back at it.

(image via)

Well hey there. It has been some time hasn’t it? I have been writing over at my new collaboration, Under the Oaks with Crystal and it has been going fabulous! We are really excited about our project and have been working hard on posts and topics we want to share with our audience. Originally I thought all my time would be spend on my posts there but I forgot we’d be sharing! I have been thinking about starting up here again in a less formal and thought out sort of way. Sometimes I just gotta write. Today it’s all about motivation. Today is the first day I’ve felt this motivated in a long time. This weekend was insane. I’m too old for 12+ hours of drinking. Sunday was a waste which I’ve been saying can’t happen anymore but I think I’ll definitely pull the St. Patrick’s Day card on this one since I was celebrating something. It was a pretty fantastic day also so I have to give it some credit. And this post will bounce around since I haven’t written “freestyle” in a while but I promise, the theme really is motivation!

One of my favorite things to read, in general, are the posts on The Everygirl focusing on career women. The advice that these women give is amazing and so inspirational and I love that they talk to women who are anywhere from 23 to 103. (I haven’t seen a post from anyone 103 yet but that would be amazing! Actually, that will be my gramma next year!) The age range helps see different perspectives and realize that you don’t have to be fresh out of college or have an extensive history to follow your dreams. Love that since I’m still sort of in between.

The time change has been a big motivator. Except the waking up-before-the-sun part. Not so cool. But I will definitely trade off on sunset at almost 8p. It also means the weather will be changing soon! I cannot wait for summer this year. JZ and I will actually be able to enjoy most of it instead of running around like mad people like last year.

Last night was the finale of The Biggest Loser and I was so proud of Danni (@DanniAllen14) for winning. All the contestants looked incredible but she was just a powerhouse. Jillian Michaels said in a previous podcast and later on the show that Danni put on 19 lbs. of muscle. 19 lbs.!! That’s craziness. She went from 238 lbs. to 137 lbs. and lost 46.9% of her body weight. Wow. It’s almost slightly discouraging to me because I started my weight loss journey with them (well, with the airing of the show) at the same time and I am off track right now. (Here are my excuses. Get ready… )The past few weeks have been crazy with Nashville and work, etc. Whatever. And I did plan to get back yesterday but my weekend was still kicking my butt and tonight I have to run errands for work and I’m more motivated to get home and start working on some projects at home.

Which brings me to… I listened to Jill’s latest podcast and it was very inspiring. Every show she calls a listener and answers whatever question they emailed in and wanted answered. Today the girl could have been me. She was talking about how she doesn’t know why she isn’t losing weight and wanted to know what she was doing wrong. One of the things Jill says all the time, especially on the show, is that fat people hold on to weight for some reason. This girl’s reason was fear of rejection. She is too afraid to go after her dreams for fear of rejection so she uses being fat as an excuse. I’m there. I’m not “fat” but I am trying to lose 25 lbs. (I believe I have 20 more to go.) I use it. I use it all up. So hearing Jill’s advice to this girl was like watching her tell me to my face. The girl wanted nothing to do with the advice but at least it benefited one person today; me.

I love Jillian Michaels. I think most people know this already. She is fantastic and I buy it. In fact, I bought actual things of hers the other day: 30 Day Shred and her new (bright pink!) book Slim for Life. I cannot wait to delve into both. I will probably go home tonight and do the DVD. A month from now will be my birthday so if I can lose some fat by then I will be a happy girl! I have 10% body fat to lose total so maybe this can help with most!

I can’t get too into the book just yet because I’m in the middle of The Heavy: A Mother, A Daughter, A Diet – A Memoir by Dara-Lynn Weiss for a review on Under the Oaks. The book is basically about a mother trying to help her overweight, diagnosed obese, daughter lose weight. Her daughter is young and it’s a struggle. I was enjoying mostly until the chapters I read last night. I’m dying to see how it progresses so I’m excited to head home tonight and read a few more chapters. I have to be done before Thursday so I can write the review so I’ll know soon. Check out that post this Friday.

(image via)

I have a few projects that I really want to get working on this weekend and next. One is the garden and planning out what we can plant and getting the soil ready. Another is working on a gallery wall in the living room with some of our wedding pictures and gifts. I also brought a projector that I want to use to create a large quote over our bed. Probably something from our wedding song of course. I might do the song lyrics on canvas that are all over Pinterest instead. That way we can move them and I won’t have to do it over again when we renovate the bedroom. The wall I want to put it on is coming down so it won’t be there anymore. Another project (as if I need more) is to create an inviting space on our front porch. I’ve been asking JZ for a deck for the past few years now and it just isn’t in our house budget yet. Next year for sure! (although I’m pretty sure I said that last year). I have some ideas up my sleeve on my Pinterest board that might just do the trick and stay within a reasonable budget. I’ll post whatever comes of it!

I’m not sure how much I’ll be posting but I hope to put something up every now and then. Check back!

A New Home…

Since returning from the honeymoon, something sort of surprising has been happening: I’ve been nesting. I say surprising because it has pretty much taken over. I’m starting to become a (gasp!) homebody! I am not a homebody… or at least I wasn’t before tying the knot. I’m sure you all could see it after reading my posts about all the housework, baking, and cooking I’ve done. I rearranged the living room, dining room, office, and bedroom to try to make it more cozy. JZ and I put together our house renovation budget so we can start looking at what’s next on that agenda. Along with all the nesting, JZ and I have been talking about babies. Our plan is to still wait about 1-2 years before we start trying so that gives me plenty of time to start getting my body into shape. I went to the lady doctor last week and got a clean bill of health with some homework to do until we start trying. First thing I need to start doing now is taking vitamins. I’ll most likely go all out and get prenatal since I’ve heard how amazing it makes your hair and nails look. Second thing is lose weight. I’m choosing to go slow with the weight loss because I know it will make a bigger impact in the long run and I want to change my habits which will definitely take some time so I plan is to lose the recommended 2 lbs. per week. With 25-30 lbs. to lose, I should have the weight off by April (and my birthday!) and have time to learn what it will take to keep it off before worrying about gaining weight with a pregnancy.

With all this going on, I realize that I’ve been talking more and more with my friend, Crystal, about her experiences with being a newlywed (she’s been married almost two years), nesting, and preparing for baby. Her and I are also trying to see the world before all this baby stuff happens so we’ve been talking about that too. A few weeks ago, I brought up the idea of working on a blog together to document our journeys and give other women who are going through the same thing a chance to read two different, yet very same paths. We also have a ton of other stuff in common, like wanting to tackle every DIY on Pinterest, learn all the new recipes we find, trying out new fashion trends, (and dancing but that’s a different story!). So we sat down and created Under the Oaks, our new baby so-to-speak. I will be putting most of my writing energy into this new project so please check us out on undertheoaksblog.wordpress.com and let us know what you think. Our first post went live this morning so let the adventure begin!

Winter Weekend

Happy third day of December y’all! It was a beautiful 72F here in Raleigh today and it definitely doesn’t feel like December. Although, I did walk into work this morning to find our Christmas tree all set up, ready to be decorated. That’s on tomorrow’s agenda.

Since I prefer to wait until it’s actually December to start celebrating Christmas, Saturday morning, I worked on a new holiday tradition for JZ and I: an Advent Calendar. After seeing this post on Poppytalk Handmade, I started coming up with ideas for the two of us to do together to get us in the holiday spirit. I thought it would be a fun way to celebrate Christmas since our budget is pretty low on gifts for each other. A way to take the focus off gift giving and focus more on spending this time together, especially since it is our “first” Christmas together.

We also put up our tree yesterday. We carved out a little corner of our living room for it’s new spot. I rearranged the living room a few weeks ago and the tree had no home anymore. I think it’s an upgrade.

(Top : Fayetteville Street, Raleigh. Bottom from left : Outdoor showing of The Polar Express, Winterfest Skating Rink, the lit tree!)

The tree lighting and kick off to Winterfest on Fayetteville Street in Raleigh was Saturday night. We ended up heading out there just in time for the countdown after we went to an oyster roast for a friend’s birthday. The lighting definitely made it feel like the holidays. They set up a skating rink across from the tree each year that’s up through January. I have yet to skate on it but we will this year since it’s on our advent calendar! JZ and I have never been ice skating together. Not that that’s too hard to believe since we live in an area that’s in the 70s in December! After the tree lighting, we caught up with some friends and continued with the birthday celebrations. It was a great way to kick off the holiday season.

Last Sunday’s challenge was hair. I did a pretty good job keeping up with it during the week. I made it through Thursday (barely) but Friday got the boot. From the moment I woke up Friday I was behind schedule so my hair was not high up on the priorities list. I was proud of myself for learning how to do a fishtail. I went to work on Thursday with my hair in a ponytail. I sat down at my desk and tried it and it turned out alright. It was a bit twisted at the top, which drove me nuts until I took it out, and pieces fell out through the day but it was a fishtail! What do you guys think?

The hair brought up an interesting request I had for JZ. I told him that I wanted to teach him how to braid and french braid so that when we have a little girl, he will know how to do all that. I think that’s something important a father of a little girl should know how to do. Do you have any interesting requests for your spouse regarding your future (or current) children?

And, just to update you all on how that soup was that I told you about last week, it was good; however, it was bland. I think a lot of that had to do with using half vegetable broth and half chicken. It called for 2 boxes of chicken broth. I think that would have made it richer. I’d try it again though. The other photos above are of my snowman donuts from Krispy Kreme brought into our office by one of our suppliers. And the bottom photo is of “adult juiceboxes”; adult only in that they are glass jars, not alcoholic, although they can definitely be made that way, and I thought about it while pouring. The pinkish jars are Starbucks Passion Tea Lemonade and the yellows are regular lemonade. I have some Skyy Cherry Infused Vodka that would be amazing with the lemonade. Maybe this weekend…

Buying Organically

While making my grocery list, one question I ask myself all the time is “should I be buying this organic?” Which is usually followed by, “ugh, how much will that be?” Since we just got married, we are a little tight on funds trying to pay off the wedding, remodel our house, and prepare for kids in the next five years. Being the planner I am, I’m starting to plan for pregnancy. There are some things you should start doing up to five years before you want to get pregnant to get your body ready. To me, one of the most important aspects of that is buying organic or natural foods. I have tried to incorporate some smarter buys into our regular list to get our wallets a bit more used to paying the higher prices. I’ve switched out our milk and our chicken because those are two of the foods we eat the most and two of the foods I’m most concerned about. So the other night I researched what I really should be buying. Of course the obvious came up, fruits and veggies with edible/ thin skins, milk, and chicken. Three items I didn’t really think about before are beef, potatoes, and wine.

Sunday Challenge : Hair

I realize today is Monday but we got caught up in the Packer game last night and I was in deep with reorganizing my Pinterest boards and pins and putting together PUZZLES! that I just didn’t post the Sunday Challenge, last week’s or this week’s! Not off to a great start with these, ey?

wedding+honeymoon

(Dress by Galina // Shoes by Olsenboye // Sash by BridalShoppe on Etsy // Photos by Megan Kime)

I do apologize that it has taken me so long to get this post up and running. We just got our pictures back and that’s a lot of why I wanted to wait. Also, I haven’t really had a moment to sit down and write this out. This weekend I posted reviews of our bad experience with our caterer, rave reviews of our stay at Excellence Riviera Cancun, and all our pictures to Facebook! Thank goodness for long holiday weekends so I can actually get stuff done.

Back to Baking

Tonight was the first time in a while that I’ve baked something. It really has been several months especially for someone who wants to do it as a full time gig. I deem tonight’s baking sesh a success! Flavor of the day is … Thanksgiving Apple Cider!

Sunday Challenge : Dresses

Now that the wedding is over (and yes those posts are coming!) I have this long list of things; all these things that I’ve put off until after the wedding when I’d actually have time to focus on them. One of the major things on my list was getting the house cleaned. This place was a wreck for a solid six months before now. Last weekend and this weekend were focused on beginning our life on the right, clean foot. Every now and then you need a little shifting in your world to bring out that creativity and motivation so… I rearranged the bedroom, the living room, and reorganized the dining room. Next on the agenda is the only room in the house that can still be rearranged, my office.  And since I started writing this post, I’ve already got the measuring tape, scoping out other places for my bookshelves.

It’s Good to be Home

The end is near for our first full week back at work since before the wedding and our bodies have given up. JZ is full on sick with a cold and I’m exhausted. I’ve been having issues this week trying to find the balance between overdosing on coffee so I’m overwired by 8:30a and over caffeinated all day and choosing the slow and steady way with black tea where I’m physically tired all morning then feel wide awake without the jitters in the afternoon. And this is after 2 nights of getting 10 hours of sleep.

Wedding Brain

In just over 25 days from now, I will be saying “I do” to Mr. JZ. I am officially doing at least one of the following things continuously during the day and sometimes all at the same time:

• freaking out
• tearing up
• panicking
• day dreaming about the honeymoon
• running through to-dos in my head
• running through my mental checklists of: things that have been purchased, need to be purchased, or decided on so we can purchase, things to pack, things to make, things to finish, and things to pay
• going over my agenda for the day before and day-of
• counting and recounting guests
• getting unbelievably excited
• praying that it will be over soon