As anyone out there who is trying to monetize their blog knows, branding yourself is really important. I decided to have some business cards made up and I hand them out to people at the gym and stick them on bulletin boards around my neighborhood.  As with most things in my life, when I wanted cards, I turned to Etsy.   Enter Happy Girl Greetings!  Not only did Laura Beth print me up these adorable, high quality cards, she designed the logo for me!  Isn’t it lovely?  At Happy Girl Greetings you can find business cards, stationary and much more, check it out.

Laura Beth was kind enough to send me some cute recipe cards to giveaway to 2 of my lucky readers!  To enter, go visit Happy Girl Greetings  and leave me a comment telling me which logo on a calling card you like best.  Want an extra entry or two?  Just facebook, tweet or blog about this contest and leave me a seperate comment telling me you did so. I will pick 2 winners using random.org on Friday afternoon.

Today’s yoga class was just what the doctor ordered. I was feeling very tight and creaky after my sub zero windchill run from yesterday.  My favorite pose today was the Shoulder Stand.  Ahhhh sweet relief.

According to A-B-C of Yoga.com, “The Shoulder Stand stimulates and rejuvenates your entire body. In this exercise, you build up both power and a new structure in your back and you relax tension in well-known stress areas like the neck and the lower back. The muscles of your lower back get stronger, the chest and shoulders can move more freely and the back gets straighter. The Shoulder Stand also stimulates the thyroid gland and is good for blood circulation in the chest, shoulders, upper back and the neck. “ 

I have also been told that if you shake your legs about that it loosens up the lymphatic fluid and releases it which is especially good for runners.  I like to keep my legs straight and shake them all about and twist my ankles around.  But you can also go all the way over:

STEP 1: Lie down with your back on a Yoga Mat.
	STEP 2: Your shoulders should lie on the edge and your head rests on the mat. Your legs are drawn in and still stand on the mat.
	STEP 3: Lift your hips off the floor and bring your legs up, over and beyond your head.
	STEP 4: At this point, lift your back and move your legs further beyond your head.
	STEP 5: Straighten your spine and keep your back straight. Move your hands toward your back.

I personally cannot do headstands. I like these half inversion poses though. I am a total chicken and psyche myself out of it everytime I try to do a head stand.  Can you do headstands?  What is your favorite inversion?

I am so in love with the yoga mat bags from Green Trunk Designs. The contest winner is below, congrats Angela, send me your mailing address at mnowac@gmail.com.  She picked the retro rose bag.  For all of you that entered the contest Jaya has extended a special offer!  She is going to give you 10% off the purchase of any of her mat bags!  How awesome is that!  To get the discount, you need to go to her shop, and then send her a message (through the contact Green Trunk Designs link on the right hand side) and let her know you came over from my blog and which bag you want and then she will put the special price up for you. First come first serve.  If you get one, please send me a picture of you with it when you get it and I will put it up on my site!   Seriously, if you do yoga, you need to be sporting one of these bags. I get so many compliments on mine!  I feel a lot more zen when everyone is jealous of my cute yoga bag, lol.

1/27/2010 9:19 AM Angela wrote:
#2 entry…I would love to win the retro rose mat!

The winner of the lip gloss/perfume kit from Tropical Bomb is below.  Congrats Nicole and please email me your address at mnowac@gmail.com. Big thanks to Tropical Bomb, keep them in mind the next time you need some top of the line body care items!

1/25/2010 9:13 PM Nicole wrote:
What a fun Etsy shop! Circus Peanut lip balm??? Oh, be still my beating heart. I think I’ve just found some great gift ideas!

* I apologize for the delay in the contest winners, I will get them up before tomorrow morning*

Ooh baby I roasted up some cauliflower for dinner and it was really good.  I just chopped it into big pieces, sprayed with olive oil, sprinkled with lemon garlic salt and Crazy Mixed pepper and roasted at 450 for 25 mins.  During the last 2 mins I sprinkled on some cheese.  Everything tastes better with cheese!  As I had said before I have been having issues eating broccoli and cauliflower, I lost the taste for it during my pregnancy. This was the first time I had eat cauliflower in a long time and enjoyed it.  What is your favorite way to cook it?

This morning I got up bright and early with plans to run 10 miles. I was going to do 30 mins solo and then meet my friends at 9. I knew it was cold out, much colder than it had been in awhile.  So I threw on my thickest running pants, 2 shirts (one with a built in hood and half gloves) and a zip up vest.  Topped it off with a hat and thin gloves. 

It was about 10 degrees when I started and 10 mins in I was literally in pain. My face was burning, my eyes were running and my knees were creaking. I was really wishing I had worn my full face mask.  It was dreadful.  .8 miles into my run I ran into one of my friends and he is a much better runner than me.  So, thank goodness for him.  I picked up my pace and stuck with him the rest of the morning. It was a seriously hilly run at a local park.  We ran on a paved path.  You basically run 3 miles down a hill and then 3 miles back up. For those of you from around here, we were running from Harper Ridge Picnic Area down to Richmond Rd at S.Chagrin Rez.  It was so tough. I have run 10 miles plenty of times, but I was woozy when we were done. I think it was b/c it was so damn cold, my body had to work extra hard to warm up and it was all just a bit too much. I am so glad I got through it though.  Afterwards we spent the day at my father in law’s house.  We ate cupcakes and played pictionary.  Crazy exciting life we lead   Just the way I like it.  Tonight I think we are going to watch Public Enemies staring my boyfriend Johnny Depp.  If I can stay awake.  Looking forward to yoga in the morning, my legs are stiffff.

I love scary movies. Always have. When I was a little girl I would totally rent inappropriate scary movies and watch them in the basement with my girlfriends. We’d turn off all the lights and sit real close to the tv and laugh and scream our way through the campy slasher flicks.  I don’t know what my mom was thinking letting me check out movies like Sleep Away Camp and Last House on the Left. Gore Horr at it’s best. The more depraved and bloody, the better I say!  I have sat through all of the Saw series and Hostel. I have seen all of Rob Zombie’s flicks. And I love the classics like Freddy and Jason. 

Last night the husband and I watched Paranormal Activity. I had heard really good things about it and eagerly awaited it’s arrival from the library. I was like #700 on the waiting list so it took awhile. I liked the movie, but it wasn’t as great as I expected. It was such a minimalistic movie and it made so much money at the box office, you have to give the makers props for that. It really did feel like you were just watching some couples home movies. I think its one of those movies that would have been better on the big screen.

I think my favorite scary movie is The Ring. I literally had nightmares about that little girl for weeks. Wonderfully creative storyline and some real big ohmygosh must stickheadundercoversnow  moments.

What is your favorite scary movie?

For the GNU giveaway, I used random.org to select 2 winners and they were:

Kim Zepp says:

You may have noticed that MonicaOnTheGo has a new look! I have moved over to Wordpress with the help of a lovely web designer, Regina from Lively Up Designs. I will do a proper post on her business soon. Bear with me while I get everything back up on my site.

Stef from More to Life Than Lettuce tagged me. I am supposed to list 8 things that make my day and then tag 8 others. Instead of picking 8 I tag you all!  If you are reading this, tag you are it. 

8 things that make my day – in pictures!

Harper

This picture

My dad died 2 years ago today.  Looking at this picture makes me happy. It’s from my wedding day…obvious.  I was getting annoyed b/c mom keeps making us pose, but I am so glad she did b/c now I have this perfect photographic memory.

2 great contests going on right now, yoga mat bag giveaway and perfume/lip gloss combo.

I have a good one for you this morning Bloggy Friends. Yesterday I whipped up some crockpot bread pudding.  Bread pudding is my favorite dessert. When I was a kid they had it on the salad bar at the Sizzler and I use to love to eat mounds of it.  As an adult it has been the go to dessert on special occasions for the Hubs and I.  So, I looked over a few recipes for crock pot bread pudding and made a few adjustments:

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs, beaten
  
• 3 1/2 cups milk
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
  
• 1 to 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 3 cups bread cubes or soft torn bread
  
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  
• 1/2 cup raisins
  
• 1 banana, sliced


• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted

Preparation:

I combined all the ingredients, minus the bread in the crock pot and whisked it all together.



I picked up some crusty white bread from a local bakery, The Stone Oven. I let it sit for a day.  Boy was this bread tough to cut!  I made such a mess, but it worked out well in the pudding. I used 7 slices.


Then I smooshed the bread down into the liquid, just keep adding bread until you run out of liquid.  But you want to make sure all of the bread has enough liquid to be submerged. I cooked the bread pudding on low for 4 hours.  You want to be able to stick a knife in it and pull it out clean.


In the last 30 mins of cooking, I added mini chocolate chips and shredded coconut to the top. 


The consistency was perfect!  The actual bread part wasn’t as sweet as I would have liked. I think next time I will add maybe half a can of condensed milk in substitute of regular milk.  Also, I will add more bananas. You can really experiment with what you add in. It would be good if you used cinnamon raisin bread too. Good stuff! 

I started feeling sick yesterday and feel pretty miserable today. Sore throat, upset stomach.  I hate getting sick, it really messes up with training!