I hope you all had a fantastic weekend! Although mine was pretty low-key, I have to say that nearly every MINUTE was jam-packed with MARVELOUSNESS!
2040 minutes…
Of sweet delicious slumber acquired in four days 😀
5 minutes…
Spent trying to decide what to order for lunch at Joey’s House of Pizza UNTIL I spotted this roll of carby, cheesy, spinach, chicken, and olive-y goodness!
9356256 minutes…
Of the man-friend’s life shaved off after finishing a slice of “Gladiator” Pie 😉
15 minutes…
Spent oogling over this airplane wing table I spotted at a salvage market…until I then spotted the $500 pricetag 😯
12 minutes…
Of Home Depot aisle-cruising with the man-friend before I got bored and started taking more narcissistic selfies.
30 minutes…
Of PAIN-FREEÂ treadmill walking at the gym Saturday afternoon.
60 minutes…
Of pure, drool-on-myself bliss Saturday night.
20 minutes…
Spent hovering over the thermostat at different times yesterday trying to decide wether or not to turn the heat on.
For the record, my stubborn self decided to pull the electric blanket out instead! 😉
15 minutes…
Taken to prepare my latest and greatest pancake creation FAIL!
3 minutes…
Before this entire plate was licked clean!
*peanut butter and chocolate sauce fixes everything!
As always, a big shout out to the lovely lady who makes Mondays a bit more bearable…and as always, the alliteration award goes to the author! 😆
How did you spend YOUR minutes this weekend?
Anyone else out there refusing to turn on the heat? Hey, just another alternative to exercise, right Carly? 😉
For the first time in over a MONTH might I add, but that’s not the point…the POINT is that while AT the gym stretching before my workout, I looked over and saw this…
Hello, BOOTY! 😯
I then proceeded to take about five minutes to get a picture with the perfect arm placement, leg movement, and back arch needed to fully showcase this fun little find.
Later, I was walking on the treadmill, totally engrossed in my book, when one of my trainer friends (whom I know only from taking her Body Pump class) came up and said, “Hey girl! It’s good to see you again! Look at you, looking all skinny! I’m so jealous” to which I responded, “Ugh, not really…actually I’ve gained some weight…black is just my color.” *insert weak laugh here*
Um, WHY did I say that?! ESPECIALLY after hosting a freakin’ selfie photo shoot not ten minutes before that?!
After reading both Lindsay’s and Laura’s posts on giving and receiving compliments last week, I commented that I was better now about accepting compliments than I used to be because I know that when I compliment somebody, I truly mean it and I would hate someone to disregard a compliment from me. But while I was working out, I started thinking more and more about my sudden dismissive response…
Why do we find it hard to accept compliments these days? Is it because we live in a society where we put everyone’s needs before our own and it’s basically considered selfish to love ourselves? The definition of narcissism does not actually impart a negative connotation…that’s just something we’ve attached to it over the years.
So today, I say to hell with what’s right/wrong/culturally acceptable…I may not love every aspect of my body, but you know what? I may not have squats and dead lifts to thank, but I’m kinda lovin’ the junk I’ve recently acquired in ma’ trunk, AND a few other things as well!
I CONFESS that I love…
My wild Julia Roberts-esque hair…
Now to figure out how to affix a fire-escape to the side of my one story house!
My dimples…
My duck face full lips…
My green eyes…which I’ve finally discovered how to magnify with purple eyeliner!
Note: I think I look a lot like my mama in this picture! 😉
My shoulders and collar bones…
My boobs (sorry, no picture for that one) but hey, I was a late bloomer so those are TOTALLY going on the list! 😉 And…
Did I mention my FINE derriere?
May I also confess that these are only HALF of the selfies I’ve taken over the last month…I cannot resist the urge to look at myself when I pass by reflective surfaces (windows, doors, mud puddles)…and mayyyyyybe the main reason I wear yoga pants around the man-friend so much is because I know that he likes them…like reeeeeeeeeeally likes them! 😉
‘Fess up! What three things do you love about your body?
I want to thank you SO much for all the heartfelt comments on yesterday’s post! Knowing that I have your support and encouragement during these recent struggles means the absolute WORLD to me! While I feel a little better after some sleep yesterday, I plan on doing more catching up over the weekend and hopefully be good as new come Monday!
Since my eats have been off lately, I thought instead of food post, I’d do something a little different today! Perhaps you guys have noticed a few changes popping up here recently? Well, I’m no techno genius, but I HAVE managed to do some things to give the ol’ broccoli a bit of a sprucing up! 😀
A few of weeks ago, while catching up with Allison, I discovered the Octoblog Challenge! It’s totally free and while there are no “real” winners, it really helps motivate and inspire bloggers to update and enhance their websites, social media spaces and more!
I have a bad habit of creating a bloggy to-do list and then promptly forgetting about it. While I tend to be a bit OCD in real life (the man-friend oogles over my super-organized filing cabinet), the inside of my laptop tends to be a dark and scary place! So when I saw this challenge, after already getting pumped reading HLS recaps, I finally got the fire lit under me and set to work!
I still hope to update my “About Me” section before the end of the month…I haven’t touched it since I started blogging almost 3 years ago! 😯
But this is what I’ve done so far…
I created a new header!
Then I created ANOTHER ONE a week later after you guys failed to clue me in on the fact that I spelled broccoli with THREE FREAKIN’ C’s?! Seriously people?! You’re lucky I like ya! Otherwise I wouldn’t remind you to check out this tutorial for making your OWN header with Pic Monkey…but I do hope you screw it up a few times before you’re done! 😉
I started making good use out of some old plugins!
FYI, when I’ve posted screenshots of my site stats before, it was from Jetpack. There are SO many customizations you can do with this plugin and it’s incredibly easy to use! I love it!
Oh and speaking of site stats, let me just share a little happy dance moment with you all…those two big columns there would represent the traffic KMB received after I posted my Peanut Butter Pumpkin Pancakes! Woop Woop! 😀
Not only can you keep up with site stats, track the sources of your blog traffic, and view your top posts, but you can ALSO make this sweet little Twitter widget!
Neat-o Frito, right? 😉
And speaking of widgets, I’ve basically done an overhaul of my sidebar if you haven’t noticed. I cleaned up my welcome blurb, added a Bloglovin’ widget, and my two FAVORITE additions…
I also added the Shareaholic and theJQuery Pin It plugins for more social media shares which I showed Meghan last week! Check out this post for her step-by-step tutorial!
Other than that, I’ve been working behind the scenes to make things easier to navigate her in Broccoli Land…transferring old recipes to Recipage (a never-ending task!), cleaning up categories and tags, and going back and LABELING my images! Seriously, I can’t believe I didn’t start adding titles to my pictures until last year…it’s been SO hard to find things! Which reminds me of one last little tip I want to share…
When you label your pictures, make them Pinterest friendly!
The “Pin It” plugin just adds the post title to the image description box (so think about titling your posts to go along with the images), but before I activated the plugin, I started labeling my pictures for people pinning on their own. I make sure to describe the recipe and also add a link to my blog which will help drive in more traffic!
Edited to add: Megan just informed me that if you go into “settings” under the “Pin It” plugin, you can change the default to your individual photo titles! 😀
Now, while this post may seem that I’m totally obsessed with blog traffic and statistics, that is SO not the case. Honestly, I rarely ever look at my stats and, besides a couple of compensated product reviews, I haven’t made any money doing this…until now! I actually just had my application to GLAM media accepted yesterday (yay)! I’m not looking to make a career out of blogging, but will be nice to get a little money for all the hard work I put into this! 🙂
Bloggers: What are some of your favorite plugins/widgets?Â
Everyone: What do you think of the changes I’ve made?
Any requests/recommendations for more user-friendly additions?
My name is Heather! I'm a southern gal with a passion for food, fitness, and photography...and alliteration if you didn't notice! Here you'll find a mix of random musings, delicious recipes, and hopefully a chuckle or two! Check out my "About' tab to learn more!
Spent hovering over the thermostat at different times yesterday trying to decide wether or not to turn the heat on.
Before this entire plate was licked clean!
As always, a big shout out to the lovely lady who makes Mondays a bit more bearable…and as always, the alliteration award goes to the author! 😆
