A couple of people have told me about The Happiness Project, so I decided to check it out.  Here's the overview from Barnes & Noble:

"Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. "The days are long, but the years are short," she realized. "Time is passing, and I'm not focusing enough on the things that really matter." In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project.

In this lively and compelling account, Rubin chronicles her adventures during the twelve months she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific research, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. Among other things, she found that novelty and challenge are powerful sources of happiness; that money can help buy happiness, when spent wisely; that outer order contributes to inner calm; and that the very smallest of changes can make the biggest difference."

Now that my 30th birthday is right around the corner, I've decided to start my own Happiness Project beginning in October and going for an entire year.  I plan on writing about my ongoing project in this blog, so you will get to see which parts of my life I've decided to work on and also hear about how the project has (hopefully) changed my life for the better.  Stay tuned for more!

Have you done your own Happiness Project?  If so, I'd love to hear about it.  Please share your experience in the comments section!

This spring I went on a trip to Europe and decided ahead of time that I'd like to make a Smash book of the trip.  The best part was that I took the Smash book and some supplies with me and I worked on it throughout the trip.  By the time I got home I was 90% done with it, I just had to paste in some pictures and it was finished!  I had bought some keychains during the trip and put them on the pen loop when the book was done to add some extra character to the book.

Here are some pictures of my Europe Smash book so you can see how it turned out: 

There are plenty of ideas and tutorials online if you're interested in starting a Smash book.  You can visit my Pinterest board to see the ideas I pinned or you can check out some of the many videos on YouTube.

I made the mistake of going to an Apple store last night.  There was a line out the door and around the corner of people waiting to buy the new iPhone 5c.  Thankfully, I already have an iPhone 5, so I was able to get into the store without waiting in line.  

I told them that my phone has been acting weird lately and they said that I'll have to do a restore.  I really didn't want to go through the hassle of getting my contacts, music, and apps back on the new phone setup, but I was intrigued by the new iOS 7 and decided to take the plunge.

It's only been half a day since I made the change, but I have to say that I think I like iOS 7.  At first it was a little hard to get used to the new look and feel, but now I'm starting to like it.

According to CNN, here are some of the new features:

• A new time-saving control center slides up from the bottom of the screen for easy access to basic settings such as brightness and Airplane Mode. It has shortcuts for the flashlight, timer, calculator and camera.

• An updated notification center now shows a summary of what you have in store for the day and details on the weather and your commute.

• The camera adds a square-photo option and new filters, while the photos app drops the map view and sorts your images into events by date and location.

• It adds AirDrop, a feature for people who use iCloud that makes it easier to move photos and files between computers and mobile devices.

• The Siri voice-search tool adds an option for male voice, defaults to Bing for Web searches and pulls in results from Twitter and Wikipedia.

• Multitasking looks different. The same double-click of the home button now zooms you out to show a carousel of mini versions of all your open apps.

Have you updated to iOS 7 yet?  What are your thoughts on it so far?

Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, is the best book I've read all year.  I won't give away any of the details, but there's a major plot twist part way through the book that will leave you reeling.  The movie adaptation is set to come out in 2015 with Ben Affleck as the husband.  I had heard Reese Witherspoon would be playing the wife, but IMBD has Amy Dunne's character listed as being played by Rosamund Pike.  I haven't read anything else by Flynn, but I'm on the wait list for another of her books called Dark Places.  I'm anxious to see if it's as good as this one was!

Here is the summary from Amazon.com in case you'd like to read more about Gone Girl:

Marriage can be a real killer. 
   One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. The Chicago Tribune proclaimed that her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit and deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn. 
   On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer? 
   As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?
   With her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.

Tonight is a great night for reality TV!  First there is the premiere of the new season of Survivor: Blood vs. Water.  I won't spoil it for anyone, but there's an awesome twist just a few minutes into the episode.

Right after the Survivor premiere is the season finale of Big Brother 15.  I've been watching all summer and can't wait to find out who wins.  The season wouldn't have been the same without the BBdish blog that kept me up to speed when I couldn't keep up with the live feeds.  You can find the blog here: http://bbdish.blogspot.com   

Who do you want to win Big Brother?  Leave a comment!

I'm rooting for Andy!  Even though he has done his fair share of back-stabbing this season, I think he still played a great game.

This is one of my all-time favorite recipes that I've found so far on Pinterest, but I've always made it with tofu.  It doesn't exactly fit into my clean eating plan, but I'll save it for special cheat meals.

It came from a great website called Made It. Ate It. Loved It.  You can find the recipe here: http://madeitateitlovedit.blogspot.com/2012/03/sweet-and-sour-chicken.html 

Breading:
3-5 chicken breast
salt and pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup canola oil

Rinse chicken, trim off fat or extras and then cut into 1 inch cubes. season with salt and pepper. Dip chicken into cornstarch and coat all the way and then into eggs. Heat oil in large skillet. Cook chicken until browned. Place in baking dish. 3 chicken breasts can be in a 9x9 but 5 chicken breasts fits better in a 9x13.

Sauce:
3/4 cups white sugar
4 Tablespoons ketchup
1/2 cup white distilled vinegar
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt

Whisk until smooth. Then pour evenly over chicken. Turn chicken so the sauce gets on both sides and then put in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. turn chicken and then cook for 15 more minutes.

This quote is a great way to describe my decision to start eating clean.  I've always wanted to cut the crap out of my diet but I never had guidelines to hold myself to.  Now I've figured out the "rules" I'm going to follow 80-90% of the time:

• Eat whole foods with lots of fruit & vegetables
• Avoid refined sugar or artificial sweetener
• Eat 5-6 small meals a day
• Eliminate processed foods or foods with ingredients I can't pronounce

It's actually pretty simple when you think about it.  Implementing it, however, would surely be harder than I expected, right?  Actually, it's been a pretty easy transition.  I've eaten clean for 1 week and it hasn't been too hard.  I feel proud of the healthy decisions I make every day and I'm starting to feel better physically too.  

The biggest factor to my success is that I only follow the "rules" for 80-90% of my meals.  So if I eat 5 meals a day, 1 of them can be un-clean.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not eating a whole pizza for that one meal!  I still stick to healthy-ish decisions but I'm not limiting myself as much as the rest of the day.

I know there's a whole community of people out there who are eating clean.  If you are currently eating clean or thinking about it for the future, post a comment and we'll get a conversation started.  I'd love to hear about other people's thoughts and experiences!

When I told people I was going to start writing a blog, the first question they asked, naturally, was "What are you going to write about?" I told them that this is basically a way for me to share my life with others and to hopefully become a part of the blogging community where I meet new people and learn about their lives as well.  

I guess the best place to start is to give you an idea of what I'd like to share on this blog.  I have a few ideas and I'd love to hear your feedback on what else you'd like to see!

• The journey I'm taking into eating clean
• My very own Happiness Project
• My passion for all things Pinterest
• Getting ready to turn 30!
• My amateur photography
• Recipes, recipes, and more recipes!
• Tips on organizing
• Anything else you'd like to hear about...

That's it for now.  Stay tuned for more!