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domingo, 28 de outubro de 2018

Fall Bucket List || 2018

NickaPaulo


Today everything is going slow and work is not wanting to get on track so I'm pausing to de-stress and write what is on my head and how I'm feeling...

My favourite season is FALL and I also love Spring but a bit more Fall because of Halloween and also Christmas is so near you can almost smell it.

I never do Bucket Lists specific for a Season but this year I just need the extra push and pick me up because I'm feeling drained and I have a lot to do before Christmas.

1. Decor for Halloween.

I do this every year because it's one of my favourite holidays. I've been buying stuff every year, adding to my collection of cute and spooky around the house nick-nacks. I have two bins of Christmas stuff and one bin of HALLOWEEN, that is how much I love it!

2. Perfect my pumpkin bread recipe.

I've been trying to make pumpkin bread without flour because I'm gluten intolerant and I don't like the no gluten flour - it seems to make me bloat the same. I've tried it out with oat flour and it became a sort of a pudding. Next time I'm trying chickpeas

3. Buy some new leggings to work out in.

This is already done by the time I post this. I'm thinking they have to be an autumn colour because I always buy black, high-waisted and cover my ankles. They also have to be warm so I can use them all winter or until the SALES.

4. Drink hot tea or lattes every night before bed.

Yesterday I did a tea for David and a latte for me. It just warms me up and I feel all cosy watching a movie (Ant-Man and The Wasp). Also, preps me for a good night sleep which has been difficult these last weeks. There is always something and this last week it was the wind, my parents have no electricity or phone and I could not contact them for days.

5. Cut my hair.



After going to Algarve and swimming with seaweed it just made me pull out all of my hair getting it out so it's really fine at the moment. I love giving it a trime in the FALL because it falls out a lot during these months and I want my hair to be beautiful for December (something important coming up in December so subscribe to my newsletter because it's free and/or to my youtube channel, I'll be announcing it everywhere soon!)

6. Go for walks in the park.

I love to walk at night in the park. It has been the best thing moving to this apartment among a lot of others. I have a new phone game POKEMON game which makes me want to walk more so our 10-30 minute walks are more like 1-2 hour walks at the moment. It's good but our series and movies are getting pushed and also dinner time is a bit too late for my liking.

7. Fireplace lite.

My and David love our fireplace and when it becomes a bit colder when can light it. This apartment is warm even in the winter so we don't need it just yet but I do want to make one or two fires just to see it lite for a little while.

8. Buy some new pillows for the Living room.

I want some SEASONAL pillows that I can change the covers from time to time but I'm so picky that I never buy any. I have my outdoor furnisher in my living room, at the moment because I don't want it to go bad in the rain. I want to tye them in with the grey and brown going on but IT'S GREEN and I have always been a little hesitant to buy green anything for the living area. We have some plants there and I always have some flowers but having green pillows or chairs was a no-no. Since I got the outdoor furniture, GREEN has been growing on me and I'm finally thinking of getting some green pillows. What do you think? Black (TV, TV stand, fireplace, table and shelves), grey (chairs and coffee table), brown (sofa/couch), white (floor and walls) and now GREEN... Is it too much?

9. Watch Nightmare Before Christmas and if possible the new Grinch movie.

I love Halloween and when it's movies that make Halloween and Christmas dance together I just need to see them all. If you have a favourite tell me in the comments because I've might not have seen it.

So these are the main things I want to do this FALL. I did some of these last Fall and I loved them so much I just had to add them on the list (1, 3 and 4). What is your bucket list for FALL? What is your favourite thing from this SEASON that you always do?

Have a beautiful day doing what makes you happy.


domingo, 15 de julho de 2018

I Need To Make More SALADs

NickaPaulo



I love to cook and do new things from time to time but I always go back to my own recipes and it's not because they are more flavorful it's just easier and what's in my brain first when I need to make something fast (which is always).

So this Summer (It's almost here) I want to try some new recipes (achieve one of my year goals) and make more salads.

When I go in search of a new recipe it is always appetizers or deserts... sometimes I do something new and VEGAN but that is like once or twice a year. Don't get me wrong I love vegan and vegetarian food but I usually just put everything that I have in my fridge in a bowl and it's almost everytime VEGAN or I'll add an egg and it's vegetarian.

I never make new salads, never... I see from time to time a Watermelon salad or a Peach one and I think: "I'm not going to like this" and I never try it. Today I'm thinking I'm missing out.

At this moment, when this post goes live I'll be in Italy and it will be all about the pasta and the "gelato" I can eat but when I come back I will start my - Getting Back on Track LifeStyle - Which I'll have a post on, in a near future.

But I want to have an eating plan that makes me eat a bunch of salads and takes me out of my comfort zone because when I'm bored with food I'll eat whatever and if I make something new and different I'll be excited to eat it even if it tastes weird. Hopefully, I'll make good recipes that I can repeat and go back to when I'm bored again.

So this is a post very exciting to me because I'm going to list some SALAD recipes that I never tried and during the next 5 months make them all and then share with you the results and which ones I'm making again. Just have in mind that I will alter the recipes making my own version of things I love and have on hand but I'll leave the links to the original recipes.

1. Cobb Salad


This looks like a colorful bowl and something I'd eat on a regular basis, that is why I put it first. Getting into SALADs with what I know.


2. Massala Lentil Salad


Since I tried Vegan Tika Massala that I've been loving everything Massala. So this one I know I will like too. Also, I already have all the ingredients at home. I just need to prep and cook.



3. Bacon and Spinach Salad



I'm not that into BACON but my boyfriend loves it and it does give a nice flavor when it's not too much but I will maybe leave it out this time.




4. Greek Salad



This is my kind of SALAD. I usually add some rice or quinoa depending on what I have on hand. But I need to leave the olives out because my boyfriend doesn't like them.
I do add them to my bowl or plate after serving, though.


5. Ultimate Ceaser Salad



I don't know why this SALAD doesn't stick to my regulars. I have made some variations in the past and it just never is that good to stay. My memory is bad so it has to make a great impression to stay.



6. Potato Salad



This is a new one. I've never tried anything like it but Byron makes some out of the box recipes that are amazing and this might be one. I'll tell you when I make my version.



7. Ultimate Grilled Zucchini Salad



It looks so good and I know I love grilled zucchini so why not try it and see if I like the mix. It does take some time to grill but the caramelized taste is without equal.


8. Best Broccoli salad



Broccoli is a green I have almost year round and I love when in season but then I just stick it in the freezer to never be seen. It will be good to have a good broccoli recipe to use it up.



9Waldorf Salad






10. Vietnamese-Style Salad



This just looks gorgeous. I just ate but I would eat this plate just with my eyes.




11. Best Quinoa Salad





I had to try a BEST recipe from Kate because it's just my go-to recipe site. I love quinoa and I have never mixed it with chickpeas before.



12. Roasted Carrot and Chickpea Salad





This recipe sounds like one I would never try to make if I wasn't doing a CHALLENGE like this. So I had to have one of these in here.



13. Mexican Green Salad with Jalapeño-Cilantro Dressing






I just had to have one with Jalapeños because my boyfriend loves them and he is going to try these recipes with me. One just for him.

This was really funny... I picked out the recipes without thinking of how many weeks it was and I picked exactly 16. I think it's meant-to-be.

You can see that Cookies and Kate is one of my favorite because I have like 5 recipes from there but it never lets me down on the other recipes so I always go back to it.



domingo, 20 de maio de 2018

My spiritual Animal

NickaPaulo



I've been watching a lot of  Kalyn Nicholson and I loved this last video of her's, where she talked about various things but one got my attention: What is my spiritual animal?!

I did three different quizzes and I got 3 different animals:




BUTTERFLY:

The quiz was a bit difficult and not as clear but they have a clearer animal explanation here that I was a bit more to my liking. Still does not seem too similar to me and my character.





BEE:

I was reading and I don't think my personality goes with this one click here to see. a bit better than the others but there are still questions that I'm torn between one or the other.
They also have a butterfly in their collection of insects, but they don't have a cat.
I wouldn't mind my spiritual animal being a black panther and after reading I think it's the most similar to me and how I feel. I do have a lot to learn about life still but I comprehend others really fast and know how to react to how they behave giving good advice. Do the advice is another different matter.




CAT:

I think is the most similar to my personality click here to see. The quiz is the best between the three. I did repeat it just to see if it would be different but I got the same spirit animal.

My favorite was the CAT as I already own one. I think the description is more related to me, at least as I see myself. The BUTTERFLY is cute but the description is not as accurate and the bee is nothing like me, in my opinion.

If you are curious do the quizzes and leave me in the description what was your favorite.

domingo, 13 de maio de 2018

Chrome Extensions I'm Loving

NickaPaulo


Hi, everyone. Today I have a promised POST that I almost didn't do because of the time crunch. I'm getting back into my schedule of making videos and blogging on a regular basis and that takes always some time to adjust, for me. But these are things I love and make me relax when I'm stressed so I need to find the time to do them to have a balanced life.




Starting with a Chrome Extension that I can't live without and that I always have opened to tick off a task is HEY HABIT. It is amazing and if you love lists or need to get some habits going than just install it for FREE because you will be amazed.



I've been using it for four months now and I'm so glad I found it because it has helped me gain new great habits and keeps track of my NEW HABITS I'm trying to create. You can use custom colours or the colours they offer and you can do add a list of task to the HABITS. It counts your habits in a row and you can view them on the metrics divider.




You also have a gratitude, photography, dribble and quote divider so you can arr what you are grateful for every day and see what photo, quote and dribble collection they choose for you on that day. I don't use the grateful area every day but when I do I always write 3 things and I read the list of things I already have because they save them with the date. It's really simple to use and I'm in love.

In an image more to the end, you can see my extension bar and you will not see HEY HABIT there. You can also see that in the blue button that says: Install Chrome Extension. I do have HEY HABIT instaled but it"unappeared" because I have MOMENTUM that also occupies the front page. But I can still access it here with my same account.



TRELLO is around for a long time and I have used it for some time but just for work. Now that I started using it for everything and going into the POWER-UPs like the Calendar, the Planyway, and others it makes all the difference for my life and much easier when I can merge everything and see how full my day is going to be.



Sometimes I do get overwhelmed but it helps to have everything planned out ahead even if I don't do exactly in that order or everything for that day. When I do I feel really good and productive.

I don't have a lot on my calendar because I didn't want to share my work stuff so I just didn't add it. It's very intuitive and easy to use.


You can use TRELLO to write your point's comment with your work colleagues, assign tasks to people, comment other peoples work and so much more. It's really a complete Extension/Site where you can organize everything in your life.

TASKADE is similar to TRELLO but I use it to divide different parts of my work and hobbies. Like TRELLO you can interact and assign tasks to people and they are notified but I like it more for simple writing without attachments or images when I need those I use TRELLO.



It also looks a bit cleaner and less crowded. That is why I use both for different things/areas.
TASKADE is also a Chrome Extension but similar to HEY HABIT it also takes the front page and I want MOMENTUM on that.

I installed MOMENTUM at the end of April but it is relaxing viewing the monitor with a big clock and a beautiful image. You can add a lot of more things to it like links, to do list, weather (I also have this one), bookmarks bar, search bar and more but I like to have it as simple as possible. It's simple and makes me feel ZEN when I get anxious about all the work I need to do.



I'm the type of person that has 200 tabs opened at once and even with ONE TAB that still happens from time to time but if you are like me and now your going to use that tab in the next hours or days and wants to store it but not permanently than ONE TAB is for you.



When I do some shopping and I don't want to add it to my cart because I'm undecided but I also haven't got the time to research about the item I'll add it to ONE TAB and add a tile to that list of things: To Research. Or if I want to see a video today but I need to start working I'll open start seeing it add the like and it goes to the list for me to finish seeing after I finish that day's work.

When I have some research things that are becoming overwhelming because I have 20 articles to read and 5-9 videos to watch then I put it all in ONE TAB and open one at the time to not feel so overwhelmed. That works every time with work stuff and I never lose any important article I need to read.

POCKET - I've been using for years, I use it in a similar way as ONE TAB but for everything you want to read and watch and not lose forever - years - Like tutorials, recipes, DIYs... It's not for the daily or weekly things but for the forever tabs.



Even now I'm using - GRAMMARLY - while I'm writing this post it's an amazing tool for English and not only it will correct your grammar errors, it also corrects your punctuation and much more.

I have learned a lot with it and I still have a long way to go. I do make a lot of mistakes more word related tan punctuation but GRAMMERLY has corrected and decreased my mistakes. It will also give you a status from time to time on how your progress is doing. All of this in the FREE version. You can also get a paid version for more. I'm very happy with the FREE version for now.

All of the Chrome Extensions and Sites are FREE, some of them have pro and upgrades where you can pay to have more features but the FREE versions are fantastic and the best thing you can install.

If I only had to pick one it would be HEY HABIT because it's the one I use the most during the day and it has made the most change in my life. But I can't go without any of them at the moment.

I do have some more installed but I don't use them every day. These I do and LOVE them because they make my life so much easier.

Do you want to see what Apps I have on my phone for ORGANIZING and OTHERS?

quarta-feira, 10 de janeiro de 2018

Resolutions for 2018

NickaPaulo





This year hopefully is going to better than last year… and that is not going to be hard.

I won’t be doing a written review of my last year because it’s just going to bug me and I’ve already thought about it when I wrote these down on paper. Yes, I love writing on paper too.

So let’s just get started with the resolutions I have for the year of 2018 and some of the breakdowns to achieve those resolutions:





1. RUN my first 10K race: run 5k in less than 30 minutes; run 3x per week; go to the COIMBRA colour run and then do the EDP 10k run in October.




2. EAT BETTER: I was eating ok for a while but with all the stress of late I’ve just reverted to my old ways and put on too much weight for my knees so I want to get back to – eating less processed food; eating less processed sugar; eat more vegetarian and even go all vegetarian (with some cheat meals); I'll be doing some monthly challenges and posing them here on my blog so click on the newsletter to receive notifications in your e-mail.




3. GET FIT: This is the ideal year to get fit because I put on 12 pounds really fast and that usually means I’ll get it off really fast which usually is not good but these are stress pounds so they fall off when I’m not stressed. I haven’t started anything really serious and I’m down 1 pound in less than a week so I think that is a good start. And I said that is was a good time to start losing real weight because I’ll have the easy incentive of those stress pounds sheading and also I can gain a lot of muscle still losing weight. I want to control my portions and reduce until I feel comfortable because I love food and I can’t live eating just one type of thing, so no diets for me. Exercising 5x per week and going in the morning and evening – I started that in November and I saw that even with 30 minutes in the morning and another in the evening my body was transforming. Slow and steady wins the race, in this case; In January do 8000 steps per day and then up it to 10k. I’m already failing this one because day 2 and 3 it was really low, but I’ll compensate; Lose 13kg – I would like it to be a bit more but that is my happy weight.I'll be doing some monthly challenges and posing them here on my blog so click on the newsletter to receive notifications in your e-mail.

4. LEARN a “new” LANGUAGE: I’ve been using Duolingo, an app, really cool to get my French better because it’s a bit rusty and I understand ok but I don’t talk and when I do I pronounce words like I write them and that is not ok. So every day I do some little tests and it takes 5-15 minutes per day which is fun and not time-consuming.




5. VISIT 2 COUNTRIES: last year we went to Madeira which is my country and we went to Marseille, France. I’ve already gone to France 3 or 4 times but it’s very nice to see other regions. This year I don’t have anything in mind yet but I would love to go to London again so maybe not 2 NEW COUNTRIES but still, two countries would be nice.

6. GET SOCIALS UNDER CONTROL: I need to do a timetable where I can fit my socials every day and do something on them every day because they always get out of control and I don’t reply as soon as I want to comments or I don’t publish when I want to and say.




7. TRAIN MY CALIGRAPHY: I love writing and now that I have been bullet journaling for more than a year I want to learn how to properly write. My handwriting is ok but I just want to know how to do calligraphy and use a brush it just looks so pretty.




8. DECLUTTER MY LIFE: I’ve been reading Marie Kondo’s books and it has opened my eyes to not be constantly cleaning and have everything clean all the time. The way is to declutter everything I can and want, leaving me just with what makes me happy and sparks joy. We are changing places so that is going to make things go even faster. When I put things in my new apartment I will just leave the things I really want and LOVE. When I’m done with my home, I’ll start with my mom’s.

9. HELP OUT MY PARENTS: I want to help out more my parents because they are getting older and they need my help around the house so I will be putting aside a weekend per month to help them and do some stuff around their house. I still need to the list of things to do but there are always things popping up.




10. DO MORE DIYs: I love painting and I want to start creating something and seeing how they come out because when I was younger I would love to draw and paint and do crafts. Also, I need to get some furniture revived and that counts too. I’ve already done the list now I need to establish the days to work on the projects.

11. MAKE A NEW RECIPE EVERY MONTH: I’ve already got some in my new recipe book and I’m really excited. I did write down more than twelve though, I’m certain I’ll do more.

12. TRY MEDITATION: Start mornings with 5 minutes every three days and grow to 15 minutes per day. I have not started this one, I’ve forgotten if I’m truthful it’s just something that slips my mind but lately I’ve been really stressed and I see everyone saying that it changes your day. It keeps you more relax and centres you.






13. DECORATE OUR NEW HOME: with the DIYs I talked about in 10. and buy some decorations that spark joy. I need to do the wish list and then cut from it and buy something nice every month (maybe).




14. READ 10 BOOKS: I’ve been reading Marie Kondo’s books and I haven’t finished but I’m loving them and I love reading stuff that makes me grow and think so I want to invest in that and put some time every week to do that. On Sunday I think will fit perfect even those weekends I’m not home I can use READ ALOUD and “podcast” the book.

15. RENOVATE and START A STORE SITE: Now that I started decluttering, I’ve been wanting to sell some stuff but I wanted somewhere more personal and I do sites for others why not do something for me. I code a lot so when I need to update something for me I just drag it or not do it at all. My site doesn’t generate me money so I don’t give it as much attention and I want to change that because EVERYTHING IN OUR LIFE SHOULD BRING US JOY.

16. LEARN A NEW SKILL: This is related to my job and me wanting to grow every year. Last year I didn’t learn any new skill but the year before I learnt two so this year I want to get at least one and update also two other skills. In the era of the computers if you stop learning you will fall behind and it’s also fulfilling learning new things.


17. BE MORE POSITIVE: I'm usually a very positive person but lately, with all the stress (I will be talking more about that if I haven't yet in the resolutions video - COMMING SOON) I've been feeling out of myself, Like I changed to a grumpy person. This did make my family and boyfriend more positive but it's just not me. I just want to get to my ZEN personality and I do think after this experience I will be an even more controlled and balanced person.

I have one more resolutions but I’ll keep those to me until the release. This also keeps you on your feet and coming back, or not.


Tell me what are your resolutions for this year and if you have started any already.

Created By Veronica Costa, Coprights @ 2016