Hello Monday! Once again linking up with Glitter and Gloss for
This week I had decided to test out a color that I just purchased by none other than Essie. Yes I am totally obsessed. I wanted a pop of color other than pink but what a mix between a red and fuchsia and this is what I got
It's called Watermelon. Here is what it looks like on my nails:
It's almost a fruit punch color more than a watermelon in my opinion. However I did receive a very nice compliment from a girl from Nordstrom's on the color. Def a color that will stay in my collection.
Happy Thursday! Gosh I can't believe that it's Thursday, I would like it to slow down a bit so I can enjoy the last 7 days of my stay-cation. Anyways since I've been at home I've done a lot of surfing on the Internet and have found many things that I'm crushing on this week. Thank goodness I haven't purchased everything because well my hubby would have probably wished I was back at work. Haha. Once again I'm linking up with Framed Frosting for her
Here is what I'm loving this week:
This bracelet is by J.Crew and while I love their clothes and their vision let's be honest I'm a real woman with hips and a booty and while their clothes look great it doesn't translate that way on me. However I was watching a documentary about J.Crew and their CEO (yes loser you can say it) and it inspired me to look on the website and see what they were currently offering. I happened to find myself in the jewelry section and found this amazing bracelet! While this one was only $118 I found that to be a steal because I had fallen in one by Jennifer Miller that was $850. Here is a pic of the Jennifer Miller one:
Um.. yeah pretty much the same thing! I was totally shocked. So don't be surprised if you find that J.Crew beauty on my wrist very very soon.
So awhile back in one of my fabulous celebrity gossip magazines I saw a spotted page where all these celebs are carrying Cambridge crossbodies. Now we all know I love a good crossbody so when I saw these I thought they were adorable. Plus because neon is totally in right now they are offering them in neon! The only bummer part is that they are sold out of London however Bloomingdales does sell a small assortment of them. To be completely honest I had kinda forgotten about this crossbody because I don't have a Bloomingdales really close to me however last week a client came in and had a Cambridge crossbody! She didn't have a neon one but you bet I was digging in her bag to see what it was all about. I loved! Here is what they look like:
These are the two colors I'm majorly crushing on at the moment (leaning towards the yellow)
How fab?? Best part- I'm going down to the city on Friday (with my mum- girls day) so I'm def going to be checking out Bloomingdales for this bag!
I have a thing for buckle jewelry- I know that sounds weird but I have always loved the Fendi Buckle and it always stuck with me. I have this great gold buckle bracelet from H&M that I get so many compliments on. Then I came across this cutie
Adore. They are currently sold out in my size and it's from Michael Kors. I will have to check back because I love.
Last but not least I logged onto my Etsy account and was surfing around-- which basically means trouble and stumbled upon this:
I thought it was very classy and perfect to dress up or down.
Hope you enjoyed my Crushes this week- what are you crushing on??
Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone is having a good week so far. My days thus far have been filled with Crossfit, runs, bike rides, and reading. Couldn't ask for a better stay-cation. So I was really pondering what I wanted to write about for today's post I thought that I would follow up with you guys on my recent Paleo Challenge I was in. I felt like it needed a conclusion especially because I had made mention in all my Workout Wednesday posts.
So if you have been following my Workout Wednesday posts you know that I committed to the Paleo Challenge that my Crossfit Gym was hosting. You can follow my journey with Paleo and my 30 days of strict Paleo. I threw myself 110% into this challenge because I really thought this could be the answer to my recent weight gain that I've been experiencing over the last 2 years. I've had blood work and my thyroid check numerous times with no findings but yet the scale keeps creeping up. Yes I know muscle weighs more than fat and I do have a lot of muscle but it doesn't match what the scale is saying. So mid way through the challenge I weighed myself and when I was HORRIFIED by what the scale said of a gain of 5 pounds! I wanted to scream, cry, and quit. I only did two of those things (scream & cried) but I didn't quit. However I did immediately make an appointment with my doctor to figure out what was going on. She didn't help the situation because while I stepped on the scale and her telling me that I've gained 20 pounds since seeing her a year ago (nothing like rubbing salt in an open wound). I told her it wasn't like I was sitting on my butt and eating Bon Bon's all day and watching talk shows I was a highly active person that took joy in working out and eating healthy. I confessed to her that I was frustrated and at a breaking point with my weight because I can't loose a pound to save my life! Literally. To my dismay she came over to me and in a sweet voice asked me, "have you ever considered going to a weight loss center?" I was in shock but I was able to mumble out a response of, "like gastric bypass surgery?", her response, "Yes that is one option" In this moment I thought I could have many reactions like:
A. Screaming at her -- perfectly acceptable B. Bursting into hysteria-- she then may think I've lost my mind C. Use humor
I chose humor as the best option. So my response to her was, "Well I was actually thinking of becoming anoxeric and bulimic because I thought it would be a lot cheaper and less invasive. So I think I'll go that route." She clearly didn't know how to take me and my sarcasm because I was clearly joking. However she was in shell shock. So I told her why don't we do some more blood work and give me a good recommendation who can help me find the problem vs. just putting a band-aid on it. So after a few viles of blood and a recommendation letter I was sent on my way. However I was still feeling down and the thought of two more weeks on this diet just wasn't making it any easier. But I continued on so finally on the last day I thought I'm going to step on that scale and see what my final results were. I waited on that scale in anticipation of what those numbers would read and maybe just maybe I would have a shocker. So when I opened my eyes to see what the scale read I had to blink twice not because I was proud of what I saw but the horror it read. I have now gained 7 pounds, fabulous. So all in all my takeaway from this was I still want to incorporate some Paleo ways however I'm not going to restrict myself of everything because clearly it didn't pay off for me. So I came, I saw, and I didn't conquer.
Has anyone had a not so great success story with a diet that they stuck to and didn't get the results they wanted?? Would love to hear some feedback.
It's hard to believe that Memorial Day weekend was a week ago but I guess time flies when you have fun right?? So the hubby & I escaped up to my lake house and I hate to admit this but I haven't been there in over a year! So when I snabbed the entire Memorial Day weekend to be off I had to take full advantage. I worked until 10pm on Friday night so we left really early on Saturday morning. Since I was still on the Paleo Diet I got up extra early to make sure I ate a "clean" breakfast. The hubby had to stop at McDonald's but I stayed strong and didn't get anything. So now off we were to the Lake House!
About 50 miles later as he was driving on the highway I had to go pee so bad. I just couldn't hold it, so the lovely hubby stopped at a rest stop for me to pee. As I was leaving I got stopped by the silly quarter machines and one of them had those adhesive mustaches. I couldn't pass this up so I scrounged around for 50 cents and got myself a fabulous looking mustache.
Don't I look adorable?? Haha. And then at the rest stop they had a vending machine but something very interesting was in the vending machine
About 2 hours later and hitting some bad weather we finally made it to the lake house!
The moment we pulled up I instantly felt at peace and was so glad to be here. Then when I looked down at my cell phone it read NO SERVICE. Just what the hubby & I need- no distractions. A couple hours later the bad weather we hit on the way up finally made it's way to the Lake House. So our plans of going to the Dells had to get pushed to the next day. So we then made our 45 minute drive into town to go get something to eat. But before that adventure we had to stop at Pretzel which is the towns general store. Now when I mean general store it's literally everything this town has, it's the deli, gas station, bait shop, hardware store, grocery store, movie store, post office, hunting store, bakery, and gas. Now it use to be this teeny tiny shop but over the last 5 years it has gotten a major face lift.
When we went to pick up a few essentials it was PACKED! You could tell the out of towners have flooded the small town of Rome. But trust me you can always tell who the locals are. Haha. What I found so funny was while the hubby & I were navigating through the many departments this is a convo we here: Local #1: Oh my gosh Susie it's so funny I run into you here Local #2: Oh my gosh Linda how funny! What a small world
Excuse me?? Where else would you run into each other?? It's a population of 700 people this is the only thing around. Only in a small town. So after picking up a few things we made the voyage into town and got something to eat. Once again I was really really trying to stay diligent and stick to my diet. So we went to this diner and while the hubby ate this
I had this. . .
I know don't be jealous of my amazing dinner.
On Saturday we decided to go down to the Dells and take a horse back ride and then grab some lunch and then go out on the lake because it was amazeballs weather! By the time we got down the Dells it was over 90 degrees and the thought of horseback riding wasn't happening. So instead we shopped the little shops and of course anything sweet my husband is drawn to so off to the Taffy Shoppe we went. Wow all the options!
The options were endless- grape, pink lemonade, green apple, root beer, raspberry, blueberry, lemon, I could go & on. So needless to say this was my breaking point and I had to get my own bag of taffy (because the hubby refused to share).
Off to lunch we went and we went to this great burger joint:
How could you not order cheese curds?? For the record the hubby ordered them but I'm not going to lie my hands def creeped over and had a few. After we stuffed our faces we drove back to house and got ready to go out on the water. Here are some views of the property from our living room
Hubs & I used great team work and went out on the water- sorry no pics I didn't want to risk dropping my phone in the water or it getting wet. Here is a pic of the lake though
After spending 2 1/2 days up at the lake and the hubs & I laughing and having fun and not worrying about work or anything it was time to head back home. As we packed up the car and locked up the house we were on the road back to Chicago. As we were driving I looked behind us and this is what I saw
Then about 15 minutes this was the view ahead of us
Needless to say we hit some bad weather and traffic. We stopped off and got some food- this time I cheated on my diet. And about 3 hours later we were HOME!!! It was a wonderful weekend and I couldn't have asked for a better time with the hubby.
Happy Monday my fellow Bloggers! Today is day #2 of my stay-cation. Day #1 was fab and I am very excited for the rest of the week. Hopefully it goes by very slow so I can savor every minute. Be sure to check back with me at the end of the week for my Friday Letters and Photo Collage of my week!
I'm very excited about this weeks because I actually got two new Essie colors! I know shocking, but I just couldn't get inspired by any of my current colors so I felt like I needed some inspiration which meant I needed some new colors. I lucked out and found two. SCORE! So this week I decided to get my nails done in this color:
Let me just say LOVE! Here is what it looks like on my nails:
It's a great shade of pink that is a feminine pink but not overwhelming to where you can't wear it everyday. I think it's the perfect shade to transition into summer because I can't wait for it to come and can't wait for my nails to match the hot hot weather! What colors are you loving this week??
Hello Thursday! Adore you because that means only 3 more days of work and then vacation well more like staycation. None the less who cares! I get to be home and carefree with my days.
So the last couple Thursday's I've linked up and done Thursday Latlies and while they're really fun to do they are time consuming more than writing a blog entry. While I love dedicating time to my blog I was finding it hard to carve out time to do a vlog. So I had seen a couple bloggers do a weekly recap of what they're loving like this one. I really like that it had a similar concept to Thursday Latlies and still I could share photos and clips and be interactive. I promise I'm not giving up entirely on Thursday Latlies though, maybe doing it once a month is more realistic. I still need to come up with a catchy title for this so bare with me while I ponder.
So here is what I've been obsessing over this week:
1. Repeat on my iPod: Obsessed with this song! Need I say more??
2. What's in my shopping cart: I feel like I have been lusting over two things this week and they are
This one says,"You gotta have style It helps you get up in the morning"
How can you not love that saying?? Plus the silly giraffes make it fun
I'm totes digging these colors on this one. Trendy and Chic
3. Totally MAJOR: Okay so ever since I saw the Kardashian's sporting these:
I've been dying to get my hands on them, here is a closer view
They are made by Belle Noel who is a favorite of the K-Klan and I have searched high and low for these but they are sold out everywhere! Best part is they are only $50. I know that may still be a lot but I felt like I could totes justify that. So my search continues until I hunt these down.
4. What's on my DVR: With so many season finales in the works here is what I'm dying to watch on my DVR.
Happy Friday! Wow I love holiday weeks because it makes the week super short and not to mention I start vacation on Sunday! I'm not going anywhere but I have a list of things to do around the house and errands to run.
Dear Hubby, Wow! I don't think we both realized how much we needed that getaway. The thought of not having cell phone service and internet for 3 days did scare me at first however I cannot tell you how wonderful it was to hear the birds chirp instead of our phones going off. I fell in love with you all over again, you made me laugh so hard I cried, we made each other laugh, we worked as a team, and we made more inside jokes. I will cherish those days for as long as I live.
Dear Lake House, I realized how much you are apart of me and my life. You are a great escape and allow for me to deal with my feelings and emotions as well as allow for me to escape from reality with my husband and allow us to enjoy each other. I felt my grandmother there with me while I was in the house, the house will never be the same without her but will be a great memory to remember her by.
Dear Jane Green book: Another Piece of my Heart, Gosh I thought I would finish you this weekend, while I did make segway I just didn't finish you yet. It's a good book but you just keep dragging in some parts. But what really bothers me is that the entire Part 1 was told in one charachters point of view then all of a sudden in Part 2 every chapter is switching characters point of view. Random. I just can't wait to be done and am hoping it speeds up...soon!
Dear Staycation, Only 2 more days! I cannot wait to sleep in, work out all day, get my To Do List checked off, and just relax! It is much needed. I hope everyday of my staycation goes by slow so I can savor everyday.
