Currently...

...obsessing over getting a watch for running.  I've been looking at the different options but I keep coming back to this one.  Nike+ GPS Sportwatch. 

I wish I could run right out and buy it.  sigh.  Can I make a "I want to be a real runner" gift registry"? My life is too expensive.  hee hee. 

 

Happy Thursday! 

Madness

It's my favorite day of the year!  The Madness is here! 

I'm coordinating the office pool so I've been busy getting my co-workers picks entered into our group on line.  I've completed three brackets on ESPN.

Since I can't resist an excuse for a theme, I decorated my desk.

complete with plastic basketball eggs, swags,  a pom pom...

And ORANGES with fun things written on them. 

And what thing in my life would be complete without an outfit to coordinate? 

One of my "secret" dreams is to coordinate game day apparel choices.  I think there is a wide market of women that are looking for ways to show their sporty spirit in a professional manner.  Without the obligatory t-shirt and jeans, that is.  I just have to figure out how I can make this a reality.  I'd love to style people up for their favorite teams on game days.  The possibilities are endless. 

 

Happy March Madness...Let's Go Orange!

The Day O Green

St. Patrick's Day is probably one of my most favorite days of the year.  Green is everywhere and there is a hint of spring in the air.  And and it's an excuse to drink beer in the daylight hours.  I know people think it's silly but I just like it. And let's face it...I love an excuse to be themed for a day. 

Prior the the green festivities, I got to have some good relaxation time.  I ran 4 miles on Saturday morning---I really like this program my Nike app has me doing.  I ran alone.  Outside.  It was wonderful.  I'm actually starting to really enjoy the run as it's happening and not just after it's done. 

On Sunday I went to yoga and had coffee with my friend, Isabel.  It was such a nice way to spend a morning. Yoga was hard but great.  We actually met on St. Patrick's Day two years ago so it was cool to hang out to commemorate that.  We are makeup less in this picture but whatever.  Gotta remember the little moments in life.

I ran errands all afternoon and then met up with some other friends for drinks.  These ladies are just so great  and fun to be around.   A good way to end my lovely Sunday off. 

I went home to get prepared for the green festivities that were happening in my office.  I made these shamrock chips out of spinach wraps. 

I made these pots of gold for my Bath and Body ladies.

And for my office co workers I made these cards with a pocket hand sanitizer that says lucky to work with you. 

My office is really fun so we had a little contest to see who could be the most spirited st. Patrick's outfit.  Of COURSE, I meant business so I busted out the boa and the big green bow. 

Here is some of our office staff showing our spirit. 

We also had a green potluck in the office.  Everyone brought something green in to eat.  It was so fun and so yummy!

And then I won a shamrock plant for being the most spirited green person!  Ha.  My supervisor and I are competitive so I took this picture for her just to rub it in.  We truly have so much fun in our office and I love that we do these theme days. 

After work, I headed out for a drink with a few girls I work with.  It was a fun time.  Sometimes I worry that I lead the most boring life ever.  But I guess I pretty much have fun no matter what I'm doing.  Life is good. Happy Tuesday!

 

Two Nights

I've only had two nights off this week and this is how I've spent them:

Celebrating our only win of the season at volleyball league on Wednesday night.  We have good players but it's taken awhile to get it together to actually win a game. 

Last night the book club got together and hung out.  No book discussion but good food and good company. 

 

I'm not looking forward to working tonight/tomorrow but AM looking forward to having all day Sunday to myself again. 

 

Happy Friday!

Weekend Stuff

This past weekend went quickly and was surprisingly relaxing.    On Saturday I went to my friend, Sara's baby sprinkle.  It was a lovely little celebration. 

She's having a girl so there were lots of cute little clothes to oooh and ahhh over.  And cute pink decorations. 

Angie, Me and Sabrina during the present opening.

After the shower me, Sabrina and Isabel got together at Angie's to do a "craft project".  It was really just time to hang out.  I got to spend some time with Tyler.  He's going to have a surgery on March 18 so it was good to get Isabel out of the house to get her mind off of that.  He sure is cute!  And he's appreciating my Alex and Ani bracelets in this picture. 

He started screaming at some point and Sabrina came to the rescue and got the poor little guy to sleep. 

Sabrina was content to snuggle the baby on the couch while he slept.  This picture is just so sweet.  Three of my favorite people in one picture. 

I had an unexpected day off on Sunday--meaning I thought I was working but wasn't scheduled so I was pretty excited to have the whole day off.  I got up early and met friends at the latte lounge, walked a bit and then had coffee.  I headed to a really great yoga class mid morning and then sought out a place to watch the last regular season cuse game.  Turns out I could only get it on my phone so I just stayed for a beer  and stared at my phone at the bar.  My phone died at half time so I ran home and got into bed to watch the second half.  It was lovely.  After the game I took a 2 hour nap and woke up and decided I needed to get my car washed in honor of daylight savings time.   I cleaned up the kitchen a bit and then headed to bed early.  It was a good way to spend a day off.  Nothing exciting but really relaxing.  I could use another day like that soon. 

Clean It Up!

So I'm doing a new 21 day slim down challenge.  I'm about a week in and it's going really well so far. I lost 3lbs this week.  I am still doing ww but wanted to get myself super motivated again so I thought doing the challenge would help that.  I have been stalled for awhile now because I think it's so easy to get comfortable after you've had success with weight loss and fitness.  It's like my brain is like..."Dude, you've done well.  Let yourself have a breather"  BUT that's exactly the opposite of what I need to do.  I need to push through and keep my eye on the prize.  Which is hitting my goal weight and running a 10k.

So with that said, I have been trying to eat "clean" and track all my food.  That's the key.  I did try some new stuff this week. 

Kefir.  It's so disgusting to deal with but it's supposed to be so good for you.  So I gave it a whirl.  I threw it in my morning shake and it's not bad at all.  It still freaks me out that I have milk sitting out on my counter.  All I see is sour milk.  Blech.  BUT it's pretty easy to do and the kefir seeds are multiplying so much that I'll have several jars very soon and be able to share it with others that may want to try it.

Then there's quinoa.  I had never tried it and I found a recipe in my clean eating guide that sounded good.  I mean, since I never had it I imagined that it would be good.  I made it yesterday and it was DELICIOUS.  A little shredded chicken, some oranges, cilantro and seasonings....YUM.  Can't wait to try new recipes with it. 

And I've never been much of a grapefruit eater but my Dad's rotary group sells fruit every year as a fundraiser so I thought I'd try it out again.  I got my 1/2 case of grapefruit and oranges and let me tell you...I am in love with grapefruit now.  I could eat one with every meal.  YUM!

Dad and I after he delivered my fruit.  Clearly, we love oranges!

 

All in all, after really trying to clean up my act and not eat processed foods, I feel like I have more energy and am not craving the stupid empty calories as much.  I don't know if it's just mental but I feel better and am motivated to get to my goals!  Fingers crossed!

Making It

Still feeling the February blahs.  I hate it when I start to question things.

But whatever. 

I've been keeping busy with work and the usual grind...and making stuff.  I've had a sudden burst of wanting to be creative (read as watch some tutorials on line and recreate the stuff I like).

I did up these Dollar Store water cups with a ribbon and personalized them for my volleyball team.  (we haven't won a game yet so we need to have cute things)

Made up some sugar scrubs for my coworkers for Valentine's Day.  (coconut oil, sugar, lavender and pink food coloring).  This scrub is amazing!  I 1use it on my face daily.  And use coconut oil for moisturizer.  It's so much better than any pro44duct I have ever used. 

01

I wanted a fun theme valentine's outfit and found a cute t-shirt with a heart but it was $40.  Um, I'll spend money on good clothes but not on a t-shirt for one day.  So I found a blog that had a tutorial about how to make a J Crew inspired sweater that retailed for $80 last year.  So I had this sweater in my closet (it was about to go to the consignment shop) and made a felt heart and sew it on.  And I only spent $1 on the supplies for it.  BOOM.

Last weekend I met a girl that had the cutest bow in her hair while she was shopping at Bath and Body.  She said she had made it.  So it became my mission to figure out how to make cute bows like this.  You know how I love to wear ribbon bows in my hair (especially on game days).   I spent some time with pinterest and found a few tutorials that I liked.  I have  a lot of scrap fabric at home so I played around and was able to get it down.  I love how they turned out.  And they would be good for bow ties too.  So if anyone needs bows...let me know.  I'm making some today for a friend and her little girl. 

What can I make next? 

Happy Friday!  Beat DUKE!

 

Blue

I'm feeling blue.

Like the kind of blue that makes me want to sleep.  A lot. 

I kind of know why...

But then it seems so dumb that I think "this can't possibly be why".

I spent the weekend in seclusion.  It was either the best thing I could have done or the worst.  I went to work on Sunday and did my best academy award winning performance of "the girl that always has fun"  came home and went directly to bed.  Today did not start out any better.  I wanted to cry within an hour of being awake. 

I want to turn it around.  I know something good has to come of today so I've...

1.  Read some feel good stories of the Olympics
2.  Read about an inspirational little girl on a blog
3.  Drank some tea.
4.  Checked the basketball rankings and Syracuse is still #1
4.  Noticed how nice the sun shining outside is

(Note:  all of this done at my desk)

I know that bad days come and go.  I know that there are a lot of things to be thankful for.  But I just feel blue.  

I think it's time to make a new game plan for the rest of this week.   Hopefully I'll turn it around and feel more like myself.  This is an odd post but I needed to write it down.

Happy thoughts welcome here...

:)

For the Win

The only thing that mattered from this weekend: 

Syracuse beat Duke. 

The beginning of a beautiful and real rivalry. 

 

Happy Monday!

Red

To those of you who know me this may come as a surprise....when I was little I hated my red hair.  It probably started at a bus stop one day when some sixth grade boys called me Strawberry Shortcake.  Ouch.  I was so embarrassed.  In hindsight it wasn't even an insult.  But I didn't think Strawberry Shortcake was cute.  I liked the blonde haired girl (what was her name again?)  I thought the golden haired character was prettier.  So began years of wishing my hair was any color other than red.  I had BIG blotchy freckles and my hair was short (like a boy) so I was pretty unfortunate looking.  Let's not forget the huge gap between my teeth.  ugh.  Oh wait, the pale skin.  Oh, the pale skin.  And sunburns.  And more freckles.  And the rules of colors.  "redheads shouldn't wear red, or pink, or anything that a girly girl would love"   I remember being in my aunt's wedding and I got stuck wearing yellow while my dark haired cousin got to wear the pink.  (for the record yellow is the ONLY color I will not wear as an adult--it's horrible on me now.  And was then too but apparently a redhead wearing pink was not permitted)  (side note--why were my aunt's color pink and yellow anyway? yikes!) 

Then as I got older having red hair posed new problems.  Let's just say I endured the question "Does the carpet match the curtains?"  WAAAAAAAY too many times by boys on the school bus.  I tried to make my hair blonde by putting straight peroxide in it and used a lot of my babysitting money on Sun In (do they even make that anymore?)  All of those efforts were to no avail.  My hair was red.  Period.  I was pale.  And I had a million freckles. 

By high school/college I started to realize that having red hair was kind of interesting.  People always remembered me.  I was unique.  I didn't hate it anymore.  Boys seemed to like red hair.  And I got a compliment every time I got my hair cut.  (Is this your natural color?  People would pay a lot of money for hair like that!)  And the rest of me caught up too.  My freckles calmed down into a less blotchy situation and I discovered self tanners.   

Now I feel lucky to have red hair.  It's unique and interesting.  I never feel boring even on my most boring outfit days.  I always have a pop of color.  Now I crave freckles.  I think they make me look healthy.  Now it's just how I'm identified in any group.  It's just a part of who I am. 

The reason for the back story is because a month ago I was researching redheads with eyelash extensions and came across a whole website dedicated to being a redhead.  How to Be A Redhead.  Of course I followed this on Facebook and Instagram.  I couldn't believe it.  I would have LOVED to have this when I was younger.  There are beauty tips, role models, and fun stuff about the joys of being red.  One of the cutest things recently that caught my attention was this:

A children's book written about a little girl that hated her red hair.  And her mother tells her about all the beautiful things in the world that are red.  I ordered it and it's ADORABLE.  Anyway, there is a contest called "Red is the Color of..."  You're supposed to take a picture and instagram/facebook it with a picture and a sign of what the color red represents to you.  I entered last week and used this picture:

I always talk about my orange love but I wanted to represent my undergraduate alma mater too.  I just love this and think it's such a cute and empowering thing for my fellow gingers out there.  Because we all spent too much time thinking our hair was ugly.  And now that I think about it there has to be something to the fact that I can't think of that blonde character from Strawberry Shortcake.  The only one that people remember is Strawberry herself. 

 

A redheaded victory.

 

Happy Tuesday!