Spring has sprung!

We’re at my parents this weekend for a visit and after a walk with my mom; I noticed something “Christmas” looking in the distance. As I got closer, I realized that my mother had a holiday wreath, red bow and all, still hanging on a plant hanger near the front door.

“Why on earth do you still have a wreath up – its March and gorgeous outside?”

“It’s fresh, was a gift from our investment banker, and is really expensive” my mother quickly spouted back.

“Typical…” I said under my breath….you probably recall my mom is a bit of a “pack rat” (remember I talked about my collector mother and sister in my Clear Your Clutter  post AND my sister wrote about a similar topic in her recent Copper West post – Wire Crosses).

I offered my developing creative skills to revive her wreath with a quick craft session and “Spring/Easter” it up!

My mother is always good for lots of supplies, so I went digging through her collections! This is what I came up with!!

  

Hmm…I’m quite impressed myself!!

Happy Spring!

Live Inspired,

Robyn

10: Swept off my feet by a Texan

To read the previous chapter OR the whole love story.

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Gentleman – I quickly questioned in my mind. Have I ever met a man like this before? WOW! Our definition of "gentleman" clearly differs. When I think of the word, the following thoughts come to my mind, kind, caring, sweet, charming, manners, open the door, yes ma’am – not the action of sleeping on the couch of a very expensive penthouse.

Without batting an eye, as a very naive young Alberta woman, I blurted out,

"This is a gorgeous room and a huge bed. There is lots of room for two of us to share. Nothing has to happen, but you may as well enjoy this amazing sleep!"

John crawled in…and nothing happened.

I am not just saying that just to keep this PG Rated. I already told you John was very innocent…there was nothing wrong with that!

I woke up in the middle of the night, to a leg thrown over me, and I was being completely spooned in the fetal position. This is when I first discovered that John was a cuddler! I laid really still, trying not to laugh, and pretend not to be awake. A few Pretty Woman scenes ran through my mind and I quickly gave my head a shake. I drifted back asleep.

As the sun peaked through the curtains on Saturday morning, I woke up, convinced I was in a dream or a fairy tale.

I decided to make a dash for the restroom. As I tiptoed there – a piece of paper caught my attention that had been slid under the door.

The receipt!

Mmm…I really wanted to peek – but what if John is awake and catches me. I refrained and went into the bathroom.

On my way back out, the idea of looking at the “total” got me excited again…

Right about then…I heard a snore…YES – Tex was still sound asleep.

I peeked inside and my eyes could have popped out of my head!

$374!

AHHHH – that is REALLY over my $60 budget. I had a minor freak out, Julia Roberts quickly flashed through my mind again – were there expectations last night, that I didn’t meet? Then I calmed myself down, this Texan just showed me a fabulous evening, like nothing I had ever experienced before, just enjoy.

Once John woke up, he suggested we go for a swim. We changed and put on the complimentary white plush robes. I felt like a princess. I’m a dork I realize, however I was a mere 20 years old, living 3000 miles from home!

Then we set out to explore San Antonio. We walked down the Riverwalk and enjoyed lunch at a fabulous The Original Mexican Restaurant with wonderful ambience. It’s the famous one with all the colorful umbrellas that gets featured in travel pictures lots.

As much as I love taking pictures, for whatever reason, I have none from this trip!

On Saturday afternoon we visited the Alamo and took an open air, train car ride to a Mexican flea market. I got to barter for “junk”, for which I just love!  Then we walked through a mall and that is John went into a store – I took the opportunity to call my parents & Laura. 

I squealed the details to Laura and my parents (who I’m lucky to also call friends!) about the weekend adventure!

John and I enjoyed dinner on the Riverwalk and spent one more night in the exquisite Marriott. Nothing happened…just sleeping. We were both exhausted and collapsed after a jam packed day of sightseeing and shopping.

On Sunday morning we headed back to “reality”.

As we arrived back to our college city, John requested that we keep our weekend adventure a secret. I was a bit confused…

Happily Married and Living With Passion,
Robyn

If you’ve missed a chapter of this love story

CopperTexas

Home Office

I truly love working from my home office. If you love what you do, you never work another day in your life.

Goals of mine have been to improve my time management skills and to keep my office cleaner.

In a perfect world – it would stay this clean. I love coming home to an organized office with a clean desk and floor!

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Ha ha!! The reality is – life gets in the way! Yes, to my Type A friends and followers – I tend to fly by the seat of my pants and have a bit of chaos going on in my workspace.

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YIKES – it doesn’t take many weeks for my office to return to this state!! I fly in and fly out!! It’s constantly a work in progress.

I love having my office on the main floor. I always dreamed of having a door with glass in it, so I could make calls and smile at John through the glass. I’ve been informed that won’t be happening anytime soon – my office disaster drives John bonkers!

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SHHHH…I have a surprise for him though – I’ve been working on my office the whole week he’s been gone!

Spring Cleaning at Chateau Beazley launched on the 1st day of Spring!

 

I truly believe the energy present in the place you’re working – makes a huge impact on your creativity and productivity!

 

What MOTIVATES you about your office space?

What 1 thing can you do RIGHT now that will improve the energy of your space?

 

Live Inspired,
Robyn

Perfect Long Weekend ch 3

The rest of the details on what I’ve coined as our Perfect L-O-N-G Weekend! (Read the first chapter & second chapter)

Our final day on our amazingly spontaneous long September weekend, was spent eating, shopping, and driving!

John got to pick where we ate lunch and BBQ was his choice. Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que is always an “experience” (even there website is a hoot!). John was in heaven…as Canada doesn’t offer anything comparable!

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A trick I learned when I met the Beazley family! You use a buttered piece of bread/bun to butter your corn on the cob! THEN you devour the bread…only in Texas, I’m convinced! Did your family do this growing up OR have you acquired this tip?

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A few unique things about Famous Dave’s!

We left Kalispell and stopped in the tourist town of Whitefish. I found a couple awesome western inspired stores and we grabbed a cup of joe for the road trip home.

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Gorgeous views – I love escaping to Montana!

Back to reality…   

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We actually ended up being at the border for about an hour – not to be searched but to visit! John (who used to work at the border) knew a past co-worker that transferred to this crossing.

Have you ever just GOT in your vehicle and taken a spontaneous road trip?? Where to?

 

Happy Travelling (think I’m getting the bug again!),

Robyn

Be!ieve

This video is GORGEOUS!

Putting Arbonne to the side – the message, quotes, vibrant colors, and energy is truly AMAZING! 

I hope you’ll watch & experience – I KNOW it will make your day.

Live Inspired,
Robyn

MiniEggaholic

I was in the middle of the mall last Monday and I gave out a GIGGLY shout of excitement.

In my Facebook Inbox was a message from The Happy Baker with the subject line:

Mini Egg Shortbread Cookies 

I don’t think I’ve told you this before but I LOVE Mini Eggs!!!

I’m addicted to them. I can remember the day last summer – when I discovered, while in line at Wal-Mart, that they are sold year round now!

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You see John didn’t make eye contact with me after my discovery – but he was showing off his cute grin that I was interpreting as – he was laughing at me!

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Fast forward to now – after getting the message, I instantly wanted to make this new cookie recipe. When I went grocery shopping with John later that afternoon – I tried to sneak a bag of Mini Eggs into the cart. John snapped them back out and informed me:

“I don’t support the Mini Egg diet”

Hmmm…lucky for me – John is gone for a couple weeks, so I got me some Cadbury Mini Eggs and whipped up a batch of these divine creations!!

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I made them last Wednesday – before a girlfriend came over for supper. SO I made a few of them GREEN – to help make our dinner date dessert more festive for St. Patrick’s Day!

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They are SOOOO scrumptious!

Mini Egg Shortbread Cookies recipe from The Happy BakerHERE.

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.

Sift together 1 1/4 cups of flour, 1/2 cup cornstarch and 1/2 cup of icing sugar.

Cream together the dry ingredients and 1 cup of butter (at room temperature) and a pinch of salt until combined and a dough is formed.

Stir in Mini Eggs (200g bag broken into small and medium pieces)

Roll into small balls and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Flatten balls with your fingers and bake in oven for 22-24minutes.

Let cool and Enjoy!

THANK YOU Erin for sharing your phenomenal recipe!

Do YOU have an addiction for Mini Eggs? What is your favorite Easter candy??

 

Live Inspired, Eat Mini Eggs ;) 
Robyn

 

 

P.S. IF you like a good networking story – here’s one for ya!

1) I met Sarah – the owner of Cater Tot Consignment in her store.

2) I became friends with Sarah on Facebook and have been following her journey through life for over a year.

3) Sarah started a blog Money Smart Mom (Her 2nd book is just about published!).

4) I started to follow Sarah’s blog and I learned about in the entry – Connecting – about Erin – The Happy Baker, being on the Dragon’s Den (LOVE that show!).

4) I started following Erin on Facebook and voila – got this amazing recipe!

I live life to meet as many people as I can and make my network huge – learning is living!

Mirror

I spend a lot of time on my own (which I’m completely fine with!) – since my hubby travels a lot for work.

This "free time" is when my creative, entrepreneurial, productive juices flow best. Many hours/days, I can be found in my home office (which I’m in love with – not literally). The energy of the space is amazing – I get so much accomplished.

About a year ago – I got a mirror for my wall. I wanted to SEE myself while sitting at my desk. Time fly’s by when I’m working on the computer and often – I need someone to hold me accountable.

SO – the mirror was so that I could keep an eye on myself!! Sounds a bit creepy I realize, but catching myself in the reflection – wakes me up and gives me the impression that someone is "watching"!! Well – this mirror went up on the wall close to a year ago AND it was TOO high. If l looked over – I could see the top of my hair – IF my posture was good enough at the time!

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Can you see the top of head in the bottom right corner – no good!!

WELL – today I took matters into my own hands. I put more holes in the wall – by lowering it!

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It fell once – making a little gauge in the frame – but only I know it’s there!

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If you walked into my office – you may think it looks a bit strange hanging so low – BUT it’s for me and no one else! He he…when you spend as many hours tackling your entrepreneurial ideas looking at it eye level as me – it’s perfect!

Do YOU have a mirror in your office / workspace?

Live Inspired,
Robyn

P.S. SOOOO – this is your warning notice John – don’t be mad. I put 2 more holes in the wall!

P.P.S. I got a new haircut (WHOLE other story on its own – it didn’t happen on purpose – this is a terrible picture of the new style!)

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