A Touchy Subject

My entire life I've always been fat.
I had always been 'chubby' in my youth. What can I say? I like(d) food. Sweets in particular.
I've never been thin. I've never been able to run a mile without panting like a dog in the hot sun and passing out. I've never been able to shop in the clearance section and find my size. As a plus size gal these are things I've learned to live with.
As I grew older, I also grew aware that I wasn't 'conventionally' pretty. I didn't have a great complexion (hello pizza face). I've always had a gut and thunder thighs. And I'm more awkward than anything.
I've always surrounded myself with beautiful people. A lot of my friends were (are) gorgeous. Thin, perky, friendly, in my eyes perfect.
Growing up I can't begin to explain how hard this was on my self esteem. I haven't been under 200lbs since 7th grade. I've always been obese. I was weird, emo, never popular.

This year I've decided to make a change. I'm done being my weight. I want to better myself.
Ever since I've contemplated getting married, I look in the mirror and think, "Is this the body I want to look at coming down the isle?" While my self esteem at the age of 20 is high, and I do in fact love my body. It's just not healthy to be my size.

My doctors have all told me the same thing. Lose weight. It's to the point where it's affecting my health. So it's time to make changes.

I've joined a gym, I've been going 3-4 timed a week and working my ass off. In just three weeks I've been able to lose 8lbs and just the other day I hired a trainer for six weeks to keep my ass in check.
She told me I should be able to lose at least 10lbs a month. With my age a factor and the fact that I've never really exercised the first 30lbs should melt right off. I'm hoping this is true.

My goal is to be 175. This was my weight in 7th grade. I haven't been in the hundreds in 8 or 9 years.

Here's to a better me
This is just the beginning.

Start 212lb
Goal 175lb

Till Midnight,
Courteney

Building a Life

Things are different.
But different isn't always bad. Stuff happens so quickly in life and often you forget to stop and appreciate life.
Last year I moved in with this amazing person. He's all I could have ever asked for in a man. He's simply amazing. He's kind and loving. Passionate and driven. I absolutely adore his family and they (i think) adore me as well. It's the type of relationships your read about in books or watch in movies. Who would've known that meeting a strange man on the internet could have turned out so wonderful.
These past few weeks him and I have been talking about purchasing a house.
We moved in together May of 2016 we rented this small 400sqft Loft style apartment just on the outside of the city, close to my college and smack dab in between both of our jobs. Our tiny apartment ended up getting tinier when we moved our rescue dog, Crash Bandicoot, in.
With our quarters growing smaller we begged our property manager to move us.
We moved into a 900sqfr two bedroom apartment. We were content for a while. But we've decided that this home too we are outgrowing. We're over the rickety porches and the crappy insulation that sky rockets our consumers bill through the roof. Thankfully we were capable to make an addendum to our lease and we'll be leaving on Halloween.
Recently our relationship has been growing more serious. As Andrew and I reach our three year mark we have been talking a lot about our future together and where we see ourselves in life.
We've decided to look into purchasing a home. It's an exciting thought. Being able to purchase our first home while only being in our early 20s, after all not many people our age are capable of doing that.

Here's to hoping that we'll find something worth our wild and that things will be turning out for us in the long run!

Until Midnight,
Courteney

New Shop!

Happy New Year everyone! Just like everyone I'm hoping that 2016 will be a great year!

I have a favor to ask!

If you like shopping, jewelry, or paintings please take a look at my brand new etsy shop! We do custom paintings, jewelry, and sell antiques too. Kind of a eclectic mumble jumble of things I love.

My boyfriend and I are hoping to move in together in the spring/summer and I'm hoping this etsy page will do something good :) So please check it out, follow, like, share my shop please!

You can find my shop in many place
Twitter - twitter.com/CourteneysArt
Instagram - www.instagram.com/d3bating_0n_d3structi0n/
Etsy - etsy.com/shop/courteneysartistry
Facebook - facebook.com/courteneysartistry


Have a wonderful and magnificent new year everyone!

xoxo
Courteney

Happy Adoptaversary!!

Today is a very special day. 

Today marks the exact day we adopted our handsome boy Sherlock!!!

Look at him in all of his sassy cuteness. Our handsome Sherlock is a Holland Lop and super cute! We adopted him on November 13th exactly one year ago today from a wonderful rescue called Amazing Grace Animal Rescue. We are so grateful for them because without them we would not have found this handsome little guy.

When we first saw Sherlock we weren't quite sure if we were ready to get a new bunny. My sister had just lost her rabbit of 6 years (Buttons) about 2 months prior. We were also living with my grandmother at the time and we weren't sure if we had room to house him.

The day I brought my sister into the rescue she fell in love with this little ass (yes I mean what I said! Sherlock is a butt!) So she spent the next week Begging my grandmother to let us get him. And not soon after Sherlock was ours!

So today we celebrate the day this four-legged family member joined us.

When we first adopted our Sherlock he had a HORRIBLE biting problem. Assumably he was found on the campus of a local university just hopping around, (we believe he was a students pet who then dumped him off at the rescue). Today he only bites once in a while (WHICH IS GREAT!!)


Sherlock has also figured out how to open his cage door. He OPENS the door but NEVER comes out of it. Yes, he is a strange one!


So In honor of our little guys "Adoptaversary" I made him a little fruit and vegi "cake" and lit him a candle (only for the photo).

Happy Adoptaversary Sherlock! We love you!

xoxo

Courteney

Fall

Well the fall season is ending,

and the cold wings of Jack Frost are blowing closer. Soon winter will be upon us. 

Wanted to share a few pictures I took of my mum and her boyfriend while we were up north enjoying the wonderful weather last month. We also took some pictures of my wonderful friend Vincent. His senior pictures are turning out awesome!!

I downloaded some AWESOME leaf overlays from Deviantart and BAM! These turned out awesome!

Feel free to check out more of my work at...

courteneysartistry.weebly.com 

or on Facebook at

facebook.com/courteneysartistry

xoxo

Courteney

Bloody Moscato Cupcakes

Happy (almost) Halloween ya filthy monsters!

Halloween is by far my favorite time of the year, so I thought that I would celebrate by sharing my most favorite recipe with you guys!!!

Moscato Cupcakes, with of course some gore for Halloween!

 The original recipe is adapted from Brook Bakes and are my absolute FAVORITE! I make these cupcakes on a daily basis since my mother is a HUGE wine-o.

For the cupcakes you will need

2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 and 1/4 cups white sugar
1 cup olive oil
1/3 cup Moscato wine
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 tsp. white vinegar

 As a wine family we always keep any wine (flat or not) because it can always be used in cupcakes. Todays "secret" ingredient is Beviamo sparkling moscato wine.

 So gather your ingredients and start cooking!

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. And then begin mixing all dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, sugar, and salt)  in one bowl and whisk together until blended. Then add all of the wet ingredients (olive oil, wine, butter milk, eggs, and vinegar) in another and whisk together.


After those ingredients are combined slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix thoroughly.

 Scoop your batter into your prepared cupcake tins, about 3/4 full. Bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until a inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Once your heavenly, magical, delicious, wonderful moscato cupcakes are completely cooked let them sit out to cool for a while before frosting them










As your magical cupcakes cool it's time to make the frosting.

What you'll need is....
 8oz of cream cheese (room temperature)
2 cups of powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. of Moscato wine

In a large bowl cream the cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy. Add in the moscato and half of the powdered sugar and blend. Once that is evenly blended add in the final cup of the powdered sugar and blend until fully mixed.

Sooooo yummy right?

Frost the cupcakes and your all set!

And of course it being Halloween I wanted to add a little gore into the mix. I picked up these super awesome severed finger candies at Meijers for $2!! (image thanks to bakingbites.com since I forgot to photograph mine)

Pretty awesome!

I thought these would look a little too "plain" just throwing them up on the cupcakes so I added a special touch...... blood. 

I used a small amount a light corn syrup, red food coloring and a drop of blue food coloring. Mixing all these ingredients in a small bowl and drizzle them over the fingers and frosting on the cupcakes.

AND here is the finished product

Have a fantastic Halloween everyone! Enjoy these little bloody cupcakes ;)


xoxo
Courteney

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