your bag in the morning or on your way out the door.

3. Chips and guacamole
For the past 5 years my mom and I have grown our own vegetables in our garden and the reason for starting this was to grow our own peppers to put in guacamole. Since then the garden has grown and all the ingredients are home grown minus the avocado. Home gardens raise the nutrient and vitamin level of all foods grown in them because of the lack of processing and chemicals that grocery store food encounter before reaching the shelf. So find a healthy chip and grow some veggies to make guacamole to bring to the pool. It's my favorite pool side dip.

Thanks for reading :) I recorded an extra special video for you all to hopefully make up a little for my extended absence and it will be going up this weekend and Monday is Spa Night! I cannot thank you enough for reading and watching!

XOXO,
Gretchen

Old Vlog | Vlog Wednesday

Hello lovelies! This post is coming out waaaaay later than I thought it would but I have been having so many technical difficulties. I know, excuses, excuses. I feel horrible but technology is not something I have control over working or not but I do have control over opening my big mouth. I shouldn't have made promises before fully investigating the situation and I apologize for that. Therefore I have decided to attach a reflection on why I enjoy vlogging and my motivations for starting a vlog. 

I started watching youtubers when Marcus Butler was just a small little channel and through him I found Zoella but I did not watch them regularly or subscribe or like or any of that because I did not even have a YouTube account. Last Summer was when I really got into YouTubers, British YouTubers actually. I don't know why but I just enjoyed the Brits from the beginning, haha. I watched and watched and watched all Zoe's videos, then all of Louise "Sprinkle of Glitter"'s videos, then Alfie "Pointless Blog", then Marcus' and just discovered the little British YouTube family and started watching them all but still did not subscribe or pay close attention to when they uploaded and the details of it. Then this January is the midst of snowdays I found vlogmas. I stayed up long into the night each night for a long weekend watching all of the Vlogmas' and absolutely loved the idea of daily vlogging and just vlogging in general. I knew I had my France trip coming up and thought that would be the perfect oppurtunity.

By the time March rolled around and term 3 exams were done I was itching to start a vlog. I had bought a new camera and everything and was ready to go. So one day I decided to start this blog and it has been the best decision of my life. I love this blog so much and not because people read it, although that is an amazing feat! I love you all! But I am a very creative person and I had no outlet for that creativity until I found blogging. I love sharing my life and just everyday things for a reason I will never understand. Writing posts and sharing things I love gives me such a high and this too I still have not found the reason for but if it makes me happy do I need to explain it? No. Since starting this blog I have seen and felt my happiness skyrocket. 

Now for why I love vlogging. I have always had an obsession with observation, not on purpose and for an unknown reason I am just a people watcher. I heard someone once say, "I'm a writer, I observe every little detail," and that is the blame  of this fixation. Observing others has lead me to enjoy observing myself and picking myself apart to improve which is the stem of my love for videos and watching videos. Now it has turned more into I love the videos for the memories. You can look at a video of a person and read a thousand things from body language. 10 seconds of film can transport you back to millions of sensory memories. This is what vlogging does for me. This is why I vlog and I am so thankful for it already.

Thanks for reading and watching (: 

XOXO

Gretchen

Summer Announcements!

Hello lovelies! I feel horrible for my absence as of lately especially since I just announced I would be adding a Wednesday update and then I went totally missing. I didn't realize my home computer didn't have movie maker so I was unable to edit the video footage I had together to post. But, I got my computer back today and plan to take full advantage of that.

 Here's the line up: If I can I will have vlog footage from an old vacation up and editted for tomorrow and have that be the first official vlog Wednesday (say it with a German accent so it sounds like an alliteration). Tonight I have my brother's grade school graduation and family dinner though so I am not sure I will have the vlog up first thing in the morning but keep your eyes peeled tomorrow for that.

Friday I will have a Fitness Friday post up on summer snacking and staying away from the pesky pool snacks that I myself and others seem to gravitate towards.   

Monday I will have my spa/ girls night in video up! I am so excited about this one. It's not an official collaboration because the person I did it with doesn't have a blog but she's also my best friend so it was super fun to film for you all. I will write a post to go with the video with reviews of the products we used. 

Thank you so much for your patience and for sticking with me. It was great to come back and see that the page was still being viewed and was not completely forgotten in my absence. Thank you for that! 

I LOVE YOU ALL!

XOXO