Weekend Report

After having the past four weekends with visitors in and out, I was so excited to have a full weekend at home in LA. I got off of work early on Friday so I popped over to the mall to pick up a few new goodies.

I've been hating on my closet for it's lack of summer clothes, so I tried to snag a few summer dresses and tanks while I was shopping. 

I got this striped tank from J.crew, and then a black silk dress from Madewell and a cute pink Splendid dress from cusp. I have a few baby showers over the next few weeks so I think I should get some good wear.

My friend Kristin hosted a few couples for dinner and games on Friday so I went to her house early to help her set up.

 

She served quite the feast, but my favorite dish she whipped up was cauliflower pizza. I'm going to try and re-create her recipe and will share if I can succeed.

All of my friends - and sister-in-law - keep having baby boys, so we are giving all of them quite the education on girl talk.

 

After dinner we played a few hilarious rounds of Cards Against Humanity, and then decided to call it quite before midnight. We were all sipping on cinnamon-sugar vodka, and I'm pretty sure if any more of that and I woulda been hurtin' on Saturday morning. 

My driver was really sad the party was over.

 

Saturday I spent three hours purging and reorganizing my closet. I've been needing to do it for months, and I finally got the motivation to just get it done. I took two giant bags of things to Good Will and a few bags to the trash. It's wild how quickly I can accumulate such junk.

 

My determined to stop buying cheap crap, and start getting investment pieces that fit and make me feel good. I snagged this blouse on Friday too from J.Crew and finally bit the ever-trendy bullet and got the Kendra Scott Rayne necklace.

 

Joel and I never take advantage of living so close to the water, so after we parked near the restaurant, we walked about 11 blocks and caught the tail end of the sunset.

 

Our friends had reccomended Pono Burger the night before and we couldn't resist the sounds of draft beer, handmade fries, and burgers.

 

It's a super casual restauant, but everything was spectacular - and I loved the ambiance and the fact that we were basically eating dinner in a reclaimed barn.

The food was beyond delicious too.  I got the "posh" burger which had truffles, mushrooms, arugula, and gouda....I could eat it everyday I'm sure.

On Sunday I took Joel to the airport for a business trip and had the day to myself working out, getting laundry and errands done, and watching Father of the Bride. 

Just the exact weekend the doctor ordered. 

Our Wedding Album

Before we had even gotten married, I saved a pin on Pintrest of Natalie's (Mint Love Social Club) wedding album. 

 

By the time I was ready to start making our book - a good year after the wedding - I started researching album options and got a quote from our photographer. Your typical, professional wedding album was going to cost us over a thousand dollars, easy, with a very strict picture limit.

I just couldn't stomach dropping a grand on our wedding album, so I decided to seriously think about using Blurb to do our book. Natalie's blog post was by far the most helpful resouce, but all of the reviews I read were positive, so I decided I'd give it a whirl.

We went with their biggest print book option, a 12x12, and ended up with about 90 pages of pictures. 

 

The book is really quite big even though the picture doesn't do it justice.

 The only "annoying" part of doing a wedding album this way was that it does take quite a bit of work. Blurb has you download a program so that you can custom your layout, and alter your pictures which is great - but painstaking. Plus, since it's custom you are picking out the layout, timeline of the pictures, and weeding through all of your wedding pictures.

The process took 3 solid weeks (probably 15 hours of work) but once I got the hang of Blurb's program, it got easier.

 Beyond that - I am even more impressed with the album than I thought I would be.

Some come look:

 

 

The album is big, but the quality of the pictures on the page is the best I've ever seen. I chose their ProLine matte paper, which is an added fee, but it makes it feel like a professional wedding album and not just a photobook.

I'm not sure if you can tell in this close up picture, but the material has an eggshell-y texture as well which ups the quality factor.

 Of course, on the back of the album I had to get one last use out of our logo.

The book ended up costing $120 dollars with shipping, and my mom and mother-in-law bought books too. That's another nice perk of using Blurb - super easy to print! 

I honestly couldn't have been happier with the end result, so if you have any questions about the process, I'd love to help.

My View ::: Working from Home

With my current job, I'm working from home about 40% of the time, but after two years of working from home 100%, I've learned a few tricks on how to not completely lose your mind if you get the opportunity to do it.

And, most of the time, it really is an opportunity to work from home. Not only do you get to stay within the comfort of your own home, you can manage your house SO much better. Plus - I have found that working from home really reduces my work anxiety. There is much less urgency from day to day, and I definitely appreciate that perk.

But, there are some hard aspect to being home, alone, all day long. It takes a lot of self-motivation to stay on task and get things done - and sometimes the couch just looks way too comfortable. 

I found that the best way to feel productive as a person - and as an employee - working from my home I have to follow these "rules" 

Workout first thing

Being home and sitting all day can make me feel very unproductive and grungy. Getting a workout in before 9am makes all the difference in my day (even the days I go into the office). It gets my body energized to work and if I take a class - it's about as social as my day is gonna get.

Get Dressed

It's very easy to stay in those said workout clothes, but it does me no good. After my workout, I need to shower, slab a little make-up on, and put on something. I don't wear office clothes if I don't have any meetings, but putting something together helps. 

This is pretty much my work-from-home uniform.

No TV

Not even as background. It's too easy to sit down in front of it, and the presence of TV makes me feeling like I'm not at work - even though I'm on the clock. My mom shared this secret with me (and the get dressed tip) when she started having babies, and it works for me too. 

Sit at a desk or table

I don't like sitting in our guest room all day, so I normally set up shop at our dining room table. 

 

I like to have everything that I will need for the entire day there. Having my little work station set up in the morning and then put away at night also helps keep me on task. 

Pandora all day

I keep my Pandora going all day - because otherwise, it's just too damn quiet. Jason Mraz is my go-to station, but then after work, I like to switch it to Darius Rucker to have a glass of wine outside or prepare dinner to. 

Take outside breaks

Roscoe reaps the benefits of this one, but every two hours or so, I've gotta get out of the house.

 

 24 hours starts to feel very long if I'm trapped in our small condo all day, so lots of outside breaks help keep the day moving. We just go around the block but when I come back inside, I normally get a good 30-60 minute jolt of productivity. 

Set Timers

When I am really struggling to sit and work - which happens more than I wish it did - I will set timers for myself. I won't let myself stop working for 45 minutes, and then I'll get away from the computer and try and do something; walk the dog, run to CVS, fold clothes, water plants, whatever. It just breaks up the day, and I consider that time spent equal to the distractions that come up in an office - so it all breaks even

 

When you stop, really stop. 

When my day is done, I need all working materials out of my line of vision. My computer and work stuff need to be packed away so that I get my "home" back too. And then pour a drink. 

There are all pretty obvious - and easy to do tips, but when I break ANY of them, I can tell the difference in my mood, my work, and my week. Hope they help if you find yourself in the confines of your house all day.

My First Half Marathon

Since junior year of high school - running has been part of my life. Typically I would run a few times a week, for about 3 miles, and after a while, I just got addicted to it. In the last ten years, I probably haven't gone more than a week or two without fitting in a run.

I've run quite a few races - 5ks, 10ks, trail runs, and fun runs and I've coached for Girls on the Run, but this year I finally decided to bite the bullet and do something I haven't done; a half marathon. 



I decided to finally commit to my first half for a few reasons.

• I'm in good running shape right now. 5 mile runs are comfortable, and I have been able to push myself to finish an 8 mile run with only a few stopping points.

• I have the time to fit in training over the next few months

• I have the perfect training partner, my friend Kristin. She hasn't run a half marathon either, and her and I are into the same workouts and keep each other accountable. 

• Joel is an expert runner and is "coaching" us - within my patience level (And can be fired at any time)

With the half marathon not until October 26th, we have a lot of time to train for it. Our long runs (+7) miles don't start until September, so for the next six to eight weeks my typical training schedule is this:

This week:

Monday  2.5 miles

Tuesday Hot Yoga  with weights

Wednesday Strength & Speed Either an interval class or HIIT workout

Thursday 3 miles

Friday Rest

Saturday 5 miles

Sunday 2 miles or strength & stretch

It's a pretty do-able schedule, and I'm swapping in an extra spin class when I can. 

My runs in the last few weeks have been pretty quick. I've never run any race under a 10 minute mile, and my goal for the half is to just pace under 11 minutes - and finish the damn thing without dying.

     

Oh, and since we've been working out a lot, Joel thought it'd be a good idea to get a foam roller - you know, to really work out our muscles. Ya, well the damn thing left my back bruised in the same grid, so I'm a little nervous my whole body might be rejecting this training thing.
 

But, seriously, let me know if you have any first-timer advice. I'm open to any tricks of the trade that might make this thing not half bad.

The last week

We've had 3 non-stop weeks of fun crazy - and when my schedule changes, I find it hard to fit in time for blogging. After my trip to Chicago, we spent the weekend down in San Diego, and then this week we had Joel's parents staying with us.

Their flight was a little delayed on Thursday, but it gave me a chance to grab a mani/pedi with my girlfriend Shelby and have an outside happy hour, while she had a babysitter.



Summer isn't my favorite time of year, but I'm really trying to soak it up as much as I can. Chardonney with frozen grapes and full blooming bougainvilleas are a few of my favorite summer items.

When they got in on Thursday, we had homemade pizzas and stayed up way later than we should of catching up.

Friday morning I went into the office, and then took off the afternoon to spend with them. We had lunch with Joel near his office, and then I took his parents to LACMA (LA county muesum of art). It was the first time I had been to the museum and I really enjoyed it.

Picasso

Every Friday night they have a jazz concert outside of the muesum which is free, so we sat in their bar and had a drink while the musicians warmed up for their show which was an awesome bonus.

Making it back to one of the concerts has been added to my summer bucket list. 

We got home and freshened up - and Roscoe and I decided to match - and then took them to one of our favorite spots for dinner in Santa Monica, The Hungry Cat.

We started oysters and cheese to start - which is always my favorite treat - and then had a really great meal.

 

  

On Saturday we did a day trip up to Santa Barbara. The weather was perfect and we all got a little of what we wanted; walks on the water, wine shops, and yummy food.

That night we ordered Chinese food and made it to bed pretty early after our full day adventure.

On Sunday, after the world cup, Joel's brother Andrew and Corie drove up to LA. We had a big family dinner; homemade salmon burgers, corn salad, quinoa salad, AND S'mores, and just hung out as a big group.

I'm sad to say that I didn't catch any pictures, but the more fun I'm having, the less pictures I'm taking ;)

Sunday morning my sis-in-law Corie, who is has turned into a great great friend, came in to cuddle and Roscoe decided to get to know his soon-to-be cousin.

We had such a great week, but I'm really in need for our pace to slow down a bit. It's been a lot these past few weeks and I can feel it catching up to me, my waistline, and my bank account!