Huntress Val

After I created a huntress costume for last week's Friday's Fancies my mom suggested I share the photos I have of me using a compound bow. These were taken two years ago when we went to my uncle's ranch for Thanksgiving.

Here I am getting ready to shoot at the deer target. The pictures were taken by my mom, my bro-in-law and my hubby. The event was well documented by three cameras!

This was taken seconds after releasing the arrow, if you look closely you can see dust particles in the air displaced by the movement of the strings. So cool. Not so cool is how I apparently shoot with one eye closed.

Behold my elation at hitting the target! That little orange blur is the arrow, an inch lower and I would have missed. Oh well, practice makes perfect!

Couldn't resist adding these shots of me with some beautiful horses. I love horses SO MUCH! Even after falling off a galloping one another time I was at the ranch, I still want to ride any chance I get. (Sadly it's been two years since I've been out there!) Oh yeah, here are some of my scrapes from that fall. What was worse was the back injury I got, ouch! Anyway, hope everyone stays safe today! 

*Edit*

Just found this picture of a picture from one of the first times I shot a bow and arrow back in 2007! Oh and check it out, I've always liked stripes and I think my eyes are closed AGAIN! 

Family Gathering

On Saturday we took a quick little trip out of town to visit family.

I want to get Sean a little tricycle now! He looked so cute on it!

He's been sticking out his tongue a lot lately!

Ryan and Sean stayed outside with the boys while I helped my

 sister in the kitchen and spent time with my adorable niece.

My mom just fell in love with her all over again!

My boys are SO SILLY!

My sister served us spaghetti, salad, french bread, grapes and this delicious chocolate cake she made!

I was so happy Sean played well with all the little kids there! 

Last picture of the day: creepy orange moon!

Paint it Pink

Today is Project Pink day over at The ArtsyGirl Connection in honor of breast cancer awareness. As you know, I already linked up last week with Long Distance Loving's Think Pink by creating an outfit using pink, so this week I was just going to use Pinterest to find some lovely images for my Project Pink post. Then I thought, why don't I use my own photography instead? So I dug through my picture folders on my computer and found several pictures I could edit with Photoshop to get the desired color scheme (I ended up with pink, purple and peach!). I took these nature pictures over the last several years in all kinds of places from Colorado to my Mom's back yard. I hope you enjoy them and I'm dedicating them to my grandma who was a breast cancer survivor!

Huntress - Friday's Fancies

     

            Huntress by valfox

Costumes are cool and I certainly love candy, but I actually don't celebrate Halloween. I feel it glamorizes creepy things that should be left alone, i.e., witches, ghosts, monsters, etc. (Yeah I don't like horror movies either!) I love the idea of a costume party at some other time of the year though, and I'd love to go as a bow and arrow wielding huntress!  I think it would be so fun to make your own costume by mixing clothes you may already own with a few unique accessories.

Wordless Wednesday - Bedhead

Sunday Movie Matinée

- Top: Forever 21 - Jeans: Old Navy (buy here) - Sandals: Steve Madden via Marshalls 

- Earrings: Kohl's - Camera Necklace: After Nine to Five (giveaway win) - Long Necklace: Ebay
- Ring: some shop in the Mall of America - Purse: Kathy Van Zeeland (gift)

Here's the super simple outfit I wore Sunday afternoon to go to a movie (The Three Musketeers) with my mom. Stripes and denim are both faves of mine, and I used my bag for color and layered necklaces as the finishing touch. I enjoyed the time spent with my mom, and the movie was lots of fun too!

Burgers and Baseball

- Tank: Gap - Black Tank: Express - Belt: I can't remember, I haven't worn it in ages!

- Shorts: Macy's (really old) - Sandals: Express - Earrings: Mexico - Bracelets: Kristin Hassan

Cheat day was quite fun! Ryan grilled some burgers on the balcony and our friend James cooked up some beans with onion, garlic and bacon. I helped a bit but for the most part I got to relax, which was nice considering I had been cleaning all day prior to the cookout. We also had chips, apple sodas and sherbet for dessert...taking full advantage of it being cheat day for sure! My sis-in-law got to play with Sean while dinner was being prepared (she gets anxious to see him if too much time has passed) and he was being his little charming self for her. A little later he crawled into my arms and fell asleep and I loved it because lately he'll only fall asleep in his crib. I treasure moments like that now that he's getting so big. We watched most of the Rangers vs. Cardinals game and then Employee of the Month on Comedy Central and had a grand old time. Well except for the baseball watching, that was boring to the majority of us, but Steph SOMEONE made us watch it.
(Linking up to Harper's Happenings!)

Health and Fitness: Success!

Good little 25 minute workout I did this week

(Source)

New Weight:

137

I did it! I lost the 3 pounds I wanted to this week. Yay! All it took was cutting out sweets for a few days and watching my portion sizes of snacks and meals. The second half of the week I was able to have one sweet thing a day (piece of dark chocolate, 1/2 cup of sherbet, etc.) and still keep losing weight. I also exercised four days this week. Those jumping jacks in the image above were tough, but I did them all. Also, my husband lost almost 5 pounds this week! He has lost 30 pounds total and has 30 pounds to go. It's so exciting to be that family going to the gym and eating healthy instead of being lazy. I LOVE it. Today is our cheat day though, and we're going to grill some burgers here at the apartment with some friends and family. It's going to be fun but we're not going to pig out or go crazy! 

Alrighty, we are now down to the last rule from Bethenny Frankel's book!

"Good for you." 
All you have to do is figure out what works for YOU. A diet that may work great for someone else wouldn't be perfect for you. You may hate going to the gym, so figure out what type of exercise is fun for you. Go swimming, go for a bike ride, play sports. The point is that you find something you can stick with! Do things that are GOOD FOR YOU. Sleep enough, get yourself moving, and eat right!


All great advice!! Here are all 10 rules one last time:
1. Your diet is your bank account
2. You can have it all, just not all at once
3. Taste everything, eat nothing
4. Pay attention
5. Downsize now
6. Cancel your membership to the clean plate club
7. Check yourself before you wreck yourself
8. Know thyself
9. Get real
10. Good for you
(Linking up to Kimberly's Project Self!)