Fix Worn Furniture Spots

The table in the living room gets a lot of traffic from people's feet and shoes as a footrest while sitting on the couch. After a while, the stain begins to wear off and it doesn't look so nice. So how do you fix this problem? Go to Home Depot, Lowe's or your local hardware store and get a stain pen in the color closest to the stain on your furniture. This is the one I bought:

The color is Red Oak

Before:

After:

It's not 100%, but it looks MUCH better! You can keep layering on the stain if you want it darker in color.

All you do is take your stain pen to the spot where the stain has worn off.

Let the stain sit there for a few minutes and remove the excess stain with a paper towel.

Keep applying several coats of stain to get to your desired color.

The front of the table was much worse, but I forgot the before picture. He is the after picture!

Much better.

How to Keep Your Home-baked Cookies Soft

I don't know about you, but I love soft cookies! I hate when you bake cookies at home and they are delicious right out of the oven, but the next day they are hard and crumbly. My roommate in college actually taught me this trick on keeping your cookies soft for days after you've baked them!

You can use any cookie dough, but I am home for Christmas break from school and my mom bought this Triple Chocolate Chunk tub of cookie dough from a lady at her work whose son was selling Otis Spunkmeyer cookie dough for a fundraiser. Three dozen cookies in one tub and they are "place-and-bake" ready! You can find more about the Otis Spunkmeyer fundraising and cookie dough here.

Follow the directions on the package as to what temperate and time to bake the cookies at. Make sure the cookies are done, but not too much. You don't want them to come out of the oven as hockey pucks, but you don't want them raw and greasy either.

After taking the cookies out of the oven, use a spatula to remove the cookies from the baking sheet. Place the cookies on waxed paper. Allow the cookies to cool on the waxed paper for about 5 or so minutes. You want the cookies to still be slightly warm, but not hot.

Find an air-tight tupperware container that will be large enough for your batch of cookies. Place enough cookies on the bottom layer to fill the bottom of the container. Cut pieces of waxed paper that are the same size as the container to lay in-between each layer of cookies.

Layer the cookies and sheets of waxed paper until all of your cookies are in your container. Close the container and let them sit in the container for a few hours. The steam from the cookies being warm will "lock" inside the cookies and keep them soft! (You can sneak a few cookies during the process. I know they are hard to resist!)

Enjoy! : ]

White Mousse Cappuccino

Since I have been home over break, I frequent the pantry looking for snacks throughout the day. (Hey, runners have to eat!) Every time I look in the pantry this White Mousse Cappuccino mix stares at me. I think I have finished off half the bag myself over the past few weeks. I love the smell of coffee, but drinking plain coffee is way too strong for me. I only like a faint coffee taste so I usually order one of those caramel frappuccino things at coffee places. This stuff is awesome. It is made by The Perky Moose in Atlanta Georgia. You can order this mix and other drink mixes on their website, here.

It's easy to make:

1. Fill your mug with water.

2. Microwave to desired temperature. (I put mine in for 1:30)

3. Mix in 2 tablespoons of the powder (I put in three for even more flavor)

4. Stir

5. And Enjoy!

It's simple. And so delicious! 

What to Do When You're In a Running Rut

As I write this, I am convincing myself to take my own advice. I am in, what seems to be, a running rut. I have been a runner for ten years now and it has been nonstop! I started running in 7th grade and once cross country was over, it was track season and once track was over, it was important to train over the summer for the next cross country season. It's pretty intense, time consuming and challenging at times. It is currently winter break for me and I am entering my last semester of my senior year as a collegiate athlete. The first three weeks of my break, I was doing great! I was running every day and following my coach's training plan for me over break. Then it took a turn when I went to Pennsylvania to visit my family for five days. I took all five days off because I was so busy visiting family every day all day that i didn't have time to run. The day I got back, I ran. Everything was good. Then the next few days I didn't. There were a lot of off days on my training calendar and I started feeling terrible about it, but I couldn't get myself to run! I was in a rut.

Taking a few days off for most people isn't a big deal, but to my coach, taking one week off is equivalent to a whole month of fitness. That's a HUGE deal! I wanted to run my best times this last track season especially since I suffered from a hip injury all last track season. So how am I working myself out of this rut? Here are some tips to follow:

1. Run with music. I usually don't run with music, but when I need some motivation, I need a peppy playlist to get me going.

2. Run with someone. Recruit running buddies on Facebook or call up old running teammates. I get my fiancé to time me during my track workouts to keep me motivated not to slack off in front of someone.

3. Reward yourself. Have something in mind you really want to buy or a meal you are craving? Maybe even your favorite candy bar? Tell yourself you will only get a reward if you complete your daily run. Or if you run every day this week, you will get that reward.

4. Encourage yourself. Write yourself little notes on sticky notes around your house/room/apartment to keep you motivated. Sounds corny and cheesy, but it can help some people a lot!

5. Sign up for races in advance. Sometimes, if I sign up for races months away, it keeps me motivated to run and train so I will run a good time and who knows, maybe you will win a prize!

6. Try cross training. Maybe you don't want to run today. Well try biking or hop on the elliptical. You could even take a few laps in the pool. Maybe if you don't feel like doing your full run today, do a shorter run or a different workout such as hills, sprints, or a fartlek workout. Just exercise somehow!

7. Challenge yourself. If you have a certain distance marked out, time yourself and make it your goal to beat the last time you ran. You could even set up a reward this way.

8. Join a group of runners. Look up online or on Facebook for running groups in your community. If you meet up with people to run, you are less likely to slack off when running or to just not run at all.

9. Set a time to run. Make a specific time to run every day and stick to that time. Maybe if that time doesn't work every day, make a schedule for a time that works for each day of the week.

10. Run somewhere new. Sometimes running in new places will allow you to explore and keep you interested while on your run.

If you're in a running rut, try some or even all of these tips and shake yourself out of your rut! Happy running : ]

Pesky Pimple?

Ok, so this is a not-so-flattering topic, but everyone deals with it. I usually don't have too many major problems with acne, but just as anyone else, I get a big "problem" from time to time and I want to get rid of it ASAP! I have seen posts on Pinterest about putting toothpaste on pimples, but I had never tried it before. This link talks more about toothpaste pimple cures and other remedies that claim to help get rid of your pesky pimples. I also read this post and it made the whole toothpaste thing sound like a terrible idea.

I'm sure a lot of other people have their own ways to get rid of their pimples fast, but I thought i'd share mine. Chapstick! That's right. For years I have used Softlips chapstick to put on my pesky pimples to heal them fast. I'm not sure why it works for me, but it does! I have found that the pimples I put chapstick on heal faster than those I don't put chapstick on. Weird, I know!

This remedy may not work for everyone, but it seems to work for me. I suppose it works because of the  moisturizing effect. I put the Softlips chapstick on at night rubbing in into my acne spot 2-3 times. I wash my face in the morning with facial scrub and repeat the next few days till it is all healed up! I have only used Softlips chapstick for this remedy. It is not a miracle acne healer, but I feel that it does speed up the healing process. It couldn't hurt to try, right? Also, I researched the ingredients in Softlips and it said some people may have an allergy to one of the ingredients. As a person with lots of allergies, I know it's important to be careful, so check over the list of ingredients before use.

This is the "coconut cream" scent, but it doesn't matter for this purpose. I have used them all.

Warm New Clothes

I went on a shopping spree the other day with all of my Christmas money. Of course, I visited my favorite money-saving stores, Ross and TJ Maxx. I also went to Target. I will sacrifice paying full price for the things I like at Target because Target is that awesome!

After going shopping and buying lots of new warm clothes to wear for the cold winter months ahead (yes, it is getting cold here in South Carolina too!), I looked up outfit ideas on Pinterest and just by Googling. Sometimes it is hard for me to put together outfits without seeing some inspiration first. I usually search on Pinterest or Google for items of clothes I bought and see what outfits come up with that specific piece, such as black cardigan, skinny jeans, or blue pants. It usually comes up with some ideas that I can use what I have in my closet to make a similar outfit.

My inspiration for my outfit for today was this image:

The colors are nothing like the outfit I put together, but I liked the idea of a sweater/sweatshirt with a scarf, skinny jeans and boots. So I came up with this:

The scarf is black from Target that I got on sale last year after the winter months for about $8. The sweatshirt with lace is from Target for $15, the skinny jeans are from TJ Maxx for $20 and the boots are from Target for $35 but were a Christmas present to me.

Your outfit doesn't have to be the same colors as the images you gain inspiration from. It just has to give you the right idea to get you started.

View my fix for an annoying jingling buckle here.

A Quick Fix

Have you ever had a purse or a belt that has one of those metal bars with a metal tubing around it? It looks like this....

I bought a purse the other day (for $12 at Ross, mind you!) and it had one of those noisy metal tubing things around the decorative buckle. I have had the annoyance of owning a few belts in the past with this same problem. For belts, It gets annoying because it always spins and sometimes makes the latch come undone. For the buckle on my purse, it was extremely annoying! It jingled every step I took.

I have had a quick fix for this problem in the past and I used the same solution on the buckles on my new purse as well. My fix...super glue! It is that simple.

I started off my figuring out where I wanted to put my dabs of super glue. I decided the underside of the bar would be the best so you wouldn't see it. (even though you shouldn't really see it either way)

I then pushed the tubing over to one side as far as I could and placed a dab of glue onto the bottom of the bar. I did the same thing to the other side. Be sure not to put the metal tubing onto the glue on the bar.

Then, when you are done putting your dabs of glue on. Push the bottom of the tubing up onto the bar with the glue. Hold it there for a few seconds to insure a hold.

Finished product!

Let the glue dry for a few hours and you are good to go. problem solved! No more noisy and/or spinning buckles!

Also, view more on my outfit in this post.