DIY Man Bouquet

Ben & my anniversary week is ahead of us, so I've been looking all over the internet for great man gifts I can morph into my own unique present!

Something I ran across MANY times on my Google search, was the "Man Bouquet."

Most of these however, are very alcohol/smoking-based & I wanted to dig deeper than that.

Great idea for a quick purchase though!

I decided to take on this concept & make my own for Ben using some of his favorite things & our inside jokes. The following is what happened!

    

 Ben is about to graduate & definitely needs some more glasses. Being the beer connoisseur he is, I though a 4-pack of these were appropriate for the "pots" (I will refer to them as bases).

 an 8-pack of Dowel Rods to attach everything (craft section of walmart)

Closer to Easter season I would recommend grabbing some Easter grass, but seeing it's so close to Halloween I chose decorative Spider Webbing as my "stuffing" weapon.

All you need to do is attach the dowel rod to the product via tape. For heavier gifts I recommend wrapping the tape ALL the way around the mini gifts. Make sure their is enough room for the gift to stick out of the base without issue.

The webbing is a little difficult to move around, but it still works.  Clear a hole in the center or wrap the webbing around the dowel rods so they will stay in place. For heavy objects this is a VERY difficult task. Stabilize the dowel rods at the bottom if you can with something flat & heavy as a mini base. Otherwise you've got a leaning mini gift.

But as you can see above, this is the result of 1 of 4 "pots" I created.

Mini Gifts:

1-pack of air heads

1-slim jim (tall)

1-mini gorilla tape

1-pack of starbursts

1-box of sweet tarts

1-M&M light saber

1-Batman plastic cup

1-bottle of Coke

1- box of sour punch straws

Happy gifting!!

Stress Tip

Being healthy and working out helps get rid of the disstress (bad stress) you've been feeling!

It's tough to workout when your schedule is full & you just want to sleep 8 hours!
Those few breaks you get you just want to

Use these tips to Workout While You Work (or You're Just Plain Busy):

1. Tap your toes while you sit up at a desk/in a seat;
2. Squeeze your abs inward & sit up straight as you drive to work;
3. While just standing around, do toe raises (stand high on toes, lower heels, but don't let heels touch the ground, stand higher on toes, repeat);
4. Wear heels to work!;
5. Take the stairs over the elevator;
6. Park in a lot further away from your destination;
7. Sit up straight on the edge of your chair;
8. Walk around while on the phone;
9. Walk whenever you can really: walk trash to a far away can, walk to drink more water, walk to ask an inter-office message!; and
10. Do gluteal squeezes at your desk: just tighten the muscles and squeeeeeze inward.

--Happy Exercising!!

A Quick Get-Happy Tip

Today I woke up early and I expected a pretty busy day.
Had 2 apple-cinnamon rice cakes for breakfast to hold me over, then got a surprise lunch break!

Knowing this will probably be my only happy point for the next 10 hours... I decided to spice up my meal!

And let me tell you RIGHT NOW that what I did is really a great quick way to make you smile.


COLORED FOOD

Just a couple drops of food coloring in pretty much any meal will give you a beautiful change up to bland.

Today's lunch:

2 scrambled eggs
1/4 cup spicy Jalapeño Jack shredded cheese
3 shakes garlic salt
3 shakes pepper
3 drops PINK food coloring

If you add in the food coloring toward the beginning, it's still easy to tell when your eggs are done and easy to mix the coloring throughout the food. Seen here:

They even taste a bit more delicious than usual!

Be happy, bloggers!!

Staying Healthy

It's been a while since I've addressed the healthy thing I've started, but YES, it's going great!

Two days ago I accidentally bought a Youth Medium t-shirt in a bargain bin & I'm proud to say, it fits, and it isn't tight!

Exercise Time:
I've reworked my schedule a tad thanks to schoolwork, but I'm still able to fit in yoga 4-5 days a week & target my arms, legs, core 2-3 days per week.  It's a beautiful thing.

Even better, I have found a great list of beginner yoga poses for those of you who haven't quite gotten the stretch down yet!

What matters is that you TRY! Sedentary is a ton of fun, but getting your blood flowing is 1,000,000x better! =D

ADDITIONALLY, remember you must keep it up even when you aren't working out. I'm not talking about how you eat, I'm talking about your POSTURE. Sit up straight at work & at home.
On the drive home: Sit up straight AND clench your abs inward. Do it for as long as possible the first few days. After 1 week you should be able to do it straight for a 15 minute ride & then longer & longer & longer & you'll be keeping those abs up without workout ;)

Cooking Time:
As a quick yummy treat I tried the following.

Yield: 1 serving
9 frozen cheese raviolis
4oz of velveeta cheese
5 dashes pepper & garlic salt, or garlic Mrs. Dash

1. Boil the raviolis in water on high heat
2. Strain out
3. On LOW heat melt velveeta into raviolis (keep stirring)
4. dash in spices
5. Serve & Enjoy!!

It's not super healthy, but it's better than fried chicken ;)

That's all for this!
Happy Healthy, bloggers!! :)