2014

*shimmy shimmy* It's 2014!!!

I think maybe I've done it yous guys.

So all day today I've been reading "One Little Word" posts and I want to jump on the bandwagon! Instead of a straight up resolution, they are choosing a word they'd like to embody more in 2014. A few I've seen so far are Brave, Balance, Revise & Whole.

I think this year, mine shall be "Now". Or maybe "Present"? "Focused?"

Ugh, I don't know if I have a word yet. But the essence of my word is to be more in-the-moment. I'm a daydreamer. I'm a planner. I'm a goal setter. Starting... well now!... I'm going to try to do better. When I'm at work, I won't be thinking about home reno. When I'm at home, I won't spend my evenings Pinning away at a dream closet I'd never shell out the money to acquire. I have just as many hours in the day as Beyonce, eh? There's time for it all.

So yea. Wish me luck.

Also, I mean, why not do this fun Pinterest quiz thing everyone else is doing while we're at it?!

A bad habit I want to break:
Eating sugar. I've identified it as a full blown addiction. I'm not being dramatic. The emotional ups and downs it creates is just unreal. Yes, Twix bars are what I imagine heaven tastes like. But I'm dependent on it to be in a good mood. No es bueno.

A new skill I'd like to learn:
Contouring and conversational Spanish. Because I'm cultured, but I still like to party.

A person I hope to be more like:
Daryl

I think that means I have to watch more Star Wars though. :)

A new food I'd like to try:
Tuna. I've never tried it because it looks like cat food and even comes in a can just like cat food. But I want to try to learn to like it.

Also, I want to learn how to cook a really baller steak.

A place I'd like to visit:
The southern Atlantic coast - South Carolina or Georgia. Oh, and also Belgium and Germany, of course :D

I'm going to do better at:
Car maintenance. Poor Lucy. She's looking ratchet.


Your turn. Let's hear your goals and plans. New Years Resolutions get a bad rap. Taking a moment to savor a clean slate never hurt anyone!

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Love It or Leave It

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE!!!

*obligatory comment about how fast 2013 went by*

Tomorrow will be a whole new year. Tomorrow you and I will be have a chance to make 2014 the best year EVER. I have lots of goals and plans and hopes and dreams for 2014. Don't get me wrong, 2013 totally rocked. D and I bought a house! We traveled to Belize and Honduras. I attended my first Yoga festival and we raised a hilarious little pup that has warmed our hearts this year. 2013 did us right. I just know 2014 has new adventures in store and I'm chompin' at the bit!

I pulled together a Pinterest-y list of trends I'd love to see follow us to 2014 and another list of things I hope the bouncers at the door of 2014 don't let through. Here's what I hope fills my 2014 (along with family, friends, peace, health and all that shtuff).

Love it for 2014

Fringe! Especially in boots and purses.
Loafers and other preppy, pretty accessories for grown ups.
Monograms - I'm so vain, I love seeing my own initials everywhere
White minimalism, which sounds racist, kind of, but I mean just simple, classic white... in home decor, clothing, art, ect
Outdoor entertaining spaces - This may be me pining for warm weather but I cannot get enough of pretty outdoor gatherings!
J-Law's humor and everything she stands for. Intelligence and wit, kindness and bravery. We need more of her!
Curated vintage - this will never go out of style, right? I'm very much looking forward to beginning my own carefully selected collection of favorite things to warm up my home.
Eyebrows on babies

Leave it in 2013

Chevron fabrics - I'm cool with it in other applications, I'm just over it in fabric/clothes
Wordy wall decals
Mason Jars (even though I totally JUST bought some, they should be delivered today, because bloggers say they're the best way to store juice). For function, yes. As a trend to be incorporated into every holiday and gathering? No.
Wallpaper - The bane of my new homeowner existence at the moment.
High-waisted jean shorts - for one, I don't have the legs for them. For two, I just don't think they're the prettiest trend to hit our adorable 16 year old super models!
Mustache props
Haterz - People probably expect me to put Miley or Justin or Kimye as the antithesis of Jennifer Lawrence but you're wrong! I have nothing but love for celebrities and I don't wish for them to become less famous. I wish success on them. I wish for them to mature and for America to accept them so that they CAN mature. So that they are not pigeon-holed in to what the tabloids display them as. Haters & bullies & tabloids are so 2013.

I hope to see fun 2014 vision boards popping up on Pinterest and blogs full of vibrancy, inspiration and fun. Let's do this, 2014!

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Gerald

Working in an itsy bitsy teensy town has it's ups and downs.

One 'up' is the gym. She's a dime. Oil money in a tiny town never looked so good. State of the art equipment, classroom with a KIOSK where you can cue up any class you want and it'll start playing on a projector (Spin, yoga, step, you name it), and last but not least, Gerald. Gerald is the 5'6" very ripped black guy that works there and handles little old people's physical therapy and is always more than willing to help me set up a new program, correct my plank form or brainstorm ideas as to why my toes fall asleep when I use the elliptical (anyone else?! EVERY TIME. My shoelaces aren't too tight, either... it's an enigma). 

But Gerald also totally sucks. Because if it weren't for him, I could go to the gym and be like, yea, I've totally always looked like this in these tights. I'd give anything for less consistent staffing. Someone who didn't know me would be like, "aw look at that lady working hard and sweatin' her butt off on her lunch break" but Gerald knows. Gerald knows I used to go to the gym EVERY DAY. He knows I was in decent shape at one point. There's no fooling him now. Darn you Gerald.

Moral of the story, I went back to the gym on my lunch break for the first time today. I had enough time to write this short blog after though because I had zero stamina. Getting back in shape is not gonna be pretty, you guys. Everyone brace yourselves for some blog posts circa April 2013; all diet, exercise and complaining. 

Oh, and also every January I come up with a brilliant invention. The butt sports bra (basically sports Spanx) to keep my butt fat from jiggling all over the place while I lose weight. Not just for aesthetic reasons, but because it kind of hurts, right?! Please don't leave me out in the cold here, bootylicious ladies. I can't be the only one experiencing this.

Happy last Monday of 2013!!!

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5 Things

The Game of Thrones "Books" - I already gushed about Audible.com, but allow me to gush about Game of Thrones now. I am really worried about the characters in this book. They are constantly in peril and you can't trust anyone (Littlefinger, I'm looking at you). I'm hooked. It's one of those books I catch myself ALMOST praying for the character's safety? Like, I forget it's just a book and God can't help them.

My new entry table - $40. Craigslist. AND the guy delivered it. He said it's originally from Pier One but they didn't have a place for it anymore. MINE! (Like one of the seagulls on Finding Nemo)

Please ignore my dirty grout.

Naked Juices - I have been patiently waiting to unwrap the Hurom Juicer that's been under the tree for a week now... so in the meantime, I took to Naked Juice! I know it's obviously not a GREAT replacement for fresh, organic, homemade juice, but I mean, c'mon. I could be drinking Chick Fil A Milkshakes so in comparison, go me!

AND LOOK at that photography skill right there! I had to hold it just right and SO still to get that reflection off the juice. 

Family - This holiday season was one for the books. SO hectic with work being crazy, The Nutcracker, prepping our new house for the party, battling a cold... you name it. AND THEN, a stomach bug infected my immediate family, so we had to skip our traditional Christmas morning! You would have thought I was 8 years old yesterday. I sobbed in the bathroom for over an hour. I wanted to risk getting a stomach bug and go have my mommy cook me breakfast and laugh at my dad's corny jokes and just be HOME! *sigh* Don't worry, we're having a makeup Christmas this Sunday, but I have officially vowed to spend more time with my family during non-holiday days because being away from them yesterday was miserable!

Our first family gathering at our house on Monday
(don't mind that 6' 5" kid on the left. He just really loves Santa)

The free Lumosity App - Just been flexing my brain muscles! My Brain Power Index (I'm sure that's a totally legit unit of measure) is 1206! I have no idea if that is good though, because D doesn't play it often enough to get a comparison. It's my new Candy Crush.

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Phase One Kitchen

Or should I call it phase 0.5? I don't want to call it phase one because that makes this stopping place sound intentional and it was anything but.

I wrote earlier this week about hanging large art and serving wine at the Christmas Eve Eve party we're having next week. Well... here's how we got to that point!

The jumping off point. Striped on the top, then a farm scene border, with gingham on the bottom. D said he thought it "looked nice". I repeat FARM SCENE BORDER! So... while he was out of town for a training course, this happened:

My parents came over to help me destroy the kitchen tear the wallpaper down. We did the two step process where we pulled off the vinyl of the wall paper then went back and got the paper underneath and glue off. We used a paper shark for the first step. I can't say if it helped much. We tried my sister's steam mop... not much luck there, either. Really, it just took hot water in a squirt bottle and lots of elbow grease.

This was after the vinyl was off and just the paper was left. 

Oh yeah! And we got a new back door (one we could put a doggy door in). I wanted to use the old one for like the coat closet in the entry way but it's too wide for any of my inside doors :( Guess it's off to the ReStore.

Once all the wallpaper was down, we sobbed in to our pillows that I made the fatal mistake of getting in to the sheet rock while tearing down the wallpaper. I've never been the most gentle, careful, cautious person but this was one of my more time-consuming bloopers. But a couple buckets of Spackle later, we were back in business.

At this point, the This Old House tutorial said we needed to apply oil based primer to make sure the sheet rock is nice and sealed. This picture is mid-priming. FYI, everyone, oil based paint does not come out of your hair. Or off your hands. It's a stage 5 clinger.

But that's the last picture of the process... because that's as far as we got! We put a good layer of primer on and then said, "Who are we kidding" and quit for the holidays. Owning a house for the first time puts a different priority on doing it really well instead of really fast. So to avoid a rush job, we cleaned up our mess and called it a wrap.

The view from the living room is much more tolerable in my opinion. 

BEFORE:

Phase 0.5:

Here's where we landed. I may throw some curtains up before the party if I have time. Oh, and also D changed out the ceiling fan for a new light fixture! He even picked out the light fixture! He showed it to me and was like "It's simple but vintage, like you like" :) *tear* I'm so proud!

The next half of this phase will be to get the texture paint up on the walls, paint the trim and walls, add board and batten... this is my inspo pic:

Totally doable, right? Right. Thanks for the reassurance. 

Anyone else applying the breaks on a project until the holidays are finished up? 

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A Few of My Favorite Things

One of my favorite things is favorite things lists. Also, I want to throw a Favorite Things party! Where you invite 10 girls over and they bring 10 of one of their favorite things. And then you share them with everyone and you leave with 10 NEW things to try that your friends recommend! That'd be fun, right?

Also, I did a bit of a "favorite things" theme in my mom and sister's stockings this year - but I can't go too far in to that!

A couple of my favorite bloggers (Hi Sugarplum and Remodelaholic)  have recently collaborated with 320 Sycamore in a series about their favorite things of 2013. I laughed out loud when I opened Remodelaholic's list! Her favorite makeups was basically a list of what's in my makeup bag! Twinsies!

I thought I'd make my own list of the great things I couldn't have made it through 2013 without! 

Beauty:

1. Aveeno Positively Radiant Daily Scrub - it's basically a Proactiv dupe! Works just as well for me.

2. Maybelline New York Lumi Dream Concealer (for highlighting)

3. BABY OIL for shaving! I think my sister and I did this when I was like in Junior High but I've come back to it. It gives me the very closest shave and my razors last FOREVER

4. MAC Zoom Fast Black Mascara

Food:

1. Brookside Dark Chocolate Pomegranates 

2. Folger's Gourmet - I like it better than Starbucks K cups!

3. Lara Bar (Especially Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough)

Closet Candy:

1. My Louis Vuitton Tivoli 

2. My Uggs

3. Gap Body "Dance Pants" - SO COMFYYYY

Extras:

1. No, not the Game of Thrones books... but Audible.com! (GOT is just what I happen to be listening to these days) It has gotten me through many long commute days! 

2. These cushioned pet harnesses. I get mine at TJ Maxx. K prefers them to any other he's worn.

3. Yurbuds

4. My Birchbox subscription

Alright girls, now dish. I want to know what makes your Favorite Things of 2013 list! It'll give me something to shop for during the after holiday sales!

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Creating Habits

Lori's Post about creating healthy habits inspired this one...

But mine is not a 'how to' post. Mine is a cry for help.

You know how most girls freak out about Fall? They just rave about pumpkin spice everything and their eyes shine brighter and they wear scarves all the time? Well, I have similar feelings about New Years Resolution season. I LOVE setting goals for myself. I love clean slate season. I LOVE fitness/diet challenges. New desk calendar day? THE BEST!

This image on Pinterest speaks to something deep in my soul. I immediately repinned it and sighed a deep, crackhead sigh. I love getting a good 'challenge' fix. This is part of why Mel is such a great friend to have because she always was planning some great, themed event that would require me to be in a swim suit so I always had some short term goal I was working toward! But then she up and moved to Belgium and I'm over here all... unmotivated and bloated.

And I don't want to give it up. I don't. P90X, Whole30, 22DSD, Juice Cleanses... how will they pay their bills without my continued support?!

But really. I need to get myself a routine. A sustainable, healthy, responsible routine. I need to stick to a bedtime. I need to grocery shop. I need to do entire loads of laundry instead of just underwear and socks. I need to embrace this whole "late twenties" thing but it's haaaaaaaaard. There's so much good TV on these days! And I work a lot and (insert a billion other excuses here).

So, without using any buzzwords, how do you do it, responsible people? Fill me in. Where should I start? Do I need more mason jar salads in my fridge? Cancel my Shotime subscription? (ain't happening) Is it the 64 ounces of water you all drink every day that gives you magical powers? SPILL IT! (the secret, not the water)

In the meantime, to feed my challenge cravings, I'm going to do this whole "responsible adult" thing in phases. My first phase is going to be around sleep habits. Bedtime - 10:00 (which will be easier next week since I have ballet rehearsal until 10pm this week... but go with me here) Wakeup time - 5:15 EVERY WEEKDAY. (Weekends I'll give myself until 6:30). If I don't have to wash my hair, cool. I'll do the dishes or make a smoothie or something. I'm going to treat it like a challenge. I'm just going to not put an end date on it (even though mentally I'm telling myself it takes 30 days to make something a habit so after 30 days it should get easier so it's KIND OF like a 30 day challenge... but not. Because it's a LIFESTYLE CHANGE)

Oh, also, D and I have set a goal to climb a mountain next year. Not like Everest or anything that involves carabiners or harnesses or anything... but he loves hiking and I think I could love hiking... so maybe we'll do that next year too.


Also, I want to be able to hold a handstand next year.





And I want to learn to cook a really great steak.



I JUST LOVE NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS!!!!!



Any other New Years Resolution fiends out there?! I can't be the only one!

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Oh Hi!

Hi there, family (because I'm sure most everyone else has given up on me entirely!) Merry Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve! Count em up, eight sleeps until the big day! Where have I been, you ask? Well, allow me to do a photo dump to catch you up a bit!

Let's start with Christmas, shall we?

I decided to hand sew Miss Peyton some felt play food for her play kitchen for her present. She has just started pretending so I thought she needed some. I made her a pizza, some eggs and bacon, donuts, cookies, a sandwich and a watermelon. I wanted to make her more nutritious foods but they're much more difficult to make out of felt. 

Kanye is upset by the lack of presents under the tree (nothing to chew up or destroy!) This year, our family decided to draw names and only buy gifts for one person. It makes for a slightly depressing Christmas scene but it did make it possible for me to adopt SIX angels off the angel tree at work! I had so much fun buying bicycles and remote control cars and clothes for some kids in need and it helped me refocus this year on the reason for the season (don't worry, I got K a new dog bed, a bone shaped like a candy cane and a penguin toy, but don't tell him)

Also, in the excitement of throwing my first party (Christmas Eve Eve Party) for all of my family now that I have a house, I ripped all the wallpaper (and a little bit of the drywall, womp womp) down in the kitchen while D was out of town. When I realized what I'd gotten myself in to, I called a handyman to come give me a quote to fix the mess I'd made. $700!!!!!!!!! to texture the walls in my little breakfast area. I was like, girl please, even though it was a dude. So after reading a couple This Old House tutorials, I got to work patching drywall. After this picture was taken, we got the oil-based primer in our hair on the walls and are ready to texture but we don't want to be half way through that step with a house full of Christmas partiers so we're going to hang giant art in the kitchen to distract everyone from our unfinished reno and serve lots of wine!

In news unrelated to Christmas:

The Nutcracker has consumed our lives! We have rehearsals every. day. of. the. week. From 8 to 10pm And we had our first performance this weekend with a call time of 9am and a curtain call of 8pm! Oh yea... 11 hours of dancing waiting around to dance. 

Stage makeup is a whole new world to me. This is the FIRST makeup wipey I used before washing my face.

Also, I built a tower. Well, I didn't build a tower... I had some people build a tower. It will hold radios high in the air so that the wells in town can communicate over trees and buildings and such. It was some very scary work but I'm happy to report the tower is still standing. It was a long day. I've never cursed so much in my life. Definitely not in front of my bosses and coworkers! I had to evacuate that building to the left because it was in the fall radius. Right behind me where I was taking this picture is a bank. When I went to the bank to introduce myself and explain the work I was doing and let them know they were not in the fall radius, and answer any questions they had, the VP of the bank asked me if I was the engineer's assistant! I could not help but laugh when her face fell when I said that I was the engineer! I mean, I can't blame her. I was just explaining that I might drop a tower on her building (KIDDING, but the risks I mentioned were pretty serious). I sent this text to D right after my conversation with the bank VP:

Hahahahaha hilarious response, right? (To clue people in, Tom Brady wears Uggs, proudly. He loves them and has endorsed them) The sleeveless hoodie comment is a Bill Belichick reference.

Also, I did a juice cleanse! And I fell madly in love with it! It was the easiest cleanse I have ever done. 3 days of nothing but juice and water and I wasn't hungry ever. I felt so great I immediately begged "Santa" for a juicer for Christmas. It's under the tree and I can't wait to start juicing the bejesus out of everything in the fridge!

ALSO! We have a new addition arriving in late January! I wanted to do a whole Facebook puppy announcement similar to baby announcements but chickened out. I mostly didn't want anyone to misconstrue the message as I was pregnant and a puppy was breaking the news to Facebook (although I'm hiding it well for 8 months pregnant if that were the case). I also didn't want it to seem like I was making fun of people who announce pregnancies on Facebook. All in all, I just thought it might come across wrong so I am posting the picture here! Valentine is just 4 weeks old now so she's still with her family in Dallas but we put a deposit down and the breeder has been sending me pictures as she opens her eyes and does cute puppy things! I can't wait for Kanye to be a big brother!

I'm sure other exciting things have happened in the last month and a half but these are the highlights. Work has slowed down for the holidays so blogging on my lunch break will be easier for a while! 

XO!

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