Live to Dream

I have had a fabulous start to the weekend! 

Jessie's note about having a roomie night inspired me to finally get my butt over to Lowe's to get some pallets for a coffee table. Using pallets for furniture is all over pinterest and I've been wanting to do it for ages. Lowe's is conveniently located across the road so it is pathetic it took me this long to get over there. 

Pallet Love at Lowes! 

To be fair I was waiting until someone could help me. 

But like most things these days I wasn't patient enough to wait so I just womaned up and did it myself!

Those guns came in handy hauling my loot up three flights of stairs and into our apartment. 

The pripri is a hauling machine! I got two medium sized pallets for our coffee table and a small one to place between to add some height. I also found a HUGE pallet that I immediately knew would make the perfect headboard. 

Our new table - what do you think?! 

One pallet and two apple crates later I finally have something resembling a real bed! 

                                                                                    

Thursday night's roomie night was a big success. We grubbed on some nachos and happily slurped margaritas (out of some fabulous rita glasses if I do say so myself) while watching Parenthood. If you've never watched the show do yourself a favor and netflix or hulu that shizz. Serious comedy right there. 

These are the cute glasses that inspired girls night! 

The spread! 

                                                                                     

After a delightfully stress inducing clinic meeting Friday I needed to blow off some steam. So I headed to Joann Fabrics and Crafts. Crafting makes everything better. The second I saw these ginormous letters I knew they'd be perfect above my bed. All I had to do was figure out what they should say. For the next 20 minutes the floor became my canvas as I arranged and rearranged letters! 

Too predictable. 

I really wanted to do "Life is a party" with party in the big lettering and painted with gold sparkles. Sadly they only had one little "i." However I am not disappointed with what I came up with:

Winner, winner chicken dinner! 

Now to get them to the cashier! 

Letters snug as a bug in my basket! 

Glitter was still on the brain, but the DREAM is so huge covering the letters completely in glitter just seemed like too much. I know you are shocked. I've never been known to say something had too much glitter. But now that I am kind of an adult I feel like my room needs to reflect that. At the check out counter the woman ringing me up asked me if I was going to paint them. I told her not only could I not decide on a color, but I also was waffling about covering them in glitter. My exact words were "I'm twenty-five. What if a boy comes over, sees the glitter and judges me. I mean, I'm not eight anymore." Her response was perfect: 

"Then he isn't part of the dream."

I couldn't stop smiling all the way home. Hanging the letters was a delightful way to spend the rest of the evening. I am so pleased with results. 

Every time I look at my room now I am giddy a. because it looks friggen awesome and b. because I remember the woman's comment about the boys. 

I don't date very often and when I do I often get attached very quickly. Then sometimes I find that all my "I'm a strong, independent woman" identity goes out the window and I let how the guy behaves affect how I feel about myself. STUPID STUPID STUPID. I am awesome. I am an adventurous, outgoing fun lady that any man would be lucky to date. If any guys want to self-select out by not being interested in me then good for me, because if you aren't into what I'm about then I can't be bothered to be interested in you! Obviously this is all easier said than done, but I am going to keep focusing on bettering Sofia and having fun adventuring in Florida. If I meet someone who's interests align with mine then great, if not then this is one arena in which I am willing to be patient. There is no need to rush or settle. I deserve to be with someone who is as excited to be with me as I am to be with him. 

Until then I'm going to keep riding solo & living to dream! 

                                                                                    

As if putting together my dream bed (pun intended) wasn't enough for Friday, I also had the best night out ever with some ladies from my program. It was the perfect mix of chatting, adventuring and dancing.

We ended up in SoHo at some of the bars where I have been running with Running for Brews. On Tuesdays/Thursdays both bars are fairly dead, but Friday night was PACKED. The going out scene in Tampa is interesting because there are so many people that there isn't a real trend as far as wardrobe goes. I was worried about what to wear, but it became clear quickly that the eclectic nature of the crowd means that anything goes. Even my man repelling necklace!

At Yard of Ale I was excited to see that they shakers they use for mixed drinks are bubblegum pink and covered in: GLITTER. So despite refraining from crafting with glitter myself earlier in the night, I was still able to get my glitter high on : ) 

Speaking of high... can we talk about this truck for a second? 

In what world is this necessary? Ignore me, I couldn't decide how I wanted to pose and attempted to flex and go for the sorority squat but ended with a crossfit squat and monkey arms. Story of my life. Either way you can see that this might be the biggest pick up I've ever seen. It wouldn't be too cute to see me climb into that thing. 

All in all Friday night was a lot of fun and I am really looking forward to more girls nights out! 

                                                                                    

After a lazy morning today I met up with Megan and we bombed downtown to check out Art on the Water . We didn't know what to expect and feared it might not be as cool as I had imagined. It was a lot smaller than I had expected, but a really cool event all in all. I mean, any event where I get free beer, wine and protein pudding tastings as well as a free t-shirt has to be a good event. 

Double fisting the blue moon samples! 

Protein pudding, what's that you ask?!

Well it is basically a fun twist on a post-work out protein shake. The man manning the booth was the inventor and owner of the company - Pro-Fix. The pudding was really good! He is repackaging for the next round of product, but in its initial packaging each serving is 190 calories with 30 grams of protein and no sugar, no gluten and no lactose. Amaze-balls! The container looked really big and even though it was good, I wasn't sure I'd be able to eat a whole container. Hence why he is repackaging so the new portions with be halved. I really like that the pudding comes premixed, because  shakes are hard enough to blend smoothly, a chunky or chalky pudding would be gross. I might have to order some in November when he gets more product. It would be delicious chilled and served with granola. 

The Pro-Fix guys are partnered with WCrave a fitness/nutrition company for women. They hooked us up with these inspiring shirts: 

This has my name all over it. Can't wait to treat it to a sweat session at the gym : ) 

The other highlight of the outing was my conversation with the owner of a local wine/craft beer bar. I love World of Beer, but there is something about drinking craft beer from a corporate chain establishment that just feels wrong. I told her I had just moved from Portland and would love to check her place out. Turns out she is from Spokane. Obvi I had to give my fellow Washingtonian girl a high-five. Just last night when we were all out I was saying how it would be cool to find a local bar to hold/sponsor an event for our program to get to know each other. There are almost 60 of us, so I figured a small business would jump at the chance to get us all in the door at once. Turns out she has been thinking of starting a girls night event, one of her employees even has her nail tech certificate so she was thinking of incorporating that into a girls night. We exchanged info and I am really excited to see if I can get some girls from the program to rally behind the idea. It would be a cool way to support a local business and meet the girls in the program that I still don't know (which is most of them!) 

                                                                                    

Well I better wrap it up! That was a much longer post than I anticipated. Plus I need to prepare because early tomorrow I am headed back to the Rainbow River! I am going to float it again, this time with a few girls in my program and their friends. It has literally been four weeks since I floated the river. It looks like this is becoming a monthly event for me : ) 

xoxo Sweat&Sparkle