Happy Leap Day Everyone!

There are a lot of inspired posts in the archives, and I'm digging them out to share with you all again. Hence, the new themed day. This isn't going to be an every Friday thing, but I figure it'll happen often enough to where it deserves a pretty graphic. It might happen every Friday for a bit, but who knows. I'm really just flying by the seat of my pants here.
I'm excited to share today's blog post. I mean share it again. I originally wrote this blog post way back in 2010. I'm not going to just cut and paste the original post though.

I've learned a few things in the years between then and now, so I'm going to spruce it up, and regift it to you guys.

What!?!?

I've managed to write two Thursday posts in two weeks?! That's craziness. Ok, it's not, but I feel like mini-celebrations are a needed part of everyday life. They're little pick-me ups.

You know what else is a pick-me up? Breakfast.

I love breakfast. Breakfast = coffee. If you follow me anywhere, but here then you know I love my coffee.

Today's post is not about coffee, but about a breakfast that pairs super well with coffee.

Earlier this week, I made myself some fresh ricotta for the sole purpose of making myself a tartine for breakfast. My ricotta recipe is {HERE}, and my other tartine recipe is {HERE}. Both are super yummy and easy.

What's better, is if you don't like store-bought waffles, then use bread! Challah would be amazing, as would sourdough or even a baguette. It really doesn't matter. Now let me introduce you to my newest favorite.

Happy hump-day folks!

It's me! Heather's charming and talented baby sister, Dana!

Cutting right to the chase, what I've got for y'all today is a recipe test with some helpful tips/random thoughts at the end.

This is not my recipe by any means, but rather from Whole Foods. In case you couldn't guess from the title (and if you did, points!), we're making a homemade version of Nutella today!  Or, as I like to call it, HC spread.

Why is it that some of the simplest updates we can do around our house take the most time?

Not because they're difficult or will take a lot of time, but because they're so easy.

You keep putting them off, because one day you'll "get to it." It's on the list.

Today, I knocked one of those "get to it"s off the list.

I finally updated the kids' pictures on the picture wall.

Training last week, started off really strong, then sickness invaded the house. All the kids shared some nasty stomach bug, which meant plan changes for me, but it's all ok.

Small Fry was a very patient boy for 6 weeks.

Some journey's don't require you too look back. Most people don't like looking to the past, but when you're on a journey to get healthy, lose weight, or achieve a fitness goal, looking back is good for you.

It reminds you about how far you've come. It's been a rough week in the Boyajian household. Over the weekend, Small Fry went down with a stomach bug, and then Tuesday night, Baby Girl got hit with the same bug. Small Fry was kind enough to suffer during the day. We only had one incident at night, but the hubs and I were still awake. No biggie. Baby Girl, on the other hand, was stricken with the nasty bug about an hour before hubs and I went to bed. It was a long night. A very long night.

Garmin said I got 4 hours of sleep. It lies. I might have been lying down for 4 hours, not continuously, but there was not a lot sleeping going on. We moved Baby Girl into our room, so we could better hear when we needed to take her to the bathroom, which was a fine idea. Our bed didn't get puked in, but she was sick multiple times throughout the night. I think I finally fell asleep around 5 am. The hubs didn't fair much better.

I am still recovering from that horrible night of sleep, which has me whining about my run later today. It's only 4 miles. It's not a big deal, but it is.  I want sleep too, but I need to keep with my training. The miles will get done, but they won't be pretty, which is why I went looking for inspiration.

I found inspiration on my old fitness blog, Muffin Top, in a post titled: Popped my Cherry.  It was just the kick to the motivation I needed.

Happy Humpday everyone!

Man, it's been forever since I did a What to Eat Wednesday, and I'm super excited to share this gem of a soup with you guys today.

It's been miserably cold here in NoVA lately, and I've been perpetually on the chilly side because of it. When the days are as cold as they've been, then it's definitely soup time here at the Boyajian house.

The problem with soups is that my Big Guy doesn't like brothy soups. He likes soups that you have to chew. The other problem was that Small Fry came up sick and unable to hold anything down, so chewable soup was out for him. This soup only solved one problem - feeding the Big Guy. Small Fry got some warmed plain chicken broth in a mug with a loopy straw, because being sick is not fun for anyone, but drinking soup from a mug with a silly straw is sure to make you feel at least a little better.

So on to the hearty soup. Years ago, I found a terrific recipe for a Potato Corn Chowder from one of my Taste of Home cookbooks, but I couldn't find the darn recipe, and I needed to get to the grocery store before nap time was over, so I did a quick search on Taste of Home's site, and found {THIS} perfect little number.

It takes 30 minutes, and it's super easy to modify. We added Turkey Kielbasa to ours, because meat. It was a hit, and everyone had seconds!

We've entered the doldrums of winter.

So remember when I shared my plans for the bar table? It's been a few weeks, but let me refresh your memory.

Reclaimed Oak Bar Table

It will now be known as That %*&$ Table.


It was one of those projects. If it could go wrong, it did, and then some.

We're never getting rid of this table. It went so over budget, and it's stupid.

Ok, I might be done throwing my minor tantrum.

Woman's World featured this wreath in their magazine issue last week!

When they contacted me out of the blue one day in January, saying they wanted to do a feature on this wreath, I was a little overwhelmed. Here is the post from 2011, I did edit it a bit so that nothing is out of context.

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Throwback Post

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Hearts are not my favorite shape. I know I've discussed this, but when it comes to heart I'm a little ambivalent about them, which makes Valentine's Day odd for me. I like the idea behind Valentine's Day, but I don't go heart crazy. At least I didn't, I've warmed up to hearts over the years, which is why I'm excited to debut my double heart wreath.

I'm so excited about this little corner in our basement. This corner used to hold the bar, but when we moved the bar a while ago, this corner just seemed unimpressive. Now, it's mostly done. There are a few more things we want to do to the corner, but for now it's done. I shared the picture windows yesterday {HERE}, but now it's time to focus on the table.

Several years ago, I went to an estate auction where I scored 23 old windows for $10. It was the best score. I have finally used up or sold all of those windows. The last 2 windows were used in today's project.

This week went better than previous weeks. I got in 3 dedicated workouts, and more than a few housecleaning workouts.

So yesterday was a super fun, exciting day for me.

My Valentine's Day Wreath from a few years back got featured in Woman's Day!


Squee!

Don't you love when you can easily change things up? It really took no time at all to take this vase and make it like new again.

Such is the case with this vase.

My husband thought I was nuts. After we finished the built-in, I was worrying about styling it.

You might be a bit confused by the latter half of that title, but let me explain it. My Big Guy has been putting his witty 10-year-old prowess to work with puns and other wordy jokes, and when I completed this project (the first time) he dubbed it Virginchusetts. So it's now stuck.

So if you've followed Sew Half Crazy on Instagram or Facebook, then you know for the last 3 weeks or so we've been diligently working in our basement. Super Bowl is Sunday. We're hosting. We've got a bit more to get done. Eek! I digress.

Well today is February 1, and honestly I thought I'd be further in my training right now.