Keep it Sassy

Dreams. Goals. Wishes.

Have you ever sat down and thought about these things -- really thought about them?

Life list. Bucket list. To do list.

Have you written them down in one place? Created a bulletin board of pictures? A scrapbook of magazine tears heets?

I've made a million different lists over the years. Some have been more grounded in reality while others reach for the stars (literally).

For a long, long time I thought somewhere in the back of my mind that anything I wrote down on my list had to be done. This is completely unreasonable, and I knew that but somewhere inside of me I felt like if I wrote it down that meant I had to commit to it and want it 100%. Naturally my list was extremely short.

Today things have changed and I've thrown some seriously crazy things into the mix. There's still a little part of me that says Hey, do you really want to do that? Does that sound like a logical idea to you? That'd be expensive and you probably wouldn't like it and it's impossible anyway. We all have that voice inside of us! The people that do great things are the ones that ignore it.

Anyway, here's a glimpse of what's on my list right now...

Southern Living.

Own a bakery or a cafe that specializes only in pies. Think Pushing Daisies or Waitress. I just really love pie.

nolaPIC

Create something New Orleans related. Possibly a coffee table style non-fiction book on Mardi Gras.

flickr.

Write a novel. The title of this is a little misleading. It doesn't have to be published. I'd just like to finish the two stories I've started telling. We've got two unsolved murder cases on our hands!

the sweetest occasion

Take a hoop dancing class and learn to hula hoop.

piccsy.

Own a bike -- and actually use it. I have the bicycle riding skills of a 6 year old but I'd still love to have a beach cruiser with a little bell and basket.

My list is pages and pages long of jumbled sentences and half finished thoughts but as far as a life list goes I think it's perfect.

There are always things to change or add and that's the beauty of it! I can cross things off when I finish them or I can cross them off when I move on to something even better.

Don't feel constrained to what's on the paper or on your screen -- I think lists like these serve best as inspirational starting points rather than step-by-step directions.

What's on your list?

Sunday, Sunday

2011-06-05T11:02:00.000-05:00

Linzie Hunter

I woke up at 6:45 today so I've had lots of time to be productive. I cleaned, ran errands, cooked breakfast, read, and watched a few episodes of Party Down (a truly funny show cancelled before its time!).

A few things I love from this morning...

How to Create an Awesome Summer Reading List from Lifehacker.

The Importance of Daily Writing from author Allison Winn Scotch's blog Ask Allison. If you need a spot to keep your writing all in one place, I recommend 750Words!

Pink Ruffle Cake. Sugar Duchess shows you how to create this yourself. PS the Eiffel Tower is 100% icing. Yummm.

Make sure you watch this in HD and full screen! One of my favorite timelapse videos.

Timelapse - The City Limits from Dominic on Vimeo.

Summer Reads: Flashback - August

2011-06-05T06:54:00.001-05:00

Though I only had 5 books scheduled for August I ended up reading 9. This was a great month for books, I hit up the chick lit and continued with cozy mysteries and threw in a couple of mystery/thrillers for good measure. I've never been drawn to literature with a capital L, so I have to apologize for my simple tast in reading. That's been changing though lately!

Again, there are so many books to catch up on that I'm just going to do a mini recap with a few notes.

Hurricanes in Paradise by Denise Hildrith ***** out of 5

Hope in a Jar by Beth Harbison **** out of 5

Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen ** out of 5

One for the Money - Janet Evanovich ***** out of 5

Bookmarked to Death (A Booktown Mystery #2) *** out of 5

Witch Way to Murder by Shirley Damsgaard**** out of 5

Look Again by Lisa Scottoline ***** out of 5

I Scream, You Scream (A Mystery ala Mode #1) ***** out of 5

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane ***** out of 5

Obviously I was super generous with my stars this month! I also started books from more than one series which may not have been the best idea. The only one I actively kept reading is the Booktown Mystery series. Her Royal Spyness was my least favorite book of the month and I actually had to stop reading it partway through. I know many people love it, but it just wasn't interesting to me at all. I finished Shutter Island in a matter of hours and I thought it was fantastic. Still haven't seen the movie though! Lisa Scottoline books are great if you like fast pace with lots of cliffhangers.

Question: Do you read one book at a time or do you bounce around? When I was younger I'd get a bunch of books from the library and start them all the same day. Naturally, I wouldn't finish any of them before they had to go back!

Summer Reads: Where we left off - July

2011-06-04T14:26:00.000-05:00

When I left you all last summer I was in the middle of my own little reading challenge. Though I wasn't updating here, I was still reading myself into a frenzy!

I picked up the pace in July and ended up reading 7 books (That's 3 more than 'required' for anyone keeping track). Rather than do a review for each one, here's a mini recap. Each book links to GoodReads.

Murder is Binding (A Booktown Mystery #1) by Lorna Barret
**** out of 5

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach
*** out of 5

The Quilter's Apprentice (Elm Creek Quilts #1) by Jennifer Chiaverini
**** out of 5

One Little Secret byAllison Bottke
*** out of 5

VisonMongers by David duChemin
***** out of 5

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
**** out of 5

Thr3e by Ted Dekker
***** out of 5

I loved VisionMongers and Thr3e. If you have any interest in photography or the creative process at all I recommend you check out any of David duChemin's books. He's a fantastic photographer and an all around great person!

We broke a record in Memphis yesterday for the hottest temps and we're well on the way there again today. Stay cool, y'all!

Summer is HERE.

2011-06-03T10:59:00.000-05:00

It's official, we've reached summer! I've officially turned in my very last assignment of my senior year and I leave in less than a week for graduation. I'm not sure I'm ready for the real world!

Here's a peek at today's forecast...

(click to make bigger!)

Oh my goodness, it's HOT! I'm really not used to weather like this anymore and those 70 degree Oregon summer days don't seem so bad in comparison. The humidity hasn't been too bad but I'm sure that will catch up with us soon!

How else can I tell it's summer? I've started waking up around 7:30 every morning. Doesn't matter what time I fall asleep or what time my alarm's set for or if I shut my blinds -- I've woken up at exactly 7:28 every day this week. I'm okay with that though, it's so much easier to be productive when you wake up early!

Fingers crossed for a weekend full of painting furniture, fro-yo, outdoor concerts and cookouts.

Keep an eye out for another book post later today.

Summer Reads: It's that time again!

2011-06-01T17:10:00.000-05:00

Last summer I created a challenge for myself and I did lots of reading (28 books, to be exact!) and I talked about a few of the books here on the blog. As school started again at the end of September I slowed down and didn't read quite as many 'fun' books during my fall quarter, but I made sure to check a few off my list.

After totaling up all the books I'd added to my read in 2010 shelf last year on Goodreads, the grand total came in at 50. Crazy, right? I wasn't expecting a number that high!

Now, I'm not really one to make resolutions on January 1st --much less stick with them -- but when I saw that Goodreads was hosting a 2011 Reading Challenge I knew I had to jump on the bandwagon. So I upped the ante to 52 books for this year and I'm almost halfway done!

2011 Reading Challenge

Natalie has

read 22 books toward her goal of 52 books.

hide

22 of 52 (42%)

view books

Okay, I'm less than halfway but I'm one book ahead of schedule so I count that as a success.

What are you reading right now? Do you like to set goals for yourself or do you just read? I definitely used to read at random, and during the school year that usually meant I never read for fun, but I've really enjoyed having goals to meet each month!

11 months later...

2011-06-01T09:54:00.000-05:00

A lot has changed in a year.

3 things you need to know:
I'm just nine days away from graduation. NINE days. Still don't know what I'm going to do with myself.
I'm now a resident of Memphis, Tennessee. Moved cross-country at the end of March to start an internship which I've loved and will be continuing through the summer!
My hair is purple.

Just kidding about that last one.

I lost my grip on the blog last summer for all kinds of reasons, and I've been meaning to come back to it for ages now. I seriously considered starting fresh with something brand new, but I just couldn't let this go for good. Now that I'm finishing up school I'd like to have an outlet where I can write and work on my own style and voice while I share things I'm interested in. I doubt this will end up being a work-out/food/lifestyle/fashion/diy/home/fill in the trendy blank blog, but who knows where life will take me!

I'll be back with more.

Lions, and tigers, and shoes, oh my!

2010-07-11T14:08:00.000-05:00

I'm still around! I just haven't been by my computer 24/7 like I usually am. :)

Sounds like everyone's been suffering in the heat this week, yuck! Our temperatures are back down to the 80s now though, which is just about perfect. And not a cloud in sight for once!

So what have I been doing?

I did find these gorgeous shoes on sale.

And this dress...

with pockets. POCKETS. So excited.

Aaaand this gorgeous dress that I am in love with even though apparently I don't know how to hang it properly on the hanger.

Aside from shopping and working out and taking pictures, there hasn't been too much going on around here. And that's just the way I like it during the summer! Lots of time for reading (and tv marathons), and hanging out with the fam in general.

Also:
The best smoothie you will ever have:
3/4 cup of flavored carbonated water
1 cup frozen pineapple
1/2 cup frozen cherries
4 ice cubes
Blend & enjoy. Seriously.

There are a few things in the works in my life right now that I wish I could share with everyone here, but I can't...yet! I can promise that they're exciting (and a little scary for me), and maybe even educational, too.

Dots of Summer

2010-07-08T21:31:00.000-05:00

Yesterday and today has been seriously SO. HOT.

As much as I want to complain about it for real, I just can't! I know that by next week we'll be back to wearing sweatshirts and jeans.

So for right now I'm all about the polka-dots.

And, like, jorts. Totally. All about the jorts.

(Crappy picture thanks to Lily-Mae, my obviously not a 4G iPhone)

Okay, no. But that is my 4th of July outfit and I think jean shorts (and gold cowboy boots AND a gold cowboy boot necklace) are totally acceptable on that one day of the year. Right??!

Anyone else melting? I know the East coast has been getting some hot weather lately, and I know y'all down South are always hot and super humid!

PS: Anybody interested in nail-related youtube videos? Anything you'd like to see a video on? Just something that's rolling around in my (semi-empty?) head these days. :)

Workin' it Out - Monday & Wednesday

2010-07-07T12:49:00.000-05:00

Contrary to popular belief, I have been working out this week! On Monday I ventured over to the gym - along with everyone else in our town. The place was packed. Lots of guys with tiny heads and biceps as big as my thigh, and lots of gym bunnies on the ellipticals. The weights section of this gym is tiny but really crowded...the machines and benches are about 18 inches apart and I almost died multiple times. Party because I'm an idiot and partly because of the lack of space. Soooo that was not a fun workout. I didn't know where anything was and the big boys kept sassing me. But I was back again today and kicked some major booty.

Anyway, I won't bore y'all with what exercises I did on Monday or this morning, but I will say that I can't walk. And I'm pretty sure I can't lift my arms over my head. Laughing would be a terrible (painful) idea right now. Mission accomplished.

This gym doesn't have too many classes, but once it cools down again I'm going to give Zumba and Turbo-Kick a try. So much of it depends on the instructor!

Here are the playlists!
Monday's music (weights):

Your Love is My Drug - Ke$ha - I'm officially sick of this song.
Touch - Natasha Bedingfield
Dynamite - Taio Cruz
I Never Told You - Colbie Caillat
Savior - Lights
Rose Colored Glasses - Kelly Rowland
Kissin' U - Miranda Cosgrove
So Big - Iyaz
Something More - Secondhand Serenade
Raindrop - Carmen Reece

Wednesday's music (weights + 15 mins cardio):

Spending All My Time - Aaron Fresh
Misery - Maroon 5
Dynamite - Taio Cruz
I Run To You - Lady Antebellum
Got Your Back - T.I. ft. Keri Hilson
Mockingbird - Rob Thomas
Dancin' Around The Truth - The Stunners ft. New Boyz
Lay Me Down - The Dirty Heads ft. Rome
Gettin' Over You - David Guetta & Chris Willis ft. Fergie & LMFAO - I can't stand this song, so why do I keep listening to it? One of life's little mysteries.
Ghost - Fefe Dobson
Magic - Emii
September - Daughtry
143 - Bobby Brackins ft. Ray J - This song = my jam. And probably the reason the boys were staring this morning. Sometimes I forget I'm supposed to be doing lunges and I dance instead.

Does anyone else hate 'cardio' as much as I do? I get bored out of my mind on the elliptical, bike, treadmill, etc etc. How do you stand doing 45 minutes?

Me, speechless?

2010-07-06T15:32:00.000-05:00

Apparently I am this week. I don't know why, but I've lost my blogging mojo. I know it'll come back though, so all I have to do is wait it out. ANYWAY.

Finally it's feeling more like summer here! Tomorrow's supposed to be in the 90s and on Thursday we might be hitting 100. That's more like it! I'm so ready for it to FEEL like SUMMER.

My apron is finished! Here's a few pictures...

The reverse side.

A little hard to see because the pattern lined up so well, but this is one of the pockets. There are 4 in all (2 on each side), and each one has a few rhinestones.

Also, today's nails!

If you're on Twitter, I'd love for you to follow me! I'm always looking for new tweeps.

How was your 4th of July?

2 Things to Love Today (in pictures!)

2010-07-02T11:49:00.000-05:00

Pretty fabric & sewing my very own (reversible!!) apron.

4 of (blobby) July nails!

I couldn't find my dotter tool, so I decided to embrace the blobbiness of my shaky hand dots.

Does anyone else sew? I'm not the best, but I'm learning! My next project will be a quilt! I made one last summer, and it's almost finished and I'd like to try again now that I have a liiiiiittle bit more experience with the sewing machine.

What do you like making?

Summer Reads: Mermaids in the Basement (+ Raindrops on Roses!)

2010-06-29T16:38:00.000-05:00

Mermaids in the Basement by Michael Lee West

Book number five for the month of June is finished! And just in time, right? I was doing so well for the first part of the month, and then this last book took me forever and a day to read. I really wanted to like it, but things just moved so. slowly. and looking back, I'm not sure if anything actually happened. I enjoyed the characters, and they were quirky in the way Southern lit characters usually are. I loved the descriptions and the little details that made the environment and the atmosphere come alive. That was fantastic. But really the main character, Renata, wasn't my favorite, and I got a little tired of hearing about the various short-comings of her parents relationship. The point of view changes chapter by chapter, so make sure you check the chapter titles before you begin, or else you might get a little bit confused. (Guilty! I kept getting lost.) So this book was okay, but not my favorite. I gave it a 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads but when I looked at the reviews from other people most of them gave it 4 or 5 stars. Who knows!

Books for July:

This is the tentative list for July (depending on library availability!)

Murder is Binding by Lorna Barrett
Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach
Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott
Letters from New Orleans by Rob Walker

Have you read any of these books? What are you reading right now? I'm always looking for more books to add to my pile!

Also, thank you so much for the sweet comments on the post about my 5k! There are a few more races (closer to home) coming up soon, so hopefully I'll be able to do one or two of those in the coming month or so. And I think it's about time I get back into lifting weights at the gym, so I'm really looking forward to that.

And finally...I mentioned a few posts ago that I won a giveaway! I wanted to share this with you all because I'm a really big fan of the collection and the meaning behind the pieces, and I think some of them might resonate with you guys too.

Jess from Makeunder My Life and Jess LC Jewelry hosted a 9 piece giveaway a few weeks ago on 9 different blogs (including her own). The necklaces were from the Soc Chic collection, which is really unique! Each necklace has a different meaning behind it, and they're all linked to different non-profits. So if you buy one of the necklaces a piece of the profit is donated to the attached organization! I love anything like this - I get something cute, and someone else gets help with a cause.

And here it is, the raindrops on roses necklace!

This benefits the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

And I absolutely love it! Sometimes it really is the simplest pleasures that make life beautiful! I put this on when I received it last Friday and I haven't taken it off since.

If you haven't visited Makeunder My Life I definitely recommend it, I love reading about the ins and outs of running a business and she has some awesome posts about living a life full of intention so you can do what you love. And all of her jewelry is gorgeous.

I think that's it! I had my 2nd photography class this morning and even though I've been doing a lot of reading and research on my own this past week, it was great to have someone explain the same concepts in person so we could all ask questions. I took all of the above pictures in manual mode! (Which could explain why they look a little funky.) I'm loving what I've learned so far.

Sometimes a manicure

2010-06-28T13:59:00.000-05:00

....looks better in your head! This is proof that I frequently encounter nail-fail.

This sounded like such a cute idea when I thought of it, but on my nails...yikes.

My other hand is dot-less and while I like that better, I'm not really a fan of the yellow in general. Almost looks like I dipped them in mustard! Yummmm - or not.

(Also, I took this with my iPhone. I updated it over the weekend and apparently 3GS owners now have all of the features of the 4G? Including zoom and sharper pictures and bigger picture sizes, I guess! Who knew?)

Couch to 5K - Complete!

2010-06-28T12:25:00.000-05:00

(Big thanks to my madre for taking all of these pictures. :) )

Well kids, I did it. I ran my (second) 5k without keeling over or giving up halfway through! I'd call that a relatively decent accomplishment. :)

The race started across the street from NW Personal Training and it continued through downtown Vancouver, WA, across some bridges, and through some kind of historical battlefield! This was my first time in Vancouver so I'm not the greatest tourguide, but the course was beautiful. Remember, when a race director tells you it will be relatively flat, they're lying.

Sure, it's relatively flat when you're walking or looking at a map, but those itty bitty hills KILLED ME. And when I looked around, everyone was walking those hills. Even the big muscular guys that could have crushed my head with a bicep. I was feeling pretty discouraged about how much walking I was doing, but when I pulled myself out of my pity party world I realized that I wasn't the only one having a hard time!

Timing chip!

So yeah, I guess I really do like to match and accessorize even on race days.

I promise you I don't usually wear Nicole Richie sunglasses to work out. Really! I wasn't planning on it being so freaking sunny or HOT. 80 degrees is gorgeous when you're hanging out, but awful awful awful when you're running up and down hills and across sunny battlefields. Also, I'm just a wimp when it comes to being hot. I live in awe of all of you that run outside in Florida during the summer. CRAZY PEOPLE!

My dad decided last minute to participate in the 5k too! He signed up for the walking division and kicked some serious booty. 2nd place overall booty - holla!

There's my dad! This was the start/finish line (duh, obviously...big sign up there!). There was a TON of police support along the route, but the last 1/2 mile or so was when things fell apart - runners kept getting lost! We didn't really know where to go and the officers were trying to direct us and stop traffic at the same time, which made things a little bit confusing.

Such. A. Dork.

This was right after I finished and about 30 seconds before I had a mini temper tantrum because I was hot and didn't feel good and I wanted to sit. down. right. now. (I'm sorry mom, thank you for putting up with me!)

Oh and guess what? 2nd place in my age group! I was NOT expecting this at all. Seriously. My time was 34:06 - almost a minute slower than my first 5k (33:11). But hey, I was still under 35 minutes, which makes me happy because I'm slow. Okay, maybe it's not that I'm slow...I just like to walk a lot!

Whew. I can honestly say I'm glad this is over. This was a really tough race for me both mentally and physically. I sound like I was running a marathon or something, but the shorter races can be a challenge too!

Almost forgot...the music! I don't remember listening to these songs at all, but my iphone says I did! haha I guess that goes to show how focused on putting one foot in front of the other I was.

Shirt Off - Blank & Young Ivy
Rude Boy - Rihanna
We'll Be Alright - Travie McCoy
Typical - MuteMath
Run Joey Run - Glee Cast
Women Lie, Men Lie - Yo Gotti ft. Lil Wayne - TWICE! Told you it's my fave running song.
Summer Girl - Jessica Andrews
California Gurls - Katy Perry ft. Snoop Dogg
Bottoms Up - Keke Palmer

Aside from the random country song that slipped in there, this was a pretty sweet playlist for the run.

Okay, I've got a few more posts coming up (probably today), including one about the giveaway I won from the fabulous Jess of Makeunder My Life and Jess LC Jewelry.

Kick Ass Rockstars - Sarah

2010-06-24T21:34:00.000-05:00

This is Sarah and she is a kick ass rockstar.

Seriously!

We were roommates (apartment-mates?) last year at school, and I stopped by to visit her on my way through Washington yesterday. I miss having her around all the time!

The weather was gorgeous and we had a picnic at the park in her hometown.

Such a great lunch, simple but the perfect foods for a picnic. I would call her a mini Martha Stewart, but I know how she feels about that! :)

After lunch we ran around downtown and I tortured her with my camera. Um. I mean, she graciously agreed to be a guinea pig for me. (Could this girl get any prettier?!)

She just started a blog of her own and she bakes adorable cupcakes that I'm totally jealous of, so of course you should stop by and say hello! :)

It's Thursday, which means Burn Notice and Royal Pains tonight. I'm a sucker for all of the summer shows (True Blood, anyone? Mad Men?). What have you guys been watching lately?

Couch to 5K - Second to last run?

2010-06-24T12:17:00.000-05:00

65 degrees and sunny when I headed out this morning. Finally. SUMMER! Yesterday it was in the mid-80s and there was lots of sunshine and I about died of happiness. So gorgeous.

Today's run was...well, it was a run. I didn't have fun and I wanted it to be over. Maybe because it was warm outside? I don't know, but I wish I could have an easier time enjoying my runs. I see people out there and read blogs of people that love running and I wish I could feel the same way!

Today's playlist:
Chillin' - Wale ft. Lady Gaga
Rude Boy - Rihanna
Women Lie, Men Lie - Yo Gotti ft. Lil Wayne (This is the BEST song for running)
Drop the World - Eminem ft. Lil Wayne
Pretty Girls - Wale ft. Gucci Mane
Ridin' Solo - Jason Derulo
Becky - Plies
All the Way Turned Up - Soulja Boy ft. Roscoe

If only the people driving by knew what I was listening to! haha Definitely not what you would expect from the little girl jogging by in her all-pink outfit and sunglasses.

I just finished making a green smoothie and it's in the freezer right now. I know they're really good for you, but I can't bring myself to drink it! haha I'm hoping the extra cold-ness will help...I'm not a fan of a warm smoothie.
Do you drink these green monsters? What's your favorite recipe?

Race on Saturday!

Kissing Frogs

2010-06-22T23:25:00.000-05:00

Have you ever found something that for no particular reason pulls you in? There's a feeling you can't shake. I know I know, I'm getting kind of woo-woo on you here.

This is my frog. I found him at the cutest, quirkiest store in Portland last summer. I saw him the instant I walked into the store and as I circled around looking at everything (this place is packed with all kinds of vintage jewelry, decor, clothes, everything), I kept coming back to him.

After my third pass, the young man working picked up the frog and thrust him into my arms. Take it, his juju is speaking to you, I can tell, he said. Juju? Speaking to me? I laughed, but carried around the heavy statue for the next 45 minutes as I browsed through the store.

He was right though, I couldn't leave without my little frog prince.

And lately, his juju has been at an all time high. He's been living in my bookcase and for some reason he'll catch my eye at random times throughout the day. I woke up last night and my eyes flew directly to the statue on the shelf. Weird! I'm being stalked by a frog! Wearing a crown!

I think this frog is trying to tell me something. Stay with me here! We've all heard of intuition, right? And how we should follow that little feeling in our stomach, even if it feels super crazy and out there? You know exactly what I mean!

And that's what I've been doing this week. And you know what, since I've listened to my frog prince crazy weird juju, some crazy things have happened. Crazy awesome things. Coincidence? Maybe. But I think mr. frog prince deserves a little bit of credit for this!

Instead of doing what I usually do (endless research, list-making and planning), I jumped headfirst into something. In a big way! And things are happening - good things! I'm enjoying this whole listening to your intuition thing.

And because this is a weird, scatter-brained post, here's today's current ring + manicure (from my iphone before class this morning!).

Coming soon:

- The final push before this weekend's 5k!

- Bedroom makeover

- Pretty pictures, we've had gorgeous weather!

- I don't know what else, I have a list of stuff somewhere. :)

Couch to 5K - The final countdown!

2010-06-21T11:00:00.000-05:00

5 days and counting until the 5k this weekend! I'm excited, even if I'm still not over this cold I think it's going to be a really fun race. They have bands and a costume contest! When we lived in Portland I noticed that PDX-ers love any excuse to dress up in crazy costumes.

Today's run...55 degrees and cloudy (of course). So so so humid! I'm still really congested in my chest, so I made sure to take it easy while I was out there. 20 minutes of running, with one walk break in the middle. Not an epic run by any means, but it got the job done. I'm looking forward to doing more strength training after this weekend. I really miss lifting weights!

Today's music...

Liberty Walk - Miley Cyrus
Oops, I Did it Again - Britney Spears
Obsessed With You - The Orion Experience
Magic - B.O.B. ft Rivers Cuomo
Nth Degree - Morningwood
We'll Be Alright - Travie McCoy
Don't Pretend - Travie McCoy

Lots of good sing-along-songs!

Today's question...

What's your favorite song right now? I'm loving California Gurls by Katy Perry, it's seriously the perfect summer song. How fitting for today - the first official day of summer!

Weekend in Pictures

2010-06-21T02:18:00.000-05:00

Well it's past midnight, which means today is officially my daddy's birthday! And it's finally the first day of summer! Happy Birthday Dad, I love you!

I have a lot of pictures from this weekend. The camera hasn't left my hands since Friday afternoon. I've been bitten - hard.

Ready? Let's go.

Miss Pearl.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could all lounge around like this?

Breakfast Saturday morning...

Oh yeah, this happened.

With ice cream. This wasn't mine though! (I just ate half of it.) What'd I have?

Pure strawberry deliciousness. And I don't even like crepes.

Slipped these on for a walk around downtown.

Back home for some b-ball with dad for Father's Day!

I wore these, obviously.

Kidding, but I love them. They're GOLD.

Switched out this lens for the 50mm. Tricky little thing, but I'm enjoying using my feet as my zoom. Golden cowgirl style, of course. Yee haw

Look at that depth of focus! (I think? Still learning my terms. My brain is in summer-mode!)

ps I'm not engaged, so let's call this my single girl right hand ring. Keepin' it classy, folks.

Finally, my last project for the weekend.

Soft pretzels for my dad!

Just an FYI, if you put parchment paper into an oven that's over 400 degrees, it will

a) turn brown

b) smoke furiously

c) eventually catch on fire

I managed to um, heat things up not once but twice today in the kitchen. Obviously, I have skills. Everything tasted great though! My dad and I also watched Cupcake Wars, which may be my new favorite Food Network show, even though the cheese factor is through the roof.

Tomorrow:

- I'm running! Finally. I suck at working out these days, but I have a 5k on Saturday!

I hope you guys all had great weekends, and a (somewhat belated) Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there!

And, happy 1st day of summer! Today's weather was 55 degrees and rainy. I haven't worn a sundress in weeks. Heard a rumor we'll be seeing some sun soon. Fingers crossed, like always!

What'd you do this weekend?

Mermaids & Grapes

2010-06-18T19:24:00.000-05:00

Haven't done one of these posts in a while!

Gargantuan Green Grape by OPI

Book number five!

Loving this ring from Forever 21. I've had it since last summer.

What's on your fingers (or toes!) today?

Ps. Happy Friday. TGIF!

Blog Redo - The Details! - Long.

2010-06-18T12:42:00.000-05:00

In the process of creating my button - this morning.

Yesterday I set out to make a few little changes on the blog, and here we are with an entirely new look! While I made everything you see here, I didn't do it without lots of help - and I wanted to let everyone know where I learned all of this great stuff and that it's not as hard as it looks!

A Solid Foundation
Before you create any kind of fancy background or header for a blog, it's really important you have a simple skeleton to work with. Ideally, you would use a layout that has a basic original design, a similar structure to what you'd like to have and is easy to customize. So really, you don't want to start off with something that has very elaborate HTML coding or lots of complicated doo-dads and colors and graphics, because it can be tricky to navigate through all of that stuff.

I used the Minima template (or layout, whatever they're calling them these days) from Blogger. I see this used on a lot of blogs, and before I had Extreme Georgia as my template I used Minima myself. The template is exactly what you want when you're doing work on a blog, it's very simple, black and white and even if you only add a header image or a little bit of color to the links it already looks classic and pretty.

Roadblocks are Moveable
After spending a few hours creating a really pretty orange and red background yesterday and testing it out (more on this later), I realized that Minima is a 2-column template, meaning you have your content on the left and one column on the right for widgets and gadgets (like links, your followers, about me section, etc). I needed more space! After a lot of Googling and a lot of frustration, I decided to manually change Minima into 3-columns instead of using something else. Here's how you can make Minima into a 3-column template.

Breaking it down...The Background
This is a great tutorial on how to make your own scrapbook style blog background. I used Photoshop, but you can also use GIMP, which is the free equivalent. The tutorial is for a 2-column style, but once I played around with things I was able to adjust it to the right width. The undo and step-backward buttons are your friends!

The Header
I had so much fun making the header! I didn't use a tutorial for this, I just played around with some different textures and papers until I found a combination that made me smile. Don't forget to save as you go!

Custom Fonts
Once again, Amanda from Kevin & Amanda came to the rescue with another fab tutorial. See the fonts I have for the post titles and the different headings on the sidebars? Yeah, I did that! This was time consuming, and a little tricky. Even if you don't have a lot of experience with coding, her directions are extremely helpful, and there's a troubleshooting section at the end too. You can do it! She has links to a million bazillion cute fonts, too.

Grab a Button
Finally, I made a button! You can find directions for this here, and they're very easy to follow.

Resources - The most important part of this post.
If you want great ideas (and step-by-step directions) for making your blog super awesome, I'd recommend Shabby Blogs Blog and Kevin and Amanda. I used both of these blogs for my makeover, and I absolutely love them. Super easy to follow, and extremely helpful!

Megan at Shabby Blogs also has a ton of blogger backgrounds (free for you!) that you can use too, in case you're not ready to make your own yet.

If you are ready to make your own backgrounds, welcome to my new addiction: the world of digital scrapbooking.

Oh yeah, it exists. And it's serious business, folks. Super awesome serious business.

The paper I used for the background, the lettering, the bows, the background of the button all came from Summertime Designs and Shabby Princess. These two ladies make amazing amazing kits, and they're all free for you to use. Crazy, right? I spent so much time downloading different themes and playing around with all of the cute stuff last night. Seriously addicting.

Okay so, I think that covers everything! Oh, I almost forgot my #1 tip. Create a test blog! If you're on blogger it's super easy to do - go to your dashboard and click 'create new blog'. There you go! You can set it as visible to only the author (so that means just you) in the settings, and then you can play around with everything without worrying about messing up your blog! And that way you'll know that when you go live with your new redesign everything will work correctly and look great.

Do you do all of your own blog design, or do you have someone else help you out? Who are your favorite blog designers? If you had wicked awesome photoshop skills, what would your blog look like?

You may have noticed a few changes...

2010-06-18T02:00:00.000-05:00

If you're reading this blog via email or Google Reader, I'd highly recommend you click through to see what I've been up to today!

Remember what things looked like before?

And now everything's been beached out! I seriously spent 8+ hours working on this today, and I still have quite a few things I want to do but still, pretty big changes, yeah? I did it all by myself, too! And I've got more on the way. :)

I should be done tinkering around with everything sometime tomorrow, so don't be too alarmed if you see more changes. Let me know if anything isn't working for you, or if there's anything you'd like to see added or changed. (I'll add a resources section tomorrow morning, too. I couldn't have done it without the help of the Google-machine!)

Okay, I think it's time to step back from the computer...I think I'm going cross-eyed. I'll be back!

Couch to 5K - W7D3 & Your Hometown!

2010-06-17T12:00:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty sure I've been on week 7 for about three weeks now!

Today's run wasn't the greatest thanks to my bum foot and my super congested lungs, but I guess some is better than nothing, right?

Listened to...
Hollywood - Marina & the Diamonds
I'm On A Boat - The Lonely Island ft. T-Pain
Closer - Kings of Leon
Robot - Miley Cyrus
Poker Face - Glee Cast
California Gurls - Katy Perry ft. Snoop Dogg

It was 55 degrees and sunny at 9am. Today's high is 63 and they're calling for rain - again. Are we sure it's summer time? Seriously people!

This IS the Pacific Northwest though, so I guess this is normal?

We're known for three things here...

via.

and of course this....

via.

Seriously. Lots of this.

via.

Though of course you know if you're a real PNW-er you don't use an umbrella - ever!

What's your region known for?

Summer Reads - Them Bones

2010-06-17T09:34:00.000-05:00

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Them Bones by Carolyn Haines

Am I the last person in the world to find out there's more than one mystery genre? I knew about true-crime and thrillers and horror, but I didn't realize there was a genre for the kinds I like to read! You know, the ones where the sleuth owns a bakery or she's a librarian and she just so happens to be dating a detective or a policeman and of course she lives in a quaint town and she loves to make soap or knit in her free time. Ummm maybe it's just me, but I love love love these types of mysteries! And they're called cozies, apparently. So when I discovered that this genre existed (and there are entire websites dedicated to cozy mysterie s) I about peed my pants. And then I added a TON of books to my to-read shelf!

This was the first of my foray (officially, at least) into cozy territory.

From Amazon...

Meet Sarah Booth Delaney...an unconventional Southern belle whose knack for uncovering the truth is about to make her the hottest detective in Zinnia, Mississippi...if it doesn't make her the deadest.
No self-respecting lady would allow herself to end up in Sarah Booth's situation. Unwed, unemployed, and over thirty, she's flat broke and about to lose the family plantation. Not to mention being haunted by the ghost of her great-great-grandmother's nanny, who never misses an opportunity to remind her of her sorry state--or to suggest a plan of action, like ransoming her friend's prize pooch to raise some cash.
But soon Sarah Booth's walk on the criminal side leads her deeper into unladylike territory, and she's hired to solve a murder. Did gorgeous, landed Hamilton Garrett V really kill his mother twenty years ago? And if so, what is Sarah Booth doing falling for this possible murderer? When she asks one too many questions and a new corpse turns up, she is suddenly a suspect herself...and Sarah Booth finds that digging up the bones of the past could leave her rolling over in her grave.

I'll be honest. I liked this book, but it didn't knock my socks off or anything. This is the first book of the Sarah Booth Delaney series, so maybe that was part of the slowness? There's a lot of character development to be done for a multi-part series!

Also, the whole ghost thing? Maybe I just don't understand it, but I had a hard time suspending disbelief when it came to Jitty. Once an author has gained my trust, they can do all kinds of crazy things and I'll most likely stay with them through the end of the book - like introducing a ghost. The thing is, they need to gain my trust first. That being said, she was a funny (and quirky) character, and she helped Sarah Booth out quite a bit when it came to her amateur sleuthing.

I'm not sure if I'll continue reading the next books in the series. Has anyone else read this or the others? (Buried Bones, Splintered Bones, etc)

Next up:
Mermaids in the Basement by Michael Lee West (my final book for June's challenge!)
Columbine by Dave Cullen

Today:
I'll be lacing up my sneakers for the first time since last Monday. Yikes. Has it really been that long? My 5k is in nine days y'all. NINE. I think I'm pretty much recovered from my cold of doom though, and my foot isn't broken - just a bone bruise! We'll see what happens. Fingers crossed!

Summer Reads - Saving CeeCee Honeycutt

2010-06-17T09:21:00.000-05:00

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

"Steel Magnolias meets The Help in this Southern debut novel sparkling with humor, heart, and feminine wisdom."

I started this book on Saturday and finished it Sunday afternoon, and I absolutely loved it! I haven't read Steel Magnolias or The Help (I know, I know!), but this book had everything I love about Southern style literature. Lots of colorful characters with unique names and quirky personalities, delicious food descriptions every other page, and of course close friendships that span multiple generations. I think it really captured the feel of Savannah, GA too. The only little thing that bugged me about the story was that I felt like setting it in the 1950s was more of an added afterthought. Much of the book felt more modern to me, save for what happens at Tybee Island. I wouldn't say this took away from the story at all though, and I definitely recommend it for a summer vacation read!

I've been on a roll this week - I'm already done with book number four, Them Bones, too! Review up in a minute!

Cookie Fail.

2010-06-16T13:21:00.000-05:00

Here are a few cookie pictures from last week. I had grand plans for these cookies, but with the craziness of moving and getting sick, most of these remained unfinished. That didn't stop us from eating them though! Even though I'd call this a cookie fail, I won't let it stop me from trying again soon.

For next time:

I need to try a different kind of icing! The recipe I've been using is really easy to make, but I think it's time to venture into Royal Icing territory. I may not have a fancy Kitchen-Aid mixer, and I've definitely never successfully accomplished 'stiff peaks', but it's time to move up in the icing world. That should help with the uneven texture problems and the bubbles, both of which are pretty obvious with these cookies.
Maybe a different dough? My circles spread quite a bit in the oven, and they ended up different sizes. I rolled everything out pretty evenly, so I'm not sure what caused that issue.

Before I did anything, I mapped out a plan of the different designs I wanted to do.

I only managed to decorate the regular circle cookies, so the scalloped designs will have to wait until next time.

Operation Cookie Headquarters - complete with laptop for entertainment.

Here are a few. You can see the unevenness of the white base, and the airbubbles.

The weird looking cookie on the top right was my attempt at brush embroidery. Great idea in theory, but it just didn't work with my icing. I needed something thicker and more substancial, this was too transparent and goopy.

My first attempt at actual writing on cookies. Not too bad, I'd say!

Obviously I didn't follow my plan too closely, but hey, I'm the boss.

I think I enjoy making realistic cookies more than artistic cookies. I thought these would be easy, but I had a hard time! All in all, the experiment was a fun one even if things didn't turn out quite as planned. Thank goodness I wasn't making these for anything or anyone in particular!

I haven't unpacked any of my cookie stuff yet, but I'm hoping to make some cookies soon now that I'm home and almost over the cold of death. Maybe for my dad's birthday on the 21st?

Have you done any baking recently? I love to see pictures and recipes!

The short and sweet Q&A post.

2010-06-16T12:58:00.000-05:00

Okay, I've been promising this for days, and it's finally here! I'm still getting acclimated to being home for the summer, and I've still got lots and lots of unpacking to do. Am I the only one that hates unpacking more than packing? So much stuff, nowhere to put it all!

On to the questions...

From Becca...
I am a fellow beginner runner and I was curious what have you been basing your training schedule on? Did you get it from a website? I think I'll be starting my 5k training schedule once I return Stateside.
All of my running so far has been based on the Couch to 5k program. The plan is 9 weeks long and you alternate intervals of running and walking during each workout. This is the only training plan I've used so far, and I really like it. There are a lot of additional resources out there that compliment this, like C25K podcasts and iPhone/iTouch apps. Right now I use the C25K app on my phone, and I love it! There's no fancy GPS tracking or anything like that, but I can listen to my own music through iTunes and I get alerts that tell me when to run and when to walk. I like this better than using podcasts because I can choose what I want to listen to during each workout, but I used to use podcasts exclusively. Everything I do with the plan is based on time, but you could do it by distance also.

& Diana...

The reason for your journey of C25K? It is working? 
I've done the C25K thing a few times now, and as far as a training plan to get someone out of the house and moving around, I think it works really well. I wish I loved running, but I can honestly say right now that I haven't managed to find that elusive runners high or the addiction to running so many people have. Maybe it's not in me, and maybe this isn't the right type of exercise for me. Some days it's a chore and I hate it, but there are those workouts where everything goes well, I feel great and strong, and I don't want to stop running. I think that's what keeps me plugging along.

MrsMis asked...
Where did you get that gorgeous ring?!?!
We're talking about this ring!

I love love love this ring, and believe it or not, it's from Icing! You know, the 'grown up' version of Claires at the mall. I did have to coat it with some clear nail-polish so my finger wouldn't turn green, but considering I only spent $4 in the first place, I'm okay with that.

The lovely Summer wanted to know...
What was your favorite toy and piece of jewelry/clothing in elementary school?
Oh man! I loved Barbies, and I had a pretty big collection when I was younger! I remember wearing lots of butterfly clips, too.

What song will make you get up and dance even when you are down in the dumps?
Anything from the 90s! Especially the one-hit-wonders.

When you move out to L.A., will you put me in one of the movies you produce? LOL.
Absolutely! I'm picturing a September Issue style movie about the blogging world. Now that would be interesting!

Thanks y'all! I'll be back with some cookie pictures in a bit!

Home again, home again

2010-06-13T11:05:00.000-05:00

I'm finally home and it feels so good.

Friday morning was spent shopping for Dayquil and finishing up last minute packing. My parents drove up from Oregon that afternoon and as soon as they got to school we started packing up the car! My mom is the queen of Tetris Car Packing, and even though my dad was absolutely convinced that I had too much stuff for both of our cars, she managed to fit about 85% of my stuff into their tiny little Scion Xb.

After we'd loaded up the cars, I had to finish cleaning my bedroom so I could check-out. The whole day had been going really well, there were no fights with mom, and the Dayquil hadn't worn off so I felt almost normal, and there had been absolutely no rain. Perfect moving day, right? Almost.

The bed in my room is adjustable, and at the beginning of the year I had asked the RA helping me move in to raise it all the way to the top of the bedframe so I could put my dresser underneath. Now that the year's over, I had to put the bed back to it's normal position before I moved out. My dad was helping me and we were having a lot of trouble getting the metal part of the bed out of the wooden legs. At one point we had the whole back end free, so we propped that up on the legs of the bed so we could try to get the front out.

I was helping hold everything up, and as my dad yanked on the front corner, the back legs fell from the jostle and the entire bed collapsed. Right onto my foot.

Ouch ouch ouch! I thought I had broken my foot. Definitely a 9 on the 1-10 scale of pain. Luckily I had been wearing sneakers instead of flip-flops, or else I think it would have been a lot worse. Walking on it was almost impossible, and I was scared to take my shoe off and look! My dad had reserved a hotel in town for Friday night just in case we needed to come back to campus the next day to finish cleaning or packing up the cars, so we headed there right after I checked-out of my apartment. Everything was swollen and there was a pretty big lump on the top inside of my foot.

Today's Sunday, so it's about 2 days after that happened. My foot looks fine. Wait, what? No bruises! There's still a little swelling, and a small circle of redness, but that's about it. Walking feels much better, but sleeping is still uncomfortable. I think I must kick myself in my sleep! I don't have too much pain from it unless I touch the top of my foot, and I can feel some lumps underneath the swelling.

I wanted to wait on getting an x-ray, and with how well it's been healing I might not even need one now. I'll probably still see a doctor this week though, and if it stops improving I'll definitely get an x-ray pronto.

So I guess the big question is, what about running? I have no idea. If I really do have a fractured or broken foot, obviously running is off the table for now. If it's just a bone bruise or something like that, then maybe I'll be back in my sneakers sooner. Right now, everything is pretty up in the air.

Now that my cold's almost gone, I want to get out there and run! I have new music! I bought new socks!

I'll keep everyone updated on the status of my foot, and hopefully it'll just be bruised and sore for a few days and then I'll be okay!

Moving Day!

2010-06-11T14:21:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone! Things have been extra crazy around here today, but I hope to get the Q&A post up either tonight or tomorrow morning.

My little cold has turned into a full-blown big cold, which is annoying. I'm also trying to finish packing and cleaning the apartment so I can move home for the summer! As much as I enjoyed this year, I'll be really glad to move into an apartment by myself next year.

Okay, back to packing and cleaning! Well, re-cleaning really, but that's what happens when you've got roommates.

Did you have roommates in college? Are you still friends with any of them? I know there are crazy roommate stories out there! (I've got a few myself!)

Summer Reads - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

2010-06-10T11:41:00.000-05:00

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Two down, three to go for June! I started reading this last Friday, and I finished early this morning. Shortly after I began reading, I mentioned a few of my thoughts on the book based on what I had read so far. I've got to say, I'm kind of disappointed by this book. So many people recommended it! The plot sounded so interesting, too.

The summary:

In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift-an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and frest-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the "ultimate perfume"—the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brillance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.

From Amazon.

I'll try to keep my thoughts as spoiler-free as possible. I think this is one book you need to read knowing as little as possible beforehand.

What I didn't like:

The end. I won't give too much away, but the end really turned me off from the book. Not because of the 'adult' nature of it, but rather it just felt forced to me. Kind of like Suskind needed something shocking to end with a bang, so he threw that in. (I'm so tempted to make multiple that's-what-she-said joke right now! Especially after an ending like that.) Also, the very end was another shocking, over the top scene, that was really grotesque. Not the biggest fan.
The middle? Okay, it's not that I didn't enjoy the entire middle portion of the book, I just thought it dragged on for much longer than it should have.
I just didn't get sucked in to this book. A lot of the time, reading felt more like homework than fun. I did a LOT of page-watching (clock-watching's literary twin!). Maybe because I didn't feel connected to the protagonist? Maybe because I'm a redhead and he's got a thing for redheads so I was a little creeped out? Maybe because it was translated from German? Who knows.

What I did like:

So so SO much research went in to the writing of this book. The main charcter, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, becomes a master perfumer during the story. We're treated to super detailed descriptions of the perfume-making process, and the whole thing is just amazing.
Descriptive language. Suskind's writing is wonderful, I'll give him that. So much description is used throughout the book as Grenouille experiences and catalogues various scents he encounters. I could picture and smell so much of what was described. There's a LOT of description in this book (I'm talking pages and pages of it), but in my opinion it never detracted from the story. Scent and smell is such a big part of Grenouille's life that these descriptions just added layer and texture to the story.
Multiple point of view. Okay, this is probably getting a little 'writerly', but I really enjoyed the shifting points of perspective throughout the story. For the most part, we see things through Grenouille's eyes, but every once in a while we'll shift to someone else in his life.

Bottom line: Don't hold this book to be true-to-reality. I page-watched frequently, but at times I was sucked in to the story.

Next up:

via.

Has anyone seen Perfume the movie? What are you reading right now?

Vitamin C and Cookies

2010-06-09T10:36:00.000-05:00

Happy Wednesday! (Almost typed Monday. Yikes.)

You know what Wednesday is, right? Hump day.

Who watched Glee last night?
If you ask me, which you didn't but I don't even care today, I thought the episode was eh okay. Definitely not what I would have expected for the season finale. Somehow is just felt too...normal? I didn't feel the tension! But I did like the songs, especially 'To Sir With Love'. And it was great to hear them sing Journey again! I rock out to 'Don't Stop Believin' in my car on a daily basis, so it'll be nice to have a few other Journey tunes for my car-aoke.
What'd you guys think? If I had to rate last night's episode, I'd probably give it 3.5 stars out of 5.

In Running news:
I was all prepared to run this morning, I had laid my clothes out last night and everything. Unfortunately, I woke up this morning feeling awful. My throat hurts so much I can't even swallow. I had been feeling a little under the weather the last few days, but I was just blaming my allergies! Sorry allergies, that wasn't nice of me. I'm not full-blown sick just yet, so maybe I can still nip it in the bud.

Last year in Tennessee, I got sick a whopping 10 times during the school year. TEN times. Like, that's ridiculous! My mom told me to stop kissing all the boys, but I can assure you (and her) that wasn't the cause! In any case, those 10 times were miserable. Even with an IV's worth of Emergen-C at all times, I was still catching a cold as soon as I recovered from the last one. And then, I got the honest to goodness FLU during midterms. Super fun.

Anyway, since I've lived in Oregon and gone to school in Washington, I've been sick with a cold just once. Yep. One time! I guess it's two now though. As much as I'd love to postpone my final evaluation meeting, I can't. If only it had waited until tomorrow so I could say I survived the school year with near perfect health.

Long story short: I didn't run this morning! Booo. If I don't deteriorate through the day, I'll probably attempt a short run this afternoon. Maybe by then it won't be raining anymore, too.

Operation Cookie 4.0 is underway.

I stopped in at BB&B yesterday for another spatula, and this bucket was just calling my name.

How could I let these cookie cutters continue on without a loving home?

What is this?

It looks kind of like a submarine.

So. Excited. Cowboy boots!

I may have squealed when I saw this one. Maybe just a little. Good thing no one else was home.

Last night I made my dough, rolled and cut 24 cookies, and mixed up my icing colors!

I'm not going to reveal details but here are two little tidbits:

White, red, and orange
Scalloped and regular circles

What, no crazy shapes? I know, I know. I wanted to make cowboy boots so badly, but I decided to stick with my original plan! Pictures soon!

In closing...

OPI's You Make Me Vroom

(The perfect red creme, no shimmer, no streaks. It's also limited edition, apparently)

Ps. Don't forget to send in your questions!

How y'all doin'?

2010-06-08T11:13:00.000-05:00

If you're here from Summer's blog, hi & welcome! Summer is one of my favorite bloggers out there, and as many of you know she's been through more than people twice her age but she's still retained her sparkling personality, southern charm, and of course, her sassiness.

I've gotten so many sweet comments and emails from everyone, and thank you so much! You're all so sweet and funny and I love reading everything!

Here's a taste of what's coming up this week:

Q&A - Answer time! If you have any more questions, make sure to ask! I'll probably answer everything on Friday
Operation Cookie 4.0? - Maybe! I'm about 80% packed for my move back home for the summer, I'm the only roommate that's still here, and I'm getting tired of the endless Law & Order reruns. (Never thought I'd say that!) Naturally this means I need to make a huge mess in the kitchen. Naturally.
Run run run - Tomorrow and Friday will be runs, so of course you'll be getting updates!
Books - I'm on page 157 of Perfume, halfway done! I'll share my thoughts pretty soon, and I want to hear yours too.
Nails - I'm still wearing my Tony the Tiger nails, can you believe it? They were just too cute for me to take off! But don't worry, I haven't packed my nail polish yet and I have some cute ideas I want to try.

Before I go I have a pedicure to show you. I'm sorry you have to see my feet. I hate feet too. Feel free to pretend these are hands with very short fingers. :)

They make me think of pink lemonade!

If you're new here, feel free to introduce yourself! I love meeting everyone!

Couch to 5K - W7D2

2010-06-07T12:06:00.000-05:00

Basic info: 58 degrees, Sunny.

Ohhhh man today's run was capital R-o-u-g-h. BUT! I think that was absolutely needed to kick my butt. I realized this morning that my upcoming 5K is less than THREE weeks away. Yikes!

As I left the house, I set a goal for today's run. Now remember, I haven't ran (seriously ran, not that treadmill half-running junk) in like a week and a half. Would my legs fall off? Would my side stich spontaneously combust? I'll get to these in a minute.

So the Goal: Run 2 miles in less than 25 minutes.
I know that's easy peasy for a lot of people, but I'm slow and I'm okay with that!

How I did: 2 miles in.....21:31! Hollaaaa!
This was with like a million walk breaks (okay, like 4) by the way. But when I ran, I booked it.

My legs didn't fall off - yesss - and I didn't get one single side cramp or stitch - double yessss! Unfortunately, I thought my lungs would explode, and I wouldn't have had to stop if I had been able to breathe. Why won't this get better? Doesn't lung capacity expand and increase when you work out consistently?

Today's music:

We'll Be Alright - Travie McCoy
India Ink - 311
Undo It - Carrie Underwood
Can't Be Tamed - Miley Cyrus
Sleepyhead - Passion Pit
You Look Better When I'm Drunk - The White Tie Affair
Run Joey Run - Glee Cast
California Gurls - Katy Perry ft. Snoop Dogg

I love allllll of these songs. Perfect music for today's run!

Summer Reads - The Gatekeepers

2010-06-06T17:00:00.000-05:00

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I finished my first book for June on Friday, two days earlier than I had planned.

Here's the summary of the book:

Education reporter Steinberg presents a compelling tale in this account, told from the perspective of Ralph Figueroa, an admissions officer at Wesleyan University. Expanding on a series of articles in the New York Times, Steinberg provides an insider's look at how Figueroa and the school's admissions committee factored grades, test scores, essays, extracurricular activities and race into account as they winnowed 700 students for the class of 2004 from nearly 7,000 applicants. Using real names, applications and interviews, Steinberg follows six applicants of varying backgrounds from their first encounter with Figueroa to their final acceptance or rejection.

(from Publishers Weekly, found on Amazon)

Pretty interesting, right? I've always loved articles and books that fall into the undercover journalism category. I think Steinberg's experience with the admissions process at Wesleyan is similar to how things are done at other liberal arts colleges, which makes it an accessible read for anyone interested in the process of admissions whether they're applicants, parents, teachers or counselors, or just someone that happened to pick up the book.

This was a quick read and I think it's the only non-fiction book I have picked out for this month.

If you want to read more reviews (some of them are extremely interesting and go more in depth on the topics of admissions) you can find them at Amazon or at Goodreads.

Currently, I'm about 30 pages into Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind. I'm not really feeling it so far, but the style and tone are much different from The Gatekeepers, so I think I'll enjoy it more once I'm adjusted to the more lyrical prose. I've also noticed that there's very little dialogue and the book relies heavily on narrative.

Don't forget to send me your questions!

They're grrrreat! (+ Q&A)

2010-06-06T14:43:00.000-05:00

These are more like a cross between a tiger and a zebra, but I don't know what a zebra says so I'll stick with Tony the Tiger.

These are blindingly bright in person, and I love them.

The Sinful Colors Nail Art polish worked fabulously and it was a lot easier to do than I was anticipating.

Obsessed!

Also, thank you so much for the sweet comments about the cookies! I think maybe it's time for a Q&A post? I've gotten some questions about nail polish and running too, and I'll adress those as well.

Got any more questions? Leave them here or send me an email!

Final thesis project for my MRS degree.

2010-06-05T22:04:00.000-05:00

This is only the 3rd batch of decorated cookies I've made, and I'm really proud of how they turned out.

The only cookie cutters I own right now are super basic shapes, so these are all hand-cut from templates I made out of cereal boxes. The actual designs are based off of actual cookies I've seen before. While it was incredibly helpful to have something to replicate, I'm ready to create my own designs and decorating ideas.

Okay enough talk, here are the cookies!

Nailed it.

2010-06-05T21:56:00.000-05:00

As promised, I'm back for more.

First thing first, and dry cuticles aside, these are today's nails.

Mesmerize by Essie.

I really do love this color, and I feel like I wear it all the time! It's a nice dark blue creme. I wouldn't call it pure blue though, in my opinion it's more of a dusty color.

Oh yeah, I match my nails to my outfits. Does anyone else do this?

Also, it was sunny today! SUNSHINE. And 70 degrees. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. So of course I had to wear the summeriest sun dress with flip flops and giant sunglasses.

I'm loving this ring, too! I stumbled upon the most amazing store in downtown Olympia after class today called Super Silver. They seriously had thousands of rings. And earrings and bracelets. I was there for at least an hour just looking at everything!

I've been on the hunt for a simple and small fleur de lis ring for about a year and a half now, and while I didn't quite find what I was looking for, I came super super close!

Toe ring! Or pinky ring.

This is almost exactly what I've been looking for, it's just too bad it doesn't come in a larger size. But I'm one ring closer to what I've been looking for! I think this might hold me over until I find 'the one'. (Ring, not the boy.)

After my successful shopping trip, I found myself at Rite-Aid. And what else did I find at Rite-Aid?

Amazingness, that's what! These are nail art polishes! With the super skinny brushes! And they were only $1.99!

Totally deserving of multiple exclamation points.

Now they had orange, yellow, 2 shades of pink, purple, blue and green, but no black. Boo. I know Sally Hansen makes nail art pens and there were a few other brands in the beauty section but after finding these gems for less than 2 dollars I really didn't want to shell out 8 more for one other color.

But now I can finally try this adorable zebra print manicure! So excited.

What color nail polish do you have on your fingers and toes right now?

No Work, All Play

2010-06-05T17:55:00.000-05:00

The pile of stuff I brought to school last September.

I'm pretty sure it's going to be at least double the size when I move out next week.

First thing first, I'd like to announce that I'm officially done with my junior year of college! Today was the very last class of the quarter, and we had a delicious potluck (I brought these) and did readings of our final pieces. I absolutely loved hearing everyone read, and it's seriously amazing to see and hear how much everyone's writing has changed and improved over the past ten weeks. I never thought I'd write for any other reason than school, and now here I am 50 pages in to what has now become a murder mystery! At risk of sounding like a cliche, the past 20 weeks of school may have changed my life.

Moving on! The workouts.

Thursday night I passed on Zumba and instead did some running and weightlifting on my own. Today is Saturday, and it still takes me a good 45 seconds to sit down. Slowwwwwly and paaaaainfully. I can always tell when it's been a while for me. This morning I went for a quick run on the treadmill in hopes that it would help with the soreness, but I'm still at maybe an 8 out of 10. I know, I know. I stretched afterwards, but not enough. I drank water, but definitely not enough. The soreness is definitely worth it though, and I found that I enjoyed myself a lot more while I was doing walking lunges and deadlifts than I do during other workouts.

And the music? Honestly, nothing worth mentioning here! A lot of Kid Cudi and a lot of Lil Wane and a lot of B.O.B. Obviously being around all the boys at the gym has rubbed off on my musical tastes this week. I've gotta say, why wait for Jersey Shore to come back for the second season when you can just head to your local gym?

I have cookies and nail updates to share, too! I'll be back with those later.

Question for you...
What's the best (or most helpful) moving advice you've heard?

Cookie Crumbs

2010-06-04T13:20:00.000-05:00

Here's a little glimpse of what I've spent all of my free time doing this week...

(click to enlarge!)

Summer Reads - June Books!

2010-06-03T12:17:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week, I mentioned that I wanted to start my own summer reading challenge. I've followed through with this, and I thought I'd share with all of you what I'd be reading! For now I'll just post the list for June, but I have all of July's books picked already as well.

What will I be reading this month?

Books for June:
1. The Gatekeepers (320)
2. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (272)
3. Saving CeeCee Honeycutt (320)
4. Mermaids in the Basement (291)
5. Them Bones (336)
Total Pages: 1,504

Ahhh books! That I get to read! For fun! I'm so excited about this, you don't even know.

I've read The Gatekeepers once before right before I started applying to colleges. I absolutely devoured that book and I was sucked in to all of the details that go into the application process from the student's end of things. Now that I'm almost done with college I'm reading the book again but from a different perspective. I've been thinking about taking a year off before I apply to graduate school, and one of the things that I'm interested in is working in college admissions. Oh hey, that's what this book is about! I'm almost halfway done with it now, and I already have a copy of Perfume from the library waiting for me.

So far, the best part of this mini challenge has been reading lots of book reviews and recommendations from other people. I love going through Amazon or GoodReads and checking out what people like and don't like.

Today's question for you...
What are you reading right now?

Couch to 5...oh screw it.

2010-06-01T14:40:00.000-05:00

I'll be upfront. I ran. I got tired and bored and cranky. I stopped and lifted weights instead. The end.

Okay, okay.

Yesterday was gross and rainy - surprise! - so I went to the gym instead of suiting up for inclement weather.

Quick treadmill workout.

Music:

Car Crash - Marr Nathanson

Sympathy - Goo Goo Dolls

The LIttle Things - Colbie Calliet

Pretty Girls - Wale ft. Gucci Mane

Hyyerr - Kid Cudi ft. Chip Tha Ripper

Brooklyn Girls - Charles Hamilton

Obviously you can see I was struggling with this 'easy' workout. You know it's bad when I switch from the 'chill' music to my hip hop and rap.

I wanted to run for 25 minutes, but that obviously didn't happen. Instead, I hopped off the treadmill and pumped some iron! Ha, for the first time in a long time I was at the gym around 6:30 pm instead of 10 pm. Lots and lots of guys working out, and very few girls! I always feel a little weird being one of two or three girls lifting weights along with twenty guys.

After I did some bench-pressing and lat-pulldown-ing I reverted right back to my old (good) habits and did my abs super-circuit. I felt great and the time flew by, which is not something that typically happens while I'm running.

I want running to by my sport. I want to run a half-marathon or a 10k, but I also want to have fun doing those things. When it comes to running, I enjoy everything except for the actual act of putting one foot in front of the other and moving. Yeah, definitely not a good sign. When are these endorphins supposed to kick in? Isn't this an addictive sport? Yikes!

SO. I have a 5k scheduled for the 4th week of June. I'm still going to be running that, and training for that, and hopefully I find the fun in running again! Yesterday's workout didn't follow the C25K plan, and I'm going to try to run for distance rather than time for the next few work-outs.

In other (cookie-related and nail-related) news...

Time for cookies again! Popsicles, in honor of summer!

And bows! In honor of...bows!

And a question for you: what's your workout of choice? If you had to choose one word to describe how it makes you feel, what would it be?

Summer Reads

2010-05-30T19:58:00.000-05:00

Natalie's Bookshelf: To Be Read

If you're seeing this via Google Reader, come on over for a visit! You'll notice that to your left is a brand new GoodReads widget. Isn't she pretty? Right now it's showcasing the books I've recently read. Hopefully the list will continue to grow over the summer!

When I was little, I loved to read. I remember checking out stacks of books from the library and reading them one after another. Sometimes I'd even read two or three at once.

As I got older, I stopped reading. Partly due to the increased amount of reading I needed to do for school, and partly due to those little things we call computers and tv sets. I know for a fact I spend more time than I should on the computer, and things like my attention span have definitely withered because of it! Spending hours with my nose in a book is rare for me these days, but I think it's time for a change.

This past weekend at home, I managed to finish not one, but two books. Crazy, right? They just sucked me in and I found myself pushing away my laptop so I could keep reading.

Finally I'm about to begin my last week of school (!!!) and I've got almost 4 months of summer coming up. As of right now, I don't have too many plans, so I figured why not read?

I've been using GoodReads since 2009, but other than keeping lists of what I'm reading and what books I want to read, I haven't done much with the site. This summer I'd like to become more involved, and maybe even join a virtual book club.

Also, I'm starting my own reading challenge for the summer! (Sassy Summer Stories? haha!)

Here's the current plan:
Beginning June 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010

June - 5 books
July - 4
August - 5
September - 4
October - 2 (not including school)
November - 2 (not including school)
December - 3 (not including school)

Total: 25!

Whew boy, that's a lot of reading! And I figured why stop when the summer's over? Might as well expand it through the end of the year. Approximately one a week over the summer, and then one every two weeks during the school year. December gets an extra because of Christmas break!

Can I do this? We'll see. Technically, I shouldn't have a problem with this. Realistically, I have a hard time following through with things like this.

Anyone else out there a GoodReads member? Let's be friends! Or even better, join me in reading this summer!

Couch to 5K - W7D1

2010-05-30T13:43:00.000-05:00

Friday was Day 1 of Week 7!

I don't have much to say about this run. The weather has been much nicer here at home in Oregon than it has been at school. Even though it was pretty outside, I just never really got into the groove. Boooo!

What do you do when you can't get into the groove while you're working out?

No playlist for today, I listened to another podcast! This time it was 5 Successful Counterfeiters from Stuff You Should Know. Very interesting!

While it was nice to be home for a few days, I'm already back on campus. So much for a 3-day weekend, right? I have to work this afternoon, unfortunately. The weather's back to being cold and rainy, so I don't feel like I'm missing too much.

Here's a better picture of these nails, because I can't get enough of them!

And currently, I'm rocking this...

I hope everybody has a great and safe (and sunny) Memorial Day!

Cause and Effect

2010-05-27T11:30:00.000-05:00

Thanks for not running for the hills after my rant yesterday!

Right after I posted, I opened the front door for my roommate and saw this:

1. 24 hours?!

2. What time did they put this sign up?!

Long story short, our water came back around noon, right about the time when we had the heaviest torrential downpour I've ever seen. Instantly everything was flooded, and I could barely see the building across from us! We still don't have much hot water, and for a while everything was brown and yucky, but at least we have water.

This whole thing, as cheesy as this sounds, really did make me realize just how lucky we are to have clean water at all. I mean, we all freaked out about the situation and I even know people who went home because of it. We had spare 'emergency' water to use, so we weren't entirely cut off. But I know that there are a lot of people in this world that don't have any water at all or they have water that's completely undrinkable and unusable.

A few things I found in this National Geographic article,

Of all of the freshwater on our planet, only 1% of it is usable. Everything else is trapped inside glaciers or snowfields.
Only 0.007 percent of the planet's water is available to be used by the 6.8 billion people that live here
By 2025, an estimated 1.8 billion people will be plagued by water scarcity, with 2/3 of the world's population living in water-stressed regions as a result of use, growth, and climate change.

The podcast that I listened to on Monday talked a little bit about this topic too, and how urban planning can and will affect our use and availability of water.

I don't know what to think about this, really. Obviously it's a problem that needs to be fixed, but what can we do? Or rather what could I do personally? We hear about things like the global water crisis, or the oil spill in the Gulf, but a lot of times we don't hear about what we can do on a personal level to help. I know donating money is always an option, but I would like to get more involved with the cause.

Do any of you have causes that you're passionate about? What are they?

And on another, lighter note I have something to show you!

I've been looking at pictures of nail art over the past few days, and this was one of my favorite designs I found. I decided to recreate it and here's the result...

Water, Water, Everywhere...

2010-05-26T11:22:00.000-05:00

and not a drop to drink - literally!

(This is a semi-rant. You have been warned!)

We discovered around 10:30 last night that our apartment had no running water. All day we've had storms and downpours, and now we're water-less! Of course I was instantly thirsty, I had to pee, and I wanted to take a shower. Typical.

What I just love about the entire situation is that when we called the after-hours extension about the issue, they told us a water-main had broken. Okay, no big deal, that's not your fault. But then we learned that they weren't even going to look into fixing it (or the extent of the problem) until late this morning! Okay okay, that makes sense too...it's raining and you don't want to go traipsing around late at night in the dark.

So we wash some dishes using water from our Brita filter, I make a lot of jokes about glamping and living Little House on the Prairie style, and life is good. And then I wake up to an email saying that most of the apartments 'are without water this morning'. (What about last night?!) And then, "We are working to determine the extent of the problem and the necessary repairs. We will send further information as soon as we have the timeline for repair. " Faaaaantastic.

Normally I wouldn't be too annoyed by this because hey, things happen. But these are the same people that took over 4 months to replace our faulty refrigerator that not only peed all over our kitchen floor mulitple times a day, but it didn't keep things cold either! And they even sent us a new 'temporary roommate' at 11:30 pm without telling us we were getting one, which led to a pretty freaked out me wondering if she was just hearing things or if people really had just walked into the apartment and into a bedroom that hadn't been lived in since December. I don't mind that she's here, I just wish they had sent an email or told our RA or something. It's been a week and still not a word from them about the situation. Thanks y'all!

(All done! Thanks!)

In other news, my morning run may need to happen later this afternoon due to the weather. That's probably a good thing because I have a 20-page revision to finish and a presentation later this evening in class. I need to get to work!

And as a reward for sticking with me even though I'm unshowered:

Misa's Dirty Sexy Money

Couch to 5K - W6D2- Again!

2010-05-24T14:17:00.000-05:00

The run:
55 degrees. Sunny! Don't worry mom, I remembered to wear sunscreen today. :)

Instead of doing Week 6 Day 3, which consists of 25 minutes non-stop running, I decided to repeat day 2. Not to worry though, it's pretty similar with two 10-minute intervals of running separated by a three minute walk break. I did have to slow down to a walk for a minute during my second interval, but other than that things went pretty smoothly for me. Pacing is my biggest struggle - the only time I can keep an even pace is when I'm on a treadmill - but I think I'm finally improving!

What did I listen to today?
Nothing! Okay, that's not entirely true. I didn't listen to music today. Instead, I went for a run with my new friends Josh and Chuck from Stuff You Should Know! I listened to their 'How Urban Planning Works' podcast. I've never tried running with anything other than music and I was surprised how much I enjoyed it! Not only am I working out, but I'm learning things too! Andddd that's the end of my Public Service Announcement for the day. :)

Operation Cookie Update!
Oh yeah, this hasn't stopped! I mentioned on Saturday that I had made another batch of cookies, and they are now safely residing at home with my parents. And by safely residing, I mean the last 5 are cowering in fear of being eaten. I guess they enjoyed them! My mom sent the cutest text this morning that said "resisting the cookies." I'd call that a success!

These might be my favorite of the batch.

I didn't quite get the correct shade of red, but they're still cute.

More marbling. Who knew it was so easy?

And a star for good measure.

I'd call this test run a success!

And a question for you: what's your favorite sunscreen?
As I mentioned, I wore some on my run today and I'm really not a fan. Sunscreen is absolutely imperative, but I still haven't been able to find a brand that isn't gross. Right now I've got a tube of Aveeno Active Naturals Positively Ageless and it's...okay. The biggest problem I have is with it staying white on my skin and turning kind of sticky and powdery at the same time. Almost as if it doesn't soak in? This could be because it's a higher SPF (55), or maybe it's from the 'Enviroblock triple defense technology'. Do you have this problem with your sunblock? I'm glad I've found one that doesn't sting when I sweat, but I hate not being able to touch anything without getting white stuff everywhere.

A little bit of spring...

2010-05-24T02:23:00.000-05:00

Even though it's almost June, I think we've gotten to 70 degrees only once so far up here in Washington! There has been lots of rain and gloom, and today's high was only 52. The rainy season has been a big struggle this winter and spring. I guess there's still a little bit of California girl left in me!

So I figured, what better way to beat the darkness than a mani/pedi? Doing my nails while watching 50 First Dates almost makes up for the 20 page paper I had to finish today. Almost.

Watermelon!

Yes, I went for the decal. Tacky? Maybe.

Worth it? Absolutely.

Did you know I have a collection of over 200 nail polishes?

Oh yeah.

I can't tell you how excited I was when I bought my new pair of running shoes.

Finally, my pedicures survived a run!

Who knew I was wearing sneakers that were a size and a half too small?

I know it's Monday, but what are you looking forward to tomorrow?

I've got a run planned, hopefully we'll see sunshine for more than an hour! Also it's my last Monday night class of the quarter. We're getting very very close to the end of my junior year of college!

Couch to 5K - W6D2

2010-05-22T14:58:00.000-05:00

Took a break from my cookies for a run! I headed downtown this morning, which was a nice change of pace. I don't have a GPS or anything, but I could tell ran a lot faster than I usually do. Maybe because I had a lot more to look at? This route was definitely a lot more interesting and stimulating than the one I usually run.

Our weather hasn't been great at all this past week, but the rain held off until I finished. 52 degrees and very cloudy. I tried out the new Champion top I posted about a few weeks ago. Even though it took forever and a day to get here, it totally redeemed itself this morning! Super cute and comfy.

Music: Girl Talk!

In Step
Give Me A Beat
Shut The Club Down
Don't Stop
Play Your Part (part 1)
Here's The Thing
Hands In The Air

Girl Talk and Super Mash Bros are probably my favorite songs for when I just want to run with a beat. I seriously can't get enough of mash-ups either. If only I had those skills!

Other random tidbits:

I'm about 95% done with my second batch of decorated cookies. This was my 'trial run' for the designs I want to do for the end-of-the-year potluck my class is having. They turned out pretty well, and I think instead of eating all of them I'll bring all 28 of them home to my parents!
Iced coffee is still my addiction. Recently I discovered that World Market carries mini bottles of Torani syrup. UM. Awesome! I bought the raspberry this morning, and I'm drinking a raspberry iced coffee right now. So delicious. I have a bottle of International Delight coffee creamer in the fridge, but for some reason I don't think it's as flavorful as the syrups are. Maybe I'm doing it wrong?
Last.fm radio is almost as good as Pandora, if anyone's looking for an alternative. I've been using Last.fm since 2007, and I love to look at the charts of my top artists and songs!

Hope everyone's having a great weekend!

Operation Cookie: Complete!

2010-05-20T12:24:00.000-05:00

It's official, I have found a new hobby.

Last year, I was all about the tie-dye.

But then I started to wonder what I would do with a million tie-dyed shirts.

Cookies, on the other hand...

I think I could handle an overabundance of cookies.

This was the first time in my life I have successfully made sugar cookies without crying. Not only did I manage to use my rolling pin and cookie cutters without disaster, but I also made my own icing!

Sometimes you will fight with your piping bag.

And the piping bag will win.

Other times, you will work together to create beautiful cookies.

Marbling looks great, and it's easy to do when you have the right consistency of icing.

Who knew you could do things like this?

A few lessons learned from Operation Cookie:

This is a multi-day process. You can't make, bake, and decorate a batch of cookies in one day. I know, I know, that sounds crazy. But this takes patience! You could whip up the dough and cut and bake in one day for sure, but the icing is a whole other story.
Patience is key. After you outline a cookie, it's best to let that completely dry before you move on. If it's black, this could take 24 hours! Same for when you flood a cookie with one color (like the above fishie). Unless you want the next color to bleed or sink into your base, you need to let that completely dry!
There a lots and lots of cookie blogs out there that feature the most amazing and beautiful cookies you have ever seen. Your cookies will not look like this.
Remember that the professionals use name brand icing colors and fancy projectors to create their designs. As a beginner, it's okay to use store brand gel colors and freehand smiley faces.
When outlining a cookie, the higher you hold the tip from the surface, the easier it is to draw a straight line.
If your piping bag is malfunctioning and spitting out blobs and uneven lines, take the tip off and clean it! Be careful though, because if your icing is too runny you will come back to a table covered in a puddle of black goo. That was fun to clean up!
You get to eat all of your mistakes.

Couch to 5K - W6D1 - I ran. And I baked.

2010-05-19T12:03:00.000-05:00

I said I would, so I did!

Just back from my first run of week six. Today's run consisted of: 5-3-8-3-5 (run/walk). This is my very last week of intervals! I don't even want to think about the next two weeks right now. Twenty minutes feels like a long time.

Temperature was 54 and cloudy, but I did see a little bit of sun as I finished my run. Even though I wanted to stop, I pushed myself through all of the running intervals, and I'm glad I did that. I'm working on this whole perseverance thing! Total distance (not counting warmup/cool down) was exactly 2 miles.

And today's music:

Magic - B.O.B. ft. Rivers Cuomo
Don't Let Me Fall - B.O.B.
Crossroads - John Mayer
Desperately Wanting - Better Than Ezra
Assassin - John Mayer
The Kids - B.O.B. ft. Janelle Monae
Come Original - 311
Hit The Ground Runnin' - Keith Urban

Kind of a weird mixture of genres, but it worked for me!

Finally, two cookie pictures! They're from my iPhone so they're not the prettiest, but I couldn't wait to show them off. :)

L- My second attempt at outlining with a piping bag. (You don't want to see my first try! And I ate it.)

R- Check it out, I can draw even lines!

Not the prettiest picture at ALL, but this is some of my progress so far.

I wanted to let everything dry so I could try out some more techniques today.

Definitely not as pretty as the cookie blogs out there, but I have to remind myself this is the first time I've made cookie cutter cookies without crying! Haha! What can I say? I'm a perfectionist. For years the only kind of cookie I would make were the kind you drop right onto the pan. And now I love rolling and cutting. Go figure!

True confession: I haven't run since Sunday.

2010-05-19T10:28:00.000-05:00

True confession: I haven't run since Sunday.

My knees have been aching, and I haven't been feeling too well these past few days. With every day that goes by, I feel like my progress is going backward. Where'd my excitement for running go?

When the going gets tough, I'm one of those people that changes direction rather than work through the tough. Yikes! I've always been like this, and I think it's one of my biggest shortcomings. Admitting it is the first step though, right?

What have I been doing instead of running? Making cookies! I just finished my very first batch ever of sugar cookies. Hearts, and stars, and fish, and butterflies are all over the kitchen in various stages of being iced. I'm having so. much. fun. You wouldn't believe it! Everything is a mess and I can't seem to get my colors past the murky pastel stage, but I don't even care. Drawing is definitely not a real-life skill of mine, but when it comes to a pastry bag and a cookie, apparently I've got wicked awesome outlining skills!

I will run today. I was planning on taking a yoga class this morning, but I think my run should come first right now.

Couch to 5K - W5D3

2010-05-16T12:57:00.000-05:00

Week Five is finished! I'm not sure if I'd call today's run fun, but it was an experience. :)

Overcast and 55 degrees, but I'm pretty sure it was closer to 60 near the end. Right when I got to my car a few raindrops began to fall, but we're not due for real rain until later this afternoon.

The first 10 minutes flew by, and I felt pretty comfortable. As soon as I hit the halfway point though, things started to go downhill. My lungs were not happy to be working hard so early in the morning. I took a minute or so walk break - so I guess you could say I cheated - but other than that I just pushed myself to finish. Slowwww goings though, I only ran a little over 1.5 miles. I think that's about a 13 minute pace? That's okay for me though!

Unfortunately, my knees complained for the entire 20 minutes. I'm not sure if this is normal aches and pains or if it's something else. Previously I've had arch problems and hip problems, but never anything with my knees! I'm 20, I shouldn't feel this old. Found some icepacks in the freezer, so we'll see if those help any.

Music for today:
When I Look To The Sky - Train
Following Rita - Train
Getaway - Train
Counting Airplanes - Train
Sex On Fire - Kings of Leon
Closer - Kings of Leon
Use Somebody - Kings of Leon
Be Somebody - Kings of Leon

Lots of variety, right? ;) I'll always love both of these bands, but I probably should have chosen something with a little more power for my 'long' run.

Today was also the Capital City Marathon! I hope everyone that ran had a great time!

Takin' it easy.

2010-05-15T22:46:00.000-05:00

Zumba on Thursday was great, and I loved it. Running on Friday? Not so much. My knees were not happy with me, so I decided it would be best if I played it safe. So, I called off the run and I'll try one more time tomorrow. I figure as long as I get in 3 runs a week I'm still on track, right?

Now that I've accomplished my Zumba goal, that means it's time to accomplish my yoga goal! My gym has a hatha yoga class during the day, so I'll be giving that a shot this coming week. I know "gym yoga" is a lot different than "yoga yoga", but I don't have to pay extra for these classes. And I figure stretching is stretching!

In other news, it's officially crunch time since we're nearing the end of a quarter. I turned in my 20-pager yesterday, and I have two presentations in the coming week. After that it's two more weeks of class, one huge revision, one more intense research paper, a Saturday class, and I am freeeee for the summer! That is, after I find a way to cram everything I own into the back of my car. It's like Tetris!

I hope everyone's having a great weekend! Let's hope my knees hold out for tomorrow's run!

ZUMBAAAA!

2010-05-13T23:07:00.000-05:00

via.

I finally understand the love and devotion people have for Zumba. I was skeptical, and my previous experiences had been far from magical, but this class has allowed me to see the light.

We actually had two instructors, which I think made it a lot easier to follow along. They didn't do much vocal cue-ing, which I was a little nervous about at first, but I didn't have any problems with the steps!

Tonight was the most coordinated I've ever been in my entire life. I have noooo idea where that came from, but I loved it. The classroom was probably 90 degrees and I had to take a quick break a few times for water, but other than that it was non-stop dancing with lots of yelling and lots of booty shaking. Tons of fun, but I really really didn't enjoy the heat. That's just me though, I don't handle heat and humidity too well. I guess it adds to the atmosphere though? We were transported to Latin America via magical workout room!

So two questions remain:
1. Why did I put off going to Zumba for so long? I'll heading home in just a few weeks, and I don't think the gym near my house has anyone teaching Zumba. It's going to be a long summer.
2. Who knew they had cute Zumba clothes? Where can I buy the adorable hot pink cargo pants? (Okay, that was three questions, I lied)

Tomorrow's my longest run yet (20 consecutive minutes), and I think I may take a little field trip so I can run somewhere new and exciting. It's supposed to be 74 and sunny!

Couch to 5K - W5D2

2010-05-12T12:39:00.000-05:00

Week 5 is halfway done. Not only is it Wednesday (finally), but I only have one more run left this week!

Today's run:

52 degrees
SUNNY. Must find a cooler hat to wear.
2+ miles. I have no idea how far I ran exactly, but it was at least 2 miles.
The first 8 minutes were cool. The walking break was wonderful. The next 5 minutes were okay. The last 3 minutes were hell.
I only walked when I was 'allowed'. I considered skipping out on the last 3 minutes since it was all uphill, but I stuck it out.
When I say I ran today, I mean I shuffled slowly.
My knees hurt. :(

All things considered, I'm really proud of how well week 5 has gone so far. It hasn't been easy at all, but I've been getting though it! I don't want to talk about Friday's 20 minute run. That may be small potatoes to many runners, but for this girl it's going to be tough!

Music was all over the place today: (Click to listen on Youtube.)

Marry Me - Train
Level - The Raconteurs
Driving With The Top Down - Ramin Djawadi (From the Iron Man soundtrack!)
Aint No Rest For The Wicked - Cage the Elephant
Break Anotha - Blake Lewis
Her Diamonds - Rob Thomas
Shirt Off - Blänk & Young Ivy

Love all of these songs. Love love love. Just what I needed to hear this morning!

I've got LOTS of writing to do for class tonight, a bunch of research to finish for a meeting on Thursday, classes to register for, a 20-page draft to write by Saturday, and some more workouts coming up! What a busy week it's been, but I only have 24 days left of school! Yes, I'm counting.

(Kanye's) New Work-Out Plan

2010-05-10T14:43:00.000-05:00

So Kanye and I had a little sit-down last night, and we decided it was time for me to get back into the groove of things. (Yeah, we're bffs, it's okay to be jealous.) I really miss lifting weights!

Working out is always easier for me when I have a specific event in mind, like when I was getting ready for my spring break reunion trip back in March. And now, preparing for my 5k in June is another goal that I have to work towards.

Monday - Couch to 5k
Tuesday - Chest & Back + Abs + Cardio
Wednesday - Couch to 5k
Thursday - Arms & Shoulders + Abs + Zumba!
Friday - Couch to 5k
Saturday - Legs & Butt + Abs + Cardio
Sunday - Rest!

I would love to get into some classes at my gym, but unfortunately I'm either at work or in school during almost all of the ones I'm interested in.

BUT - There's a Zumba class I've been meaning to try for a long time, so this is the week! I've taken two or three Zumba classes before, but this will be the first one with this teacher. The first time is always the hardest, but it's totally worth it. And now that the universe knows, I have to do it!

Yoga and Spin are two other classes I'm interested in, as well. I've taken a few yoga classes before, ranging from Power Yoga in Santa Monica (with Brian Kest!) to 10 weeks of gentle yoga with my class back in the fall (which culminated with a concussion due to my poor handstand coordination). Super-chain gym yoga isn't as woo-woo or meditative as 'real' yoga, but we're talking baby steps here. Zumba class this week, Yoga next week.

Okay and spin. I'm terrified to take a spin class. They're so intimidating! So hardcore! I'm pretty sure I'll fall off. And then I'll have bruises. Do I need special shoes? Should I bring water? Will everybody laugh at me for not knowing how to work the bike? Oh man.

So, Zumba this week, Yoga next week and then...Spin the week after that. I think it's time I face my stationary bike fears.

What's your plan for this week?

Couch to 5K - W5D1

2010-05-10T12:20:00.000-05:00

Today was the very first day of week 5, which may be the most intimidating week of the entire plan.

It started out simply enough, with 5 minutes of running followed by 3 minutes of walking. Each time the little man inside my iPhone told me to run, I did. And we repeated this three times.

On Wednesday I get to run for 8 minutes. Then I walk for 5. Run for 8 more minutes. That's totally doable.

Friday? Well. On Friday I run for 20 minutes. TWENTY MINUTES. With no walking. Oh man.

Cross that bridge when we come to it though, right?

So for today's run:

47 degrees
Cloudy. (I miss yesterday's sun! But it's supposed to be in the 70s on Thursday and Friday. SO EXCITED)
2 miles - according to MapMyRun. I'm not sure how accurate this is, but I'll go with it. One day I will have a Garmin. One day!

Music wise, I felt the need for some hip-hop.

Hip-Hop Saved My Life - Lupe Fiasco ft. Nikki Jean - LOVE this song.
All Of The Above - Maino ft. T-Pain
Chillin - Wale ft. Lady Gaga
(Apparently I was all about the featured tracks!)
Ridin' Solo - Jason Derulo
Pretty Girls - Wale ft. Gucci Man
Women Lie, Men Lie - Yo Gotti ft. Lil Wayne (my boyfriend.)
Can't Be Tamed - Miley Cyrus

Oh hey, Miley. Not too sure how she got in there! Okay, true confession, I really like the song. The video isn't too bad either. Sure, I feel like she's trying hard to be Britney circa-2000, but it's all good!

Last night I made the cutest, yummiest apple cinnamon muffins. I highly recommend them, and you can find the recipe here. (Don't worry if your batter isn't pourable like the recipe says it should be, mine wasn't but they turned out delish.)

And now it's time I get down to work. Right now I feel like what little motivation I had at the beginning of the quarter has disappeared. Unfortunately, I still have 3 weeks left! And during those 3 weeks I have 2 HUGE papers to write. Come back motivation....come back!

Couch to 5K - W4D3 - I talk about stairs. A LOT.

2010-05-08T13:24:00.000-05:00

Week 4 is finished! 54 degrees and sunny, no wind, rain or freak hailstorms in sight. About an hour before I ventured out I had some breakfast, and I was rewarded with no headache. Hopefully this means I don't have to give up my beloved homemade iced coffee. Fingers crossed!

Anyway, along with my usual musical recap, I thought I'd post some pictures of my run from beginning to end. Let's go.

Definitely tripped over these when I woke up. Grrrrreat start to my morning.

The keys are what's really important here, but can we take a look at everything I have due this month? I can't tell you how excited I was that I could fit everything on this calendar. That's how close I am to being finished with my junior year!

(And yes, I really should NOT be complaining. I'm absurdly lucky to not have to deal with finals. But these 50 pages of writing ARE a little intimidating!)

Moving on! I'm really here to grab my keys. Don't you just love the wristlet?

I popped off my house-key and stuck it in the inside pocket of my shorts.

Let's talk about this for a second. I love my Tempos. Really, I do. However. I do not love the 'internal card/key' pocket. It just has a little flap, no velcro or snaps or anything. Knowing me, I would lose my key without realizing it halfway through my run. Super fun.

So this morning, instead of switching back to my cute leggings with the zippered butt pocket (sexy, right?), I improvised.

I binder-clipped my key to the pocket.

That's right. I folded it over itself and clipped it in there with a mini binder clip.

How'd it work? PERFECTLY. Please try this.

Hey Lily-Mae! Isn't her ducky sticker the cutest? A friend decorated her on Cinco de Mayo, she's even got a dinosaur on the back. Yes, I name my Apple products. You should see the reactions I get from the Genius Bar. Priceless. (Don't let me forget to tell the story of the unfortunate passing of Celia!)

I have an iPod Nano (Costell), but I rarely run with him. For one, I don't have a Nano sized case (though I could use this one!). Also, I'm using the C25K app on my phone! I absolutely love the app, but I'm not the world's biggest fan of running with an armband. Oh well.

These headphones are great too, they don't fall out! They're not noise-blocking, but that's not a downside for me at all. Safety first!

Ready to go!

Oh man, I must have missed 'how to take a myspace pic' day in middle school.

I'm not that weirdly proportioned, I'm just bent over. Cute. You also can't tell in this picture, but about halfway through my run I realized my shirt was on inside out. Skills, I tell ya, skills!

It was (and still is right now) gorgeous outside.

And there was absolutely no one outside.

I think I saw maybe 5 people the whole time I was out.

Oh yeah, we keep it classy.

You would think this pro-graffiti area would discourage people from spray painting other places, right?

Yeah, it doesn't.

One of my many 'gradual uphill' slopes.

Aka a freakin' hill!

Um, it looked more intense in person?

These stairs are horrible.

I had to stop and walk down them.

Not because my legs hurt.

Oh no. It's worse than that.

They confuse me.

You read that right! These are the most confusing stairs in the world.

Instead of being shaped like this:

|---|

they were built like this:

\---/

Which means unless you start at the very middle of the top (which you can't because there's a supper pillar), you have to walk down them diagonally (sideways?)

It's bad enough when you're having a good day, but you should have seen my trying to get up and down these stairs last winter. I had given myself a concussion during yoga (I'm awesome), and this was just way too much for my brain at the time. I literally stopped and stared at them for quite some time until my roommate realized I was seriously struggling to comprehend how to use the stairs.

Like I said, I've got skills.

Once I got past the stairs, time flew by!

The only time I struggled (aside from you-know-what) was during my last 5-minute run. I had a bit of a side cramp and my legs just felt dead. I walked for about 20 seconds and then I just powered through!

Home again, home again!

I'm glad to be done with week 4, but I can't say I'm too jazzed about what's coming next. I remember hating week 5 last time I did the C25K program. But if it's all about the mind-set, then I need to push that aside and think positively!

And today's music: As promised, it's Britney!

(You Drive Me) Crazy (The Stop! Remix)
Rock Me In
Blur
(I Got That) Boom Boom
3
Radar
Outrageous

Ehh. I love Britbrit, but these songs didn't do much as far as motivating me. Possibly because I've heard them all a million times by now?

I hope everyone's having a beautiful Saturday. Get outside and do something! :)

Couch to 5K - W4D2 - YES, really!

2010-05-07T12:32:00.000-05:00

via.

I diiiiid it! I diiiiiid it! It was 53 degrees and SUNNY and I ran outside and I loved it!

For some reason I also decided I would run up (and back down) 3 hills, which may not have been my brightest idea considering I'll be running again tomorrow, but hey! It was fun.

We're supposed to FINALLY hit the mid to upper 60s this weekend and into next week. Spring, is that you? Are you here to stay? I hope so! We've had enough crazy weather (hail storms!) in May already.

The tunes for today included:

Mercy
Gives You Hell
4 Minutes
Express Yourself
You Keep Me Hangin' On
Hair/Crazy In Love (I've officially decided I hate this one.)
Sweet Caroline
No Air
Don't Stand So Close To Me/Young Girl (My favorite song from the 1st half of the season!

Yes, ALL from Glee!

Now, I have to be honest here. I loved the pilot episode. I loved the first few episodes. And then things went downhill. This article points out a few of the issues the show's facing right now, which I couldn't agree with more. My parents watch the show, and my dad told me last night that they fast-forward (or bloop-bloop, as my mom calls it) through everything but the songs. Sadface!

Hopefully it's just a case of the show and the writers needing to find their legs again, and things will pick back up to how they were before.

Tomorrow I'll be doing day 3 of week four and then enjoying the beautiful weather!

Couch to 5K - W4D2 or not.

2010-05-05T12:50:00.000-05:00

Hey y'all. This morning's run did not happen. Not because I was sick or injured, and it definitely wasn't snowing or hailing or anything like that. It just didn't happen.

Excuses: Lack of sleep, dehydration, too much Applebees, the creative writing revision that's due by 6pm tonight.

But hey, that's life! I'll be moving day 2 to Friday, and then I'll do day 3 on either Saturday or Sunday. So it's okay. :)

Instead of heading outside this morning (46 degrees, getting warmer!) I headed to Starbucks to pick up a little something special.

Ohhh yeah. See that cup? It's resuable. See that straw? That's reusable too. I'm in love! It's a travel cup, but it LOOKS like a Starbucks cup.

Um yeah, so I'm pretty easy to please. The first time I saw this cup was last spring when Danica mentioned it on her blog. (Sidebar - her blog was the first running blog I stumbled across, and it's also what got me started!) I knew I had to have it, but apparently I was the last person in Los Angeles to find out they existed. So naturally everywhere was sold out.

But this year...I got lucky! Thanks to J, who reminded me that these exist and that I needed to get my booty into the 'bucks to get one pronto. Yeah, I called it the 'bucks. I'm cool.

So instead of running, I will be doing this:

And then I will be doing a lot of frantic revising for my 20 pages that are due tonight, a lot of reading of the ELEVEN HUNDRED page book that I need to finish very soon, and a lot of Cinco de Mayo celebrating after class tonight!

Also, Diana left a comment asking for some more deets about my C25K journey, so watch out for a post on that soon!

PSA for the day:

2010-05-03T16:28:00.000-05:00

Don't be like me.

Don't forget to do the most important thing in the world.

Don't revert back to 1998 when you barely knew how to use a computer.

Don't forget to save your work. Seriously.

Sometimes you will do stupid things, like closing documents without clicking save. And sometimes those documents will be 20+ pages of revisions to a draft of a story you're working on for your writing class.

You will lose your work. You will lose the 8 hours you spent on your work. You will cry. You will swear. You will frantically Google.

This is not fixable. This will mean you have to start all over again.

If you're lucky, it will go faster the second time. If you're lucky, it will be even better the second time. If you're lucky.

Save. Your. Work.

That's all.

(I have no idea a) why I did everything in a new word document or b) how I managed to close it without saving but for some reason I did both of those things this morning. Sweeeet.)

Couch to 5K - W4D1

2010-05-03T11:49:00.000-05:00

Week 4, day 1, you're done!

I'm obviously not skilled with iPhone self portraits, because I cut out my thumbs up!

I'll work on it, promise.

So let's break it down:

45 degrees, sunny, raining, windy. Yes, sunny and windy. And raining. I like to call them sunshowers. They kind of suck. It was pretty though!
Awful headache partway through. I kind of thought my head might explode right there in the middle of the road. Maybe from allergies? Caffeine? Probably the allergies, considering I haven't had any caffeine today. Have I told you how much I love iced coffees though? This is a new thing of mine, and if that's what's causing the problem I'll be one unhappy camper.

Listened to: With links!

Up! - M83 (This is my go-to airplane song. Love listening to it during take-off. Yes, I know that's not really allowed. Shhhh.)
Collapse - MuteMath
Typical - MuteMath
Chaos - MuteMath
Backfire - MuteMath
Spotlight - MuteMath
Armistice - MuteMath
Bulletproof - La Roux

Lots of variety today, right? I know I said I was going to do the whole Glee thing, but I just wasn't feeling it this morning. Instead I listened to a little M83, a little La Roux, and a LOT of MUTEMATH!

They're probably one of my top 5 bands and if you haven't heard them you should definitely give them a try! Typical is from their first album, and Backfire is from their most recent.

So, Glee on Wednesday, Britney on Friday? Sounds like a plan!

I'll probably have to stop doing my music recaps once I start doing runs longer than 3 miles. Lucky for you, that won't be for a looooooong time!

Also, a sale!

2010-05-02T22:17:00.000-05:00

My mommy sent me a text today to let me know that Champion is having a huge sports bra sale! They have a TON of them on sale, and a lot of them are only $19.99.

I'm not gifted in the chest area, so I don't know too much first-hand about the importance of 360 degree support and all that fancy stuff, but I do really like their bras. Also, I saw a few tops on sale too.

Cute color, right? I have this one in (boring) black, and I love it. There aren't any seams or tags and the straps don't stick out from under the collars of my t-shirts and I can wear it with tank-tops.

Is this not adorable?

Not a super huge fan of the color pictured, but they have it in hot pink! Would it be weird to wear an empire waist work-out top? I have a love/hate relationship with these kinds of shirts because they can either look really cute, or look like maternity wear.

One thing I absolutely like about this top is that it's not super form fitting which means it (hopefully) won't ride up while I'm running. Doesn't that drive you crazy? As much as I love my Nike tops they ALL ride up!

Okay, thought I'd let you all know about the sale so I don't have to be the only one going on a work-out clothes shopping spree. The truth is out! Too bad shorts aren't on sale! Oh, I take it back, I just found their $15 and under section. Somebody stop me!

Coming up with a challenge!

2010-05-02T21:59:00.000-05:00

(This isn't running related, just an FYI.)

I've been toying around with the idea to do a 30 day challenge for fun. I've got almost 30 days left before my junior year of college is over, and at this point I'll do whatever I can to make those days go by even just a little bit faster!

Here are the ideas I have so far...

Manicures - I have a very large collection of nail polish. And when I say large, I'm talking 200+ bottles. That's more than enough to do a manicure a day for 30 days! I could showcase them here or maybe just on Flickr.
TED Talks - Watch, reflect and share one a day.
Waking up early - 7 or 8 am? This could get pretty miserable when we roll around to finals. Heck, Saturday and Sunday mornings will probably be pretty rough too.
Writing - 30 minutes every morning. This would probably be most beneficial to me right now considering the classes I'm in this quarter. Doing homework and accomplishing a goal? Sweet!
Exercise - I run 3 days a week already, but I miss lifting weights and taking classes. This could be a great way to get everything in at once.
Letters/Cards/Email - One of the three every day. Do I even know 30 people to send a letter to? Okay, yeah I do. I'm not sure why, but I have some kind of block surrounding this challenge. Maybe because I don't write letters or long emails very often to begin with.
Reading - 30 minutes or an hour every day. I read so much when I was little, I miss doing that!

I'm leaning towards writing for 30 minutes every morning or sending letters/cards/emails every day. Anyone have suggestions? Have you ever done a challenge like this? I plan to start the challenge this week, most likely on Wednesday (Cinco de Mayo!).

Tomorrow begins week 4 of C25K! It's supposed to rain all of tonight and through tomorrow afternoon, so we'll see how things go. I haven't settled on a music theme yet, but I'm thinking about running to songs from Glee! I'm absolutely in love with the show. Hopefully I can get out there early enough that I won't get caught singing and dancing as I run!

Couch to 5K - W3D3

2010-04-30T12:00:00.000-05:00

via.

Week 3 is DUNZO!

Today's run went super well. I was up and out the door by 9:10 and back by 9:35. Not too shabby!

When I left it was 47 degrees, but by the time I got back it had warmed up to 50. BUT. WINDY! The wind wasn't consistently bad, but every once in a while there'd be a gust that almost knocked me off my feet. I felt like Mary Poppins.

What else? Oh, I wore some gloves today. My fingers get cold extreeeeeemely easily, so I decided to see if gloves would help. They were exactly what I needed!

Three things though:
1. Gloves + iPhones don't work. I knew this ahead of time but that didn't stop me from trying!
2. Yes, you can put your hair up in a ponytail wearing gloves.
3. Gloves + Short sleeves + shorts = pure sex. I mean really, I rivaled Heidi Klum out there! Or not. Totally worth it though.

Like I promised, I listened to country on today's run. Okay, more like rop/rock with a slight southern twang.

Here's what I heard:
Wide Open Spaces - Dixie Chicks
Stars Tonight - Lady Antebellum
Summer Girl - Jessica Andrews
My Life Again - The McCloymonts
That Song In My Head - Julianne Hough
Sweet Home Alabama - Lynard Skynard

It made me miss the south a LOT. Partly because I know that it's 70 degrees and sunny in Memphis right now, and also because all of my friends are just DAYS away from being done with school for the summer.

Okay, I'm about to head out for the day. Hopefully the rain holds off and the sun comes out so we can get outside and play!

(ps. The picture is actually of a postcard! Made by Paper Pastries, and there a ton of other cute city- and state-love themed things in the shop. I'm sensing a shopping spree coming on.)

Words of Wisdom

2010-04-30T00:08:00.000-05:00

If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if today is your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run.

John Bingham, running writer and speaker

(Thank you Runners World for this awesome quote in my inbox!)

You run like a GIRL. (And that's okay!)

2010-04-29T15:21:00.000-05:00

So. Running skirts. What do you think?

Cute or tacky?

I've never actually seen someone running in a skirt in real life, but I have seen pictures of the adorable skirt Skinny Runner has! It's pink and swooshy and I'd probably run twirling down the street. Okay that's a lie, but it does make me want a skirt.

I googled 'running skirts' just to see what's out there and found this site called Running Skirts and some of them are really cute!

See? Very sassy. It looks like it even has pockets. Who doesn't love pockets?

via

As much as I love my tempo shorts from Nike (and I mean LOVE because I wear them EVERYWHERE), the little tiny interior "pocket" just doesn't do it for me.

This one's so cute! Very classy.

I'd say I'm definitely intrigued, but I don't know if I'd spend $60 on one.

Idea! What about a tennis skirt? They're usually made of the same dri-fit material, and they come in lots of cute designs and colors. Look at this one from Nike!

via

Um. I want this in my life RIGHT NOW. I mean really, if you're going to run in a skirt you might as well go all out.

Unfortunately, Nike kindly let me know that this product is no longer available. Thank you for breaking my heart, Nike.

Would you feel weird running in a skirt? I bet it would garner some extra attention, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

(ps. Obviously I wasn't paid to mention these products or anything. Since you know, I don't actually own any of them. )

Couch to 5K - W3D2

2010-04-28T11:47:00.000-05:00

via

Day 2 was a success! I even saw some sunshine and blue skies while I was out! Apart from the stich in my side and the tightness in my shins, I felt really good and I finished the run strong. For some reason these shorter intervals are just FLYING by! And I'm pretty sure I won't be saying that for much longer.

I left at 9 and was back by 9:30. According the my phone it's 46 degrees but with the sun it felt much warmer! I loved it.

Usually I'm a hip-hop/rap kinda girl while I'm running (we're talking Lil Wayne, Three 6 Mafia, etc) but today I wanted to try something a little more low-key.

Here's what I listened to:

So Much To Say - Dave Matthews Band
If You See Kay - The Script
Vanilla Twilight - Owl City
Who Says - John Mayer
Sound of Settling - Death Cab For Cutie
Body Language (Remix) - Jesse McCartney ft. T-Pain (okay, I had a litttttle bit of my usual!)
One Less Lonely Girl - Justin Bieber (Yikes!)

Certainly a departure from my usual, that's for sure! I wasn't sure if this kind of music would keep me going (or motivated), but it totally did! And I've gotta admit it's way easier to listen to John Mayer first thing in the AM than it is to hear Lil Jon screaming in your ear.

I'm thinking I'll try some country music on Friday?

Goals!

2010-04-27T11:10:00.000-05:00

I probably make at least 3 to-do lists every day, and my room has all kinds of handy charts and lists on my white-boards and calendar. I use the calendar on both my laptop and my phone, and sometimes even a written planner!

So basically, I like to plan ahead. And I like to make lists.

Here are my current running goals:

Run another 5k.
Run a sub-30:00 5k.
Run a 10k.
Run a half marathon.

And some details:

My first goal is pretty easy, and hopefully I'll be able to cross it off my list in June! I have two races in mind, both in Washington (totally different sides of the state, of course!). I'm not sure if I'll be running in both, but I'll definitely be running the Summer Solstice Fun Run on the 26th! It takes place in the evening, which is totally awesome because 1. I don't have to get up at 5am and 2. I'll be home in Oregon by then so the whole family can drive up and make a day out of it! I've got to admit I felt kind of bad when my parents had to leave home at 4 in the morning to come see me run my first 5k this past December.

Goal number two will hopefully be pretty easy as well. Hopefully. Positive thinking here. My first 5k time was 33:11 and don't tell anyone but I walked a TON in that race. But hey, I ended up winning first place in my division! Sooooo I'm thinking I should be able to knock this one out of the park if I put my big girl pants on and suck it up. Also, the course for the Summer Solstice run sounds like it's relatively flat. And hopefully it won't be windy and raining. And even if it is, I'm going to doooo it!

Running a 10k is my next goal, and I think I've got a plan (here I go again) to actually accomplish it this time. After my 5k last year, I wanted to move on to a 10 but I couldn't find any races. And I wanted to be lazy. And lifting weights doesn't make me out of breath and sweaty and gross. Well it does, but it's different. Mostly I was lazy. BUT. I have found a nice race called Pints to Pasta that happens in September that's been voted the best 10k in the NW for SIX years in a row. UM, this needs to happen. I love swag and I love big events and I love pasta! I'm a little young for the pints part of the deal, but I heard I get rootbeer instead! I can work with that.

And then, the big one. Running a half marathon. Is it possible? Sure. Will it be fun? Maybe not. Will I make it fun? ....I guess I probably should! I would love to do a destination race for this, and run the Mardi Gras half in New Orleans (obsessed!!) or one of the Disney races in either CA or FL. If not, I guess there's always the Rock n Roll Seattle.

Okay, my goals are out there. I've told, well, the internet. So now I guess I should get working, right?

Today's a no run day though, so it'll have to wait until tomorrow! Which is good, because honestly my quads HURT. Nice.

Couch to 5K - W3D1

2010-04-26T11:11:00.000-05:00

via

Week 3, nice to see you again. This is probably the fifth time I've done week 3 of Couch to 5K, but it's all good.

I left the house at 7:40 this morning (WHY was I up so early? HOW?!) and it was about 45 degrees. And cloudy, but is anyone surprised? Clouds are what the Pacific Northwest do the best. I used the C25K app I have on my iPhone, and it worked perfectly! I love all of the reminders and countdowns and the iTunes integration.

Before I took my 'break' from running, I frequented a nice and flat 2 mile loop - which I also ran today. I was out for half an hour, but I'd say I only ran for 20 of those minutes (just following directions, yo). Which meant I finished my run halfway through the loop and I had to decide if I should turn around or keep going. Seriously, I looked like a confused squirrel.

I developed an awful headache in the middle of my run, but other than that things went really well! Considering I've done the least amount of cardio possible since DECEMBER, I was seriously surprised I made it through my intervals without collapsing. So aside from the horrible headache (from running on an empty stomach?) and the stich in my side, I felt faaaaantastic!

No really, it was a pretty decent run considering it was only 8 in the morning.

If you had a totally free schedule, what time of day would you run? Tell me about it!

All aboard the failboat.

2010-04-26T09:24:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I haven't been writing. I'm sorry. I promise the relationship hasn't fizzled out entirely! I've had a hard time finding motivation to get my work done, much less write for fun these days.

However, I am disappointed in myself (just a little bit!) that A - it took me like 2 hours to come up with my new blog name and I haven't been keeping it sassy at all! and B - My first blog lasted much longer than this one. I need to breathe some life back into this ASAP!

I think from here on out I want KIS to be dedicated to my running. Why?

I'm always reading running blogs.
I love love LOVE any gadget or gizmo related to running, so I can talk about those here!
I've heard countless times how important it is to log your runs so you can look back and watch for trends.
The running community is inspiring, can I get in on that please? (Do y'all haze? Uh oh!)
Because none of my friends run, I have to resort to the internet. :)
And finally, I've tried to 'be a runner' probably 5 times now, and I just can't keep going. Last time was my most successful, I actually finished Couch to 5K and ran my very first race! And then, of course, I fizzled out (come on, it was Christmas time!) and ate a lot and started lifting weights instead of running. So obviously, I need to learn to pace myself, not get discouraged, and to keep up with it when things get tough!

Convinced yet? I think I am! When I was writing my first blog, I always felt guilty if I did a bunch of running posts in a row. Now I have no excuse!

Okay, off to do my FIRST run in a LONG time!

Always classy, never trashy.

2010-03-29T14:05:00.000-05:00

f rom.

I just couldn't stay away! I've blogged in the past, but those have been closer to one-night-stands than long-term relationships. I solemnly swear that this time things will be different! Even if it takes some couples counseling, this blog and I will stick together for the long haul.

Though there's no defined theme for my blog at the moment, one could pop up at any time. But for now, Keep it Sassy will be focused on my life and my thoughts. I like the idea of having a virtual scrapbook of life, and who doesn't want to remember the ups and downs of their twenties?

Don't worry, you won't be disappointed.