Uphill in the snow, both ways...

I feel bad when I get up early in the morning to work out in the and know that JJ is upstairs trying to get some precious extra minutes of zz's to sound of my Jillian Michaels inspired thump-thump-thumping in the living room. I turn the volume way down, and I'm only a 120 pounder, but there's still noise created when I'm jumping around. Easy solution: purchase dvd player for the tv that's down in the Ritz (aka the spare room in our basement) and go workout there in the mornings! Ba-bam! There's plenty of room, I can be loud if I want and JJ can wake up without wondering when the elephant herd will be done passing. Plus, I can leave the tv setup for the dvd rather than switching is back to normal by using three remotes like I have to do now (that took some training....). So I hopped my ass to Goodwill to grab a cheap dvd player and brought it home. JJ went to set it up for me and said "um Shan, you didn't get a dvd player, you got a cd player.." D'OH! ok, so I'm a girl. I went back to switch it for an actual dvd player and JJ went back to set it up for real. As he started he said that my tv was too old to have the right plug ins for dvds. That was the tv I had in college, not some ancient dinosaur that I got from my grandma. I bought it, new, in college. and apparently that's before dvds were invented. Happy early 35th birthday, Oldie Hawn.

Fashion Friday

Pinstripe Cowgirl
2 looks I love: Cowgirl (duh) and pinstripe pants (which my grandma would've said are very smart-looking). My mom recently sent me this awesome belt and I immediately wore it for three days. I don't have very many opportunities to wear these boots, but I love them and awesomely enough when you look inside, the brand name? Nascar. I'm not even kidding. I didn't zoom in on the jewelery, but I'm rocking some awesome turquoise earrings and my Valentine's Day ring from John. He thinks it's obnoxious, but every time I wear it (this day included) some girl points and says "OMG, I love your ring!"

Adjusting...

I am getting used to the whole 8-5 life, with bus commutes and lunch jogging and after work jogging and walking to dance class and packing my lunch and getting up early and... but it took it's toll a little this week. 2 nights ago I was in bed by 8 and last night I stayed up until 8:30... I have been very diligent (if you don't know this about me, I have will power made of steel) about getting up early and busting out a good workout with my pal Jillian Michaels and making myself a healthy egg sandwich for breakfast. I know it makes a huge difference. I also have been keeping up my running schedule and of course, still teach my class. The only workout thing I've given up since work started is my Friday yoga class. So adding the transit time and work hours and newness of it all just knocked me out. I feel great today though and am really liking how this is all shaping up, even if it does mean I can't stay up and watch as many episodes of SVU as I'm used to.

Also, I totally like putting together my outfits each day and it's even more fun when they have things that used to be someone else's. This week I've worn my mom's belt, my grandma's necklace and earrings, Amy's sweater, Amy's bracelet and ring, and Kim's skirt.

Wordless Wednesday

So awesome....

After the first night of teaching this routine, Student Brittney says "I totally want to rock a cowboy hat for this song..." Last night, when she knew we were taping it, she announced that she had a present for me and busted out these rockin' pink cowgirl hats for a bunch of us to wear for the video. This class just simply rules.

It's coming.....

There have been a couple lovely days when I have taken my hoodie off and tied it around my waist and jogged in my tank top...

There are flowers blooming everywhere....
and this weekend we took the motorcycle out for the second time....
Oh spring, I can't wait!

Fashion Friday!

When I was focusing on getting the perfect new job and thinking about what it would mean to every aspect of my life, one of the things I was looking forward to was wearing cute office outfits. I haven't worked in a year and prior to that, I'd spent a year and a half working from home. Most of my jobs before that were in small companies with business casual dress codes that focused on casual. But, I did have a solid wardrobe of work friendly basics (because I have a solid wardrobe of everything, have you seen my closets?) Anyway, in order to hold myself accountable and to help me stay inspired, one new job goal was to start Fashion Friday here on the old bloggy blog. (I also wanted to do it to help hone the self portrait/tripod photo skills) I'm not breaking any new ground here, there are a ton of fashion bloggers. and I think they're cool. and I want to be cool too. and I have good outfits that I think can only get better if I find a way to look at them differently (as I've already discovered). Plus, everyone seems to love Wordless Wednesday, so I think trying another theme day is going to be ok with my millions or readers. or 19, based on the loyal followers section. It will be different each Friday, but it will be based on something I wore during the week, failure or success. So here goes. Fashion Friday 1.0.

This Friday I am going to look at two outfits. I love lots of things about this....It's a tan corduroy skirt, brown tights, brown boots (new job shopping score), green sweater, green "socks", green jewelery, and leopard scarf. I wore one of my favorite coats, my mom's old brown leather and suede jacket to complete my ensemble. Sorry the pic doesn't do the colors justice, I will learn the photo skills and lighting as I go. Early morning with no tripod and a small fear of potentially embarrassing myself in front of new co-workers who might walk by all contributed to the scenario.
I like adding the scarf to the top as I tend to have a small noggin and this helps to add body. Also, I love this necklace. It's an old one my mom gave me that was put together weirdly. I took it apart, restrung it, and kept out a couple smaller pieces so I could craft up the matching earrings (which do not show up in the pic, lame).
Also crafted? my "socks." I knew that I wanted to pull the green into the bottom half of my outfit, but couldn't find green knee socks. What I did find was a green long sleeve shirt that I didn't really like in my closet. Two scissor chops later, viola! green socks. Also, the shirt is cuter with short sleeves :)
Later in the week I busted out one of my fave color combos, red and black. I love the way this sweater fits, but it wrinkles immediately when I sit down. This is another advantage to taking outfit pics. I can actually see that it happens. I love this skirt. It fits cute and the ruffled bottom is super fun. I also love these boots, the second pair in my new job super shopping score bag.
I think the look is completed with the accessories. I love big earrings when my hair is up and the splash of color ties it all together. The red head band used to be a hem on a red dress that I shortened last summer.
Not all Fashion Friday posts will be this long, but they will probably all include stories of wardrobe pieces with unique origins :)

"You guys have so many cute pictures!"

It's true, we do. I am always armed with my camera and not shy about using it. However, it's not always easy to get a picture where we both look adorable. Sometimes it takes three tries....

Wordless Wednesday

You know you've had a fun night when...

the next morning you flip through your camera and see stuff like this:


Something else is that when I hear good songs that I want to remember for Tease and Tone or I have some genius idea that I want to explore when I'm sober, I send myself a text. But for the life of me I couldn't figure this one out when I looked at phone in the morning.

Remember that one time...

..when I was talking about the views from my new office? Well this is what I see when I walk out to talk to my cube neighbor Kim... It also shows the waterfront loop where I will be putting in the bulk of my running miles. Yesterday JJ and I went around together!
and I made sure I set up my desk so that my computer is placed where I can just glance to the right and see this:
Yes, that's a rainbow :)

and....we're back!

So you may have noticed that posting was light this week. It's not that I didn't have anything to say, it's that well on Monday I GOT A JOB! and I started today!! that meant that I had two days (TWO DAYS!) to do everything that one has to do when one has a new job (read: shop!). and everything is harder when you have to stop every ten minutes and do this:
Shopping went well and I could talk about that for days, but I will do that later. (seriously, I got so lucky) Right now, I will just share the immense joy that I feel to not only have a job, but a good one. In a good place, with good people, and lots of potential. I'm going to rock the hell out of it. oh, and Husband works there too :) and it's directly across the bridge from Vega. Wait til you see my view.

Wordless Wednesday: Deluxe Edition

Happy...

Yesterday was just a wonderful day. Things that could have just occurred or not occurred turned out excellent. Today I went for a jog and the sun was so warm that I had to take off my hoodie and tie it around my waist. I was running and listening to music to use for dance class and working through some choreography as I trotted down the sidewalk. I might have even thrown in a few jumps :) I probably looked silly to those driving by and maybe one of them is writing on their blog about the girl they saw dancing down the street on their way to lunch.

Valentine's Bling

Oh my goodness, these turned out cute! Yesterday I decided to craft up some heart pasties and had no idea they'd turn out so adorable. I'm pretty sure if God would have had a Joann's nearby, he would have made our boobies sparkly from the start.

*If you must have these or something like these (i have tons of colors) let me know or bop over to strippylongstocking.etsy.com!

Wordless Wednesday

Tease and Tone!!

We had so much fun with this one!!

Beer Adventure Day!

My friend Amory invited us to join her and some friends at a new pub on Friday night and we never made it. When we drink, we take mass transit and that usually limits us to SE or downtown so that we can get home in a reasonably safe and timely manner. ....Unless we go early! We still wanted to try this bar so on Saturday we picked up the bus to downtown and then caught the train going North towards Prost.
Awesomely enough, we missed our stop and had to backtrack a little, but finally made it. It was adorable in there. John was anxiously anticipating his bratwurst after talking all morning about the wiener he was going to eat (wiener, wiener, we never get tired of saying wiener..)
The beers were delicious and they have this cool punch card system where you can win things when you fill up your beer card with 50 punches!!!
Unfortunately, by 1:00, it was apparent that the crowd here wasn't necessarily our crowd and we decided to move on and we strolled a couple blocks to one of our favorite afternoon haunts, Saraveza.
I mean, like we could ever pass any place like this:
Especially, when we know that once inside, we'll get these:

After some beers and another delicious snack (Ritz Crackers, summer sausage, cheese and mustard, and the best chipotle sauce in the world) we headed back towards our side of town.
John had to stop at the office for some emergency work. It's not really an inconvenience when this is where we have to go...
After he finished up work, we made one last stop at the wine bar and then headed towards home...