Engine 2 Diet

(a bowl of raw oats, shredded wheat, with kiwis, bananas and almond milk for breakfast - taste super good and it's healthy)

after my husband and i watched the "Forks Over Knives Presents: The Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue" documentary we are convinced that we both need to eat healthier and be healthier. there's just too many diseases happening out there that we want to do our best to avoid being in the statistics. boy it is not easy to change your eating habits and to go on a daily workout but it definitely pays off. my husband has been doing much better than i have - kudos to him! we both are enjoying this process together and let just say it's our #1 new year resolution - live a healthy life so we can look great and feel strong!

wish us the best! :)

xoxo,
athena

Merry Christmas!

(our Christmas card that was sent out to our friends and family)

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas! Enjoy the rest of the holidays with your love ones!

DIY: Simple Bow

This year I decided to make things a little more simple with my gift wrapping. My husband and I are focusing on finishing up painting our house - we are first time painters so we are super slow - we feel like it's too much work to have Christmas decoration up or even a Christmas tree. Though I am a little bummed for not having a Christmas tree. I can't go through Christmas without the pine tree smell so I bought nordic pine candles and light them up around our house and it smell as good as the real tree. Add Chrismas songs to our home (like everyday) and it smells and feels just like Christmas :) As for gift wrapping this year I still use my brown paper bag wrapping paper, tie the presents with yarn and glue a ready made pom pom on the bow (the bow made from tying the yarn).

All you need is yarn, glue gun, and medium size pom pom (you can buy it at Michaels). Use the yarn as the ribbon and tie them into a bow in however ways you like (be creative). Then glue one pom pom in the middle of the bow to give it a pop.

Ta Da! I went with a black and white look so the presents look a little more simple and clean.

Hope you are having fun finishing up last minute things and enjoy your time with friends and family!

XOXO,
Athena

Avalanches

hello, hope your holiday season is going good so far. mine has been great...been staying active, busy, and done with xmas shopping. now getting ready to wrap them and send them away. we had a beautifull snow day a few days ago and i just love how our backyard is covered with snow - everything is crystal white. here looking at our backyard...

These snowy days remind me of the setting in the fine frenzy video "avalanches" - a song in her new ablum "pines." in fact her whole album can totally fit for this winter snowy day.

it's going to be a white christmas here in minnesota :)

xoxo,
athena

Fall

fall has been so beautiful here in minnesota. it is so colorful everywhere you go and even our yard is quite colorful.

fall is my favorite season of the year...time for sweaters and boots. i love the fall style.


the weather has been nice for the past few weeks except today it got pretty cold...but the perfect time for making pho soup :)

just enjoying the beautiful fall in our yard, flipping through catalogs with fall collection and enjoying the smell of pho cooking on our stove.

hello fall!

xoxo,
athena

New York

for the past few weeks my husband and i have done some traveling and we had such a wonderful time. one of the places was in new york city, it was quite an experience. new york is definitely a busy place, and is lots of fun. it was my first time there and i described it as san francisco and las vegas combined :) we are so grateful to have our aunt, cousin and cousin's boyfriend there to tour us around! they took us everywhere and we would have been so lost without them! here are some images of new york from our camera... on the ferry and spying the statue of liberty.

cousin eva and her boyfriend, jesse at washignton square park.
eating at the pier.
up the hill in new jersey to see new york city. beautiful moon that night.


at the history museum near central park

times square


hung out at the biggest starbucks i've seen so far - in times square
it was an awesome trip! looking forward to revisit new york again!

xoxo,
athena

2 years

Today is our 2 year anniversary and I couldn't be more happier being married to this awesome man. He continues to impress me by working hard in every area of our lives to keep our dreams and vision alive. It just gets better and better every year! Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband - I love you!

Me Without You

Talent everywhere - so awesome! Check this out all done with vocal sounds...



I know I've been hiding from blogging lately :) but I'll be back soon with some new posts.

Muah!
Athena

Beautiful Friendship

This is a cute little banner posted from ShopRuche. It made me think about all the wonderful friends I have and how important they are in my life. I'm so grateful for my best friends, close friends, long distance friends and even acquaintances because they've one time or another have made a difference in my life or simply put a smile on my face. But there were those that have especially walked beside me during my days to celebrate or my days to grieve. They've been there through thick and thin, sacrificing their time. So with that, I just want to say THANK YOU to the wonderful friends in my life!
xoxo,
Dora D.

A Sock Monkey Baby Shower

Here is a baby shower this past weekend for my godson Tyler and his beautiful mother and father to be. The theme of the party was the sock monkey with colors blue, red and yellow.
The center piece of the dessert table was the chocolate bundt cake along with mixed flavored cupcakes. Around it were the classic coke bottles (mainly as a decor piece), tootsie rolls, M&Ms, popcorn and of course the Sock Monkey itself.
Please check back next month... we will be planning an owl themed baby shower!
xoxo,
Dora D.

too darn cute!

i saw this picture on facebook from the "ellen degeneres show" (hope i won't get in trouble for it) and i just can't stop looking at it. it's too darn cute! i literally spent 10 minutes adoring this picture and going "ahhh," smiling and laughing the whole time. not sure what kind of dog this is but it looks almost like a sheep dog - my dream dog and hoping to own it one day! And this darling little baby just makes me want to give her a big hug! seriously, doesn't this picture just makes you smile? i'm praying hard for each of my own tonight :)

-athena

Green Onion

Thinking about indoor planting reminds me of something I had read on the web about re-growing green onions inside your home. It is so simple and easy. If you like green onions and use them for cooking like me here’s a great way to stock them up without having to spend a dime again :)
1. Buy a bunch of fresh green onions, cut off the top part and use them up.
2. Save the roots part (bottom) to re-grow them.
3. Fill an empty jar up with water
4. Stick the roots in the jar and watch them grow! They grow pretty fast and it’s fun watching it!

Above is a picture of my green onions showing where I had cut them and how much they have grown in just 3 days.


Try it out and lets hope it taste good too :)

Love,
Athena

Planting

The weather here in Minnesota has been so nice and beautiful. Trees are green, flowers are in bloom and the sun is out. We have such a big yard now that I am so anxious to start a garden. Unfortunately, I don't think it will happen this year since we have so many other things to focus on for the house. We won't have time to do gardening and I have no experience whatsoever so it will consume a lot of time. I am definitely looking forward to planting our own fruits and vegetables in the near future. Flowers that are grown in our front yard...

and backyard.

I was so thrilled to find out that there were peonies planted in our front yard - my favorite flower! I noticed it one day and was singing with joy :)

I went out shopping over the weekend and these pots caught my attention so I thought hey, why not do indoor planting :) Yes, I bought the pots and decided to do some indoor planting.

I found some old tin cans at the thrift store that can also be used for plants or as a vase.

Lets see what kind of indoor plants I have up my sleeves since I have no clue what to start with yet :)

Happy Summer everyone!

xoxo,
Athena

'Call Your Girlfriend'

I know.. I know.. It's been sooOo long since I've done a post. Please forgive me for the abandonment... I promise I will be coming back as soon as thing thing called "life" settles down a bit. I miss you all from the bottom or my heart. Welp.. Hope you all had a great week so far!

My friend Lynne sent me a little video this morning that was just so adorable I had to share! Definitely reminds me of my two nieces which made me smile after watching. So without further ado... here is a Lennon Stella (12) and Maisy Stella (8) singing a cover to 'Call Your Girlfriend' by Robyn... please enjoy!!



I promise I will be back soon! xoxo,
Dora D.

Here and There

Updating you with a little here and there...
We had a new baby niece last month! She is so precious and so lovable! We are so happy to welcome her into this world!


Uncle & niece

We had some fun time with this kiddo, who is now a big sister :)


I had my annual Olson women's weekend up North and this organic raspberry pretzel dip souvenier at Nelson's Bros is delicious.


I am now about 7 minutes away from one of my favorite pizza place, Punch Pizza and oh boy that is dangerous.


Special delivery. Spicy Beff Jerky!!!


We are now close to being done with unpacking, dusting and cleaning. Our next thing to do on our list is re-painting our new house. Let me tell you, deciding on paint colors is not as easy as you think it is. I haven't completely decided on the colors yet but I do have a vision of how I want our house to look like. I might be sharing the process with you :)

Have a wonderful Memorial weekend!

XOXO,
Athena

Nature

My husband and I are really enjoying our new home. Every morning we get to wake up to the sound of the birds singing in our backyard. One morning while I was sitting at home working I looked out the window to our backyard and I was astonished by the fact that there were wild bunnies coming out to play. I love it! It felt so nice and fun! I quickly went outside to take pictures of them and found ducks flapping their wings oh so loud and splashing water everywhere in the pond. They were just hoping along in our backyard. Birds were flying everywhere and signing so loudly. It was one of the happiest moments I have had at our new home…just enjoying the nature, smelling the morning fresh air and hearing the song of the birds. The pretty bird singing the morning song. I came from a city life style and you don’t get this in the city so that’s why I am in awe of all this :) and loving it at the same time!

Have a great night!
-Athena

Happy Mom's Day

Wishing all you wonderful moms a very Happy Mother's Day! A special Happy Mother's Day to my mother and mother-in-law - best moms ever. Love them very much!

Muah!
Athena

been a busy bee

hello there! i've been a busy bee for the past months. lots going on and one of the excitements is that my husband and i had moved into this yellow house (photo #10) :) that's one of the fun things about being married - work hard, save hard and buy a house. It feels awesome to know that you and your husband accomplished something together - and many more to come. We still have a lot to do to make it feels like our home and we are enjoying every moment of it.
  it kind of looks like Christmas with all of our stuff being packed in boxes but it did not feel like one when you had to unpack them. it has been weeks and we are still not done.
  what we got along with the yellow house is an awesome yard! a dream come true :) so don't ever stop dreaming!
  with a yard like that means hard work but i think we're ready for it...our toy arrived yesterday and my husband was happy to see it :) our fun riding lawn mower!

all the photos were taken with instagram on my android phone.  i was so excited that they finally had the app for android phone :)

have a wonderful rest of the week!

love,
athena