Royal Wedding

From the beginning I knew I was going to get my butt up at 3 in the morning to watch the royal wedding. I set my alarm for 3:30 because I know that these things never start on time, and I don't care to see all the other celebrities and royals showing up.  So, I woke up and turned on the TV, and this is what popped up on my screen..

 Princess Eugenie and Beatrice

Freakin' hilarious! I was laughing right away and got up and made myself some royal wedding tea, which was just non-caffeinated peppermint.  

I had set my alarm perfectly because not long after I got my tea and settled back in to bed,  they showed Kate Middleton getting into the car to head to Westminster Abbey. Her dress which was designed by Sarah Burton, the creative director for the late Alexander McQueen was absolutely stunning. Her dress was reminiscent of Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco in 1956 with a nice modern twist.

The couple looked happy and I was so glad I woke up to watch the Royal Wedding. I know it's cheesy, but there is something so fascinating about watching Royals get married, and Kate and Will truly look very much in love. One of my favorite moments is when they are at the altar and you can see Prince William mouth "You look beautiful" to Kate...ahhhhhhh butterflies! 

 I leave you with some stupid photos I took of my television. It's okay, I'm laughing at myself too, and this funny link about the wedding: click here

I hope you all have a brilliant weekend! I will be studying for my last two mid-terms and getting over an adverse (crappy) reaction to a tetanus shot. 

Cheers big EARS! 

~L

Music Tuesday--The Decemberists & Gillian Welch

 I love The Decemberists & Gillian Welch
Two great voices to study to.
Enjoy & remember to sing your favorite song out loud today.
Down By The Water

Happy Easter! (I know it's late)

Hello everyone, I hope you all had an amazing Easter weekend with friends and familia. Mine was spent (you guessed it) studying! I can't wait till Wednesday of next week, I'll be all done with my crazy 15 credit semester of science classes.
Anyways, this weekend I took a break from the big ol' science books to play with my food.  I followed this tutorial from ANNA THE RED and made a heart shaped hard boiled egg.  It was pretty easy and a lot of fun. Oh yeah, I also made a little birdy face on one of the hard boiled eggs with a carrot and peppercorns for eyes. Hehehehehe, I know, I need to get out more.

Have a lovely week!
~L

Le Finals

Happy Good Friday everyone,
Sorry for the lack of post, but it is finals week(s) of my crazy semester,  so my big books take priority.
I hope you're all doing well, thank you so much for the lovely birthday wishes!
Have a great weekend!
~L

Music Tuesday--Adele

 Rolling in The Deep

30

Well everyone it's been almost a year since I wrote the post of 29 things to do before your 30.  It has been a crazy year with so much wonderful and positive change. However, all of the crazy change has me really excited to enter my 30's!  Now don't get me wrong, there is still a small part of me that feels that I am every Mexican mother's nightmare. I can't sew, I'm not married, I live with my boyfriend, y sin hijos <--ay dios mio! However, my mother is a wonderful woman who knows I'm just doing me, and knows I'm just holding out for the right time. I trust that life works out the way it's suppose to, and by battling against it I'm only doing myself a disservice.
Okay, back to the list! Now I didn't actually complete everything on my list, and failure to do so doesn't bother me one bit.  Most of the incomplete task were due to some positive changes that happened in my life, and some of it was just that time caught up with me.  With that in mind, I decided to focus on what I did complete over this last year. Gracias a dios for blogging, because I was able to go back and reflect on my wonderful 29th year of life.

6. Write to my Grandmother and send her photos of my travels 
    I was happy to be able to send my Abuelita a thank you card with some photos of my travels to Paris and London. It was because of her generous Christmas gift, as well as some help from my parents that I was able to have a wonderful trip in Europe. I sent her a photo of this picture and this picture.

7. Paint and decorate the TV room in our home (take all the random shit down)
    This was such a rewarding task, I am so happy my Señor and I were able to tackle this room and really turn it around. You can see some before and afters here.


8. Use my Crock Pot more
    I didn't use my Mercedes crock pot as much as I wanted.  However, I did make some amazing pulled pork tacos and the Señor loved them. Tip: Make and use your own salsa. The store bought salsa won't do this recipe justice.  Recipe here.

12. Write more cards and letters to friends. 
     I have actually become better at this, I try to send Christmas cards to my friends in Europe every year. Even though it seems that they arrive well after Christmas has happened. Note to self: Send cards/gifts earlier to Europe.  You can check out a wonderful gift pack I received from my friend D from the UK here.


13. Help out a stranger 
      I can't really recall helping out a stranger per-say, but I tried to be more helpful in my life in general. It seems nowadays that folks are quick to say NO, and I tried to steer away from that a little bit more.


20. Get at least 2 acrobatic moves down for Capoeira
     Wow, i actually accomplished this goal my Aú sim mao (cartwheel no hands) and Aú Batido (broken cartwheel) . I am no longer participating in Capoeira. I do miss the workout, and of course my Capo family, but my budget doesn't allow me to participate. One day I will return to capoeira, Até então meus amigos!  Photo from my first batizado here.

21. Run a half marathon or 10k in the fall.
      This was such a rewarding time for me. After I was laid off from my job, I was in a bad way and was really becoming unrecognizable to myself. Running helped me push through my hard times, and helped me realize that I can tackle any challenge as long as I believed in myself to do it. Post on my 10k run here and my Half Marathon run here. 

22. Take a drive on the Coast (any coast)
      My Señor and I were able to take a drive along two beautiful coast. In August we drove along the beautiful Oregon coast (recap here) and part of the Northern California coast in between San Francisco and Santa Cruz (recap here and here). 

Even though the time is up for the 29 things to do before your 30, I'm still going to try and cross things off the list. Because even though I didn't make them in the time frame I allocated for myself, It doesn't mean I didn't want to complete them.  I'll be working on  30 things to do in my 30's soon, It's always fun to make fun goals, and approach things that are scary to us, like sewing. Ohhh scary!

I hope you all had a great weekend, I had a great last weekend in my twenties celebrating with my amore & closest friends having a few drinks and laughs before my insane finals week. 

Cheers to 30!!

  

 

Pain In the Plantar Fascia part III: Ready to Run

Ready to run has been the feeling itching under my skin since I was injured back in January. My impatience to hit to pavement actually led me to prolong my injury, and we are here in April and I'm still working on my recovery. The journey to get back to running has led to a lot of wasted money spending, because I don't have health insurance I've been looking for other alternatives to help heal my foot. Heel pads, creams, acupuncture, night splint and taping just to name a few.   Honestly, I feel a lot of money was wasted in purchasing all of that stuff. Recovery really just came down to rest, icing, stretching and a swimming pool in order to start feeling better. If you long at my previous post I have some great videos on stretching that have really been beneficial in my recovery. Also, for all of you runners out there who don’t mix up your training, I suggest looking into agua jogging to help you recover faster. It’s a good workout, and helps rest your legs, and reduce overall impact. 
Here is a nice article about agua jogging here. 
Now I am running again, and this time taking it very slowly. I've started running a total of three times a week with swimming or agua jogging on alternating days. This past week I was able to run 4 easy miles along the river and it felt great! I've truly missed running outdoors and taking in the beautiful NM nature. It truly is a blessing.  However, the road to recover is still and progress and I have to be careful not to get carried away. It’s easy to think that I can just get out and run 6 miles no problemo, but that was the attitude that got me in trouble in the first place. Now I’m working on being a more conscious runner and paying attention to how my body feels. I thought this way when I was training for my half marathon and found it to be very beneficial for me.  
During my easy 4 mile run along the river I decided to take my phone with me and was able to snap some photos. However, this didn't work out well because my phone was bouncing around in my jacket and it drove me nuts. I also had my keys, pepper spray, and ipod with me. Most people have a lot of junk in the trunk; I had too much junk in the jacket.  Oh well, lesson learned. At least I know now that I am not capable of running and having my cell phone with me. It just felt all sorts of wrong, but at least I was able to take a few snapshots of my pretty run. It was cloudy out, so excuse the gloom.

They are not the best photos, but I was all sweaty and breathing hard and couldn't really balance the camera in order to get a proper photo.

I hope you are all having a great week and are looking forward to the weekend.
I will be celebrating my last weekend in my 20's with all my good friends. I am truly looking forward to it! 
Espero que tenga un buen fin de semana amigos!

Music Tuesday--The Civil Wars

Barton Hollow

Blowing in Spring

Hello friends,
Sorry for the lack of post this week, I am trying to wrap up the semester on a good note and the work involved has me pretty occupied.  Right now the weather is super windy in NM and it's actually quite fitting for the crazy whirlwind of a semester going on. However, I've enjoyed everything I've learned this semester and I'm excited to start my nursing assistance program this summer. This is the course I need to take before I start nursing school! So, almost there!
Anyways despite the crazy winds, NM in the spring time is gorgeous! Here are some photos I've taken this week of the desert waking up from the winter and some cute clothes/shoes I'm crushing on.
I hope you all have a great weekend, 'll be trying to stay grounded with all this crazy wind.
L
P.S. I've started running again, slowly but surely I'll be back in shape! 

 

Pretty yellow tulips

Roadrunners are out running around and I love it!

Crescent Moon for my amiga Sassy

All photos taken by moi.

Spring time wish list:

This Dress...

Sunny Meadow Dress from Shabby Apple

1st photos taken from: cardiganempire.com

2nd photo from: twoellie.blogspot.com

With these shoes.

Adele by Seychelles

Women's Merona® Makana Cutout Sliver Wedges 

Music Tuesday--Gotan Project

Epoca

Death Before Decaf

The semester is winding down, and I feel like my head is spinning with all sorts of assignments and projects I have to complete.  I'd make a list to help me attack the things I have to do, but that would just be one more thing to do.  It may be stressful now, and the bags under my eyes may take some serious night cream treatment, but it's all worth it.
Anyways, I hope you're all having a lovely weekend, and please, do send your caffeinated vibes my way!
xoxo
L

Speaking in Tongues

Some of you may have noticed a little change to Bandida Blog, I have decided to add a Google translate bar to the top of the page. I've been noticing a lot of traffic from different countries coming to my blog, and I thought it would be nice to provide a translation option so that everyone can read, enjoy and be a part of the blog. I've always been fascinated by different cultures and languages, and I'm hoping by adding the Google translator it will help visitors from around the world add their opinions and thoughts to the comment section.
 So, with the help of the Google Translator and my travels I've decided to knock down the language barrier by starting with a simple task....
 
Saying Hello! 
 Brasil--Olá Brasil!
Russia--Привет России
Germany-- Hallo Deutschland!
Sweden--Hej Svergie!
Ukraine--Привіт Україні
Denmark--Hej Danmark!
Netherlands--Hallo Nederland!!
South Korea--안녕하세요 한국
Slovenia--Pozdravljeni Sloveniji!
Japan--こんにちは日本
Canada--Bonjour Canada!
France--Bonjour France!
Mexico--Hola México!!
España--Hola España!
Argentina--Hola Argentina!
Norway--Hei Norge!
  **If I missed anyone, please say hello in the comment section and I'll make sure to give you a proper hello!

With languages on the mind it has me thinking that even though we may not understand each other, we have a lot to learn from one another. This is why I've decided to reach out to all of my readers from around the world. I'm excited and hopeful that this will break down the language barriers, and just maybe I'll pick up a little bit of a new language and gain a better understanding. 

I leave you with a trailer from a documentary I've been dying to see. It hasn't come out on Netflix yet,  but I have it saved to my cue. 
SPEAKING IN TONGUES TRAILER from Speaking in Tongues on Vimeo.


Have a lovely weekend amigos!