VLOG January City Life: Blow A Kiss Into the Sun...Lunar New Year Table Setting + Tampa Living + Hauls & Fitness

Every season of the year brings a new and unique beautiful sunset...

"Blow A Kiss Into the Sun, we all need someone to lean on"

January was a whirlwind of a month that flew by before the blink of an eye. I started out strong and was determined to not let seasonal depression bring me to a halt in the weeks of January. Despite all of my efforts I still gravitated towards sleeping more and reading in the dark the second week of the month like I usually do. By the third week I found myself getting agitated and annoyed by lots of things I am not even going to go into right now and I did just start feeling kind of depressed. Luckily, Gasparilla was coming around and usually that brings a new spark in my life of fun and enjoyment. So, while a little bit of insomnia had crept in, it pretty much ended by the end of January. All in all, I think I did pretty well this month compared to other years.

Hot Cocoa and Cream: Decadent milk chocolate, fresh steamed milk, mini marshmellow with essential oils.

I absolutely loved this candle and the design on the outside! It literally smells like fresh cocoa. I am not big on the sweeter smelling candles, but this really triggers memories of being a child and getting the little packets of cocoa for Christmas. It was such a pleasant  feeling!

Fitness:

So, I know it has been about six months since I took any fitness photos. The last three months of the year are extremely busy for me. I really just hate the season change from Fall to Winter and I found myself just working out and meditating, but I really was feeling like I was emotionally getting anything from it. I was just going through the motions. My condo is extremely cramped and I just have no where to workout at all at this point.

 So, in November I tried to go down to the gym (which I hate because there are always creeps in there that just oggle you) but sure enough the same stuff that always happens was happening and all of my photos looked terrible. I have had countless men photobomb my work out photos and annoy me so that is why I usually work out outside or in my condo. Well, as it gets increasingly cramped in here I loose motivation to take those photos.

Fitness wise I have a little regression in limberness. I couldn't really practice certain poses so now I have to go back to using my resistance band to stretch my arm and leg muscles back out. For the most part everything is the same. I still enjoy doing yoga challenges and I have plans to take the photos from the last challenge that I did. The yoga challenges make things fun for me and it gives me something set in stone to do.

Weight: well in December I just checked out of life because I was on vacation and I was like I am having mimosas everyday until the New Year. I know good and well I had no business consuming all those carbs, but I did not care. I ate pizza every night on the cruise at 2am. I did whatever I wanted and it felt so good. I did not gain any weight. I am retaining a lot of water because honestly, even on vacation eating mostly clean if you are on a cruise the food will mess you up. So, I am dealing with trying to get all this water retention in check.

My skin never went back to normal after getting sick and loosing 20 pounds in two weeks last year. It irks my soul. Its just a little saggy skin around the area of my ribs where my waist is the smallest. I know its not a big deal, but it can be annoying when wearing jeans. I figure if I loose another ten pounds maybe the skin will not be so noticeable to me. Weight-loss is a conundrum for me because I retain so much water I honestly think I weigh 10 to 15 pounds less than what the scale says so I am weary of trying to loose anymore weight for fear of being way too small. Realizing that I am 5'3 and not 5'4 like I thought I was its entirely possible that I could loose ten pounds by the way.

My husband is on a new fitness journey of weight lifting and every week he hits new goals and I am so proud of him. Its great to have a spouse or significant other that is also working out weekly and setting goals because  you can motivate each other. This whole time its just been me working out which is ok, but it would be nice to do it together.

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Home Decor

This year I did the Lunar New Year table setting that I purchased last year on back order and wasn't able to post it. I love the richness in color that these plates sand bowls have. They have three different sets and one of them is new for this year and it is the Vietnamese Lunar New Year setting. Although I purchased mine last year it is still available for purchase and a lot of the items are on back order. This is my first time doing a table setting from Williams Sonoma and I can tell the difference in the quality of the dishes.

Salad plates: here

Napkins: here

Chopsticks: here

Bowls: here

Meditation:

I picked up more crystals at the stone store the Bodi Tree which I like to shop. All of the names of the stones are actually listed on my Instagram stories under Meditation.

Date nights at home:

Gormet Pizza Co (South Tampa)
Voted again best pizza in Tampa
Gluten free Cuban Oh!

Its no shock that the month of January is hard on me. This month we were actually just eating at home and picking up take out for most of the month with exception to the few new restaurant openings I attended. We love take out in the Business District. We have a lot of restaurants in walking distance and sine we are in South Tampa a lot of places deliver.

Gluten free mighty meaty

Gluten free Classic pizza

Date Nights:

Counter Culture

Barterhouse Ybor

Old Cuban

GLUTEN FREE MEALS COOKED BY MYSELF- RECIPES AVAILABLE BY REQUEST IF NOT POSTED.

Seafood boil

So, we discovered I can love Dungenous crabs if they are from Publix. I do seafood boils often when I am craving them. The way I feel is that almost no one makes them the same and I am going to want it the way I make it. I know mine is gluten free and I basically make mine the way most people in Tampa make theirs, but I don't use blue crabs.  I changed one little aspect of my recipe this month and it made a lot of a difference , but other than that I just love to share a nice photo of my seafood boils. I have only used Dungenous crab legs one other time and that was the time I did not like them because they were very furry or hairy lol, it kind of weirded  me out. The ones from Publix were not that furry and the shells were pretty easy to crack with your hands.

This month I focused a lot on home cooking since we had just done a long vacation, then a micro trip for New Years and had one coming up for Gasparilla. We really enjoy picking up salmon roe and caviar from Whole Foods and having it at home. I get fresh herbs from my garden and we end up spending less than $25.00 for 4 ounces whereas  in a restaurant we would be spending way more.

You can find the blackening recipe here.

So I love fresh fish and I love bottom dwelling fish; a lot of people do. However, I have noticed out here in South Tampa the 3 main markets near me never have Catfish, trout, or mullet which are all very inexpensive cuts of fish that taste earthy and rich. I found a hidden gem that I will share with you all. The Publix in downtown St. Pete carries them all plus more and if you place an online order or call and they don't have it, they will order it for you and have it the next day. So, I got 10 pieces of fresh fish for under 10 dollars (I told you these are very inexpensive). I decided to play around with blackening seasoning on the fish this month and it was amazing.

Catfish
Oven 415 for 25-30 minutes in oiled pre-heated cast iron with 1 tablespoon of butter. Cook until fish flakes up easily. Remove from pan with a slotted metal spatula.

Chard
Preheat oiled pan with garlic powder on 5 (medium heat electric)
Add chopped and dried chard in a pile. Mix into the oil and let cook for 3 minutes. Do not burn just cook long enough to sear.

Rice- Cook to package directions. You can add the veggies to the rice while it cooks or cook separately  and add at the end.

 Chard is the new favorite. I don't know how it happened, but my husband comes home with this chard. I was really inspired by a fish dish I had at Castille on New Years. They used spinach, but I wanted to use something that had more stiffness almost like a collard green so I used the chard. We ate chard with almost all of our meals this month. Its so easy to cook and it tastes great. I almost was going to boil it down, but by sauteeing it you leave in all of those essential viatmins that would cook out into the water if it was boiled.

Mullet
Cooked on 350 in pre-heated pan for 25 minutes until fish flakes with a fork. Remove from pan with a slotted metal spatula.

Add blackening seasoning, salt, evoo, and 1 tablespoon of butter

Rice- Jasmine cook for 15 minutes 1 cup of rice to 2 cups of water. Add frozen veggies, 1 tablespoon of butter and salt. Let sit for 5 minutes and fluff.