Painted Pumpkins!

Hey Loves! F & J here!

Can you believe tomorrow is Halloween! We finally decorated our pumpkins. Last year we painted Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc. and this year we stuck with the Disney theme and painted Buzz and Woody from Toy Story.

They were too cute, we had to share! F painted Buzz and J painted Woody! Check it out, and share your pumpkin masterpieces with us. We would love to see them!

Love,

F & J

TuTu Cute!

Hey Loves! F & J here!

Can you believe Halloween is on Friday?! Neither can we!

F finally finished her sisters costume, but it was well worth the wait! She is going to be a homemade Minnie Mouse. It was pretty basic she just made a red tutu and attached felt circles using fabric glue. Easy but time consuming. She is going to wear it with a pair of tights and a black fitted shirt and of course Minnie Mouse ears, for the finishing touch! It is totes adorbs!

This is the second time F has made her sister a costume and it won't be the last!

Love,

F & J

Spooky Cookie

Hey Loves! F & J here!

As promised, we have been busy working on Halloween crafts to share, and we just now have finally got the chance to post one. This one is super easy and always impresses people who do not know how to make them. We will show you how to create them, and tell you short cuts you could take, if you aren't the best baker.

We do not like spiders in anyway but these are just too adorable to not like.

Here's what you would need:

sugar cookies (pre-made, or homemade) You could find a recipe here.

white frosting

black icing in a tube with a small tip

toothpick

How To:

First you need to make sugar cookies. Easy enough, but if you want an easier option you can buy a box package, pre-made dough, or even store bought sugar cookies. We chose to make our own, but clean up would have been much easier, and prep time would have been shorter, if we went with another option. No shame if you chose the easy way out, we've been guilty ourselves!

Then make sure the cookies are completely cool (a step you could skip if you bought store bought cookies). Frost them completely in smooth white layer.

Then using a tip squeeze on the black icing in a swirl, starting in the center going to the outer rim of your cookie.

Next comes the fun part, using a toothpick pull outwards from the center to create the web effect. Repeat until you make it around the cookie. Tada! You have made yourself a spider web cookie.

We know it seems so easy, and it is, we almost feel silly posting a tutorial on it. Go make some spider web cookies and enjoy them. 

Love,

F & J 

Thankful

Hi Loves! F & J here!

We are so glad that it is Friday here in Seattle and for the majority of the world. It was a beautiful autumn day today, the air was crisp and cool, and there was blue skies, we couldn't ask for more than that. Things have been busy lately, but Friday marks the end of a week, so hopefully that means this weekend we will get time to rest (and maybe get to sleep in!).

Life has been full of ups and downs the last few weeks, it's just a total emotional roller coaster. Between broken phones, broke down cars, stupid bosses, and bad luck, there sure is a lot to complain about. But the holiday season is coming, and so is the time to be more aware of what to be thankful for. You should always remember you have it better than someone else, and we know it's not easy sometimes. So with the season of thanks coming around the corner, we thought we would talk about some of the things we are thankful for. You should know that we are thankful for everything we have (shelter, food, water, friends and family, etc.) but we thought we thought we could list things more specific to our lives.

Our Home-  We are so blessed that we live in such a beautiful and safe city! We are so close to the water, and city life, but also close to the country life, it is such a good balance, and we know that this isn't somewhere that everyone gets to live. We like that our city gets four seasons, because we love them all! The summers aren't too hot, the fall brings beautiful colors, the winter brings light snow, and the spring is full of fresh air and flowers. It will always be where our heart is, our home, no matter where we are in the world.

Music- As silly as it sounds we are so thankful we like the music, that we like. We believe we would say this, no matter music we liked, but really we are so thankful we have good taste :) We are thankful that there is music to make us sane, and happy, and it always seems to be very therapeutic. We also are thankful that we make music ourselves. We both sing and play piano, and F plays the guitar too! It is something we are super passionate about and hope we get a career in the industry one day. Music is always there, and always provides comfort for whatever mood you are in.

Jobs- We are both very thankful we have jobs, especially in a time where there are lots of people who are having extreme difficulty finding jobs. We may complain about having to get up early, or work later than hoped, or having bosses who make us crazy, but the bottom line is we are thankful we get a pay check, and work hard enough to know the value of money. And on the topic of money we are thankful that we have enough to be able to do some of the things we want to, like concerts, and shopping trips that aren't necessary. We are by no means rich or even close to being considered wealthy, but if there is something we want to do, we are able to work through our finances and find a way to make it happen, within reason of course.

Blog- We are thankful that we have the opportunity to write a blog, a place where we can say whatever we want.  To open up about our lives. We are so thankful that there is someone reading what we are writing, because even though it may not be as many as we would like, it is always one more than what we would have ever thought. 

That just hits the surface of what we are thankful for. We could go on and on and I am sure we will list more things before thanksgiving comes. We want everyone to appreciate what they have, every day of the year, and remember to pay it forward, because you may have more to be thankful for, than the person next to you.

Love, 

F & J

Motivational Monday

We moved to a new site check it out!
Hey Loves! F & J here!

Our whole lives we have loved to live a healthy life style. We grew up active, always running around and playing with our siblings and eating a healthy diet. But as you grow older and become more independent, it is very easy to fall off track and eat like your peers. Luckily for us, we never got too far off track but in March of this year we decided that we were really going to change our lifestyle to become the best “me’s” we could be.

For us this means, being more active. This means setting aside time in our busy lives for more exercise, than what we had previously been doing, as well as making overall better food choices. Not that we are fast food eaters, we would have it occasionally out of convenience, but we wanted to take it completely out of our diet as well as sodas.  These are just a few of the changes we made.

It was kind of hard at first to make sure we weren’t eating the things we said we wouldn’t because you create habits and it’s easy to put things in your mouth without thinking about it. But, after a few weeks passed it didn’t take much thought to pick the better option. That doesn’t meant it was easy, when you are surrounded by people who eat the things that you are avoiding, it’s really easy to fall into temptation but it’s all about respecting yourself and your body.

Where we are in life right now, we are both noticing that we prefer to eat healthier. Mentally we know how much better it is for ourselves, and because of that we are naturally craving healthier foods, now that we have eliminated a lot of the junk. Some of the things we ate before do not sounding appetizing at all!

Sometimes you are put in situations where you have no option but to make a choice that you know is not the healthiest. Just the other night we were at J’s house and her sister had bought everybody dinner from a fast food restaurant. We were left with the uncomfortable position to eat the food even though we really didn’t want to, we didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. Don’t get us wrong we like to indulge and treat ourselves to goodies; this is just not something we would choose. It is good to indulge every once in awhile, it just has to be something you find worth it. We felt extremely guilty eating the food the other night, but we have to learn that one mess up, or one scenario doesn’t determine the health of our body. The bottom line is that eating unhealthy one day doesn’t make you unhealthy just like eating healthy one day doesn’t make you healthy.  

If you are looking to live a healthier life, it is important to be mentally and physically and emotionally prepared. We are sure you have heard it time and time again, that it is all about a lifestyle change. But honestly it is. There is no other way to put it. You have to want it and work for it because it is hard but it is truly worth it. And if it’s not a lifestyle change it’s not going to last long, because it’s not a diet.

Our overall goal it to be happier with ourselves. We know we are our own biggest critics, but we have to realize that no one is perfect and we just have to keep going. We know we’ll mess up because we are human, but we’ll get right back up and that’s what matters.

If you have any tips or words of encouragement, please pass them along. We are always open to hearing more and would love to hear from you.

Love,

F & J

Hello October

Hey Loves! F & J here!

October is finally here, which means a month full of pumpkins, costumes, falling leaves, crisp nights, and the coming of the holiday season ( and don’t get us started, we are girls who LOVE the holidays!).  But we’re not sure how a week of October has already passed because, the last time we checked the calendar it was September! We are not even kidding, where has the time gone! 

Halloween is just around the corner, and even though we are not super into costumes for ourselves, we love to make costumes for anyone who wants one. F’s little sister is 8 and loves dressing up for trick-or-treating and loves tutus so we took the opportunity to combine the two and F is working on a costume for her. We will post pictures later when it’s finished. This is the second year in a row that F is making her sister a costume, and she loves having something no one else has.  Last year she was an ice princess before Frozen became the “it thing”. We can guarantee that you will see lots of them this year!

Her costume is going to be a surprise. We want to have the finished product to show you so make sure you follow up to find out what she is!

This month we hope to post some cool Halloween crafts and ideas. We are calling on Pinterest for some inspo!

Also, we would LOVE to find out what you guys are going to be. We've seen lots of creative costumes and if you send us your picture you might even be featured in our blog! Send it through our blog’s website or on twitter using #lovefandjhalloween

 

Love,

F & J