We love Cheerio! He’s so spoiled and we’re okay with that. He deserves a wonderful life even though he acts like he leads a hard life sometimes.

First of all, Cheerio hates going for walks. All he wants to do is run and ruuuunnn! We don’t blame him but seriously we can’t keep up with him. So Tyler came up with a solution to use his longboard. Hey, it works for him and Cheerio!

I even got it on camera the other day. See the video here on Vimeo!

So now Tyler doesn’t come inside the house panting anymore like Cheerio does.

We give Cheerio a bath once a month. He actually cooperates with us when we put him in the bath tub. But that doesn’t mean he loves it or hates it. He’ll hold onto us for dear life with his tail and ears down while one of us shampoo him. Every bath we give him, the experience actually gets better because we give him a treat afterwards so he knows it’s awesome to be shampooed!

Cheerio loves getting his nails trimmed! At first he didn’t but now he trusts us. Tyler holds him while I trim his nails. It’s so easy & quick! He also gets a treat after his pedicure. See why he’s the best dog ever? ;)

He loves ice cubes and always run to the fridge when he hears the ice machine. A dog can’t get fat on ice cubes and they’re free! I got this idea from my aunt & uncle because their golden retriever loved nothing but ice cubes.

We even share our water with Cheerio. Please tell me you do too? because my mom thought it was gross.

Every morning before I leave for work I open the blinds in the living room. When I leave, Cheerio jumps up on the couch and look out the window and I wave goodbye as I drive away. Is it odd that I wave my dog goodbye every morning? I’d love to just stay home with him and work from home so he can sleep under my chair.

And this is why Cheerio is the best dog ever. :)

I’ve been getting asked a lot lately what photo apps I use with my iPhone. So I thought I’d share my favorite photo apps. These are only a few… I have way more downloaded on my iPhone but they’re ones that I wouldn’t recommend or don’t use anymore because I didn’t like them.

Usually my photos are done using 2-3 apps….not just one. Some filters are great and only look best done with another filter. So I’ll tell you which filters are my favorite within each app.

Luminance. The best thing I love about this app is that you can edit the layers of the filter you choose. The filters I use often are: Pop, X-Process, Instant, Lumi & Rouge.

BeFunkyFx. This app allows you to add frames too but I never use this part. I don’t like adding frames to my pictures since I use Instagram all the time. The effects I use from this app are: Color Process, Vintage 1, Vintage 2 & Vibrance. You can edit the amount of the “effect” you want to apply to your photo.

Camera+. Provides a lot of options with scenes, effects & borders. My favorite effect is “Night” because it brightens up the photos. {credit to MrsStephanieT for this suggestion}

Snapseed. This app is AMAZING! This is like Photoshop and it does really make the photos look way better. Worth the investment since this isn’t a free app.

Vintage Cam. Very simple with just some colorful filters. My favorite ones are: Theme Park, Rockstar & Morning.

ColorProcess. If I decide not to use Instagram for a photo, I always use ColorProcess. You can choose the processes you want to use: Red, Green, Blue, Basic & Extreme. I usually leave all on except for Extreme. Plus I love the border!

Phototreats. There are a lot of different filters to choose from. My favorite one is the Soft Breeze. I usually use this app with outdoor photos.

SuperPopCam. I love most of the filters that this app provides. Lemonade, Violet Fizz, Cherry Pie, Dreamy & Hollywood. Doesn’t that convince you already? I use this app A LOT if I’m looking for a bold & colorful filter.

// 1. Luminance (Rouge) & Instagram (Sierra)
// 2. Camera+ (Night) & Instagram (Sierra)
// 3. Snapseed & Instagram (Sierra)
// 4. Camera+ (Night), BeFunkyFx (Vibrance) & Instagram (Sierra)
// 5. Camera+ (Night), Osmo Leaker (light leak app) & Instagram (no filter)
// 6. Vintage Cam (Theme Park) & Instagram (Rise)

I love taking pictures on my iPhone so much that I’ve neglected my digital camera for the past few months…oops! Anyways, add me on Instagram (@luxechandelier). I’d love to follow you!

One Tree Hill is one of my absolute favorite shows ever. I remember when my sister and I started watching it years ago and it only seemed appropriate to watch the final episode together. I loved everything about the show and characters….just absolutely everything!

#GoodnightOneTreeHill

[/end sappy post]

Thank you all for your comments on my last post about my frustrations of being deaf. You all are awesome! :)

This month has been unbelievably crazy at work and home. I usually have a few minutes to spare at work to catch up on blogs and check emails but this month has been so crazy that I haven’t been able to open Google Reader at all or even continue the #marchphotoaday challenge. :(

I need to find my balance again. Hopefully this little blogging “break” won’t last long. I promise I’ll be back soon!

I can’t believe it’s March already!? Even though life is still busy, I have been enjoying myself more lately. It has a lot to do with the weather warming up. It’s been in the high 70s lately and it’s just so perfect!

Last week we went hiking with my parents and Cheerio. I’ve been craving all kinds of fruit lately…more like a fruit salad and tons of BBQ. I’m ready for spring/summer!

Tyler recently joined a co-ed soccer league in our community. He’s the coach for his team and I watched them play the other night. I guess you could say I’m officially a “soccer wife” now, haha.

I brought Cheerio with me one night to the field and I was almost embarrassed because he kept barking at literally everything in sight. He even barked at Tyler until we got closer to him and when he realized who it was he stopped barking and got excited. We’re working on his social skills. Recently we accomplished something new with him…being able to trust him more. We no longer have to use a leash to get out of the car and go to the front door. He now listens to us and will go directly to the door and wait for us to open the door. I love it! I didn’t know it was possible to love him that much but we do!

Have a wonderful weekend! Hope you’ll have the sun wherever you are. <3

This is exactly what I need and keep reminding myself lately. Things at my full-time job has been extremely busy more than ever out of the 3 years I’ve been there. It’s nice to be busy, trust me….but some days it’s so emotionally exhausting.

Also things have been so busy with Yellow & Savvy Design as usual and I’m so happy to have it that way. It’s a business that I pour my heart into and work hard for that I don’t mind the extra hours I’m putting in after a long day at work and on the weekends.

But I really need a vacation, haha. Like a month long vacation! Bora Bora, anyone?

Hopefully things will calm down soon and I’ll be back to blogging and be able to read blogs & comment more often.

On the bright side… I’m starting to focus on myself more health-wise. I’ve started started doing Turbo Fire through a friend who is a BeachBody coach. Wish me luck because I’ll definitely need it. I’m not exactly skinny already to be in shape for this kind of exercise. I won’t even let Tyler watch me do it. :)

I got a new car! Actually I decided to trade Carmella {the sportage} in for a better car.

The commute to work for me is 1 hour each way so basically I’m driving 2 hours every day and not saving money in gas especially when the sportage only has 25 mpg. So it was time to trade in for a new car. I knew I wanted to stay with Kia since I’ve never had problems with Kia before.

First I did research online finding out which dealership had the best reviews in Phoenix. We called and made an appointment with a salesman for Sunday. Sunday was probably the best day to go since it was on Superbowl day and I’m sure shopping for a new car was the last thing on people’s minds that day.

We looked at the Forte & Soul since both of them had really good highway MPG. I immediately disliked the Forte because it seemed small to me. I can’t go from a SUV to a Forte. I liked how Soul was similar to a SUV so we test drove a bright red Soul. I knew I wanted it and Tyler really liked it too.

We went back inside to start the negotiating process. It took a while since we wouldn’t budge for what they were asking for. It came down to the point when the sales director had to come out to talk to us. He said he had to call the owner to see if he would be okay with sticking to our budget. I don’t know if this is something they do often when they call the owner. He came out with a big smile on his face and said he was able to get us what we wanted!

I’m so glad buying a car the second time was painless as the first time was. The best thing was that buying a black Soul was cheaper than the red one which was perfect since we wanted the black one!

I’m in love with it! I was so excited to drive it for an hour to work on Monday. It was pathetic because I couldn’t sleep on Sunday night. It brought back memories of all those first days of school where I couldn’t sleep the night before because I was so excited to see my friends again and wear all my new school clothes.

Anyways, isn’t it so cute!? I know I’ve named all my cars in the past but I’m going to just name it The Soul for now until I come up with a name.

On Saturday all of the girls met up at the dry bar to get our hair done. No cuts, no colors, just blowouts with wash included all for $35! They even ask you if you want margarita or champagne which was also included in the $35. Nice deal, huh?

I love how it looks like a bar!

Even across the street there is minibar.ber.shop for guys where their deal is “get buzzed. $20 haircuts & $2 beers” haha, I love it. Rahul got his hair done there while the ladies were getting our hair done.

Anyways, we headed to Lindsay’s house to get ready and took some pictures before we left. I think we were the only ones that arrived in a SUV with 2 guys cramped up in the very back. It was so funny to let them out when we pulled up to the resort with valet parking.

It was a black-tie event so we all had fun dressing up and going together. The food was amazing especially their dessert. Tyler became obsessed with the fruit and asked our server where they got their fruit from. Amazing how everyone went out of their way to find out for Tyler, jeez. It turns out all the head chefs already left so Tyler was bummed to not get an answer.

This is how much fun we had!
We were probably the youngest people there with our own table since people had to buy tables to go to the honor ball.

Last week was a busy week for me. I wish my body didn’t require sleep so I could get a lot more done with everything!

The highlight of the week was that I went to a Zumba class on Tuesday night. A friend of mine went with me and we had so much fun! I went again on Thursday and definitely will be going 2 times a week now. I’m not a dancer and not an expert but what makes it great is that I know I’m not the only one in the room that doesn’t get some of the moves. But I’m determined to get there and be shakin’ my booty the right way!

My mom went to Zumba with me on Thursday and she told me afterwards that she didn’t do Zumba, Zumba did her. Whatever! She would rather exercise in front of the TV at home in private anyways. I have some more girlfriends who are interested in going to class and even my sister too so it’ll be fun!

I know Missa Lee is going to comment and say, “I told you!!” because she’s been trying to get me to try Zumba for months. Pffft.